the power of food...

There comes a point where you must take action. I am thinking about key points in life where a decision is made that results in a life-or-death situation. You may recognise those moments. Not to be too dramatic about it but maybe you have experienced those acute near miss events that may have shaped your life dramatically one way or another. Such adventures can form an exciting narrative for the future to tell the grandchildren etc.
 
Then there are the chronic long-term decisions that are made with which we may not feel the impact for a long time but when we do they are significant. Our policy makers are charged with the trust from us to make the best decisions for our long-term interest.  We trust they take all the best evidence from all sides and make a measured decision that is in the best interest of the majority. Or so the narrative is sold to us. Trust us, they remind us relentlessly… For the most part we do.
 
But trust is truth and transparency. Selective truth and obscure transparency are as good as it gets with policy makers for the most part. We are reminded time and time again that agendas are often profit driven in the end. We the people are left with the guilt consequence that somehow the problems are all our fault. Fear and guilt are useful tools to encourage us to behave in certain ways. I will leave one word here to illustrate this point, but I am sure you have others…butter.
 
An interesting thing is happening though. I am the meerkat watching the horizon and have noticed the narrative changing. Have we reached a tipping point where we have finally begun to accept that the blatant ignorance of the power of food as a healer is no longer a runner? For ever the sceptic I reserve the right to be convinced this is a true direction forward. The date on the report looking at what was learned from Covid 19 in terms of the US food systems raises a question for me. There has always been too much profit to be had in the Big Food & Pharma models. But hey, maybe there is a realisation that no matter how high tech we go we still need people to work. People who are well physically and mentally. Caring for those who are not has become unsustainable. Trolley crisis’s and protests fill our newsfeeds. We have reached breaking point. Someone, somewhere has decided maybe we need to look at food as our medicine again. This topic is appearing in policy reports. Not so long ago we were snake oil peddlars… (thankfully we have changed the policy of witch burning in recent centuries for using food as medicine).
 
As always, I find it interesting and curious. I will be watching this space. Meanwhile let’s keep sharing our own knowledge and wisdom on the power of food to heal us and ensure we have the continuity of supply to sustain us.
 
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/food-and-society-program/food-is-medicine-project/
 
https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/RF_Reset-the-Table_SUMMARY_July-28_FINAL.pdf
 
Anne Maher
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