Here I go again delving into the imagination of what can happen if the food system breaks down. With the uncertainty of world events, energy costs etc. I am even hearing about food rationing. Imagine if this became a thing again… where would  you get your food? Who would cope better?
 
Shortening the supply chain for organic food is an issue we work around a lot at The Urban Co-op. Is there enough supply and demand for organic? We see ourselves in the middle a lot talking to both sides…. How do you connect both?
 
Recently we have worked with Digital Futures Lab at the Kemmy Business School to explore digital solutions to improve the aspect of short supply chains. With a room full of students sitting at the tables in the hotel I did notice the cans of monster sitting in front of some students. (One could argue it is a student accessory..!). While the task was put before the students to come up with digital solutions for this problem I wondered did they actually know what the problem was? How did they understand short supply chains? I asked the question how many ordered their food from Just Eat, Deliveroo etc.. Half put up their hands. Here is the thing. It doesn’t take long to disconnect from your food supply if you become very used to ordering it in. Do the younger generation, growing up on a convenient digital platform of support understand the background of how it all works? What if the digital support stops..? Where to next?
 
We asked the group to organize a meal using food they sourced locally themselves. Where you have to think about where to get the food. As I type I wonder what the outcome will be. Will there be a moment of clarity that this is not as straightforward as they think. Deprivation can be a great teacher. Like fasting, the mind clears. Maybe we need the challenge of food rationing to reorganize ourselves again. The spirit of co-operation will be very welcome then! 

​Anne Maher

Cleaning ovens is not something I do often. But when our oven did give up the ghost recently. The plan is to fix and repair. Tempting though it was to replace with a shiny new oven I figured a good clean would go a long way. I resorted to a deep clean with elbow grease and determination. So out came the bread soda and scourer. How satisfying this all was! Instead of mental work I had time to imagine and remember again. I had time to think about all the meals that this oven had manifested. The family meals, the friends over. The disasters and triumphs. Stubborn stains were met with some gratitude to be honest. I pondered on those TV chef kitchens that show immaculate racks and wondered how on earth they manage that.
 
Despite the air fryer mania and using one occasionally my relationship with the oven is long-term and lasting. One tray meals that work away without me looking over them.
 
When the oven is put back together again with some new parts I look forward to more of the same. I promise to clean it more often!! Really! 

Anne Maher

Health insurance is a topic of discussion recently. With the new private hospital open to customers, ahem, sorry I mean, patients, there are tales of the rising costs for insurance policies. Another hospital is in the planning. There is comfort and security in having insurance to cover the costs of healthcare. I understand that. It takes the stress out of a future worry, I guess. Recent research suggests the average cost per year is €1,900. Customers are encouraged to shop around for better deals, of course. The onus is on the customer to seek the value.
 
I haven’t got private health insurance and it is by choice. The public system is funded by taxes, so I figure I am paying into it already. Not that I want to use it regularly!
 
I choose to put the money into other things like good organic food and a sun holiday. A seaweed bath. A bicycle. A walk in the forest. Bare foot on the grass. Organic bedding for a good night's sleep. Courses on foraging for medicinal herbs.. another book.. that is my health insurance and you know, it’s often free!
 
I hear that in South Africa, you can earn rewards to keep your private health insurance policy costs lower. Gym membership and healthy food, for instance, can lower your premium and you are encouraged to be responsible for your own health. I like this idea and wonder why don’t they do that here to the same degree. But then, sick people are good customers for the system and the incentive is there to maintain the status quo. It would be a sea change if doctors were paid on the true success of a patient getting well rather than by the number of tests and treatments carried out. If medical interventions and medication are a leading cause of death then my money is on real food. I’ll take my chances.  

Anne Maher

Reading books on history I am drawn into the stories of how our food system has come to be. The ease with which we can call up food today at the touch of a button… to do this takes an enormous logistical sequence from start to finish. Standardising the product to the point that it is always available ensures the cogs keep moving on the system.
 
Picture instead the good old Downton days of hunting parties for the food. Duck, grouse, pheasant, deer involved using a gun. The system of getting good food involved the hunt and chase as well as the power of a weapon. Perhaps rabbits were kept for the peasants as they were snared. Fishing of course could yield a bounty of food on condition you had access to the water. There was reward for effort. Society organized around these activities. The gamekeepers protected the booty. There was a definite hierarchy of who got access to the best food. Poachers were penalized but there were opportunities to make money by foraging for food for the elites.
 
Where I live is known for the wild blueberries or fraochans that were collected by local children to be sent by train to eventually be consumed on English tables. There was an unfairness to it all of course as we look back. A hierarchy of health as it were. The Irish Famine is remembered for the failure of one crop heavily relied on. But food was available. Access to it was not.  
 
Ah but that was then you might say! We have lots of food now. It is true that there is lots of food around the world. But it depends what you consider food. Ultra processed foods are categorized as food. But are they really? If you are in the food manufacturing business anything that you can consume fits the bill. The recent and ongoing discussion about the school meals programme has highlighted the reality that most of the meals are UPF. The argument is it is better than nothing. Let them eat cake. This is ok for the masses. But you will find that the politicians do not eat this “food” every day of the week. Advantage is taken of the gratitude of busy parents to have access to a hot meal. I fall into this boat myself, I won’t lie.
 
The hierarchy continues and our food environments have been engineered to have the worst products closest to the most in need of good nutrition. Our petrol stations are drowning in a sea of UPFs but have become the social hangouts for school kids and disability centres.  See it for what it is. We have planned our towns around the service stations. A drive thru disaster as the health outcomes worsen along with the addictions to UPFs. The implications for society are enormous. Caring for our loved ones with chronic health conditions is a burden that we will have to face more and more.
 
Can we reverse the trend with access to good food and shifting the food environments? I would love to think so and draw much hope from initiatives around the world. History teaches us lessons on how this can be done. Can we learn from it? 

​Anne Maher

I cannot explain just how excited I was when the updated Dietary Guidelines came out last month from the States. They were long anticipated and though a few months delayed it has been fun to watch the fallout. Like most entertainment on social media the reactions to the information presented are often more interesting!
 
The vibe is Eat Real Food… and the tables have turned on carbs and low fat. Key changes that will have a significant impact on health. But what has really stood out is the Real Food message and I realise that regardless of the detail we have to start at the very basics again. How many people/ children know what real food is?
 
More to the point what do we mean by food?
 
It depends on the context. A definition I found…
 
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support, providing energy and essential nutrients necessary for growth and maintenance of life. It can come from plant, animal, or fungal sources and is typically ingested orally.
 
It gets tricky though as you delve into the types of “foods” and whether it’s a food supplement or not. Revenue have detailed the definitions from a tax point of view. Can we pay tax on it?
 
 
report-on-the-definition-of-food
 
From a food law perspective it allows any substance that can be consumed  including additives, flavourings, ingredients… including contaminants..so all the sprays allowed in the growing of same. A pesticide laden carrot can be considered safe to eat…?! A lab grown burger can pass as a food!
A nutritional science view says food provides nutrients and energy. We went right into the depth of this with calorie conversions to the point where we saw the calorie counts and not the food. How easily we have forgotten!
 
Its not as clear as  you might think and I do feel it is only right to bring our selves back to the fold and learn the basics..what is real food! 

Anne Maher

With all the information on food labels it is difficult if not impossible to make decisions on nourishment. We act in faith that the truth is being told to us on the quality of ingredients. So much trust in the food system. Of course there is plenty of regulation and legislation along the way to give us the sense of protection and food “security”
 
With our food systems under scrutiny though and ultra processed foods being outed for their destructive health impacts it is time to rethink how we actually perceive food. I ask the question always how close can we get to the source of our food? The Urban Co-op is a conduit between the farm and us. But are we prepared to go further? Growing our own is actively encouraged of course in terms of gardening. But what about meat? Are we prepared to hunt, fish, kill, skin, gut, pluck etc to prepare our dinner? All the stages involved in getting food to the table that we never have to contemplate because we have outsourced it. This disconnect may be our undoing. Real food means re establishing the connections with where the food comes from. Living foods. Getting to know our farmer is a good start. They are the custodians of the living foods. Their work needs to be seen, acknowledged, valued as a start. Isn’t it time to get busy living instead of managing our deterioration? 

​Anne Maher

Sophie Morris is popular! Her posts on supermarket swaps have been a gamechanger for so many people and it is no wonder that people resonate with simpler advice that cuts through the confusion of the choices in the supermarket. I really hope that it makes it easier for older people too as they navigate the maze of shopping. The odd time I do find myself in a large supermarket this is one thing I do notice – how lost the older folk are there. Technology advancements have meant there is less time to chat, ask for help and quite honestly I can not imagine how hellish the environment is if you are suffering mentally. Sophie has made it easier and well done to her! Of course she will have her critics… how qualified is she etc to give advice...we do love to wave the qualification flag when a message doesn’t suit us. The thing is I used to bring people around supermarkets in person to teach them about food in person before social media. But now I think differently. If you have to read labels then there is a process of production involved. Production at scale means quality suffers. The due care along the way can slip up. The accountability and responsibility is diluted. Trust can break down readily along the chain. In the end we are left with a deficit. Of nourishment and connection. Getting food more directly from source is an effort. But the confusion is swapped with confidence. Both body and soul are nourished. Maybe we should be reading the farmer not the labels?!

​Anne Maher

Where’s the fat?!
​
A train is coming and there are lots of food companies on the track… I have it on good authority that we will be embracing fat on the new dietary guidelines again! Due out this month from the US I will be encouraging you to take a closer look at this major change coming…
 
What does it mean? Our fear of fats has dictated the pace on how nutrition information has been presented to us. Our food pyramid recommends low fat dairy options for us for example. Now we are fat fanatics here not only for taste but for the fat soluble vitamin content (ADEK) therein. Butter is better… Science has conceded reluctantly that a higher fat diet is linked with better health outcomes. The keto diet / low carb versions are recognised and a powerful tool to reverse metabolic disease. But to date the guidelines have resisted embracing this fact. So what you may say…!
 
The thing is most people like to follow a guideline… how many times do we have to be told to always follow official advice...?
 
So having the obvious included in the official guidelines is a major step forward. Will it happen?
 
The food companies I fear will not be happy about this. Thinking it through when I focus on dairy for example, it is not hard to work out the impact will be colossal.
 
Let me walk you through it… full fat milk becomes the recommended advice. Now the food industry cannot separate the milk into the constituents and sell to the highest bidder the separate parts. Skimmed milk & cream. I am simplifying it but imagine if low fat and skimmed milk are not recommended? This is a serious hit to the dairies. It’s certainly not worth investing heavily in advertising to go against the guidelines. They will have to go with it. They will have to reconfigure everything they do… a major cost. Should they pass this cost on to farmers then the price of milk will plummet. The price has reduced recently. Perhaps it has started…
 
The low fat experiment is due to come to an end. Decades of destruction to our health that will go untold hidden behind the distraction of other health stories and interventions. 
 
Will the dairy industry take it with out a fight? I do wonder…

Anne Maher