January 2008 Archives

I came across fresh soya beans (as opposed to dried) for the first time last summer, in a Marks and Spencers prepared salad.  I rarely buy convenience foods, so if people have been eating them for decades, forgive me, I lead a sheltered life!  They were delicious, so I did an internet trawl to see if it might be feasible to grow them here in the UK. 

To reduce our food carbon foot prints I think these are the main things we need to do:

• Produce food  locally to where it's consumed and drastically reduce or even eliminate food miles.  This means eating what is in season and growing some of your own if possible.  
• Focus on cooking and food-preservation methods that use the least possible amount of energy.
• Eat lower down the food chain - use productive land mainly to grow food for people rather than animals, thus avoiding idiocies such as digging up rainforest to grow soya to feed to cows!
• Avoid chemical inputs such as artificial fertilizers and pesticides that have taken lots of energy to produce and distribute and are of questionable value anyway.

Enjoy all of the above!  Growing your own is a blast, as is low-energy cooking!  I also get a lot of pleasure from making compost (call me sad if you like).  Eating food that's in season makes you feel more in touch with the cycles of the earth and you get the pleasure of anticipation and a sense of being part of something bigger... 

 Fortunately there are still people alive who can remember things like digging for victory during the second world war.  Cherish them and pick their brains until they scream!