How do you know which food is in season?

Ladyhawk

Sorry - I was really meaning why is local better?

boultdj

There is a cauliflower called All Year Round, and does grow all year,the plant takes x-amount of week's to grow it's just planted at 3/4 week apart to to continues crop's

westcoastscot

Sorry Ladyhawk misunderstood the question! for me, locally grown is preferable since it tallies up less air-miles getting to the shop, and is usually fresher, plus I like to support scottish/british farmers - I dispair sometimes at the dreadful way growers in other countries have been/are treated by the bigger companies that buy/distribute their produce - growers are often kept in poverty. There's a wonderful book called Not on the Label - well worth a read. I do appreciate that our own (UK) record is tainted by the use of cheap immigrant labour, but as a family we try and live as ethically as possibly within the economic and logistical boundries we have.

westcoastscot

boutdj thanks for that info, I shall look out for that variety - we love cauli and it isn't the same once frozen
WCS

Penelope_Penguin

thriftlady wrote: »

I thought bananas and citrus came by boat?

I've always stuck to homegrown or shipped F&V and avoided airfreighted produce.

You're right - very little of our food comes by air

ceridwen wrote: »

I had a feeling it would be the farmers getting it in the neck again:mad:

But you can;t have it both ways. This is the overseas farmers we're talking about (who will lose out if their produce can;t be airfreighted). If you say that you intend to only buy home produced food, then the overseas farmers will lose out bigtime.

Dustykitten wrote: »

Can you really get local grown cherry toms at this time of year? It must cost loads to heat the greehouses.

Quite; I've seen the sums done, and it's better from a purely environmental point of view to import tomatoes from Spain where they can be grown outdoors, than to grow under glass with all the heat needed, in the UK.

Ladyhawk

Westcoastscot - I've read Felicity Lawrence's book and and heard her speak - she is a very interesting lady... though I wouldn't necessarily take what she says as 100% gospel though.

I am very interested in the ethics of food procurement from a professional point of view. The reason why I asked you why you thought Scottish produce was preferable was whether it was first and foremost food security or environmental or social. As Penelope said in the post above - the example of the tomatoes from Spain is a classic one. Professor Tim Lang came up with the concept of food miles good 10-15 years ago to help people start to understand the issue of food ethics. Again a very interesting man, (and a very charming man but that's another story) who has now revised this model as the miles that at product has travelled actually has little to do with the environmental inpact of said product or its embedded carbon/ enbedded water.

Now, I am not having a go at you, at all... how else is the general public supposed to make decisions about which product to buy when we don't have the information available to make informed choices.

By boycotting airfreighted products, we are putting at risk the livelihoods of some of the most economically disadvantaged people in the world. These people get kicked in the teeth time and time again. Particularly by retailers who change their terms retrospectively, delist suppliers with little or no notice and generally abuse their power.

I suppose, what I am trying (rather ineligantly) to say is that we shouldn't necessarily celebrate the lack of airfreighted food this week because there are some farmers out there who have been brought to their knees.

Churchmouse

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

You're right - very little of our food comes by air

But you can;t have it both ways. This is the overseas farmers we're talking about (who will lose out if their produce can;t be airfreighted). If you say that you intend to only buy home produced food, then the overseas farmers will lose out bigtime.



Quite; I've seen the sums done, and it's better from a purely environmental point of view to import tomatoes from Spain where they can be grown outdoors, then to grow under glass with all the heat needed, in the UK.

And this is a very big issue with me. I get annoyed at the propaganda machine that says don't buy Ghanaian beans or whatever. If we don't buy, what do they trade with? How do they climb out of poverty? We trade, they trade. I don't buy Peruvian asparagus often because I know it will disappoint, nothing compares to English asparagus ( well for me and my family) But equally if you don't like asparagus why would you buy the English stuff in preference to sugar snap peas, sweetcorn or beans?

I was reading today of the foodcrops being left to rot in the ground. Criminal yes, ideally they'd be given to the poor, but how can the farmer afford to pay for the crops to be harvested when he cannot sell them because airfreight is not available. It's a complete mess, but far more involved than first appears.

westcoastscot

:)Hi ladyhawk,
A very interesting response, thankyou - i'm always open to being educated .
It's an interesting dilemma. For me, this has been pretty much a lifetime of supporting home-grown/ethical produce as much as possible, dating from when I marched through Hyde Park in my late teens to demonstrate against Nestle promoting baby milk in third world countries. A different issue I know but it really opened my eyes to their role in the coffee market. It is incredibly difficult to know which stance to take as a consumer to best help growers in developing countries - I totally understand how much they rely on our purchasing their produce and feel dreadful for them for the mountains of food which I'm sure will be left to rot instead of being re-distributed. For my family I decided that unless it is fair trade then I won't purchase overseas produce unless really necessary.
I'd be very interested to read the latest thinking regarding air-miles if you could point me in the direction of something written for a lay-person??

Penelope - good point well presented regarding spanish tomatoes - I was reading something fairly recently about the appalling working conditions in spanish agriculture - cannot remember where - but our record with immigrant workers reads pretty much the same these days.

WCS

ceridwen

thriftlady wrote: »

Of course, but why would you want to eat those when the British asparagus season is just around the corner?

I buy f&v from a farmshop. Tomorrow I'm expecting to pick up purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, cherry tomatoes, spinach, carrots and spuds all from local growers.

Quite agree.

One sees things at farmshops etc that are never there in the supermarket and they're much fresher. Farmers markets are good too - and I certainly ask them what they suggest I do with whatever-it-is I've never tried before that I've just picked up:D

ceridwen

Ladyhawk wrote: »

Westcoastscot - I've read Felicity Lawrence's book and and heard her speak - she is a very interesting lady... though I wouldn't necessarily take what she says as 100% gospel though.

I am very interested in the ethics of food procurement from a professional point of view. The reason why I asked you why you thought Scottish produce was preferable was whether it was first and foremost food security or environmental or social. As Penelope said in the post above - the example of the tomatoes from Spain is a classic one. Professor Tim Lang came up with the concept of food miles good 10-15 years ago to help people start to understand the issue of food ethics. Again a very interesting man, (and a very charming man but that's another story) who has now revised this model as the miles that at product has travelled actually has little to do with the environmental inpact of said product or its embedded carbon/ enbedded water.

Now, I am not having a go at you, at all... how else is the general public supposed to make decisions about which product to buy when we don't have the information available to make informed choices.

By boycotting airfreighted products, we are putting at risk the livelihoods of some of the most economically disadvantaged people in the world. These people get kicked in the teeth time and time again. Particularly by retailers who change their terms retrospectively, delist suppliers with little or no notice and generally abuse their power.

I suppose, what I am trying (rather ineligantly) to say is that we shouldn't necessarily celebrate the lack of airfreighted food this week because there are some farmers out there who have been brought to their knees.

There are indeed dilemmas sometimes in where to buy food from.

Maybe it boils down to whether one puts the environment first or people (regardless of what country the produce is coming from).????? Sometimes a difficult decision to make - and maybe depends a bit on personal priorities.??

Thinking about it - I guess I tend to buy as locally as possible because its good for the environment to do so - and I suppose that does mean that the people in some other country have to adapt what they do if we all follow the same path. So I guess it boils down to the people can look after themselves better than the Planet can I suppose - ie the people will have adapted by a few months/years down the line. The Planet (and other species we share it with) on the other hand CAN only take so much thrown at it.

I guess I hadnt thought of it in quite those terms - but sometimes one is confronted by a choice between people and Planet and can't take account of the best for both in the short term and an uncomfortable choice has to be made one way or the other. Aagh! Definitely raised a different angle here to the way I am used to thinking - which is "As local as possible - and, failing that, as fair trade as possible".