How do you know which food is in season?

Caterina

What an interesting debate. I am always trying to balance personal preferences with ethics as well as environmental concerns with humanitarian ones and I do not always succeed, I am afraid. We can all only do as much as we can, I suppose. For the most part I try to eat with the seasons, locally produced and if possible organic, but I am also partial to the odd slice of fresh pineapple, chunks of avocado in an otherwise zero miles salad (grown in my garden!) and things like these. When buying "exotics" I try to buy fairtrade. That's all I can do and I do it happily.

Thanks, Ceridwen, for the suggestion of the book, I shall look into it. I am very interested in the sudden change issue, surely it seems to be looming - we will wait and see!

Penelope_Penguin

ceridwen wrote: »

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.

No so - the planet will survive; it's the species (including man) which will become extinct

Churchmouse

ceridwen wrote: »

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 find it extremely hard to understand this comment. Are you truly serious? If the peoples of (particularly) Africa were able to dig themselves out of poverty by "adapting" over a few months or so, do you not think it would have happened by now? We in the west are so good at putting, or seeking to put, restrictions on other nations, sublime in our indifference that we only occupy our lofty status by virtue of having exploited everything we now seek to restrict in others. Their lives are every bit as valuable as any of ours.

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

No so - the planet will survive; it's the species (including man) which will become extinct

Too true :T I'm frequently amazed that so many think man is more influential than nature. The planet will survive. Mother nature has a tremendous way of repairing herself. If species need to die out for the planet to continue, then that will happen. I well remember reading how one of the oil spills had killed some French oyster beds (apologies, I can't remember locations, cba to google ) and it would be decades before life would return. A few short years later I was delighted to read the fishermen were once again harvesting oysters. Mother Nature had performed her cleanup Now I'm not endorsing oil-spills, just saying the old girl is far more powerful than us

thriftlady_2

ceridwen wrote: »

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.??

QUOTE]That's easy! People every time.

sammy_kaye18

oystercatcher wrote: »

I'm so glad it's not just me who wonders where all these farm shops are. Or do other people make a 20 odd mile trip to get their fresh veg, that's just not practical in my mind.

Try living in Port Talbot - surrounded by steel works and motorways - don't get me wrong I love the little valley I live in but have only ever seen one farm shop and two pick your own veg places and they were both at least an hours drive from me - the best I get is 30 minutes to a local spud man selling his potatoes at the side of the road! so I either have to make do with a local market that's only on two days a week or Tesco.

ceridwen

Well - oftentimes moral decisions arent easy....one is faced with some sort of consequences whatever decision one makes.

We do the best we can I guess and thank heaven for those moral decisions that don't have anything that drastic in terms of consequences. Just calling to mind that one of my recent ones has been never to fly again and being involved in one of the flying discussions that are going on at the moment (courtesy of the ash cloud meaning we CANT fly anyway..) and someone saying "I disagree with flying..isnt it lovely not to have any planes flying around at the moment - but how on earth would I spare enough time in a two week holiday period for both travelling to/from my destination AND having a decent length holiday whilst there?" (ie they will keep on flying).

I just think " I simply cant go far afield until after I've retired - darn it...but thats how it is and I have to accept that fact. No-one being able to do that would be a small price to pay not to have planes flying overhead ever again."

ceridwen

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

Try living in Port Talbot - surrounded by steel works and motorways - don't get me wrong I love the little valley I live in but have only ever seen one farm shop and two pick your own veg places and they were both at least an hours drive from me - the best I get is 30 minutes to a local spud man selling his potatoes at the side of the road! so I either have to make do with a local market that's only on two days a week or Tesco.

Hi Sammy

I know you live in rented accommodation - so would be wary of starting up a "proper garden" if you could....but do you have any outdoor space you might put a few containers in?

Lettuce, for instance, only needs a 4" depth of soil (or compost) - so you could use any shallow-ish container its possible to poke a few holes in for growing a bit of cut and come again type lettuce? Rocket as well would be the same principle - I've only thrown some rocket seeds into a spare container of compost a few days ago and their little heads are coming up above the "soil" already:D

The Alys Fowler series (The Edible Garden) is on tv at the moment - and IPlayer (?) has it on record for a month afterwards - so you could still watch the first programme and pick up a few ideas (in between all the hippy-dippyness). She talks about microgreens for instance..
<cough....I'll tiptoe quietly out at this point...well aware that there are people who think I'm pretty hippy-dippy myself.....cough>

westcoastscot

Mmm you've given me lots to think about in this thread. If I had to make the choice it would 100% be on the side of people, as others have said the planet will adapt to whatever is thrown at her. I guess we all have to live by our own moral code

Sammy-Kaye we have no farm shops here either - we have a monthly farmers market which is expensive and, apart from a salad grower, low quality, with pre-packaged foods.

WCS

Penelope_Penguin

westcoastscot wrote: »

Mmm you've given me lots to think about in this thread. If I had to make the choice it would 100% be on the side of people, as others have said the planet will adapt to whatever is thrown at her. I

Sorry, you're missing the point. Unless we take care of the planet as it is, the humans and other animal and plant life won;t survive. The planet will adapt and continue, but we won;t be able to adapt quickly enough to still live here

westcoastscot

Hi penelope,
Sorry my post was badly worded - I didn't mean to say we can abuse the planet, what I meant was that if I had to chose I would put people first. It was a response to Cerwiden's post - for me the planet will never be more important than the people upon it,and I feel strongly that just because the "power" is in western hands that does not make other people in other circumstances less valuable. We have to take collective responsibility for developing countries, which for me - since I don't move in bigger political circles- means using my vote wisely, and on the shopping front buying fair-trade or locally.
Of course we need to be environmentally responsible.
WCS