Eat the System

There was a time in this country when garlic was looked upon with suspicion, and more; I know becuase I was there. These days there are plenty of us who would consider the store cupboard incompete if we didn't have bulb on premanent standb. The Garlic farm, base on the the Isle of Wight has made garlic its brand focus. But more than that, they have embraced organic, regenerative and agro-ecologica...

Farm to fork is something we've discussed already here on the podcast. If you are interested in local, even ultra local food systems then please do check out episode 20- where I discovered one of the most successful local food infrastructures. In the interview I asked Janie from OxfarmtoFork whether their system was scalable. She said, I think rightly, that it couldn't be scaled up, but it co...

What does a community food organisations look like? Well actually chances are it doesn't look like a community food organisation. With the exception of actual food banks run by the Trussel trust everyone else started off doing something else: and they continue to at least try to fulfil their primary roles. Community centres, youth clubs, schools, housing projects, and of course churches, so many h...

There is a circle in the food system that we are desperate to square. How do we ensure that farmers get paid a fair price while at the same time ensuring that food is more affordable. One example of this conundrum is our attempts to set up food buying clubs and Co-Ops that are cheaper than supermarkets, yet we are fully aware of the price pressures that supermakers are applying. to producers. And...

Once again in this episode, we will be crossing the pond. Andrea Freeman is an American academic and author. Her book "Ruin their Crops on the Ground" relates the history, and current state, of the US food system; especially how it affects marginalised communities. It is a story that is, at best rife with ignorance, and at worst, fraught with deliberate harm. You can purchase Andrea's book fr...

This months episode is a sort of epilogue to last month's. After the metaphorical tape stopped rolling the conversation, between me an Janie continued - much of it on a topic dear to both our hearts, the role food in the school school system - from school dinners to the school curriculum. Because this wasn't intended for the podcast you'll hear a lot more from me than usual, along with some insigh...

If I was to try and describe the perfect food procurement supply chain it would go something like this: short, transparent, fair and sustainable. well in this month's episode Janie Bickersteth from Oxfarm to Fork tell us about an initative that hits all these points and some. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A month or so ago a US publisher emailed to ask if I'd like to interview Elspeth Hay, about her recently published book about harvesting nuts., called 'Feed us with Trees' Obviously I agreed, I love talking to anyone about food . But what I didn't expect was how profoundly reading the book would both change and clarify my outlook. From how traditional hunter-gathering societies managed the la...

In this episode we're heading out of town And by 'out of town, I don't mean the countryside I mean suburban Auckland, on New Zealands North Island. This is a bit of a family affair, as the tour guide is my sister, and you hear the odd interjection from my Dad. You'll also need a brief orentation session, so here we go. I was there at Christmas, which is coming into summer, and when talk about...

This episode is a follow on from the previous episode, During our visit to the Action Day for Nature I went on a guided tour around the site. I must say it was an inspirational guide to what can be done to share our amenity spaces with nature. Full credit needs to given to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and Andy Steele, who has done such sterling work at the rugby ground. But that isn't really what...

The food system is never just about food - that's why it's so damnably complex. And that's why, as a food partnership, we are as likely to be found doing outreach at a health fair as seed swap. And that's why this month we were at an Action Day, where Yorkshire Wildlife Trust West Hull community Hub were showcasing some of the amazing changes they have made to the grounds of a local rugby club. We...

We present "The Gourmet's Guide to Europe", a truly remarkable book, in many ways the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet of it's day; if you were an Edwardian Gentleman of refined tastes and deep pockets. Replete with the attitudes and opinions of the day, this is a book that reveals the historical roots of what we might still call "fine dining" So sit back and enjoy a bill of fayre that includes: when...

Cheese, Not everyone likes it, but those that do like it, tend to love it. Along with it's sometime partner, wine, it is one of those ancient foodstuffs that takes a few simple ingredients and seems produce infinite variety; thanks to traditional craft skills, and latterly, applied sciences. A few months ago I was sharing an Uber with Carlos, on the way home from a conference, and h...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that many of the listeners to this podcast will have a fair idea of what a community food organisation is, and what is does. Some of you at least will work for one. But for those of you less familiar with what they are and how they do it , prepare for a bit of a deep dive into the whys and wherefores of a sector that has increased massively; in numbers, and in...

This is the final episode of this mini-series . It marks 20 years since Hull City Council decided they would provide free school meals for all Primary pupils, saw that the regulations didn't allow for this, and then set about getting those regulations changed. We've spoken to the policy maker and the policy deliverer. In this episode it's time to hear from one of the teachers who worked in school...

In the last episode of the pod cast we spoke with Colin Inglis, The Hull City Council leader who implemented the country's first ever provision of Universal Free School meals. Not only this, the council's catering department brought in a policy of providing healthy and nutritious meals, years before Jamie Oliver thankfully shamed the government into re-establishing minimum school food standards. I...

As I'm sure many of you are aware, there is a campaign to to implement universal free school meals for every school pupil, whatever their circumstances. perhaps, just perhaps, this is an idea whose time has come. It is, for the the being at least, already in operation in both Scotland and London. It may be a current consideration, but it's by no means a new idea. 20 years ago, here in Hull, the co...

I love a good trade show. I know they aren't everybody's cup of tea, so I went so that you don't have to. There is a scale as well as a complexity to the food system. Standing in the centre of the huge show, which is also a tiny part of a small section of just catering, you get an inkling of how big it is. In this episode I talk tp some of the exhibitors about food, but also some of the other busi...

Community growing is a two handed endeavour, on the one hand you need to know how to care for your brassicas, and on the other you need to nurture the community. John Pickles has both skillsets in spades. In this episode we talk about managing a community allotment, and an exciting new project funded by Friends of the Earth, which will see community led rewilding in several neighbourhoods, includi...

The term 'Intensive farming' brings to mind unsustainable and un-natural practices - although to the fair all, forms of farming are actually un-natural if you think about it. But intensive can also mean a highly controlled growing system, that uses resources as efficiently as possible to maximise harvests. Like all farming methods, the sustainability and environmental impact of intensive farming w...

I'm sure we all have memories of school dinners - if you ever get the chance to visit a school in adulthood, two odours that will drag you straight back to childhood, floor polish and the dining hall. Some of us are old enough to remember school lunches before the food and nutritinal standards were repealed, and some of you may have attended at the height of the turkey twizzler craze. These days,...

How, and what, we teach the next generation about food is a mammoth subject, so expect us to return to this issue more than once. But for now, we are going to dive straight into middle. this is where we address past failures; and face that one last chance to put things right, before adulthood. In this episode I talk to 2 different guests, who are both delivering food eduction to young people (by w...

No market is perfect, and when it comes to the international food trade, any well considered examination must conclude that it is not equitable, even when examined under the most free market ethos. We can either rail against these iniquities, or we can do something about it. In this month's podcast we're going to talk about an organisation that is doing something about, and enables us to do someth...

Do we really know where our food comes from? Can we guarantee how is is grown, how it is processed and what it actually contains? Once a supply chain becomes so long that no-one can see from one end to the other, there are opportunities to game the system, or worse. Food Crime is comes in several forms, it ranges from mis-labeling or substituting for cheaper ingredients all the way to using ingred...

I think we all love the idea of locally grown organic food, freshly harvested and delivered to our door. But what does it take to make this happen. Is it scaleable; is it even viable. I took a tour of one of only a handful of local organic market gardens in our region. If you are interested in the case studies behind the podcast, you can find the original recordings at our youtube channel: Veg Cit...