#wherewasitgrown

Sorry – short and political…

We live in a world where the globalised production of food is a fact of life.

If I walk into a supermarket I may purchase any number of sweet beverages made with high fructose corn syrup. Which is fine.

I may purchase a kilo of frozen mixed berries (#berries) that were produced in China and Chile, which is also fine.

I could purchase some prawns that were grown in Thailand, which is also ok.

My hipster made latte is more than likely made from coffee grown on another continent to where i live.

At any time we can purchase food from anywhere in the world in our local store. WHICH is FINE…..

But what is not fine is that every time we purchase these items the origin of production is not on the label. So most of the time we don’t know where the food we are buying or what the actual mix of ingredients in the product is grown.

This is unfair on consumers and it needs to stop.

#wherewasitgrown #foodlabels

Where was it grown

Always Golden, Always Tender, Always Crisp.

Always Golden, Always Tender, Always Crisp.

Somewhere in the world there is a company that makes schnitzel. Massive amounts of schnitzel roll out of the factory every day bound for bane maries all over the world. The manufacture is completely removed from the animal. No living bovines, chickens or piggies will set foot into the factory. Instead boxes arrive from slaughterhouses and emptied on to conveyer belts that transform the meat into breaded product.

Always golden, always tender, always crisp.

This morning I attended a meeting with the head of our collective departments. It was informal and happened over plates of morning tea. Our boss set out his strategy for the year; more customer focus, better planning with our suppliers and delivery according to strategic goals. Return on investment (ROI) was mentioned a lot.

As he spoke I stared down at a schnitzel sandwich.

The line of the schnitzel within the sandwich was perfect. The meat was no thicker at any one point. The breading was the same size all the way around.

Always Golden, always tender, always crisp.

After he laid out the plan he invited people to eat and ask questions. The schnitzel sandwiches were very popular. I could not help but wonder what the ROI on a schnitzel sandwich would be. Obviously munching down on a sandwich that contained the right amount of fatty joy mixed with crunch and carbs from the bread would spike morale. At least in the short team.

Long term is harder to predict.

We (I talk of the collective we here) had moved the means of production far away from the source of the meat and the consumption of the schnitzel. Perhaps years ago a chef would have spent time going to the meat works selecting the best cuts, using egg, flour and breadcrumbs to make something that may not have looked perfect but tasted good and we knew what went into it.

Now the ingredients to a typical schnitzel look like this:

46% Processed Chicken Meat, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil (incl. Soy), Water, Soy Protein, Gluten(Wheat), Mineral Salts, Dextrose, Salt, Vinegar, Yeast, Acidity Regulators, Starch (Wheat), Thickeners, Dehydrated Vegetables (Garlic, Onion), Herbs, Ground & Extracted Spices, Onion Powder, Sugar, Wheat Fibre, Natural Lemon Flavour, Yeast Extract, Natural Colours, Vitamins (Niacin, Iron, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Folic Acid).

Contains: Gluten, Soybeans May contain traces of: Crustacea, Egg, Fish, Milk, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Sesame Seeds, Sulphites.

Before my fructose malabsorbsion I loved the schnitzel. How could I not? These products have been tested on consumers to ensure ROI. Tasted. Altered. Tasted. Altered. Until the perfect mix was discovered.

Always golden, always tender, always crisp.

The shareholders rejoice as the customers are left incredibly happy. ROI in assured by perfecting the manufacturing process. In a supermarket a schnitzel retails for about 2$ US. Cheaper than the a piece of chicken at equal weight. Certainly cheaper than most fruit and vegetables. Always golden, always tender, always fresh.

And when the bleeding hearts accuse us of contributing to the obesity and diabetes epidemic. We say we are just giving the public what they want.

Always Golden

Always Tender

Always Fresh

Distant Moon Over Hipsterville

There is a strange moon over Hipsterville at the moment.

My lovely partner Ms Rabbit often suffers insomnia, which means she spends a lot of time trying to sleep, or shovelling.

Shovelling is what all of us do from time to time when we cannot sleep, shovel crazy thoughts through our minds on all manner of subjects. Shovelling is not going to stop the insomnia because the thoughts usually drive us crazy with emotions, like, envy, anger, lust, rage, sadness and depression.

When Ms Rabbit has chronic insomnia and starts shovelling you will find Baby Rabbit and I spending a lot of time ducking for cover and just staying out of the way.

Ms Rabbit has never had a Fructose or Lactose test, but I am going to try and coerce her to get one. We are in the early days of understanding how sugar and diet affect depression, however there are some strong indicators emerging that diet plays a large role in brain health.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/could-soda-and-sugar-be-causing-your-depression

I would like to think at some stage in the future we will all be off the anti depressants and eating a more healthy mix of foods. At the same time I have a crazy conspiracy theory; that food companies are deliberately putting sugar into every product because depressed, fructose addicted people are more likely to eat more.

Call me crazy but I see evidence of this in everything, take for example my lunch.

Spinach and Tuna.

Ok so I chose a cheap brand of tuna and yes I understand the threat of Mercury poison. I am more worried about the additives in the tuna can. In particular the 18% Olive Oil Blend.

Blended with what?? Nasal hair? Ear wax? Nope…

Soy oil of course.

Really would be better off blending our own urine with olive oil rather than soya oil. How do companies get away with putting a mix of olive and soya oil in a can and calling it olive oil blend. Firstly there is no detail around how much of the “blend” is soya and how much is olive. Soy oil is a trans-fat and the soybeans are (possibly) genetically engineered.

Your healthy lunch turns into a unhealthy alternative.

How many take away chains are doing this with their food also?

It is enough to make you depressed. In the meantime Ms Bunny will continue to stare at the moon while Baby Rabbit and I hide further down the rabbit hole.