How disconnected have we become from the food chain?

The modern society we have collectively created has its pros and cons...

Many might feel that having supermarkets where you can buy EVERYTHING in one place, is a welcomed development in our society. It seems that convenience is prioritised above all else.

Has this also led to an enormous disconnect from our food chain? Have we lost the sense of where our food comes from? I am afraid the answer is yes.

The harsh reality is that many children in our larger cities may have never seen a live cow, a chicken or a pig. They learn about them in primary school and see pictures in books or cartoons, but the correlation that those animals end up on our dinner plates as pork chops or chicken wings, is lost in translation.

I remember when I was a child, we often spent some of our holidays in a small rural village in Spain with our nanny and her family. We had a full time nanny back then as both my parents worked long hours and travelled a lot for work.

For me, those summers were truly an amazing time in my childhood and the first time I saw animals being killed for food. While the experience was somewhat traumatizing, it allowed me to learn and understand exactly where our food came from. The family would kill a chicken in front of our eyes, clean it and serve it for dinner that same evening. We would go to the vegetable gardens and pick our own carrots and potatoes, we helped them plant vegetables then saw them grow over the spring and summer months.

While many parents nowadays would be horrified to allow their children to see animals being killed, I feel this is an important part of the education process of understanding food and where it comes from.  It is crucial knowledge especially to ensure respect for the food and animals we are consuming. 

Our present reality in terms of our food chain, is that it has been completely compromised. I often witness people with full trolleys of processed foods and very little fresh produce. And yes I do not count breaded chicken Kiev in a pack as fresh produce, because it is not. Or even the sliced ham we so often use for our sandwiches, don’t fool yourself into believing this isn’t processed either.

But what are the effects of processed foods on our health?

Heavily processed foods often include unhealthy levels of added sugar, sodium and fat. These ingredients make the food taste better, but too much of them leads to serious health issues like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. But this is a whole new area of the food chain that deserves a blog by itself.

I am very lucky to live in the west of Ireland and have some land. I keep hens that give me delicious fresh eggs every morning and I plant potatoes, onions and other veggies over the year. Don’t get me wrong, I still shop in supermarkets, but there is nothing like the taste of your own grown food. Plus it does not come with any packaging! 

The “Grow your own” movement gained a lot of momentum a couple of years back. Even in cities, people started using their balconies or roof tops to have small herb and veg gardens. For those that have not tried it yet, it might seem a bit daunting and I totally get it! I too was scared of growing anything before, since I have never been great at keeping plants alive! But once you start….you will be hooked!

My advice is as always when you try something new, start small. Pick one thing you like to eat, for example tomatoes, or lettuce, whatever it is you will actually enjoy eating. Be realistic with the space you have, if you have a larger garden consider investing in a raise bed, if you live in an apartment then you might only have space for a few pots for herbs by the window.

Once you have decided what to plant and the space you have, you will find all the information you need about that particular veg or herb online, get some seeds and get growing!

As the world continues to evolve and we become more and more detached from the food chain, I cant help by wonder, what will the new generations be eating in another 50 years time? 

Raquel