Via the Englishman, I see that our Northern brethren are being subjected to a healthy eating campaign – and we will surely see such silliness slithering south of the Solway and the Tweed.
RHUBARB is in and strawberries are out. Scots would only tuck into “in season” produce under the latest plans to transform the nation’s health and eating habits.
Shops, chefs, restaurant owners and householders are all being urged to embrace seasonal fruit and vegetables as part of a new campaign.
Actually, I’m partial to a bit of rhubarb – I have three plants waiting to be planted out that I brought back from France. I’m also partial to strawberries. Although I managed to kill all of my strawberry plants last summer, so better luck next time…
Dubbed “Eat In Season”, the government hopes it will lead to people eating better food, saving money and adopting a more “sustainable” lifestyle choice.
As far as campaigns are concerned, providing it is “urged” and not “forced by legislation” I am not overly concerned. Shops and supermarkets will provide what makes a profit – so if consumers want to buy stuff out of season, they will and the supermarkets will continue to supply it and no amount of urging will alter the profit motive. Besides, none of this is unhealthy just because it is out of season. As for sustainability, that’s just nonsense made up by the warble gloaming alarmists. The folk producing the fruit and veg that we import are sustaining their economy just fine.
Official research for the government has found the majority of Scots have no idea what food is in season and when.
So what? What business is that of anyone’s? And why should we care? It’s not as if we are hunter gatherers or subsistence farmers, is it? Although that’s what the enviroloonies would like us to return to.
The government believes shoppers have become spoiled by supermarkets shipping in all kinds of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables all year round.
The government can believe what it likes, but none of this is any of government business. The ability to buy exotic foods and out of season produce is a consequence of free trade and this is a good thing. It is not up to the government to decide whether people are “spoiled” or not, as our choices are none of the government’s concern.
It may be worth pointing out here, that mankind has always sought to eat out of season – why else do we use preserving techniques, why did we salt meat? Eating out of season is almost as old as eating.
A YouGov survey for the government found that of the reasons for not buying in-season food, 36 per cent of people said it was hard to know what was in season and what was not. The survey also found that 54 per cent of people were buying in-season food or produce only about once a week.
This is why I don’t do surveys – it only encourages the bastards.
The sustainability argument is nonsense. Does this mean we won’t be able to buy tomatoes in the winter ? That’ll do a lot for healthy eating.
Of course, if we simply ate food that was in season locally, we’d eat nothing but turnips and parsnips from November til March.
Which would be a bummer for me as I cannot stand turnips, swedes or parsnips.
Seasonal fruit and veg – very nice. Spending my money on “urging” people to eat it? Not very nice at all. Also pointless and completely ineffective.
P.S. Do you know you have published this post twice? Probably best to delete the first one, since it has no comments and this one does.
Thanks for that – Blogjet had a stutter.