January 18th - Five a Day

One of our aims for this year is to eat more healthily.  So that means making sure we eat five portions of fruit and veg. a day (although according to Leo Hickman in “A Good Life: The Guide to Ethical Living” this should be more like nine but the government daren’t tell us this in case we totally freak out)!  Current thinking also seems to suggest that this should be more veg. than fruit due to sugar levels with news stories about unhealthy bananas banned in the monkey house at Paignton zoo this week!  Quite frankly just getting five a day is enough of a challenge for us so that’s what we are aiming for….

Sourcing fruit and veg. ethically is a hugely complicated process.  Some of the main things to consider seem to be:

• Locally produced – less air miles, supporting local farmers, not necessarily organic.
• Fairtrade – ensure producers receive a fair price for their goods, usually on foods from the developing world; so air miles will be high.
• Organic – free from the pesticides which are known to poison us, wildlife and the environment.  It is worth noting that pesticide residues are higher on the edible parts of fruit and veg. where skins are eaten or thin.

Local versus organic? – where a choice has to be made, environmental organisations such as The Soil Association http://www.soilassociation.org seem to advise local over organic due to the environmental damage caused by transportation. Most Fairtrade products are likely to have high associated air miles but the certification process keeps a check on the responsible use of chemicals, social and economic issues.  Simplistically it seems better to buy local seasonal produce where available, Fairtrade then organic where choices need to be made.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/seasonal-calendar/20036  and https://www.vegsoc.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=525# are links to guides showing what is in season (although this is not all local produce) and “The Eat Seasonably Campaign” produce a funky little wheel that you can download with local produce for each month http://eatseasonably.co.uk/what-to-eat-now/calendar/ . www.bigbarn.co.uk also allows you to search for local food suppliers.

Predictably, supermarkets don’t really appear to be a good bet when making these choices as they are generally unethical www.ethicalconsumer.org and their organic produce is usually expensive and over-packaged in plastic.  Waitrose have a dedicated local food section if you can afford!  Local box schemes are worth a look we used www.riverford.co.uk although we found this quite expensive and we often couldn’t choose what we got – one carrot and four cauliflowers between a family of four just didn’t work!  Farmer’s markets and fruit farms and farm shops are also a good bet.  To get FARMA certification produce should be grown within a 30 mile radius, someone involved in the production must be on the stall and information should be available about standards and production methods. www.farmersmarkets.net.  N.B. some of these are only open during the summer months.

Probably best of all is to grow your own.  You can eat cheap, seasonable, fresh, local produce and can be sure that it is organic.  We don’t have a very big garden but we are going to plant a couple of fruit trees.  We have also been lucky enough to have been offered a share in an elderly neighbour’s allotment – in his nineties he has a wealth of valuable experience but is unable to do the necessary digging etc.  We can do the donkey work but lack the skills so we have agreed to work together and share the produce.  Hopefully this will be an arrangement to suit everyone and the kids will also get to join in and learn some valuable skills.

Complicated stuff… but our plan as far as our five a day then is to grow some of our own organic fruit and veg. and buy mainly from farmer’s markets and local farms.  We all think that pick your own is a really lovely family activity so we are going to do that when the local fruit farm opens in May.  For the odd other thing that we need we will aim to choose local shops over supermarkets where possible and buy Fairtrade and organic where available.  Watch this space!