BBC Food and Farming Awards 2011
Here is a link to find out who the winners and runners up are in all categories of these prestigious awards.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/ffa/2011/
Not mentioned, but Andrew Whitley picked up a Special Award for his work through Real Bread Campaign.
The food business I co-ran bought cheese from Loch Arthur Creamery back in the late 1980s, so it's really good to see them pick up one of the big prizes.
A brewer picking up the top drinks prize for a second year tends to suggest the continued vibrancy in our small Brewers.
Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall scarcely needs my plug for all his great work this year. However, probably of greater interest west of the Pond is that his work was featured by Mark Bittman of the New York Times in a guest slot on the Food Programme. You can catch the podcast here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017c8gr
Happy reading and listening!
Best Wishes
Andy
Having lived in the UK ay one point in my life, I have first hand aquaintance with some of the structural differences between the UK and the USA. I always think of the passenger train system - so much easier to execute when the distance is so much smaller.
I encounter of lot of pastoral food fantasies as I wander about the US. What has always been an object of my thought is how do changes to our food supply chain (more local foods, connection to the food producer, etc) become less "elitist" and actually transform how many more people buy and produce food. It is easy for me to take a stand on factory farmed chickens or grass fed beef (or local wheat -easy for me to say - my local wheat is what the rest of the country thinks of when they think wheat) (Oh, and once you drive by the great CAFO's of Nebraska with the top down on the car - you will never, ever, want to eat the beef from there again...), but I have a great luxury in terms of personal resources - that is I'm not trying to feed a family of four on the US median income. How, I ask myself, do we convince people who feel that they can barely make ends meet pay more for food. And how would we produce it in a country where less than 1% of the population are farmers?
I look at the immense wheat fields of Kansas and wonder how those ever become "small" farms. Or even "closed system" types of farms when much of their specialized and capital intensive equipment is devoted to wheat.
The piece does point out how difficult the proposition is in the US - perhaps more so than the UK - but I'm glad that serious thinkers (rather than people with lovely fantasies) are starting to consider the issue.
Thanks for posting this.
Hi Pat,
You make fair points. But in the end I don't think we will have that much control about how it all plays out for the very intensive production systems you are right to highlight.
It will run out soon, not in my lifetime, but not that far ahead. It's a very small word, but the impact will be massive.
Oil?
Then there is water, of course.
Best wishes
Andy
After seeing the movie "Food, Inc." you could really turn into a vegetarian (or vegan).
Many people here in the US are not only to poor to buy healthy food, they don't even know anymore what to do with it, because they never learned how to prepare a meal. When classmates of my daughter came over on weekends, we would always invite them to join us for dinner. They were often amazed that we actually cooked at home.
Karin
This may be worth a read?
http://www.slowfood.com/newsletter/C274517218e7b1BBDCwlCDE8E98A/en
Bittman's new book, just out. I see he's using a phrase originally coined by my own Food Policy Professor, and use by Gordon Brown's Cabinet as the title for their groundbreaking attempt to join up all the food policy strands in the UK. We've stepped back several decades since then as the new Govt seem to think the food industry can police itself!
Andy
I'm sure it is worthwhile reading. Without specifics, It's hard to evaluate if the book would even have a chance of addressing my highly unusual parameters, though. I'm a reformed hippie - I've got plenty of good recipes and meal plans. But since I am a reformed hippie - they are a bit harder for me to execute than any individual who regularly leaves work to go to their own home and lives the majority of their days with access to a kitchen can accurately imagine.
Without sounding too shrill, I see a lot of "local" foods movements being two tier - one for those who can sign up for the time, expertise, and limitations and the other - oh well, that's the rest of you just eating mindlessly at fast food outlets. There's got to be a better way - again - a better way that I have not yet found. And yet, as I have said above, when really serious thinkers get involved I hope some good may come.
Industry policing itself! - and I've got some mortgage backed securities to sell you :>)
Pat