Food Sovereignty: what it means for Ireland

During Latin American Week in 2009, I attended “The bittersweet taste of globalised food” - a day of talks and workshops run by the Latin American Solidarity Centre. One of the speakers was the Mexican agrarian campaigner Alberta "Bety" Cariño Trujillo - a year before she was tragically assassinated by paramilitaries in Oaxaca, Mexico in April 2010. During a workshop we were asked to brainstorm ways in which food sovereignty could be applied to the Irish context. Through an interpreter, Bety suggested adopting the potato as a symbol in the same manner as maize has been used in Mexico. 

The potato is, of course, not indigenous to Ireland but originates closer to Bety's own homeland. However, it occurs to me that her suggestion was the seed from which this blog developed. Her dedication towards campaigning for agrarian movements and maintaining the integrity of indigenous food in the face of corporate dominance was an inspiration that drove me to think about the whole area of food culture. Bety believed wholeheartedly in food sovereignty - a topic which has received scant attention in public discourse. By its nature, it is a nebulous concept, defined thusly by the Declaration of Nyéléni:


"Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems."


It is the democratic essence of this concept that poses such a threat to corporate interests. It should be of no surprise that food campaigners, particularly in Latin America, live their lives under constant fear of violence. The global food industry is predicated on the notion that consumers must have as little control as possible over where their food is sourced. By distancing populations from food sources, the supermarket chains which now dominate the market demand dependence from their customers and in turn, from the producers who rely on them.


In Ireland, the topic of food sovereignty has barely been mentioned amongst the debates about Peak Oil and the mass return to the soil predicted in the wake of recession. Like concepts such as food culture and the Slow Food movement, it is a concept that few are familiar with. Perhaps this is due to a belief that such concerns are removed from the lives of ordinary people - a foodie fad that has little place in our current straitened times. However, as an island nation we are at the mercy of rising oil prices and other threats. Farming and rural life in general are now held in disdain by many - the vestige of a poverty-stricken past. The move away from agriculture has spelled disaster for many rural areas, but the increasing reliance upon supermarkets has also sounded the death knell for many artisanal and family-run businesses which formed the backbone of small communities.

The triumvirate of Tesco, Supervalu and Dunnes Stores dominate the Irish food market, which in itself demonstrates how divorced Irish people have become from the rural backbone of the food industry. Tesco alone rakes in a wider profit margin in Ireland than in any other country in the world, according to analysts. Oddly, Tesco - like its main rivals - does not disclose its profits in this country.

An example of how active and aware the people of Latin America have become concerning food issues is seen in the Peruvian government's recent ratification of a 10-year moratorium on the import of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). On the other hand, the Irish government has shown itself to be characteristically meek in the face of big business. In 2009, the cultivation of GMOs was banned and a 'voluntary' label for non-GM food introduced. Despite this, GM products continue to be imported from countries such as Argentina, Brazil and the U.S   in the form of animal feed. We have Bertie Ahern to thank for engineering the pivotal vote which allowed Monsanto corn to be imported into Europe, after being aggressively lobbied by members of the U.S. congress during the 1998 St. Patrick's visit to Washington. I queried the Department of Agriculture about their advocacy of GM products and received this reply:

"The marketing of GM crops within the EU is strictly controlled by legislation which has been jointly adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. Any company wishing to place on the market a food or animal feed containing a GM ingredient must go through a robust assessment and authorisation process involving the European Feed Safety Authority."


It's likely that most Irish consumers are unaware that the meat products they consume are fed on genetically modified feedstuffs. The Irish government has clearly decided that it will sneak these unwelcome products into people's diets my hook or by crook. Proponents for GM claim that it is a necessary measure for feeding the world's hungry. 'Suicide genes', inserted into crops to prevent them from reproducing (a twisted form of copyright protection) deny farmers the right to save seeds - a freedom they have enjoyed for centuries. Farmers who adapt to genetically modified crops are forced to buy GM seeds, fertilizers and pesticides in perpetuity. Author Raj Patel, author of 'Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System', argues that investing in rural workers is the key to ensuring self-sufficiency. Encouraging and fostering the independence and self-reliance of farmers and small holders everywhere is the only way to ensure that food remains an inalienable right enjoyed by all.     

In recent years, Irish organizations like Grow it Yourself have sprung up as a means of support and information for people eager to take control of their own food supply. However, what is missing at the heart of such movements is a philosophy based on an indigenous Irish food ethic. In Mexico, the Zapatista Agrarian Indigenous Movement is known by the acronym MAIZ. The driving force behind this grassroots campaign is maize and its importance to the diet and food culture of Mexico.


In Ireland, we cannot point to the potato as our indigenous food as Bety Cariño suggested. We can, however, rediscover a vast tradition of food history all but forgotten in our collective struggle for cultural amnesia. Centuries of deprivation, war and famine have stunted the development of a food culture, preventing its evolution to the same level of sophistication and artistry seen in other European countries. We have lost our love for simple fresh ingredients, preferring to look for convenience, or else to imitate the styles of other cultures. Luckily, Irish Seed Savers, a seed bank dedicated to conserving native Irish strains has managed to rescue many unique varieties which would otherwise have been lost. Their commitment to maintaining the integrity of Irish food species and continuing a food tradition which is centuries old runs contrary to the prevailing ideology which states that Irish people must look outward for validation in all matters, including food matters. Surely eating - the most fundamental of all human functions and a ritual which helps affirm social bonds like none other - is more vital than this? 
 

Raw milk: the latest battle line in the war on food

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, self-described 'statutory, independent and science-based body, dedicated to protecting public health and consumer interests in the area of food safety and hygiene' has recently recommended that the government reinstate a ban on raw, unpasteurized milk, previously rescinded by the EU in 2007. Pasteurization is a process promoted by French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), involving heating milk and rapidly cooling it as a means of slowing microbial growth. It also extends the shelf-life of dairy products, but has been widely adopted due to claims of health benefits, including preventing diseases such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever and Q-fever. 

Though milk contains relatively few bacteria, it is susceptible to contamination from other sources. Anyone who has left a carton of milk open in the fridge overnight will know how readily it absorbs food flavours. In addition, cows can transmit a wide variety of diseases to humans through their milk. However, pasteurization has become a controversial subject, partially due to the fact that, as well as removing dangerous pathogens, it also destroys beneficial enzymes. Furthermore, many campaigners have asked why the public should not be allowed to choose between raw and pasteurized milk. Surely basic health and hygiene precautions would prevent many of the illnesses potentially linked to raw milk?

No, says Dr Wayne Anderson, the FSAI’s Director of Food Science and Standards, referring to studies conducted in Britain which show a decrease in diseases related to raw milk in Scotland following a similar ban there. However, a group including farmers, artisan cheesemakers, restauranteurs and others are campaigning against this proposed ban, claiming that: 

"everyone has a right to choose to drink one of Ireland’s premium products which has a rightfully esteemed place in our food heritage. Informed consumers should have the right to decide for themselves what they eat and drink".

The attack on raw milk has been a high-profile one of late. Rawesome Foods of Venice California, a co-operative movement which supplies raw milk to its dues-paying members, has been raided twice in one year. On August 11, armed federal agents stormed the building, arresting owner James Stewart and leaving humdreds of gallons of raw milk to spoil. Stewart and his colleagues were availing of a legal loophole, entering into a 'herdshare' agreement with farmers, whereby they were paid to feed and milk the co-op's goats. The private nature of the co-operative by-passed regulations prohibiting the sale of raw milk to the public.

Attacks against the freedom of consumers to choose what they buy are nothing new of course. There has been a chilling trend in recent times which suggests that a war is being waged by the food industry, bolstered by government muscle. What is at stake is most basic of human rights - the right to access nourishment, as established by Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food."

In recent years, there has been a concerted campaign to sneak GMO food onto our plates without our knowledge, and to limit the types of health supplements and herbal remedies which we are allowed to consume. Gingko Biloba and St. John's Wort are currently available in Ireland only on prescription, despite there being no evidence that they pose a serious threat to public health. It is a proven fact that prescription medicines are a far great danger to the population. In the U.S., the number of deaths caused by prescription medication dwarfs those that result from traffic accidents.

The mooted ban on raw milk in Ireland constitutes an attack on the fundamental rights of the Irish public to control what we consume.We have to ask, do we want authorities such as Food Safety Authority of Ireland to have autonomy over our health? Are we children who cannot be trusted to make sensible choices about our eating habits (when such choices are provided of course)? Or is this yet another front on which the war against food is being fought - a subtle yet sinister ploy to further minimize out options, reducing our ability to sustain ourselves in the face of increasing corporate control over food supplies?

Rapeseed: the key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil?

Like many people, I am addicted to olive oil. Cold pressed extra virgin olive oil to be exact - golden, limpid nectar of the gods that it is. In saying so, I freely admit that I have been affected by foodie propaganda. Despite all the health benefits attributed to olive all - high levels of monounsaturates, omega 3 and 6 etc. - I doubt that any of us can honestly say that we spend all that extra money on cooking oil for the good of our health. There is a certain kudos associated with its use; after all, a salad dressing made with Spry Crisp n' Dry doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Its apparently miraculous benefits have meant that it has been part of Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox Christian ceremonies for centuries. Olive oil seems to conjure up images of sunbaked groves, of old widows in black shawls on their way to Mass, of the aching blue of the Mediterranean. In the midst of a schizophrenic Irish summer, even an action as simple as drizzling the amber liquid over salmon steaks evokes a pungent fantasy about a lazier, sunnier life.

However, in our quest for sustainability, shouldn't we question the wisdom of using a product which originates over 1000 miles away - even one so multifunctional and beneficial as olive oil? In recent years, rapeseed oil has been touted as a sustainable, healthy alternative. Irish companies such as Donegal Rapeseed Oil Co., Drumeen Farm and Derrycamma Farm are now producing oil for the Irish market.

Rapeseed, or Brassica napus is cultivated for animal feed, biodiesel, in addition to its uses as oil for human consumption. In its natural form, rapeseed is unpalatable due to its high levels of glucosinolates, a natural chemical compound which contains nitrogen and sulfer. Blucosinolates are found in large quantities in other brassica plants such as brocolli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage and are characterised by a bitter taste, but are believed to be inhibitors of certain types of cancer. It has been claimed that rapeseed oil contains some of the highest levels of monounsaturates among oils currently on sale, and has low quantities of saturated fats.


Breeding techniques have reduced amounts of glucosinolates in rapeseed in order to render the taste more pleasant; however, this has the effect of decreasing its beneficial properties, in addition to those of Erucic acid, the omega-9 fatty acid contained within the plant. Since high doses of erucic acid can be toxic to humans, and has even been implicated in health scares, not least its alleged connection with autism, rapeseed oil was not consumed by humans until the 1970s.


This new strain of rapeseed oil was developed in Canada, where it is known as canola. However, the growth of canola has been mired in controversy, as much of Canada's canola has seen heavily contaminated by genetically modified crops. Drumeen Farm's Second Nature Oils pledge to produce rapeseed oil containing: 'no potentially hazardous chemicals, synthetic fertilisers or  use of genetically modified seeds'. The websites of Donegal Rapeseed Oil Co. and Derrycamma Farm contain no information about GM. The rather toothless nature of the Irish ban on genetically modified crops ('voluntary GM-free label'?) might render any GM-free promises meaningless.

Surely, the cultivation of rapeseed oil in Ireland must be a good thing. It provides a local, healthy alternative to olive oil, stimulates industry and goes some way towards encouraging sustainable product choices.

For more information on rapeseed oil in Ireland, see here.

Is vegetarianism sustainable?

According to a 2006 report commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the meat industry is "one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems". An increase in wealth has meant that more people than ever are enjoying meat as part of their daily diet, placing a larger demand on producers. This in turn puts pressure on the environment, as animals have voracious appetites and require a great deal of space, particularly thanks to modern breeding techniques which result in more meat on the bone. The consequences of these combined factors are devastating.

The breeding of livestock now takes up 30% of the land surface of the planet, including 33% of arable land being used for feed. It produces 65% of all human-related nitrous oxide and contributes to overgrazing, erosion and desertification.

In addition, the destruction of rainforest which has occured in Brazil and other Amazon-basin countries as a result of cattle farming contributes to the escalating destruction of biodiversity. With cheaper meat flooding the market, local food cultures will inevitably suffer. Add to that the impact which a protein and animal fat-rich diet has upon the body - the increased of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other heath issues - and it is no longer possible to ignore the catastrophic effect which the modern meat industry is having upon human health.
Furthermore, the consumption of antibiotic-treated meat can lead to the growth of antiobiotic-resistant bacteria that can threaten life on a broad scale.

In addition to environmental concerns, the issue of animal cruelty has caused many to rethink the amount of meat in their diet. In many countries, mass beef production has meant that thousands cattle are kept in pens and fed on grain or corn, for which their digestive tracts are not designed. Though the cruelty of industrial hen farming has led to a broad acceptance of free-range farming, 60% of the world's eggs are still produced in battery conditions. Intensive pig farming in the United States has been criticised for its impact on traditional small family holdings, in addition to issues surrounding animal cruelty, environmental damage and public health.

These considerations have led to a renewed campaign to reduce meat consumption. Vegetarian and vegan organisations, in addition to animal rights groups insist that a completely meat-free diet is the only ethical choice. However, studies have shown that meat substitutes that we vegetarians rely on are damaging to the environment. As I discussed in a previous post, soya-based products like soya milk and tofu are derived from highly industrialised cash crop which is threatening large sections of the Amazon rainforest.

Rice has to be imported from countries with high rainfall such as China and India, and because it is such a labour-intensive commodity, often low labour costs are involved. Quinoa, the Bolivian grain, has been advocated in recent years as a healthy, life-sustaining food source. It has become so popular in Europe and America that Bolivians who had traditionally used it as a staple in their diet can no longer afford to buy it. Increased malnutition has occured in quinoa-growing areas, partly due to poor people turning to cheaper, processed foods.   

In Ireland, we have a cool, temperate climate that favours the growth of grass. For millenia cattle have thrived on this limestone-rich food source. It is impossible to deny that cattle are a huge part of our indigenous food culture. Luckily for the environment, grass-fed cattle have a much smaller carbon footprint than their industrialised, grain-fed sisters, and studies have shown that grass-fed cattle produce beef and dairy with high conjugated linoleic acid, omega 3 and vitamin E. We also have a climate which is highly suitable for growing a wide variety of vegetables and grains. Our climate, geography and history would suggest that vegetarians and omnivores alike should enjoy a healthy and varied diet in Ireland, but the facts paint a different picture.

Perplexingly, we are largely dependant on imports for much of our food supply. This can partially be attributed to our fractured food history, but more to EU farming policies, the growing contempt among the Irish for agriculture and rural life and the virtual monopoly held supermarket chains like Tesco and Supervalu which allows them to set food prices as and when they will. Even barley, the poor man's rice, is grown almost exclusively for the brewing industry and for animal feed, if this (albeit pro-GMO) website is to believed. We find ourselves teetering on the edge of disaster, should fuel shortages or natural distasters prevent staples like rice, pasta, wheat or even vegetables from arriving on our shores. It is not the fault of farmers, who have been attacked and marginalised for decades now, with food production becoming one of the least profitable and respectable professions in Ireland. Government food policies in Ireland are so bizarrely wrong-headed as to make it almost impossible for those of us who don't want to choose between eating locally and abstaining from meat.

If we wish to eat food with a clear conscience, surely we should be concentrating our efforts towards sourcing our food closer to home. As a species, reducing the amounts of meat that we consume is essential in the fight to arrest the catastrophic damage being done to the biosphere. However, vegetarianism is not the be-all answer that we might think. Unless we begin to break the links between us and the soil we face huge problems in the coming years. Food shortages and famines on a global scale will be the harvest we reap for decades of industrial food production. We have act locally to work towards some form of self-sufficiency, for the sake of our health as well as that of local communities and the planet. 

Raw vs Cooked: the great food debate

Many claims have been made for the benefits of the raw food diet. It has been touted as a means of increasing health and longevity, of getting more nutrients from food, even of "increasing the radiance of your vital life force". Cooking, according to raw food advocates, "not only destroys nutrition and enzymes, but chemically changes foods from the substances needed for health into free-radicals and poisons that destroy our health!"

The implications of cooking are apparently so terrifying that it's a wonder the human race has survived for thousands of years of adulterating perfectly good food with fire. According to biological anthropologist Richarg Wrangham, cooking was in fact a crucial factor in our evolution as homo sapiens. In addition to the use of tools, the discovery of fire has long been believed to be the evolutionary starting gun that led to humans becoming the dominant species on Earth.

In his book Catching Fire: How Cooking Make Us Human, Wrangham explains that the application of heat rendered previously indigestible roots and vegetables edible. Time spent masticating was also drastically reduced. While other primates such as chimpanzees spend six hours a day chewing, cooking allowed evolving humans to devote time to other activities. Eating cooked foods changed the shape of the jaw, shrunk the digestive tract and allowed for the development of the brain.

Furthermore, cooking has become an integral part of the human psyche. The idea of transformation implied by cooking has compelled human beings for millenia. In his seminal work The Raw and the Cooked, legendary anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss suggested that cooking is inextricably linked with culture. In the mythologies of places as diverse as Ireland and Latin America, cooking is a metaphor for the transition from wilderness to society. In the Old Irish tale Táin Bó Cuailgne, liminal hero Cú Chulainn is sent into a seething frenzy by the sight of naked women. He is plunged into a series of vats, causing the water to boil over. He is symbolically 'cooked' in order to render him fit for society.

In addition to its metaphorical implications, Wrangham contends that cooking is essential to long-term survival. Accounts of people isolated from society, such as castaways and people lost in the wilderness show how essential fire is to health. Virtually every example of people forced to eat a solely raw food diet died, whereas those who managed to make fire had a much greater survival rate. The answer to this riddle comes from caloric intake. Among those who eat a cooked diet, there is no difference between the energy absorbed by vegetarians and meat-eaters.

However, studies have found that an exclusively raw food diet does not provide adequate amounts of vitamins B12 and D, zinc, and calcium. The Giessen Raw Food study, conducted between 1993 and 1994 found that over a quarter of the participants were underweight and women often found that menstruation became infrequent or stopped altogether. Studies also found that people who were overweight or had high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol achieved good results from a raw food diet. Such studies suggest that raw foodism can be a short-term way of achieving balance in one's health. However, the long-term affects of a strict raw food diet can be detrimental to human health.

Proponants of raw food diets have responded to such challenges to their claims. Dr. Douglas N. Graham suggests increasing the number of bites taken per meal in order to increase the elasticity of the stomach and "to gently encourage your digestive system to regain its flexibility". To those of us who don't want to spend the day masticating furiously, this might prove something of a challenge.

Why I switched from soya milk

Being lactose-intolerant and vegetarian, I have been drinking soya milk for many years now. The high carbon footprint of cattle has meant that soya milk has been promoted as an ethical substitute for cows' milk. But is it as green as we think?

The recent murder of Brazilian activist José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife brings to light the epidemic of illegal logging and forest burning in the Amazon. However, a more pressing problem is the drastic increase in deforestation caused by soya farming in the last few months. The most significant rise has been seen in an area which produces a quarter of the Brazilian soybean crop. Soybeans are predominantly used as animal feed for the meat industry, but increasingly for the production of soyamilk.

In her book Stolen Harvest: the hijacking of the global food supply, Vandana Shiva discusses the growing hegemony of soy in the global food supply. Like the growth of cash crops all over the world, this has been to the detriment of localised food culture. In India, soybean has annihilated the traditional growth of mustard in many areas, where it had previously added distinctive flavour and colour to food. It also provided a great deal of locally-based employment and contributed to social cohesion. The takeover of soy has meant that India has become thethered to genetically-modified seed. Because the EU has placed strict labelling regulations upon GMO ingredients, U.S. companies are dumping much of their products on countries with fewer restrictions, such as India. 

What are the alternatives? Reducing our consumption of meat and other animal products is advisable, not merely for our individual health, but for the environment as well. However, we must also be careful that the alternatives we choose do not also negatively impact on the health of the planet. I believe that sustainable and locally-appropriate food is as important as issues such as vegetarianism and environmental protection. The inception of GMO and industrial agriculture and food production has had a devastating impact on delicate ecosystems as well as food cultures throughout the world. 

It is for these reasons that I have started buying Avonmore Lactose-Free Milk. The situation is not ideal, as it is not organic, and I know that I am contributing towards the pollution caused by cattle farming. Further to this, there is very little information available about the human impact of the hormones used to increase fertility and lactation in cattle. However, I feel that the closer I am to where my food is sourced, the better for me and for the environment. In addition to this, studies have found that milk from grass-fed cattle contains higher quanitites of healthy conjugated linoleic acid, vitamin E and omega-3 than from grain-fed cattle.

The higher rates of cholesterol in milk might have a negative impact on my health down the road, but as I don't tend to consume a lot of milk, I am hoping to avoid that in my quest to eat more sustainably.


 

What I learned from eating only Irish for a week

When I heard that Brendan from Castlemine Farm planned to eat nothing but Irish food for a week, I was intrigued. As someone interested in food security and growing my own vegetables, I wondered if I could survive a week eating only food produced in Ireland. Somewhat naively, I decided to try it out for a week, imagining that all the preparation it would take was the purchase of a few necessaries like Irish organic rapeseed oil and Irish honey. I generally do my utmost to buy Irish vegetables, so I assumed that eating nothing but Irish would be easy, especially for a vegetarian (technically pescaterian). However, I did not take into account the staples that veggies like myself usually depend upon, such as lentils, rice, pasta etc. are sourced hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. Nor did I consider the monstrous caffeine-deprivation headache that I would get on Tuesday, which was embarrassing after my boasts about the virtues of nettle and peppermint tea on Facebook. 

Breakfasts were easy enough to manage, as I usually eat a bowl of Flahavan's Organic Porridge, sweetened with Mileeven Irish Honey. Monday's lunch was a two-egg omelette consisting of Irish Free range eggs, Avonmore Lactose Free Milk, Keoghs' Organic Potatoes, Atlantic Seaweed Salt, Organic Irish Garden Herbs, Organic Irish Rapeseed oil, Nettles. I'd never cooked with nettles before, and I found them surprisingly yummy, despite the few stings I got in the preparation. I also used them in the stuffed pepper I had for Tuesday's lunch.

Dinner on Tuesday night was where I began to stumble into dodgy territory where Irish food was concerned. The rules for Eat Only Irish For a Week stipulate that the produce must come from Irish soil or Irish territorial waters. The hake I had for dinner was sourced from 'N.E. Atlantic' and therefore may not have been caught in Irish waters, but as that was the day I submitted to the aforementioned caffeine deprivation and drank a cup of green tea, I have to confess to not sticking to the letter of the law this week.

To alleviate the sweet cravings I was experiencing, I make some oatcakes with honey and butter, which were rich but delicious. 

Wednesday was where I experienced real problems, but discovered some fascinating insights into cereal production in Ireland. I bought Odlums Plain Flour to make handmade pasta, assuming that because the packet said 'Milled and packed in Ireland', that the wheat was grown in Ireland too. However, on enquiring of Josef Finke of Ballybrado if the wheat they sold was grown in Ireland, I was told the following:

'One needs about 12 – 14% protein to get good baking results. However, the wheat which we produced was always too low in protein, sometimes as low as 7 – 8%. That meant that we had to blend in superior organic wheat from Canada. But after years of unsuccessful trying we eventually gave up. It is my belief that one cannot grow successfully organic baking wheat in Ireland.'

This was a surprise to me, and so I sent an email to Odlums, who said the following:

'Odlums do try to source wheat from Ireland as often as possible, but due to various circumstances such as weather, this is not always the case.'

The reason why the Irish traditionally used soda in bread was that Irish wheat contained low quantities of the gluten which reacts with yeast. Ireland has one of the highest rates of coeliac disease in the world, which would indicate that high-gluten wheat is simply unsuited to the Irish physiology. For this reason, I turned again to the much derided oat, which I believe should become a symbol of Irish cuisine in the same way as maize is redolent of Latin America. It is surprisingly versatile, as I discovered when I ground it in the pestle and mortar to make oat flour for pancakes. It tasted exactly like wheat flour, but I recommend a gluten substitute for ordinary baking.

Aside from this, dinners did not provide me with any major challenge; Wednesday's included honey-baked parsnip and potatoes, and Saturday's consisted of a casserole of garlic, onion, leek, parsnip and carrot.

Friday was when I discovered the wonders of lemonbalm, which I found to be growing in abundance in my back garden. It works as a great citrus replacement in salad dressing, pesto and marinade, but be aware that it has a strong minty aftertaste.

Though my adventures in eating Irish were not as strict as they should have been I made some interesting discoveries regarding food in Ireland and the challenges which ordinary consumers like myself face in sourcing Irish produce. We have a long way to go towards being self-sufficient, or even achieving food security in this country. Hopefully, Eating Only Irish For a Week will get people - both ordinary citizens and policy-makers - thinking about the steps we have to take to reach these goals.

Phillip Boucher Hayes causes a stir with RTÉ's 'What's Ireland Eating?'

Last night I tuned into journalist Boucher Hayes's foray into the Irish food sector just at the half-way point, but I was in plenty of time to see the depressing state of Ireland's food growing industry.

The main supermarket chains in the Irish market are Tesco, Dunnes Stores and Supervalu, which hold a huge amount of power over how prices are set. This has meant that produce growers have faced drastically decreased prices over the past thirty years, while the cost of growing has grown exponentially. This has led to many farmers being forced out of the industry. More significantly, the lack of power held by producers has meant that cheap produce can be easily imported from overseas, which is not only economically, but also environmentally and often ethically unsound.

Boucher Hayes revealed the completely unsurprising fact that, despite promises to the contrary, the arrival of large shopping centres near town centres such as Naas, Co. Kildare actually leads to jobs being lost in the town. Small businesses which were the lifeblood of communities are forced to complete with the perceived wider choice and lower prices of the Tescos and Supervalus. This has a knock-on effect on the local businesses they support which frequently go under due to the pressure of such mighty competition.

Small butchers, bakers, greengrocers and other artisanal businesses provide an arguably more valuable service to the community by using local produce and sustaining jobs within the community, they continue to stuggle to provide a niche service which cannot be expected to compete with behemoths who give an impression of lower prices. However, as Boucher Hayes revealed, these bargains are often shouldered by the producer, already straining to get their product to the supermarket shelves at even the rock-bottom price that the big supermarkets demand. They are often too frightened to speak out about such price gouging techniques for fear of being blacklisted.

The most astonishing revelation was that Tesco earns more of a profit in Ireland than any other country in the world other than South Korea. This piece of information is hard to come by, given that they do not disclose their profits for Ireland. This seems highly irregular, especially given their massive profits in this country, and might lead one to wonder how they manage to pocket such impressive sums. One can only hope that their tax returns are all up to date, especially at a time when the state could use every bit of revenue it can lay its hands on.

Ciaran Murphy from Murphy's Ice-cream recommended regionality in terms of selling products, which would mean that producers would be able to stock items in certain areas of high sales and have more autonomy over selling their produce. I see this as the way to go, in addition to developing local economies, where co-operatives would help to give growers the support and solidarity they need.
 
'What's Ireland Eating' seems to have sparked a frenzy of online debate about what we are eating in this country and where it comes from. It was refreshing to see a quality piece of journalistic investigation on RTÉ, usually the home of moronic entertainment and fawning political debate. This programme will be available online until 29 May on the RTÉ website here, and I certainly recommend a watch.

For the rest of the week, I will be taking part in Eat Only Irish for a Week. I'll be keeping a food diary of what I eat, and will write about my experiences as I go on.

An introduction to food culture in Ireland

What is food culture? Even with the wealth of knowledge which the world wide web can bring, it is extremely hard to find a definition of this concept. You would think that with something so fundamental and basic to human life, food culture would be something that would be easy to define. A general definition would be the types of food eaten in a certain place, but this does not give an idea of how deeply food culture impacts on our identities within the society in which we live.


Here in Ireland, we do not have a very sophisticated food culture. You only have to ask the average person what type of food is most redolent of Ireland - by and large their answer will be the potato. Ireland's uncomfortable relationship with the tuber only began in 1589 when it was introduced into the country by Walter Raleigh. Because it was cheap and easy to grow, the dirt poor and dispossessed population became dependent on it as a staple crop. This lead to disaster when a series of blights lead to the deaths of at least one million and the emigration of another million during the Great Famine of 1845-52.


This was not the only disaster which stunted the development of the Irish cuisine. There had been a series of famines in Ireland throughout the ages, such as one which devastated Munster in the aftermath of the 16th century Desmond Rebellions. Plantations dispossessed the native population of their land and English efforts to eliminate the indigenous culture meant that food culture never developed in the same manner as it did in Europe. This was also partially due to the country's remote position from the rest of Europe, but can mainly be attributed to the deliberate way in which the English establishment attempted to control the Irish by destroying their food sources. While history cannot be blamed entirely for our lack of control over our food production, it is important not to underestimate its psychological impact.


One only has to look at the sophisticated cuisine developed by the poor of France, Spain, Italy and the whole of the Mediterranean to see that even food from the most humble of sources can still be delicious. Ireland's climate means that we are ideally located to produce a variety of foods, ideal for both vegetarians and meat-eaters. Historically, the population of Ireland subsisted on a varied diet. In the early Christian period, many lived on dairy products, cereals such as oats and barley, fish, vegetables and ocassionally a fletch of salted pork. Beef was not as common a food as it is today. Because of the economic importance of the cow in early times, milk, butter and cheese were a large part of the diet and bulls were generally slaughtered when too old for draught work.


In Ireland, despite our huge production capabilities, we are extremely vulnerable to any collapse in the food supply chain. The Sustainability Institute, a Mayo-based organisation, predicts that in the event of any such collapse it would take 5-7 years to re-build its food growing capability to a level compatible with feeding its population. 


This is why organisations such as Grow Your Own Ireland and Out of Our Own Back Yard are important, but they will not make the comprehensive changes we will need to face the challenges in food supply that are inevitable in the years to come. Droughts and famines are becoming more frequent due to climate change, supplies of petrochemicals - on which the production and transportation of many of our supermarket vegetables depend - are reaching crisis levels. It is high time we faced these issues before disaster strikes. Cuba was forced to face their loss of the Soviet oil supply and entirely transformed its food production in the process, wheras North Korea suffered a devastating famine in which 3 million people died.

A raising of consciousness is required, by both the government and the population at large. Becoming more self-sufficient is not a hippy dream or a yuppy fad but something that each family should take as a personal responsibility. Movements such as Food Sovereignty will help the growth of community solidarity in a country ravaged by the economic collapse, but will also encourage tourism and promote employment in the food industry.
   
Eat Only Irish week 9th-15th May is a great way of raising consciousness of our dependence on foreign imports. While returning to locally-produced, seasonal, organic vegetables is a great start to increasing our self-sufficiency, what is required is a government-led push to rethink land use in Ireland. Something like 167,000 hectares of land is dedicated to barley growth, which is used almost exclusively for animal feed and for use in the malting and brewing industry. This is a short-sighted waste of a delicious grain that can be used as a replacement for the rice which we import from thousands of miles away. With some imaginative thinking, we could lead the way in developing a sustainable, self-sufficient food-growth policy in Ireland.