British Food: Imports, Seasons and Gordon Ramsay
May 9th, 2008 by Linda Haywood Posted in Africa, Americas, Climate Change, Europe, News
Gordon Ramsay has suggested that Britain should fine restaurants that use out-of-season fruit and vegetables. I’m glad he’s not going to fine me. Only this morning, whilst making the Great English Breakfast, I used a tin of beans. The beans in tins (haricot beans) are grown in the USA. Apparently, there is a very similar “field bean” of English descent but we just don’t bother. Although healthy in themselves, the sauce in which the haricot beans reside is usually saturated with salt and sugar.
I once consumed a home-made version of baked-bean sauce in Egypt and it was horrible. This is what happens when imports are approximated at home. Some would argue, though, that beans have no place on the British breakfast plate at all. My partner is among them. Meat, tomatoes and perhaps a field mushroom (in season of course). Are our old national recipes being bastardized by the availability of exotic new ingredients?
What of our great national drink, tea? And its happy cousin, coffee? We are a nation of importers saddled with the great hangover of empire. We can’t get away from our foreign delicacies because we are literally addicted. My brother recently gave up coffee (he was on about 8 cups of real coffee a day) and got the shakes.
Last week in Tesco’s, I noticed the country labels for the first time when choosing fruit and vegetables. I then attempted to buy only British produce. I came out with a cucumber, some tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce, leek, carrots and potatoes. Not a bad haul but I had to forego the peppers for my stir-fry / curry, the mushrooms from Poland, the mangetout /sweetcorn from Guatemala and the green beans from Kenya.
And yet, a report on the BBC 1xtra news said how excellent Kenyan agricultural exports are for third world development. They pointed to Gordon Brown’s comments about the benefits of trade for alleviating poverty - an argument known as “Trade Not Aid”. Instead of buying useless wooden statues in a Trade Craft shop, we buy green beans out of season, helping Kenyan farmers along the way. It seems a sensible option on the surface, except Gordon Ramsay calls it laziness.
So what should the concerned citizen do? If I buy Kenyan green beans, I am helping those in poverty but creating a massive carbon footprint. I’m also undercutting British agriculture. Another look at this morning’s fry-up: the bacon from the local butcher, the eggs from the local dairy (both who deliver), the hash browns from Tescos and the beans from the USA. Local and global contradict on my plate.
But what of British agriculture? With rising fuel costs, the price of fertilizer also increases. High fertilizer costs mean that, without imports, Britain cannot feed herself. British agriculture cannot produce enough to feed the population of 60 million without fertilizer. If we import all of our food, we will enter into a balance of payments deficit like Germany in the early part of the 20th century. Put simply, we will accelerate the recession by sepnding all of our money overseas.
On the other hand, Tesco is creating jobs to cope with the import sector. A new £50 million import depot at Middlesborough is under way. Councillor George Dunning, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, said:
That means we will be much better placed not only to recover quickly from any slowdown, but it may have very little effect on our area at all. The terrific news that Tesco is to create a new import centre here at Teesport, creating more than 800 jobs, will come as a massive boost to morale, not only for PD Ports but the area as a whole.
Jobs lost in British agriculture will be made up for in import management. However, jobs in agriculture are better for people than those in warehousing, logistics and factories. Farms are often owned by those who work there, or else by family or friends. Being employed by a giant corporation like Tesco can be alienating. I know because I’ve worked in a few myself.
If we do import our food and eat out of season, we could always make ourselves feel better with carbon off-sets in developing countries that will further support their economies. And when we have no money left, we can all eat hawthorn leaves which, of course, are currently in season. Check out your local hedgerow for more information.
One Response to “British Food: Imports, Seasons and Gordon Ramsay”
By Mumsie on May 9, 2008
I do so agree with you that Gordon Ramsey, while well meaning, has missed the point of supporting all those growers elsewhere who benefit from our support.
We would have no coffee nor tea if we eschewed foreign imports. Where in the UK are coffee or tea grown? Nowhere.
Further, by supporting, even if dearer, FairTrade coffee and tea, we help those growers in the so-called Third World to make a reasonable living.
Like you, we buy locally - the Farmers Market in nearby Leyburn in particular, the local butcher and milkman who both still deliver locally produced products.
A mixed economy is the only viable way forward. And if Tesco’s have a new Middlesbrough collection point, then what I have seen of the poverty in the ‘borough, nothing could be better.
What is needed is Governmental support for UK farmers: a strong voice in Europe to protect our producers, and a committed purchasers’ support for locally produced growers, together with as much support for FairTrade as you can manage on your budget.
Thank you for your thoughtful, balanced discussion of the points.