Defying the mantra of mass production
BY CHRIS FORTUNE
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Food
To me, it is rather simple: we are a young county and Marlborough is a young region, only 150 years old. We are still defining what our food heritage is and what path we want to take.
This is the exciting part, this is the part I want to be involved in, and this makes me hungry for more – more local produce, more local interaction, more social responsibilities in our communities and families rather than from places far away.
The New Zealand economy is driven by exports of our primary products, but if we export our food around the world but can't feed our local people, where is the balance?
The path we are taking has a fork in it, and I don't mean a fork you use at the dinner table, but a choice of directions we can take. If we head down the path that leads to the United States, we have a style of food production that is interested in a long shelf life, uniformity, "super size me" portions and singular supply chains and distribution.
Foods that have great marketing companies behind them want to sell you cheese in a can, energy drinks full of caffeine, fancy bottled waters, and foods that contain additives and flavouring but no real substance. Products are picture perfect, but taste, nutrition and flavour are sacrificed for the ability for it to travel and sit well on a shelf.
If we choose the other path, we follow a more European model, where food heroes are celebrated in their communities – the bakers, butchers, fishmongers and produce growers, and the communities eat and rejoice in in-season produce grown on the land around them.
Their food is sourced from gardens, forests and waterways, from the many landholders and people who live in local communities. Bread is baked twice daily, to be bought in the morning for lunch and then again in the afternoon for dinner because it contains no preservatives, additives, extracts or emulsifiers.
The European model of Spain, France and Italy may sound romantic and idealistic, but it is about more than food and food production – it is to do with priorities and what is important in life.
Where a product has come from is placed at the bottom of a mass-produced food market. The fact that it may or may not contain local or imported ingredients seems to be of little value to most retailers. The rest of the world has embraced mandatory country-of-origin labels, yet New Zealand drags its heels, afraid this will damage our markets around the world.
As a consumer, the answer is easy, according to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, who highlights the truth behind the food chain His mantra: eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
My mantra as a local chef, father of two children and member of a vibrant and satisfying community is: taste, discuss, exchange, laugh, communicate, celebrate, network and socialise, but most of all, support your local food producers, buy locally made, and taste the real flavour of our region and New Zealand.
- The Marlborough Express
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