The first in a series of articles about a decline in the recognition of traditional food practices.
In many areas of our lives we are being given the freedom of choice to make decisions for ourselves, and suffer the resulting consequences. We can by cigarettes, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and high performance motor vehicles. We can marry and get divorced. We can drink too much and get hung over. We can smoke and give ourselves lung cancer. I find it ironic that I can’t buy a cake at the local fete or raw milk direct from a local dairy farmer. Consumers are faced with so many options, obesity and cancer occurrence is at an all time high, I don’t believe it is unreasonable for me to suggest that the food we are eating as determined by modern production standards is not doing us any good.
The most immediate counter argument is to state that in order to sustain the growing population we need to use mass production methods for our food crops. This greatly magnifies the risk or contamination or resulting infection so standards need to be high and strictly adhered to. I agree. Food that is sold in supermarkets needs to be safe, consistent, and standardised. On a large scale unprocessed foods may be more open to contamination from bacteria or insects, large quantities of the product could be easily ruined, and thousands of consumers could be affected. At the industrial level, standards need to be exceptionally high. But does this mean we can’t have an artisan food industry? Must every producer be governed by identical standards?
When Windsor Smith used a scantily clad busty blonde on a billboard it was judged obscene by many, and the ads were altered or removed. When a Norman Lyndsay painting of and equally busty naked lady is displayed it attracts adoration from even the most discerning sophisticates. Black jack is for trashy casinos, Bridge the realm of the well healed, yet both are essentially card games. To quote and Asian street vendor- “Same, same, but different.” My point could be dismissed as belligerent; however, I would be forced to argue it ignorant to do so. There are dozens of examples where we make exception to the general rules or conduct or procedure. We recognise art from media stunts, street theatre from public nuisance and I could easily suggest that the lines are in many cases blurred. So why do we insist on imposing the same food laws on all food producers? Is it not possible to classify producers as artisan and have labelling laws ensuring that consumers make an informed choice?
Margarine is black at one point during its production, yet it is on the shelf of every retail fridge in Australia. You could go to jail for selling butter made from un-pasteurised milk. Australian food laws are more supportive of synthesised laboratory produced items that than small ecologically and ethically sound growers. If you are selling hundreds of thousands of litres of milk each day, transporting it thousands of kilometres you should be governed by different standards to a farmer with a dozen cows selling milk at the local farmers market.
I want my local butcher to make the same dried sausages using the family recipe from Sicily. I don’t want to eat polony from the supermarket deli cabinet. I don’t care if I find a worm in the most delicious tomato I have eaten in ages. I do if my tomato has no flavour. I am not concerned if my cheese goes mouldy. I am when it does not. Food is not simply about nourishment. It is about tradition, family, friends and enjoyment. As consumers we should demand the right to make a choice about what we want to eat. I want my food to come from a kitchen made by a chef, not from a factory supervised by scientists.
I am not advocating a free for all in artisan food production. I strongly believe that greater consideration could be given to artisan and traditional food producers. Traditional food production practices could be documented, and large-scale producers may even realise that Mother Nature has already taken care of many of the potential food hazards that exist.
We are at a crucial turning point in our history. Technology has bought us many wonders, but we must remember to use it to enhance, not always to replace. Traditional methods of food production will be lost with this generation if we do not act quickly. By allowing passionate producers to share and sell their craft we preserve not only a recipe, but also culture.
