Years of reading about the flaws in the food system have made me aware of certain food-related things in day to day life. In London, I was acutely aware of the number of chicken shops in my borough, all of them filled with students in uniform, with more opening all the time. As a food bank volunteer, I became aware of how the numbers of people coming in increased when benefits changes were passed. As a Canadian who moved to the UK, I have been shocked by the amount of packaging on food items in this country.
Now, in a small town, I've noticed a different sort of issue that wasn't one I experienced in Central London or Toronto... lack. The one local grocery store has a sad lack of options - especially healthy options. Vegetable and fruit offerings are limited - the three usual suspects for apples: 'Gala' and 'Pink lady' and 'Granny Smith', one option of bagged carrots, same for tomatoes, one variety of cuke etc., and good luck finding anything organic. The veggie aisle is only a small section in a shop otherwise devoted to packaged and processed foods. The other go-to shop appears to be the petrol station which again has a few miscellaneous 'whole' foods, but mostly processed snacks. Other more specialised local shops sell some fresh items like veg and meat, but I get the feeling these are beyond the price range of many local shoppers, bringing food access into the picture (if you can't afford it, it may as well be inaccessible). It's not a quite a food desert, but it's no oasis.
On a personal level, this lack of availability of particular food items (I couldn't find a single cooking apple in the whole town this week!), lack of variety, and lack of an expected quality of produce (organic?! Anywhere?) has made me think a lot more about what I expect and value in my daily food connections. And I say connections here deliberately, rather than consumption.
I've been spoiled living in London these last few years, and that allowed me to become a bit lazy about food and planning, simply because what I wanted, and the expected quality was always available. But now that I can't find a loaf of bread that hasn't been made in a factory and pre-sliced, I've put my critical academic hat on straight again and thought more deeply on how I can push back against this issue. The result? I've gone into homesteading mode.
This involves thinking, planning, and more work, but it means not compromising on the quality of food I expect for myself and my family. Sure, it took five days to make sourdough starter, and my rye mix has to ferment overnight to become bread tomorrow, and it means beans need to soak for a day before cooking them...but it's worth it.
There are a couple of issues here still though.... Until we get our own produce pushing out of the dirt, our fresh fruit and veg options are still limited by shop availability, unless we plan and get organised and go to other towns for weekly markets in the meantime. The other issue is know-how. There are certain skills that we may not have to be able to make everything we need.
The big takeaway here for me is that we're in a lucky position that we can drive to shops, to farmer's markets, and we feel confident in informing ourselves about new skills and have the time to apply them. A lot of people don't have these luxuries, or access to information that will reduce their reliance on the conventional offerings.
From the perspective of our farm, we want to bring a wide range of healthy veg to the community, and to make it diverse and affordable. We want to work with local shops to get our produce on their shelves. One hitch is that the local farmer's market happens once monthly, so there's a consistency issue for us and our potential clients in terms of market access - but we'll deal with that next year. But the big focus is making options available to the town so people don't feel like they have to compromise on their food like they do when they are reliant almost exclusively on the local Co-op. Re-skilling comes next.