{"id":4225,"date":"2013-02-20T14:02:36","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T14:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=4225"},"modified":"2016-01-09T13:18:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T13:18:08","slug":"what-do-horses-bees-have-in-common-how-can-sowing-seeds-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/what-do-horses-bees-have-in-common-how-can-sowing-seeds-help\/","title":{"rendered":"An Inconvenient Food."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I recently put a call out for bloggers to review the Greenside Up seed collections. I didn’t pay them to write nice things, just sent boxes out and hoped they’d like them. \u00a0It’s quite nerve-wracking waiting to read other people’s reactions to a product you’ve put your heart and soul into, but without feedback how do we know we’re doing the right thing? You can read the bloggers responses to the boxes or enter the giveaways by clicking on the links at the end of this piece. In the meantime I wanted to share with you why I’m so enthusiastic about grow your own, what gives me this passion for my work and why I so badly want you all to try it.<\/p>\n

As I look through my google reader it’s overflowing with stories about horse meat in ready-made meals<\/a>, about the perils of genetically modified foods, about climate change, global warming, about the desperate situation the bees are in<\/a> and how farmers are struggling to make ends meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Primarily these news stories all have one thing in common – they’re about the environment we live in and our food chains.<\/p>\n

An observation<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the western world grasped industrialisation and become more “civilised” it lost touch with very basic life essentials. Within one, perhaps two generations, we forgot how to feed ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result of this mass production a vast number of the population began to rely on others to provide basic food products in the form of milk, diary, grains, meat, fish and vegetables. Now, in the most part, we no longer know where or how the food we eat is made or originates from.<\/p>\n

The majority seem to have accepted this and don’t think twice about it. We’re like children, enjoying the fact that someone else hands us our food in exchange for a few coins. We lead busy lives, we no longer have time to milk cows, make butter and fatten the proverbial calf. It’s very \u00a0convenient for us to cover our ears and not think too deeply about the aspects of the food industry we’re uncomfortable with and as a result we’ve definitely become more squeamish.<\/p>\n

Unless our meat is wrapped in neat little cellophane packets and no longer resemble the animals they originated from, we no longer cook or eat them.
\nAs long as food’s cheap we ignore the fact that farmers are being paid a pittance to supply the chains, that plants are being blasted with chemicals in fields and factories, that animals don’t see the light of day while they’re fattened up for slaughter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My Dad was reared on pigs trotters and tripe, rabbit and pheasant, whelks and eels by a family who wouldn’t think twice about wringing a hens neck & preparing it for the table. Yet just one generation later the mere thought would send us children squealing in horror and begging for a tin of baked beans to be opened! We didn’t have to eat the offal, there were very cheap and easy to prepare palatable sounding alternatives available.<\/p>\n

But now we’re witnessing the folly of our ways. We’re finding that many of the people we trusted with our food have no real regard for the health or\u00a0well being\u00a0of us, our livestock or our planet. To some large producers and\u00a0chain stores\u00a0food is a commodity and as such needs to balance books and tick boxes on spreadsheets, no matter how it’s achieved. It’s not the producers responsibility to ensure we’re healthy or the suppliers concern if a farmer can’t pay his feed bills, their main objectives are to make food products and they want to sell as many of them as possible. Yes there are guidelines and rules, but human beings break rules<\/em>. In order to survive, to keep the money pouring into their bank accounts the people we entrusted to feed us have had to find the cheapest ways they can to fill our shelves regardless of the consequences. In doing so they’ve destroyed our trust and they’ve let us down.<\/em><\/p>\n

Change<\/strong><\/p>\n

If anything good has come out of this horse meat fiasco it’s that people are waking up. Sloppy, corrupt and unappetising practices are being uncovered and thankfully questions are being asked.<\/p>\n

So what can we as individuals do to regain control of the food we’ve distanced ourselves from and help the planet at the same time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We can start by cutting the food chain.<\/p>\n