Two posts in one day. Very bad practice.
I've been following coverage of the appearance of horsemeat in "beef" meals with some interest. The story started with horsemeat appearing in processed burgers, and has now developed to include lasagne, pasta sauce and school cottage pie.
Several things strike me:
1 - the complexity of the chain that links the meat with the finished product. A company in France uses a factory in Luxembourg to make meals for sale in the UK (and elsewhere), using meat from Romania supplied by a company in the Netherlands. Or something like that.
2 - How long has this been going on? The appearance of horse in so many products makes me wonder if it has been going on for longer than a month or two, but has only just been found out.
3 - there is of course an issue over eating horse at all, from a British point of view. It's been interesting reading articles in the Dutch press (trying to keep my holiday Dutch going from last year) and the French press (this year's holiday preparation) explaining why eating horse is so problematic for us. But this is not a food safety issue, and it is interesting discovering how many horses are slaughtered for food here nonetheless. The safety issue seems to me to be the appearance of phenylbutazone in food - although the levels are very low.
And I had been wondering about the tinned meat in the store of the foodbank that I volunteer for. And now the Guardian is talking about it as well. Admittedly we have had tins of cassoulet, but we have a lot of tinned stew and chilli. I shall continue to follow the story.
Saturday 16 February 2013
Why (some) people don't cook
It's taken a while to post the second thing!
Something that comes up in discussions at foodbank related events is the question of why people (or some people) do not know how to cook.
Is it the fault of schools? I can and do cook, but I did not cook at school, because as far as I remember it was not available to me (I was at an all boys school - I assume the girls at the next door all girls school could do cookery but could not do metalwork or woodwork, which I could. But I don't know). Second of all, my elder son has done cookery at school, admittedly alternating with other things, so, some weeks cooking, then some weeks textiles, and then some weeks something else. But he did do it. And it was cookery that involved devising his own recipes and using fresh ingredients.
I did some cooking at home with my mum, and I grew up in a house where cooking was done. Most of it by my mum, but my dad had a few recipes that he would cook - a fish pie was one, and there were others. When I left home to be a student I did my own cooking. I became a vegetarian at that time, and getting vegetarian food was not as easy as now, so cooking your own made sense.
So, is it that people have grown up in homes where no cooking was done? And so, when faced with the need to prepare food, the only way to do it is to buy things ready made, with all that means in terms of nutritional content and cost?
And if people are growing up in an environment where no cooking is done, then is it more important that schools do teach it?
Meanwhile, the classes run by people like Leicestershire Adult Learning Services and by the volunteers of Love Food Hate Waste are vital.
Something that comes up in discussions at foodbank related events is the question of why people (or some people) do not know how to cook.
Is it the fault of schools? I can and do cook, but I did not cook at school, because as far as I remember it was not available to me (I was at an all boys school - I assume the girls at the next door all girls school could do cookery but could not do metalwork or woodwork, which I could. But I don't know). Second of all, my elder son has done cookery at school, admittedly alternating with other things, so, some weeks cooking, then some weeks textiles, and then some weeks something else. But he did do it. And it was cookery that involved devising his own recipes and using fresh ingredients.
I did some cooking at home with my mum, and I grew up in a house where cooking was done. Most of it by my mum, but my dad had a few recipes that he would cook - a fish pie was one, and there were others. When I left home to be a student I did my own cooking. I became a vegetarian at that time, and getting vegetarian food was not as easy as now, so cooking your own made sense.
So, is it that people have grown up in homes where no cooking was done? And so, when faced with the need to prepare food, the only way to do it is to buy things ready made, with all that means in terms of nutritional content and cost?
And if people are growing up in an environment where no cooking is done, then is it more important that schools do teach it?
Meanwhile, the classes run by people like Leicestershire Adult Learning Services and by the volunteers of Love Food Hate Waste are vital.
Tuesday 20 November 2012
The Archers
I used to follow the Archers regularly and now listen frequently enough to keep in touch with what is happening. The Archers, in case you have not come across it, is a very long running soap opera / drama on the radio, about life in a fictional English midlands village called Ambridge.
Ed and Emma are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. He is in farming, and his income is dropping. She stays at home to look after the children and childcare costs make it uneconomic to work. Their limited income has been stretched too far recently, with a water bill and car repairs.
I did wonder if the programme was building up to a Foodbank, as it is a very topical programme and often features current concerns.
Emma was in Borchester, the nearby market town, to shop. She found she had no money, as Ed had had to buy petrol. She found herself outside the foodbank, and went in to ask for help. The foodbank worker explained she was unable to help without a referral, which could come from the doctor, health visitor or CAB. This would be true of the foodbank I volunteer for, also. But, unlike our foodbank, this one could give her and her young daughter lunch.
And then while she was there, Emma's mother turned up, carrying food donated in Ambridge for the foodbank.
Emma had not told her family of their financial problems because she did not want to worry them. Her mum then took her shopping, and the cupboards were filled up. But Ed was cross, upset that they had had to rely on others' charity and that he was not able to provide for his family.
There's a lot of discussion on an Archers messageboard about why Ed and Emma appear not to be claiming or receiving benefits, but I thought the feelings of both characters for their predicament were worth contemplating. And the foodbank felt like a real one, with real policies.
Ed and Emma are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. He is in farming, and his income is dropping. She stays at home to look after the children and childcare costs make it uneconomic to work. Their limited income has been stretched too far recently, with a water bill and car repairs.
I did wonder if the programme was building up to a Foodbank, as it is a very topical programme and often features current concerns.
Emma was in Borchester, the nearby market town, to shop. She found she had no money, as Ed had had to buy petrol. She found herself outside the foodbank, and went in to ask for help. The foodbank worker explained she was unable to help without a referral, which could come from the doctor, health visitor or CAB. This would be true of the foodbank I volunteer for, also. But, unlike our foodbank, this one could give her and her young daughter lunch.
And then while she was there, Emma's mother turned up, carrying food donated in Ambridge for the foodbank.
Emma had not told her family of their financial problems because she did not want to worry them. Her mum then took her shopping, and the cupboards were filled up. But Ed was cross, upset that they had had to rely on others' charity and that he was not able to provide for his family.
There's a lot of discussion on an Archers messageboard about why Ed and Emma appear not to be claiming or receiving benefits, but I thought the feelings of both characters for their predicament were worth contemplating. And the foodbank felt like a real one, with real policies.
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