Deep Purple …
We just wanted to take another quick minute to refer to James Rebanks again, as we believe it’s important not just to put writing, or more importantly, knowledge like his back on the shelf once it has been read. It is necessary that we carry it with us and respond to it.
He writes that … “We have spent too long listening to economists. They said we shouldn’t worry about local food because we had secure global supply chains. But even if that dubious claim were true (the world is much more volatile and vulnerable to human and natural crises than they admit), that isn’t why local matters. We need local farming so that we can understand it and engage with it, and shape it to our values. That means a significant share of our nutrition should be produced locally so we can see it, participate in it, and question and challenge it when we need to. Food production is too important to be pushed out of mind.” He continues with numerous valid and important sentences about why we need local food supplies, which we have quoted more extensively in our ‘Journal’ on the website if you haven’t seen that yet or better still go buy his book. Worth noting this was written pre 2020 and everything else that has disrupted and affected our food supplies in the last couple of years - looking at you also Brexit, stop hiding behind Covid. Not to mention the gust of wind that managed to blow the ‘Ever Given’ off course blocking the Suez Canal and the supply route of apparently 12% of daily global trade…a gust of wind! Has anyone ‘ever given’ (couldn’t resist) any thought to how fragile our global supply chains actually are?
Anyway here at growtogether (< in your best stereotypical American accent please, do it again if you have to) one of our main aims is to engage and learn from and with our suppliers, about our produce and supply chains. And most importantly be honest with that to our customers. So here’s a chance for us to provide a pretty picture of some beautiful Cornish Purple Cauliflower (it’s broccoli to me but that’s another story) that was in this weeks veg boxes and also the list provided by Claire (our vegetable supplier if you don’t know by now) that lets us know where our/your produce has originated from.
We haven’t set our stall out to be 100% local as we didn’t feel that at this point in time the majority of eating habits would support that, Bananas are probably as much of a staple in British households as Potatoes and and as of yet we haven’t come across any plantations East or West of Pendeen (let us know if you know otherwise). We’re proud that the majority of this produce is British and that a good chunk of it is grown even closer to home, but we are aware that we can do better without sacrificing quality or variety. Continuing in the vain of honesty this achievement is primarily down to Claire’s existing ethos and morals and, along with the quality of her produce, that is why we are working with her. It takes time to build relationships but already we are being able to chat/discuss with Claire about our thoughts, hopes and expectations in terms of the produce whilst always listening to her knowledge and experience. Fortunately they are already very much in line but we all know there is always room for improvement and by working together we are sure that we will be able to continue do so. Like Claire said to me a couple of days ago, “… the food industry is broken, and it needs fixing”.
