Our Food System Needs to Change

Hannah used to love broccoli and then she did not and to this day that has not changed. I do love broccoli. I tend to love all vegetables really, and it is a good thing seeing as I run an organic vegetable farm.

It never ceases to amaze me how much vegetable food you can produce per acre, and how many people that can feed. At the very same time it also never ceases to amaze me how much our food system needs to change; it is broken and here are the three fundamental reasons why:

1. There are too many of us eating a Western style diet. Food inequality is huge and we in the West eat way more than our fair share.

2. Growing feed for animals is not an efficient use of a limited land space. To feed a growing population we need to change what we grow and what we eat. We cannot continue to produce and consume the same food in the same way there simply is not enough space on earth. (I know we have two rescue pigs, and they are eating machines, we feed them waste vegetables, but if we had to grow all the food that they eat, we would need acres just to feed them. Using land to produce vegetables to feed people is a highly efficient use of land.)

3. The supermarkets facilitate the expectation of cheap food and they control the food supply chain. Their pricing practice makes farmers reliant on a subsidy system. Our grandparents spent nearly 20% of their disposal income on food, today it is less than 10%. The main beneficiaries of our food system are the supermarkets, large agribusiness and large food corporations, not us the consumer.

A long-term view is often difficult to reconcile with our daily challenges and life stresses (holding a screaming child for instance, Hannah was not always that picture of calm!) But the climate is changing, the sea levels are rising, biodiversity is failing and change is necessary now.

We can open our eyes if we choose to, and take responsibility for our choices, we have much more power than we realise. We can’t change the food system over-night, but we can take positive action right now.

It will always be better to eat local food. It will always be better for our countryside and our health to eat more organic food. It will always be better for our health and the health of the planet to eat less meat. Here is what we/you can do right now:

1. Get a box from us, we do things right.

2. Cook from scratch, see our blog here for inspiration, recipes, and videos.

3. Eat no/less meat and dairy. If u do eat meat make sure it is local and organic where possible.

4. Dump the plastic at supermarket tills.

5. Talk about climate change, spread the word.

6. Choose to buy a little more local and sustainable food when you can.

7. Stop spraying chemicals in your garden.

8. Start spending your money locally.

9. Buy less stuff.

10. Plant one tree in your garden.


Margaret Meade


PS I know I am lucky I get to live and work on an organic vegetable farm, but we can all change our mindset and start seeing nature as an amazing resource that needs to be nurtured.