Potatoes - Solanum tuberosum, an 8000 year old food goes GM, but not in Europe!

These wonderful potatoes are called Cara. They are organic, grown locally, and are sold in our local 'green' shop. The GM potato is called Amflora, try and avoid it!  Fortunately,  in January 2012  BASF  (Baden Aniline and Soda Factory)  a German science based business  relocated the main part of  its  business to Raleigh,  North Carolina,  and has stopped growing the Amflora potato in Europe. This was due to lack of public acceptance!

Old jars, Numol and Moutarde de Maille

Numol was advertised as a body building food containing Lecithin, recommended for children and adults. The  smaller French jar contained mustard with vinegar.

Food Rationing c1916 - 1921. A reminder.

These postcards were produced in Britain between the 1st and 2nd World Wars.
In 1916 Britain had only 6 weeks of wheat left, this was a serious situation because bread was a staple part of most diets, potatoes and sugar were also in short supply.
DORA (Defence of the Realm Act) was introduced by the government to ensure shortages of food never occurred  because  people had started hoarding and panic buying. Then,  in 1917 the Germans started unrestricted submarine warfare, and merchant ships crossing the Atlantic  carrying food from Canada and America - our main food suppliers, were sunk with great frequency.
Young men had been called up so women and conscientious objectors started to work on the land, and the government took over 2.5 million acres of land for farming. People limited themselves to what they should eat,   gardens being  turned into allotments, and chickens and rabbits etc  kept in back gardens.  Nevertheless  in 1918 rationing, starting with sugar, was brought in to guarantee supplies not to reduce consumption, and in the main intake of calories was kept up to pre-war levels.  By 1920 all rationing was ended, and The Ministry of Food was dissolved after four years in 1921.  Reminder,...... it wasn't a long time ago.

Cheap food, it's an obsession.

'Cheap food is damaging our health, the farming industry, and the environment', says a managing director of Waitrose.
'Value' is the favourite red-lettered  sticker for their own-brand recession-proof ranges in supermarkets, but due to poor content cheap food may not be good value at all. There are no requirements for  minimal contents to be stated on, for instance,   a simple meat pie,  where the proportion of  meat may be very low.
Our grandparents spent a higher proportion of their wages on food than we do today, and amazingly we possibly spend  a higher proportion of our income on our mobile 'phones than we do on food!
One bag of food in three is chucked out uneaten, and at the end of the day huge amounts of 'past their sell by date' perfectly good food is thrown away by supermarkets.
Cheap food also causes hunger when self sufficiency is destroyed by globalisation.  When Mexico, for example, was flooded with US corn imports the poorer farmers were put out of business and the entire economy suffered.  The Mexican environment suffered, there was increased poverty among food producers, inevitably increased food dependence,  and subsequently hunger. Globalisation cheapens everything, and our land and life-sustaining food should never be cheapened.
In their rampant desire for increased  profits Supermarkets are the culprits. Food has become a purely financial commodity, and the  more people consume the more the money makers like it. The general public should wise up and realise that the real cost of cheap food is a high one, both to our own health and the welfare of those in other countries. With an ever increasing incidence of obesity, people should  consume less, waste less, spend a little more,  and buy wholesome home grown preferably organic food , and never  plump automatically for the cheapest product on offer.

Super Markets?...nasty business.

Panorama on BBC tv last night came up trumps with an almost in depth programme about the 4 biggest supermarkets, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys. Quite a denouement!
The programme went into the various aspects of factory farming, cut prices (to the detriment of smaller farmers), land grab and the bribery involved in gaining planning permission, false labelling, etc etc. Probably the worst aspect of their businesses is their desire to dominate almost every area of shopping. They want, in fact, to set up new towns out of town, so that the original town with its small specialist shops is totally destroyed. These voracious supermarkets want to gobble up everything in sight, and go hang the rest!
Probably the most scary aspect of the way these businesses are run is their total disregard for the natural lives of animals. They consider animals are machines, - See November blogs 'Battle for the Sanity of our Cows....', 'Whatever next?...Cows factory farmed in Lincolnshire....'. These blogs give details of the proposed factory at Nocton in Lincolnshire where thousands of cows are to be locked up in sheds and literally milked to death. This proposal is an outrage and should be fought at all costs!
It is up to government and councils to stop taking bribes, keep these outrageous supermarket businesses in check, and cease giving planning permission for more.