Food Quality

Does food quality matter to you? What do we mean when we say that children have 'enough to eat'? If they are eating industrially produced food can we be sure that everything nature intended is within the food on the plate?

I first realised how nutritionally barren many modern foodstuffs were while undertaking an audit in Newmarket around 40 years ago and I chanced upon a book written by Lawrence D. Hills. I can remember taking the book back to my hotel and staying up much too late reading. Lawrence D. Hills was the founder of the Henry Doubleday organic research institute and his work influenced the direction my life took. I decided then to become self-sufficient, to buy some agricultural land and take control.

The single most memorable, and at the time startling fact was that blackcurrants bred for maximum yield, ripening period and toughness for transport, had very few of the vitamins and minerals found in the traditional varieties.  Those berries are what we might call commercial or industrial fruits and they are all that will be available to buy in shops whether fresh or processed.

I’ve read much more since then, attended agricultural college, many courses and seminars on plant breeding, crop and soil management, and animal husbandry. My path eventually led me to discover Permaculture, a way of living, a ‘system’ devised by Tasmanians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Later Joel Salatin of PolyfaceFarm, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of RiverCottage  also offered many valuable lessons, and provided reassurance that living the ‘Good Life’ was not just something to be laughed at  

This morning BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today  caught up with Lawrence D.Hills idea. 

Could it be possible that the many new health and behavioural problems we are experiencing today arise due to the quality of our food reducing?