Food Notes

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few decades, you already know that the whole discussion about food has been expanding exponentially.  This is very exciting. And it is important to keep up on the various developments.  But this can be confusing as well.

As a result of trying to keep myself at least a little bit current, I started to put together something then called "Food Notes."  It was a way of sharing stories about food and culture and all of the dynamics of how we end up eating what we do.  I sent it out to friends and colleagues who showed an interest.  This is just an outgrowth of that.

Now for the caveats - they should really have been at the beginning of this missive.  I do not, in any way, suggest that the selection of stories in each edition is representative of all that is going on in the area.  And it does represent my own particular viewpoint, I'm sure.  It is impossible to do otherwise.  But I try to be fair.

That said, I hope that you enjoy the mix of stories.  I hope that you find some inspiring and joyful, and others to be misguided and maddening.  That would then be an accurate representation of the world in which we live.

If you are interested in reading current and previous issues, check them out here.

Many of us have devoted a significant amount of time to eating, and to talking and reading and thinking about eating. However, perhaps we have spent much less time thinking about where our food came from. Or who grew it or raised it or hunted it or collected it... or made it in a lab. 

But that may be changing.  Indeed, in these times, we are beginning to think more about food security, as we realize ever more clearly that in this province (NL) we are at the weakest link of the transportation chain - in an age of extreme weather and climate disruption. If we were not able to ship in food, we would not survive. 

We produce only around 10% of what we eat. Thus, without imports, we’d eat until about the end of the first week of February, and then we’d go hungry the rest of the year. That is not a good situation.

So it is time to talk about our food system, and the people who play a role in it.  A new weekly radio/podcast show hopes to contribute to that conversation. It is called “Fit to Eat: The NL Farm and Food Show.” It features chats with farmers, processors, hunters, chefs, thinkers, innovators, homesteaders, researchers and eaters. And, to further lighten the tone, it includes music suggested by the interview guests. The first show was released on the first day of November, 2018.

To link to the Fit to Eat shows, click here