"E"dentify Books films and magazines for their Ecological, Ethical , Economics, Environment, Eating and Emotion (feeling good )
In the past decade, organic food has grown in public consciousness. It's more than a means of avoiding harm from pesticides; more than just clean food. It's a social and political statement about nutrition, good health and environmental consciousness - caring for the ecology and the community.
In 2006
· Al Gore has trumpeted the Inconvenient Truth , the movie on climate change
· California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has terminated junk food and sugary soft drinks from Californian schools;
· Bill Clinton is spearheading an effort to eliminate fizzy drinks from being sold in the nation's schools.
· Jamie Oliver has inspired many a school dinner lady and the procurers in local governments of food to reconsider what they contracted to serve up. He supports the Soil Association's Food for Life Campaign to provide a ratio of local wholefoods and organics
· Prince Charles advocating Organic Farming & Food for life Campaign in USA and UK.
· New York city banning TransFats from Restaurants from 2008
Over the past couple of years some excellent books films and magazines have been published discussing these very issues.
Michael Pollan, an excellent respected writer, professor of journalism at Berkeley, frequent writer for the New York times Magazine, diagnoses a "national eating disorder," and then swiftly steers a course between some of its causes and some potential solutions. He articulates deftly and clearly the issues of food politics today. He distinguishes between cyclical food faddism, overeating, and guilt--from political, agricultural, anthropological, and evolutionary psychological perspectives.
He embarks on four separate eating adventures by describing the Natural History of Four Meals each of which starts at the very beginning -- in the soil -- and ends with a cooked, finished meal.
These meals were "a McDonald's" consumed by Pollan with his wife and son whilst on the road; a "Big Organic" meal of ingredients purchased at a natural foods supermarket - one of the Whole Foods chain; a "local organic" chicken dinner from a Virginia farm and a feast consisting almost entirely of ingredients that Pollan has hunted, gathered and cooked for himself. Pollan illustrates the conflicts and issues around the food choices that consumers make today from a love and understanding of food. He writes to the inner foodie, and industrial food, he writes, "only seems cheap, because the real costs are charged to the environment (in the form of water and air pollution and depletion of the soil); to the public purse (in the form of subsidies to conventional commodity producers); and to the public health (in the cost of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease), not to mention to the welfare of the farm- and food-factory workers and the well-being of the animals."
The first quarter of the book has a shocking exposé of corn, its industrialisation, globalisation, homogenisation, subsidies and the political underbelly of American food. But, as with all dilemmas, are there simple solutions such as "Eat your view!" and "buy local food"? However Pollan is not naïve - "a successful local food economy implies not only a new kind of food producer but a new kind of eater."
In fact what to serve for dinner is increasingly fraught with ethical considerations; each purchase offers a political opportunity but where there is diversity there is no easy single choice. Does one buy Fair Trade tea, coffee and cotton from some third world country many kilometres away? Does generic organic suffice? Does one buy only locally grown produce and locally produced goods, whether or not they are organic? What about "farm-raised fish" or Grassfed milk rather than UHT organic milk?
I have tried to write & articulate (unsuccessfully) about the dilemma of ethical eating over the years. This year I have just been recommending this book to everyone I know, as he does it so much better!
Stockists
Florilegium 145 St Johns Rd Glebe NSW 2037 has a copies alongside some of the most beautiful & fabulous gardening books. Oh and other good book shops..
Organic, Inc by Samuel Fromartz
This book charts how an $11 billion industry emerged out of an alternative to the food industry - a food movement, tracing from 1920's in UK through the 1960's & 1970's in USA to today - and examines how food and farm idealists lead to the age of the processed organic muesli bar. True, it started with a very small bite in the food market, but in an otherwise sluggish homogenised global food industry this phenomenon/industry/movement is growing at 20 percent a year, showing nonstop growth. Organic food represents a lifestyle and a consumer. Fromartz asks the questions and answers the questions many consumers ask: what is organic food? Is it really better for you? Where did it come from and why are so many of us buying it?" He examines how small scale farming was unable to meet the demand for organic and had to create an industry to do it; and the conflicting existence between organic and industrial food culture
"The growth of organic food had come at an awful price, compromising standards, undercutting small firms, diluting healthy food, ignoring social justice -- polluting the very ideals embodied in the word organic.----The path that agrarian idealists had taken in the 1970s -- to farm in concert with nature and sell organic food outside the dominant food system -- became compromised by its success. Organic food had become too popular to remain in a backwoods niche, morphing into yet another food industry profit centre."
Ever wondered about the growth of the organic industry and how it is in the situation it is today? Although Fromartz traces the American system & growth, it is a well written comprehensive overview of the conflicts between organic and industrial food culture that we are beginning to face here in Australia. The book is written from the perspective of an economist "who eats the food" with a journalistic objectivity that manages to illustrate the key issues facing the industry today and how they came about.
Stockists
So far I have only come across this book in Australia at Granny Smith Natural Food Market. The owner, Peter Kenyon, has his finger on the pulse & manages to import all the really hot books months before anyone else. He is very knowledgeable and his organic retail store has a small but excellent range of titles. If you can arrange it, visit his shop when he is there.
Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser
The anti-junk food film is not like Fast Food Nation the book (which I recommend if you have not yet read it & I saw some in Dymocks recently)
Fast Food Nation, the film, tells the story of an executive from a hamburger chain who comes to a Colorado meat-packing town to find out why there's something wrong with the meat in the most popular burger, the Big One. We discover it's more than just a problem with the meat: the slaughterhouse and processing plant is employing illegal immigrants in horrific conditions; there is a string of robberies at fast-food outlets; teenagers' working conditions and pay; the cattle are farmed in the largest feedlot in USA & we see its effect on smaller local farmers and the community. Although it's a story dotted with Hollywood stars rather than a documentary of the book, be under no illusions it is brutal in its uncompromising story of the exploitation of Mexican workers, cruelty to people and animals, rawness of sex and drug use and crushing gore of the abattoirs, none of which makes it an easy pre - dinner viewing or suitable for children.
However Eric Schlosser's new book " Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want To Know About Fast Food", designed for young adults and kids, is a kind of reworked version of Fast Food Nation, the original book that holds the food industry largely responsible for the US (and European) epidemic in childhood obesity and attendant ills such as diabetes. Chew on this, like the film, charges the fast-food industry with seducing children through skillful marketing, tacitly supporting the mistreatment of animals, and repressing employees with low wages. The food industry's effort to regain the initiative is more urgent. As Schlosser journeys around US schools in support of Chew on This, he offers a slide show of human organs poisoned by too much fat. Most importantly it is a book that gives the discerning teenager facts figures and insight.
The book fast Food nation, first published in 2001 has been instrumental in exposing the ways of US food companies
Do books and films like this make a difference? I guess they must - just consider the reaction it is having.
In the USA recently, the $330bn a year food industry has set up an intensive media campaign to counteract the critical thrust of the film. There is a wide-ranging marketing campaign across newspapers, TV, radio and the internet to encourage food industry workers and consumers to take an active part in supporting the industry.
"BestFoodNation.com offers the facts about the U.S. food supply, which is among the safest, most affordable and most abundant food supplies in the world. The food and hospitality industries have joined together to tell our story; the positive impact made by each participant along the chain, to separate fact from fiction, and to set the record straight about Best Food Nation."
By the way, I am not endorsing this site; it is propaganda. But this is what independent voices that are heard come up against. And if there was ever a justification for networks like OTACnet to get qualified independent information out there, this is it. It is an imperative - otherwise independent thought and criticism is swamped by corporate marketing and PR machines
Here in Australia many people have seen the campaign from McDonalds at
www.makeupyourownmind.com.au and running on TV since Schlosser was here. This campaign appears to counter act the film but does not actually deal with the main issues that come up in the film. But that is modern day marketing - look as if you are responding to a fictitious complaint and say it doesn't make sense so as to distract from the real issue.
I met Schlosser whilst he was here in Sydney in October this year launching the film. He knew more about the factory farms & feedlots here in Australia than most Australian activists. He came across as a sincere and intelligent man, and a true investigative reporter with an uncompromising commitment to journalism. How inspiring is he - and focused! My advice - go see the film, read the books and wear the teeshirt ( if there is one? ) also check out
www.silentvoice.com.au.
Finally, the message of health and food is being considered & obesity and ill health is being traced back to diet. While the organic movement started to take form in USA and Europe from the 1920's, it was in the 40's & 50's when greats like Sir Albert Howard considered that the "modern" farming methods would affect Public Health in the long run.
The food industry is one of the fastest-growing job creators in the US - I suspect it is similar here. In USA it employs nearly 8 per cent of the workforce, or 1.4 million people, in California alone, and each day across the US 130 million people visit the more than 925,000 restaurants. ...Three out of four Americans report they are trying to eat more healthily; McDonald's has re-engineered its menu with more nutritious choices of food and salads and McDonald's has given out about 16 million plastic pedometers to promote walking for fitness.
As Pepsi etc take on commitments to produce "organic" versions and Walmart sells organics, could this hurt organic farmers who will be forced by pricing pressures to lower their standards for production of organic food? In effect, the notion of organic - small-scale and locally produced - will be lost.
All three books and films mentioned are aware of this dilemma.
So if you can't take your kids to see Fast Food Nation, then hire
Supersize Me. DVDs are now available for hire from local video stores. It is an entertaining documentary, made in 2004 and it is not just about a man who eats nothing but McDonalds for 30 days, breakfast lunch & dinner.
www.supersizeme.com Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock hit the road and interviewed experts in 20 U.S. cities, including Houston, the "Fattest City" in America. From Surgeon Generals to gym teachers, cooks to kids, lawmakers to legislators, these authorities shared their research, opinions and "gut feelings" on our ever-expanding girth.
During the journey, Spurlock also put his own body on the line, living on nothing but McDonald's for an entire month
Ominously, 37% of American children and adolescents are carrying too much fat and 2 out of every three adults are overweight or obese. Is it our fault for lacking self-control, or are the fast-food corporations to blame?
Want to know more? Don't Eat this Book by Morgan Spurlock , published in 2004, picks up from where the film left off, driving deeper into the psyche of a supersized nation. Like his doc, it is jam packed with interesting information. As an ex doco production manager, I am impressed by it. Spurlock is a talented film maker and communicator, and his book & film are filled with captivating information.
An annual Subscription to "Kindred" magazine.
The new look byronchild, after serving the natural parenting community for over five years is relaunching under a new name...Kindred. I personally applaud the new name, not that I didn't like the old name but somehow kindred seems embrace more; images of kith and kin and kindness and kindred spirits come to my mind.. The word kindred means community, family and the recognition that we are of the same substance. It recognises that we all, each one of us, exist as equals, and deserve love, respect and the right to thrive. It suggests that we work together for those ends. `Kindred' implies who we are, but also the means by which we can remain so - together as one, expressing as one, for the sake of the one.
Editor Kali Wendorf and her husband Alok O'Brien, the publishers, bring to the magazine the essence of independent press. They have written of the ground breaking issues in parenting; they choose excellent writers and contributors; they support community and are very active locally in the Byron shire. They have also encouraged, supported and acknowledged home grown Authors who deserve world wide recognition for their work on parenting - new, fresh authors like Robin Grille with his bestselling book, `Parenting for a Peaceful World' (Longueville).
I love that they support community, truly. They originally brought in the DVD of the film "The Future of Food", with the vision to hire the copy across the country to small community groups accompanied by a marketing kit - they held 6 screenings during the Organic Expo this year and in their local areas have had luminaries Jude Fenton and Helena Norberg Hodge as panelists following the screenings. Here at OTACnet we followed their lead and arranged a number of screenings and encouraged others to do the same with different panelists to raise funds for their community groups. The ball is now rolling and I am heartened each time I see another "local community group" screening the DVD and having discussions about it that something is really happening.
Support them by purchasing Kindred subscriptions as gifts to local libraries, to hanging posters, to spreading the word about Kindred.
I can't go past an opportunity to recommend the magazine I look forward to arriving each season. Not new, but consistently fresh and sincere has to be The Organic Gardener magazine from ABC publications. The Editor, Steve Payne, deserves all credit for keeping this modest and understated magazine on track over the years. It is topical and well written without the hype of the new " organic" surge of marketing which is trying to saturate the market. He uses the talented writers that have supported and been involved in their area of expertise in the industry over the years - Tim Marshall, Jerry Coleby-Williams, Jo Immig and Jude Fenton I note they are in my latest copy.
The Ethics of What We Eat
Peter Singer was a guest at the Sydney Writers Festival earlier this year, visiting Australia. I have been trying to remember who wrote the following review.. couldn't do better myself .. so copied it ..either the Australian or the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Peter Singer and Jim Mason take a standard meal enjoyed by three families and trace the ingredients back through the production process to see what ethical issues arise.
From turkeys specially bred to have massive breasts so they can no longer stand up, to chickens dropped alive into boiling water; from revelations of child and forced labour on coffee plantations, to the lack of policing of the term 'organic' - the authors raise questions about people's everyday food choices and challenge us to think before we buy.
What they discover about food choices and their effects will shock and challenge you. Containing essential information on ethical but practical shopping and dining, The Ethics of What We Eat will forever change the way you look at food.
"Singer and Mason do not judge or preach; they accept that for many people, for many reasons, ethical considerations do not loom large when deciding how to feed their families.... an accessible and well-researched book, with extensive footnotes." - The Australian
"In this well-researched and deeply troubling book, Peter Singer and Jim Mason paint a devastating portrait of the American meat industry that is bound to change the way you eat." - Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma
"In their new book-commonsense in its approach, easy to read, packed with information-Peter Singer and Jim Mason show how market forces inexorably drive farmers toward cruel practices. But their overall message is not bleak. Factory farming is under pressure to justify itself. The day may not be far when we will return to a more ethical treatment of fellow animals, and there are many practical things that ordinary consumers can do to bring that day nearer." - J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author
About the Authors: Peter Singer was born in Melbourne in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne. He has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University since 1999, a position that since 2005 he has combined with an appointment as Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, attached to the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. Author or editor of over 25 books on ethics, Singer is best known for Animal Liberation, widely credited with starting the animal rights movement. The New Yorker has said: 'Peter Singer may be the most controversial philosopher alive; he is certainly among the most influential.'
Jim Mason grew up on a farm in Missouri-the fifth generation in a family of farmers. He is an author, lecturer, journalist, environmentalist and lawyer who specialises in human/animal concerns. He is best known for his book Animal Factories, also written with Peter Singer.
Patrice Newell Farmer, author, former television presenter.
Publication April 2006 Ten Thousand Acres: A Love Story Patrice Newell--Penguin Australia, also author of The Olive Grove and The River
Over the years I have visited and met a number of organic & biodynamic farmers but Patrice Newell must be one of the Australia's most gifted organic advocates. As an author she manages to pay tribute and make personal hers - a farmer's - love of her land. In this her latest book she illustrates with exquisite photographs, notebook entries and pictures of plant specimens in full-colour.
Although Patrice writes the words, it is truly a celebration of people and land, a love story of our fragile ancient land that is shared and cared for by Patrice, her family, crew, friends fauna and flora. With this Patrice entwines her relationships and her understanding of the botany & ecosystems of her farm at Gundy NSW which produces
Not on the Label
What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate
Felicity Lawrence Penguin Books Softcover | 2004
ISBN: 0141015667
Although published in 2004 I have this on my list because I have seen copies in discount book shops (try Basement Books at Railway Square in Sydney). And it is a good book.
Felicity Lawrence is an award-winning journalist and editor who has been writing on food-related issues for over twenty years. She is consumer affairs correspondent for the Guardian and lives in London.
Many of us no longer trust what we eat. We lurch instead from food scare to food scare, while faming is in crisis around the world. A handful of retailers and food manufacturers exert unprecedented control over what we eat and where we buy it. We have come to depend on processed food that is routinely adulterated.
In a series of undercover investigations tracking some of the most popular foods we eat at home, Lawrence travels from farms and factories to packhouses and lorry (truck- it is an English book ) depots across the world. She discovers why beef waste ends up in chicken, why a third of apples are thrown away, and why all wines taste the same. She meets the hidden armies of migrant workers exploited throughout Britain on whom our supermarkets depend. And she shows how obesity, blighted town centres, environmentally ravaged fields in Europe and starving smallholders in Africa are all intricately related aspects of our newly globalised, industrialised system of 21st century food production.
In Not on the Label, Felicity Lawrence exposes the state of the food production industry in Britain. She looks at some of the most popular foods we eat to show how the food industry causes ill health, environmental damage, urban blight, starving small-holders in Africa and Asia, and illegal labourers exploited in Britain.
Did you know, for example, that:
Much of the chicken we eat has been illicitly injected with pork and beef proteins?
Ready-to-eat bagged salad has been washed in a solution of chlorine twenty times stronger than that of a swimming pool; that the processing destroys the vitamin content; that in one government study 13.5 per cent of bagged salads were found to contain E coli bacteria?
The average Briton has between 300 and 500 chemicals in their body not present 50 years ago, many of which are capable of hormone disruption in the womb?
The incidence of obesity in the UK trebled between 1980 and 1998 to 21 per cent of women and 17 per cent of men, and almost one third of children are obese or overweight?
"A stark, challenging and compelling book." Sunday Times
By the way don't think it is so different here in Australia, other than we are a small country spread thinly over a great land that depends on selling commodities to other counties..
My next choice was published in 2004, by a couple of very clever boys from the UK, and they have the intellectual street cred. I am not sure if you can even buy it here in Oz, but if you are interested, buy over the web if you really want a grasp of the why and how - these guys analyse the situation. It is yummy for the mind that needs to understand the rationale; plus these are not instant soup intellectuals who have just jumped onto the band wagon of food politics. Google their bios... these guys know their stuff.
FOOD WARS
THE GLOBAL BATTLE FOR MOUTHS, MINDS AND MARKETS
By Tim Lang and Michael Heasman
The emergence of global markets is having a far-reaching impact on what we eat and profound implications for public health, world food security, social justice and individual quality of life. What matters now is not just what we eat, but how and where it has been produced, distributed and processed and the assumptions upon which this production is based - a global politics of food and health. Food Wars argues that two conflicting paradigms (one developing food around integrating the `life sciences', the other around `ecology') are battling to replace the dominant industrial-production model of the 20th century, both grappling to attract investment and to win the moral, social and political debate over the appropriate use of biology and food technology.
Tim Lang is Professor of Food Policy, City University, London
Michael Heasman is a writer and researcher food and health, and Visiting Research Fellow, City University, London
What people have said about the book:
'Food Wars provides a compelling new vision of what the purposes and impact of food and agricultural policies should be. It is a vision that considers environmental enhancement, hunger reduction, profitability and improved health as all having a place. This book will move us towards a revolution in food, nutrition and agricultural policy that is decades overdue'
DEREK YACH, Professor of Public Health and Head of the Division of Global Health, Yale, former Executive Director of Noncommunicable Diseases, World Health Organization
'Food Wars is a heartening book which calls for a radical change in the way the world feeds itself. It offers a blueprint for a future where nobody goes to bed hungry. A future where harmony rules and global food policies work with nature, not against it'
DEREK COOPER, founder presenter of the BBC's Food Programme
'An important book that should be read by everyone who cares about how the way food is produced affects our own health as well as that of the environment and our national economies'
MARION NESTLE, author of Food Politics, and Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University
'In the world's enthusiasm to industrialise farming, globalise economies, and in general interpose as much technology and commerce as possible between the producer and the consumer, basic fact and cool analysis have largely gone missing. This is the gap that Tim Lang and Michael Heasman fill admirably in Food Wars. Their perspective is much needed and must be acted upon before the damage to human health, employment, and the planet as a whole, becomes irreparable'
COLIN TUDGE, author of So Shall We Reap
Back to Australia and the world of growing your own food and the seeds in the soil
The Australian Fruit & Vegetable Garden - grow the best fruit and vegetables for good health and flavour Clive Blazey & Jane Varkulevicius
Another inspiring book published this year, the launch was held at Vaucluse House, Sydney followed by a tour of the kitchen vegetable garden. My neighbour cares for our shared garden so the trip to the kitchen gardens was a delight and I left with an armful of native & heritage veggies to cook and taste -excited to sample food (native or early first fleet veggies). I asked my neighbour if we could replace some ornamental with edibles in the garden. He is still looking a little shaken - very proud of the natives but has been reading the book and is re-considering.
The Australian Fruit & Vegetable Garden
"Growing your own is the key to a long healthy life. But the best tasting and most nutritious fruits and vegetables never reach the market - why? Because supermarkets only buy rock hard fruits of deception that improve their bottom line" says Clive Blazey.
In this book Clive and Jane focus on those delectable apples, tomatoes and strawberries that are no longer grown so you can grow the tastiest fruit and vegetables you won't find even in the best restaurants. They show you how:
* To grow avocados in every capital city.
* To grow a year's supply of fruit and vegetables in an area no bigger than your front lawn (12m x 9m).
* Which fruits and vegetables are even healthier than broccoli or apples.
* How to grow food organically, free of chemicals and definitely not genetically modified.
Growing your own food saves the planet
Blazey illustrates our predicament "The globalisation of our food supply has unexpectedly destabilised the climate we need to grow our food. Ecologists estimate that about 25-30% of our greenhouse gas emissions are the result of us not growing our own food. By replacing our own energy to dig, grow and harvest our own food with non-renewable fossil fuels, it has been estimated to account for almost 50% of the additional CO2 that is destabilizing our climate. Fossil fuels are used to plough the ground, sow the seeds, spray the plants, harvest the crop and then ship, often thousands of miles, to market. To stabilise our climate requires us to cut emissions by 60% over the next 50 years. By growing our own food we would meet half this target immediately".
"You may be surprised and alarmed to realize that 90% of the garlic we eat is imported. Our quarantine department insists that every bulb is fumigated with one of the world's deadliest chemicals - the poison methyl bromide. This chemical works like a biological nuclear bomb, it kills weeds, insects and bacteria etc, rendering soils sterile and lifeless. It is 45 times as destructive to the atmosphere's ozone layer as the already banned CFCs. Even ignoring whether it's safe to use on food, don't we have a right to know whether garlic is sprayed with such chemicals? Aren't we entitled to country of origin labelling so we can make informed choices about our food?"
"Almost all the berry fruits such as strawberries and raspberries are picked before sugars, vitamins and antioxidants develop. Fruit is now sprayed with anti-ripening chemicals and a survey found that what supermarkets euphemistically call "Fresh Food" could be 9 months old. Orchardists make much more profit by pumping apples, grapes and tomatoes so full of water to boost weight that flavour, nutrition and antioxidant levels are almost negligible. The quality of food diminishes proportionally to the time and distance from harvest."
For those new to the organic movement, the book is a very practical looking book- but don't mistake it as a catalogue of heritage fruit and veggies. Clive brings in his delightful observations. And for those in Victoria, why not visit Heronswood and sample freshly picked heirloom veggies prepared in their café
The Digger's Club, Heronswood, just 60 minutes from Melbourne 105 La Trobe Parade, Dromana (Melway ref 159 C9)
Gardens, Café & Retail open everyday. Hours: Gardens & Retail open 9am-5pm. Café open 10am to 4pm. Closed 24-26 Dec, and Good Friday.
Entry $8.00, members & children free.
Wh o l e f o o d
HEAL - NOURISH - DELIGHT
PB $39.95 ISBN 1740457471 Murdoch Books Jude Blereau
Jude Blereau is a natural foods chef, food coach and cooking teacher who has been involved with the organic and wholefoods industry for more than 15 years. She first became involved in the natural food industry while living in the US in the late 1980s, where she was inspired by the work being done in health and nutrition. She returns there often.
In 1997, Jude co-founded The Earth Market, a much loved wholefood store and café in Perth, Western Australia. In 2001 founded Whole Food Cooking. Her focus is on helping people learn about good food - what it truly is, where to get it, how to use it - and to give them the tools and information they need to make healthy eating a part of their everyday lives.
Jude is also a member of
Chefs Collaborative <http://www.chefscollaborative.org/> , a network of chefs and restaurateurs who work together to promote sustainable farming and fishing, humane animal husbandry and local artisanal cuisine. They encourage the community to make food choices that emphasise delicious, locally grown, seasonally fresh, and whole or minimally processed ingredients which are good for us, for local farming communities, and for the planet.
"In a time when processed and refined foods are all too common, the value and use of wholefoods - that is, natural food, such as organically grown fruit and vegetables, or grains such as buckwheat, millet and quinoa - is being remembered and encouraged.
Author and natural-foods chef Jude Blereau has written Wholefood, a cookbook that contains more than 300 pages of appealing recipes. The layout and photography are attractive, and the text is informative without being preachy.
Handy tips are printed in the margins and a detailed glossary explains ingredients from adzuki beans to kombu and beyond.
For those with food intolerances, diary, gluten and wheat-free or vegan recipes are clearly labelled. If you're looking for inspiration or information, Wholefood delivers both at a fair price."
Extract from `Epicure' Tuesday, 14 March, 2006 THE AGE newspaper by Nikki Fisher
Jude & I share a similar introduction to wholefoods - mine was over 20 years ago, when I studied wholefoods with Marcea Weber who wrote the Australian Book of Wholefoods amongst others in the 80's. Marcea has often been credited with "introducing" wholefoods and macrobiotics to Australia. Jude discovered a similar visionary in Anne Marie Colbin. In the USA, Jude worked with the great organic luminaries like Alice Waters & the staff at now famous Greens, San Francisco's Vegetarian Restaurant.
So when I praise Jude's book, while there are many bright stars rising in organic & wholefoods, I can confidently acknowledge that Jude has the history and experience to introduce you to Wholefoods, as food that is eaten as close as possible to its natural state without unnecessary processing and refining. And she brings her understanding of the foundations of healthy food and eating. It begins with the premise that the more food is refined, processed, modified or boosted with chemicals, the more its inherent goodness is lost. She introduces you to basic wholefoods, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, whole grains, beans and legumes, and different ways to prepare them. Centred around these basics are inspiring recipes from simple salads to slow-cooked stews, great meat dishes and delicious desserts.
Check it out online. www.wholefoodcooking.com.au/01-book02.html
Wholefood is available at Dymocks Online and other good book stores .
And last but by no means least, a book that has been out for many years, Nourishing Traditions. One of the co-authors, Sally Fallon, is touring Australia in May 2007. She is such a clear and vocal challenge to the popular commercial world's definition of modern health. She is the servant of no one, no corporation. Earlier this year I attended the Soil Association UK`s annual organic conference in London, where Sally was invited as one of their key note speakers, and she, in a packed room of organic devotees, challenged the hallowed ground of organics that did not hold free range and grass fed as sacrosanct. She questioned the demi-gods of organics there in their realm of power. Can I also say with the greatest respect that the Soil Association UK invited her and others to their highly respected conference, filled with devotees, to introduce intelligent debate and to use an Aussie expression "keep the bastards honest".
Having met Sally here in Australia, introduced by Vicki Poulter of the Weston A. Price Foundation, I have noted the respect she holds worldwide. I then attended a London "foodie" event also held in central London. That gal is respected; her endorsement of grass fed cows, real milk, butter and cheese rings a note in many a heart. Sally is out here in Australia touring in May. If you want to sponsor her, come to her talks or just learn more, contact
Vicki Poulter. I am coordinating the tour. Am I devotee? No. Do I respect her as an educated mind that has an understanding of the true nature of food? Yes !!!!! Does she open up intelligent questions about the nature of food? Yes! And can she talk to doctors, mothers and the food suppliers alike? Yes! I encourage you buy the book, and come and meet the woman.
Nourishing Traditions
by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig
In her controversial cookbook
Nourishing Traditions, and in numerous articles appearing in wholistic publications, nutrition journalist Sally Fallon exposes current establishment low-fat propaganda as a conspiracy to rob Americans of their health and vitality, and to enrich the powerful fabricated food industry, based in large part on refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils derived from corn and soybeans.
Mrs. Fallon and her colleague, Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., a world renowned expert on the subject of lipids and human nutrition, draw on a wealth of scientific and anthropological findings to refute the notion that Americans should cut back on animal fats and cholesterol-rich foods, pointing out that animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Animal fats and proteins are especially necessary for the proper development of babies and children.
Other themes in
Nourishing Traditions include the importance of traditional broths as a source of minerals and as an aid to digestion, made from the bones of chicken, fish, beef and lamb; of proper preparation of grain, nuts and legumes to neutralize enzyme inhibitors and mineral-blocking substances found in all seed foods; and of ancient techniques for food preservation that enhance nutrient content while supplying beneficial digestive flora on a daily basis.
Mrs. Fallon explains the importance of returning to organic farming, pasture-fed livestock and whole traditional foods, properly prepared, if Americans are to regain their health and vitality, and return to an economy based on small scale organic production and food processing that returns added value to the independent farmer, rather than to large-scale food processing conglomerates.
Available from
www.bodychoice.com.au
