This Sunday, why not visit...

The Italian School of Cooking in Dublin, where there is a a Christmas Artisan Food Fair on Sunday 9 December from 12 noon-6 pm. The Italian School of Cooking is in Rathmines Park at the rear of 175A Rathgar Road, Dublin 6. (You will see Santa at the entrance of the School on Rathgar Road (across from the Esso Garage at the Rathmines end).

This is being held to launch this site: da-daaa!
This new site is affiliated to one of those linked over there on the left, greatfood.ie

food labelling : what can the marketeers get away with?

Another non-organic article folks, though one surely of interest to organic types. Below is the full text of an article I had in the Examiner recently on food labelling.

Food labels and food labelling: the experts agree that it�s a minefield. Take E numbers. Legislation requires that they are listed on food labels.

According to the organisation that represents nutritionists and dieticians in Ireland, INDI, �contrary to popular belief, E numbers are additives that have passed EU safety tests. You should be more concerned if you see numbers without an E before them�.

However, a recent study has muddied the waters somewhat. Up until now, in the vast majority of cases, E numbers were tested individually, found to be safe and then labelled as such. But when a range of colouring additives and a particular common preservative were tested together for their combined effect, the results have proved to be worrying.

A recent University of Southampton study examined the effect of benzoate preservatives and the following artificial food colours: Tartrazine (E102) Ponceau 4R (E124) Sunset Yellow (E110) Carmoisine (E122) Quinoline Yellow (E104) Allura Red (E129).

According to professor of Psychology Jim Stevenson, who led the research; �We have now shown that for a large group of children in the general population, consumption of certain mixtures of artificial food colours and benzoate preservative can influence their hyperactive behaviour�.

In light of this research, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) have come out and stated that children who display symptoms of hyperactivity or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) should limit their consumption of these additives.

Whether all children or just those with these particular symptoms should avoid these additives is proving to be controversial. RedBranch is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes healthy lifestyle choices in Irish children and young people, primarily through schools. They suggest that the FSAI position doesn�t go far enough:

�The study found adverse effects in the general population, not just in children with ADHD, and this is not the first scientific study questioning the wisdom of adding cocktails of chemicals to children's food. We advise all parents to avoid these unnecessary additives�.

So even if it�s on the label, it may present a risk. So how exactly are food labels and labelling policed?

According to the authorities, labelling should not be false or misleading. The FSAI point to 11 key areas, some compulsory, some dependant upon other factors: Name of product, list of ingredients, quantity of certain ingredients, net quantity, date of minimum durability, special storage conditions, name and address, origin, instructions for use, alcoholic beverages and nutrition labelling.

Many of these areas are common sense. For example, the list of ingredients is in descending order of weight. However, there are provisos. Take origin. Origin only has to be labelled if it is considered that its absence might mislead the consumer. I asked Dr. Jeff Moon of the Consumer Protection Unit in the FSAI about this. Specifically, I asked Jeff about the Irish chicken:

�In simple terms, if you say something comes from somewhere it has to be from there. But where there is a lot of processing going on here then you would be able to say it�s a product of Ireland. Take for example Chicken Kiev. Chicken can be imported into here, and processed. A sauce can be put into it, breadcrumbs put onto it, it can be cooked and presented in a way that�s ready to eat; that can then be considered an Irish product. If there is an indication that the actual chicken was Irish, and it wasn�t, that would be misleading. Basically it�s to do with how much processing and transformation the product goes through�.

INDI�s factsheet, while claiming that food labelling shouldn�t be misleading, points out just how difficult to understand labels can be. They point out that sodium is often labelled rather than salt. To calculate the accurate salt level, the sodium figure needs to be multiplied by 2.5. �Salt should be salt� according to Margot Brennan of INDI: �if you are in a shopping centre, and suddenly you come across sodium, and you are trying to multiply it by two and a half, it�s hugely confusing for people�.

INDI�s factsheet also states that if a product is making an endorsed health claim, there are criteria. For example, a product must have less than 5% fat to be labelled low fat: so �90% fat-free� means 10% fat and thus high fat.

Marketers really do test the limits: According to Dave Burns from RedBranch: �If you look at breakfast cereals, they often advertise themselves as high in calcium. The calcium often comes from chalk�The manufacturer is then able to make a claim, by adding a very cheap ingredient to a highly processed food�.

But wait, there�s more: �some fruit drinks have only 10% fruit, but have fruit in the name, and pictures of fruit all over the packet. You�d have to drink 50 200ml bottles for one litre of actual fruit juice�.

As so often is the case, there is legislation on the way to try to catch up with these sorts of claims. But when, as Margot Brennan suggests, �the marketers will push it as far as they can� these very marketers seem to be leading the dynamic.

note: for more, see the new FSAI publication : The labelling of Food in Ireland 2007

Spot the hidden sugar:

Sports drinks and energy drinks are extremely well marketed. Sugar in the form of glucose and water are often the main ingredients. Glucose is one way sugar hides. Here are some others, all of which will raise your blood sugar levels:

Sucrose, fructose, glucose syrup, golden syrup, maple syrup, treacle, fruit juices, invert sugar, honey, dextrose, maltose.

buy nothing to save the world

Here's an article I had in the examiner last week, on the 23rd November, the day before international buy nothing day. The end product, in the paper itself, was very much shorter, so it's great to have the opportunity to get the full length version out there. And no, the very striking intro wasn't used in the paper itself. (Note: in the spirit of freedom, the day itself and the original 'share stuff for free' web ethos, most of the links below are to wikipedia)

here goes:

Don�t buy this paper tomorrow. Instead, go to the library and read it for free. Why? Because newspapers are available free to read in libraries, and tomorrow is International Buy Nothing Day. Tomorrow is a day where people in over 60 countries are, well, trying really hard to buy nothing.

I first came across buy nothing day walking down O�Connell Street in Dublin in the late 1990s. A smiling dreadlocked man was standing outside McDonalds, giving out what looked like discount vouchers for the fast food joint. Curious at the contrast between his dreadlocks and McDonalds discount vouchers, I took one of the vouchers and read it.

First things first: as a McDonalds voucher, it looked very realistic, right down to the glossy paper and uniform size of each and every one of the sheets. ��1 off the price of your burger� proclaimed the voucher. Nothing too unusual there. Then the catch: �each �1 comes off the wages of the person serving you!� Despite the obvious prominence of this wording � reasonably big font, front of the voucher - people were taking them, wandering in, ordering and presenting the vouchers at the counter. Needless to say, this wasn�t going down too well with the staff. The smiling dreadlocked man was, after a while, moved on by what were fairly bemused but nonetheless annoyed security staff.

Officially, buy nothing day began in Canada in the early 1990s, with the Adbusters Media Foundation being the day�s most prominent proponents since its inception. Adbusters, who manage a network of over 100,000 members, describe themselves as �a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age�. They produce a 120,000 circulation magazine and run a large website which in many ways acts as a hub for events like buy nothing day.

Adbusters and the �Culture Jamming� they carry out are an example of what sociologists call the cultural turn in social movements. Previously social movement theory suggested that movements are about �the hard and the obvious�: economics, politics, marches and joining organisations such as trade unions, Amnesty International and so on. Today however, sociologists suggest that movements can be as much about the everyday, the cultural and the life-world as they are about card-carrying and flag-waving. The way you do things is as important as the point of doing things. As Marshall Mcluhan said as far back as 1960: the medium is the message.

Culture Jamming is what happened to me and others on O�Connell Street that day in the late 1990s. It�s roots can be traced back to the Situationists (Marxist, Letterist and post-modern artists and agitators from the mid 20^th Century), to a band once sued for its U2 parody by Island records called Negativland, and to politicised practical pranksters everywhere, throughout time.

In large part, Culture Jamming is about using the recourses, imagery and the iconography of consumer culture against itself.

Perhaps Adbusters most striking work is their actual adbusting. Their subversion of well-known corporate imagery through spoof ads is a very prominent example of Culture Jamming. Adbusters are famed for taking an obvious advert, or brand logo, and tweaking it to tell a different story - a previously hidden, or less obvious story. So, for example, Adbusters have famously played on famous alcohol and cigarette adverts, icons or logos, from the clear bottle of Absolut vodka to Camel cigarettes� Joe Camel (referred to as Joe Chemo), to create searing images of drink driving and cancer. Often their aim is also on food, oil and environmental issues more generally.

Buy nothing day globally isn�t organised in a top down or command and control way. People do their activities and tell others about them through formal and informal channels. Shopping malls have been a key focus, with zombie walks, free credit-card cut ups, �free nothing� samples, fake parking tickets for SUV�s, die-ins at fast food joints and eco-orientated flash mobs.

A die-in is an event where a number of people, in a premeditated fashion, act as if they have just died, with varying degrees of theatrics and realism. A flash mob is a relatively large group of people who, aided by the use of modern communications technology, gather unexpectedly in a public place, perform an unusual act for a short period of time, then quickly disperse (Pillow fight clubs and mobile clubbing are perhaps the most well known of flash mobs).

In Ireland, Galway has been the main focus of buy nothing day activities over the last few years. This year if you happen to be on Shop Street tomorrow, you may stumble across the buy nothing day people. There are plans for street theatre from 2pm as well as events in the Galway One World Centre (2^nd Floor of Bridge Mills), including free films and a barter fair.

Films will include a documentary called Affluenza, a film about how the quest for affluence leads not to happiness but to ever greater affluence-chasing, very little actual happiness and an array of negative societal effects.

One of the issues buy nothing day comes up against is whether it is about literally buying nothing, or about changing consumerism. Should consumers buy different stuff, or less stuff? I asked one of this year�s Galway organisers, Somhairle MacAoidh, a vegetable market gardener, part-time student and local food, environmental and cycling activist.

�We should above all else reduce the amount of things we buy. Do we really need 3 TVs or 3 cars, loads of new clothes that may never get worn? That�s before everything else. But when we do buy, we need to consider things like local products. Personally I feel it�s important to support small local traders. Smaller companies tend to be friendlier, the money tends to be kept more in the community, and we have more control over where the product, for example food, comes from�.

Recently, there has been a slight shift in focus for the global buy nothing day. Tomorrow, Adbusters as an organisation suggest that buy nothing day has moved from being an escape from �the marketing mind games and frantic consumerism that have come to characterize modern life�, to focusing on �the new political mood surrounding climate change�.

Kalle Lasn is the co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation: �So much emphasis has been placed on buying carbon offsets and compact fluorescent lightbulbs and hybrid cars that we are losing sight of the core cause of our environmental problems: we consume far too much.�

He expands: �Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your routine for one day. It�s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment. With over six billion people on the planet, it is the responsibility of the most affluent � the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world�s resources � to set out on a new path.�

I asked Adbusters campaign manager, Paul Cooper, if choosing a specific ecological cause contaminated the purity of the original message: �I think buy nothing day supporters have always had in mind two components: a psychological one and an ecological one. The psychological component came be summed up by pointing out that economic growth, participation in the rat race, etc, has not caused people to feel generally happier. More consumption, less satisfaction. The ecological component points to the straightforward fact that consumption is the driving force behind industrial pollution and climate change. Some consumption is unavoidable--of course--but there's a lot of cheap plastic junk from overseas sweatshops moving through the malls that harms the environment, benefits no one, and is ultimately just a symptom of a culture-wide mental illness. You can help the shopaholics and help the planet at the same time, and there's no contradiction there�.

Inevitably, much discussion in Ireland on the merits or otherwise of buy nothing day is conducted on line. Voices claiming to be farmers market stallholders who only operate on a Saturday have occasionally criticised the day. For some, Saturday is their only day of trade, and they are, they would suggest, exactly the type of thing that buy nothing day is supposed to be about: buying stuff that is socially embedded and often better for the environment. What happens if you are one of the good guys, but you only trade on a Saturday?

What happens, activists claim, is that they send people who chat to them on the day towards the farmers� market anyway: In other words, if you are going to buy you may as well buy there, and then start replacing the supermarket with the farmers� market, on your way towards possibly even growing your own vegetables too.

The day can also be accused of being an exemplar of pointless tokenism in the face of massive obstacles, if you believe change should be primarily political and overt. But with oil prices going through the roof; climate change; land competition between grains, animals, biofuels and urban development; 12% of the Irish population having used STADs (sedatives, tranquilizers or anti-depressants) and the rapid rise in various strands of ethical consumerism, buy nothing day could also be seen as yet another reminder that, as never before, humanity is shaping what surrounds it, for better or worse.

For more free reading, go to:

http://olivermoore.blogspot.com

http://adbusters.org/bnd

http://www.indymedia.org and type in �buy nothing day�

http://youtube.com and type in �buy nothing day�

And finally, a few facts on consumption:

• The global organic market is worth an estimated �30 billion, rising at a rate of up to �5 billion each year. (IFOAM report 2007)
• The average UK citizen causes the emission of 750 tonnes of Co2 in their lifetime.
• The average avatar, or virtual alter-ego on the on-line world Second Life , uses up considerably more energy that the average real person in Brazil (1752kWh vs. 1015kWh) (The ObserverMagazine, May 20^th 2007 p. 75)

Organic foods: foods that fight for you

IF I asked you what fighting food was all about, you wouldn�t necessarily think of organic food. I haven�t mixed up my words, I�m not talking about food fights, or fighting about food. So what is fighting food?

Organic food has a fairly soft and cuddly image. Well, it turns out that food produced organically is actually fighting food, if the explanations suggested by some recent researchers are taken on board.

It turns out that there are two ways in which organic food can be seen to be fighting food.

But first, let me tell you about the research. A June 2007 publication in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (which is ranked #1 in total citations, impact factor and articles published in the agriculture multidisciplinary category) measured the amount of two flavonoids � quercetin and kaempferol � in dried tomato samples that had been collected as part of a long-term study on agricultural methods.

Foods containing flavonoids can be called fighting foods because research studies have consistently suggested an association between consuming them and reduced risk of cancer and heart disease. That's the first fighting food meaning.

Dr Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist at the University of California, and colleagues, found that on average they were 79% and 97% higher respectively in organic tomatoes than in the conventionally grown fruit.

Flavinoid levels for the organic tomatoes also grew during the course of the ten year study, but stayed the same for the conventional tomatoes.

More recently again, preliminary results from a large University of Newcastle study found that organic fruit and vegetables contained up to 40% more antioxidants (another substance which may play a role in the better cardiovascular health of those who consume more fruit and vegetables).

Organic milk produced in the summer contained up to 60 to 80% more antioxidants than conventionally produced milk; in the winter, it contained 50 to 60% higher levels. Along with this, organic milk also was found to contain higher levels of vitamin E.

In what has been hailed as one of the most comprehensive studies into organic production ever conducted, researchers on the Quality Low Input Food (QLIF) project grew fruit and vegetables and reared cattle on a 725-acre site at Nafferton Farm, Northumberland. They grew organic and conventional test crops side by side � including cabbages, lettuces, carrots, potatoes and wheat � and compared factors such as nutritional quality.

What makes this research especially fascinating is a theory being postulated to possibly explain why organic food is showing up so often with some very specific nutritional benefits.

The theory is that plants grown to certified organic standards have to fight harder to fend off threats, from nutritionally deficiencies to pests. To do this, they produce more of these very things scientists are finding in them, the antioxidants which are believed to help us fight cancers and cardiovascular diseases.

In the study on organic tomatoes and flavonoids, the researchers suggested, �Flavonoids are produced as a defense mechanism that can be triggered by nutrient deficiency, such as a lack of nitrogen in the soil.�

This is the second fighting food definition - plants fighting to exist. This point about plants fighting hard and difficult growing conditions to produce flavonoids reminded me of a book written recently by an expert in cardiovascular health and Professor of Experimental Therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute, Dr Rodger Corder.

This book has a brilliantly bamboozling title, �The Wine Diet: drink red wine every day, eat fruit and berries, nuts and chocolate, live a longer, healthier life�.

The book suggests that these foods and drinks are very high in polyphenols, which are a beneficial type of flavinoids. However, the production conditions have to be specific for these foods. Only some dark chocolates with over 70% coca solids were found to have these beneficial properties.

In the case of wine, some traditional, regionally embedded idiosyncratic wines produced in places like Crete and Sardinia, wines made with grape varieties such as Tannat, scored best in his research.

The best wines also came from grapes with plenty of seeds, seeds and skins left in contact for a longer time, fermentation in wooden barrels and, importantly for the point I�m making here, difficult, hilly growing conditions where low yields were usually produced. So the harder the vine fights, the more nutritious the wine. Hence the longest longevity rates in Europe for those islanders in the Mediterranean. This despite their isolation from a modern interventionist medical system and some other negative dietary and lifestyle habits � heavy consumption of saturated fats and cigarettes in particular.

So it turns out that naturally produced foods fight for us. Which makes them all the more worth fighting for.

local and organic food events

Things to do this November, starting tomorrow!

A conference themed around local food. This event, organised by the Department of Agriculture and Bord Bia, begins at the very specific time of 5.30pm, and is being held in the Mullingar Park Hotel, Dublin Rd, Mullingar on Tuesday November 13^th (go here to register).

Speakers: That man Trevor Sargent will be there again, this time opening the event and also launching a guide to box schemes, farmers� markets and farm shops. Bord Bia will do a presentation on local food, as will Tim Schlitzer of the FoodRoutes network in the US. FoodRoutes is a nonprofit organization that aids the development of local food distributional systems. It provides a range of resources, including communication tools, technical support, networking and information.

Both the local producer and the multiple retailers� perspectives will also feature. Mary Kelly of Moonshine organic dairy farm will speak about her business, which is apt as her family business is based just outside Mullingar. The Kelly�s turned a struggling conventional diary farm in Westmeath into a thriving organic food business, which now employs each of their six siblings. They produce organic diary products from their herd, which comprises of Ayrshire, Fresian and crosses of these. Their products include award winning soft cheeses, yoghurts and smoothies. Watch out for the distinctive churn style glass bottles their yoghurts and smoothies come in. I wrote about theme a while back. I'll post what I wrote here soon.

Sharon Buckley of Musgraves, Centra and SuperValu will outline local food from a multiple retailer�s perspective. There will be a choice of panel discussions featuring the above listed participants and other experts.

IOFGA�s AGM is also on soon. This is taking place on the November the 18th at Mellows College, Athenry, Co Galway. (for more, phone IOFGA on 043-42495 or email grace.maher@iofga.org). First things first, check out their new site!

Because they were established in 1982, all of 25 years ago, the IOFGA theme is �looking forward to the next 25�

The morning seminar is open to the public. IOFGA have gathered together a range of speakers from across the food system. These include Minister of State Trevor Sargent, under whose remit organic farming and food comes. The minister has been a solid supporter of organic farming, so it will be worth seeing what he reveals about future government plans for the sector, now that he actually has the power to affect change.

Dr. Charles Merfield of Teagasc will discuss soil fertility in the organic system. Charles is developing quite a name for himself as a conference speaker, as he combines those two key traits � genuine enthusiasm and comprehensive knowledge. If you get him going on the high tech machinery end of things there will be no stopping him.

Peter Melchett, director of the Soil Assocation will discuss GM and also
give the UK perspective on organic farming. With the UK being such an important market for Irish organic produce, and with the GM threat to organics ever present, this too should prove interesting.

Michael Hickey will also take to the podium. Michael, an organic beef farmer from Tipperary, was one of the first native born Irish members of IOFGA, joining the fledgling organisation in the mid 1980s. Michael is both impassioned in his support for organics and holistic in his thinking about how food and society should be. All things considered, another perspective well worth hearing.

Their last morning speaker will be the food writer John McKenna, who will speak about the role of organic food in the future in Ireland. John is well known for both the well written and informative Bridgestone guides, and his uncompromising comments on what he sees as the problems with food and hospitality in Ireland.

All in all, this is a well rounded set of speakers who will surely offer up that most apt of culinary clich�s; food for thought.

awards for irish organic companies

Two organic companies have recently won awards at major food events in Ireland. A smallish one and a bigger one. St. Tola's organic goat's cheese wins awards as regularly as buses come along. Along with winning a bronze at the British cheese awards this year, they also won best organic chilled/frozen product at the SHOP awards, a Bord Bia initiative. Considering that they produce a raw goat's cheese, and were up against industry stalwarts, this represents good going for the wee company from the west.

Interesting factoid: raw organic goats cheese is often cheaper than cheese strings! (cheese strings are actually about �25 a kilo!)

Meanwhile Glenisk have just won an award called "making a difference"; the strange name come from Bord Bia's research into what consumers are after, apparantely. I'll post a Glenisk article here soon.

I've written about St. Tola's before, for both Organic Matters and the Irish Examiner (fun game - find them amongst the clutter of labels on your left!). Below is an article I wrote in early 2006 for the Examiner on St. Tola's.

In a world where quality and taste are ever more important, farmhouse cheeses have a great image. They successfully create an impression of being small-scale, clean and green, made by committed gastroactivists who fight for local, authentic, environmentally-friendly produce.

In many cases this is indeed true. To take just one example; the makers of Gabriel and Desmond cheese, Sean Ferry and Bill Hogan of Scull, west Cork, have fought long and hard for the right to make raw milk cheese, in the face of stiff departmental opposition.

And many farmhouse cheeses have both a terroir, a location, and a persona, an individual maker. This is, in European terms, quite unusual.

Some of the bigger names in the game, however, now buy in milk. But with clever branding and, compared to certified organic, a looseness in technical requirements, the rustic image remains.

It may surprise readers to learn that there are only four fully certified organic farmhouse cheese producers in Ireland: Kate Carmony�s Beale, Ralph Haslan�s Mossfield, Harry Van der Zaden�s Derreenaclaurig and Siobhan Garvey�s St.Tolas.

Originally made by Meg and Derek Gordon 20 years ago, St.Tola�s derives its name from the French tradition of naming a cheese after a local saint.

The farm was in conversion to organic when Siobhan Garvey took it over in 2000. They achieved their full certification in 2001.

Along with Siobhan, there are a total of six staff, comprising fulltime, part time and seasonal.

Based in Inagh country Clare, the St.Tola's crew makes a range of certified organic goat milk cheeses. I spoke to Grainne Casey, who deals with marketing and sales, when I took a group of school kids out for a look last week.

�We farm 24 hectares, and have 220 goats here.160 are milkers and rest kids and pucks� according to Grainne. �The breeds we use are Saanen for volume of milk, and Toggenburg and British Alpine for the higher fat content�

I asked her how the year pans out regarding milking: �There is some staggering of the milking: most are milking from March to September or October, but some are also milking from October through to March. We get between 2-3 litres of milk per goat per day, and they are milked twice a day, 300 days a year per goat for milk�

It follows from this that the milkers kid in March, with a lesser number kidding in September and October for winter milk.

They sell their cheeses through wholesalers, who in turn sell it on to restaurants, delis and wholefood stores. They also sell direct to some delis and wholefood stores locally, while they also wholesale their produce to the UK, Europe and the US.

St.Tola is perhaps best known for their award-winning soft cheese log. This smooth and creamy cheese has a range of undertones: personally I taste a slight but distinctive citrus presence.

Kids (the human kind!) love it. What makes this all the better is that many parents use goat milk and cheese as a substitute for dairy produce, because they are worried about allergies.

Soft goat cheese is also great for baking. Many good eateries have baked St.Tola soft cheese as a starter on the menu. They also supply a Crottin, which is a smaller portion of the same cheese.

Along with these, they also have a Feta and a more seasonal Hard cheese; the latter sadly won�t be available for a few months.

Siobhan tells me how, even over the relatively short time she has been in operation, Irish consumer tastes have changed:

�When I started out doing tastings, I would offer people the milder cheese, the St.Tola log, and even then I�d only say it was a goat cheese afterwards. I�d just tell them it was a fresh, organic farmhouse cheese. People told me that they loved it, but if they�d known it was a goat cheese, they wouldn�t have tried it! But with travel and other things, people are now going for the more mature flavours�

For St.Tolas own site, click here (E) info@st-tola.ie (T) 065 6836633 (F) 065 6836757

the socio-environmental weight of air freight

Plenty of organic news out there at the moment, including yet more research to suggest that organic food is better for you than other food....discussion on this research to follow soon....
However, I came accross an interesting perspective on the Soil Association's decision to move towards fair trade for their certified organic air freight produce. (there's more going on there too, in relation to heated glasshouses and the overall caron footprint of the produce
Has the organic sector been hyjacked by greens? Is this one of the ugly faces of protectionism, as the FT suggests? Or is it a socio-ecological synergy, a win-win situation to help consumers whilst improving the planet?