Fake honey is everywhere, Britain's eating behaviours will cook the government, and Jeremy Clarkson's an agro-fascist?
Here I am then, back in your inbox with a compilation of recent news and observations (depending on your perspective, some useful, some much less so) along with a quite frankly gratuitous use of parentheses.
This month: the growing public health discourse, scandals amid the aisles of supermarkets, and… an affordable lunch in Bristol?
On with it.
In June I was part of a panel discussion on food and health with Tasha Stevens-Vallecillo from 42 Acres, Dr. Helen Kingston from Frome Medical Practice, and dietician Lesley Harper from Somerset NHS Integrated Care Board. I’d not met Lesley before and I was particularly intrigued by her current project (pending official support from the NHS) that seems would help steer people off UPF diets and therefore out of NHS waiting rooms. Anyway, you can hear the conversation in full here.
That discussion happened to be good timing, as public health has been a big talking point of late. In recent weeks, I’ve heard a political economist say our current eating behaviours, encouraged by current market neoliberalism, will likely bankrupt the government; I’ve read a consumer journalist’s attempt to grapple with why the public is getting progressively fatter in the last 40 years, while eating fewer and fewer calories in that time (the idea that calories are too simple or neutral a barometer is glaringly not considered); and I’ve seen the incumbent health minister declare that, “If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by around 200 calories a day, obesity would be halved”, while praising “our brilliant supermarkets” (thus helping absolve proponents of processed food while increasing blame on the individual). Nice checkmate, Wes!
Wraxall Vineyard has now upped its food game, with the help of new head chef Charlie James. Charlie previously shook the pans at River Cottage Canteen and Jamaica Street Stores in Bristol, but is now responsible for a menu of things like braised salt marsh lamb, Wye Valley asparagus with truffle and potato mousse, and other items that will no doubt complement Wraxall’s wine. I’ve visited the vineyard a grand total of once, though this total is not necessarily by choice – these new additions contribute to the list of reasons for going back.
There seemed no end to the British public’s excitement, then subsequent disappointment, at M&S’ (culturally adopted) strawberries and cream sandwich. Cue also a word from the taxman: is it actually a sandwich, or in fact a cake and thus a confection and thus subject to 20% VAT? I know, I know, it’s the Jaffa Cakes thing all over again.
The Somerset Food Trail returns this Friday. Click here for the full line-up of 30-mile feasts, farm tours, and suchlike.
In this month’s issue of Somerset Life, I covered the inspiring workings of the South West Grain Network and their most significant achievement to date – lobbying Defra for special dispensation to grow wheat that would yield a flour better for the environment, better for us, and – the biggest revelation – easy enough for almost anyone to bake with. Find the full story on page 66, or right here.