Perhaps I am hypersensitive but once again I am seething as my inbox continues to be flooded with invitations to events promoting food philosophies based on labels
This time I am being invited to an event celebrating “International Year of the family farming”. where I will sample food that is
“Good, Clean and Fair”
and apparently your food is only good, clean or fair if it fits under one of these labels
‘local, organic, indigenous or artisanal’
As an aside quite amusingly in this case the invitation had both indigenous & artisanal spelt incorrectly.
I am really starting to get concerned that seemingly very intelligent people cant see that being labelled ‘local, organic, indigenous or artisanal’ doesn’t mean your farming practices are good for people or animals or the planet.
Just what to we have to do before common sense kicks back in
I take this opportunity to repeat what I said in a previous post here
Our farming systems can not be locked into a religious type paradigm of what we think is best .We must continue to adapt to our changing resource base, the seasons and climate, the economy and our markets. We also know that nature does not always get it right and some times we need to use technology to tip the balance back in favour of the farming system and the ever increasing people we need to feed.
We have rigid and well regulated systems and safety checks in place that make our food some of the safest in the world, irrespective of whether it has been derived by conventional or non-conventional methods. The majority of Australian farmers big and small, boutique or commodity will always aim to produce the best quality and safest food that is grown with the best interest of the environment and animals that it comes from. Its time to stop trying to fit them into idealistic boxes and salute everyone of them.
