In a search to find something to watch on the TV we stumbled across an old programme about cooking. It was Floyd In France, where Keith Floyd cooked his way around various regions of France. Although first broadcast over 30 years ago there is one theme running through it that is very relevant today.
Keith Floyd was a restaurateur and television personality who hosted televison cooking shows and wrote many books that combined cooking and travel. His flambouyant presentation style opened up cooking to many millions. Aided by a glass of wine and catch phrases such as “camera on the food Clive not me!” he is still remembered by many people to this day. His breakthrough series was Floyd on France which brought him into mainstream televison. In the series he cooked regional dishes in family kitchens, restaurants and on boats! He made cooking fun. A major theme that came through the programme, and all of the others that the he presented over a 25 year period, was producing delicious meals using local produce bought at local markets and produced by local farmers. Spin the clock forward to today where the world is in the grip of a Climate Crisis then the word ‘local’ means very low carbon miles.
In the western world supermarkets have developed convenience to a fine art. Food from all corners of the country, and the world, are brought to local shelves. But behind this convenience is many hundreds if not thousands of carbon miles. Take a staple of most diets in the UK, the potato. The British Potato Council estimates that the UK imports about 350,000 tonnes of potatoes a year. These are mostly the “baby” or “salad” potatoes varieties and are imported from the Middle East. Potatoes from Israel will have travelled over 2000 miles before they land in a supermarket warehouse where they could stay for over six months with a corresponding loss of nutrients. Trying to buy local potatoes fresh from the field is nearly impossible. I’m sure that Keith Floyd would be turning in his grave when he saw where we are getting our food from.
The current crop of celebrity chiefs owe a large debt to Keith Floyd for putting cooking firmly on TV which has opened up their careers. However, when they appear on the screen waving around locally grown produce it is usually heading towards an expensive restaurant and not to our tables. When they demonstrate a recipe they throw in some ingredients that can only be bought from an expensive supermarket, usually only in London, where they have some sort of connection ( watch the ‘sponsored by’ at the beginning of most programmes ). The situation is not much better in the hot bed of revolution the ‘socials’. The top Tik-Tokers such as newt, cookingwithshereen or eitan are more about the process of following the recipe and furthering their careers rather than singing the praises of locally produced food.
Ah! I hear you saying that locally produced food is too expensive. It is expensive relative to the food bought at a supermarket but their prices don’t take into account the impact it has on the environment due to its carbon miles. If there was a tax on carbon miles that would be used so that it would pay for say larger reserervoirs to irrigate crops through dry periods or improve medical support for those at risk during a heat wave, then the prices would start to look equivelant.
There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon with initiatives such as Growing Communities inititaive which bring together farmers and growers to supply food to their community. Their group is based on Key Principles that include: trading for social purpose, not to maximise profit, promote ways of eating and cooking that are good for people and planet. They distribute food in a low-impact and low-carbon way. This is something I feel Keith Floyd would have been proud to support.
Supermarkets will always be with us. However, just like Oil and Gas companies, they are part of the solution. Although some have a few token shelves of local produce it needs to be part of their main offering. As for celebrity chefs whether on TV or socials, how about re-invoking the pioneering spirit of Keith Floyd and work with local producers to make nutritious food that we can all afford?