Well, another year has come around and as I age I wonder if, like a mature cheddar, my flavour appeals to fewer and fewer people. However, just as an old cheese or wine is not for the apprentice of the culinary arts, I like to think that readers of this column enjoy the nuances of ideas in the same way as does the cultivated palate of one who tastes those subtleties of flavour which are bypassed by folk for whom food is only a fuel for the body and not for the soul.
Talking of food reminds me that some years ago I was a Director of a Company called Gloucestershire Food Links which was one of many set up around the country to encourage local suppliers and retailers to work with each other in providing local food for local people and thus reducing ‘food miles.’ As a part of my role I visited a public meeting in Staunton attended by about forty small producers and retailers. We listened to a Power Point presentation by a chappie from South Gloucestershire who was well known as an activist in these matters and who was being paid by the County to hold seminars. He had a lot of contacts at Shire Hall and was also aware that further money was available for feasibility studies. We sat interestingly absorbed by the presentation and the exciting possibilities open to participants, but I never quite got the logical connection between the presentation and the request for all present to raise their hands if they were in favour of a ‘Cutting Plant.’ To my total astonishment nearly everyone raised their hands. “Right,” he said, “I’ll write that on my flip chart and take your decision back to the folks in Shire Hall.”
At that point my brain kicked into action and I said. “Excuse me, but as there are a number of local butchers present, can we ask them if is there is evidence that they do not have the capacity to meet local demand, and do we know what excess capacity is available within the local abattoirs and supermarkets such as Morrison’s.” Unsurprisingly, the motion was hurriedly withdrawn, and so a few local butchers were spared having a taxpayer funded competitor in the area doing the same job as they were already doing.
I tell this tale to remind readers that it is not always wise to give the green light to a proposal put forward by someone who has an interest in the result of a vote. I also apply this principle at the AGMs of the companies in which I hold shares and the votes comes round to increases in Directors salaries and share options. I also always vote against the reappointment of the auditors because it seems to me that both parties have strong temptations to present the figures in their own interest rather than that of the shareholders.
But back to the notion of Food Miles. It is obvious to everyone that, other things being equal, the shorter the distance between the grower and the consumer the fresher the food and the less fuel and other transport and storage costs are incurred. That being the case I simply cannot see how governments can subsidise the manufacture of airliners and their fuel to bring in garden produce from overseas and ignore the plight of the small growers of the UK. I know why politicians allow it of course, but, is it right? To their credit France and Holland unashamedly subsidise horticulture and agriculture and the rural way of life. Unlike our politician who pay lip service to food miles but give 90% of the agricultural subsidies to the top 8% of land owners whose ranks include major charities, pop stars and foreign companies. Again, I know why they do it. But is it right?
In my youth there was a saying doing the rounds it was “What would Jesus do,” I have never forgotten that and I wonder if 2019 could be the year when we look at the contrast between what is said and what is done? And ask, ‘Is it right?’
Of course, it is easy to for us to see such discrepancies at the public level and just as easy to see them in other people, and so 2019 might also be a time to think about the words of the prayer book where, in the general confession, we ask for forgiveness about those things we have done we ought not to have done, and for those things we have not done that we ought to have done.
Now, just in case any reader may think, “It’s all right for him to talk,” You are right, I am as much a hypocrite as are many of the other folk who regularly attend church. I cannot say anything in my defence except that, “That hypocrites like me go to church because it is the place where we eventually find the confidence to be honest about our own faults and failings so admit the truth about ourselves. For a man who gave up the pulpit many years ago because I thought I did not have faith, I now find it strange that in being honest with myself, I have found the basis of the same hope which was so important to St Paul. He however found it a lot earlier in life than did I.
It is with hope in mind that recently my wife and I visited a huge multi-zillion pound hospital in north Nottinghamshire, but which as a child, I knew as an Italian Prisoner of War camp. It was easy to get lost in this new behemoth and so after our visit we carefully followed the signs back to the car park. Finally, on the ground floor we came to a T junction and turned right at the sign that read, “Way out to the Entrance.” We paused to take in this message before I enquired of my wife if, on arrival, we had seen a similarly phrased sign which read.
….. “Way in to the Exit”.
View from the Pew 