Last night my bookgroup discussed Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I chose the book, so I had to lead the discussion. This book follows the experiences of Barbara and her family as they attempt to eat only what they can grow on their property or source locally for 12 months. It also extends its discussion to the state of food production in the US generally and tangentally to experiments such as the 100-mile diet.
Being the ever dedicated bookgroup host I spent many hours (ha) researching the topic. This consisted of:
- Querying Fairlie on her buy Australian food campaign
- Reading the book
- Sifting a dodgy research fact or two off the Internet (there's a rumour that the contents of the average Aussie shopping trolley have travelled over 70,000 km to get there)
and then I tallied up how many of the ingredients from last night's Spag Bol were from Australia.
Oops. I didn't do well:
Tinned tomatoes - Aussie
Tomato paste - Aussie
Mince - Aussie
Onion, carrot, zucchini - Aussie
Garlic - Mexico
Oxo beef cube - England
Barilla Pasta - Italy
Dried Herbs - Local and imported
Parmesan - Italy
The salad wasn't crash hot either:
Salad Greens, tomatoes - Aussie
Balsamic Vinegar - Italy
Mustard - France
Olive Oil - Australia
And the thing is - I could easily find an Australian alternative for each of these things. Except the Parmesan. I am fussy about Parmesan, it only comes from Italy. And it can travel here by Hummer for all I care.
So (and here's the point of my story), I go down to my favourite reputable vegetable retailer and look for the Australian options and I could only find garlic from China or Mexico. No offence to the Mexicans and Chinese - I'm sure your garlic is excellent - but surely we can grow garlic here?
I eventually found Aussie garlic but I used up an extra tank of fuel to find it. Would it have been better to buy the Mexican one?
5 comments:
I reckon the fact that you asked your greengrocer about it is a step in the right direction. We have one who will either warn you or apologise if you are about to pick up the imported stuff.
And hey. You can only do your best.
some foods, like cheese and wine, kind of belong to a region of the world.
as to garlic, I have no idea...
You *can* get Aussie garlic. But it's expensive. (We get it at the F&V - I have been told Woolworths sometimes stock it)
The ironic thing - I just checked and the garlic I bought the other day here in Mexico is imported from the US!
Your parmesan is my coffee. No offence to the Aussie coffee growers, but my coffee beans are coming from Brazil and Costa Rica via Italy regardless of how they get here. Perhaps they can hitch a ride in your parmesan's Hummer?
You make a very valid point about the garlic though. You have to be vigilant to stop that foreign produce slipping through. And you did well to have Aussie tinned tomatoes - most brands on the supermarket shelves are not.
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