Eat better to make eating better much easier

In the Book ‘Levelling Level’ I discussed the food issues relating to what we need vs what we want, and how the future is primed to require that we return to a very simple relationship with the food that we eat – because much of what we ‘live on’ today, may soon become unavailable, unaffordable or in all likelihood both.

The foods that we eat are making us ill. In some cases, they are actually killing us. And the only real reason that we have been and continue to fall over ourselves to eat foods that are fashionable and apparently taste good, is someone somewhere makes a lot of money when we buy into a narrative that’s based on nothing that is easy to see.

Regrettably, it’s no longer as simple as parents and self-sufficient adults choosing between healthy eating and eating ultra processed foods or living on takeaways.

Food that’s good for us is expensive to buy. Healthy food can be expensive to prepare. And life is conditioned to make us believe that fast everything is good for us and is the very best way to live – no matter the damage it does in ways that many would find hard to believe.

The stories and marketing campaigns that make the system work this way are convincing. Because they always contain a small element of truth. No matter how irrelevant to the key subject it might be.

Bad food certainly tastes good. But how do you feel after you’ve eaten it?

Ultra processed food certainly appears to be the quicker and easier option and it seems to always be available here and now. But have you ever considered the real cost – that’s the cost beyond what we pay for food that has no identifiable resemblance to whatever it contains?

Basic, or rather essential foods, are the vegetables, meats, fish, dairy products and breads that require no processing or very simple and straightforward processing to prepare for eating that we might call traditional and would be carried out by hand or simple mechanical processes such as milling through a water powered or wind powered windmill.

Basic or Essential Foods are those that we can prepare ourselves or can access them with only one or perhaps only two steps of handling or preparation between our front door and the farm gate, orchard or quayside from where the raw ingredients were harvested or unloaded from the catch.

Good, healthy and nutritious basic foods that come from the  UK or around our shoreline only seem to be expensive now, because the whole food production system has been engineered in such a way that UPFs and foods that come via very large supply chains are considered to now be normal. However, they are only normal because they are the most cost effective ie profitable way for the big companies retailers and commercial interests that make ridiculous profits from a system that otherwise defies all logic.

If you are ready to eat healthy and embrace sourcing and preparing food that is nutritious – and delicious in its unadulterated forms, you could be helping to increase U.K. food security by making this very positive switch.

The more we buy local vegetables, dairy products, breads, pies, cakes, fish, hams, bacon, sausages, other meats and foods like these that local farmers, growers and fishers offer us, the better the offering will become and the better the prices will be for us all.

Demand will help producers to switch their business models and the operational processes within them to working in ways that are not only sustainable, but with every step will help make the U.K. food supply more and more secure.

If you have access to a farm shop, farmers market or fresh fish delivery round that connects with one of the UKs amazing fishing ports, please use them – even if only as a special treat. Tell everyone you can where they are and what they do.

You’ll be helping our producers to change their businesses in a very positive way.

But above all, you’ll be helping U.K. farmers, producers and growers to help you!