Gordon Ramsay Suggests Seasonal Foods be Enforced By Law
Chef Gordon Ramsay is pushing for a law that would require restaurants to serve only in-season fruits and veggies, or be subject to fines. In an interview broadcast with BBC's Radio 5 Live today, he said he wants chefs to use home-grown produce only, not Kenyan strawberries in March for example. While demanding better ingredients may be a positive concept, how could you police this? What about products that just aren't available naturally in the UK, like chocolate or pistachios?
On the Guardian's food blog "Word of Mouth" readers fired back, "what a chump," and pointed out that Ramsay's restaurants don't even serve local, seasonal food all the time. As if landing in Heathrow wasn't already expensive, Ramsay wants to fine you for eating a tomato in January. Shoot, is it really a crime to eat spaghetti outside of August?
We'll see if Gordon can get the other Gordon to make sense of his rant.
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6 Comments:
From an economic standpoint, I don't think this makes a whole lot of sense. If there's a market for these items and somebody's getting paid to grow them ...isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't farmers in Africa have the right to sell their produce year round if they can grow it?
Sarajahii at 2:09PM on 05/09/08
A thought I had is "which season?". Supposedly N.Z. lamb is "more earth friendly" than other lamb that isn't raised on pastures that do well with rainfall rather than irrigation. Also, it's been reported that fruits in season from the other hemisphere have a lower carbon footprint than local fruit that's been in cold storage for months. So if your locale isn't especially fertile by some hard rules you shouldn't be raising your own food at all. ( Or at least some foods )
For all the beating it takes, some long distance shipping is pretty efficient, at least efficient enough to make food that's been shipped 1000's of miles cost competitive with food raised closer to home.
So what if it turns out that in an area with cheaper land that doesn't require irrigation and needs less fertilizer can produce a product that even when you factor in shipping to the other hemisphere happens to beat out the local factory farm produce? Would that mean that tomatoes are now in season from October to March? Should a location with a 3-month season be "allowed" to grow something when another location has a 6-month season and uses less fossil fuel? ( Even factoring in shipping?)
No telling if Gordon is serious. Heck, just saying it and getting people to discuss the topic is worthwhile though.
IdeaRat at 6:14PM on 05/09/08
Great, another blow of 3rd world farmers.
I feel a lot more sorry for those Kenyan strawberry farmers than some spoiled British foodies.
peekpoke at 6:45PM on 05/09/08
***Fight for what you believe in***
I always say.
paris221966 at 11:13PM on 05/09/08
Everyone should just decide what they want to eat and leave everyone else to do the same.
bobbob at 1:54PM on 05/13/08
"Everyone should just decide what they want to eat and leave everyone else to do the same."
Ummm, that would lead to a massive collapse of the earth's ability to sustain life and the starvation death of billions of people over the next century or so. I vote for the forced normalization of our consumption habits that prices in the true cost of petroleum. Gordon's approach might be ham handed but it's way better than doing nothing.
Everyone is going to have to get used to fact that the human race is going to need to make some RADICAL changes in how we eat, work, live and travel. This means you.
"What about products that just aren't available naturally in the UK, like chocolate or pistachios?"
Its statements like this that expose the fundamental lack of understanding of what we're up against.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind... - John Donne
steveray at 6:34PM on 05/13/08