Last week I made an interesting discovery, organic is not organic unless certified.

We are currently checking the details of the 5,000 producers on the BigBarn map including most of Rick Stein’s food heroes. I spoke to one such hero, Marian, who despite using organic methods for the last 20 years to grow 50 different varieties of tomatoes has been told that she is not allowed to label them organic.

Apparently under EEC regulations her produce can only have ‘Organic’ on the label if she is certified by either the Soil Association or the Organic Farmers & Growers for a cost of around 243500 per year. Not wanting to have to pass this cost on to her happy band of local customers she has declined to join. To me this case sums up the ‘wrongs’ in the food industry and raises the questions:

• Do you perceive local food, organic or otherwise, to be safer than certified organic from Zimbabwe
• Would you like to pay more for your tomatoes to be certified

I am sure you know what I think.

The Food Commission welcomes the publication today of the Food Standards Agency’s review of research into the effects of food promotion to children, undertaken by the University of Strathclyde.
This report is a call to action, said Kath Dalmeny, Policy Officer for the Food Commission. Children are already eating too much fat, sugar and salt, yet we allow them to be systematically targeted with advertising for unhealthy foods. The Food Standards Agency’s review provides the evidence of what parents have known all along – advertising encourages children to choose unhealthy foods and to pester their parents for them.

Children’s advertising shows unhealthy foods in the best possible light – associating fatty and sugary foods with popularity, happy playground relationships and sporting success, said Annie Seeley, nutritionist and coordinator of the Food Commission’s Parents Jury (1). Food companies are experts at selling junk food and soft drinks to children using advertising, packaging and free gifts, but the one thing that repeatedly gets left out is good nutrition. It’s time that food producers and advertisers used their expertise to sell healthier foods to children.
Meanwhile, a coalition of 85 national organisations are calling for legislation to protect children from the promotion of foods that contribute to a unhealthy diet. The coalition is being co-ordinated by Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. The Food Commission is a co-signatory to the campaign.
See www.sustainweb.org/labell_index.asp for more information.

The cover of the new Radio Times has alerted me to the fact that next week sees the second series of Rick Stein’s ‘Local Food Heroes’. Great. If it’s as interesting as the last one we can hope to see the local food message given greater prominence and hopefully a few more people will be tempted to bypass their supermarket and check out something a little bit different for their tea.
Rick’s style is enthusiastic and I love it when he loses his rag, but he can only hope to scratch the surface of the army of heroes out there – the footsoldiers of the local food revolution that are the very essence of what BigBarn’s all about.
Let’s make sure that they don’t become forgotten heroes. Let’s use the publicity Rick gives to good food to shout about the guys and girls on the ground. Every time someone at work or down the pub mentions Rick’s programme let’s tell them about BigBarn and how they too can become enthusiasts for the local food message.

The chutney was a great success although it took a lot longer to make with all the chopping and reducing. We did end up with 29 pints though and may put a special jar forward as a prize in one of our competitions.

The ingredients so far are: apples, onions, tomatoes, plums, sultanas, dried apricots, vinegar, sugar, chilli, ground coriander, salt & pepper. Sounds good but I am keen on a bit of variety and will be re-cooking 6 pints adding fresh coriander from my vege patch due to ripen in a week or so. If you have any suggestions for additions for another batch please let me know.

A friend gave me 3 chickens over the weekend so I built a small lean-to hutch beside my garden shed. Unfortunately they are Bantams and very young and my next-door neighbour has three cats. How long will I have chickens?