We must question our rushed eating habits
Partly for that reason, convenience stores have become the new buzz, catering for our basic needs from prepared meals to food on the go.
It is significant that much of the convenience concept has evolved around how we eat and nurture ourselves.
Up to about a decade ago, red meat was the enemy and the national preoccupation was what was best for us to eat. Now it looks as if the major concern is how can we get food into us in the shortest possible time in order to get on with living.
The pace of life has picked up and many people now have less leisure time, but does it have to mean the end of cooking as we knew it, or enjoying pleasurable eating occasions in the company of family and friends? It seems the convenience thing has gone from being a help to those leading very busy lives to defining how we actually feed ourselves.
This reality is emerging at a time when the preoccupation about healthy living has never been higher.
The convenience food syndrome on the one hand and the striving for healthier living on the other are in some ways a contradiction.
This cash-rich/time-poor phrase is forcing people to abandon home cooking. It is getting to the point that family meals or spending a day in the kitchen cooking are becoming part of what we were rather than what we are. This is not a demand to have women fettered to the kitchen sink. This is about who we are and how we eat.
We must start to question this alleged form of convenience. Rushed eating has to be challenged as it will affect us all in the long run.
David Cameron, the Conservative party leader, said last week that Britain has created a “junk food” society. He could have been referring to us.
For too many food has become fast low-grade junk or else the pursuit of the elitist few who can afford fancy restaurants. Fast food joints have become a bit of a plague and, as a result, obesity is one of the big challenges facing Irish society.
However, some evidence that a change for the better is taking place is emerging. Farmer markets and cottage industries have sprung up across Ireland. Together they have taken a stand for quality, producing quality cheeses and other foods, including organically produced meats and vegetables.
To revert back to David Cameron for a minute. He made his comments on Britain’s eating habits at the launch of Slow Food UK.
This concept originated in Italy. It is dedicated to eco-gastronomy and is a reaction to the onward march of the international food giants who seem dedicated to turning the globe into a giant yard of junk food.
Slow Food is the result of one man’s quest for better food. He is Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, who 20 years ago took fright when he noticed a McDonald’s parked on the Spanish Steps in Rome.
He set up the movement and the Slow Food revolution has been established in seven EU states.
The philosophy behind the movement is to serve up delicious food of the highest quality, produced in an environmentally sympathetic way as well as being economically sustainable.
Apart from Britain and Italy, the US, France, Switzerland and Japan are also members. One of its key aims is to preserve traditional products threatened by industrialisation and the move to fast food.
Towns are being awarded for their commitment to preserving traditional ways of living, farming and shopping in an attempt to preserve some of the old ways.
It is something that should be looked at here and perhaps if Bord Bia is serious about our Food Island status it might think about investigating this evolving trend.
