Tuesday, February 9

10 things i really hate about being green- the food edition

{insert sad face picture here}

I had salad for dinner and um, I cant even recall lunch, so I admit to feeling quite hungry. I was fantasising about some delectables to eat and started dreaming of food and realised that most of the things I was salivating about are óff the list'. Contraband, not even just plain banned. Sheesh. Sometimes it sucks, especially when you see everyone else just blithely consuming, discounting, figuring that they only eat a little bit so it really doesnt count (i do realise that I am assuming that people are not doing it as a one-off, an educated moment, an exceptional event and am myself blithely assuming that people are generally doing the norm'' when they're out there consuming) So here's my top 10 , fuck I miss them, ethicurean-ism sucks list to compliment my previous 10 things list.

1. Prawns. Garlic prawns, Thai curry prawns, BBQ prawns, marinated prawns, Indian curry prawns, King prawns...any prawns'! Major over farmed problems with prawns.

2. Lobster. Lobster thermidore, lobster with homemade lime mayonaise, American lobster ala Julia Child...any lobster!. Ditto the prawn problem.

3. French cheeses. Sloppy stinky brie, teensy weesy hand rolled ashed cheesies, Boursin. Major bourjeoise food mile issues when we have plentygood local cheese, just not quite...

4. Çanned tomatoes. Any idea how hard it is to find a can of tomatoes that is made from local ingredients. Have a LOOK next time.

5. San Pellegrino- expensive and rather bad for you carbonated sugared drink all the way from Italy- i love the blood orange fizzy stuff. Sigh

6. Salmon... Its densely farmed...full of shit...loads of antibiotics, really, you wouldn't/shouldn't want to touch it with a bargepole... but god its good.

7. Lindt chocolate balls. No fair trade.

8. Coopers Pale Ale. GM yeast! Did ya know that??

9. Tuna. Sashimi, sushi, pasta, with salad, so easy. You KNOW its over farmed right?

10. Tommy Ruffs- bottom of the fish food chain and acceptable re. sustainability but so BLOODY expensive!

There ya have it. The food whinge at Chez Pan. You?

11 comments:

Kale for Sale said...

I love how you did this list. Okay. For me. Salmon is absolutely on the list. In fact it's number one, two and three. Then there's Indian food. Love the stuff but it's all made from a can around here and I've yet to attempt it in my own kitchen aside from a bowl of dal and some homemade nan. I miss cheap Chinese food and sushi too. Especially double orders of smoked eel. And if I didn't picture shrimp as garbage given the way they are raised and the damage created in the producer's wake I'd miss them too. Cheap shrimp used to be so good.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a seafood aficionado, so that part isn't hard at all. But French cheese (we had some for Christmas, oh so good) and Lindt chocolate are much missed.

I'm really sorry you told me that about the Coopers. Anyway, the Bloke brews our beer from Coopers tins, which saves a whole lotta miles and we reuse the bottles rather than recycling, so I don't feel too bad about it. Damn GM.

Veggie Gnome said...

Damn! Did you have to remind me?

- Salmon. All time favourite and haven't been able to wean myself off it. Even knowing all the issues.

- Prawns. Same thing.
- Tuna. Sushi. ditto.

I'm an environmental pig!

The rest is fine. No cravings for any of them or other items I can think of.

Minni Mum said...

The only one off your list I miss a bit is prawns, but we have a very environmentally-active local prawn industry on the Hunter - these guys work in conjunction with the wetlands rehabilitation mob etc, so I don't feel guilty indulging a couple of times a year... Oh, and I can get Aussie canned toms, but not organic... Otherwise, barramundi. I LOVE barramundi :-( Plus nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamon, etc etc etc which I still buy... guiltily.

Anonymous said...

love it, love it, love it!!

Ramsey said...

Hi Kelly,
I am very disappointed by you bagging that fine SA drop, the old Coopers Pale Ale.
To make a big claim like that I expect with your training that you will have the evidence and have done the research... where is it?

I am sure that your statement about GM yeast is wrong.

There is no way that the OGTR would allow live GM yeast to be consumed as a food source. I look forward to your evidence or your apology to that fine Australian Family owned business.
Hopefully you have made a honest error and we can all wash it away with a CPA.

Kelly said...

kale- thansk - yes salmon is pretty missed herre, and the bottom feeders, well love the taste but..they're bottom feeders. Lovely huh?

icg-sorry...we have some hops flowers you're welcome too..

veggie - lol you enviro pig you!

???spam

julie- lucky you! Im pretty ok with spices - theyre lightweight and consumption is a matter of food miles (shipped) and we dont grow them here. the only concern would be enviro/labour issues where theyre grown..

nfft- :-)

ramsey- go check out the true food guide. Its all there for public viewing not me making it up! The OTGR is not all its cracked up to be! These offices are as good as theyre advisors and science. Not alot of independent GE science is going on. You cant even get a seed to do a trial without the OK from Monsanto.

Ramsey said...

Kelly, The guide doesn't say anything at all about GM yeast. It only says that they don't have a policy on excluding GM ingredients.
And as a result may contain them...
Where did you get the info on GM yeast from?
Don't just pass on gossip, show me the research that says they are using GM yeast.

Kelly said...

Ramsey- thanks for you interest in the GE supply chain issue. If only we could! I think thats the point here. Chain of supply and product ingredients are tightly held company secrets (11 secret herbs n spices 'n' all) and currently under Australian labelling laws, only foods where GE proteins can be detected need to be labelled. The labelling of GE food in Australia is extremely limited and excludes some of the most basic and universally used ingredients.
• Products derived from animals fed GE feed (such as meat, milk, eggs and honey).
• Highly refined GE ingredients (such as cooking oils, sugars, starches) — most processed foods fall into this category and contain some kind of oil or starch.
• Food prepared at bakeries, restaurants and takeaways.
• Foods that are “unintentionally” contaminated with up to 1% GE contamination per
As companies are not required by law to declare GE derived products, very few voluntarily do. Thats why the true food guide exists- to reward those companies who declare in the negative coz no law exists to demand the affirmative. The problem with GE is it currently is allowed to be hidden in our food chain. Coopers and all those other companies listed in the ‘red’ have been given the opportunity to declare themselves as GE free. Yet they do not. Why? Red labelling in the ‘true food guide’ are companies that
• have products that contain GE derived ingredients or
• have no clear policy on GE-derived ingredients or
• have ignored or refused Greenpeace requests to provide a current non-GE policy, or
• have ignored or refused Greenpeace requests to complete the 2009 Truefood Company Survey
The problem with GE as I have said is that it is difficult to conduct research independently; GE stock is very tightly controlled by the provider companies. These companies who produce GM are powerful and their links with government, ex board members and ex advisers to govt are so tight that if you were into conspiracy theories you might very well find one. They know how to operate; marginalise the anti GE groups as whackos, hippies and ‘wowsers’. It’s an effective technique. They are also not above heavily monitoring and hacking the communications of those well know people involved in the anti GE movement, land and soil associations and the like. How many published peer review papers on GE which are not funded by the big 3, nor rebuked by their authors post employment have you seen? Word on ‘the GE street’ has it that Coopers use GE yeast. Not scientific I know, but at this stage in the GE debate, what can we do? Just shut up? Unfortunately all we can do at this stage is ‘gossip’ about those companies who voluntarily choose to not declare themselves as GE free, again I ask why? and rely on those involved in the area of GE activism to keep on debating and asking questions and for consumers to stop purchasing products whose parent companies refuse to tell us what they are putting in their products or what their chain of supply looks like. I leave it up to individuals to choose to buy from the ‘red’ list, to eat farmed salmon ( I didn’t provide any evidence there either) consume tuna (no evidence listed there either) and enjoy your Coopers and the like. I mentioned Promite as non GE free last week or so - word has it, same yeast!

Ramsey said...

Hi Kelly,
Last time I looked there was yeast in the CPA, hence the cloudy colour.
The beer is sold as a live beer.
Hence your supposed GM yeast would be alive and contain detectable proteins.

Under the information you have supplied...".only foods where GE proteins can be detected need to be labelled.".... then the beer would need to be labeled. It isn't.
Maybe some of their grains may contain GM hence the listing but there is no way they would be allowed to sell a live beer containing GM yeast.

Roseypekin said...

Hi Ramsey, maybe write to Coopers and ask directly - they should provide you with an honest answer and then you can go from there. Kelly, thanks for ruining my life - don't know what I'll do about not consuming Coopers when I'm out & about. Home is fine because we have a great City Cousin who home brews for us -yum!

I must admit though, even though I know it's wrong, I just can't 100% give up on Lindt just yet, and I've adjusted our menu at our local indian take-away (vegetarian) - it's a saviour sometimes!

Hello, how are you?

Hello. It's been a while. 5 years. Where did that time go? Reflecting back, I can't remember why I stopped blogging. Perhaps l...