What's the Hungry Gap?

What’s the Hungry Gap?

You may associate Spring with growth, abundance, and fields bursting to life, but the reality is that when it comes to growing food in Spring, it’s quite the opposite. While supermarkets have given us a false sense of Spring seasonality, what actually grows in the UK during March till June makes for slim pickings - with April being the leanest month of the year. This period is called the Hungry Gap - a gap in the season where farmers have harvested their winter crops and used up the onions, potatoes, and roots they’ve stored over winter and are waiting on the spring/summer crops to be ready in May and June. Thus, we’re left with a gap in our season.  

How can I support British farmers during this time? 

If you mainly shop in supermarkets or don’t eat seasonally then it’s pretty easy to ignore the Hungry Gap - we have an abundance of produce flown in from all over the world that enables us to eat whatever we want, whenever we want it. However, there are ways to eat imported food more mindfully and still support UK producers during the Hungry Gap, and all year round.

Many UK farmers who run veg box schemes or farm shops import food from other countries, especially during this time in the season. The difference between supporting them vs. buying imported produce from the supermarket is that organic, small-scale farms will partner with other organic growers in Europe to source imported produce that maintains the standards they set for themselves. In a larger supply chain (i.e. through a supermarket) it is a lot harder to know exactly where your food is coming from and to know that the farmers who grew it are treated right and paid fairly. Farmers will also import foods that are actually in season in those other countries (i.e. Spanish blood oranges) - ensuring that you are eating foods that are naturally at their best and supporting small, local growers in those countries. 

Buying your food from local UK farms through a farm shop, farmers’ market or veg box scheme also enables you to understand more about the UK growing season. While you may be getting a bit more imported produce in your box during the Hungry Gap, you will still be supporting a local business that will offer you honest, transparent food throughout the entire year. This is especially wonderful when the abundance of summer vegetables hits and you can try lots of new things you wouldn’t find in the supermarket. 

What UK veg can I enjoy during the Hungry Gap?

While the Hungry Gap means less variety, there’s still some delicious UK-grown produce to enjoy. From January to April look out for Purple Sprouting Broccoli, it’s delicious in a stir-fry or curry. Wild Garlic comes out in abundance around the end of February till April and can be easily foraged - look out for it in nearby woodlands (but make sure not to mistake it for Lily of the Valley - more on that here). Rhubarb, Spring Greens and New Potatoes (Jersey Royals and Cornish ‘earlies’ are delicious) are available from March till June/July. And, of course, the Asparagus season that starts around late April is a great way to support British growers. 

Spring greens growing at Plotgate Community Farm in Glastonbury, UK

Thoughts On Seaspiracy: Should We All Stop Eating Fish?

Seaspiracy - a documentary that was recently released on Netflix - explores many aspects of the global fishing industry including large-scale commercial fishing, plastic pollution and whether eating fish can ever really be ‘sustainable’. While the documentary has had some criticism for taking quotes out of context, it has shone a spotlight on the fishing industry and caused many to think more about their food choices. One theme that this documentary and others like it tend to have in common is that they expose the problems within our globalised food system. We have access to food from all over the world - and while this luxury of choice has some benefits - it will always come with its problems. When our food is traveling across oceans to reach us, it can be pretty difficult to know where it’s come from and how it was grown, raised, or caught. So, can we still enjoy these foods without feeling caught in a system that we don’t fully trust?

One issue raised in Seaspiracy is around food labels - can we trust them? As consumers, we use food labels to ease our conscience around whether our food reaches a certain standard that doesn’t harm the natural environment or wildlife. The distance between the food at the supermarket and those who actually produce it can be far and wide, which is why we need labels and certification bodies. While there are some certification bodies and organisations doing good work to ensure that we can eat food from further afield and still know it’s come from a ‘trustworthy’ source, these labels and certifications aren’t always watertight or a guarantee. This will always be a problem within a global food system where our food is measured in air miles and we often don’t even know where it was produced. I cannot speak to every issue raised in Seaspiracy, but this issue of globalisation in food is a big reason why we are left with a feeling of hopelessness after watching these documentaries - how can we ever change a system that’s so big and, clearly, not transparent?

Our global food system has skewed our understanding of sustainability - to quote Guy Singh-Watson, Founder of Riverford, ‘anyone offering you a continuous range of fresh, day boat-landed fish is lying’ [1]. The reality is that sourcing enough fish out of the ocean to feed the number of people on this planet that want to eat ‘sustainable’ fish will never be a sustainable endeavour that benefits our oceans. To quote Guy again, ‘we need marine reserves where all commercial fishing is banned. Disturbance of the sea bottom should be illegal. Quotas need to be redistributed to smaller, local boats. The plundering of fish stock in the developing world by large foreign boats must stop, and fossil fuels must be taxed. If that is politically undoable, then yes, we should stop eating fish.’ 

However, in reality, a lot of people will never give up fish. So, is there another solution? The reason why so many people, after watching Seaspiracy, declared that they would never eat fish again is due to a lack of trust in our food system - so how can we repair it? We need to accept that certain foods will never be sustainably sourced in a global supply chain and question whether that means we should be eating them at all. We need a mental shift when it comes to our view of ‘sustainable food’ - if we cannot play an active role in, or even observe directly, where the food we’re eating came from then we will always be relying on someone else (usually with their own interests) to tell us that it’s sustainable. If you aren’t willing to investigate further how or where your food comes from then maybe you shouldn’t be eating it. The same goes for vegetables and meat - we need to support systems that are actually slow, work with nature, and are light on the planet. It means that if you choose to eat fish or meat, you eat it on occasion and from a traceable - and preferably local - source that is transparent and non-intensive.

Support small-scale farmers, fishermen, growers etc. who are producing food for their local communities, as they cut out the middlemen that stop us from fully understanding what we are eating. We don’t need a label to tell us whether something is produced in the right way if we have a direct relationship with our local producer. We all have power when it comes to the choices we are making every day with the food that we buy and consume. There are plenty of people producing food in a sustainable, honest way and if we want to change the system then we need to support them, rather than a system that we don’t trust. Food is political - as long as we choose to put our money into a system, that system will keep on growing and thriving. So, if we choose to put our money into a more transparent and (legitimately) sustainable food system then that is the system that will thrive.

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[1] https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/opinion/news-farm-fish-environment-ethics/uncomfortable-truth-about-fishing

Who Controls The Seed Market?

Wednesday 14th September 2016 was a pretty big day for me. I had spent the previous four or so months writing, researching, and editing a 10,000-word thesis on the implementation of Genetic Modification (GM) in Africa for my Master’s degree dissertation - this was the day I finally stopped researching and handed in my paper. This research (and my degree in general) was where my passion for seed sovereignty, food politics, and farming began - with genetically modified seeds.

In its simplest form, GM is the altering of the genetic make-up of an organism. In agriculture, the aim of implementing GM crops is to increase the crop’s resistance to drought and insects, while also enhancing the speed and size of the crop’s growth. You may be wondering why advancements in agricultural biotechnology are relevant to your life, stick with me and we’ll get to that.

You may have heard scare stories about GMO’s (genetically modified organisms). Such stories often revolve around Monsanto, pesticides or the belief that GMO’s cause cancer. While the negative connotations surrounding GM are important and relevant, they will not be the focal point of this piece. Instead, I am going to talk about seeds.

Another reason why Wednesday 14th September 2016 was a pretty big day for me is due to seeds. On this day Monsanto, one of the world’s largest agrochemical companies, was bought out by Bayer, a German pharmaceutical and chemical giant, in a $66 billion merger. Why is this relevant? Well, this merger led to Bayer owning Monsanto and, in turn, owning nearly 30% of the seed market worldwide. Among a host of mergers and acquisitions between major agrochemical companies in the last few years, we are heading for a future in which the ‘big three’ largest companies will have control over our entire food system. This is relevant to you because it will result in them making the decisions regarding what is in your food, how much it costs and whether it is pesticide-laden and genetically modified [1].

For the last 12,000 or so years, farmers would save seeds, clean them, and re-plant them the following year. Nowadays, mostly in countries like the U.S. where GM production is legal and widespread, the saving of seed is illegal if a farmer is using GM seed. This means that farmers have to spend far more money each year buying new seeds and can be sued if they attempt to save their seeds. Now, don’t get me wrong here, these companies have to protect themselves, understandably, and have a right to put laws in place regarding their product. Yet, my issue here is more to do with the fact that nature has become a commodity in and of itself, that a handful of companies have the right to own and patent seeds.

As the future of our food system is continuously questioned regarding new technologies there needs to be a push for further debate regarding the actions of large corporations. If we do not question these actions we are allowing our future to be placed in the hands of the few rather than the many. The realities of the control maintained by these groups are often unseen and unheard, and thus unquestioned. Maybe it is time we start questioning it.

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[1] Although these companies do not control the laws of countries worldwide, their influence is growing. For example, in Europe GM is largely banned, yet Bayer are a German company with huge influence over business in Europe. If Bayer acquire Monsanto then the future may be uncertain regarding the relationship between GM products and the EU.