"In Season"

It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
- E.Y. Harburg, lyricist for
Harold Arlen



When was the last time you heard that phrase to describe, not fish or game, but regular food? Today if you want a food item, and I mean nothing special like the rarest caviar, but say tomatoes or blueberries, and you live in an urban enough environment, you can get it. That is because we no longer, on the whole, eat the plants and animals that are raised near us. Instead there is a huge global distribution system where most food now gets to market via truck, rail or even air and travels hundreds or thousands of KM to get to our tables.

This means yet another factor is adding to global warning - fossil fuels used to transport food to markets all over the place.

We don't say, as our grandmothers did, that blueberries are "in season", we say "put blueberries on the shopping list" and then we go get them.

Yes, you can investigate options for free range chickens and organic plumbs, but be prepared to quadruple your grocery budget if you do that for all of your food.

Many foods are shipped pre-ripe and actually ripen during shipping, or are "ripened" with a chemical agent nearer the end market. Compare the taste of a tomatoe grown in your own garden with one that came from 2,000 KM away!

Maybe we should explore "in season" again, but of course we can still import the odd treat here and there - they don't make Brie in Ontario like they do in France .

My source for this and for the corn article: Several science radio podcasts. Maybe in the old days if you wanted to know about food you would ask your grandmother (in my case my grandfather was a chef, and no NOT the French one).

TF