Our food is coming to us at great cost. Every day we hear of price rises. With rising fuel prices, transportation costs rise and are passed on to the consumer. When there is drought, grain supplies are affected and the price of our food goes up.

Less obvious are costs to our health and the environment. We tend to think of food as being nutritious. Saturated with chemicals, however, it may actually be detrimental to our health. The West Australian reports that in the last 15 years severe food allergies have doubled in Australia, with the most common allergies of children being from eggs, fish, milk, wheat, soy and peanuts (July 22, 2006).

Why are certain products increasingly linked to allergies and food intolerances? I believe it is caused by the way food is produced, processed, stored and transported. Conventional agriculture depends on artificial fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, antibiotics and hormones. Conventional processing includes hydrogenation, irradiation, pasteurisation and homogenisation, plus adding colours, flavours, preservatives, emulsifiers and stabilisers. Now even genetically modified organisms are being considered as sources for our food.

Worse still, toxins such as organophosphates and organochlorines are present in soils and can enter the food chain. Storage and transportation over vast distances and for extended periods of times also have an impact on the nutritional value of food.

Apart from financial and health factors, there are environmental considerations. WA’s population is increasing and vast areas of land are being developed for housing. Each housing development causes the loss of hundreds of trees and of land that can be used to grow food. Yet increases in population lead to a corresponding increase in the demand for food.

Global Food and Food Miles

In the short term we may be able to meet the increase in demand for food by bringing it in, from interstate and overseas, but the spiraling cost of fuel makes this option less and less cost effective. At the same time, as we move vast amounts of food around the world and across Australia we contribute to greenhouse emissions. This in turn contributes to climate change.

We are characterised as being one of the highest per-capita contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the world (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book Australia, 2003). This is a statistic we should not be proud of. It means we are also contributing in a major way to climate change.

Do we really wish to keep contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and climate change by relying on global food supplies? Do we really want global food with its associated food miles when there are serious concerns for its nutritional value? I am sure none of us really do – but at the same time these issues seem a bit overwhelming. Many of us are not sure what we can do about it.

Consumers Fight Back

The West Australian’s 2005 “Where Does Your Food Come From” campaign alerted consumers to issues surrounding global food. One example was the importation of garlic from China by the multi-national supermarket chains. It was cheap for them but costly to us in terms of our health. This garlic had been irradiated, bleached and typically grown in contaminated soils. Other factors are epidemics that impact on food quality such as mad cow disease and avian bird flu, along with other pests and diseases.

Consumers, fortunately, have fought back. We do have a choice in our purchases. Chinese garlic now languishes on the shelf. Australian garlic and, if we can get it, local organic garlic, are in demand. I for one do not mind paying extra for nutritious food free of toxins. I can personally attest to the fact that what I spend on quality food I will save at the Doctor’s ten times over.

Caralyn Lagrange with organic produce