I think this is amazing! Revolutionary! You could say it’s a bit heavy or dictating but I disagree! We need to be more disciplined, less greedy, less selfish and have a more global view. We are depleting the Earth of its jewels and ruining it. I think this article needs to be shared with everyone. Children, adults, chefs, teachers, parents, everyone! What do you think?

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has called for restaurants that serve fruit and vegetables out of season to be fined for not sourcing their own home-grown ingredients.

The 41-year-old said the industry was at risk of “spiralling out of control” as food is flown into the UK from all over the world.

Ramsay, whose restaurants include Maze, Petrus and Foxtrot Oscar, said chefs should be confident enough to remove a dish from the menu if the right ingredients were not available.

He said: “Chefs should be fined if they haven’t got ingredients in season on their menu.

I don’t want to see asparagus in the middle of December, I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March.

I want to see it home grown. There should be stringent laws, fines and licensing laws to make sure produce is only used in season.

If we get this legislation pushed through the Houses of Parliament then the more unique this country will become.

Ramsay said he had spoken to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly about the issue and warned that buying food from abroad made cooks lazy.

“If we don’t restrict our movements within this industry of seasonal produce only, then the whole thing will spiral out of control,” he told the BBC.

He criticised fellow celebrity chef Delia Smith for her support of ready-made food and canned goods.

“I would expect students struggling on £15 a week to survive eating from a can but the nation’s favourite, all-time icon reducing us down to using frozen, canned food – it’s an insult,” he said.

And it makes our lives, from a chef’s point of view, a lot harder. Here we are trying to establish a reputation across the world for this country’s food and along comes Delia and tips it out of a can. That hurts.

Here is a list of which vegetables, according to the food website Eat the Seasons, are in season and when:

January – beetroot, brussels sprouts, parsnip, apples

February – cauliflower, chicory, leeks, pears

March – purple sprouting broccoli, rhubarb, spring onions

April – jersey royal new potatoes, radishes, watercress

May – asparagus, spinach, spring onions

June – artichoke, carrots, courgettes, runner beans

July – broad beans, cucumber, onions

August – peas, potatoes, raspberries, plums

September – butternut squash, marrow, blackberries

October – celery, kale, chestnuts, elderberries

November – pumpkin, swede, quince, walnuts

December – turnips, leeks, apples

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3 Comments

Heena Modi · August 5, 2008 at 1:05 am

This article and the issues being discussed in the school I work in inspired me to do some amazing work with the kids I teach.

The head has been talking us being ‘greener’ in every sense. From recycling to what we buy, how we pack it, how it gets to us etc.

I asked the children to tell me about what they had been discussing, we turned these recollections into sentences and then used them to create a letter.

The children created individual formal letters which I then photocopied and sent to various supermarkets.

You could see how empowered the felt! How positive they felt! Citizens in the true sense. Using their initiative and making a difference in their own way!

So the letter!
They said they wanted fruit and veg to be sold when it was in season and they could do without it during other times of the year.
They asked them to charge customers for bags and encourage them to bring their own and recycle them via posters etc.
They suggested that food is packaged with less or no packaging e.g. broccoli doesn’t need to be wrapped in film.
They asked if they can collect batteries in house and then send them off for recycling.
They said that energy saving bulbs needed to be cheaper and they needed to have offers with these bulbs, as they do with the other bulbs, and perhaps sell them in bulk packs too.
They asked if we can recycle used light bulbs in store.

So many things. The letter was amazing! I am so proud of them. More importantly, I think they were proud of themselves 🙂

Heena Modi · February 5, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Is it that simple?
Use home grown food and make sure it’s seasonal.

Jonathan sent a message via the Jain Vegans group recently explaining that labels can affect us in a way which can make our choices illogical. The example he gave was: –

In my opinion the main problem occurs when certain labels become part of our identity. I think when this happens it can be very difficult (psychologically) to do anything which is in breach of the rules connected with that label.

For instance, someone who prides themselves on eating organic food will probably choose an organic apple from New Zealand rather than a non-organic apple from the UK, even though the New Zealand apple would have involved a vast amount of fossil fuel to fly it over to England.

Similarly, someone who prides themselves on eating UK produce would probably choose a UK tomato over an Italian tomato, even though the UK tomato will have used up a vast amount of natural resources in order to provide all the artificial light and heat needed to grow such a plant in this country.

Jonathan – A member of the Jain Vegans group

So is it as simple as use home grown and seasonal fruit and veg? Even if the negative affects of growing it here outweighs importing it in?

I’m not so sure

O.E. · October 18, 2009 at 8:43 am

I am being told that elderberries have 3 times the VIT C as oranges. Really???

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