Dave's blog

A couple of years ago, around this time of year, I took the bus to Chepstow with Loz, a good friend and then housemate. We went with no other intention than it was a nice day to go out walking. We ended up on the edge of the gorge with no path presenting itself up ahead and so we were faced with a dilemma; should we turn back or should we climb up the large rocks in front of us. Being two blokes we of course chose the much more dangerous option of heading straight up. As the rocks became smaller and smaller eventually giving way to gravel I began to fear for my life. After a few slips back and some heart racing moments we reached the top and were rewarded with a breath taking view of the Wye valley. We followed the path around the top of the cliff face we’d scaled and after a bit of wandering we stumbled on a grove of chestnut trees surrounded by large, ripe chestnuts. They were falling all around us and popping out of their shells as we filled our bags eagerly.

This year as soon as chestnuts came into season I vowed to find the same trees and so last week I jumped on the bus with my new girlfriend Ellie.

The day took a similar course to the day with Loz with the exception of the path up the side of the cliff. Ellie found a safe path just yards away from the near suicidal one Loz and I had taken a couple of years previously. It struck me then and there how different walks in the country can be with a female rather than male hiking companion! The view was just as spectacular as it had been and despite the relative ease of the climb compared with one with Loz it still felt we had earned the view.

During the day we found a huge field absolutely full of sorrel, crab apples, pears and a few sorry looking chestnuts. Try as we might the elusive grove of chestnuts was no-where to be seen. To make matters worse I recognised the crab apple trees from the first year and knew they were right near the fabled chestnuts but for the life of me I couldn’t remember where the trees were!

Over the next few days we had sorrel and mushroom omelettes, a sorrel and brie tart, pears with yoghurt, apple and pear juice (delicious) but alas no chestnut risotto, chestnut muffins or even my newest creation chestnut pasta (made with chestnut flour). Chestnuts are still in season and I’m close to actually buying some to experiment with. I hate to buy food when it can be available free from the wild but as all the chestnuts I’ve found near me this season are tiny and hardly worth the effort of removing them from their shells I might just have to!

It is Monday 8^th September and Today marks my first day in the Eat the Change pledge – the pledge is as follows – ‘for one week, somewhere between 6^th-21^st September, I will only eat local, organic food, free from plastic packaging.

I first heard about this through friend and campaigner, Mark Boyle who has been doing the diet since April. In one of Mark’s previous experiments he had decided to walk to India without spending any money. Unfortunately, through a series of set backs and misfortunes, he returned having only walked to France. Rather than be down hearted about this he set himself another challenge; a plastic free, local, organic and for Mark also vegan diet – I need to get an acronym or at least shorted version of this diet, the Local, Organic,Oil Free (oil=packaging) or LOOF diet. This would make the people doing it Loofers, I kind of like that!

Aims of the pledge

The aim of the pledge is to highlight a number of different issues centred modern food production and distribution. The first being the food industry’s reliance on oil – vast quantities of food are moved from farms, to centralised warehouses, to supermarkets so much so that even food labelled as local could have travelled hundreds of miles before it reaches you. So for example if you were to buy a tub of Cornish Cream in a Tesco store in Newquay which, for arguments sake, is packaged and processed on the farm (highly unlikely), that cream would have travelled nearly 400 miles from a Cornish farm to the nearest distribution centre and back again!

Another issue, which also focuses on oil, is the amount of packaging in modern food production. Even organic food is extremely over packaged. To buy six organic tomatoes in a supermarket, more often than not, means you not only go home with the tomatoes but also a plastic tub shrink wrapped with another sheet of plastic. Then we put it in a plastic bag to take it home! It as if we are becoming scared of our own food – the more layers of plastic we can have separating us from it the better.

The Organic issue hopefully speaks for itself but for me the most important issue is that organic food uses no pesticides, herbicides and is therefore is kinder to wildlife. The lack of agro-chemicals also means there is a lot less embodied energy in the food.

Veganism also is an issue that links strongly with not only the environment but also, perhaps obviously, to animal welfare.

In order to lactate cows have to first give birth to a calf, if that calf is male more often than not it is killed, as it is not ‘productive’. So even organic milk, cheese or cream is inherently cruel. I’ve known this a while and choose to ignore it when I’m munching on a nice bit of cheddar or when I put a big dollop of cream on a scone.

All of the LOOF diet is optional so with that in mind I have also chosen the vegan element of the challenge but not as religiously as most might. I’m going round to a friend’s for dinner on Thursday and he has digestive problems so can’t eat too much vegetable matter-he can’t digest cellulose in large quantities. I can expect something vegetarian from him but a vegan meal low in vegetable matter – a bit much to ask I think, hence the added flexibility on that one.

Quitting

Instead of having a big shock to my system I decided to ease into my eat the change pledge and not ‘quit’ everything on the same day. Last Wednesday I gave up smoking, I can’t see myself getting some organic, local, plastic free tobacco in hurry so it had to go. I cut down my caffeine intake to just one cup of tea a day too so I wouldn’t have the characteristic headaches from caffeine withdrawal on the day. I also had a strange choice to make; I currently have my arm in a cast having broken my wrist and have been on painkillers since my accident. It is still painful every now and again but I couldn’t help thinking I was getting slightly hooked on the codeine, the LOOF diet has been a good excuse to kick them – I’m pretty sure they aren’t made from organic local opium poppies and they are of course plastic wrapped.

I also split up with my girlfriend last week so in the last 7 days I’ve effectively given up caffeine, codeine, dairy, eggs, plastic wrapped food, non-local food, non-organic food and sex. Thank Christ I’m still drinking!!