The Food Industry and Good Shows About It

When I moved into my first apartment on my own in college, my parents remember a phone call in which I asked how to cook a baked potato. In terms of my culinary prowess, as my poor boyfriend can attest, not much has improved over the years. But, I love food and I never skip a meal, so naturally I'm very interested in how food gets grown, made and marketed. I actually came to business school with the dream of some day working in the food industry, and maybe even starting my own food business. This hobby/passion/quirk of mine has led me to focus intently on food production and the food industry in the UK while I'm here. In the past few months I've read Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," and Pollack's "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Now that I'm reading "Fast Food Nation," I think I'm absolutely obsessed with food, and while my research so far has been pop-lit, TV and Whole Foods propaganda, I'm still on to something... I'm searching for a better way to be a consumer to do my responsible part for the demand curve. And here are a few things I've noticed about Britain and about our view on food vs. theirs...
As my Grandmother loves to quote, "The British do not have cuisine, they have food!" (TV detective on PBS, Mssr. Poirot). This may or may not be true depending on what things you like to eat, but the British DO have a very strong food culture and consumers care about their national dishes, farmers and food stuffs.
Organic is not as big as you'd think, and Whole Foods and those like it really aren't here in much presence. This is mostly because there's not as much of a need for them. The UK, and the greater EU for that matter, have taken very aggressive measures to legislate, regulate and protect methods of farming, food production and culinary methods in a way that would simply never fly in the US. For instance, you can't grow anything in the entire EU that is genetically modified in any way, not even for animal feed (and it's been this way since the late '90s.) Far more pesticides and farming methods are illegal here than they are at home. You also cannot grow animals in many of the ways we call "conventional" in the US in Britain, and soon in the greater EU, because of laws providing for humane farming practices. Many more farms in the UK are independent producers to bigger companies than actually owned by big companies (as they are in the US). Consumer labeling is also much better than at home and the conscientious consumer can willingly find certified humane or local foods in conventional markets thanks to labeling practices and watch-dog groups setting and monitoring standards of production and labeling. At the cheapest store in town, I can tell you exactly where my orange was grown, my salami was produced, and how the cow that made my milk lived, thanks to labels. I cannot do this at home. Corn subsidies, at the level they are in the US, are just not in use here and as a result processed food labels are a LOT easier to read - even the cheapest packaged frozen foods at discount markets have few additives, fillers, modifiers, etc. The microwavable spaghetti carbonara I bought from Tesco yesterday was the cheapest on the shelf for 1 pound 50, and the ingredients are: "pasta, cream, butter, eggs, bacon, salt, pepper" - that's it! Preservatives and additives are of course still in use, but not nearly to the extent as in the US - at home I have to literally HUNT the bread aisle of a conventional supermarket to find a product that is "bread" - flour, water, yeast (go try it)... in the US, to get that product, you have to go to Whole Foods or the organic aisle. Here in Britain, that's all they have - bread. Yogurt is yogurt (no corn starch), and partially hydrogenated oils are almost gone - you can still buy margarine - and most foods are labeled "zero trans fat."
None of this is as a result of lovey dovey hippie nonsense, although some at home might think so. The UK pays for its nation's health directly, and as a result, individual people care a great deal about the health of the nation - what the people grow and eat. Farming is a culture not as removed from every day people's lives as it sometimes seems to be at home, and while big supermarket chains supply most people's groceries, every main street still has a local butcher, market, and bakery where normal every day people buy their normal every day groceries. Grocery shopping is done more frequently than at home (smaller fridges and more expensive gas), and products can be less preserved and fresher as a result (local farming production is also very diverse across all food sector products and so food can arrive from farm to store in a few hours).
There's no Food Network here - maybe it's not needed? Basic TV, or the few free channels of the BBC, Sky etc. that anyone can watch carry a variety of shows ranging from news, history, documentary, food shows, pop culture, sitcoms, and movies - it's a great selection all for free. But some of the most popular programs on right now are food ones - all over town I've seen billboards for a series on Channel 4 called "The Great British Food Fight." Top celebrity chefs have taken up the cause of reaffirming British food culture to its roots and trying to shed light on modern food production techniques, especially in the recession when Britons are buying cheaper food. Here are two of the first installments of the series, and they're really awesome. A few things I thought when I watched are you could never show this on public TV at home (Jamie helps masturbate a pig!), our food industry giants would never let anyone in where these guys are going, and how great is it to see (in Hugh vs. Tesco) a guy trying to use the system for change as an activist investor instead of chaining his freakoid dead beat self to some pole outside like a hippie? Nice job Hugh, you're so cute.

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/jamie-oliver/jamie-saves-our-bacon/index.html

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/river-cottage/chickens-hugh-and-tesco-too/