Dines' Days : Eat like an Egyptian

Eat like an Egyptian

WATCHING a colleague this morning munching her way through a punnet of Egyptian strawberries, led me to the conclusion that globalisation is a wonderful thing. Until a few years ago, only the rich and famous could eat strawberries out of season - now jumbo jets fly them here along with Cypriot melons, mangoes, lychees and other exotic fuit and veg.

No doubt the harbingers of doom will shake their heads in despair at the sight of scores of planes arriving daily, laden down with such produce. "Just think how your are helping pollute the atmosphere in order to satiate your selfish hedonism," I can here them squawk. "You should make do with good English apples, not strawberries from the Nile delta."

Having mericlessly wound up my colleague at her thumbing her nose at global warming, I must confess that I'm rather on her side. Just think of the contribution she has made to the Egyption economy and employment by buying its strawberries. Supermarkets and barrow boys are meeting the demand of their customers for year round produce, which cannot be grown in UK.

And if we eat what only can be grown here, we'd soon all end up with scurvy, the remedy for which is neat lime juice - all of which would have to be imported because the climate isn't hot enough to grow our own limes!

posted on 04 January 2007 11:53 by Graham Dines

Comments

26 February 2007 13:20 by Sarah

# re: Eat like an Egyptian

It's not at all true that we would get scurvy if we only ate English produce. Cabbages, sprouts, apples, pears, spinach, cauliflower, kohl rabi and broccoli, to name but a few, are all good sources of vitamin c, and English versions can be found in a greengrocer near you - even in winter.
As for Egyptian employment, things are not as simple as that. I can't speak for conditions in Egypt but in Kenya, workers are forced to do unpaid overtime, may have to work 7 days a week, and get £1.60 for a 12 hour day - all to produce green beans for British supermarkets.
British farmers need support too - while we enjoy foreign strawberries, ancient apple orchards are being pulled up.
There is also the small fact that an in-season British strawberry tastes far nicer than one grown in winter and imported thousands of miles will ever do.