I am sat here with my brain still in conference overload mode! The past two days I have been to two meetings, both highly stimulating and informative, and both causing some reflection on where we are now in our journey to more sustainable and healthy future. Tying in with these recent conferences is the the Oxford Real Farming Conference.
Zeitgeist is a favourite word of mine, maybe slightly out of date, but it is the best way I can describe the feeling I have when seeing how two different streams of actions and thoughts are converging as they are at the present time. I am sure it is not new, but similarities from the past are also starting to emerge.
My first conference was at York Universities Festival of Ideas range of sessions looking at the sustainability of healthy food production and how it food affects our health. The range of speakers was excellent and of high quality, from Tim Benton, UK Champion of Food Security, Caroline Drummond, of LEAF, Richard Swannell of WRAP, Ben Reynolds of Sustain, Bee Wilson, food writer, Professor Annie Anderson, University of Dundee, Myles Bremner Jamie Oliver Food Foundation. With this mix of speakers I was expecting an interesting day.
The second conference I attended was the first conference of The Public Health Collaboration. This is a body formed by doctors, nutritionists, patients, researchers and interested members of the public. A cross section of people that may seem surprising given the detail and medical terminology that was flying around the room. Speakers at this conference included, Dr Rangan Chatterjee GP, Dr Zoe Harcombe, Dr’s David and Jen Unwin, GP (NHS Innovator of the Year) and Clinical Psychologist respectively, Dr Aseem Malhotra Cardiologist and Geoff Whittington, inspiration for the film “Fixing Dad”. With this mix of speakers I did have an inspiring day!
Both meetings were looking at food, our relationship with it, how it affects our health and maybe more importantly how people are informed, what they are told and who tells them the message. Both events were also travelling a similar if slightly divergent path, reflecting some of the “struggles” around changing public policy and I will try to draw out the themes and the big dissonance between the two and how we should try and link it all under the sustainability of our food and health systems.
Similarities Between The Conferences
Public Enemy No 1…..
Obesity
30% of children and 25% of adults are obese in the UK, as many people are overweight as are under weight in the world, both suffer from malnutrition, it is causing and will continue to cause huge costs in environmental, financial and physical terms to both the planet and to us both personally and collectively as we fund the negative health implications. The cause of obesity, which has been rocketing upwards in the last forty years is still the matter of discussion, much of it muddied and befuddled by vested interests from food and agricultural businesses, Doctors, scientists politicians and campaigners. Some of this vagary is due to knowledge and learning moving forward, and much is to do with what Ludwig Fleck called the “Thought Collective” effect.
sugar sugar sugar…….
What is clear is sugar is greatly over used and over available in our diets, a fact that has been known (and suppressed) for many years, in the name of profit of business, aided and abetted by some researchers and scientists. We know it is everywhere pushed and sold at every turn, from fast food outlets, newsagents, petrol stations and in much processed food. It cannot be denied it is basically empty calories, not needed by our bodies in the quantities we consume. Policy makers and NGO’s are working hard to try and bring the monster under control, but face an uphill battle.
Differences Between the Conferences
fat fat fat…..well oh…not really…..
At the York conference Tim Benton, Andy Challinor, Jason Halford and Myles Bremner all had interesting things to say, although sadly, none were given much of a chance to suggest solutions in any depth.
The talks of health and obesity were prefixed many times by many of the speakers saying something like -We should be promoting/eating/legislating for “low sugar low fat; low sugar low fat; low sugar low fat” with no stopping for breath, almost as if it was some sacred mantra repeated in an unthinking almost brainwashed way. All those who have befuddled and muddied the waters will be cheering from the rafters.
Moving to the Public Health Collaboration (PHC) conference, it is a newly formed organisation, partly crowdfunded, with no backing from big sponsors, big pharma, ag, or food. It was founded by individuals who collectively have recognised their is something wrong with much of our health advise and management of the resultant diseases of over consumption and the causes including heart disease, strokes, joint and muscle pain and diabetes. Most remarkable, was the range of members, delegates and speakers, from top Doctors, GP’s and interested people. This was a meeting across the spectrum, with specialists realising their has been something broken in the way we treat chronic and acute disease and recognising they do not have all the answers, that patients, enterprising GP’s and others working at the coal face of obesity and health do have solutions.
But not only do they have solutions but they have questions, many questions, about how treatments that have been promulgated by industry, clinicians and nutritionists for many years are actually not correct.
The core of the meeting was “Eat Real Food” unprocessed food, with no added sugar, but with real fat and olive oil. Eat meat and protein from pasture fed stock, eat vegetables and fruit, eat smaller amounts of unrefined carbohydrates, eat dairy, cheese and full fat milk. How refreshing is that? Some will be screaming “it’s not refreshing – it’s revolution!!”
But the problem for the nay-sayers to eating real food is these people are not “tin foil hat”wearing types, but leaders and experienced doctors, who, shockingly to me were admitting they were scared… yes scared to before starting to speak out and start promoting these “heretical” ideas. What does it say that highly educated, intelligent professional practitioners are in fear of being able to speak of their research and findings in public. Even during the presentations, the Doctors were frequently correcting themselves saying “xxxxxxx”… then saying… “no I can’t say that…” and replacing it with milder less emphatic words. Again it was clear this was not for effect, but for fear of the retribution. In my opinion a sad indictment of the medical system, litigation and trial by social media, that is holding back some real progress in the health system.
I am not intending to revisit the arguments and conclusions from the speakers, but have included links to enable readers to see them for yourself. My aim is to try and draw out the themes that link the two events and the movements behind them
My aims for food are that it:
should be wholesome healthy and nutritious-we should not have far too much, or far too little, but enough.
should be distributed fairly and equitably across all people,
should be locally produced whenever possible,
should not be to highly processed, either by industry or by ourselves,
be diverse and be culturally, socially and spiritually fulfilling,
not be destructive to the planet.
All speakers were looking at some part of the above and it was interesting when talking to delegates at the PHC they were surprised when I said my interest was sustainability of farming systems. Few I suspect, had even thought about the connectivity of the two.
Here is the zeitgeist ( I said it was a favourite word!) Doctors, nutritionists and patients have seen the effects of “Real Food” without really considering the the production of it, whilst those of us working in the sustainable food system have maybe felt judged by suggesting we should just eat “Real Food” produced by Real Farming, organic and ecological, with due concern for all aspects the supply chain, from farm to fork.
It is a coming together of two disparate strands that should now be looking at jointly working together to help promote the best food and diet for the future. Is this a new development, well no it is not, as I alluded to at the beginning, it happened when Sir Robert McCarrison, Physician and Nutritionist, along with Sir Albert Howard, Biologist and Lady Eve Balfour, farmer, founded the Soil Association and the ideas of organic farming. With the diet proposed by PHC, we should be in a position to provide food that is what it should be, healthy for the planet and for Us.
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