After my studies in Supply Chain Management, I worked for an e-bike manufacturer in procurement and logistics for three years. The transportation of goods is still fascinating to me. However, I did not want to take care of the supply chains of unnecessary goods anymore. Because, let’s face it, most things that are shipped in a container, carried on by train and brought to their final destination by truck is stuff that we buy but don’t really need. One exception of goods carried from A to B, that we truly need, is food. Best case, A being equal to B.
Imagine the natural cycle of food production as a bus ride. The starting point being the seed that we plant, followed by the stops of seedlings, grown plants, harvest, consumption and seed saving, bringing us back to the starting point and initiating the next cycle. The once so revolutionary industrialisation and globalisation of our food supply chains has on the one hand led to the constant availability of fruit and vegetables at our stores, no matter where in the world they have been grown. On the other hand, it has however also led us to lose sight of the fact that nature works in cycles. Even hobby gardeners (but also vegetable growers) are getting on the bus at one stop of the cycle and off at another. Most of the time, seedlings are bought, sometimes seeds, but who actually bothers to stay on the bus from beginning to end and produce their own seeds?
Planting seedlings in spring and harvesting in summer is commonly known, whether we do it ourselves or we don’t. But why have we stopped planting vegetables in late summer or autumn in order to harvest them in winter or spring? Why don’t we know that onions can be grown from seeds, how salad is reproduced or how we can gather the seeds of the tomato we liked so much this summer in order to grow that same tomato again next year? Because it’s complicated and takes a lot of effort. Yes, certainly. But I think the genuine reason is that we don’t care. Why should we?
Most of us get on the bus at the “consumption” stop and off at the exact same one. We don’t want to actually learn about lemons being winter fruit because we like our lemonade in summer or about mangos coming from South America by plane, while Spain is in fact growing them on the European mainland from September to November. Some of us are vegetarian because we’re opposed to factory farming but huge fruit orchards and vegetable monocultures as well as the heating of greenhouses and cooling of the harvest, allowing us to eat apples, berries etc. all year-round don’t really bother us. Because we’re not used to natural cycles and seasonality anymore. Because – due to global supply chains – everything is always available.
So how am I supposed to know that the lemon is currently out of season when it’s lying in the fruit aisle as always? And if I then try to do more conscious grocery shopping and start looking at the origin, a regional apple that I buy in May ends up being worse than one imported from New Zealand, because it has been stocked in a cooled warehouse since its harvest in autumn. How are we supposed to make the right decisions like this? Everyone who has taken a closer look at sustainability aspects when shopping for groceries will sooner or later reach this point. It’s the classic “sealed-organic-cucumber-from-elsewhere” vs “plastic-free-non-organic-cucumber-from-here” problem that overwhelms us when standing in front of the vegetable section. What helped me was to prioritize what is most important to me. Namely, food that is:
So, I would actually always chose the seasonal and regional option. Plus, when the vegetable is sealed you can be pretty sure that it’s not coming from a small vegetable farm.
So what should we do in order to become part of the food supply chain again and get back in touch with where the food we eat is actually coming from? Everyone who stays on the bus from beginning to end and collects seeds to see fruit grow from them, will start seeing the natural food cycle in a different way. I was lucky enough to experience just that at the Eisathhof in South Tyrol, where old varieties are grown and reproduced. And even if this means that I want to produce my own seeds, perfectly accustomed to my location, one day, it probably means something different for you. You might start growing vegetables in your garden or on your balcony. But even if gardening isn’t for you, buying seasonal and regional groceries at farmers’ markets or signing up for a vegetable box from a community-supported agriculture in your area is a good start. Another option is to buy directly from producers, as is the case with Crowdfarming. Thereby, being able to procure exotic fruit such as mangos and passion fruit from Europe by land. Once you start buying seasonally and regionally in one way or the other, you will taste the difference and your connection to the food you eat and the people who produce it will change.
We all need to eat – The question is how.
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