Should Non-Seasonal Be Illegal?

Last month, Gordon Ramsay, former footballer turned chef turned screaming television celebrity, touched off a huge controversy in Britain by calling on the British government to ban non-seasonal foods from restaurants throughout the country.

"There should be stringent laws – licensing laws - to make sure produce is only used in season. The quicker we get legislation pushed through the Houses of Parliament, the more unique this country will become in terms of its sourcing and level of inspiration. Chefs should be fined if they haven't got ingredients in season on the menu."

Although Ramsay's own reliance on seasonal foods in his restaurants has been called into question after this pronouncement, the F-Bomb dropping Brit used his notoriety to put an important (and all to often overlooked) issue on the radar.

There are several great reasons for folks to rely on the seasonal and the local.

First of all, as Ramsay suggests, it allows the unique culinary aspects of a locale to be highlighted instead of being homogenized to a low global standard. In eating seasonally and locally, we celebrate individual food cultures that have been developed over millennia and that are rapidly being destroyed through globalization. Once these unique foodways are gone, it will take tremendous efforts to bring them back.

Secondly, the practice of eating seasonally places us back into a relationship with nature. It allows us to understand how we are connected to the natural world in a very real way. Although globalization does not completely sever our connection to nature, it creates a false sense of separation in which human beings begin to believe that we are in control of nature rather than part of it. Eating seasonally and locally connects us to the Earth and to our ancestors, who have thrived in a complex relationship with the natural world since we first became human hundreds of thousands years ago. Unfortunately, too many of us have now become "seasonally ignorant."

The practice of eating locally also places us back into a relationship with our neighbors. Supporting local agriculture helps to create food communities in which producers have a direct connection to consumers. This sense of community has largely been lost in big cities, but it is disappearing in rural areas as well. Since 1935, the United States has lost over five million family farms. Corporate agriculture is quickly taking the place of family farming in the United States. In the process, it is destroying communities. As we invest in local farms, we invest in communities and help to drive local economies.

Eating seasonally and locally is also better for your health. Foods harvested at the peak of their ripeness and eaten soon after not only taste better, but they are nutritionally better for you. This is particularly true of organic foods, which scientific studies now show to contain more nutrients than conventionally grown products. By eating locally, you can also avoid great amounts of preservatives added to your food as well as bacteria and other microbes that seem to go part and parcel with corporate agriculture.

Finally, eating seasonally and locally is better for the environment and better for our food security. In the United States, your average meal has traveled more than 1,500 miles to find its way to your plate. This means that your food is likely using more fossil fuels to get to your plate than you do in your daily lives. Many of our foods are even grown outside of the United States where environmental laws are often weaker and certain chemicals and practices, which are banned in the United States, are used to raise your food. This means that local environments outside of this country are quickly being destroyed to feed our hunger for the non-seasonal.

But, should non-seasonal be illegal?

This is a tough question to answer.

Perhaps placing more stringent laws on local restaurants, as Ramsay suggests, is a reasonable solution.

Perhaps placing a higher tax on non-seasonal and non-local foods would be more appropriate. It seems quite fair to tax these foods at a higher rate and to give the tax money back to programs in local communities that advocate for local and seasonal foods. If you choose to do damage to our environment and our communities, it seems as if you should pay a premium.

It is truly difficult to say because this problem is very complex.

Our food system is broken and there is no quick fix solution at this point.

I do not think that this means that we turn our backs on the problem. I think it means that we must begin to take the issue seriously and invest in our local food system.

As stated by another celebrity chef, Raymond Blanc, in response to Ramsay's call:

"It's wonderful at last that we are truly reconnecting with the most fundamental values but it's going to take a long time because you cannot, in a day, transform 40 years of ignorance into knowledge."

I agree with Blanc.

We must start by spreading knowledge to transform ignorance. And, then, perhaps we can begin to transform not only our food system but our entire relationship with food and nature.

Sound overwhelming? It is.

But, here are a few things that you can do to move us along the path. Take the advice of Sustainable Table and transform the world in three easy steps: educate, ask, and act.

And, just remember that the revolution happens one bite at a time.

Think globally, eat locally!

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