Farm in SE Australia is growing native grains for flour and bread
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The author is aboriginal; reading it completely changed my view on colonialism and the rule of law in Australia (speaking as a white person born in Australia to one immigrant and one 'local' parent).
Kindle $78.53
Hardcover from $197.00
I had a drive around and I'm directed a http://111.111.111.111 (yes, no S in HTTPS) site to download a PDF file which I assume is the book?
This site couldn't look more dodgy if it tried.
My village had over 30 different varieties of rice which the central planners of country would dub as "backward". Backed by centralized international bodies such as UN, WHO etc. (probably pressure from US etc.) we were told these native varieties were inefficient and lacked nutrients. We were then provided seeds of "higbreed" rice which gave us lot more yield per acre for couple of years and reached much lower yield levels after 5 years. It tastes as shit. Since the original seeds were lost except in seed banks maintained by local temples it was not possible to bring back our old varieties.
Now the government begs us to grow back the native rice. We can't as rice farming has become economically less attractive to us.
I understood that to mean that they were not able to bring back the old varieties (at some point in the past) and now the government wants them to re-grow them, but they've moved on from rice-farming because it's not economical (because of lower yields).
- The 'green' revolution made us self-sufficient in growing enough food to feed our large population.
- The 'white' revolution made India one of the largest producer of milk and diary products in the world today.
- The 'yellow' revolution made it possible for India to be the largest producers of vegetable oil in the world today.
But it is true that the cost of this was the slow demise of many indigenous crops. However, with a growing economy (well, now it is in a downward spiral), many indigenous crops are making a return in India albeit they are costlier and not as affordable as some of the cheaper white rice.
- https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/millets-and-organic/...
> “Millets have been a part of Indian diet for a long time. However, the influence of Western food habits and the goverment’s green revolution that pushed for rice and wheat, reduced the production as well as the consumption of millets. But, efforts of some State governments like Karnataka in popularising millets has helped in rekindling the value of these grains.”
- https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/the-rise-of-nat...
It was a big surprise for me when I arrived to Canada that barley, spelt, millet, and buckwheat were so hard to find.
Right now, I have 11-12 different boxes of grains and pulses in my kitchen drawer, and I am not feeling much likes for exotic foods.
What’s harder to get are different types of flour, some of which are fairly regional. For example “Spätzlemehl” is commonly available in the south, but generally unavailable in the north. Italian Tenero 00 flour is only available in select places. Whenever Swiss friends come visit I ask them to bring some Ruchmehl - Standard Swiss wheat flour - as it’s generally unavailable in Germany (unless you order online at your friendly local mill)
That being said, in the US there are also plenty of interesting grains/lentils/legumes available in stores thanks in part to inherited culinary traditions: cornmeal, corn masa, wild rice, couscous, black beans, pinto beans, various types of quinoa, various types of lentils, etc.
Spelt seems less common there but there isn't a tradition of cultivation of it so that makes sense. I do think the bean selection here in Switzerland is lower than I would prefer, but a few specialty stores mitigate that.
And don't get me started on meat and butchers - I'm conviced that British people don't know what an actual butcher is. The biggest joke are always "butchers" in a meat isle like in Morrisons, who are only allowed to serve very specific cuts of the 4-5 meats they have on display. Try asking if you can just buy some bones for broth(sorry mate, not allowed to sell them), or the horror ask if you can buy some giblets, like chicken hearts or stomachs - nope, they never get them from "the factory". So....are you a butcher? Or a glorified cashier? And it's the same even at proper markets, where you'd think they'd have more flexibility - "nah mate, health and safety mate, can't sell you these". Just piss off.
I don't eat meat so I can't comment on the butcher thing.
How about chechil? I've looked high and low for that, and can't find anywhere that sells it. Oddly enough, i know one place in Oxford that does.
http://dachashop.co.uk/smoked-cheese-kosichka-soviet-standar...
I have vegetarian friends who use it all sorts of places that I might have used oats, lentils or rice.
Of course...brewing would be the finest use of it. :-)
Boil and eat it? Certainly good with heavier, fatter pieces of meat.
The thing is, I've lived here for 10 years and I haven't been able to find "an actual butcher" yet. Every single place that looks like an actual butcher shop ends up being just a meat store, where the meats are prepared and packaged elsewhere, and the people in the store just sell it. At best, they will have a large chunk of say pork loin, and they can cut a bit off for you.
My subjective experience is the quality ranges from "noticeably better" to "OMFG how have I never had something this good before better" than the supermarket offering, though clearly at a higher price point.
That's a slight exaggeration. My local large supermarket in London would have in normal times (i.e. a few months ago) in the baking aisle: several brands of white and wholemeal flour as mentioned, 00-grade pizza flour, self-raising and strong bread flour, malted and cake flour, rye flour, and a gluten-free flour-like substance. Elsewhere in the shop you'll likely find rice flour, chickpea flour etc.
There is also a healthfood shop where it's actively hard to find the (Shipton Mill and Doves Farm organic) wheat flours among the profusion of Spelt, Barley, Kamut, etc flours)
Some sort of Polish flour [2].
Butchers aren't allowed to sell beef bones, due to the 1990s BSE crisis, but the others are no problem. They may well not stock them, especially in a supermarket, where they are somewhere between a glorified cashier and an actual butcher. You would need to build a relationship with a local butcher to make your unusual requests worthwhile -- it might mean he orders them, or that while preparing the meat he doesn't throw them in the bin (at which point, they can't be sold).
> "Nah mate, health and safety mate, can't sell you these"
This is modern British English for "I don't want to" or "it's not worth my time" or "go away, you are complicated". It's rarely an actual rule.
[1] https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/256538041
[2] https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/275505155
“Western culture” to me, when mentioned by the English-speaking world, has really just meant the shared ideals of the metropolitan parts of English-first first world countries (that’s a mouthful).
This would include major cities in countries like the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand but would also exclude their rural areas.
Not that I agree or disagree with it or that I’m trying to make a political statement - it’s just an observation I’ve found.
This is why Germany is considered Western.
apart from the political explanation there are also the philosophical roots of Greece as the birthplace of Western civilization. A country that builds on this can be part of the Western World. The books in this category give you a better picture of what belongs. Needless to say the English language or Anglo-Saxon culture is not a yardstick as to what belongs here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_Wor...
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Taste_of_Empire/QMu...
And similarly, settlers who were living in placed like North America and Australia, with completely different growing conditions that what they were used to, ended up growing cash crops. But all they could buy with the money was flour and sugar and oil and other industrialized foods.
Now i want to know about the onion!
Does anyone know?
https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/latest/2020/01/24/bruce-pa...
(Pascoe is the farmer in the linked article).
My sister brought it home the other day from her work, she is an Aboriginal arts officer who works at the thetorch.org.au/about/ (arts program for prisoners and ex-offenders)
At family gatherings we don't really eat any native plants, mostly Taro. Where we are from in FNQ (coastal), we eat a lot of turtle, periwinkles, mudcrab and other shell fish.
Fun fact: On your native tribal land in Australia you are allowed to eat green sea turtle and dugong which is illegal for the rest of Australia. In my life so far, I've had some green sea turtles but never heard of anyone eating a dugong.
But I would say in short, most of the culture was completely destroyed, and the turtle population of sea turtles shortly after by modernity (fishing/pollution).
Cuisine generally being a pillar of most cultures, some perhaps think it may be a little unfair to also take that away.
They could easily ban the number one killer of turtles, trawlers, in larger portions of their habitats.
Because aboriginals are also a low socioeconomic class of Australia, they don't even own boats so the likelihood of them even catching a fraction of what the fishing industry kills is quite low.
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Another reason why? Food.
Take the example of Efate island in Vanuatu. It is the main hub for the native populations, but also now a tax haven and a tourist destination. The island itself has probably ~50,000 Ni-van (natives) who make a minimum wage of $95 a week. The price of western goods is marked up more than it cost in Australia, so a beer might cost $8. So although they work, to get ahead and enjoy themselves they usually also try to eat off the land. Fishing being one of their main staples.
But with the influx of resorts over the decades, the government declared that you essentially can't fish anywhere in surrounding waters around the island. Mostly because they wanted as many fish as possible for the snorkeling business for the resorts. Think gentrification but not only making the cost of living too expensive but also taking away the food supply.
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One last edit.
Most aboriginals only eat turtle/dugong on special occasions e.g. an elders 60th
The hunting laws also only allow traditional methods, spear and hand. (people do use engine boats though)
It is also in the best interest of the indiginous to not kill off the populations.
From my own personal experience this seems to be respected.
I don't have any strong opinions myself, sociological nuance isn't quite science.
A lot of Australian wildlife conservation momentum comes through aboriginals who fight to protect heritage. I'm sure, at the end of the day there is some immeasurable balance of allowing them to live their culture, eat and protect.
Hydrodamalis gigas will not be in the menu anymore, that's for sure.
Journalism leaves a lot to be desired here in home (Australia), but the writing on this site is incredible.
One thing we could do is improve the meat conversion of kangaroos and wallabies. Some serious selective breeding could provide a commercially viable way to use these lands without the environmental damage resulting from cattle and sheep.
From what I've read a lot of Australia seems to be over-grazed.
Kangaroo is very tasty and low in fat. Selective breeding like we have done with cattle and sheep could make them commercially viable rather than be seen as a pest.
It seems we have a lot of people commenting here who have no idea about the realities of modern agriculture.
And I fail to see how some hypothetical bulked up kangaroo farm is going to be any solution. 'Selective breeding' kangaroos can't change "there's not many calories out here, and not much water" into a nice juicy steak that western palates will make economical. See: Masai cattle breeds.
Good thing kangaroos are adapted to low calories food and low water. Now all we need to do is make them a better food source than they are right now.
And kangaroos are adapted to low calorie food and low water now. If you bulked them out to be 'better', that is bigger, fatter, more tender, they would need more calories for fat and more water to support more mass. So, no, there is no "all we need to do...".
But when your attitude is 'these brown native people would never figure this out' perspective, it's easy to think in terms of "all we need to do...".
The selective breeding for improvement of kangaroos is not a binary choice - you can improve for multiple traits and balance for multiple requirements.
Where in the hell have I even hinted at “brown native people would never figure this out”? This is frankly very offensive.
If you read Pascoe's book, you'll see that one of the reasons the indigenous agriculture disappeared so quickly is that stock sought out the delicious native grasses and destroyed them. Delicious means market opportunity.
I have my doubts as to the existence of indigenous agricultural - this doesn’t mean that aboriginal people didn’t do things that had some similarities to farming, just that they never stepped over the line and became farmers.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment...