Yesterday we went to the Foodie Forum at GMIT. It was the second year of the event.
I hadn’t planned on writing a blog post about it, but quite a few people who missed it have asked how it went. So here goes.
Once again the schedule for the day was pretty full on. You have to be quite ruthless in your decision-making about what you can attend.
Schedule for Foodie Forum 2013
I decided that I wanted to attend both debates and also go watch the sushi demonstration.
First debate session was entitled “GM Foods – The Elephant in the Room”. I won’t go through the entire debate as I believe a video link will be posted on it. Each panelist spoke for approx. 5 minutes and then the debate was open to the floor.
GM debate panelists
So here’s my synopsis:
Martin Ruffley (GMIT) : “As there is no risk perceived (in GM food), it follows that there is no risk”
Seamus Sheridan (Green Party Spokesperson on Agriculture) : “The safety of GM food in the human food chain is not an issue, it is a biodiversity issue”
Eleanor Winters (Nutritional Therapist) : “Even scientists are unsure of how genes will mutate”.
Dr. Ewan Mullins (Teagasc) : “there is no risk of cross-contamination with potato crops”.
In my opinion the two people who spoke the most sense were Eleanor Winters and Dr. Mullins. Dr. Mullins explained why they had chosen to grow a gm potato crop and admitted that the Teagasc website does not outline their position fully. I still don’t agree with gm, but I have to admit he spoke very rationally about their position.
I did reprimand/tease Seamus Sheridan later for his headline grabbing statement and told him he should be worried.
Then there was time for a little bit of networking, and a quick bite of lunch.
Sorry guys – this is directed at organisers – do something about the signage! It took us about 20 minutes to find the ‘street market’…. and yes, we did ask the guides on hand.
A quick bit of very nice pizza, and on to the next debate.
“A sense of place” – The Local Food Story.” I suspect this debate took a completely different turn to that which was intended! The chair Ciara Jackson from Grant Thorntons began the debate with some statistics of how much ‘Irish’ food people are now buying. The panelists then discussed the direction of food tourism and how it can impact on localities, how the ‘story’ is so important to food.
Perhaps, it was my fault, when I suggested that while it is all very nice to think of tourists enjoying our food while they are here, it is really people living here that we (as producers) need to be buying our produce – otherwise the artisan food industry is not sustainable. So my quotes from this debate would be:
Mona Wise (WiseWords) on the subject of food tourism : “I feel more strongly with every recurring year that our country has no tradition which does it so much honour and which it should guard so jealously as that of its hospitality.” (taken from The Dead by James Joyce)
Seamus Sheridan : “Every town in Ireland should have a civic food market where local people can access local food’
John McKenna on how to stop the multiples governing food prices : “stop shopping in multiples”
Sean (I believe a butcher) definitely the quote of the day : a tin of pedigree chum costs more than a pack of 6 burgers”
If anything could be taken from this debate I think it would be that we have to try to encourage Irish people to shop local. I don’t think it is feasible to say ‘don’t shop in multiples’, perhaps a better way would be to ask people to buy more local. What do you think?
Another thing I think I should point out…. there were far more people at the second debate. There were an awful lot of producers at the second debate – why did they not attend the first debate on gm? An interesting question don’t you think.
I never got to the sushi demonstration…. I was too busy doing some more networking! It was so lovely to meet up with some people I hadn’t seen in years, and to meet new people – way too many to mention on here, but you know who you are!
And for another take on the day check out Sinead’s blog post.
A Year In Redwood 
Margaret I was glued to this post throughout! I try really hard to balance my passion for good food, Irish where possible with budget constraints and I’ve settled on a combination of home grown (happily increasing every year plus this year we are having a lamb killed) and Lidl which suits my budget but where I also buy Irish organic steak mince and eggs plus Irish free range chicken. The only small shops/local producers we have are butchers and none of these sell organic or free range meat (I asked and got an earful!) The closest market to me is 30 minutes away which would still be fine only its mid-week and I don’t drive, the next closest is 40 minutes drive and on Saturdays and we do go occasionally. I feel I’m doing quite well considering but I would love if there was a local market! At this stage I may have to start one myself : ) What an interesting sounding event too : )
Hi Jane,
Thank you for reading it through. It was an interesting discussion yesterday about local… and what is local? If I was to stick with the 30 mile radius I’d never get to eat fish! We too grow as much as we can, are lucky to have our own pork, get lamb and milk from our neighbour, and have our own ducks and hens. And yes budget (and travel constraints) does dictate where we all shop. Seemingly the order of Irish supporting large shops is SuperValu, Aldi and Lidl!
BTW you’ll have to get hens… you’ll so love having your own eggs and chicken! 🙂
Thanks for that post, Margaret – the next best thing to being there! I’d love to have heard what people had to say about shopping and supporting local. I know from having had a stall at Dingle Farmers’ Market that its success was very much to do with the support of locals, not just tourists. I sold mostly cupcakes and tourists would buy 1. Locals would buy six and come back the following week for more – much more valuable and sustainable.
But I can’t afford to do all of my shopping at such a level. I buy eggs, meat and fish locally, bread too if I don’t make my own (which I don’t do often enough). We get our veg from a mix of local people and the supermarket. The rest comes from the supermarket – SuperValu and LIDL mostly. It would be interesting to hear what others do…
Sharon,
I would like to think most people do much the same. We’re all on budgets nowadays! However, watching my neighbours – most just do supermarkets. Never markets – although there are quite a few of varying size/quality around us.
We very very seldom buy meat – only beef – and that’s from the local butcher. If we don’t have our own veg I try to buy at the market on a Saturday if I’m in Birr (10 miles) away. Sometimes though I don’t get there and have to do with the supermarket 4 miles away.
I suppose it’s because SuperValu is Irish but I find it expensive with poor selection though they seem to vary widely from one place to another on that (selection/choice) that is.
I’d dearly love to keep hens but I’m not good with animals i.e. I can’t physically ‘handle’ them. How would that work or not as the case may be? Did you ever see my ‘cat’ post? It’s listed under ‘popular posts’ I’m like that with animals in general which saddens me but there it is! Advice welcome…needed : )
Jane, we are lucky with the SuperValu we have in Portumna. It is great. And you are right they vary so much from place to place.
Have just read your cat post! How are you and Sooty getting on now? I must write about our 2 very different cats!
I reckon you’d be fine with hens. You could go for an enclosed (moveable) pen where they’d hop in and out of their house and all you’d have to do is ensure that they are locked in at night. The only time I have to ‘touch’ ours is if we’re late home and perhaps the hen shed door has blown closed and they’ve fallen asleep somewhere inappropriate so it is often easier to pick them up and carry them into the house 🙂
Ok I’ll give it more thought! Thanks Margaret : )
Give me a call if you need more advice or to chat about it all! Trust me they’re ‘relatively’ easy and the returns are great! 🙂
Great roundup Margaret, thank you! I’m not surprised, though am disappointed to hear once again that the GM talk didn’t attract the numbers. I really don’t think the majority know what it means (though the food industry certainly should). I’ve yet to meet a single person in my own workshops who knows what GM means (they do now). Pleased to hear Seamus was reprimanded, well done!
Re the buying local, I liked the idea of regular markets which are completely commonplace in the UK. Lack of markets was one of the very first things I noticed when we moved here 15 years ago. In our two local towns, one farmers market is on a Thursday and the other on a Saturday. Neither have parking nearby and both if Im honest seem quite clique which puts many people off. I’d love to see them more commonplace! In the meantime I’m delighted to hear that my two choices of supermarket of Supervalu and Aldi are top of the list for supporting Irish (they’re also the closest to us). Handy when our own produce needs topping up.
Dee, it was only when you were asking that I thought I should write the post, and then as I was putting my thoughts together it struck me how much of a difference there was on the attendance at the 2 debates!
Are food producers uninterested in the whole gm debate? Gosh, I hope not!
Thank you Margaret for your blogpost! Yes indeed it is a full on day! We try to offer a wide range of activities to suit all! Regarding signage I have to concur! Our campus is a bit of a maze to the uninitiated and despite signage and guides it was rather confusing so apologies for that..! We hope it didn’t spoil your day too much!
I know! Could you do something about cloning me so I could do bi-location! So many good things I wanted to attend! If I remember same think happened last year, I only got to half what I wanted to!
On the plus side… we burned off loads of calories before lunch! Those pizzas were damned good 🙂
Sounds like a day that you’ll be mulling over for a while Margaret. Good local markets are great but they depend on a location that’s convenient. Our market has basically died a death because it was in a bad location where the wind swept through it and limited footfall. That said, I can eat very comfortably on the 30 mile rule, I’m extremely lucky to live in the market-garden of Ireland.
When it comes to the GM debate I find that people believe/hope that the “powers that be” will decide the best for them. AHEM, we all know that is rarely the case….
Thanks Caitriona,
It is a great day. I should have also mentioned the local food stalls that formed a ‘market’ for the day. We did come home with some goodies!
Your comment re. the ‘powers that be’ dealing with the gm issue is interesting, as it seemed a lot at the 2nd debate regarding food and place, felt that the government should be governing re the multinationals too!
It is time for the people to speak! We voted them in, and they’re not doing what we want!!!!
M
was so gutten I couldn’t attend, so thank you for sharing your highlights! 🙂 I totally agree with John McKenna about shopping in multiples, I stopped doing it long time ago, I shop in farmer markets as much as possible and only go to my local Superquinn when I need toiletries or cleaning products. I heard last year butchers Jack & Tim McCarthy (from McCarthy’s in Kanturk) say: ‘why would you want to buy your sausages from the same place you buy your toilet paper from?!’ and it made so much sense to me!
Thanks Lily…. a very busy day! I need to practice my bi-location techniques to be able to attend more!
I think a lot of people still go for the ‘convenience’ option – certainly from what I see here at a local level. Then again we have a tiny, really tiny, market four miles away, 1 a little bigger 10 miles away and another small one 30 miles away. Knowing the markets you have – you are so so lucky.
We no longer even have a vegetable shop in the 2 towns near us!