Choose well: Angela Crocombe wants us to think about what we eat. Picture: Aaron Pocock

When did food become so scary? Fruit and vegetables coated with pesticides. Dairy laden with colours and flavours. Fish riddled with mercury. Canola courtesy of genetically modified crops. It seems every day we read another reason not to eat something previously regarded as safe or healthy.

Throw in questions about the ethics of eating and suddenly heading to the shops takes on the appearance of a minefield. How has the cow that delivered your steak been treated; were those eggs from chickens caged one on top of the other; how many carbon emissions did those tomatoes emit on the way to your salad; is that fillet of fish from a sustainable source; were the coffee beans in your latte produced with exploited labour?

No wonder many of us just simply throw our hands up in the air and keep buying as before. But, argues ethical eating advocate Angela Crocombe, it is not that hard to do the right thing. She has been practising what she preaches for years.

“It does take a bit more effort in the beginning,” she acknowledges. “But once you find the brands and you’ve checked the labels and you know that this product is sustainably fished or doesn’t have any additives, or hasn’t come from too far away… it becomes second nature.”

The author, whose previous book A Lighter Footprint showed us ways to reduce our carbon footprint, spent months researching the topic for her latest release. Ethical Eating: How to Make Food Choices That Won’t Cost The Earth covers topics such as climate change, animal welfare, chemicals, packaging and organic farming, with easy-to-read chapters on different foods (meat, dairy, seafood, drinks etc). Angela hopes the book will give readers a greater appreciation for food and influence our shopping choices. As she writes in the introduction, “What we choose to eat is one of the most important decisions we make on a daily basis.”

She believes more people are thinking about the impact of their choices.  “Climate change is bringing a lot of these issues to the fore,” she says. “We have to make that information available to people there and make it easier for people to make environmentally sound choices.”

But hasn’t the global financial crisis put these concerns on the back foot? “I think with this whole financial crisis has been building up for years. It’s reaching some kind of nexus where people will wake up and start making major changes,” she argues. “(The financial meltdown) may well put the environment on the backfoot for a little while but this (environmental) crisis is far, far bigger and it encompasses everything about our society.”

Angela has long been concerned about what she puts in her mouth, turning her back on red meat from an early age despite her father’s insistence that her mother not cater for “the phase”. A vegequarian (someone who doesn’t eat meat, but eats seafood, dairy and eggs), the issue of eating ethically has come into even sharper focus now she is pregnant with her first child.

“Certainly what goes into my mouth and the baby’s, particularly for those first few years, is really, really important to me.” she says emphatically. “There are so many toxins that you can’t control so it’s imperative to control or minimise the ones I can.”

Health comes first

Angela believes it is important for mothers to take the lead in the ethical eating stakes. “Women are still the main food purchasers and preparers in the house so they are really important in terms of changing the perception of food for the whole family,” she says.

But who has time to read the labels in supermarkets and check for additives, country of origin, sustainable fishing logos and the like when they’re battling fractious children? “In your average supermarket now there are a lot more ethical options available to us… It is possible and very doable to do the right thing,” Angela says. “And to me you can give your child all the material objects in the world, but what really matters is that they have love and that they have good food going into their bodies to give them the best health.”

She thinks many people have their priorities all wrong. “A girlfriend of mine in the States, they’ve got three kids and they’ve got this enormous house and every object  a child could ever want,” she says.  “I went to the supermarket and was trying to encourage her and say, ‘here’s these organic bananas and they’re a really good price’. She was, “oh, no that doesn’t interest me, that doesn’t concern me’. And I think, ‘you’re so concerned about your children and giving them the right start, how can you not be concerned about what they put in their bodies?’.”

Many shoppers, though, would be put off by the added cost of ethical food choices?  “Eating a healthy diet is actually quite cheap.” argues Angela. “Lentils are cheap, fruit and vegies are much cheaper than anything that’s been processed and put in a jar. And even if you can’t buy all-organic by cutting down on or cutting meat out of your diet you can save LOTS of money. My thing is eat less meat, spend that bit that you’re going to save buying organic fruit and veg if you can, especially the ones that retain more toxins, such as apples and grapes… and really it shouldn’t cost any more than it was costing before.”

The power of choice

She acknowledges, though, that depending on where you live it’s not always easy to make the right choice. It’s all very well to buy organic or locally at farmers markets if you live near good suppliers, but if home is a remote town where everything is brought in by road or air, for example, it’s not so simple.

“It’s good to have general principles but not to beat yourself up about it because you’re going to feel guilty and then you’re probably going to give up and it’s going to become a negative thing rather than a positive thing that you feel good about doing,” she says.

“It is very difficult to be 100 percent ethical 100 percent of the time, but it is about awareness. And the more you can think about where something has come from and the implications of that the better off we all are… I think all of us need to be reminded that we do in fact hold a lot of power in our hands and do have the power to make a difference.”

Think about the fruit and vegetables you buy. Yes, we’re all told to eat more of them for our health, and so we should, but not all are created equal.

In conventional farming all are treated with varying degrees of herbicides and pesticides and some retain these chemical nasties more than others. The US-based research centre Environmental Working Group (EWG) has published a free guide to those with the most (and least) pesticide residue. The group looked at 44 popular varieties, comparing data from 51,000 tests carried out by the US Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration.

It’s worth keeping a copy of the list in your wallet when you go shopping so at the very least you avoid the worst offenders, which EWG has labelled the Dirty Dozen. They point out that while washing and peeling fruit and vegetables does help remove some residue, it does not eliminate them (besides, with many fruit and vegetables you’d prefer to keep the skin on if you can for maximum nutrients). If you want to minimise your exposure – and that of the environment – to pesticides, try to choose organic when buying the following fruit and vegetables.

Go organic: Strawberries have some of the highest pesticide residues. Picture: Taco-Man23

Apples
Capsicum
Celery
Cherries
Grapes
Lettuce
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Spinach
Strawberries

Nothing prepared for dinner? Boil an egg. Need a nutritious breakfast? Try scrambled egg. No time? Bolt down an egg flip. But as versatile as they may be in the kitchen, there is nothing easy about selecting a carton of eggs.

For the past 30 years the egg has been at the forefront of campaigns by animal welfare activists, concerned about inhumane production. Debates have also raged about the egg’s fat and cholesterol content, pesticide and artificial hormone content and the risk of bacterial contamination.

The good news is that eggs are a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals, including the essential nutrient choline. They are also a source of Omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and folate. They are pretty high in fat (less than a third of that is saturated fat) which is found in the yolk. The white is water and 13 per cent protein.

Breaking ranks: The variety of egg labels can be bewildering. Picture: canoncan

Cholesterol – friend or enemy?

In the 1980s, eggs received a bad rap for their high cholesterol content and were struck off the diets of many deemed at risk of heart problems. More recent research has shown that high cholesterol levels are far more likely to be caused by genetic and lifestyle factors and the consumption of saturated fats than eating cholesterol. Some medicos believe that eating eggs can actually lower cholesterol levels because they’re high in cholesterol but low in saturated fats, which can help shut down the body’s production of cholesterol.

But having decided it’s fine to eat eggs, the consumer still has to negotiate a way through all the cartons on offer, labelled with various claims about sizes, quality, production and nutrition.

And it does not help that some of the labels are meaningless. According to the Australian Egg Corporation, for example, the label “antibiotic-free” means nothing because all industry chickens are free of routinely administered antibiotics. If birds are given antibiotics by a vet, it says, there is a “cooling-off” period so they are unlikely get into the eggs.

The American egg industry says low levels of antibiotics are occasionally, but only rarely, used to prevent disease and ensure the health of laying hens. It says very few antibiotics are permitted and there is an economic incentive not to use them because of the cost. In the UK there has been more evidence of antibiotic residue in eggs from routine use on farms.

Similarly, the label “hormone-free” means nothing because hormones have been banned in poultry production in the developed world since the 1950s. However, many people still claim that eggs contain artificial hormones.

Battery hens top of the hit list

For the most part, though, the labelling refers to the methods of egg production and how the hens are kept, reflecting a widespread and growing public concern for the welfare of chickens, especially battery hens.

Since their introduction in the 1930s in the US, egg producers have regarded battery cages as the most efficient and hygienic way to produce eggs and the vast majority of commercial eggs are still laid by caged birds. Animal welfare activists say hens are kept in large numbers in small cages without the opportunity to walk around or engage natural behaviour such as nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging.

Battery hens also tend to suffer from osteoporosis and have bones that break easily. Their productivity is regulated by lighting and carefully measured quantities of protein rich feed, which is sometimes supplemented with colouring agents and medication. Birds often have their beaks cut to stop them pecking each other, and can be induced, by restricting their food, to artificially moult to make them lay more.

Supporters of battery farming contend that alternative systems, such as free-range, are costly and also have welfare problems, such as increases in cannibalism and injurious pecking, worse air quality and no scientifically proven decrease in chicken stress levels.

Nonetheless, many countries in Europe have now banned battery cages altogether and the European Union has ruled that conventional battery cages be phased out by 2012. They are to be replaced with enriched – or furnished – cages that are larger, house fewer birds and have nest boxes, dust baths and a perch.

What’s the alternative to caged eggs?

There is a plethora of labels advertising certification. All mean something slightly different in terms of hen welfare, but in general there are three main alternatives to cage eggs; barn laid, free-range and organic.

Barn laid or cage-free eggs are produced by hens that are loose-housed on litter but have no access to the outdoors. Barn houses also have nest boxes, perches and a dust-bath area and may be single-tiered or multi-tiered.

Free-range (or free roaming) birds are also loose-housed in barns or warehouses and have daily access to the outdoors as well (how much time the hens actually spend outside is also subject to debate, as is the size and quality of the outdoor yard).

The size of the flock and the range of housing is highly variable. Australian regulations stipulate that one metre of space has to be allocated for every 30kg of free-range or barn kept birds. In the UK for eggs to be called free-range, hens must have continuous daytime access to runs which are mainly covered with vegetation and with a maximum stocking density of 2500 birds per hectare. The US has no specific standards for free-range egg production. Both production methods may still employ beak cutting and forced moulting.

Organic egg production is on the rise. But it is not always clear what the label “organic” means so it pays to do your homework. In the UK alone there are 10 different organic certification bodies with varying standards. In general the minimum standards should ensure that birds are kept in free-range conditions with a diet free of pesticides, GMOs, animal-derived products and antibiotics.

In the UK routine debeaking is not allowed, but it is in the US. Some certification authorities allow the use of antibiotics under strict conditions in the case of illness. Some do not allow their use at all. Only natural moulting can occur within the flock. In most organic operations nesting boxes are placed above a belted system so roaming birds lay their eggs on the belts instead of on the ground.

If hens are allowed to genuinely free-range they will not produce vegetarian eggs since they eat insects and worms while scratching around outside. Eggs from pasture-fed hens have more folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin E and carotenes than grain-fed fowl and will often be a brighter yellow than other eggs (although the absence of artificial colours in the feed can often mean the opposite).

Rare breed: The Romanesco Broccoli is prized for its flavour and beauty. Picture: Artichaud

Rebecca’s garden is replete with heirlooms. Different colours, shapes and sizes, they dot the landscape, sparkling like diamonds when the sun catches them at the right angle.

Rouge d’Hiver, Cherokee Purple, Zucchino Rampicante, Little Marvels, Tonda di Paragi… Their very names evoke the exotic, hinting at journeys of discovery in foreign parts.

Indeed, many of them have come from far afield and are highly prized, although call them by the humble names of lettuce, tomato, zucchini, peas or carrots and the uninitiated may think otherwise.

It is the scarcity of these cultivars that makes them so valued, if not valuable in the tradition of diamonds and pearls.

Before the advent of monoculture farming – growing one crop over a wide area – there were thousands of varieties, for example, of apples to be had. Chances are our grandparents could have reeled off dozens without thinking; most of us would be hard pressed to name more than about four or five.

Large-scale commercial farming generally favours hybrid crops that produce a more uniform look, smell and taste, as well as ones that can withstand the rigours of transportation and storage.

Think about the average tomato you buy; it’s either round or oval, big or small. There aren’t too many green, purple, pink or striped ones to be found in most grocers.

Hunting down heirlooms

But there is a band of people around the world dedicated to changing all that, to hunting down and preserving exotic heirlooms so they do not vanish from our lives forever. People who are gardeners and food lovers like Rebecca can go to for a slice or two of tasty treasures.

The Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organisation, estimates it has passed on more than a million such seeds to other like-minded gardeners since its inception in 1975.

Founders Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy began their heirloom collection with two plants from Diane’s grandfather – Grandpa Ott’s Morning Glory and German Pink Tomato – that had been brought by his parents from Bavaria to the US in the 1870s.

Heritage Farm, SSE’s headquarters in Decorah, Iowa, boasts 24 acres of certified organic gardens that puts Eden in the shade. There, you’ll find the most diverse public orchard in the United States, a place where 700 varieties of apples from the 19th century are on display; as well as more than 24,000 rare vegetable varieties, including 500 different types of tomatoes and beans, from as far afield as Eastern Europe.

Although there is some debate about what exactly constitutes an heirloom, it is generally held that the plant must be at least 50 years old (some gardeners maintain the plants should have celebrated their 100 birthdays); it must be self-pollinated or open-pollinated (able to reproduce itself); and, like anything worthy of the name, it needs a history worth sharing.

Take the rare Golden Sweet Pea. Collected at a market in India, it is best eaten small and is a delicious addition to stir-fries. It will also look rather gorgeous in your garden, boasting purple flowers and bright yellow pods.

Then there’s the beautiful Romanesco Broccoli. Prized in Italy, its yellow heads look like cascading coral and those who’ve sampled it argue there is no other in the family that can touch it for flavour.

For another splash of colour, try the Purple Peruvian, a potato highly valued in the South American highlands. Regarded by many chefs as the “gem of the Andes”, this not-so-humble-spud raises your average salad a notch and also makes great chips.

SSE and other companies sell heirloom seeds worldwide, so if you can’t find any of the above at the local grocer – and chances are you won’t – you might just be able to grow them yourselves. And discover a whole new meaning of the word treasure.

Land of plenty: Cattle producers reap rewards of organic practices. Picture: obebeef.com.au

It can be a challenging game running cattle on the rangelands of Australia. There is the extreme isolation, the heat and dust, the seasons are unreliable and even when the rain comes, there isn’t much of it.

But Scott Fraser, along with a couple of his fellow cattle producers in the channel country of far west Queensland and New South Wales, realised that with organic beef production, all those negatives could be turned into positives.

“One of the problems is isolation, but now it is a positive because we are away from industries and intensive agriculture,” he says. “Then we are in a dry zone which is good because we have no persistent pests like worms or buffalo fly and weeds, And the soil is very arid but once it does get wet, it’s very fertile and grows natural grasses that are very high in nutrients, this is recognised as the best natural fattening country in the world.”

The irregular seasons also mean the land is stocked at very low rates and much of it is naturally in fallow so feed is mulched back into the soil. “You dig into it and up comes an organic production cycle,” Scott says.

Hiqh quality exports

And so Organic Beef Exporters (OBE) was born, a grower-owned company that now supplies high quality grass-fed beef to markets throughout Australia, Asia and the United States with the highest standards of organic certification. Driven by a desire to have greater control over the price he received for his high-quality beef cattle, Scott was one of the founding directors of OBE, set up in 1996. “We knew we had a good product and we were sick of bundling it up into everyone else’s boxes,” he says.

OBE now has 32 shareholders and three directors, a company manager and two marketing managers. CEO Simone Tully says with a combined herd size of between 80,000 and 100,000 cattle, it is a multi-million dollar business, one of the biggest organic beef producers in the world.

Early taste testing exercises convinced them they had a ready market for their organic beef and they quickly got orders from Australian restaurants, but to get the sales volumes they needed to make the company viable they realised that had to find export markets.

They now send four containers a month to the US and two containers a month to various markets in Asia, Simone says this also ensures there is a market for all the various cuts of beef. OBE also sells frozen hamburger patties and pre-cooked meatballs direct to catering firms in Australia and overseas.

From dry to big wet

Scott and his wife Paula run Nooyeah Downs near Thargomindah in the Bulloo Shire. The property has been in Scott’s family for more than 50 years and he was born and bred there. Located 1100km west of Brisbane, the station spreads over 84,000ha (208,000 acres) in the floodplains of the Bulloo River, part of the unique channel country of central Australia.

This vast inland delta is patterned with small creeks and rivers that are dry for most of the year but flood in the summer wet season when tropical rains to the north drain down through central Australia towards Lake Eyre. While rainfall is only 250mm a year (10 inches), around 70 per cent of Scott’s property is regularly flooded.

“The cattle are all right, they are pretty smart and they can swim out or get up on to high ground,” he says. His organic prime lambs can need a little more help to get out of the floodwaters.  “We keep them in the home paddock so we can keep and eye on them, but this year I had to get out on a horse and push them out of the water,” he says.

As the waters recede the once-arid soil is soon covered in lush grasses, perfect of fattening livestock quickly. The cattle are a cross of santa gertrudis, shorthorn and black angus breeds, especially selected for the conditions.

Keeping stock numbers down

Scott has a very low stock rate of one head to 40ha (100acres), partly due to the drought that has ravaged much of Australia for the past seven years, but also due to a deliberate strategy by OBE producers to look after the country by keeping stock numbers down – a long way from the traditional approach to running cattle which is usually “the more, the better”.

“When my father was here, I shudder at the stocking rates now, it was unbelievable,” Scott says.“You know, it’s not cheap to grow grass, but if you don’t overstock it, you can have a consistent through-put and ride the seasons a lot easier, with paddocks to spare.”

Scott says when the season is good, the temptation is there to restock but I just say: “No, just leave it there, it will come in handy, and it does. It is very satisfying, it is very exciting.”

And it is all possible because consumers are prepared to pay a premium for good quality, organic beef, he says. These days when he occasionally sends a conventional load of cattle off, “Oh, gee it hurts,” he laughs. “But we need a premium because you can’t just go and buy more organic cattle to restock when you want to, it is a slow process, breeding up again.”

Taste of the Outback

The fact that the beef comes from such splendidly remote and exotic country, on the edge of the Simpson Desert, is also integral to the attraction of OBE beef, which is billed as “the taste of the Australian Outback” and used to promote far western Queensland.

OBE’s founders were keen to ensure their enterprise benefited their community and future generations as well. It has a social justice policy that outlines a commitment to community and equal opportunity employment. Scott explains that both he and OBE chairman David Brook, had served time as their respective shires’ mayors. “So we came at it from a different point of view,” he says. “There was a commitment made that if we can do local, we will.”

Being a part of OBE also offers shareholders and their family members career opportunities in an agricultural business beyond the paddock. Scott says several are employed in OBE already and his own son and daughter are studying marketing – one at university and the other from a more ‘hands-on perspective’ at home – with a view to getting involved in the family business.

“I used to travel 30km, but these days the kids have to travel 200km to socialise. We have taken a view that if we move them further down the food chain they can still get out and get some social contact,” he says. “It helps to broaden the kids, there are aspects of farming which are really exciting. There is a bit more enthusiasm for farming, rather than just selling the cattle up the road at the saleyards, you can go overseas and see the product in LA or New York and then you can come home and enjoy working on it, you can see where your efforts are going.”

It’s a vision of Arcadian splendour from a simpler time; it is the way people shop in nursery rhymes and historic novels. It’s a very long way from slinging a bag of pre-washed lettuce leaves into a trolley at a fluorescent-lit supermarket.

But increasingly, it’s also the way many of us want to shop now. The past 10 years have seen a massive revival in farmers’ markets, where growers sell their own produce direct to consumers, reviving an interest in locally grown produce and breathing new life into local economies and communities.

The United States’ Agricultural Marketing Service estimates there are around 4400 operating farmers’ markets in the country. In the UK, the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association (FARMA) has certified around 550 markets since it started in 1997.

Rising stocks: Farmers' markets are enjoying a revival. Picture: ellievanhoutte

A recent UK survey showed 30 per cent of people had been to a farmers’ market in the past 12 months and 30 per cent had been to a farm shop, but 88 per cent would like to buy direct from farmers.

Rita Exner, association secretary of FARMA, says UK farmers’ markets are worth £220million a year. Even in straitened economic times there is no sign of people wanting to depart from the principle of getting the freshest, best local food available to them at farmers’ markets.

“People are fed up with being processed through a supermarket and love buying direct from the producer,” Rita says. “They can talk and get answers to questions about the food they are about to buy. It’s a very sociable experience, too.”

Stacy Miller, the executive secretary from the Farmers Market Coalition in the US, agrees. She says surveys of market customers reveal they are most attracted by the freshness and appearance of the produce, the variety of goods available and the atmosphere of the market.

Many consumers also say they are attracted by the idea of buying organic produce. Rita says most farmers’ markets have about 10 per cent organic produce and there is one small wholly organic farmers’ market in London. “But they are mostly small farms and they take more care not to use chemicals indiscriminately,” she says.  Stacy says although many American producers are not actually certified organic, they use organic practices.

“If the producer is right there, you can ask questions. A sticker or a label is not as important as being able to ask the grower about how something was grown,” she says.

People are increasingly concerned about food safety, not just in relation to chemicals but also recent outbreaks of E.coli. “If you buy a bag of spinach leaves at a supermarket you just have to trust that someone has looked at it and it is in a good state but here, there is a relationship of trust that has been built up,” she argues. “You can ask, and if you do get sick, well you have accountability – you have their phone number, you can ask questions. How do you get that from a grocery store?”

While FARMA provides a certification process for farmers’ markets in the UK, in the US there is no nationwide certification process but many states have their own accreditation processes that take into account local demands and conditions.

In general, the aims of all farmers’ markets are similar – to bring farmers, growers or producers from a local area together to sell their own produce which has been grown, reared, caught or made by the stallholder. This means consumers get the freshest, most local produce possible, supporting the local community and economy and reducing “food miles”.

Rita Exner says there is a very real interest from consumers in trying to spend their money in a way that benefits the local community. “They are identifying with people who have businesses in their area,” she says.

But, as Stacy Miller, points out, farmers’ markets also provide a “self-interest entry point” for just about anybody. “There is farmland preservation, rural entrepreneurism, small business development as well as community development, nutrition, general health and wellbeing and social capital. Then there is economic development from the economic multipliers – there’s a lot going on there.”

One immediate benefit was making consumers more aware of the value of good quality produce. “They are bringing people back to the notion that there is a whole world of flavours that don’t exist when something has been harvested long ago and stored on a truck,” Stacy says.

Farmers’ markets also have a role to play in educating people about what’s in season, and how to prepare it. “They remind people what a real version (of a fruit or vegetable in season) tastes like or why there are no lettuces in the middle of summer because it is too hot to grow them in the sun. It is neat, people get into the flow of things,” Stacy says.

And Rita says when people do buy in season, they get a more varied diet. “They buy what’s available and in season instead of the same things year round.”

In the UK and Europe there is a noticeably growing interest among consumers in diet and health and a desire to be reassured that what they are eating is really good. There is also increasing scepticism about so-called “local” food in supermarkets.

“It may have been harvested 20 or 50 miles away but by the time it has been to a packing plant 150 miles away, it has done a round trip of several hundred miles,” Rita says.

But consumers should not necessarily expect goods to be cheaper at farmers’ markets. While fruit and vegetables in season are often inexpensive, Rita says meat is not always as cheap as supermarkets. “But it’s better quality and you know it has lived decently, it has lived a good life,” she says.

Stacy says as long as fuel costs in the US are subsidised, the true cost of transporting and packaging food will not be reflected in the supermarket price. When it is, locally-grown product will be a good economic alternative, she says.

“But there are costs associated with freshness. There is a risk of loss when products are so ripe and fresh and farmers are paying people decent wages,” she says. “It goes back to quality, the cost may be higher but the value is exponentially higher.”

Appearances aside, these glasses are in fact worlds apart. The milk in one derives from a wide range of dairy herds. Like dairy cows throughout the developed world, the cows that produced it feed on pastures that have been treated with synthetic insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, and with solvent-based fertilisers. Many, possibly all, have been routinely administered antibiotics, worm treatment, fertility drugs and growth hormones. They might also have been fed genetically modified food and animal products.

Full cream: Organic milk contains healthy fats. Picture: Kylie May

The milk in the other glass is the product of a single herd of organically grown and raised cows. They feed on pastures that are not treated with artificial pesticides or fertilisers and receive antibiotics only after homeopathic options have failed. During treatment, the cows do not provide milk for consumption and at no time are they given fertility drugs or fed genetically modified food or animal products.

Winning over the skeptics

Taking a closer look at the two glasses, I wonder to what degree fertility and growth products, antibiotics and agricultural chemicals show up in cow’s milk. The Internet seems to bubble with alarmist claims. Beyond the misinformation and hype, scientists generally agree that, like humans, cows excrete through their milk harmful compounds that they are fed or administered.

About 40 per cent of milk sales in Denmark are organic and the figures in the UK and the US are six per cent and three per cent respectively. As demand for organic milk increases, some farmers in the US in particular have been criticised by consumer watchdog groups for bending the rules, using high-intensity farming methods.

The weight of evidence in favour of organic milk has grown to the extent that many national food bodies, such as the UK’s notoriously sceptical Food Standards Agency, now generally acknowledge the nutritional advantages of organic over conventional milk.

The contents of the two glasses getting frostier by the moment on my kitchen bench betray none of the issues shaking up the dairy industry worldwide. They look the same, smell the same and appear to have the same consistency. Perhaps their disparate origins might be betrayed in a blind taste test.

Passing the taste test

My teenage daughter, a milk lover who has arrived in the kitchen after a thirsty day at school, is a convenient guinea pig. Does she have a preference between these two different “brands” of milk, I ask? Raising exhibit A to her mouth, she tastes the milk, rolls it around on her tongue, savours and swallows. Exhibit B gets the same initial treatment. But there is an appreciative pause mid-way through, a smacking of the lips at the end. The organic milk is declared tastier.

Lisa Togno runs an organic dairy on a lush property in south-western Australia. Since she converted the farm to organic two years ago, demand has increased from 300 litres of milk a week to more than 5500 litres. She believes consumers are wising up to unsustainable farming practices in the face of the global food crisis and environmental concerns, but “cleaner” food play a central role.

“Organic milk tastes like milk used to,” she said, adding that the only fertility treatment meted out to her herd are two horny bulls. “It’s creamy and the flavour is rich and pure.”

Glass full of antioxidants

But taste is only a part of the organic picture. One of the world’s most expensive studies on organic foods last year found that compared to conventional milk, organic milk contained up to 70 per cent more antioxidants, naturally occuring substances in plants that protect the body from free radicals, or harmful chemicals.

The four-year project, led by Newcastle University, cost 12 million pounds and prompted calls for the UK’s Food Standards Agency to concede that organic milk has a defined health benefit compared with nonorganic milk.

Richard Hampton, a spokesman for the UK’s biggest organic dairy farmers cooperative, Omsco, believes this official tick of approval is inevitable. He told Trustorganicfood.com that the agency had so far refused this request on the basis of insufficient research. “But we believe this will change in the long term as the body of evidence grows,” he said.

The co-ordinator of the Newcastle University study, Professor Carlo Leifert, said the research confirmed there were more nutritionally desirable compounds and fewer harmful ones in organic foods. “Our research is now trying to find out where the difference between organic and conventional food comes from,” he said.

Drinking good fats

In May 2008, results from a further study by Newcastle University showed that cows grazed on organic properties in the UK produced milk that contained significantly higher beneficial fatty acids, antioxidants and vitamins than their conventional “high input” counterparts.

The Nafferton Ecological Farming Group study found that during the summer months, one beneficial fat in particular – conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA9 – was found in 60 per cent higher concentrations.

One of the first studies to show an actual health impact from organic food consumption was published in the peer reviewed British Journal of Nutrition in 2007. The Netherlands research, by the Louis Bolk Institute, showed that the incidence of eczema in young children was reduced by 36 per cent among those who consumed organic dairy products.

Scientists generally agree that children may be more susceptible to pesticide residues since they have a higher intake of food per unit of body weight and are less able to eliminate toxins.

Convinced of the benefits of organic milk, how can consumers be sure they are getting what they pay that little extra for?  In general they are advised to become familiar with their country’s own peak governing body for organic standards, and the consumer logos that represent this seal of approval. In the UK, the Soil Association leads the charge.

In the US, the United States Department of Agriculture sets the standards, but a visit to the Organic Consumers Association or the Organic Trade Association website is well worthwhile. By buying products marked with these logos, consumers can be sure that the milk they are buying comes from an approved source.

Free to roam: Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver championed chickens' rights. Picture: imageafter

It should have been the year of Chicken’s Lib.

When campaigning TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall embarked on his experiment (Hugh’s Chicken Run) in 2007 to highlight the plight of Britain’s favourite food – the battery hen – he almost started a food revolution.

Hugh ran two farms – one based on common practices in factory farming, the other on organic, free range production of chickens. He introduced a community of previously devoted cheap-as-chips chicken eaters to raise their own free range birds – and eat their charges – converting them to reject factory birds in favour of free range in their local supermarkets.

The nation began to sit up and take notice of something that perhaps they had, up until then, taken for granted; that the short, uncomfortable life of the chicken on their plate was a pretty gruesome affair.

Targeting the big supermarket chains of the UK who sell millions of cheap chickens each year, Hugh did his best to turn around the public’s perception that just because chicken was ubiquitous, didn’t mean that at some stage, the original animal that produced the nugget they ate, or the roast they had on a Sunday, hadn’t had as much right to a worthwhile life as any other animal destined for our plates.

The campaign gained momentum when fellow TV chef, Jamie Oliver, delivered another publicity-grabbing diatribe, attacking factory farming practices in Jamie’s Fowl Dinners, which aired in the UK early this year. There were books too, like food journalist Hattie Ellis’s Planet Chicken, which revealed some horrendous statistics from the US and around the world about our love affair with cheap, who-cares-where-it-comes-from chicken.

Following all this negative publicity about the way they put chicken on their shelves, the big corporations shut down pretty quickly Hugh and Jamie’s attempts to revolutionise a nation’s chicken eating habits. They correctly surmised, that given time, people would forget about their favourite meat’s fate, put from their minds the images of chickens too weak to move, with huge clumps of excrement stuck to their legs, and continue to tuck into meat sourced from battery and factory farms.

According to Jamie and Hugh’s research, the majority of the UK’s chicken come from battery farms which raise 860 million every year. Most factory farms house between 20,000 to 40,000 chickens per shed. Some farmers expect to make as little as 1 to 2 pence per bird, directly affecting their need to pack as many birds as possible into their sheds.

It now takes half the time to raise a bird than it did 30 years ago, thanks to genetic modifications which do not take into account at all the creature’s natural desire to be a bird. They are indoors for their average life of 40 days, without natural light, the period of darkness they’re given may be as little as one hour in 24, so that they are constantly feeding, piling on the pounds so that they will appear plump under their eventual cloak of cellophane on the supermarket shelves.

They can’t move very far, all they can really do is feed and rest and feed and rest, and put on this extraordinary unnatural weight.

By contrast, organic chickens are given time to put on weight, taking up to 70 to 80 days, and have the freedom to do what chickens do naturally – peck, scratch the open ground, and respond to the natural rhythms of the diurnal cycle.

The resulting meat, according to chefs like Hugh and Jamie, is infinitely better. Hugh says that it “appals” him that the amount of free range chicken eaten in the UK is only 2 or 3 per cent, compared with 30 or 40 per cent in France.

The main obstruction to converting the UK – and other nations which see it as a right to consume chicken cheaply every day – is cost. Hattie Ellis charted the evolution of the chicken from once a year treat to everyday commodity in Planet Chicken, the world’s passion for this bird really kicking off in the US where the first efficient factory farms began.

Jamie Oliver has suggestions for those who would like to reinstate the chicken as a premium meat in their household. On his website he points out that “you don’t have to eat chicken every day. In Britain, we eat meat six to seven times a week while many other European nationalities only eat meat three to four times a week”. He also suggests buying the best welfare bird you can afford rather than the cheapest one on the shelf.

It’s a matter of changing your mindset that you must have chicken, just because it’s cheap and available. There are signs that some producers are making changes – albeit slowly – and Hugh’s campaign continues under the banner Chicken Out!, which maintains a level of public  pressure on the big corporations.

However, real change will only occur if every one of us rejects the factory farmed option in favour of free range every time we fancy a slice of chicken on our plates.

Beautiful beet: Treat it kindly and the rewards for your health and tastebuds are rich. Picture: Ayala Moriel

Spare a moment to consider – and pity – the poor beet. It has suffered an inglorious fate over the years. Pickled to within an inch of its life, sliced, diced, ruffled then retained in its jar for years on pantry shelves for its annual outing at Christmas.

It’s no wonder that many consider this overlooked but sensational vegetable is due for its moment in the sun. It’s almost as if the beet, or beetroot as it’s also known in some parts, was designed to be loved, despite its humble roots. Its leaves are heart shaped after all, and it leaves the cooks hands a blushing pink if care isn’t taken.

But somehow, somewhere along the way, the beet’s loveable side was ignored, in favour of boiling it to within an inch of its life before sousing it in harsh vinegars or pulverising it into borscht.

Thankfully, the resurgence in the popularity of beets through top chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Gary Rhodes has meant that keen cooks have taken a fresh look at this humble root.

Take your organically grown beet – and be prepared to be amazed at the choice out there. No longer are you restricted to the familiar, usually dirt-encrusted purple orb. There are fabulous colours, even stripey variants (Chioggia especially), as if specifically created to add interest and flavour to your plate.

Beets are versatile and kind when cooked; they can be peeled, steamed and then eaten warm with butter, or roasted and diced, ready to be added to a simple salad of feta cheese, lentils and lamb’s lettuce. Just remember to keep the skin on if you want to avoid murderous-looking hands when you handle them cooked, or wear gloves.

Health-wise, the beet could be said to have it all.

Since Roman times, it has been used as a treatment for relieving constipation and fevers, as well as giving oomph in the bedroom, too – it is well known as an aphrodisiac thanks to the high levels of boron it contains. Even these days, such is the strength of its health-giving qualities, some believe that beets and other vegetables high in beta-carotene may provide a key in the fight against HIV and other diseases.

In the 19^th century, beets were known as “blood turnip”, thanks to the way they would “bleed” after cooking, an irony since research has now shown that beets taken in juice form can help lower blood pressure levels.

For chefs and cooks however, the only thing that matters is the taste – and as long as they are organic and properly prepared (ie, not in a jar, swilling in malt vinegar), many would swear there’s nothing finer to offer as a mash, pureed with a slug of sour cream and some chopped dill, and served with strong game meat, like venison.

It is one of the sweetest of vegetables, complementing in its turn oily fish, such as mackerel, as a side salad, shredded with fennel and cumin seeds.

There will still be those who insist on keeping a jar of pickled beets on standby in their cupboard, next to the dill pickle and mango chutney. But to ignore the possibilities of this colourful, ancient and health-giving  little star of the kitchen would be a real crime.