Off The Shelf #19: Trending Globally
Those healthy food fads might not be so healthy
Photo: Estúdio Bloom
Recently, I’ve been reading ‘The Way We Eat Now’ by Bee Wilson. It’s an eye opener: a reflection on how much society has changed in recent decades when it comes to eating. Wilson talks about the proliferation of fast food, the effect of aggressive advertising on our health and habits, and the implications of the sheer variety of food available in supermarkets which didn’t exist a hundred years ago.
There’s a lot of worrying stuff in there: the obesity crisis, for instance, and the rise in food inequality. But I also think a lot of what she highlights should be celebrated - such as the hundreds of different types of cuisine available to us in just one place, at the tap of a button. Who’s going to complain about that? As always with food, it’s not just a clear cut case of good or bad.
One interesting, nuanced observation in the book, which I hadn’t really appreciated, is about the unintended consequences of food trends. Wilson points out the growing popularity of ‘superfoods’, for all the health benefits they bring, can have unintended consequences for food systems. For example, the ascent of quinoa, touted by some as ‘the crop that can save the world’, is having a complicated effect on farmers in Bolivia, where it is grown in huge quantities and is historically a staple food for Bolivians. In the year 2000, quinoa cost $28.40 per 100 kilos. By 2008, that had risen to $204.50. Effectively, a price rise like this means that, while producers are profiting from its sale, many Bolivians have been priced out of a local staple, and have had to turn to other foods like instant wheat noodles.
And it’s not just the social impact, either: Wilson highlights the toll that increased quinoa production is having on the land in Bolivia, with industrial scale farming leading to soil degradation. The answer could be to increase quinoa production elsewhere in the world to cater for this increased demand, but nevertheless, it’s clear that our taste for superfood salads can have local consequences that we might not have anticipated, or wanted.
Another consequence of food fads is the prevalence of food fraud. The more popular an item becomes, the more you will find unscrupulous market players trying to sell it, even if it’s not the real deal. In the book, Wilson cites pomegranate juice as a case in point. Research done around 2008 showed that there weren’t enough pomegranate trees on earth to be supplying the amount of ‘pomegranate’ juice on the shelves. Somebody out there was lying - and because most people had never even tasted pomegranate juice right from the tree, nobody really knew just how pure their refreshing breakfast drink actually was, so there was no way for consumers to hold producers to account.
By the way, food fraud is a huge and important topic in itself when it comes to the sustainability of our food systems. If you want to learn more about it and keep up to date with the latest news and views, you need look no further than Karen Constable’s awesome weekly newsletter The Rotten Apple - check it out!
GOING PEAR-SHAPED
Perhaps the most ubiquitous food trend of the 21st century has been the rise of the ‘green gold’ holding pride of place on menus from Shoreditch to Brooklyn: whether it’s smashed and slathered on sourdough, or sliced and served with a superfood salad, it’s inescapable: that staple of Western diets… the trusty avocado.
Its popularity might be down to its nutritional benefits: avocados have long been a staple food in South and Central America, with high fat levels as well as an abundance of vitamins B, C and E, and potassium. This puts it firmly in scope of ‘superfood’ status, which means it’s easily marketable, especially as the trend towards clean eating continues among health-conscious, metropolitan types.
And it doesn’t hurt that the flesh of the avocado (providing it’s not been left out in the open for any length of time, a personal phobia of mine) is that alluring green colour. It just looks so good on a quaint little plate, especially with a sprinkling of black pepper and chilli flakes. There could also be an element of herd mentality propelling it to the top of the brunch charts. Deep down, people just like to be part of the crowd, and ordering it because it’s the fashionable thing to do could account for some of its popularity in the last few years.
I suppose there’s also the possibility that people actually like eating avocados.
Unfortunately, despite the health benefits and no need for a filter, your side of ‘guac’ might not be as sustainable as you think. There are significant knock-on effects from the proliferation of the avocado in global food culture, and as is so often the case, the problems are both environmental and social:
🪓 Deforestation has increased as a result of the global boom in demand. Biodiversity is further reduced by the fact that plantations tend to be dominated by just one variety. With only one type of avocado accounting for 80% of those exported from Mexico, the resilience of the crops to drought and disease is weakened.
💧 Avocados need a lot of water to grow - 320 litres per fruit, in some regions. And because of the water content in the fruit itself, the importing of avocados to countries like the UK actually takes water away from the drier regions in which they’re produced.
💵 Similar to the quinoa quandary in Bolivia, heightened global demand means that consumers in the countries of origin are being priced out of the market for what was once a staple food.
⚔️ Even more sinister is the entry of criminal cartels into the market. Because of the profits on offer as demand soars, gangsters have been extorting farmers - or worse. Officials have also been threatened - resulting in a ban by the US earlier this year on imports from Mexico.
For more on all of the above, this article by the Sustainable Food Trust is worth a read.
Am I suggesting we all immediately boycott the avocado, and strip Instagram of the colour green? Of course not. I don’t want pariah status. But I do think we should take a minute to be mindful of the food we eat and the trends we choose to lean into: we should have our eyes open to where food comes from, and how it’s reached us. Bee Wilson sums it up better than I could, so I’ll leave you this week with her words:
When a food becomes suddenly trendy, this will inevitably have far-reaching consequences for the people who produce it, for good or ill. But we eaters are mostly blind to such consequences, because we have been encouraged to think of the foods we consume as things that appear on our plates, as if by magic, simply because we desire them.
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