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Last Thursday I found myself sitting outside the local supermarket in the car park – thinking. I had come from a busy day and I was thinking of what I could buy the children for their dinner. It was raining, I was tired and I wanted something convenient, as there were still other things to focus on that evening besides food. I do make an effort to do ‘freezer dinners’ – cooking large vats at the weekend so that I will have something on the nutritious side to pull out for the family when I am running behind schedule; but with a lot on over the last few weekends, this source has been somewhat depleted and I am now at the cusp of what’s quick and easy. There are lots of options for such a dinner along the supermarket aisles. These options are also cheap and cheerful: pizza, quiche or pasta and sauce have been fallen back upon previously and have filled a gap.
At this point, still sitting in the car, I remembered a conversation I had earlier that day about a European Project called EUREGA launched in Galway earlier in the week. Galway was the first region in Ireland awarded the status of European Region of Gastronomy for 2018, so it was an appropriate place to launch a project of which the main objective is to have food, food habits and gastronomy included and recognised in EU strategies and policies.
The participants want food to be seen as a cultural asset and a strong element in regional cultural identity, as well as a tool to boost sustainable products and services. A lot of this is to support food tourism, as travellers are now seeking out culinary experiences as much as other attractions. How many times have you come home from holiday and someone says ‘how was the food?’
One of the speakers at the conference called out that parents in our modern world when asked by their children for a piece of tech or new runners, research out the best product and make purchases far beyond requirement in terms of cost, and yet will buy the cheapest food for their families as a compromise.
The CSO household budget survey shows that in 1980, the largest proportion of total household expenditure related to food at 27.7%. However, by 2016 this had fallen to 14.7%. If you subtract the eating out element this falls below 10%.
Americans spend just 6.4% (2016 data) of their household income on food, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Generally speaking, the more developed a country is, the smaller the percentage of household income it spends on food.
Decision made. I got out of the car, went into the supermarket, bought some veg and chicken and made a stir fry. It really didn’t take me too much longer than it would have to throw a pizza in the oven and there was plenty left over. Sunday, however, I will make a big bolognese and maybe a curry too.
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