Slow Food

I think I am beginning to understand this Zero Waste idea, at least as far as it applies to food.

If we want to control what goes into our black bins we have to buy local. We buy from the people who grow the food, so we get locally sourced products. Locally sourced products don't need to be taken by lorry to a central sorting depot, to be placed into robust packaging that will survive another journey to distant stores, and then the rigours of being stacked on a supermarket shelf.

So Zero Waste means Slow Food. It means local growers who know what they are talking about; who can tell you how long it will be before the new potatoes are ready. It means local artisan bakers. It means specialist cheese shops. It means (for non-vegetarians) knowing which field your meat grew up in.

Like Slow Food, Zero Waste means more time. We have got used to dropping into the supermarket on the way home from work, but I am learning that dropping into the market during my lunch break is actually much much nicer. I am starting to look forward to the individual visits to specialist shops. And I welcome the chance to bake biscuits with my children, and to experiment with making things we would normally not give a second's thought to buying ready-made and over-packaged. Sometimes slow is good: it gives us a break from the whirlwind, and time to reflect.