Recently I responded to a post put into the Landworkers Alliance chat from an Orchard Keeper who had a glut of Damsons. I am a big fan of damsons and, not having access to any damson trees myself (and their not really being available to buy) I was delighted at the promise of these tasty fruits. The orchard keeper kindly brought them by train from Portaferry - as far away from Derry as you can get, while still being in the north(!!), and we agreed to meet in a much loved pub in the city centre to carry out the 'damson drop'. By way of thank you, I got him a ticket to a show in the city that night. Then in the pub he bought us pints. However I didn't manage to get him one back, as there was food to be eaten and a show to be seen. In the mix of these layers of exchange, generative layers of connection were made. Friends joined in, damsons were eaten, pints were shared, chats and plans were cultivated and my dad even made a new friend. Had I bought the bag of damsons from this man, the exchange would have been complete. Nobody would have owed anyone anything else and there could be a line drawn under the transaction. However, the exchange that was created resulted in an unending back and forth of gift giving that was beyond the original exchange. Some social anthropological approaches to gift giving highlight this as important for communities in that there are relationships created and a never-ending state of dependency. Surely dependency is not what we are striving for? Or is this exactly what we have been missing? In our obsession with being independent, 'self-sufficient' in our lifestyles and being able to provide for ourselves and our families separate from friends, neighbours and wider community, we have fallen into a vortex of isolation. And up until now we have been able to carry on consuming, going about busy lives without the need to rely on anyone else for fear it would take too much of our time, or (worst thing from an Irish perspective!!!) we would be seen as being tight or not being able to match the exchange. There are probably undertones of shame from not having enough, from the famine years as well as a long history of just getting by and eeking a living out of the land for generations - including this current cost of living crisis. However what has been lost from the rampant consumerism, individualism and striving for self sufficiency is community. My mother always said that she never wanted to be an independent woman - but an interdependent woman, activating her own agency and power (in her own fabulous ways) but happy also to be in complex webs of relationships where she relied on advice, skills (especially DIY!!), friendship and food from other people. We were deeply connected to community, and mum gave as good as she got! However the reliance on others in the ways our ancestors had been is not as visible any more, with most households doing their own weekly shop, and we very rarely borrow that famous cup of sugar from next door that would have been the norm only 50 years ago. The food we buy is mostly imported, including food that we could easily be sourcing locally. There are apples on our shelves from South Africa, Chile, New Zealand, Brazil, and yet we read about heritage orchards in Armagh and beyond being forced to close for want of a local market. Most of the fruit and veg on our shelves (carrots from Spain, potatoes from Israel, onions, cabbage, garlic - the list could go on!!) are all produce that grow perfectly well in our Irish climate. We are importing 83% of our vegetables! While at the same time the horticultural sector is on it's knees here, and market gardeners are struggling to make a decent living despite long hours and hard work to grow the food. Today, there are just 74 commercial vegetable growers in Ireland, down from around 600 back in the 1990s. As an island we are importing on average 80% of the food we eat, and yet we are exporting around 90% of the food produced on this island. So most of the food produced here (mostly meat) leaves the island. This is an incredibly volatile situation, and as the energy crisis, conflicts in the Gulf and beyond, climate related droughts affecting food production globally as well as locally a crises of land access, threatened biodiversity and limited infrastructure for local food networks, we are in some ways no better off than during the famine when we relied on one or two varieties of potato and were dependent on food imports from UK while exporting huge amounts of food off the island each week as people starved. We are completely dependent on a food system that relies on imports, we are overfed yet undernourished, and if any of those volatile chinks in the food chain breaks down because of the multiple crises, we are in serious trouble. The government in the last few weeks has encouraged people to start stockpiling in anticipation of a food security crisis - fine if households have the spare disposable income to do so - but what will this achieve in the long run? What is the approach to the upcoming food security crisis that will make sure that all households have access to food, not just those who can afford it? Are we better investing time, resources and thinking into strengthening our food sovereignty as an island, rather than merely 'getting through' this most recent crisis? What would it look like to strengthen local food networks, to reframe the value placed on local food producers as essential contributors to the fabric of society, what would it take for us to feed ourselves as an island? Reflecting on all of this, that bag of damsons and the layers of dependency created from that exchange actually doesn't seem so mad any more. In terms of food security, given the choice between local food producers and import-reliant supermarkets, I know who I would want to be relying on...
