The Locavore Movement

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Throughout history, Ireland has undoubtedly had an economically and socially tumultuous relationship with food. The legacy of the Great Famine left residual effects on the country’s economy, only being worsened by the 2008 recession. However, emerging locavore, organic and slow food movements have sparked a foodie renaissance- helping to revive Ireland’s agricultural past and aid in the convalescence of the economy.

The concept of “homegrown” has swelled,with the evidence of food blogs, food tourism and organizations such as Good Food Ireland.

Food Summit with Good Food Ireland 2014:

Farmers, market operators, shop owners, and restaurateurs work together in production and promotion. Food trails and other “gastro tourism” opportunities, artisanal restaurants, family farms, festivals, and regional food specialties—such as Ard Cairn Russet apples, Burren honey, Clare Island salmon, Kerry lamb, or Knockdrinna Farmhouse cheese—reinforce Ireland’s food identity at home and abroad.1

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There is also interest in health and sustainability, and knowing the origins of the food one eats. Bord Bia, Ireland’s national food board, along with the Department of Food, Agriculture, and the Marine (DAFM), help promote local offerings, providing information on producers, products, markets, and farm shops while raising awareness about the quality and cultural, economic, and nutritional significance of local food.1 According to Bord Bia research, conducted in November 2013, Irish consumers place great importance on sourcing food locally, with 7 in 10 adults considering buying local produce to be important when shopping for food.2

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The Taste of Dublin festival is set in the romantic Iveagh gardens, with four days of cooking demos (by Michelin starred chefs, tv chefs and emerging culinary stars) and various seafood tasting opportunities.

Tara McCarthy, Food and Beverage Director, Bord Bia commented “There is an increasing sophistication of the Irish consumer, who is becoming more discerning and knowledgeable about the quality and provenance of the food they buy. Our research conveyed that nearly 80% of consumers believe that food produced locally results in higher quality products, while 77% are more confident in the safety of food produced in their local area. Consumers are saying they wish to sustain their own local community, therefore markets provide an accessible way of connecting producers with consumers.”As promoting local food becomes national policy, farmers’ markets, fishing villages, and neighborhood butchers are taking on a “food nationalism” identity—promoting the relatively recession-proof agricultural and food sectors.1

Slow Food slow_food_ireland_logo

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.3 Slow Food was founded in 1989 to protect regional food production from the homogenisation of modern fast food and fast life. Through the Terra Madre worldwide network, Slow Food gives a voice to small-scale farmers and food producers and bring them together with cooks, academics and youth to discuss how to improve the food system collaboratively.It connects producers with consumers, through organized international and local events that showcase sustainable agriculture and artisan food production.

Slow Food believes that an integrated and holistic approach across the entire sector is integral in increasing competitiveness and increasing jobs in Ireland.

This approach includes an understanding of the value of bio-diversity for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water and human health and the inter-relationship between food, energy and waste, and a recognition of the synergies between the areas.4

Launch of the Slow Food Northern Ireland Chef Alliance Initiative:

Food Tourism: Marketing Ireland

Food can be used to differentiate destinations in the competitive global market. Food is also expressive of identity and culture, and is therefore an important component in heritage tourism. Many countries have experienced economic prosperity through tourist experience. Ireland has massive potential in relation to food tourism, locally grown food being a key attraction to tourists. Due to growth in farmers’ markets, organic food production and healthy lifestyles, Ireland has the potential to develop food tourism as a niche tourism product similar to Italy, California and Eastern Australia.5 Players in the global food system—such as German grocery chain ALDI, British grocery and retail chain Tesco, and U.S. fast food giant McDonald’s—have identified the potential of “Irish food” and food nationalism, and are staking their claims.1Some worry that such efforts could co-opt the “Irishness” and threaten authenticity in the homegrown food movement and what constitutes “local”. However,making local agriculture national has benefited the economy, and helped alleviate pain from the recession—which is good for both economic growth and national pride.1

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1.) Scanlan, Stephen J..”irish food nationalism.” contexts. Summer 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.<http://contexts.org/articles/summer-2014/irish-food-nationalism/>

2).”Bord Bia Launches Industry ‘Guide to Food Markets in Ireland’.” Bord Bia : Irish Food Board. 04 Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bordbia.ie/corporate/press/pages/BordBiaLaunchesIndustry‘GuidetoFoodMarketsinIreland’.aspx>

3.) http://www.slowfood.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

4.) Allen, Darina. Submission to the 2020 Agri Food Committee. Slow Food Ireland® Ireland. Web. 12 Dec. 2014 .< https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/agri-foodindustry/foodharvest2020/foodharvest2020/submissionsreceived/Slow%20Food%20Ireland.doc.>

5.) Sweeney, Joanna. “SLOW FOOD: Enriching the Tourism experience through agricultural diversity.”Institute of Technology, Sligo. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.academia.edu/896364/SLOW_FOOD_Enriching_the_Tourism_experience_through_agricultural_diversity>

Ireland and the Potato

    Traditional Irish cuisine is essentially the food of  the poor, consisting of simple, starchy and hearty meals prepared with few ingredients by people with limited means. This food is simple,connected to the land and prepared in primitive ways, such as boiling meat and potatoes.1

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The Potato

   The potato had a considerable amount of influence in Irish cuisine, for it provided a new staple food. To eat bread, one had to grow and cut the wheat, make the wheat into flour, cook the flour and bake it into bread. shutterstock_119144785-390x285     Compared to this complex process, one only had to boil or bake the potato in order to consume it. Potatoes were cheap and convenient, not to mention hearty. Nearly the perfect food, potatoes are loaded with protein, vitamins and complex carbohydrates. Infant mortality plummeted and the Irish grew bigger, stronger and healthier. Soon the Irish towered in physical stature over their rural English counterparts who subsisted on bread. From 1780 to 1840, the Irish population doubled, from 4 million to 8 million.1

Potatoes & Politics

   Perhaps the greatest example of an intrinsic relationships between politics and food is the Irish’s historic- and at times, tragic -connection to the potato. When the Spanish introduced it to the New World in the 16th century, the crop was originally a savior of sorts, becoming a low-cost food source for Irish peasants.

Family evicted during the Irish Potato Famine
Family evicted during the Irish Potato Famine

The agriculture in Ireland was highly developed, as peasants produced grain crops, such as wheat and barley, for the English. However, these crops were reserved for export, even when the blight decimated potato crops in the 1840s. As a result, the Irish Potato Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1852, would claim approximately one million lives and lead to more than one million more emigrants fleeing Ireland. Aaron Hostetter, an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden, who examines the literary history of food, said, “The blight was a biological event, but famine and starvation are never natural events…The necessity to select certain kinds of food to eat – even when no other viable alternatives are available – is always politically motivated.”

The sculpture is a commemorative work dedicated to those Irish people forced to emigrate during the 19th century Irish Famine.
The sculpture is a commemorative work dedicated to those Irish people forced to emigrate during the 19th century Irish Famine.

    The potato then becomes part of the Irish émigré identity. By wresting back the crop from failure, it is elevated to a symbol of victory over material circumstances.1There are many instances in which foods that are products of an oppressed identity become celebrated as symbols of resistance,” says Hostetter.

 

The Sophistication of the Spud

   When the potatoes were first implemented in Europe, there weren’t “dishes”,so much as the bare minimum for survival. The ones who ate them were mostly ones who couldn’t

Temple Bar Market on the bank of the River Liffey, Dublin
Temple Bar Market on the bank of the River Liffey, Dublin

afford what was considered a “proper” meal; they were prepared in the most simple and easy methods to be readily eaten-merely boiled or baked. However, as the potatoes began to gain prominence in Europe, potato dishes began developing into modern delicacies.

    Gourmet Ireland may sound like an oxymoron, but the fact is Ireland’s cuisine has risen to astonishing heights since the dreary day of the fifties and sixties where insipid, waterlogged veggies and fatty fried foods seemed to be the norm.2 By the eighties, a  revolution was taking place all over Ireland with the newly gained popularity of food fairs, food festivals and gourmet markets.

La Med is a unique, lively and cosy brasserie specialising in French, Italian, Mediterranean and Irish Cuisine, located in Dublin

As Ireland’s economy expanded, so did the number of fine dining establishments. In Dublin, Patrick Guilbaud opened a new French restaurant bearing his name, a 2-star Michilin eatery.Others, like Kevin Thornton, fused classic Irish ingredients of beef and potatoes with the elaborate techniques of French cuisine. Thornton’s Pomme Mousseline is a very indulgent way to make mashed potatos, incorporating whisked cream for a lighter, richer version.

Pomme Mousseline

In fact, Kevin Thornton went so far as to “forcibly eject” a man from his restaurant, when the patron ordered chips. Thornton later explained that whilst chips were not on his menu, he often cooks them on special request for children. To some, Thornton was made out to look like a snobby chef, to others; however, he was an “uncompromising perfectionist”, who provided a “quality, value product, than a cheap compromise.”It is from the bare minimal preparation for survival, to the gourmet standard of urban restaurants, that the evolution of what are still traditional Irish ingredients can be observed. The potato itself is traditional, being prepared in a most contemporary and globally influenced way.

But not all restauranteurs were interested in expanding the repertory of French foods. Some chose traditional Irish dishes, creating them in new and updated ways. And that is precisely what the new Irish food is about. It is the old Irish food, updated with healthful preparation and keying on what is fresh and plentiful. Ireland is a land that excels in some of the world’s best dairy, fish and meat products.2

While Irish economy has suffered, along with many other countries in the global recession, the desire for fine cuisine has not. This is mainly because the standard for good ole’ fashioned Irish cooking is in the use of local ingredients. Some recipes show a regional influence, perhaps Asian or Mediterranean, but the basic dishes are Irish, and Irish at its best. When once visitors traveled to Ireland for the scenery, now they just might be going for the delicious food.2

Student chef Liadan Sheehy, at the launch of the Dingle Food Festival
Student chef Liadan Sheehy, at the launch of the Dingle Food Festival

 


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Eireyu Beef

The Locavore Movement




1) McLaughlin, Tom. “A Taste of Irish History.” Rutgers Today. 6 March 2014. Web.02 Dec. 2014.<http://news.rutgers.edu/feature/taste-irishhistory/20140306#.VH5Vfod-NUS>

2) Barrett, Suzanne. “Gourmet Ireland.” Ireland for Visitors. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.<http://www.irelandforvisitors.com/articles/gourmet_ireland.htm>

3)”NO WE DON’T DO CHIPS HERE! GET OUT!” Heffernan’s Tyre Blog. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. 02 Dec. 2014.http://heffernantyres.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-we-dont-do-chips-here-get-out.html>