Love without understanding is not love Thich Nhat Hanh
Real love takes work: putting in the effort, or what a friend refers to as "building a bridge" to understand the other. As I started falling in love with my food, I found myself not just building a bridge, but crossing it in search of the whole story. Looking past nutrients, calories and FODMAPs, I wanted to understand the environmental impact of what was on my plate. And what I found shocked me.
Why do all the easily available, good-looking foods have so much baggage?
And I'm not just talking about the fast one-night stands. Like pizza, burgers, fried chicken. Even the wholesome-looking ones you'd take home to meet your mom. Milk, avocados, almonds. If she knew some of their backgrounds, the stories of exploitation, depletion and mistreatment, she would never let them in the door, much less invite for dinner. Digging deeper was devastating at first as more and more of my favourites were revealed to be frogs in princes' clothing.
Eventually bestie rescued me from a fate worse than veganism* - a life without food love - with her insistently positive outlook. What she calls 'realistic optimism' and what I call annoying, especially when I'm mid-sulk. "Let's find the good guys", she said. "They exist. And if we find them, we can share them".
Our goal and philosophy is simple. To love, guilt-free.
Our approach started off sensibly: let's try to do no harm. But aiming for neutral soon felt insipid. How could we fall in love with neutral? Knowing we were biting off more than we could comfortably chew, we started searching for the great guys - the foods, farmers, fisherman, suppliers and distributors that have positive impact. All the way through from creation to consumption, we want to do our part to sustain and support the business of giving and receiving nourishment.
*We love you vegans! Esp our inspiring and aspirational teacher, the crazy-wonderful badveganlady
We don't subscribe to ready-made philosophies, eating styles or diets, which we think relieve guilt while potentially causing more problems.
We take a bottom-up approach doing the research, visiting the farms, talking to the suppliers to come to our own conclusions.
For every sustainable food option, there are hundreds that are not. We don't deprive ourselves of food or restrict our enjoyment of it while we're searching.
Our approach is pragmatic, a journey of discovery, slowly adding favourites as we find them and discarding what we realise we can't or shouldn't tolerate.
Take it from us
In sharing the fruits of our efforts on our journey towards loving sustenance, we aim to provide clarity, insights and easy practical actions to make your food choices easier, on your journey to find what nourishes you.
Take it personally
Our conclusions may not be your conclusions. What makes us feel good will be different from what's right for you. I think that's really what relationships are about - learning more together than we can apart.
Food trends, like all trends, are a result of our collective search for quick and easy solutions to the everyday concerns of life that we'd rather not spend time or mental energy on. Effectively a food version of Steve Jobs and his black pullovers. He's said to have worn them daily to free up more mental energy for creating the Apple Brand/Cult....