Feed Your Body, But Don’t Forget Your Soul!

We’ve lost connection with our food and each other...

Through growing food for you, we hope to get some of it back.

Most people in the world now live one wall apart from each other...

And yet studies reveal, a higher percentage of people in all age brackets are feeling more bouts of loneliness.

By far the most research on this subject has been conducted in the large English speaking countries like Canada, Australia, America, and the UK, and they are the loneliest by far...

 

Nationally representative surveys show that 20-28% of people in each of these countries feel frequently lonely, compared to just 3-10% in China, Japan, South Africa, and even the loneliest countries of Europe.

 

Australians fare the worst, with 28% reporting feeling frequently lonely, which is defined as feeling lonely three or more days per week.

 

In the UK, 23% of people are frequently lonely and Americans follow close behind at 22%. Canada is the least lonely of the large English-speaking countries, but still reports comparable loneliness rates of 20%.

 

Humans are an incredibly social species. That’s one of the reasons we have such powerful brains and advanced intelligence; to better keep track of and maintain numerous relationships. Our social interactions are a huge factor in how we think, act, and see ourselves, because much of our brains is dedicated to social cognition. Completely depriving someone of any human contact is a recognised form of torture.

 

Basically, human wellbeing depends on interpersonal interactions and relationships. It’s no wonder that prolonged loneliness is associated with many serious health consequences such as an increased risk of depression, anxiety, dementia, stroke and heart disease, so an epidemic of it should be taken very seriously.

Could the rational side of our human nature...

Paired with ignoring our emotions... and...

Starving our soul...

All be part of the problem?

 

Have we fed our body, but starved our soul?

 

Is our connection problem deeply rooted in how we feed ourselves?

 

Have we lost connection to community at meal times, to the land - to nature, to growing and nurturing the food we eat?

 

Has it really become...

Walking aisle...

Eating with a screen...

Being blind to nature... and

Disconnected from food?

Our rationality seeks value (price/quality) and convenience (time) in making the best decision when we purchase our food.

Where does this get us?

This has led to ever increasing concentration of our food system... Achieving the best price, quality and convenience ultimately lends itself to larger organisations who achieve economies of scale and vertically integrated quality control.

What does this look like in our life right now?

Coles and Woolworths control 66% of Australia’s grocery retail market – more than Aldi, IGA and independent outlets combined. That puts only 2 companies in control of 66% of all the food that could end up in your fridge and pantry.

 

 

But what I'm really trying to point out here is that in a previous era, you would have purchased your food from the baker, the butcher, the grocer, maybe your eggs from the farmer down the road, your milk by the milkman, or like my grandparents veggies from the markets.

 

I can still remember the milkman who delivered milk in our town (Cliffy) and I'm only 35, so it's not that long ago! My friends and I, we all knew him and the role he played in the community...

 

There was something comforting about it that I can't really explain.

 

With each purchase there was a social interaction, a conversation with a human, someone who probably knew your name and family and were passionate about what they produced and got satisfaction from the recognition they received from the people that ate their food. The relationships were reciprocal, they both made each other feel seen, heard and valued.

What if, we have sacrificed the social connection our soul craves, just to save a bit of time and money.

 

We use the money we have saved to buy novelties that end up in landfill or a box in the garage and the time we save to sit on our screens scrolling or binge watching the latest Netflix series, all while suffering constant bouts of depression, loneliness or at the very least boredom. We get stuck in a perpetual cycle of shopping, holidaying or scrolling away the melancholic emotions, only to find that our newly bought outfit or toy provides only temporary relief, so we go in search yet again for the next new car, kitchen appliance, house extension that's going to give us another short term injection of joy.

 

I’ve asked what the meaning of life is too many times to count, I've listened to religious leaders, spiritual yogis, successful business leaders, great actors and athletes…

 

But I think my Mum provided the wisest answer of all, “the only thing you care about when your scared, sick or almost dying is the people you love, nothing else in the world matters” I believe somewhere in Mums answer is the meaning of life and it has to do with our connection with each other.

 

There is nothing that makes us feel more alive, more safe, more loved than this connection.

Which is why the large corporations that are so good at delivering price, quality and convenience will never feed our souls, because it has proven impossible to maintain meaningful relationships at their scale. Their organisation becomes so large it's impossible for their workers not to become numbers on a quarterly report and once humans are treated like a number, we lose our human touch, we have all witnessed this at the checkout, the person behind the counter has been turned into a robot with scripted and automatic responses and who can blame them.

 

I am not saying the supermarkets or large corporations in general are nothing but bad for us, they really have done a superb job of giving us what we want at the lowest price and most convenience, that's what we asked them to do when we kept walking into their stores and that's how they kept getting bigger and better, they were just answering the call of the masses. They will never go away, they will always be there and people will continue to shop there when all they want is to fill their fridge in the shortest time possible with the least amount of effort at a price they can afford. But whilst they will feed our bellies until they are full, their food will never feed our soul.

 

I believe this can only be achieved when you sit down to eat a meal and can feel the connection between the food you're about to eat, the land it was grown on and the farmers who grew it. I know this because it's the warm comforting feeling myself and family get when we give thanks to the friends who grew the chicken we are about to eat. I have no clue as to why it makes us feel good, but it just does. When we eat food we connect to it can only be described as soul food, it feeds much more than your body.

So here’s what we want to achieve…   At the very least we want to grow food for you in a way that nurtures the soil and therefore your body and our planet…   But ultimately we want to grow soul food that forges a relationship between you and ourselves the farmers…   So we can both feel that warm and comforting feeling knowing you appreciate us and we truly do appreciate you.

Big Love,