Food diversity, it is up to us!

Most of us will associate the word 'Valencia' with 'oranges'.  We were fortunate enough to be able to visit Spain last month and saw that some streets of the city are lined with orange trees (oranges still on them).  However, Valencia, situated in a fertile coastal plane and blessed with an ideal climate that is seldom too cold or too warm, produces a lot more than oranges.  The planes around Valencia are the food bowl of Spain.

Valencia's Mercado Central was described as one of the largest and most attractive markets in Europe, so we had to see it.  The diversity of food at this permanent covered market, ranging from fish, meat and vegetables to fruit, spices, breads and nuts was staggering.

If you lived in Valencia you could shop for food here and you would not need to go anywhere else.

What struck us most was the enormous diversity of whatever food item you can think of.  For instance, there was a large stall that only sold beans, an incredible variety of beans, beans I have never seen before in my life (see photo below).

Another vendor had at least ten varieties of tomatoes, many of which I have never seen in Tasmania (see photo below).

The market was very busy.  The sight of so much wonderful food, the busy atmosphere, the many smells and the noise of thousands of people 'wheeling and dealing' added to a great experience.

I must admit for a moment there I thought 'why do I live in Tasmania?  Life is so much richer here'.

The next day we left the city by train.  Soon after we left the central train station the elegance of the wonderful buildings in the old city of Valencia made way for concrete jungles of many-storey-high housing blocks, surrounded by grey streets and squares.

It dawned on me: this is where most Europeans live.  It was where most of the friends and relatives we visited during our trip live.  It is where everyone, except the rich or the lucky, live in Western Europe.

Some suburbs may be pleasant, but most Europeans do not live in old city centres near centuries-old markets with the diversity of foods we had just seen.  I realised that life in Tasmania was pretty good after all.

Like in Australia, most Europeans shop at major supermarkets and buy pre-packed already cleaned just-the-right-size carrots and other mass produced vegetables. 

It is up to us, wherever we live, to make sure that the food that is for sale in shops and on markets is more diverse than this.

If we grow in our gardens varieties of fruit and vegetables that are not for sale in supermarkets, if we reward local shops that offer a more diverse range of foods by buying their produce, if we buy at markets where local farmers experiment with food not available in major supermarkets, then we help increase the diversity of foods available to all of us.

You may not have a food market as remarkable as Valencia's Mercado Central in your neighbourhood, but there are a lot of places locally, here in Hobart, and increasingly everywhere in Australia, where a wider range of locally produced food is available.

Farmers and processors will dare to provide more diversity if we reward them.  Food diversity, it is up to us!