March 2012

 This week in Guardian Media environmental series feature writer, editor and blogger Pat Ganase tells us just why growing our own food is not only good for our economics, but for our health.

LIVING LA VIDA

You are what you eat. So said the French doctor Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his 1826 book. The idea that what we eat influences or has a direct bearing on health, state of mind, even personality is today not merely philosophical. 

 Look at how cheap high calorie food—replete with tasty fats and sugars—is reshaping the profile of a generation. Couch potatoes indeed! How can we be expected to clean up what’s around us when we can’t begin to clean up what goes into our own bodies? 

 A generation ago in Trinidad, children ate what their mothers cooked at home. This usually meant a meal that included locally grown vegetables or green stuff, carbs in the form of rice or roti, green fig, ground provision and, if any, a tiny but flavourful portion of meat or fish.