Local community based food system

Colin Austin © November 2021 Creative commons this document may be reproduced but the source should be acknowledged. Information may be used for private use but commercial use requires a license.

Let me tell you a story.

Some ten years ago my wife was diagnosed as diabetic, the medical advice was that diabetes was a progressive disease – it would just get worse and worse which they could handle by stronger and stronger medicines but eventually she would have to use insulin injections and she was likely to die younger from complications.

Not good news!

Then she fell down some stairs, breaking several bones in her food. She did not heal well and after a while here foot started to turn black and the doctors started to talk about amputation.

Not good new at all!

But the puzzling thing was my wife was a medical doctor – a respected surgeon. How was it that a trained and skilled doctor became diabetic?

Now I am not a doctor – I am an engineer, but I am also an innovator. I was selected by the Institute of Engineers as one of the top one hundred innovators in Australia for my pioneering work in computer aided engineering.

But let me tell you that being an innovators is nothing to do with being super intelligent – it is about having the mind of an eight year old. When we are born we have no ideas about the world, no prejudices, no paradigms just an empty shell which we try and fill by asking questions – all the time.

“Granddad why is the sky blue?” Yes we can explain that by saying there are particles of dirt in the sky and blue light is weak so hits these particles and they are reflected back to earth.

“Granddad why is grass green?” Yes we can explain that by explaining about photosynthesis.

And so the questions keep coming until why? Why? Why? Until the kids has formed their own set of paradigms about how the world works.

Now we actually know what causes diabetes. We know that the body uses insulin to regulate blood sugar and there are two stages of diabetes. At first fat in the muscles stops insulin working as well as it should so we start to become insulin resistant.

Most people do not even notice this.

Then the fat starts to fill the pancreas where the insulin is made and blocks the manufacture of insulin. That is when things get serious.

But we know that in most cased people can reverse their diabetes by changing their diet so their body starts to burn up the excess fat.

This is where we need the brain of an eight year old.

Why does the medical experts say that diabetes is progressive when it can often be reversed?

Good question but there are many more to come.

Why do people get fat?

Why do people get fat now when in times gone past most people were skinny.

Why do we make such a fuss about Covid (quite rightly) when far more people get sick and die from diseases related to getting fat but no one seems to make a fuss about that (quite wrongly).

Eight year olds have an infinite serious of questions that just keep on coming and there is only one way of answering all those questions – tell them a story which explains it all. And here is that story.

The Gbiota story

The wonders of the supermarket

Isn’t life wonderful – we all, rich and poor, have to eat, yet we can go into our local supermarket and find an abundance of food at incredibly low prices. How do they do it – bins of cauliflower heads or lettuces for $2 all the same as though they had come from out of a mould in a factory.

And food from all over the world, Chillies from Chile, Mandarins from China, Grapes from California – out of season but still at reasonable prices. Amazing!

The story of food – for adults that still have the curiosity of kids

But is it that simple? Let me tell you a story about food. In our modern society all we seem to want as adults is a catch phrase ‘Make plum pudding tasty again’ or better a photo on their smart phone with a catchy caption. But kids just love stories, they will lie comfortably in bed and become totally immersed in a story noting every single detail.

But we cannot really understand food and how it affects our health from a simple catch phrase – eat less exercise more, go Keto, go Paleo or whatever.

We really need to understand how food and our bodies actually work and that understanding can only come from the story of food – which takes a bit of time. Adults may just look for the catch phrase but kids have an innate curiosity and really want to know the real story.

So I am writing this story as though I am writing for kids. I use simple language and make it fun and use words that kids love live pooh, shit and the dreaded F word beloved by kids – fart, even though this may offend the more sophisticated.

But it is not simply a question of physical age – I am nearly 82 and can still have the curiosity and immersion of a kid – all you need is to have the mental age of an eight year old with a hungry brain.

Any one can do it – if they really want to.

The story of Felicity – the bug fairy

So here is the story of food. Its about Felicity the bug fairy and starts at the very beginning – a long time ago.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, precisely 4.30 in the afternoon on Wednesday the 24th October, year minus 4 billion.

Felicity was thinking it was a really cold and windy day, when there was a big bang. Not just big – but the biggest bang that Felicity had ever heard.

That was the day that the earth was formed. It was just a rock, dead, inert with nothing living, nothing at all. There were no shops, no pizza’s or ice cream and worst of all no chocolate.

What – no chocolate!

I remember seeing a protesters sign ‘save the planet – it is the only one with chocolate’ and I said to myself now there is a person who has got her priorities right.

Making change fun – managing our technological might

Now you may think I am just playing games here and having a bit of fun. Just in my life time I have seen enormous changes in technology – a single robot can now do in minutes what would take a workshop team to make in hours. Our ability to make things is just staggering.

But this great leap in technology – if we don’t learn to manage it – is a threat to our existence. Of course mankind will survive but what damage will we do to our species?

We are aware of the battles over climate change but this is almost small fry with the other damages we could self inflict. For every person that dies from Covid there is 100 with diabetes, may be having a limb chopped of and almost certainly dyeing prematurely.

And this is largely self inflicted from our current food system.

But it gets worse – what will our grand kids and their kids eat as we slowly destroy our soils.

We simply have to learn to manage our enormous technological capabilities for the benefit of society as a whole – and not just a few rich people.

So I want people (that’s you) to read about how food works so they really understand the issues. We are so used to policy in three world slogans – eat more veggies – but it is more complex than that so I have to make it fun to read about.

This is not just a fun story it is actually deadly serious so I want people to read then act. These articles are in the public domain under the Creative Commons system. You don’t need permission to distribute – just do it.

So back to the fun story of Felicity the bug fairy which you can read here.