Feb 2008
My 'baby bife' eats burgers for
breakfast
01 February 2008 16:33
Mike Knowles
It may surprise you to learn that one of my abiding memories from last year’s Southern Hemisphere Congress in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires was not the conference, but the decision of one gentleman (who shall remain nameless for now) to slip away from a group of 30 or so delegates on a tour of the local Wal-Mart Supercenter in order to bag himself a hamburger with fries and coke. What made this act of burger bravado all the more stunning was the fact that this man’s day job is to promote health and nutrition through the development and expansion of the fresh produce trade. How can we expect to rein in the bulging waistlines of this world when the finest marketing minds in fresh produce are filling themselves full of fast food? Ok, so there was lettuce under that bun, but that’s hardly a salad.
Of course, my initial reaction as a professional journalist was to photograph the offender and question him about his choice of lunch. But then I began to realise that it probably wasn't fair to single out one person and blame him for all that's wrong with our diets. It also dawned on me that, since I had arrived in Argentina, I had eaten steak for dinner five nights out of five. That very evening, my meat eating broke new records when I polished off the entirely inappropriately named ‘baby bife’ steak, which weighed in at approximately 800g. It was so big, it would have eaten the burger for breakfast. In short, who was I to judge?
Consumption habits won’t change overnight, nor should we expect everyone to abandon the fast food restaurants completely. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be pressing ahead with schemes aimed at encouraging greater consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. Next year, a new pan-European scheme to provide schoolchildren with free portions of fruit is expected to get off the ground at last. Our special report on this and several other consumption schemes already in operation across Europe can be found on p22-23 of this issue.
In the meantime, I will be hanging my head in shame and attempting to burn off that baby bife. At this month's Fruit Logistica trade show in Berlin, I hope to catch up with the burger-eating delegate and see how he’s been faring since Christmas. Maybe he has managed to avoid the fast food outlets since then, or perhaps switch to one of their healthier options. Either way, it will be good to catch up with him and discuss the latest trends in fresh produce marketing over a bratwurst…
It may surprise you to learn that one of my abiding memories from last year’s Southern Hemisphere Congress in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires was not the conference, but the decision of one gentleman (who shall remain nameless for now) to slip away from a group of 30 or so delegates on a tour of the local Wal-Mart Supercenter in order to bag himself a hamburger with fries and coke. What made this act of burger bravado all the more stunning was the fact that this man’s day job is to promote health and nutrition through the development and expansion of the fresh produce trade. How can we expect to rein in the bulging waistlines of this world when the finest marketing minds in fresh produce are filling themselves full of fast food? Ok, so there was lettuce under that bun, but that’s hardly a salad.
Of course, my initial reaction as a professional journalist was to photograph the offender and question him about his choice of lunch. But then I began to realise that it probably wasn't fair to single out one person and blame him for all that's wrong with our diets. It also dawned on me that, since I had arrived in Argentina, I had eaten steak for dinner five nights out of five. That very evening, my meat eating broke new records when I polished off the entirely inappropriately named ‘baby bife’ steak, which weighed in at approximately 800g. It was so big, it would have eaten the burger for breakfast. In short, who was I to judge?
Consumption habits won’t change overnight, nor should we expect everyone to abandon the fast food restaurants completely. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be pressing ahead with schemes aimed at encouraging greater consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. Next year, a new pan-European scheme to provide schoolchildren with free portions of fruit is expected to get off the ground at last. Our special report on this and several other consumption schemes already in operation across Europe can be found on p22-23 of this issue.
In the meantime, I will be hanging my head in shame and attempting to burn off that baby bife. At this month's Fruit Logistica trade show in Berlin, I hope to catch up with the burger-eating delegate and see how he’s been faring since Christmas. Maybe he has managed to avoid the fast food outlets since then, or perhaps switch to one of their healthier options. Either way, it will be good to catch up with him and discuss the latest trends in fresh produce marketing over a bratwurst…
|