“How do we make veg sexy?”, asks Richard Tufton—presenter of the podcast Six Inches of Soil—in an episode that explores the importance of pleasure in the world of food production.
Created by the folk behind the docu-film of the same name, this podcast—its title a nod to the fertile layer of topsoil that agriculture relies upon—sparks conversations between agroecological trailblazers flying the flag for socially and ecologically sound farming.
Produced by Claire Mackenzie and directed by Colin Ramsay, the team champions a move away from industrial farming techniques that contribute to climate change and deplete soil health.
Speaking to experts around the globe, from ranchers to restaurateurs, in one episode we hear from Adrienne Gordon, owner of Sweetpea Market Garden. A food producer putting the planet first, Gordon tells us that times are tough for horticulture in the UK, with an average weekly spend of less than £2 on fresh veg per person.
Could agroecologically-grown produce—intimately linked to soil filled with life and nutritious food full of flavour—make veg more alluring?
According to Ohio-based farmer Lee Jones of The Chef’s Garden—who delivers regenerative veg direct from farm to chefs—the nutritional quality of produce grown via modern farming methods has plummeted in just 80 years.
Shockingly, he tells us that “you would have to eat five heads of broccoli today to get the same nutritional level of one head in 1945”. The focus on quantity over quality—on monoculture and which crop will produce the most tonnes per acre—means that flavour also falls by the wayside.
However, Lee has found inspiration within centuries-old agricultural books, from the days before chemicals were used and when techniques such as crop rotation were practised. For Lee, the old ways produce vastly more delicious and nutritive veg.
Tufton agrees, describing the pleasures of eating tomatoes picked fresh from his grandpa’s veg patch as a child, whilst lamenting the lacklustre, tasteless tomatoes that industrial farming has produced.
According to Mark Schatzker, author of The Dorito Effect, taste is a sense that has evolved to help us identify healthy food. “Think of the flavour of a tomato”, he says, “as a big neon sign telling your brain, I’m full of good stuff.”
Interestingly, as modern farming has leached the flavour from our food, the flavour industry has grown. Schatzker tells us that food technology has tricked our tastebuds, making highly processed junk food taste more enticing, and thus healthful, than it is.
We’re motivated by pleasure, says Schatzker, with the “intuitive ability to nourish ourselves if we’re given nutritionally rich food which doesn’t whisper seductive little lies to our brain.”
In rediscovering how we used to farm and how veg should taste, we rediscover our tastebuds too, coming to know just how seductive the flavour of regeneratively-grown food can be.
With other episodes on beef, grain, and coffee, Six Inches of Soil is a stimulating listen for agroecological farmers, policy makers, and consumers keen to make informed choices about the produce they buy, whilst reminding us of the sensuous pleasures of eating food that is good for mind, body, and soil.
Reviewed by R. B. L. Robinson
