If you’re yet to taste the marvel that is Western Australia, permit me to forearm you with two basic eating tools. One: eat all the produce; it is delicious. Two: respect all the people of this produce state; they can do without food wisdom from the east.
In fact, apply the second rule very generally if you care to be delighted in this region. Unless you are a West Australian, never tell a West Australian what to do. Don’t tell 'em how to think, eat or legislate. And by no means weigh in with your thinking on eating legislation.
Those other of our States and Territories have adopted mandatory kilojoule labelling. At fast-food franchises and supermarkets these days, we are obliged to see a tally of the energy we are about to pop into our gobs. There are strong arguments for bringing the k-cal count to Western Australia. But, perhaps we should consider a few strong-ish arguments against the practice.
A label gives us the appearance of something being done. An appearance of something being done can end the question of what to actually do.
One of these is this: food labelling may not actually meet its goal, which is to broadly improve health outcomes. A 2009 survey of diners in label-heavy New York City, for example, found that these calorie reminders tended to work only a little and even then, at specialty stores aimed at wealthier customers. Low income earners ‑ a group at highest risk for obesity, heart disease and all the health problems such labelling seeks to overcome - did not have their habits changed.
Some propose a more graphic labelling system and others suggest a pictogram of a human running hard to burn that burger energy would serve as a deterrent. That such schemes can cause entire populations to dive headfirst into a salad, however, remains in great doubt.
What is not in doubt, however, is that obesity is frequent cause for a range of diseases and that Australians are becoming more obese and more diseased. Also certain is that a national slim-down is in the national long-term interest. Absolutely uncertain is this: what to do about it.
A label gives us the appearance of something being done. An appearance of something being done can end the question of what to actually do. And so, what we continue to do is apply quick-fix solutions to a complex matter like food.
Australia has a long and rich history of short and mean thinking. Let’s please not apply this to food. Let’s not suppose that people are eating high-kilocalorie foods because they are stubborn or ignorant. Let’s allow for the possibility that they are doing this because they are poor in cash and time.
What we continue to do is apply quick-fix solutions to a complex matter like food.
We can come over all Jamie Oliver and cry for all we are worth that it’s cheaper to eat veg than it is to buy a mound of deep-fried carb. But, if we take lost working hours, the need to evade dinnertime arguments with kids and the sheer weight of poverty into account, maybe that tub o’ lard is the better option.
It shouldn’t be, of course. We should all have time, wealth and leisure to not only cook but even produce some of our own food. But insisting that this is what people should do while denying them the opportunity to do it is just going to end up in the same place: low-cost, low-nutrient dining where low-waged workers would be quite right to spit on my patty if I started telling them about the great time I have in my veg patch.
I do have a great time in my veg patch. Then, I take immense pleasure in understanding food preparation and production. I am aware that this time and this pleasure are currently privileges. But good food must become a right. The question of how to do this, of how to repair all those relationships with food that are broken into so many pieces, is one we haven’t truly begun to ask. Let’s ask it before providing an answer on a label.
Helen Razer is your frugal food enthusiast, guiding you to the good eats, minus the pretension and price tag in her weekly Friday column, Cheap Tart. Don't miss her next instalment: follow her on Twitter @HelenRazer.
