This weekend the Good Food and Wine festival is happening at the CTICC. I went along to discover how much sway the local and organic movement has over food in our country at festivals such as this one.

South Africa has many hidden food gems that are scattered throughout the country and you sometimes have to be in the know and other times you may just stumble across some great produce. Now let’s face it, festivals such as this one are aimed at the well heeled and if you can tear yourself away from the celebrity chefs, there are several stalls featuring organic or eco-friendly foodstuffs.

Green Home, which happens to be supplying the BBC Lifestyle

It seems to be that more and more, there are people who have a wheat allergy, gluten intolerance or gluten enteropathy. Many of us cannot conceive of a lifestyle that excludes many of our favourite foods such as bread, cakes, biscuits and pasta. Yet this is what many people face daily - for the rest of their lives.We have been eating wheat for millennia as a race, but for some of us, our bodies are turning on one of our staple grains.

So what exactly in wheat is the cause of allergies?

Wheat is not just made up of carbohydrates or starch,

apples - keep the doctor away this winterThe apple. The forbidden fruit. There is extensive history and mythology surrounding the apple, and we have been eating apples for millennia, Archaeologists have evidence of people eating apples as far back as 6500 B.C. Apples originated in Central Asia and at least 55 million tons of apples were grown worldwide in 2005, with a value of about $10billion. The biggest producer of apples was China. South Africa has around 22,5 million Apple trees.The following areas are where they are mostly grown: Ermelo (Mpumalanga), Bethlehem( Free State), Langkloof, and many areas of the Western Cape. The Elgin Valley near Grabouw is the main producing area for apples in south Africa. 60% of South Africa’s apple crop is harvested in the Grabouw region, just one hour outside of Cape Town.

Free range eggs by wikimediacommons

Towards the middle of last year it emerged that Woolworth's, who appeared to be committed to free range eggs in its stores, was using battery farmed eggs in many of its products.

Activist! ran a campaign for Woolworths customers to spell out to their favourite retailer, just what they felt about having the feathers pulled over their eyes.

Activist have now provided a feedback page so we can ensure Woolworth's live up to their commitment.

Meeting and commitment
At a meeting held on the 26th of October last year, Julien Novak Head of Woolworth Foods, was handed a petition and he apologised for

Cape Town has become the first city in Africa to officially endorse a meat free day a week. This is thanks to an initiative by Compassion in World Farming and was endorsed by the City’s Health Portfolio Committee.

Many South Africans love their meat and the country celebrates International Braai day; not that we need an excuse other than our good weather, many people seem to spend every weekend at a function including a braai.

Yet this massive consumption of meat – which is often beef or lamb, is adversely affecting the health of our general population and contributing to the global food crisis.

That line made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, lists some of the most famous herbs, that many people will be able to recognize. Herbs are very useful plants and are the basis of many of our medicines and the perfume industry. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme are mostly associated with culinary uses, but they also have other properties that you may not know about. Most people probably have these herbs in a dry form, stashed away in the cupboard. However, fresh herbs are the best, as then the nutrient and health properties are at their best. You do not need a large space to have your own small herb garden – even your kitchen windowsill will do.

Parsley

One of the most widely cultivated herbs in Europe, Parsley gained popularity during the Roman times. Parsley belongs to the

organic easter eggsEaster, for some it means the end of Lent, and is one of the holiest days of the year, in the Christian calendar. It is a celebration of Resurrection, Life re birth. Yet in modern times, what it is mostly associated with is chocolate. If you have not read Joanne Harris's Chocolat, and like chocolate do read it!

“In my dreams I gorge on chocolates, I roll in chocolates, and their texture is not brittle but soft as flesh, like a thousand mouths on my body, devouring me in fluttering small bites. To die beneath their tender gluttony seems the culmination of every temptation I have ever known.”
JOANNE HARRIS, Chocolat

Slow Food Mother CityMy experience is that there is a growing disconnect between people and the food they consume (I use the word consume because I think eating has connotations which often don't apply). I have many friends who cannot cook, many more who struggle to determine the difference between healthy and unhealthy options and most people I know don't have a clue where their food comes from, how it got to them or how it was processed (I could use the word made instead of processed, but again it suggests human intervention which is seldom the case).

This trend is concerning to me, and I am not alone. Slow Food is represented in over 130 countries and has more than 100 000 members. The movement started about 20 years ago in Italy.

If you're in Cape Town and interested in all things green and organic, then I can guess where you'll be heading this weekend. Now, as a reader of urban sprout, you'll get to visit for free - click here for your complementary ticket that allows you access to both the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition and Womens Show.

This year's show at the CTICC (Fri 19 - Sun 21 Feb) promises to be bustling, judging by the turnout at the Joburg show last year and the growth in consumer interest, so get there early!

Cape Town's Natural & Organic usually draws more visitors with 15 000 attending in October 2008, but this was eclipsed in Joburg last June when 26 000 people visited the show. This was a 370% increase over the last Joburg show and at a time of recession!

Clearly the organic & green movement is shifting

Ammendments to the law in SA mean that, despite the fact that the country has been growing genetically modified crops since 1997 and has never conducted a single environmental impact assessment (EIA), the Minister of Environment now has the power to carry out EIAs.

Join The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) in their most recent campaign – to call for an EIA for Syngenta's application to government to permit them to commercially release a new event of genetically modified maize, called GA21.

This maize is resistant to their herbicide, Touchdown Forte. The technology gives farmers the freedom to spray poisonous herbicide indiscriminately, as the poison will kill everything except the crop, which is modified to survive the poison (in much the same vein as Monsanto's Roundup).