David’s latest blog post.
David is a Director of the British Sea Buckthorn Company.
I have often said that the sea buckthorn trial at Devereux farm is a 20 year project. The first ten years saw plants established but also lost to disease. The results are now – after ten years, developing with a cold store with a limited stock of frozen berries from the 2019 harvest. An evolution of progress.
The enthusiasm for sea buckthorn comes as being part of the global community of sea buckthorn growers, researchers, processors and manufacturers. Their collective investment has created expansion in production. Production, as I have found is not easy but the growth of a global sea buckthorn industry has taken 50 years to expand into 40 countries. For all the difficulties of establishing a growing crop – growing a market is an equal challenge, even for a crop based on significant nutritional quality.
Our health is key to being able to enjoy a normal life. Health is not a simple concept. It requires investment. Our personal investment managing our body’s functions has long term implications. Out of sight is often said to be out of mind. Appreciating the ability of our immune system to keep us healthy is easy just to accept. Our digestive system operates unseen, converting food to the vital mix of nutrients our complex body requires to function effectively. But how often do we actually buy food based on respecting the needs of our digestive system – even though it is our own personal system that maintains our own personal health.
There has been a quiet revolution developing in the nutrition world exposing the importance of the gut. There are tens of trillions of bacteria that live in our gut. A multi-functional soup of incredible complexity forming a balanced mechanism that breaks down food into constituent nutrients. This balance of species in this vast population is critical. This is not something of convenience, it is like a Ferrari, fine-tuned for peak performance. Put diesel in your petrol car and you pay for the consequences both by looking foolish and having to repair the damage.
I say all this because I understand the gut microbiome concept but not the detail. The concept is of such importance that it is becoming a subject I need to understand. As I get older I am appreciating the need for good health to allow a quality of life at work and at home.
Within so many issues the word balance is so importance. It is a pet subject of mine but I often reflect back on the Galenic way of life. A set of principles based on times when medicine was rudimentary so personal responsibility to one’s own health was essential. It suggests five principles of the food/drink we consume; the right amount of exercise; working in a positive environment; good sleep and good mental health as forming the basis of preserving our health. There is a sixth principle that requires each being proportionally balanced. A rational approach and one that can work even in the stressful world of 2020.
An interest in food takes you in many directions. Being a farmer in 2020 is concentrating my mind on significant changes coming post-Brexit for our industry. With great change comes the need for ensuring that you fully understand all the implications of change before decisions become irreversible. The current debate around how to feed a growing global population, together with the need to adapt to climate change will require all of us to change – but often evolution is better than revolution. Maintaining a balanced debate, taking all opinions into account and using compromise to bring everyone along a path of change achieves the progress that we really need to solve these issues.
