I want to eat healthily

• Balancing protein, carbohydrate, dairy, vitamins etc
• at least five portions of fruit and veg every day

I want to eat ethically:

• Buying Freetrade products to ensure that the producers haven’t been conned out of their dues by the supermarkets or workers haven’t been mistreated.
• Making sure that the chicken and eggs that I eat haven’t come from chickens that have been reared in appalling conditions.

I want to eat organically:

• to make sure that my food isn’t covered in herbicides and insecticides, that would be stored up in my body for a nasty surprise in the future.

But are there tricky contradictions trying to adhere to all of the food ideals?

My local supermarket is the co-op (or co-operative as they are now calling themselves again in their new Freetrade ads on TV). They are doing a great job with promoting Freetrade, and I have noticed that they are only selling freerange eggs in our local store, but they can’t sell oranges and bananas without Air Miles in Norfolk in February.

One of the difficult contradictions I find eating healthily is that, (especially at this time of the year), to get fruit, you need to have it imported from Argentina, USA, New Zealand, Israel, Chile etc.

Should I be responsible to myself: Eating my 5-a-Day from the supermarket?… or to the rest of the world by not buying produce that hasn’t been locally grown in season?

Lots of fruit and veg can be dried, frozen, pickled or otherwise preserved for eating in the leaner months. Apart from that, at the moment I’m enjoying swedes, parsnips, leeks in hearty casseroles and stews.