Have Irish people been 'hoodwinked' into eating a certain way?
If a small business growing nourishing food in Irish soil is struggling to stay afloat, what does it say about our society as a whole?
With so much focus on wellness, achieving 10,000 daily steps, and adding protein to just about everything, why is it that seasonal food is being so neglected?
And if we're concerned with saving the planet and minding our carbon footprint, why are we insistent on buying avocados and blueberries from across the globe year-round?
These are the questions being tackled on RTÉ's Our Farm: A GIY Story, a new series charting the reality of turning 12 acres of neglected land into a viable working farm.
Mick Kelly
"We grow veg and fruit and herbs," GIY founder Mick Kelly says of the farm, which can be found within the historic walled garden at Curraghmore Estate in Waterford. "We keep hens for eggs, and we have some pigs as well!"
Despite sounding absolutely idyllic, Kelly admits that the fight to make the farm a commercial success has been monumental.
"It's a real dog-eat-dog world out there, I suppose, when you're trying to get people to buy this kind of produce, and you're battling against convenience culture. It's a very tough landscape for small food producers."
Across one growing season, the series follows the physical, financial and emotional challenges of large-scale food production, revealing what it truly takes to rebuild a local food system in modern Ireland.
An uphill battle at the best of times, Kelly says he and his team persevere because their work may be the antedote to modern problems.
"On one end of the scale, we have real, whole foods growing in living soil - the things we've eaten as human beings for millennia. On the other end, we have the absolute opposite of that - chemical formulations made in factories - ultra-processed foods."
Aine Maher
While society has become somewhat obsessed with inhaling mass amounts of protein, fibre has mostly been forgotten until the recent trend of fibremaxxing.
According to the Irish Heart Foundation, though, the average adult should eat 24-35g of fibre a day. However, evidence suggests that 80 per cent of adults in Ireland are not getting enough fibre in their diets.
And if it's fibre we need, it's fibre that Irish soil can deliver.
"Tunips and kale and cabbage - there's all this amazing local, seasonal, nutrient-rich foods that are fantastic for us. And full of fibre! If you were to eat some fresh Irish cabbage, you wouldn't have a fibre problem for very long," he laughs.
"It's amazing food, but somehow, we've been conditioned into believing that avocados imported from Colombia out of season are going to be better for us than those in-season, local foods. We've been so hoodwinked into a particular way of eating. I can it a mono-diet - we eat the same foods all year round because someone has told us it's good for us."
Katie Judge and Mick Kelly
In the past, our diets would have been dictated by the changing of seasons, whereas now, we can demand blueberries for our breakfast year-round. But at what cost?
"I think we need to go back to a seasonal diet," says Kelly. "I think it's a way of eating that's giving you access to food that is at its most nutrient-dense and at its most delicious."
"That's the way we ate for thousands of years," he continues, "and if we can get back to that, we can bring some normality and sanity to the food system."
GIY offer weekly veg boxes containing a seasonal selection of 8 - 11 vegetables for €25 that can be collected or delivered to your door.
By eating with the seasons, Kelly believes that people will not only reap the nutritional benefits, but that they will find community by shopping with their local growers.
"I feel there's a craving for that," he muses. "I think people are calling out for something a bit different, to connect to real food, to connect to their community and to connect to soil, and all of those good things. I think it's coming... let's hope so anyway."
Watch Our Farm: A GIY Story on Tuesdays at 8.30pm on RTÉ One.
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