Horses: addictive, expensive... may lead to impaired mental health

This time of year I'm particularly vulnerable to damaging, self destructive behaviour as today sees the start of the Cheltenham festival, which to horse folk is sort of like Christmas.

Besides good food, horses are one of my more ridiculous, hard to kick habits. After a few years on the sidelines with small children I've jumped back in head first, and with Cheltenham starting tomorrow, it feels like party time, particularly as I'll be

flying to the Caymans with my winnings by Friday. For those of you who ask "What the what is Cheltenham?" - it's an English race meeting in Gloucester where the best of national hunt horses (horses that run over fences and hurdles) in England, Ireland and France compete for the largest and final accolades of the season.

If you've been to Cheltenham you'll know it's an insane mix of Royalty, travellers, trilbys and high emotions. In 2007 I stood in the winners enclosure beside Princess Anne in a mass of bodies and high decibel cheering as Micheal O'Leary draped a tri-colour over a sweaty and steaming War of Attrition who had just won the Gold Cup. Later that day, Kate Middleton (then the world's best known civilian) tapped my husband on the shoulder with her race card in the weigh room and asked him for tips. He took one look at her mink hat and said "I'd imagine you've

better information then me love" and walked off, not knowing who she was until she appeared on the front of The Telegraph the next day. It's that kind of place.

You laugh, you cry (seriously) you feel knackered as hell after four days there but it's a life experience everyone Irish or who loves horses needs to experience at some point.

Last Sunday night I won four tickets to Cheltenham at a pre-racing event and gave them to a friend to go as he'd never been. I think the karma is coming back in a strange way as I just found out the horse I'm riding at the moment was

3rd to Sizing Europe (pictured right) and Big Zeb who are two of the favourites at this year's festival. Let's just say after 30 odd years riding I finally know the definition of "travelling". So goodwill brings its own rewards (are you listening Paddy Power?)

I did a piece on Saturday on our Irish lady riders competing at the festival if you want to check it out below. They are all fabulous women (pictured in the group shot above) and hard as nails. Both Katie Walsh and Katie Harrington were also accomplished event riders before riding in bumpers and then over fences. Lovely to see the girls competing on an equal footing in the sport and best of luck to all the Irish runners and riders this week. If you feel like a flutter, scan the papers and put on a few quid in the local bookies. The twitter feed for the meeting with all gossip and reaction is at #cheltenham and my highs and lows (will try to control the emotions) evident @campbellsuz

The Irish Times

10th March 2012

Suzanne Campbell

Never before has there been so much competition in the weighroom, only this time it’s female. Irish lady jockeys are increasingly taking home the silverware in National Hunt Racing, with two of our best known - Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh competing for wins at the Cheltenham festival next week. These two riders have altered the perception of women in the sport from being “female riders” to simply top jockeys in their own right. Last year Nina Carberry won the Irish Grand National becoming only the second woman rider to win the race. Katie Walsh, sister of jockey Ruby Walsh and daughter of the commentator Ted has also proved a leading rider over fences. She finished the 2011 Cheltenham festival with two winners, one of them fought out against the mount of Nina Carberry who is also Katie’s sister in law. These two riders, alongside Kate Harrington, Liz Lalor and Jane Mangan have been chosen by racing journalists as the Ladbrokes Grand National “Leading Ladies of Racing”. Kate Harrington is an accomplished three day event rider, and like Liz Lalor and Jane Mangan, has also had wins on the track. Expect more top prizes going into the hands of these jockeys, and some tight Cheltenham finishes fought out by our leading lady riders.

Let them eat caviar

Yes we're in a recession, so how about some caviar? Last week Mag Kirwan from Goatsbridge farm launched her new baby on the marketplace; a trout caviar. Having had a sneak taste at her farm a few weeks ago, I have to admit it's pretty damn good. A lot of people blanche at the thought of fish eggs rolling around their mouth, but generally if you like seafood or shellfish, it's just more of the above, only better.

Mag and her husband Ger farm trout in Thomastown in County Kilkenny. After selling trout roe to Polish and Eastern European customers, they figured trout eggs were an obvious but unexploited business opportunity. So they developed a caviar, with eggs harvested from their live two-year old mature female trout. These are really lovely fish. They dive about in their freshwater ponds looking the picture of health, and more importantly, they taste fantastic.

No surprise that the caviar is also pretty good - I ate it on a water cracker with no accompaniment. It has a subtle rather than strong fishy flavour, with a light saltiness and whisper of the sea.

Regular caviar comes from the sturgeon which is a fish that lives in various parts of the world but caviar by and large is harvested from black sea sturgeon. It's so expensive because sturgeons take decades to mature and are relatively scarce. Caviar from other fish have to have the prefix "trout" etc to distinguish it from it's crazy expensive cousin (the big lad pictured below).

If you fancy tasting Mag's trout caviar you'll soon see it on high end restaurant menus across Ireland and in speciality food stores. It's a great product and judging by the early feedback it's sure to be a huge success. If you're interested in hearing more on trout, my report on Goatsbridge farm (before the trout launch) and women in rural food businesses can be heard at the link below. http://www.rte.ie/radio1/countrywide/18022012.html

GM or not to GM. That's the question, bet I know the answer

There's a rift appearing in the Irish agri-food sector which could affect what has for so long now been a good news story. Last week Teagasc announced that they've applied for a license to sow genetically modified potatoes at their research centre in Carlow.

Irish groups opposing GM claim this threatens our export food market in a climate when agriculture is one of the top performing sectors of the economy. Surveys do suggest that consumers don't want to eat GM food, and that the perception of Ireland as a "clean, green nation" is key to the success of our exports in countries like Italy and Germany.

It also comes at a time where in the US, farmers who choose not to grow GM are currently taking a class action against Monsanto - they fear that when Monsanto's GM seeds contaminate their own crops, Monsanto will claim ownership and charge them licence fees on what were originally sown as non GM foods.

But Teagasc and agri-food experts like Dr. Paddy Wall say the fear of GM is nonsense and it's the only way to tackle world hunger, and a mistake for Ireland to not embrace it. They also feel not allowing GM animal feed into Ireland has made our pig and poultry sectors completely uncompetitive. There argument is - if consumers want Irish food at a fair price, eventually we will have to accept genetically modified crops as part of that picture and that arguing against it will damage Ireland in the long term.

Let's also remember that the Teagasc research is not to look at the economic viability of blight-resistant GM potatoes here, but to look at their environmental impact in the first instance. I'm doing a radio report on this next week and encourage all who have a vested interest or from a consumer point of view, a preference to GM or non GM food, to get in touch. Let your views be known!

Calories on menus, hate it or love it, let your views be known today

This debate has pulled in lots of new voices, divergent views and strong opinion. Is putting calories on menus a health policy that will cripple an already pressurised restaurant sector? Or a badly needed intervention that has proved to have had some success reducing calorie intake, notably in the US.

Today is the final day to let your views be known on the proposed new legislation. The consultation process is being run by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and has been accepting views from the public and food businesses for a month now. Whatever your feelings, let them be known at www.FSAI.ie.

If you want to learn more about the proposals, and how they could affect you, your health or your business, check out my radio piece with Pat Kenny from last week at the following link. Scroll the player 1hr 36 mins up the timeline; I've tried to include all views and give an overview into what the proposals could mean for all of us

http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A3199527%3A133%3A15%2D02%2D2012%3A

Would you eat meat that was grown in a lab? Even if it solved world hunger?

Winston Churchill - bon vivant and lover of food, drink and the odd giant cigar, once offered a view of the future where meat would be grown not on a farm, but in a lab. Churchill wrote: "We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.''

While it sounds very Orwellian and proves that Churchill wasn't just handy at moving model armies around a giant map table - now, eighty years after his pronouncement, Churchill's predictions are coming to pass. Scientists are close to producing the world's first commercial meat grown in a lab. Mark Post of Maastricht University, one of the premier scientists in this field, claims he will produce the first "cultured meat" burger by the end of the year.The question is, would you eat it?

Most initial reaction will no doubt go along the lines of "Hell No!!!"

After all, lab grown meat is grown from stem cell technology, a science that makes a lot of people squirm as in the first place, let alone, suggest they eat the results. In order to grow "cultured" meat, stem cells are taken from pig or poultry muscle and then cultured with added nutrients to form a film of animal flesh. Think - chicken fillet, only thinner.

If you're at this point pretty repulsed by the idea, think of the following reasons for why lab-grown meat could be better for animals and also, better for people.

Growing meat, whether in factory farms or out in fields, is one of the major contributors to global environmental degradation, especially de-forestation and global warming. It uses up water resources and has contributed to huge loss of biodiversity. Currently our appetite for meat has meant that almost one-third of global land use is used for growing either meat, or cereals to feed meat animals - including cattle, pigs and poultry. You could argue (and plenty do) that our lust for meat, and the growing "middle class" appetite for meat in China and India is killing the planet.

And how does the alternative stand up? - research shows that cultured meat has 80-95% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 99% lower land use and 80-90% lower water use compared to conventionally produced meat in Europe. More importantly, even if the meat produced by factory farms (which certainly in the US and in some cases Europe, have proved to have dubious records for animal welfare) was replaced with cultured meat, it would take the horrors of large scale factory farming out of the food chain. If people don't want to look at video of where their chicken is produced well then they probably would be better off served by something grown in a lab.

But the real issue comes when you look at world hunger. Cereals are grown all over the world not for people to eat, but to go into animal feed. And this is the case even in developing countries where hunger and deprivation are serious issues. Cultured meat, (given that over time it would have to be produced at huge levels) would mean that less cereals leave the food system for animal feed and instead can be given to humans, yes - us, to eat.

So what about it? Would you eat it, even if you knew it was morally and ethically more correct?

What's the most risky food you've ever eaten, go on, spill

Spaghetti with "best-before July 2009" lurking at the back of the cupboard? Cheddar you've scraped the green bit off before toasting on some 2 day old baguette?

We all eat food that is suspect at some point, wondering idly while we chomp down if we'll die in the middle of the night from our righteous attempt at thrift. A Food Safety Authority survey shows that in fact half of us eat foods past their use-by dates. This is despite the fact that use-by dates are worth paying serious attention to... as opposed to best-before dates which are just a general guide.

As the whole best-before, use-by and sell-by date area is clearly a bit of a mindfield, I wrote the following piece for the Irish Independent to give a clearer outline of foods that we can happily eat beyond their best-before dates, and those that might hit you like a punch in the gut, or worse. Have a look, tell me the most risky item you've ever put in your mouth, and let's compare. Mine wins hands down... I promise

Use By Dates: How to find the balance between being safe and wasting food

Irish Independent February 2nd 2009

Most of us have packets of food lurking at the back of the cupboard which are long past their best-before date. But as so many Irish households cut back on their grocery spend, is it a false economy to eat food that is out of date?

A survey by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) showed that nearly half of us eat foodstuffs which have passed their use-by date. The results, from a group of 1,000 questioned by the FSAI and Teagasc, show that consumers rely on their instinct, as opposed to labelling, to judge if something is safe to eat.

The 46pc of Irish consumers who disregard use-by dates said that they were happy to eat food as long as it "looked and smelled okay". The FSAI think the statistic is worrying and shows Irish consumers are still willing to put their health at risk rather than throw something out...

As the article is quite long, check out the rest of it at the following link (no paywall) and let me know your food horror stories. I won't tell a soul.... I promise

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/smart-consumer/use-by-dates-how-to-find-the-balance-between-being-safe-and-wasting-food-3007649.html

Trouble in land of the spuds

We had a lot of reaction to the discussion on RTE Countrywide Saturday on all things potato. I particularly loved the listener who texted in that Rooster potatoes were "muck" and that anyone knew anything about potatoes wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. What's interesting is that it's a topic that enlivens so many people, but the reality is that the demographic eating potatoes in Ireland is getting older, potato sales are falling, and many farmers are leaving the business. The day of the Countrywide report I heard of a farmer, his wife and three kids who were emigrating to Canada just days later having left the potato business.

We talked about several possible solutions to the problems in this sector. Later this month Bord Bia will have research on consumer attitudes to potatoes which will throw a lot of light on buying patterns and how engagement with this wonderful vegetable can be improved. If you're interested in hearing more, the link to the programme is below, with the potato item (myself and Thomas Carpenter from the IFA discussing the issue) at about half way into the programme. The post previous to this also gives an outline of the problems - yes agriculture is thriving in Ireland, but if we turn a blind eye to the the unfair amount of power supermarkets wield and fail to legislate for primary producers, it's not going to stay that way

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/countrywide/