Served up

Dear reader,

We’re serving up this issue of The Philanthropist in seve­ral cour­ses, because our focus this time is food – a topic that’s more varied than most. Food is everything.

The food we eat keeps us healthy – or makes us sick.
And the perfect recipe is just a click away on YouTube. Some swear by super­foods like chia seeds, quinoa, kale and avocado. Others bake sourdough bread. Yet ready meals are still hugely popular.

Food is meant to be relished. But a lot of us nowa­days feel guilty about eating meat. Is pasture-based farming or the nose-to-tail philo­so­phy the answer to our dilemma? One thing is clear: food is not just regio­nal – it’s global. Only 50 per cent of our food is produ­ced here in Switz­er­land. What we eat has an impact on nature: over­fi­shed seas, deple­ted soil, destruc­tion of the rain­fo­rests and a perma­nent loss of biodiversity.

We are eating our climate, we are eating our planet and we are eating its diver­sity. We need to apply a range of effec­tive approa­ches and find solu­ti­ons that will help save our planet, because it is in serious danger. What sort of climate does an apple tree need, what kind of soil or compa­n­ion plan­ting will help a leek thrive? One thing is certain: we have become totally discon­nec­ted from the produc­tion of our food. And we need to restore that connec­tion as quickly as possible.

Bon appé­tit – enjoy reading!

The Philanthropist team