Okay, so now it's orange juice...

Okay, so now it's orange juice that's causing me problems. I've just had the latest Ecologist come into my inbox (it's an online subscription nowadays as they've stopped the paper magazine) and have read their article on orange juice, following a link from the equally depressing article on Calpol. I won't bore you with the details - you can read it yourself at http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/behind_the_label/285643/behind_the_label_orange_juice.html - and I guess, if I'm honest, I'm not all that surprised. I know enough nowadays to know that if something comes in some sort of a processed form from countries far away, there are probably some murky goings-on behind it and I'm probably not going to like it. But, as always, reading the facts in black-and-white brings it home more forcefully.

The thing is, I only have orange juice in the house anyway because of my youngest daughter. I've always thought of it as a bit of a luxury and wouldn't normally have bothered with it, but I'm trying to find ways of getting fruit and veg into Jemba in ways that don't involve always buying fresh, exotic fruit (she'd happily munch away on grapes, melon, bananas, strawberries and raspberries all year round, but I'm not happy with buying them all the time, since I'm trying to lighten my tread on this earth). So, a glass of orange juice each day seemed quite a good way to get one of those all-important portions of fruit and veg into her. But now it seems I can't even do that - unless I buy organic, fairly-traded oranges and juice them up myself each day...

If it was just us adults at home it would be different (or even just us adults and Mali, our eldest, who's a star with food): we'd eat mostly vegetables and preserved autumn fruits until the rhubard heralded the return of fresher delights. I do try to do that a bit, but I can't do it enough to feel satisfied that Jemba is eating healthily, which means that I have to stray into areas that I'm not completely happy about. And now it looks as if orange juice could be off the list. How depressing.

Oh dear, and it'll only be a couple of weeks till the tomatoes stop coming in my veg box, and then what am I going to put in their lunchbox? Any ideas gratefully received...

Ruth Valerio, 05/11/2009