it seems to me that one of the great cons of this urbanisation experiment that we are conducting is that we can be unengaged with our food supply. As we keep seeing contamination and blandness keep biting us on the bum. what stikes me as a little weird is that while so many of us have become unengaged with food production actors such as fast food providers, cook book publishers and food critics sell us a simulcrum of that engagement which fails to fill the vacum left left us.

I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve been blogging in one way or another for almost five years, but I feel dissatisfied to be just a consumer of information about food. When I mainly blogged about non-food things, I wrote a “why I blog” post (nearly four years ago!!!!) where the same dissatisfaction came up, which makes me think it’s a generational or constitutional issue rather than one specific to food writing. In the same way that I appreciate being able to ask questions and be taken seriously by the producers that I patronise, I don’t want information about food to be just a one-way street. I can see how that demand for engagement must be a headfuck for someone who is engaged to write about food with expectations that their expertise will set them apart from their readers.

I think there is so much to be said for the food blog … much better than the faux promos you get in so much food journalism

Bloggers: 10
Journos: 0

Even with a home ground advantage, I’d say they might need to sack their coach.

[update: looks like the new Fairfax boss is keen to follow Kirk's example of sacking journos. Maybe they will become bloggers? {fires up Les Mis soundtrack}]

It seems that they have forgotten that the msm is just the pale and insipid rump, prob finished on grain, of what was a vibrant and diverse set of media organs. Bunch of wosses prob don’t like offal. Back when i had to fight off the remenants of Australia’s megafauna and Joh B. P. for my bit of meat and three veg there were at least six, english language, daily papers in sydney. a generation before, at least twice that.

I may not be a food blogger, but i have had a meal with a journo at a restaurant and they thought that they were Gandalf’s Gift to Humanity. I got to admit that i was ready to play along ’cause i was a student and they were paying. but really they are like the cheepest chicken in the supermarket cooler, not the best just the most expedient.