Diversity

Everywhere I look I see the uniformity of a corporate design that markets products under the guise of individuality and choice, but in many respects our lives have never been more uniform and limited. Mass production and the market monopolisation by a few supermarket giants mean that we all consume from an ever diminishing shopping list of food stuffs. Languages fade like dusty black and white photo's of smiling grandparents: I checked out Scots Gaelic's rating at as a language - it's ranked between Khakas and Thai Sign Language. Culturally we have been hoodwinked into celebrating the vapid nonsense churned out by a handful of cynical companies. We have lost so much and yet it so vital to the rich experience that life should surely be.

I was listening to a guy on the radio talking about Cheddar, which some of you may know is my favourite cheese. In fact Gem and I made a pilgrimage to the town of Cheddar last year and it was a very emotional experience for me and a couple of bewildered shopkeepers, but I digress. Seemingly less than 5% of the 400 cheddar producers making the cheese 50 years ago, are now producing cheddar, and only three are manufacturing it according to the traditional method (Read here) - so the cheddar that we all know and love is churned out (ha) by a few central manufacturers and bares only a passing resemblance to the stuff our grandparents grew up on. Same for the Irish - Anag and Grus were hard pressed skim milk cheeses made in moulds while Faiscre Grotha were a fresh type of pressed curd cheese - ever heard of them? Probably not and that's primarily because of EU legislation which restricts the making of cheese with 'Raw Milk' - (In Canada and Oz it's illegal). Like so much of our diversity we are losing cheeses and it saddens me. Whilst living in Romania I used to skip down the lane to an old lady and buy a kilo of her 'Brinza' a traditional cheese made from Ewes milk. Not only was it incredibly cheap, it was also delicious but I fear that as Romania enters the Union her cheese will go the same way as all the others.

Diversity is good. It enriches our lives so much more than knowing what Britney is up to (how is she by the way), not only that but diversity is also essential to our survival. I know this will be a hard pill for some to swallow but consider the banana - it's future loss is reflective of the corporate stranglehold on diversity- some of you will know the future of the banana but if you don't, then read J Hari's comment in this Sundays Independent: Here

Rant over - time for some Dubliner.