When Jill Griffiths was a child, she loved to write and thought that some day she’d even have a career as a writer. But everyone told her that a writing career was rarely a profitable one.
Taking that advice she chose to pursue her other passion which was science and after completing a biology degree she did a diploma in journalism.
“I saw this as a chance to combine my two interests which would mean I could talk to experts in various fields of science and then write about it. I could tell the story behind the science,” Jill says.
And that’s exactly what she did and she’s now been a successful science-writer for more than 30 years. Jill has also taken her interest in science writing to the next level with the publication of her book, What’s For Dinner?.
The book has been incredibly well-received and was a finalist in this year’s Premier’s Award for Book of the Year.
Jill describes the book as: “an exploration of the food on the table and the farming that puts it there and what it all means for people who grow food and those who eat it.”
She also says there were many surprises in what she learnt while researching for the book.
“I had lots of preconceived notions, things that I thought I knew about, that were either inaccurate or wrong. The first thing that surprised me was that 75 per cent of the world’s food comes from just 12 species of plants and five species of animal.
“It’s actually even more concentrated than that because within those species the range of varieties and breeds is limited and continues to diminish. Discovering that was a real aha moment.”
But this was just one of the surprises Jill uncovered as some of the things she learnt about chickens totally turned her upside down and inside out.
“I’ve kept chooks for a long time and I thought chickens were something I really understood. But I never knew how important they are to the world’s food supply. Not only are chickens one of the top five animals in food production but they’re the most important agricultural animal in terms of the amount they contribute to our food supply. Chickens make up 46 per cent of all meat eaten in Australia and that’s huge.”
Jill says research by the UN showed that, as of 2007, more people lived in urban areas than in rural ones. As most food is produced in rural areas the result is that fewer people are producing more food for more people.
She points out that food production, food quality and pricing are complex issues, loaded with nuances, opinions and theories and she doesn’t claim to have all the solutions as to how we can adequately feed the world’s population.
“Close to a billion people in the world are malnourished or undernourished. If we were hungry and desperate for food we’d not be so concerned about how it’s produced. But we become very concerned about it when there’s plenty of it. We’ve got choice and that’s a privilege.”
Jill says she tries to eat something from her own veggie garden every day – even if it’s simply a handful of herbs. It puts her in touch with the seasons and reminds her to value the effort of food production. Valuable it most certainly is. Without the efforts of our hard working farmers, graziers, fruit and veggie growers, we wouldn’t be asking: what’s for dinner? Instead we’d be asking: where is dinner?
What’s For Dinner? is published by Thames and Hudson and available from all good bookshops.
