I must confess that my ears pricked up this week to hear how the Advertising Standards Association have banned the Egg Information Service's latest TV advertising campaign. or should I say old readvertising campaign, as it features the original TV ads with comic genius Tony Hancock.
Apparently, the ads are misleading as they infer that eggs are the only healthy start to the day, rather than being one option in many. Pedantry? I think so. I am not sure anyone is going to think that eggs are the only way to a healthy start to the day.
Besides that, I would have loved to see the Lad from Cheam back on prime time TV.
However, I feel I must come clean and confess also a vested interest here. Not only am I fan of the man, but I also keep chickens myself. My family and I are the proud owners of ten Road Island Red hybrids, which merrily live down the bottom of the garden. Currently, it feels like we are supplying half of our street! Not that we are doing it for profit, but the truth is it is fun knowing you are eating eggs that have only travelled yards, rather than the hundreds of miles that other produce has to endure.
Which, at this point, I can't help but reference poor Prince Charles and the frustration of his contract being terminated with Sainsbury's. Although his produce is grown in the West Country, it has to travel all the way up to East Anglia to be packaged and labelled before being driven back down to be sold where it came from. Sainsbury's spokesperson said the carrots were not keeping fresh in the process and therefore had to put the consumers' needs first. "Madness!", I hear you cry.
I find all of this quite depressing, as we seem to be hearing a message that processed food like breakfast cereals covered in chocolate is just as good for you as fresh produce. Correct me if I am wrong (and I know some you probably will) but the problem is not with the produce or the producer, but the supermarket buyer. Do we really care that our carrot doesn't look like it has been styled by Vogue magazine's designer?
In the Old Testament, when the Hebrews came out of Egypt and wandered around for 40 years in the wilderness they were given manna to eat - daily. When they tried to store it up it went rotten quickly. They even complained about a lack of varied diet. Okay, so the point, to keep things in context here, is about showing being totally dependent on the LORD to provide in all things, but it does nevertheless suggest that fresh is best.
All this brings me to surmise that maybe we are still as fussy about food today as were 4,000 years ago.
Jesus gave us those famous words in the prayer he taught his disciples, "Give us our daily bread". Our spiritual diet is much like our physical diet. It depends on daily freshness for healthiness. we can no more survive on one Sunday sermon to sustain us as we can from one square meal a week.
Whether you like going to work on an egg or Coco Pops is your choice. Just don't complain about your diet. Certainly not in ear shot of my chickens anyway.
ASD
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