Last week as part of Year 12 Food Studies, we took a trip to Melbourne by train, visiting the Queen Victoria Markets to experience the range and types of products which can be bought to support the different evolving food issues, and the ways which the markets support sustainability. We saw all the food types from fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and seafood, as well as the businesses selling their clothing, décor, and souvenirs. We saw the ways which the market supported sustainability by eliminating the use of plastic bags, having trolleys and carboard boxes to be brought instead, and bins where you can recycle your used lids from coffee cups.
We then got to go to Bean to Bar – Ratio Cocoa Roasters Chocolate Maker, learning about the production of their chocolate and what the chocolate industry experiences to get their chocolate onto the shelf. Ratio Cocoa is an ethical brand, sourcing their beans directly form the suppliers and producing the products in their shop. We got to have a step-by-step demonstration of how they produce the chocolate. We got to taste the raw cocoa bean, the chocolate before being set, and then the different chocolate percentages that they produce. This experience was very eye opening to see how hard it is for a business to produce an ethical chocolate whilst competing against other bigger brands.
During this day we were able to grow our understanding around food issues and sustainability, allowing us to apply this to our work in the coming weeks.
Charli, Sophie and Zoe
