The supply and demand of butter

“If you're afraid of butter, as many people are nowadays, just put in cream!” Julia Child

"I do like a little bit of butter to my bread" A.A Milne

And it seems we all increasingly want butter, not margarine. Yet again the scientific advice about what we should eat has turned. Well it actually turned a year or so ago, but the mantra now is butter - natural, margarine not. Saturated fats - good, polyunsaturated fats not so good. Or as it was put elsewhere.

"As for butter versus margerine, I trust cows more than chemists" Joan Gussow

Three cheers say I as I really like butter. But it seems there is a problem according to the AFR (Australian Financial Review) and also to various articles I found online. There is a major shortage, an increased demand (because of that change in scientific advice) and so the prices are going up and up - almost 32% up from last year here and 60% up globally, according to the AFR.

The shortage has been caused by a number of different things. Initially it was caused by that 'butter is bad for you' thing, which meant a decrease in production in response to a lower demand. Then here in Australia, Fonterra and Murray Goulburn dropped the price they would pay farmers for their milk dramatically, which forced the farmers to either exit dairy farming altogether or decrease their herds. I gather a similar thing happened in Europe. There have also been bad weather conditions and thus a scarcity of butter, at exactly the same time as there is an increased demand for it. So expect to pay more for your butter in future.

But, again according to the AFR, it seems that we might be willing to pay more - we love it so much. That said, some manufacturers of cakes and other products that contain butter, have not yet passed on the additional cost, but will have to before too long. So maybe we'll give up on the cakes - doubt it - but still keep buying butter.

And I suspect that more or less everyone will keep buying butter. I certainly shall, although I must confess that I do not buy very much pure butter, preferring the almost butter spreads that contain just enough oil to make them spreadable. Except for making special things and for special occasions that is. I began doing this when we were bombarded with all that anti saturated fat stuff, and I guess I shall continue buying it, because of its spreadability. You have to think in advance about taking butter out of the fridge in order to spread it. But I guess I could revert back to real butter for cooking. It's only for spreading on bread that you need the spreadability and anyway these spreads are largely butter anyway - or so my husband used to say when he thought I was using too much.

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” James Beard

So what is the new health mantra? Best summarised by others I feel - so here are a couple of quotes - both from the excellent Guardian Online.

"What's certain is that saturated fat is a key component of our cell membranes, and essential for the production of certain hormones. It also acts as a carrier for important vitamins, and is vital for mineral absorption, and many other biological processes." Malcolm Kendrick

"The fatwa on sat fat has been a fabulous boon for the sugar and cereals industries. It acts as a red herring, drawing our attention away from the much likelier cause of obesity: an overabundance of sugar and refined carbohydrates, which disrupt blood sugar and insulin levels, encouraging fat production and storage in the body." Joanna Blythman - The Guardian

So - "Eat butter first, and eat it last, and live till a hundred years be past." Old Dutch proverb

I'm sure that contrary views still exist. It was so beaten into us, was it not, that saturated fat was bad for us, that I still can't quite believe that it is actually good for us. I still cook with olive oil, and I cut all the fat off the meat I cook with, and I certainly don't render the fat down in the oven for toast and dripping as my mother did. I don't have chips unless I go out and then only very occasionally, and I don't ever deep fry anything. But it seems that even lard is coming back. I love butter, but I do feel guilt every time I have some or use it in making something. It's probably another "little bit of what you fancy does you good" thing. Moderation in all things and all that.

As to the quality of butter - well like all foods these days there has been a bit of a revolution in that small producers are changing things. According to Stephanie Alexander our Australian butter is yellower than the European butter, because our cows are able to eat grass all year, and this is better. Mind you I also saw an article about Irish butter which made basically the same claim. And did you know Cork in southern Ireland used to have the largest butter market in the world?

I have also noticed that the supermarkets are now selling cultured butter - the butter has a culture added to the cream before churning - which is much more like the glorious French butter that I remember. And in the Queen Victoria Market you can buy butter cut from a whole block of it - something I remember that we did in my childhood. And, of course, as with all natural things, you can make your own - you just need an electric mixer. Darina Allen at the Guardian will tell you how. I did it once.

I wonder if we really will keep on buying it if the price soars - though the farmers they interviewed for the AFR seemed to think that the shortage would be brief. It seems even back in Roman times it became an economic thing that separated the rich from the poor - I wonder if that will happen here?

"[Butter is] the most delicate of foods among barbarous nations, and one which distinguishes the wealthy from the multitude at large." Pliny