Talking of sacred cows

….a recent example (albeit a little stale) of how easy it is to get stuck to a ‘position’ happened right here in New Zealand recently. Did you notice the “Edmonds Cookbook Hot Cross Bun broohah”? It’s certainly a wonderful example of the dynamics we live in. Here’s what happened. The Establishment (Edmonds) has a cookbook. It is iconic. Many Kiwi households have one and it has helped countless students and other households feed themselves. So all in all it’s a good thing…until it isn’t. If you haven’t seen the story, Edmonds has a hot cross bun recipe that doesn’t actually work – unless you somehow know that because fruit releases sugar when it is mixed into the rest of the ingredients you shouldn’t add it until the end otherwise the yeast won’t do its thing properly and you’ll end up with hot cross rock cakes.

Well known and much loved New Zealand celebrity cook Jo Seagar tested the recipe and found it wanting. Edmonds said they tested it three times and it’s fine. The public tested it and found it wanting. Edmonds isn’t going to change it and stands by the recipe. A former employee who was a test baker told the Edmonds marketing department several times while he worked there some years ago that the recipe needed to be changed. Edmonds says it’s fine. So, Edmonds has a recipe they say works. The environment says it doesn’t. Edmonds says it does and that people are just not following the instructions properly – they have taken a position.

The funny thing about all this is that it’s a great example and reflects the world we live in. So what can we learn from our teacher Edmonds? The Establishment has problems to solve (even if it doesn’t acknowledge them). The solutions are all around in the community already. Rather than adopt these solutions, the Establishment is closed to feedback and keeps doing what it does. The question is WHY? Why do we continue to do things that don’t work and make our problems bigger and harder to solve – especially when there are solutions already sitting there? Think alternative energy, child development, sustainability, the idea that one size does not fit all and so on… Why can’t the guy with the hugely long lasting car battery get any market share? Why is the research and development money so much less than defence spending? Why in this day and age are we still so influenced by rules made by a very few (sometimes just one individual) hundreds and hundreds of years ago for reasons that related to that time and place and no longer ‘fit’ our modern reality? Why is it when we have technologies that can improve people’s lives en mass, that we do not use them – have we not a responsibility to the planet and each other to move forward?

You thought this view was about a hot cross bun….well, I might not be a bun…but I can get hot (possibly menopause) and pretty cross when we shut our eyes and block our ears to feedback that could contribute to increased success – it seems plain silly! Come on Edmonds – set pride aside and just say thanks for the feedback, launch a nationwide competition for the next iteration of ‘the best little hot cross bun recipe in town’ and thrive on the renewed enthusiasm for New Zealand’s most iconic cookbook?’ You could call the new recipe ‘Humility’ after the guy whose death those buns are supposed to honour….

If the Establishment can’t change a hot cross bun recipe for the common good – how I wonder is Obama going to get on ridding the world of nuclear weapons that are so prolific that we could destroy ourselves thousands of times over? Humanity is revolting…(pun intended) in our own big and little ways. Make it a revolt that counts for the good of the whole – with no-one and nothing left out.

And that’s it from my view.

Cheers,
Amanda