Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Susan Tomlinson, one half of the "Debate Your Plate" team. Susan and Liz Scarff are both journalists and passionate about food. Susan says "We’d rant at each other: why was half the world obese while the other half starved? Did organic really cut the mustard? And did we believe the environmentalists who claim GM companies want to own the world’s seed supply? We began to realize just how intertwined, on every level, food is in our lives and it doesn’t take a genius to work out there’s SOMETHING up with our food chain. We were determined to get to the bottom of it."

Susan and Liz explain more:

What motivated you to start “Debate Your Plate"?
Susan: I love cooking. I love eating even more but as a mum, when I had the responsibility of feeding others, the personal very quickly became political. I remember reading a rather chilling quote from Nixon: “Control oil and you control nations: control food and you control the people.” That kind of sums it up, I guess. I want to create a community that and can unite and challenge if need be – as well as celebrating food.
Liz: As a journalist, I love telling stories and, like Susan, I love eating too but even more than all of that, I love the fact that when people come together, incredible things can happen. There is a revolution happening right now as people are slowly fighting to reclaim our food chain. For me Debate Your Plate began as a need to tell their stories, hold politicians to account, share recipes and celebrate all the wonderful local producers out there.

Has food always been a big part of your life?
Susan: My mum and her mum (who lived with us) were like a Julia Childs double act. Night after night, ox tail soup; Queen of Puddings, and prawn cocktails (it was the 70’s after all) would appear as if by magic.
Liz: Yes, it’s always been a huge part of my life but it wasn't until I started to write about it that I realized just how much food touches every element of our lives.

What is your favorite food destination?
Susan: Morocco. Actually, I’m obsessed with the place, largely because of the food. It’s incredible. The mix of sweet with sour; fruit with meat; rose petals and sprinkles of cinnamon, my all-time favorite spice.
Liz: It's Morocco for me too - I'm such a copy cat.
Be it the simplicity of an egg tagine, after a week of eating dried food high in the Atlas Mountains or dinner in Djemaa el Fna Square in Marrakech - your senses and taste buds are bombarded.

How do you find all of the stories?
Susan: Everyone eats, so everyone has a food story to tell. I’ll talk to anyone – and ask anything – there’s a story in pretty much every conversation you have. The great thing about food is that there’s hardly a part of our lives it doesn’t touch.
Liz: Susan and I love eating, but we also enjoy chatting. As soon as Debate Your Plate comes up in conversation, everybody has an opinion, or wants to recommend a recipe or restaurant. Word of mouth is really important to us.

What have been some of the most exciting stories that you have written?
Susan: Liz and I are planning a trip to the States to cover a number of stories which I’m really excited about and also a long-term project that will involve eating a lot!
Liz: Story assignments have taken me driving across the Sahara desert in a Lada; living at Everest Base Camp for two months covering Sir Ranulph Fiennes' ascent of the mountain. I've also driven up the Karakorum Highway in Pakistan; hung out with radical cheerleaders in New York and taken to the high seas with Greenpeace.

What stories or aspects of food would you like to cover?
Susan: I love the quirky, odd stories and of course recipes but I’m also quite keen on the political side of our food chain.
Liz: I love meeting the local food producers who are so knowledgeable and produce the most amazing foods.

Plans for the future of Debate your plate?
Susan: We’ve got a couple of stories up our sleeve, which we hope will help build a global food community that can unite and challenge when it needs to. We’re also in the process of building a database of local food producers, so you’ll be able to punch in your postcode and find out where to shop locally.
Liz: We're also planning some exciting innovative 'live' digital events from countries around the world.

My first food memory is…
Susan: Narrowly escaping death, running across a four-lane highway to hasten a trip to the ice-cream shop. I was three years old and a total stranger picked me up before I was bowled over by on-coming traffic. Not much has changed really. I’m still too motivated by my sweet tooth.
Liz: Being made to sit at the table and eat a walnut cake when I was about 7 years old. I hate walnuts.

My favorite family recipe is…
Susan: This changes all the time, depending on my mood. At the moment, it’s my version of Salmon Teriyaki with green beans and rice. You can find the recipe on Debate Your Plate.
Liz: I'm a sucker for a spicy laksa – and for dessert, our resident chef Pippa McIntire makes a mean tartetatin.

My last supper would be…
Susan: We had this incredibly old waffle-making machine (I think it was from the 1920’s). God knows how my mum didn’t electrocute herself in making the most incredible hot waffles.We would eat them with mountains of butter and maple syrup. I would fly all my friends from around the world for a pile of waffles and too many bottles of Pol Roger Champagne. Told you I had a sweet tooth!
Liz: It would have to be the aforementioned spicy laksa and lemon Lebanese pudding; all consumed with my boyfriend at a table on the beach at sunset, in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia.

What’s the secret to cooking with another person?
Susan: Flexibility; a sense of humor when things go wrong, and maybe each having your own jobs. I can’t stand that lifting the pot lids thing, asking: “what’s happening with that?”
Liz: Don't do it. Or allocate specific separate jobs.

The most memorable meal I ever ate was…
Susan: Eating spicy fish, sand beneath my toes in KohPhangan, Thailand and my now husband asking me to marry him. We’d been together four days.
Liz: In a timber shack in the Sahara Desert. A camel stew had been lovingly prepared and I was very honored to be invited to share it - trouble was, I'm a vegetarian.

About the authors: Susan Tomlinson and Liz Scarff run the website - Debate your Plate.

Susan and Liz have very kindly agreed to share some of their food stories with everyone here on the website. Watch out for further stories in the News Section.