Category: Counting On …

Reflections and actions during COP26 and going on

Counting on … day 1.081

24th March 2023

The climate crisis and its effects on people and nations needs a redistribution of resources to ensure justice as well as being an expression of loving our neighbour. We often rely on governments as the largest holders of wealth to address this but the response can be patchy.

“Last month, Nick Hepworth, executive director of Water Witness International, criticised the British government for slashing its contribution to the £90m Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters programme, known as BRACC in Malawi, as part of the UK’s 2021 cut to the aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP.” Guardian 

“In April, the UN had received only 3% of funds for its $6bn appeal for Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan. Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said the current crisis was partly due to the British government’s “compassion failure” and decision to slash the overseas aid budget by £4.6bn last year (2022) According to the [last year’s] IPC assessment for Somalia, an estimated 1.5 million under-fives face acute malnutrition by the end of the year, including 386,400 who are likely to be severely malnourished. Those numbers are only expected to go up.” Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/22/somalia-the-worst-humanitarian-crisis-weve-ever-seen?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 1.081

24th March 2023

“Hidden underground in rural Sussex is the world’s largest collection of seeds from wild plants. The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) is home to over 2.4 billion seeds, representing over 39,000 different species of the world’s storable seeds.  This is the most diverse wild plant species genetic resource on Earth – a global insurance policy to store and conserve seeds from common, rare or endangered useful plants.  Seeds are largely collected by global partners as part of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, as well as during field work led by Kew scientists”. https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/research-facilities/millennium-seed-bank

Counting on … day 1.080

23rd March 2023

On Wednesdays I join the Earth Vigil sat outside the House of Parliament,  praying for the well being of the world in this time of crises. As Wednesday features Prime Minister’s Questions and thus the arrival of the Prime Minister in his cavalcade, at Carriage Gate, many groups congregate to highlight their concerns. 

Yesterday we shared our space with a new group,  Mothers Manifesto, which is raising awareness of child hunger. The mothers themselves what’d begun on Mothering Sunday, a 6 day hunger strike. The day before, protesting outside Downing Street thy had met with Caroline Lucas. 

For more info – https://www.mothermanifesto.com/home

Counting on … day 1.079

22nd  March 2023 

“The Heritage Grain Trust … [is] developing a new approach to growing grain for human consumption, one that encourages resilience in the face of climate change and reduces the loss of biodiversity that occurs with intensive grain production. We believe that a genuine grain revolution is required in arable farming based on the growing of genetically-diverse populations of heritage cereals using agro-ecological methods. We believe that British farmers can produce all the grain needed to feed the UK by growing heritage grains in ways that improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and sequester climate-destroying greenhouse gasses.” https://www.heritagegraintrust.org/about-us

Seek out heritage grains and flour to add variety to your diet and to promote biodiversity. Try https://hodmedods.co.uk/

Counting on … day 1.077

20th  March 2023 

“As the risks from the climate crisis and global conflict increase, seed banks are increasingly considered a priceless resource that could one day prevent a worldwide food crisis. Two in five of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction, and though researchers estimate there are at least 200,000 edible plant species on our planet, we depend on just three – maize, rice and wheat– for more than half of humanity’s caloric intake. There are roughly 1,700 seed banks, or gene banks, around the world housing collections of plant species that are invaluable for scientific research, education, species preservation and safeguarding Indigenous cultures.

“The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, dubbed the “doomsday vault” or the “Noah’s ark of seeds”, aims to contain a duplicate of every seed housed in other banks across the globe. Its location is deliberately remote, sited in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the north pole. The hope is that the permafrost and dense rock into which the vault has been sunk will ensure that seed samples remain frozen – although it was breached in 2017 by meltwater after high temperatures in the region.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/15/seed-banks-the-last-line-of-defense-against-a-threatening-global-food-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Protecting biodiversity and food security are critically important. 

Counting on … day 1.076

19th March 2023 

To pray for Mother Earth is not ascribe any divinity to the earth. Rather it is a recognition that we are dependent on the fertility of the earth for our survival. 

Praised be you, my Lord,
through our Sister, Mother Earth,
who sustains us and directs us
bringing forth all kinds of fruits
and coloured flowers and herbs.

(one of the verses from The Canticle of the Creatures written by St Francis )

Counting on … day 1.075

18th March 2023

Growing your own food can mean survival for some people. In Africa many people are what one might call indigenous farmers, people who grow traditional crops using traditional methods. The plants they grow are often well suited to the local soils and the local vagaries of the climate. It is a type of farming that has little in the ways of cost inputs – no artificial fertilisers, no highly mechanised equipment, not even expensive seed. Rather seeds are collected from one season to use at the next or to swop with neighbours to improve fertility. In Kenya 80 – 90% of farmers use and share indigenous home grown seeds.

However the Kenyan government wishes to control the quality of seeds by prohibiting the sale of exchanging of any seeds other than those that have been licensed Licensing is expensive – only 20% of the seeds regularly used have been licensed – and this has limited the number of legal seeds sellers to a few large concerns. Often these seeds suppliers are also in the market of selling fertilisers and pesticides, and may opt to sell seeds that need such additional inputs. 

It is now illegal to sell or swop unlicensed seeds in Kenya  with the potential punishment of 2 years in jail and or a fine.

Greenpeace Africa is challenging this law. 

For more information see https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/publications/51807/whose-interest-does-the-kenyan-seeds-law-protect/

Counting on …day 1.074

17th March 2023

Drawing on both home grown food and OddBox food, earlier this week we had a ‘foraged soup in that I foraged the garden for green things and the remains of the OddBox, thus-

3 cloves of garlic and 3 shallots all sliced.

1 beetroot, 1 parsnip, 1 apple all diced

All these I softened in some rape seed oil. Then I added, 

A jar of cooked split green pea

A handful of red lentils

A teaspoon of miso

A colander of young dandelion and nettle leaves. 

I added water and left to simmer. Once cooked I liquidised everything to create a thick nourishing soup. 

Counting on …. Day 1.073

16th March 2023

Growing our own food keeps us in touch with the reality of food production and helps reduce its carbon footprint if only minimally. Growing delicate crops such as salad leaves and herbs would be the best win win. Salad crops can include simply growing mustard and cress on a paper towel.

For those without a garden – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/mar/24/how-to-grow-your-own-veg-without-a-garden?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

And for those with –  https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own