1st November 2024
Green Christian has produced a useful nemonic for sourcing food sustainably – LOAF = Local, Organic, Animal friendly, fairly traded.
For more details – https://greenchristian.org.uk/gc-campaigns/loaf-2/why-use-your-loaf/
Tag: Food
Counting on … day 177
24th September 2024
Community gardens can not only boost biodiversity but also the supply of locally grown food.
“Pam Warhurst … the founder of Incredible Edible, a food-focused guerrilla gardening movement, wants the state to get out of people’s way. “The biggest obstacle is the inability of people in elected positions to cede power to the grassroots,” she says… Her big idea is guerrilla gardening – with a twist. Where guerrilla gardeners subvert urban spaces by reintroducing nature, Incredible Edible’s growers go one step further: planting food on public land and then inviting all-comers to take it and eat. “I used food because it seemed to me that we needed to act fast,” Warhurst says. “We needed to get experience as soon as we could, and probably food was the thing that we could demonstrate an alternative way of living around, in a really simple way.”” (1)
Here in London the Edible Bus Stop in Lambeth grows a range of flowering plants, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. https://theediblebusstop.com/the-kerb-garden/
Counting on day … 159
29th August 2024
After travel and accommodation, food maybe the next consideration. We can, whether eating out or self catering, make our diet more or less environmentally friendly depending on what we choose to eat. Choosing a plant based diet will have a lower environmental impact than one based on dairy and/or meat. “Avoiding meat and dairy products is one of the biggest ways to reduce your environmental impact, according to scientific studies” (1)
(1)https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714
Further reading https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local
Counting on … day 140
2nd August 2024
The Earth Overshoot Day website talks about the ‘power of possibility’ and hosts examples of many and various ways in which we could reduce our annual overshoot and so organise our care and use of resources that we could both maintain and enhance the world’s fruitfulness.
One area is food.
If we – prevent food loss and waste
– opt for plant-based foods
– adopt agroecological and regenerative practices
we could, they suggest, shift Earth Overshoot Day by 32 days.
Counting on … day 99
3rd May 2024
Food waste is an issue in homes too. We aim to minimise such waste by not buying more perishable food items than we need. Getting used to how much a person eats, and how much makes a serving, helps. As does a shopping list. Additionally as most of our meals are cooked from scratch it is is easy to prepare only as much food as is going to be eaten. If there are leftovers they are refrigerated and become the next day’s lunch.
Tea bags, coffee grounds, the outer leaves of a cabbage or onion skins all go in the compost heap. Being vegan there are no bones or skins to be disposed. Root vegetables are washed and used, peel on. Apple cores become cider vinegar, and lemon rinds become preserved lemon. Excess amounts of root and cabbage-like vegetables become sauerkraut, and surplus fruit from the garden is bottled, or made into jam or chutney. During the summer the excessive growth of nasturtium leaves and rocket are made into pesto and bottled for use in the winter.
And it is surprising how many different fruits and vegetables you can use to make a delicious soup!
Further reading – https://wrap.org.uk/resources/report/household-food-and-drink-waste-united-kingdom-2021-22
https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Counting on … day 97
1st May 2024
As well as seeking a sustainable supplier for beans and pulses, we have also sought out sustainably motivated suppliers for other food stuffs.
Our flour comes from Priors Flour and is made from locally grown organic grains which are milled in a windmill! Its small scale business model maintains good human relations – a person who answers questions, and a company which can shut down to allow staff a holiday – and preserves an old but still highly functional building. And the flour is full of good feel and flavour.
Our oats – for porridge and oatcakes – comes from Pimhill which grows, mill and sells organic oats, and which come compactly packed in paper packaging. (Waste and plastic free is another feature we support).
Counting on … day 96
30th April 2024
Even within the option a vegan diet, it is possible to look for the more sustainable options. The bulk of our protein comes from beans and pulses. By buying these from Hodmedod we can opt for beans and pulses – as well as pasta, chia seeds, quinoa and other staples – that are grown in the UK. This supports the UK’s farming industry and especially in these cases, smaller farms and businesses including many innovating with new varieties. It also reduces food miles – the distances over which food is transported from field to plate.
As well as buying dried beans, we buy bean flours from Hodmedod which adds to the richness of the dishes we eat. We also buy Brazil nuts from them which are wild-harvested nuts that come directly from the Kayapó people of Brazil. This is solidarity trading which ensures the protection of the local forest and an income for the indigenous people.
Further reading –
https://hodmedods.co.uk/pages/the-hodmedod-story
https://hodmedods.co.uk/blogs/news/soy-no-more – this article explores in more depth the issues that arise from intensive livestock farming that relies on imported soy.
https://hodmedods.co.uk/blogs/news/piy-brazil-nuts-solidarity-trading
Counting on … day 95
29th April 2024
For a change of emphasis, I plan over the next few weeks to look at some of the things we do as a household to live more sustainably. Maybe what we do might prompt some thoughts for you, and maybe you will have some ideas to share as well.
I follow a vegan diet and as I am the main cook, all home cooking is vegan!
Vegan diets have a smaller carbon footprint and cause less damage to the climate – research suggests somewhere in the region of 75% less! The food grown for vegan diets uses less water and less land – largely because of the significant amounts of land and water needed to grow feed for farm animals. Needing less land has two benefits – first the ability to grow more food for a growing population, and second the ability to set aside more farm land for rewilding and restoring levels of biodiversity.
I also chose a vegan diet on the grounds of animal welfare. Even eating a vegetarian diet involves the slaughter of young animals – principally male chicks and male calves – as well as the likelihood that the females will have stressful lives of repeated birthing.
I can see that for some people raising low intensity livestock can be a key part of a farm’s ecology, and that eating small amounts of meat and dairy would be consistent with that.
Further reading –
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets
https://ourworldindata.org/carbon-opportunity-costs-food
What would happen to the cows is we all went vegan? – https://greentau.org/2022/09/23/the-green-tau-issue-53/comment-page-1/
Tips for switching to a vegan diet – https://greentau.org/2021/10/12/eco-tips-11/
Counting on…. Day 1.157
23rd August 2023
If we need to slow down agricultural expansion, do we know what caused its expansion? There is I’m sure no one answer but a multiplicity of interconnecting reasons.
- Population growth. Globally we now need to feed over 8 billion people, up from 6 billion in 1999, and 3 billion in 1960. Yet researchers tell us that we could feed 10 billion people without exceeding the planet’s environmental boundaries (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0465-1)
- Income growth – as people become richer they choose to eat more expensive foods which are often more resource expensive too – eg imported tropical fruits, sugar based foods, and especially meat
- Developments in agriculture that allow more intensive production such as pig breeds that can reach a slaughter weight in 4 months; high protein feed made from soy beans that rapidly fatten chickens; high yielding grains that combine with fertilisers and pesticides to increase harvests.
- Financial rewards that encourage rain forests to be cleared to make way for sugar plantations, soy crops and cattle ranching.
- Irrigation and airfreight that allow crops such as asparagus, avocados and blueberries to be grown in the southern hemisphere and imported as out of season alternatives for the northern hemisphere.
- Social changes that have made chicken a staple rather than a special treat, that have reduced the popularity of foods – in the UK – such as cabbage and runner beans, replacing them with courgettes and peppers.
- Social changes that mean less food is home produced, that less food is preserved at home (eg jam/ chutney/ sauerkraut), that less food is home grown.
- Increasing quantities of food going to waste – caused by social changes and increasingly long supply chains.
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
The Green Tau 