What an inspiring story the Mail is showing today on their website.

A village in Hampshire has risen up, as a community against the local supermarkets and started producing lots of their own food, from potatoes to pigs!

The “community allotment” sells 45 types of vegetables and 100 chickens a week, and is run by a committee which includes a radiologist, a computer programmer and a former probation officer.

Felicity Kendall eat your heart out!

Full Story

I was sent a link this evening to a great site that I hope anyone that might read this (if there are any) has already signed up to.

The site is Compassion In World Farming at http://www.ciwf.org.uk/

The site makes for uncomfortable reading when you watch some of the videos on there. Sign up to support the cause… http://support.ciwf.org.uk/ciwf/default.asp

This is from their website:

The Problem:

Cattle

The archaic trade in live calf exports resumed last year, with its haunting images of needless suffering. Thousands of British born male dairy calves were taken from their mothers shortly after birth and later herded into huge containers in the dead of night. They were then shipped overseas to continue their journeys into the unknown. Some calves were sent all the way to Spain on journeys that took over 60 hours, causing them to suffer greatly for long periods of time in shocking conditions. Many of them endured unnecessary pain, stress, fear or illness, sometimes being shipped in severe weather causing injury or death. Once they finally reach the continent, calves are frequently kept on concrete or slatted floors without any straw or other bedding, in barren systems that are illegal in the UK.Due to the increased demands for milk, selective breeding has allowed the proliferation of high-yield dairy cows. Females face a life of repeated impregnation to provide for the human demand for milk. Male calves are frequently unwanted as they are not thought to be meaty enough to rear as beef cattle, thus are often shot at birth.

Pigs

Around 1.3 billion pigs are slaughtered annually for meat worldwide. At least half the world’s pig meat is produced from intensive or industrial systems, housing pigs in crowded indoor pens often with no straw or bedding. They are commonly subjected to painful mutilations without pain relief. High rates of growth can often cause stress on their bodies leading to problems with ulcers, heart failure and lameness. Sows kept for breeding and producing meat pigs are often caged whilst pregnant in metal-barred stalls so narrow that they can’t even turn around or exercise. This ‘sow stall’ system has been banned in the UK following our campaigns but is widespread in Europe and worldwide. Farrowing crates are still legal in the UK, with the majority of sows giving birth in these tightly confined metal crates leading to high levels of frustration and stress. Their food is restricted so much that many experience chronic hunger.

Chickens

Worldwide, around 48 billion chickens are slaughtered annually for meat. Over 70% of them are raised in industrial farming systems confining them in windowless, barren and crowded sheds of up to 16 to 20 birds per square metre. By the time they reach slaughter age at 6 weeks old they often have less space than one A4 sheet of paper per chicken. Due to excessive growth rates, many suffer from painful lameness caused by abnormal skeletal development or bone disease. Some have difficulty in walking or even standing - unable to even reach water, they can go thirsty for days.

I got a really interesting email this week regarding a new “eco” product that is taking the country by storm. It’s one for you dog owners and it’s called the Poopod!

A dog loving British family has created the ultimate accessory for responsible dog owners. When Nicole, their 15 year old, made it clear that carrying a smelly, steamy bag full of dog poop, when walking their Yorkie Rosie, was just not good for her image at all, the Bells worked together to develop the ingenious, award winning, Poopod as a fresh solution to a dirty problem.

The Poopod is a clever, all in one device that includes a dog lead attached to a bag dispenser with a sealed container allowing pet owners to discreetly dispose of their dog’s mess without leaving the scent of ‘Eau de Poop’, wafting behind.

With over 900 tonnes of ‘it’ being deposited in Britain every day, complaints about dog mess have created a big stink all over the country. Responsible dog owners have been rallying against this flow of faeces and armed with Poopods they are a force not to be sniffed at.

As a multi-award winning product, The Bell family won a ‘double gold’ award at The British Invention Show. And Sue and Nicole Bell won a ‘special recognition for innovation award’ for Poopod at the Womens’ Innovation Inventors Awards only three days after Poopod’s hugely successful debut at Crufts. And there is a good reason for that!

Embarrassment when carrying a warm, squishy bag of dog droppings is the reason given by 90% of those who still won’t clean up after their dog according to a survey undertaken by the Department of the Environment. The Poopod transcends this tricky issue by making it convenient, simple, clean and smell free to store and dispose of messy dog waste.

Everything you need for your dog’s walk is simplified into one great product. Just clip the detachable lead provided - or even your own lead - to the Poopod, attach your dog and you are ready for walkies. Once your dog makes his deposit, you can proudly demonstrate what a caring and responsible dog owner you are by pulling out a handy bag from your Poopod dispenser. You can then place the used bag into the scented Poopod compartment and no one will ever be any the wiser, until you dispose of your parcel properly.

Sue Bell, MD of Poopod explains: “Rosie and I enjoy our walks so much more since we invented the Poopod. I can take her anywhere now and I never get embarrassed by her little presents any more.”

The Poopod comes in two sizes, ensuring that dogs of all breeds can have embarrassment free owners. They even do a pink one for those image conscious owners like Nicole. Available from just £11.99, you can be the first in your neighbourhood to lead the way to a cleaner, sweeter smelling dog walk.

Find out more at http://www.poopod.com

Genius!

Thank you chancellor for introducing a tax on plastic bags - about time !
The Irish have been used to paying for this for some time, some small towns in the UK are adopting a no plastic approach and parts of Europe have banned their use also.

We take along our jute bags when shopping at supermarkets and actively refuse plastic bags in other stores as well (although shop assistants are often hell-bent on packing it straight into a plastic bag and look at you blankly when you ask for the goods to ‘not’ be packed…)

Each week we head to the local recycling depot with a boot load of paper, plastic and glass items

We try and shop responsibly and perhaps we are not like everyone else and recycle more than the average person, but I am increasingly concerned at how much packaging exists on our food and everyday items.

Reducing the amount of packaging on food can go some way to regulating and reducing the cost of the products we buy.

Remember to ‘Just Say No !’ to plastic bags, buy items in bulk (usually with little or no packaging) and support retailers who adopt the same approach.

as seen on Inzvestor

A new program pointed out to me looks like it could help to cut down on the amount of paper we all waste when printing from the web. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has tried to print something from the net only to find 2 or 3 pages that are all but blank, save the url and date.

If like me that makes you really angry check out http://www.printgreener.com/index.html It has a free version which I have played with that seems to do a lot already.

Save Trees! Think before you print

I was sent the link to a very good site yesterday which I thought I would share with as many people as possible.

The website is that of the Marine Conservation Society’s online guide to fish that should be avoided and fish that you can eat with the knowledge that they are well managed. The URL is http://www.fishonline.org/advice/eat and I urge you all to check where your fish are coming from so you can make a more informed choice.

There’s a well known phrase that ‘a weed is a plant in the wrong place.’ What may not be well known is the fact that we can use weeds to read the message they send us concerning the state of our garden soil.

Indicator weeds, as they are commonly called, can tell us whether soil is acid or alkaline, wet or dry, compacted or poorly drained. So before the new growing season starts, wander round your garden, take note of the weeds you find and their distribution, and use what they tell you to take remedial action if necessary. I have featured below some of the more common weeds and their associated habitat and if you are uncertain about the identity of some of your specimens hot foot it to the library, bookshop or Google to check them out.

Take dandelions for example. With their long roots and prolific seeds they cause gardeners much angst. However, instead of wailing at their presence, congratulate yourself that they, along with the milky sapped spurges and chickweed, are telling you that your patch is rich in humus and ripe for cultivation. When chickweed is present with red dead nettle, borage and speedwell, you can be happy that your garden is high in nutrients and only needs a regular application of organic matter to maintain fertility.

Silverweed on the other hand signals that your soil has become compacted and would benefit from some deep digging, adding organic matter and sowing green manures. The same message is conveyed by the presence of plantain and creeping buttercup and all three proliferate on the green patch I optimistically call ‘the lawn.’ This in turn is evidence of my perennial preoccupation with the vegetable garden rather than the Flymo!

Isn’t it great to see people actually trying, and i think to certain degree succeeding in changing peoples opinions and making them think hard.  I really think this is what Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are doing with their current run of programs.

Hugh’s ‘Chicken Out’ Campaign really is gaining momentum.  You only need to look at the banner on our homepage to see the number of supporters growing, litterally by the second.  Highlighting the awful conditions and welfare issues of the animals we eat is important.  As said by many, sure a 2 for £5 on chickens is cheap, but come on, should it really be that cheap?  I mean to raise and sell a bird for less than £2.50 and still make a profit means that it surely cant have been in the best of welfare situations for its 6 week life span.

I hope this trend of “celebrities” putting their weight behind real issues continues and I hope Jamie and Hugh together can achieve the awareness that Jamie managed solo for school dinners!

Remember to join the Chicken Out Campaign!

It’s hard to believe at this time of year, when the country is buffeted by gales and overhung with a dismal pewter sky, that the seasons will take their course and eventually spring and summer will lighten both our spirits, and our heating bills! So I take refuge in my imagination, and anticipate the first bright green leaf unfurling, and the first sleepy bee foraging in my aubrietia by the kitchen window.

During the thirty or so years of my conscious participation in organic gardening, I was totally preoccupied with the health of my soil, believing that if the soil was fertile, friable and regularly heaped with compost and other organic matter, that delicious and health giving vegetables and herbs could not fail to flourish. The sight of bees jostling for position on my cotoneaster brought a purely visual pleasure and the reassurance of how organised and reliable nature’s creatures are - it’s a warm sunny day – so here come the bees, and the hover flies, and the ladybirds, and the lacewings, all busying themselves with the tasks nature has designed them for, like collecting pollen and destroying aphids. Where bees in particular were concerned, my knowledge was painfully limited, and frankly, apart from accepting that honey bees make honey and the poor little workers are in thrall to a demanding Queen, my appreciation of their significance was sadly lacking.

Then last year I came across a book called The Red Mason Bee, Taking the Sting out of Bee-keeping by Christopher O’Toole. This was an absolute gem of a book and forcibly brought home what should have been palpably obvious to me, that no matter what we do as gardeners and growers, unless the bees play their part, the ultimate crop is going to be non existent or at least, disappointing. It seems that honeybee populations are under threat from the voracious Varroa mite, a serious Asian parasitic mite of honey bees. Originally affecting the Asian honey bee, (Apis cerana,) it has spread to the European honey bee, (Apis mellifera.) The mite feeds on the bees at all stages of their development, weakening them, spreading disease and ultimately decimating the hives of our most effective pollinators.

Since its discovery in England in 1992 the mite has spread to colonies of honey bees throughout the UK, and O’Toole’s book exhorts gardeners and growers to encourage an alternative pollinator, the Red Mason Bee, (Osmis rufa,) into our gardens, orchards and commercial nurseries. Apparently this little bee can do the work of 120 honeybee workers, is docile, has a mild, harmless sting and is not susceptible to the varroa mite. (It is therefore also very child and pet friendly!) There is a lot of information about bees and the varroa mite on various web sites, so if you want to know more, Google it!

If, like me, the idea of yet another species under threat is of concern to you, and a species that is so crucial to our basic need to grow and harvest food, then let me suggest that before spring comes round again, you hot foot it to your nearest garden centre or mail order catalogue. Seek out the nest kits that are now available for Red Mason Bees and hang them in a suitable spot in your garden. I installed mine at the end of the summer, so it’s too soon to report results, but I await the little nesting females with great optimism – and don’t worry, they don’t swarm either, so no-one is going to find themselves beating off a swarm one hot June afternoon. Save the beating for the cream to go with your bumper crop of strawberries!

The burgeoning organic movement should only be applauded and encouraged, but is there is a lurking danger of its philosophy being preoccupied chiefly with food? For every child who has devoured Jamie inspired school dinners, there are those, and their mothers, who view the menu of the day with grave suspicion because they don’t recognise some of the ingredients. Now a chip – we know where that comes from – a plastic bag in the frozen food section of the supermarket.

We’ve heard the tales about inner city kids who’ve never made the connection between the carton of semi-skimmed and a cow, and my contention is that unless we are encouraged to interact with Nature and observe its rhythms, patterns and creatures, we will never learn to deepen our relationship with the world or realise what it offers in terms of physical, emotional and spiritual nourishment.

We all sit transfixed as celebrities in the Australian outback are showered with maggots or devour witchety grubs, but it’s a sterile curiosity, from which none of our senses derive any significant benefit; I suspect that for many children their experience of nature is similarly vicarious and they never actually get their hands dirty.

I was fortunate in having a father who, having been thwarted in his aspirations to be an artist by the outbreak of the Second World War, channelled his creativity into the family home and garden. Admittedly this ‘urge’ ran the gamut of many fads and fancies, and embraced such diverse areas as baking wholemeal bread, (much to his children’s horror,) making Christmas decorations cut out in the same patterns as snowflake crystals and making his own bow and arrows, but, running alongside all these ephemeral joys was his lifelong passion for his garden.

One weekend in 1960, this passion initiated me into the mysteries of the carbon cycle. Father announced the impending arrival of manure for the garden, which was to be dumped outside the garden wall, and we should all have to help move it through the gate. The word ‘manure’ meant nothing to me, it had never featured in Schoolfriend or Girl, so I blithely awaited the delivery of what I presumed to be choice shrubs, and didn’t wonder at the need for wellies when my mother handed them out. When the steaming mass slid off the lorry, I was aghast. Not only was there a load of poop outside our house, but I was expected to interact with it! Worse still, as I shovelled and snivelled, the son of a neighbour, and the remote object of my affections, hove into sight on the side path and boggled openly at the sight of most of the family shovelling horse s—t for England. (The two youngest offspring had been spared, as they would probably have fallen into it.) I don’t remember now which was hotter, the manure or me, but I wouldn’t go outside the house for days. Persuaded by my father’s zeal, I did eventually experience a fascination for the process of decomposition, and now feel a deep satisfaction at the sight of charcoal coloured, crumbly earth.

Such was the beginning of my own closer relationship with the natural world. We had already been introduced to the more aesthetic aspects during regular Sunday walks, but now I wonder, when I see the children with mobiles, intent on their texting, if they ever look up to spot the first swallow, or catch a snowflake on their sleeve.