I was really happy to see in my inbox a press release stating Traditional Medicinal teas have received the first US certification for the new FairWild certification.  They’ve been a leader in fair trade for quite some time, but this sustainability standard, established in 2006, sets international social, ecological and quality standards for wild-collected plant species, with a fair deal for all those involved throughout the supply chain.

“We are very proud to have this new sustainability standard for wild-collected ingredients for our products. However, investing time and resources in developing new universal standards for wild-collected plants is not a marketing idea, this is an example of how we do business,” said Blair Kellison, CEO. Well said!

The Institute for Responsible Technology

Europe which is always light years ahead of us have many countries that are GM free or reject GMOs.  The World Trade Organization will not let any country outright ban GMO products.

The IRT website lists popular brands that don’t use ingredients from the eight GM crops such as soy and corn.  It also list dairy products that don’t allow the controversial GM bovine growth hormone.  Needless to say I have bookmarked this site and have sent the link to friends and family!

IRT’s Executive Director, Jeffery Smith says, “our new website gives consumers back the power to make an informed choice.” You can even download the guide to carry with you when you go shopping.

I’ve learned so much about the sheer tenacity of perennial weeds, the deepest meaning of “a weed seedling picked in time saves nine” and how exciting it can be to watch your very own butternut squash start off as thumbnail-sized green fruits, with ridiculously massive sunshine flowers. And I never realised that sweetcorn “flowers” look like a bright pink accident at the hairdresser’s.

I already love the fact that I can pop into the garden and come back with an armful of giant courgettes, mutant runner beans and occasionally a beautiful beetroot that survived the thistles and chickweed.

But the other day, I realised that the majority of my food is still coming from overseas.

We eat a wholefood diet that contains a lot of nuts, seeds and pulses, alongside our home-grown or locally-sourced veggies. But looking at the packets for the dried food revealed that every single one was imported.

Lentils, chick peas, beans, quinoa, buckwheat, rice, almonds, cashews – you name it, it wasn’t even grown in Europe. Most of it came from the USA, South America or the Far East. That’s a lot of food miles. Time to stop feeling so smug…

Now, I’m not about to start a paddy field in rural Hampshire, but suddenly it didn’t make sense to be going on about food miles and yet only applying it to fruit and veg?

At the same time, I’ve also been doing my homework about beans.

I’ve got an impressively cobbled-together wigwam row of runners, cannellini, waxpod and French beans, as well as some sickly-looking broad beans that seriously objected to the May move.

The penny dropped – many of the pulses we eat, which are shipped thousands of miles to reach us, could potentially be grown here, too. Lots of the packets in my cupboard were grown in Canada, for example, which has a spring / summer climate not a million miles from the UK’s.

I’ve been researching.

I have found veggie gardening books that claim you can grow lentils, though don’t quite tell you how. A Sardinian friend is teaching me how to grow chick peas (though you need a lot of plants and a greenhouse for best results). The right varieties of French beans will give you kidney beans. Certain varieties of runner bean will give you butter beans. This month’s Permaculture magazine has an article by Emma Cooper, talking about growing quinoa. The list goes on.

I was wondering – why are we so reluctant to grow our own pulses?
I’m guessing because it’s not a tradition in the UK? We don’t find the seed packets in the shops, so we don’t try it. The gardening books don’t make it easy for us. But that’s no excuse not to bother.

So I’m going to start experimenting.

I’ve missed the boat for some things this year, but that will give me time to do my homework.
By next summer, I want to be having fun with learning how to grow my own pulses and seeds. I’ll be discovering (hopefully) which varieties give the best pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, adzuki beans and plenty more besides.

Of course, I’ll keep you all posted on Green Girls Global. And, if you’d like to join in, we can keep the discussion going on the Green Girls Global Facebook Fan Page.

In the meantime, has anyone out there already played with this in a UK-style climate? If you could offer advice that might shorten the learning curve for us all, it would be much appreciated!

Running on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September at Bristol Harbour, the festival will be the highlight of the Soil Association’s Organic Fortnight.

The Organic Food Festival isn’t just about food, though.

It’s a real celebration of all things organic and natural.

This year there will be recession-busting cookery demonstrations, a unique Kids’ Taste Tent (where the kids get to do the tasting, rather than the other way round), live music, a winter vegetable planting masterclass and even seminars on how to set up urban gardening communities. Here’s where you can find the schedule of events at the Organic Food Festival.

There will be the usual much-loved collection of companies who share a common, ecological philosophy, along with new names who are doing their bit for the environment. It’s a chance for you to meet the people behind your favourite brands, do some serious shopping and snap up a bargain, along the way.

This year’s exhibitor list sees the return of some of my favourites, including:

• Gartner Organic Wool (you have to pop along and see the amazing range of natural colours this guy’s sheep produce. And he’s really friendly!)
• Spiezia skincare, who not only do amazing work with getting our cosmetics to be 100% organic, but also do some great things in their local community – ask them – they’ll probably blush…
• Andy and Dave Hamilton from Self-sufficient-ish. They’re a fab duo who have done so much to promote growing-your-own. Andy and I used to share a double-page spread in the now-defunct Tastes of Britain magazine, so I’m looking forward to finally getting to meet him! He knows his stuff!
• Abaca Organics are the only company in the UK producing certified organic mattresses – pop along and meet them if you fancy a lie down and a fascinating natter!
• You might also want to visit the Soil Association stand, to talk to them about their work as a charity and consider becoming a member – there are usually lots of goodies for those who join on the day – plus free entry into the Festival for members old and new.

In total there are over 150 other companies, all excited about the chance to meet directly with their customers.

You’ll find organic cleaning products, organic bedding, organic clothing, more food than you could reasonably even sniff in a day and even an organic beer tent and bar…

It’ll be the fourth time I’ve been to the Organic Food Festival and I’m glad they’ve shifted it by a week this year, so I don’t have to miss my friend’s wedding on the 5th – just kidding …

If any of you are in the area and fancy going along, how about telling everyone via the comments box and maybe we could arrange to meet up?

I’m really looking forward to it.

This year it starts on 5th September and there are more ways than ever to get involved.

It’s a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of all things organic, so it’s not just about food – it’s also about the products we use on our skin, in our home, our clothes and even our furniture.

This year the Soil Association is focussing on “Going Organic On A Budget“.

With the Credit Crunch, sales of organic food have declined, as consumers tighten their belts and farmers have struggled to stay in business.

However, the Soil Association is reminding us that eating organic doesn’t mean you have to be rich.

They’ve produced a great, free leaflet called “Organic On A Budget“, which gives plenty of tips on how to go organic whilst also saving money. And, unsurprisingly, eating seasonally and locally comes top of the list – along with avoiding food waste (less supermarket impulse buying) and even advice on setting up an organic food buying group, to get your essential in bulk at trade discount.

The fortnight will see thousands of events around the UK, including organic farm open days, organic lunches, local festivals, the Soil Association’s annual Organic Food Festival (September 12th & 13th in Bristol) and even a chartiy fund-raising campaign, encouraging us all the cook dinner for our mates and raise cash for those in need – Dinner 4 Good. (More blogging on that one another day!).

If you want to get involved in any way, here’s a useful leaflet about how to plan an Organic Fortnight event.

And perhaps you’d like to share what you’re planning to do via the comments box?

For some reason, I thought they would be really tricky. People used to tell me about the manual pollination, training them over frames, staggering the harvest, stopping them from rotting. Quite frankly, it sounded too much like hard work. I decided to stick with easy stuff like runner beans and the occasional potplant tomato.

But this year I planted courgettes.

I didn’t bother with the hand pollination, the trellis work or any of the other palaver people had warned me about. I just stuck seeds in mud, applied water and waited. (My kind of gardening).

I had heard so many “horror stories” about people getting gluts that I planted a mere two seeds back in April, which I transplanted in May and by June I was the proud consumer of a small but perfectly formed, dark green courgette.

The two plants seemed to be going rather slowly, so I planted two more in May (not much happened) and another two in June.

Someone had told me you only get 10-15 courgettes from a single plant, so this all seemed like a good idea at the time.

But courgette-patience would have been a wonderful virtue and my lack of it now means I harvest near-marrow-sized courgettes on a daily basis.

The other week (clearly not having enough to do!), we kept a log of our week’s crop. We harvested – and somehow ate – 5kg of courgettes!

The June plants are only just getting going and, unbelievably, the April plants are still going strong, producing at least 4 courgettes a week.

Luckily we’ve got a few courgette recipes up our sleeves, for example:

• red lentil and courgette soup
• courgette and Roquefort soup
• butter-sautéed courgettes with red onion and balsamic vinegar
• courgette and dill salad
• courgette and chocolate cake

But our courgette output is increasing by the day and I suspect I’m about to hit mutiny at the kitchen table unless I come up with some new ideas pretty soon!

So I was wondering if any of the Green Girls Global readers have been facing a similar problem?
What are your top tips for enjoying courgettes?

Any sneaky tricks for hiding them in dishes so the family won’t know they’ve been “courgetted” again?
How many courgette plants does a family really need?

I’d love to hear your top tips and courgette stories!

Somewhere down the line I had heard something. It was in my past, a voice from a cooking show perhaps, or at a friend’s house while preparing for dinner. I was young and it stuck.  “Never cut the asparagus, gently snap them so it breaks in the right spot; perfect ripeness on one side, over ripe or woody on the other.”
I traveled through much of my life making it an appropriate ritual. I relied on the asparagus to show me what was good and what was bad. I used the good parts and the rest went into the trash without much thought.

Because I consider myself a new green citizen of the 21st century, I am analyzing the details of my life to detect areas to improve upon.  I have been reading, learning and adapting.

One evening last fall, I was making roasted vegetable pasta for dinner.  I washed all the vegetables and began to snap the asparagus.  A rush of emotion passed through my heart and sent unique information to my brain.  I thought, “That seems like a lot of asparagus going to waste.”  Though not really a trait I would ever use to describe myself, there I was being wasteful for only me to see. Private wastefulness is the worst to conquer, but I did. I decided that I know more than the asparagus so I got out the knife to gently cut it into a variety of pieces.

Two things had caused this realization – we had started composting and a friend had shown me how to make a green smoothie.  So, part of the asparagus we ate (the best part of course being the tip) another part I set aside for the next day’s green smoothie, and the last little tiny part went into the compost bin, where soon, by making rich soil to grow lettuce with, we would eat it again.

My point is, there are habits that still need to be broken. I stopped breaking the asparagus. Every small step counts in the big picture.
Painting: “Asparagus on my path”

After quitting meat at 12 years of age I thought I knew my fair share about farming. Well I knew a lot about animal welfare issues but as it turns out not so much about the social and environmental impacts of agriculture.

So what do we know? Carnivores and vegetarians alike can save the environment by switching to organic and local right? Wrong. It’s just not that straightforward.

Food is one of the few things we can’t opt-out of. We can stop taking long haul flights, we can stop using plastic bags but we can’t stop eating, so we have to get smart about it.

Food for Change is refreshing. At Food for Change you will find an intelligent, non-emotive perspective on food. In fact this isn’t just a perspective it tackles the issues head on and addresses how our eating habits could make a fairer, healthier society which truly respects the natural world.

So here at GGG we are very lucky to have some time to pick the brains of the Food for Change founder Sophie Pritchard. Prepare to have your food view turned upside down…..

Q. Sophie, welcome to GGG. Food for Change really is different to other websites, books and resources about food and the environment. How did it begin and what are your motivations?

Hello! Thank you for the opportunity to be featured on your brilliant website!

My relationship with food reached a turning point when I became vegetarian at the age of 11. In the beginning my choice not to eat meat was solely due to animal welfare issues; I lived opposite a farm and loved to watch the calves being born and one day I made the connection and then there was no turning back.

It wasn’t for another ten years that I started learning more about the other impacts of meat. While studying for a master’s degree in International Environmental Management I gained a much greater understanding of the environment and all the aspects of everyday life that affect it; one of those being livestock.

The initial idea for Food for Change was born around a year ago whilst I was working for an environmental and social justice organisation. Through my work, I discovered much more about the social impacts of environmental destruction and also the urgent need for us to live more sustainably to ensure our choices do not impact the lives of future generations. Meat and dairy are undeniably unsustainable, requiring far more land, water and energy than plant-based foods.

I became frustrated that environmental organisations continued to turn a blind eye to the environmental impact of livestock, particularly when both environmental and humanitarian organisations strongly and publicly oppose biofuels because of their environmental and social impacts when I knew that they caused only a fraction of the problems that the livestock industry does. I asked all these organisations about why they focused on biofuels, considering their impacts are the same as meat, but lower in scale. They all told me that the issue with biofuels was that they were making matters worse, whereas the devastation caused by livestock is long-standing. That didn’t seem like a good enough reason to ignore the issue to me.

Q. We all understand the issues of animal welfare in the livestock industry but you also address social, health and environmental factors. Can you briefly tell us how current farming and agriculture affects these areas and ultimately human life?

Briefly will be difficult since the list is a long one! I’ll try to keep to the main points.

Perhaps the greatest injustice is the amount of food we feed to animals. When I first heard that the vast majority of the crops we grow – a third of the world’s cereals and 90% of soy – are fed to animals, I was shocked. Today I still can’t quite believe we feed 754 million tonnes of cereals (1) and over 200 million tonnes of soy (2) to animals every year when there are over 950 million starving people in the world (3).

Much of the environmental and social impacts of the livestock industry come from the intensively farmed crops we grow to feed animals. Beautiful and biodiversity rich forests, such as the Amazon, are destroyed to make way for grazing cattle or growing soy to feed to animals. Intensive soy plantations use massive amounts of fertilisers and pesticides which poison the ground and waterways. Most soy is also genetically modified, particularly in the US, Argentina and Paraguay. The dairy industry in particular is keen to promote an image of cows grazing in lush fields in the English countryside, but the truth is that they are fed a diet high in soy and grains, as are other farmed animals.

Deforestation is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions (4), since trees release carbon dioxide when they are cut down and burned. Tropical forests are home to many thousands of species of plants, birds, mammals and reptiles. The forest also provides a home, food and livelihoods for indigenous people; all of which are brutally taken away when they are forced to flee the forest when it is cut down and converted to pasture or soy plantations. Many of them move to urban areas and struggle to adjust to a new way of life, resulting in poverty and hunger.

Ruminants like cows and sheep are also responsible for methane and nitrous oxide emissions which also contribute to climate change. In total, the livestock sector is accountable for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases (5).  Climate change is already responsible for around 150,000 deaths per year (6) and an estimated 200 million people will be displaced because of droughts, floods and other weather conditions caused by climate change by 2050 (7). Those in developing countries, the most vulnerable, suffer the most despite the fact that they are least responsible for climate change.

Many studies have showed that animal products cause heart disease and cancer. The World Cancer Research Fund revealed that red meat, and in particular processed meats, are strongly linked to cancer – so much so that the recommended consumption level of sausages and bacon is none at all.

Saturated fats, which predominantly come from animal products, clog arteries and raise cholesterol levels and blood pressure putting people at risk of heart disease. What’s frightening is that fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King are expanding around the world, even to developing countries, resulting in a rise in meat consumption in countries where it has always previously been very low. Many developing countries don’t have National Health Services like we do, as their health deteriorates, not only do they not understand the cause of their disease, but also, they have nowhere to go for help.

Q. For anyone wanting to move towards having a more positive diet in terms of how it affects the environment what would you suggest as the first and most valuable step?

People are becoming more aware of the benefits of organic and local food. However, evidence shows that, environmentally, a vegan diet is far better than local and organic. Therefore, the best first step is to cut down on your meat and dairy consumption. Once you start exploring dishes free of animal products you soon realise how easy it is and this allows you to increase your number of meat and dairy free meals until you don’t consume any at all. Of course, not everyone is prepared to become vegan, and although this is the ideal, every step you take towards veganism makes a real difference.

Q. Sometimes we can make food choices which on the face of it seem to be harmless but are in fact very damaging. How can we learn more about the background to what we’re eating?

I’d like to say that the information is easy to get hold of, but in terms of the environmental and social impacts of meat and dairy, it’s well hidden. Food for Change has an email subscription service to keep you up to date on the latest news about the livestock industry and it’s impacts. I set the website up because this information just wasn’t readily available. I also provide links to other sources of relevant information. Groups like Friends of the Earth have a food campaign, focusing on genetically modified crops, and are a good source of information on wider food issues.

Q. How do you see our food shopping and eating habits 10 years into the future? What are the best and worst case scenarios?

I do believe that food habits are changing. According to the World Cancer Research Fund, one in ten people are actively reducing their meat consumption for health reasons. More people are also becoming aware of the issues of intensive agriculture and food miles, both strongly related to meat, but it’s a slow process.

My fear is that powerful fast food giants will continue to spread across the globe, increasing global meat consumption over and above that related purely to a higher level of population. Whilst industrialised nations will hopefully move towards a more sustainable and environmentally responsible diet over the next 10 years, the higher consumption of meat in developing countries could completely counteract this.

The good news is that Friends of the Earth launched a livestock campaign a few months ago and Greenpeace have started developing a campaign as well. With these highly influential organisations challenging governments and corporations on their role in the destruction caused by livestock  I am optimistic that there will be some policy changes in the next ten years. But change also needs to happen on the ground. Individuals need to recognise the enormous power they have to change our world and not wait for governments to take action. This is where veganism is so powerful.

Whilst we don’t yet have the public transport system to allow us all to give up our cars, or cheap solar panels and other forms of renewable energy so we can all generate our own energy or the skills and planning infrastructure that allows us to build our own eco-homes; we can all switch to a plant-based diet right now, the world is already set up for it.

Visit Food for Change at www.foodforchange.org.uk

References
1. UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Crop Prospects and Food Situation.  2008.
2. Earth Policy Institute. Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.  2008.
3. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. High Level Conference of World Food Security. 2008.
4. UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Livestock’s Long Shadow. 2006.
5. UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Livestock’s Long Shadow. 2006.
6. World Health Organisation. 2000.
7. Myers, N. Environmental refugees: an emergent security issue. 2005.

There are over 12,000 local producers who sell their goods at 400 markets throughout the U.K. The Country Markets are a co-operative with their roots going back as far as 1919 when the Agriculture organisation Society (now Defra) sponsored the setting up of co-operative markets to sell surplus produce.

At my local market I can purchase fresh flowers, herbs and vegetables, home baked pies, cakes and quiches, honey, jams and free range eggs to name but a few. There are also a selection of home made craft items which make for lovely gifts too.

A couple of weeks ago my friend and I went halves on a gigantic pumpkin costing the princely sum of £5 which even included delivery. It was so big we couldn’t have possibly carried it home on our bikes. Two weeks later after it was carved for a haloween party we are still enjoying pumpkin soup and pumpkin risotto.

Visiting the country markets has now become a weekly ritual for me and some of my friends as we can catch up, do our weekly shop and have a cup of tea (costing only 20p) and a fairy cake all in one sitting. It’s great to be able to buy local food in a friendly setting and I urge anyone with an interest in locally produced and home made food to seek out their nearest country market.

To find your nearest market visit the country markets website so you can really shop local.

Starting in the States (see US Delocator), Delocator is a handy little tool that lets you type in a postcode to find independent cafes within a radius of up to 6km – just click ‘delocate’ to see the results and reviews.

The number of results is an interesting indicator of the type of town you’re in. A Brighton postcode brought up 16, whereas Worthing only revealed 3 (all added by yours truly). But this is a community site; it will only work – and make small independent cafes more sustainable – if we all do our bit.

The next time you’re slumped on a sofa supping on Fairtrade coffee and cookies in a cute independent cafe, don’t fall into a post-caffeine catnap (is that possible?): jot down the name, postcode and a few notes on the amenities of the establishment and dash over to delocator.org.uk to let everyone know about it.

And if you happen to be in sunny Worthing and have cafe knowledge exceeding Pestle & Mortar, The Denton, and Coast, let me know – maybe we can meet up for a coffee!

Katie