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"Food has everything to do with it - because food is vital to us and effects us
enormously." |
Food makes
up 41% of London's ecological footprint. Three quarters of it is imported
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"We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can
nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are."
Adelle Davis
"An army marches on its stomach"
"He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skills of
the physician."
(Chinese proverb)
The issues around food range around trading fairly, pollution
caused by transport and increasing our wildlife by growing food organically, not
forgetting eating healthily.
The three main points about food are..
- Getting food that is produced close by is always better than
getting it from further away..
- Eating organic food is a good idea, because it helps our native wildlife
survive..
- Buying fairtrade food means that the people who grow it earn the wages that
they deserve and the land that they farm is looked after..
Why not buy butter from New Zealand when it is just as cheap,
is free range and as organic as the English varieties?
Why not buy Israeli strawberries when the English season is so
short?
And how can it be cheaper anyway when it comes from so far
away?
I know! Its weird isn't it! |
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And this organic thing....
Costs a fortune, goes off really quickly, can't taste the
difference.
So what's the organic thing all about?!
Here's a good story to read. Its called "The oven ready frozen
chip" by Mike Riley
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The thing
about all the food that comes from far away is that:
A; Other countries very often don't have to be as careful as we
do here about chemicals and pesticides, health and safety and fair wages (and
we put in those laws for very good reasons) - which means that they can
produce the food cheaper than we can.
B; they don't have to worry about the hidden costs of
transportation (such as pollution, climate change, building the roads and
stuff)
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It is one
thing to buy orange juice, (think of that diesel) rice and coffee,
none of which can be grown in this climate... but it is a great shame to buy
apples from South Africa when we grow fantastic apples here! And make great
cheese, have loads of butter, the wheat's not bad.. the lamb is good, lots of
great wool, oh and the milk, eggs too, yummy honey, all
sorts of vegetables, lovely strawberries, oh the asparagus season, mmm fresh
beans, pears, corn, vegetable oil, cabbages, leeks, sprouts turnips onions ppeeeeas pleeeeeeeeseee |
| The list is endless, what can you add to it? Make it as
long as you can, and then e-mail it to us, we will keep adding everyone's
suggestions to everyone else's and then post it up on this site to see
just how many things we can produce in this country to make it
unnecessary to burn all that fuel transporting it over here... |
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Oh, lets not
forget that when we buy things that are produced here, we are helping our
farmers who are very sad that we are buying milk willy-nilly from France etc.
when we could drink lovely local stuff! (and when we help the farmers, we are
helping the shopkeepers that the farmers buy things from, and that is helping
the traders that the shopkeepers buy from, and that helps the people that the
traders buy from and so on!)
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Ok.. What's next... Organic food, right, ok..emmm..
Well there's been lots of stuff said about
organic food that sort of misses the point.
People say that it tastes better (it may well do) and that the
texture is nicer (Mmmm, well.. ok..) and that it stops us from being poisoned
by eating too many chemicals and pesticides (yep, absolutely true, all true)
But that's not the point! |
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| THE POINT IS THAT WHEN WE DON'T USE SO MANY: |
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PESTICIDES |
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AND INSECTICIDES |
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AND ARTIFICIAL FERTILISERS |
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AND CHEMICALS |
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AND OTHER SO CALLED "IMPROVERS" |
| THEN THERE TENDS TO BE MORE: |
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INSECTS |
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AND WILD PLANTS |
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AND AMPHIBIANS |
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AND REPTILES |
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AND MAMMALS |
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AND BIRDS. |
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And that's it... It's that simple.
So if you like spiders or butterflies or robin red breasts or
house martins or field mice or dragonflies or frogs or ladybirds or bluebells
or anything that grows or swims or breathes or flies, then buy organic food!
(And
if you don't want a cocktail of suspicious and probably poisonous chemicals on
your food then organic food is probably the stuff for you!) |
 
And last on this page, but very much not least -
There is Fair Trade
"Fair Trade guarantees that producers of a product were paid
a decent wage and that the product was produced at a minimal cost to the
environment."
Have a look at this story about Fair Trade.
Buying Fair trade products has become hugely popular over the
last few years. Most places sell fair trade - some towns try to sell only fair
trade products! You can buy bananas, oranges, chocolate and coffee.
Tea, cotton, Soya and sugar. If the product has come from
overseas - particularly from a "third world" country - then look for the
Fair Trade stamp!
You will be helping to ensure fair wages, human rights, economic
security, decent health and safety standards; decent housing and good
environmental care for the land! Hurray! |
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If you want more information about
Then come on further into our web site...
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