RED

Your carbon credit card

Every one in Britain produces too much carbon. The good news is that David Miliband is thinking seriously about Carbon Allowances - issuing individuals with carbon quotas that limit their impact on the environment. RED suggested such a move last year as part of its futurecurrents project.

READ MORE..."Your carbon credit card"

Matthew Horne | LINK | AGRICULTURE AND FOOD + CLIMATE CHANGE + ENERGY PROJECT | COMMENTS (0)

Unlikely partners benefit the Amazon

Interesting piece in today's Guardian (Aug 2nd) written by the Greenpeace campaign director John Sauvens. Greenpeace have teamed up with - wait for it - McDonalds, to achieve a two year moratorium on buying soya from newly deforested land in the Amazon.

Also involved were a number of UK supermarkets including Asda and Waitrose (no mention of the main player, Tesco...) in putting pressure on chicken suppliers like Cargill, responsible for the deforestation.

Beyond the obvious delight that new partnerships can achieve new things, most interesting to me is that Sauvens credits "European executives" at McDonalds rather than the guys back at base in Oak Brook, Illinois. More pressure on McDonalds business on this side of the Atlantic than t'other I guess...

Colin Burns | LINK | AGRICULTURE AND FOOD | COMMENTS (0)

Redesigning school dinners - an idea for Jamie

An idea for Jamie Oliver, from our work on redesigning school dinners in Surrey: What if school kitchens cooked not only school dinners but also prepared suppers? Imagine a reverse lunchbox, taken home to feed the family. The meals would be made in the time that school kitchens are currently unused and encourage healthy eating at home and school. The extra revenue would subsidise the 37p-a-head budget.

Chris Vanstone | LINK | AGRICULTURE AND FOOD + HEALTH | COMMENTS (0)

Community-Supported Agriculture

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms need to grow a wide variety of produce to meet the needs of their public membership, rather than catering to large-scale food distributors that demand huge supplies of one crop. In other words, CSAs lead to an increase in biodiversity...

Markd | LINK | AGRICULTURE AND FOOD | COMMENTS (0)

Bug, Sweat and Fears

Tales of modern farming published in the Guardian. from the new book Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrance.

Bagged salads did not exist before 1992. Now, two-thirds of households buy them regularly. The value of the UK salad vegetable market had, in fact, grown by 90% between 1992 and 2002.

'I had the buyer round and he said my pressures were out,' says John Dickson. 'He admitted my Coxes were the best he'd tasted, but they weren't hard enough for his shelf life.

I can see an enormous supermarket from my fields. I asked if I could supply it direct with plums that were ripe, in peak condition. It can't be done.'

Chris Vanstone | LINK | AGRICULTURE AND FOOD | COMMENTS (0)