@morethanorganic

Communicating values of organic food

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:25:00 +0000

@morethanorganic

Communicating Values of Organic Food

January 2012

Through communication of a clear, accurate initial message, we can key into shared mutual interest with our audience. Then, if we're really interested in developing mutual understanding that leads towards the heart of our cause, we need a willingness to get involved wholeheartedly with its values. These values at the heart of our cause would seem to take precedent over its activity and even its mission, as the latter are dependent on the former. When farming, I learned the quality of my produce was dependent on how the soil was managed, care for the plants, quality of water used for irrigation, and above all, the focus needed to bring it all together. Without sincere commitment to the values behind what we do, the end result is compromised. So, in developing communication campaigns that utilise open platforms, we could consider really getting into the values at the heart of our cause.

When our cause is grounded in values shaped by what is universally accepted to be true, we can afford to be more open in our communication. Using organic food as an example, its core values would seem to be sustainability, and the health of people, environment, animals and biodiversity. Both sustainability and health are universally accepted as beneficial. Living beings need food to survive and many of the natural resources currently used to produce our foods are finite. In the case of health, it is universally true that we humans value our health and wellness, and that our health is connected with the health of natural systems: we need water, food and air to survive, all of which are dependent to some degree on natural systems. It is also true that sustainability and health are dependent on each other: healthy soil is necessary for healthy plants, which provide healthy food for people and animals. Organic food's values then are not exclusive, rather they are established values which are universally accepted as sane and beneficial because they make sense.

Given its ordinary values and universal benefits, it's amusing that organic food is associated with elitism or seen as a single interest group. This image is the result of successfully differentiating organic food from chemically produced food, which creates an almost extraordinary image for organic. Although considerably different to chemically produced food, it’s how these differences accord with ordinary truth that are important, and not the creation and of separate, organic food values. The challenge then would seem to be keeping communication of organic food's values grounded in the ordinary truth on which they are based. Maybe then, trying to win position in the debate on farming and food isn't so useful for organic food, because when your values already adhere to ordinary truth, there is no need to establish yourself as something special. Of course, this doesn’t mean that organic farmers stand aside and allow their crops to be contaminated with gmo, or we simply accept continual mass intensification and use of antibiotics in food production, as this would be to ignore the truth. We simply stay with what is accepted as true and try not to communicate a slanted perspective.

Ordinary truth doesn't lift organic food to any high moral ground where advocates could be tempted to dictate how food 'should' be produced. Any dictating is clumsy, as ordinary truth and the common sense on which it is based has no need of moral positioning. The only apparent danger is that without discipline to stay firmly rooted in ordinary truth, we start to interpret actions as good and bad, and before we know it we're sitting on moral high ground that doesn't benefit anyone. Openness in communication then will help ensure that when we do wander off course, communicating a slanted perspective, which we will definitely do from time to time, our audience will bring us back to what is established as true. Market segmentation then looses importance, as our audience doesn't need to be split into target groups, as we’re concerned with ordinary values that resonate with all people, irrelevant of socio-economic group, different cultures and nationalities. We're all people on the same planet, our basic needs are similar and the conditions affecting this planet affect us all.

This isn’t a call to ‘make’ organic food more ordinary. It is already ordinary, so we just have to consider whether making it extraordinary is useful.

Giant Salmon, Ideals, Practicalities

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Giant Salmon, Ideals, Practicalities

November 2010

Rarely do we get into a debate about what is needed most at this point in time. We may know from our own lives, the difference between needing and wanting, but how does that translate to a World level view of how best to develop food systems? Trying to make a living from small scale farming has a way of cutting through idealism, to reveal common sense solutions that meet needs in a practical simpler manner.

Talking with scientists about the imminent FDA approval of genetically modified salmon, there is little interest in the benefits of Aqua Bounty's technology, apart from the claimed decrease in time to market, and resulting financial gain for the corporation and it's employees. There is nothing out of the ordinary about Aqua Bounty, wanting to profit from their technology, but where is the need for the technology? The International Federation of Salmon Farmers, have distanced themselves from genetic modification, preferring to stay with traditional breeding techniques, and any other salmon farmers that are interested in supplying the US market with gmo salmon, will have to invest in inland fisheries, aside from their usual sea enclosures. So where is Aqua Bounty's market for their gmo technology? With FDA approval, the door opens to present this technology in a favourable light to the World. Once the technology is being implemented in developing countries, where are the risk assesments or safety protocol that will protect our eco systems from contamination?

Aqua Bounty's gmo Atlantic salmon, grow twice as fast and up to three times larger than farmed Atlantic salmon, which are already much larger than wild Atlantic salmon. The gene that Aqua Bounty have engineered, takes a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon, and keeps that hormone permanently turned on, using genetic information from a third fish - an Ocean Pout. There is no doubt that salmon farmers using conventional breeding techniques have managed to evolve fish that are quite different from wild salmon, in both their physical characteristics and behaviour, but then to ask these farmed salmon to grow twice as fast again, based on the insertion of a single engineered gene - where is the need?

The health of these gmo fish has implications for their own welfare and also the quality of food they will provide people. Both these issues are high on the public radar in developed countries. Yet, many ideas about health and food quality, are only concerned with nutrients and seperate physical properties. This view has benefits, but doesn't have any authority to be considered definitive or exhaustive, and in many ways, is limiting. By focussing only on the seperate physical properties of the fish, we don't appreciate the whole fish. These gmo salmon are dependent on many causes and conditions, that result in their quality as a food source for people. So quality is connected with what effects the fish - the water in which it swims, it's health, it's food, it's captive environment - everything is shaping what in this case will result very quickly in a mature farmed salmon.

Farmers who appreciate this wider idea of quality, have some awareness of the causes and conditions that result in the foods they produce. For example, we can't grow quality corn by focussing only on the plant, as it's development depends on soil, sunlight, water, air and so on. This is the message of organic farming - we're focussing on managing conditions that result in quality food, so we're interested in whole systems. This is a view that can't be seperated from the need for long term care of natural systems, because we depend on them. Our human health depends on their health - the two are not seperate. So organic farming is based on maintaining and even improving the long term health of natural systems to produce quality food. This long term view doesn't fit snugly into the industrialised world of short term material gain, yet it's practicality is based on the deeper need of marrying human health with that of natural systems.

It makes practical and economic sense to first make the most of what already exists around us. In bigger cities in the UK, there are now projects underway that are collecting garden apples from people who have no need for them. These apples are pressed into juices and made into products, to be sold as part of community schemes. In the same way, we could look at other foods we already have and decide how to use them more efficiently, before we spend tens of millions of dollars and ten years of research, working out how to make a farmed salmon grow twice as fast. In this ideal gmo salmon world, all our food grows twice as fast - so we can eat twice as much of it, and it can all be produced by pushing a few buttons.

The Heritage Gap

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Working pruning olive trees brings a sense of heritage: a heritage of extraordinary value. Many of these trees are well over 100 years old, some possibly several hundreds. Each knarled trunk and crooked branch come together to give each tree a character of it´s own. So many seasons have gone into creating these characters, yet they are still only young adults and with care could well still be around in the next millenium.

The noble generations that planted these trees must have nurtured an intimate connection with the land. These trees were not a get rich quick scheme for the people who planted them. Sure, these people will have seen some crop during the first 50 years of tree growth, but the olives produced would have been greater for the second and third generations of people tending the trees. So they were planted with a long term view that included sucessive generations.

The older Catalan people continue to nurture a great respect for their olive trees and will spend time pruning and picking their crop each year. But the younger people here are loosing interest as the labour to profit ratio makes it increasingly difficult to support or even substantially contribute to a modern lifestyle: mortgages have to be paid and cars serviced even during poor crop years.

This move away from the land is more developed in the UK, where many smaller farms struggle to survive in a food system that rewards the quantity and profit driven producers.

In the UK, we seldom hear of new apple orchards being planted, because they are viewed as economically unviable. Instead, the UK, imports most of it´s apples including "organic" from USA, and even as far away as New Zealand. One wonders how it can be profitable to import organic apples from New Zealand and yet not be profitable to create new organic orchards in the UK: which happens to grow the best apples in the world!

Another example of our living heritage is the soil, as what we do with it will be inherited by our future farmers. Quite often the reason farms have good living soil is because past generations of farmers have added copius amounts of manure to give the soil it´s fertility.

So with our modern day view driven only by short term gain, what are we nurturing or creating to pass onto future generations? Leaving the soil full of chemicals and genetically modified DNA? What a legacy! Fruit trees are not being re-planted at a sustainable rate, water sources are contaminated: just what goodness are we passing onto our future generations?

Those farmers and people that see themselves as stewards of the land, working to preseve the heritage: tending and planting trees, enriching living soils and preserving natural resources: these people can rest assured they will be passing on something incredibly valuable. This living heritage is beyond financial value and knowing this can help us through what may be difficult times in our own lives, by helping to set our motivation and keep us working for what can sometimes seem like little financial reward.

But our living heritage is even more than tangible living resources: it encompasses the living experience of the people of each successive generation. At home here in Spain, on Saturday, my neighbour, his father and myself rebuilt an area of dry stone retaining wall on my neighbour´s land. The Catalan tradition is to use is to use limestone rocks from the land to construct a rough wall, then infill behind with smaller stones between the outer layer of rocks and the earth that is being contained. This type of wall can be seen across Catalunya, with some of them dating back hundreds of years. Using the stone from the land itself served to create the wall and also clear the land for cultivation.

Now, generally the Spaniards have a reputation for being a little lazy when it comes to labour: this is certainly not the case for the Catalans, who will often be found working seven days per week and are known to be tight with their money. My dry stome walling experience was to help Josep, my neighbour´s father, who was managing this little project. With Josep directing and doing the lion´s share of the physical work, the wall quickly began to regain it´s form. I love this type of work, but on Saturday, I was more struck with Josep´s focus and physical determination to get the job done: extraordinary considering this man is in his 7th decade! Working with that stone, dragging out places for new rocks, Josep was completely connected, completely enguaged, almost a part of the land itself!

In the Catalan tradition, the older generations are still greatly respected, and Josep is a prime example of why this respect is justified. Tradition and experience count for a great deal, especially with Josep being of a generation that has lived their entire lives close to the land. I´ve great respect for the man and feel inspired to turn my fleeting experiences with being really into working my own land into something more stable. It seems that with that deep connection and focus we can accomplish our goals more easily, as much of the thought processes are not needed: we slot into place almost becoming a part of the land and a seamless part of the work itself.

In coming back to the land, this connection with physical work as part of the land itself is something most of us have to re-learn. I´m sure we can all do it, but it develops with experience. This connectedness cannot be obtained from books, we definitely need the real experience. We can develop it on our own, but working with someone like Josep, we get te benefit of hundreds of years of tradition, that has forged a given technique for given conditions. This tradition and experience is invaluable, just like the older people themselves.

Our modern societies are accelerating away from being connected to the land at lightening speed. There are many people who can see the problems this is creating and are seeking to regain connection and preserve that connection for future generations. Whether we achieve this is entirely down to ourselves.

Romantic to Practical

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:32:00 +0000

Ever consider why society developed like it has? Here, society means over-consuming countries such as UK and USA, where life is automated. Make no mistake about this, making a living from farming the land is probably the hardest phyiscal work you´ll get. Manual building work may be more intense, but that´s a 9-5 job, whereas farming is a lifestyle, all hours, all weathers, all days.

By now you´re wondering where this is going? You know farming is hard physical work, right? You´ve been here, done it, you know it? Unless you have experienced at least a month of living this lifestyle, you have no idea of the work involved. This was my level of experience four years ago, planning to start an organic farming business. I´d read the visionary work by the likes of Fukuoka and Steiner, I was educated, there was a growing market for organic, the time was right, I had my vision, I had the drive, so I plunged in.

Four years on, the romance has gone, along with many of my impossibly high standards. That´s what prolonged hardship does, it flattens us, both physically and mentally. We are forced into being realistic and practical. The romantic view of farming, of the good life, is far removed from reality. Unless of course, you already have pots of money and you´re not dependant on the land to earn a living: you´re a hobby farmer, you´re playing, enjoy your fantasy!

So back to the question about society developing how it has, it´s logical right? Most sane people don´t feel the need to work with their hands till they bleed, right? People want nice houses, cars and holidays, right? In a way it´s all so hypercritical, those of us who fight against the dominance of big agriculture, we are products of that system: we didn´t need to toil in the field, so we went and got a nice office job and shopped at Sainsbury, at the weekend. At the same time, we developed idylic ideas about how good life could be, if all farming was organic, we could always eat food of that quality, and hey, we might even be prepared to pay a little more for it, but only if we´re convinced of some personal health gain: so we turn to the marketing people´s message, and yes, that reassures us, so we spend a little more on our certified organic labels, if we have the money to do so.

Yes, organic has health benefits, simply because it´s closer to nature, but supporters of organic would do well to focus on it´s sustainable system benefits for local communities and multiple generations. It´s for these reasons I´ll continue to develop certified organic farming, and not simply to make you feel good because you´re buying something that´s more healthy for you. Oh, and yes, it will cost more than your average supermarket fare: why wouldn´t it?

So to the next question, can organic farming feed the world? Technically it may be possible, but this isn´t a realistic question to be asking right now. This is no longer a battle between organic and big agriculture. The important question now is how to develop more independent and sustainable food systems. In the West, this means, more people getting involved in farming with more smaller farms selling food more locally. It means not being reliant on artificial fertilizers and developing community banks of natural seeds. It means communicating between farmers and communities and the re-building of trust. Organic certification does all this in one hit, but I´ll not sit and preach organic standards to farmers who want to start moving towards more sustainable values. If farmers see a business opportunity in certifying organic, they will do so, but otherwise, meeting some exact standard is not the issue here.

Getting To Know Horses, Nature & Ourselves

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:27:00 +0000

Guest blog by Heather Flournoy, @katonahgreen

Heather, blogs on local enviromental issues at www.KatonahGreen.com. Besides being a social media strategist, a mother and a community activist, she has spent over 30 years riding and training and learning from horses and the natural environment. She has apprenticed with numerous holistic healers, practices herbalism and other healing modalities, and is an advocate for sustainable agriculture.

How Horses Can Help Us Connect With Nature

Most people I've met either love horses, or like to watch them, or want to touch one. I find horses endlessly fascinating. I've been around them most of my life, first in the 1970's my parents had a riding stable in the Santa Cruz hills, where I was either in the saddle or leading my pony Navajo around. My mom says he really baby sat me. As a teenager in upstate NY, my family had a couple of horses and I took English riding lessons at a stable, then joined Pony Club and competed incross-country events. I rode dressage horses in Germany during college, and I've simply never stopped being near horses in over 40 years. At the moment I've nearly given up riding and training them. I just wanted to back away and start over, and see what I could learn,and learn what they want. I now live on a small farm that is host tofour horses and a beautiful black pony named Jack.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of introducing some young children to Jack, and to farm life and to the care of animals. We also have sheep and chickens here. The children had never actually been around horses or sheep outside of a petting zoo. As we walked across the pasture to feed old Quincy, the kids got to experience manure and mud admist their squealing. It's hard for many of us to imagine that there are whole generations growing up now who've never experienced dirt as the precious stuff that grows our food, and haven't looked at manure and thought "that will make good compost!" For me the best part is teaching them to touch a horse, and be safe around a horse, and feel a connection. It's my hope that that single act of reaching out with respect and awareness and caring, will transfer into so much more: Caring about a living being and equating that with a sense of stewardship for the animals and plants and soil.

When I teach someone how to approach a horse, I make sure that first they observe the horse, and how it naturally moves around and shifts it's weight or swishes it´s tail or how it´s ears are always paying attention to things far away. I tell people that horses are fight or flight animals, and it's natural for them to react to their surroundings, and to be very sure they don't take anything personally (like getting a foot stepped on!). Then we approach the horse, watching for it's reaction, waiting for it to say "okay, now you can come in." Sometimes we just stand a while with hands in pockets letting the horse get used to us. That's when we talk.

When we move on to touching, I have people approach a shoulder, watching the head and ears. I have them reach out and put their hands on the horse, one hand on the shoulder, the other on the big belly. Then I have them just feel. Feel whatever they can sense--breath, or heartbeat, twitches, thehorse shifting weight or moving away or towards us. Just following and feeling. It's not something many of us take time to do, 'horsepeople' are often some of the worst at this, as they have developed patterns of interaction which do not allow the horse to communicate with them. More on that another time. Then I have them pull back, and then slowly reach out again, feeling what they can sense before their hands are actually on the horse.

Does he cock an ear? Twitch?Then let the hands slowly touch the horses hair, sinking in to the skin and then leaning in to feel the muscles. Then lean on the horses shoulders. Slowly increase the weight, until actually pushing against the horse and feel him push back against you. If he moves, start over. See if the person can push and let go slowly, and do it overand over until the horse is rocking gently back and forth, feet rooted in place. What power we have! The goal is to develop a manner of reaching out with awareness, with firm, solid touch that is calm;that is totally focused on the horse and the communication and to sense the surroundings, as does the horse.

And then we move to the head. We talk about letting the horse come toward you, letting him sniff you and check you out while you stand quietly being awareof his breath. It's a good idea to know the horse you are doing this with and know that he doesn't bite! Notice if the horse is looking at you with curiousity and friendliness or with trepidation or nervousness. Just wait for him. When he's done checking you out and looks relaxed, then you can check him out. Reach out confidently,but not too quickly and touch his cheek, then move your hands around to his forehead and then under his jawbone. Feel the softness of his nose and the the long hairs that cover his muzzle. You can touch just those, knowing they are sensors for the horse. It may tickle him.Through all of this, don't speak. Against common knowledge, I always recommend quiet with the horse. That way you and he can open the lines of communication the horse uses-sight and listening and feel.You can even tell some things by the sounds of his stomach, which you certainly won't hear if you are keeping up a running monologue.

Horses are incredibly sensitive, cognizant beings.They are hyper-aware of everything going on around them, and things we normally block out of our awareness. They know human body language. They know the unconscious mind of their human friends. If you are smiling, but underneath furious with your spouse, they senset he fury and react accordingly.

There is no pretense with horses, nor with the earth. If we so choose there is a wealth of knowledge about ourselves that we can access through horses. And hope that as people open their connection with animals, they will foster asense of connection with the planet, and grow a sense of firm stewardship.

Making Living Soil

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:49:00 +0000

The soil here in South Catalunya leaves a lot to be desired. Generally, abundant top soil is difficult to track down.? On my land, that had remained fallow for twelve years, the resulting humus had barely made an impact on the deep red clay base. Generally here in Spain, we find that areas rich in fertile top soil command a market premium price - that?s if? this type of land makes it onto the market? - the local people know what?s a good long term investment and hold onto it!? This situation puts fertile land beyond the reach of many new farmers.

Those of us in this position can work with it by finding the most fertile land we can (not forgetting other issues like proximity to market, access, water supply, living accomodation etc).? If you?re like me and have to settle for mainly clay, don?t panic - you can make your own living soil - but you?re going to have to graft!

Clay is a good starting point because it makes a good base for our soil.? To make it work for us we have to get composted material into it - manure and composted vegetation work well.? The idea is to let the material rot down until it?s black: if we add it to our soil before it?s composted properly, it uses up nitrogen in our soil and we run the risk of fungi developing to balance out the uncomposted material.

In cultivating strips of land, areas are left to grow wild grasses and plants, which are cut down after flowering to create biomass for the compost that will eventually add to the fertility of the cultivated strips of land.

Also, If you?ve a source of biomass that?s readily available and not too coarse like wood, you can make simple #biochar!? I slow burn carob pods on the embers of a fire to create a charcoal, that is then mixed with manure and added to the soil.? These charred carob pods play host to colonies of beneficial soil microbes, that enjoy devouring what?s left of the pods. Making living soil isn't complicated. We don't need scientific soil analysis. What we do need is to get as much living vitality back into the ground as possible. For me, the simplest way to achieve this is using animal manure and biochar.

Into It?

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:48:00 +0000

So the drive to sustainable food is beginning to appear on the general public´s radar - all the pan banging has created enough noise to get us this far. That´s positive, a move in the right direction, but how do we develop our cause - make it tangible enough to kickstart some real change, real momentum? How do we really get our claws into some deep societal action?

Twitter as a connecting tool is good, but we´re harnessing all this connective energy without a clear way to channel it into tangible action. This lack of direction is partly because on Twitter, we´re all too preoccupied building our own personal profiles. I´ve noticed myself doing it often enough: becoming defensive when someone begins to threaten my percieved territory or area of expertize. We need to get this sorted right now - certain people are particularly good at communicating certain topics because that´s where their passion lives, however if we don´t come together to create a whole movement, we will just end up squabbling amongst ourselves and achieve little meaningful change.

Everyone who is interested in our cause has a role to play in driving this movement forward - each person has their own skill or approach that we can collectively harness to drive the whole movement!

Those people interested in driving this movement forward could come together to define what we collectively want to achieve over the next 6 or 12 months. How are we going to get there? Who will focus on what area? How will we measure progress?

Taking transition to sustainable farming as an example:

1. Who is best to communicate the demand or need for the food? How do these people reach new audiences?

2. Who can communicate the benefits of attracting new people into sustainable farming? How do we reach these people?

3. Who knows about land availability, real estate, laws?

4. Water - who knows their stuff?

5. Finance - community based, micro loans, sponsorship - how can we make them more available & tangible?

6. Food system politics - who is driven enough to communicate ideas and affect change in this area?

7. Food/ farm marketing & PR - who is willing to stick their neck out and push forward new ideas?

I´m not interested in stepping on anyones toes: I know you´ve all got your own long term goals, but maybe you can see that propelling this movement forward will develop our individual goals at the same time - much faster than what we could achieve on our own.

What´s your view?

Real Food: Expect To Pay More

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:51:00 +0000

To communicate my perspective on the monetary value of food, you´ll need a little insight into my view and what goes into forming that. Your own perspective is unique to you and I´m not expecting you to see things the way I do, but by giving you some background to what forms mine, I may add enough credibility to these ideas that you choose to give them some consideration.

Like it or not, your view of me as the author of this article will influence what you get from it. Maybe you´re under the impression I´m some wealthy hobby farmer, who has enough money squirelled away to spend my evenings writing articles like this one. Actually, in terms of income, I´ve been well under the US and UK poverty level for the last two years, have no savings and don´t receive any benefits or grants. For the past four years, I´ve supported myself by painting people´s houses and bringing on my little farm here however I could. So now you know, I´m not some fat squirell sitting on a big pile of nuts!

When I write, you get my perspective that´s hewn from my living experience - not something I´m reading in a book. Whether you agree with my perspective or not is irrelevant, as what i´m interested in doing is inspiring you to consider your own perspective, put forward your ideas and importantly, act on them. We don´t have the luxury of studying sustainability for the next twenty years, we need action now and that action starts with reflecting on our own perspectives.

A great deal of the resistance towards transition to sustainable living focuses on it being linked to a middle class or even an elitist perspective. Opponents argue that sustainable food and living is a way for affluent people to return to some type of idylic good life, because they have the money and time to do so. Unfortunately, many organic food companies continue to unknowingly perpetuate this idea by marketing their produce at a clearly defined middle class niche market: focussing on why organic food is special and some even go so far as to call their products "super-foods". This approach is not adding to the credibility of organic food as one way to transition to sane and sustainable food.

Organic food is without doubt, real food, as it´s farmed in a way that aims to work with the balancing process of nature. Nature is our starting point: nature is the Earth: people are also nature - this is ordinary common sense. From this perspective real food is truly ordinary in that it maintains a closeness, a connection with the ordinary common sense of nature. As we move further away from nature to grow and produce our food, we move further from the ordinaryness of real food. Food grown with chemically produced nitrogen and cross species genetic modification is far from ordinary and therefore far from real food: common sense?

Do you see where I´m going with this perspective? With transition to sustainable living we´re concerned with coming back to the Earth, with returning to ordinary common sense. We´re not interested in selling super foods! Ordinary common sense is not divided by class barriers, wealth or where you went to school. If anything, many people would argue that the more money we accumulate, the more we´re cushioned from having to follow our own common sense.

A large part of enjoying our lives is connected with our sense of wellbeing: maintaining a sense of balance in our lives. Let´s be clear that this wellbeing results (or doesn´t) from our whole life experience. We can´t seperate food out and base our being solely on that. Your entire experience of the present and the past results in your present state of being. Food is a facet of our wellbeing as it contributes to our vitality: we need vitality to accomplish what we want to accomplish in our lives. When we have vitality, we can accomplish tasks more easily and we can pack more quality time into our days. Vitality is a qualitative expression of wellbeing in that it can´t be pinned to scientific measurements or quantities, but it can very much be felt, experienced and expressed - it´s very human. The potential of our food to imbue us with vitality depends on the conditions in which the food was created: This is common sense isn´t it? What´s in the food is dependant on what´s going into that food? But let´s be clear, vitality is not the same as nutrient content. The latter is based on measured quantities of physical properties, while vitality results from a connectedness to whole living systems: the vast interdependant causes and conditions that result in the process of nature restoring balance. Vitality can´t be dissected and allocated a scientific quantity because when we attempt to define it in isolation from nature, it looses it´s worth: with vitality we are dealing with the bigger picture, the whole interconnectness of life. So, coming back to our discussion, the vitality that we get from our food as part of our wellbeing is the result of our food´s connection with the whole living systems of nature.

Another facet of our wellbeing is our personal connection with other people, animals and the living environment, and our awareness of how our actions affect these others. If our actions benefit others, or at least don´t harm them, our wellbeing is affected positively, as we have more peace of mind. Investing in real food from local sustainable farms means you are not only helping to preserve the natural environment, but you are directly investing in your community and it´s future capacity to provide real food for your children. Isn´t that a shrewd investment? Not only are you helping your own wellbeing, you´re investing in your children´s future as well. And this is one investment where you get to feel the benefits every day, compared with say, putting all your money into a pension which you may not live to appreciate anyhow. Or maybe you go out and buy a new car and feel very happy for a few days as you´re the talk of the town, but then your car gets scratched and you realise it´s value is depreciating everyday - not a recipe for long term happiness. And that brings up back to sustainability, which suggests long term investing.

Now we´ve an idea of why sustainable food will affect our wellbeing, lets take a look at the way we attach a monetary value to our foods. The pricing of many staple foods is kept artificially low because of a complex system of big aricultural subsidies, taxes and supermarket price fixing. Add to this, big agriculture´s capacity to produce vast quantities of a limited number of foods and we have a system that keeps supply very strong and prices down. This situation encourages people to view food generally as a commodity with low monetary value. Because real food contributes to our wellbeing and also because it is far more labour intensive than mass produced, dead food, it´s monetary value has to be higher: it´s common sense, we´re getting what we pay for arn´t we?

Advocates of real food, that are trying to make it comparitively priced to mass produced dead foods, would do better to educate people about the benefits of real food and why it´s great value to invest your money in it!

We also need to consider the face value of food. When we eat foods that give us vitality, we don´t need to eat as much volume: we´re geeting more from what we eat. Consider all those volume foods we buy in nice pretty boxes: those boxes have marketing campaigns behind them that charge a small fortune, and even with this, the food company is still making a good profit: so where is the real value for us in that food? In contrast, visit a sustainable farm, chat to the farmer - understand how much work goes into growing their food: better value? You decide.

Towards Intuitive Eating

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:04:00 +0000

For a moment, let go of everything you´ve been told about food. Sit down somewhere comfortable, alone and away from distractions. Relax and become aware of your breathing, letting thoughts arise without getting involved with them. How are you today? Can you feel what´s happening in your body? Gently bring your awareness to focus on your feet - how are they feeling? Move your awareness slowly up through your legs and entire body, right to the top of your head. Are you feeling connected to yourself: are you listening to yourself?

From the moment we´re born, we´re told what, when and how to eat by parents, society, government and business. Unless we´re particularly strong, we are conditioned into a pattern of eating, that overtime can contribute to our disconnection from ourselves. Add to this the compounding problem of poor food quality that makes it difficult to know what foods are nutritious and wholsome, and we have the conditions for misunderstanding ourselves and food. We think we´re hungry when we´re not, so we grab something. The quality of that something isn´t up to much, yet you still get the calories - but little living vitality.

People, can we just slow down for one minute? Can we come back to ourselves? Can we connect with ourselves and our food again? When we begin to do this, over time we can begin to re-discover our intuitive awareness of what foods will help us maintain a sense of equilibrium - a sense of balanced health.

Intuitive eating is about trusting yourself and also understanding and trusting real food. Real food is created with co-operation for nature - truly ordinary, quality food. This is ordinary in the sense that it has not been tampered with, or artificially changed. Real food respects the living vitality of soil and the freedom and happiness of farm animals. Forget what you´ve read about diets, food supplements, good and bad foods, healthy and non-healthy foods. Most of this is someone else´s idea of whats right. One reason prescribed food ideas arn´t good ideas is that they treat people like machines, they´re homogenized and you´re not - you are unique. Real food can´t be disputed as someone´s idea as it´s crafted as nature intended, its our starting point - we´re coming back to the Earth.

As people we are part of nature even if we are increasingly forgetting it. Nature as a process is constantly striving to restore balance, and as people we are also constantly at work restoring our personal sense of equilibrium. If we´re hot, we take off our jacket, if we´re hungry we eat, if we´re tired we sleep - we are constantly at work maintaining balance in our lives. Intuitive eating is like waking up to how we can really start to use food as part of our continual equilibrium. When we become really good at this we can start to see the medicinal value of real foods - we are more connected with ourselves and with our food. Then, by slowly re-discovering how real food contributes to our sense of equilibrium, we begin to appreciate food again. From appreciation (& great taste and a sense of vitality) comes enjoyment.

Personally, in the winter, I enjoy making bread. Using wholemeal or something like rye flour, I´ll make the bread so it´s still a bit guey in the middle, then eat it hot with masses of butter, with some goats cheese. For me, this is an example of good winter food, I don´t like cold things in the winter! You have to find what´s good for you, and this will depend on many conditions including what you do for a living and how sedentary you are. With intuitive eating, if we feel like, it we include it. We try things out and try to forget about conditioned ideas of right and wrong.

One word of caution though. Having a sense of equilibrium applies to your entire life and also how you see yourself within your life. So we don´t need to get overly caught up in intuitive eating - it´s something that just happens, we don´t need to take it too seriously!

Food: A Perception Revolution

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Capitalism ephasizes quantity. In our over consuming Western Nations, quantity is seen as a core value. Accumulating material wealth as a facet of desiring quantity, drives our economies and plays a large part in our lives which are managed and run based on quantities of time. Wherever we look, it´s not difficult to find quantity as a core value. So is it really so surprising that agriculture and food systems reflect this core value of quantity?

Our societies define foods by analysing and labelling them using quantities of calories and nutrients. Big agriculture, in it´s efforts to increase quantities, uitilizes the power of bio-tech science corporations´ focus on parts of plants and eco-systems to increase nutritional quantity and yield. Always, quantity is the driver. Unfortunately, and this applies to everything, focussing on quantity alone is like judging a book by it´s cover - there is no regard for depth, substance, quality and integrity. Quantity without these other considerations is superficial and in my view not valuable at all.

Quantity driven development of our food system has resulted in a situation where we now have to have a discussion to agree on a definition for what consitutes real food. How insane is that? Along with air and water, food is right up there on the essential list for human life, but we´ve become so disconnected from our food, we´re not sure what it is anymore! Sixty years of quantity driven development at lighting speed over three or four generations and it´s little wonder we´re loosing touch with reality. In order to re-connect with real food and more - find depth, substance and quality in our lives, we first have to slow down and come back to the Earth. This involves the courageous step of going against the societal norm of seeing quantity as the core value.

Some people see this shift in perception as a class based luxury alternative, and indeed the organic food movement has not helped itself in this respect: Marketing to a niche perpetuates that niche and does little to inform and broaden awareness outside that limited segment of society. But this niche view is a short sighted view of sustainable food when we consider that un-altered food produced in co-operation with nature is as basic and ordinary as we can get! The earth and nature are our starting point, the more we move from this "ordinaryness" the less ordinary our food becomes. If we take this view, food grown with trans-species genetic modification (GM) is light years way from ordinary. Actually, reliance on chemically based nitrogen within our eco-systems has already meant our food is far from ordinary, but jumping to GM is like farming on another planet! The point is that sustainable food is ordinary because it comes from and co-operates with nature, and nature as the Earth is always our starting point.

In coming from and co-operating with nature, sustainable food is not based on the false value of quantity. True food quality can never be determined through measuring the quantity of nutrients alone, because many facets of quality are unmeasurable. The living vitality in a food is the result of the conditions in which that food is grown, particularly the living quality of the soil. This is vitality that can´t be measured and disected, but has to be felt and experienced. After all, as humans we are part of nature and there was a time when we relied on our senses to judge quality and what was good for us and not some homogenized labelling system dictated to us by governments and big corporation marketing campaigns!

When we shift to viewing food based on quality, our view itself fits into a more sustainable pattern. For example, truly high quality meat (think grass fed, organic, free range, antibiotic free) is a food of great potency and power. A food with these attributes doesn´t need to be consumed as part of our daily diet and becomes an occasion food, or we eat a little when we need strength - recovering from illness or maybe we´re involved in extended and intensive physical work. So our eating itself becomes more intuitive and connected. We rediscover food as part of many ways to maintain health and balance in our lives.

Ordinary food needs to be available to everyone who wants it and not just a middle class niche. Whats more, if we don´t re-consider the values on which we base our perception of food what will be the state of our food system in ten or twenty years time? I´m not going to wait around to find out.

Using Wild Foods To Make Natural Dye. Rebecca R Burgess, Ecological Artist

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Rebecca is an ecologically focused textile artist, ethnobotanist, restoration gardener and teacher. Rebecca´s blog is about experiences creating functional art from nature.

Local Mordant November 28, 2009

With acorns raining on the roof tops I felt inspired to see how I could put this abundant resource to use in the dye process. Tan oak bark and shavings have long been known for their role in tanning hides, they were harvested almost to the point of complete decimation in our area. My intention was to use the renewable part of the tree - the acorn, and make the most of the acorn meat in the process. Tannin is a non-metallic mordant and the only mordant that I have found locally available. It can also be used as a dye, creating shades of light brown when used on its own.

After pounding the acorns with a rock and peeling them, I added them to a food processor to blend them into smaller chunks. The chunks were placed in a cloth bag. I let the faucet water drain through them. I squeezed the bag occasionally to see thick brown water leaching from the acorn meal. The tannic acid comes out of the acorn in the form of a thick starchy like substance. At one point after several hours of leaching, the acorns were done and the water ran clear. I dehydrated the meal and saved that for a future batch of acorn cookies.

I had also experimented some time ago with making a mordant from rusty objects– by soaking them in water and vinegar. Tannins and iron produce lovely shades of gray.

After creating the tannin and rust waters, I put a strip of hemp/cotton fabric into the tannins for a day. I then rolled up the wet tannin mordanted fabric with several maple leaves and put it into the rust water, after a day and a half I unravelled it.

The finished fabric is gray/blue color, and the maple leaf prints turned a very light green. The joy of making a mordant out of a wild food by-product was such a wonderful revelation. I will continue with acorn tannin experiments to see the effects on wool with native plant dye colors. I’ll keep you posted!

Posted by Rebecca R Burgess, ecologicalartist

http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/

GM Food Discussion: Why Your Input Is Important

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of yesterday´s Twitter discussion on Genetically Modified (GM) foods, was the general apathy towards the subject.

Those people sharing their views helped the conversation to develop and bloom, but considering we are now instantly connected with hundreds of others tweeters, involvement was disappointing. Our discussion was an opportunity when many different views could have been expressed. To hear more pro-GM views and those in-between would have been very useful. If we´re not connecting and talking how can we begin to understand different perspectives? By embracing Web 2.0, we have a collective opportunity to go beyond the limited space of a two sided debate. Through connection and discussion we can come together to develop creative strategies based on simple, common sense truth.

Especially concerning is that yesterday´s apathy may be a symptom of our dis-connection with food and nature. This works in a similar way to the alarming trend of young people not bothering to vote in elections, because they don´t connect with politics and politicians. Farming and food production are viewed as topics that don´t directly affect people, because we don´t see and understand how our food is grown and produced. For many people the closest connection they have with the origin of their food, is when they buy it from the supermarket.

Is our dis-connection from nature so severe that we´re blinded from considering the view that the latest generation of GM crops, as the forefront of intensive agriculture´s march, pose a considerable threat to the long term food security of our nations?

Genetically manipulating plants with material from animals for the purpose of improving hardiness, productivity and drought tolerance, symbolizes the progress of intensive farming techniques. Whether you applaud, are repulsed or simply dont give a damn, depends how you view the situation. Interestingly, our views on this may well be significantly influenced by the severity of our disconnection from nature. With this in mind, please forgive my crude, finger painting view of nature that follows:

(Nature is the limitless inter-related causes and conditions resulting in the process of continually restoring balance)

Wild plants springing up on your nicely dug flower bed, are an example of this process of continually restoring balance. Naked earth is vunerable to erosion, so nature strives to cover it. There isn´t anyone in charge of this process, but it´s happening all the time.

Of course, where farming is concerned, there has to be some disruption to this state of balance. I´m not proposing we set sail towards an unrealistic view of farming as some Utopian paradise. But, it´s important to understand that the closer we adhere to working with the natural balance of nature, the more sustainable our agriculture will become.

There is no doubt, that the advances in agricultural science made in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, helped feed many millions of people. This is a very wonderful result of the research and focus of many people. Indeed, our modern society of today, would look very different if we had not gone through these changes, changes that were implemented through the hard work of farmers. However, the unfavourable results of relentless progress are now smacking us in the face:

1. Arguably long term decrease in crop quality. Based on the living vitality of crops.

2. Severe environmental pollution, through leaching of chemically produced nitrogen fertilizers.

3. Increasing reliance on chemical products and systems controlled by big corporations.

By disecting nature to focus on small pieces of it, science, in response to our society´s relentless pursuit of progress, has pushed intensive farming to develop in the direction of operating independantly of the bigger picture of nature. Again, depending on your view, you may applaud this progress. You might say, wow, what a phenomenal achievement, as humans, we´ve used our intelligence to distance ourselves from nature. You might think that somehow humans are now superior to nature. The problem with this view, is that nature is constantly at work to restore balance to everything. Vast monoculture farming operations have to rely on ever increasing sophisticated approaches like GM crops, to deliver the necessary yield because new viruses, pests, soil exhaustion and other conditions have to be contended with. These so called ´adverse´ conditions are nature at work to restore balance. Until we can begin to view and connect with this bigger picture of nature, our intensive farming will have to continue to develop more and more complex approaches to counter the ´adverse´ conditions of nature restoring balance.

This situation is indeed a precarious one for farmers, consumers and societies in general. Especially when we consider the power to continue developing intensive farming techniques lies in the hands of big corporations. Corporations that patent their GM seed.

Fortunately, there is a way we (consumers, farmers & societies), can win back control of our food security. This way is intimately tied to our re-connection with the bigger picture of nature to create sustainable food production.

You are a part of this bigger picture of nature, your actions, no matter how insignificant, affect everyone else on this planet and further. This is your land, your society, your Earth, your children´s future: please make sure you have your say.

To Care About Our Environment, Our Children Need To Understand It. A guest post by school teacher and writer, Rachel Knox

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:21:00 +0000

The outdoors and the wealth of experience it offers is now being promoted increasingly in education as we realise it’s importance for a generation that spend most of their time indoors interfacing with electronic devices. To care about our environment, our children need to understand it. And it is becoming important for us to grow, understand and be connected to our food again. For me the ideal school wouldn’t rely on a few devoted individuals giving up their time, but would make outdoor education a part of the curriculum for all ages.

Growing food is something that many schools are now doing. This is preferable if it takes place in a designated garden area, even if that only amounts to a few large pots. We began with potatoes in buckets and pumpkins in grow bags. Pulling up the potato plants and finding the crop of golden spuds was like finding a horde of treasure in the soil. The children’s faces were a picture! They were without doubt the tastiest potatoes we’d ever eaten. The Potato Council (UK) provides free seed potatoes to schools that register and runs a yearly competition for the heaviest crop. This year our plants were blighted and produced less, but they were still the best we’ve ever tasted, perhaps because these are lower yield varieties which are less hardy but far more flavoursome than the mass produced kind you buy in supermarkets. I am now a complete convert to growing my own Rocket and Vales Emerald potatoes.

Pumpkin soup was another joy, linked to the lovely series of beautifully illustrated story books by Helen Cooper. My class were all happy to try this soup (even the fussy ones) because it was the pumpkin they’d watch grow and they’d had fun sawing up for soup, even if it was a bit messy and even if there were pumpkin seeds all over the floor! Ownership is everything. Not only the successes but the failures are also a great learning experience; the pumpkin that was hollowed out and inhabited by slugs was a major attraction for the youngest pupils.

Since then we’ve grown carrots, broad and runner beans, courgettes, marrows and tomatoes and the eco club made raised beds, enjoying the experience of hammering the nails in and constructing them while my reception class were so eager to move the two tonnes of soil with their mini wheel barrows that we had the job finished in one afternoon.

After years of doing the same sort of things at harvest, I have become bored with the traditional harvest service that relied on dry paper exercises completed in class. So one year we visited a private garden allotment suggested by a parent. A risk assessment was necessary before the visit, but although I had my doubts initially, this became one of our most liked and remembered school trips. The elderly gentleman enjoyed showing us his garden and shared his produce with us. The children responded with interest and delight, answering his questions eagerly and asking some good questions of their own in return. The sight of a school bus of reception children alighting onto the pavement of a small cul de sac and entering a private garden is perhaps an unusual one, but we would do this again. It was a lovely way of looking at the harvest in a way that 4-5 year olds could understand and we later shared photographs with the rest of the school as part of the annual harvest service in the school hall.

The list goes on. Once you start, it’s difficult to stop because that would be a step backwards. Even if you don’t like gardening yourself, you can still give your children a few packets of seeds and somewhere to plant them. I have never forgotten when as a child I emptied a full packet of mixed flower seeds into an ice cream tub full of soil and observed the oddly miniature plants that resulted from the tight squeeze or the years of our vegetable patch when we ate gorgeous, fresh vegetables every day until the sea flooded it and my mother gave up, saying it was no use carrying on because the soil was full of salt and she felt that no one had really appreciated all her hard work anyway!. If that were true I wouldn’t be remembering it now! Perhaps we remember these experiences of being close to the earth and growing our own food or flowers because they are archetypal and part of our existence and survival even if it appears that sometimes we have forgotten.

I suspect that even when I’ve burned out of my teaching job, I’ll perhaps return voluntarily to continue running the eco club for the juniors and a gardening club for the infants because it’s so popular and essential. Our next project is a presentation to show the rest of the school what we’ve been up to and outside we’re remodelling our rather overgrown vegetable garden to be part of an outdoor classroom and wildlife garden.

Rachel Knox

Nursery and Reception teacher and writer, Denbigh, N. Wales, UK.

Four simple ways everyone can invest in their children?s future

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:14:00 +0000

For many western countries, 2009 has been the year of the credit crunch. While I´m no financial whizz, it´s safe to say that the collapse of the economy is down to greed!

The ´have now, pay later´ mentality is a symptom of our modern society. We want it all, we want it now, we deserve it!

This mentality is like the concrete holding the foundation of our modern food system together. Modern farming practices are the ´have it now, pay later´ system of agriculture.

Demanding that natural systems forever increase their efficiency is impossible. The result is that modern farming practices have to rely on artificial fertilisers and chemical means of controlling the natural environment. This system has been delivering the results, but at a heavy cost.

The results are low cost homogenised foods. The costs take the form of a generational credit agreement, that is now starting to demand payment...

-Long term, sustained decrease in food quality

-Polluted environment

-Cancers resulting from the use of pesticides

Everything we are doing now is creating not only our own future, but that of our children, grandchildren and their successive generations.

Are you pointing the finger yet? Well don´t until you´ve read on.

Lets be clear about something, modern industrial scale farmers are good people. Just like you they want to create good conditions for their children´s future. Modern farming practices have developed in synergy with OUR ´have it now, pay later´ society. In a way, modern farming represents the survival of agriculture at the hands of our society. We have helped nurture the beast, the provider of cheap food for our fast lives. So lets collectively take some responsibility.

So what is the answer? How can we restore balance to our modern food system for the benefit of ourselves and future generations? While, it´s clear there isn´t a short term fix, some of the answers may be simpler than you think.

1. We can start by changing our perception of what constitutes quality food. Currently food quality is based on appearance and nutrient content (so very buy now, pay later). I´m advocating that quality be judged more on vitality and taste, based on the causes and conditions that have gone into creating the food. For example, your perception of the quality of an orange, will be influenced if you knew that the water used to grow that orange came from a polluted river.

2. Start growing your own food ... right now! Use your garden, window boxes, roof space, whatever you have. I´ve heard that in China, they are growing food everywhere ... at the sides of roads, on roofs. It seems the Chinese, are feeling the FOOD CRUNCH, sooner than ourselves.

Involve your children in growing food. If you have space give them their own small area to cultivate and look after food plants. This will definitely help to re-establish their connection with natural systems and give them an appreciation of the value of Quality Real Food. If you do this with your children you may be surprised to see they don´t waste so much food. Growing Real Quality Food is hard work, but the enjoyment and benefits it brings will definitely enrich their lives.

This is one of the kindest things you can do for your children Not only are you enabling them to learn a skill that can help them be more independant adults. Connecting your children directly with natural systems will help prepare them for the environmantal challenges they will have to face as adults.

3. If you don´t cook. Learn, then involve and teach your children. This point was emphasied recently by #ProFood creator Rob Smart (@JamButter). This naturally follows on from the second point. Your perception of food quality has changed, you and your children have spent time growing Real Quality Food, now you need to cook it. Cooking adds to the creativity and lets you share the results of your good work. Cooking also furthers our education about the true value of Real Quality Food.

4. Invest in buying sustainably farmed produce. Preferably chemical free. Ensure the farm you support really does care about the welfare of their animals. Don´t be afraid to ask for a farm tour. Buying direct from sustainable farmers is an investment in your family´s health. It´s also an investment in the long term food security of your children. That adds up to great value, Real Quality Food!

If we can begin in our own ways to implement these four points, we can slowly create more demand for Real Quality Food. Modern farmers have options ... with a growing market for sustainable Real Quality food they can choose to transition to a more sustainable model...

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change"

- Charles Darwin

It´s down to us, the government won´t do it and modern farmers won´t change if you keep buying their food. By implementing these four points, together, we have the possibility of achieving something truly meaningful.

We are creating our children´s future right now. Lets STOP breaking it!

Please feel free to comment and share this article.

Response to The Times Newpaper - Organic food is a waste of money

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Organic Food Is A Waste Of Money.

Andrew Ellson - Personal Finance Editor.

The Times.

September 5th 2009.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article6822026.ece

Dear Sir,

Thank you for highlighting some important points with your 'blind taste test'.

Supermarket branded organic products, as a rule, do not represent the high quality achieved by smaller independant sustainable farms.

Organic dairies producing yoghurt for supermarket branded products do not have the incentive to focus on taste, texture and aroma achieved by independant companies such as Rachels, and Yeo Valley. Both these companies have won awards for the taste of their organic products, and in my subjective opinion ,are better representatives of organic food.

Taking apples as an example. Organic Royal Gala apples sold by Sainbury's (5 for £2.49), are imported from New Zealand! Such a colossal amount of food miles can never represent the concerns for sustainabilily and quality at the heart of the true organic movement. Note: To their credit Sainbury's, are now also offering British Organic apples, but this is an exception, rather than the rule.

Personally, I've tasted conventionally grown, local British apples that taste better than organic apples from New Zealand. So if you'd like to find a true representative of an organic apple here in the UK, look for a small British organic grower or find someone with an apple tree in their garden. Over the next month, British gardens will be awash with apples.

The sustainability of food production directly affects quality and value. For this reason it was surprising not to see it mentioned in your article.

Smaller organic farms rely on developing sustainable systems of growing food because it is at the heart of their cause. Many of the standards and rules made by organisations like The Soil Association, strengthen this cause.

So called 'conventional' methods of agriculture are much less sustainable, because of their need for oil based fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Without these fertilizers and chemicals, conventional crops could not be grown.

Supermarkets that import organic produce from the other side of the world are confusing customers, by diluting the core value of sustainablity at the heart of the organic movement.

When considering the value represented by a particular purchase, most people will consider how long that purchase will benefit them. Food is no different. Thinking that food purchases are simply about satisfying our immediate hunger is particularly short sighted.

Investing in buying food from local sustainable farms is an investment in the future capacity of our land to support us. Conventional or industrial farming offers no long term sustainable future. So when we buy sustainable foods, we are investing in the future capacity of our land to provide foods for our children and grand children. I'd call that valuable.

On January 10 2008, News International announced to the world with a fanfare that it was Carbon Neutral. Since The Times, as part of News International, is clearly so concerned with sustainability, it's surprising it didn't even get a mention in your article.

My subjective personal finance advice for people who see the future of this country's food system as important, is to invest in local, sustainable foods...as natural as possible.

sincerely

Gavin Venn