I’m off to a different site, a different mode of blogging but you can find me at matt-reed.com. This has been a great facility but times change, so a different sort of blog is needed, hope to see you there.

The BBC are reporting, on a email that went around early this morning, that Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, is being faced with a £80k+ bill for trying to get a resolution through Tesco’s AGM forcing them to improve chicken welfare.  

I have become, in spite of some my initial mis-givings a big fan of Hugh’s efforts.  I know shop at his store, and in the winter have  a coffee there, as well as watching his shows. During the winter he and Jamie O proved to be a real thorn to the supermarkets with their ‘chicken out’ campaign, so that Tesco’s have finally decided to take the gloves off is no real surprise, in fact it is welcome.   The conflict between those who want better food and farming is often painted in colours that are pretty genteel, when in fact is about peoples’ bodies and livelihoods.  So take part in the auction or just donate to get the resolution through.  

I’ve been seriously thinking about the implications of ‘peak food’, and found the blog of the same name. 

This is not to dismiss the idea but it is one that does appear whenever there is a perceived crunch in resources, so during the 1930s several books were written forecasting global hunger in pretty short-order, then again during the 1970s a similar thing happened.  Often this goes along with the idea of desertification – which for europeans particularly is a cultural symbol of the waste land, the opposite of the green and pleasant landscape we know so well.  

I’m going to track a copy of the book down, and probably review it here when I get chance. 

As I have been hinting at for some time, or rather straight forwardly saying, I’m writing a book. I’ve been working at it piece meal for some time but I’m now about to give more of my time to it in an effort to get a manuscript in shape. 

I’m excited by the challenges that the book presents, not just knocking out words in form that people will want to read but also of putting my ideas down and taking them to a wider audience. 

I’ll put some of the ideas up on the blog, to form a record of how they develop.  

At the moment I’m thinking about the organisation of a social movement, of how you need place for people to meet exchange ideas, and develop the sense of fellow feeling that is necessary for a movement to exist.  It is striking that research farms have played a real important role in the early years – think of Haughley Research Farms right through to FiBL.  The problem with research farms is that they are that – farms – places that are generally in rural areas, difficult to get large numbers of people to and are focussed on questions of production.   The change in the early 1970s to a focus on retailing and certification allowed the social life of the movement to change, it literally gave people other places to me and commercial organic farms also mean that there is a group of full time activists involved in the process. 

An new and interesting project about trying to get more people to enter organic farming, their blog is here and the website.  Getting into farming in the UK is far from easy, so it will be interesting to see how this project develops.   

The Rodale Institute has an exciting new initiative  which is encouraging farmers to make the transition to  organic.  What impresses me most is the range of tools that they are offering to help make the calculations to help people make the decision, the on-line conversion course looks really interesting – check it out.

Don’t believe it, check this post out and whilst you are there, take a look at what is a really excellent and interesting site. 

Garden Organic have teamed up with ’seeds of change’ in some joint food/organic gardening promo – you see about it here.

After a bit of a break I will return, with fresh news of a book I am writing and also a bit of a different angle. 

As soon as I get a moment, you’ll see what I mean. 

Dear friend,In this update: we want your help to make sure that the Climate Change Bill has adequate ‘bite’, and to support the EU environment minister in his quest to keep GM crops out of the Europe, and we have some good news about the vote on pesticide legislation in the EU parliament.1) Over sixty organisations, including the Soil Association, are promoting the Climate Change Bill Week of Action from Sunday 30th March to Saturday 5th April. The aim of the week is to encourage MPs publicly to pledge their support for an effective Climate Bill.Please email your MP and if you agree with us, ask them to support our three key demands:

• 1) At least an 80% cut in UK carbon emissions by 2050.2) To include emissions from international aviation and shipping.3) That methane and nitrous oxide emissions (as well as CO2) must be covered by actions taken as a result of the bill.A review of the Climate Change Bill is currently taking place, and this will include consideration of whether the legally binding framework to cut CO2 emissions should be extended to include the powerful greenhouse gases methane (23 times CO2’s global warming potential) and nitrous oxide (296 times as powerful as CO2).Policies based on CO2 reduction alone will neglect the very issue which is of huge concern to many people – climate-friendly food. It is no coincidence that whenever public figures want to report positive trends towards sustainable consumption, the example they choose is invariably the remarkable year-on-year growth in sales of organic food. As the recent Cabinet Office report pointed out, when it comes to food, people’s aspirations (towards a more healthy, seasonal, fresh, local and organic diet) coincide with what we need to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over 90% of the greenhouse gas emissions from farming are methane and nitrous oxide, not CO2. And farming is the most damaging stage of the food supply chain for greenhouse gas emissions (8.4% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 2.5% for food transport). See http://www.icount.org.uk/weekofaction for further informationTo find details of your MP’s contact details see: www.WriteToThem.com 
• 2) The EU Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas has been resisting the introduction of GMOs, by proposing that Syngeta’s GM maize varieties, Bt-11 and 1507, not be authorised for commercial use in the EU. He faces stiff competition from the others members of the EU. If you support the Commissioner’s position, please email him to support his stance: stavros.dimas@ec.europa.euFor further information on the Soil Association’s view on GM, including our latest report ‘Silent invasion: the hidden use of GM crops in livestock feed’ see: http://www.soilassociation.org/gm
• 3) An update: Many thanks to all of you who wrote to your MEP about European legislation on pesticides that the European Parliament voted on in a plenary session on in October. Speaking after the vote, Green MEPs described the result as an “important milestone in consumer and environmental protection” and said the Parliament had stood firm against “scaremongering tactics” by industry. On the other hand, the “cloud over today’s vote” was MEPs’ refusal to back specific EU-wide pesticides use reduction targets.Key adopted amendments include adding “residents” and “bystanders” to the list of vulnerable groups, the impact on whose health must be assessed prior to approval; to require that effects due to exposures to several chemicals – the ‘chemical cocktail’ effect be taken into account, and to require a “pesticides passport” to help retailers and others identify chemicals.

A follow up e-mail campaign will be launched from www.PesticideWatch.eu in early April 2008 in an effort to ensure that the positive proposals supported by the European Parliament are incorporated into EU law.Thanks for your support,Emma HockridgePolicy DepartmentThe Soil Association