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Three Months ago, I attended an event at Hay Festival in Wales, called Green Dragons Den in which every day five projects pitched for £10,000 from the Welsh Government to support their venture. One of the most exciting projects which featured on the day dedicated to food projects, was ‘This is Rubbish’ and their waste food tour ‘Feast’. The project which gained a lot of attention at the festival, aimed to communicate the preventable scale of food wasted in the UK, through policy, community and arts led public events, highlighting the fact that supermarkets and pre-domestic waste are responsible for over 60% of all food waste. The campaign observes the success of other similar schemes such as WRAP: Love Food Hate Waste campaign, in tackling food waste in the home. But aims to build on these successes in combating the 60% of food wasted before it reaches consumers, within the supply chain itself through lobbying government and campaigning for the establishment of an independent commission responsible for annual auditing and publishing of waste.

Check out their website (http://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk) and pledge your support to play your part in fighting off the impending food crises.

When driving, walking, or even taking a stroll
You catch a glimpse of them
But you quickly turn your head to another direction

Even when they are shown on the T.V
You quickly change the channel
To the one which interests you more

They live in your neighborhood
A family of five in one room apartment
But you never show them love

You even restrict your children
Not to play with their dirty kids

You waste food and throw them in the trash
But they’ve only had a meal in 24hrs

Their kids wander about the hood
In their rags soaked with overnight urine
Your old clothes you burn

They make attempts to relate with your kids
But you hide them in
And shut the door against them

Some kids are lost
And their parents are nowhere to be found

Some are sick
They need donations for treatment

Your money you lavish and squander
Yet a dollar would make a difference

Their Children are gentle and easy going
Yours are the trouble makers in the hood

They are quiet and do not talk
Of course no one would listen
They are THE VOICELESS.

There can be varied amounts of waste food depending. We pick up twice a week to give food for the pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens.

Sue one of the volunteers has just gone overseas and has left me and another volunteer to do the rounds, picking up the waste food from a Woolworths in Hobart and bringing it back to Brightside in Cradoc (about an hours drive one way); then sorting all the waste into bins (what’s good for rabbits, what’s good for pigs, what’s good for chickens and so on) and last of all, feeding every animal both small and great.

This whole process takes about 6-8 hours from leaving to pick up, picking up, taking it back, sorting it into various containers, and feeding. Included in the sorting is removing the thousands of plastic wrappers containing the bakery produce.

So here are some pictures of my adventure.

I am doing Sundays and the other volunteer, Sandra, is going to do it the other day during the week.

The Beginning. 6 wheely bins FULL OF FOOD (Oops, I forgot about the other big bag of bread in the cab! I'm going to go get that now.)

Some of the bread I've taken out of wrapping

Some of the veges in a bin

Spuds in plastic without blemish

More FOOOOOD!

Hard veges and fruits in one bucket, leafy greens in another

Bread still in wrapping

The Treasure Trove at a Glance

What our bins look like

12 buckets of bread I found in the scraps I did

Mushrooms and Sweet taters YUM YUM!

Beans, Mandarin and Avodados

Big Pigs and Goats Sharing their Feast!

I did this once before on the goat paddock, higher up the hill because the goats can jump regular height fencing quite easily.

I also fixed a portion of that same fence to prevent the smaller black pigs to climb under where persistently they pushed and pushed until there was room enough for them to get through.

I fed the cows some hay. I fed the pigs some fruit and veges we get from Woolworths (a contract is organised where they give us all their waste produce and we only use it to feed the animals). Sometimes there is A LOT of waste. This is just a glimpse of what is wasted. Consider this is a small town and the Woolworths sometimes has 15 – 20 large flexi-buckets of waste. This happens in every supermarket worldwide.

I have friends who dumpster dive back in Perth. They don’t do it because they are poor. They do it because it is free food that is going to waste. This mass waste is another product of the abusive money system we currently depend on.

…

The vet visited and did some surgery on a horse. It also checked up on some ponies.

Mia the smart dog

Mia, one of the dogs we now have, was let out of her pen and we have come to adore her. Quite a free spirit and very smart. She comes when she is called without hesitation.

This is very surprising considering she was left for years by her previous owner tied to a pole with a length of chain, and not given a kennel to sleep in. She does like small animals though (not the chickens and ducks but the rabbits and guinea pigs), this is something that is going to have to be trained out of her. However, when she is involved with a rabbit, looking through it’s caged area she comes when called instantly. It will not take much to reprieve her of this habit.

Now, I’m going to go into the kitchen and make vegan pumpkin scones which I found the recipe here. I picked the pumpkins in the vege patch and so far I have made creamy pumpkin soup using coconut cream to make it smooth. I ate the soup for breaky, lunch and tea for a while. I might turn orange.

Till next time,

Matt

A lady carries around with her a mc donalds burger with fries. The fries look like she just brought them amd the only change to the burger is that it has become hard. What do we feed ourselfs. How can people abuse thier bodys with this.
A health inspector supposedly found a fried chicken head in a order of chicken wings.
The chicken mcnuggets are made from meat of of old bones and a chamical is used to seperate the products. When using this chemical the factory workers have to wear protective suits
to find out more infomation just google whats realy in mc donalds
the uprising is happening 2011
lice allways
ultimatemusefan xxxx

The weekly grocery shop is a chore some relish and others dread, I am one of the latter and especially dislike the bit at the end – paying for it.  My family of 3 teenage boys, 1 step daughter, 1 Other Half, a dog, a cat and a snake (not especially keen on the snake to be honest) take some feeding.  So here are my top tips and website links to help keep the grocery bills under control:

1 – Plan your menus for the week.  This is the key to managing the food budget and without it I would end up spending twice as much but inevitably still have ‘nothing for tea’.  When I’m planning a menu I look in the cupboards and freezer for what we’ve got already and integrate those ingredients into my menu planning.  I also allow a bit of flexibility, for example I may plan meat and 3 veg for one meal but not stipulate the type of meat or veg – that way I can look for the bargains/offers in the supermarket and buy them.

2 – Make a list, take a list and stick to it.   As I’m planning my menu I make a list of things to buy and occasionally I log onto http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk to compare prices – this week for the first time my shopping was cheaper at Sainsburys, I usually shop at Tesco.  You can also book a delivery slot and have your shopping delivered using this site.

3 – Waste less – use left overs.  In my parents/grandparents day it was unheard of to throw good food out, waste not – want not.  Times have changed and a huge amount of food is wasted everyday yet cutting down on the waste could slash your grocery bills.  For inspiration on how to use up your leftovers try this site http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com it is jampacked full of ideas, hints, links, recipes and tips.

It came to light after the former mayor of Bridlington, Liam Dealtry, was researching a system to help distribute surplus food to the homeless. The local councillor spent a night sleeping rough to raise money for the homeless charity, the Kingfisher Trust. But he said he was “shocked” to be told by others who were homeless that blue toilet cleaner had been poured on the food they would normally eat.

Spokeswoman for Iceland, Pauline Begley, said the chain did not donate expired food to charity because it could not guarantee it was fit for consumption.  But she admitted that tampering with waste products “in any way” was against company policy.

The issue has angered homeless charities and consumer organisations alike. Glenn Pougnet, the director of charity StreetSmart, which raises money for the homeless said surplus food which was normally thrown away could help those living on the streets.  Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium has said on the BBC website that despite strict regulations on food, food which has been discontinued, overrun, or with a reasonably long shelf life could usually be given away.  He said that a number of retailers work with Fare Share, a charity which relieves food poverty by targeting food waste for redistribution.  Fare Share’s Director of Communications has also condemned the bleaching as “a completely unacceptable practice”. He told the BBC: “If the food is fit for consumption get it to us and we’ll distribute it.  If it’s not, there are far more responsible ways of disposing food than putting bleach on it”.

Cllr Dealtry has now called for the council to act and has said he will be writing to local shops and hotels to encourage them to donate food.

For more information:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/8606768.stm

http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

http://www.streetsmart.org.uk/

Other articles you might be interested in:

Freeganism and Food

So I’ve been trying to favor organic, fair-trade and eco-friendly products since beginning this project. Here are the results from my last grocery.

• Organic Romaine Lettuce
• Tomatoes from Canada instead of Mexico
• Kashi Organic Berries and Flakes Cereals
• Organic & Fair-trade Coffee (for which I specifically had to buy a coffee grinder)
• Organic Pasta & Pasta Sauce
• Free-run Chicken Eggs
• Wild-caught Smoked Salmon

I’ve recently noticed little organic sections sprouting in the different aisles of my local Metro grocery store, which is pretty neat. For me, fair-trade is even more important than organic. I think it’s the second time ever that I switch brands of coffee. The first time was because LavAzza coffee is way cheaper than Illy. Like I said they only had organic and fair-trade coffee in whole grains, so I had to shell out $30 for a coffee grinder. The first cup of coffee I made was DIGUSTING. My first thought was: “What did I get myself into?”. Actually turns out that the new coffee is WAY stronger than the one I was using before  so I can now use 1/4 of the amount I was using per cup. The free-range eggs and the wild-caught salmon are also pretty important to me. Actually, in Vermont, where my mom lives, the supermarket labels whether each fish is wild-caught or not. So I’ve been making sure we were buying wild-caught fish! Organic really comes last in my list of priorities. I haven’t really noticed that any of the food tasted better, but if we can try to use less chemicals to grow food than it’s worth it.

I’m also getting a new laptop for Christmas. I decided to buy a Sony Vaio. It has nothing to do with my purchasing decision but turns out Sony is try to be Greener (or at least they are trying to appear so). Some of the eco-features of my laptop include:

• Energy Star® 5.0: ENERGY STAR® 5.0 qualification: means that this computer meets strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.  By operating more efficiently, this computer not only helps conserve power, but ultimately helps reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases by lessening the demand on power generation.
• Power Management settings: All VAIO® computers let you easily manage the energy efficiency of your PC via the Power Management settings in the VAIO Control Center.  A menu of several power options that relate directly to operating efficiency, such as LCD brightness, battery life output, sleep/hibernation settings, and more, allows you to optimize your PC’s power consumption.
• EPEAT™ Silver Registered: EPEAT™, or the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool, enables people to evaluate electronics products by seeing how they are measured against 51 environmental standards.  In addition to other criterion, these standards cover such areas as: energy conservation, reduction of environmentally sensitive materials, use of recycled content in packaging, end of life management. Products are registered according to the number of criteria they satisfy.  The rankings are Bronze, Silver and Gold.
• Sony Take Back recycling program: The Sony Take Back recycling program allows users to recycle Sony electronics products, including packaging, in an environmentally sound manner at no charge. There are 130 drop off centers located throughout the US.  Since its inception in 2000, the program has collected over 14,900,000 lbs of electronics and has recycled them responsibly.
• Rechargeable battery recycling program: In addition to our Take Back recycling program, we also make recycling your old Sony rechargeable batteries easy.  Simply drop them off at a Sony Style store near you and we will recycle them in an environmentally responsible manner. To support this effort, in early 2008, we began introducing dedicated battery recycling bags with some of our VAIO® PCs to encourage higher recycling rates.
• Sony Trade-in program: The Sony Trade-in program allows you to trade in your old eligible electronics to receive credit towards a new Sony product. As part of the program, Sony will arrange for the recycling of your old product in an environmentally responsible manner.
• RoHS compliant: All VAIO® PCs are EU RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Directive compliant. The EU RoHS Directive restricts the use of certain substances, such as lead and mercury, to minimum levels in electronics products. By limiting the use of hazardous substances, RoHS aims not only to help prevent harmful materials from leaching into our ecosystems but also helps minimize potential exposure to these substances and promotes easier recycling at the end of a product’s lifecycle.
• PVC-free casing and packaging: Sony has eliminated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from the exterior product casings and packaging of all VAIO® computers.  PVC contains various chemical substances, such as plasticizers and stabilizers, that could pose a risk to the environment as well as human health if not disposed of properly.
• Recycled content in packaging: This VAIO® PC utilizes 95% post-consumer recycled content in its corrugated cardboard packaging (percentage varies depending on manufacturing location).
• Recycled content utilized in Sony in-box documentation: The printed documentation created by Sony that comes with new VAIO® PCs, such as the Quick-start guide, warranty card and instruction manual (if included), utilize 85% post-consumer recycled content.

I also got an iPhone from my grandparents for Christmas. I was browsing online through iPhone accessories when I came accross a solar powered iPhone charger by Solio. My first reaction was that it was a really cool accessory. I figured I could charge my iPhone solely with solar power. It probably wouldn’t  save tons of electricity but it’s a start. But as I thought more about it, I’m not convince the solar charger really is the most eco-friendly solution. The Waste = Food documentary really opened my eyes. The way I see it, the solar charger will eventually end up in a landfill. On the other hand, electricity in Quebec is hydro powered. So I might as well charge my iPhone at home.

Finally, I just came back from the Burton store, in Vermont, where I bought a sweatshirt and a T-Shirt by a brand called Habitat. I didn’t know of it before buying the clothes, but their logo with 3 tree leaves just screamed “eco-friendly brand”. I was intrigued so I looked at the tag on the 2 pieces of clothing. The hoodie says “Made in China” while the T-Shirt says “Assemble in Mexico with US Fabric”. So it doesn’t look like the hoodie has anything special in terms of carbon footprint. Looks like the T-Shirt is trying to make an effort. However, the real question is where are the materials used to make the T-Shirt coming from. If that “US Fabric” is made from Chinese cotton, then it’s not really eco-friendly. In any case, I had a look at the company’s website as soon as I got home. Turns out Habitat is a skateboarding company which was recently purchased by Burton. They differentiate themselves from other companies in that they offer Eco products including Bamboo Ply skateboards, Hemp Ply skateboards, Cork Ply cruisers and Certified Organic Cotton T-Shirts. They also use Water Based Glue, Ink and Clear Coat on some of their skateboards. Although they do offer some Organic clothing, not all their clothes are organic and turns out that the ones I purchased are not. So even if the brand is kinda deceptive at the moment (because some of their products are eco-friendly, but not all of them) this is a company to keep watching. I’m sure they are trying to make their way towards 100% eco-friendliness.

WASTE = FOOD
Filmen ovenfor, er en indspirerende dokumentar om Cradle to Cradle konceptet, af kemikeren Michael Braungart og arkitekten, William McDonough. Filmen vandt The Silver Dragon på Beijing Int. Science Film Festival i 2006.

McDonough er også forfatter til den über klassikeren, Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002) – der er lige kommet en 2009 udgave, som kan købes for den bæredygtige pris, 95 kroner ! (bogpris.dk)

- Besøg også Cradle-to-Cradle´s Website

Go Beyond Green Design
Cradle-to-Cradle- (C2C), eller vugge-til-vugge-perspektivet handler ikke blot om at minimere og ressourcebespare, men også om at sikre sig, at begrebet spild og affald ikke forekommer. Ved systematisk at gennemgå alle processer, kan fænomenet affald elimineres, og overskud fra én proces bliver råmateriale i en anden i en stadig procesuden spild. ’Cradle to Cradle’ har fået en næsten folkebevægelsesagtig gennemslagskraft i Holland, og nogle ser det som fundamentet for den næste industrielle revolution.

“Opskriften på bæredygtig vækst“
Det nedenstående uddrag er fra artiklen: “Opskriften på bæredygtig vækst” (Information 22. maj, 2008), Skrevet af Søren Lyngsgaard og Martin Fluri.

Holland er det land, der er længst fremme med at tage Cradle to Cradle principperne til sig. Den hollandske miljøminister har forpligtet sig til at udføre cradle to cradle projekter over hele landet, blandt andet ved offentligt byggeri. I Almere lidt uden for Amsterdam bygges 60.000 nye boliger efter Cradle to Cradle standarder, og i Maastricht er et byggeprojekt til tre milliarder Euro godt på vej til at blive gjort til et Cradle to Cradle byggeri. Det har betydet, at 75 procent af byggeindustrien i Holland nu er bekendte med Cradle to Cradle standarderne.

Martin Fluri står bla. bag websitet vuggetilvugge.dk og var med-oplægsholder på Link-Up´s januar arrangement – ´Go Beyond Green Design´ – Læs et sammendrag over aftenens oplæg på Link-Up´s website. (Se også de 2 korte film fra arrangementet, nederst i dette indlæg).

De bedste BLOGs med diskussioner om Bæredygtighed mm.
Se  tidligere post med TOP 100 BLOGs / “Environmental and/or Sustainable”

Litteratur orienteret mod det daglige arnejde som arkitekt:

Bolig • Miljø • Kvalitet, 2005 – 144 sider
Download PDF

ARrkitektur og Energi, 2006 – 64 sider
Download PDF

This video takes you through the indiginous concepts of William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s book Cradle to cradle. Go upcykle your visions!

Contrast this with the excitement from my friend, after he had just come from watching the Waste=Food documentary:

When I heard him talk about the Chinese story, and also Nike’s revolutionary process for making eco-friendly shoes, I wanted to learn more.

In the search for a more sustainable world, we humans may be more impressed by stories of  our own ingeniosity, than nature’s goodness. Technology, creativity, and news seem like a potent recipe for effective green communication, worth using over, and over again. Not so, bucolic scenes, and the romanticization of our natural world.

Anyway, on to my invention… I’d like to see a device on my fridge and kitchen cupboards that could scan barcodes as the food gets put away or taken out, plus it should read the ‘Use by date’ of the food. Then in the morning it could note if food needed eating and say, ‘Eat those yoghurts!’ And it could also be used to keep tabs on any shopping that needs buying, it would know if you’d run out of eggs or were likely to be in need of cheese. Perhaps it could even print out a shopping list? Or log into Tescos to do your online shopping? 

While we’re on some kind of green/saving the planet/say ‘no’ to waste/’let’s recycle!’ theme, have you heard of Freecycle? It’s an email list where people offer things they don’t need any more to people who might be able to use them. It’s very simple, you just write to the list with an ‘Offered’ subject heading, or read other people’s ‘Wanted’s. It’s usually something like ‘Offered: Plant pots (slightly chipped)’ and ‘Wanted: Large Greenhouse (or conservatory)’ although I have sometimes seen goodies like cars and boats given away. I’ve used Freecycle to get free baby stuff, and we used ito get rid of an old (but perfectly useable) TV.  Maybe the ‘Love Food Hate waste’ people could do something similar? They could organise a way for people to get rid of food they’re not going to get through, perhaps streets could have a ’we don’t need this’ box for unwanted food. I must admit I often chuck out yoghurts when they reach their ‘use by’ date and I can’t face eating three… I’d like a way to share them instead of throwing them away. This plan needs a rethink… Maybe it would be best if it was a  ‘we don’t need this’ community fridge!

Another thrifty/recycling type idea is a way to share baby stuff. It’s amazing how much gubbins a baby needs, but they only use it for a few short months, most of it is in perfectly good shape when you no longer need it and get on to the next lot of gubbins. Perhaps it would be good if there was a club where parents could share clothes/toys/equipment for each stage of their baby’s devopment? I know there are toy libraries already, perhaps a similar service could loan out baby bath chairs and changing tables?

Lots of ideas today. Now excuse me while I eat those three chocolate mousses with todays date on them…

20% is thrown away by manufacturers before it gets anywhere near the shelves. The other 30%, he says, is thrown away by consumers.

The problem for manufacturers is that the retailers often give very short notice of orders which forces the manufacturers to make food in advance, guessing what they will order. Also, the retailers often have the right to cancel orders at the last minute, leaving the supplier with food that it can’t sell and has to dump.

This is very silly. If the retailers and their suppliers talked to each other a bit more and planned the flow of food onto the shelves, they could eliminate a lot of this ‘rubbish’.

As for the 30% thrown out by consumers, this figure is confirmed by WRAP (a pressure group that encourages efficient use of materials and recycling). They say that 2/3 is thrown away because the food is past its use by date and the other 1/3 because too much has been cooked.

I can’t help feeling that this behaviour is linked to increasing portion sizes and over-safe use-by dates when in fact the food would be perfectly OK to eat.

In view of the fact that 815 million people on the planet don’t have enough to eat  (UN) and that wasted food production means wasted energy and extra methane gas from landfill (methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2), perhaps this problem needs some attention!

 Brilliant show. It has been the only thing that has answered some problems in the traditional recyle approach, where we down cycle products, tyres = safety mats, they lose value.

They introduce the idea that products put back positively to the environment or get equaly recyled into the technosphere.

 For example, they have an icecream container, when it is empty, just throw it out the window. At room temperature is turns to liquid compost for plants, it also contains the seed of rare plants.

So waste = positive regeneration of the biosphere & bio diversity, the more wate the better.

This is a hacks explanation of their underlying principles.

This isn`t just feel good hippy stuff, Ford USA just spent US$2 billion with them, Nike have worked with them, China is spending tons of cash on ways to supply 500-600 million homes in the next decade.

 It has been the most real explanation, theory I have yet heard, a warm fuzzy, so please have a look, link, share, add etc… 

Excerpt from the Sundance web site, more Sundance YouTube videos, Sundance the green link.

‘As part of THE GREEN, Sundance Channel presents a series of documentary films focusing on timely and pressing environmental issues of the day.

Every day natural resources are being rapidly depleted, while production and consumption rise in nations like China and India. In response to this crisis, a new philosophy promoting a non-toxic or recyclable destiny for all man-made products has triggered a new industrial revolution among designers and manufacturers.

Rob van Hattum’s award-winning documentary explores how companies such as Nike, Herman Miller and Ford are experimenting with completely clean and sustainable production methods and products following the concept that “waste=food.” ‘