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Five of the best…organic veg box schemes

Greta Jonyniate | 19.01.12

We love box schemes for several reasons; they encourage locality which is good for the UK's farmers, they support green initiatives such as being organic, and best of all they're delivered to our doors!

Whether you’re looking for seasonal veg or slaughter-free milk, Britain’s box schemes make avoiding the supermarket a cinch

Organic food sales might have taken a recession-related hit but with consumers increasingly concerned about what they’re putting on their plates, things are looking up for the UK veg box industry. Although organic farmland only accounts for a miserly four per cent of the UK total, a much more impressive 86 per cent of households now regularly buy organic produce according to a 2011 report by the Soil Association. What’s more, they say, despite a sales drop of 5.9 per cent in 2010, they expect this trend to have reversed over the course of 2011 and to have continued into 2012. In an age of price cuts and austerity, that might sound like wishful thinking, but the latest sales figures released by Tesco – showing a significant drop in Christmas takings – suggest that things might just be changing.

Although supermarkets still account for the lion’s share of the retail market, the Soil Association’s report found that supermarket sales were declining, with the slack being picked up by independent retailers and box schemes. And despite talk of austerity and the Euro crisis, veg box sales actually increased by one per cent last year. A relatively recent phenomenon, veg box schemes have become a lifeline for small community growers who lack capital to hire premises of their own and who don’t want to be taken for a ride by the supermarkets. Greener, cleaner and with a focus on local food, veg boxes are the ultimate riposte to the food retail giants. So who’s best? Try one of these on for size.

Riverford Organics

Offering a choice of fruit, veg, fruit and veg or meat boxes in a range of different sizes, Riverford Organics offers you all the benefits of a farm shop without leaving the house. Originally entirely sourced from owner, Guy Watson’s Devonshire farm, Riverford produce now comes from farmers’ collectives spread all over the country with each group of farmers supplying the consumers in their locale. Not only are your purchases organic, it’s supporting the efforts of local farmers to boot.

Find out more: www.riverford.co.uk

Abel and Cole

Almost certainly the one you’ve already heard of, Abel and Cole is one of the most successful and longest running of the UK’s vegetable box schemes. Starting life as a purveyor of organic potatoes, the company has expanded into a full range of groceries including everything from locally grown onions to non-toxic cleaning products. Still topping the popularity charts though are the veg boxes, which come in a range of sizes and are updated weekly to reflect what’s in season. Better still, they’re affordable with prices for a small box starting at £9.

Find out more: www.abelandcole.co.uk

To read more, please go to theecologist's website or click HERE

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Why aren’t restaurants more sustainable?

Greta Jonyniate | 29.11.11

By author: Julia Hailes is a freelance consultant and speaker on social, environmental and ethical issues. She has written nine books, the most recent of which is The New Green Consumer Guide. Here she shares her thoughts on restaurant sustainibility.

In some ways I’m a restaurant’s dream customer because I eat out a lot. But in some ways I’m a nightmare because I ask lots of questions, particularly about sustainability policies – or more often the lack of them. Recently, I’ve taken to tweeting about this too.

Recently, I went to Brinkley’s Restaurant in Hollywood Road. My friend asked what type of tuna they were serving. The waitress had no idea, so she went to ask in the kitchen. Her answer horrified me - bluefin tuna! Anyone with a glimmer of interest in sustainability issues will know that this is one of the most endangered fish species on the planet. It’s a bit like eating a panda or a tiger.

A very charming manager came to our table. She explained that Brinkley’s food was bought centrally, for all eight of their restaurants, so it wasn’t something she got involved with.

I suggested that she should recommend they check fish species with Fish Online. It’s a brilliant website where you can look up the sustainability rating of any fish. The higher the rating, the more problematic the fish – and 5 is the worst. That’s what bluefin tuna gets.

The River Café in Hammersmith wasn't much better. The waiter was also baffled by our question about their policies on sustainable fishing. So he asked Ruth Rogers, the owner, to help us out. She said that all their fish were ‘line caught’. But when we explained that this wasn’t the only relevant sustainability criteria, she appeared to flounder. We didn’t point out that monkfish, which was on the menu, is not line caught!

 Rick Stein is another celebrity chef who really ought to know better. But when I went to his Fish & Chip restaurant in Padstow in 2009, I had a similar experience. The waitress didn’t even know what sustainability meant.

However, I haven’t just had negative experiences. Dorset’s Hive Beach Café in Burton Bradstock has signed up to the Marine Stewardship Council guidelines on sustainable fishing. And it has a blackboard telling you about where their fish comes from. It makes it so relaxing to eat there. If you want find out other restaurants with good fish policies you can look them up on Fish 2 Fork.  

Of course, sustainability is not just about fish. It’s about how much energy, water and waste, as well as where the food comes from and even about community engagement too. That’s where the Sustainable RestaurantAssociation comes in – they offer advice to restaurants to improve their practices. And they have a ranking system too, so customers can see who’s doing well.

 The SRA’s most recent campaign is to encourage the provision of doggy bags. They’ve worked out that the average restaurant produces 21 tonnes of food waste a year, which is about half a kilo per customer. I suspect that Yo Sushi produce even more than that. When I interviewed one of their staff, they estimated that they threw away about a third of what they make. And none of it appeared to be recycled. Clearly, they’d benefit from joining the SRA.

 Waste is actually one of my biggest concerns. I have a particular problem with the number of disposable napkins handed out. My children seem to think I’m a nightmare in restaurants, but I could be a dream if there was more sustainability on the menu!

 A version of this article is being published in Restaurant Magazine
 

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Feeding The 5000 Highlights

Greta Jonyniate | 21.11.11

What a brilliant day! The team here at Greenhouse really enjoyed ourselves throughout the event and would like to congratulate everyone involved on successfully raising awareness of the issue of food waste. Here are some special images of the day as captured by photographer Adrian Brooks.

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Free Lunch for 5000 In Campaign Against Food Waste

Greta Jonyniate | 17.11.11

Five thousand members of the public are invited to a free hot lunch in Trafalgar Square on Friday 18 November between 12 noon and 2.00pm. All food made entirely from ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted, such as fresh but cosmetically imperfect fruit and vegetables.

Feeding the 5000 will highlight how easy it is to reduce the unimaginable levels of food waste in the UK and internationally, and how governments, businesses and individuals can help. The event is run by the Feeding the 5000 team, in partnership with FareShare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste, Friends of the Earth and supported by the Mayor of London.

In just two hours, charities, volunteers, and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, will serve a free lunch to 5000 members of the public. The menu will include curry made from ‘mis-shapen’ and wonky vegetables, and a range of cooked dishes prepared live by well known chefs, including Thomasina Miers, Valentine Warner and Arthur Potts Dawson.

The public will be invited to take part in the ‘surplus apple’ pressing and to drink the free juice - with the chance to feed the apple remnants to live pigs in Trafalgar Square, as well as helping to sort through wonky vegetables for delivery to charities. Speakers at the event include the Bishop of London and Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food.

The event urges the public to sign the Feeding the 5000 pledge calling for action from governments, retailers and food businesses: ‘I pledge to reduce my food waste and I want businesses to do the same’. Those unable to attend the event will be able to pledge through the Feeding the 5000 website (www.feeding5k.org). Around 80 percent of consumers want businesses to tackle food waste: this offers an opportunity for businesses to respond to the challenge in proactive, positive ways.

Food businesses, restaurants and retailers are invited to sign the Business Pledge, agreeing to the principles of the ‘Food Waste Pyramid’, a new online guidance tool developed by the Feeding the 5000 partnership to help food businesses avoid waste according to a step by step process.

Feeding the 5000 is organised by Tristram Stuart, author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (Penguin, 2009), whose campaigning on food waste won him this year’s international environmental award, The Sophie Prize (www.sofieprisen.no).

Stuart explains: “Feeding the 5000 is a wonderful partnership including farmers, charities and the public. The aim of our lunchtime feast is to highlight how food waste can be avoided by putting food to good use i.e. feeding people. We want businesses and the public to sign the Feeding the 5000 pledge to show how everyone has the power – and the responsibility – to help solve the global food waste scandal.”

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Join us to Eat and Pledge to Protest Against Food Waste

Greta Jonyniate | 07.11.11

On the 18th of November in Trafalgar Square the Feeding the 5000 team, in partnership with the Mayor of London, Fareshare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste and Friends of the Earth, will treat 5000 members of the public to a free hot lunch made entirely out of fresh but cosmetically imperfect fruit and vegetables that would otherwise have been wasted.

From 12-2pm, a partnership of campaigners, charities, volunteers and prominent supporters will serve lunch to 5000 members of the public to highlight the problem of food waste, and the many practical ways to solve it. All the food handed out on the day to passers-by will be made from fresh and nutritious provided by farmers and retailer with fruit and veg that otherwise would have been wasted.

The event will engage the public on the issue of food waste in fun and practical ways that demonstrate how governments, businesses and individuals can help. There will be live cooking demonstrations by leading chefs, public interactive apple pressing and the crowds will have the opportunity to hear about why and how to reduce food waste. The menu will include curry made from vegetables cast out because they are not cosmetically perfect, and a range of freshly-prepared and cooked foods cooked ‘live’ by volunteering well known chefs.

Organised by the author and food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart, Feeding the 5000 will highlight the work of the partner organisations FareShare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste, Friends of the Earth, Mayor of London, journalist and campaigner Rosie Boycott; and celebrity chef Thomasina Miers.

Tristram Stuart explains: “Feeding the 5000 is a wonderful partnership including food companies, farmers and charities. The aim of our lunchtime feast is to highlight how food waste can be avoided by putting food to good use i.e. feeding people.”

“We want to raise awareness of how individuals, as well as retailers, can reduce the amount of food waste they produce. We believe that food retailers and governments should be encouraged to make combating hunger a priority and ensure that resources saved by reducing food waste are put into feeding hungry people around the world.”

SHOCKING FACTS ON WASTE
 More than a third of the world’s entire food production is currently thrown away, contributing to global warming, resource over-use and rising food prices.
 All the world’s nearly one billion hungry people could be lifted out of malnourishment on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.
 Rich countries like the UK currently waste up to half of their food supplies.
 An estimated 20-40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected even before they reach the shops as they don't match supermarkets’ strict cosmetic standards.
 Bread and other cereal products thrown away in UK households alone would be enough to lift 30 million of the world’s hungry people out of malnourishment.
 And yet ore than 4 million people in the UK suffer from food poverty.




 

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For Christmas, we sent a cow

Anna Guyer | 23.12.10

We are lucky at Greenhouse to work with a team of creative and interesting people committed to making a difference. So this year we have chosen to honor their commitment by sending some rather unusual gifts on their behalf to families in Africa. From beehives to medicinal herbs, from goats to a donkey, the gifts we've sent reflect different interests or personality aspects of each member of our team. 

We did this via one of my favorite organisations, called Send a Cow, a group that helps thousands of African families grow enough food to eat, sell their produce and develop small businesses that last. 

I love them partly because I love cows, but even more because when you invest in Send a Cow's gifts, you are funding something that continues to give over and over. People who receive these livestock and farming support go on to share their success with others, too, so that every person who is helped by Send a Cow passes on knowledge and skills to around another 9 family members, friends or neighbours.

You can actually pick out what you want to send. Have a look at what we picked out for each of the people at Greenhouse:

Send a Cow would love to have your support. Have a look at their work, and then check them out at www.sendacow.org.uk.

Give a gift that will change a life!

To all of our clients, colleagues and friends, we wish you the very best for the festive season and for a wonderful 2011. It has been a pleasure to work with you in 2010, and we look forward to continuing our conversations in the New Year.

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Dirty Dozen Cheat Sheet: Foods to only buy organic

Anna Guyer | 02.06.10

Buying 100% organic produce is something to aspire to, but it isn't always possible. Access to organic produce may be limited where you live. Sometimes, though not always, buying organic is more expensive and families have to make choices based on budget. Living a green lifestyle often demands a bit of a balancing act.

That's where being an educated consumer is important. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a Shopper's Guide to Pesticides to help people make smart decisions when choosing fruit and veg. Knowing which have the most pesticide residues puts you in control of reducing your intake of harmful chemicals which EWG says have been linked to a variety of health problems, including: nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone system effects, and skin, eye and lung irritation.

According to EWG, "you can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce."

That's significant.

Check out their site for a downloadable list, or a link to their iPhone app.

Meanwhile, artist Heidi Kenney was inspired by EWG's list and has illustrated and created a handy "Dirty Dozen Cheat Sheet."

Carry it in your wallet and you'll always know the top fruit and veg you should only buy organic, as these are the highest offenders in pesticide residue. On the other side is a list of fruit and veg with the least amount of pesticide residue, so these are safer to buy when organic isn't an option.

You can download Heidi's Dirty Dozen Cheat Sheet here.

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Teach your children well

Anna Guyer | 20.05.10

The greatest resource we have for creating a sustainable future isn't a law or a revolutionary new product. I believe it lies in our ability to, as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young so beautifully put it, teach our children well.

As parents of three, Matthew and I are keen for our children to develop an understanding of the importance of being good stewards for the planet. They are really into it -- and so are their friends, which I find both fascinating and heartening.



When Rosie’s school, St John’s in Wimborne, celebrated Environment Week, we spent a day there to help more than 160 children plant edible veg. This was part of our effort to support Garden Organic's One Pot Pledge, which I've talked about on the blog. It's all about getting first-time gardeners to plant a few seeds and grow something edible.

Our day at school was really great. It was also exhausting - a good exhaustion - which left me in complete awe and admiration for the stamina and commitment that teachers expend everyday.

For many of Rosie's schoolmates, planting something was a first. We gave the children a choice of seeds for French beans, courgettes, carrots and salad. Everyone had fun and they loved growing the veg.

The day before, I went to our local supermarket and bought the equivalent of what we were going to plant. We looked at food miles:

• French beans from Kenya, 4685 miles
• green beans from Morocco, 1500 miles
• lettuce from Perthshire, over 400 miles
• carrots and courgettes from Spain, 585 miles

What was inspiring was that the children were knowledgeable about food miles and the issues where are food comes from, and they have an awareness about the impact of food transportation on the environment and the benefits of growing your own. There's something to this exercise of reaching kids when they are seven and eight. These are such formative years. 

We weren't taught lessons of sustainability when I was a kid. What I saw at Rosie's school gives me hope. It makes me reach for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.



PS: I am going to keep asking you to take the One Pot Pledge. I have promised myself to recruit 1000 new growers! 

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Give it a grow: Join us in the One Pot Pledge

Anna Guyer | 18.05.10

Everyone at Greenhouse is working to recruit 1,000 people to join us in the One Pot Pledge, a campaign to get 30,000 first-time gardeners to grow a pot of fruit or veg.

I love this project. It's good for the environment, and it's stuff you can eat :-)

Please join us in pledging to grow a pot of veg. Like you, we are just starting out.

The official web site is chock full of tips for first-timers, and they have expert advice from well-known gardeners like Alys Fowler. You can even submit your gardening questions and they will be answered.

It's all on the One Pot Pledge site, sponsored by Garden Organic, the leading organic growing charity.

We'll be posting our progress here and on our new Facebook page. Check it out and "like" us. We're mailing free veg seeds to new Facebook friends.

If you're already a gardener, there's a role for you in the One Pot Pledge to help get a friend or two growing too.

Let's grow a tastier world together!

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Will I Be Seduced and Abandoned by Marks and Spencer?

Anna Guyer | 05.03.10

Marks & Spencer announced this week a programme to be "the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015." The effort has them launching 80 major new commitments under M&S’ eco and ethical Plan A.

How brilliant to have a retailer with a green vision. Plan A is an inspired idea, as is their Big Green Idea, and now this.

Their ambition to be the greenest major retailer in the world, to lead the market, to embrace the idea that sustainability and success in business can go hand in hand, are all enough to make my heart skip a beat. This is exactly what I long for in mega-grocer-retailer.

M&S is trying to seduce me, it's working -- and yet, I can't help think to Italy's 1964 film by Pietro Germi, Sedotta e abbandonata, aka Seduced and Abandoned. I wonder if I'm being wooed with words, only to find that there's a lack of substance and sincerity behind them.

Whenever I am in an M&S store, I feel let down. I love the writing on the walls -- literally, the writing on the walls espousing green ideas -- but am I being seduced by empty promises?

When my eyes turn to the shelves they're drawn to excessive packaging, the disposable foil baking trays for Christmas turkeys, the food that's travelled miles and miles to reach the UK. I watch the staff moving about their work wearing fleeces and fingerless gloves because the store is kept at such an icy temperature, and all I can think about is the Chilling Facts Campaign about supermarket refrigeration and huge impact of HFC leakage in supermarket fridges.

I leave feeling cold, in all senses of the word.

I want to believe M&S. I admire their spirit. I applaud what they have done to be more green. I love that they're wooing me. But I can't love them back when the reality doesn't support the vision.

M&S, I beseech you: don't leave me sedotta e abbandonata.

I'd love to hear reader views on this.

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