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ECO HERO: ELISABETH WINKLER

Greta Jonyniate | 14.09.11

Elisabeth Winkler is a journalist and green publicist. For eight years, editor of the Soil Association magazine, she campaigns for local organic solutions on her Real Food Lover blog - shortlisted for the 2009 Guild of Food Writers Awards. She co-wrote Make More of Squashes, and Make More of Beans and Peas, and is part of the No Tesco in Stokes Croft campaign in Bristol, currently morphing into the Stokes Croft people's supermarket. Elisabeth's blog Real Food Lover

What inspires you?

People. I love it when people express their wild and cooperative side. I love their inconsistencies.

What makes you angry?

Waste of natural resources including ingenuity. Given the right conditions everyone has something to contribute. I hate throwing things away and plastic bags depress me. We need to make things last and pass them on.

If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?

Planning laws. Currently, it’s hard for councils to say no to corporate development. Corporates can afford appeals; councils cannot. The Localism bill will weaken the law even more. I agree with the National Trust’s latest campaign: planning is for people, not profit.

Can individuals really make a difference?
Always. An act of kindness is revolutionary.

What is your personal mission?

We can live a greener, fairer and more secure life. Let’s make it happen. Now.

What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?

Good question: both. Engaged Buddhism is a model for inner awareness and outside action.

What is the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

I love eating in company and I am always grateful to be fed. I am intrigued by the new generation of raw food. I am a throw-it-together cook - fast cooking with real food. I want to spend my pennies on local organic produce: for health, community, respect for the animals and soil - and taste. If we get food right, we get a lot right.

Can you describe a typical work day? (ie. what you do within that day and who you have potential to influence etc)

Morning starts with addiction: coffee and computer. Working from home means I can work at my own pace, and cook. I love working at night. I promote organic food businesses and green charities. Work is my passion - I can only work for something I believe in. Any communication can be influential: email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, a phone call - a random meeting in the street.

How do you define success?

Enough to live well and living your dream. Learning from others and sharing skills.

What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?

Breathe out through the mouth, in through the nose, slowly. Relaxing helps you cope with pain. Also applies to emotional pain.

What’s your favourite book or film of late?

Novels are companions, and a counterpoint to computers. I am reading D.H. Lawrence’s last novel, the Plumed Serpent, for the first time. Mexico, 1920s, an indigenous uprising against centuries of colonialism.

What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?

Balance. There is enough to go round. Forget oil wars - invest in renewable energy. Create green jobs for life. Balance.
 

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