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Tag: Eco Hero
Eco Hero: Alys Fowler
Anna Shepard | 12.04.10
The 'grow your own' movement is getting a lot of attention lately, and there isn't a better advocate for it than Alys Fowler. Alys is a gardening superstar, but without a star's ego. Naturally warm, modest, eclectic and funny, she's the gardener next door -- who just happened to train at the Royal Horticultural Society, the New York Botanical Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
Alys is a presenter on BBC Gardener's World, and a widely published journalist whose work appears in The Guardian, The Garden, Gardeners' World Magazine, Gardens Illustrated and Horticulture Week.
Her latest book 'The Edible Garden: How to Have Your Garden and Eat It' is currently the number three book in the Gardening category on Amazon UK.
We've chosen her as our Eco Hero for this edition because not only do we love her utter willingness to share her knowledge of all things horticultural -- and tie that into your health and wellbeing -- she also understands the positive impact gardening has on communities and the environment. She gets it. So one minute she's teaching people how to pot vegetables on a fire escape, and the next she's planting guerrilla allotments at Heathrow to protest runway expansion. She's a rebel in a pair of Wellies.
As guest blogger Anna Shepard found out in the interview that follows, what's not to love? -- ed.
How would you describe yourself?
Gardener and cyclist.
What is your mission?
We’re going to need more skills in the future and one of those is growing food. I want to pass on knowledge about how to do this. I’m very aware that my role is simply to pass on the things that were taught to me. Having trained at Kew and New York Botanical Garden, I’m one in a long line of gardeners. Many have come before me and many will come after. I’m just handing on the knowledge.
What do you care passionately about?
I care most about finding a way for all of us to become part of our environment. I don’t like this idea that man is pitted against nature and that we have to change ourselves to make it better. A lot of environmentalism is about ‘not doing’ things. Stop this; reduce that; cut back on the other - it can be quite negative. What I love about gardening is that it’s not negative. All that matters is that you do more of it.
Why is organic so important?
You can call it organic, natural, or whatever you like, but what matters is that we have the most gentle approach to our environment and that we try to have the least impact possible. Organic is a word that has become complex because it’s used in so many different ways.
In gardening terms, it means no chemicals, no pesticides, no herbicides, no man-made fertilizers and as little water as possible. I try to think about the fact that yes, it’s my garden, but all the little insects and animals don’t know that. To them it’s just a bit of ground.
What is the next big challenge?
To build up soil fertility, particularly in urban areas where there’s no endless supply of farmyard manure. It is so necessary if we’re going to grow food in our cities. On a lighter note, I am setting myself the challenge of learning to love slugs. When you’ve had plants eaten by slugs, it’s hard not to want to annihilate every single one of them. Of course, if a slug comes too near me, it’s probably going to get squished, but I am trying to learn to live with them. It’s an important lesson; it’s about realizing that you are part of a wider eco system. The more you can accept that, the easier it is to garden because you learn to accept it’s not all about you.
What would you like to achieve in your lifetime?
If I knew the answer to that, wouldn’t that be perfect happiness? No, seriously, one thing I would like - although maybe it’s a little idealistic - would be for society to move away from being so consumerist. Instead I’d like more people to be engaged with bigger issues. If everyone did things they were truly passionate about, wouldn’t it all be a lot easier? Apathy is a big problem. People do things without even realizing why they’re doing them. They go shopping because it seems like a nice thing to do, but if people could really focus on what they were truly excited about, we might all be happier.
What top green principles do you live by?
I cycle as much as possible and eat as many homegrown things as I can. The other thing is that I believe in walking to happiness. This is something my cousin said to me the other day, that we should keep the things that make us happy - whether it’s people, hobbies or work - as close to home as possible.
What one thing do you wish everyone would do?
Make more things. It could be some jam, a knitted jumper or a thank you card; the things you make and do yourself have meaning for a really long time.
And in the garden?
Plant an apple tree, preferably an English variety. Within five years, you’ll be cropping your own apples, you’ll also have lovely blossom in late spring, and you’re doing it for the next generations as well.
How long have we got to save the planet?
No time at all. We need to do it immediately. This is partly why I don’t want to have children; we need to be more sensible about our population. But I’m not naturally pessimistic about the future. If everyone did one small thing, such as One Pot Pledge [link] this would have a huge effect.
Who is your Eco Hero and why?
I’m totally in love with the work of Wendell Berry. He’s an American farmer and philosopher who writes about agrarian issues. He looks at how many of our problems began when we moved away from being close to the soil. Every time I pick up anything written by him, I think he’s absolutely on the money.
Photo:
Eco Hero: Dale Vince
Anna Guyer | 25.04.10
Dale Vince is a campaigner through and through. He believes we can create a clean, green, low carbon Britain. He has conviction, integrity, vision and an ability to make the extraordinary happen.
Having founded Ecotricity in 1995 with what he once said was "no experience, training, qualifications or money," he has built a business around making a difference.
Today, Ecotricity is the seventh-largest retail supplier of electricity in the UK and one of the biggest builders of wind turbines. The company's 50-plus wind turbines power 40,000 homes and businesses across the UK.
Opinionated and outspoken, Dale Vince never hesitates to speak his mind, which includes exposing green wash and outing the Big Six energy companies on what little they are doing to create new green energy.
Dale puts his money where his mouth is: Ecotricity invests more than £400 per customer per year to build new green energy -- far more than any competitor. He takes a modest salary and refuses outside investment, choosing instead to reinvest the company's profits into building more wind turbines and creating new green energy.
Vince is this edition's Eco Hero for his vision, passion and action toward protecting the environment and creating sustainable solutions. His imagination inspires us - from creating his own green wind powered electric sports car to his plans for a green tractor.
His vision for a green Britain encompasses energy, food and transport to radically change the way we live. (Follow his views on his Zero Carbonista blog.)
Dale Vince: hero indeed. Guest blogger Anna Shepard catches up with him.
How would you describe yourself?
I’m a blend of things, I think we all are. Best fit label wise is probably Environmentalist.
What is your mission?
To change things.
What do you care passionately about?
The environment in all senses of the word.
Why is green so important?
It just feels like the single most important thing on the planet and in life. What could be more precious? The environment is all we have.
What is the next big challenge?
The challenge for consumers is to consume less and consume more responsibly. The challenge for the green movement is to be more ‘user friendly’ to be more appealing and less off putting to ‘would be’ greens.
The challenge for governments is harder – we’re stuck with a system (5 years in office) that reinforces, or even forces, short term thinking among politicians and prevents what really needs doing.
What is the role of government?
Government should be setting the agenda, telling us all what needs doing and why – getting buy in for the tough decisions and changes that need to be made – and for the fight against vested interests that has to be had.
What would you like to achieve in your lifetime?
Not sure. As a perfectionist I don’t think I can have a realistic end game…..:)
What top 3 green/sustainable principles do you live by?
I don’t have any. I think sustainability is axiomatic, it doesn’t require too much thinking about or documentation of principles.
What one thing do you wish everyone would do?
Think more.
What one message/philosophy would you like to pass on to your children?
Life is short. Follow your heart.
How long have we got to save the planet?
I think the notion of a date by which we have to save the planet is misguided and unhelpful. We can’t know what needs doing by when to avoid the worst effects of climate change, for example. And in any event just avoiding the worst effects of that is not enough. To ‘save the planet’ we have to do so much more. It’s a mission of a lifetime, all our lifetimes, no matter how old we are, we all have only our lives within which we can do this.
Who is YOUR Eco Hero and why?
Anita Roddick, for creating the Body Shop and for the stuff she did with it.
Photo: Dale Vince by Adrian Sherratt
Eco Hero: Joanna Yarrow
Anna Guyer | 18.06.10
If green is the new black, surely Joanna Yarrow is one of the reasons why. She makes "green" glamourous, from her fashionable wardrobe made by ethical designers and sourced on eBay, to her home which showcases how smart interior design can co-exist with a low eco footprint. Joanna is the quintessential example of the elegant environmentalist.
Her ethic came to her organically, handed down to her by her parents who worked in environmental arenas and were committed to living a self-sufficient and eco-friendly lifestyle. She went through school feeling somewhat different: her healthy and organic meals were in sharp contrast to her friends' crisps and snacks, and she made do mending her clothes when all her friends were into throw-away fashion. But she survived and, in fact, thrived from those experiences which became the foundation of everything she's about today.
Joanna went on to study sustainability with Forum for the Future, and now runs an inspiring and trailblazing consultancy, Beyond Green. She has an impressive list of broadcast credits which include her role as GMTV's environmental expert, and she is a published author whose work includes 1001 Ways You Can Save the Earth, How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint, and Eco-Logical!
Not one to rest on her eco laurels, Joanna has recently left London to take over Wilderness Wood, an award-winning working woodland which hosts more than 30,000 visitors a year, inspiring and educating the local community and school children about sustainable living.
Green, glamorous, astute, committed and challenging: Joanna Yarrow is this edition's Greenhouse Eco Hero. Writer Anna Shepard gets her take on the issues. -- ed.
How would you describe yourself?
My official title is writer, broadcaster and consultant. I set up a sustainability consultancy called Beyond Green and also property company Blue Living. I’d also like to add injured runner, recent ruralist and constant juggler.
What is your mission?
To make sustainable living attractive and accessible to a broad range of people.
What do you care most passionately about?
I want sustainable living to speak for itself. In other words, I want people to feel as passionately about it as I do - not just because its green or eco or good for your carbon footprint, but because it tastes good, makes you feel good, saves money and makes you fit and healthy.
Is organic important?
Whether in farming or any other kind of horticulture, organic production methods make a lot of sense. It’s about respecting the systems we rely on. I’m not a farmer, but rather alarmingly, since I took on my parents’ wood in Sussex and moved there with my family, I am a recent forester (www.wildernesswood.co.uk). I’d love to manage the wood completely organically, but the soil is poor quality, which is why the land is still woodland, otherwise it would have cultivated long ago.
To grow Christmas trees - our main crop – we’ve had to use petrochemical based fertilizers and chemical weed killers. One of the things I want to do is cut back on that by introducing sheep to graze around the Christmas trees. The idea is that the sheep will do the weeding. There’s a certain breed that don't eat Christmas tree shoots, or that’s what I’m hoping.
What do you think is the next big challenge?
One of them is to create some inspiring success stories. In the UK, people are starting to get very clued up about problems, but there are still so few examples of good solutions. Most people don’t even have a picture in their mind of what ‘doing things differently’ might look like, whether it is a house or a low-carbon community. It’s really difficult to find sources of inspiration that will appeal to a broad range of people, not just natural-born treehuggers. That’s one of the things we’re aiming to achieve at Wilderness Wood. We want to get lots of people coming here from different walks of life to get a taste of sustainable living.
What would you like to achieve in your lifetime?
What’s important to me is to be involved with projects that inspire people to live in a different way - it could be a book or TV program or a place like the wood that reaches out to people and makes that emotional connection. I grew up lucky enough to have a personal relationship with the natural world. Obviously not everyone can grow up in a 60 acre wood, but there are lots of different ways that you can touch people and inspire them to make changes.
What top green principles do you live by?
One of the big ones is travel. In my twenties, to my shame, I clocked up a pretty nasty carbon footprint. These days, I don’t fly - except if it’s unavoidable for work. All our holidays are by train. Last year we went to Morocco: we took the train to the south coast of Spain, then the boat over to Tangier, then we explored Fez, Marrakesh and up into the Atlas Mountains.
I don’t own a car or a driving license. Everyone keeps telling me that I won’t survive in the countryside without one, but so far, three months in, I’m doing fine. In terms of food, I'm vegetarian and I have ambitious plans for growing my own. In London, we grew herbs and salads in the garden, but here in Sussex, I’m hoping to do a lot more.
On the energy front, we use a green energy supplier. All our heating and hot water comes from wood, and I’m hoping in the future to install solar hot water heating and PV (photo-voltaic) cells for electricity.
I’m also a massive fan of ethical fashion – I like the Ascension boutique in central London and also Equa in North London. For everything else, I pretty much live on eBay.
What one thing do you wish everyone did?
Try to holiday overland. I’m hoping that the silver-lining to the volcano ash drama will be that people will realize they can get to places easily and in an enjoyable way without flying.
How long have we got to save the planet?
The planet is going to be fine. It’s a silly idea that we’re saving the planet; it’ll sort it itself out, it just won’t be very comfortable for humans. I say that having written a book called 1001 Ways to Save the Planet (Duncan Baird)- which I’d like to mention, wasn’t my title. But in terms of making the planet habitable, we have a ridiculously short window of opportunity to act. I worry that we’ll look back in twenty years time and realize how much easier it was now.
Who is your Eco Hero?
Al Gore - his film was a turning point which made it ok to talk about all this stuff. He managed to get green issues on so many people’s agendas.
Eco Hero: Siân Berry
Sally Hill | 13.07.10
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Since joining the Green Party in 2001, Siân Berry has been a candidate in numerous council and parliamentary elections, and was the Green candidate for London Mayor in 2008.
As a campaigner, she keeps busy working on a range of green and social issues, setting up the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s in 2004 and Reheat Britain, which successfully brought in a scrappage scheme for boilers last year.
Siân has also written a number of books on green issues and home improvement, including ‘50 ways to make your house and garden greener’ and ‘Mend it!’. Her next book will show how to make attractive household items from random articles of junk. Writer Anna Shepard gets her take on the issues.
How would you describe yourself?
Writer, campaigner and green politician.
What is your mission?
The cliché is to say you want to make the world a better place, which in some ways I do, but I’m also about trying to change people’s attitudes. I want to change the way people see green issues. I’ve worked hard to encourage people to see the Green Party differently -not just as an ideological party but also as a practical one. So you vote green not just because it reflects the principles you believe in but also because it’s going to make changes that will benefit your life.
Career highlights?
One of the most enjoyable and successful things I have done was to set up the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s (stopurban4x4s.org.uk). This was about changing social attitudes to 4x4s, to show that they weren’t cool anymore. I also worked on the Boiler Scrappage Campaign (reheatbritain.org.uk) which encouraged people to swap their old energy inefficient boilers for modern efficient ones. It was immediately taken up by Government, that provided a £400 incentive to households making the change.
What's your next project?
I’m working on DIY-related stuff. My generation has grown up without practical skills so we tend to chuck things out when they break. My last book Mend It! is a really accessible guide to how to fix things around the house. I’m trying to give people the confidence to open up that toaster and see if they can work out what’s wrong – it’s often not as difficult as you think. My next book is going to be about making things out of junk so at the moment I’m going around and picking things out of skips.
Found any gems?
I couldn’t resist bringing home an old rocking horse the other day, even though its head is hanging off and it’s got a really manky tail. I haven’t got any children, but it’s going to be lovely when I’ve finished with it, so I’ll have to find one to make the most of it. I also found a really beautiful hat stand.
What do you think is the next big challenge?
Dealing with climate change but in a way that involves everybody. What’s going on at the moment is a lot of debate about big technical solutions - whether that’s nuclear power or giant wind turbines - but bringing the project home into all our lives is the challenge. We want people to be conserving energy, being more resourceful and making a difference as a normal part of everyday life. There are lots of countries that are ahead of us on this, places in the EU where recycling is second nature. We have to catch up and make sure it is a collective venture instead of waiting for green measures to be imposed on us by the Government. There are already positive signs, such as the Transition Town movement, so hopefully we’re moving in the right direction.
What would you change?
There’s too much complaining about the possibility that green measures might be imposed. It’s like the JFK quote: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” We should be thinking about the ways we can do stuff that we enjoy but also that will help the environment, not worrying about how Government regulation might affect us.
What top green principles do you live by?
I’m really keen on working with my hands. Grabbing a bit of wood from a skip, cutting it in half, painting it and making something from it is deeply satisfying. We are otherwise in danger of losing these creative skills, such as woodwork, knitting and crafty things, because most of us sit in front of screens all day. I’m pretty green in my daily life – I haven’t flown for years, I’m very careful about the energy I use, I avoid food leftovers and compost food waste. But I understand that no one is perfect and I don’t think anyone should be too preachy about it.
Any green sins?
I eat meat. Not huge amounts as my boyfriend is vegetarian but I love eating it in restaurants and I don’t think I could give it up completely
Is organic important to you?
I don’t think it’s compulsory but yes, I do choose organic food. I know it’s more expensive but if you’re minimising food waste carefully then it works out ok.
What one thing do you wish everyone would do?
People have got to believe that they can take things into their own hands and change them – we need more optimism about the power of the individual, to come up with a good idea and follow it through, join a local campaign or get involved on a Government level.
What's the best way of spreading the green message?
Every way possible, whether it’s guerrilla marketing, conventional voting, campaigning or personal action at home. We’ve got to do it all.
How long have we got to save the planet?
We’ve got to get going, there’s no doubt about it, but how we do it is just as important. Are we going to do it in ways that makes people feel in charge of their own lives? Or are we going to do it in a top-down way that reduces people’s feeling of freedom? Those are also big questions.
Who is your Eco Hero?
At the moment, I’m inspired by an American campaigner called Van Jones. Last year, he was appointed to the newly-created position of Special Advisor for Green Jobs by Barack Obama. He has managed to get a whole range of people from all different walks of life demanding green investment and green jobs, not just because caring about the environment is important but because it’s the best way to build a better economy. I’d like to do the same thing here.
Eco Hero: Sophie Thomas
Sally Hill | 28.07.10
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‘So not your average designer’, Sophie Thomas is an agitator of the everyday. An active campaigner for sustainability in the design industry, she stirs things up and get people talking, challenging, changing and creating. She sees her biggest design challenge as helping to re-design society and inspire a mind shift towards a happier and sustainable future.
Over the past twelve years, as founding director of thomas.matthews Sophie has led and delivered a vast array of award winning projects across the world. Through her work and writing she has strived to demonstrate how creativity can inspire people to change behaviour.
Sophie plays a vocal part in promoting sustainable thinking in design and is a co-founder of the social enterprise ‘Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest’, which is building resources for the communication design community, enabling sustainable practice.
Sophie also worked with partner Matthews on No Shop, a three-day installation for Friends of the Earth that tackled issues of consumerism and consumption. Last year she helped to set up and run Greengaged an organisation helping to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond to environmental challenges through knowledge sharing.
Leading by doing, Sophie is dedicated to sustainable design and determined to make a difference. Here’s her take on the issues she’s working on.
Greenhouse Weekly Round-Up
Sally Hill | 30.07.10
This week we chose Sophie Thomas as our Eco Hero. She is a designer with a difference – everything she designs is designed with its impact on the enviornment in mind – from a complete product lifestyle perspective. She is engaging and challenging – and this is why we love her.
Even Lloyds Bank this week has started talking about PEAK OIL!
The Met Office came out with more evidence – for those who are still not convinced – that climate change is really happening ...
The Government came out with plans for the UK to be renewable by 2050 (good news), then asked us what sort of energy we want (questionable) and then failed to report on where the funding would come from (the vital and pressing question for everyone is where does the investment come from) ...
An interesting thought is that it is not just oil supply that is running out – but any other resources are nearing their end. Our Eco Hero this week, Sophie Thomas
Here are the links we loved this week:
Greenhouse Weekly Round-Up
Sally Hill | 13.08.10
eHow has launched a new series called 'Grow Cook Eat' which demonstrates organic garden-to-table cooking. The video above walks you through how to make creamy eggs with thyme. Mmmmmm.
Speaking of delicious, naturally-grown food, things are gearing up for the 2010 Bristol Organic Food Festival who launched their new website this week. The festival boasts cooking demos by a host of celebrity chefs, The Food Market, the Kids Taste Experience Tent, a Sheep Show, and lots of surprises to entertain families and food lovers.
A new initiative called 'Carbon Calculated' provides software solutions for carbon and greenhouse gas management. It's an independent, free, open platform that aggregates carbon and green house gas emissions for "everything in the world", including passenger transport, raw materials and consumer goods. Definitely worth a look.
Energy secretary Chris Huhne lifted the ban on the sale of surplus electricity, giving local councils the lead in 'green energy revolution'.
Here are the links we loved this week:
Eco Hero: Debra Patterson
Sally Hill | 18.11.10
Debra has worked at The Savoy for thirteen years. For most of that time, she was PA to the General Manager.
Passionate about sustainable and environmental issues, she also devoted herself to leading The Savoy’s green agenda, becoming its green ambassador.
During the recent restoration of The Savoy, Debra has spent a growing amount of time concentrating on her environmental responsibilities.
Green writer Anna Shepard gets her take on the issues. -- ed.
ECO HERO: LINDA MOSS
Greta Jonyniate | 07.09.11
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Linda Moss - author of Organic Places to Stay. The reason why we love Linda is that she has been passionate about organic holidays for the last 12 years - working her socks off to produce a wonderful guide and website and never giving up - despite difficulties along the way. The outcome is a wonderful guide with truly wonderful organic places to stay. Check out her website.
1. What inspires you?
What inspires me is the dedication that drives some people to act on their own initiative and who have the courage to support something they believe in. The hard working people who run the businesses I promote on my website are all examples of this.
2. What makes you angry?
What makes me angry is the way we’ve been duped into thinking it’s okay to go into the supermarket to fill our trolleys with processed foodstuffs rather than to eat real natural food.
3. If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?
If I were Prime Minister, the first thing I would change is the way our food is produced and promoted. I would make a stand against the big food companies, ban all additives and promote the idea that food should be wholesome and unadulterated.
4. Can individuals really make a difference?
Throughout history, there are examples of how an idea that starts with an individual quickly spreads to other individuals and generates a process of change. Today, we have the power of the internet so it’s much easier for individuals to communicate with each other about the differences they would like to see.
5. What is your personal mission?
My personal mission is to try to raise awareness about the importance of organic food. It is a fundamental notion that healthy food equals healthy people. It has become my life’s work to promote the principles of eating organically, not as a lifestyle choice for the few but as a basic right of access to nutritious food for all of us.
6. What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?
What is most urgent today is the need for change from the inside – a renaissance in the way each and every one of us thinks that will allow us to see our way out of our current problems
7. What is the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?
Many years ago in northern Tenerife with my husband and three young children, we were driving through Teide National Park looking for somewhere to eat when we came across a little place miles from anywhere. Not being able to speak the language, we were taken into the kitchen by the friendly owners and shown what was cooking in a huge pan. Minutes later, hunks of freshly baked bread in hand, we were served generous bowls of this traditional local stew. Made with pumpkin, cabbage, sweet potatoes, pork and beef, it was delicious. The hospitality and the simple rustic food left an impression that remains to this day.
8. Can you describe a typical work day? (ie. what you do within that day and who you have potential to influence etc.
Like most self employed people, my business is my life and a twelve hour day is normal. My day is spent is doing all the things that need to be done to keep the business going – answering emails, keeping the website up to date, marketing the site, arranging the advertising, doing the accounts, finding new listings, planning for the future, etc. In promoting the ethos of my business I have the potential to influence every person I talk to, because the subject of food and what we eat affects us all.
9. How do you define success?
While it’s important to be able to generate sufficient income to cover basic needs, true success is internal and comes from being the sort of person who can positively influence others or make a positive difference to someone else’s life.
10. What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?
I think the best advice came from my husband on the day he told me not to ‘work for my business’ but to ‘let it work for me’. It is all too easy to take a passionate idea, use it as the basis for setting up a business and then dedicate your life to it, lavishing it with time and effort and forgiving it for not giving the kind of returns any normal business would be expected to deliver. I now understand that it’s important when running a business to treat it as a business, without letting go of the motivation that set it up in the first place.
11. What’s your favourite book or film of late?
My favourite book is How To Eat Like There’s No Tomorrow, by Robert Elliott. Rob runs a real food B&B in Herefordshire with his partner Sally. Together they’ve created an ethos based on forsaking modern processed foods in favour of the real thing - in other words all the nutritious foods that sustained us up to the time that industry took over and processed our food into something that’s good for company profits but bad for human health. The book has been described as part memoir, part manual and part manifesto. Rob sets out a persuasive argument which suggests that changing the way we eat leads on to other changes - the changes we need to put into place to ensure humanity has a future on this planet.
12. What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?
There are many ideas about what we can do to protect the planet, but the truth is that to protect the planet from now on we have to rethink how we live our lives. What I’d like to see is a new understanding of the importance of food to our human culture, because if we can change the way we see our food, and if we can once again be connected to how it is produced, we will reconnect ourselves with the planet that supports us.
ECO HERO: ROB ELLIOTT
Greta Jonyniate | 23.11.11
A quiet observer of life, Rob Elliott is nevertheless ardently committed to promoting a way of living that reconnects us to the natural world, our unique and precious support. Communicating mainly through his writing and informal talks, he has published two books, The Food Maze and How To Eat (Like There’s No Tomorrow). His more general observations are posted on his blog Food Life and All That. The B&B he runs with his partner, Sally, has a strong educational element, leading by example to endorse localised economies as one effective answer to the hugely destructive global industrial food system, the biggest contributor to carbon emissions.
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1. What inspires you?
What inspires me is the person who is prepared to stand up and say, “No, this is not how it is meant to be, and I will not accept it.” Where I am seeing this most frequently today is amongst the younger people – that is to say, anyone under the age of about 40. This fearless generation, who took on the challenges of skateboarding, snowboarding, hip-hop and street dance and made them into art forms, is the frontline of a new renaissance, not simply facing up to authoritarianism but calling for a radical rethink of how the human species conducts itself.
2. What makes you angry?
In considering this question, it was difficult to decide which makes me angrier: the deceit with which this modern world is imbued, or the gullibility of those who accept the deceit as truth. I settled for the former, in the belief that trust is one of our fundamental human default instincts, built up from the earliest days of human cooperation. Thus I conclude that it is deceit that makes me angry, particularly when such deceit is perpetrated by governments, corporations, banks or religious authority motivated by greed and self-interest. Deceit of this nature has taken us to war, undermined our health, destabilised societies, robbed us of most of the attributes that define a decent human being, ravaged nature and exploited, despoiled and polluted the planet to the point of collapse.
3. If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you’d change?
If I were Prime Minister, I would respect the ethos of democracy. The first thing I would change would be the way government is funded, in order to put people before profit and deliver the transformation urgently required to return society to equilibrium. In order to escape from the shackles of the corporatocracy, I would find the courage to tax banks and corporations, close the tax haven loopholes and channel the money thus raised into generating an economy based on social prosperity without corporate growth – beginning with food. I would make it clear that changing the way we produce food in order to deliver fresh, seasonal, uncontaminated and unadulterated real food would be the bedrock for all the other positive changes we need in society.
4. Can individuals really make a difference?
As someone once said, “If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” It is folly to think one voice will not be heard. Throw a small pebble into a pond and you see the splash and ripples. Keep throwing pebbles one by one and the ripples join up. So it is with us. I might be one voice of change, but if one other person open to change accepts what I say, we become two voices. Two voices will become many voices. Before long, you can’t hear your own voice for the din, and you find yourself occupying a patch of ground outside St Paul’s with a few hundred others. Individuals always make a difference, because they talk to other individuals who also want to make a difference. A new journey begins with a single step, and change begins with a single voice.
5. What is your personal mission?
I dislike the word ‘mission,’ as it has evangelical associations that I personally find uncomfortable. I am certainly not here to impose my views on other people. If there is one thing that motivates me, however, it is the pursuit of truth. Since being tested for food intolerances some years ago, I began to find out about the truth behind the global food industry, prompting my first book, The Food Maze. This was written from a personal viewpoint in order to create something of a ‘primer’ for those in confusion about food issues. My deliberate attempt to create something accessible and non-academic has worked, in that I receive a lot of positive feedback from readers who claim that the book has changed their relationship with food for the better. The task I have now set myself, if I can put it like that, is to do everything I can to disseminate the truths I have learned to as many people as possible because, in understanding the truth, we can uncover the lies we are told about everything from climate change to what we should feed our pets. By the time I reach the end of my days, I hope I will have added something positive to the change that I believe will happen in that time.
6. What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside, or starting a revolution on the outside?
The problem with revolution is that it almost invariably goes wrong, replacing one reviled ideology with another. Revolutions need leaders, and leaders all too easily slip under the narcotic influence of power. For lasting and meaningful change, a renaissance is required, and this can come only from the inside, from the soul of a society.
7. What’s the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?
I have been fortunate in having been brought up in a family environment in which food was a central theme, and I have thus enjoyed many memorable family meals. There is, however, one meal that stands out in my memory. In 2001, I was on holiday in Kraków with my partner, Sally, and my Polish mother. This was only the second time my mother had been in her old home town since the end of World War II, and the only time I had been there with her. Two years after an acrimonious divorce, it was with a deep sense of contentment that I explored this ancient capital city with my mother and my new partner. On our first day there, we had lunch in a modest family-run restaurant offering traditional Polish dishes just like my mother used to cook when I was growing up. It was, quite simply, a meal I will never forget.
8. Can you describe a typical work day?
I run a B&B with Sally, and so a typical work day usually involves looking after guests. Thus our day might start around 7.00am, when we get up to begin preparations for breakfast. There are a number of elements to this as regards what is put on the tables (e.g. freshly baked bread, fresh butter, fruit, milk and preserves), which Sally takes care of, while I take care of the cooked breakfast. We eat after our breakfast duties are over and we have said goodbye to any guests leaving that morning, which is usually between 10.00 and 10.30. After that, there may be rooms to change, linen to wash and dry or shopping to get, all of which Sally and I treat as joint chores.
Once I have time to myself, I will check the computer for new enquiries or any other emails I need to deal with, many of which will be ongoing conversations with people or organisations with whom I am in communication. On a good day, I will perhaps have time to write a blog posting for our blog www.foodandlife.co.uk or add something to a new book I am trying to find the time to write. I do my best to spend some time on Twitter, as this is also a way of talking to some interesting people.
Around 6.30 to 7.00, I will reappear in the kitchen to prepare an evening meal for the two of us. Once we sit down to eat, we can switch off for a while. If there is something worthwhile on TV (e.g. a stimulating documentary, or Doc Martin!), we will watch that. Alternatively, I might go back to the computer if I am in the mood to write. Currently, I am taking time out to watch the BBC News, as I am fascinated by the present speed of change and, after that, I will read and research until about 11.30, then off to bed.
9. How do you define success?
In tackling this slippery issue, one thing is certain: success cannot truly be measured using the false flags of received wisdom. It is ‘so last-century’ to believe that personal success should be measured in terms of material gain or career progress, and that national success can only be measured by Gross Domestic Product. True success is far more elusive, but I would say that a successful person is one who makes a positive contribution to the lives of others whilst maintaining a set of principles that leaves that person unwilling to conduct their own lives in a way that causes harm to others, to other creatures and to the natural world that ultimately protects us all.
10. What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?
The best advice I have ever received came not from my father, mentor, favourite teacher or best friend, but from a snippet of graffiti written on the inside wall of a public toilet in Anglesey. Some wit had started the ball rolling by putting up a quotation from the classics, and the idea had caught on, so the wall was covered in quotations from Shakespeare, lines from Keats and Walter Scott, pithy aphorisms and Buddhist philosophy. Amongst these was the following exhortation: “Trust no one, question everything.” I have lived by that maxim ever since.
11. What’s your favourite book or film of late?
If I had been asked which book or film has made the greatest impression on me in my life, the answer would be relatively easy, but to choose something that has become a recent favourite is trickier. However, there is one book that confirmed for me, in clarity and depth of detail, most of the suspicions I have long harboured about our modern world, and that is The Great Turning, by David Korten. Its subtitle, From Empire to Earth Community, says it all. This is a book that spells out what is wrong with the world as we know it, the myths and fables that have kept us locked into belief systems that divide us, but it is full of optimism too, as it frames for us the stories we might have been told, those that will now help to bring us together and back into the fold of nature.
12. What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?
Having spent five years researching the questions of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion and the impact of humanity on all of the above, I have come to understand that, once again, what we are told is cloaked in disinformation and half truths. More importantly, I now understand that our globalised industrial food system is profit-motivated just like any other industrial system. Its impact is phenomenal, however, because of its sheer size.
It sucks in everything from the manufacture of machinery, artificial fertilisers and pesticides to the growing of monoculture cash crops, to the processing of those cash crops into artificial foodstuffs, to the retailing of those artificial products in giant big box retailers. It takes in along the way, fuel to run the machinery and the transport systems, to say nothing of all the heating, lighting, chilling and air conditioning in the warehouses and retail outlets, the generation of waste and the processes involved in dealing with that waste. Altogether, this system is generating something like 60% of our carbon emissions.
So, what I would most like to see is a change in the way we produce our food worldwide. It is time to dispel the myth of ‘feeding the world’ and replace it with the understanding that we must all regain the right to feed ourselves, by growing nutritionally efficacious foods in small-scale, truly sustainable ways. Changing the way we feed ourselves is the one thing that each of us can do without hardship, and it will make the biggest contribution to protecting the planet.
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