Ok ok I’ve let this slip a little, but to be fair I’ve had my birthday, then I’ve been reading loads and loads (birthday money spent at the book shop you see). But I’ve been reading about supermarkets and their stranglehold on the UK’s economy and how they somehow manage to control many aspects of our lives. Now whilst I see the benefit of supermarkets providing everything in one place, at very cheap prices, I think people are unaware that they are not paying the real price of food and for produce to be this cheap, people further down the chain have to suffer. Also that it is virtually impossible to get local food in supermarkets (apparently Waitrose actually supply their stores with local produce but that is an exception), due to the operations being centralised, with some supermarkets having only 5 main depots to supply the entire country. I was also really surprised to find out that the most heavily subsidised food actually tend to be the unhealthiest. Anyway, if anyone is interested, the book I’ve been reading is Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate
oops November 30, 2007
goodness me November 11, 2007
goodness me i am getting popular today. my stats have shot right up. mainly because i discovered that i’ve been linked on some other wonderful people’s blogs as having a ‘Just Post in a just world’ in October. I’m pretty proud of that especially as this is a blog in its infancy and I thought only my friends read it! Anyway, see the list of Just Posts at Truth Cycles.
In other news, I’ve managed to break two garden forks and a spade whilst struggling with brambles on the new allotment. Great fun though, such a work out and I’ve never slept better, even when I’ve had a coffee in the evening, I’m still sleeping better than ever before and only needing about 7 hours a night. I think the outdoors suits me, and I’m finding with the extra exercise there’s a much lesser need to switch on the heating. And for the past two weeks, the other half and myself have been making an effort to get out and about in nature to forage (although theres not a lot about at the moment, we’re getting to know our local areas a lot better). And even when we’ve collected nothing, it’s still been days to remember. Especially when we took a friend with us and he lost his trainers in a boggy patch! (luckily we rescued them although I’m not sure he’ll be coming out with us again)
In Shepway news, I read an article in the paper about a St Margarets on Cliffe group gathering in public and making a sculpture out of discarded plastic to demonstrate how much plastic we throw away. I only saw the article briefly, but as it happens I’ve met the organiser and he’s a really good chap and full of interesting and innovative activist ideas. I am reluctant to use the word activist as it tends to throw up images of extreme protests and such, however I would like to point out that it is only extraordinary events in activism that get portrayed in the mainstream media, and much activism goes unreported in the mainstream. But if you are interested in hearing from a grassroots, non commercial media source about acts of activism, I thoroughly recommend Indymedia. Many contributors, no influence from large corporations, it is just a good source for finding out about smaller activism stories, that you may otherwise never hear about. Have a browse round the website here: www.indymedia.org.uk
Oh and as a favour for a dear friend, have a visit here: www.freerice.com It’s a fun word game with the added benefit of donating rice to the United Nations World Food Program. I’ve played for the past couple of weeks and it’s really addictive!
little pockets of goodness November 8, 2007
It just goes to show that there are little acts of kindness that can really change a persons life. This week, a man who lives down the road donated my husband and I a patch of his garden to use as an allotment, absolutely free. Just because he doesn’t have the time to use it himself, and doesn’t want to see it go to waste. I hope this serves as an example, and that other people consider doing the same. I’ll put up photos when I find the cable to my camera. But it’s awesome. Just the right size, a blank canvas and lots of plants pots and bits and pieces knocking about. And currently, everyone in our area is having their earthquake damage fixed so theres lots of fishing of rubbish/treasure out of skips for use on our new patch. Although the police didn’t seem too impressed when they caught the other half trying to fish a scrap of carpet out of one to help us keep the weeds off. But it’s being thrown away so, even though the law says otherwise, I have no qualms in taking this stuff. And so far, I have not met one person who has been annoyed because somebody has looted something out of their skip that they wanted to keep…….
Die Hard 4 November 3, 2007
I had a charming evening tonight, with some good friends and the veritable delight of Die Hard 4. Actually it was pretty funny and I did enjoy it, even though some of it did require a stretch of the imagination. However, some of it really didn’t, because (sorry if you haven’t seen the film, and if you don’t want to know what happens then stop reading HERE………………
………………….if some nutter really did decide to try and cut off all our electricity, gas, water and phone lines, as well as mucking about with all our computer held data i.e. identity, banks accounts, medical records, we would really be stuck and the scenes portrayed in Die Hard may very well become reality (well apart from Bruce Willis bringing down a helicopter with a car, driving an SUV down a lift shaft and straddling a crashing fighter jet then living to fight another day…..although you never know….). But how many people would know how to store food without electricity? Or how many people actually have basic first aid skills? What would happen if the system could not support us? It is a very real fact that the Western world relies far too much on centralised systems, certainly for power and water. By centralising these crucial systems, this does enable easier regulation, however it is the equivalent of putting all our eggs in one basket….and if the basket breaks?
I’m not particularly a doomsday believer, I prefer to think positively, but I do believe that the general public have a tendency to bury their heads in the sand and expect the government to provide for us. However, we forget that the government are just people too and things can go wrong. And how many people are prepared? It is recommended that we store 3 months worth of food and drinking water in case of national emergency – but really, if everything crashed tomorrow and we had to fend for ourselves, how long do you think you could manage? This is why we need to encourage people to generate their own electricity and sell back to the grid so we can create a massive network of smaller generators, so any crisis would be smaller and more manageable. We also need to encourage water harvesting – it is all too often that I see houses with water butts, then see the owners using mains water to spray the lawn or wash their car! By becoming more self reliant and taking responsibility for meeting our own needs, we lessen the affect of any major crisis and it becomes easier to recover and rebuild. Obviously I am thinking worst case scenario here, but you never know, the worst case may come true. How many of you remember the petrol crises a few years back? That is a signal of things to come, but we are lucky, we have time and the ability to adapt and prepare so we mustn’t waste it.
On a lighter note, looks like the hubby and I may finally have our plot of land for growing. Should know by the end of the week in fact! So keep your fingers crossed for us please!
And also we went foraging this week. Not a great haul but found a good source of rosehips which I’m planning on making into a sweet type of soup (normally served with vanilla ice cream). I will post the recipe if it works out. We are checking out the hills next week as we haven’t been up there for years so hopefully will find loads more stuff to forage! Also got given two huge bowls of pumpkin meat from a friend who has gone away for a few days and didn’t want to leave it to rot! So it’s generally been a good week for experimenting food wise, and although the foraging mission didn’t give us loads, it was still a fantastic day to remember. Loads of exercise and struggling with brambles and lots and lots of laughter.
