We campaign for an affordable, reliable and sustainable public transport service for all. Investing in good public transport brings wide benefits for social inclusion, air quality and congestion.
In autumn 2019 we backed the Better Buses for Greater Manchester campaign.
Auto Draft
Taste Before Beauty
Taste Before Beauty was a 2012 campaign on food waste, targetting the wholesale end of supply chains.
Double UK Tree Cover
Trees have the potential to play an incredible role in combating climate chaos by removing planet-wrecking emissions from the air around us. They are also invaluable because they:
Protect against flooding by taking up water via their roots and stabilising soils
Support other forms of life from fungi through insects to birds and even other plants such as ferns and mistletoe
Remove airborne pollutants and help to cool the air in overheated urban areas
Act as a windbreak to prevent soil erosion and protect crops
Provide a canopy under which lower-growing crops can be cultivated in a forest garden
As well as all these advantages, trees have immense amenity value by improving the appearance of rural landscapes and city streets and squares.
However, despite the importance of trees, just 13% of the UK’s total land area is wooded. In contrast, the EU average is 35%.
We believe one of the best solutions to protect our environment is to double UK tree cover by 2045, but government targets currently fall well short of this goal.
The Real Food Guide has been created to provide information on what ‘Real Food’ is, why to buy and eat it, and how to find it in Manchester and the locality.
After the first experience of our Plastic Free Takeaways campaign in Levenshulme, we took time to decide on a more feasible and realistic plan of action for reducing plastic in Manchester and teamed up with several interested individuals and groups to work with councils on their Plastic Free Greater Manchester campaign and encourage them to enforce tighter regulations of waste in the hospitality industry.
We researched the best eco-friendly materials, in relation to the ones with the lowest carbon-emissions at different price points, so the businesses could be fully informed and in a better position to change their packaging.
Our plans were then to visit businesses, encouraging them to make the switch. An online questionnaire was developped to engage with them and collect feedback. After an initial run of visits, the campaign was put on hold due to a lack of human resources to expand further.
The aim of this campaign, in collaboration with councils, was to reduce plastic waste in the hospitality industry across Greater Manchester, not just one concentrated area. This is one step of the many changes that we need to make as a society to reduce the catastrophic impacts of climate change and reduce our impact on the environment.
Plastic Free Takeaways
Recognising the problems of littering and ocean plastic pollution are urgent problems, our campaign Plastic-Free Takeaways was asking take-away businesses in Levenshulme to stop using plastic food and drinks containers and cutlery, and instead offer compostable eco-friendly alternatives.
As a start, we created a leaflet and spent time at Levenshulme market to raise awareness of plastic as a global and local problem. We gathered consumer support encouraging local takeaways to switch to more eco-friendly packaging. Despite the overall high number of signatures, we had only a few of them for each takeaway and encouraging change was difficult.
We took time to decide on a more feasible and realistic plan of action for reducing plastic in Manchester and teamed up with several interested individuals and groups to work with councils on their Plastic Free Greater Manchester campaign.
Feeding the 5000
Feeding the 5000 is a campaign to raise awareness of the amount of edible food wasted in a city. This event was held in June 2013 in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens with a public feast of a delicious vegan curry made from ingredients that would have otherwise gone to waste, and more often than not gone in landfill! Along with participatory cooking sessions, educational and campaign stalls and more, this day brought more than 5000 people together to enjoy good food and learn simple ways they could reduce their own food waste and petition food businesses and the government to do the same.
Quarterly Food Socials
Our quarterly food socials are generally held on the third Thursday of March, June, September and December. The idea is to learn about sustainable food, eat, drink and generally be merry. In 2016 we look forward to arranging these on a whole group basis.
In the past our food socials have included activities like bring and share dinners and picnics, trips to farms and orchards, and talks and discussions about sustainable food issues including local, organic, seasonal, vegan, food waste, packaging, food miles and lots of other topics. At the heart of it all is a desire to meet new people, share food and recipes, and have a jolly good time.
Year of Pulses
The United Nations declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. ..but why celebrate our love of baked beans, houmous and mushy peas!?
Pulses are the ultimate superfood and play a central role in achieving a sustainable food system. Not only are they an excellent source of protein, and a low carbon food source, but they also have a positive impact on soil quality through their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil.
Throughout the year we invited people to share with us their beloved bean and lentil recipes- with a small but valuable prize each month!
We will also be highlighting local food outlets which celebrate the pulse on their menus and encouraging others to do so. Please send us your favourite..
Any more ideas ? please get in touch cat@manchesterfoe.org.uk
For more information on the UN’s International Year of the Pulse see IYP 2016 and see a summary below of the reasons why the UN celebrated the pulse.
This campaign is all about what’s in our food, using our favourite staple – bread. Our recipes and links will help you buy and cook healthy, seasonal, ‘proper’ food.
Good shop bought bread contains anything from 3-5 ingredients… cheaper bread 10-20 + ingredients… So why the difference and what are all those ingredients doing in your bread and doing to you once you eat it?
Here’s a couple of links to source local real bread . . .
Use Your Loaf campaigner Chris has been busy baking . . .
Once upon a time, Chris’s home made bread was so heavy it could have been mistaken for a house brick, albeit without the frog and the letters L.B.C.!
With perseverance, practice, some good tips and learning from the occasional mistake, Chris’s bread making is much improved, so if Chris can do it . . . no excuses . . . have a go yourself !
Chris has adapted a series of bread recipes for you to try, with step by step instructions and pictures of his efforts . . .
SourdoughBread The sourdough method uses a combination of wild yeast and an acid-generating bacteria in place of baker’s yeast. You will need to create or obtain a sourdough starter first . . .
Did you know that if you open a tin of pulses and drain it, you’re throwing away a completely animal-free alternative to eggs (look up ‘aquafaba’ online). Next time you open a tin of chickpeas or butter beans, try keeping …
A tasty seasonal recipe from Cat. Seaweed is a great way for us to ensure we get enough iodine, especially if we are vegan. Be careful, though, as overindulging can be too much of a good thing! Serves 2. Ingredients …
A recipe with seasonal ingredients Cat recommends, courtesy of the Guardian. Celery and apples are both in season in winter and partner each other very well. Cashews, with their high protein content, make this soup a nutritionally balanced meal. Serves …
If you have bananas that have gone soft and are almost black, this will use them up! With bananas often ending up in our bins at the end of the week, this recipe (adapted from the BBC’s website) will help …
What’s in it? 1 can white beans, rinsed and drained 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil Juice of half a lemon 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced ½ cucumber, thinly sliced 2 avocados, pitted and thinly sliced 150g sprouted beans …
What’s in it? 150-200g pasta shells 300g green beans, trimmed and cut into thirds 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard 1/3 cup red-wine vinegar 2 tablespoons honey 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained 1 can chickpeas, …
What’s in it? 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed 1/2 cup celery, sliced 1/2 cup carrots, diced 1/4 cup spring onion, sliced 1/4 cup or so hummus or tahini 1 – 2 tablespoons mustard (stoneground or dijon) dash of garlic …
This is an energy-saving recipe for the microwave contributed by Ian Cummings, finalist in the Great British Bake Off 2015, to celebrate Earth Hour in 2017. These cakes take less than 10 minutes to prepare. Ingredients: For the cakes: 60 …
Ingredients 250g plain white flour 250g plain wholemeal flour 100g oats 1 tsp salt 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 50g margarine 250ml soy milk 250ml rapeseed oil Method Preheat oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Mix the flour, oats, salt and …
Add 1 cup of risotto rice (short grain) and 1/2 tsp of dried thyme - stir in and then add 1/2 cup of white wine or beer. Stir this in until evaporated and then start adding hot vegetable stock a cup at a time, stirring constantly and adding the next cup of stock when the liquid has evaporated.
Have you already bought some high-quality bee-friendly British rapeseed oil produced while avoiding the use of harmful pesticides? If you’d like more information about the issues, you can find out more here. But if you’ve already got a bottle of …
Sourdough September is when the Real Bread Campaign goes on a mission to help everyone discover that: life’s sweeter with sourdough! Have a go at making your own sourdough bread . . .
We can’t all star in the Great British Bake Off like eco-friendly baker Ian Cummings (pictured right) – but we can all help to save energy when we cook. Ian is celebrating Earth Hour 2017 (25 March) by sharing his energy-saving favourite recipe – delicious …
Sourdough September is when the Real Bread Campaign goes on a mission to help everyone discover that: life’s sweeter with sourdough! The Campaign is encouraging Real Bread bakers everywhere to organise their own local events and activities from 1-30 September, …
Food Monthly Meeting and Quarterly Social
As it is Sourdough September this month, we thought we would hold the September meeting of our Food Campaign group somewhere that serves great bread . . .
We will NOT be meeting at Greenfish, but just around the corner at Bakerie, 45 Lever Street, NQ, Manchester, M1 1DN at 6.30pm on Thursday 17th September.
Following a very brief informal catch up on the food campaign we can proceed with the main event, i.e. the quarterly food and drink social.
Let’s Get Fresh: Manchester Friends of the Earth Raw Food Social
The Foodies at MFOE thought it time to get real fresh and explore the wonderful delights of raw food. You can grate, cut, slice, dice, crush, shred, chop, sprout or peel and place – just don’t cook – a variety of raw foods into delicious snacks or dishes. (more…)
Manchester Friends of the Earth Sustainable Chocolate Extravaganza
Happy New Year from Manchester Friends of the Earth’s amazing food campaigners! January can be a bit of a bleak month, and I know we’re all supposed to be sticking to new year’s resolutions, getting fit and….. blah blah blah. I’ve got two words for you…. sustainable. chocolate. Oh yeah!
Manchester Friends of the Earth’s next food social will be held on Wed 5th February, 7pm – 9pm at the Green Fish Resource Centre, and as it’s Valentines Day of Feb 14th, we thought we’d host an event around sustainable chocolate…. sometimes being a campaigner is just good!
Whether or not you celebrate Valentines Day, it’s a time of year where chocolate sales go through the roof, and we wanted to offer a night of education and discussion (and obviously lots of free samples) about healthier, more sustainable, fairly traded, organic and local varieties of yummy chocolate!
So please come down and join us!
Kris from the Raw Chocolate Company will be skyping in to offer a talk and Q&A session on a number of issues around sustainable chocolate, and he’s been kind enough to send us a goodie bag to chew through while we chat!!!
We’ll also be offering lots of our own hints and tips around ethical and sustainable chocolate, where you can buy in Manchester, and even how to make your own. The night will be fun, informal, and a little bit fattening!
Hope to see you there.
If you have any questions please get in touch with Corin – corin@manchesterfoe.org.uk or 07912 509 665
Food Social – Sustainable Christmas
Our next food social will be held on Wed 4th December, 7pm – 9pm, at the Green Fish Resource Centre (Oldham St, Northern Quarter).
Our December social will be our last of the year…. aawwww! So we thought we’d better make it a good one… yaaaaayyyy!
The theme of this social, well, it isn’t hard to guess…. sustainable Christmas. We’ll be hosting a bring and share dinner at the Green Fish Resource Centre and asking you to bring along your favourite sustainable Christmas recipes. This means using local veg, of which there’s loads over winter in the north west, making veggie alternatives to the dreaded dry turkey, or sharing your favourite recipes to use up your left overs and reduce food waste over christmas. We’ll be bringing some of our favourite low carbon and leftovers recipes to help you make the most of your grub this festive season.
We’ll also be providing lots of information about non-foodie ways that you can make your Christmas more sustainable including; how to make your own wrapping paper, ethical and local gifts, making your own tree decorations…. and much much more. We also want to here all of your top tips for a sustainable Christmas!
Previous socials have included seasonal bring and share dinners, “waste food” picnics, harvesting days, and a lesson in home brewing. We’ll be doing something different, and food related every month. The idea of the socials is to learn about issues around sustainable food, share ideas, meet new people… oh, and eat, drink and be merry.
So come along, meet new people, learn some new recipes, and help us make Christmas less focussed on “stuff”, and more focussed on what it should be about…. lovely people, time away from work, and (if your me) trying to keep your mother out of the whiskey before noon.
If you have any questions please get in touch with Corin:
corin@manchesterfoe.org.uk or 07912 509 665
November Food Social…. beer, wonderful beer!
If you haven’t heard yet, Manchester Friends of the Earth have decided we need to have a little more fun (and a little more food) in our lives. In order to accommodate both of these we’ve started holding monthly food socials. (more…)
Monthly food social…. join us for an Abundance harvest
We’ll be making a change to our monthly food social for October so that we can get outside and do something fun. The lovely folks at Abundance Manchester have offered to take us out harvesting fruits that would otherwise go to waste. (more…)
Food Social August 2013: Bring and Share Dinner
Our first food social will be held on Wednesday 7th August, 7pm – 9pm at the Green Fish Resource Centre (Oldham St, Northern Quarter, City Centre). We’re starting with a bring and share dinner. We’d love to share with you some of our favourite dishes and to learn about some of yours. The themes for the first social are local, organic, seasonal, and sustainable (which can mean things like veggie or vegan, but it certainly doesn’t have to be). So bring your favourite food, and a friend if you like, and come and meet some other foodies. We’ll also be providing some drinks to get the party started.
If you have any questions please get in touch with Corin – corin@manchesterfoe.org.uk or 07912 509 665
MFoE food social, September 2013: ‘Use It Up’
Our monthly food socials include activities like bring and share dinners and picnics, trips to farms and orchards, and talks and discussions about sustainable food issues including local, organic, seasonal, vegan, food waste, packaging, food miles and lots of other topics. At the heart of it all is a desire to meet new people, share food and recipes, and have a jolly good time.
We started last month with a lovely bring and share dinner, and we’ll be doing something different and food-related every month. As the seasons are moving on (and we live in the North West) we thought we’d better get outside while we can! So our September social will be a bring and share picnic at St John’s Garden in the city centre.
The week commencing 2nd September is Zero Waste week, so this month’s theme is ‘Use It Up’. We’d like you to bring (and share if you like) a dish or snack that has helped you to use up leftovers and reduce food waste, and forced you to be a bit imaginative. So your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to get right to the back of the fridge or the cupboards and check what’s near it’s date (or past it if it’s only a best before).
If you’re super busy and you don’t have time to make something, you can still join in. Get to your local shop on the day and find the best bargains you can in the reduced section, save some items from the bin and share your victory with your new foodie friends. As this is a picnic, we’re asking if you wouldn’t mind bringing utensils for yourself, and maybe a little plate or bowl to nab sharing bits from others, and bring some Tupperware to take home leftovers…. we can’t have anything go to waste now can we?
We’re planning our next few socials now, so if you have any great ideas please get in touch or tell us on the night. We really hope to see you there!
Every time the statutory environmental agencies dare to do their job right, the Govt of the day threatens to take away their powers, cut their budgets, and put them back in their box
New podcast episode 🔊 Science-fiction author Emma Newman imagines a future where community groups redesign create third spaces that repair the fabric of society. Listen now 👇
Forests and how to save them – film & discussion (Thurs 21st March)
Join us for International Day of Forests - hosted by Patagonia Manchester. Hear from @biofuelwatch
& @friends_earth about the importance of protecting forests.
Book your (free) place👇 https://actionnetwork.org/events/forests-and-how-to-save-them-film-and-discussion/
We are so humbled! Thank you to everyone who made our Green Routes Launch so special. From letter to @AndyBurnhamGM, to the science behind the project from @sheencr, we loved hosting you all #green #ClimateEmergency #AirPollution