Autumn 2006 Newsletter
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The following articles are reproduced from the Autumn 2006 newsletter, and so any information within this page is correct only as of September 2006. For the latest up-to-date information, please visit the relevant campaign pages using the menu on the left, or by clicking on the image alongside the title of each article. |
Food with Karma
Alice takes a trip to the Buddhist 'Earth Cafe'...
Since Earth Cafe opened, it has run, more or less, on a not-for-profit basis. But after 5 years of finishing each year's trading with no more than a couple of thousand pounds in the bank the business is struggling. The café, situated in the basement of the Buddhist Centre a little off Market Street, is finding its loyal customer base isn't quite enough to keep them afloat. I spoke to Earth Café's Paul Jones and asked him what has earned Earth Café its unique reputation in Manchester.
What's on the menu?
We pride ourselves on our home-made food, which is 100% vegan, although we do supply cow's milk as many of our customers are not necessarily vegan, or even vegetarians. Our objective is to provide a good range of quality foods. Our daily menu has a selection of main dishes, rice, jacket potatoes, vegan quiche, soups, and a wide range of salads. We have an Indian chef who makes the best vegan curry I know, but we like to offer more traditional English dishes also, such as burgers, pies, stews, casseroles, and Shepherd's Pie. And we have a very popular selection of vegan cakes. We are constantly being asked for our recipes!
What’s your most popular dish?
Probably the roulade, which we make using vegan sausage mix, potatoes, vegetables and seasoning, stuffed in puff pastry, and topped with lashings of our special gravy!
What is the café’s ethical standpoint?
I think our ethics is what makes us so unique. All our food is vegan and organic and, when we can, fair trade, and locally produced and transported. We buy no processed foods, aside from soya ice-cream; we even make our own vegan cream. That way we know exactly what is going into the food, how it's been cooked, and where it has come from. Our main suppliers are Suma, an ethical vegetarian wholesaler, Juniper Fine Foods, an organic wholesaler, and Organic 2000. Our Buddhist principles are reflected in this ideology: we don't want to do harm to ourselves, to our customers, or to the environment, and so we offer an honest and friendly service, and food that is natural, healthy, and tasty!
Have you ever had any strange dietary requests?
The café adapts to all dietary requirements, for example we have wheat-free, gluten-free and garlic free options. I was once asked where we get our salt from though. I had to really stop myself from dryly responding 'the sea'!
And what are your plans for the future?
If we attract more customers we hope to open for extended hours. If we can, we'd like to open Mondays but what we are really hoping to do is introduce even finer quality foods in the evenings. Eventually, we would like to hold themed nights: Indian, Thai, Japanese, or Indonesian, where we would offer good food, music, and a laid-back atmosphere. We want our customers to be able to try something new but still in accordance with their principles, and that's what Earth Café has been working towards since we opened five years ago.
Earth Café (www.earthcafe.co.uk) is situated on Turner St., just off High Street, a mere minute's walk from Market Street Metrolink station. It is currently open 12-3pm and 5-7pm Tuesday-Friday, and 10am-5pm on Saturday.
The Swedish Revolution
Dan reports on plans to make Sweden’s energy oil-free...
Last year, Mona Sahlin, Sweden's Minister for Sustainable Development announced a bold plan to break the country's dependency on oil by 2020 - and without building any more nuclear power stations. In December 2005 the government appointed a "Commission on Oil Independence" to draw up this plan, and in June this year the commission published its report. The commission expressed concern about climate change, energy security and dependent on an increasingly unstable Middle East, and set the following objectives:
- society as a whole to make 20 per cent more efficient use of energy by 2020;
- by 2020, in principle, no oil should by used for heating residential and commercial buildings;
- road transport should reduce use of petrol and diesel by 40-50 per cent by 2020;
- industry should reduce its use of oil by 25-40 per cent by 2020.
The Commission's proposals for achieving these objectives are specific to the Swedish situation. Sweden is a relatively sparsely populated country with vast forests. Several of the proposals are based on utilising Sweden's forests for the production of biofuels and biopower. By international standards the country already has a small dependence on oil and a head start in its use of renewables. In 2003, 26% of all energy consumed came from renewables, compared with an EU average of 6%. Sweden gets the majority of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power and already has a well-developed district heating infrastructure.
Reading the report is a bit like reading a green wish list, proposed by the government! The report proposes major investment in forest fuels and energy crops for the production of a range of biofuels and a long-term strategy to increase forest cover by 15-20%. It proposes that the government and industry cooperate to achieve a more efficient use of electricity in industry and increase production of domestic renewable electricity. There are plans to extend wind power and convert the district heating system to provide electricity. Support will be given to research and industrial plants for solar cells, wave power and hydrogen gas for fuel cells. Reduced consumption of electricity for heating buildings will be achieved by energy efficiency measures from insulation to IT-based systems for more efficient energy use, and the use of wood boilers and pellet burners, supplied by sustainable forestry.
Amongst the innovative proposals is to increase installation of broadband internet access to enable working from home and teleconferencing - therefore cutting commuting. A range of tax measures is proposed - such as property tax relief for energy efficient homes and carbon dioxide based vehicle and fuel taxes.
The public sector is to lead the way through best practice in energy consumption and public procurement, with government buildings in the vanguard. To achieve change in the crucial transport sector there will be a drive to increase the proportion of efficient diesel engines in the national fleet, the use of indigenously produced biofuels and investment in plug-in-hybrid technology (with a commitment that increased electricity demand be provided from renewable energy resources). Since March 1st 2006 fuel efficient driving methods has become a compulsory part of driving school training. Increased investment in public transport aims for 30% growth by 2020. The report stresses "society should promote alternatives to air travel where possible" and urges that air travel "urgently needs to be included in the EU's trade in carbon dioxide emissions" as well as proposing investment in technical development of "greener" aircraft.
Of course Britain and Sweden are very different places - but we can certainly learn from Sweden's positive and proactive approach to the grave threat of climate change.
Grow Your Own
Not only Swedes can save the planet, but potatoes and tomatoes too. Jonathan on how easy it is to grow your own...
When I started looking into growing vegetables, all the information I found made it sound really complicated, challenging and time-consuming. For example, I thought that unless I spent ages scouring my neighbourhood for horse manure to enrich my soil with, it wasn't worth even starting. But I decided to try an experiment, and in April I chose one of the potatoes from my veg box which had started to sprout and go soft, and buried it in a corner of my garden which had previously been lawn. I had to ask a friend what "earthing up" meant - again I'd read that this was really onerous but it took about two minutes. And that's about it - I watered it occasionally when it was dry, but to be honest even that doesn't seem too critical in a typical Manchester summer. Then after the plant died in September I started to gingerly dig around, and was amazed to find 10 or 12 good sized potatoes among the roots. Those few moments of uncovering one potato, then another, then another are among the most exciting for me as a vegetable grower. Potatoes really are a miracle crop: they take very little looking after and succeed in all kinds of soil.
I've grown potatoes every year since then. And I've successfully grown tomatoes too, which grow just fine in our climate despite what I'd read. This year from three tomato plants I have over 100 tomatoes, which are ripening a few at a time. Even if you haven't got a garden, you can grow tomatoes in a pot on a sunny window sill or in a porch. This year I also discovered some delicious rocket-style salad leaves which keep on growing back each time you cut them. My vegetable plot is only about 3m2 but I manage to grow three or four different crops on it each year over the growing season. And I still haven't had to find any horse manure!
Growing your own food engages with at least three of our current campaigns: real food (increasing organic production), transport (reducing food miles) and waste and recycling (eliminating packaging and encouraging composting).
My autumn tip for the first-time vegetable gardener is to choose a small area of grass, dig it up a bit and turn the sods of turf upside down and let the grass rot and feed the soil. The winter frosts will also help to break up the soil and improve its texture. And potatoes are the perfect first crop for creating a new vegetable plot - but you'll have to wait till April when the frosts are over!
Keep on Asking...
...until you get commitment to carbon reductions. Paul on the Big Ask campaign.
Background to the Big Ask
The Big Ask is a national campaign run by Friends of the Earth with vital involvement of the local groups network, including Manchester FoE. The question we are encouraging people to ask is, "How do we stop dangerous climate change?" and, more importantly, "Is the Government doing enough to tackle this issue?" In order to ensure that this and future governments take the issue seriously, we are pushing for a law to be put into force ensuring that there is a commitment to cutting carbon dioxide emissions year on year.
Current progress in Manchester
On a local level we have been lobbying MPs in the Manchester area, often with the help of other local FoE groups, to get them to pledge to support legislation to tackle climate change. Our campaign has been, for the most part, a success, with the majority of MPs pledging their support and many of them signing an Early Day Motion (no. 178/2006) indicating their strong feelings about this issue. In fact, the Climate Change EDM was actually tabled by one of our local representatives - Michael Meacher MP (Oldham West).
Unfortunately, some of our MPs have been unable and/or unwilling to sign the pledge because they are Government Ministers or Parliamentary Private Secretaries, but they still seem generally supportive of the idea that something must be done to tackle climate change. We have only had opposition to the Climate Change Bill from Ruth Kelly MP (Bolton West), but hopefully she will have a change of heart after seeing the breadth of support for the bill in her constituency and amongst her colleagues in Parliament.
Big Ask. Big Month. Big Lobby
The Queen's Speech in November is used by the Government to set out its plan for the next year of Parliament. Any potential legislation contained within it is likely to be given time for debate, be backed by the Government and ultimately become law. We would like a climate change bill to make it into the Queen's Speech, but the Cabinet (who make the final decision as to the speech's content) will only include it if they feel a massive amount of pressure to do so from their fellow MPs. In order to turn up the heat on the Cabinet, Friends of the Earth are encouraging people to visit their local MP and ask them to support the inclusion of a climate change bill, As part of the campaign, Manchester FoE will be arranging groups to visit all MPs in our area between the 12th September and the 11th October in order to lobby them on this issue.
If you want to get involved with our campaign our contact details and more information are on the website. Please register your interest on the Big Lobby message boards at www.foe.co.uk/lobby. To find out contact details for your MP's constituency office, please see www.theyworkforyou.com.
If you'd like to help out but aren't sure about coming along as part of the MFoE group then you can also write to your MP directly via the website WriteToThem.com. There is also more information about the campaign at TheBigAsk.com.
Trade and Corporates
Trade negotations fall apart, but that ain't necessarily a bad thing...
The big news on global trade is the failure of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on trade:
"The collapse of these talks is good news," says Alberto Villarreal, Trade Campaigner at FoE in Latin America. "The proposals on the table had been driven by certain governments attempting to put the commercial interests of corporations before the needs of workers, farmers, and the global environment."
It was feared that the WTO deal would have further impoverished the world's poorest people and caused irreparable damage to the environment. In spite of increasing evidence that escalating international trade in natural resources is likely to damage global biodiversity and local economies, little consideration was given to the potentially disastrous environmental impacts of current proposals. Plans to liberalise international trade in agricultural products threatened the livelihoods of millions of small and peasant farmers worldwide. FoE's position is that no deal is better than any deal on these terms. The failure of the talks provides a clean slate and the possibility to reconfigure global trade to genuinely promote fair and sustainable societies.
Corporate Responsibility Campaign (CORE)
The main focus over the last six months has been the Company Law Reform Bill. The Bill is the biggest shakeup of company law for 150 years. FoE is lobbying MPs to use this change to make companies transparent, accountable and responsible. Progress has been made on amendments that:
- put a legal requirement on companies to report on their environmental and social performance;
- enable people overseas to hold UK listed companies to account in UK courts for the actions of their foreign subsidiaries;
- oblige directors to take reasonable steps to minimise any damage their company does to employees, communities, and the environment.
The Bill will be debated in Parliament in mid-October. You can lobby your MP to support these amendments to UK company law by going to www.manchesterfoe.org.uk/corporates/action.htm
Victory for Sustainable Palm Oil Campaign – and a new threat
On 2nd August Morrisons became the last of the major UK supermarkets to join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This is a major victory following a two-year campaign to highlight the threat to orang-utans and their rainforest environment posed by the crop. Palm oil is found in one in ten UK supermarket products and production has increased hugely since the 1990s. The crop is grown mainly in rainforest areas in South East Asia and development of new plantations has resulted in the destruction of large areas of virgin forests with high conservation value and rich biodiversity. Moreover the destruction is occurring at a time when it is essential that the world preserve rainforest or face climate chaos. Tropical deforestation already contributes between 10 and 30 per cent of global warming emissions.
It is imperative that the expansion of palm oil production be done sustainably. To ensure that this happens, it is necessary to develop a globally acceptable definition of sustainable palm oil production and use, as well as implement better management practices that comply with this definition. This is the work of the RSPO.
However a new threat has emerged with the development of a market in palm oil for biofuel. With the price of crude oil surging, energy suppliers have been looking at cheaper alternatives such as the use of biofuels. Palm diesel has been proposed as a renewable source of energy and a possible way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions - an alternative to the world's depleting reserves of fossil fuels.
Recent tests by RWE NPower on the viability of running the Littlebrook power station in Kent on palm oil have been criticised by FoE because using palm oil as an energy source would lead to a major increase in demand for the crop. A spokesman for NPower stressed that no decisions had yet been made and in testament to the success of the RSPO campaign added:
"We would need to be able to source from sustainable plantations.There's no point in doing something for environmental benefit at one end if it is detrimental to the environment at source."
Going Wild in Chorlton
Rosie visited Wild at Heart Delicatessen and Coffee shop, the brainchild of Veena Josh and Rob Goater, to find out about the way they run their business, and look at those mouth-watering cakes.
1. How long has Wild At Heart been around?
About three months - we opened on 1st July this year. We are open 7 seven days a week.
2. What sorts of things do you sell?
Primarily we are an organic meat and dairy establishment but we stock a wide variety of other organic produce, ranging from organic pizzas and pasta sauces to chocolate, honey and cakes. Some things aren't organic but we try to source all our products from ethical and environmentally friendly businesses. We stock organic baby food; this includes foods without added sugar or salt, such as cereal, yoghurts and juice. Within that is the Peter Rabbit range which sells well, as does the locally produced baby frozen organic meals from So Baby. Our coffee shop has been a great success. Our coffee is organic and fair-trade. We use one bean so the coffee has a more distinctive taste, and we have some great cakes to go with it.
3. Any recommendations?
We have a great chocolate fudge cake or the raspberry and lemon polenta cake. The polenta cake is wheat and gluten free: both cost just £2.25. Handmade pies from Pieminster are a huge hit, especially the steak and kidney.
4. What is the most popular thing you sell?
Chicken from Cumbria and Wales, whole chickens, drumsticks, spicy thighs all are popular. Wild Venison burgers and Sausages go down a treat. Our eggs sell very well - they are organic and from a local farm - the farmer delivers them direct to us. The coffee shop is doing brilliantly. However, our unique selling point is the organic meat and dairy, as not many other places offer this.type of service. Every week I deal direct with the farmers - there is no middle-man - we put our order in and within two days it's on our shelves. With the combination of Unicorn, Barbakan and Wild at Heart, no one will need to go to a supermarket again.
5. What other products are in demand?
The milk for one thing. It comes from a Yorkshire farm - it's milked in the morning, bottled and delivered by the farmer to our doorstep in the afternoon. Some of our customers expressed an interest in buying the coffee beans that we serve in the coffee shop and as a result, we now sell the beans. We source most of our meat from three farms in Cumbria. We put an order in with them once a week. We get customers phoning up and asking if we could to put a chicken, steaks or lamb back for them to collect. We are currently taking orders for Christmas turkeys and geese - it does seem early but it if you want one in time for December you need to put your order in ASAP!
6. What are your ethics and guiding principles?
The environment is extremely important to us so we recycle and try to use recycled material wherever possible. When it comes to our meat and dairy products, it is important that they are sourced following ethical farming practices. We checked out the farms in Cumbria beforehand to make sure they matched our beliefs and they are ethically-minded in the way they rear and slaughter their livestock. This is a key part to our business; we would never buy meat and dairy produce that treated the animals inhumanely. Most of our suppliers are from the North, and our staff are local - it's part of our principles to bring in business to the community and to sustain local farming.
7. Why did you decide to open an organic and environmentally friendly establishment that sells meat and dairy?
We both feel it's time for the little people like us to take control and fight back aginst the big corporate supermarkets who don't have a genuine interest in fair trade, organic products, food miles or supporting local British farmers, just a commercial interest. Over the years we have lost the connection between the land and food we consume - too often we buy food without thinking of where it came from, how it was produced etc. To us traceability is paramount. For example our pig and chicken farmers could tell you the life history of a particular chicken - when it was born, when it was slaughtered etc, the pig farmer knows all his pigs, he knows their parentage, knows when he slaughtered the animal, and where the meat ended up - no supermarket could tell you any of this.
8. Have any 'green' establishments complained about Wild at Heart?
Not at all. Wild at Heart complements other businesses in the area, such as Unicorn and Barbakan. A lot of people who shop at Unicorn come here for their meat and dairy produce. We are situated right on the border between Whalley Range and Chorlton, so our customers come from both those places as well as Didsbury, Sale, Hyde and Stockport.
9. Are there any new developments our readers should know about?
We want to expand on the 'Wild About.' subject, for instance by having a Wild About Cheshire, Wild About Lancashire and Wild About Kids sections to celebrate the focus we have on these areas of our products. We will soon be doing a coffee and a pastry deal where you can get a hot drink and a pastry for a reduced price.
10. And finally, why the name Wild at Heart?
What does Wild At Heart make you think of? For us it's about how wild and passionate we are about food. Your heart is where you ethics lie and our ethics are equally important as our passion for food.
The Earth Moves Again
Manchester FoE receive their second national Earthmovers award at conference in Nottingham
This year's Friends of the Earth local groups' conference saw Manchester FoE pick up another Earthmovers Award for the Love Your Bike campaign. Graeme accepted the award on behalf of the group and gave a presentation to illustrate the hard work that the group had put into the campaign. The award was for Communicating Powerfully, and the group were also nominated for the Group of the Year and Campaign of the Year categories. As well as workshops and presentations, there were ample opportunities to meet other groups and staff and share ideas on campaigns at the weekend conference. A record 12 people from Manchester FoE attended conference and a good time was definitely had by all. Find out more about our award-winning campaign at www.loveyourbike.org.
What they said
"Activism is an extreme form of caring."
Tony Kendle, Eden Project
"Organisational suicide."
Maria Adebowale, Capacity Global, on the possibility of FoE
not embracing the idea of diversity in its local groups structure.
"What we've seen with the Big Ask this year should give us tremendous
cause for optimism."
Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth
The Truth Is Out There
Paul on the new film about climate change, 'An Inconvenient Truth'...
On the 1st September there was a preview screening of Al Gore's film on climate change -- An Inconvenient Truth -- at the Cornerhouse in Manchester. Amongst the invited guests were people from business and representatives from groups concerned about climate change, including Manchester Friends of the Earth.
I went into the film not knowing what to expect, mainly because it isn't on general release in the UK until the 15th September so I couldn't rely on anyone else going to see the film beforehand and letting me know whether it was any good. I was generally impressed by the content and the way it was presented, although it did end up feeling more like a documentary rather than a film I would go to see for enjoyment rather than interest.
Al Gore's sense of humour helped to keep things moving along throughout the showing. The obvious jokes about him not winning the Presidency were there, but they were kept to a minimum and didn't detract from the message he was trying to get across. In some ways the occasional joke actually made the material easier to digest and meant that you didn't fall asleep during the parts where Al Gore talks statistics.
On the subject of statistics, the film also used charts to great effect in demonstrating the problems of climate change. By far the most interesting was the one that showed the close relationship between the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the average temperature of the planet, although the graph that really made your heart stop was the prediction of how much of an effect increased emissions would have on global temperatures in the next fifty years.
The only criticism that I have of the film was that it seemed to concentrate a little too much on Al Gore. The clips of his personal life could have been cut without diluting the message he was trying to get across. It would also have been good to see a bit more information about what countries other than the USA are doing (or failing to do as the case may be) to tackle climate change.
Overall, the film was worth going to see. If you're already clued up about environmental issues then you might not learn much from it, but you can always drag some less well-informed friends along and see if it changes their minds about climate change.
Recycle to Help the Homeless
...the Copperdale Trust is always looking for your household items.
The Copperdale Trust was started 36 years ago as a youth exchange in Wythenshawe for young, deprived kids. From there it evolved into a youth hostel for homeless people aged 15 - 25. The young adults are supported and encouraged to do things to broaden their horizons. Then, when they're ready, the family who run it - Anne and Terry Panks and their son Glen - help them to get started in a home of their own. This is a big step for them and requires a lot of support, not least in the form of finding furniture and household goods to get them started in their new lives.
The Copperdale Trust is always looking for more household items and food (for example excess stock from supermarkets that's still in date) to help them run the hostel and set the youths up on their own. The Trust is entirely voluntary; the family raises their own funds and do not receive any funding from the council or the National Lottery. They also run a gym with a café as a community project that is free for the youth hostel residents and £45 per year for non-residents, plus a £1.50 entrance fee per day.
If you're trying to get rid of any household goods that are in a useable condition, please help these kids and the environment by giving them to The Copperdale Trust. The items they take range from furniture to pots and pans - basically, anything that would be useful for someone setting up home. They will collect from anywhere in South Manchester as far south as Macclesfield. They can be contacted on 0161 437 1363 or you can drop the items into: Copperdale, Solway, Wythenshawe, Manchester, M22 9XR
Take Action!
If you have...
...15 minutes
Write to your MP and demand that he or she support our Big Ask campaign. Call your MP's office to make an appointment to discuss it with him or her.
...30 minutes
Check out one of the shops, restaurants or cafes in our Real Food Guide at www.realfoodguide.org.uk.
...one hour
Prepare a vegetable plot in your garden ready for next spring.
For more money- & planet-saving tips, visit www.savecashsaveplanet.org.