The Fife Diet

The Fife Diet. Probably one of the best blogs on food and local issues relating to climate change.  Bookmark it.

Is Musselburgh an Ecover Free Zone?

The response of our local Tesco to the credit crunch has been to purge their shelves of most organic and eco-products. The supermarket already dictates what we eat, we shouldn’t be surprised that they also decide how we clean.

So we’re embarking on a search for Ecover products in Musselburgh because we use it every day. For clothes washing, cleaning the bathroom and the washing up.

A field trip is required, to the Co-op (I know already they don’t sell eco-washing up liquid) and other likely local shops.

The closest shop which stocks Ecover is, I think, in Portobello. Just along the coast, but a bus-ride away. I hope I’m wrong.

Do you know better?

In search of … Crunchy Carrot

The Crunchy Carrot is one of the most obviously green businesses in East Lothian, selling locally-produced fruit and veg, as well as range of organic, Fair Trade and eco-groceries on Dunbar High Street.

I wanted to speak to them first about ethical networking. As they’ve been around for a while, they were bound to know.

It was cold in Dunbar. It was cold in the Crunchy Carrot. Business, it seems, is slow (although not when I was there). Asda opened in the town in November 2007. I couldn’t judge on one visit, but I was told the superstore has devasted high street shopping. It does seems a bit down-at-heel.

I love shops like the Crunchy Carrot. You don’t just fill your basket with the usual stuff, it’s a learning experience. There are new labels to read, and mysterious veg to wonder at.

The Crunchy Carrot are very well connected. They know what’s happening in ethical Dunbar, and as far as they are concerned, there is no EL network.

So, with no toes to step on (so far at least), we’ll keep going.

In search of ethical East Lothian

We want to get in touch with other ethical businesses in our area.
It can be lonely on the green path and I guess we want to talk to like-minded people.

Ultimately though, building long-term relationships with customers and the wider green community will sustain our business.

The plan is to identify ethical businesses and individuals based in East Lothian. If we can establish a network to share knowledge and best practice, and develop joint promotional activities, this is a bonus.

So what we mean by ethical? Environmental, organic, local suppliers, commitment to local community, fair trade for all, recycle and reuse. We’re also interested in innovation and new ideas in response to current global economic and climate change.

Do the Green Thing

Stay Grounded from Green Thing

This video was inspired by a trip to Kew on a beautiful day lying in the green grass looking up at the trees and having the peace and the beauty shredded by the obscene amount of planes cutting through the blue sky of London and the hideous noise pollution they created.

The Green Thing wanted to show the planes leaving, instead of white vapour trails, a more indelible mark on the earth . . . constant scars and reminders of the damage they creating to the earth’s atmosphere.

Green sandwich with a toxic filling

The opening double-page spread of today’s Guardian newspaper makes confusing reading, not just for greenies.

Two adverts in both bottom corners.

On the left, Virgin Trains announce the introduction of  free, range, sustainable and locally-sourced products into their first class menu. The best thing since organic, stone-baked, poppy-seeded, sliced bread. Hooray!

On the right, Scottish Gas have built the world’s largest wind farm. Double hooray!

Filling the gap are stories about government-sanctioned torture, a potentially catastrophic collision between nuclear submarines, global recession and some goats (I think) struggling to drink at a drying-up borehole in Kenya, the impact of global drought.

A toxic filling in a potentially green sandwich. Hooray no more.

Photograph © The Guardian

Planting trees for cycling

The issue of cycling’s carbon emissions isn’t going away, even after a rant. So I’ve decided to act.

On Chechu Rubiera’s website, there’s now a campaign to plant trees, “offsetting” the CO2 emissions arising from Chechu’s air travel to races around the world.

Our purpose is to raise awareness, and start the discussion. We already communicate widely through our newsletter mailing list, this includes key cycling journos. Our “news” is regularly quoted.

Will it offset the emissions? I have no idea. My head almost burst with contrary opinion, so I plumped finally for a tree scheme in Scotland, not to far from home, which sounded meaningful. And we can plant the trees ourselves.

Our readership of fans a fickle community. 60% American, they are constantly optimistic. Their unquestioning loyalty is beautiful … and frustrating. We’ve learned what will annoy them, and so what to avoid.

But they’re willing to talk, and no-one in cycling is talking about the environment. This is the start.

The greenest transport

I reckon it must be cycling … although not all cycling. Professional road cycling is not a friend to the environment.

I’m a fan, we have a friend who is a pro-cyclist. He’s Chechu Rubiera, and he’s in Australia just now, riding for Lance Armstrong. I publish his fan website.

That our friend is in Australia now is a relatively new development. Tour Down Under was added to the elite ProTour schedule in 2008, after a “falling-out” between the international cycling union (UCI) and the blue riband event, the Tour de France. A weak UCI needed cycling to become global to increase its power.

There are 19 teams taking part in this year’s TDU. 18 are based in Europe or USA and all flew to Adelaide earlier this month. From Europe, that’s two or probably three flights each. Home to Paris, Paris to Singapore, Singapore to Adelaide. And they’re coming back, so times it by two.

Chechu’s team has 16 staff members in Adelaide, all based in Europe. There are also representatives from their bike and team kit sponsors.

Add international photographers, the cycling press, officials and testers from the UCI and other governing bodies AND fans – that’s a lot of long haul flights.

At the Vuelta a España in September, I counted the vehicles travelling ahead of the peloton. There were over 30 cars and motorbikes, and many more followed the 100 or so cyclists racing around Spain for three weeks.

Soon all great global sports will have take responsibility for their carbon footprint, if they are to survive environmental legislation.

Photograph of Lance Armstrong © brooxy28, flickr.com

Era of responsibility

“We can no longer afford indifference to the suffering that occurs outside our borders. Nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to the effect. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility… This is the price and promise of citizenship.”

President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, 20 January 2009

A tale of two cyclists

The elderly gentleman waiting in the queue at the greengrocer had an uncovered cut on his hand. He’d got scrapes on his knee too, the result of being knocked over by a cyclist – an adult – on the pavement.

The general reaction was to sympathise. Of course. Some cyclists, eh? Eejits.

Later I spoke to my husband. He cycles to work, mostly on cycle paths but also the odd side-road.

This morning, it was white and frosty. As he slowed to a junction, holding the correct road position, a car jumped across his path, cutting the corner, skidding, and headed towards Tom at speed. The driver slammed on his breaks, the ABS kicked in and he stopped inches away. Then he rolled down his window and hurled a few choice four-letter words. A school dad, on the school run, his children were in the backseat.

It was a good morning, just that one incident.

I don’t cycle, and often I feel that I really should. Cycling is the greenest form of transport, and it’d good for me. It sometimes even sounds like good fun. Plus I enjoy a relationship with pro-cyclist (more of that soon). But I just can’t get round to it.

I guess I’m scared. Drivers seem disproportionately so very angry at cyclists, all the time. I’d be on the pavement too, and that is just a bad thing.

True, cyclists aren’t always in the right place, nor do they always follow the rules. But drivers’ attitudes need to change. We need education to refresh driving skills, and constant reminders about due care and responsibility. Not forgetting patience.

Until then  I’ll stick to walking and boarding the trusty bus.