The Green Village News for the ‘Food and Farming’ Category

Something To Buzz About: £10m Government Funding For Bee Research

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

It’s a well known fact that for the last few years, Britain’s bee populations have been in decline. With the national population of bees estimated to be down by 15%, an amount which is still increasing, the British government has pledged £10m of funding to research into the reasons behind the drop in numbers.

Honey bees no longer exist in the wild, and if numbers continue to fall as they have recently, there could be severe consequences for Britain’s food production. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating vast quantities of crops, fruit and vegetables, and without them, there could be a food crisis. Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn commented on the declining population, stating that,

“We don’t fully understand what the cause is. Therefore we need to invest more and all of these institutions, majority government funding, have come together so we can better understand what’s going wrong and try and put it right.”

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Posted in Conservation and Wildlife, Environmental Politics, Food and Farming, Green Planet | No Comments

Germany Says ‘No’ To Growing Monsanto’s GM Crop

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

After permitting farmers to grow Monsanto’s GM maize variety MON 810 since 2005, Ilse Aigner, Germany’s Agricultural Minister has announced the country’s decision to ban further growth of the genetically engineered crop. This decision, Aigner added, is based on science, not politics, as they have concerns that the variety could be a threat to the environment.

Germany will join Austria, who banned the import of another GM variety produced by Monsanto in July 2008, MON 863, after reports of rats that had eaten the maize suffering damage to internal organs; Hungary, France and Greece, in refusing to grow the variety, which the biotech industry comments is as safe as traditional maize varieties.

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Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Politics, Food and Farming, Green Planet, Science and Technology | 2 Comments

Jordans Cereals Have Got ‘The Buzz’ About Bee Conservation

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Jordans cereals have been committed to using conservation grade cereals in their products for over twenty years now, thanks to the initiative of Bill Jordan in 1985. Now they’re bringing the wildlife promoting aspect of their farming practices to the rest of Britain in ‘The Big Buzz’.

The farms that produce the conservation grade crops for Jordans are encouraged to plant wildflower meadows, trees and hedgerows and to install farms to encourage wildlife across the board, but with emphasis on helping bee populations grow. Bees are an extremely important part of food production, not just for the honey they produce, but also for the essential role they play in pollination. (more…)

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Posted in Companies and Organisations, Conservation and Wildlife, Food and Farming, Green Family, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments

MPs Urged to Show Support for British Chickens

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chicken Out! Campaign has turned their attention to the power of Britain’s MPs, asking them to show support for fairer labelling of british supermarket chickens. Hugh has famously been campaigning for better conditions and clearer labelling for standard chickens supplied in supermarkets, and a number of TV programmes have shown his progress as well as the problems he has come up against, from results of revised labelling of standard chicken sold by the Co-operative, to the very unco-operative Tesco.

The latest push for Chicken Out! is to propose an Early Day Motion, which is a formal motion submitted for debate in the House of Commons that MPs can show support for by signing. EDM 581 aims to highlight the issue of chicken welfare and bring about a change in law regarding labelling of chicken sold in supermarkets. Head of Campaigns at Compassion in World Farming, Lasse Bruun has commented,

“We’re delighted that there is an Early Day Motion calling for honest labelling of chicken meat. Unfortunately supermarkets are getting away with misleading labels while the consumers are increasingly concerned about where our food comes from.”

To date, 168 MPs, that’s 25% of MPs across the UK, have shown their support for chickens by signing the Early Day Motion. Hugh is asking the British public to push their local MPs to do the same by adding their signatures to the list. You can find out whether your MP has signed the EDM on the Chicken Out! website and help the campaign reach their 300 signature target.

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Posted in Environmental Politics, Food and Farming, Green Planet | No Comments

Compost Sales Higher Than Expected Ahead Of Growing Boom

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Garden centres throughout the country are struggling to keep up with the demand of consumers wanting peat and other compost products as the grow-your-own bug kicks in. The recession has led to garden centres buying in less of the products, forcing them to re-stock as soon as possible.

The continuing good weather has brought out customers in their droves, as they prepare to grow more of their own food this year. With campaigns such as ‘Dig In’ run by the BBC, demand is only likely to increase.

This can only be a good sign; if more people are growing their own food, it will put less pressure on agriculture and transport and will reduce the amount of food imported into the UK. Not only that but it sends a clear message to government that more must be done to help people who want to grow their own food.

If you want learn more about growing your own, look out for articles within the the grow your own section.

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Posted in Food and Farming, Grow Your Own | 1 Comment

Will Tesco Chicken Out!?

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Three weeks ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched a competition to inspire the creative side of followers of his famous Chicken Out! campaign, and last week the panel of judges which included Hugh himself, and representatives from Compassion in World Farming chose their winner.

Hugh has been urging Tesco to live up to their claims about welfare issues regarding their standard chicken, trying methods such as telephone conversations, face to face interviews and even becoming a shareholder to get the multi-million pound supermarket chain to take his campaign seriously. Having hit many barriers along the way, Hugh turned to his fellow chicken welfare supporters to show that customers as well as campaigners care about chicken welfare and threw down the gauntlett to design a new label that accurately depicts the environment these chickens are raised in.

The winning design from Debbie Cripps shows an image of a broiler house; hundreds of chickens packed into a dark shed with barely room to move, the title ‘Intensively Reared Chicken’ splashed across the top of the label, and the text beneath the image giving a more accurate description of where the chickens are raised.  Hugh said his reason for choosing this design is because of its ‘transparency and fairness’, and went on to say “This design is a stark contrast from the outdoor image and misleading wording that currently appears on the Tesco standard chicken label.”

The new label design has been presented to Tesco with the aim that they will introduce this clearer, more accurate description of the product on sale. Only time will tell whether they will take on board the feedback from customers and campaigners, or Chicken Out!?

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Posted in Ethical shopping, Food and Farming, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments

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