Swine Flu Pandemic – Regulate Factory Pig Farming
Readers of the Organic Boxes blog may well know about the horrific conditions industrial factory farms keep their animals in. It’s not just a problem for the animals and meat consumers though. There’s increasing suspicion that the current triple hybrid H1N1 virus swine flu pandemic may well have originated in large scale pig farms in Mexico owned by an American multinational corporation in Veracruz.
An online petition by Avaaz.org calling for investigation and regulation of factory farms received more than 200,000 signatures in just six days and the organisers are now hoping to boost this number by at least another 50,000. If you would like to add your name to the petition go to http://www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic/98.php?cl_taf_sign=acd1e93cafc0032a88e9144ed9a4b065
Organic Veg and Brown Bread Not for Everyone
An argument that organic veg and wholemeal stoneground bread is just a luxury for the rich.
Louise Fresco presents at a TED talk on the subject of “Feeding the Whole World” in praise of technology, science and mass produced industrial food.
“Never before has our food been made by so few of us. And never before has it been taken so much for granted.”
( Hat tip to Josien Kapma for the video )
Louise Fresco, Dutch Academic, tells the Californians that holding a preference for wholemeal organic bread and despising mass produced white bread is a luxury for the rich, and not practical for the third world’s poor workers and farmers. So does she have a point?
Remember to Cancel your Organic Boxes!
This is just a reminder to those of you who are already getting organic boxes delivered weekly to organise for your holidays in advance. There are so many other things to think about it would be easy to forget and end up with a sad box of organic vegetables sitting on your front doorstep for a week waiting for you to come home.
The opposite happened to me though. I thought I’d been efficient and cancelled my regular vegetable box for the week I was away recently, and when I got back the next week’s box of vegetables arrived exactly when it was suppose to, but the week after that I was left without. So make sure you understand the difference between a future order and a recurring order before you cancel organic boxes.
Organic Boxes are Cheaper
Riverford Organics, which delivers 40,000 boxes around England every week, compares its produce monthly against its equivalents in Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. Riverford claim that their organic boxes turn out to be at least 20 per cent cheaper. So I did a spot check and that week the Riverford’s large organic eggs were costing £2.05 for half a dozen whereas in Tesco they were £2.13 and in up market Waitrose £2.24. Riverford’s sales overall are on the increase despise the recession.
Supermarkets now sell more than 70 per cent of organic produce in the UK — but, having done well in the organic boom, they are now bearing the brunt of the decline. According to Soil Association surveys, it is “barcode” sales of organic that are falling. Farmers’ markets, farm shops and box schemes are still all doing OK.
Peak Oil, Not Ploughing, and Permaculture
This is a video about “Peak Oil”, farming without ploughing, and the ethos of permaculture.
Best Ethical Restaurant – Observer Food Awards
Riverford Field Kitchen ‘Best Ethical Restaurant’ Observer
In their monthly food awards, the Observer newspaper gave the Riverford Field Kitchen the title “Best Ethical Restaurant. Last week Jane Baxter and Sam Miller, who run the Riverford Field Kitchen, were presented with this prestigious award, a fine achievement given some notable contenders.
Guy Watson of Riverford writes in Farm news:
I like to think that we won because, as well as serving the most fantastic and affordable food, mostly grown on the farm, we are the real thing; for 25 years we have been doing what we do, in the belief that great food and sane farming can withstand the ebb and flow of food fashions. Having spent the last few days in London I took the opportunity to look at a few markets, greengrocers and box schemes. It was disappointing to see how many were responding to the recession by trading down to selling uncertified “as good as organic” produce, often with packaging and vans still implying fully organic produce. Everything we sell is certified organic; we keep it affordable by growing ourselves and working closely with our co-op.
Congratulations to Riverford Organic Vegetables, who also happen to be our own suppliers of top quality organic boxes all through the winter spring gap.
Organic Vegetables from The Farm
Here is a video that really shows where the organic veg for the boxes is coming from. The genuine love of good quality tasty vegetables together with the organic philosophy come across loud and clear. This is the actual farm in Devon where the Riverford organic vegetables as delivered in boxes throughout the South West but also some parts of London are lovingly grown, picked and packed.
Organic Vegetable Boxes – don’t forget the groceries!
Organic vegetable boxes with added groceries are supplied by most of the major companies and can help you to avoid 3 of the most common supermarket mistakes.
1: Spending Too Much Time in the Aisles
The aisles of supermarkets, large or small, are full of processed, chemically enhanced foods in too much packaging. The supermarket relies on lulling us into a trance. Everything is designed to get us into that semi-hypnotic state were we wander the aisles collecting what grabs our attention, much as our hunter/gatherer ancestors wandered the woods. Except, of course what they were picking up was rather more natural than anything we’re likely to find! There’s a whole area of psychology devoted to the way we shop and every thing in the supermarket is designed to keep us wandering those aisles for as long as possible. It’s simple really. The longer we are there the more we are likely to buy.
The next one leads on from the first but doesn’t sound like a mistake. We all want to know what we’re eating right? Wrong!
2: Reading the Labels
The eye-catching products in the aisles sport words designed to grab our attention. They are full of claims like “healthy”, “fat-free”, “sugar-free” and “low calorie”. These are simply marketing statements to lure you in. Ah, but we’re too clever to be fooled by those, aren’t we? We turn over and pour over the nutrition statement and the ingredients list.Trouble is we often think that if the calories or fat grams are low or there are a lot of vitamins listed we’re OK. Er, no. Those added vitamins can mean that the food has had most of its goodness stripped during the processing or they may even be there to extend the shelf life not for your benefit at all
3: Buying food that contains transgenics
Products containing corn or soy, may be made from genetically modified or transgenic seeds. It is estimated that up to 90% of all soy grown and up to half of all corn is transgenic. These are not identified as such on most ingredient labels. Whatever the arguments for or against no one knows for sure the consequences of eating GM food.
Our supermarket advice
OK I should be honest here. I hate supermarkets and avoid them if at all possible. If you must go to the supermarket:
- Take a list.
- Set yourself a deadline.
- Check the organic section first
- If there’s anything in the ingredients list you don’t recognise assume the worst and leave it on the shelf.
- Only buy basic items and avoid processed stuff.
- Buy your organic food from someone you trust to be as concerned with where your food has come from as you are.
Better yet, buy your organic groceries through your favourite organic vegetable box scheme. Most of them offer a range of groceries at competitive prices. While we are at it let’s just remember that we’ll be saving the cost of driving to the supermarket and the time (not to mention wear and tear on the nerves!) that the trip takes. In most cases you can place your order online and you groceries are delivered with your organic vegetable boxes at no extra cost.
Eat Organic Veg instead of Contaminated Irish Pork
Organic Veg instead of Pork
Slowly but surely the demand for organic veg is on the increase. Every time there’s another animal food scare in the news another group of enlightened people decide that enough is enough and resolve to change the quality of their family’s food intake for good.
The latest one is Irish pork. News just breaking is that all of the republic’s pork products have been recalled:
All Irish Pork Products Recalled
All pork products made and sold in the Irish Republic since September have been recalled over fears they are contaminated with toxins.
The FSAE seem to have acted fairly quickly to take the necessary action:
Laboratory results of animal feed and pork fat samples obtained this afternoon (6 December) have confirmed the presence of dioxins. The food industry is therefore required to recall from the market all Irish pork products produced from pigs slaughtered in Ireland.
But behind the headlines there’s also this worrying concern about Irish Beef too:
In a news conference, led by the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith and the Minister for Health Mary Harney, it was also announced that 38 beef farms are also being investigated and movement from all affected farms is now restricted.
The recall has been backdated to September 1st.
It’s a disaster for the pig industry in Ireland as well as for the health of people in Ireland, the UK and anywhere else that has been importing Irish pork products. Between April and July this year, the UK imported 230,000 tonnes of pork and bacon from markets including the Irish Republic but it is unknown exactly how much of that was at risk of having been contaminated with the toxic PCB substances. Organic pigs will have been fed on organic pig food rather than industrial waste so the risk there is minimal, but the movement marches onwards towards including more organic veg as part of either a vegetarian, vegan or omnivorous lifestyle choice.
Storing Organic Vegetables from Organic Vegetable Boxes
It’s always a difficult job to keep the organic vegetables out of weekly organic vegetable boxes fresh and usable for the whole week. Sometimes we forget about some of the organic vegetables that are sitting in the fridge for too long. To avoid this and make use of the organic vegetable boxes properly, here are a few tips that I follow :
* Green chillies : Don’t put the raw green chillies straight in the fridge. To keep them fresh for a long time remove the stems and put them in a ziplock bag or in some storage box.
* Carrots: Cover the carrots with a damp cloth and put them in fridge. They can keep for a whole week like that instead of going soft and limp in a few days.
* Herbs: Bunches of coriander have to be one of the common one to go bad before you get to use it all. To keep them fresh I store them in a salad container so the leaves don’t touch the icy wall at the back and get frostbite. You can use the same tip for greens too.
* Brocoli: When you store brocoli look for dark green buds with no yellowish color. And store them in a airtight container or in a sealed bag and it will last up to a week. Don’t store more than a week.
* cucumbers: Pick the ones that have no soft spots or visible bruises. It should be dark green and firm, So it will last longer in the fridge when you store it in the air tight bag. It will stay fresh up to 5 days, but really it’s probably better to take it out of the plastic wrap and use it sooner rather than later.
When you are stocking organic vegetables in your refrigerator, make a list of them and stick it in your fridge door. That way when you are trying to make up your mind on what to cook you can quickly decide on what to use first and avoid wasting vegetables that go bad faster. I hope these tips are useful for making the best use of your precious vegetables from the organic vegetable boxes.
