Today's Feeding of the 5000

The charity Fairshare is going to demonstrate the food waste problem in Trafalgar Square at noon today. The food they are using has been grown by farmers but is considered too ugly to sit on the shelves by our supermarkets (maybe Jo Swinson and I should set up a campaign against our 'airbrushed' and discriminatory fresh produce aisles but I digress).

They will be providing soups and curries, as well as free groceries with the 6 tonnes of produce that have been turned down by the supermarkets. I can guarantee that nobody will be able to tell the difference from the homogeneous shaped siblings that they grew alongside. Having grown up in a family that grew and harvested our own crops in the back garden I long for the time I can have a little spot of land that I can grow some more of my own food. I will no throw out a potato that is not universally smooth for ease of peeling or a carrot than cannot stand straight at attention or whatever. I'll also only plant what I can personally use or give away any bumper crop to friends before it goes off.

There is a Slow Food Group in Linlithgow which is part of the town's major movement to make the town more environmentally friendly. The protest today fits very comfortably within the slow food ethos, in that is using food that has been grown as much as possible, to made good healthy food. Of course I'm not sure how the food has been grown, but the fact that it has means that it should be available to consumption first and foremost which is what today's demonstration is about.

So may I urge you next time you prepare to go to the supermarket, local greengrocer or farmers market, have you checked the larder? Have you planned what you want to eat around what is already available to you but is perishable? When you get there do you have a plan of what you need? If you cannot buy the quantity that you need but have to purchase more is there something else you could do with the excess before it perishes, even if you make extra and are able to freeze it for later?

We May All End Up Veggie

There is bad news ahead it seems for all the carnivores in the UK, i.e. those that cannot survive without meat with every meal. Both the Scotsman and the Times are running with the warning from the Food Security plan that rationing and vegetarianism may become a way of life for the UK in the decades ahead.

The reasons for this shift and warning despite the UK being 70% self sufficient in food at the moment are growing world population, climate change brining extreme weather conditions, higher fuel costs and crops being grown for bio-fuels and not food. The food security plan has also considered disease to animal stocks, disruption to power supplies, trade disputes and interruptions to shipping and at ports as with increased need more piracy may lead to hazards with importing supplies.

But the British people may not need to worry too much about a meat free diet the most extreme result if the UK had to feed itself may well lead to that level. It would occur if the cereals we currently grow to feed livestock had to be shifted towards human consumption. However, rationing is likely to come in first. We currently have an average intake of 2,800 calories per day compared with 2,100 in the 1960s.

But things may well have to change if climate change leads to reduced water availability how we grow our crops will have to be reconsidered. If trade with a few trading partners Argentina and Brazil dries up for whatever reason our level of meat and poultry would be reduced. Hilary Benn the environment minister said:

"We need a radical rethink in how we produce and consume food. Globally we need to cut emissions and adapt to the changing climate that will alter what we can grow and where we can grow it. We must maintain the natural resources — soils, water and biodiversity — on which food production depends."

"And because we live in an interconnected world — where the price of soya in Brazil affects the price of steak at the local supermarket — we need to look at global issues that affect food security here. That’s why we need to consider what food systems should look like in 20 years and what must happen to get there."

So although the news isn't of immediate concern the fact is that we may all need to start to rethink our eating habits. Having stayed the weekend with friends and eaten some of the produce of their back garden like I did a great deal in the 70s from my parents' vegetable patch this sort of thing may become more of a reality in the years ahead, for a lot more people.

However, the report those show the international co-dependency of the food chain and that there are a few cogs that the UK has little to no control over and that if it were to cease up we'll need to look at alternatives. So although I'm well prepared for a vegetarian diet the rest of you will not have to jump that far, just yet.

Eat Start the Economy

Raymond Blanc may only shut down the restaurant of one couple who dream of running one every week on his TV show The Restaurant. But away from the world of reality TV the reality is looking far more harsh. Restaurants are going to be facing their toughest year since 1990 according to a recent survey. With the credit crunch taking a grip eating out is hitting high on people's list of economising.

The end result of course will be that our catering industry is looking likely to follow the retail trade in restaurants no longer being able to keep up with the lose of trade. Considering that retail companies have been going into administration or worse even during the run up to Christmas we can see what can happen. When you look at the names from the High Street from Woolies to Wedgewood you can also see that there may not be any guarantee for either end of the market it merely may come down to the overheads and whether these are met or not.

The sector is now tightening its belt and jobs and eateries across Scotland are starting to disappear and are expected to carry on doing so throughout the year. Maybe Gordon and Alistair should give us all vouchers to eat out at restaurants to give our restaurant owners an economic stimulus on the boil.

Some of the factors that are adding to the misery in Scotland are:

A need to thin out of the overly congested industry especially in Edinburgh.

An exodus of foreign chefs especially as salaries drop in comparison to the Euro wages offered elsewhere.

The reverse that good from Europe will be forcing prices up beyond which the price elasticity of the consumer can stomach.

Two thirds of people already stating they will be dinning out less this year.

Also post Hogmanay a growing number of restaurants are closing for an extended holiday in January and those staying open are not replacing staff lost through attrition.

Head of Steam Building Over Climate Change Bill

There is growing unrest on the government benches about the ommission of aviation and shipping emmisions from the UK greenhouse gase targets. There are now 56 Labour MPs demanding their inclusion.

I've long held that if we're looking at combating the effects of greenhouse gases all causes need to be included. That does mean looking carefully at food labels and realising do we really need Strawberies in December that have been flown in from South Africa. We can have a balanced, indeed varied, diet using seasonal produce that is available locally. It will be a seasonal diet but some seem determined to eat the same way year round. Is it any wonder that Jamie Oliver finds that many people don't know basic food groups and recipes using them. Our kitchen vocabulary is being reduced because people go for, and demand, what they like rather than what is available.

I loved as a child going into the back garden and harvesting fresh peas, beans, potatoes, fruit or whatever was in season. I was glad when I moved across here that my partner's family were intend of having a sizeable vegetable patch in their renovated back garden. So for a while I again ate some food picked within an hour of eating. It's harder know I live in a flat but I do all I can to reduce my food miles, farmers markets, checking labels, buying fresh rather than untracable processed foodstuffs.

The need to include our shipping emmissions in climate change targets is essential. To ignore such a sizeable chunk of what we contribute to the problem is ignorant, self-indulgent and needs to be remedied. Therefore I applaud every member of the House of Commons who will vote that aviation and shipping is included in the target. They may have different ways of looking at it and how to acheive it but at least getting it out there is a giant step forward.

Dear Prudence, Brown in Buck Passing Mode

Well as the Chancellor he once littered his budget speeches with prudence, or some other word derived from that stem is passing the buck regarding all things economic. However, as is the way of the Tim'rous Beatie as things are going wrong the Prime Minister instead of taking the plaudits once thrown at him for a stable economy, he's papering over the cracks as subsidence sets in, not even a year after his watch concludes.

Now while I accept that he does not have control really over international oil prices. He has had some control over food prices and as for UK house prices just who is the PM kidding by blaming international factors carte blanche.

Let's start with food. Yes for some time now our supermarkets have been underpaying suppliers to provide them with good which consumers are demanding all year round. Looking at the 'fresh' fruit and veg in February you'd think it was summer time if you had your own allotment or vegetable patch. Many of our European neighbours don't go in for this have it fresh have it now attitude and are more reliant on local in season produce, or pickled, frozen, tinned etc varieties when out of season.

Now by underpaying for what we eat, the producers have been unable to reinvest in their businesses to improve things, many have gone out of business. So yes while there is a food shortage in some areas of the world forcing prices for some commodities up, it is actually as much our responsibility in the first place as it now is our concern in our pockets. The fact that the keeping of prices artificially low has aided the chancellors inflationary targets for so long is possibly one reason why the government weren't too keen on fair trade, as fair trade wouldn't have made them look quite so good to the punter on the street.

As for the housing market problems. Surely the only problem our banks have had is in investing in something that overstretches. I remember learning all about discounting etc way back in early Economics classes at school. About how the banks had continued to lend more and more against a smaller and smaller proportion of anything substantial. Therefore the whole sub-prime fiasco is a disaster of the banks own making. The fact that many of our banks investing in companies offering that is a sign of their own greed, to try and make a quick buck.

The fact that 125% mortgages were available in the UK makes you wonder if it all goes wrong how on earth do you get back the extra 25%. Especially if the bubble finally bursts and house prices can no longer rise because people no longer can afford to pay to be able to borrow to pay those sorts of prices.

So just who was able to keep some sort of check on the financial sector in the last 11 years then Gordon?