Farmers Must STOP Killing Earth (Dec20)
Why are most rivers brown or red? A soupy earthy colour. It’s because they are draining the life blood of our planet away – soil. It’s crumbling, melting and disintegrating into the water and being swept out to sea, never to return. It has to stop. It’s disastrous. And there’s a better way… I remember […]
Scorched earth in Sicily (Oct20)
What a beautiful time of year to come to this island perched on Italy’s toe. We were lucky to have clear blue skies and the trees were turning gold. One of the most striking things about the island is the number of wind turbines on nearly every horizon. I rather like them both visually and […]
War on Waste – Not just plastics (Oct18)
I’ve now done multiple speeches about plastics and waste. The more I do, the more committed I am to changing our wasteful, disposable society. We’ve adopted practices that are ridiculous in their wastefulness and think nothing of it. Here are some examples: Online Shopping: I live in rural Dorset and do most of my shopping […]
Speaking on Plastics at Trill Farm (SEP18)
“A quick but very heartfelt thank you for giving Trill such a good talk last Friday. It was a great evening with a really thoughtful and illuminating talk ( as well as good fun) and very much appreciated by everybody.” Romy Fraser, Trill Farm
Moshi Moshi support sustainable fishing (Jun18)
I first came across Moshi Moshi over a decade ago. A Japanese restaurant run by Caroline Bennett, they’re at the forefront of restaurants supporting sustainable fish. My husband, Jamie Macdonald, has recently co-invested in an artisan fishing trawler with Nick Fisher, who co-wrote the Fish Cook Book with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. One of their first commercial […]
Haller in the Horn of Africa (Jul11)
I got a very encouraging email this week. It was from Louise Piper, director of Haller – an organisation I helped to set up nearly 10 years ago. As follows: “In light of the extensive media coverage on the drought faced in the Horn of Africa, and some very harrowing footage of barren landscapes in Northern […]
Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan (Nov10)
There was a lot of talk about de-coupling. But they weren’t referring to what people get up to in laybys. It was a Unilever inspired session on sustainable consumption, which I watched as a webcast. De-coupling in this case was all about ‘green growth’ – whether it’s possible for a company to both increase profits […]
Behind the scenes at McDonalds (Jun10)
It wasn’t ‘Old McDonald had a farm’. Actually, the farm belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall although it was being run by farmer, Richard Hoskins. Near Dorchester, almost over-looking the Prince of Wales new town of Poundbury, the beef farm turned out to be a key supplier for McDonalds. The expedition was the first of […]
Food Inc film is worth seeing (Feb10)
I was really impressed with Food Inc – it was powerful and compelling – and even after a busy day in London I didn’t fall asleep, which is quite unusual. The main point of the film was to illustrate how the American food system has been centralised under the control of just a handful of […]
Food Innovation (Sep09)
The Food Ethics Council Business Forum meeting focussed on radical innovation. I was chairing the session with a presentation from Sander Mager, Programme Manager at the groundbreaking Dutch technology incubator TransForum – a quango supporting projects ranging from closed-loop farming to producer-managed supermarkets.
Pig heaven (Jun09)
A friend of mine called Sarah has bought three not so little piglets. They’re only 9 weeks old but already quite porky. They’re also rather endearing and very friendly – snuffling and snorting around their wooded enclosure. One of the piglets has been nick-named ‘rotavator’ because he seems to be particularly good at turning over […]
My Garden (May09)
It’s such a wonderful time of year for getting into the garden. I’ve actually managed to mow the lawn – I’m afraid that I didn’t use a scythe. I’ve also been pruning the apples trees – and getting rid of the ivy that’s wrapping itself around them and planting vegetables. Home-grown food is a real […]