The House
of Lords has criticised the government's plans for concentrating
on the health service if there is an avian flu pandemic. The
Science and Technology Committee has warned of serious disruption
to food supplies if shops and distributors are not properly
prepared; for example, if a significant proportion of HGV
delivery drivers were off sick with bird flu. The Committee
fears that the present lack of planning between the government
and major retailers could lead to panic buying in the event
of a pandemic.
Rhug Organic Burger Bar in Corwen, Denbighshire,
was the joint winner of the Best Takeaway award at the BBC
Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards 2005. Riverside Market in
Cardiff was a finalist in the Best Local Food Retailer category.
In other categories, Welsh Farm Organics
were the winner of the Web-based retailer award. New York
Rye Bread won a Gold Award in the Small Manufacturers category
for Caroline’s Real Bread Company. Calon Wen Organic
Wholemilk won a Bronze Award in the Farming Partnership category.
The fortnightly market at Haverfordwest won the Farmers’
Market category.
Other organic companies with commendations
included Nantgwynfaen Organic Farm (sirloin steak), Welsh
Hook Meat Centre, Organic Aran Lamb, Knock Farm (free range
organic eggs), John Thomas & Son (Aberdeen Angus beef),
Nantclyd Organics (lemon curd), Crai Organics (Shiitake mushrooms),
Trioni Ltd (organic milkshakes) and Bacheldre Mill (stoneground
rye flour).
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Environment
Secretary Margaret Beckett has announced to MPs new regulations
to ban live bird shows and markets that are considered a risk
of spreading a possible bird flu pandemic. Meanwhile, the
European Food Standard Agency has reiterated advice that eggs
should be thoroughly cooked to minimise the risk of bird flu.
The H5N1 strain can be caught through close contact with infected
birds. However, an EFSA spokeswoman said that the risk of
it entering the food chain through raw egg products was extremely
low.
The Soil Association’s Organic Food
Festival in Bristol, on the 3rd and 4th September 2005, drew
a record-breaking crowd. Over 100,000 people visited the opening
festival of Organic Week, making it the world’s largest
ever attendance at any organic event. People packed in to
see cookery demonstrations by TV chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall,
Sophie Grigson and Rick Stein, while some stallholders reported
selling out by Saturday lunchtime due to the unprecedented
numbers.
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Eleven students from Ritsumeikan University
in Kyoto, Japan, are spending the summer at The Centre for
Alternative Technology (CAT) to learn about sustainability.
They are staying in eco-cabins to monitor their own energy
use and will learn about organic gardening, renewable energy
and eco-friendly housing. This is the fourth year Japanese
students have travelled to Mid Wales to study at CAT. One
of last year’s visitors has gone on to use their knowledge
to carry out energy audits for electronics firm Hitachi.
Bacheldre Mill in Powys has been selected
as the sole supplier of organic flour to Harrods. Their traditional
stone-ground flour will now be available to well-heeled customers
of the famous Knightsbridge store, including many foreign
tourists. Bacheldre Mill has found success in the renewed
popularity of home bread-making and their quality flours have
won Gold medals in the True Taste Wales Food and Drink Awards.
Harrods will be running a Truly British promotion from 5th
September to 16th October which will feature milling sessions
run by Bacheldre Mill.
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Scientists from the Centre for Ecology
and Hydrology, in Dorset, have urged caution over their finding
of a herbicide-resistant ‘superweed’ in a UK field.
The genes from a GM crop trial of oilseed rape two years ago
had transferred into a local weed, charlock, to form a hybrid
that was not affected by herbicide. However, only two ‘superweed’
plants were found in a study of 95,000 seedlings and the hybrid
plant was not found in the field a year later. The researchers
maintain that chances of cross-fertilisation are slim but
anti-GM campaigners say that if GM rape was grown commercially,
herbicide-resistant weeds could become widespread.
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Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has announced
a £220 million spending boost in England for the next
three years to improve school meals, but denied that Jamie
Oliver’s campaign has forced the government to change
its policy. The TV chef had focussed media attention on the
issue and caused debate on the quality of food available.
Jamie Oliver said, “It is certainly very positive –
twenty years too late but we are talking about the right sort
of money.” The extra money will be used to increase
the average spend per child in England from 37p to at least
50p. The Welsh Assembly Government says that it also takes
the issue very seriously and the average spend by Welsh councils
per child is already 48 pence, although it cannot force local
authorities to spend a specific amount.
The results of a test on Genetically Modified
winter-sown oilseed rape grown under UK farm conditions have
shown a detrimental effect on wildlife habitats. Insect and
bird species in particular suffered from a reduction in weed
and seeds. However, the researchers suggested that other environmentally-friendly
agricultural practices, such as organic farming, would have
an even greater benefit for biodiversity than simply choosing
between GM or non-GM crops.
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A report published in the journal ‘Food
Policy’ claims that people can help the environment
even more by buying local food than by buying organic produce
from other areas of the UK. The study found that ‘road
miles’ caused environmental damage and led to hidden
costs. The authors recommended that shoppers source food within
a 20 kilometre radius of where they live, using farmers markets
for example. They found that if all farms in the UK converted
to organic methods, the environmental costs saved would amount
to over £1 billion each year. In comparison, if all
food was consumed within 20km of its production, the savings
would be over £2 billion annually.
The Food Standards Agency has revealed
that in August 2004 a beef carcass still containing thymus
tissue was bought by a butcher and sold on to the public.
Ten other carcasses from the abattoir in Scotland were found
to contain risk tissue which should have been removed to protect
the public from contracting vCJD, the human form of mad cow
disease. The Food Standards Agency reports that it did not
issue a public alert as the meat had probably already been
eaten by the public. However, it claims that the level of
public concern about BSE has fallen by almost 20% since 2000.
Dinner Lady Jeanette Orrey has transformed
the meals at her school in Nottingham and was apparently an
inspiration for Jamie Oliver’s school dinners TV programme.
She is also School Meals Policy Advisor to the Soil Association
as a result of her own campaigning and use of local and organic
produce. Her cookbook, ‘The Dinner Lady’, will
be published by Bantam Press at the end of the month. Click
here to read the Organic Wales review.
Rhodri Morgan, First Minister for Wales,
revealed the findings of the Reducing Wales’ Ecological
Footprint project in Cardiff on 10th March 2005. The project
was co-ordinated by WWF Cymru to demonstrate the global impact
of the lifestyles of the Welsh population. The Ecological
Footprint calculates how much productive land and sea is needed
to provide us with the energy and materials we use and to
absorb our waste. The average Welsh person uses 5.25 global
hectares of resources, much more than our ‘fair share’
of two hectares per person. The average person in Bangladesh
uses only half a hectare, while the average American uses
a massive 9.6 hectares of resources. If everyone consumed
at that rate, we would need five planets’ worth of resources!
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Bronllys Hospital in Powys will become
the first NHS hospital in the UK to generate electricity from
the sun, with solar panels on its south-facing roofs. The
60kW photovoltaic system will be installed by Wales-based
Dulac Ltd on behalf of Powys Local Health Board, with funding
from the Objective 2 Regional Development Fund. They hope
the system will generate enough electricity to power the hospital
and raise income from the national grid, which will then be
re-invested into further energy efficiency schemes.
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Welsh Hospital Supplies have agreed to
£120,000 per year deal to use only locally sourced beef
in North West Wales, North East Wales and Conwy and Denbighshire
NHS Trusts. It reflects a growing trend in the NHS and schools
to source produce locally, and follows a trial in four London
hospitals to increase their use of organic food and milk.
Cardiff Council has banned potato
peelings and tea bags from recycling bins that collect waste
meant for composting. Householders have been told not to put
kitchen waste in the ‘green’ waste in response
to EU regulations designed to prevent foot and mouth outbreaks.
Kitchen waste is considered dangerous as it may have been
in contact with meat or milk. It can be safely treated with
an ‘in-vessel’ high temperature composting systems
at 90C, but no Welsh council has one. (A normal composting
heap only reaches a temperature of about 70C.) The Department
for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that
home composting is not a problem, but kitchen waste has to
be separated for commercial or municipal uses.
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