Sunday, 23 November 2008
Spend nothing!
Meant to add - check this out http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/ Saturday 29th November!
Spending our way out?
I have to say I am unconvinced about the current theory of spending our way out of the 'economic downturn' (is it a recession yet?)
The Chancellor is apparently planning to cut VAT to 15% so we all have oodles more money to spend! The Government is to increase borrowing to increase public spending!
I am not convinced!
In my (humble) opinion consumerism and materialism are the pathways we have followed that have got us into this mess. We have been encouraged to spend what we don't have through easy credit and now we are to spend to solve this?
As a passionate environmentalist this does not sit easy with me - encouraging us to consume more surely is folly in face of the environmental crisis we face. Do we really need to hit the high street in order to save ourselves from the economic crisis? I always worry when the environment loses out to the economy.
We desperately need to consume less in order that we have any hope of averting environmental disaster - Gandhi said that the world has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed. With the clock ticking as we head towards unavoidable and possible runaway Climate Change we should be looking at ways of tightening our belts, making do and mending not increasing our consumption of this planet's limited resources.
The Chancellor is apparently planning to cut VAT to 15% so we all have oodles more money to spend! The Government is to increase borrowing to increase public spending!
I am not convinced!
In my (humble) opinion consumerism and materialism are the pathways we have followed that have got us into this mess. We have been encouraged to spend what we don't have through easy credit and now we are to spend to solve this?
As a passionate environmentalist this does not sit easy with me - encouraging us to consume more surely is folly in face of the environmental crisis we face. Do we really need to hit the high street in order to save ourselves from the economic crisis? I always worry when the environment loses out to the economy.
We desperately need to consume less in order that we have any hope of averting environmental disaster - Gandhi said that the world has enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed. With the clock ticking as we head towards unavoidable and possible runaway Climate Change we should be looking at ways of tightening our belts, making do and mending not increasing our consumption of this planet's limited resources.
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Would you eat it?
Oh my gods!! Just read this at BBC news - apparently the EU are planning to repeal the laws governing uniformity of fruit and veg (you know the one that means your cucumber must be straight etc!) and people are not happy!! The question is would we eat wonky carrots or forked carrots or blemished apples? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7724347.stm
Of course I would!! Bloody hell in this day and age when money is getting tighter and people around the world have NOTHING to eat can we in the developed world be so arrogant as to reject perfectly good food just because it doesn't look perfect?
It is yet another symptom of how disconnected we are from our food and its production - of course a certain percentage of food will be blemished and less than 100% visually perfect but that is a fact of life surely!! (Should we ban people who are less than perfect? Oh that's right we just bombard society with images of perfection and cause mass neurosis about our image.... another story!)
Carrots get forked roots, carrots are dirty (they grow in soil for crying out loud!) GET OVER IT ALREADY!
Of course I would!! Bloody hell in this day and age when money is getting tighter and people around the world have NOTHING to eat can we in the developed world be so arrogant as to reject perfectly good food just because it doesn't look perfect?
It is yet another symptom of how disconnected we are from our food and its production - of course a certain percentage of food will be blemished and less than 100% visually perfect but that is a fact of life surely!! (Should we ban people who are less than perfect? Oh that's right we just bombard society with images of perfection and cause mass neurosis about our image.... another story!)
Carrots get forked roots, carrots are dirty (they grow in soil for crying out loud!) GET OVER IT ALREADY!
Friday, 7 November 2008
Foraging - the hunter gatherer!
Today I got some free meat and some free firewood (a friend's husband shot some pheasants which were donated to me!! and a place near my work gives away timber offcuts that they would otherwise have to pay for disposal of, so a win win situation!)
Got me thinking again about out disconnection as a society from our food production and from Nature in general. We are so used to our vacuum packed meat that bears no resemblance to the animal from which it came, to standardised apples (we couldn't eat a misshapen one now could we?) and have become trapped in the machinations of the supermarkets and multi nationals. I feel this disconnection from the natural world lies at the root of many (all?) of our problems - we don't work with nature and her cycles but rather subjugate and dominate in an attempt to better what she can do! The results - pollution, climate change, unsustainable growth..........
A large part of my spiritual path is seeking reconnection - reconnection with the land, with my ancetsors, with deity. I strongly believe that we as a people need to reconnect and once again realise we are from the land and without it we die! We need to again reconnect wth the rhythms of the Earth our home and our sustainer.
Part of thsi reconnection is regaining our traditional skills of our forebears - the men and women who tilled this land and stewarded the fruits of the Earth - skills we are losing and may never recover if we are not careful. This was brought home to me by the death of my Grandfather 2 weeks ago today - a real countryman who knew the land beneath his feet, her times and seasons and worked with them. He is now dead and with him dies a tribal wisdom that we risk losing out on if we don't honour our ancestors and learn from them. One of my regrest at his passing is that I didn't ask him about the 'old times' and I learnt more about him from his Funeral tribute than I did during his life!
I for one want to return to a more sustainable and honouring way of life, one that is connected with Mother Earth and her times and seasons, one that makes a much smaller impact on this Planet.
Enough rambling for now - I will look more at this another time.
Got me thinking again about out disconnection as a society from our food production and from Nature in general. We are so used to our vacuum packed meat that bears no resemblance to the animal from which it came, to standardised apples (we couldn't eat a misshapen one now could we?) and have become trapped in the machinations of the supermarkets and multi nationals. I feel this disconnection from the natural world lies at the root of many (all?) of our problems - we don't work with nature and her cycles but rather subjugate and dominate in an attempt to better what she can do! The results - pollution, climate change, unsustainable growth..........
A large part of my spiritual path is seeking reconnection - reconnection with the land, with my ancetsors, with deity. I strongly believe that we as a people need to reconnect and once again realise we are from the land and without it we die! We need to again reconnect wth the rhythms of the Earth our home and our sustainer.
Part of thsi reconnection is regaining our traditional skills of our forebears - the men and women who tilled this land and stewarded the fruits of the Earth - skills we are losing and may never recover if we are not careful. This was brought home to me by the death of my Grandfather 2 weeks ago today - a real countryman who knew the land beneath his feet, her times and seasons and worked with them. He is now dead and with him dies a tribal wisdom that we risk losing out on if we don't honour our ancestors and learn from them. One of my regrest at his passing is that I didn't ask him about the 'old times' and I learnt more about him from his Funeral tribute than I did during his life!
I for one want to return to a more sustainable and honouring way of life, one that is connected with Mother Earth and her times and seasons, one that makes a much smaller impact on this Planet.
Enough rambling for now - I will look more at this another time.
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
The chickens have landed
So, finally, after many years of dreaming the hens are here!
I have always wanted hens for eggs and possibly meat and one of my conditions of moving house (in April) was that I could get my chooks! So I got the house and run in the summer and last weekend got the hens. They are 3 twelve week old pullets - 8 weeks away from laying but that gives them time to settle in and get used to the kids peering in at them!
So the smallholding dream is now one step closer......
I have always wanted hens for eggs and possibly meat and one of my conditions of moving house (in April) was that I could get my chooks! So I got the house and run in the summer and last weekend got the hens. They are 3 twelve week old pullets - 8 weeks away from laying but that gives them time to settle in and get used to the kids peering in at them!
So the smallholding dream is now one step closer......
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