Day Five - Nearly there..

My morning starts as normal, a big bowl of porridge with honey and banana to see me through the morning's lectures... but whilst wolfing it down and packing my bag at the same time I find a moment to consider my choice of honey.. A little while ago I was shopping and stumbled across an ethical dilemma in the form of my favourite porridge accompaniment; To buy local, organic honey... or to buy Fairtrade honey from Africa? Is it better to support local farmers and "eat local" or to ensure farmers in developing worlds have a fair price for their produce? After a good ten minutes standing in the condiments aisle, I reached a conclusion - I chose local. And I'll tell you why... Local food means less greed from the West for goods from other countries (which we can amply supply ourselves), less food miles and, therefore less contribution to climate change. Food miles, for all you non-climate-change-geeks refer to the distance your food has travelled to get to you. Another prime example from my day was my Golden Delicious apple straight from Somerset down the road... NOT from America. The mind boggles that so many of the foods we can grow in Britain are being bought from far off places and thus the transport required to bring them to your "local" supermarket is having a huge effect on the planet. I also snapped this photo of some blueberries in Sainsbury's today... Enough said.

How does this effect food shortages? As temperatures rise, crop yields will fall – possibly to half of their current levels in some African countries. At the same time, extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts and floods will get worse and happen more often, and the seasons that people rely on to grow crops will get even more unpredictable. The world’s governments have dragged their feet for too long. It's time to stop listening to industrial lobbies – and start dealing with a situation that’s only going to get more urgent.


Later on I have some stirfry vegetables bought from the local grocers (which is hugely better value than any supermarket in town!) and I've got to say, I'm feeling all the more healthier for it!