Ever despaired about the lack of real news or information in the mainstream media? Good daily
mailing issued from the Soil Association majoring on food and Farming of course but covering
wider issues too.Subscribe here http://www.soilassociation.org/Web/SA/saweb.nsf/TNRegistrants?OpenForm

The Independent seems to have some useful analysis in the business section and the BBC website certainly has volume but any other suggestions for real news welcome. Interesting and lively debates on global economic -and other - issues can be found on Housepricecrash.co.uk

Chatham House panel recently published summary of work so far looking at "UK Food Supply, Storm Clouds On The Horizon". Despite their establishment image they don't appear complacent about serious and imminent food security and supply issues
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/10896_bp0108food.pdf

Glebelands Inquisition Team

NEWS ARTICLES

January 2009: New Blood

December 2008: Transition or Hobby?

November 2008:More Tales From The Riverbank

November 2008 (ii): Falafel and Mushy Peas Again Delia?

October 2008:Glebelands Speaks Out!

Sept 2008: Abu-Dhabian Chaps Recognise Urban Farming and Buy Glebelands Next?

August 2008: Summer musings

Jun 2008: Spring thoughts

February 2008: Green Revolution II?

December 2007: Nutrients/£: Non-competition comission

October 2007: Darker Days and Pyramid Selling

September 2007: Economic Growth, When Is It OK To Say Stop?

August 2007: It's stopped raining!

August 2007: Extreme summer weather

July 2007: Asda Bananas

January 2009: New Blood

After the coldest December for some years the Winter salad leaves suffered some tests and limited picking. Using fleece on leaves under cover can protect against very cold nights, say –4° or below although each plant has different cold tolerance. Winter Purslane continues to be the most impressive in harsh conditions.

Outside the Russian Kale is picked to a standstill until reshooting in February and the Spinach Beet we hope will revitalise in March for a few weeks of picking. Most efforts have however gone into planning the transition to new operators at Glebelands, Glebelands City Growers Ltd.

The new team consists of Ed+Sally, moving up from Bristol, and Adam and Charlotte both of whom worked on site in 2008. They have registered a new company and will take over the site during February. A pending Local Food funding bid offers the opportunity to secure and expand production, chiefly through more protected areas/polytunnels. Dramatic prices increases in imported veg prices, due to a weaker £, reinforce the need for such an approach.

Adam and Lesley, operators for the 8 years since opening, are going in to a brief respite period post selling their house. While looking at further work on seasonal extension they will also be continuing to write, speak and advise on food production and selling issues. As James Kunstler points out in his thoughtful 2009 predictions www.kunstler.com/Mags_Forecast2009.html there’s a lot of change going on, not least in farming.

Adam York

Return to top

Return to home page

December 2008:Transition or Hobby? Have We Got Change Underway?

Anyone who has watched the film End Of Suburbia will be clear about the nature of the challenge for the UK and many other countries in order to survive, and even prosper. So far central government has responded to resource/climate/economic meltdown by advocating increased shopping. Assuming state leadership may be some time coming what is action within the wider public like so far?

Some early 2008 positive stuff encompassed make’n’mend, homebaking, allotmenteering, etc all well covered by the mainstream media. Most of this was amenity/choice rather than necessity but useful skills none the less. Some green figures such as Caroline Lucas pointed out populist important themes such as bus services, inequality of wealth but most politicians said don’t be alarmist. Survivalists found salvation in a real threat to stock up for and cults everywhere warmed up for busier times.

The Soil Association and many Peak Oil writers were certainly up with the issues and campaigners finally got onto a runway in late 2008. The reaction to what will in due course look like a very reasonable act, showed just how many middle class people in particular like flying. Amidst the wider public the biggest change so far has been simply to buy less, albeit compared to a decade or more of extraordinary consumption. Food shopping reduced for the first time in decades with cheap frozen growing and salads and fruit sales shrinking.

Writers began to investigate self-sufficiency issues again with Simon Fairlie and Graham Harvey hindering otherwise well informed pieces by assuming grazed pastures were perpetual energy machines. Clive Ponting updated his seminal history of the world and only he and Jared Diamond seem to have really got the significance of forest cover. To their credit writers from the early 1970s seem to have remained busy Eg Francis Moore Lappe, and avoided saying we told you so.

Regular issues of the Organic Grower magazine by the re-emergent OGA showed a network of commercial growers alive and kicking just at the moment their routes to the public were shrinking under the weight of ZanuLabour’s laissez-faire adventures. Lack of planning central or otherwise seems a recurring societal theme, state collusion with global capital is perhaps less surprising.

Permaculturism and Transition Towns continue to sound very positive while so far offering some serious red herrings. We certainly all want examples and inspiration but the hobby-necessity axis was apparent here with Wwoofers busy weaving on holdings while the owners earned their crust elsewhere. Permaculture designers reached plague numbers while occasional practitioners got hungry before getting back to town. The grain consumed by 70 million people alone seems to be an issue beyond most people involved . Unfortunate parallels with the LETS movement of the 1990s seem clear enough.

What could organised campaigners have done? Some ideas;

Trees, trees, trees. Keep planting, even Tolkien saw a tree solution. Organisations such as TreeResponsibility and Trees For Life in the UK and the Japanese Government have kept at it aware that it takes 25 years minimum for real payback.

Wood heating in the UK. Wood stoves of poor design however popular are a poor answer. Legal, efficient designs are readily available but little recognised in the UK. Laissez-faire no help to the market here. Any transition campaign could raise funds to buy woodland locally (upland or north facing slopes might be as little as £1000/acre). Planting woodland is a perfectly achievable local project with tangible outcomes such as secure fuel.

Public transport/mass transit. Car ownership will dwindle but walking/cycling initiatives have been generally tokenistic. Buses and trains serve commuters better than most but buses in particular suffer culture resistance outside of Ken’s London work. Haven’t noticed any direct action on bus access and fares so far.

Solar Thermal Heating. These type of solar panels heat water efficiently for much of the year but are much confused with PV or electricity generating panels. The latter does not seem relevant at present. Mass introduction of solar thermal would seriously reduce the UK energy bill and might prove a better return than giving public money to bankers.

Food Production. Much talked about but little happening beyond individual gardens and growers. Local planners got away with giving permissions on fertile land for developments nobody wants to buy or edge of town retail to destroy existing central facilities. Beyond Farnham and Unicorn schemes (and perhaps Soil Ass. Land Trust) seems little appetite to acquire land despite its relatively low value. Control of, and access to, land is one of the big historical issues which as food prices rise will re-emerge.
Is there a grain mill in the region? Do we have a local brewery? Experiments such as Fife have shown plenty of threads to pursue.

Local Planners. After a decade or more of shameful trashing of local life room for improvement. Scrutiny of, campaigning on and embarrassment of planning departments might be in everybody’s interest. At least the UK has a planning system.
Until housing, jobs, schools, etc are planned Havana style for proximity we will be cursed by travel and beyond walking distances.

Local Politics. Get elected, time consuming but some real power remains and may yet increase. Get involved before someone less altruistic does.

Action on the above would increase the resilience of a community and its chances of surviving, even prospering. Organising and attending lots of meetings, driving around the UK a lot or slipping off to Stanstead for some cheap Yoga trip will not help much. We still have some breathing space in which to act and invest in our futures – let’s use it sensibly.

Adam York

Return to top

Return to home page

November 2008:More Tales From The Riverbank

Actually fewer this period as activity and plant growth slow right down with the season. Plenty of Russian Kale standing outside and resistant to the frosts so far. A few late outdoor Lettuces have hung on and Winter Purslane semi-sheltered under mesh tunnels looking good. Inside salad leaves also looking good with a small patch of Chervil thriving in the shortening days. The flavour of the latter a real tonic, almost Liquorish in it.

Efforts continue to finalise a team for the 2009 season, inheriting soil better than ever and an almost intact green manure cover on the site. The way forward may well be to increase the number of polytunnels on site and the winter cropping potential. Recent rises in prices of conventional crops make organic/non-oil based ones seem sensible and importation can only become dearer as energy scarcity becomes a reality.

While many pretended or wanted to believe economic meltdown was just a cycle, a big bill has landed in the UK and globally, for spending 10+ years down the shops without the means to pay for it. As throughout history elites who get free of any constituency or accountability tend to behave badly and to self-interest. This time big time! In this period we have the now comic phrases about “light touch, trickle down, wealth creators, masters of the universe, laissez-faire, partnerships”, whereas many people now know they’ve just been had (again).

We all look naive now accepting tosh like PFIs, neo-Labour, offshore manufacturing, Tesco led planning, credit funded everything, elitist schooling, growing wealth inequality, invading other countries, etc but can we stay alert enough to avoid any more? There still seems quite lot for the public in the UK and elsewhere to take on board. We are as yet unable to talk about population limits (well understood in the 1960s), still not totally convinced of climate change and keen to hear out anyone claiming a technofix magic bullet is just around the corner. Natives transfixed by Trafford Centre baubles is not a very flattering way to see ourselves. Endless economic growth really is not possible and planning for survival and quality of life really is wisdom and necessity.

Anybody still thinking it’ll all be OK soon and off to crack open a few Stellas from Asda might just try 30 minutes courtesy of Jared Diamond or Clive Ponting reading up on Easter Island, Rwanda or Greenland Vikings. Peoples who thought they could do it “their way” regardless of their surroundings fail. Do we want to go the same way?

Adam York

Return to top

Return to home page

Nov 2008: Falafel and Mushy Peas Again Delia?

While waiting for the rainclouds to clear easy to drift onto forseeing future scenarios in the drastically hydro-carbon reduced world we have now to accept. Getting harder to pretend everything will be OK/just a cycle/economic confidence/etc despite best efforts of Evan Davies in the Spring on the BBC/the Halifax/neo-Labour/estate agents/etc. Less oil+gas, less fertile soil, more people, laissez-faire….you didn’t need to be a peak oiler, survivalist or conspirasist to see trouble ahead. Charlie Windsor proving one of the saner and braver voices of late. Could he, Ray Mears and Vince Cable end up running the country for a bit?

The global issues are scary enough but the UK issues are as much we can often contemplate. Taking the 4 people per hectare of fertile land often suggested as a baseline the UK may be better off than many other countries, as long as the gulf stream isn’t switched off. Much discussion of late about the carrying capacity of the land we have but suffice to say our mild soils are too precious to waste on animal faming/indirect food production.

Less appreciated is the need to do sensible things with the large areas of upland and more marginal areas, eg north facing slopes. Sheep farming has for over 500 years degraded such landscapes and soils and continuing this process is unhelpful and dangerous. We need further afforestation, a process that fortunately appeals to much of the public already. Trees provide fuel, building materials, steady temperatures and climate, food, wind speed reduction and soil enhancement. Even Tolkien might have spotted them as saviours.

More Glebelands in urban areas will help and more organic farming everywhere similarly, with our lower inputs and more nutritious product. Will the future be however a bit like now with slightly higher food bills? What will we be actually growing? What will UK cuisine be like now that we’ve all got a lot better at flavouring dishes and cooking but the ingredients are threatening to slip away?

Meat and dairy products will be much more expensive and therefore regardless of ethics consumption of them will plummet. It already has across many countries, returning to more traditional territory of exclusive. Reality crops will be protein from the prolific such as beans, peas and trees, and more durable grains suited to the climate of the area.The intriguing questions currently revolve around how this is to be done. Smaller, more localised or regionalised production and marketing may quickly emerge as energy costs bite.Attractive as this seems the big bad combine harvester, freezer plant and Peel Holdings dockyard might yet prevail. It is not at all clear so far who dearer fuel and chemical fertiliser will favour.

Summer 08 has seen significant consumer movement to cheap frozen foods. Will this food stay cheap as the growers threaten to pull out and the freezing cost rises? Will Victorian style contamination of foodstuffs extend from current pesticide/fungicide residues to wider GM and F1 genetic adventures? Will there be any dollars to continue subsidy of cheap carbohydrate for Cargill et al? Will UK educated Arabian Princes continue to prop up the £/take the risk, do they like/need London enough?

Enforced seasonality is breaking upon us and the £ has moved enough to restrict imported fresh food and offer cheer to UK growers looking ahead. What next?

Correct answers only please on a postcard to Glebelands Overseas Division c/o Sale!

Return to top

Return to home page

October 2008:Glebelands Speaks Out!

Online interview at http://organicgarden.org.uk/blog/archives/1290:11 minutes on yes, our local food system but unfortunately not giving away the buried treasure location as yet. Free copy of “Collapse” for first correct computation of number of times the term ”relatively” used in broadcast.

Return to top

Return to home page

Sept 2008: Abu-Dhabian Chaps Recognise Urban Farming and Buy Glebelands Next?

The late August rain waves a have put a damper on many growers’ seasons with parts of the NW waterlogged and the UK grain harvest having moved from looking great to rotting. Our sandy soil remains a “hungry” one, but forgiving in terms of drainage and our ability to get back in the field while others are held up. Yields have been good although the low light levels made Cucumbers, Courgettes, Squash, Lettuce all end early or tail off quickly. As long as the public keep up their taste for fresh salad leaf however we’ve got a viable market.

Our protected areas (not area 51 but polytunnels, glasshouse or similar) are now being planted with hardier, cold season varieties such as Winter Purslane, Mizuna, Turnip Tops, etc. They do their growing as we go toward Winter but are relatively static once daylength, light levels and temperature have fallen enough. Importantly they will survive sub-zero temperatures without heat simply through the barrier of glass, plastic or fleece between them and the windchill. This is extremely energy efficient.

If our season so far has been relatively successful it is important to acknowledge those making it happen. Our team this year has as ever been based on Lesley and myself but ably assisted by regulars Charlotte, Adam R, Helen and Rob. The enthusiasm generated goes a long way to combating the vicissitudes of horticulture and global challenges looming. Thanks to all and several of the more dynamic wwoofers who’ve visited.

Urban growing or farming appears to have arrived as a subject with a Google search throwing up much more than it would 7 years ago when we began. While the fluffy stuff/give me a grant/consultant fever will pass, serious effort is starting to go in to working out how on earth feeding large urban populations will work without cheap oil. While the short answer is not very well there is much even a small scale model such as Glebelands shows can be done. Another inspiration of recent years has been Cuban efforts to survive using amongst other things urban gardens. One of those featured in the Power of Communities film Roberto Perez is on tour in the UK, speaking in Manchester on 24.09.08 but also visiting Glebelands too.

Adam York

Return to top

Return to home page

Aug 2008: Tales From The Riverbank x

The summer's OK, this one at least.

Despite several days of serious heat recently rainfall has been generally appropriate, temperatures steady and no mad winds. Those unfamiliar with fieldwork will underestimate how severe sunshine can be and the challenge of doing physical work in humid conditions. We don hats, sunscreen and variable clothing layers but the UK is an amazingly changeable climate dominated by mild "fronts"blowing up from the SW and the oceans. Planning for each one dominates and we are never far from the BBC radar pictures for looking at the next 24-48 hours. The UK has, however, a relatively benign, temperate climate, much of the rest of the world less so. Turn off this "Gulf Stream" or "North Atlantic Drift" and the UK will be a chilly unproductive place.

To this end building Kingsnorth/Nuclear/Shopping Garbage would be suicidal acts Neo-Labour would still dearly love to commit. Fortunately western capitalism has got a permanent puncture and building anything in the UK/US is pretty much over. No more Trafford Centre (or their Spanish one),Chill Factor indoor ski nightmare, motorways, Thatcherite annoying people, talking about the value of your house or spending lots of cash on trash, period.

Interestingly so far behavior in the UK has been encouraging with make and mend/resourcefulness/car booting/growing fruit+veg all prevalent themes. Some rises in housebreaking/debt collecting/redundancy/privatisation are warning shots but overall the population appears more resilient than might have been expected. Admirable campaigning such as The Climate Camp continues but the driver for the rapid changes taking place is price of energy and materials. (People's time and labour can now only relatively decline in value of course.....) Adam Smith would have been proud,although perhaps less so with the WTO/World Bank/IMF institutions trying to manipulate markets to favour sectional interest.

On the land we have produced record amounts of our crops,even achieving a surplus of Courgettes. Comic for many in the summer but novel for us.

Unicorn, our dominant outlet has continued to shift substantial amounts in the face of fierce supermarket competition and it is heartening to see the direct but minimum handling model holding up against such extreme conditions. Maintaining any profit margin while competitors "burn"lots of cash reserves is not an easy task. Watchers in the grocery industry wonder who has the deepest pockets to stay the course, with profit taking in years to come. Laissez-faire government at this point can be seen to be particularly stupid as suppliers/growers have been the main victims so far. Having already handed over planning permission for most useful UK retail sites to supermarkets over the last 15 years Hazel Blears recently announced action to protect independent shops! Reality and Neo-Labour announcements remain estranged.

We have continued our quest for coastal relocation and inheritors of the Glebelands business with low response so far. Do email us if you are interested. We are interested in showing what can be done on very mild costal strip areas for winter import substitution but also smaller settlements having model localised food production.Suitable sites are not easy to obtain but the idea remains very important.

Return to top

Return to home page

Jun 2008: Tales From The Riverbank ix

First piece for a bit, largely due to too much time in the field.

The UK season might be seen as seeding+planting, followed by planting+weeding, followed by weeding+picking, the challenge being to extend the latter period beyond the obvious warmer months. Our spring has been broadly OK with crops prospering largely due to several lengthy days of irrigation using Mersey water. Flea beetle damage has been low with plants also strong enough to resist aphid colonies.

Current crops are Lettuces, Basil, Parsley, Broad Beans, Courgettes, Spinach Beet and Salad Leaves with Russian Kale,Squashes,Coriander and Cucumbers on the way.

Apologies for all disappointed course would be attenders: if the clamour continues we will rearrange in early Autumn

Much of UK population still struggling to take on board energy and food costs let alone work out what nitrate and the Haber-Bosch Process means (seemingly the means to have got nearly 7 billion people very rapidly). Anybody else think that global population may already be falling as the poor are priced beyond weekly sustenance?

As globalisation goes in to reverse anticipating the shape of localised and more regionalised life is not easy. The film "End of Suburbia" has been an excellent guide to the issues and solutions to survival, beyond taking to the hills with ammunition and crucifix, well worth tracking down. The outer suburbs of many US cities are already in some decline and encouraging falls in driving and clothes shopping are being reported. As with all processes of change a lot may not be forseen but beneficial effects may be in this too. See you at the pickling class

Return to top

Return to home page

Feb 2008: Tales From The Riverbank viii - Green Revolution II?

Much news of late suggesting GM crops will be essential to boost yields in the face of continuing global population growth ie we'll starve without them. This seems essentially a rerun of Green Revolution I of the 1960s+70s where new hybrid varieties of grains, particularly rice, would save the third world. Higher yields have been achieved in many regions as long as the nitrate fertiliser and water supply was available to "fuel" them. It was a system to turn oil into food. Unfortunately soil quality requires more than short term energy blitzes and humus has often been consumed and considerable desertification caused. The case for steady soil fertility and yields through organic recycling of nutrients back into soil has struggled against capital intensive and World Bank backed "big farming" but shrinking fertile areas continue to alarm.

GM crops harber Green Revolution II with a similar offer to raise yields by genetically dramatic changes in plant biology. The technology is crude (lumps of DNA from one species dropped into another) and ultimately hopes to squeeze more yield out of the ground than before. Soil and energy are however finite and the disasters of Green Revolution I are there for all to see, for examplewater shortages, falling yields, cash crop agriculture, ties to pesticide and seed companies, suicidal Indian farmers. Cheap fertiliser is no more and the long slow haul back to living soil faces us, as does mass starvation......

Organic farmers are not offering exclusive food for the educated, they are offering food production that is sustainable, systems that can produce for all, year in year out. They aim to put back what they take out, a system used successfully for 40,000 years by Chinese growers amongst others. Soil is a resource to cherish and cultivate, an inheritance for the next generation. GM crops and seeds offer quick fixes which can feed ever larger numbers of us: does this sound plausible or trustworthy? Do the people and companies lobbying for more GM introductions seem to be acting in the wider public interest? Eg the NFU, Bayer, Monsanto, Tony Blair.........

Return to top

Return to home page

Dec 2007: Tales From The Riverbank vii - Nutrients Per £/Non-Competition Commission

Despite some sub-zero conditions salad leaf cropping goes on. Now more picking of indoor leaves but still some outside semi-sheltered tunnels of Winter Purslane. We are confident salad leaf customers are buying a lot of nutrients per £ or lb, with of course v.low energy/carbon input. By way of contrast our local multiple supermarkets have recently reached new lows by selling 4x440ml cans of lager for 88p(22p each). There are several problems with them doing this but one might be that the nutrients and pleasure obtained (crap beer) might still be poor value even at 22p. However low the price goes it can still represent a bad deal.

Looking at the wider issues suggests that most of the recent Competition Commission Enquiry really was laissez-faire garbage. Newsnight recently suggested the duty and other costs meant the selling price was below product cost (this practice the Commission suggested this could still be in the interest of consumers). The 4 largest multiples all charge exactly the same price for this line, an amazing coincidence when the next nearest line is £2+, hardly diversity. Alcohol Concern and others inevitably pointed out the strong relationship between price, availability and excessive drinking and illness. That multiples have felt able to price alcohol aggressively low over recent years suggests they feel under little pressure over the consequences. Most Government pronouncements have concentrated on deliberately ineffective measures (persecuting underage drinkers, berating parents, voluntary code guff, working with industry, etc) while avoiding any action affecting sales at Tesco et al. Any moral discussion about targeting at market segments best described as alcoholic has been avoided so far.

Clearly a heavy human and health costs price is attached to the above, but paid afterwards and not by Tesco et al. One should also be very concerned that the C.Commission is empowered to intervene and regulate the grocery market in the UK. Currently power is still moving to the multiple supermarkets (they have 80% market share) and away from producers, independent retailers, local authorities and arguably consumers (citizens?). The Commission’s logic runs that if the consumer gets a low price that’s a good thing almost regardless of any other factor. Public policy is therefore built on a very thin premise, from a harsh ideological place.

I hope the wider issues matter to any citizen but all vegetable growers, organic or conventional, know that multiples with all the negotiating cards behave in a predictable way. The above suggests we should not tolerate such irresponsibility and cannibalising of public health. Beyond blaming we also all need to be careful not to be too easily taken in with any strategy of cheap alcohol, consumer goods, giveaway council houses, cheap flights, etc. Knowing there is no free lunch should make us very wary of people who offer one (liquid or otherwise).

Return to top

Return to home page

Oct 2007: Tales From The Riverbank V - Darker Days?

Clocks changing and daylength shortening several minutes each day can be changes that sets us all back. Even Alaskans and Finns struggle. We are however cutting some of the most nutritious leaves of the year (after Elliot Coleman) with Purslane, leafy Endives, Mustards and Mizuna dominant in the salad mix. Most are sweeter than attempted in warmer months and critically will stand sub-zero temperatures, particularly in sheltered positions and polytunnels. The challenge is to time the growth periods late enough to avoid bolting or heat stress but early enough to get to cutting size before lack of light or an early handbreak frost. There may well be little or no regrowth until February light and warmer soil arrive. Commercially this means despite the excellent nutrition provided the yield per square foot of land is much less than “faster” times of the year.

Why is this important? As growers it is not lucrative (hence lack of UK Winter leaves on sale) despite the rich nutrients provided per £ spent. None of us as consumers want to pay the cost when other salads from Southern.Europe are widely available at seemingly reasonable cost. Researcher Andy Jones (of “Eating Oil” Report fame) calculated Glebelands salad versus Andulusian Salad (typical UK Winter source) showing around x1000 energy use for the latter. Crudely 2 miles versus nearly 2000. Instinctively we can see there is a problem here but scrutiny shows also issues around soil damage, water use, nitrate contamination and illegal labour rates.

All undesirable but ultimately issues that rebound on the rest of us, and jeopardise wider survival. Intervention from deregulationist DEFRA and neo-Labour is not on the agenda, particularly while low food prices continue to assist their economic bubble attempt. Further thoughts on the latter follow.

Return to top

Return to home page

Oct 2007: Tales From The Riverbank VI - Pyramid Selling With Gordon, Tony and Rupert

Those of us with formative years from the 1970s will remember pyramid selling, briefly very popular but scarily daft and painful for thousands of people. Much of the last 20 years of economic growth seem to have grim parallels, bizarrely unnoticed until recently. Most of us can easily look the other way when we want to, certainly when goldrush (cheap shares/asset giveaways/cheap migrants?) fever looms. Mrs Thatcher may have set it off but Tony certainly presided over most of the great British property hike, expanding values on hopes of endless growth but built only on foundations of sand. Gordon’s expounded theory of expressing confidence to keep it all going neglects the reality of individual income being sufficient to pay back what has been borrowed. Why do our representatives follow Rupert’s missives so slavishly? Whose interest is being pursued?

The “credit crunch” allegedly is interrupting global cashflow, translated meaning the bubble has burst. A trickle of articles (Eg German one/IoS Business writers) show overvalued property in the UK, the US and some other western regions has a real price. While Chinese and BRICS countries’ rapid growth may help avoid global recession the lack of economic substance and preoccupation with consumer tat (shopping) in the UK/US has just come unstuck. Any elite/state which effectively parasitises it’s own people and environment doesn’t have a long term view, certainly not for the wider population. Devout belief in human ingenuity, continuous growth and technofixes helped Polynesians cut down the all the trees on Easter Island. They didn’t have a boat to get them to anywhere else and we don’t have Apollo 6.2 billion.

Investing time and energy in maintaining soil, water and air quality will sustain life; building more Trafford Centre won’t. Sudanese, Congolese and Kenyans fighting over land and survival now merely have the misfortune to be at the sharp end right now. We don’t want to look at western colonial messes but they show us exactly how bad things can get without a long-term plan. We can’t even grow or find our food in the right country never mind respect million of years of biological complexity. Understanding what we’ve got and how it works is a mature aim, turning it all into hamburgers will kill the recipients.

PS humour that keeps cold fingers picking and complacency at bay:

Could Ruth Kelly replace Radio 4’s previously popular Donald Rumsfeld moment of the week?
Recent gems include driving on the hard shoulder as a policy/confusing religious fervour with being public representative/presiding over education policy while urban secondaries sunk to new depths……
Hazel Blears.
Hazel Blears’ thatcherite pronouncements while the ghost of Ewan McColl looks on.
Manchester Airport spokesman saying on TV that recent protest re UK flights didn’t matter because the airport would be carbon neutral soon.
Manchester Met University being desperate enough to host a sustainable aviation dept (partly funded by the aviation industry).
University of Manchester being desperate enough to host Sustainable Something (global shopping?) Dept attached to Tesco. Bit like a big version of their schools plan with more than less negative PR than the “free”footballs?
The party of the right being more left than the party of the left.
Rumours of gold panning alongside the River Mersey at Sale.
Pretending there is only 60million people on board Blighty (correct answer 70+).
Food Standards Agency pronouncing parents should decide how much toxic food their kids can take, apparently their Milton Friedman portrait spoke to them at a recent board meeting.
Recent warm greetings for hundreds of Francoists and Falangists at the Vatican, bring back St.Paul.
Neo-Labour spending £50million(so far discovered) on GM crop support versus £1.6 million on organic farming. Their Milton Friedman portrait forgot to warn them about goddamn Freedom of Information of Acts.

Return to top

Return to home page

September 2007: Economic Growth, When Is It OK To Say Stop?

As a Polytechnic ecology student in the 1980s I recall the debate over global growth and limits of. The academic consensus was broadly that while we had a burgeoning population we also had more resources than alarmist “Malthusians” allowed for, it was all about who had access to them. While the latter hasn’t stopped being true the Malthusians indeed Thomas Malthus himself (the 1700s……) suddenly appear to have recognition. A series of recent articles and news pieces appear to acknowledge the finite nature of global resources and the rising population reliant on them. John Vidal led in the newspapers, Newsnight chipped in on TV and the business world and the UN turned out some scary forecasting on food and energy.

While the UK consensus has so far appeared to be economic growth forever it may now be apparent that this was always nonsense. It does feel neo-Labour and other politicians may be the last to notice but realities have been biting earlier in other parts of the world. Conflicts over food and resources were predicted in the 1970s(as well as the 1700s!) and have indeed been taking place. Aside from the more blatant oil grab in the middle east, 1990s fighting in Rwanda and currently in Dafar are generally regarded as tribal or ethnic conflict. While there is rivalry, it is over resources of land and water, the means of survival. A really well told and researched piece by Jared Diamond on Rwanda gives the game away as the story of land ownership, murder and overpopulation is picked over

There are some current price movements on grain and fresh food, perhaps related to immediate climate effects, but far more significantly global business interests and speculators are finally alive to the market(as they would say)”fundamentals”; supply, population, resources. It is possible the current effect of poorer people being priced out of food markets by 800 million car divers and US biofuel subsidies, may be repeated a lot more. Land prices will continue to rise and countries may polarise between those with good resources(under their own control)and those that haven’t. There are some inevitable doomsday type scenarios possible here but while this may vindicate many ecologists of the 1970s, this is clearly a time for action. The first might be to keep saying permanent economic growth is nonsense?

Regionally the NW is relatively well provided for with a very mild climate, reliable water(rainfall!), and decent soils over a large area. This has led to a substancial population with huge consumption, currently globally supplied. It would be fair to say not much energy had gone into planning for the future, some local MPs have heard of Peak Oil, some Food and Energy Security, it doesn’t go much further than that . Certainly high energy or food prices would produce serious problems for the region. Immediate steps might be secure as much of the fertile land Eg Carrington type quality from concrete as possible. Soil is slow to form and undervalued now, could Peel Holdings be relocated to Miami or recycled as forestry planners? Areas currently being denuded by sheep could be productively returned to timber production for heating and construction materials. Efficient transport systems might significantly reduce car costs and congestion and we might adopt building standards that encompass low energy and relevant heating technology. While some of this may seem unlikely now other countries’ activity and our own history suggest much is possible.

Quality of life in warm dwellings well supplied with food and fuel from the region may prove more satisfying, and less fearful, than current preoccupations with escaping it all(why is this so necessary?), Trafford Centre unreachable dreams and Sky brain rot. A decade of increasing competitiveness, often at a personal level, has seen levels of mental illness, declining satisfaction and degenerative disease at big numbers. A sustainable future cannot be more of the latter. Current affluence and resources give us opportunities and some time, lets make the most of this.

Adam York 9.09.07

Return to top

Return to home page

August 2007: Tales From The Riverbank III-It’s Stopped Raining!

August has seen respite from Climate Changed conditions of July. Unfortunately too late for some crops, notably our Squashes, for others Lettuce and Salad Leaves it has been much better. Our crude assessment is that S.Lincs(the most important food producing area in the UK) and the NW have been some of the worst affected areas. Scotland and the far north of England have certainly fared much better. Potatoes have been heavily affected by blight which will lead to some shortages soon and Brocolli prices have been very high for 3-4 weeks. Most other price effects have been small and most losses have been bourne by growers. In an industry perpetually on the edge this is very unfortunate but with supermarket power so strong in the UK, inevitable and unlikely to change while laissez-faire neo-Labour continues.

Gloom aside Wheat prices have started moving to more realistic levels as rising world population, biofuel land-use nonsense, deteriorating climate and market speculators collided. £200/tonne and rising….? This is good for producers. Bread and flour prices are still catching up and the intriguing public response is still happening. I suspect the latter will be immediate acceptance, trouble only ever arising when people feel there is any choice. The darker side to the whole process will be in poorer regions of the world where it will be food for the poor versus higher prices for grain elsewhere. John Vidal highlights these issues well in this 29/08/07 piece: http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,2157708,00.html

The Climate Camp raised morale in the Glebelands fields as a couple of thousand well organised people rang rings round neo-Labour, BAA and middle class 5 a year indulgers everywhere. High points included the Guardian showing it’s true colours in more than one dire article whinging about camp menus(actually v.good), the kids entertainment(better than Sky?) and non-existant reportage whenever anyone made a serious point. Mr.Orr the Agrexco site Manager(Israeli airfreight fiends) excelled himself by out-bullshitting the Met, claiming protesters were drunk and chanting “Hamas”. Amusing until you consider sometime august news organisation the BBC carried it as a factual story. Misuse of terrorism powers, needless aggression and lots of dishonest PR didn’t do a lot for the Metropolitan Police’s reputation or 2007 budget, but their use by the Home Office in such a partial way was shameful. Memories of the Miners Strike returned and the contrast with the non-intervention during redneck fuel protests was stark.

The Camp serves obviously to make people uncomfortable about flying but much wider issues received some coverage. An excellent briefing was distributed “What’s Going On” (PDf coming) which reports on many topics fundamental to our ecological future and shows how little real information appears in the mainstream media beyond the business pages. The Camp was also inspiring to show how relatively small numbers of well prepared people pursuing a strong case can make progress, despite serious and powerful opposition. Picking on extreme targets such as private jets, the ginormous Heathrow air-freighted food centre, Sizewell and BAA was inspired and even the tabloids were grudgingly admiring. So far neo-Labour is still pretending airport expansion everywhere is essential (and compatible with climate targets…..). The absurdity may be obvious but this doesn’t force change at all. The impending rises in energy costs so likely to reshape the world are also only recently being taken on board by the world’s largest energy companies. Large and powerful structures do not seem to guarantee wisdom, prudence or being “iceburg proof”. The need to restrict the range of inequality in the UK and attempt to maintain a coherent society looks more pressing than deregulation of the planning system and going shopping.

Adam York 29/08/07

Return to top

Return to home page

August 2007: Tales From The Riverbank II-The Impact of The Rain 25.7.07

Recent bad weather has been grim if you were flooded, irritating if your event was cancelled and disappointing if you missed the sun. For growers and many outdoor workers it has been disastrous and may well prove to be the worst season in recent decades. Climate change deniers and binge flyers I hope get wet and hungry. I give some detail below as to why the conditions have been so serious for food production, particularly organic vegetable growing.
Excessive rain we have all experienced but in Greater Manchester there was only one day in the whole of July without rain. The most immediate effect was inability to weed as dry surface conditions are necessary to efficiently kill emergent (or tiny) weeds. They are mechanically cut, pulled or buried at this stage, all considerably more difficult and slower when they are bigger with proper roots. The latter also compete with the crop and harbour slugs to some extent.
Driving tractors onto sodden soil is a no-no, as besides getting stuck, compacting or seriously squashing the soil is a little known issue. Compaction sounds no big deal but airless, dead areas don’t come back to life easily. If you are waiting day after day to get planting your transplants(little plants often in plastic modules) they won’t wait forever, fed or not. Many have only 5-10 day planting out windows before they are scrap. Many plants also are quite specific as to the timing of their growth and July is the great brassica month. Many of these such as Cauliflower and Purple Sprouting Brocolli will not produce a crop until the following Spring but cannot be planted again until July 2008. While this family loves moisture like all plants they can drown or have their nutrients washed away.
Nitrate, the building block of plants, is very soluble and easily ends up in rivers and the sea in waterlogged conditions. Restriction of conventional farm use of synthetic nitrate is on every water authority and conservation body’s wish list.
If you did manage to get plants in then there was the lack of sunlight. The sun is the driver or energy source and the lack of it has caused slow growth such as undersized Lettuce. The latter have also been mud splashed between leaf layers and we lost an amount of new plants in a couple of extreme storms to physical damage.

Continuous moist conditions allowed slugs and snails unusual(on open farmland) progress but more seriously most of the UK has had early Potato Blight. Once started blight would require very favourable weather to slow down, chemical suppression is not very effective either. The NW appears to be particularly affected due to the duration of rain here.

Whinging farmers aside does it matter? So far the damage has largely been to the morale of those on the land. Some crops are delayed or lost but major reckoning is due shortly as brassicas and potatoes either survive or not and arable crops are harvested(or not). Most UK field production is for animal feed Eg Barley and Beets but Wheat for milling is already rising in price as estimates of field damage come in. Vegetable prices have not moved much so far although margins are paper thin in horticulture and multiple supermarkets are driving on the pressure with current price war. Packers and traders have been sourcing from Poland and the east although sampling suggests Brocolli and Caulis have been out of stock of late at Tesco et al.

It matters overall because while the UK is struggling to remember it’s agricultural potential a global food shortage has become the elephant in the room. Rising population, declining soil and fertility, and energy hikes are all grave issues. A dodgy climate messing up food production is not what we need right now, other than shock therapy for the complacent. Respect is owed to the derided ecologists of the 1970s who pointed out the population and food issues now astride us. Anybody looking for sensible planning for survival try Jared Diamond in his gloomily titled but seminal “Collapse”. Nice summary given at; http://www.dkv.columbia.edu/video/ei/jared_diamond.html
Happy shopping!

Adam York
Glebelands,Sale

Return to top

Return to home page

July 2007: The Asda Banana Scandal

Early in 2007 Asda were involved in discussions with representatives from 3rd world Banana growers as the fall out from Sainsbury’s fairtrade only Banana policy spread. The argument runs that a stable and reasonable price allows growers to survive, plan and send their children to school. The critique of low price (sometimes known as “dollar Bananas”) fruit is that it leads to large S.American plantations with low pay, casualised labour, chemical inputs and inferior flavour .As Bananas are the greatest value grocery product in the world this is a serious issue.

In characteristic Asda/Walmart fashion a price response was given whereby Asda stores reduced their Banana price to 68p/kg. As Action Aid and others have pointed out this price does not enable the pickers to achieve a living wage, whatever speed they go (production is relatively labour intensive). The Asda view appears to be that they were initiating another grocery price “war” and Bananas are good ammunition, the limited negative publicity not being enough of a deterrent. Whether the free-marketers at the Competition Commission noticed or really cared is not clear so far.

To enhance their ethical reputation further Asda then reduced the selling price to 62p/kg which again had the effect of forcing Tesco and Morrisons to do the same. In early July they they all went down to 59p/kg. Clearly cheap Bananas are popular with many UK shoppers (and Germans!) although the extremity of the case does offer the opportunity to embarrass. Even simple pickets or leafleting might well achieve a great deal with such a blatant example. It has also driven a coach and horses through the earlier hope of an ethical only UK Banana supply.

One might wonder that even the pro-globalistas at New Labour were getting edgy at all this, I think Adam Smith kept using the word responsibility in his writings. It has emerged however that so desperate are they to see inflation minimised around their growth and cheap labour bubble economy, that they are rather keen on the big multiple grocers. Tesco, Tony and Gordon is not news any more but the idea that food prices can be relied upon to continue to deflate and therefore to pull overall prices down is scary and ignores the inevitable. Grocery logistics can only be squeezed so far and the victims further afield numerous. The nation’s obsession with low prices is critical to the whole process and the recent economic chilliness has taken it to new levels. Cheap food, BSE, dodgy GM technology, foot+mouth, nitrate pollution, remember them, more coming soon…

.Return to top

Return to home page

Relaunch of OGA

The Organic Growers Alliance has re-formed, to provide a voice for Organic Horticulture. Their website is currently under construction: www.newoga.org.uk