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In
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Do
they know its Christmas? 17th
Dec 08, by Rose Bridger So many things we associate with Christmas have been turned into products that are, purportedly, for pets, but will only really entertain their owners. For cats and dogs, there are advent calendars, Christmas tree ornaments, edible Christmas cards and plastic Chistmas stockings containing food treats and toys. Dogs may also receive plastic toys in the shape of crackers, Santa shaped chocolates, and 'crunchy snowballs' made of white chocolate. Product marketing is even aimed at owners of small mammals and there is a special stocking for hamsters, with chocolate drops. There
is a proliferation of 'turkey flavour' versions of established pet food
products. But they can contain as little as 4 per cent turkey. Most
domestic cats are smaller than today's factory farmed turkeys so would
be unlikley to hunt one down, and it would not be a natural food choice
for most dogs either. The
seasonal ranges are packed with confectionary that won't help the pet
obesity epidemic.
A lot of the Christmas products for pets seem to be an opportunity to
wrap up established lines in another layer of plastic.
We often say that children play more with the packaging than the toys
we buy them, so maybe at least the pets might have fun with that for
a bit. |
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Why
pay more? 6th
Oct 08, by Rose Bridger We
often have to pay more for less processed food. For example, Sainsbury's
own brand 'olive oil' made from a mixture of virgin and refined olive
oil is £3.45 for one litre, with a litre of 'extra virgin olive
oil' costing nearly a third as much again at £4.48. The processing
for the extra virgin oil is vaguely described as 'extracted by modern
methods' and 'solely by mechanical means'. The additional processing
for the 'refined' oil in the cheaper product is not specified but typically
includes high temperatures and chemical processes to extract the oil.
I understand that processing extends the product's shelf life, and makes
money for firms and factories along the supply chain. But, still. Why
do we have to pay the food industry NOT to do things to our food? |
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GM and the global food crisis
24th
July 08,
by Rose Bridger |
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| If
cats went shopping 19th
May 08,
by Rose Bridger Not so long ago, the family cat just got tins of pretty basic food and a cat flap. Now there are vast superstores and online emporia bursting with all kinds of products for moggies. A lot of it is marketed as both 'natural' and like fancy human-style food. There are roasts, patés and terrines. I've never heard of some of the dishes, like Active Life's 'Fricassee' range. Apparently, a fricassee is pieces of meat stewed in a gravy made from meat dripping, flour and milk or cream. I wondered if the Whiskas 'cat milk' cartons were milk from cats, maybe for kittens? But no, it's cow's milk with reduced lactose. I can't imagine a cat suckling a cow, or hunting one down to cook up a 'beef and liver fricasse'. Meanwhile, next door's cat is supplementing her diet with wild animals from the garden. So here's my (terrible) drawing of what cats might like, if it was processed, packaged and available in the pet food superstore. The urban bird population is being decimated by cats, but if less land was given to growing feed for livestock, and less animal produce was fed to pets, there'd be more space for all kinds of creatures. |
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Where are all the flowers from? 6th
Oct 07,
by Rose Bridger
The labels on the cut flowers and living plants in the
UK are detailed like never before. In the supermarkets, British grown flowers
are highlighted with the country of origin, maybe with a flag. The rest do
not generally have country of origin on the label. Work by many non-governmental
organisations has raised serious concerns over working conditions for some
of the workers in supplying countries. A recent conference organised by Women
Working Worldwide 'The Real Cost of Fruit and Veg? Strategies to improve
women's working conditions in African horticulture' included
speakers from representatives of women working on flower and vegetable farms
in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. It is striking that while the supermarket
flowers may have a guaranteed shelf-life of 5-14 days or more, some of the
workers on the flower farms may be casuals with no contract of employment,
and sometimes expected to work long hours of overtime with last minute orders
coming in. The labels might include sachets of flower food and feeding instructions,
but for some flower farm workers wages as low as a dollar a day are inadequate
for even a single person's basic needs, and they may not have access to fresh
drinking water or a balanced diet in the workplace. Some of the lily labels
warn that the pollen may be harmful to cats, or stain furniture. There are
far more serious problems for flower farm workers, for whom exposure to pesticides
is still widepread, with many instances of inadequate protective clothing
and workers entering fields and greenhouses without an adequate period after
spraying because of pressure to meet production targets. Initiatives to improve
working conditions and information for customers include Flower
Label Programme and Fair
Flowers Fair Plants.
Food trade flows
9th Jan 07,
by Rose Bridger
The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organisation online statistics offer insights into trade
flows of food and agricultural produce around the world. Data covering import
and exports are published annually, and can be searched by country and by
commodity. 2004's statistics show that Britain is a major importer of many
foods which thrive locally, for example being the world's biggest importer
of cauliflower and mushrooms by quantity and cost, the world's 2nd biggest
importer of apples by quantity (3rd by cost), and ranking 1st by cost and
2nd by quantity for plum imports. Britain's top export by value is distilled
alcoholic beverages at $7,324,475, followed by cigarettes at $1,165,265 making
it the world's biggest cigarette exporter. Food swaps of the same produce
include importing 342,775 million tonnes of chicken meat whilst exporting
189,575mt, and topping the world ice-cream imports with 89,346 million tonnes
while exporting 51,272 mt. The UK is the world's biggest spender on butter
at $532,922 whilst simultaneously exporting $108,146 worth. A
lot of the produce is just passing through and Britain
is in the top 20 exporters of many foods not produced in the country, such
as coconuts, kiwi-fruit and avocados. The
data includes quantities and values which can indicate where money is made
in the value chain. Britains' 17th largest export by value is tea, a ranking
of fifth in the world, selling at a cost up to
ten times higher than some producing countries like Uganda. Britain ranks
at or near the top of the tables for imports, and also highly for exports,
of many types of processed foods including pet food, infant food and various
types of prepared foods. Defra's
Food
Security and the UK paper published in 2006
shows that of £23.3 billion of British imports, unprocessed foods account
for £4.6bn, with £10.7bn
lightly processed and £8.0bn
highly processed.
Pampered pets
31st Oct 06,
by Rose Bridger
The biggest growth in the UK's £1.5 billion pet food
market is super-premium brands at 27%. Life-stage products for young, adolescent,
mature and older pets are
particularly popular, as well as products for
pregnant, nursing or recently neutered pets, products for specific breeds
like Siamese or Persian cats and 'lifestyle' products including for active,
'not getting out much', working and show animals. Market
segementation has yet another dimension
with products for the growing number of pets with the same diet related health
problems as many of their owners, including diabetes, obesity, arthritis,
kidney problems, sensitive
skin or digestion. A great many other products
claim specific health benefits including immune system boosting, bone or muscle
building and relief from hairballs. Estimates of obesity levels vary widely
but a RSPCA survey found
that 76% of UK vets have set up obesity clinics. Treatments like hydrotherapy
for joints strained by overweight are popular, and a 'petometers' have been
launched so owners can measure the number of steps their pets take each day.
Many products reflect human diets and eating patterns, like starters, desserts,
sauces, snacks, treats, 'fun foods', a huge range of supplements such as probiotics,
prebiotics and ingredients unlikely to feature in the animals' natural diet
like blueberries and spirulina in products for cats. There can be a wide disparity
between the marketing and the reality of what's in pet food which is mainly
by-products for human food chain, a
product need only contain 4% of the ingredient
like 'chicken' highlighted on the label, and may largely consist of 'derivatives'.
Sources of info about pet food include Uncaged
in the UK and Animal
Protection Institute in the US.
Some good news
17th Aug 06,
by Rose Bridger
There is a lot of bad news about food in the UK, but maybe
being a leader in negative trends, such as diet related health problems and
loss of productive base, can help to see the way things could be heading and
turn a corner:
•
The UK is the world's
biggest market for fair trade goods, which includes food and drink products
such as chocolate, nuts, tea and coffee. In the year up to March 06 the UK
market grew by 40% to a total of £2million (Fair
Trade Foundation)
•
The UK is the European
Union's 3rd biggest for organic food, after Germany and Italy, with sales
now totaling almost £1.6billion, a 30% increase in just one year (Soil
Association, press release July 06)
•
Starting in 1997
with just 1 farmers market in Bath, there are now 550 in the UK, and the number
of farm shops has increased to 5,000. The direct sales market is worth over
£2billion (FARMA
Sector Briefing on Farmers Markets, June 06)
•
Purchasing of fresh
produce is increasing, with data from TNS
Worldpanel showing a 4% increase in the volume of veg consumption, and
5% for fruit, over a period of just one year to April 06.
Veneer of diversity
11th Aug 06,
by Rose Bridger
While there is a proliferation of food products, a small
number of ingredients, or derivatives, often appear high up on the ingredients
list - wheat, corn and sugar derivatives and unspecified 'vegetable oil':
•
Just
three plants, wheat, corn and rice, account for 2/3 of world agriculture (Richard
Manning 2004, Against the Grain: how agriculture has hijacked civilization,
North Point Press)
•
90% of the calories from cereals
eaten in the UK are from wheat (Van de Weyer, Courtney 2006, Changing Diets,
Changing Minds, Sustain)
•
15 species account for 90% of global
livestock production (FAO - Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United
Nations)
•
The area of land occupied
by palm oil plantations has doubled in the past ten years (Palm oil, the survival
of the orang-utan and UK company law reform, Friends of the Earth briefing,
May 2006, FoE)
•
Palm plantations are generally
grown on land cleared of tropical forests, and are heavily reliant on fertiliser
and pesticide inputs. The Indonesian government plans to build the world's
biggest palm plantatin of 3 million hectares in Borneo (GRAIN, June 2006,
Sustainable Monoculture, No thanks! www.grain.org)
•
Palm oil plantations are projected
to account for 23% of world oils and fats consumption by 2016-2020, with 44%
of the production concentrated in Indonesia, and 37.7% in Malaysia. Between
1980 and 1999 production of palm oil increased 4.5 times. (Teoh Cheng Hai,
Nov 200, Land use and the palm oil industry in Malaysia: Abridged report produced
for the WWF Forest Information System Database)
World's cows weigh more than people
2nd
April 06,
by Rose Bridger
•
The combined weight of cattle on earth exceeds
that of humans. In
the US there are 2 cows for every 5 people.
•
Global meat production has increased more
than fivefold since 1950. (State
of the World 2006: China and India Hold World in Balance, Worldwatch Institute)
• If
present trends of the growth in meat consumption continue, the world's livestock
will be consuming enough grain to feed 4 billion people (Colin Tudge, 2004
So
Shall We Reap, Penguin)
• The
efficiency of the conversion of animal feed into food for human conusmption
varies, e.g. for beef it is often cited at about 15% but has been calculated
to be as low as 2.5%
• One third of the world's population,
that's about 2 billion people, subsists on one dollar per day. The EU subsidises
each cow by two dollars per day.
•
Milk yields have doubled over the past fifty years. A cow's
natural lifespan is around 20 years, but most modern dairy cows are slaughtered
at around 5 years old as they are worn out by the pressure to produce more
milk (The
Global benefits of Eating Less Meat,
2004 Compassion
in World Farming).
UK water market - don't bottle it
up 21st
Feb 06,
by Rose Bridger
Between 1999 and 2004 the proportion
of UK adults buying bottled water increased from one third to over 50%, it
is the fastest growing sector of the soft drinks market, with UK consumers
drinking more than 2 billion litres per year. Most of this is packaged in
plastic, and of the 10% of the packaging which is recycled,more than half
is shipped to countries such as China for processing (Jonathan
Richards, The Times, 18th Feb 06). New entrants to the UK bottled water
market include flavoured waters targeted at specific consumer groups with
'nutraceuticals' such as soluble fibre and prebiotics added, plus a bottled
water specifically for cooking, originating from a 200 metres deep spring
in Japan (source, The
Grocer magazine, 4th Feb 06). Rapid growth of the bottled water industry
has resulted in water shortages, such as in India with more than 50 villages
affected by bottling of Coca-Cola's Dasani brand. About 40% of bottled water
originates from tap water, yet can cost up to 10,000 times more. (Source 'Bottled
Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain' by Emily Arnold, Earth Policy
Institute, Feb 06). Recent
grants of public funding by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)
to specific companies include
£145,000 Coca-Cola to develop lighter and
more recyclable packaging. About a fifth of the
world's people do not have acess to safe, adequate drinking water.
UK wastes most food 24th
Jan 06,
by Rose Bridger
Research by The Guardian newspaper, BBC's Costing the Earth
programme and C-Tech Innovation indicates that the UK wastes more food than
any other country, at every stage of the supply chain from farm to plate with
the food sector accounting for about one third of UK waste. Up to 40% of food
grown can be lost as it does not meet retailers' rigid specifications and
supply chains, and a typical household throws away 1/3 of food bought. With
current trends waste will rise by 15% per decade, and less food waste is being
composted due to regulatory restrictions and increasing use of packaged and
processed food. Guardian
article May 05
Less than 1.6% of land for fruit and
veg in Yorkshire region 20th
Dec 05,
by Rose Bridger
In 2004, less than 1.6% of agricultural land in the Yorkshire
and the Humber region was used for growing fruit and vegetables. Of 1,088,841
hectares, just 247 was used for growing fruit (just over 0.02%), and a total
of 16,696 (just over 1.5%) for vegetables either in the open or under glass/plastic.
The statistics for England as a whole are fruit 0.34% and vegetables 1.25%.
Information from Defra
Agricultural Census June 2004. The Food Standards Agency recommends that
about a third of our diet should consist of fruit and vegetables.
Processed food in hospitals 15th Dec 05, by Rose Bridger
Supermarkets
concentrate on (and in) Huddersfield
Huddersfield, my home town, has been highlighted as a key battleground
for the big 4 supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons - as they
have a similar market share in the area. These big 4 supermarket chains have
80% of the UK grocery market, and in Huddersfield even more at 89%, leaving
just 11% for independent grocery stores and smaller chains. Other towns highlighted
as supermarket battlegrounds are Edinburgh, Stockport, Basingstoke and Weston-super-Mare.
Source - The Grocer magazine 22nd Oct 05
The Grocer magazine
Where do all the British blackcurrants
go?
95% of all the blackcurrants grown in Britain go into Ribena.
Source - Ribena's current TV and web advert Oct 05. Lots of info about British
blackcurrants from the Blackcurrant
Foundation.
Brazilian beef - supply chain slavery
In the first half of this
year the amount of beef imported to the UK from Brazil increased by 70% to
34,000 tonnes. The International Labour Organisation estimates that over 25,000
people are working in Brazilian beef production in slave conditions. Beef
production in Brazil is also a major factor in deforestation.
Source - 'The price of cheap beef: disease, deforestation, slavery and murder'
George Monbiot, the Guardian 18th Oct 05
UK food self-sufficiency down 10%
in 10 years
Between 1993-5 and 2004 UK self sufficiency in food reduced
from 73.7% to 63.4%
Source - Defra
Agricultural Quick Statistics
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12th Nov 08 installed gizmo
23rd Dec 08 installed another
gizmo