If there's nae tea, that's it - razor blades and the hot bath for me
Agreed. They do grow it in Cornwall, of course. In teeny tiny amounts only sold in Harrods. But with climate change, perhaps I can have a small tea plantation.......
The figures commonly cited against the eating of beef relate to intensive beef production, not grass fed as is the majority of beef and lamb in the UK. I wish the media would learn to read the full reports not just the first paragraph
It's not entirely down to the media. Groups like the IPCC have learned (from bitter experience, I suspect) that nuanced messages don't get them anywhere, so they've started simplifying their report summaries for the broadest market. Beef = bad for carbon is, on average, true. If they included a footnote *although extensively reared beef in temperate climates such as the UK is, in fact, low carbon compared to other foodstuffs. Arable farming on much of the UK's grazing land would require the intensive addition of fertilisers. If they was no livestock, such as cows, to produce such fertilisers naturally, then fossil fuel based fertilisers would be required and the carbon footprint of the crops so produced would consequently be relatively higher* the average journo would have dozed off and the public would be thoroughly confused.
They also can't put out the message - "beef is fine as long as you pay a lot more for it than you're used to" - without being traduced for banning burgers for the masses.
So beef = bad is much the easiest thing to say.
Anyone actually interested in understanding the issue can find the rest of it out for themselves.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I think we're self sufficient in milk - I'm sure I read that somewhere - but not dairy products. We could grow a lot of things like tomatoes, peppers and the like in big heated polytunnels, and strawberries out of season and all that stuff, if we really wanted to. There's plenty of fish, we just don't eat most of it. I seem to recall pigs were very scarce during WW2 because they eat the same things as people so the food can't be spared and grass grazers were seen as better for meat.
There could be a real conflict between food supply issues and carbon targets, if it comes to it
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
@raisingirl, I hope your quote at the bottom doesn't reflect your feelings today😊
Oh it does. Although it was written about climate change rather than politics (the next line being "And the wounded skies above say it's much, much too late" ) but still. It seems apposite at the moment
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
General de Gaulle once commented that any country that made 240 different cheeses was bound to be difficult to govern. I believe there are now over 700 in the UK which means you could at least be self sufficient in cheese.
If you're desperate for tea you could always grow a camellia bush of the basic variety and make your own green and black tea or switch to tisanes such as mnt, verbena, chamomile and the fancier ones. Coffee would be my worry, not being a tea drinker.
I'd rather have sweet potatoes than ordinary but I can get along with neither. We do eat seasoanlly here and I try not to buy fruit and veg with sea or air miles but OH likes a banana with his Weetabix in winter and we both like an occasional avocado.
If the UK developed huge acreages of greenhouses like the Dutch have they could feed themselves all sorts of veg like bell peppers and aubergines and such. The Dutch are so efficient they are the world's 2nd biggest exporter of food after the USA. Just compare their relative sizes and populations and you can see what can be done with a bit of vision.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Vision would be the main problem. People with nice views don't want them spoilt by greenhouses. I suppose there's no reason they can't be built on uncontaminated brown field sites but then where would all the houses we've been promised go?
We won't neeed the houses because they were all being taken by those sneaky immigrants remember. If the price of tomatoes skyrockets then all the people growing cannabis in their lofts could have a legal alternative to try out though.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Isn't isinglass the stuff they use on Bake Off to replace gelatin when they do vegetarian/vegan meringues? How can it be vegan is my question. That makes no sense to me. Or am I totally wrong about that?
Yes, I think we're all responding to different bits of FG's comment! Aquafaba (with a b, in the UK at least) is used to make meringue, agar agar is a gelatin replacement, and isinglass is something else altogether - def not vegan 😂.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Posts
It's not entirely down to the media. Groups like the IPCC have learned (from bitter experience, I suspect) that nuanced messages don't get them anywhere, so they've started simplifying their report summaries for the broadest market. Beef = bad for carbon is, on average, true. If they included a footnote *although extensively reared beef in temperate climates such as the UK is, in fact, low carbon compared to other foodstuffs. Arable farming on much of the UK's grazing land would require the intensive addition of fertilisers. If they was no livestock, such as cows, to produce such fertilisers naturally, then fossil fuel based fertilisers would be required and the carbon footprint of the crops so produced would consequently be relatively higher* the average journo would have dozed off and the public would be thoroughly confused.
They also can't put out the message - "beef is fine as long as you pay a lot more for it than you're used to" - without being traduced for banning burgers for the masses.
So beef = bad is much the easiest thing to say.
Anyone actually interested in understanding the issue can find the rest of it out for themselves.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
There could be a real conflict between food supply issues and carbon targets, if it comes to it
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
If you're desperate for tea you could always grow a camellia bush of the basic variety and make your own green and black tea or switch to tisanes such as mnt, verbena, chamomile and the fancier ones. Coffee would be my worry, not being a tea drinker.
I'd rather have sweet potatoes than ordinary but I can get along with neither. We do eat seasoanlly here and I try not to buy fruit and veg with sea or air miles but OH likes a banana with his Weetabix in winter and we both like an occasional avocado.
If the UK developed huge acreages of greenhouses like the Dutch have they could feed themselves all sorts of veg like bell peppers and aubergines and such. The Dutch are so efficient they are the world's 2nd biggest exporter of food after the USA. Just compare their relative sizes and populations and you can see what can be done with a bit of vision.