EASTER EGGS AND THE CAMPUS CONVENIENCE CONSUMERISM CONUNDRUM

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged beauty, berlin, bins, chocolate, climate change, coffee, coffee cups, consumerism, convenience, Easter, Easter eggs, environment, environmentalism, excess, food industry, food waste, future generations, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, individualism, life, luxury, Milena Glimbovski, nature, NUA, on-the-go, Original Unverpackt, packaging, plastics, recycling, Sara Wolf, spring, student life, students, UEA, universities, Wake Up and Smell the Waste, waste, young people.

By Laura Potts

As spring approaches, so do the grasping hands of Easter and the shelves full of egg-shaped chocolate treats, in a hundred sizes and colours. But the main thing I notice as I walk through the supermarket is the quantity of packaging that comes with them. Each egg is sealed in plastic and stored in a cardboard box, and most come with other individually wrapped chocolates. The brightly coloured decorations upon the eggs and boxes are reminiscent of nature and the beautiful colours of spring.

The great irony, of course, is that the packaging boasting this decoration directly contributes to the destruction of that natural beauty. Through this attitude to resources, companies are investing in a ‘throw away society’, and future generations will have to carry the burden.

NORWICH FOODHUB: SAVING FOOD — FIGHTING HUNGER.

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged CIC, Community, Community Interest Company, domestic violence, fighting hunger, food bank, food poverty, food waste, FoodHub, green city councillor, Greggs, Leeway Domestic Violence & Abuse Service, lucy howard, Neighbourly, norwich, Norwich City Council, norwich foodhub, recycle food, redistribution, saving food, Tescos.

by Rowan Van Tromp

Since my original article, Norwich’s War On Food Waste, was published a lot has changed, so I thought it was time high time for an update.

First, to recap, when the original article was published in November 2015 the seeds had been sown for the formation of an organisation with three main aims:

To collect food that would otherwise be wasted by retailers due to it having passed it’s sell-by or best-before date, or as a result of over purchasing.
To bring this food to an accessible centrally located unit to be weighed, sorted and recorded.
To coordinate the redistribution of such food to organisations helping to tackle food poverty in the city.

WRAP’S FOOD WASTE ELEPHANT

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged DEFRA, environment, farmers, farming, feedback, food, Food and Rural Affairs, food waste, Food Waste reduction bill, hugh's war on waste, institute of mechanical engineers, Kerry McCarthy, over production, PLC, rural affairs, soil association, State for Environment, supemarket waste, supermarkets, the real junk food project, this is rubbish, water resource action programme, WRAP.

by Rowan Van Tromp

Weighing in at an estimated 15m tonnes per annum, the UK’s food waste mountain is an issue that is finally been given the kind of attention it warrants, thanks to the persistence of campaigning groups like Feedback and The Real Junk Food Project, who both featured on Channel Four’s series Hugh’s War on Waste – the latest in a long line of environmental food campaigns lead by TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Launched in conjunction with the series, a petition by This Is Rubbish has gained nearly a quarter of a million signatures. In an open letter to the CEO’s of the ‘Big 4’ supermarkets, it calls on retailers to collaborate with each other, as well as WRAP (Waste Resources Action Programme), to measure on-farm food waste so that it can be benchmarked by 2018 and ambitious targets can be set to reduce it by 2025.Continue Reading

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION – THE GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national and tagged #greensurge, democracy, food redistribution, food waste, food waste motion, foodcycle, Green Party, green party autumn conference, green party membership, green surge, norwich foodcycle, party conference, party membership, party policy, rowan van tromp, rowan van tromp food waste, soil association, surplus food, the green party, westminster parties.

by Rowan Van Tromp

Last weekend Green Party activists descended on the South coast of Bournemouth for the Party’s Autumn Conference. Many of the 2,000 plus members and supporters were in attendance for the first time, a reflection of the #GreenSurge in membership, which has more than doubled to over 60,000 since the start of the year.

Conference is the ultimate decision making body of the Green Party, through which all party policy is created. Unlike other Westminster parties, anyone can directly affect the process of policy creation, simply by becoming a member and submitting a motion — to either change or remove existing policy, or to create new policy where there are gaps. It’s this form of bottom up politics that empowers members to contribute to the areas of policy they are passionate and knowledgeable about.Continue Reading

FOOD WASTE – IS LEGISLATION THE BEST PATH TO FOLLOW?

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged activism, breakfast club, Community, education, food, food bank, food poverty, food waste, foodcycle, France, grassroot, norfolk, norwich, poverty, supermarket, supermarket food waste, welfare.

by Rowan Van Tromp

The past few weeks have seen waves of literature surrounding the issue of food waste by supermarkets, following the French parliament’s decision to pass legislation compelling retailers with 4,305 square feet of store space to donate any unsold, but still edible, food, to charity or for use as animal feed or farming compost. All stores which fall under this criterion are obliged to sign agreements with charities to facilitate the redistribution of such food by 2016, or could face penalties of up to €75,000.

Calls have since been made for the UK to follow suit, and no wonder given that the UK far and away wastes the most food out of any European country — amounting to 15bn tonnes a year according to the government backed organisation WRAP, although just over 1% of this comes from stores. Continue Reading

food waste

EASTER EGGS AND THE CAMPUS CONVENIENCE CONSUMERISM CONUNDRUM

NORWICH FOODHUB: SAVING FOOD — FIGHTING HUNGER.

WRAP’S FOOD WASTE ELEPHANT

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION – THE GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE

FOOD WASTE – IS LEGISLATION THE BEST PATH TO FOLLOW?

Support the Radical

Subscribe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Support the Radical

Subscribe