The Food for Life 'Catering Mark' is bringing fresh, healthy and local food into schools, hospitals and canteens, writes Peter Melchett - while driving big increases in the volume of organic food we eat, and growing the market for organic farmers and local food producers.
… 'Catering Mark' is helping to deliver good food for all Peter Melchett Soil Association | 24th February 2015 Activism Food Farming Organic Health fresh-fruit-cut.jpg The Food for Life 'Catering Mark' is bringing …
A major new scientific report reveals how organic agriculture can help feed the world whilst reducing the environmental impacts, PETER MELCHETT, of the Soil Association delves into the data.
… Peter Melchett | 27th November 2017 Comment Food Organic Meat Vegetarianism And Veganism … Nature Communications, by scientists from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and … "whether producing a certain total amount of food, in terms of protein and calories, with …
The way food is produced has a profound impact on its nutritional profile, according to research published in the British Journal of Nutrition. Not only is organic farming better for animal welfare, the environment and wildlife, writes Peter Melchett, but organic meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables all have tangible health benefits for the people who eat them.
… Organic food is well worth paying for - for your … Soil Association | 4th March 2016 News Food Farming Regulation Organic UK Health organic-boxes-cut.jpg The way food is produced has a profound impact on its …
Lord Krebs, self-appointed spokesman for industrial agriculture, used the Oxford Farming Conference to attack organic systems for causing more climate change - a claim as demonstrably false as it is ludicrous, writes Peter Melchett. But across the city, the upstart 'real farming' conference was showing the way to a cleaner, greener and healthier future.
… Peter Melchett | 8th January 2015 News Food Farming GMOs Health Climate Change … demoted from the "future for all farming and food" that was heralded in the 1990s. Under … the English Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is happy to forget that …
Almost all our food is grown in soil, writes Peter Melchett. Yet we are treating it like dirt: spraying it with toxic chemicals, depleting vital nutrients, and releasing its carbon to add to climate change. With World Soils Day coming up tomorrow, let's change our ways - and renew our commitment to organic food and farming.
… Peter Melchett | 4th December 2015 Comment Food Farming Organic Natural World Health … Change pd soil 1-cut.jpg Almost all our food is grown in soil, writes Peter Melchett. … ways - and renew our commitment to organic food and farming. "The health of soil, plant, …
The government’s consultation on future farming policy in England ended last week. Many see it as a unique opportunity to make some positive changes - not least in the provision of information about differences in quality and production systems, says PETER MELCHETT of the Soil Association
… May 2018 Comment DEFRA Health And Harmony Food And Farming Brexit … show superior quality compared to other food. We accept that there are clear … so with our largest manufacturing industry: food and farming. Championing quality …
The pro-GM lobby has sought to take the 'scientific high-ground' by positioning itself as the voice of reason and progress, while painting its opponents as unsophisticated 'anti-science' luddites. In a scathing response Peter Melchett turns the tables
… Peter Melchett | 31st December 2012 News Gm Food And Farming News Science gmo.jpg The … the views of citizens, and most sales of GM food have relied on secrecy - denying … or citizens concerned about the safety of the food they eat. Scientists who are critical of …
Following scientific confirmation of the severe hazards to health caused by residues of glyphosate weed killers in food, the Soil Association is calling on bakers and retailers to stop 'pre-harvest' spraying on arable crops. The SA's Peter Melchett just sent out this letter - adapt as necessary and send to retailers, bakers, makers of cereals, pasta, biscuits and others.
… Keep glyphosate out of our food! Peter Melchett | 3rd September 2015 Activism Food Farming Health Corporations … by residues of glyphosate weed killers in food, the Soil Association is calling on …
Branston Pickle. Baked Beans. Cough Mixture. Ketchup. Are there any products on our shelves that don’t contain sugar?
… Sweet truth: how and why our food is laced with sugar Jeremy Smith | 1st … Cadbury Disaccharide Monosacc Sugar Food And Farming Health … products. We may be putting less sugar in our food and drinks, but that’s only because …
The most successful celebrity endorsement ever, Prunella Scales’ TV ads have added more than £2.2 billion to Tesco’s profts. And yet she says she really cares about the environment.
… Markets Celebrity Endorsement CPR Campaigns Food And Farming FISH_SEPT04_MAIN.jpg The most … encourages Sainsbury shoppers to eat better food. The store even has a range of products … except in certain areas (where it concerns food for example) but I know that the feeling …
A new study sets out the huge benefits of organic farming to people and the environment, writes Peter Melchett, including more wildlife, healthier consumers and farm workers, lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduced soil erosion and increased water retention. We need more of it, fast!
… Association | 23rd March 2017 Comment Farming Food Organic Pesticides Health Water … a fair and environmentally sustainable food system. The authors note that organic … levels of beneficial nutrients in organic food, as well as to the absence of pesticides …
Our lives are now so dependent on oil that it is impossible to conceive of a world without it. Before long, however, we will have no choice. The sooner we start planning for that reality, and changing the way we live, the better our chance of survival.
… Tony Blair to warn that it could run out of food completely within days. At this point the … to rise it will radically affect the way our food is produced, bought and consumed. The … Cheap energy enables companies to process food into many different forms – frozen veg, …
BASF are to halve their GM research and development and reduce the time spent on developing these technologies, writes Peter Melchett. Given the many problems that GM agriculture is facing, and that new non-GE technologies offer such valuable benefits as increased crop yields, does BASF's announcement spell the beginning of the end of GM crops?
… The demise of GM and the new future of food Peter Melchett | 8th March 2016 News Gm … in the largest global consumer market for GM food, the USA, where the non-GMO label is the … grocery label in supermarkets, and some big food manufacturers, along with Chipotle, are …
The European Parliament just voted to re-authorise glyphosate, writes Peter Melchett - but with significant restrictions on its use. So what does the vote mean for the world's biggest selling herbicide? And how come the UK's National Farmers' Union welcomed the decision as an unqualified victory?
… | 15th April 2016 Comment EU UK Farming Food Pesticides Health Politics Science … harvesting. Spraying a probable carcinogen on food crops to kill them so they can be … wheat that makes our bread, flour and other food like biscuits and cereals. In the last …
By not properly discussing agriculture at national or international climate negotiations, we are avoiding tackling not just a huge source of emissions, but also a potential carbon sink
… | 7th December 2009 Comment Climate Change Food And Farming Agriculture Soil Association … on the table for discussion at Copenhagen. Food, farming, forestry and land use change … from soils, balanced against quantity of food produced and a host of other variables, …
Organic farming has changed, but for the better, writes Soil Association head of policy and Norfolk organic farmer Peter Melchett. As never before, organic inspections are central to the delivery of environmental and animal care, and food you really can trust.
… growth Peter Melchett | 24th May 2014 Comment Food Farming Regulation Organic UK … of environmental and animal care, and food you really can trust. I've been an … started organic farming in 1975. Organic food is rightly under far greater scrutiny. …
Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett takes issue with The Land editor Simon Fairlie's characterisation of its policy towards organic yields and meat consumption
… UK Peter Melchett | 22nd April 2010 Comment Food And Farming Organic Meat … and Wales under organic Agriculture: how much food could be produced? ', Centre for … now. It has formed part of our work on school food which began in 2002, our work on hospital …
Are you a ‘premium loyal’, a ‘loyal low spender’, a ‘can’t stay away’… or don’t you care? Tesco does, and uses the data collected from your loyalty card to dictate what you buy, when you buy and how much you buy.
… TV Loyalty Cards Selling Lifestyles Companies Food And Farming Society Investigates_24.jpg … in packaging, or, if the products are non-food, in the products themselves. Each tiny … Tesco began including RFID chips with non-food products in April of this year. Imagine …
Following recent headlines and new scientific papers PETER MELCHETT of the Soil Association reports on the evolving dialogue around pesticides.
… harvest. This widespread use, particularly on food crops just before they are harvested, has … people eat a mixture of pesticides in their food, indeed a mixture that is growing in … mixtures – cocktails – of pesticides in our food. Nor is any account taken of the …
Growing crops to solve the planet’s energy needs doesn’t work. Recycling the energy in our waste just might have a significant part to play. By Jeremy Smith & Jon Hughes
… speech – wanting 20 per cent bio-fuels from food crops to be driving the US fleet in 10 … phase. Today, they are concentrating on non-food-crop biomass for energy production and … sow new plants that compete for space with food crops, they are using the waste products …
The public must play a significant role in any decisions made about the development of the new technology. By Tom Wakeford
… to list a series of options for the future of food and farming. Instead of being given a … to promote cheaper, locally produced organic food. GM foods were viewed as unnecessary and not worth …
The 350.org events last Saturday on the International Day of Climate Action give us cause for hope. As Jeremy Smith is discovering, there are thousands of inspiring stories out there about people making a difference
… offering free seeds to anyone looking to grow food to feed themselves. I could go on and on. … fridge that uses no electricity to keep food cool . These stories give me hope. And …
What remains of the once mighty Caledonian Forest is fast being eroded by an ever-increasing population of deer. Without reintroducing their natural predator, the wolf, to the wilds of Scotland, the forest and its ecosystem is in danger of disappearing forever. By Jeremy Smith
… done as it tramples around in search of food, the red deer is threatening the very … of hunting to governing who eats most when food it is in short supply. Wolves carefully … eat voraciously, eating up to 20 kilos of food at one sitting, but then they can go for …
The discovery of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in pork products in UK supermarkets is a call to action, writes Peter Melchett. We must end the unhygienic farming practices that only work with constant antibiotic use, and reserve the most valuable antibiotics for human use only - or face a world in which routine surgery and infections bring serious risk of death.
… Peter Melchett | 19th June 2015 News Health Food Farming Politics Regulation … to use antibiotics on animals that are sick. Food retailers must insist that the farmers …