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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
LONG READ: A critique of David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
… and especially the beneficial effect of these foods on the growth of children account … competing predators was a combined diet, and food cooked with fire. This meant they needed … their social organization to cope. The food was shared among the whole group at the …
'The question was whether to die of hunger or coronavirus.'
… without benefits of any kind. The lines for food banks can be 10,000 cars long. This, in … isolated with someone bringing them their food. Testing and tracing can work if a … testing for everyone every week, and proper food and proper care. That way we avoid …
The Taliban is taking the threat of climate breakdown seriously as 40 million Afghans face a future of drought and starvation.
… In both of the last two winters the UN World Food Program fed 21 million Afghans, just over … Every year it is a struggle for the UN World Food Program to raise the funding. Last … UN had to remove ten million Afghans from the food rolls. By the middle of winter they had …
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 …
The famine in Afghanistan could claim the lives of a million children. It is driven by climate breakdown - and Western foreign policy.
… NGOs played the central role in disturbing food. Now they cannot get money into or out of … cannot pay people to distribute or move the food. Moreover, hospitals and clinics are … for humanitarian reasons. Punish But the food and medical supplies are not appearing on …
How can we centre community organising and mutual aid in response to coronavirus?
… it is a disease caused by eating cheap food laced with sugar, and the best protection … is eating fresh, unprocessed, expensive food. African-Americans, and especially … they get there. When someone can’t afford food or medicine, you can do a collection …
Frans de Waal revealed to humans the intelligence and feelings of our fellow primates, and animals in general.
… years old. Now she lies dying, refusing all food. Jan van Hoog, a biologist who has known … They look the same, they eat the same food, and they move and sound the same. But …
Wisdom only begins when we let in the grief and rage of understanding climate breakdown. Can we find radical hope in the face of social collapse around the world?
… the towns to prevent the hungry getting the food. The poor sold their land at knockdown … Why, unfortunately, we are running out of food for the refugee camps in the desert the …
The rich want to end the lockdown. But before any government does this we need mass testing, proper equipment for essential workers and real protections for the most vulnerable.
… to give the people the money they need for food, housing, medical care and bills. Hungry …