Wake up and smell the coffee!

The thought of not sipping a cup of decent coffee each morning fills me with horror. I look forward to its steaming, scented aroma and its rich yet bitter taste. It actually motivates me, on dark, wintry mornings, to get out of bed.

As a self-confessed coffee snob, I relish a decent cup. No instant for me thank you very much. Or worse still chicory, a coffee substitute which was the hot drink of choice back in the 1970s according to my mum. Shudder.

But this morning luxury, nay necessity, may be no more within a mere 70 years.

You see, new evidence has found that climate change alone may cause Arabica coffee to become extinct in the wild in just 70 years.

The Arabica species is the most popular coffee bean, and makes up 70 per cent of the world’s coffee market.

I can’t even begin to cover the devastating effect this will have on the farmers in this blog post, which is unashamedly focussed on my selfish supping habit. Suffice to say that the livelihood of the millions who produce it will be put at risk. And one thing’s for sure, it will become very, very expensive.

And sadly, cocoa beans are in just as much peril as their coffee bean counterparts.

Climate change is real and its happening – the evidence is out there. But what isn’t clear is how to engage with a sometimes sceptical or cynical public to convince them to do their bit.

When something as big as climate change is now threatening tangible and much-loved everyday things like coffee and chocolate, it does make me wonder if this could be a game-changer in terms of winning the hearts and minds of the masses and becoming a way to motivate people to start taking action and making a real difference –  locally and globally.

I do hope so. I for one don’t want to go back to the days of chicory.

Picture credited: http://pinterest.com/pin/75083518757818689/

Are you sensible with your food choices?

As a keen cook, this is an issue really close to my heart. But with rising food prices, it can be difficult to be economical and ethical with our food habits.How can we be smart when we’re doing the weekly food shop or cooking a meal and think about the environment at the same time?

Portion control

Portion control is a critical factor when cooking. It’s true that our eyes are frequently bigger than our bellies and it’s tempting to chuck in that extra cup of rice or handfuls of pasta to the pan for good measure; but stick to the scales instead.

Adopt a similar stance when shopping, go armed with a list and do it after eating; and when tempted by nibbles and treats at a party, adopt the ‘take what you want but eat what you take’ mantra.

Dining out

It’s easy to get careless when dining out, especially when nearing the end of a second glass of wine. But nothing troubles me more than seeing others order a few different dishes yet not finishing any of them, and not taking any of it home either.

This is, one of many reasons, why I prefer to cook myself. I’m certainly not suggesting that venturing to restaurants should be strictly prohibited, simply urging that sense must rule over greed.

Use-by dates

Speaking of sense, it is true that our uncertainty over how to store food has made us unnervingly slavish in sticking to use-by dates, rather than using our own judgment.

Hopefully the recently announced revised food labelling will help end this and make clear when food is safe to eat. Of course the rationale behind this move is based on the presumption that customers are, well, idiots but I won’t go into that debate now.

It is hard to say exactly how much food British supermarkets waste, as they are not required by law to reveal how much they throw away, but it’s estimated to be about 1.6 million tonnes per year.

But let’s not forget that food waste starts before it even arrives at the supermarket. Unless we have grown it ourselves or bought it locally, there is a high chance the food we purchase has endured an epic journey just to get in front of us.

A journey that may have involved ships, planes, wagons, and warehouses; and at each stage there’s a good chance that a proportion of the food will have been binned for a host of reasons. Let’s breathe a sigh of relief that it’s no longer illegal for shops to sell ‘ugly’ fruit; I’ll never fathom what was wrong with a curvy cucumber or a knobbly carrot in the first place.

It can’t be left unsaid the untold damage that this will be wreaking on our environment.

Such is the extent of the food waste if it were actually eaten it would be the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions if one in every four cars were taken off UK roads.

So, apart from opting for a freegan lifestyle, what can we do to reduce this mountain of waste? The reality is that all of us have a responsible role to play. We have to make simple changes, like buying food based on a meal plan, in order to waste less. Conscious, and conscientious, purchasing will make the difference personally and consumer demand will always influence the corporations.

A good starting point is the Love Food Hate Waste campaign. It provides easy practical everyday things that we can do to reduce food waste, which will ultimately benefit our purses and the environment.

What a load of greenwash!

As concerned and informed shoppers we want ‘green’ and ethical products. Countless studies have proven that shoppers seek to purchase from companies that do their best to reduce their impact on the environment, particularly when it comes to buying clothes, groceries and cars.

What a shame that some companies take advantage of the well-meaning consumer with over-hyped claims about their green credentials.

Also known as ‘greenwashing’, it’s a way for them to make you think that they care about the environment, when their true goal is probably just to increase profit margins.

I believe that ignorance is no excuse, so I have no qualms when I suggest that the culprits deliberately look for ways around laws and regulations and use sneaky advertising to make us think that what they are selling is better for us (and the environment) when in reality it’s probably just as bad, or even worse.

This was clear when I looked at purchasing a car a couple of years ago. With economic and environmental credentials both high on my wish-list, I quickly found myself inundated and completely overwhelmed with the wide assortment of wild claims being made.

Alongside images of cars travelling through verdant meadows, phrases from ‘high performance and low emissions’ to ‘more power and less pollution’ screamed out, striking me as outrageously misleading to say the least.

Upon further inspection, most of these outlandish claims weren’t backed up with any supporting evidence; they were it transpired big fat fibs cunningly crafted to dupe environmentally-caring consumers like me to part with considerable cash with a warm, virtuous glow.

Deeply disillusioned and deeply out-priced too, I shelved my new car plan and opted for the bus as my preferred mode of transport.

Unsurprisingly, some of the finest greenwash specimens in recent history are the proud work of the oil industry. British Petroleum, Shell, Exxon Mobil and others, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars branding themselves as eco-friendly.

In July 2000, British Petroleum launched a million dollar campaign to position itself as an environmentally-friendly organisation.

Its new slogan claimed the company was ‘Beyond Petroleum’ and the shield-style logo was changed to a new, cheerful green and yellow sunburst, obviously aiming to invoke a warm and fuzzy feeling about the earth and the company.

Similarly, I remember the eminently deceptive advert issued by Shell, which featured those pesky carbon dioxide molecules being caught with butterfly nets and chimneys spewing out flowers.

The advert made it so easy to be drawn into a false sense of security and believe that Shell had all but abandoned oil. Luckily the Advertising Standards Authority wasn’t so easily fooled and wisely upheld a complaint from Friends of the Earth.

But greenwash isn’t restricted to the motor and oil industries. It’s a lot closer to home as well.

An extraordinary number of beauty products have the word ‘natural’ plastered over their packaging alongside beautiful images depicting lush outdoor scenery. Don’t be fooled – this is gravely misleading.

As there are currently no regulations in the UK, this remains a legal grey area allowing companies to describe a product as natural, or even organic, when it perhaps only contains insignificant amounts of relevant ingredients.

Thankfully, companies peddling green spin are under scrutiny as never before. Campaign groups are enjoying increasing success at exposing greenwash while advertising regulators worldwide are cracking down on bogus environmental claims.

Of course we can’t expect companies to be purely benevolent. But they do need to be candid about their green claims. Nothing is quite as powerful as consumer pressure and demand; so as individuals we need to be on alert.

We need to be able to recognise greenwash for what it is, ask the right questions and ultimately make the right purchasing decisions.

A couple of good places to start are:

Seven sins of greenwash. Although written by a US-based firm it’s still valid and very easy to understand

The Greenwashing Index not only help consumers become savvy about evaluating environmental marketing claims of advertisers, but also hold businesses accountable to their environmental marketing claims