PSFK Author:
Piers Fawkes

Gordon Ramsay has told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that fruit and vegetables should be locally-sourced and only on restaurants menus when in season. The chef has suggested to the UK leader that there should be an outlawing out-of-season produce. The BBC reports:

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says British restaurants should be fined if they serve fruit and vegetables which are not in season.

The TV chef said it was “fundamentally important” for chefs to provide locally-sourced food.

“Fruit and veg should be seasonal,” he said. “Chefs should be fined if they haven’t got ingredients in season on their menu. I don’t want to see asparagus on in the middle of December. I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown.”

BBC Article
BBC Video with interview with Gordon Ramsey

Green Marketing Manifesto author John Grant responds to our post about whether organic and vegan food is environmental. He says:

It’s a bit of an odd statement - what is ‘global warming potential’?… That is nothing to do with the central issues of animal welfare, use of antibiotics and feed additives such as arsenic. Carbon here is a side issue. There are 850 million chicken raised in britain a year; an average of about 14 per person per year. So on average the difference is just under 30kg of carbon dioxide vs your 11 tonne annual footprint.

greenormal: There’s more to life than CO2

Related PSFK Articles
Is Organic Environmental?

This window display created by the internal Paris-based Louis Vuitton design team stands out on 5th Avenue on a gloomy rainy day.

OK: We’ve tried to stop talking about the idea that some folks are developing a negative association with brands that are Olympic corporate sponsors, but we keep seeing signs for it. A poster at this pro-Tibet protest in Union Square suggests that brands like McDonalds, VolksWagen, adidas, Samsung and lenovo are sponsors for ‘China torture’.

Beyond the Chinese government, there’s a huge nation of everyday people who are proud and excited about the spotlight on their country, and the continued protests must be confusing and saddening for them. Unfortunately, the anger the Chinese people feel seems to be directed back to the ‘foreigners’ rather than the folks upstairs who are causing the protests.

We spotted this in the Broadway Uniqlo store. A simple crossed finger insignia provides Subtle and fun collaboration between the fashion retailer and the folks who own Keith Haring’s estate. They’ve been out for a while and Harings imagery has appeared on their T Shirts before too - but it reminded us to point out that Haring seems to be getting a bit of a revival at the moment - a mural that used to sit on Houston Street has been repainted in the same spot.

[Photo ref]

An article on the BBC’s Radio 4 site by Tom Heap suggests that ‘good’ food alternatives such as organic or vegetarian could have a bigger environmental impact that having a diet of pork and chicken:

Peter Bradnock of the British Poultry Council says: “Organic poultry meat has about 45% more global warming potential than indoor-reared poultry meat. “If you’re rearing outside, then the bird is using a little more of its feed to keep itself warm, or simply to keep itself cool in hot climates.”.

There is a further hiccup with the vegetarian option: most of those who avoid meat source their protein from dairy foods.

And dairy animals pump out gases and gobble up supplementary feed just like the rest.
If you are avoiding meat for climate reasons, you should be shunning dairy too.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Meat in a low-carbon world

A study by WRAP of 2,138 UK households suggests that Britons dump £9bn of avoidable waste each year - a high percentage of which was food. 60% of dumped food is untouched and and at least £1bn worth of food wasted in the UK is still “in date”. Some key findings:

• Bakery goods made up 19%, by weight, of all avoidable food waste. Vegetables contributed 18%.
• Meat and fish also made up a large proportion - 18% - of the total money wasted on food.
• 5,500 whole chickens were thrown away each day in the UK.
• “Mixed foods” like ready meals made up 21% of the total cost of waste, with 440,000 thrown away each day.
• The two most significantly wasted foods were potatoes and bread.
• 1.3m unopened yoghurt pots are disposed every day

WRAP’S Report

[viaBBC NEWS]

Westminster council has placed a dozen JuicePoint recharging posts for electric vehicles. Drivers of electric cars can pay an annual fee of £75 and pull up to any of the street posts. These posts are in addition to 48 charging points already found in the council’s parking lots.

A recent report by the councils suggests the following cars and vans can use the points already - or very soon:

• G-Wiz
• Mega City
• Electric SmartCar
• Modec
• Faraday
• Mega van
• Piaggio Porter
• Toyota Amberjac
• Cleanova
• Think City Car
• Ford Think
• Citroen Berlingo

EcoMark from Westminster Council

Thanks to everyone who has been contributing to the Flickr or Blurb pools for the collaborative book we’re going to publish. We’d love the rest of you to submit imagery too - more details here.