YouTube - Happy Mondays "Step On": ""
OK its a crap video and they can't mime for cotton but what a great song
Monday 31 December 2007
Friday 28 December 2007
YouTube - Siouxsie and the Banshees Hong Kong Garden
YouTube - Siouxsie and the Banshees Hong Kong Garden
I know my New Resolution was to stop posting songs to this blog and stick with being serious- but hey, I~ couldn't help myself- comes from watching movies
I know my New Resolution was to stop posting songs to this blog and stick with being serious- but hey, I~ couldn't help myself- comes from watching movies
Pete’s 10 Green New Years’ Resolutions for 2008
Green guilt is racking the nation, we should be doing something, we know we should but we never get time. New Year is the time to make a plan, says naturalchoices editor Peter Shield. Here is my list of New Year’s resolutions to try and make 2008 more enjoyable and productive than 2007.
1. Make more plans. So much of what I don’t get done is because I don’t plan it well enough. DIY projects get halted because that crucial widget is sitting in a closed shop and then forgotten about, planting projects get held up for more research which never gets done. 2008 is the year for advanced planning, and finishing each project step by step.
2. Make time- so much of what I planned for 2007 didn’t happen not because of lack of intent but lack of space to do it. So this year I am determined to take time to make time- that requires a little planning, doing weekly or 10 day menus so that one trip to the organic co-op shop and the market every 10 days or so is sufficient.
3. Make more food. 2007 was the first year of the vegetable patch. In 2008 we are going to move into full production. The best way to eat seasonally is to grow your own. My copy of Charles Dowding’s, ‘Organic Gardening: The Natural No Dig Way’ is going to get a good hammering- as is my back doing all that digging getting the beds ready to be no dig in the future. A green gym and green food solution all in one.
4. Make more drinks. An early Christmas present this year was a juicer- partly inspired by reading Great Brands:innocent, a history of the innocent fruit drinks company. Already the pear and apple trees have been planted, a few kiwis need to be added to pump up that vitamin C level. Could I also grow ginger this year? Last year’s mint was a bit of disaster, this year I am going to pack the kitchen garden with a range of mints and herbs to dry and make tea.
5. Make more meals. Snacking and eating on the run is a lazy, wasteful, and no fun way to eat. So in 2008 its making soup for a week, make sure each meal feeds into the next, so cold potatoes left over from dinner are the base of the tortilla for tomorrow, the remaining veg are used to make a stock. Most importantly it is also about taking time to eat with friends and neighbours, solve the problems of the world and have a good laugh. The collective knowledge about the farm and what is possible is not held in books but in the experience of the neighbours, meals time is the ideal time to unlock those secrets.
6. Make more compost. Recycling is good, re-using is even better, this year it is time to experiment with more than the simple recipe of everything goes into one bin and rots. Grape must – the remains after the winemakers have finished weaving their magic, horse muck, and if Caroline gets her way as she will, maybe a couple of our own donkeys will all be added to the mix this year. Also as an ex media guy I still have an addiction to the printed media- so will also experiment with shredded news print and cardboard. The glossy newsprint of The Economist will have to remain as a fire lighter as all that coloured ink won’t decompose very well- there is something strangely satisfying about watching all that free –market nonsense going up in smoke anyway.
7. Make more water- well actually not even with the most advanced chemistry can I do this but what I can do is capture more water with guttering and butts, also 80% of the water that gets sprayed in the garden is lost to evaporation before it reaches the roots. So with some empty mineral water bottles and some good African knowledge picked up from the East African organic producers website I will be installing a system to get the water direct to the roots. (For those interested you put a pin prick hole in the bottle top, cut off the bottom to the required depth and then bury the bottle upside down in the beds, instead of watering the whole bed you just fill up the up turned bottle and let it drip through to the roots). In the house a new shower is going in with a aerating head to reduce the amount of water used in the shower, similar heads are going on the taps. Grey washing up water is reused with the high tech assistance of a bowl to flush the loo.
8. Make more brain cells- again a bit of a physical impossibility, but maybe make the ones I have work more. This greener lifestyle is very technology heavy, as well as biology heavy- whether it is understanding the way water works its way through soil to creating the perfect soil conditions for a wide range of plants, how solar and wind systems work, to pickling and preserving produce- and of course this year the alembic for making lavender oil. Even trees are incredibly complex things when it comes to maintaining a sustainable wood supply. This year will be the year to go on courses, from organic agriculture for the olive and lavender planting, to essential oil making, and the one I have been talking about for 12 months- how to make organic soaps.
9. Make more networks. No matter how I flog the limited matter between my ears there is always some one somewhere who has forgotten more this morning that I have ever learnt on any subject under the sun. The key is to know who they are, how to find them and then once they have been identified and located how to gently tease the necessary information out of them. Actics.com, the Ethical Business Network, Ethical Junction, the Green Building Forums, Google Groups, Ethical Directory, Permaculture magazine, the Soil Association, off-grid.net – the list of networks goes on and on. The key to successfully using networks however is to give as much as you ask, if not more. 2008 is the year for feeding all that has been learnt so far and taking advice from people who are much further along the road. To this end I promise to put useful things on my blog and not just great tracks from Youtube.
10. Make Do. This Christmas has really brought home how little extra I actually need- the most useful present I received was a strap on head lamp- means that I can read in bed until the Photo Voltaic system is up and running, and see where I am going when run away from wild boar leaving my hands free to wave in the air in a panicky manner. Seriously if I remember not to chain saw in my best clothes and cover them in oil soaked saw dust then there is very little outside of building and gardening materials I really need in 2008.
Peter Shield is the editor of NaturalChoices, he lives in the Languedoc and is busy trying to renovate an old domaine and 56 acres of land into an organic lavender farm with a small olive grove. He is hoping to launch ethicalreading.com as a book review site to run alongside www.naturalchoices.co.uk in 2008. He has been talking about launching Ethical Investment News as a website for 12 months, 2008 will see if anything actually happens on that front- don’t hold your breath.
His useless blog can be found at http://editor-naturalchoices.blogspot.com/
1. Make more plans. So much of what I don’t get done is because I don’t plan it well enough. DIY projects get halted because that crucial widget is sitting in a closed shop and then forgotten about, planting projects get held up for more research which never gets done. 2008 is the year for advanced planning, and finishing each project step by step.
2. Make time- so much of what I planned for 2007 didn’t happen not because of lack of intent but lack of space to do it. So this year I am determined to take time to make time- that requires a little planning, doing weekly or 10 day menus so that one trip to the organic co-op shop and the market every 10 days or so is sufficient.
3. Make more food. 2007 was the first year of the vegetable patch. In 2008 we are going to move into full production. The best way to eat seasonally is to grow your own. My copy of Charles Dowding’s, ‘Organic Gardening: The Natural No Dig Way’ is going to get a good hammering- as is my back doing all that digging getting the beds ready to be no dig in the future. A green gym and green food solution all in one.
4. Make more drinks. An early Christmas present this year was a juicer- partly inspired by reading Great Brands:innocent, a history of the innocent fruit drinks company. Already the pear and apple trees have been planted, a few kiwis need to be added to pump up that vitamin C level. Could I also grow ginger this year? Last year’s mint was a bit of disaster, this year I am going to pack the kitchen garden with a range of mints and herbs to dry and make tea.
5. Make more meals. Snacking and eating on the run is a lazy, wasteful, and no fun way to eat. So in 2008 its making soup for a week, make sure each meal feeds into the next, so cold potatoes left over from dinner are the base of the tortilla for tomorrow, the remaining veg are used to make a stock. Most importantly it is also about taking time to eat with friends and neighbours, solve the problems of the world and have a good laugh. The collective knowledge about the farm and what is possible is not held in books but in the experience of the neighbours, meals time is the ideal time to unlock those secrets.
6. Make more compost. Recycling is good, re-using is even better, this year it is time to experiment with more than the simple recipe of everything goes into one bin and rots. Grape must – the remains after the winemakers have finished weaving their magic, horse muck, and if Caroline gets her way as she will, maybe a couple of our own donkeys will all be added to the mix this year. Also as an ex media guy I still have an addiction to the printed media- so will also experiment with shredded news print and cardboard. The glossy newsprint of The Economist will have to remain as a fire lighter as all that coloured ink won’t decompose very well- there is something strangely satisfying about watching all that free –market nonsense going up in smoke anyway.
7. Make more water- well actually not even with the most advanced chemistry can I do this but what I can do is capture more water with guttering and butts, also 80% of the water that gets sprayed in the garden is lost to evaporation before it reaches the roots. So with some empty mineral water bottles and some good African knowledge picked up from the East African organic producers website I will be installing a system to get the water direct to the roots. (For those interested you put a pin prick hole in the bottle top, cut off the bottom to the required depth and then bury the bottle upside down in the beds, instead of watering the whole bed you just fill up the up turned bottle and let it drip through to the roots). In the house a new shower is going in with a aerating head to reduce the amount of water used in the shower, similar heads are going on the taps. Grey washing up water is reused with the high tech assistance of a bowl to flush the loo.
8. Make more brain cells- again a bit of a physical impossibility, but maybe make the ones I have work more. This greener lifestyle is very technology heavy, as well as biology heavy- whether it is understanding the way water works its way through soil to creating the perfect soil conditions for a wide range of plants, how solar and wind systems work, to pickling and preserving produce- and of course this year the alembic for making lavender oil. Even trees are incredibly complex things when it comes to maintaining a sustainable wood supply. This year will be the year to go on courses, from organic agriculture for the olive and lavender planting, to essential oil making, and the one I have been talking about for 12 months- how to make organic soaps.
9. Make more networks. No matter how I flog the limited matter between my ears there is always some one somewhere who has forgotten more this morning that I have ever learnt on any subject under the sun. The key is to know who they are, how to find them and then once they have been identified and located how to gently tease the necessary information out of them. Actics.com, the Ethical Business Network, Ethical Junction, the Green Building Forums, Google Groups, Ethical Directory, Permaculture magazine, the Soil Association, off-grid.net – the list of networks goes on and on. The key to successfully using networks however is to give as much as you ask, if not more. 2008 is the year for feeding all that has been learnt so far and taking advice from people who are much further along the road. To this end I promise to put useful things on my blog and not just great tracks from Youtube.
10. Make Do. This Christmas has really brought home how little extra I actually need- the most useful present I received was a strap on head lamp- means that I can read in bed until the Photo Voltaic system is up and running, and see where I am going when run away from wild boar leaving my hands free to wave in the air in a panicky manner. Seriously if I remember not to chain saw in my best clothes and cover them in oil soaked saw dust then there is very little outside of building and gardening materials I really need in 2008.
Peter Shield is the editor of NaturalChoices, he lives in the Languedoc and is busy trying to renovate an old domaine and 56 acres of land into an organic lavender farm with a small olive grove. He is hoping to launch ethicalreading.com as a book review site to run alongside www.naturalchoices.co.uk in 2008. He has been talking about launching Ethical Investment News as a website for 12 months, 2008 will see if anything actually happens on that front- don’t hold your breath.
His useless blog can be found at http://editor-naturalchoices.blogspot.com/
Thursday 20 December 2007
Ken Loach on Respect Renewal
Vidéos MySpaceTV : \ken Loach par RTV Media Productions: "\ken Loach
Ajouter à mon profil | Plus de Vidéos"
\ken Loach
Ajouter à mon profil | Plus de Vidéos
Ken Loach up beat on the non-SWP Respect rump
Ajouter à mon profil | Plus de Vidéos"
\ken Loach
Ajouter à mon profil | Plus de Vidéos
Ken Loach up beat on the non-SWP Respect rump
Friday 14 December 2007
Bean Sprouts
Bean Sprouts
Great little blog about working on living green without the domestic budget of Sheherazade Goldsmith. For me blogs like this disprove the oft quoted 'fact' that green living is only for the rich, in fact it kind of proves the inverse, the middle class buy themselves green by ensuring they buy organic, fairtrade food and drink, expensive organic clothes et al. In fact all they are doing is swapping one form of market consumerism for another, albeit one with a smaller footprint, and some social justice outcomes.
What this cash rich approach to greenery doesn't do however is confront the fact that it is the very market that is at the root cause of the problem, climate change is a market failure to use the economist's term, shifting from one form of consumerism to another more benign form does not challenge the underlying problem.
Basically you can't buy yourself a greener lifestyle, it is a lifestyle not a fashion statement, and that means changing the way we live, reduce not replace is the order of the day, make not manufacture.
In essence if we take time to look after the little things- like the garden, make our own soap- buy second hand, re-use and if we have to throw away recycle- all these little things make a small dint in the big problem.
In a society where people are time poor and money rich it is impossible to hid the fact that at its heart we have created a soulless culture. Not that I am religious, what I mean by soul I suppose is community values, ethics if your want. When Thatcher said, 'There is no such thing as society', she may not have been describing the society at the time, just look at the incredible sense of community that operated during the miners strike, but she was certainly describing the objective of her economic policies. By alienating people from those around them, isolating individuals and couples in their hermetically sealed struggle to buy their houses, buy a better car, pore money into private pension schemes, have a private health scheme, modern economic and social policies have ripped the heart out our sense of community.
It should therefore be no surprise that when people search for alternatives they are plunging along individualistic routes, by changing their shopping habits, or for that matter 'down sizing' like we have by using our economic power to buy a place in the South of France and opt out of the rate race.
And of course it is these individual responses which grab the media headlines, why? Well because those who write the articles, and read the broadsheets, come from the same middle class culture as those opting for a consumerist approach to greenery. Or the rash step of down sizing. ( Most down sizers rapidly find that the life dreamed of on a rainy day over looking the Thames fails to materialize and rather rapidly up size again in my experience).
However running parallel to this high profile economy there is another culture all together, it isn’t a new economy launched in the 80s like modern ‘greenery’, its been there since there was a peasantry and was transported to towns with industrialization. Its hard to remember that the first large scale organized ‘ethical consumers’ where actually the Rochdale Pioneers not the Richmond dandies. Make do, re-use, hand me downs, the vegetable plot were and are a part of life for those who are unemployed or low paid. The carbon food print of the less well off in economic terms is minute compared to the middle classes, the sense of community on council estates is still much stronger than those of the leafy suburbs.
A green lifestyle doesn’t involve wearing Kyochi jeans, and eating Marks and Spencer’s organic, it involves growing your own, bartering with the neighbours, hand me downs and hown brewing. It is about parties not discos, picnics on the allotment not dinners in restaurants. Most importantly it is about the sense of empowerment that comes from community and not from a bank account.
Thus ends the rant.
Great little blog about working on living green without the domestic budget of Sheherazade Goldsmith. For me blogs like this disprove the oft quoted 'fact' that green living is only for the rich, in fact it kind of proves the inverse, the middle class buy themselves green by ensuring they buy organic, fairtrade food and drink, expensive organic clothes et al. In fact all they are doing is swapping one form of market consumerism for another, albeit one with a smaller footprint, and some social justice outcomes.
What this cash rich approach to greenery doesn't do however is confront the fact that it is the very market that is at the root cause of the problem, climate change is a market failure to use the economist's term, shifting from one form of consumerism to another more benign form does not challenge the underlying problem.
Basically you can't buy yourself a greener lifestyle, it is a lifestyle not a fashion statement, and that means changing the way we live, reduce not replace is the order of the day, make not manufacture.
In essence if we take time to look after the little things- like the garden, make our own soap- buy second hand, re-use and if we have to throw away recycle- all these little things make a small dint in the big problem.
In a society where people are time poor and money rich it is impossible to hid the fact that at its heart we have created a soulless culture. Not that I am religious, what I mean by soul I suppose is community values, ethics if your want. When Thatcher said, 'There is no such thing as society', she may not have been describing the society at the time, just look at the incredible sense of community that operated during the miners strike, but she was certainly describing the objective of her economic policies. By alienating people from those around them, isolating individuals and couples in their hermetically sealed struggle to buy their houses, buy a better car, pore money into private pension schemes, have a private health scheme, modern economic and social policies have ripped the heart out our sense of community.
It should therefore be no surprise that when people search for alternatives they are plunging along individualistic routes, by changing their shopping habits, or for that matter 'down sizing' like we have by using our economic power to buy a place in the South of France and opt out of the rate race.
And of course it is these individual responses which grab the media headlines, why? Well because those who write the articles, and read the broadsheets, come from the same middle class culture as those opting for a consumerist approach to greenery. Or the rash step of down sizing. ( Most down sizers rapidly find that the life dreamed of on a rainy day over looking the Thames fails to materialize and rather rapidly up size again in my experience).
However running parallel to this high profile economy there is another culture all together, it isn’t a new economy launched in the 80s like modern ‘greenery’, its been there since there was a peasantry and was transported to towns with industrialization. Its hard to remember that the first large scale organized ‘ethical consumers’ where actually the Rochdale Pioneers not the Richmond dandies. Make do, re-use, hand me downs, the vegetable plot were and are a part of life for those who are unemployed or low paid. The carbon food print of the less well off in economic terms is minute compared to the middle classes, the sense of community on council estates is still much stronger than those of the leafy suburbs.
A green lifestyle doesn’t involve wearing Kyochi jeans, and eating Marks and Spencer’s organic, it involves growing your own, bartering with the neighbours, hand me downs and hown brewing. It is about parties not discos, picnics on the allotment not dinners in restaurants. Most importantly it is about the sense of empowerment that comes from community and not from a bank account.
Thus ends the rant.
Thursday 13 December 2007
YouTube - UB40 - Sing our own song (Free Mandela Concert)
YouTube - UB40 - Sing our own song (Free Mandela Concert)
Remember this? First time I got to hob nob with the stars,albeit in the VIP bar- then had to listen to this song every night for five weeks as we walked from Glasgow to London on the Nelson Freedom March
Remember this? First time I got to hob nob with the stars,albeit in the VIP bar- then had to listen to this song every night for five weeks as we walked from Glasgow to London on the Nelson Freedom March
Wednesday 12 December 2007
YouTube - Red State Update: Obama, Cheney Cousins?
YouTube - Red State Update: Obama, Cheney Cousins?
Don't quite know how to take these two - but they do make me laugh
Don't quite know how to take these two - but they do make me laugh
Wednesday 28 November 2007
Actics - Natural Choices Media
Actics - Natural Choices Media
not totally sure exactly what the purpose of this is yet, a new spin on the ethical social network i guess, needs some functional development me thinks but chapeau for starting it, lets see how it develops.
not totally sure exactly what the purpose of this is yet, a new spin on the ethical social network i guess, needs some functional development me thinks but chapeau for starting it, lets see how it develops.
YouTube - Gorillaz 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
YouTube - Gorillaz 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
Ok so !'m at least seven million years behind the rest of the Universe but what could have a lower carbon foorprint than a band that doesn't exist?
Ok so !'m at least seven million years behind the rest of the Universe but what could have a lower carbon foorprint than a band that doesn't exist?
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Jedi Moment- absolutely nothing to day with the environment
What can I say- sad I know I love it
Great ski-ing music, the very best for hitting a mogul field
Monday 29 October 2007
James Lovelock: Reducing emissions could speed global warming - Telegraph
James Lovelock: Reducing emissions could speed global warming - Telegraph
James Lovelock has an unfortunate reputation as the Right's favourite ecologist- maybe because he favour nuclear power and doesn't see reduced bio-diversity as a particular problem. The founder of the Gaia Theory, well the man who most eloquently articulated that the planet is a single complex living organism, has a habit of comming up with radical, and sometimes counter intuitive proposals and ideas. His latest is that industrial pollution- of which CO2 is a major part- as well as producing green house gases also produces an effect which effectively blocks the suns light- a fact well known to anyone who remembers the 1970/80s campaigning against CFCs. He argues that a drastic cut in total industrial pollution by cutting out the blockers as well as the green house gases will in effect actually accelerate global warming.
It is a council of despair in someways, and Lovelock can be a little like that- the problem is so huge, the solution unpalatable- the result confusion and paralysed inaction. But that does not mean that his writing should be dismissed- he often raises spot on razor sharp critiques of green 'common sense', and offers difficult solutions- but the solution is not to dismiss him but look carefullya t his points and come up with as well thought out counter solutions.
For me Lovelock is like The Economist of the green movement- I read The Economist not because I agree with their disaster capitalism / privatised world approach but because they are always articulate and well argued, if my arguements do not stand up against them then it is time for me to go and research,re-think and re-model my thoughts.
James Lovelock has an unfortunate reputation as the Right's favourite ecologist- maybe because he favour nuclear power and doesn't see reduced bio-diversity as a particular problem. The founder of the Gaia Theory, well the man who most eloquently articulated that the planet is a single complex living organism, has a habit of comming up with radical, and sometimes counter intuitive proposals and ideas. His latest is that industrial pollution- of which CO2 is a major part- as well as producing green house gases also produces an effect which effectively blocks the suns light- a fact well known to anyone who remembers the 1970/80s campaigning against CFCs. He argues that a drastic cut in total industrial pollution by cutting out the blockers as well as the green house gases will in effect actually accelerate global warming.
It is a council of despair in someways, and Lovelock can be a little like that- the problem is so huge, the solution unpalatable- the result confusion and paralysed inaction. But that does not mean that his writing should be dismissed- he often raises spot on razor sharp critiques of green 'common sense', and offers difficult solutions- but the solution is not to dismiss him but look carefullya t his points and come up with as well thought out counter solutions.
For me Lovelock is like The Economist of the green movement- I read The Economist not because I agree with their disaster capitalism / privatised world approach but because they are always articulate and well argued, if my arguements do not stand up against them then it is time for me to go and research,re-think and re-model my thoughts.
Branded for life? | Consumer and ethical living | Life and Health
Branded for life? | Consumer and ethical living | Life and Health
Superb piece of research by the Guardian with the able assistance of Ethical Consumer on the real after effects of ethical companies selling part or all their ownership to the big players. With the news that Abela nd Cole have sold part of their equity to a VC this article is a timely warning about the long term implications of M&A as large company tactic to buy into the ethical sector.
Superb piece of research by the Guardian with the able assistance of Ethical Consumer on the real after effects of ethical companies selling part or all their ownership to the big players. With the news that Abela nd Cole have sold part of their equity to a VC this article is a timely warning about the long term implications of M&A as large company tactic to buy into the ethical sector.
Thursday 4 October 2007
BABYLON AND BEYOND: Anti-capitalist economics
BABYLON AND BEYOND: Anti-capitalist economics
Derek Wall's Babylon and Beyond. is a great romp through the various elements make up the anti-globalisation 'movement'- starting with the Keynesian type reformers like Soros and ending up with the eco-socialism, passing by autonomists, eco-feminism and of course anarchists. In effect it is an enquiry into the various political, economic and philosophical elements that make up modern anti-capitalism- with Derek taking a bit from most of them to pull together a sort of coherent eco-socialist position- which takes the form of a re-reading of Marx/Engels, a good pull on the pint of anarchism, with the open source movement pulled in for a 21st century hot pepper spice.
His reading of Marx is particularly interesting. Marx can be read in as many ways as the reader has political opinions.
Certainly the traditional Marxist-Lenninist position has been that capitalism essentially drives to open new markets in its constant search for maintaining and expanding profits. Rater than see this as a bad thing the standard line is that this is good as it spreads efficient (ish) modern production techniques round the world, and in doing so creats a global working class, which is the sole force capable of effectively challenging and destroying capitalism and build socialism. Increased production is seen as good thing as increases humanity's ability to provide a good quality of life to it population- in fact the only problem with capitalism is not that it drives to produce more and more but that it shares out the benefits so poorly, socialism is therefore a way of taking this productivist power and controlling it for the benefit of all not just a small elite
.
This has lead to marxists welcoming globalisation in its economic form, if not in its American accented cultural form.
Derek, on the other hand, essentially strips out the key marxist economic analysis that differentiates exchange value- the price a product can get in the market, from use value- the actual useful value of a product. At the moment we are in a world that focuses on the exchange value, a world full of marketing created Brands where the perceived social cache of a product is judged more valuable than its actual purpose and usefulness. The market he argues, far from being all powerful and the most efficient way of organising human life, is in effect a very inefficient system for valuing the real value of product or service, and for motivating people.
A good example of this is the socially essential service of giving blood. In the UK it is a purely voluntary system, people give blood because it is a good, social thing to do, and has a strong social cache. In the US on the other hand blood donors are paid. Result-it is the good burghers of middle England, as well as the working class that give blood, in the US giving blood is seen as demeaning and left to the extremely poor, homeless and drug addicts. Far from providing a motivation the cash payment is actually a disincentive for those in good health to give blood, whereas the social aspect is a much stringer motivation.
Economists would have us believe that only the market can produce results. In reality the market is not omnipresent, if it was why on earth would anyone choose to a mother or for that matter a nurse, teacher, carer?
There exists a social motivation that drives people just as strongly as a financial one.
Modern economics concentrates purely on the latter, and as capitalism seeks to ever expand its monetization of life it both pushes outwards, with its out sourcing of production to developing countries, and inwards through personal trainers, therapists, private sector heath care, Big Mac in school canteens, Second Life online.
However there is a wide range of resistance to this constant expansion, whether it be displaced Chinese peasants, Indian tea producers, Mexican separatists, Brazilian homeless, or anti-airplane campers at Heathrow, as well as the traditional trade union miltants, leftists and anarchists.
Derek tries, with some success, to pull all the various forms of resistance into some form of broad groupings, analysising the main components of each wing and drawing out the key points of connection and equally points to the various contradictions.
The book is a polemic as well as an analysis. Derek himself has been very influential in shaping the face of eco-socialism in the UK, although he would probably be too modest to admit it. His writing in Red Pepper, the column in the Morning Star and his contribution to Comment is Free in the Guardian are now required reading for the traditional left as it tries to have a more than fleeting engagement with the environmental movement.
This book is a great little primer on the different starnds that make up modern green and anti-globalization politics, with a conclusion that avoids some of the backward looking primitivism of some of the back to the land greens. It concludes with a heady mix of localism where possible, centralism where unavoidable, a well argued rejection of market based economics and private property .
In a recent e-mail Derek told me he had great fun writing the book, this sense of humour comes across throughout, as does his deep engagement both intellectually and politically with the issues. At times it is not an easy read, particularly for someone like me that comes from a productavist, command structure (Lennnist) left wing background, and there are parts of historical analysis I would take issue with, most notably his romanticism of the anarchist movement in the Spanish civil war, however overall I think the traditional left has more to learn from Derek than he has from them.
Derek Wall's Babylon and Beyond. is a great romp through the various elements make up the anti-globalisation 'movement'- starting with the Keynesian type reformers like Soros and ending up with the eco-socialism, passing by autonomists, eco-feminism and of course anarchists. In effect it is an enquiry into the various political, economic and philosophical elements that make up modern anti-capitalism- with Derek taking a bit from most of them to pull together a sort of coherent eco-socialist position- which takes the form of a re-reading of Marx/Engels, a good pull on the pint of anarchism, with the open source movement pulled in for a 21st century hot pepper spice.
His reading of Marx is particularly interesting. Marx can be read in as many ways as the reader has political opinions.
Certainly the traditional Marxist-Lenninist position has been that capitalism essentially drives to open new markets in its constant search for maintaining and expanding profits. Rater than see this as a bad thing the standard line is that this is good as it spreads efficient (ish) modern production techniques round the world, and in doing so creats a global working class, which is the sole force capable of effectively challenging and destroying capitalism and build socialism. Increased production is seen as good thing as increases humanity's ability to provide a good quality of life to it population- in fact the only problem with capitalism is not that it drives to produce more and more but that it shares out the benefits so poorly, socialism is therefore a way of taking this productivist power and controlling it for the benefit of all not just a small elite
.
This has lead to marxists welcoming globalisation in its economic form, if not in its American accented cultural form.
Derek, on the other hand, essentially strips out the key marxist economic analysis that differentiates exchange value- the price a product can get in the market, from use value- the actual useful value of a product. At the moment we are in a world that focuses on the exchange value, a world full of marketing created Brands where the perceived social cache of a product is judged more valuable than its actual purpose and usefulness. The market he argues, far from being all powerful and the most efficient way of organising human life, is in effect a very inefficient system for valuing the real value of product or service, and for motivating people.
A good example of this is the socially essential service of giving blood. In the UK it is a purely voluntary system, people give blood because it is a good, social thing to do, and has a strong social cache. In the US on the other hand blood donors are paid. Result-it is the good burghers of middle England, as well as the working class that give blood, in the US giving blood is seen as demeaning and left to the extremely poor, homeless and drug addicts. Far from providing a motivation the cash payment is actually a disincentive for those in good health to give blood, whereas the social aspect is a much stringer motivation.
Economists would have us believe that only the market can produce results. In reality the market is not omnipresent, if it was why on earth would anyone choose to a mother or for that matter a nurse, teacher, carer?
There exists a social motivation that drives people just as strongly as a financial one.
Modern economics concentrates purely on the latter, and as capitalism seeks to ever expand its monetization of life it both pushes outwards, with its out sourcing of production to developing countries, and inwards through personal trainers, therapists, private sector heath care, Big Mac in school canteens, Second Life online.
However there is a wide range of resistance to this constant expansion, whether it be displaced Chinese peasants, Indian tea producers, Mexican separatists, Brazilian homeless, or anti-airplane campers at Heathrow, as well as the traditional trade union miltants, leftists and anarchists.
Derek tries, with some success, to pull all the various forms of resistance into some form of broad groupings, analysising the main components of each wing and drawing out the key points of connection and equally points to the various contradictions.
The book is a polemic as well as an analysis. Derek himself has been very influential in shaping the face of eco-socialism in the UK, although he would probably be too modest to admit it. His writing in Red Pepper, the column in the Morning Star and his contribution to Comment is Free in the Guardian are now required reading for the traditional left as it tries to have a more than fleeting engagement with the environmental movement.
This book is a great little primer on the different starnds that make up modern green and anti-globalization politics, with a conclusion that avoids some of the backward looking primitivism of some of the back to the land greens. It concludes with a heady mix of localism where possible, centralism where unavoidable, a well argued rejection of market based economics and private property .
In a recent e-mail Derek told me he had great fun writing the book, this sense of humour comes across throughout, as does his deep engagement both intellectually and politically with the issues. At times it is not an easy read, particularly for someone like me that comes from a productavist, command structure (Lennnist) left wing background, and there are parts of historical analysis I would take issue with, most notably his romanticism of the anarchist movement in the Spanish civil war, however overall I think the traditional left has more to learn from Derek than he has from them.
Thursday 27 September 2007
The Get Ethical Blog » Ethical Brains
The Get Ethical Blog » Ethical Brains
Well the one true thing that Phil wrote was it made me blush.
It was an interesting meeting in Bristol last week, bring together the boys from Ethical Junction, ASP, SVN, the Hub and a few loose cannons like Phil and me. What came out of it was that the so called 'ethical sector' has tons of energy but overall is still alcking the basic infrastructure that the traditional business sector has in bundles.
The aim of the meeting was to try and see where the gaps are and who and what could fill them. Time will tell if it was useful, it will be I suspect the handful of players that will do 95% of the work- as per usual- but by giving further access to a wider group both those efforts and their results could be fruitful quicker.
Well the one true thing that Phil wrote was it made me blush.
It was an interesting meeting in Bristol last week, bring together the boys from Ethical Junction, ASP, SVN, the Hub and a few loose cannons like Phil and me. What came out of it was that the so called 'ethical sector' has tons of energy but overall is still alcking the basic infrastructure that the traditional business sector has in bundles.
The aim of the meeting was to try and see where the gaps are and who and what could fill them. Time will tell if it was useful, it will be I suspect the handful of players that will do 95% of the work- as per usual- but by giving further access to a wider group both those efforts and their results could be fruitful quicker.
Thursday 6 September 2007
YouTube - Soap, Drugs, & Rock and Roll
YouTube - Soap, Drugs, & Rock and Roll: ""
It couldn't be stranger, thanks to Ant over at Male-organics for sending me this. What was more worrying that silly police narco tests in the US was the fact that a number of leading so called natural and organic soaps were actually anything but. Shows how we need some sort of clear standards on what is natural and organic- in the meantime it means that is a product says organic but doesn't have a soil association marque then very very close attention has to be paid to the label- and a decree in chemistry might help.
It couldn't be stranger, thanks to Ant over at Male-organics for sending me this. What was more worrying that silly police narco tests in the US was the fact that a number of leading so called natural and organic soaps were actually anything but. Shows how we need some sort of clear standards on what is natural and organic- in the meantime it means that is a product says organic but doesn't have a soil association marque then very very close attention has to be paid to the label- and a decree in chemistry might help.
Tuesday 28 August 2007
CO2 Saver - Homepage
CO2 Saver - Homepage
Cool little tool, wonder of they would be a naturalchoices.co.uk version?
Cool little tool, wonder of they would be a naturalchoices.co.uk version?
Monday 20 August 2007
Camp for Climate Action 2007- A spark of hope - Natural Choices
Camp for Climate Action 2007- A spark of hope - Natural Choices
there has been so much terrible coverage on this protest, something about questioning the right to tarvel by plane really upsets the middle classes, maybe its because only 4% of the population take over a third of all leisure flights, and journalists lead the pack
there has been so much terrible coverage on this protest, something about questioning the right to tarvel by plane really upsets the middle classes, maybe its because only 4% of the population take over a third of all leisure flights, and journalists lead the pack
Friday 17 August 2007
Friday 3 August 2007
Is Whole Foods Markets John Mackey up to his old tricks? - Natural Choices
Is Whole Foods Markets John Mackey up to his old tricks? - Natural Choices
I think that this was a trickster poising as Jon Mackey, anyway I have his e-mail, which I will check up on. But you never know, the man is eccentric- some say as mad as a stoat- it could even be him just having fun late on Thursday evening
I think that this was a trickster poising as Jon Mackey, anyway I have his e-mail, which I will check up on. But you never know, the man is eccentric- some say as mad as a stoat- it could even be him just having fun late on Thursday evening
Monday 30 July 2007
YouTube - Les négresses vertes - Voilà l'été
YouTube - Les négresses vertes - Voilà l'été
No that hopefully the floods are reducing, and the sun has been seen in parts of the UK, here is a wonderful summer pick you up
No that hopefully the floods are reducing, and the sun has been seen in parts of the UK, here is a wonderful summer pick you up
Wednesday 25 July 2007
Ethical Corporation: Europe - France – Vive l’environnement!
Ethical Corporation: Europe - France – Vive l’environnement!
It all started so well, Sarko, after trashing us Reds at both the Presidencial and National Assembly suddenly seemed to open open a space to the environmental movement to influence central government policy- it was a PR master stroke- highlighting the lack of meaningful socialist involvement in Green issues while re-enforcing his difference with the previous administration. Chirac for example opened his term in office with a nuclear firework display in the Pacific.
Now it looks likely that the forums are going to turn unto toothless talkingshops- already the key question of energy has been neutered, with nuclear-the main backbone of the French electricity network rules hors subject (Outside the agenda).
It looks likely to me that all the hard decisions will find a similar treatment, with the environmnental groups slowly withdrawing at different stages, throwing insults at the government- and I sense each other for either being too idealistic or too pragmatic.
I hope I'm wrong but I have a feeling I'm not.
It all started so well, Sarko, after trashing us Reds at both the Presidencial and National Assembly suddenly seemed to open open a space to the environmental movement to influence central government policy- it was a PR master stroke- highlighting the lack of meaningful socialist involvement in Green issues while re-enforcing his difference with the previous administration. Chirac for example opened his term in office with a nuclear firework display in the Pacific.
Now it looks likely that the forums are going to turn unto toothless talkingshops- already the key question of energy has been neutered, with nuclear-the main backbone of the French electricity network rules hors subject (Outside the agenda).
It looks likely to me that all the hard decisions will find a similar treatment, with the environmnental groups slowly withdrawing at different stages, throwing insults at the government- and I sense each other for either being too idealistic or too pragmatic.
I hope I'm wrong but I have a feeling I'm not.
Tuesday 24 July 2007
My Telegraph : Peter Shield : July 2007
My Telegraph : Peter Shield : July 2007
Decided to try out a more conservationist link, really seems to work well- attracted a whole series of complete and utter nutters to Natural Choices via blogging on the Telegraph's site, but also a few hundred really enguaged, slightly older green and ethical readers- more I think from the religious aspect of ethical.
Decided to try out a more conservationist link, really seems to work well- attracted a whole series of complete and utter nutters to Natural Choices via blogging on the Telegraph's site, but also a few hundred really enguaged, slightly older green and ethical readers- more I think from the religious aspect of ethical.
Wednesday 18 July 2007
Tuesday 10 July 2007
YouTube - Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town
YouTube - Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town: ""
For anyone from sunny Teeside, God what a dump Stockton was in the 70's
For anyone from sunny Teeside, God what a dump Stockton was in the 70's
YouTube - Dexys Midnight Runners-Geno
YouTube - Dexys Midnight Runners-Geno
This is one of the best versions of Geno I have ever seen-
Nothing green about this blog, just great music
This is one of the best versions of Geno I have ever seen-
Nothing green about this blog, just great music
Wednesday 4 July 2007
Who are today’s ethical consumers?
Back in the good old days of 2000 the Co-operative Bank and the New Economic Foundation, Mori and the Future Foundation commissioned a journalist and marketer to investigate “Who are ethical consumers” They came up with the finding that they called the 30:3 syndrome, that 30% of consumers professed to care about a company’s policy and reputation but yet ethical goods made up only 3% of the market.
They quickly realised that ethical consumers, that is consumers predominantly driven by ethical considerations made up a very small part of consumers who to some decree are influenced by ethics in some of their purchasing decisions.
Ethical consumers, which the authors dubbed “Global watchdogs” in fact made up 5% of the population, they were predominantly middle class and middle aged, social and environmental issues far exceeded brand image, indeed they could be dubbed Anti-Logo. They were southern England based, centred on London and felt powerful as consumers.
A second small segment (6%) the authors dubbed, the ‘Brand generation’, for this young, Midland/Northern group ethical was secondary to brand but could augment the power of a brand.
‘Conscientious consumers’, the largest section of ethically motivated consumers (18%), were driven by value and quality with ethics as one of the quality variables. Based in the Midland and South, outside of London, they were relatively upmarket and predominantly conservative in outlook.
49% they classified at ‘do what I can’, an older group of home owners spread throughout the country who had a weak but still existent ethical motivation
Last but not least were the remaining 22% who ’look after my own’, predominantly poorer/unemployed, Northern or Scottish, people who felt completely powerless as consumers.
So what has changed in the six years that have passed since this report?
Firstly it is worth looking at the market. The Ethical Purchasing Index as it was then called valued the ethical market at £13.429 billion, with Food sales at £1.288 billion and cosmetics and toiletries at £341.5 million, and ethical finance at £7.772 billion. In 2005 ethical consumerism report, the renamed EPI, valued the market at £29.268 billion. Food had shot up to £5.406 billion, cosmetics and toiletries, now renamed personal products, were £1.315 billion and ethical finance at £11.552 billion. The ethical sector has surpassed the over the counter cigarette and alcohol sales in the UK.
The Green and Ethical Consumers Report from Mintel published in January 2007 showed that a great deal had changed in the profile demographics. It is difficult to directly compare the two surveys as there methodology is different but there are common threads.
The ethical resistance element, classified by Mintel as ‘too busy to care’ remained constant at about 20%. However the ‘Greener-than-thou’ segment had risen to 16%, with a further 24% identified as ‘keen to be green’ and are conscious of green and ethical issues. 23% they identified as ‘confused but willing’ .
It is undoubtedly easier to make ethical purchases on 2007 than it has ever been, since the pioneering of Fairtrade products by the Co-operative retailer in 1992 the large retailers not only stock Fairtrade and organic foods and products but also have develop own brand versions of them. Most cosmetic companies now actively avoid animal testing. On the ethical finance side the robust performance of the funds combined with good press coverage have attracted both a wider angle of individual investors as well as deepening their relationship with local and national government pension fund managers.
The growing consumer concern about health issues concerned with pesticides and fungicides, as well as the perceived worries about the health implications of GM crops has motivated consumers for different reasons than traditional environmental concerns.
The growth trends in organic and fair-trade products looks set to continue according to research company IGD with 50 and 100% growth respectively by 2010 predicted.
The growing interest in investing in “technologies of the future” will continue to fuel ethical investment, though new funds are emerging such as the Schroders Climate Change Fund which fall outside of the ethical sector.
The fashion industry is a potential huge growth area with many companies now looking to launch more ethically sourced and produced products for an more discerning consumer base.
The cosmetic industry is already well along the natural and organic product route, either through acquisition, L’Oreal of Body Shop, or repositioning in a sector which overall is stagnant.
Recent reports from TNS Worldpanel show that the growth in organic food is likely to slow down, this is caused not by a lack of demand but by bottle necks in supply. The report shows that organic food rose 9.3% in the year up to the 23rd March, a fine figure to be sure but long short of the 17% in the previous 12 months. Quoted in the Observer Patrick Holden head of the Soil Association said, 'I'm not normally apocalyptic, but the organic food industry is facing big problems that need to be sorted out as a matter of urgency.' Increasingly demand is being met by imports as the British farming industry slowly increases its organic output, organic meat production has been especially hard hit in its attempts to expand due to the shortage in organic animal feeds. The present debate on food miles, and the Soil Association consultation on air freight may add future pressure on those companies forced to look abroad for secure supply chains.
Another key issue as recently reported is the supply chain practices of the major retailers. Sainsbury’s has just de-listed both Prince of Wales organic carrots and Patrick Holden’s because they do not meet their rigorous standards after being subjected to the long distance haulage that their distribution systems demands.
Fairtrade on the other hand does not suffer the ethical qualms of the organic sector with regards to transport, for them the development benefits of Fairtrade and the low carbon emissions of the producers far out weigh the issue of long distance travel, even air freight. The majority of Fairtrade suppliers only sell a small part of their crop through the system with the majority being bought through more traditional buying means. There is a huge margin for growth here, both in sourcing more existing lines and widening the product range covered by Fairtrade certification.
Overall the ethical sector has been a huge success story in the last six years supply chain problems, while difficult in the short term, are a result of the sectors growth and will in the medium term lead to a growth in suppliers attracted to the sector. It is crucial that both certifying associations, retailers and government action continue to support high standards to maintain high consumer confidence rather than lower standards to meet short term supply problems.
They quickly realised that ethical consumers, that is consumers predominantly driven by ethical considerations made up a very small part of consumers who to some decree are influenced by ethics in some of their purchasing decisions.
Ethical consumers, which the authors dubbed “Global watchdogs” in fact made up 5% of the population, they were predominantly middle class and middle aged, social and environmental issues far exceeded brand image, indeed they could be dubbed Anti-Logo. They were southern England based, centred on London and felt powerful as consumers.
A second small segment (6%) the authors dubbed, the ‘Brand generation’, for this young, Midland/Northern group ethical was secondary to brand but could augment the power of a brand.
‘Conscientious consumers’, the largest section of ethically motivated consumers (18%), were driven by value and quality with ethics as one of the quality variables. Based in the Midland and South, outside of London, they were relatively upmarket and predominantly conservative in outlook.
49% they classified at ‘do what I can’, an older group of home owners spread throughout the country who had a weak but still existent ethical motivation
Last but not least were the remaining 22% who ’look after my own’, predominantly poorer/unemployed, Northern or Scottish, people who felt completely powerless as consumers.
So what has changed in the six years that have passed since this report?
Firstly it is worth looking at the market. The Ethical Purchasing Index as it was then called valued the ethical market at £13.429 billion, with Food sales at £1.288 billion and cosmetics and toiletries at £341.5 million, and ethical finance at £7.772 billion. In 2005 ethical consumerism report, the renamed EPI, valued the market at £29.268 billion. Food had shot up to £5.406 billion, cosmetics and toiletries, now renamed personal products, were £1.315 billion and ethical finance at £11.552 billion. The ethical sector has surpassed the over the counter cigarette and alcohol sales in the UK.
The Green and Ethical Consumers Report from Mintel published in January 2007 showed that a great deal had changed in the profile demographics. It is difficult to directly compare the two surveys as there methodology is different but there are common threads.
The ethical resistance element, classified by Mintel as ‘too busy to care’ remained constant at about 20%. However the ‘Greener-than-thou’ segment had risen to 16%, with a further 24% identified as ‘keen to be green’ and are conscious of green and ethical issues. 23% they identified as ‘confused but willing’ .
It is undoubtedly easier to make ethical purchases on 2007 than it has ever been, since the pioneering of Fairtrade products by the Co-operative retailer in 1992 the large retailers not only stock Fairtrade and organic foods and products but also have develop own brand versions of them. Most cosmetic companies now actively avoid animal testing. On the ethical finance side the robust performance of the funds combined with good press coverage have attracted both a wider angle of individual investors as well as deepening their relationship with local and national government pension fund managers.
The growing consumer concern about health issues concerned with pesticides and fungicides, as well as the perceived worries about the health implications of GM crops has motivated consumers for different reasons than traditional environmental concerns.
The growth trends in organic and fair-trade products looks set to continue according to research company IGD with 50 and 100% growth respectively by 2010 predicted.
The growing interest in investing in “technologies of the future” will continue to fuel ethical investment, though new funds are emerging such as the Schroders Climate Change Fund which fall outside of the ethical sector.
The fashion industry is a potential huge growth area with many companies now looking to launch more ethically sourced and produced products for an more discerning consumer base.
The cosmetic industry is already well along the natural and organic product route, either through acquisition, L’Oreal of Body Shop, or repositioning in a sector which overall is stagnant.
Recent reports from TNS Worldpanel show that the growth in organic food is likely to slow down, this is caused not by a lack of demand but by bottle necks in supply. The report shows that organic food rose 9.3% in the year up to the 23rd March, a fine figure to be sure but long short of the 17% in the previous 12 months. Quoted in the Observer Patrick Holden head of the Soil Association said, 'I'm not normally apocalyptic, but the organic food industry is facing big problems that need to be sorted out as a matter of urgency.' Increasingly demand is being met by imports as the British farming industry slowly increases its organic output, organic meat production has been especially hard hit in its attempts to expand due to the shortage in organic animal feeds. The present debate on food miles, and the Soil Association consultation on air freight may add future pressure on those companies forced to look abroad for secure supply chains.
Another key issue as recently reported is the supply chain practices of the major retailers. Sainsbury’s has just de-listed both Prince of Wales organic carrots and Patrick Holden’s because they do not meet their rigorous standards after being subjected to the long distance haulage that their distribution systems demands.
Fairtrade on the other hand does not suffer the ethical qualms of the organic sector with regards to transport, for them the development benefits of Fairtrade and the low carbon emissions of the producers far out weigh the issue of long distance travel, even air freight. The majority of Fairtrade suppliers only sell a small part of their crop through the system with the majority being bought through more traditional buying means. There is a huge margin for growth here, both in sourcing more existing lines and widening the product range covered by Fairtrade certification.
Overall the ethical sector has been a huge success story in the last six years supply chain problems, while difficult in the short term, are a result of the sectors growth and will in the medium term lead to a growth in suppliers attracted to the sector. It is crucial that both certifying associations, retailers and government action continue to support high standards to maintain high consumer confidence rather than lower standards to meet short term supply problems.
Wednesday 20 June 2007
Ethical Companies and PR
Most companies don’t but it doesn’t stop them putting out PR, or hoping for PR.
And it is not impossible to get good PR even if you have no training, or contacts- its just, well more difficult, and takes longer.
The key question when doing PR is what is new about this, what does it change, who benefits, who is threatened?
So many PR releases I get are company X announced that it is changing to green energy, or company Y opens a new shop in backend of backofbeyondsville.
The point of when you are trying to write article to answer a cynical reader’s question- so what?
If the company that is slapping a solar panel on the roof is Natural Choices Media then it means a great deal to me as an individual but frankly not a fig to the rest of the world, if it happens to be the every office of the Green Party, well its hardly unexpected, the Conservative Party offices would raise a wry smirk and get onto the news as a greenwash story- however if the change is so big, say a huge Government department which increases the market sector by 25% than that is a big story .
So frankly don’t tell me you have moved to green energy my readers won’t care, so I don’t care.
However tell me a story about how you have gone through your entire supply chain from top to bottom, the issues you had to face- particularly if they were an ethical conundrum- any unusual choices you made and why, then the green energy switch becomes part of a much wider and more interesting story.
If company Y ‘s new organic cloths shop in backofbeyondsville is part of a revitalisation of a town centre that has been devastated by ring road supermarkets well there is a great story there, the story would be the revitalisation of the town centre, but the star of the story could be Company Y’s little old organic store.
In this case the individual actions of Company Y have been contextualised into something much bigger, but because it was Company Y thorough sheer cunning who raised the context first they get the story- the 15 other, equally deserving shops that opened before Company Y become background material and are buried in the trend.
If you are a small company just setting out set, you don’t have PR experience or VC backing to employ one then set your targets accordingly. Not your ultimate object, which can still be that full page in the nationals, just the target steps it will take you to get there.
Remember the following facts, and for this I probably will have the wrath of hacks descend on my shoulders for near and afar.
The biggest sin of journalism is plagiarism, they teach every budding hack that at journalism school. Like all sins it occurs all the time.
The thing is however to see it as a food chain, the big fish are always eating the little fish, the little fish are nimbler and faster, we have to be to survive, and the big fish are slower.
In English what I mean is that it is a very rarely does a story appear out of nowhere, national newspapers are awash with regional newspapers- why, because the regional have more hacks closer to events, so they get them first and then the big boys move in and take the story over.
Very few ethical business stories go from nowhere to the national press, ethical news sites and magazines, like the new consumer, the ecologist even www.naturalchoices.co.uk have often covered the story first, the bigger writers read these sources and pull in any interesting stories that may interest them.
So what I am saying unless your best mate work on a national don’t forget to get to know the press next to you, they know your sector, the story doesn’t have to be so big for them to cover it and with that base covered it is easier to start climbing the greasy pole to national fame.
Lord I have just realised I have rambled on for ages, sorry about that but I have hardly touched the surface.
It’s given me an idea for a series of articles though- how ethical companies can get PR and not pay for it, what they need to do and how to do it.
And it is not impossible to get good PR even if you have no training, or contacts- its just, well more difficult, and takes longer.
The key question when doing PR is what is new about this, what does it change, who benefits, who is threatened?
So many PR releases I get are company X announced that it is changing to green energy, or company Y opens a new shop in backend of backofbeyondsville.
The point of when you are trying to write article to answer a cynical reader’s question- so what?
If the company that is slapping a solar panel on the roof is Natural Choices Media then it means a great deal to me as an individual but frankly not a fig to the rest of the world, if it happens to be the every office of the Green Party, well its hardly unexpected, the Conservative Party offices would raise a wry smirk and get onto the news as a greenwash story- however if the change is so big, say a huge Government department which increases the market sector by 25% than that is a big story .
So frankly don’t tell me you have moved to green energy my readers won’t care, so I don’t care.
However tell me a story about how you have gone through your entire supply chain from top to bottom, the issues you had to face- particularly if they were an ethical conundrum- any unusual choices you made and why, then the green energy switch becomes part of a much wider and more interesting story.
If company Y ‘s new organic cloths shop in backofbeyondsville is part of a revitalisation of a town centre that has been devastated by ring road supermarkets well there is a great story there, the story would be the revitalisation of the town centre, but the star of the story could be Company Y’s little old organic store.
In this case the individual actions of Company Y have been contextualised into something much bigger, but because it was Company Y thorough sheer cunning who raised the context first they get the story- the 15 other, equally deserving shops that opened before Company Y become background material and are buried in the trend.
If you are a small company just setting out set, you don’t have PR experience or VC backing to employ one then set your targets accordingly. Not your ultimate object, which can still be that full page in the nationals, just the target steps it will take you to get there.
Remember the following facts, and for this I probably will have the wrath of hacks descend on my shoulders for near and afar.
The biggest sin of journalism is plagiarism, they teach every budding hack that at journalism school. Like all sins it occurs all the time.
The thing is however to see it as a food chain, the big fish are always eating the little fish, the little fish are nimbler and faster, we have to be to survive, and the big fish are slower.
In English what I mean is that it is a very rarely does a story appear out of nowhere, national newspapers are awash with regional newspapers- why, because the regional have more hacks closer to events, so they get them first and then the big boys move in and take the story over.
Very few ethical business stories go from nowhere to the national press, ethical news sites and magazines, like the new consumer, the ecologist even www.naturalchoices.co.uk have often covered the story first, the bigger writers read these sources and pull in any interesting stories that may interest them.
So what I am saying unless your best mate work on a national don’t forget to get to know the press next to you, they know your sector, the story doesn’t have to be so big for them to cover it and with that base covered it is easier to start climbing the greasy pole to national fame.
Lord I have just realised I have rambled on for ages, sorry about that but I have hardly touched the surface.
It’s given me an idea for a series of articles though- how ethical companies can get PR and not pay for it, what they need to do and how to do it.
Wednesday 13 June 2007
Editor's Choice - Natural Choices Green and Ethical Living
Editor's Choice - Natural Choices Green and Ethical Living
Ha, looked impossible but actually very easy-now I just have to populate it with great reads.
The site slowly marches on- very slowly
Ha, looked impossible but actually very easy-now I just have to populate it with great reads.
The site slowly marches on- very slowly
Are Organic standards under attack from GMOs? - Natural Choices
Are organic standards under attack from GMOs? - Natural Choices
There is a whole load more to this story, feels like I have scratched the surface, why 0.9% is this an industry lobbyed for level of 'acceptable' contamination- when I mean industry I mean biotech industry not organic industry. I think this needs returning to with the help of GMWatch
There is a whole load more to this story, feels like I have scratched the surface, why 0.9% is this an industry lobbyed for level of 'acceptable' contamination- when I mean industry I mean biotech industry not organic industry. I think this needs returning to with the help of GMWatch
Wednesday 30 May 2007
Air Freight-Organics and the Soil Association
Well it feels like it is beginning to get together on the writing side, when I was in London at the Organic Expo I meet Peter Melchett, the Soil Association's policy director, so I thought I would drop him a line to comment of the SA's Green paper on Air freight. I had just finished off a quick article for naturalchoices See Soil Association- Organic and air freight, are they compatible? . Luckily I managed to squeeze in a quick 20 minute chat, as Peter was driving to the train station, it gave me another article on the subject, this time a more personal approach Peter Melchett Interview . Makes the site feel that it has a more rounded view of the subject. I tried a similar approach with the sexy green car show and that worked, so it is an approach I think I will develop.
When i worked at Decision News Media we had a Editorial Director, Jenny- who talked about a site's radar- what are the key events the site is designed to signal, the trends and developments. I can't say I have got the naturalchoices one sorted out just yet, the eco ethical sector is frankly just so big, if I just did the eco side it may be manageable but the whole Fairtrade, Trade justice, anti-poverty let alone ethical investment is just too interesting to leave aside, plus of course is that the fact that they correspond very closely with my own political point of view that I feel I would be writing only half the story if I didn't cover them. No doubt it will settle down soon.
When i worked at Decision News Media we had a Editorial Director, Jenny- who talked about a site's radar- what are the key events the site is designed to signal, the trends and developments. I can't say I have got the naturalchoices one sorted out just yet, the eco ethical sector is frankly just so big, if I just did the eco side it may be manageable but the whole Fairtrade, Trade justice, anti-poverty let alone ethical investment is just too interesting to leave aside, plus of course is that the fact that they correspond very closely with my own political point of view that I feel I would be writing only half the story if I didn't cover them. No doubt it will settle down soon.
Wednesday 4 April 2007
Environmentally sustainable energy saving product guide
Environmentally sustainable energy saving product guide
I once had the idea of doing an energy database, showing the actual energy usage and cost of household appliances, like 99.9% of all my cunning plans this one drowned in a well of good intentions. Luckily some people with better organisations skills and more common sense have now done it.
I once had the idea of doing an energy database, showing the actual energy usage and cost of household appliances, like 99.9% of all my cunning plans this one drowned in a well of good intentions. Luckily some people with better organisations skills and more common sense have now done it.
Tuesday 3 April 2007
Climate Change Denial
Climate Change Denial
Its great to find a good, combative, informend blog on climate change. Goerge Marshall's here is one of the best, and UK orientated to boot. Came across this whiel reviewing Chris Goodall's How to live a Low Carbon Life see http://www.naturalchoices.co.uk/How-to-live-a-low-carbon-life-by?id_mot=2&var_mode=calcul
Its a really interesting book- Chris Goodall is a businessman, Harvard MBA, a former director of Which? and sits on various government bodies. Hios approach is that govts and companies won't do anything alone- and the weight for cutting CO2 emissions falls on the individuals. Only then will Govts and Corps act. A little too post Thatchertite for a Gramscist like me, where is civil society in all of this?- without the depth of organisations, clubs, pressure groups and all operating at a grass roots as a well as a national level then the all the advances that the Green movement has made in the last three years will fade into nothing once the media moves onto new subjects. And mark my words the media will move on, there is nothing so fickle as media tastes. Journalists dislike doing the same thing day in day out, they will move on, writing how crucial the debate is today and how irrelevant the next day.
Its great to find a good, combative, informend blog on climate change. Goerge Marshall's here is one of the best, and UK orientated to boot. Came across this whiel reviewing Chris Goodall's How to live a Low Carbon Life see http://www.naturalchoices.co.uk/How-to-live-a-low-carbon-life-by?id_mot=2&var_mode=calcul
Its a really interesting book- Chris Goodall is a businessman, Harvard MBA, a former director of Which? and sits on various government bodies. Hios approach is that govts and companies won't do anything alone- and the weight for cutting CO2 emissions falls on the individuals. Only then will Govts and Corps act. A little too post Thatchertite for a Gramscist like me, where is civil society in all of this?- without the depth of organisations, clubs, pressure groups and all operating at a grass roots as a well as a national level then the all the advances that the Green movement has made in the last three years will fade into nothing once the media moves onto new subjects. And mark my words the media will move on, there is nothing so fickle as media tastes. Journalists dislike doing the same thing day in day out, they will move on, writing how crucial the debate is today and how irrelevant the next day.
Sunday 25 March 2007
LinkedIn: Peter Shield
LinkedIn: Peter Shield
My profile on Linked In, very handy for staying in touch with old work contacts. I was wondering about the commercial angles of say producing something similar for the green/ethical sector in the United Kingdom and linking it up to naturalchoices.co.uk. Sort of marketing and reader service all in one. problem like all of these things is the path to critical mass, nobody would sign up until there is a proven benefit, however to get the service working people need to sign up.
My profile on Linked In, very handy for staying in touch with old work contacts. I was wondering about the commercial angles of say producing something similar for the green/ethical sector in the United Kingdom and linking it up to naturalchoices.co.uk. Sort of marketing and reader service all in one. problem like all of these things is the path to critical mass, nobody would sign up until there is a proven benefit, however to get the service working people need to sign up.
Green Building Forum - Low Carbon Buildings Programme
Green Building Forum - Low Carbon Buildings Programme
In the budget this week Gordon Brown put another 6 million quid into this programme, what a joke. DCemand is so high that it has to ne administered on a monthly basis, last month the entire allocation was snapped up by renewable energy fans in 75 minutes. Here is a clear area that the public is way way ahead of the government on- so far ahead that the puiblic is prepared to spend money on very expensive electricity to reduce their carbon footprint. It is a real public/private finance partnership, with no long term debts for the government. So what about it Gordon- stop mortguaging our future with PFI stuff and invest in the future in a more sensible way- slap tax on domestic aviation fuel, argue in Europe to have tax on intra EU flights, add the revenue to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme
In the budget this week Gordon Brown put another 6 million quid into this programme, what a joke. DCemand is so high that it has to ne administered on a monthly basis, last month the entire allocation was snapped up by renewable energy fans in 75 minutes. Here is a clear area that the public is way way ahead of the government on- so far ahead that the puiblic is prepared to spend money on very expensive electricity to reduce their carbon footprint. It is a real public/private finance partnership, with no long term debts for the government. So what about it Gordon- stop mortguaging our future with PFI stuff and invest in the future in a more sensible way- slap tax on domestic aviation fuel, argue in Europe to have tax on intra EU flights, add the revenue to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme
Wednesday 7 March 2007
Tempest
http://newsisaconversation.blogspot.com/2007/03/dont-step-on-green-snow.html
Viral marketing takes time, but is seems to be working out, first spontaneous link from a blog. I have been using forums quite extensively, both to sound out ideas and to build links, the BBC, Guardian are particularly good. Very strong page rankings so good Google listings springing out of them. Page traffic doubling every week so that is great through short term.
Viral marketing takes time, but is seems to be working out, first spontaneous link from a blog. I have been using forums quite extensively, both to sound out ideas and to build links, the BBC, Guardian are particularly good. Very strong page rankings so good Google listings springing out of them. Page traffic doubling every week so that is great through short term.
Survey: is this the beginning of the end of organics? (TreeHugger)
Survey: is this the beginning of the end of organics? (TreeHugger)
Well there in lies the rub, pure organic ingredients does not intrinsically equate to nutritious products once the large food manufacturers have got their hands on it and pushed it through their processing plants. It’s a little like low fat foods, they are not necessarily healthy they are just low in fat.
The way I see it is that the organic movement is increasingly going to be faced with pressures from both the large retailers and the big food processors who want to incorporate the organic appeal into their product range, they will push and pull the definition of organic to its limit to allow them to continue with their industrial low cost processing methods. Equally the very term organic may get fundamentally compromised by their marketing tactics. It will only take a few “exposes” of the real nutritional value of say a processed cookie that has a couple of organic ingredients in it to throw consumer doubt on the whole idea of organic as healthy.
There is no question that organic and healthy foods are coming out of the niche and into the mainstream, and this is a good thing, however organic food ingredient production does not benefit from the same economies of scale as industrial food production- there are only so many cows that can be organically grazed on a hectare of land, only so much wheat that can be grown while ensuring soil sustainability. This means that more and more farmland needs to be converted over to organic production, this process is not overnight. There are going to be problems in the supply chain, with bottle necks at a basic commodity level, and maybe later at packing plants, and food manufacturing if we are to ensure a proper separation between organic and none organic products. This will cause huge problems for the supermarkets and the food producers who will naturally try and cut corners to get to market as quickly as possible.
We have to watch very carefully the way the market is growing, give it all our support so that it stays true to the core organic values, and keep up the media pressure to stop the message being drowned out by the advertising try to hijack the word Organic.
In the UK we already have a number of “organic” food labeling schemes, each one slightly different, the big retailers and food producers are busy trying to torpedo the idea of a compulsory government regulated food labeling scheme, Even within the best of our quality regulators, the Soil Association, there is pressures as the implications of the explosion in organic is being absorbed and thought through.
There is no simple or clear answer, or if there is I am too simple to understand it, however I think that we have to ensure that the essential link between organic and healthy must be maintained and that this territory should not be yielded to the food processors.
Well there in lies the rub, pure organic ingredients does not intrinsically equate to nutritious products once the large food manufacturers have got their hands on it and pushed it through their processing plants. It’s a little like low fat foods, they are not necessarily healthy they are just low in fat.
The way I see it is that the organic movement is increasingly going to be faced with pressures from both the large retailers and the big food processors who want to incorporate the organic appeal into their product range, they will push and pull the definition of organic to its limit to allow them to continue with their industrial low cost processing methods. Equally the very term organic may get fundamentally compromised by their marketing tactics. It will only take a few “exposes” of the real nutritional value of say a processed cookie that has a couple of organic ingredients in it to throw consumer doubt on the whole idea of organic as healthy.
There is no question that organic and healthy foods are coming out of the niche and into the mainstream, and this is a good thing, however organic food ingredient production does not benefit from the same economies of scale as industrial food production- there are only so many cows that can be organically grazed on a hectare of land, only so much wheat that can be grown while ensuring soil sustainability. This means that more and more farmland needs to be converted over to organic production, this process is not overnight. There are going to be problems in the supply chain, with bottle necks at a basic commodity level, and maybe later at packing plants, and food manufacturing if we are to ensure a proper separation between organic and none organic products. This will cause huge problems for the supermarkets and the food producers who will naturally try and cut corners to get to market as quickly as possible.
We have to watch very carefully the way the market is growing, give it all our support so that it stays true to the core organic values, and keep up the media pressure to stop the message being drowned out by the advertising try to hijack the word Organic.
In the UK we already have a number of “organic” food labeling schemes, each one slightly different, the big retailers and food producers are busy trying to torpedo the idea of a compulsory government regulated food labeling scheme, Even within the best of our quality regulators, the Soil Association, there is pressures as the implications of the explosion in organic is being absorbed and thought through.
There is no simple or clear answer, or if there is I am too simple to understand it, however I think that we have to ensure that the essential link between organic and healthy must be maintained and that this territory should not be yielded to the food processors.
Thursday 1 March 2007
Climate Progress
Climate Progress
Its tricky keeping up with the climate chaneg debate, the noise from the denial industry keeps twisting and turning, as does the various sets of proposals for alternatives. While 2006 may have been the year that Climate Change was outed in the the developed world it was also the start of more flannel from politicians as they all jump on the green rhetorical bandwagon. The skill of course is to actually pick through the corpoarte and government press releases and "action plans" and actually work out where is the meat. This site helps, informed, abit west of the atlantic in orientation but nevertheless worth a look.
Its tricky keeping up with the climate chaneg debate, the noise from the denial industry keeps twisting and turning, as does the various sets of proposals for alternatives. While 2006 may have been the year that Climate Change was outed in the the developed world it was also the start of more flannel from politicians as they all jump on the green rhetorical bandwagon. The skill of course is to actually pick through the corpoarte and government press releases and "action plans" and actually work out where is the meat. This site helps, informed, abit west of the atlantic in orientation but nevertheless worth a look.
Monday 26 February 2007
Station d'Ax - 1 Station - 3 domaines skiables
Station d'Ax - 1 Station - 3 domaines skiables
This is one of our nearest ski resorts, in the Ariege part of the Pyrenees. While this winter has been very warm and dry you do have to wonder about the long term viability of low level ski resorts. I have just done an article on the OECD report on the effect of global warming on Alpine ski resorts- see Skiing like you care in the French Alps . The fact is that ski stations are in some ways a travesty of what they actually promote, just to see what I mean try visiting a resort in the spring once the snow has melted- the mountain looks like a scared rubbish dump. The fact that ski stations have to embrace a much greener way to opperate both to protect the environment they profit froma nd to help ensure their long term viability
This is one of our nearest ski resorts, in the Ariege part of the Pyrenees. While this winter has been very warm and dry you do have to wonder about the long term viability of low level ski resorts. I have just done an article on the OECD report on the effect of global warming on Alpine ski resorts- see Skiing like you care in the French Alps . The fact is that ski stations are in some ways a travesty of what they actually promote, just to see what I mean try visiting a resort in the spring once the snow has melted- the mountain looks like a scared rubbish dump. The fact that ski stations have to embrace a much greener way to opperate both to protect the environment they profit froma nd to help ensure their long term viability
Global Warming And The Climate
Global Warming And The Climate
How many scientists does it take to convince anyone of anything- rather a lot it appears, the 4th IPCC report not withstanding its is amazing how the oil industry still find mercenaries to fight for them- nothing to do with the large revenues they have at their disposal of course
How many scientists does it take to convince anyone of anything- rather a lot it appears, the 4th IPCC report not withstanding its is amazing how the oil industry still find mercenaries to fight for them- nothing to do with the large revenues they have at their disposal of course
Thursday 8 February 2007
Getting Started
Natural Choices is now emerging out of beta, and a wonderful job Steve and Veronia from Archetype have done. Its amazing how some contact are made. After moving down to the Corbieres I signed up to do an Open University course in IT, the Southern European course tutor, Veronia, happened to live in the next village to me- and five years later here I am working with them on my new business.
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