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.
Sunday 25 March 2007
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.
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