You do if… you live in an area where healthy food is either non-existent or too expensive. This is likely to be the case if your only ‘local’ food shopping option is a supermarket, and you have no good small independent local shops, farmers’ markets or box schemes serving your area.
Katharine Hamnett is one of the UK’s leading fashion designers. In 1984 she famously wore a T-shirt opposing the purchase of US Pershing missiles at a reception attended by Margaret Thatcher. Since then she has campaigned on nuclear power, Third World debt, human rights, HIV and environmental issues.
According to a Mori poll in March 2004, the fairtrade mark is now recognised by 39 per cent of the British public, up from 11 per cent five years ago. But what difference does fairtrade actually make to the lives of the producers? John Atkin looks at the Nicaraguan community of La Pita who sell half of their coffee on the fairtrade market
Imagine you could turn 30 per cent of your household waste, at no cost, into high-quality compost for your plants, while also reducing toxic emissions from incinerator plants...
Do you want the best for your baby, but don’t want to harm the environment? Then use reusable nappies. Contrary to popular belief, modern reusables are cheaper and more hygienic than disposables, and you won't have to spend hours cleaning them.
As the supermarket doors glide open there they are – cosmetically perfect, irresistibly firm, brilliantly coloured fruit and vegetables. And yet, when you get them home, they taste of nothing. Is it the way you cooked them, or have you just selected badly? No, you’ve been conned.
The community of Machynlleth has gone beyond just investing in someone else’s wind turbine. They’ve clubbed together and planned, built and paid for one of their own.
‘If we could think locally, we would take far better care of things than we do now. The right local questions and answers will be the right global ones. The Amish question, "What will this do for our community?" tends toward the right answer for the world.’ Wendell Berry
Ladakh is framed by the Karakoram mountains to the north and the Himalayas to the south. Yet even in this remote environment the forces of global consumerism are intruding. Nicola Graydon reports on the locals' inspiring defence of their culture
Say: ‘I am happy to pay for environmental degradation, chronic illness and labour rights abuses in countries that grow flowers for Western consumers but cannot feed their own people.’
In 1996 there were no farmers’ markets anywhere in the UK. Today they outnumber Asda stores. Dan Box celebrates their comeback and why we should all be using them.
Many people dismiss environmentalism as a middle-class luxury that few can afford. But in Mexico City a group of impoverished street punks are pioneering radical social alternatives because their survival depends on it. Holly Wren reports.
Why do we dispose of organic waste in landfill sites? Shouldn’t we – individuals, councils and businesses – all be using worms to compost it? By Janis Crawford.
Twice as expensive as petrol, three times the price of milk, and 10,000 times more expensive than tap water. Is it worth it, and what impact is it having on our environment?
Grandmother Earth - Thirteen matriarchs from indigenous cultures are currently touring the world, promoting peace, unity and a respect for nature. nicola Graydon meets one of them, Mona Polacca
How can the small, conscientious farmer survive in today’s ruthless, modern marketplace? How, in a system designed for giants, can the midget hope to prosper? Sally Fallon suggests ways that local food culture could be rejuvenated
