Food Inc – Lifting the lid

You will never look at dinner the same way

Food, Inc, the Oscar nominated powerful film about the US's broken food chain is coming to Birmingham next Monday 15th February at Vue, Starcity.

Food Inc is a hard hitting documentary film which is a stark and powerful reminder of just how broken the global food chain is. Film maker Robert Kenner lifts the lid on the US food industry, exposing how the world's food supply is controlled by a handful of multinational corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health and the environment.

Food, Inc is critically acclaimed and has received an Oscar nomination in the Documentary (Feature) category and find out who wins on the 7 March 2010. Featuring experts such as Eric Schlosser from Fast Food Nation, along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg, Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat and how it's produced.

On one hand, farming has progressed and we have bigger breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds and even tomatoes that won't go bad. However, on the other side, we also have new strains of E. coli the harmful bacteria that causes illness, we have increasing obesity in humans and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Food Inc. shows just why we need to act now to protect our food, our health and the health of the planet.

The film powerfully highlights the unintended consequences of industrial agriculture and the need to move to planet friendly farming. Individuals can make a difference and Birmingham Friends of the Earth are campaigning to fix the food chain to get the Government to put people and the planet first, so please come and get involved. Friends of the Earth on the evening will have postcards to put pressure on the MPs to push for sustainable farming.

So come along to the special day of the one-off nationwide cinema screening at 6.30 pm at Vue, Starcity on Monday 15 February.

Think Tank - Environment: 23rd-24th Jan 2010

Nichole Samuels, the community outreach officer for the Think Tank, contacted BFoE about having a presence at their open weekend as it was based around the concept of 'environment', which fits with our campaigns and they had invited families from less well off backgrounds/ areas in Birmingham.

Joe, being the incredibly busy man that he is, decided that it would be a great outreach opportunity for me, so, with the fact that this would be the first and last of these events I would be doing, I wanted us to have a good end product to show off back at the office. The hand tree was the solution, the idea coming from the catch phrase 'make your mark' from the Friends of the Earth leaflets. I took along the standing wooden tree, made by our Faith and Climate Change volunteers, covered half of it with paper, then had the families who were visiting the event to draw round their hands and write/draw something to do with the environment in them which we cut out and then stuck to the tree. We got everything from penguins and tigers to hybrid cars and deforestation! This has now gone up in reception of the warehouse for all to see.We weren't the only outside organisation there; sharing the space were representatives from the wildlife trust and an organisation promoting Maths and Science in schools. While the children were making their hands we were discussing our campaigns with the parents, I had taken a whole range of reading materials with me from our different campaigns. The Fix the Food Chain campaign attracted a lot of interest, as well as the Faith and Climate Change project, with quite a lot of our newsletters being taken too.

The visitor numbers were in the hundreds over the weekend and quite a number did make it up to us on the 3rd floor. I had a brill but exhausting time over this weekend at the Think Tank. I would like to thank Roxanne and Janet who were invaluable in helping run the stall and keeping me safe from the hoards of children!

I hope that the next Outreach Officer has more opportunities like this to go out and engage with people around environmental issues at such events. If you are looking to put on an event and would like a representative from Birmingham Friends of the Earth to come along, contact us via info@birminghamfoe.org.uk

Beth Peters
Environmental Outreach Officer

Meat Free Mondays: Buy one get one free at Warehouse Cafe

The meat and dairy industry produces more climate-changing emissions than every plane, train and car on the planet - 18% of the global total. This doesn't mean that you have to give up eating meat, but that you should consider reducing the amount of meat you eat, see our other food chain blogs for more information about our Food Chain campaign.

So we can start by having Meat Free Mondays, or any other day of the week. The point of having Meat Free Monday (or just a meat free day or meal) is it will take the pressure off the food chain and get people thinking about caring about what they eat and the impacts it has on the world around us. It is more realistic to get the whole world to alter their diet and reduce their consumption than get a few to convert to vegetarianism or veganism.

To make this easier for us, and to tempt us by having an enjoyable Monday evening out, with excellent food, the Warehouse Cafe at 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth B5 5TH, has a great offer: buy one meal, get one free until 8th February. Call 0121 633 0261 for details of the Meat Free Mondays offer and reserve up to eight places - four will be free. Mention that you read about it on this blog.

Meat Free Mondays: Join the herd

Come along to the Warehouse Café in Digbeth and enjoy their Meat Free Monday, where on a Monday you can buy one meal and get one free throughout November, just ring the cafe 0121 633 0261 to reserve your table*, and mention the Birmingham Friends of the Earth blog (reservation essential).

Meat Free Mondays is not about going vegetarian, it's about revolutionising meat and dairy farming and reducing our consumption. It’s about fixing the food chain, as it’s a far from perfect world out there. However, we do not want to attack the farmers, but help them to move to planet friendly farming.

Friends of the Earth have found that the meat and dairy industry produces more climate-changing emissions than all the planes, cars and lorries on the planet. Rainforests play a vital role in reducing the impact of our CO2 emissions but they are currently being destroyed in order to grow soy to feed UK livestock. Plus increasing demand for meat and dairy has led to unsustainable farming practices that threaten our planet.

So how can we help? By getting the government to enable our farmers to grow their own feed for their animals. There is 700 million EU subsidies going into intensive farming and this could be invested with our farmers to help them grow and feed their own animals. This would be better for the farmers and better for our food security.

Plus eating more vegetables is not only great for your health but also good for the planet too! UN’s top climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri states that “People should consider eating less meat as a way of combating global warming. UN figures suggest that meat production puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than transport.” In the UK we eat 3 ½ times more meat the World Health Organisation recommends, putting us at risk of cancer, diabetes and obesity.

The point of having Meat Free Monday (or just a meat free day or meal) is it will take the pressure off the food chain and get people thinking about caring about what they eat and the impacts it has on the world around us. It is more realistic to get the whole world to alter their diet and reduce their consumption than get a few to convert to vegetarianism or veganism.

There is a lot more possibilities opened by having a meat free meal or day, for example a school changed to have one day a week meat free. Then for the other days of the weeks they were able to invest in organic meat or fish. Meat Free Monday is all about making smarter choices and it’s not about having a go at the UK farmers, which quite frankly have enough to worry about.

So by not eating meat for one day a week we are saving ourselves as well as the planet.

For November the Warehouse Café is offering the chance to ‘buy one get one free’ on all main meals bought on Mondays*.

* Offer equivalent to one free main meal to same or lower value of meal purchased. Maximum 4 vouchers used together. Limited spaces available, so booking essential and early booking recommended. Offer valid Monday until Monday 30 November.

Our Food Chain Parade

Last Saturday, members of our campaigns group were out in Birmingham City Centre on a Food Chain Parade to end our Food Chain fortnight of action.

As you can see from the picture below we were drawing people's attention to the issues surrounding factoring farming in this country leading to deforestation of some of the world's most valuable pristine habitat in South America. Arrows go from the animals to the bags of soy feed which they eat to the man with the chainsaw who cuts down the trees to grow the crops.


The parade went from in front of Tesco on New Street, up to Victoria Square, along Colmore Row, down Church Street, across to Ludgate Hill, up to St Pauls Square, along Brook Street, along Graham Street up Frederick St and along Warstone Lane where we finished at the 24 carrot farmers market in the Jewellery quarter.

Shaking our maracas we made our way along the route giving out badges and stickers to people along the way and singing our own version of "Old MacDonald Had A Farm".

It was a really fun event. Thanks to everyone who helped make the props and who joined in on the day. Let's hope that all the MPs get behind this now and the bill goes through parliament to make our food planet-friendly.

Click here to see how you can help online.

Bees - the new canaries

Over the years a few different animals and plants have been termed the new canaries in the coal mine for climate change and the ecological problems facing the world. Amphibians are at terrible risk of being wiped out, which could lead to huge increases in the numbers of insects and other problems. Coral-bleaching shows how much the oceans are warming and there is also evidence of how acidic they are becoming, with the real possibility that they could lose their ability to store carbon. Now though, it is the turn of the bees to become the symbol of environmental problems with a new film vanishing bees looking at the reasons for colony collapse disorder and warning of the consequences if nothing is done to save them.

On Wednesday a few of us from Birmingham Friends of the Earth went along to see the film at The Electric cinema and all of us certainly did come out thinking we wanted to do something - maybe put a hive on the roof of the Warehouse? Well, no that's probably not feasible, but definitely plant some bee-friendly stuff in the garden and maybe chuck a few seed bombs into the disused bulldozed sites of Digbeth.

While not as bleak as the Age of Stupid, the picture given in this film in the no-action-being-taken scenario, is also pretty worrying. The arguments for the importance of bees for all of us are pretty stark and cannot be ignored. The trouble is that neither this film nor any scientific study has provided conclusive proof of what is causing the bees to disappear. If you go expecting to get that, you'll be disappointed.

As a film, the vanishing of the bees has been described as "earnest", so I wasn't expecting it to be much more than informative, but there certainly were some interesting characters in the film and a few shocking facts - for example, the USA is now flying in bees from Australia to pollinate certain crops!!! It was also nice that there was a woman called Bee and a man called Dr Pollan in there who obviously belonged in their field.

The culprits are gradually revealed in the course of the documentary through interviews with bee-keepers, scientists and farmers. As an environmentalist they are pretty much what you'd expect; the use of certain pesticides, the use of intensive farming methods that have created huge monocultures rather than the biodiversity of mixed organic farming systems, loss of habitat and probably some of it is due to the industrialisation of bee-keeping itself. Many of these are also drivers of climate change and other problems associated with the ecology of our planet, so although the fate of bees is not necessarily directly linked to climate change, if we deal with one we will be helping to deal with the other, too.


I hadn't realised quite how much The Vanishing of the Bees would be about the USA, but that was primarily the focus, with only a minor mention of the UK. The fact is that we are the two countries mentioned who have not banned a certain Bayer pesticide with nicotinoids, which has been banned all over Europe where bee-keepers showed conclusive proof of what it was doing to bees (even Germany has banned it and Bayer is a German company!). I very much liked the French bee-keepers who took on the industrial giant and won, describing themselves as hippies who had been underestimated.

The American bee-keepers were interesting characters, but most of them work on such a massive industrial scale, taking their bees back and forth across the USA on lorries, that I kind of want that way of working to fail. There were a few small-scale bee-keepers and the ones who work locally with crops that flower at different times of the year seem to be doing much better.

Overall, it was certainly worth going to see, but the film was a bit over-long and could have been a bit bolder. For someone who didn't know about the topic at all, it would be very revealing, but for those with a reasonable amount of knowledge already, it did sometimes come over as a little patronising.

What is clear after seeing The Vanishing of the Bees, is that we must do something to change the destructive farming practices and have a new green revolution. This will help with food security both in terms of contributing fewer of the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change and in helping to protect bees who are vital for so much of the food we eat. This all ties in very well with our Fix the Food Chain campaign, so look here to see how you can help with that in Birmingham this weekend.

Joe Peacock

A Good Egg

MP Dr Lynne Jones took time to come to the Warehouse cafe last Monday to show her support for our Fix the Food Chain campaign.

The campaign which promotes the use of planet-friendly agricultural practices over intensive factory farming (currently a very large source of greenhouse gas emissions) has gained widespread public support and now the Early Day Motion which is sponsored by Dr Jones will hopefully become a private members bill next year.

As well as cracking open an enormous egg, Dr Jones had a Meat Free Monday meal in the vegetarian cafe and spoke to campaigners about the issue.

“I am committed to ‘fixing the food chain’ and helping small farmers and I am joining the campaign by Friends of the Earth which calls for planet-friendly farming.

Our excessive consumption of meat and dairy, especially from intensive farming is contributing to climate change and harming wildlife. It’s great that so many of my constituents have got in touch with me over this important issue.”

This Saturday we will be following this up with a parade through Birmingham city centre ending up at the farmers market in the Jewellery quarter to bring more attention to the cause. If you're around, come and cheer along the farmers, cows, chickens and others coming to a square near you on Saturday to call for a new green revolution which is fair, sustainable and does not cause harm to our planet.

Moseley Folk Festival

Giant chickens arrived at Moseley folk festival after it being overwhelming landslide victory after asking on Facebook and twitter that Mary Horesh, Birmingham Friends of the Earth campaigner should wear it at the festival and was even caught on camera. Also, we had bunting and a fabric cow blowing in the wind to give the stall a real country fair feel.

Birmingham Friends of the Earth were lucky enough to have a stall at Moseley Folk Festival and had an enjoyable time, listening to the music but also getting the public to get involved in our campaigns. One festival goer came congratulated the team and thanked us, encouraging us to keep up the good work.

Over the weekend we collected around 250 postcards for the fix the food chain campaign and around 200 for the reopening Moseley and Kings Heath station.

Organic BBQ on Saturday

Once again Birmingham Friends of the Earth will support the Anchor Inn’s annual Organic Beer Festival (23-27 July), which is now in its tenth year, by running an organic barbeque at the pub on Saturday 25^th July.

The Anchor, on Rea Street, Digbeth, made history ten years ago when it held the first organic beer festival in the UK and now the annual event is firmly established on the Midlands beer festival calendar.

The Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s annual barbecue has also become a tradition at the pub.

Organic meat and vegetarian burgers and sausages will be on offer in the pub’s beer garden at credit-crunch-busting prices supplied by Paul’s Soy Foods in Melton Mowbray and Rossiter’s Family Butchers in Selly Oak.

The issue of organic meat is more relevant than ever this year for Birmingham Friends of the Earth, who are putting pressure on local MPs to create planet-friendly farming through their “Fix the Food Chain” campaign. The campaign exposes the hidden chain stretching from intensive meat and dairy production in the UK to the forests of South America.

Organic beer?

If you look at the average pint of beer served up in the UK, it’s not so perfect. The hops used in the fermentation of beer are estimated to be sprayed up to 14 times each year with around 15 different pesticide products. In addition to this, countless additives are added to create the ‘perfect pint’, ensuring that it has a nice colour and flavour, a decent head and a profitable shelf life.

A big problem with this is that according to European legislation these additives, along with the other ingredients, do not need to be declared on the label unless the drink contains less 1.2% alcohol. Basically your pint has been chemically altered and you don’t know what you’re drinking. (1)

In contrast, organic beer is made in small batches from only organically grown barley, malt, wheat, hops, yeast and spring water. There are neither additives nor genetically-modified ingredients; everything grows as nature intended, giving a purer, more wholesome taste.

So please come and support us on the 25^th July for an organic barbeque and the beer festival will run from 23rd-27^th July http://www.anchorinndigbeth.co.uk/

(1) http://www.beerexpert.co.uk/organic-beer.html

Launch pad next Thursday - 18th June

Concerned about the environment?
Can you make a difference in Birmingham?

If you've been reading our blog for a while and want to get involved with our campaigns, come to Launch pad, 18th June 7.30 pm.

At: The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH

Birmingham Friends of the Earth invite you to Launch pad, an evening to give you a flavour of the current campaigns we are running around Birmingham. You may just be starting getting interested in campaigning, or someone that wants to get updated our campaigns. By the end of the night we can guarantee you will have done something to make Birmingham a better place. The Campaigns we are covering are:

Get Serious
Campaign to put pressure on Birmingham council to make sure they are making serious steps to make Birmingham greener.


Vote with your feet on Dec 5th
Time is running out to keep us safe from climate change. At the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December world leaders will decide how to tackle Climate Change. Working with other groups in Stop Climate Chaos, we want the this march to be the biggest march and send a message to the world leaders that the time is now to act.


20's plenty
We are calling for the default limit on all residential roads in Birmingham to be set at 20 mph to make them safer for cyclists, pedestrians all road users and residents. Following the success of this campaign in other cities our 20's plenty campaign is hitting the streets here to get the message out to public and community groups. Help us make this happen.


Fix the food chain
The food chain in the UK is a mess. All over Europe we feed our animals soy feed that comes from South America where the rainforest is being destroyed and people are being thrown off their land. We want to turn this around. Come and get involved in the campaign to make sure we have planet-friendly farming in the UK.

We hope to see some new faces there. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Joe and Mary (Campaigns Coordinators)

City Farm Open Day

Yesterday a few volunteers from our group went along to do a stall at Balsall Heath City Farm for their open day. As a local to the area I knew of the farm's existence, but rather shamefully had never actually been to it to find out what goes on, so was looking forward to it on two fronts - as a chance to talk to people about our campaigns, but also to see what they do.
I wasn't disappointed on either front. We had a really nice time talking to kids about what we were doing while dressed as a chicken or cow and engaging with people who wouldn't normally know about Friends of the Earth. We got some postcards signed too, but didn't go for the hard sell as it was just great to find out about people's opinions and inform them about the broken food chain.
The whole place had a really nice vibe to it and the people who work there do a wonderful job at engaging kids with nature and animals. They were making things from waste, colouring pictures for competitions in which everyone was a winner and got a prize, recycling everything and selling home-made food. The city farm also works with offenders, as I understand, teaching them about farming and food production in planet-friendly ways and is a great intiative. Every part of Birmingham, especially inner-city areas, should have somewhere like this in my opinion.