Digbeth Residents Association 07.02.11

Last night I went to my first Digbeth Residents Association (DRA) meeting. I started at Birmingham FoE as Outreach Officer last month and am working on creating links with residents groups, as well as organising events (such as our HS2 debate) and finding opportunities for us to go out and talk to people.

I was asked if I would like to attend after sending a few e-mails to Val and Pam about the possibility of establishing a grow site in Digbeth. We have been involved in others, so it would be good to do one here where we're based.

Upon arriving at the Alcester suite of the Paragon hotel I was welcomed in by friendly faces. These included residents of Digbeth, a police officer from the area and people interested in the Digbeth area.

After all the introductions were out the way the DRA spoke passionately about Digbeth's future. They feel strongly that the Digbeth area needs more greenery. They have been given 20 Birch trees by the Eastside Projects, with the idea that they will be planted in Highgate park, although the DRA are hoping to set a few a side to be distributed around the area. Another idea was to use the abandoned Victorian rail viaduct as allotment space. We also touched on the subject of grow-sites in Digbeth; which is something I've been looking into myself. Everyone there seemed enthusiastic about the idea and I think it will be a great success... that is when the pain-stakingly long process of finding land we can use is done!

Other issues raised concern the section 106 improvements to Bradford Street, St Patrick's day parade, film nights in the spotted dog, police presence at the meetings and the Digbeth summit.

Overall it was a great insight into all the planning and hard work that goes into making Digbeth the exciting and creative place that it is today!

Rosie Cervelli

Aston University Go Green Week

Last week was Aston University’s Go Green Week. Birmingham FoE were invited along to engage with students on our environmental campaigns. Each day had a different theme. The Energy & Climate Change group were there to coincide with “Turn Off Tuesday”.

One of the things that amazes me about Birmingham is that two of its universities have no student led environmental groups. Aston University used to have one but it is now defunct. So a big aim of the day was to sign up as many interested students as possible to a mailing list, with a view to getting a new group up and running with links to Birmingham FoE.

Armed with our leaflets and clipboards in the foyer of the Main building we approached students. Of the students who weren’t too busy on their way to lectures to stop, almost all of them recognised that energy & climate change were important issues and many of them wanted to find out more. This is encouraging, (we didn’t come across any climate change deniers!), but the difficult bit will be engaging them enough to get them to actively get involved!

The second aim of the day was to gauge students views on their student digs. Student rented accommodation is amongst the worst housing stock in the UK and Birmingham is no exception. One of the things we are campaigning for is a legally binding minimum standard of energy efficiency for private rented properties by 2016.

While students were largely very keen to tell us about their draughty bedrooms and freezing bathrooms, when it came to agreeing to be filmed for a “Rate My Digs” feature, they became a little more reticent! Some for fear of retribution, but many because they hadn’t done their hair or because they “had a heavy night”! However, with perseverance and charm, we were able to get a handful of brave soldiers to appear in front of the lens without make-up!

You will be able to see what they said in a video which will shortly be released, so look out for that. On the whole though, it is fair to say that Aston University is investing in new, energy efficient accommodation so hopefully our students can watch Deal or No Deal in warmth and comfort, safe in the knowledge that they are not wasting energy!

Robert Pass

Overfishing and the unsustainable use of our oceans

On Monday 28^th February, Nigel Baker, Lead Food Campaigner, led a fascinating discussion on overfishing. He started off by asking each member of the group to look down a list of common fish species and state whether they thought each one was currently overfished. He then compared our answers to recent data from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Some of the results were a surprise to us, for example Atlantic Cod stocks are apparently not so badly depleted, while some of the results confirmed what we knew, for instance that current fishing methods for tiger prawns are completely unsustainable.

Nigel then went on to draw our attention to a number of alarming facts around current fish stocks:

• 90% of the stocks of large predatory fish are already gone

• globally, fishing fleets are at least two to three times as large as needed to take present day catches of fish and other marine species

• the majority of the UK population depend on only four species of fish – tuna, salmon, cod and haddock

• the dangers associated with overfishing are shown in the example of the 1992 collapse of northern cod fisheries in Newfoundland resulting in at least 40,000 people losing their job and stocks of cod that have never returned

It was also mentioned that the profile of the current debate about overfishing has been raised by the chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who has recently begun a campaign called the Big Fish Fight. In the series on Channel 4, he finds out that due to the current EU quota system, up to 20,000 tonnes of fish are thrown back dead into the North Sea every week, that is up to half of the catch for each boat is discarded.

It seems that there is reason to hope that the current system may change as the EU Fisheries Commissioner has just set out ideas for ending the practice of discarding fish, as set out in an article on the BBC website on the 1^st March.

One solution to the problem of discard may be to adopt an ecologically friendly policy such as that used in Faroe Islands, an archipelago which has a population of 48,000 people and an economy which is heavily dependent on fishing. According to this more sustainable system, a quota is imposed in days rather than tonnes, and thereby avoids throwing excess fish back into the sea.

The Big Fish Fight programs also explore the problems associated with fishing on a commercial scale which uses techniques which catch all species in an area indiscriminately leading to the problem of by-catch. One example shown in the series is for tuna which is packaged by Tesco as being sourced in environmentally friendly ways, but which is shown to come from fishing boats which regularly catch sharks, tortoises and turtles in their large nets.

The discussion then went on to consider what we can do about this situation. One suggestion is that we should learn to eat a wider variety of fish, for example eating Mackerel, in order to save other species under threat. It was noted that the UK fish and chips industry is a significant driver in the UK's demand for this limited range of fish. Aldo told the group that at least one fish and chip shop in the area has started offering more sustainable fish on the menu since seeing the issue raised on TV, and suggested that we could all make a visit sometime. If you know of any other fish and chip shops locally that do this, please let us know!

One further issue that was raised in the discussion was the rising acidification of our oceans due to climate change, and how this is causing coral reefs to rapidly become bleached and jellyfish populations to increase. Unfortunately there was not time to discuss this topic in full, however eating jellyfish with chips was not felt to be the answer!

FoE has a linked campaigning group called Marinet who are campaigning for reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy. Please visit their website and support their campaign: http://www.marinet.org.uk/ and next time you eat fish, think about what your choice is doing to the oceans.

Plastic Fantastic?

An article in the Independent on Sunday yesterday reported on unpublished government research on plastic bags which was purported to show plastic bags as a greener option than re-usable ones.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/plastic-fantastic-carrier-bags-not-ecovillains-after-all-2220129.html

This has been done before with re-usable nappies v disposables and with plastic cups v washable ones, but these always seem to be based on flawed assumptions about how long they're used for and ignore the whole of the life-cycle of the items concerned.

The article says:

"Six billion plastic bags are used across the UK annually and there is no doubt that they cause environmental problems such as litter and marine pollution as well as using up oil, and limiting their use and re-using them reduces their harm."

so it begs the question as to why it is a controversial topic at all. If the only issue is about other bags not being re-used enough, then we need to make sure that they're well enough made that they don't need to be thrown away. Personally, I've never thrown away a cotton or jute bag - they can be used again and again - I only ever refuse them at events where people are trying to give them away, so as not to end up with more than I could possibly use.

The report doesn't seem to look at recycling, the raw materials needed for different bags or the effect of all the bags that aren't disposed of properly (ending up in hedgerows, blowing across our streets or in waterways).

Paper bags probably aren't always the best option either, but the evidence for plastic is certainly not strong enough to revisit the direction of policy to go in their favour.

Joe Peacock

Edible Erdington Potato Day

I've just received this press release about a great sounding event coming up, so thought I'd share it with you. Eleanor Hoad, the organiser, was also involved in our Edible Birmingham event last year when she brought along her apple press from which I enjoyed some delicious fresh juice!

PRESS RELEASE

16th February 2011 for immediate release

Edible Erdington Potato Day

On Saturday 26th February between 11am-3pm visitors to Erdington High Street will be able to join in the ‘Edible Erdington’ Potato Day celebrations. Edible Erdington is a project that has successfully transformed 3 large brick planters on Erdington High Street into vegetable plots. Dreamed up by Erdington Artist in Residence Eleanor Hoad ‘Edible Erdington’ has grown over 60 different varieties of vegetables in the last year with a group of volunteers, right in the high street and local people have welcomed the unusual edible change from flowers to vegetables.

Celebrating the humble potato, Potato Day will have activities for everyone including; a display of some of the 150 different varieties of potato available in the UK, free potato themed food, the chance to taste some of the high street harvest, free seed potato giveaways, Morris Dancing, a hands on session planting potatoes and vegetable growing advice. A ‘Seed Swap’ will take place on the day, bring along your spare seeds to swap.

Visitors will also be able to enter “The Great Erdington Potato Self Portrait Competition”. Everyone will have the chance to create a self-portrait using just a potato and a variety of craft materials! Prizes are available for the best entries and a display of all the entries will be created through the day. There will also be the chance to make a seed bomb to take away. Seed bombs are used by guerrilla gardeners and are a handy portable mix of seeds, compost and clay for planting in unusual locations.

Eleanor Hoad said “ We often overlook the humble potato but they are a great source of vitamin C and fibre and there are so many unusual varieties available that we hardly ever see in the shops. Potatoes are easy to grow at home in the ground or in containers, its amazing how many you can grow even in a small space.”

For more press information, pictures or interviews please contact Eleanor Hoad on 07974 934 917, eleanorhoad@hotmail.com

Low Energy Party - more exciting than it sounds!

Next Thursday, Urban Village is hosting a special kind of party. The bar has agreed to install low energy lighting in the bar using twenty percent of the money they take.

This concept is called “9carrots” - businesses making themselves more sustainable using a portion of the extra sales from 9carrots promotion. Any business can join and progressively builds up extra sales over time to invest in green upgrades.

“The 9carrots project is a way of connecting your community to its supply chains, production methods, employment and financial decisions by creating an ongoing dialogue between people and business. Then, together, your community can start making changes it needs become resilient to peak oil and Climate Change.” - Tom Tierney, Kings Heath Transition Initiative

In March, the Kings Heath Transition Initiative are planning to launch a larger scheme involving a dozen local businesses. Groups have also recently started in the USA and Canada.

The evening will be opened by the comedian Richard Higgs, followed by the superb soul-funk band Route 49. Entry is free and it starts at 8pm. It's open to all - please come down and show your support!

RSVP (optional): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161601410558237

This is not a BFoE event, but we welcome the idea and a number of our members will be going along to support it.

Time for a Cuppa?

We Brits love our tea but would we be so fond of our traditional beverage if we knew the consequences of sipping our favourite thirst quencher?

Water is used in almost every stage of food production, from growing crops to animal feed to washing and preparing products. Researchers at Cranfield University have calculated just how much water is used to produce common foods:

• Cup of tea –-32.4 litres

• Pint of Beer – 160 litres

• 1 glass of wine – 120 litres

• 1 glass of milk – 200 litres

• 1kg of beef – 15,000 litres

• 1kg poultry – 6,000 litres

• 250g packet of peanut M&M's – 1,153 litres

• 575g Dolmio pasta source – 202 litres

Surprisingly the British Hydrological Society has stated that a typical balanced diet requires 3,500 litres of water per person per day!

So what does this all mean?

As the world population increases the demand for food will also increase and so will the demand for water to make this additional food. A three year study complied by the The World Business Council on Sustainable Development concludes the next 20 years could see the globe witness:

• Conflicts in many countries

• Cholera may return to London

• Mass migration of Africans could cause civil unrest in Europe

• Chinas economy could crash by 2015

So it seems the old ditty once chanted by sailors, “Water water every where but not a drop to drink” may become a reality during our lifetime!

To find out how you can get help to combat water shortage and reduce climate change, contact Birmingham Friends of the Earth and help us with our campaigns. There are also national weeks looking at doing something for the environment: Go Green Week at universities (http://peopleandplanet.org/gogreenweek) and Climate Week (http://www.climateweek.com/ ) held nationwide from the 21^st - 27^th March. We will be out and about at events in Birmingham this year to offer friendly supportive advice on climate change as well as other important environmental issues, too.

So now then - Anyone for a cuppa?

By Soraya Hodgetts