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• Official Google Blog: Google PowerMeter's first device partner
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I make compromises every day with what I buy for my family. Here are some of the things I worry about: biodegradable/washable nappies, organic milk and milk products, organic veg, fair trade tea, coffee and chocolate, environmentally friendly cleaning products, fairly treated meat and sustainable fish.

If I bought the most ethical, environmental and healthy version of each of these my shopping bill would be intolerably high. But I do try and some of these I buy all the time, some only when its convenient and some barely at all. But they are all readily available in my local supermarket. Sometimes I worry about shopping in the supermarket too, but then where would I buy all my expensive higher value goods?

But how do I clothe myself and my family ethically? I buy clothes for myself, my husband (I know!) and 3 children under 5. The children are growing fast so are always needing something from pants to a whole new outfit. I buy from supermarkets and normal high street stores. Nothing that I buy is even remotely ethical. Even though I would be prepared to pay a premium to know that whoever made the clothes was paid a decent wage. I don’t want organic or designer items with ridiculous price tags. I want normal day-to-day clothes particularly for children for which I would pay maybe 20-50% more.

I know there are a few things out there. I like Howies a lot, I like the ethics of People Tree although its not really my style and I know Top Shop have a small organic/fair trade range – but the quality is appalling. Why is that? For children I simply don’t know anywhere that stocks the basics.

Ideally I would like a stamp, like we have with fair trade, organic or freedom food that says that the factory where this was produced meets minimum standards. Surely it can’t be that hard to do. Maybe the shops and supermarkets think they are doing enough – I know they all have ethical policies which they happily produce if you make a fuss. But these have been generally proved to be worthless and far removed from the situation you find on the factory floor.

Now I don’t particularly want organic or fair trade (Fair trade states that an item has to be sold by a collective rather than a company). All I want is ethical and of a similar quality to the stuff I buy now.

The situation is even more ridiculous when you compare it to what you can buy in the rest of the supermarket. I can buy a banana which is pesticide free, where all elements of the supply chain have been paid decently and where I can know the farm, the country and the transportation method by which it reaches the UK. But can I buy a child’s t-shirt where I can be assured that child labour has not been used. No. And I want to know why not.

After watching a great BBC4 doc about CCD earlier this week all about the demise of the honey bee I have been worrying about it quite a lot.  The general problem seems to be a multitude of different issues – namely pests and pesticides that are killing off the bees.  A great many minds here and in the US have been working on it and there doesn’t seem to be one common problem.   The final consensus is that the bee is the ‘canary in the coalmine’ – our early warning sign about environmental destruction and intensive agriculture.  A scary thought.

And then only yesterday my husband said, oh its ok they’ve found a cure for that and sent me this link:

Cure for CCD

It all seemed a little bit too easy – we found a parasite that no-one else could find and fixed it.  Sadly it doesn’t seem to be a miracle cure.  In the US studies they had also found this parasite but it was by no means common to all incidents of CCD so that really appears to be it.  They’ve found a fix for one of the many many problems.

No cure for CCD

We’re all getting very careful with our plastic bags.  In the supermarket the other day, I noticed that at least 50% of shoppers had re-usable bags with them.  I always re-use and recycle any that I get, just like most of my friends.  But what do I do about cling film? Nothing.  At all.  And I use it a lot.  One roll every 3-4 weeks I think.  And obviously I just throw it away.  Its so small I hardly even notice it.

But cling film actually makes up a bigger percentage of our household waste than plastic bags (4.1% as opposed to 3.2% according to a survey by South Glos County council).   I imagine too that those non-recyclable plastic trays (in our area anyway) that contain anything from fruit to ready meals make up a far higher percentage of our plastic waste.

So why are we so obsessed with plastic bags?  I think the amount of press plastic bags has got over the last few years has been huge.  And this is having an effect.  But only on such a small aspect of our behaviour that it is now negligible.  But we feel we have been green by doing it.  Hence we allow ourselves to carry on doing other things which are far worse for the environment because we feel that we have already ‘checked that box’.

http://tinyurl.com/bessny (Monbiot)

http://tinyurl.com/clmpjz (PDF by South Glos County council)

I have recently watched and been inspired by this film by Rebecca Hosking:

http://tinyurl.com/cpfye2

It is a really fascinating film about the future of farming in Britain. Rebecca has inherited a working farm but is struggling against some great obstacles as she tries to make it future proof.
The problem she highlights is absolutely huge. Absolutely all farming in the western world is totally and completely dependent on fossil fuels. Be that tractors for harvesting or the fertilizers that are derived from oil. What do we do as the fossil fuels that we depend on start to dwindle? It is inevitable that food costs will go up and possible that agriculture will have to change completely beyond recognition if we are not to starve.

From reading my description, this film sounds heavy, depressing and scare-mongering. But yet it is none of those things. Instead it is inspiring.

Rebecca chooses to explore new methods of farming and see how possible they are in a real setting on her farm. She investigates using different grasses for cattle that would enable them to stay outside all year: cutting out the need for a hay harvest. And then she talks about permaculture. I had no idea what permaculture was until I saw this. It is, if you didn’t already know, farming or gardening within a natural setting such as woodland.

Things that I found out from this film:

1. farming is the second biggest user of fossil fuels after transport

2. new methods such as GM are as dependent on fossil fuels as the old

3. organic food uses less fossil fuels as it is does not use fertilizers derived from oil, but is equally dependent on heavy machinery

4. permaculture can have a higher yield per acre than conventional farming

5. we’re screwed for cereal crops as you can’t grow them except in vast fields.  So potatoes are the future i’m afraid.

6. that apparently one day I should be retiring to a little wood somewhere.