Attended a great event yesterday- "Secure and sustainable food: the Rio+20 Challenge" organised by Forum for the Future.
Excellent line up of speakers- including Professor Tim Benton, David Norman, Harriet Lamb, Sally Uren and Caroline Spellman.
Some fairly stark statistics illustrated the pickle we are in, but I was heartened by evidence that a lot of BIG Corporates (and yes, Nestle, Premier Foods and Mars are amongst them) are starting to sit up and take serious notice of Sustainability.
I don't think that this is greenwash- energy costs, water shortages and land degredation are real threats to their bottom line.
If you want to read up about this, I would recommend this report from the new economics foundatation about the fragility of our food distribution system http://neweconomics.org/publications/nine-meals-anarchy . It was published back in 2008, but it is still relevant and I guarantee you will be tempted to stock up on baked beans and bottled water after you have read it!
Something Fishy in the City
I am pleased to say that the City of London Corporation is doing its bit- we had a big push on sustainable fish at the start of the year with our focus on fish for the Sustainable City Awards (www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/sca).
Raymond Blanc, a genuinely lovely man, was kind enough to support the awards this year- he even posed for a photo with a sustainably caught sea bream (which by the time this photo was taken could have walked back to the Thames, by itself!)
I deighted to say that at this morning's Energy and Sustainability Sub-Committee our Members agreed to sign us up to the Sustainable Fish City Campaign (more here http://www.sustainweb.org/sustainablefishcity/).
We have nailed all of the basic requirements, but now we are officially signed up, I am going to have to up my game.
Off to the Chelsea Flowershow tonight to look at low water gardens- my next blog will be about green roofs, so I will post some pictures.
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