My email address is just my name, no dots.
My friend sent me and email with dots inbetween, yet I still got it
Gmail freaks me out

In other news, just so there's not another post by me, I've just come back from ASDA

Food can officially fuck off
I look for organic, because I care about what happens to my food and how its treated
I look for fairtrade or even indie producers, because I care about the little guy
I Look for British, because when I see asparagus coming from Peru, I can only think about the fuel burnt to ship this stupid thing halfway around the world and the effect on the environment.

There is not a single produce that fits all this. And I'm here with my groceries of anxiety. And my shopping list of self doubt.
And I don't feel my morals should befit an extra 10% on the cost

The terror-thread level has been upgraded from "general chat" to "go off on one"

I don't believe for one moment that there is much stuff in the shops which can really be classified as organic.

Milk can't be organic because it's all boiled to 70° whether 'organic' or not - how can anything that has been pastuerised be organic? Any vegetables or fruit which are sold as organic can only be on the shelves if they are in season. In other words cucumbers (as an example) have a chance of being organic if they are in the shops in J -A-Sept.

Make a list of seasonable vegetables and fruit and you'll quickly see what I mean.


Fortunately I can and do eat organic food. This is because my hobby is vegetable and fruit gardening. I don't use fertilisers or sprays on anything. That's why my apples aren't perfect and are all different sizes, but they are delicious.
Nor can my carrots be anything other than organic , simply because, just like my beetroot. lettuce, leek, cabbage, courgettes and so on, all that is required is to sow the seed into earth and bob's your uncle. What I am saying is that the way many things have been grown in the past is the way they are grown now, they just fetch a higher price in the shops because they have a label we are all willing to believe in.

Or are 'organic' eggs capable of developing into chickens superior to 'non-organic' eggs?

Buy the most expensive eggs you can. Food quality, animal stress and medication received by a chicken will directly translate into egg quality.

Pete, the bit where you're going wrong is going to Asda in the first place. Don't get me wrong, Asda has a place and is very single minded, but about one thing - really really cheap food. Which is never going to deliver against what you want. This is one instance where you really can't have it all - you get what you pay for with food, and if you can buy a chicken that costs £3 then it had a terrible life and the meat is full of water and crap.

I refer you to the sustainable consumption thread on this website for a fuller discussion of the issues! Andy is right though, you should buy expensive eggs, and expensive meat as you're basically eating whatever the animal has eaten.

didn't go to it, didn't hear about it. However, I was wandering around Finsbury Park with the dog and wondered what all the fences were for. It never seemed to be open though! Bit slack not to have heard about it really.

I agree, we need to concentrate on keeping themes going. So here's my further contribution.
Who remembers when Finsbury Park was used for massed-start cycle races? There were crowds and crowds on those Saturdays when races were held. The long straight was difficult at the end because there was suddenly an almost hair-pin bend. I rode them myself, I was a keen racing cyclist in those days.

The long straight road parallel to Green Lane was also used immediately after the war to park army tanks. They stood there for ages. Anyone remember that?