Day 11

Breakfast - 08.00 - Porridge
Lunch - Cheese pittas
Tea - Bacon sandwiches with beans and seedy organic bread

Today I got a organic salad and inside I found a large insect. It was pretty gross, I am going to write to the company, see if I can get anything free!

Otherwise I haven't been up to anything interesting, I went to the student meal where I took my own bacon sandwiches and beans. I really enjoy sparking some discussion on the logistics of art.

Tomorrow I will upload some photos of my new pet bug!

Day 10

Breakfast - 07.00 - Porridge
Lunch - 14.00 - Pasta with beans, onion and cheese
Tea - 19.30 - Sausage and chips with pitta bread.

Today I went to London for the day, I took a packed lunch with me as obviously I wouldn't be able to grab something easily. I did take a look around a couple of posh take out places which advertised organic in the window, sadly none of them had any solely organic products but things containing organic produce. For example 'Organic chicken, pesto and rocket sandwich' *Organic chicken only It's sad that this is the case I am sure there are places out there which are truely organic.

Additionally my hosuemates had a takeaway tonight, from our campus take away Papa Si's. It smelled pretty good and under normal circumstances I would have had some too. HOWEVER I have more will power than that and after washing a weeks worth of dirty dishes (I have been lazy lately) I cooked some nice sausage and chips.

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I sparked a debate with a friend this evening about what is organic? And what is free range? She's American and started to research for herself what the standards are in America. They are VERY different to those in the EU and generally are a lot worse. She's discovered that there are no strict standards for free range or organic and seems pretty disapointed with the lack of information within easy access on the subject for her. http://www.certifiedhumane.org/index.php?page=standards Is the only place with any real information and also the only none profit organisation she found.

Day 9 The organic butcher

Breakfast - 09.00 - Porridge
Lunch - 12.00 - Cheese and onion pittas
Lunch - 13.15 - Cheese, onion and chutney sandwich
Tea - 19.00 - Full English breakfast
Ingredients - Organic Bacon, Organic Lincolnshire chipolata sausages, beans, egg, home made vegetable hash browns, toast.

I went to an organic butcher today, Stephen Morris Organic Buthers on the A6 in Loughborough (opposite the post office for those who are interested, also thanks mike for telling me about him). I really enjoyed asking him about his meat and its origins. He really seemed to care about the food he was selling, something you don't get in Asda. I got the same feeling buying this food that I did from buying from James and Ruth at Sacrewell farm.

I bought 6 sausages of different varieties, you can mix and match so I have a couple of different types to try and 6 rashers of organic bacon for £5 not too shabby when your equivelent at Tesco is £6.20.

After watching countryfile yesterday I have come to the conclusion that my rules need to be more flexible. I am still only going to eat organic and British but with a couple of exceptions. For example, if organic food is imported by a local supplier (Riverford) but is still organic and puts money into the local economy then I will eat it. All food must be organic and none can be imported from outside of the EU!

I feel gulity changing things once I am a week in, this challenge is quite trail and error. Forgive me!

Day 7 and 8

This blog is a double whammy, time got the better of me yesterday.

Day 7 -
Breakfast - 10.15 - Porridge
Lunch - 15.50 - cheese on toast
Tea - 22.00 - Haddock, pasta and salad
Ingredients - Haddock, home made pasta, rocket, cheese, beans, onion

I find saying no to free food hard, maybe its because I'm a student. After hockey games we get food, 'teas' and these vary massively from team to team. They can be anything from sandwiches to pie to jackets to curry. Thankfully after the game on sunday we got served tomato soup so it wasn't too hard to say no to.

A little off topic but afterwards, I fitted a couple of water saving devices to our toilet and shower. The water bag in the toilet works by displacing 1.2 Litres of water within the cistern so we now use less water with every flush. The shower 'widget' was pretty rubbish, the idea is good, it reduces the amount of water which comes out of the shower head (when it works correctly). Unfortunately it didn't really make any difference and leaked.

I also made my own crisps! They weren't very successful but not bad for a first attempt. I made two batches, one sliced with a cheese slicer and one with a potatop peeler. The peeler batch were the best, the others were a little too soggy still. I'm going to work on it and try to make some with different vegetables.

Day 8

Breakfast - 07.15 - Toast
Lunch - 11.00 + 14.00 - Cheese, onion and chutney sandwich
Tea - 20.00 - Mince filled pittas
Ingredients - Mince, wholemeal pittas, onion, chilli, carrot, cauliflower.

I've been having lots of feedback and it's really great to hear everyones opinions. This morning someone said to me 'I've been reading your blog, I love what you are doing'. We had a chat about its position as art and how I am using my performace as a catalyst for thought and discussion.

He expressed his concern about the trouble I am having getting different foods. There are so many products that we can and SHOULD grow here but for financial reasons we (supermarkets) get from abroad. Whilst YES it is cheaper and YES trade is good for other economies, what about OUR people? OUR economy? OUR environment?

" If you don't use it, you lose it"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0101jrv/Countryfile_27_03_2011/ [minutes 10-18]
BBC Countryfile.

" A local government survey conducted nationally found that 18% of claims that food was local were false"

I am really disapointed to find out that 'local' food need not actually be local. There are no boundaries as to what local really is. Additionally 'Produced in the UK' doesn't have to mean produced in the UK, so long as the product itself is packaged here and made here it can carry the label. I'm devestated about this, is it only me who thinks trading standards need to make the rules more stringent?

Looks like I am going to have to cut out most of the food I get from supermarkets and rely more of farms, buthers and real local producers. I have a lot of research and planning to do before I go home on Saturday for easter else I am going to be pretty hungry.

I almost feel as if I am starting all over again. Wish me Luck!

Day 6

Breakfast - 08.45 - Porridge
Lunch - 12.00 - Cheese and chutney sandwich
Tea - 17.00 - Cauliflower stir fry
Ingredients - Cauliflower, Onion, Cheese, Chilli (actually surprisingly nice)
Tea - 22.00 - BBQ, Burgers buns and salad
Ingredients - Minced beef, chilli, rocket, kidney beans, cheese, bun

Today I had a netball tournament, afterwards we got free pizza, it was pretty hard to say no but I did it. I am really quite proud.

This evening I went to a friends for a barbeque, after a while we got it going and cooked all sorts of nice barbeque food. I took some sustainable home mader burgers and salad and washed it all down with some organic cider. My friend Chris brought some sustainable buns with me in mind which totally made my evening.

The beautiful barbeque

Me eating my sustainable burger, drinking my (Lydias) sustainable cider.

Day 5 - Tesco fails me on bread

Breakfast - 09.30 - Porridge
Snack - 10.30 - Yeo Valley Yogurt
Lunch - 11.45 - Rocket salad, mixed beans, cheese and chutney
Snack - 15.15 - Baguette and butter
Tea - 20.00 - Chunky chips

I went to Tesco today and couldn't find any organic bread. I was really disappointed but thankfully managed to get an organic baguette. In the evening my housemates went to another supermarket superstore and couldn't get any there either...there could be some really interesting lunches this week if I can't get any. I won't be the same without my cheese sandwiches!

Colette Griffin (C) 2011

Day 4 I cook sustainably

Breakfast - 09.00 - Porridge
Lunch - 13.00 - Beans on toast
          - 14.00 - Cheese, rocket, chutney and onion sandwich
Tea - 19.00 - Jacket potato with beans and cheese

I'm posting this a day late because I was out last night, Colette and I cooked for about 20 people. Every thursday we eat with a group of other students and we take it in turns to cook. Thanks to my project, we made our meal sustainably.

I filmed the preparation, eating and cleanup of the meal for submission with my coursework. Everyone was really interested in why I am eating this way and I sparked a couple of discussions. This was great, it's really what I wanted to happen to get people thinking about food, their responsibilities and that it really isn't that hard to make changes.

The Carbon footprint of this meal in food miles is 459 miles not including the salad, most of it is 'produce of more than one country'. However of the things I can calculate, we produced 5738Kg of Carbon, 1607 Kg of this being CO2. This is the equivelent of 18 pine trees.

p.s. Yesterday I was incorrect with my maths, I ate the equivelent of 14.5 trees

Day 3 - The Veg box arrives

Today (after a small misunderstanding) my veg box arrived. They first delivered a meat box, which looked wonderful and I wanted to whip the frying pan out right there and then and fry some of the delicious sausages for breakfast. However I had nowhere to put the rest of the delicious looking organic meat so I called James from Sacrewell farm and they swapped it for me. So far I am super impressed with the service and the food.

On a plus point my housemates liked the look of the meat so next term we are hopefully going to all chip in for some. I'm glad i've made a small influence here!

Next week I am going to make a different order, not a veg box but a collection of other products. Milk, cheese, beer, cider, chutney are just a few of the things I want to try.

Breakfast - 09.00 - Porridge
Lunch - 12.00 - Cheese sandwich with onion and rocket
Lunch - 14.00 - Cheese sandwich with onion and rocket
Tea - 18.30 - Vegetable fritters with rocket, chutney and cheese
Ingredients - Carrot, potato, egg, cauliflower, rocket, oil, cheese, tomato and chilli chutney.

Tea was delicious, I know I made it myself but I really enjoyed it. Definatley making it again. (I am the first to admit it looks gross this is because I just piled all 5 patties up intop of one another).

Todays food miles....

Porridge - 108 miles
Cheese - 81 miles
Onion, Rocket, Bread, Carrot, Potato, Cauliflower - 45.7 miles
Egg - 43 miles
Chutney - 110 miles

This is a total of 387.7 miles equaling 1357 Kg of CO2 / 4846 Kg of carbon.
This is the equivalent of almost 5 pine trees.
Maths isn't my strong point and it took  me a while to get to this answer, if you think I am wrong please let me know!

My veggies

Day 2

Yesterday I forgot to blog, mainly because nothing exciting happenned other than me almost eating a biscuit several times.

Breakfast - 08.30 - Porridge

Lunch - 12.00 - Cheese sandwich

Snack - 14.30 - Fried egg sandwich

Tea - 20.30 - Line caught haddock and chips

Free Range eggs. They taste better, look better and are nicer to hens. You can play the money card but in
the long run, the quality of the food is more important...

These are my herbs, Parsley, Basil and Corriander. They are home grown and organic and REALLY really tasty. I can't wsit for the basil to get big enoulgh for me to make my own pesto.

Day 1, The Sustinabilty begins

Today went pretty well, people keep exclaiming 'but you can't eat ____, how are you going to cope?!' I have no real answer other than I hope I can. I really want to prove that it is possible for everyone to do something to start the change, it doesn't have to be this extreme!

Breakfast - 09.30 - Porridge, 50g with 300ml of Milk.

Snack - 10.30 - Carrot

Lunch - 11.30 - Cheese sandwich

Snack - 15.30 - Cheese sandwich

Tea - 17.00 - Pasta with beany sauce
Ingredients - Pasta - 3eggs, 300g plain flour. Sauce - Heinz beans, mixed beans, 1/2 onion, chilli, cheese.

n.b. All ingredients fit the ethical rules I laid out in 'The Plan' unless otherwise stated.

The pasta was really good, I'm not the best cook so I figured that my first attempt would be pretty awful but I was happily surprised. I made about 4 portions, two are sitting in my freezer for the future. It takes a while to knead the dough and then roll it out but it is by far worth the effort. My only advice is to make the pasta as thin as possible when you roll it out, it swells a little as it cooks and to roll it out with a really long rolling pin for ease (Not your house mates empty rum bottle).

My ball of dough wrapped in cling film, ready to sit in the fridge for 30 minutes-

 The tagiatelle all laid out on wet kitchen roll ready to be cooked-

The cooked pasta before I added the sauce, note to self - cut the strips thinner-

On a separate note, my washing machine broke a few days ago and today my landlord dropped a new one off for us which has an eco setting so we can wash our clothes at 30C. I am happy 

Day 6 - I shop local and organic

Firstly you may have noticed that yesterday I failed to post what I ate, this is what happens when you post before bed...

19/03/11
Breakfast - 08.00 - Toast
Ingredients - Two slices of hovis white bread

Lunch - 11.30 - Pukka Pie and Jacket potato

Snack - 17.00 - Tesco Crunch cereal, dry

Snack - Cheese Dorritos

Tea - 19.15 - Steak and potato pie, mushy peas, carrots
Ingredients - Pastry - Lard, flour, salt, margarine, egg to glaze (Free Range)
                 - Filling - Local butcher steak, potatoes, onions
                 -Gravy - Bisto and marmite
                 -Frozen mushy peas and carrots

Desert - GU Dark chocolate, melt in the middle puds with whipped cream.

Yesterday I also bought some line caught, British haddock.

So I began today by going to a Tesco superstore to stock up on some organic products, I was happily surprised with a lot of the things I got but left unhappy in others...

I got Organic, British, brown flour, eggs, potatoes, milk, cheese and bread! (I actually did a little jig when I found the bread, it was one of the things I was most going to miss). I couldn't find any British rice or pasta which was to be expected but still dispointing. I bought some organic for backup but I am going to try to make my own pasta one evening this week, it doesn't look to hard (famous last words). I was also sad to find that there are no organice beans available in Tesco, I was reduced to buying kidney beans and chick peas that were produced in England but which aren't organic. I will only eat these sparsely but I need to ensure that I maintain a healthy balanced diet throughout this challenge.

I am really pleased and can't wait to get started tomorrow, hopefully by eating in this way I can make a small difference to our environment and maybe convince others to make small changes. Sophie Morris really is right when she tells us to change the world with our shopping baskets and 'vote with our pockets': http://www.lovefood.com/journal/blog/11338/change-the-world-with-a-shopping-trolley- . If we don't buy un sustainable produce the supermarkets will have no need to sell it.

The images below show my cupboards before and after I went 'sustainable shopping'. In the imags the only things in the cupboard that I can eat are on the top right (inage 1) and right (inage 2)....

Thankfully I have much more to eat now...

Today I have eaten:

Breakfast - 12.00 - Fried egg on toast
Lunch - 15.30 - Beef and potato pie leftovers
Supper - 19.45 - Cheese on toast
Ingredients - Organic English cheese on two slices on white hovis bread

Finally, on the 29th March Levi Roots is coming to Loughborough to talk about his business, products and to cook for his audience. (Levi Roots is an entrepeneuer and the brain behing reggae reggae cooking causes). I am super excited to see him and was really looking forward to trying some of his cooking untill I realised that I won't be able to! Disapointing.

Day 5 - Veg Boxes!

Today I ordered my first veg box from http://www.riverford.co.uk/. It cost £10.20 and contains

cauliflower

loose carrots

rocket 

white potatoes

loose onions

parsnips

portobello mushrooms

It will arrive on Wednesday and I am super excited to get it! As I don't like mushrooms, they are free to a good home.

I was a little disapointed with Riverford, some of the veg and most of the fruit isn't from the UK. Still you can get loads of nice, organic fruit, veg, meat, diary and other products on their website for very reasonable prices. I'll tell you more about the Riverford's reasons for importing soon.

I also took a look at the meat boxes they do, whilst initially prices £29.95 to feed 2 people for a week seemed expensive. I researched everything you get in the cheapest box : Pork chipolatas (450g), Beef stir-fry steak (2x800g), Chicken legs (600g), Beef Mince (2x900g), Diced Pork shoulder (2x900g) and compared it to what Englands leading supermarkets can provide...

Tesco = £46.34
Asda = £47.25
Sainsburys = £55.70

I expected the meat from Riverford to be slightly more expensive so these results were quite shocking. Where the items on offer in the supermarkets didn't quite match Riverford's I substituted similar (e.g. 450g chipolatas for 450g of sausages).

One day and counting...

Day 4

Today has been super busy, I went from one thing to another pretty much all day. That's how I like it! However it is going to require planning on the food front as of Monday, I can't just pop to the shop for a snack when I am hungry...

Breakfast - 08.30 - Fried Egg on Toast
Ingredients - Two slices of white Hovis bread, One Free range 'Happy Egg'

Lunch - 13.10 - Cheese sandwich
Ingredients - Two slices of white Hovis bread, English mature cheese, Stork English butter

Snack - 17.15 - Cadburys Double Decker

Tea - 18.45 - Spaghetti with vegetables in Tomato sauce
Ingredients - Spaghetti, garlic, chilli, sunflower oil, onion, carrot, broccoli

Sncak - 20.00 - Rowntrees Randoms

Two days and counting...

Day Three

Breakfast - 09.30 - Two cups of fresh grape juice
Ingredients - One punnet of grapes, juiced

Lunch - 11.30 - Cheese toastie
Ingredients - Two slices of hovis white bread (Maidenhead), English cheese(Middlesex), Stork english butter (London) Total 346 Miles

Snack - 13.20 - Cheese toastie
Ingredients - As above

Snack - 13.45 - McCoys cheese and onion crisps

Snack - 16.55 - Chocolate covered rich tea biscuit

Snack - 17.20 - Two pieces of toast

Tea - 19.00 - Chicken curry with rice and naan
Ingredients - None free range chicken, Jars of curry sauce, white rice, shop bought naan.
Every Thursday I eat with friends and we take it in turns to cook for each other. Next Thursday I will be cooking everyone a sustainable meal and hopefully it will share with them the ideas I am trying to convey.

It is official, I will start my new lifestyle on MONDAY....

I have been tackling my carb issue today and I will be eating potatoes, beans, couscous and any bread which fits within my rules. I am going to eat a lot of chapatis and learn how to make tortillas. I have eaten a lot of snacks lately, I feel this will be my weak point and if i'm not organised I will end up snacking on unsustainable food.

In response to the requests for pictures of the food I cook/eat I will upload these daily.

Day Two

Today has been an incredibly unsustainable day....

Breakfast 08.45 - New Crunch cereal (Tesco) with organic Yeo Valley milk

Lunch 11.45 - Ginsters deep fill chicken sandwich, McCoys steak crisps.
Ingredients - Brown bread, lettuce, mayonaise, tomato, chicken.

Tea 18.00 - Cheese and pickle ready-made sandwich, Cadbury Wisper.

I've been out all day playing hockey, hence the awful choices today.

On a plus point, I researched Yeo Valley organic milk and they are fairly good with animal welfare and environmental issues which is great, it means I can still drink it on my new regime.

Day One

Breakfast - 09.30 Banana Milkshake
Ingredients - Supermarket Banana, Organic Yeo Valley whole milk.

Lunch - 11.45 Beany Bake leftovers
Ingredients - Fahita spice mix, Baked beans, Kidney beans, Tinned Toms, Onion, Cheese, Dorritos.

Snack - Chinese instant noodles
Ingredients - Lets not be silly!

Tea - Cumberland sausage and mash with carrots broccoli and gravy.
Ingredients - Sausage, Potatoes (local), Carrot (local), Broccoli (local), Bisto Gravy.

Today has been an informative day, BBC Radio 4's Food Programme was all about curing your own meat. Very interesting and something which I would love to give a go! Watch this space! Additionally I went to a farmers market stall on campus to buy some veggies and scope it out for my coming challenge. It looks to be an excellent place for me to source my food. However I have already hit a problem with my rules, a lot of the food there was grown un organically. I have a dilemma, is it ok to eat none organic food if it is very local?

However a plus point, I may have sourced local free-range eggs and a local veg box service. Fingers crossed they will cater to a single student or else I might be forced to share.

Ethical Eating - The plan

Ethical Food...

There are so many aspects which influence what may (or may not) make what we eat ethical.
-Is it local? Has it travelled thousands of miles to be on my plate?
-Do the farmers get a fair price, via fairtrade or other methods?
- How is it produced?
- Are the methods safe for local ecosystems? Is it organic?
- Are the animals which produce this meat/eggs/diary treated ethically?

These are only a few of the questions which surround ethical and sustainable food

I am going to try to eat only food which I deem sustainable for as long as possible adheering to the following rules:

1.Must be produced within the UK (this includes all ingredients)
2.Must not contain any chemicals (e-numbers etc)
3.The production process must not cause undue harm or pain to animals (including animal testing)
4.As far as possible I will buy foods directly from the producer or local businesses.
5.Liquids are exempt unless they are considered food (eg. soup)

Before I begin, I will keep an unsustainable food diary. I will note everything I have eaten each day along with thoughts, concerns, plans and ethical meal ideas. Problems I already face are how will I eat out? Or at a friends?

Once I have reached conclusions about my current food lifestyle I will switch to my new diet.

Wish me luck!

Ethical Eating

World production is changing, what we eat now are often things which would not have been eaten two or three generations ago. 'Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognise as food' This is the second rule in Michael Pollan's book, Food Rules.

'Imagine your great-grandmother at your side as you roll down the aisles of the supermarket. She picks up a portable yoghurt tube – and hasn't a clue what this plastic container of colourful gel could possibly be. Is it food or is it toothpaste?' (Pollan, 2010 : 7 )

Take for example the chicken nugget. Michael Pollan asks his son about the 'chickeny' taste; 'no they taste like what they are, which is nuggets' .This is important, we are evolving and our eating habits are changing. What you expect to be a piece of deep fried chicken actually contains 38 ingredients one of which is butyhydroquinone (TBHQ) which makes up 0.02% of the oil in McChicken Nuggets 'ingesting one gram of TBHQ cab cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation and collapse” Ingesting 5 grams can kill'.

Fast food aside, conventional production of meat has been ousted to allow more 'efficient' methods of production. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's) are taking over. In their short history CAFOs have produced excessive amounts of environmental and health problems such as 'polluted water and air, toxic wastes, novel and deadly pathogens.' This mixed with the speed of which they are produced which,

Causes their flesh to marble well, giving it a taste and texture which consumers have come to like. Yet this corn – fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega 3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass.

We are as yet unaware of the implications of consuming food produced in this way but research shows that it could be harmful. 'Modern day hunter-gatherers who subsist on meat don't have our rates of heart disease. In the same way ruminants are ill adapted to eat corn, humans may in turn be ill adapted to eating ruminants that eat corn'.

My interest and research into food production and sustainability cause me to pursue the art challenges that I do. This current piece Ethical Eating was inspired by my horror at the production methods and the amount of food waste the UK produces 'From farm to plate an estimated 18 to 20 million tonnes of food are wasted every year in the UK' (Stuart, 2009).