Article published

I have had sixteen electronic articles published so far this month, two on water footprint and fourteen in the ezine magazine with nearly 600 views - follow the link to find out more www.thehumanimprint.typepad.com

Annual IFST Lecture

Last night I went to the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) 2007 Lecture in London. Before the start of the lecture I was presented with a copy of the IFST Guide to Good Manufacturing Practice 5th Edition to mark the work that I have done as Editor of GMPV. The lecture was both entertaining and informative and reviewed the current issues of human nutrition and health. A thoroughly enjoyable evening!

Eating fruit and vegetables

In my research I have recently been looking at data on how much fruit and vegetables we eat nationally and globally. I was very interested to see that in the UK we are still falling well below the minimum World Health Organisation guideline of 400 grammes per person per day of fruit and vegetables (excluding potatoes). In the UK this has been transposed into the 5-a-day campaign. This week as a family of five if we ate our kilo (kg) of conventional fruit per day we would have to buy 1.5kg a day to cover wastage as strawberries it would cost us £3.75 a day; grapes £2.96; apples and pears at least £1.92; bananas £1.04! For vegetables per family 1.5kg it would cost for mange-tout £8.40; frozen peas between £0.95 and £2.48 depending on the type of frozen peas; broccoli £1.92; swede £1.12; carrots £1.05!

An average UK family of five is spending around £3 - £4 a day on fruit and vegetables just to meet minimum WHO guidelines!

Well we are getting our "veggie patch" going - but over a tonne of fruit and vegetables a year is a tall order! Checkout poultrydiscussion again to see how we progress!

WFU Annual Conference

Last week I attended the Women's Food and Farming Annual Conference at Felstead School Essex. The presentations were superb and gave an insight into current thought and debate in the industry on food and farming matters. The WFU is a voluntary organisation that was founded in 1979. The organisation is committed to promoting an understanding of, and confidence in, all aspects of quality British produce and believes that by representing the best interests of consumers and producers, both the health and economy of the nation will benefit.

There were a number of themes examined during the day at all stages of the supply chain and a focus on producing what your customer wants rather than producing a product and then looking for a customer!

One of the key messages for me was from Professor Jules Pretty, OBE, in his presentation entitled "What's next for the land?" We only vote for our politicians every five years, but we vote for food and environmental policy every time we purchase food. Globally individuals aspire to the developed world lifestyle whether that is food choices, access to and creating a pastime of electronic media, cars as the optimum mode of transport and a "specific" lifestyle. All these decisions have a direct effect on our health and wellbeing (changing diet and amount of exercise that we take) and on the rate of utilisation of national resources.

There are many views on how we meet this challenge in both the short and long term but the message for me was that, if we are suitable informed we can all make a difference.

How the individual becomes suitably and impartially informed about nutrition, food choices and lifestyle is probably the subject for a future post!

If you want to find out more about the WFU and their work including Farming in the Classroom and the forthcoming Year of Food and Farming go to their web-site through the link on the side of the blog

Nuffield Scholarship

Louise has been awarded a 2007 Nuffield Scholarship, by the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust. The study has been sponsored by the John Oldacre Foundation. The title of the study is "The impact of water quality and availability on food production." Watch this space for more details.