Greener Kirkcaldy’s Climate Champion Tali, explains how food is impacting our home planet and how choices we make about food can reduce our carbon footprint in her latest blog.

Carbon Footprint of Food

Growing, producing, transporting, and storing our foods have a significant impact on the environment and our food system is becoming progressively worse for the Earth and contributing to the climate emergency. Due to the high population, we will still struggle to feed billions of people in 50 years time.

However, we can make a difference, and it’s not too late…

How to cut down carbon footprint on food every day.

Buy local: Lots of vegetables and fruits have a low carbon footprint; however, it depends on where they are grown and packaged! Seasonal foods create fewer greenhouse gas because usually, they are produced naturally without artificial heat. Local or homegrown foods are lower carbon as well, due to not being shipped or worse, flown huge distances. Checking labels for information on how and where food is produced will help you recognise low carbon options before buying.

Local meat also has a lower carbon footprint than that produced overseas. For example, imported beef from Brazil has three times the carbon footprint of British beef (that’s not say that eating meat is a low carbon choice – see this video!). Brazilian beef production also requires large scale deforestation to make space for cattle ranching, as well as the production of soya grown to feed them, so has a double impact on climate through deforestation. Animals eating crops that humans could eat is much more impact on climate change than us eating the plants. In 2018, 30 million arcs of tropical rainforest were lost, around 82,191 acres a day (43 football fields per minute).

Go plant-based: According to scientific studies, avoiding meat and dairy products is one of the biggest ways to reduce your environmental impact. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate that 18% of global emission result from livestock production. Meat production also needs a much higher amount of water to produce than vegetables. For example, producing 1kg of beef requires between 5,000 and 20,000 litres of water and 1kg of wheat requires between 500 and 4,000 litres of water!

Can cheese affect the carbon footprint? Yes, of course. It actually isn’t much different from beef, but we eat less cheese than we do with meat. Not every cheese has the same carbon footprint, producing a softer cheese uses less milk, therefore lower carbon footprint than others. For example, producing 1kg of cheddar produces 11.8kg of Co2, compared to 6.5kg of CO2 to produce the same weight of goats cheese. You could also consider swapping dairy milk for a plant-based alternative such as almond, soy or oat products.

You can find out carbon footprint of different foods using this calculator or reading this article from foodprint expert Mike Berners-Lee.

Therefore, a great way to reduce your carbon footprint is to switch to a plant-based diet – even if just a few days a weeks. Interesting, right?

Avoid food waste: Every year in the UK, we bin a huge amount of edible food, wasting the carbon footprint of production, transport and of disposal. Here are some tips to avoid adding to that waste, aswell as some ideas to cook them in a more sustainable way.

Check your fridge and cupboards before deciding what you need to buy.
If you have foods you don’t need, don’t throw them out! Please give it to someone else or donate it to the food bank or community fridge.
Write a shopping list to avoid buying what you don’t need.
Plan out what you eat for the next five days or so. That way, you’ll know which need to eat first (e.g. vegs, the best before or valid until date)
Buy reasonable portions of foods per person
Consider eating the same meal two days in a row if there is a lot left, or freeze them to eat later
If possible, buy foods loose and bring your own bag or buy less packaging- plastics aren’t very friendly to the planet (it’s estimated that plastics will be responsible for 17% of global emissions by 2050!).

Use low carbon cooking methods:

Saucepans are less efficient than kettles for boiling water and only boil the amount of water you need.
When cooking vegetables, try to boil gently and cut them into small pieces.
If you don’t put the lid on the saucepan, you would waste 20% of the energy.
When using the oven, fill it up as much as you can to make full use of the energy and only switch it on when you are ready.

To reduce the impact of your weekly supermarket shop is fairly easy to do. All it takes is a little forward planning and a bit more attention to what you are popping in your basket. If you decide to give some of these tips a try, do let us know how you get on!

Eating local and seasonal food has lots of benefits for you, your community and the environment.

1. It reduces the amount of energy used to transport, refrigerate and store the food and less packaging is required to keep it fresh, so there are a much lower environmental impact and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

2. It is usually fresher, tastes better and is more nutritious! As soon as a fruit or vegetable is picked, it begins to lose moisture and ripeness, both of which contribute to a loss of vitamins and minerals and flavour.

3. You can help Stop Food Waste! The longer food spends in storage and transit, the higher the chance of it spoiling and becoming waste. Buying locally and in season can help reduce the risk of food becoming waste before it gets to the shelves.

4. Although local food can be more expensive, buying in season means you’re getting it at peak supply when it’s at its cheapest., and the money stays within the local community.

When you get to the shops, keep an eye out for seasonal foods and check the origin labels before you buy. Better still, why not see what’s available from CLEAR, or your local farmers’ markets or farm shops.

Vegetables in season in April

Cabbage (green, Spring greens), celeriac, chard, chicory, kale, leeks, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, seakale, spring onions and wild garlic. You can also find leafy crops grown under cover (leaf beet, oriental greens, winter salad leaves), plus stored vegetables like beetroot.

At the CLEAR community gardens in Buckhaven and Methil, we still have some Jerusalem Artichokes and Kale available for collection (please email support@clearfife.org), free of charge or for a small donation. These are two often under-rated vegetables that people often disregard, but which can be absolutely delicious. Here are some recipes to make the most of them.

Roast Kale Chips

This is a delicious crispy treat that it’s both healthy and easy to prepare.

1 bunch kale

1tbsp oil

1tsp salt

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees C/Gas 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner, or a tea towel. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt and mix thoroughly.

Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

Kale stalk pesto https://www.riverford.co.uk

Ingredients

2 handfuls of kale stalks, roughly chopped

50g pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 garlic clove, peeled

Olive oil

1 lemon

Method

Prep time: 10 mins

Put the kale stems in a food processor. Add the pumpkin seeds, cumin and garlic clove. Pour in a few good glugs of olive oil to start with; you can always add more if you need it.

Blitz the ingredients together. If you like your pesto a bit chunky, don’t blend for long. For a smoother consistency, blend for longer. Add more olive oil if needed.

Finish by squeezing in half the lemon and a little salt and pepper. Stir, taste, and add more lemon or seasoning to suit your taste. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge. Use within a week.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with mushrooms & rosemary https://www.riverford.co.uk

Serves 3

A very simple dish for these delectable Jerusalem artichoke tubers. You don’t even need to peel them! Arguably they are all the better with their skins on as it adds to the nutty, slightly smoky flavour that makes them so interesting. The mushrooms are ideal bedfellows as they have an equally earthy, wintery feel to them. The rosemary and garlic get added towards the end so that neither are at risk of burning and going unpleasantly bitter in the oven.

Ingredients

150g mushrooms

600g Jerusalem artichokes

oil for roasting

1 lemon, finely zested

1 large rosemary sprig

2 garlic cloves

salt & black pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 180⁰C/Gas 4. Roughly slice the mushrooms, not too thinly. Give the artichokes a wash and scrub to remove any soil or grit, making sure you get into any nooks and crannies. Cut them into 4-5 cm angled pieces.

Throw the artichokes and mushrooms into a roasting tray with 2 tablespoons of oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix well; the tray may look a bit overcrowded, but the mushrooms will shrink as they roast.

Pop the tray into the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes, giving them a turn halfway through, until the artichokes are tender and starting to colour at the edges and the mushrooms have gone dark and sticky. Meanwhile, strip the rosemary leaves from the stalk and finely chop them together with the garlic cloves and half the lemon zest.

When the artichokes are done, mix the rosemary, garlic and zest into the tray and return it to the oven for a final 5 minutes to take the raw edge off. Remove from the oven and check the seasoning, tweak with more salt, pepper or lemon juice to your liking.

Enjoy!

Further information available on:

On The Table

ND Health Facts

Sustain

Climate Action Fife is a Fife-wide partnership project, bringing together individuals, communities, local government and businesses to tackle the climate emergency. It is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund. #ClimateActionFife

The immortal words of Spike Milligan, “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz…” reflect the lightness of mood when the sun finally comes out, temperatures move into double figures, plants push out of the sodden ground and burst into bud, and spring flowers abound. Our gardens are coming alive again after the dormancy of winter.

At our community gardens in Buckhaven and Methil, there is a buzz in in the air. All four of our bee-hives have survived winter and the bees, having emerged from hibernation, are now very busy collecting pollen from the abundant crocuses and daffodils around town. Our (currently very small number of) trusty volunteers and allotment holders have stepped up and are busy sowing and planting fruit and vegetables for summer and autumn harvesting.

As part of our new #ClimateActionFife project, CLEAR is excited to announce our online gardening workshop.

If you have never grown your own food, you may not know what all the fuss is about. It may seem like a lot of work, or you may think you don’t have space or time to grow what you really need. However, there are many benefits to growing your own.

1. Growing Your Own Food Helps the Environment

A) The average distance travelled by shop-bought fruits and vegetables is 1500 miles. Maintaining your own garden means you get healthy food that has zero food miles.

B) You can control how your food is grown and manage bugs and other pests naturally, allowing you to reduce the number of harmful chemicals polluting our environment and waterways.

C) It doesn’t come in plastic bags.

D) It also helps you reduce food waste. By understanding and appreciating what goes into the process, you’ll want to use all the food you’ve grown.

2. Growing Your Own Food Saves You Money

You can save a lot of money by growing your own vegetables and fruits. By spending a few pounds on seeds, plants, and supplies in the spring, you will produce vegetables that will yield pounds of produce in summer and autumn.

3. Growing Your Own Food is Healthier

As soon as a fruit or vegetable is picked, it begins to lose moisture and ripeness, both of which contribute to a loss of vitamins and minerals. In addition, produce is often picked prematurely and then artificially ripened to improve shelf life. This is a necessity since the average piece of produce has travelled 1500 miles to where it is finally sold.

4. Growing Your Own Food is Great For Your Kids

Children whose parents have a garden eat more than double the amount of fruit and vegetables than those that don’t. Gardening has been shown to help kids improve focus, increase brain function, and calm symptoms of ADHD. The outdoor time and connection with nature can actually centre their minds. Finally, gardening is the jumping off point for hundreds of educational lessons. Your garden can become a classroom for biology, nutrition, ecology, maths, and so many other subjects!

5. Growing Your Own Food Is Good For Your Health

The physical activity required in gardening has proven to promote physical health. Involvement in gardening helps to improve cardiac health and immune system response, decrease heart rate and stress, improve fine and gross motor skills, flexibility and body strength. Getting regular exercise can relieve stress, anxiety and depression while boosting energy. Gardening for just 30 minutes a day can lower the amount of cortisol, the stress hormone, in your bloodstream to normal levels and is a great way to absorb vitamin D, known as the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D is crucial in order to maintain healthy bones and teeth, and it can also protect against certain diseases.

For further information have a look at the following websites:

Garden Centre Association

Smart Money Mamas

Triangle Pest

One Green Planet

Greener Kirkcaldy’s Media Volunteer Barbara explains what is Earth Hour and how you can get involved in her latest blog.

Saturday, March 27^th, is Earth Hour, a global lights-out event which takes place every year on the last Saturday of March, and inspires millions of people across the world, to turn out their lights in support of Planet Earth.

Organised by WWF, the first Earth Hour took place in Sydney in 2007. Now Earth Hour has become one of the biggest movements in support of the environment, taking place in over 180 countries every year. By bringing people together to raise awareness of climate change, WWF believes that Earth Hour can be a major driving force in bringing about Governmental action on the climate crisis.

How Did it all Start?

In 2007, WWF called on people across the world to switch off their lights at home, to bring public attention to the climate crisis. Since then, millions of people have been switching off their lights every year, to mark Earth Hour, throwing buildings and whole streets into darkness, to raise awareness of climate change and the need for urgent action.

Earth Hour 2021

This year’s Earth Hour takes place at 8:30pm on Saturday 27^th March, and in addition to turning off your lights, WWF are calling on people to participate in an Earth Hour ‘Virtual Spotlight’, where WWF will be posting a very special Earth Hour video, and asking people to share it on their social media pages, to put the Spotlight on planet Earth. Their aim is to make it the most-watched video across the world and get people talking about climate change.

There are also other ways you can get involved, including taking part in an online event or learning more about nature loss and climate change.

WWF Scotland are asking people all across Scotland to use the hour to help create the Great Scottish Canvas with them. They are asking people to paint the picture of the future they want to see, tell the story of the Scotland that we want to be.

The Great Scottish Canvas is a creative call out to the people of Scotland and will channel our hopes for a better future. We are asking Local Authorities to share this call out with employees, representatives, partners and constituents in your area and ask them to use this year’s Earth Hour to paint a picture, craft a poem, doodle or write something which illustrates the future Scotland they want – a future where we tackle the climate and nature crises and create a greener, fairer future for all.

Find out how you can take part here.

Find out more about nature loss and climate change here.

The Science Museum is running a series of talks on climate change as a build up to the COP26 talks in Glasgow in November 2021. Greener Kirkcaldy’s Climate volunteer Joy tells us what is coming up and reviews the first session entitled Climate Change: Why does it matter?

Sessions are streamed live on the Science Museum Website but tickets must be purchased beforehand. They are free and the intended audience is youth and adults (rather than children). The talks are available on their website (and YouTube) after the event. There is a FAQ section which clearly provides other relevant information the audience may be seeking.

Other talks cover topics such as Is Capitalism Compatible with Environmentalism (Feb 26^th, 2021), Climate Change: A View from Space (March 16^th 2021) and The Clean Air Revolution (May 13^th, 2021).

Climate Change: Why Does it Matter?

The first session addressed the topic of Climate Change: Why Does it Matter? It was a discussion between four environmentalists from different walks of life (a scientist, a politician, an entrepreneur and Dr Jane Goodall (who’s work spans more than a title!)). Each participant answered questions related to environmental matters in their context and then went on to discuss questions sent in from the audience.

The first part of the session, where the experts described their work and perspectives, was both informative and largely positive, with a focus on what is being done and the progress which has been made.

One interesting point which was made a number of times was the emphasis on the role youth have to respond to the climate crisis. It was argued that youth make up the majority of the population in many parts of the world and thus utilising their engagement, is powerful and will result in change. I agree with this point but I also feel that it is only half of the solution. Unfortunately, while youth may have numbers, energy and the strategies to generate popular support, they often lack positions of power and the required finance to execute change. For this reason, in my opinion, the middle and upper age ranges must also be engaged and this is sometimes harder as they have established attitudes and patterns of living which can create an inertia.

Overall, this session was informative and interesting although I found it a little too long. Nevertheless, if you are interested in the topic, I would recommend a watch.

Greener Kirkcaldy’s Community Chef Iain shares recipes for leftover bread such as Croutons, Herb Crust and a Savoury Bread and Butter Pudding.

We all end up with rolls that have hardened or half a loaf that is going stale at some point! The worst thing we could do is throw that bread into landfill where it converts into methane gas contributing to global warming. Even if we put it in compost or our brown bin, all the resources that went into making the bread are being wasted L

Instead of binning bread, why not consider using it for croutons, breadcrumbs or even a herb crust to top your dishes? Our community chef shares some of his tasty recipes for using up bread, including a savoury bread and butter pudding!

Making Croutons

This is a good way to use up bread that is getting past its best. If you are using sliced bread then you can put it in the freezer for 20 minutes before you cut it into croutons it will be easier to get them all the same size, which means that they all cook at the same time. If you take the crust off the sliced bread then you can used it to make the herb crust below!

If you are using a loaf or rolls then you can just tear the bread into nice sized pieces.

When you have the bread ready place it on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Garlic and hard herbs like rosemary or thyme are a nice addition and you just smash the garlic cloves and break over the croutons.

Place in an oven at 160°C and after 10 minutes toss them about a little on the tray and give them another little drizzle of olive oil. Time will vary depending on the size of the croutons but they are ready when nice and crisp all the way through the crouton. When they have cooled to room temperature, store them in an airtight tub.

Croutons are a great addition to soups or salad.

Video

Herb Crust

All the ingredients you need for a herb crust are bread, soft herbs like parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil (parsley is good because you can use a lot without being too strong a flavour and it makes it a vibrant green colour) and a lemon.

In a food processor break up the bread, roughly chop your herbs then add the zest of a lemon along with a pinch of salt and black pepper and blitz until the bread and herbs have all broken down.

This a good alternative to cheese-topped dishes like macaroni & cheese or lasagne. The mixture can be kept in the freezer and used when needed.

Video

Savoury Bread & Butter Pudding

Leftover bread recipe - savoury bread and butter pudding

Ingredients

Sliced white bread, enough to fill the dish you are using

Soft Butter

Eggs

Milk

Amount will vary relative to the size of the dish you are using but the important part is 1 egg to 100ml milk ratio.

Cheese (not a lot needed as it is quite a rich dish)

You can add many things to this dish – leftover meats like ham or chicken, vegetables like peppers or onions are good. Be creative!!

We topped our dish with herb crust (see above)

Method

Make your milk and egg mixture in a jug (some smoked paprika is nice added to the mixture) as a rough measure you will need enough mixture to fill the dish half full, season well with salt and pepper then keep for later
Now butter one side of the slices of bread and stack them when doing so
Cut the stack of buttered bread into triangle quarters, split the stack if too tall to cut easily
Butter the dish you are using then start to add the bread trying to leave few gaps
When building the layers add any bits and bobs you want to use
Gently compress the bread so that the top is level with the dish and finish with a sprinkle of cheese
Slowly pour the milk mixture over the top trying to distribute in evenly, when you can see the liquid just above halfway up the dish stop and gently press, now leave to sit for 10 minutes while the oven heats to 170°C
Baking time depends on the size so to check when it is ready it should feel firm when pressed. You can double check by using a knife and make a small cut into the middle
Optional: when the egg mixture is nearly firm, add the herb crust (see recipe above) ten and bake for another 10 minutes.

Video

Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising and weather events are becoming more extreme. 2019 was the second warmest year on record and the end of the warmest decade (2010-2019) ever recorded. Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and other greenhouse gasses rose to a new record in 2019. (UN Climate action). As temperatures soar, changes will be irreversible as ecosystems collapse. Our planet will be unrecognisable.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that global temperatures need to be prevented from rising by more than 1.5˚C. We have already passed 1˚C. We need to act fast to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce the carbon already in the atmosphere.

Trees are the ultimate carbon capture and storage machines. Young woodland can lock up 400+ tonnes of carbon per hectare. Like great carbon sinks, trees absorb atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis and lock it up for centuries. As well as this they can help prevent flooding, reduce city/town temperature, reduce pollution and keep soil nutrient-rich. The bottom line is we need more trees and we need to protect the ones we already have. (Woodland Trust).

One of CLEAR’s primary roles is to plant and maintain trees. Generally, the winter months in gardens are very quiet, however here at CLEAR the work never stops and we are kept busy, when the weather isn’t too inclement and the ground isn’t frozen, working with trees. This could be planting more trees: we have already planted over 18,000 native and around 7,000 fruit trees in public green spaces, on sites accessible to all, in and around Buckhaven and Methil, with another 2,500 native and 400 fruit trees to be planted this winter; or tree maintenance, including replacing broken stakes and protective covers and pruning the fruit trees in our orchards.

Winter pruning, which can be carried out from November to March, encourages strong spring growth, and the lack of leaves means you can better see the structure and shape of the tree. Ideally, branches should be evenly spaced around the tree for air circulation and light penetration. Dead and broken branches are removed as these can provide an access point for disease, reduce air circulation and light penetration and can cause further damage to the tree if they fall. Any diseased wood is removed and disposed of by fire to prevent any further spread. Any crossing branches are removed as they can rub against each other and cause damage, and the main stem or trunk can also be shortened to a more convenient height.

Winter pruning is also carried out on our berry bushes i.e. raspberries, black, red and white currants and gooseberries for the same reasons as above. The pruned berry branches can be replanted to raise new plants. If the ground isn’t ready to plant or is frozen solid, the prunings can be placed in a bucket of water for a number of weeks prior to planting, with no detrimental effects. This is an easy way to increase the number of plants you have and costs nothing.

We also have lettuce and parsley in the polytunnel and kale, cabbage, cavolo nero, brussels sprouts, beetroot, leeks and Jerusalem artichokes growing in the Community Gardens at the moment. These can remain in the soil all winter and can be harvested as required, in fact, the flavour and colour of many winter vegetables are improved if the plants are frosted before harvesting. Eating local and seasonal food is an easy way to reduce food miles and therefore carbon emissions.

As our shop is currently closed due to lockdown, please contact us on 078 3355 3398 if you would like to buy any of our vegetables or herbs.

Look out for our up-coming on-line climate-friendly gardening and cookery workshops.

Coming soon! As part of our new #ClimateActionFife project, CLEAR is excited to be planning some online cooking demonstrations on creating delicious meals from leftovers and using local, seasonal food.

Scottish households throw away 600,000 tonnes of food waste every year with a value of up to £437 per year per household, not in our pockets! As well as being a waste of good food and money, it’s also a huge waste of all the resources that have gone into producing the food i.e. the fuel for the farm machinery, the farmer’s time and energy planting and harvesting, the water it took to grow the crops, the fuel used transporting the food to the food manufacturer, the materials used to package the food and much more, which all lead to the production of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. By reducing food waste, you can save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help preserve resources for future generations.

So what can you do to help?

Don’t overbuy. Make meal plans and shopping lists (and stick to them!) to avoid buying too much food.
Check the use-by date on the food you buy. Those with the longest use-by dates are usually at the back of the shelves in shops. Be aware that “sell by” is used by manufacturers to ensure foods have a long shelf life after purchase. “Use by” is the last date recommended for use.
Love your freezer. Freeze anything you won’t use immediately that may go off if left in the fridge or batch cook and freeze it for later use.
Use your leftovers. Either re-heat or adapt to make another meal.
Buy local (seasonal) food. This will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, storage and packaging and is usually fresher and tastes better!
Compost your waste food. Put it in your brown bin (not your blue landfill bin!) or make your own compost.

If you can’t wait for our workshops, have a look at these links and be inspired to make a change!

Greener Kirkcaldy’s Climate Champion Alecia attended the Cli-Fi writing from the future workshop and she has written about what she found out.

Times are tough for our planet. We’re buried by a barrage of scientific information on ocean acidification, rising sea levels, record high temperatures, mass habitat destruction, animal and plant species extinction, human climate refuges, and pandemics tied to wildlife encroachment. Phew, THAT was a heavy sentence to get through. And it’s just the tip of the melting iceberg. While all of these facts weigh on our minds and hearts, the entertainment industry uses them in the plots of dystopian films and television series. Honestly, it’s all getting to be a bit much! Enter Cli-Fi.

Cli-Fi, short for Climate Fiction, is about imagining a future where humanity has made the changes needed to save our planet and save ourselves. Cli-Fi meetups aim to discuss climate solutions, rather than reiterating the problems we hear about constantly. Attendees get to stretch their artistic muscles too! Each meeting provides a creative writing prompt and attendees then sketch out their story ideas for a more utopian future.

I attended a Cli-Fi meet up via Zoom recently and the experience was heartwarming. The climate-positive topic was bamboo and the host was Sophia Cheng. We started the session by watching a short, informative video highlighting the many climate benefits of bamboo. It’s a fast-growing carbon sink. It produces a lot of oxygen. Its roots stabilize soil and prevent erosion. It can be woven into a durable, soft, and quick drying cloth for clothing. Certain species of bamboo can even be used as a building material as it is has an impressive tensile strength and can be used to replace metal and wood. The problems with it were mentioned as well. Bamboo is fast-growing, which means it can be an aggressive and invasive species if not cared for diligently.

Next, we broke into small groups to chat about the benefits and negatives of bamboo and how we could use it in our daily lives. My group mulled over how it could be swapped with wood in most everyday objects. We considered the basic items of cooking utensils, straws, cups, toothbrush handles, chairs, and tables. We moved on to the less immediately obvious objects as well, like as the body of bikes or scaffolding.

Next up was time for solo writing. 12 solitary minutes spent imagining bamboo integrated in our future, whatever that meant to each person. We reconvened and a few folks were brave enough to share what they had written. Some were story-based narratives centering on bamboo; others focused on an overall environment that effortlessly included bamboo. Sophia and all the attendees were incredibly kind and positive. The story ideas were light and fun, a breath of fresh air.

Each Cli-Fi topic gets two meetings per month. The first meeting, like the one I attended, is about discussing the new climate-friendly topic and getting story ideas down on paper. The second meeting focuses on honing your writing and editing skills and sharpening up your story.

If you have a passion, or even just a small itch, for writing and dream of a climate-friendly future, then Cli-Fi meet ups may be just what you’re looking for! You can check them out by heading to the With Many Roots website and signing up for their “Cli-Fi For Beginners” workshop.

Main image: Tree photo created by tawatchai07 – www.freepik.com

Part One

As part of our new #ClimateActionFife project, EATS is excited to be planning some online cooking demonstrations. You may already be aware that a large part of our project has been focused on the redistribution of surplus food with the aim of reducing food waste. But do you know what really links the two? Is it obvious how what we buy for dinner, what we do with our ingredients and how we cook it is affecting the climate?

They may seem like disconnected issues, but there are a number of factors that make your everyday choices very powerful indeed.

LIMITED RESOURCES

Firstly, the issue EATS have been focused on – reducing the amount of waste from supermarkets, local businesses and within households. We like to say we are feeding bellies, not bins, but how does that help? There are two huge problems related to this, the first is simply the huge waste of resources extracted from the planet, potentially going through many stages, journeys and transformations before we eat it. So for what is scraped from our plates is effectively wasting all the energy that powered the farm machinery, the farmer’s time and energy planting and harvesting, the water it took to grow the crops, the fuel we burnt transporting the food to the food manufacturer, the materials used to package the food, and much more besides. In the UK, agriculture is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, 83% of ammonia air pollution, and 16% of water pollution. (What to eat Food and the environment | Friends of the Earth)

With limited resources this puts more and more pressure on the planet and all of its’ interconnected ecosystems.

Have you heard of Earth Overshoot Day? This is the date in the calendar year when humanity has used as much ecological resources as the planet’s natural ecosystems can regenerate in the whole year – in 2020 Earth Overshoot Day was reached on August 22.

WHERE DOES IT ALL GO?

Secondly when food is thrown in the bin, it can sometimes (though not always) end up on a landfill site. You may think food is biodegradable but in huge landfill sites food waste piles up high in a compacted area in anaerobic conditions, that is, without oxygen. In this scenario it creates methane gas and this can be more than 20 times more effective at heat-trapping than a molecule of carbon dioxide, as in leading to global warming. Alternatives at home can include composting and alternatives on a large scale can be to generate energy from this food waste, but ideally of course we would generate less waste in the first place!

Have you discovered this great new channel? Full of documentaries and short films with opportunities to take action – here’s a great film we found looking at one couple’s challenge to eat nothing but ‘wasted food’ Waterbear | Just Eat It

THE FINANCIAL LOSS

Thirdly – the pennies on your plate. According to Food waste facts and figures | Greener Scotland avoidable food and drink waste costs Scottish households nearly £1.1billion in unnecessary purchases each year.

Scottish households throw away 600,000 tonnes of food waste every year with a value of up to £437 per year per household, not in our pockets!

We may think the majority of waste is coming from supermarkets and business and that we are helpless to make change. However 61% of food waste in Scotland occurs in the home so we can really make a difference by thinking about every single thing we put on our plates. Food waste: The environmental impact | How To Waste Less (zerowastescotland.org.uk)

There are signs of progress as people become more aware of the impact of wasting food. Between us, across the UK we’re saving just under £5 billion a year compared with 2007, not to mention saving 5.0 million tonnes of CO2 – that’s like taking 2.1 million cars off the road. (LFHW)

If you would like to learn more and help make even more of a reduction in the carbon emissions of food waste we recommend some further reading and listening. Dive into these links and be inspired to make a change!

Be inspired to use up what is in the fridge! Love Food Hate Waste |
Deliciously Ella podcast: Food Waste and Climate Change | Delicious Ways to Feel Better on Acast
Solving the problem of Food waste | Friends of the Earth

Climate Change: Why Does it Matter?

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