Prince Charles and GM Food

Prince Charles has always been an unlikely royal. Time after time he has failed to keep his mouth shut about the things he believes in and this is a quality that endears him to me.

We are all by now aware of his opinions on architecture. The inside-out Lloyds building in London, which I have always quite liked, provoked his most famous rant.

In recent years he has become better known for his passion for organic food. The Duchy Original brand which started life with one product, a tasty oat based biscuit now boasts over 300 organic products. He also has his own organic farm in Gloustershire. I have visions of him out in the fields, fork in hand, harvesting perfect organic vegetables from the ground but I am aware that he probably has little to do with the day to day running of the farm. Recently he has taken residence in his Grandmothers castle in Caithness (North Scotland) and has pledged an initiative to help Scotland's farmers and fishermen.

Knowing this it came as little surprise to me that this week he launched a scathing attack on GM Foods. The outburst came in the middle of an interview with a Telegraph Journalist.

His main concerns seem to be the globalisation of the food industry, he goes on to suggest that the corporations behind GM strains are putting us on course for the "biggest disaster environmentally for all time" You can listen to his full outburst here.

His strong opinions seem to have caused a bit of a stir in the UK. Some people believe that the Royal family should be prim and proper and not meddle in politics. Others just claim he is wrong. Some such as Freinds Of the Earth and the Soil Association are patting him on the back.

For me I find it incredible that a few sentences uttered by Prince Charles are capable of re-opening the GM debate in the UK, especially so soon after it was revealed that Gordon Brown was hoping to allow more GM tests to be carried out on British Soil. Ireland is still a GM crop free zone and I hope that we will be able to find and Irish voice as influential as Prince Charles to keep it that way.

Well done Prince Charles!

Travels In Britain Part: 3. Whole Foods Market

I was really looking forward to visiting Whole Foods Market. The store, which opened recently on Kensington High Street London, is the first of the American chain to trade on British soil. Over the last few years I have read a lot about Whole Foods, which is best described as a massive health, local, speciality and organic foods supermarket, and have been intrigued by it's combination of good foods on a large corporate scale.

As I stepped in the door there was, luckily, a leaflet telling me 'How To Shop The Store'. I say luckily because as I looked around me I was surrounded by masses and masses of food. There were towers of beautiful bread, piles of fruit and veg, a serve your self deli counter as long as a double decker bus and a cheese room that, enclosed in glass as it was, was the size of a small Dublin bar. There were isles and isles of grocery products and I was delighted to find some organic products that I hadn't encountered before on the shelves (I will review these at a later date). Without the guide I may never have found my way out!

Upstairs there is a food hall. I was really looking forward to eating here. I once stumbled on one of these food halls in New York in the middle of the night and have always regretted not dining there. Unfortunately my expectations of fine food were not met. After having a quick look around the options seemed to be very limited. Organic pizza by the slice seemed to be the only option that even slightly appealed to my taste buds and as it was rather confusingly priced by weight rather than slice I decided to give it a miss.

My general impression of the store was good. I found the staff friendly and no one could fault the range of products. There were handy information leaflets and recipe cards everywhere, all printed on recycled paper.

On the downside, I was disappointed that there were not more organic foods available. Not all of the fruit and veg was organic and where it was, I would have liked it to have been easier to identify, maybe by some in house labeling system. The same could be said for the local produce. Another concern was the sheer amount of fresh foods. Surely this must lead to a great deal of waste? Finally what sort of impact does a store like this have on the small local organic and health food businesses?

Although I enjoyed the shopping experience I don't think I would have the budget to shop here on a regular basis. It also takes the fun out of finding things in tiny speciality shops, which is one of the pleasures of touring the UK.

If you read enough about Whole Foods Market you will find that it was born from good ideals. It is refreshing to find a company that has always been committed to the principals that so many are now adopting due to customer demand. There is even a Whole Foods Foundation whose mission, in it's own words;

'... is to create economic partnerships with the poor in those developing-world communities that supply our stores with product. Through innovative assistance for entrepreneurship (helping people help themselves), we seek to unleash the energy and creativity of everyone in order to foster wealth and prosperity in emerging economies.'

It is hard to find fault in a company that seems to be doing almost everything right. There is a part of me that is conditioned to believe that because they are a large American chain there must be something wrong with them, but to be honest aside from the comments above I couldn't tell you what it was.

Travels In Britain Part: 2.

I’m home, and it feels great. I’ve never been one of those people who would go on a relaxing holiday and our whistle stop tour of the UK, although great fun, was far from relaxing. We were very lucky with the weather missing all the floods and enjoying the sun for virtually the whole two weeks.

Although it’s great to be back, I can’t help being envious of the popularity of Organics within the UK. Almost every town I went to had a small shop or deli selling great local organic food and drink. There is such a wealth of locally produced organic foods both fresh and pre-packed to choose from in Britain and such an awareness of the organic way that there is plenty of business to keep these shops going. Brighton had by far the best for choice, with several organic café’s and even a supermarket sized health store, there is nothing that you can’t get an organic version of.

The other thing that I noticed was, that even since my last grand tour of the country two years ago, the amount of renewable energy being generated has grown at a terrific rate. There seem to be Turbines everywhere and they appear in the most remote spots. Out to sea and in the mountains the windmills seem graceful and beautiful. There is a certain amount of opposition towards the installation of them amongst the British people, particularly those living in the countryside. I suppose it must be hard for people living in the most unspoiled part of the UK , who never before would have had the threat of a power station being built near them, to accept these huge turbines. At the same time it is great to see Britain taking a step towards sustainable electricity generation.

Travels In Britain Part: 1. Hay-On-Wye

I am writing this sitting outside the Cinema Bookshop in Hay and Wye, ‘Town of Books’, Wales. Despite the early start it feels great to be away. For anyone who hasn’t visited this truly eccentric town on the border of England and Wales, I would encourage you to do so. Host to the annual Hay Literary Festival, there are around 32 bookshops stocking publications on every subject you can imagine.

During my last visit here I found a great little guide to organic wine., and today I have picked up a fantastic book ‘An Agricultural Testament’ by Sir Albert Howard. It was first published in 1940 and is probably the earliest publication relating to organic agriculture I have come across. I’ve just finished the introduction, It paints an idyllic picture of the way that Mother Nature has created the perfect agricultural environment. Where plants and creatures of all species can live together, each contributing to the system, creating no waste, giving back what they have taken as they die and become one with the soil. It then takes us through ancient farming methods, describing in detail the tiered fields of the Inca’s, the fall of the Roman small holding system and the continuing agricultural practices of the Orient. I can’t wait to read the rest.

I have also managed to pick up one or two organic foods for tasting including a local Welsh jam. I will review anything I pick up on this trip over the next few months.