Food miles

Tokenistic policy and consumer responses to concerns about ‘food miles’ could undermine the social and economic development of African countries.

Consumers in the UK think they should be cutting back on imports of fresh prodcue flown in from Africa, in order to save the planet from climate change. But does this make sense? Research shows that stopping all such air-freighted imports would reduce UK emissions of greenhouse gases by less than 0.1%, while imposing major costs on farmers in Africa. It’s estimated that the UK provides a market worth £1 million a day to African producers, generating livelihoods for more than a million people.

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Demonstrate against UK arms exports

Join me and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) for a peaceful protest outside DESO‘s (Defence Export Services Organisation’s) annual conference, at 11am on 7 March outside the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Central London (Broad Sanctuary, London SW1P 3EE).

There’s a pledge on PledgeBank where you can sign up to take part:

“I will demonstrate to stop the influence of arms companies on government policies but only if 20 other people will come and join me in central London.”

Who’s funding global warming?

Dallas-based utility company TXU are planning to build 11 new coal-fired power plants. Among others, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are funding them, with support from Texas Governor Rick Perry (who benefits from TXU’s campaign contributions). If the plants are built they will responsible for producing as much as 78 million tons of CO2 per year. Who will stop this craziness?

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