Comments Mike Wendling has made

local to who?

michelefield - I live in London and I eat local food all the time!  Now not everyone is lucky enough to have a garden or (in my case) an allotment, but there are also dozens of farmers markets, as well as regular street markets and greengrocers and supermarkets that use 'made in the uk' as a selling point.  Britain - and indeed most of Europe - is both very densly populated and incredibly fertile, which makes it much more easy to eat local.
You raise a key point though by highlighting the 'import' question.  National boundaries confuse the issue to no end.  Now where Tom Philpott lives in North Carolina, if food is imported, it's come a long way.  But here in London, a carrot from France or a pepper from Holland might not have traveled as far as its 'made in the UK' equivalent.  It's not juste a European thing - think of the vast swathes of American territory that are closer to Mexico or Canadian breadbaskets than CaliTexFla.  
The bad news is that we can't rely on simple rules and reflexes - the good news is that knowledge is mounting, and that's what we really need to make decisions about what to buy and what not to buy.
On If buying locally isn't the answer, then what is? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 28 Responses

Ingrained habits

I grew up in suburban USA and mom and pop still have two big fridges, and a freezer (you would have thought mom lived through a war, with everything she freezes).
Having lived in the UK (albeit in the big city) for the last seven years I've managed to get by with single-serving fridges of various sizes.  and while I can confirm, Umbra, that fridges over here are getting bigger, but they're also getting more effecient.  The A-G grading system is on everything, it's easy to understand, and in a few years it will even apply to houses:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&Pr ...
Oh, and we don't keep our eggs in the fridge either.  Those nice free-range ones you buy from the market will keep just fine until Sunday. Douse it in that unrefridgerated ketchup (apparently according to my British wife, cold ketchup is disgusting and unnatural) and you have the start of a classic British breakfast.On Umbra on refrigerator downsizing posted 2 years, 4 months ago 34 Responses

The most telling detail?

Old Conservative logo: torch
New Conservative logo: tree
(www.conservatives.com)
Hopefully upping the green ante among the UK's three main parties will continue.  Followed by action, of course.On Brit's Eye View: Britain's Conservatives challenge Labour for mantle of greenest party posted 3 years, 1 month ago 6 Responses

A useful political ploy?

Could a congestion charge (let's not call it a 'tax' - dirty word) be one way for Democrats to greenly distinguish themselves from Republicans?
London Mayor Ken Livingstone faces re-election in 18 months. He was re-elected one year after implementing the charge, so we'll see how he does five years later, with a more expensive fee applied to a bigger zone.  At this point you wouldn't bet against him.
In New York, where a congestion charge would be vastly easier to put in place (the most congested part is on an island, and Americans are used to paying tolls to cross bridges), few big Dems are biting.  During last year's Democratic primary, the four candidates were asked if they supported a London-style charge.  None of them said yes.  New York's still ruled by a Republican. On Stockholm congestion tax posted 3 years, 3 months ago 1 Response

Popping out

I'm glad this has generated such debate - the causes and effects of population changes are amazingly complex.  The time scales we're dealing with are almost too long to comprehend, the variables are many, and the statistical analysis can be extraordinarily detailed.  In fact I'm a bit out of breath.
At the same time, however, population is tied to very personal choice - i.e. whether or not to have children - a difficult issue that John Kurmann handled brilliantly.
One thing I touched on briefly in my article was the impact on  public policy.  As a completely unscientific and, um, somewhat flippant survey, I did a bit more research over the weekend, into how many children a select few world leaders have spawned:

-Blair: 4
-Bush: 2
-Angela Merkel: 0
-Junichiro Koizumi: 3
-Jacques Chirac: 2
-Hu Jintao: 2
-Vladimir Putin: 2
-Silvio Berlusconi: 5
-Manmohan Singh: 3
-Kofi Annan: 3

So, like the larger topic - some surprises, few simple conclusions!  I'm convinced though that we have to resume seriously thinking about population and how many of us can fit on the planet - despite the problems I outlined, the environmental benefits of a falling population could be tremendous.
On Population activist David Nova took his message to the trail posted 3 years, 11 months ago 13 Responses