Grocery Audits and Change Clubs

Here's something worth knowing about. Women out there are actually conducting grocery audits, walking down store aisles scrutinizing the ingredients in food products and translating their findings into actions that provide communities with suggestions on how to be healthier.  One idea to help parents in grocery stores identify healthy snacks for children quickly is adding labels next to those items on the shelves.

Groups of women in the United States in "Change Clubs" have been leading campaigns to do such things as analyze the food on shelves, wander through neighborhoods to make out what prevents the locals from walking and exercising more, and discover ways to help people become healthier.

Dr. Miriam Nelson, professor of Nutrition at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is the one who actually started the Change Clubs. Her idea is to use the power of women working together to increase health in communities. With 8 initial Change Club sites in the US, click here to form a Change Club, helping women support change and healthiness in your area. 

Safeguarding Biodiversity and Quality Foods

Slow Food is an international non-profit, member-supported association that originated in Italy in 1989. It aims to combine good eating with sustainable food production. According to the organization, Slow Food was founded "to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."

Currently, Slow Food has over 100,000 members in 153 countries and 1,300 local chapters, and a network of 2,000 food communities that practise small-scale and sustainable production of quality foods.

The association's vision is: "a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet." Its mission is: "promoting good, clean and fair food for all."

Indeed, Slow Food's "approach to agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on a concept of food quality defined by three interconnected principles: Good - Clean - Fair

GOOD a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture;
CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;

FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers."

"Slow Food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature."
Carlo Petrini, Slow Food Founder and President

Eating with a Spiritual Compass

Chef Marcus Samuelsson, owner in Harlem, New York of a restaurant called the Red Rooster, has lots to say about the impact of food on popular culture and values. Born in Ethiopia but raised in Sweden, Samuelsson's background is as diverse as his cuisine. He promotes "eating with a spiritual compass, with spirituality in mind". He explains: we need to think harder about what's in our plates, where it came from and how what we eat affects us and our planet. Is it tomato or corn season when you eat it or has it been shipped from who knows

Biofuels Power China

In a major step forward for its carbon dioxide-cutting program, Unilever has launched a manufacturing process at its Hefei factory in China based on second-generation biofuels. Unlike the first-generation biofuels, the second generation uses non-edible plant residues and therefore does not compete with crops for food supply.

First active in China some 80 years ago, Unilever set up its manufacturing base for home and personal care products in Hefei in 2003, making it one of the biggest manufacturing sites for Unilever globally.

The business is now using straw as a source of fuel to produce laundry powder, reducing CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons annually (32% of total site emissions) at a considerably reduced cost to the business. The move further benefits the environment because it is no longer necessary to burn straw to produce a source of mineral replenishment for soil, which caused severe air pollution. Fortunately, the ash produced in the Hefei plant can also be used to replenish the soil – without the damage to air quality caused by burning.

"China clearly faces serious environmental challenges, making our new biofuel-based process even more meaningful, in addition to helping our local farming community to find a new commercial outlet for their waste. A win-win for all,” says David Ingram, VP, Supply Chain, Greater China Group. China is not alone in implementing biofuels programs. In Sri Lanka, the business has unveiled a new biofuel-powered boiler that uses agricultural residues such as coconut shells and sawdust to generate steam for manufacturing processes.

In India, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has been using biofuels in its Chiplun plant, in the Ratnagiri district, since 2006. Factories in Maharashtra and Pondicherry followed suit in 2007 and 2008 respectively – using biomass as fuel to generate steam. Plants in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and South Africa are also now using biofuels in their manufacturing processes.

As they do not compromise food supplies, second-generation biofuels are a prime example of Unilever’s commitment to renewable energies that deliver social and environmental benefits in the way they are sourced as well as in their eventual use. They will help Unilever boost its use of renewable energy, which currently stands at 17% of overall energy consumption.

Article originally published in the November 2010 edition of Sustain, the magazine of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Walking for Hope

It is cold and a bit windy in Geneva; the sun will certainly not shine very bright today. Nonetheless we put on our walking shoes and headed out for the 19th edition of the “Marche de l’Espoir” or “Walk for Hope”, run by Terre des Hommes. This walk, which takes place in early October every year, benefits one or more countries, and specifically children in these countries. Last year, it was Senegal; this year it is Brazil, Burkina Faso and India.

Importantly, this year’s edition is focused on healthy, sustainable food for all. Today, more than one billion of the 6.7 billion people on our planet suffer from hunger or malnutrition, or 150 million more than in 2008. More than half are children.

This number is growing in spite of the Millennium Development Goals which aim to reduce malnutrition by 50% by 2015. But the Earth could feed 12 billion people, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This food is inaccessible to a large part of the world’s population, especially those in the Southern hemisphere, because of low wages and agricultural practices that are not adapted to the regions where food is needed the most.

It is with this in mind that we set out this morning to bring our part of “Hope”. As with all walks of this kind, our children have dragged their parents along. They have already done the advanced footwork, going to neighbors, family and friends and getting them to pledge money for each kilometer walked. And it will not be in vain.

During our walk, we mingle with the thousands of other participants, old and young and all ages in between, who have come along to bring their bit of “Hope” to the world. We walk along the route, have our “passport” stamped every kilometer, and take part in the two quizzes that will bring us two bonus kilometers – that much less for our feet to trod.

Our oldest child logged 12 kilometers, and the youngest 16 ‑ a nice reversal that will lighten a few of their sponsors’ pocketbooks, and put healthy, sustainable food in a few more stomachs.