A group of Euro-MPs tried to bring back “uniform standardisation parameters”, forbidding the sale of straight bananas and curly cucumbers among other items.

But the proposal was defeated in the European Parliament, amid arguments that it would increase food wastage.

Read the Full Story on BBC News here

Welsh designers are making a strong showing with show gardens designed by some of the country’s leading gardening talents. Confirmed show gardens include one from South Glamorgan-based Michele Fitzsimmons and Sara Bentley. ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves: A Permaculture Garden in April’ is a garden based on the main themes of permaculture: productivity, lower maintenance, multi-functionalism, use of local resources and biodiversity.

Last year’s Gold medal winner Anthea Guthrie will also be at the show with ‘Slugger Off’ – a garden resistant to slugs. Another highlight is a garden from a Category B local prison in Bridgend – HMP & YOI Parc. The prison’s horticulture team is designing a show garden called ‘Choices’ based on the choices made by individuals while incarcerated. A water feature using stepping stones will symbolise personal journeys and after the show the entire garden will be rebuilt within the internal grounds of the prison.

Doctor Who’s Tardis will also be touching down at the show, with the ‘Garden in Time’ garden featuring a time travel theme. Much of the BBC series has been filmed in Cardiff and this is the perfect chance for those who missed the garden’s debut at the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show to enjoy the garden.

Visitors can also sample the true taste of Wales in the Experience Wales marquee which will once again filled with the very best Welsh food, drink and crafts. Other highlights at the show include the Interactive Allotment which returns by popular demand. Nature trails, street entertainers and live music will also be on hand to keep the whole family entertained.

Feeding cities has a greater impact on us and our planet than anything else we do, yet few of us are aware of the process. Industrialisation has made it seem easy, but with peak oil looming and climate change upon us, that illusion is wearing off. We urgently need a new urban model – one that treats city and country as a single, organic whole.

Carolyn is an architect and prize-winning author. She has run successful design units at Cambridge University, London Metropolitan University and the London School of Economics, where she was inaugural studio director of the Cities Programme. She was Rome Scholar in 1995-6, researching the historical urban order of the Ghetto. She has presented on BBC TV’s One Foot in the Past, has written for Blueprint Magazine and is a regular columnist for Building Design. Her book Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives (2008), won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-fiction and was recently featured on a special edition of Radio 4’s The Food Programme.

This FREE talk will take place on Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 7.00pm in the Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning, Senghennydd Road, Cardiff. Room E0.15. All welcome – no booking required.

>> Simon Press, senior technical manager at the Co-op group said: “We believe that the recent losses in bee populations need definitive action, and as a result are temporarily prohibiting the eight neonicotinoid pesticides until we have evidence that refutes their involvement in the decline.”

>> Laboratory tests suggest that one of the banned chemicals, imidacloprid, can impede honeybees’ sophisticated communication and navigation systems. It has been banned in France for a decade as a seed dressing on sunflowers. Italy, Slovenia and Germany banned neonicotinoids last year after the loss of millions of honeybees. And the European Parliament voted earlier this month for tougher controls on bee-toxic chemicals.

>> Paul Monaghan, the Co-op’s head of social goals accused the UK government of failing to recognise that “pesticides could be a contributing factor” in the breakdown of nature’s number one pollinating machine.

( full story – http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/28/bees-coop-pesticide )

The BBC Today programme ran a very good piece about the decline in UK honeybees. There was an interview with a senior executive from the Co-op who said that they had decided to ban all 8 neonicotinoid pesticides from all the farms which the Co-op owns – and they are going to give £150,000 for emergency research – including pesticides; they are also proposing a 10 point plan to assist honeybees in the UK, which they are planning to implement throughout the Co-op’s farming operations and stores.

The Co-op chap said that although there was no conclusive proof that neo-nicotinoids were the primary cause of honeybee collapse – what was glaringly self evident was that no serious research was going on in the UK into pesticides and honeybees.

You can listen again to this segment of the programme by visiting this page http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/listen_again/default.stm – then choose the ‘0845′ section of the programme from the menu on the page – “0845 Britain’s biggest farmer, the Co-op, will launch a 10-point rescue plan for the honeybee, after a steep decline in numbers. Science correspondent Tom Feilden reports on the package which even includes a ban on a group of pesticides.”

Tuesday 9th December at 7.30 pm Association Christmas get together with mead and honeycake. Llandaff Village Hall.

Tuesday 10th February at 7.30 pm Association AGM

December Newsletter for Cardiff Beekeepers is now available here

The letter criticises the chain for using Indiana Jones posters, packaging and toys to promote its Kids Menu. The promotion comes just months after the high street giant signed a pledge that purported to cease all advertising to children on TV, in print or through the internet. The campaign is calling on Burger King to end its practice of using film tie-ins to promote its brand to kids.

Burger King was found to be giving away one of eight Indiana Jones themed toys with every purchase from its kids menu. This is despite the fact that in December 2007, Burger King was one of eleven food companies which signed the EU pledge, committing itself to “change…food and beverage advertising to children in support of parental efforts to promote healthy lifestyles”.

Toys include Boulder Escape Indy; Stunt Jump Indy; the Tricky Treasure and the Temple of Mystery.

Jackie Schneider, mother of three and founder of Merton Parents for Better Food in Schools, said “This deal is a seedy attempt by Burger King to appeal directly to our kids to repeatedly visit Burger King, and undermines parental attempts to encourage a balanced diet.”

This shameless attempt to cash in on the success of the Indiana Jones film to sell burgers to children is completely inconsistent with Burger King’s claims to support health. Once again, the food industry has shown that they cannot be trusted to self-regulate.

The letter, and pictures of Burger King’s Indiana Jones burger bag, are available at www.sustainweb.org/news.php?id=217

It’s rare for a Private Members Bill to succeed, and despite an overwhelming response from campaign supporters, the Bill was talked out by MPs who oppose regulations on advertising, and ran out of time on 25th April. MP Philip Davis, who worked for Asda before entering Parliament, was still speaking when the session came to an end.

Nigel Griffiths, the MP who introduced the Bill, said “I’m absolutely furious a former supermarket executive from Asda, who doesn’t believe in advertising controls, has done this.”

The lobbying from campaign supporters wanting better protection for children was brilliant. Over 2000 emails were sent to MPs, as well as over 250 postcards. Early Day Motion 445, calling for an end to junk food marketing which targets children, was signed by over 220 MPs, making it one of the ten most popular EDMs in Parliament.

According to Andy and Bill, cider makers at Gwynt Y Ddraig, “This is the third year we have opened our doors to our fans and it’s always a popular event with ciderlovers even coming over from England to see how we make our award-winning products. It’s also a chance for us to meet our customers and explain the effort that goes into making ciders and perries that have won awards from CAMRA, the Welsh Perry & Cider Society and Taste of Wales”.

As well as cider and perry being available there will also be an apple-pressing demo using the equipment that makes the award-winning Gwynt Y Ddraig ciders and perries. Welsh food will be available at the farm including bread and cheese as well as 100% handmade pork sausages, and beef and Wild Boar burgers from Cegin Crincae. Even homemade cider cakes will be available.

This year will see a number of “single variety” types of cider available at the open day. As the name suggests these are made from only one variety of fruit, often from a single orchard. The most familiar single variety is Kingston Black, which originated in Somerset but has been grown in the Welsh Marches, especially Monmouthshire for well over a century. “We try and source all our fruit from Wales”, continued Bill, “but we can only get three quarters of it from Welsh orchards, the rest comes from Herefordshire and Somerset.”

Other single varieties that will be available at the open day are Strawberry Norman, Brown Snout and Yarlington Mill. Gwynt Y Ddraig will also be showcasing a “Pider” – fermented from both apple and pear fruit.

One cider that cider enthusiasts will be looking forward to is a special 3 year old vintage that has been matured in oak barrels. “It’s something special”, says Bill, “We have not tried ageing for this long before but maturing in oak will give this cider a certain flavour and colour that you cannot get normally. We think it’s one for the connoisseur”.

As well as the single varieties and the perries, Gwynt Y Ddraig’s range of ciders is completed by names such as Dog Dancer, Haymaker, Fiery Fox, Black Dragon, Orchard Gold and Barnstormer. If you are unable to make the open weekend, Gwynt Y Ddraig’s products are available throughout Wales at food shows as well as at Tesco, Waitrose and in Brains and Wetherspoons pubs.

Further Information:

Gwynt Y Ddraig Cider Making and Tasting Weekend

Saturday 26th April 11am-7pm

Sunday 27th April 11-5pm

Llest Farm, Llantwit Fardre, Pontypridd, RCT, CF38 2PW

www.gwyntcider.com

Andy Gronow, Production Director Gwynt Y Ddraig Cider, 0779 106 6257

or

Bill George, Operations Director Gwynt y Ddraig Cider, 0779 106 6240

Support grows among MPs for the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill

Writing to your MP about the Bill is the one most effective thing you can do to help protect children from junk food advertising, and will take no longer than five minutes.

Pressure is growing on MPs to attend the Second Reading of the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill. The Bill will protect children from all forms of junk food marketing, whether via TV, the internet or packaging.

Thanks to all the support we have received from our members and from national organisations in the fields of health, consumer rights and children’s welfare, Early Day Motion 445 which calls for an end to unhealthy food marketing has now been signed by over 190 MPs.

With just over two weeks to go until the Bill’s Second Reading, we now urgently need more MPs to agree to attend. Many MPs have committed to supporting the Bill when it enters Parliament, and many more have expressed interest.

But for the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill to succeed, we need a hundred MPs to turn up and support it. That is why we are asking you if you haven’t already, to write to your MP asking them to attend the Reading. There’s a template letter you may want to use at http://www.sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign/

Several MPs have told us that they are attending after being contacted by a constituent, so your letters really do make a difference.

You can find out who your local MP is by logging on to: www.writetothem.com.

More evidence that TV ad regulations are failing children

Programmes with the most child viewers are not covered by current rules on junk food advertising, a survey has found. Out of 20 of the programmes most watched by children, only one is covered by Ofcom restrictions on junk food advertising.

The survey, carried out in January by consumer protection body Which? found that advertisers were free to broadcast junk food adverts in all but one of the programmes with the highest number of children in the audience.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of programmes surveyed did carry adverts for foods high in salt, fat and sugar.

The current regulations are deeply flawed, as they classify programmes using the proportion of children in the audience, rather than the absolute number of children in the audience. This means that The Simpsons, with a child audience of less than 400,000, is covered by restrictions. However, ‘family’ programmes such as Dancing on Ice, with more than a million child viewers, are not.

The survey shows that current regulations are clearly failing to protect children, and highlights the urgent need for a 9 pm watershed. Ofcom’s current regulations on TV junk food advertising were designed as a fudge between children’s health and the economic interests of the industry. We continue to argue that children’s health should come first.

More children are watching junk food adverts despite television restrictions

Research from the Department of Health show that the number of times that children watch TV junk food adverts has risen by 26% in the last two years.

Dr Will Cavendish, Director of Health and Wellbeing at the Department of Health, described the figures as ‘worrying.’ “We know large numbers of children are still seeing TV ads for high fat, sugar and salt food and drink, though in programmes not specifically aimed at children”, he wrote, and advised ministers to take tougher action at a time when almost a third of 11 year olds are classified as overweight or obese.

By passing Nigel Griffith’s bill, MPs will be able to tackle the rising number of TV adverts for junk food that children are exposed to, as well as ending the barrage of junk food adverts in non-broadcast media.

www.independent.co.uk/news/media/more-children-are-watching-junkfood-adverts-despite-ban-805395.html

The food industry fights back

Following the success of EDM 445 which supports protecting children from junk food advertising, the Food and Drink Federation have fought back.

The FDF, a trade body which exists to protect the interests of food manufacturers, have introduced their own EDM opposing further restrictions on junk food advertising.

However, EDM 963 isn’t doing too well at the moment, and to date has gathered a grand total of 7 signatures. Two signatures are from MPs, who have also signed EDM 445 supporting restrictions on junk food advertising.

The EDM is also signed by Derek Conway, the disgraced MP who was suspended from Parliament for paying his son an excessive salary as a researcher.

Adrian Shepherd (in the photo left), Field Secretary of Mordecai’s Allotment on Merthyr Road, Trallwng, explained : “Rhondda Cynon Taf are proposing the sale of the allotment land as surplus to requirements”.

Occupancy at Mordecai’s Field Allotment site is 100% with a long waiting list. There are plots on the allotment taken in a partnership with a local school offering precious experiences to children on how food can be grown locally.

Allotment gardening in Rhondda Cynon Taff is very popular with full occupancy and waiting lists throughout the County Borough. There is, however, intense pressure on the Labour-controlled County Borough Council to allow the sale of land for housing development. News about Mordecai Allotment comes only weeks after threats to evict the Haigside allotment gardeners in Treherbert.

To help save Rhondda Cynon Taff Allotment gardens for your Community … Get involved. Contact the local Allotment Secretary. Put your Name down on the Waiting List. Ask your Local Councillors – who are standing for Election on May 1st 2008 – to support Allotment Gardens for your community.