Every now again you’ll read about vertical urban farming, but as far as I know these designs are all still designs and none of these vertical farms have been built yet.  Here’s one example of a vertical farm idea, for New York City, from the EcoFuss blog.

Being as we’re not there yet with the vertical farm idea, it can all seem a bit far fetched, a bit sci-fi, or even unlikely, regardless of the fact that we’re need to grow more in our neighbourhoods rather than out in the country, and that we’re running out of space as we spread ourselves across the face of the planet.

Here’s a suggestion for getting used to the idea.  Start your own vertical garden, because you can do it whether you have a garden or not, outdoors or indoors, on a balcony or in a tiny courtyard.  Check out this idea by Suzanne Forsling who lives in Alaska and grows her vegetables in gutters on the wall of her house.

Really, why not get some of your own food growing on the walls?  You’ll save money, eat locally, seasonally and lower your carbon footprint.   Looks like those vertical farms are closer that we thought.

The Belgian city of Ghent is encouraging their citizens to go veggie once a week to lower the city’s carbon emissions.   Civil servants are going to be served vegetarian fare one day a week, and it looks as though school children will also be getting the carbon footprint reducing treatment in their school meals. [source: edie]  Isn’t this amazing?  Do you think that the population of London, or Manchester, or Glasgow could be persuaded to try it?

Here are some interesting facts about why going vegetarian is better for the planet:

1.  It takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans.

2. It takes 3 to 15 times as much water to produce animal protein as it does plant protein.

3. Tropical forests in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock. [source: British Meat]

This is the Easter egg of my dreams *sigh* (I hope my husband is reading this).  It’s like Mr Booja Booja says: “Everybody needs a little Booja Booja - now and then”, and Easter is definitely “now and then”.  Once you’ve undone the pretty pink ribbon, and taken the top off the velvet- lined egg, you’ll find 12 organic award-winning Booja Booja champagne truffles just for you (insert squeal of delight at this point), and whoever else you decide to share them with.  I don’t think I need to say anything else to convince you that this is the egg for you, apart from, yes, it’s suitable for vegetarians and vegans, AND it costs a measly £8, so if perfectly affordable.

Tea producer Twinings has started to wrap it’s Everyday tea bags in compostable packaging film that will break down in domestic composters in just a few weeks.  This is just one of the initiatives by Twinings to make their packaging more sustainable, enabling people like us to cut waste.

“As a company we are always looking at ways to lessen our impact on the environment.  By using NatureFlex™ film as the inner wrap in this pack, it not only protects the teabags, but also makes it easier for our customers to reduce their waste through home composting,” said David Parkes, Twinings.

When choosing snack food for a car or rail journey, think Fairtrade.

Geobar cereal bars are invaluable while travelling because they’re light, filling and Fairtrade.   I find them particularly good for staving off children’s hunger pangs between meals when out and about.  These yummy apricot Geobars are made with Fairtrade honey, raisins, apricots and rice.  They’re also completely vegetarian and contain no hydrogenated oils.

My all time favourite food for travelling though (and my Mom would probably point out here that it isn’t actually food at all) is chocolate.  Fairtrade chocolate is available just about everywhere these days, so there’s no excuse not to be doing the right thing and choosing Fairtrade if you’re a chocaholic like me.

During Fairtrade Fortnight 3 February – 8 March 2009, be sure to support disadvantaged farmers in the developing world when you buy a gift for someone.  I always love the gift of food and drink, consumables, because it’s such a waste free way of giving a gift.  Food and drink is useful and is particularly green when in comes in recyclable packaging.

This Spring gift bag contains Fairtrade treats for the food-lover include a bottle of white wine, Tanzanian coffee and plenty of yummy chocolate. It comes in a handy, re-usable John Lewis jute bag.

Contents: Fairhills Colombard / Sauvignon Blanc 2008, 75cl Traidcraft Fair Trade stem ginger cookies, 200g Divine Fairtrade orange milk chocolate bar, 45g Divine Fairtrade white chocolate bar, 45g Divine chocolate covered dried sliced mangoes, 100g Ethical Additions Hope Tanzanian coffee, 250g Liberation oven Baked cashew nuts and peanuts lemon & chilli, 150g Taylors of Harrogate Faitrade Breakfast Tea - 20 Sachets, 50g Traidcraft organic strawberry jam, 340g Traidcraft fruit & nut mix, 50g Traidcraft Fair Trade chocolate hazelnut spread, 400g

What’s the use of fine wine glasses if you haven’t got a tolerable wine to put in them?  (Sorry Henry Thoreau).  Here’s something sustainable to put in your recycled wine glasses.  It’s a full-bodied spicy and warming (perfect for this time of the year) Shiraz from South Africa (I am sensing a theme here).  It’s made by the environmentally aware Cederberg winery. If you’re a wine buff, you’ll appreciate a spicy red showing flavours of wild berries, cloves and dark chocolate.  If you’re not, it’s still great wine and a fabulous partner to game or red meat dishes.  £7.11 from John Lewis.

If you live in England or Wales (except for inner London) you can make a formal application to your local authority for an allotment.   Any group of six adults listed on the electoral role make an application together in writing to their local authority asking for allotment land, the authority has to, by law, provide it. There is no formal rule as to how and when the authority must respond, but they do have to.  You can get more information on how to go about getting an allotment from the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

This is the perfect time of year to be planning next summer’s vegetable garden.

Working in the city usually brings with it expensive take-away lunches and plenty of disposable  packaging.   So, here’s a tip that will save you money and make a huge difference to your carbon footprint:  Make your own lunch.

Get yourself a lunch box, like this fruit-friendly “Food for Thought” lunch box from Concentrate.    This lunch box has been specially designed to hold fruit and protect it from bruising or overheating. Getting more fruit in while you’re at work will help you achieve your 5-a-day target for optimal health.

It  comes with 2 plastic pots, to hold grapes, nuts or diced fruit and a unique, colour changing thermo-spot on the underside of the box to indicate when food has overheated.  It’s also dishwasher proof.

Be even greener by giving up clingfilm and wrapping your sandwiches in a home-made reusable sandwich wrap.

You’ll also need a water bottle that you can refill from your tap or water filter, thus avoiding bottled water and the carbon footprint implications that brings with it.   Sigg bottles are made of aluminium that has been hygienically coated inside to help alleviate contamination of contents.  The internal coating is resistant to fruit acids and isotonic drinks to help prevent decaying and it’s taste-neutral so your drink will taste as it is meant to!  Another fantastic thing about Sigg bottles is that they are almost unbreakable, something that my children have proved time and time again with their Sigg drink bottles.

Christmas is only a few days away now (as my little daughter keeps reminding me), so it’s time to get the Chrimbo-dinner ready to go.  There are a few rules that will make any festive feast a whole lot greener.  These are them:

1. Buy less food: less food = less waste, you do the maths.

2. Buy local:  if that’s not available, buy organic or Fairtrade.

3. Recycle:  recycle all food packaging.

4. Compost: all organic waste (you can compost meat and other cooked food with a food digester).

5. Buy loose: rather than pre-packaged.  There’s less waste that way.