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Jan's rant

Make Belief?

Never knew I was famous! My last Rant was in large part about us returning to eat as families whilst sitting at the dinner table. Food and family social life being very closely interlinked. Following the publication of that Rant I was invited to a live radio interview by Mark Williams of The Bridge Radio (102.5FM for those interested; and thanks Mark!) about my comments. This was some weeks ago now – I had hoped for another one with John Humphrys on the Radio 4's Today program, but no invite has been received to date.

So am I kidding myself?

Yes, and No! I am following the news on the oil spill in the USA caused by a leaking pipe. At the time of writing this Rant, some 4 weeks before publication, the position is that BP is under some heavy attack from the USA government and the US government is even considering levelling criminal law against individuals. This is a battle at the highest level of the political and corporate arena. Apparently BP is the largest supplier of oil based energy products in the USA. Of course BP needs to take full responsibility for failing equipment (even if caused by an accident). But actually BP only does what the USA wants from it – the supply of petrol. So who is ultimately responsible for the environmental disaster? Should we as consumers not at least take some responsibility, or perhaps all, for the environmental disasters caused by the oil industry? After all every little helps.

If my Rant has helped a couple of families to re-consider where, how and what they eat then it is my time well spent. I am not really expecting a phone call from John!

I am also involved in the bigger picture here at Goodness. As I've mentioned in a previous Rant we did a major review on our transport department with as a final result a reduction in annual diesel usage of at least 25% possibly as much as 33%. We are currently making plans for a considerable reduction in the usage of cardboard. More about that in the future. Our action is puny when considered on the global scale, but it makes a difference and it certainly makes me feel better having taken some action!

We now have a coalition government. This may actually benefit the country because decision makers in government have to take the considered opinions of their coalition partners into consideration. No doubt there will be some changes compared to the previous labour government. But to date I've seen no signs that this new government will be more in favour of the Health Food Industry then the previous Labour government by renewing the fight against the various pieces of EU legislation which will have a big detrimental effect on our trade. We can but hope.

To finish with one final bit of hope/faith/make belief – Holland will lift the football world cup trophy in July!

Have a great summer.

Jan

Any comments?
E-mail jan.walsma@goodness.co.uk