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is this going ahead as I'm right up for asking hwo the eco warrior bit fits in with budgetary constraints esp with current economic climate - am right with yurt and aitch on this.
and if so what qualifications/experiences does she think put her in a position to give advice on this kind of thing? This is not an envy thing -its a simple statement of fact that I am unable to see from what I have read of her life and experiences what makes her feel she can ponitficate on this.
but as this seems to have been dropped from my ticker bit flagging it up I do wonder if it is happening...
oliveoil I too find the musings of normandie keith immensely useful and relevant. I'd also quite like it if we got Liz jones on to talk about handling relationship issues in a discrete way
what I want to know is what gives celebs (and I am talking to you Sienna Miller and Leonardo do Twattio) the right to preach to me about global warming and carbon chuffin footprint waffle waffle
when THEY have 156 houses and fly round the world every week preaching away with a pained expression about the ickle icebergs
Another question, if she does turn up.... is it true that Zac won't allow plastic toys in the house for the kids? If so, how the hell is that enforced and what do you do with any that they might receive as gifts? Are they now OBSESSED with plastic and non- eco junk food?
just want this bumped up my threads i'm on... what does SG think the credit crunch is doing to the chances of real change in people's behaviour? because imho it's blowing green right out of the water. 'green' product ranges, at least.
(and i note that 100 years ago i mis-spelled advice. )
i think thinking in a green way is a bit like exercise and the gym...you have good intentions but actually making it work can easily be something you procrastinate over
so how do you make it as easy as possible for people to achieve? what are the absolute prioroties for someone jusst starting to think about this?
all the current stuff in the media re budgeting and the credit crunch has led to fanciful discussions which dont touch on reality and i think green issues suffer from the same thing
people who do know about being green on a budget are older people who lived through the second world war i think they developed skills which have been forgotten
recycling is i think easier to do than buying stuff which is both green, cheap and what you actually need to fulfill your requirements
OK if you have £150 a week to feed and clothe a family of 5 (which I think is very generous tbh) - and you have no spare time because you're working full time (and you don't take holidays so can't cut out one of those)- how do you do it?
exactly jimjams Until some pretty basic ideas about organic food and eco principles (incl sweat-shop labour) are sorted out in this country, we are stuck with Peter Rabbit-type initiatives, massively overpriced value-added food and basically lining the pockets of people who are selling a marketing dream.
It's quite pathetic, really. Especially as, assuming that people who start up lovely eco-shops selling mushroom and salsify chutney at a fiver a jar actually do believe in the benefits of being green, they are probably putting a huge sector of the population off the whole idea by making it so wanky. I think we've got to the stage where we realise it costs to be properly green, they way it's being pushed here in general, and we're just jaded.
Also clothes. I would love to buy non-sweat-shop clothes. I really would, but I can't afford it. I bought an outfit from Sea Salt last year. The top shrank the first time I washed it and I can't afford to replace it with the same. In the meantime my £8 pair of Primark jeans have been worn (and washed) every week, still look fine and fit well.
I feel guilty every time I get dressed though.
How does one do ethical clothes shopping on a budget?
(I do buy from charity shops if I happen to see something I like, but working full time, with 3 children, one severely disabled I do not have the luxury of time to rummage around charity shops).
Tigermoth- exactly re the farm shop. I don't think the green image counts for much if they can't be even the slightest bit inclusive.
getbackinyouryurtjimjams - I think I know the farm shop you mean. Shame on them. They must have a big publicity budget as I am always seeing their ads and leaflets when I am down your way. You'd think they would invest more in staff training and selection.
Totally agree that the high price of farm shop and organic food/cleaning stuff etc is a barrier for so many people.
I simply cannot afford to do a big 'green' shop for my family each week - it would add far too much to our monthly shopping bill.
My family gets through so much food a week - we have two older boys with big appetites. Gone are the days when a single fairtrade mashed banana passed as 'pudding' and a small bowl of organic pasta with three organic cherry tomatoes is 'lunch'.
Take bacon for example - I can buy a huge economy pack of cooking bacon for around £1.50 from Sainsburys. This will last us a week. Or I can spend £3.99 on eight rashers of their finest organic bacon that will last us one breakfast.
It will be interesting to see how high priced 'green' food suppliers fare when food prices are going up so much.
What tips does sherahzade have for shopping 'green' on a budget in today's economic climate? PS: I cannot keep a pig in my back garden.
Soil: put a request on freecycle? People are always redoing their gardens. My MIL did this recently and has about a ton of good soil to get rid of.
Recycled bricks (again, freecycle?) to build raised beds for veg? Or i have seen wine bottles, lashed together, necks buried in ground, to make the edging for raised beds (needs a few steel rods at the corners for stability). Ask around friends for empties?
i am hoping to make my garden..which is on my profile into somewhere that produces food...actually that space has to make two little courtyard gardens
and doing it on a budget
diy
there must be lots of people with similar problems
i dont have any soil so how do you find cheap ethicasl soil for your growing medium and what is the best way to build a garden ethically in anurban space, i am re using materials where i can
I went here the other day. It's absoutely lovely. But I was struck how so much of the (expensive) stock is jars of sauces, bottles of sauces, foil sachets of sauces. I mean, I want food, and I might buy the odd jar of chutney, once in a while. At the moment, the ratio seems to be 40% food, 60% preserves. It's weird. And I mean, who is doing their shopping here, seriously? Even if I had a budget that would allow it, it's just wrong to spend that much extra money on food.
i have found a nice farm shop here but it is only sensible if i go to it when i go to college
which i wont be doing after the next two weeks
it is too far away for a special journey
i have looked at eg able and cole website and the prices are absurd
and it does seem to me that a lot of organic/ethical/green retailking is premium retailing so the price is a part of the whole marketing exercise as people like to spend money because it makes the product feel exclusive and that is the "added value" that these brands are offering
exactly zippi It is a dawdle to be eco-aware when you have time And money to solve problems like 'what do I put my compost in so that I do not simply have a festering bucket of scraps?'
I suppose there is the issue that being green is all about doing our bit, whatever it is, according to our circumstances. (Oh and lobbying government.) This seems to be the message all round.
We have no reason to suspect that SG doesn't do her bit, do we? I mean, I agree about the carbon footprint of Prada, but how many of us are frantically composting yet buying clothes in Primark? I'd quite like to know how SG feels about clearly needing to do something about the waste and excess in Britain today, vs having the image as a privileged and no doubt excessive person - it's quite a disconnect, isn't it?
As for the Peter Rabbit thing, I simply do not understand how that is relevant to either us or any consumer, bar, as someone said, your average 3-5 year old.
I took ds1 to a very well known local (Devon based) organic farm shop once - the Goldsmiths farm probably supplies the shop- he was looked at with utter contempt- he wasn't doing any harm, wasn't getting in anyone's way, he was just acting severely autistic - as tends to happen when you are. I thought it was a one off, but my friend had the exact same experience with her autistic child (except she was asked to leave the shop).
So can I have a recommendation for an organic farm shop in Devon that welcomes children with disabilties please.
I really would like a discussion on how to be eco/ethical etc on a tight budget, but somehow I think that might be a pointless question on this live chat....
Will she, won't she...? And will she really read through all this. I think she's completely the wrong person for a MN live web chat but a feel a bit uncomfortable to think she'll read some of these posts.
Actually it is just deserts. Not desserts. I apologise to the Pedants. (It's all to do with getting what you "deserve", and nothing to do with puddings.)
i had been avoiding this thread as i thought 'wtf do i need to hear about green living from some trust fund princess who gets jobs purely on the strength of her surname?' [professional jealousy icon]
and now it turns out that i've Missed This...
what are you thinking of MNHQ? this is a serious misfire and it could and should have been predicted. i actually feel sorry for her, truly i do, she's had some very bad advise from her people if they think that MN is somewhere that takes this ridiculous fluff seriously.
<applauds DV's 'forget about the kyoto agreement' post. lololololol>
I'm not quite sure I get exactly how Peter Rabbit is going to "go green". Is he going to haul his recycling down to the bottle-bank at the end of the garden? Or be aware of his carbon footprint when travelling to get lettuce?
Maybe I'm not the best person to ask, seeing as I always thought he got his just desserts anyway being captured by Mr McGregor - after all, he disobeyed his mother's instructions and ate food that didn't belong to him. So I was always a bit disappointed that the little shit actually escaped.
I'm gutted as I thought I'd be at home 12-1 tomorrow but have got some work on now...
Will the live chat show in a convo later on? How will I know if she turns up? How do you pelt people virtually with rotten (organic home grown of course) fruit?
<<gasp>> I just had a thought - maybe she won't turn up - but will compose her next column all about this vile cesspit of the internet.....
<<goes off to re-read whole thread, check for any references to shezza strapping organic veg to missiles and get any such posts removed asap>>
I would turn up for chats with genuinely interesting people who have achieved amazing "things, people whose life I can relate to, people with interesting jobs, people who have faced huge challenges, and/or people who can have an impact on my life. in fact, thinking about it, I do. most nights. this is mumsnet and it's full of intelligent, eloquent, interesting people, not some dippy cross between Hello! magazine and fluffy-bunnies-r-us-net. tell her there's been a terrible mistake."
oh yes, I agree. To reiterate my original post (many eons ago) I'm actually pretty disappointed about the fact that mn have agreed to her doing a live chat.
Tell us, dear eco mum, now Peter Rabbit has become the first ever licensed character to go green, would you like to see all licensed characters become green within the next 10 years? Should we be aiming for 20% of licensed characters to become green by the end of 2008 and forget Kyoto?
Should Batman be cleaning his toilet in a higher profile manner with sea salt? Should he ditch the batmobile for lift-share?
And again I ask under the relative comfort of my mumsnet pseudonym "Isn't it true that farting by man and beast is the real green issue that darest not speak its name?" ~If Diana was our Queen of Hearts there is surely a mantle yet to be taken up as Queen of Farts?
Viviane is a proper knock-out, though. She was in all those TV shows which featured a new sexy girl a week, like the Persuaders. She spells Zac Goldsmith with a k, oops.
suggest unsticking this thread; file under mumsnet classics
suggest tell Shezza there has been a misunderstanding and whilst mumsnetters would be pleased to trade mooncup experiences with her if she can think up an original username, nobody much wants to talk about her book (although Xenia would be fascinated to have a one to one regarding her own opinion that adultery is of course oh so different if you are rich)
Her mum has a website - vivianeventura.com. (Can't link as am pants) Its veh veh funny. She has written "Viviane Ventura's Guide to Social Climbing". Also, "Down the Nile in Style with Viviane Ventura".
So has this thread been unstuck in the hope that it will fall off active convos and get forgotten? And will there be a fresh clean one for Mrs. Eco Pioneer so as not to offend her?
I don't know if the Sunday Mirror story was true, none of us could know that. The personal decision of whether to stay or leave is presumably a very difficult one for all women. I don't like to see public support by the spouse of the errant spouse because it looks so dreadful and subservient - look at the Eliot Spitzer's wife etc and all those politicians' wives hauled out before the media to play happy families when someone is caught with his or her trousers down. It's particularly nasty if they have young children I always think. Fine you've reached an accommodation and are both going off a bit in looks, bit fat, into your mid 40s or 50s and turning a blind eye etc but if you're young and fit and coping with small babies and one has time despite sleepless nights to play away that probably means he or she is not doing their fair share of child care, otherwise why do they have the time or opportunity.
Anyway let's hope it was just an untrue press rumour.
re whether or not she'll turn up - surely, far more interesting, is whether or not any of us will turn up. entertaining as this thread has been and filled with brilliant questions, in all honesty, I couldn't give a monkey's arse what she has to say on any of this. I really really couldn't. I would turn up for chats with genuinely interesting people who have achieved amazing things, people whose life I can relate to, people with interesting jobs, people who have faced huge challenges, and/or people who can have an impact on my life. in fact, thinking about it, I do. most nights. this is mumsnet and it's full of intelligent, eloquent, interesting people, not some dippy cross between Hello! magazine and fluffy-bunnies-r-us-net. tell her there's been a terrible mistake.
But all this talk of organic at the time of the credit crunch is a bit daft really. That has to be the first thing to go for many if not most who need to cut back. Never mind eating organic - just eating properly.
Xenia's question about why Schh-you-know-who tolerated Zac's adultery reminds me of Mrs Merton asking Debbie McGee what first attracted her to millionaire Paul Daniels.
I bet it's taken Shezza all week to save enough goat's farts to sustain the power on her eco-friendly laptop for the chat on Wednesday, and you lot have ruined it for her
nkf - I quite agree. I fail to see what Sheherazade Goldsmith has achieved that could be of interest to MNers. She was fortunate to be born and to marry into prosperity. That's all.
Actually think this and the bunting thread is very revealing about the gulf between the women that the glossy media think we love and our real feelings. How has this arisen? Why the arselicking by certain sections of the media of people with no talent or skill and who are nothing without their connections, looks or money? What does this say about our society?
Why would anyone sign up to ask her questions. Who cares what she has to say? It's totally weird of MN to put her on here, She's a fundamentally uninteresting woman. It'll be that Colleen woman next.
Except this is the thread she is supposed to be answering questions on! And surely she will read it. Would you come and do a nicey nicey chat after reading stuff like this? I bloody wouldn't! (I agree with every word by the way)
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