In Norfolk? Fancy going Gleaning?

Recently, Martin Bowman from Feeding5K (one of my fellow finalists in the Nesta Waste Reduction Challenge) got in touch to invite me to join their next Gleaning Day in Norfolk,  which is taking place at the beginning of April.  Sadly, I can't make it but I think the idea is so fab I wanted to extend the invitation out to anyone else who may be available locally.  Martin explains more in detail below:Gleaning day coming up on Saturday 6th AprilOn Saturday 6th April, the Gleaning Network will be heading down to a farm in Norfolk to harvest tonnes of parsnips and save them from going to waste, redistributing them to food poverty charities. We need volunteers to help harvest the tasty produce! Contact martin@feeding5k.org to find out more, sign up to volunteer, or help coordinate....

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Drs. Francisco Cervantes and Marivic Torregosa, and the 2013 Ancestral Health Symposium

var citeN=0; Last year I traveled to South Korea to give presentations on nonlinear structural equation modeling and WarpPLS (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1). These are an advanced statistical analysis technique and related software tool, respectively, which have been used extensively in this blog to analyze health data, notably data related to the China Study. I gave a couple of presentations at Korea University, which is in Seoul, and a keynote address at a conference in Gwangju, in the south part of the country. So I ended up seeing quite a lot of this beautiful country, and meeting many people. Some of my impressions regarding...

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Zero Waste standards, tours & a party for good measure

The last few days of the international Zero Waste convention in San Francisco and the East Bay area have been very hectic with much debate and learning taking place.  It has become evident that this part of the world is very justified in having such high standards in its expectations regarding the future of zero waste initiatives.StandardsOn Thursday, there was much heated debate in Oakland City Hall, led by Gary Liss, on defining a Zero Waste standard for business certification.It was clear that Zero Waste certification is already being carried out on some major international businesses and is currently being managed by a range of organisations,...

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Zero Waste - The international scene

So, my adventures in Zero Waste continue in California and on Wednesday I attended the Zero Waste International Alliance Dialog, which brought together representatives and interested parties from the USA, Canada, British Columbia, Brazil, Colombia, Sweden, UK, Italy, the Philippines, Bhutan, India, Australia, China and Hong Kong.Rick Anthony, Chair of the ZWIA, (pictured above), opened the conference with a history of how the Alliance was developed and how things have moved on from what started as a passion to protect resources from landfills through recycling facilities, to a multi-action programme of now diverting those resources from incineration...

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US impressions. Recycling updates in California

Well, it's 5am Californian time and I've realised that the only chance of keeping this blog up-to-date is to wake up this early.  I guess it's not too much of a hardship though because the whole jetlag thing that I'm experiencing for the first time is making sure I bob in and out of sleep at the end of the working day until the early hours of the morning.  I'm sure I'll get used to it by the end of the week, in time for the Friday night party!But even yesterday's conference the NCRA Recycling Update  felt much like a party.  It was certainly much more relaxed than any conference that I've attended before. Still as professional,...

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Zero Waste greetings from California

So here I am, thousands of miles away from home, following in the footsteps of Jeremy Irons and his recent movie Trashed.  Except, I've not ended up in Hollywood.  I'm somewhere far more exciting! Yep, as part of this year's international Zero Waste conference, I'm 'on location' in San Francisco, visiting Recycle Central, which was featured in the documentary, and exploring how the city and county of San Francisco is so advanced in its journey towards Zero Waste.And that trash truck that you see there, is one of the few that can be seen heading for landfill, taking less than 5% of waste from Recology's recycling MuRF/Recycling Depot,...

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Postcard from Corsham: Celebrating the Rubbish Diet in Wiltshire

Back row L-R Sarah, Jen, Emma & PipTaken at the Pound Art Centre, Corsham's screening of Trashed Dear all, Well, I'm back from Wiltshire, having spent a great night out with some of the Rubbish Dieters and Emma Croft from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, who have been working through their Rubbish Diet Challenge over the last 8 weeks.  Initial feedback? According to Emma and the participants, it's been a great success in more ways than one.  Check out their great blogposts at www.wiltshirewildlife.org, which includes some of the examples from the 15 households have taken part.  Please also visit Sarah's blog at Everyday life...

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The one where I popped over to European Parliament

European Parliament eh!  Well I'd never been there before, until last Thursday when I'd been invited to give a presentation about The Rubbish Diet at a conference organised by Zero Waste Europe.The event, which was held in one of the large committee rooms in Brussels, brought together zero waste strategists, product designers, researchers, waste managers, communities and politicians from across Europe to discuss the cornerstones that are needed to move towards a society that is no longer so heavily dependent on landfill and incineration, integrating resource efficient solutions instead. It was evident from the debates that we still have...

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The 2013 PLoS ONE sugar and diabetes study: Sugar from fruits is harmless

var citeN=0; A new study linking sugar consumption with diabetes prevalence has gained significant media attention recently. The study was published in February 2013 in the journal PLoS ONE (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))1). The authors are Sanjay Basu, Paula Yoffe, Nancy Hills and Robert H. Lustig. Among the claims made by the media is that “… sugar consumption — independent of obesity — is a major factor behind the recent global pandemic of type 2 diabetes” (citeN=citeN+1;document.write(Number(citeN))2). As it turns out, the effects revealed by the study seem to be very small, which may actually be a side effect of data aggregation;...

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