Yourtomorrow.co.uk

Yourtomorrow.co.uk

Veg Boxes

This morning I came across a site just established to provide people with their local "veg box" supplier http://www.vegboxschemes.co.uk/. I tried this and the recommended supplier was based 72 miles away. This just shows that this scheme needs your help. Not just getting the suppliers onto the site; there are many "local" suppliers in this vicinity but also to try their products. I recall someone saying to me that what they loved about the veg box scheme was not just its eco-friendliness, it was the sheer pleasure she got from the surprise at what it contained; she just did not know what to expect! Remember that if we divert our spending to local and natural (albeit ugly and misshapen) products, then this will put pressure on the managers of Supermarkets to realise that local is good and profitable and that there is a significant customer need for such products. It would provide Supermarket managers with more job satisfaction if they have to select some of what they sell too!

Here is an article by Jos, who founded this website, telling her story. I am slightly worried, however, that we tend to blame individuals. However, people are only responding to pressures from the system; it is the system that is at fault not the people, who are only trying to survive in our economic system.

The Strawberry Incident & Why we turn our backs on the supermarkets...By Jos Dewing

My own journey began at the ultimate place of modern enlightenment, the supermarket!

It was about 8 months ago and I suddenly found myself with a growing group of fellow shoppers furiously searching through the freshly stacked(but definitely not freshly picked) and over priced strawberries for a punnet that contained just a few that were not rotten. I actually stepped back and caught the glance of a fellow shopper and I believe at this time we had a collective realisation that what we were doing was fundamentally wrong.

Why should I give this filthy rich intermediary my hard earned money for a product that was totally substandard to the point of being rotten? And why was this other guy subconsciously in total agreement? Why were we here?

Well the answers were frightening and justly highlighted the problems of food in our community today. We were both there and both prepared to purchase the products because of our benign desire for a continuous dietary summertime. Both myself and the other man and the many, many more consumers lining up to scrabble through the strawberries felt that we should be able to eat whatever, whenever, with the no consideration at all for seasons or regions. No care for where the product is harvested, when it is harvested, what chemicals it is treated with for travel, how much carbon its journey generates or finally, what the quality is like.

And the final nail in the coffin, my purpose for buying the strawberries in the first place was to improve my intake of 'fresh' fruit via the smoothie method.....

Following on from this I was aware that supermarket meat, produce and fish would often go bad before its use-by date and I started looking at the country of origin labels, which showed that having travelled over 5000 food miles to get my plate (which it never reached anyway), it was of no great surprise that the meat could no longer sustain its existence. I even realised that chicken can be up to 6 months old before it gets to me and apples can be up to 12 months old. This is simply terrifying. To think I was giving my beloved son such rubbish and thought it was fresh and good for him.

My research into alternatives seemed to point to a box scheme but I struggled to find one locally and without going into much more detail, the resulting solution was http://www.vegboxschemes.co.uk/ The site has been launched and devised to answer the problem highlighted above directly. But it is not simply to raise awareness, we want to put YOU in touch with the local producers who can help us to rid our communities of these octogenarian strawberries and the like. The site will list your local providers of box schemes who will be able to deliver the produce you want to eat, directly to your door. Not only will this help to support your local community and producers, but it will also contribute toward the essential duty we all have to curb the damage of food miles and to protect the future of our children and their's... Please visit our site and recommend your local box schemes today.

Change The World

The Internet is amazing! It shrinks the world so that like-minded people find each other, their physical separation being completely irrelevant. I came across the "We Are What We Do" website (http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/) the other day and was impressed that it was so congruent with my own views, opinions and ways I felt we could change the world. I ordered their two books "Change The World For A Fiver" (pub Short Books, 2004) and Change The World 9 to 5 (pub Short Books 2006). These are two "low-brow" (not to be disparaging, honestly!) paperbacks that try to convince the reader that he or she only needs to make small changes to his or her life to make a big difference to the future of the world. There are 50 tips in each book, some are insightful while some are a bit fatuous. Neverthelesss, one has to applaud the objectives, contribute to the aims and support the cause if, like me, you want the world to change. You can buy these books from the following page http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/shop/index.html?action=catalogue&category=books&sub_category=books

Why not give one to someone you know who only cares about themselves and needs to think about the future of the world? The proceeds are used for good causes and you might help spread the word! What I particularly like is the fact that these books do not only focus on the physical, but also the emotional. They make community recommendations like "Hug someone" or "Leave work on time at least once a week" (If only I had!).

All this makes me feel inadequate! My own Yourtomorrow website www.yourtomorrow.co.uk cannot live up to my expectations to create a community of people who care about the world in this way. Alone, I cannot create such user-friendly documents. It's time for a strong drink!

Me and My Views!

Now that I have covered all our Eco Icons, I suppose I had better tell my story! My new life started in 2004 when I had a triple heart bypass operation. I came around from this revived and rejuvenated! My energy returned, apparently something to do with oxygen getting to the body and brain in quantities it was not managing before. I had a new unexpected life and a normal life expectancy; so I wondered what to do next?I wanted to give something back to the world, to try and help make the world a better place for future generations. So much is wrong with the world and all that was needed was to join together people's wishes and adjust the way our society was run. So was born http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ a website aimed at building a community of like minded people who would express themselves on issues they cared about and use their spending power for the better future of the world.

We would sell "ethical gifts", after all the majority of my discretionary spending was on presents for family and friends, now that my family were grown up and independent. We built the website using seven ideas, represented on the website by Eco Icons; things that we felt would contribute to a better world and we cared about. They are not exclusive, but they are a start. If we all took their aims seriously we would help solve environmental problems, create a fairer more equal world, give small traders a chance against giant corporations and provide more choice in the high street, avoid harmful and damaging chemicals and help our youngsters develop their skills and talents. You can see that I have, in this Blog, written about each of the seven ideas explaining each of these Eco Icons and my views on them. However, many people disagree with my aims and objectives, indeed my involvement in any of this. If you have any views or opinions about this then this is the place to say so!

I was inspired, however, when I was in church recently by a visiting URC vicar's sermon. The theme of this was that we need to do much more than just concentrate on the physical environment, recycling, natural products, etcetera. What we had to do was focus on each others' wellbeing and help each other spiritually. There are PLENTY of occasions when this would help the world be a better place! Let's talk and communicate more, let's look after each other in times of need, let's not just focus on ourselves, but on each other. This is what I had hoped the Yourtomorrow site would help us to do, whether we are religious or not. The EcoIcons represent making a physical difference to the world and this we can change by redirecting our spending power. But caring about each others' spiritual side is far more important. When did you last do something for someone else? I shall try and track down the theme of this sermon and, if I do, I will put it onto the Knowledgebase of the website, where there are other articles and essays that have inspired me http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/kbase

At Last ....

I have finished my (rather boring!) description of the Eco Icons, and this is a relief because I can now report that http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ is finally able to do something tangible for the future good of the world. We have received supplies of the Thump Mat drinks coaster and, by selling them, are helping a local community, Wotnot in South Africa. Wotnot provides employment for AIDS patients to enable them to be financially independent and it is, in their own words, "the support of our customers who make this happen".
The Thump Mat coasters are made using a nautical knot (the Thump Mat knot!) and they can be brought from the following address, http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/30/176.php. In order to incentivize sales at the start, we are offering a free keyring worth £5, also made from a sailor's knot, the Monkey's Fist. We are the first seller of this product into the UK and I am very excited that we are finally doing something unique to meet our objectives, that is helping the future of our world!
I met Hilary Abraham who set up this project and, of course, is a keen sailor, quite by chance. She told me about the Wotnot project, her involvement in it and I was hooked. I immediately placed my first order and I hope that it will be the first of many in the future! The Thump Mats represent everything that "ethical gifts" should. They are attractive to our UK taste, useful, reasonably priced and really help people that are less lucky than ourselves. Finally, I feel that I may be doing something useful!

Small Business

Our last Eco Icon on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ is the Small Business Icon and it is not just about encouraging managers to be more ethical. It is to encourage individuals to express themselves through their ideas, designs and products. It is to help provide consumers with greater variety than can be found in the high street, which is dominated by similar stores selling the same products. Variety provides choice to us all and it should complement high volumes and low prices. We do not all want to wear the same clothes or jewellery, or to give the same products as gifts! You can see some of our products in this category at http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/14/cleversticks-construction-sets.php and http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/18/deluxe-rose-gift-set.php and http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/14/wooden-jigsaw-maps.php.
These products are all made by small local producers who just want to make a living by running ethical businesses and they produce low quantities of specialised products. They could not supply the large retail chains whose quantity demands would just be too big for them to cope with!

Recycled Products

I suppose it is a statement of the obvious that it has to be better to use old and used products for a new purpose, rather than throwing them away and adding to the mountain of waste material in our landfills; we might even make a fashion out of reusing products. Sometimes this can be simply taking advantage of different technical stages in countries across the world, such as finding homes for unwanted computers in lesser developed countries. This is a very worthy process and one to be applauded and encouraged. See the following website for a charity that collects and recycles old computers http://www.computerrecyclers.org.uk/.
At Yourtomorrow we have some products that use Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) and turn these into desk items (see http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/13/recycled-pcb-mouse-mat.php for the Mouse Mat and http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/13/recycled-pcb-wall-clock.php for the wall clock). These are both made from new PCBs, made in larger quanities than required by the computer manufacturers, and then made into other products rather than being thrown away. Altenatively our recycled glasses are made out of old bottles. funky but attractive. http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/7/recycled-grolsch-goblets.php are beautiful glasses made from old Grolsch beer bottles while http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/7/recycled-glass-tumbler-clear.php are simple clear glass tumblers made from wine bottles. These are all examples of reusing products and turning them into something else useful rather than throwing them away. They are examples of Recycling as a creative activity. What better way to spread the word that you believe in building a better world for future generations than to give such a gift? You may know of other products that are recycled, tyres for example. If you do, let us know and we will try to source them and offer them for sale on the Yourtomorrow website.

 

Natural Products

The sixth (if I have counted correctly!) Eco Icon on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ encourages Natural Products. I am not an expert in the medical particulars of "natural" products; my business partner and nephew Nick knows far more about harmful ingredients than I do. He knows about things like SLS and SLES and the health dangers to your body of using products containing suchlike ingredients. I have also just read "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lambert and this book describes, in sickening detail, the chemicals that are put into our food.
My concern is less medical, more economic. I know that people are very tempted to put short term profit before long term health and well-being. I know that business motivations can drive people to produce things that make money in the short term, even though they have long term damaging effects on our health, the environment and social equity. How do we stop this?
This is the $64,000 question. Not everyone can have a second chance at life and a BGO (Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious) like me. But it seems to me that, as a society, we can change things just by using our spending power. If a business will sell more if it is run "ethically" and produces "natural" products, then we need do no more! Business peope and managers will just follow the market. As consumers we only need to build "ethics" and "natural" into our purchasing decisions. Why not put aside a maneagable fraction of your budget to be spent on "natural" products? This is the reason we have tried to summarise all the factors that will, hopefully, lead to a better future with our Eco-Icons.
Use these, or similar, principles to help you make your own purchasing choices. Buy cosmetics and "smellies" that are natural and do not contain unnecessary, and potentially harmful, ingredients. There are plenty of natural products available and they are just as good to use, albeit they may not have the same shelf life and may even cost a bit more. We feature natural products from Holistic Tree on Yourtomorrow. These products are available on the site, such as http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/18/bath-gift-basket.php and they are made by a small company in Halifax. The products are carefully hand-made by Julie and her team, she is a qualified pharmacist who really does care about her products being "natural" and not harmful; they smell good too!
Be careful what you eat too! After my heart surgery I have learned a lot about what food is good for me but, far more importantly, what is not! I am not involved in selling food, but if I were I would have a lot to say about the ingredients that we put into food in order to make it look nicer, last longer, cost less. The result is that we are too fat and unhealthy. This is yet another example of short term profits driving us towards long term adverse consequences.

Local Products

"Food Miles" is a big topic at the moment and, at last, we are beginning to build "distance travelled" into our purchasing decisions. Did you see the tv programme where two families were sent to buy similar meal menus? One bought the ingredients from their local supermarket; this was cheaper but the food had travelled thousands of miles. The other family expended time and trouble finding ingredients locally and saved many food miles! Not surprising because we do not cost the environmental effect of travel into our purchasing decisions properly. It does not take much effort to seek out food items that are local, especially when the foods are in season.

I have just read a fascinating book about the large supermarkets and their influence on all of us. It makes a fascinating read, "Not On The Label" by Felicity Lawrence, published by Penguin in 2004. The front cover recommendation reads "I can't remember when a book made me more angry. Lawrence's book should be compulsory reading ... Nothing is what it says on the packet" Allison Pearson, Evening Standard. Personally I think we have to try and understand the pressures on the supermarkets and their employees in order to better understand the problem and then, hopefully, do something about it!

It becomes much more difficult to take distance travelled into consideration when it comes to other products, however because locally produced items are so often more expensive. That is why we try, where possible, to ensure that goods locally produced are shipped straight to you, the customer's door. Examples are our Cardboard Pod Toys on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/14/137.php or the Jigsaw Maps on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/14/83.php. These are made in the UK and shipped straight to your door, so saving energy and cost in shipping all around the world. That is why "Local" is another Eco Icon on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/.

Fair Trade and Helping Developing Countries

These are two of our Eco Icons and two more ways in which you can help contribute to a better world for the future by buying gifts from lesser developed countries from http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/. The benefits for buying products that are made by people employed in fair, safe and human conditions are obvious; what a demonstration of people's greed that they take advantage of other's weaknesses to make money for themselves. Fair Trade is a simple way to ensure that market pressures do not result in human suffering, no employment of children, reduced price fluctuation because of climatic or market conditions, fair pay and employment policies. These are well documented and for more details about these, see the websites http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ and http://www.ifat.org/.
However, why do we have two sections on our website http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ , both Fair Trade and Helping Developing Countries? We aim to help the future of the world and a lot of good ethical local activities are not able to get Fair Trade accreditation, because they are too small or do not want to get involved in administration and bureaucracy. These are developed countries' ideas and can detract from the job in hand. We, therefore, have to recognise that Fair Trade does some good, but that also there are communities that cannot, or do not want to be, accredited by Fair Trade organisations. Two examples, at different ends of the spectrum, are featured on the website. Firstly we sell items from a well established business which imports product from Cambodia. I have no doubts about their "ethical" credentials, but they avoid Fair Trade organisations because they believe these organisations are bureaucratic and unnecessary; see some of their handbags on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/12/11.php. At the other extreme the Whatknot Wellness Centre is a brand new community trying to help AIDs patients in South Africa and being approved by a Fair Trade organisation is far from the top of their priority list; see their Thump Mats on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/30/176.php
Those of you with suspicious natures will be thinking, "but supposing that behind these organisations is someone just out to make money from me". That is the fear that provides the raison d'etre behind the Fair Trade organisations and provides much employment and intellectual activity. Far be it from me to discount this view, but it is just not my priority. My answer to this is just to point you towards John Seddon and his views on getting the job done, rather than just focussing on the administration and paperwork; http://www.lean-service.com/home.asp. I read his book "Freedom From Command and Control, A Better Way To Make The Work Work" and this inspired me that it far better to concentrate on just trying to get things done, rather than ensuring things were administratively perfect. I include just one of his articles on the Knowledgebase of the website and you can see this at the following address is http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/kbase_category/9.php.

 

Education

Educational

The second thing that, in my opinion, will help build a better world for future generations is if we all were to spend more time educating ourselves and this is our second Eco Icon on the website http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ . We have focused on presents that encourage people to educate themselves and others, developing the brain. Let's spend less time in front of the television watching mindless entertainment or playing addictive video games and expend much more effort on learning about things. Ask yourself, if you were to be a contestant on Mastermind, what would be your specialist subject? Do you have one, we all should because knowing about a subject is very satisfying and it is fun to find out more? My subject is Australian History, although I would not be prepared to subject myself to the rigours of Mastermind questions; my memory is just not good enough! I do love reading about the events that led to the recent creation of this very successful nation, however. There are some very interesting books; I recommend "A Short History Of Australia" by Manning Clark as a startpoint.
I worry that future generations will lose the opportunity for pleasure and satisfaction from learning because all they will understand is how to download the latest game or tune onto their Ipods. That is why we sell toys and games that stimulate the mind on http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/category/14.php.
This might provide you with an opportunity to get a friend or relative interested in doing something intellectual, a jigsaw, a Cleversticks construction set or an earth powered clock from Middlesex University. This is not to be dogmatic or to expect people to be slaves to the textbook, just to recognise that it is important to use the brain as well as the body. Education is about us older people showing younger generations that there is satisfaction to be gained from intellectual activites. Once that is recognised, then one actually enjoys being a slave to the textbook and education becomes a self-fulfilling philosophy. A trained mind has a mature perspective on the world and will help build a better world for future generations.

Eco-Friendly

Eco-Friendly

The first driving force behind my new website http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ is that we should all be more "Eco-friendly" and that is my first "Eco-Icon". We should consider changing our lives to use less limited resource and buying products that use less of the world's valuable assets. After all it can be very personally satisfying to set and achieve a target. Resource consumption reduction starts off very easily (like not running water while cleaning your teeth or turning off electrical appliances completely when you don't need them) to much more expensive, drastic and controversial (like putting a wind generator in your garden, driving a small fuel-efficient vehicle or even using public transport, limiting your holidays abroad and hence your air travel). The figures are fairly convincing, however! The effect if we were all to save an easy 10-15% of our energy consumption is dramatic, we both save money AND the lives of future generations will be so much easier! What is important is that we all think about these environmental matters and adjust our behaviour to use less resource, yet retain a normal happy and enjoyable life. How we do this will vary according to where and how we live. Share your ideas for saving our limited resources with others, either reply to this blog or send us an article that we can publish in our Knowledgebase at http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ . We simply want to create a community of like-minded people who share their resource conservation ideas and suggestions.
Too many of us do not have resource, energy or fuel consumption as personal objectives at all. We should all ensure this is a guiding light for our lives and, perhaps, get others to think about environmentalism. People say to me that many Eco-friendly products are not suitable gifts, but I completely disagree. It seems to me to be quite aceptable to say to a friend or relative, "you should be thinking about the environment more" by giving them a present that is environmentally friendly. An Eco-Kettle that uses less electricity, some Eco-Balls to replace their damaging washing machine powder, a Water Saver to use less water when they flush the loo, even Natural Sponge Tampons that are reusable, all make very good presents if you want to get people to think about their use of the environment more! Don't worry about a negative reaction, stand up for what you believe in and get others to start to think about the world they live in and how to make it better for future generations by giving ETHICAL GIFTS. We will send these gifts direct to peope for you too if you buy from http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/ .