Adam York - Ethical Grocer

How old are you?
44

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Grocer, Buyer and Veg Grower; Unicorn Grocery Ltd, Manchester and Glebelands Market Garden Ltd, Sale.

How long have been doing this?
15 years

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
Preoccupation with feeding the public well and earning a living in a way that enables me to sleep at night.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Seeing quality fruit and veg arrayed in front of appreciative customers. Trading and making deals over new supply. Seeing large team of fellow members pull together.

What’s the worst thing?
Dealing with the fallout from laissez-faire New Labour and seeing some of the ugly stuff from the 1980s come to fruition.

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Tough retail competition, harsh Summer conditions in 2007, trying to keep up with the rapid global changes taking place as Western Capitalism slips away...

What were you doing before this?
Bringing up my son/part-time jobs

What was your very first full-time job?
Watford Gap services, wearing Captain Scarlett hats and getting very hot!

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Be determined, gain experience with others and get on with it. Remember if it goes wrong it really is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. While you retain a sense of humour you still have power.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
Aquire land for more food production, read more good stories, go dancing more, nuture more enthusiastic traders and innovators, learn how to sail properly.

What do you do to relax?
Get out of urban madness. Spend time with people doing different things.

Who do you live with?
Partner, housemates+ vicious terrier.

Whereabouts do you live?
Whalley Range (post Smiths version).

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Accept that inequality of wealth/relative wealth matter a lot. Pursue policy agenda based on this and trying to make quality of life improve for the greatest number of people.

As cheap and easily available oil is expected to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Shank’s Pony, stay fit. A smooth road needs asphalt needs oil. Expect big changes soon.

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Wanting to torch Tesco HQ?

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Tried to stick to my principles and the values I was brought up with. Finding that pioneering eco writers of the 1970s have been vindicated and I was right to be inspired by them. Resisting the complacency and materialistic dross of much about me, maybe doing some manual work keeps you grounded?

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Imminent likelihood of mass starvation globally.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Alan Simpson MP(!) Getting on with eco-projects and speaking out consistently against New Labour globalistas.

What’s your website address?
www.glebelandsmarketgarden.co.uk
www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.countercurrents.org peak oil tab, Peter Goodchild articles particularly. www.independent.co.uk business comment.
http://resonancef.com/ listen for tunes.

Wasted Energy - Mutual Frustrations

By Peter Hale of Climate Concern UK

I know some say we should think positively and avoid "No", but those of us trying to do our bit to save energy might as well feel some togetherness in our frustration at other people's lack of concern, instead of suffering alone!
OK, we mustn't spoil everybody's fun and I remain guilty myself of driving too many miles, but below are other examples of high energy consumption which work against our own individual efforts and currently bother me!: (send me your own frustrations to circulate).

Hot shops and supermarkets: (not to mention overheated offices, schools and hotels). My number one long-standing frustration. Why do they think they need to heat stores in the winter to the temperature of our front rooms, when we enter wearing coats and move around? Their staff can wear fleeces. And apart from wasting energy and making the fridges all work harder, it must reduce the life of all the food products. I have commented to some of the large store Energy Managers - at least Tesco say they have reduced their target from 21C to 19C.

Water jet pressure washers: A neighbour was out recently jetting every square inch of his long concrete drive, in several sessions for hours at a time - surely a great waste of water and energy. And I spoke to a chap the other day who cleans drives in this way for other people as a business. Is all this concrete cleaning necessary?!

Extra-cold drinks: or "the coldest beer in town". This energy guzzling trend, strongly marketed by the breweries, is especially galling to me because beer (bitter) as I like it - a bit warm - is now virtually unobtainable. And it's supposed to be an English trait!

Over-cooled trains: It is common to experience uncomfortably cold coaches on modern multiple-unit trains, along with cold draughts from overhead. (Express trains, such as GNER and Virgin, seem to operate at comfortable temperatures). The air conditioning to achieve these excessively low temperatures represents an enormous waste of energy. It appears that individual drivers control the cooling - there needs to be a higher minimum limit set. I am currently trying, with difficulty, to make contact with the right people at the train operators. Anybody on a rail users' focus group?

Excessive Business Travel: I spoke to a woman employee of "Candy King" pick-and-mix sweets, who was in the process of filling a stand at Sainsbury's in my local town of Northallerton, north of York. She was visiting just two stores that day, having driven from her home in Lancashire - the other side of the country. When I suggested that the 200 mile return trip seemed a bit out of proportion, her reply was "Oh, I enjoy it". No wonder pick-and-mix are expensive!

Motorhomes: I spoke with a couple the other day who turned up in their little "Smart" car - I thought: "perhaps they're eco-minded". They then mentioned that its main purpose is to be towed around Europe on a trailer behind their motorhome - which does 17 mpg! (There are apparently motorhome shows and gatherings - some with entertainments - all over the country and Europe). The husband turned out to be a well-informed climate sceptic with all the arguments. (Incidentally, I don't recall ever having come across a sceptic who believes it is more likely that global warming isn't caused by our emissions - they always know that it isn't!).

Sports travel excesses: I'm not anti-sport and follow football a bit myself, but we seem to hear little about the extreme travel involved in sports events, some of it avoidable - e.g. a football final held three years ago in Manchester between two Italian clubs! A Leeds United supporter said on the radio that he regularly drives 440 miles return from the south to see home matches. I have spoken with people at two of the clubs claiming to be green, e.g. planning wind turbines - Manchester City and Middlesbrough - they didn't have much to say when I asked if there were efforts to get more fans out of their cars and into coaches.

Freezer temperatures: My own father mentioned that his chest freezer in the garage is set at -30C! And that he doesn't de-frost it. How many fridges and freezers are set far too low out of ignorance of suitable settings? The normally recommended temperatures are: fridge 0C to +3C; freezer -16C to -18C. Thermometers are available at kitchen/DIY stores (ours from Homebase).

Digital Radio on TV: Apparently, millions of people listen to the radio through their power-hungry digital televisions. The power consumption of a modern TV when switched on for radio reception is approx 120 Watts. A typical digital radio takes 8 Watts; a conventional radio 2 Watts!

Truckfests: I keep seeing signs around the country for these - what on earth?!

Exhibitions/Shows: When attending regional exhibitions and hobby-type shows, I am struck by the distances some people travel, not only to visit, but also to take and fetch back exhibits before and after the show, some of them to my mind very minor items. But now perhaps I'm going too far - I've done the same myself!
I'd better stop.

Climate Concern UK
tel 01325 378452
www.climate-concern.com
www.climate-speakers.org.uk