This is Rubbish are very pleased and excited to be collaborating with The Arcola Theatre and Pangolin’s Ark. On Sunday the 11th April The Arcola Theatre, This is Rubbish and Pangolin’s Ark will host a day of sustainable food themed talks, activities and workshops, followed by a fine food waste and sustainably sourced feast.

Buy tickets for the feast here

We are currently scheduling the workshops and a detailed program of the day will be released soon. Tickets for the feast will also be on sale in the very near future. Watch this space!

If you fancy getting involved with a crew chopathon and baking session, we’re looking for volunteers to help prepare and cook the food on the Saturday, and volunteers to help prepare and serve the food during the evening event on Sunday. The soil service (waitresses and waiters) will be dressed up as soil particles, salad and vegetables and service will be very interactive and incredibly earthy!

Give us a shout if you are interested on helping out on day that is set to be super soily and sustainably wonderful.

info@thisisrubbish.org.uk

poppy@pangolins-ark.co.uk

TiR were invited to run a food waste workshop at Hungry for Activism, which was a public food policy event taking place in Leeds Civic Hall on the 20th February.

The day started with an early rise and some last minute amendments of the very first TiR power point presentation, some carefully selected outfits and a healthy dose of porridge. Arriving at Leeds civic hall was a pleasant affair, a large ice rink stood in front of an even bigger building, that stood authoritatively and with a light grandiose.

When we entered the building, we were shown the TiR workshop / presentation room; the central council chamber. The room was a large oblong set out in a oval seating arrangement with a huge tapestry set behind the main desk, mahogany seats encircled the main floor and balcony viewing platforms sat at each end of the room. It felt very official and archaically political, which of course it was. Voting ballot boxes were set in discreet draws in front of every seat, likewise, every seat had its own microphone. I was reminded of images from Copenhagen conferences, which was more intimidating than exciting, but the setting really emphasized the very political nature of food waste, production and availability. Read on >

TiR attended the Soil Association Conference on Wednesday 3rd February 2010. The conference focused heavily on debating the contrasting farming methods of organic and conventional farming.

In view of decreasing oil and fossil fuel availability, massively reduced soil fertility and chemically intensive agriculture, the onus was placed on the need for a radical transition from conventional intensive farming to a sustainable organic farming methodology.

Organic farming is different to intensive farming as it bans chemical fertilizers, heavily restricts the use of pesticides, disallows the use of chemical medicines, and antibiotics and instead encourages preventative livestock rearing methods such as maintaining larger fresher pastures and keeping smaller herds, GM feedstock for livestock is also prohibited. Conversely, conventional intensive farming frequently creates dense monocultures of crop and livestock, encouraging high yields through the thick application of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and dosing animals with chemical antibiotics. When synthetic fertilizers are applied to soil they are released quickly, so enabling rapid crop growth. However, the chemical fertilizers are an illusion of fertility as they maim living organisms in the soil. Once application is reduced, it takes a long time for the microbial life in the soil to recover. Such intense chemical application also decreases the soil organic matter, a vital range of ingredients that allows soil to lock up carbon, which if encouraged could be an effective carbon reduction land management method. Read on >