ESSENTIAL TRADING SHOWS HOW TO

MAKE LOCAL FOOD WORK

Bristol-based wholefood wholesaler Essential Trading is hosting two briefings for co-operatives to show how to make local food work.  The briefings will be held on Thursday September 29, at Essential Trading’s Fishponds HQ.

Essential will be joined by Alison Belshaw from Sustain (the alliance for better food and farming) and Bonnie Hewson from The Soil Association who will share their valuable insight and advice.

Two sessions are being held:

• 10.00am – 1.00pm      Whole Food Co-op Briefing
• 1.00pm – 2.00pm        Networking lunch for both groups
• 2.00pm – 5.00pm        Fresh Food Co-op Briefing

The Programme includes:

• Introduction to Essential Trading: its heritage, ethics and work with co-ops
• Wholefood co-op buyers’ guide to buying fresh food
• Fresh food buyers’ guide to buying wholefood
• Tour of Essential Trading HQ and warehouse
• Demonstration of the online ordering system
• Guidance on promoting a co-op, increasing and retaining customers
• Case study talk by a successful fresh food or whole food co-op

“Entering our 40^th Anniversary Year on September 16, 2011 means we have four decades of experience and knowledge to share with co-ops,” explains Eli Sarre, marketing manager for Essential Trading. “Over those 40 years, the whole food and co-op markets have grown remarkably.  We still think there’s a lot more to come and our briefings will help equip co-ops with plenty of tools to make local food work.”

How to register

A maximum of 30 delegates per session will be set to ensure each person can receive personal advice and discussions.  To register for the morning or afternoon session, email eli@essential-trading.coop or call 0117 9430 809.

For more information or to speak to Eli, contact:

Katherine Selby, Katherine@prworkshop.co.uk 020 8657 4422

Essential Trading, Unit 3 Lodge Causeway Trading Estate, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 3JB

Essential Trading Co-operative Ltd is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

AVAILABLE FOR HOLIDAYS FROM 1 JUNE 2011. A 1969 traditional wooden horsebox, converted into a beautiful living space for two people. The horsebox is situated in a small wooded area on a fully organic working smallholding of eight acres. Within, it sleeps two comfortably and has a small fitted kitchen with good cooking facilities. There’s also a snug seating area in front of a wood burning stove [wood supplied]. A short distance away is your own solar/wood stove shower and a compost loo with a turf roof. We are situated two miles from the north coast. Perranporth and St Agnes offer good surfing and coastal walking. Kayaks, body boards and bicycles are available. The local pub serves fine food, and is only a short walk away. http://www.organicholidays.co.uk/at/2888.htm

Organic Holidays is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Bulls Cottage nestles in the courtyard next to Eversfield Lodge on our organic farm. It is perfect for a couple or a small family seeking a tranquil rural setting. Patio doors open onto decking and the garden that overlooks Dartmoor, where guests can wander and enjoy the plants and flowers. A small stream tumbles down through pretty shrubs to a natural pond, a magnet for birdlife. The cottage is surrounded by our working farm amid the rolling scenery of the Devon hills. The hedgerows, meadows and garden are a haven for wildlife. 850 acres of the most beautiful countryside, quintessential Devon, are at your disposal. We will be delighted to answer questions about the estate, and explain what makes our organic meat so special. http://www.organicholidays.co.uk/at/2886.htm

Organic Holidays is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Tactile
Interiors has launched a new range of products for their eco friendly website
and at least 70% of that product range is from British Designer/Makers. 
The new products range from recycled glass vases to locally grown flowers.

All the products at
Tactile Interiors are natural, recycled or recyclable, sustainable or ethical
and at least 70% are sourced from the UK.

So why does the company
choose to buy British? Tactile Interiors believes that by buying and selling
locally and choosing British designers, it is able to reduce transport miles
and bring you stylish home accessories from local craftspeople.

Gordon’s
Gin Recycled Glass Vase,

made
in Devon.

You can now order fresh British flowers
from Tactile Interiors.  The bouquets are made weekly with the latest
flowers available.  Buying these flowers is a great way to support
British growers and is a more environmentally friendly choice than buying
flowers grown overseas.

The
very best of British Cut flowers

Money Matters

Putting the Eco into Economics

- global crisis and local solutions

David Boyle

28th May 2009

Published by Alastair Sawday Publishing

Visitwww.sawdays.co.uk to buy a copy

£7.99• Paperback •  ISBN 9781-906136-20-8

From
hedge funds to hyperinflation, credit cards to credit crunch, David
Boyle’s new book demystifies the economic system that has us all caught
in its tentacles. 

Now,
more than ever before, we are worrying about money.  With our
mortgages, savings, credit card bills, loans and pensions, we are all
implicated in a system that operates ostensibly in our name.  But for
something we all use so much of, money is extraordinarily elusive; it
is coins and it is debt, it is a plastic debit card and it is infinite
numbers of bytes in cyberspace.  But where has all the money gone?

Money Matters is
essential reading for anyone who feels in the dark about the economic
situation.  It will brief you for the current financial debate and will
make you look at everything from your bank statement to the coins in
your pocket in a whole new way.

The
book covers the origin of money, the banking system, the stock markets,
trading, the global flow of e-money, debt, mortgages, interest, tax,
pensions, the global currency of oil, forgery, great crashes of the
past, the dot.com
explosion, the credit crunch of 2007 and the 2008 crash, and the
emerging ways to trade in the future, such as Ethical Banking, Local
Exchange Currencies, the Transition Town Movement, and sustainable
finance.

David Boyle has
written widely about money from a green and ethical perspective.  He is
a fellow of the New Economics foundation and editor of their newspaper,
Radical Economics.  His books include Why London needs its own Currency (2000), Virtual Currencies (2001), The Money Changers (2002) and The Little Money Book (2003).

In these cash-strapped times,
local food producers offer consumers a way to not only save cash but
eat healthier too.  It’s a little known fact that locally produced
food can be cheaper than that available in the supermarket, the problem
is people just don’t know where to look.  Until now.  BigBarn,
the UK’s leading local food website, has just made finding out how everyone
can save by buying local that much easier. 

While
many Farm Shops have signs showing price comparisons with local supermarkets
and others check prices and are confident they are cheaper, consumers
only find out they are saving money when they visit the shop. 
Thanks to BigBarn all this has changed.  BigBarn already puts consumers
in touch with local producers through its popular postcode-generated
map technology and has now introduced a new £ flag to its maps, showing
producers who are cheaper than the local supermarket. 

All people have to do it visit www.bigbarn.co.uk and type in their postcode. 
Over 6,500 producers and retailers have icons on the BigBarn map from
farm shops to Farmers Markets.  Clicking on a producer’s icon
reveals what they offer, ratings and feedback from the public and the
ability to get in touch direct with the producer themselves.  Over
400 of these local producers and retailers have already registered cheaper
products.

How can this be?  The
supermarkets huge buying power does mean they can buy cheap, but the
supply chain costs mean that farmers only get 9p in every £1 spent
on food in a supermarket.  The maths is simple – if the producer
can sell direct for even 50p he will be getting five times as much and
giving the stretched consumer a 50% discount on supermarket prices –
a win-win, for all but the supermarket!  No wonder the new BigBarn
flag is proving so popular!   

Thousands of people have already
recognised the difference and changed to shopping locally every week
for essentials and the supermarket once a month for dry goods. Many
are even making extra savings by avoiding BOGOFs and impulse buys.