Use your LOAF!
What can we do to eat good-quality food at an affordable price – thinking of those on low incomes – as well as value our local farmers and reduce our carbon footprints?
LOAF stands for Local, Organic, Animal-friendly and Fairtrade; it is a way of guiding us. Eating locally is doable when we have shops like Bridge 67 and the Co-op. You probably know some too. The Well café in Kibworth uses local suppliers, helping the local economy.
I’m in the fortunate position to be able to buy organic hens’ eggs. I’d seen some organic eggs in a Harborough supermarket when looking for a food item not available locally. I was in a quandary. What would I do? I could buy locally from Bridge 67 in the High Street, Kibworth. The farmer Liz told me she looks after a small flock of 30 pullets (young chickens) at present, with another 30 going for food soon, having reached the end of their laying lives. They roam free and happily in a lovely paddock, the website says, which means they are free-range quality eggs. What is the difference with the organic farm?
The information on the organic egg box told me that the hens spent their days foraging through organic pastures containing natural grasses, herbs and clovers, and enjoying organic feed from the small farms’ own mills. So, a similar lifestyle.
Looking at eggs in the Co-op, there were no organic eggs that day, but the boxes said they were all free range and RSPCA-assured. See https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/farm/layinghens or our local library to find out what that means, and also about the RSPCA campaign against factory-farmed eggs, a truly cruel practice.
So, what did I do? I chose local!
Julie Fagan, volunteer, Sustainable Harborough Community and Eco Churches
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