How stuff works: Episode 2 Turkeys!

The How stuff works series is great fun for anyone weird like me and interested in loads of stuff!


This episode focuses on the Turkey industry, it is a good watch! Please do! There are 3 parts... ENJOY :D!!!

Very interesting picture! Thanks Wei Lah!!!

POO POWER! Part 4: Pigs farting Power!

Even though assessment for this blog is over... I know I did this not for my environmental conscience, but because I was FORCED to... I feel the need to carry on posting because I love the many uses of poo...and here is another example of POO POWER!

So the video shows a great way to sustainably develop.... income from pig farming, waste management, and energy production on a decentralised scale... tick tick tick for the World Bank's Rural development initiatives!


This technology is being rolled out at a global level, it is happening in India and China where rural populations are increasing and require energy and income like anyone else.


More on this to come!! Hopefully! :D


Disclaimer.... I do not want any marks for these posts after the deadline of submission, I would just kind of like to carry on if possible??? Is that bad?

A personal message... and conclusion...ish?

I hope in the recent posts that I have at least hinted to the fact that I believe that through personal choice we can change the current path we are on through simple yet hard lifestyle changes. 

This is a funny video of my hero Peter Griffin... lol Random... anyways... in fact it conveys perfectly what I want to say in this post... denial of the facts just won't solve the problem (shouting yeah when you are doomed to fail regardless of what you think the science is showing you or not) doesn't change the course you are on and the destination you will finish at.... deep I know right? :D)

Believe me, I can appreciate how hard it is to drastically change your consumption habits.

Today is my 21st birthday!!! YAY ME! Thanks to all the messages... wait... this isn't facebook... anywho, unsurprisingly, this time last year I had just turned 20....

*FLASHBACKS*.... 

Oh wait... I can't do a flashback, well I guess I have been watching far too much family guy, and not enough time working hard!

On my 20th Birthday I realised on thing that dawned on me... I was consuming far too much; not just for someone my age (a nearly fully grown man) but for a human in general. I was an obese child, and I only grew larger with time. When I am talking about obese, I mean, hey, I'm not on the biggest loser because I was too big!

So, like I said, I turned 20, and weighed so much I couldn't even get on a Wii fit *product placement*... yes that's right, I got on the scale and it literally said one at a time... FAIL.

Just to give you an idea, the maximum weight was 150 kg (23.6 stone). I know I weighed a lot more than that, 24 stone or about 152 kg. I am honestly not lying.

So as you can see, from an obese child to a morbidly obese young man it didn't look to well for me... I mean, I weighed more stone than years to my life!

I was a large child, I weighed 70 kg (11 stone) at the age of 11. That is a full grown man's weight if not more.

So I said to myself: "In 10 years I have more than doubled in weight. What about the next 10? Will I be 300kg (47 stone)? Or will I gain another 70 kg, coming up to 220 kg (34 stone)?"

The point is, was I really going to continue on this unsustainable trajectory; a poor life of pain and misery and death. Diabetes, cancer, heart disease, too many obesity related diseases to mention.

I said no... not this time, so I made a choice, a simple yet hard choice to lose weight. It was simple in the sense that all I needed to do was reduce the amount I eat and be more active. However, breaking an eating habit that I have had all my life is not easy. I have always loved pasta, nutella, chocolate, sugar, bread, anything fatty/starchy/sweet I would eat, and  a large amount as well!

Changing my consumption habits was not easy, but day by day I learned to not add sugar in my tea, drink sugar free drinks, give up pasta and white bread and diversify my diet (Pasta is my favourite food... I would have literally killed for a plate a year ago lol!).

I began to watch what I ate, calorie counting thanks to labels; watching sugar in my diet, never exceeding the recommended daily calorie intake of 2500 for a man my age (although for someone my size it was more than double, 4-5000 just because I was SOO BIG!).

Spoonful by spoonful, meal by meal, day by day and month by month I stuck to (not my diet) my lifestyle change. Not eating after 6 pm. No added sugar in anything. Reduced salt in my foods. No pasta. No bread. No chocolate. No sweets. 

Instead, lovely vegetable soups, eggs and oily fish, occasional lean meat (I know!! I ate far less than I did before though!!!) in sauces and stews, cous cous and rice. I know love Chinese, Singaporean and Indian foods (albeit slowly slowly lol!). Italian: gnocci and polenta; Moroccan: tagines and harira. I diversified my consumption, I became healthier and over time I shed my weight.

I know exercise a bit, I like to walk...(hey one step at a time I am still no Olympian!) and move around as much as possible.

So the other day I weighed myself... and from 24 stone, I now weigh 15 (I got down to 14 stone 13 lbs but gained 1 pound over 4 days!! dammit! lol). 

Over the course of one year I have lost 9 stone exactly. I like to think I look better than I did, I sure feel do. 

I have never in my life weighed so little, I just wished my wardrobe shrunk too... I have tents for t-shirts and sleeping bags for trouser legs. I can fit into a 36 inch waist... not incredibly comfortably, but zip up and button the trousers nonetheless, just wouldn't go out in them at the moment! I only used to be able to wear jogging bottoms, now I can wear jeans!!! I am sorry but when you have never been able to, throughout your late teenage life, it is amazing to finally wear them!

The reason I am embarrassing myself by telling you I used to be really big is to show you that it may be hard but fundamentally, if it is unsustainable, it will be the eventual death of us all unless we do something about it. I know it is difficult and so easy to pass the buck but if we all just made little choices, we could make a massive difference. I had to change my unsustainable consumption because it finally dawned on me that I was on the wrong track; I am no better than any one else on this planet for that, but by trying to make a difference, sure I am no Brad Pitt, I am sure as hell healthier than I was before.

If I can do it, then anyone else can because as cheesy as it sounds, I have hopefully shown that it can be done. Seeing is believing and if we do take care of ourselves, and we do become aware of the impact that our actions are having on the planet, then we will begin to change our ways, innovate out of it or change our consumption patterns. Whatever we do, the replacement has to be sustainable. Being selfish and not changing consumption patterns would result in a poor quality environment for our kids to grow up in, or in my case no life at all.

Everything you could ever want to know is just a click away. There is no excuse and I am one to make up excuses I tell YOU!!!

All the best and keep watching the posts... maybe? :D

Nearly There Conclusion!! SEAPUK!

This blog was started to try and highlight the role that livestock plays in climate change and how our consumption has resulted in us drastically changing the earth's climate; land cover and productivity. We have introduced new species to places where they have caused so much damage (please look at Gem's blog for an in depth look at the palm oil industry; Jonnys's blog on Arctic environmental change; Wei's blog on the home of the polar bears and other arctic wildlife; Jess's blog on species migration) and we are causing the destruction of the homes, habitats and ecosystems of other species that inhabit an increasingly smaller niche on an ever homogenised planet due to our requirements from the environment around us.

By no means I am wagging my finger and blaming everyone under the sun for everything negative that's wrong with the world; that would be tiring and hypocritical lol! 

What is needed are solutions. 

Whether it is bio-technology and increased use of GM technologies to produce less GHG producing cows and other ruminants, or the utilisation of efficient feed and better storage, disposal and use of manure and other excrement produced as a livestock by-product (all in this IPCC report) and suggested by Popp et al., 2010.

Greater efficiencies in the production of livestock is integral to its sustainability, its been done to a certain extent in the transport industry, so why should what we eat be ring-fenced whilst we are all streamlining transportation (greater fuel efficient cars) energy production (renewable energy/ long life light bulbs), waste disposal (recycling); yet we still dump a lot of unnecessary fertiliser on a over irrigated field all in the name of reducing starvation?

Like in every single one of the example I have highlighted (and many more I have forgotten lol) there are some common traits; public support and interest; consumer attitude changes; cost of implementation; accessibility and availability of products. 

I am not asking/telling people to be vegetarian, it isn't necessary if agriculture was more sustainable. Greater GHG sinks (afforestation); less intensive agricultural practices; the real cost of meat (reduction in production subsidies Bruges, 2008) they would all curb emissions one way or another.

But by far the biggest source of agricultural expansion and GHG emissions is through demand. Unsustainable and inappropriate consumption is creating a problem that shouldn't even exist. The most significant way, as all the literature points to, whether modelled or not, is through consumer habits changing. Not eating meat every day is a start. Buying a non-meat alternative is also good. Margarine over butter is a positive, however depending on where the source of ingredients come from , palm oil could be one. 

Whatever you choose to do, just be aware of the choice you are making. Be a concious consumer and try act in an environmental, in a sustainable way. This is not easy. I am no expert on all products and their sources, but finding this information out has never been easier. Google it! 

Maybe soon there will be some kind of certification that address how environmentally sustainable meat products are (like those for tuna and dolphins, recycled paper from sustainable forests and recyclable plastics)? If there is already please let me know!!! Maybe that's one thing we could do, start a social movement for Sustainable and Environmental Agricultural Production in the United Kingdom... SEAPUK!

SEAPUK...we could get Paul McCartney to talk at an event... hmm.... Planet organic... get a few farmers involved... we could start something great!

I am managing director..... no.. vice president.... no.... King of SEAPUK! Who wants to join me? We can do it!

Meat free Mondays! Starting tomorrow...maybe?

Thanks to Laura S for replying to a comment which was a reply to a comment... if you catch my drift?!? She suggested the site Meat free Mondays.


The site is great for recipe suggestions which surprisingly don't have any meat in at all!

Now... I have to be honest, today I made a tasty chicken teriyaki tikka masala curry with tasty thai jasmin rice... *om nom nom... anyways I have some left over... rather than waste I shall, as the say in Italy 'mangio' the curry. I know bad right?... but I did not eat meat on Friday or Thursday, at least I don't remember eating any? *thinks deeply to himself*


So enjoy the site and all the tasty suggestions...


Tomorrow I shall post a good post... it is a special day!!! YAY ME! lol I am sad but... well there is no justification, I just am.

First an internet search engine... Now pig sh**?

Is there no end to the power that is google? Clearly there is and that is why they are investing in pig poo power (say that really fast 100 times without dying of lack of oxygen or boredom). As seen in this article.

The technology is simple, decompose the poo to produce methane (our favourite gas after oxygen and helium... *squeeeek!*) and then burn this highly potent GHG to produce heat to boil water to produce steam to turn a turbine to produce electricity! Loads of to-s!


Get this... it will produce enough to power an amazing 35 homes! That's right 3...5...! To be fair 1 american home is practically 20 European homes... WIN.


Highlighting the offsetting equivalent, the effect of 900 cars have been taken of the roads (and are now in China...lol!) no in all seriousness it shows the GHG producing potential of livestock.