The Rise of the School Farm

There are now 100 school farms in the UK and this number is set to rise.

The past six years have seen a big increase in school farms as the importance of food education grows.

School farms offer a fantastic opportunity for kids to connect with nature and also a way for schools to earn money and feed their pupils well.

TV chefs are applauding this innovative approach to education and sustainability.

Are you a pupil, parent or school teacher? Your school could be next!

Whether you want to grow a vegetable patch or harvest your own eggs you can find out more by following the links below:

Find out more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22014346

School Farms Matter: http://www.schoolfoodmatters.com/school-farms.html

TV Chefs: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9847741/TV-chefs-spark-rise-in-popularity-of-school-farms.html

Growing Schools: http://www.growingschools.org.uk/News/detail.aspx?ItemID=34

Move Your Money

Are you unhappy with your bank and the unethical way that they invest money?

Not to mention who they are lending your hard earned cash to?

You are certainly not alone as more and more people are voting with their feet and moving their money elsewhere.

Some people choose to move some of their money and others choose to move all of it, it depends what suits you best.

Luckily there are loads of websites to help you as well as advice on ethical banking.

Here are the top five ethical banks that people are moving their money into:

1.The Co-op and their Good with Money scheme:  http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/servlet/Satellite/1193206375355,CFSweb/Page/Bank  
2. Smile internet banking: http://www.smile.co.uk/ 
3. Triodos Bank with their Know Where Your Money Goes model:   http://www.triodos.co.uk/en/personal/  
4: Charity Bank and their philosophy of social change: http://www.charitybank.org/ 
5: Ecology Building Society and their Sustainable Mortgages: http://www.ecology.co.uk/

There are other ethical building societies such as Coventry Building Society, Cumberland, Leeds, Nationwide and Norwich and Peterborough if you are lucky enough to live in these areas.

Last but not least watch Dave Fishwick on his journey to create a local bank for local people in Burnley: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bank-of-dave/4od 

Make like Bank of Dave and check out the How to Start your Own Bank on Huffington Post:  yhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/move-your-money/ 

Simon Birch writes about Ethical Banking: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2012/feb/10/ethical-bank-account 

How to Move Your Money: http://www.moveyourmoney.org.uk/ 

Invest in the main street, not wall street with move your money project: http://www.moveyourmoneyproject.org/ 

The Move Your Money Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MoveYourMoney 

Plant, Plant, Plant!

Spring is here and the sun is out. Don't relax just yet - there's planting to be done!

Find a patch of land and make it your own. The flowers and tress that you plant this spring will mean that our bees, bats, butterflies and birds will get the early start that they need to survive the year.

The first question is where to start? The second is what to plant?

Some great suggestions are:
Tulips, Forget-me-nots, onions, shallots, crocuses, narcissus and lilies.

Check out the gardening calendar at:

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/calendar/March

For spring gardening tips:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/plant_bulbs1.shtml

For advice on how to plant bulbs:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3394799/Top-20-tips-for-planting-bulbs.html

Happy Planting! :)

Fish Fight!

What do we want? 127 Marine Conservation Zones! When do we want them? Now!

Not the most original call to arms but impossible to ignore as this is a crucial time for action to retain the biodiversity of our seas.

Find and email your local MP here - http://www.fishfight.net/marine-conservation-zones/

Tweet your supermarket and @RichardBenyonMP to demand that we preserve our oceans.

We've seen the documentary and now its time for people power, #Fishfight.

Animal Humanity

There have been some truly amazing stories about the compassion of animals in the press recently, especially in the cases of dolphins, gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants.

Here we have collected some of the most interesting stories of animals demonstrating emotional intelligence and compassion:

Dolphins try to save dying companion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21146455

Elephants become stressed when leaving protected parks as they know they are not safe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21279321

When they are under threat, elephants turn to their matriarchs to know what to do: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9425000/9425590.stm

Gorilla mothers use 'baby talk' to communicate with their children: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18393314

Chimpanzees even give birth in the same way as humans, watch the amazing video of a chimp birth here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9462000/9462662.stm

They also catch contagious yawns from one another: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9450000/9450234.stm


These news stories show how much we have to learn about the secret lives of the worlds creatures and why it is increasingly more important to get them all off the red list. When we coexist with animals in a peaceful way we are creating a better world where wildlife can thrive instead of diminishing into extinction.

Conservation in the UK

Have a spare weekend and want to make a difference to nature in the UK?

Fancy a career change?

Want to improve your CV?

Looking for something that you can do with the whole family?

Retired and want to keep active?

Conservation volunteering or jobs could be exactly what you need to get back to nature, stay busy and keep active. Everyone can get involved and there are activities available up and down the country every day of the week.

Here's a few places to start:

http://www.csv.org.uk/volunteering/environmental-conservation

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer/

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-8kud46

http://www.tcv.org.uk/

http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/lookingafter/jobscareersvolunteers.htm/volunteering.htm

Activate Your Activism

In recent years internet activism has started to take on a deeper meaning as more and more people have joined the campaign for a better world.

The campaign site www.avaaz.org now has over 19,000,000 members from countries all over world and that figure is growing every day. Now, more than ever it is time to activate your activism and tell governments and corporations the steps that we would like them to make for positive change.

If we can have one resolution in life that we can all agree upon it is that we want to leave the world a better place. By making our feelings known we can encourage positive change in every sector of our lives and the lives of others.

Whether its support for gay rights on Uganda, banning plastic bags or conserving marine zones for our children, we can make our voices heard.

Start your own petition to the UK government: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/

More petitions and links available at:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/

http://www.change.org/petitions

http://act.350.org/