YOU CAN COOK | Blog

This week Bosco Santimano founder and executive director of social enterprise You Can Cook, shares his thoughts on disposable face masks and the huge environmental impact on our planet!

Since the Covid-19 pandemic officially began in March this year in the UK, capitalists have taken advantage of the crisis to boost their profits along with Westminster Tory MP’s, who have given contracts to their mates and relatives in billions of pounds at the expense of the tax payer. During this pandemic the need for protective equipment has increased among the general public while also increasing plastic pollution. A research that was conducted by shopping comparison website, finder.com found that over half of the people surveyed were using single-use blue surgical face mask. If you take into account that each individual may use at least two masks a day, the UK could be sending as many as 55 million single use face masks to landfill every single day! If you want to understand what that actually means, it’s that we are using enough face masks that weigh the same weight as 100 cars per day. In March, the World Health Organisation estimated that 89 million additional disposable masks were needed globally per month in medical settings to combat COVID-19.

Disposable masks are the new plastic bags and the coronavirus pandemic is increasing the consumption of single-use masks, most of which are made from polypropylene, a form of plastic. Many environmentalist have warned that there is already a surge in disposable face masks and gloves floating like jellyfish across the Mediterranean along with the usual plastic litter of bags, cups and cans.  As much as 13 million tonnes of plastic goes into oceans each year and this estimate is based on a report called “The state of plastic: World Environment Day Outlook 2018” published in 2018 by the UN Environment programme. The report highlights why plastic is used so much (cheap, lightweight and easy to make), only a tiny fraction is recycled while 13 million tonnes of plastic leak into our oceans every year, harming biodiversity, economies and potentially our health. This paper sets out the latest thinking on how we can achieve this. It looks at what governments, businesses and individuals can do to check the runaway production and consumption of plastic.

Fast forward to November 2020 and this report findings has only got worse. If the global population adheres to a standard of one disposable face mask per day after lockdown ends, the pandemic could result in a monthly global consumption and waste of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves. As masks are likely to be part of our daily lives for the foreseeable future, we could do our bit to keep ourselves and other safe by reducing the use of plastic by following these simple steps; choosing reusable masks without disposable filters is a sensible way to help the environment and even keep costs down. Machine wash them regularly and carry a spare when out and about in case of damage to the one you are wearing. If you do need to use a disposable mask, take it home and put it into a bin with a lid. If this isn’t possible, place it in a proper public bin. Don’t put disposable masks in the recycling. They can get caught in specialist recycling equipment and can be a potential biohazard to waste workers and finally do not flush masks down the toilet.

Stay safe and let’s keep our environment clean and safe too!

*Originally written & published in the Peeblesshire News.

This week Bosco Santimano founder and executive director of social enterprise You Can Cook, shares his thoughts on Post Brexit Food Standards!

In June this year I wrote about the ruling Conservative party voting to compromise high UK standards by pushing through the controversial Agriculture Bill in parliament by 51 votes! This bill moved to the Lords for a second reading and we all held our breaths hoping the unelected Peers will have some sense of Democracy and accountability and reject the Agriculture Bill in its current format. Well! The House of Lords did respond to the public outcry and backed Farmers Unions and other environmental bodies in the UK and voted to add amendments to the agriculture bill that were rejected in the first voting round in parliament. It was the second defeat for Boris Johnson’s government last week as the Lord’s also backed a move banning the use of pesticides near homes and public buildings or spaces including hospitals and schools. Trade secretary Liz Truss is not happy with the amendments proposed by the Peers and has suggested that they would ban developing countries from exporting their goods to the UK for not meeting exact farming regulations and would undermine trade deals currently being negotiated.  NFU President Minette Batters appealed to the general public to write to their MP’s to add the amendments and safeguard our high standards post Brexit with any trade deals around the world especially the United States of America who are pushing for a comprehensive trade deal which will also include the NHS!

For readers who may not be aware of what actually is chlorinated chicken – it’s when the chicken is washed in chlorine to get rid of the bacteria and other microbes that are normally found in dirty farms and slaughter houses. This practice is currently illegal in the UK and that’s what may be coming into this country once the government’s Agriculture Bill is passed in its current format and will open the UK to very low and substandard poor quality food imports. On top of this farmers are also concerned about meats produced using banned hormones and additives that are currently prohibited in the UK and also pork raised using sow stalls, which confine the animals in a tight space.

On top of this Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland will be forced to accept trade deals made by England that will undermine their respective policies and environmental standards that all devolved nations have worked so hard for in the last few decades. The Conservative government is working very hard to undermine decades of legislations to protect both farmers and citizens from inferior food and food production processes. Farmers will not be able to compete with cheap food imports if the producers and suppliers are not adhering to strict UK/European standards.

Please write to your MP David Mundell and all the Tory MP’s in Scotland who actually are voting to undermine Scottish food production and its already high standards. Can they make a public declaration that has legal implications for themselves that the Agriculture Bill will not lower high environmental standards post Brexit of any food imports? Because if broken they can be held accountable and face criminal prosecution for lying as an elected member of parliament? This is the only way to make sure that crooked and selfish politicians are being held accountable!

*Originally written & published in the Peeblesshire News.

This week Bosco Santimano founder and executive director of social enterprise You Can Cook, shares his thoughts on Covid-19’s devastating fallout on the world’s  economy, food and people.

What has Covid-19 taught us so far? I have been researching and reading lots of articles and opinions by experts in the field of science, environment, food, health and well-being, poverty and social justice since this pandemic began and the devastating impact on the most vulnerable and poor amongst us. Many governments around the world have been supportive of their citizens in terms of offering financial support to keep people from going hungry and making sure they have a roof over their heads. Overall Western economies have given a lifeline to businesses and employees through financial stimulus packages never before seen on such a massive scale. In the UK austerity had propelled mass economic hardships on millions of families through a Tory ideology that made the poor, disabled and disadvantaged suffer for the chaos caused by the rich bankers and financial institutions since the 2008 recession. People that are paying with their lives are low waged, zero hour contract workers in this gig economy, where people are forced to take up work that benefits big corporations through tax breaks and other subsidies offered by politicians to their donors in exchange for either a peerage or directorships after losing elections or resigning; whichever comes first.

As a community interest company we have always looked at innovative solutions to tackle food poverty and highlight the underlying issues that are often overlooked by governments and local authorities in this country.  Since March this year child poverty has increased exponentially across the board with more families falling into economic hardship due to job losses or claiming benefits that are not fit for purpose in this day and age. We as an organisation have never shied away from pointing the finger at the real culprits in this avoidable saga i.e. our elected representatives, whether it’s our local councillors, MSP’s or MP. What can we do now to reverse this trend and abolish food poverty across the country? Councils across Scotland should be making more land available to local communities for converting to allotments and having a healthy supply of local food made available for all seasons. Weekly Farmers markets should be organised and subsidised by local authorities and government to encourage and inspire locals especially young people to look at growing food as a career option. Big landowners should lose their subsides for not growing food which we the tax payers pay for every year.

Growing food organically should be the norm and edible gardens should be made compulsory for all schools where growing methods are taught and pupils trained in this subject as part of the school curriculum. We were instrumental in building the first organic training garden in Scotland on school premises, right here in the Borders at St. Ronan’s Primary school, Innerleithen. This edible garden is still up and running and has a bright future for the school pupils, teachers and community. The legacy will live on for future generations of pupils to enjoy and learn new skills in farming and growing food with no reliance on corporations to supply their expensive fertilisers and pesticides which poison the environment and indirectly has a negative long term impact on the health of communities across Scotland and the world.

This pandemic has already increased food prices by over 40% and also taking into account previous increases of up to 35% since the Brexit vote, you get to see the bigger picture of millions in this country not able to buy good, affordable nutritious food.

Is it too much to ask our council to spend on educating young people in skills that will actually help save themselves and this country from starvation in any future global event? £15 million was made available for iPads and costs will keep mounting as the corporation that needs to feed its shareholders will only get hungry every year for more money and contracts. What is our priority as a society? Food or iPads?

You the people will decide.

*Originally written & published in the Peeblesshire News.

This week Bosco Santimano founder and executive director of social enterprise You Can Cook, shares his thoughts on a Brexit extension beyond December 2020 and the devastating fallout on Scotland’s economy, food and people…

Michael Gove has done it again! The cheerleader for the Vote Leave campaign which was founded in October 2015 by political strategists Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings, has announced that the prime minister had been quite clear since the election about the government not extending the Brexit transition period beyond December 2020 come what may. What are the Leave campaigners up to now? Since the Tories won an outright majority in last year’s election, Boris Johnson has accelerated the process to get the whole of the UK out of the EU by the end of December 2020 under any circumstances. The reason being that they have been given a mandate by the people of England to crash out of the EU without a deal and create a trade deal with the US and any other country that may wish to form a new trade alliance with Great Britain!

Unfortunately for them “Coronavirus”  let rip through all their plans and has brought this great country to its knees in just a few months. So much for bringing back control and the good old days back to Great Britain. The arrogance of the Tory party and its decision to put the whole country in a state of panic and chaos for years to come is purely based on its narrow ideological views and is beyond rational thinking and strategy. The current pandemic has already raised food prices by more than 25 percent in a matter of weeks of the lockdown and does not look like it’s going to slow down. Families are struggling to put food on the table while at the same time suffering job losses, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. No one is saying to abandon leaving the EU but a sensible approach must be taken to mitigate the causes of the coronavirus pandemic first before embarking on this road to self-destruction. Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium has warned that the UK could face huge food shortages even worse than the impact of the coronavirus! He warned that a no deal Brexit could mean shortages of products like tomatoes and lettuces and highlighted, that in January alone around 90% of lettuces, 80% of tomatoes and 70% of soft fruits came to the UK from Europe. He further warned that a disorderly Brexit would mean that the country would face a bigger challenge than the food supply chain faced with Covid-19.

If no deal can be reached with the EU on future relations, concerns have been raised about the impact having to use World Trade Organisation rules would have on businesses. Over 35% of our food currently comes from Europe, and it is very likely that fresh vegetables and fruits, will become more scarce and more expensive in the event of a no deal Brexit.

So what can we do to make sure Scotland does not suffer due to Tory policies coming out from London? Write to your local MP and fill their inboxes with letters, come out in droves once lockdown restrictions are eased to their monthly surgeries to protest and finally keep the pressure on all elected representatives including your local councillors who also have a vested interest in making sure Scotland and its people do not go hungry.

Stay safe! Eat well!

*Originally written & published in the Peeblesshire News.

This week Bosco Santimano founder and executive director of social enterprise You Can Cook, shares his thoughts on the Agriculture Bill going through Westminster and the House of Lords and the lowering of food import standards after Brexit.

I am lost for words as it is becoming very clear to me that the UK is heading for a new category called the “fourth world country” after the formalities of Brexit are over. Conservative MP’s in the South of Scotland region have voted against requiring new international treaties on the import of agricultural and food products to ensure products imported into the UK under those arrangements comply with World Trade Organisation safety rules and the UK’s own standards. To explain in a lay persons term, we have been screwed by Tories David Mundell (Clydesdale and Tweeddale and Berwickshire), John Lamont ( Dumfriesshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) and Alister Jack (Dumfries and Galloway) in accessing good food after Brexit.

328 MP’s including two Labour MP’s voted against the above amendment to safeguard our high standards and protect farmers livelihoods, while 277 cross party MP’s voted to keep them. Independent experts and researchers were sceptical about the Tories keeping their promises of not lowering food standards post Brexit as America clearly stated publicly that in order for a trade agreement between the two countries all sectors of the economy will have to be on the table for negotiations and according to US standards. This bill before the UK parliament was also a first of its kind to be voted on by MP’s electronically and was passed on 13^th May 2020.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) and a number of animal welfare and environmental organisations wrote to all 650 MP’s pleading them to make sure the new Agriculture Bill guaranteed that all imported food coming into the UK after Brexit and trade deals currently being negotiated meet the same high standards of environmental protection and animal welfare as is expected of any local food producer. Some of the organisations that put their names to this letter were; NFU, RSPCA, Soil Association, Friends of the Earth, Woodland Trust, Greenpeace and many more. The NFU President Minette Batters highlighted the real differences between food production in the UK and other countries which includes the US;

Abattoirs use chlorine or other chemicals to wash carcases which are not allowed in the UK because we have legislation on the way we keep our livestock, limiting stocking density;  We have rules on bio security, lighting, diet and veterinary oversight; Battery cage egg production is still permitted in some countries but was banned here in 2012; Meat and bone meal in feed which was banned in the UK over 24 years ago is still allowed elsewhere; In Brazil, farmers don’t need a Vet’s prescription for animal medicines and don’t need to record treatments. These are just a few examples that will compromise the high UK standards already in place with the new Agriculture Bill.

This bill now moves to the Lords for a second reading and hopefully it is voted out and sent back to the government for a major rethink of this once in a lifetime opportunity to keep the high standards achieved over decades in place and not torn to shreds for a desperate trade deal with the US of A. What will happen if this bill passes into law? Readers may have come across this headline a few years ago; “Get ready for cheap chlorinated chicken and hormone filled beef flooding the UK in a new trade deal with the US”. Not only will the health of citizens in this country be badly impacted by cheap imports but our farmers will not be able to compete with food produced in the US as its widely known how lax the regulations are, if any.

The Tories are running around in circles and trying to get a bad trade deal with Trump at any cost. Rebel Conservatives and Labour amendments to hold the government to previous promises made to protect British and Scottish food and farming were defeated, thanks to our own elected low life’s and career politicians. What will it take to boot the Conservatives out of this area? Is it death squads via Covid-19 or slow food poisoning of the electorate? Well! That’s the choice you have and if you decide to vote these corrupt individuals again that put themselves, Queen and Power before the people than I am sorry to say what’s coming next will completely be our fault. It’s not too late to take our elected MP’s to task and hold them accountable.

Stay safe! Eat well!

*Originally written & published in the Peeblesshire News.