Comments on: Does a local wedding make a green wedding? http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding ethical weddings blog Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:48:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Karen http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding#comment-37066 Karen Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:30:57 +0000 http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding#comment-37066 Hi Katie - great post and good to get people thinking about what is an extremely complex issue. I think that one of the worst offending items is the flowers - most are not fair trade and, to add insult to injury, transported by air. It's certainly worth sourcing British flowers with no air miles. Jenny - great idea about the honey. If you do need to use sugar how about Silver Spoon which is extracted from sugar beet grown in this country? However, this raises other issues such as 1. It takes 4 times the land to grow beet, as opposed to cane sugar 2. It takes more energy to extract sugar from beet, but is this less than to ship cane sugar? So many dilemnas so little time... Hi Katie - great post and good to get people thinking about what is an extremely complex issue. I think that one of the worst offending items is the flowers - most are not fair trade and, to add insult to injury, transported by air. It’s certainly worth sourcing British flowers with no air miles.

Jenny - great idea about the honey. If you do need to use sugar how about Silver Spoon which is extracted from sugar beet grown in this country? However, this raises other issues such as

1. It takes 4 times the land to grow beet, as opposed to cane sugar

2. It takes more energy to extract sugar from beet, but is this less than to ship cane sugar?

So many dilemnas so little time…

]]> By: Jenny http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding#comment-36768 Jenny Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:48:50 +0000 http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding#comment-36768 I agree Andy - but I don't think Fairtrade and local produce necessarily needs to be a dilemma. In an ideal world wouldn't we get all the produce that can be grown in europe from a local source, and all the tropical produce (eg the coffee and the chocolate) from a Fairtrade source? I volunteer for a local Fairtrade campaign, but I believe in local products too. I have made my wedding cakes from Fairtrade AND local ingredients (you just can't get sugar from Berkshire... but of course you can get local eggs...!) Interesting to se what others think though... maybe we should be avoiding tropical produce altogether to cut down on food miles? Should we just stop buying sugar, and use local honey instead to sweeten things? I agree Andy - but I don’t think Fairtrade and local produce necessarily needs to be a dilemma.

In an ideal world wouldn’t we get all the produce that can be grown in europe from a local source, and all the tropical produce (eg the coffee and the chocolate) from a Fairtrade source?

I volunteer for a local Fairtrade campaign, but I believe in local products too. I have made my wedding cakes from Fairtrade AND local ingredients (you just can’t get sugar from Berkshire… but of course you can get local eggs…!)

Interesting to se what others think though… maybe we should be avoiding tropical produce altogether to cut down on food miles? Should we just stop buying sugar, and use local honey instead to sweeten things?

]]> By: Andy Hickey http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding#comment-36554 Andy Hickey Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:22:09 +0000 http://ethicalweddings.com/blog/does-a-local-wedding-make-a-green-wedding#comment-36554 Katie, Really good to see the detail being challenged - please keep it up - it's too easy for us all to just follow one simple credo/chant and believe we're doing the right thing - sadly, life tends to be a little more complicated. Having the debate can only help couples make choices with their eyes wide open. Personally I'd love to see a lot more 'Life Cycle Assesment' information available but even without this just a little thought can go a long way - a green venue may be not the right choice if it's further for everyone to travel to, while a 'green' honeymoon that still involves lots of flying may not be as green as it says on the tin! Andy Katie,

Really good to see the detail being challenged - please keep it up - it’s too easy for us all to just follow one simple credo/chant and believe we’re doing the right thing - sadly, life tends to be a little more complicated. Having the debate can only help couples make choices with their eyes wide open.
Personally I’d love to see a lot more ‘Life Cycle Assesment’ information available but even without this just a little thought can go a long way - a green venue may be not the right choice if it’s further for everyone to travel to, while a ‘green’ honeymoon that still involves lots of flying may not be as green as it says on the tin!

Andy

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