On January 21, 2024, I interviewed Natalie Bennett, Green Peer and former leader of the Green Party. We discussed her motivations and concerns, focusing on the environment, politics, and education, based on questions raised by other students, teachers, and myself.
Bennett entered politics on January 1, 2006. Her first politics, she told me, was feminism, and that she thought, “I’m going to go directly to where they make the decisions and have the maximum impact.” This struck me and reminded me of the famous phrase: “If you want something done, do it yourself.” Across the country, we see people taking action and striving for a greener world.
What advice would you give to young people, especially women, who are interested in politics?
“Don’t do anything alone. Women in particular are stronger when we do it together. Let’s help each other.”
I like this idea. People are stronger when they come together, and women come together especially in male-dominated workplaces. As of December 2022, only about 29% of members of the House of Lords are women, and only 35% of members of the House of Commons are women, an alarming discrepancy in both cases.
If you’re a school, how can you make your school a greener place while still providing a good education for your students?
“It’s not the school’s fault, but there is a clear lack of education. People don’t care about you. Please don’t love me. So you have to help your students find that love. Encourage schools to do more hands-on activities, such as planting vegetables or involving children in learning about nature. ”
Underfunding state schools means there simply isn’t enough money, which impacts student learning. Practical skills like planting vegetables or paying taxes can help students bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood and may require few qualifications to teach. In some schools, art and theater are sidelined in favor of more science-based STEM, but without the arts and the freedom to express things creatively, our society would not progress. plug. Art, like science, captures the curiosity of the mind.
What do you think is the most important global disaster at the moment?
“One woman historian I spoke to years ago said, ‘We won one thing and moved on to the next thing. It was continuous progress.’ Now… We have to keep fighting the same battles over and over again. It takes so much energy. We have to look at systemic change. .”
For me, it’s like a battle to keep the house clean. You have to keep picking things up off the floor. Otherwise, the floor will become a mess. Similarly, we must always fight for the well-being of our planet. “Australia is one of the countries that is far behind in climate leadership and just recently had a politician brandishing a lump of coal in parliament and saying that this is great. It’s the poor people who don’t have the resources. Those who have better resources and more social capital will find a way.”
In contrast, emerging and developing countries lack the funds to protect themselves from the climate emergency without seeking aid and may be left in debt, meaning they cannot afford to invest in their own infrastructure. Funds cannot be allocated to maintenance.
“There is no place in the world that is safe or secure for everyone. Jumping into a liferaft and setting sail would have very uncertain outcomes.” Bennett’s previous call to “help each other” Comments also apply here. We must work together and put aside our differences to ensure that we all thrive. All problems cannot be solved overnight, and sadly I do not believe that all problems can be solved either. But we cannot and should not stop people from trying to make the world a safer place in all aspects of their lives. Similar to the recent COP28, countries met to discuss ways to reduce emissions.
Does veganism affect the balance of natural ecosystems in the same way as over-feeding animals?
“The amount of milk and meat we produce is totally unsustainable and we have to stop factory farming, which of course will lead to a huge reduction in meat consumption. is the focus of.
“We debated this issue in the House of Lords last week and I was not the only one to raise it. Ending all factory farming would reduce meat consumption. […] What we need is a change in that system. ”
If we restructure the system, we can offer people a wider range of food choices than just over-farmed meat, and the more choices we have, the more likely people are to like it. According to World Animal UK and Compassion in World Farming, more than 70% of livestock farms in the UK are now factory farms, with 1,000 being US-style mega-farms.
“We need to do the greenest, cheapest, easiest thing we can, so people will do it naturally.”
Bennett points to the polluting factories that agriculture produces, and mentions the River Wye, where more than 70 per cent of its pollution comes from local agriculture. Most factory farming also produces food waste. “Most of what is fed to those animals is perfectly good food for humans, and they only produce small amounts of animal protein.” So why the extra process?
I asked her if she might be better off going back to small-scale farming. For example, everyone who has space has their own animal. “Our food system is broken. In the UK, over 60% of our calories come from ultra-processed foods…We have to get out of this and get back to eating vegetables, fruit and grains. It won’t.”
We talked about the importance of local produce, and “If your village or city is surrounded by market gardens, most of what’s on your table will be local produce.” . As a result, locally grown produce reduces air and traffic miles and is cheaper, albeit seasonal. Also, eating less processed food means we can live healthier and cheaper lifestyles.
Is there anything the government or local councils can do to maintain or reintroduce markets?
“Here in Sheffield, for example, there have been recent reports that the market is struggling, but of course the market is open from 8am to 4pm on weekdays and Saturdays, so you have to work long hours and For many people in the market, the market is not open at their preferred time.” You can do a variety of creative things, such as a box scheme where he gets vegetables and fruit delivered once a week. But this requires a system that is not just centered around the six big supermarkets. […] In many cases, companies look at produce and pick out what they want, leaving farmers with vegetable fields without a market. A large amount of food waste is generated. ”
Some supermarkets classify foods that they don’t normally sell as “unusual.” They taste the same, they just look different, so they can’t be sold at regular prices or stocked with other produce. Encouraging big brand stores to sell local produce may lead to higher prices for produce grown on smaller farms, but in the long run it can reduce transportation costs. “Well, at this point they’re operating entirely on profit economics.”
I work part-time at a local store, and every shift I’m constantly thinking about how much plastic we wrap our vegetables in. Why are there so many?
“A few years ago, I went to Lidl and did a rough price comparison, and the plastic-wrapped vegetables were twice as expensive as the loose ones. There’s a reason for that. They make people buy more. I want just one pepper but I have to buy 3 packs. This method doesn’t require you to be an expert and is very easy to handle. A bag of biscuits or something. Something like that. With loose fruits and vegetables, you need someone who knows how to handle them, how to pick them. It’s more work than just wrapping them in plastic. Convenient plastic packaging is here, but it only increases waste. […] And councils pay for the waste that companies force us to pay for. ”
make a change
“According to the company’s convenience” We are increasingly seeing phrases like this, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way. We need to make the leap to more sustainable ways of producing and selling agricultural products. From box schemes to local markets, there are plenty of places to find work for all ages.
I really enjoyed hearing Natalie’s thoughts and opinions in this interview, and I hope it will be enlightening for readers as well. Talk to each other about what you think will have the most positive impact on your future. Take that step to make a change. If we don’t all work on something, it won’t work.
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