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Water things coming to? If you’ve ever stumbled through yet another list of foods that are bad for you and/or bad for the environment then consoled yourself with – say – a nice glass of water, it turns out you can’t even do that any more. According to a new top-10 list from food waste company BusinessWaste.co.uk – rather dramatically titled ‘Planet killers: The worst foods you can buy and need to stop buying’ – water makes a surprising appearance at number nine. As Business Waste says: “Water is a human right. But sold across the world in plastic bottles? Has humanity gone totally mad? Yes, yes it has.” The list also includes avocados, sugar, beef, strawberries, palm oil, coffee, chocolate, fish and bagged salad. “That’s nearly all of our favourite foods on that list,” said the company’s Mark Hall, surely not meaning bagged salad. “You can’t even go for a chippy tea without wondering where your dinner’s come from, and that should be a big worry for all of us. “And we’re so gutted about coffee and chocolate. That’s two-thirds of my diet.” Beneath Hall’s light-hearted approach lies a serious message though: shop local. And stop buying bagged salad.
Yeast beast released On the subject of food and drink that should be banned for the good of the planet, Camden Town Brewery has launched a limited-edition beer that celebrates so-called ‘iconic’ spread, Marmite. There’s more to this seemingly senseless pairing than first meets the eye though. A slightly deeper dig into the story, one that would no doubt make Woodward and Bernstein proud, reveals that Marmite is essentially a by-product of the
brewing process, with most of the UK’s beer yeast ending up smeared on toast. In fact, at the height of the lockdown in 2020, Unilever stopped banging out all but 250g jars of its nation-dividing
spread because the UK-wide pub shutdown led to a shortage of brewer’s yeast, So then, as a planet-saving stroke of circular economy genius, making Marmite from beer and then making beer from Marmite makes perfect sense after all. Now then, who’s for a glass of water? ● Camden Marmite Ale will be available at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Ocado, Waitrose and Morrisons from 13 September.
WEDNESDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER 2021 / ISSUE 72 / SLRMAG.CO.UK / 33
