Two weeks into my newfound pescetarianism, I've had some negative comments (mostly from people who don't really eat much greens or fish in general), but I'd like to think that's just ignorance. Overall most of my friends and family have been extremely supportive, and when I said no to lamb for Easter lunch at a friend's place they dished up salmon instead.

I am now doing my part and am feeling much better for it (am not missing meat much to be honest), and this latest piece of research will certainly make me think more than twice about returning to my carnivorous past.

New research warns that meat eaters in developed countries will have to cut their meat consumption by 50% to avoid the worst consequences of future climate change.

According to guardian.co.uk, a study published in Environmental Research Letters warns that we have to make drastic changes in both food production and at the dinner table by 2050 to prevent 'catastrophic global warming'.

Food production and the fertilisers used in farming are responsible for a significant share of the global warming that causes climate change. Only by cutting the use of fertilisers by 50% and persuading consumers in the developed world to stop eating so much meat can climate change be prevented, researchers are now warning.

As most people in the developed world consider meat a staple part of their diet (see mention above) it will not be an easy task to change this behaviour. Even more worryingly, in developing economies like China and India meat consumption is now rising along with prosperity.

Artificial meat could be a solution, and the fact is that, with a rapidly expanding population, we simply can't afford to continue to consume the volume of meat as we're currently doing.

While I'm not saying that everyone should stop eating meat altogether - some of my friends have said they never could - I do wish people did think more about where their food is coming from, how farming is impacting our planet and be more aware of their actions. It is all part of a chain: eating less meat would reduce the demand for fertilisers to grow feed crops for cattle and pigs. A reduction in demand for meat would reduce the number of farm animals required, which in turn would reduce the amount of manure produced - fertilisers and animal manure causes nitrous oxide which is the most potent of the greenhouse gases causing climate change.

What can be done to reduce meat consumption? What should governments do?

I, personally, can't help but think now that steak, as yummy as I still think it can be, was once a bull like Ferdinand...

I am not a vegetarian... yet. But more and more I am moving towards a pescaterian diet. Hey I'm from Scandinavia and will never be able to give up seafood. But an article in today's Independent about the thick pink paste American food producers add to many popular products is enough to make any normal person's stomach turn.

In the land where pizza is classified as a 'vegetable' (someone needs to educate them) scientists have found a way to turn the scraps from the abattoir floor into a substance called 'pink slime'. They clearly didn't have a PR involved in the naming of the stuff. This pink slime is then added, unknown to consumers, to things like hamburgers, tacos and other beef-based junk foods. Why? To make the mince go further.

The process goes something like this: add the cow scraps into a heated centrifuge to separate the fat from the putty. Then treat the substance with a chemical used in household cleaners to kill off salmonella and e-coli (how kind) and mix with regular beef.

Now it is a while since I stopped eating McDonald and Burger King burgers (remember that photo of the McD burgers one year on... That was why I stopped). These companies have now stopped adding the slime to their burgers, but I am staying far away from them either way.

The pink slime has been legal to sell in the US since 2001, and today more than half of the ground beef sold in America contains the stuff. A sneaky legislation also doesn't make it necessary to mention it on the ingredients lists. Luckily this pink slime is banned in Europe.

Now I am all for finding solutions to make food go longer, such as growing meat in a laboratory, if it means a more sustainable food future for the world. But adding something clearly unhealthy to spend less on actual produce, in this case beef, is disgusting.

Ahead of Earth Hour 2012, WWF has launched an interactive website - Foodstory - that highlights some of the problems the world is facing when it comes to food sustainability and global hunger. These include:

Producing the meat and dairy we eat causes 30% of the loss of our natural world

30% of UK greenhouse gas emissions come from the food we eat

1.5 billion people worldwide eat too much while a billion people go hungry, which is quite ironic as enough food to feed the world and to create a healthy future for people and the planet

In the words of the WWF, 'If we want to keep our world brilliant we have to change how and what we eat.'

It is time to take action and call for the UK Government and its Food Ministers to develop a strategy to meet the challenge.

Earth Hour takes place at 8:30pm on Saturday 31st March 2012.

We love the environment and we think nothing is better than to come across fashion brands that do the same. No doubt we live in a throwaway society of which many fashion labels are guilty of fuelling hungry consumerism in people where we end up looking for the next trend or piece of clothing as soon as we've got one. But then there are brands like Lost Property of London.

The brainchild of Katy Bell, Lost Property of London takes abandoned fabrics and lovingly transforms them into fashionable yet very practical upcycled bags. No surprise that green fashion queen Livia Firth is a fan!

The bags are created using as many eco design principles as possible, making each item from recycled materials and by hand. We're definitely sold and will be putting this on our birthday wish list! Check out the gallery below to see more of these exquisite bags.

Prices start from £120 and are available online from www.lostpropertyoflondon.com.

We're not sure this will be the saviour of the global economic crisis, but we like the sound of green banks. And if done well, it could place Britain among the top when it comes to creating a sustainable future for the world.

The first Green Investment Bank is designed to accelerate private sector investment in 'green' projects and is expected to employ 50 to 70 full-time staff across its two sites in London and Scotland. The bank's headquarters will be in Edinburgh, while the main transaction team will be based in the City of London.

Business secretary Vince Cable said: 'This decision will allow the GIB to operate effectively and achieve its mission of mobilising the additional investment needed to accelerate the UK's transition to a green economy.'

The state-owned bank will get £3 billion in public funds to help companies fund clean energy schemes and encourage private sector investment in similar projects. The Government said it will invest in green infrastructure projects from April, which include offshore wind power generation, commercial and industrial waste processing and recycling, energy from waste generation, non-domestic energy efficiency and support for the Green Deal will be the first priority sectors for the GIB, subject to approval by the European Commission.

Former California governor and actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has launched a new environmental initiative, Sustainia, that hopes to help people visualize a sustainable future using low-carbon resources.

With the support of the UN, Terminator star Schwarzenegger and Europe's climate chief, Connie Hedegaard are spearheading the virtual environmental campaign that encourages people to live a greener lifestyle.

The Sustainia initiative aims to show new and developing technologies, such as renewable energy and hydrogen-powered buses, on a virtual platform that will show people what an environmentally friendly world would be like.

Schwarzenegger says: "Being a champion in body building, in movies and in politics where I was able to lead California to renewable energy, energy efficiency, green jobs ... I believe it is important to demonstrate that sustainability is the better choice for all of us."
"For communities around the world and for the individual, the Sustainia award offers a multitude of benefits in terms of better health, more liveable regions and cities and increased productivity. But we need to actually see it to understand it. And this is what we will make possible."

Over the coming months, people will be able to visit, inhabit and help build the new world on a virtual construction site.

The project also comes with an accompanying book 'Guide to Sustainia, which was developed by Scandinavian think tank Monday Morning in a collaborative effort with 16 global companies, including Microsoft, Philips, Tetra Pak, and Cisco.

Visit www.sustainia.me for more information.

Bob Carlos Clarke

Terry O'Neill

If you like photography and eco fashion then the collaborations between ethical t-shirt company Collective and iconic photographers, the late Bob Carlos Clarke and Terry O'Neill will be just your thing.

The limited edition 100% organic cotton t-shirts feature iconic prints by the two photographers that will look great during the summer months.

Available from www.wearecollective.com for £60.

Ever since we heard the news earlier this week that meat is now being grown in labs, with scientists using stem cells to create strips of beef, the debate has been quite lively here at Hippyshopper HQ: Would you eat test-tube meat?

According to this article on BBC.co.uk, Dutch scientists are now working towards creating a more efficient alternative to rearing animals and have so far successfully grown small pieces of beef muscle in a laboratory. The beef strips are then to be mixed with blood and artificially grown fat to produce a hamburger by the autumn.

The cells initially used to grow the beef strips come from by-products of slaughtered animals, but could potentially be taken from a living animal in the future.

Besides the discussion of would you eat it or not, I suppose there is the question of if vegetarians could, and would, eat this lab-grown meat? According to the Vegetarian Society, a vegetarian does not eat 'any meat, poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacean, or the by-products of slaughter'. So as it currently stands, these synthetic hamburgers would be a no-go for vegetarians.

However, leaving the idea that a meat-free diet is healthier aside, in the future, if no animals have been killed or hurt in the process of making this type of meat, vegetarians could potentially eat this meat if they (as most vegetarians I know) are doing it on grounds of animal welfare. In the end, I suppose it comes down to individual choice. But with the first lab-grown burgers estimated to cost around £200,000 to produce, there is still a long way to go before we would see it in our local supermarket.

But going back to the original question: Would you eat test-tube meat? For the devoted vegetarians in the office the answer was simple: no, they wouldn't. For me, a carnivore with a conscience - I'd never have an animal killed for the sake of ending up on my plate and I do care about animal rights - I would definitely try it. And if it means an end to unnecessary slaughtering of animals and a more fair distribution of food worldwide, the future is looking brighter when seen from the lab lights.

With Britain on the brink of its worst drought in 30 years and the threat of hosepipe bans just around the corner, people are being urged to start seriously saving water. Help beat the drought with these simple, cost-effective measures and make splashing savings in the process!

1. Money and water down the drain!

Did you know that keeping a tap running while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face wastes more than six litres of water a minute?!

Get into the habit of keeping taps turned off and, whenever possible, use cold water instead of hot to trim those bills.

2. Wise up your washing load!

When using your washing machine, make sure it is a full load to reduce water waste. You should also check you are using the most water and energy efficient settings for maximum savings.

When washing up, use a sink of water instead of a running hot tap - doing this could save you £25 on your water bill and £34 on your gas bill!*

3. Tighten those taps!

It seems simple, but checking your taps are properly tightened after use could save you a fortune - a dripping tap can waste more than 5,500 litres of water a year! Change your washers if you notice a dripping tap. This will immediately stop you wasting water and money too!

4. Forget the hose and use your butt!

The average UK roof collects around 85,000 litres of rain water each year. Start putting it to good use by installing a water butt to capture rain water and use it to wash your car, water your garden or even to flush the toilet.

5. Soak up the Savings in your shower!

Replace your showerhead. Some of the latest showerheads claim to use up to 45 per cent less water, saving you hundreds of pounds on your water bills each year. For example, check out the £49.95 JetStorm eco showerhead (pictured) from Ecocamel.

With the arrival of giant pandas Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine), eco fashion brand Rapanui has teamed up with Edinburgh Zoo to make eco-friendly, organic bamboo t-shirts for the two newcomers.

The zoo is conscious to raise awareness about conservation and have recruited Rapanui - winners of the RSPCA Good Business Awards - to make bamboo t-shirts that are going to be sold alongside the visitor's attraction to raise money and contribute to their upkeep.

Considering pandas are quite costly to keep, it is understandable that the Zoo wants to find other ways to raise money for the tubby two.

Bamboo is hailed as a fabric of the future with Mart Drake-Knight, co-founder of Rapanui and designer explaining: "Bamboo is an amazing fabric, it is as soft as silk but half the price, it grows fast without water, pesticides or fertilisers. Bamboo has a lot of potential as a sustainable textile, not to mention the softness and kind-to-skin properties that make them feel great."

Love the eco-cool panda shirts!

Available now from Rapanui for both women and men for £24.95.

If you run a small food business or know someone who does jot down this name somewhere: SUSTAINATION.

"The world's food system is struggling to feed 7bn people, yet it needs to feed at least 9bn for the next few hundred years. If ever there was a time when innovation and collaboration are essential to human and ecological welfare, this is it."

The new online service has joined the dots to help small food businesses to find each other easily, talk and trade, creating local and regional food networks that have the efficiency to compete with supermarkets while creating livelihoods and preserving regional identity.

The service is free for everyone to sign up to - for now - and lets you type in a location to find nearby people who are keen to do business or you can search for produce. Think of it as a dating service for local businesses that makes it convenient and easy to find, buy, and sell local produce that will save you time and expense and helps making you more sustainable!

Check out their website for more information and follow on Facebook or say hello to @Sustaination on Twitter.

And if you're really lazy... simply click play on the video below to learn more

SUSTAINATION - Find us on www.PeopleFund.it from Ed Dowding on Vimeo.

I came across an article in the New York Times last weekend about a rising trend stateside: the personal environmental concierge. These are people that will "run your errands by bicycle, recommend a spa for vegan manicures or buy organic clothes for you and your dog".

Speaking to the NY Times Letitia Burrell, president of Eco-Concierge NYC, said: "The problem with going green is that people think it takes so much work, so much effort, so much conscious decision-making. So to help people out Burrell set up Eco-Concierge NYC one year ago to try to make it easier for people to "rid their homes of toxins, hire sustainable-cuisine chefs and find organic dry cleaners". Depending on the level of service you want, memberships will set you back from $175 a month to $3,500 a year (that's approximately £110 per month or £2,200 per year).

Definitely a niche business idea, I haven't heard of anyone offering the service over here in the UK but I'm sure someone will soon adapt the idea (after reading it here of course!) to the English market. While it is great that people want to adopt a greener lifestyle, I am just wondering if this, paying someone else to be greener on your behalf, isn't just a bit like cheating. For people to become more eco minded - and to benefit the environment in the long run - we all need to educate first and foremost ourselves, then our friends and family and then our communities. In an ideal world, if each and every one took responsibility for their carbon footprint, waste reduction and general lifestyle changes needed to become 'greener' the world would eventually become just that. Unfortunately we all know this is never going to happen - not in the nearest future at least, the governments around the world will continue in their quest to cut back on CO2 emissions and reduce the negative impact on the planet we call home.

I suppose, for now, if professionals that are "too busy to research" how to be greener opt to pay to have an eco-concierge do these things for them is better that not doing something at all...

What do you think? Leave us a comment below or join the eco-nversation on Facebook.

We love charity shops at Hippyshopper. Not only are they great for updating your wardrobe in an inexpensive and sustainable way (recycling unwanted clothes and items all around), uncovering some great vintage finds, and taking your unwanted clothes off your hands, they are also come with the added bonus of helping raise funds for different causes.

It was with interest that we watched the news piece on BBC Breakfast this morning on whether there are too many charity shops on Britain's high streets. This one particular city had 6 on its main shopping street. The current debate around charity shops on the high street began after retail queen Mary Portas suggested that the number of charity shops on the high street should be limited by tax laws earlier this month. The Charity Retail Association has slammed this suggestion and is writing to the Prime Minister to object to Portas' idea as it is concerned what it would do to charity shops should they been reflected negatively in the High Street Review. The review, which is led by Portas, was launched in May and is due to report back to the Prime Minister this autumn.

Too many charity shops? We think not!

Better that they are there offering an eco-minded, sustainable shopping experience than the properties that would otherwise be empty - or worse being occupied by shops selling cheaply made and short-lived crap for £1 to feed the nation's throwaway society.

Fair enough, the charity shops might pay less in rent but considering that they enable hobby eco-warriors to do their bit for charity and raise funds for much needed causes I don't see the issue.

Alternatively, the retail associations in charge of the British high streets should enable independent businesses to prosper by offering lower rates so that locally produced goods could be showcased in a store environment.

What do you think? Are there too many charity shops around and what do you suggest could be done to breathe new life into our high streets? Leave a comment below.

I love discovering new places to get my eco fashion fix. And to help you discover them too, Hippyshopper has teamed up with online ethical fashion store Ms Wanda's Wardrobe to give you an exclusive discount of 25% off your first purchase.

Ms Wanda's Wardrobe is an ethical fashion brand that specialises in upcycled, vintage and pre-loved clothing. Since its launch in April this year, Ms Wanda (aka Esther Freeman) and her team of eco-fashionistas have already saved over 8kg of textile waste ending up in a landfill, as well as helped reduce pressure on natural resources and CO2 emissions created by producing 'new' clothes. The clothes embrace all eras, from the femme fatale of the 1940s to the Mad Men-esque 60s, making it a treasure chest for the eco-chic. No better time than now to channel your inner Joan Holloway!

To take advantage of this discount simply head on over to Ms Wanda's Wardrobe online store and enter the code HIPPYSHOPPER when you check-out. But hurry, the offer ends on Tuesday 8th November 2011.

We've previously written about 'reverse graffiti' and 'living billboards', and we're familiar with 'guerilla gardening' and 'knit graffiti' but have you heard of moss graffiti? The latest in street art projects aiming to enrich derelict urban spaces is cleverly named Mossenger and is the brainchild of London-based artist Anna Garforth.

Anna's project uses biodegradable ingredients to attach moss letters to walls to spell out poems. How wonderful isn't that? The poem you can see on these pictures are by Eleanor Stevens and will be featured in four parts - each sentence is to be displayed somewhere in London.

Have you spotted any other green street art projects where you live?
If you see Anna's work when you're out and about in London tweet us @Hippyshopper as we'd love to see more!

(via Environmental Graffiti)