Head of Steam Building Over Climate Change Bill

There is growing unrest on the government benches about the ommission of aviation and shipping emmisions from the UK greenhouse gase targets. There are now 56 Labour MPs demanding their inclusion.

I've long held that if we're looking at combating the effects of greenhouse gases all causes need to be included. That does mean looking carefully at food labels and realising do we really need Strawberies in December that have been flown in from South Africa. We can have a balanced, indeed varied, diet using seasonal produce that is available locally. It will be a seasonal diet but some seem determined to eat the same way year round. Is it any wonder that Jamie Oliver finds that many people don't know basic food groups and recipes using them. Our kitchen vocabulary is being reduced because people go for, and demand, what they like rather than what is available.

I loved as a child going into the back garden and harvesting fresh peas, beans, potatoes, fruit or whatever was in season. I was glad when I moved across here that my partner's family were intend of having a sizeable vegetable patch in their renovated back garden. So for a while I again ate some food picked within an hour of eating. It's harder know I live in a flat but I do all I can to reduce my food miles, farmers markets, checking labels, buying fresh rather than untracable processed foodstuffs.

The need to include our shipping emmissions in climate change targets is essential. To ignore such a sizeable chunk of what we contribute to the problem is ignorant, self-indulgent and needs to be remedied. Therefore I applaud every member of the House of Commons who will vote that aviation and shipping is included in the target. They may have different ways of looking at it and how to acheive it but at least getting it out there is a giant step forward.