With the price of food literally taking a hike (prices are on the up and food shortages are forecast) it makes both green and money sense to grow your own in your back garden – not only will your salad and vegetables be organic, but you can pick them moments before you eat them!

Suburban vegetable gardens are becoming immensely popular. It’s rewarding, healthy and you don’t need a large garden to grow your favourite fruit and vegetables; containers will do.

For many of us, however, this sounds like a great deal of effort, particularly if you’ve never grown anything before. But there are ways to have your own vegetable garden with minimum effort...

Saturday was my third outing as "the organic veggie guy" selling fresh produce at the new Constantia County Living Market at the Cape Academy in Tokai. It was a very slow day, measured in sales, but a fulfilling day nonetheless.

My Mon-Fri job is spent in front of a 17-inch computer screen, hammering out code to automate the testing of software for corporate clients - an activity far removed from the natural world. So how does an IT guy by week, become an organic veggie salesman by weekend and why?

I've been a GIY (grow it yourself) fanatic for a few seasons and also know a few people involved in the organic scene in Cape Town, so when friend and market organiser, Jen Kummer, needed a produce stand for the market I put her in touch with someone who could help. As it turned out he was committed to other markets and, at the last minute, I was offered the job!

The simple, but intriguing invitation printed on brown paper leaflets and distributed at organic and health shops around Cape Town suggested this might be an open garden day with a difference.

And although the "earth artists unplugged open garden festival at valley house" in Constantia had some visitors that were obviously part of the mink and manure set I found Jenny Louw, winner of Top Billing Landscaper of 2006, to be refreshingly different.

I identified immediately with her gardening philosophy outlined in her information pamphlet and reiterated by her during the tour of her incredible garden:

"Our approach has been one that combines what we call intelligent, emotional and spiritual gardening... it is about the hundreds of different magical processes, cycles and events that take place around us all the time."

future of foodSaw this brilliantly shocking movie again at the Labia last night. It really is a must see if you care about your health, the environment or the corporate take-over of the food supply.

I've been thinking about what it is that really worries me about Genetic Modification. I am no Luddite - I believe in technology and medical progress. No one can argue that anti-biotics, vaccines, heart bypass operations etc have their place in modern society (although there are some questionable motives behind the drug companies promoting the technologies... another topic).

I think that GM does have a place in finding cures for incurable diseases. But the differences betw GM modification in the biomedical industry and the biofood industry was poignently highlighted in the future of food: a pill can't escape into the wild and start replicating itself; plants readily do this!

A lot of people may already know that the sale of The Body Shop is old news, the deal having been concluded back in March 06. I'm not sure why Barry Ronge decided to take up the torch now? I guess the sale by Anita Roddick of The Body Shop for £652m was just the kind of story that Ronge needed to substantiate the contradiction he feels the term "ethical consumerism" portrays.

Ronge's article ignores completely the hugely positive changes that both The Body Shop and Anita Roddick have brought into the world. To compare making a profit on the sale of a company that has changed thousands of disenfranchised peoples lives for the better to organised crime is just ludicrous.

Yes, there is greenwash out there. But rather pick up any oil companies annual report to find plenty of "contradictions in terms".