The first thing that grabs you about kwaLapa at the Montebello Design Centre in Newlands, is their catchy byline – telling the stories of food.

Its meaning is lost on me, until I begin scanning the shelves and stumble across some of the initial 'stories' about where the store sources its foods that the team behind the store have begun placing on the walls. Then I begin to understand that kwalapa isn't just a store. It's a community of people in the business of telling and selling the stories of food.

The organic wholefoods delicatessen and store has only recently opened its doors, but you can plainly see that it's a matter of time before word of mouth and the green grapevine has the place fairly buzzing for morning coffee and lunches, particularly since Organic Living in Plumstead closed its restaurant (it remains a popular health store up at Constantia Village) and the southern suburbs have been itching for a replacement...

Waverley Hills is on the R46 between Tulbagh and Ceres and lies virtually at the foot of the Witzenberg Mountains.

But Waverley Hills benefits from lying right on a natural water shed area - you're made more than aware of this as you drive throught the gates, or perhaps because spring is imminent, because wild flowers and grasses were growing ramapantly on either side of the sand road that wound its way up to the prominent wine cellar and restaurant.

Waverley Hills has been on urban sprout's directory , as one of few organic wines in the country, for some time. We've even managed to sample their olive oil, for they have olive groves too, at a couple of Cape Town food exhibitions, but not the wine, for some inexplicable reason – perhaps we haven't tried hard enough?

But we recently spent a quiet week in Tulbagh, and Waverley Hills made it to the top of our 'organic must do's' list, even if we didn't get there until en route back to Cape Town. Tulbagh, for those of you who haven't been there yet, is an utterly gorgeous little town, not even two hours' from Cape Town, and obviously perfect for a weekend away...

World's tallest wooden building for Norway. Oslo-based Reiulf Ramstad Architects are responsible for the ambitious project, which will be situated in downtown Kirkenes on the historical ground of a multiethnic area. To achieve carbon neutrality, Reiulf Ramstad Architects is relying on integrated systems that also enable it- to adapt to the changing seasons and climate. The firm also plans to reuse biodegradable household and industrial waste to produce biogas. [inhabitat]

Who is the greenest grocer in SA? According to the Sunday Times Top Brands survey, the company that has done the most to promote 'green' in South Africa is Pick n Pay, followed by Woolworths. [the times] [bizcommunity] ...

Blog kindly written by Carey Finn.

These days, organic farming is more popular than ever. With organic box schemes, growing organic sections in supermarkets, and an increasing awareness on the part of consumers, it looks like organic is here to stay, and will only grow further. Certainly, organic farming, especially when it incorporates principles of permaculture and biodynamism, is a massive improvement on modern agriculture with its poisons and exploitations.

But it should not be seen as the plateau – as Masanobu Fukuoka, a wise farmer from Japan said, we have many more steps to take to return to the source; in other words, we have a way to go before we are truly growing our food in harmony with nature...

Radically radish, the 2-tone sunrise smoothie, wild mushroom soup, brazil nut milk, Thai coleslaw and lemon tart with a twist (it's raw!) are what you can expect from Peter and Beryn Daniel's raw food recipe book entitled Rawlicious.

We fell on this book when it arrived. It really re-inspired us to eat more raw foods (we've always juiced and had smoothies and salads, but other dishes in Rawlicious are pretty enticing), particularly when I realised how easy some of the foods are to prepare.

It's brimming over with easy, delicious food that is healthy for you and goes a long way to...

Why go nuclear – better and cheaper options exist
Why are Eskom and the departments of energy and public enterprises so grimly determined to generate electricity by the most expensive and complicated of all options -- atomic power stations and their high-level radioactive waste depositaries?

There are two bombshell facts for taxpayers and neighbouring residents. The first is that the PBMR generates more than 10 times the volume of radioactive waste than any other known type of atomic reactor. The second fact never aired by PBMR promoters is that its defects include the radioactive gas by-products of nuclear fusion, such as a radioactive isotope of xenon, seeping and percolating through their famous pebbles and escaping into the coolant. [m&g] [there is an alternative; the california option]

Organic food study slammed by Soil Association A food fight has broken out over the health benefits — or lack thereof — of organic produce. The UK Food Standards Agency released a report saying that organic food did nothing to improve health or offer any more nutritional benefits than non-organic food

- and what we can do about it.

Robyn O'Brien is an American mother. She is also a mother of children with allergies, something American (and South African) children appear to be suffering from at an alarmingly increasing rate. And Robyn wrote a book about why.

Her delvings have led to her being called the 'Erin Brokovich of the food industry' because she exposes the hidden dangers in the apparently 'safe' ingredients we feed our children and families.

1 out of every 3 American children today has allergies, asthma, ADHD or autism. There has been a 400% increase in allergies, a 300% increase in asthma, and a 400% increase in ADHD in the last 20 years.

We live in a world of pre-packaged, microwave heat-able, tasteless, soulless, pretty much inedible food.

And we like it like that because it is easy, it requires no effort on our part, and pretty much allows us to fit into a certain category, market, or demographic – and we don't have to think for ourselves. Since the flaws, in this current economic system have become apparent– with the crises and all, the question now is, are there any means by which the static manufacturer/retailer/consumer model can be broken?

And there is.

In Cape Town we've already supported the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) project, and this winter, Slow Food Cape Town, in conjunction with the Sustainability Institute, and farmers Eric Swarts and Erick Zenzele, will run the winter CSA bag project from 30th June through 18th August.

You haven’t met before?
No, seriously, you haven’t?

Well, then… meet the Cape Town Green Map.
What’s that? You have no idea what it is? Well then, it seems a proper introduction is in order. May I formally introduce to you Africa’s first, very exciting, helpful, online, interactive Green Map.

A map, I hear you say? Well, as with all maps, it does provide direction – but with a difference.

No other map has attempted to chart and detail the city of Cape Town from a green angle before. This particular one is unique in that way. The map can be used to make greener lifestyle choices, and help people to make more informed decisions on how to live sustainably. It is also different because it is on-going, evolving and is constantly being updated.

In a landslide victory for Biowatch, the Constitutional Court, after a nine-year legal battle, has finally set aside the costs order awarded against Biowatch in favour of Monsanto and further awarded legal costs in the High Court hearings in favour of Biowatch and against the state. All eleven judges were unanimous in their decision!

We've been following the Biowatch case and blogged about it here, here, here and here.

We also blogged about their campaign against the GM potato here

Without bodies like Biowatch, who campaign in the public interest for sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, biosafety and farmers' rights, the public would not have a voice. The consequences of this final ruling by the Constitutional Court are enormous.