Compost and cider

We don’t mean to be gloomy, but … as a species, Homo sapiens faces three existential crises:

1) Climate change;

2) Decline of biodiversity;

3) Mango flavoured cider.

Focusing on the first two items to begin with, as they may be marginally more important than the third, of all the stupid things we do to trash the planet, it would be difficult to find one as damaging as mining peat. Not only do peat bogs store a huge amounts of carbon - approximately 30% of the planet's terrestrial carbon is stored in peat bogs, which cover just 3% of the world's surface - but they are also one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Digging it up, whether to use as compost or as fuel, releases all that carbon back into the atmosphere. Digging it up also destroys all that biodiversity. A Double Whammy of damage and stupidity. It's a topic that irks us (as you'll know if you read this blog; we ranted on this very same subject about a year ago - Of Saints and Sinners), largely because it's totally unnecessary, as there are perfectly good alternatives.

Eleven years ago, the government requested or suggested the horticultural industry phase out use of peat and in those eleven years just about bugger all has happened. There are peat-free alternatives available, but we continue to use the peat-based versions because that's what we’re used to, because garden centres continue to sell it, some “experts” continue to peddle it, manufacturers continue to produce it. And it really isn't necessary; there ARE perfectly good alternatives. If Monty Don, Alys Fowler and our friends at the Norfolk School of Gardening can manage without it - all of whom make a living from gardening - then us amateurs can probably muck along too.

Which we'll have to, because - at long last - the Government is going something about it. From 2024 sales of peat based compost will be banned. Although there are still gaps and loopholes in the plans - the burning of peat moors so grouse can be shot more easily is one such glaring omission - it's a big step in the right direction. Credit where it's due.

And what of mankind's third existential crisis, our own particular bugbear, mango-flavoured cider?

Apples grow very well in these islands, which is why about half of the world’s 5,000 recorded apple varieties come from these shores. Apples grow in orchards and unsprayed orchards are havens of biodiversity. Real cider, made only with local, unsprayed apples has low food miles, a low carbon footprint and has helped sustain orchard biodiversity. Main headline: real cider can be good for the planet or, at the very least, not bad for it. Mango flavoured cider, on the other hand …

Mangoes are grown in India, also in China, Thailand, and Mexico. India is 4,200 miles away, China and Thailand even further. Mexico is a bit closer but is still 3,400 miles away. That's a bit further than the location of the orchard furthest from our home from where we get apples, a whopping 35 miles away. So, as you sit in the pub (now that we're allowed inside once again) and the sweet mango flavoured alcopop slips down your throat - don't let it ruin your evening - you are contributing to our climate crisis. And let’s not even get started on the use of apple juice concentrate, which may be the other major ingredient of your mango “cider” (along with sugar and water). (Actually, we realise that if you're reading this it's unlikely that the very idea of a mango cider really appeals, so apologies for preaching to the converted.)

We do know a little about the biodiversity value of orchards in this country. We also know we know very little about the biodiversity value of mango plantations.

In the 1960s and 1970s Poland was a very different country to the vibrant place it is today (albeit with a dangerously illiberal government) and back then the Polkska Agencja Prasowa, the Polish Press Agency, couldn't afford to have correspondents everywhere. The man they sent to Africa - one journalist to cover the entire continent - was Ryszard Kapuściński who, unlike his counterparts from the western press, took the trouble to try to understand the place and its people. His despatches included a charming and perspicacious article about the central rôle huge mango trees play in the life of African villages, the densely shaded area beneath their canopies forming an arena for … everything; pre-school breakfast club, ante-natal class, the market, basket weaving factory, ladies-who-lunch venue, local council chamber (a lot cooler than the corrugated iron roofed structure built on the edge of the village, a location convenient for no one), polling station, after-school club, general gathering point, evening and late night bar. Basically, any activity involving more than one person happens under the mango tree. Not only central to cultural life, we can imagine that mango trees, like our own mighty oaks, are also vibrant ecosystems in their own right, providing shelter and habitat to literally hundreds of species.

However … the mango juice in your mango alcopop doesn't come from these cultural beacons, it comes from regimented plantations. A cursory glance through the internet reveals that Potassium Nitrate (KNO3, for those of us who've forgotten our chemistry) is commonly applied in mango plantations, along with other pesticides. It’s a common problem in monocultures; the natural checks and balances that allow mangoes to grow and ripen abundantly on one or two trees in the middle of a village, where an abundant variety of birds and invertebrates doesn’t allow particular pests to flourish, are absent in plantations dominated by one type of tree. We do hope this doesn't completely ruin your night out, but your mango “cider” probably isn't doing a huge amount for the world's biodiversity, either.

So, peat compost and mango cider have a lot in common; they both contribute to climate change, they both inhibit biodiversity. And on the taste front, it's all a matter of ppersonal perspective and preference. Fruit flavoured ciders aren’t our thing but there are some well-made examples - do both Pilton and Little Pomona make a cider with quince? - and if you do hanker after the sweetness another fruit imparts we encourage you to choose raspberry or strawberry, something that grows a little closer to home, and in a cider made with real apples from healthy, vibrant, local orchards. For the sake of our planet (as well as your taste buds).

Apologies for another rant.