Being eco-friendly, eating primarily organic food and living generally a healthy lifestyle doesn’t unfortunately stop you from picking up flu viruses. And the virus I have been battling this week is the worst I have ever experienced. So much so that hubby had to take me to the walk in centre at our local hospital last night because as I developed the added bonus of an ear infection. The duty doctor kindly prescribed penicillin and jokingly warned that it will get much worse before it gets better and to expect my eardrum to burst at some point; which it did spectacularly at 3am this morning.

I have never experienced pain like this in my life –I would have to say that even child birth was less painful. And at least, with childbirth, there is joy at the end.

Anyway ... despite all of this I am still a big advocate for buying and eating locally produced and organic produce. It typically doesn’t cost more and it tastes better.

One of the huge advantages of organic foods is that they haven't been doused in pesticides. Organic farms ban artificial pesticides.

In the UK, 31,000 tonnes of pesticides are blasted on to farmland every year, and 25% of food carries residues of these chemicals, created to kill pests and weeds. Non-organic fruit and veg is covered in the stuff and it won't all wash off. Pesticide residues turn up, not just on fruit and vegetables, but in bread, baby food and other products. Governments claim that there's no risk to health from these pesticide traces, but wouldn't you rather feed yourself and your children on food that's pesticide free?

And if you care more about the environment that your own and your families health, and I care about both by the way, organic foods also do the environment a good turn when you choose them. Intensive farming methods erode soil, destroy ancient hedgerows, and decimate wild life. Organic farming looks after the environment.

Intensive farming is extremely cruel to farm animals – think of battery chickens, pigs kept in farrowing pens, cows milked to exhaustion. Another of the indisputable advantages of organic foods is that organic farming methods put humane treatment top of the agenda.

Take Apples for example. 76% of apples consumed in the UK come from overseas. Imported apples from the US (the US produce and export over 135,000 tons of non-organic apples per year) travel 3,700 miles to the UK. It seems a long way to travel when you can buy cheaper and tastier locally produced organic apples right here in the UK.

And finally; buying organic produce is not a major lifestyle change which is what all of us at http://www.click4carbon.com advocate. It is little things like this that make a big difference in life and collectively it will improve the environment we live in.

I will report more on sourcing organic produce in future blogs.

And now, I’m back to the sofa with my hot water bottle…..and hubby is off to take the recycling. Hopefully he’ll also ‘Russell’ up a nice healthy dinner for us tonight…..

Love Claire xxx