Tesco sleeping bag

[Apac]

Great. I now have a moral crisis.

As a climber, I rely on quality down jackets (Rab) and sleeping bags (Alpkit) for cold dry conditions. I love my synthetics but, in the right conditions, performance-to-weight ratio is better with down.

Is this maybe something where a 'logo'/standard could be used to tell you where/how the down is sourced?

Anyway - I've already got my down stuff so my (poor) excuse is that I didn't know at the time.

I wouldnt feel to guilty mate i have a down jacket and sum old pillows i have them now so would be a waste to chuck them, in future tho inless clearly marked as harvested from nests ect.. i wont consider down..

 

[scottishwolf]

I got a 58' pattern 'down filled' bag second hand latley coz it's all I can afford at the minute and I love it, but this thread has definatley made me think twice about future purchases. I only wish there was a veg box scheme where I live, might be worth talking to a few people though as I used to work on farms....watch this space

 

[billycan]

I had a look at the down bag in tescos yesterday, i'm not sure i would spend £35 quid on it, i would rather save a little bit more a get one from Alpkit- no affiliation etc. It would be interesting to see what it was like...

 

[anthonyyy]

Thanks janiepopps. I diden't know about that.

 

[Jedadiah]

Hey Tadpole,

I'm glad to hear your thinking of getting into the Vege-box thing. My good self, the long haired Colonel and Jed Jnr have been taking deliveries from 'River Ford Organic veg scheme. We get a 'Large' veg box and a 'large' Fruit box delivered every two weeks and a bag of potatoes every month. Theres plenty in there and it costs around £40-£50 a month. You also get recipies, vege's you may not normally buy as well as most you ususlly do, a couple of recipies and a news letter. The box's they are delivered in are re-usable.

We also use our local butcher rather that a supermarket, as he uses local produce and it's fresh with no additives (same as the organic fruit and Veg). We support the local community through this and we consume quality food!

Now all we have to do is live with the carbon footprint we have made by getting the veg delivered!

I would highly recommend River Ford, all our meals just have so much more flavour than Supermarket produce and is cheaper than their so-called Organic ranges.

 

[gregorach]

Now all we have to do is live with the carbon footprint we have made by getting the veg delivered!

Getting it delivered is much better than driving to get it yourself, at least.

 

[Dougster]

all our meals just have so much more flavour than Supermarket produce and is cheaper than their so-called Organic ranges.

My children won't eat veg from the supermarket now - YUK, is all I get for the cheap stuff.

 

[Greg]

Hey Tadpole,

I'm glad to hear your thinking of getting into the Vege-box thing. My good self, the long haired Colonel and Jed Jnr have been taking deliveries from 'River Ford Organic veg scheme. We get a 'Large' veg box and a 'large' Fruit box delivered every two weeks and a bag of potatoes every month. Theres plenty in there and it costs around £40-£50 a month. You also get recipies, vege's you may not normally buy as well as most you ususlly do, a couple of recipies and a news letter. The box's they are delivered in are re-usable.

We also use our local butcher rather that a supermarket, as he uses local produce and it's fresh with no additives (same as the organic fruit and Veg). We support the local community through this and we consume quality food!

Now all we have to do is live with the carbon footprint we have made by getting the veg delivered!

I would highly recommend River Ford, all our meals just have so much more flavour than Supermarket produce and is cheaper than their so-called Organic ranges.

Do you know if they operate in Pembrokeshire and if so how would I go about getting in contact with River Ford?

 

[Greg]

Don't know if you're aware how down is, ummm, gathered??

Its a pretty horrible process of plucking the down feathers from a living duck, up to 10 times throughout it's life. Please google it before you run out to grab a bargain.

Sorry, this is a personal rant of mine....

j

I learn something new every time I log onto this site, its amazing!
BCUK :You_Rock_

 

[Jodie]

Riverford are indeed fantastic and have some great recipes on their
site at http://www.riverford.co.uk

Scroll down to the bottomish, click on the "Find your local box scheme"
button and put your postcode in the dialogue box - fingers crossed.

I certainly had no idea about how down was collected - although I'd guessed
that the birds might not have died of old age in their own beds surrounded by
loved ones, I did at least think they probably would be dead and wouldn't be
aware of the plucking!

 

[Tadpole]

Now all we have to do is live with the carbon footprint we have made by getting the veg delivered!

I ordered my veg box, and wait with pleasant anticipation for Tuesday. Ok it is coming from a hundred miles away, but having emailed the company who tell me that there are upwards of 300 people on “my route” lorries take it to my local distribution agent (in Avonmouth) and from there it is 8 miles to my house. I can guarantee that it is fewer food miles than my local supermarket, I’ve worked for two distribution depots one in Birmingham and one in Bristol, the miles that your average bit of cheese covers would shock most people and for vegetables they cover thousands of miles before they even get into the out of town supermarket.

Many years ago I worked at the distribution end of the food chain for a big shopping chain (think knickers and St Michael) most food was triple handled, i.e. handled at least three times.
The lorry’s (from farms, manufactures and the like) would go to main depots on pallets, it would be split and sent out to smaller depots (still on pallets but with goods from other companies making up a full load). At the other end of a couple of hundred mile journey the pallets would be taken off, then individually store picked and loaded in to roll cages and put back on lorries and sent out to smaller local distribution depots and then on to the stores. Bristol would sent bulk spuds from Devon to Faversham to be packed and washed, and Faversham would sent a lorry load of pallets with bags of spuds back to Bristol depots to be sent to the shops, including the shops in Devon. Christmas cakes direct from Scotland would arrive in Bristol. It would be sorted in the Bristol warehouse and then shipped all over the country including back to Scotland. A 1000 mile round trip would be normal, just to get it into the shop even for food grown locally.

 

[Mikey P]

Thats the whole point of a sleeping bag isn't it

Heh-heh...I walked into that one...

 

[waynerck]

ok so moving swiftly along, does anyone know anything about these sleeping bags is it any good ,im thinking about getting one.

ps. duck is tasty

 

[capacious]

Many years ago I worked at the distribution end of the food chain for a big shopping chain (think knickers and St Michael) most food was triple handled, i.e. handled at least three times.
The lorry’s (from farms, manufactures and the like) would go to main depots on pallets, it would be split and sent out to smaller depots (still on pallets but with goods from other companies making up a full load). At the other end of a couple of hundred mile journey the pallets would be taken off, then individually store picked and loaded in to roll cages and put back on lorries and sent out to smaller local distribution depots and then on to the stores. Bristol would sent bulk spuds from Devon to Faversham to be packed and washed, and Faversham would sent a lorry load of pallets with bags of spuds back to Bristol depots to be sent to the shops, including the shops in Devon. Christmas cakes direct from Scotland would arrive in Bristol. It would be sorted in the Bristol warehouse and then shipped all over the country including back to Scotland. A 1000 mile round trip would be normal, just to get it into the shop even for food grown locally.

That's NOTHING! I have a friend, whom I have every confidence in that this is true, who says that once he was at his nearest wholesalers when a lorry from spain arrived containing 30 tonnes of spanish onions. He got talking with the driver and discovered that he was on his way from South Wales to Israel to collect 30 tonnes of Spanish onions. Can you guess where he was taking them?


.......Spain

 

[mojofilter]

Id rather get down from a duck than down from an elephant anyday!

Looks to be a bargain if it compresses well!

 

[BobG]

So can someone please supply a full life cycle analysis of the environmental damage caused by a) the duck plucking industry and b) the oil industry (the source of synthetic materials). Then, and only then, could we make an informed judgement about whether down collection is crueler than synthetics production.

 

[mr dazzler]

Not wanting to start an argument but cheaper is never cheap. Be it a knife with a plastic handle or a down sleeping bag.

I dont want to argue either but thats right, someone else has to lose out somewhere so that someone else can get some more millions of dollar's or pound's or whatever profit's, or continue to enjoy an unending flow (this season's fashions or trend's ) of unrealistically cheap and shoddy ornament's garments and gadget's imported from overseas. My ex boss was one of americas forbes 400 richest men (somewhere over $700, 000,000 personal fortune??) He paid crap wages yet still sponsored golf tournament's. Like the old saying buy good buy once. I have disston saws that are 140 years old and still perfect, you could eat off them . They cost a lot when new (I am not the original owner BTW!!), maybe equivalent of 2 weeks wages but they were made to last not be thrown after a week, buying one wasnt an on the spur of the moment thing, you had to know it was what you wanted and were willing to pay the true value of what it cost to make (and Henry Disston was known for trying to keep his prices affordable, and being relentless in his pursuit of excelent quality and innovation. He was also known and respected as a fair and generous employer and philanthropist who paid excellent wages). If you spend a lot on things you treasure them much more, not easy come easy go easy credit easy debt, especially if you know the person who made the item for you. I had one of Britains top smiths make me some tools from recycled steel, and they are still good after nearly 20 years and wont wear out in my lifetime. BUT my wife went nuts when she knew the cost (nearly £200) I'd rather have a house with a few real good quality stuff than lots of chapo junk. The illusion that the world owes you a bargain has meant that if a real craftsman or woman charges a realistic price folks think theyre ripping them off when you can go to the retail park. And why spend £90 on a pair of fairy slippers (trainers ). What happens to research and developement? A lot of stuff imported from the east is copied copied and copied again (usually badly) When you bought stuff at one time part of the profit went to R&D, new ideas and improvements. Consumerism doesnt help free enterprise, it actually strangles it.