Kokova Magazine

Linda Moss is the author of Organic Places to Stay and Greenhouse PR love that she has been passionate about organic holidays for the last 12 years - working her socks off to produce a wonderful guide and website and never giving up - despite difficulties along the way.

The outcome is a wonderful guide with truly wonderful organic places to stay.

Greenhouse PR, the green and ethical PR agency, who tirelessly campaign on issues promoting an eco and sustainable lifestyle, have nominated Linda Moss as Organic September's Eco Hero.

Greenhouse PR caught up with Linda to get some inspiring answers and fun facts.

What inspires you?
What inspires me is the dedication that drives some people to act on their own initiative and who have the courage to support something they believe in.

What makes you angry?
What makes me angry is the way we've been duped into thinking it's okay to go into the supermarket to fill our trolleys with processed foodstuffs rather than to eat real natural food.

If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?
If I were Prime Minister, the first thing I would change is the way our food is produced and promoted. I would make a stand against the big food companies, ban all additives and promote the idea that food should be wholesome and unadulterated.

Can individuals really make a difference?
Throughout history, there are examples of how an idea that starts with an individual quickly spreads to other individuals and generates a process of change. Today, we have the power of the internet so it's much easier for individuals to communicate with each other about the differences they would like to see.

What is your personal mission?
My personal mission is to try to raise awareness about the importance of organic food. It is a fundamental notion that healthy food equals healthy people. It has become my life's work to promote the principles of eating organically, not as a lifestyle choice for the few but as a basic right of access to nutritious food for all of us.

What's more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?
What is most urgent today is the need for change from the inside - a renaissance in the way each and every one of us thinks that will allow us to see our way out of our current problems

What is the best meal you've had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?
Many years ago in northern Tenerife with my husband and three young children, we were driving through Teide National Park looking for somewhere to eat when we came across a little place miles from anywhere. Not being able to speak the language, we were taken into the kitchen by the friendly owners and shown what was cooking in a huge pan. Minutes later, hunks of freshly baked bread in hand, we were served generous bowls of this traditional local stew. Made with pumpkin, cabbage, sweet potatoes, pork and beef, it was delicious. The hospitality and the simple rustic food left an impression that remains to this day.

Can you describe a typical work day? (i.e. what you do within that day and who you have potential to influence etc.)
Like most self employed people, my business is my life and a twelve hour day is normal. My day is spent is doing all the things that need to be done to keep the business going - answering emails, keeping the website up to date, marketing the site, arranging the advertising, doing the accounts, finding new listings, planning for the future, etc. In promoting the ethos of my business I have the potential to influence every person I talk to, because the subject of food and what we eat affects us all.

How do you define success?
While it's important to be able to generate sufficient income to cover basic needs, true success is internal and comes from being the sort of person who can positively influence others or make a positive difference to someone else’s life.

What's the best advice anyone's ever given you?
I think the best advice came from my husband on the day he told me not to 'work for my business' but to 'let it work for me'. It is all too easy to take a passionate idea, use it as the basis for setting up a business and then dedicate your life to it, lavishing it with time and effort and forgiving it for not giving the kind of returns any normal business would be expected to deliver. I now understand that it’s important when running a business to treat it as a business, without letting go of the motivation that set it up in the first place.

What's your favourite book or film of late?
My favourite book is How To Eat Like There's No Tomorrow, by Robert Elliott. Rob runs a real food B&B in Herefordshire with his partner Sally. Together they've created an ethos based on forsaking modern processed foods in favour of the real thing - in other words all the nutritious foods that sustained us up to the time that industry took over and processed our food into something that's good for company profits but bad for human health.

What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?
There are many ideas about what we can do to protect the planet, but the truth is that to protect the planet from now on we have to rethink how we live our lives. What I'd like to see is a new understanding of the importance of food to our human culture, because if we can change the way we see our food, and if we can once again be connected to how it is produced, we will reconnect ourselves with the planet that supports us.

For more information visit www.organicholidays.co.uk