Sunday, 26 May 2013
Brazil Announces Funding for a Second Round of Multidisciplinary Research Centers
The 17 groups will each receive up to 11 years of support
Age Brings Happiness
Do people get happier or crankier as they age? Stereotypes of crotchety neighbors aside, scientists have been trying to answer this question for decades, and the results have been conflicting. Now a study of several thousand Americans born between 1885 and 1980 reveals that well-being indeed increases with age--but overall happiness depends on when a person was born.
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How does the brain react to a romantic breakup?
How does the brain react to a romantic breakup?
Neuroimaging studies have found that being rejected, even by a stranger, activates many of the same regions in the brain as when experiencing physical pain.
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Neuroimaging studies have found that being rejected, even by a stranger, activates many of the same regions in the brain as when experiencing physical pain.
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Should I Stay or Should I Go – Cognitive Conflict in Multi-Attribute Signals Probed with East and West German ‘Ampelmännchen’ Traffic Signs
by Claudia Peschke, Bettina Olk, Claus C. Hilgetag
In post-unification Germany, lingering conflicts between East and West Germans have found some unusual outlets, including a debate of the relative superiority of East and West German ‘Ampelmännchen’ pedestrian traffic signs. In our study, we probed the visual efficacy of East and West German Ampelmännchen signs with a Stroop-like conflict task. We found that the distinctive East German man-with-hat figures were more resistant to conflicting information, and in turn produced greater interference when used as distractors. These findings demonstrate Stroop-like effects for real-life objects, such as traffic signs, and underline the practical utility of an East German icon.
In post-unification Germany, lingering conflicts between East and West Germans have found some unusual outlets, including a debate of the relative superiority of East and West German ‘Ampelmännchen’ pedestrian traffic signs. In our study, we probed the visual efficacy of East and West German Ampelmännchen signs with a Stroop-like conflict task. We found that the distinctive East German man-with-hat figures were more resistant to conflicting information, and in turn produced greater interference when used as distractors. These findings demonstrate Stroop-like effects for real-life objects, such as traffic signs, and underline the practical utility of an East German icon.
Deforestation Dries Up Dams Threatening Hydropower
Deforestation may lead to electricity shortages in tropical rainforest regions that rely heavily on hydropower, as fewer trees mean less rainfall for hydropower generation, a study shows.
What is Causing the Big Shrimp Die-Off in Asian Shrimp Farms?
A cause of a mysterious disease devastating shrimp farms across Asia since 2009 has been tracked back to a strain of a bacteria native to coastlines around the world.
The shrimp early mortality syndrome has perplexed experts for years, in a region where roughly one million people depend on shrimp farming for survival.
So far countries officially reporting the disease — also referred to as acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome — include China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, but potentially it could affect shrimp farming further afield in Asia, as well as parts of Latin America and Africa.
The shrimp early mortality syndrome has perplexed experts for years, in a region where roughly one million people depend on shrimp farming for survival.
So far countries officially reporting the disease — also referred to as acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome — include China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, but potentially it could affect shrimp farming further afield in Asia, as well as parts of Latin America and Africa.
New Anti-Staph Drugs
Bugs and infections are growing ever stronger and more resistant to the antibiotics and the like. A team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections. They describe these new agents as effectively interfering with the quorum sensing behavior of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium at the root of a host of human infections ranging from acne to life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome and sepsis.
EU imposes 2-year ban on pesticides believed responsible for mass bee deaths
EU member-states will now have to amend their existing legislation on the use of pesticides by September 30 to comply with the ban adopted by the EC on Friday.
The substances in question are clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam, used for treatment of seeds and foliage as well as for making soil more fertile. All pose "high acute risks" for bees, according to a scientific report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
European countries have been given six months to use up their current stocks of the chemicals. Scientists will then have two years to determine whether the ban helps stop declines in bee populations, after which the restriction may be reviewed. Until that point, the pesticide ban will be upheld.
The ban is “another milestone towards ensuring a healthier future for our honeybees, as bees have two important roles to play: Not only that of producing honey but primarily to be a pollinator. About 80 percent of all pollination is due to the activity of bees – this is natural and free of costs,” according to Tonio Borg, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy. Bees “contribute over € 22 billion annually to European agriculture,” he added.
The European Commission forced its bee-protection plan through after it failed to get support from a sufficient majority of EU member-states in an April 29 vote: Only 15 out of 27 EU members supported the pesticides ban.
“In absence of an agreement between Member States, it is for the Commission to decide on the adoption of the proposed restriction,” a European Commission press release said.
The decision is a blow to two major necotinoids producers, Bayer of Germany and Switzerland's Syngenta, who maintain there is not enough evidence their products are contributing to the decline in bee populations.
The European Commission’s report also points to other factors that may be responsible for the mass bee deaths, include parasites, other pathogens, a lack of veterinary medicines or their misuse, apiculture management, environmental factors such as a lack of habitat and feed, and climate change. Prior to the ban, the European Commission allocated €3.3 million for research into the bee deaths.
The sharp decline in bee populations has taken place over the last 10-15 years, according to an EFSA report; scientists have labeled the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The issue is equally acute in the US, where according to a Department of Agriculture report, the number of colonies has plummeted from 3 million in 1990 to 2.5 million this year.
The substances in question are clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam, used for treatment of seeds and foliage as well as for making soil more fertile. All pose "high acute risks" for bees, according to a scientific report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
European countries have been given six months to use up their current stocks of the chemicals. Scientists will then have two years to determine whether the ban helps stop declines in bee populations, after which the restriction may be reviewed. Until that point, the pesticide ban will be upheld.
The ban is “another milestone towards ensuring a healthier future for our honeybees, as bees have two important roles to play: Not only that of producing honey but primarily to be a pollinator. About 80 percent of all pollination is due to the activity of bees – this is natural and free of costs,” according to Tonio Borg, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy. Bees “contribute over € 22 billion annually to European agriculture,” he added.
The European Commission forced its bee-protection plan through after it failed to get support from a sufficient majority of EU member-states in an April 29 vote: Only 15 out of 27 EU members supported the pesticides ban.
“In absence of an agreement between Member States, it is for the Commission to decide on the adoption of the proposed restriction,” a European Commission press release said.
The decision is a blow to two major necotinoids producers, Bayer of Germany and Switzerland's Syngenta, who maintain there is not enough evidence their products are contributing to the decline in bee populations.
The European Commission’s report also points to other factors that may be responsible for the mass bee deaths, include parasites, other pathogens, a lack of veterinary medicines or their misuse, apiculture management, environmental factors such as a lack of habitat and feed, and climate change. Prior to the ban, the European Commission allocated €3.3 million for research into the bee deaths.
The sharp decline in bee populations has taken place over the last 10-15 years, according to an EFSA report; scientists have labeled the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The issue is equally acute in the US, where according to a Department of Agriculture report, the number of colonies has plummeted from 3 million in 1990 to 2.5 million this year.
£4 million bill and rising to police badger cull
Taxpayers face a mounting bill for next month's badger cull because of fears over the scale of militant action by animal rights activists.
‘Monsanto is the metaphor for genetic manipulation, food chain control’
Hundreds of thousands around the world gathered on Saturday in a global move dubbed 'March Against Monsanto'.
Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on the March Against Monsanto campaign
Activists are calling for labeling of food containing GMOs and further scientific research of the effects of GMO crops that while banned in several countries over alleged health threats still remain legal in many others.
Protesters all across the US joined the march calling for a boycott of Monsanto products, following the Senate’s decision to turn down a bill which requires the labeling of GM food.
RT: What's wrong with GM food?
William Engdahl: The fundamental problem with GM food that it’s genetically and biologically unstable. There’s no genetic modification known to science and this I have from some of top scientists in the world on this question that’s stable – it’s always mutating. And No.2, all the GM products that are in the human and animal food chain over the last 20 years are modified primarily to do one thing – 80 per cent of all the GM is modified to accept chemicals, the pesticides. Monsanto Roundup being the most prominent of them, which are highly, highly toxic and they’re modified to be resistant to that deadly chemical so that it kills everything inside, except the Monsanto corn or the Monsanto soy beans or what will you. All those chemicals are equally as dangerous to the human food chain as the GMO seeds themselves.
RT: Why have so many people in different countries taken to the streets to demonstrate against this US company now?
WE: I think for one very simple reason Monsanto is the company. They are the world’s largest owner of seeds. They’ve bought up all those small seed companies to control those seed varieties of wheat, of rice, of corn and soy beans and so forth. No.2 Monsanto bought up a company that gives Monsanto a patent on what are called terminator seeds, which self-destruct, the seeds commit suicide after one harvest season. So, farmers are unable to take part of their seeds and replant them for the next harvest season – something that never in history has been possible before this Monsanto development. But Monsanto is the metaphor for genetic manipulation of the food chain and they are by far the largest – of course, you have other companies like Syngenta in Switzerland, you have BASF, which is a partner of Monsanto in Germany. You have Dow and DuPont Chemical. But Monsanto is really the giant of the four horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse.
RT: Why is the US government so keen to protect the interests of Monsanto?
WE: I think this is the strategic interest of the US agribusiness lobby, the lobby of Bush senior as president in 1992. Monsanto went to the White House and had a closed-door meeting with Bush, and got him to agree to make sure there are no government tests whatsoever on the health and safety of GMO products before they were released to the commercial public. That was called the doctrine of 'substantial equivalence'– it’s a fraudulent doctrine if you just analyze the name, it’s by no means scientifically rigorous. So there have been up until recently no long-term tests beyond what ninety day short-term studies Monsanto gave to the government to say ‘everything is hunky-dory.’ It turns out evidence has been uncovered by whistleblowers who say we were forced to alter the scientific data for Monsanto so it showed that the results were positive. You have the fox guarding the chicken house here with Monsanto verifying the health and safety of its own products. But it’s the idea of monopoly on seeds, a patent on monopoly on seeds worldwide that makes the whole question of Monsanto and GMO question so extremely important in so many countries. They are trying everything to bribe and influence the European commission in Brussels. A study came out in France at the Caen university September last year, it was published in the PEW review , a serious scientific journal of toxicology , by Dr Seralini and his French colleagues, showing that rats fed with GMO Monsanto rice , or corn rather, had huge incidents of cancer tumors compared with non GMO rats. They had enormous organ damage and death rates five times that of normal rats. The study was suppressed by the EU food safety administration. It turns out that most of the scientists on the panel had ties to Monsanto. So it’s just the corruption that Monsanto tries to infiltrate its way, they try to block labeling in California, because that would damage their whole product situation in America. People are beginning to wake up. I think there is change going on not only against the Monsanto but biological engineering of our food chain.
HSBC under fire from all sides at AGM
Bank sees 11% of investors vote down the pay report as it is attacked by environmental campaigners, former staff – and Bill Oddie
Angry shareholders of HSBC on Friday bombarded the group's board with barrage of accusations ranging from financing Mexican drug cartels to supporting tax havens, slashing jobs and mis-selling products.
At the banking firm's first annual general meeting since paying a record $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in penalties to settle US money laundering claims, they also rounded on the directors with charges of hunting down whistleblowers and grabbing bloated bonuses.
Environmentalist and broadcaster Bill Oddie joined the tirade of attacks in London's Barbican Centre, accusing the bank of financing the desecration of forests in Sarawak and Borneo. Outside the AGM, campaigners from World Development Network confronted bankers with champagne flutes filled with 'carbon bubbles' to protest against the bankrolling of climate change, while street theatre performers heckled arriving executives.
Inside the auditorium, one shareholder unfolded an orange jumpsuit and suggested that HSBC board members swap their suits and ties for prisoner garb. A former staff member, now retired, appealed to the board to claw back bonuses paid to directors following scandals such as the mis-selling of PPI and interest rate swaps, and warned that interest-only mortgages would be the next scandal to envelop the bank.
HSBC chairman Douglas Flint told the hundreds of shareholders present that the bank had "unreservedly apologised" and was "humbled and horrified to find failings of such magnitude" after a year which had been "the most difficult that I or any of my colleagues have faced." HSBC has since established a "financial system vulnerabilities committee" to better detect crime and misdemeanours in future. Chief executive Stuart Gulliver said he had joined the bank 33 years ago when it was "a kitemark for quality and that's what we want to get back to".
But the apologies failed to quash an embarrassing 11% shareholder rebellion against HSBC's executive pay report. The bank's pay schemehad handed Gulliver a near £2m annual bonus despite the bank's involvement in a string of high profile scandals.
David Haslam of Methodist Tax Justice Network won cheers from scores of small shareholders after he asked Flint if he recognised the "very strong feeling that bankers are paid too much money".
But the bank said Gulliver's bonus was awarded in recognition of his "strong leadership" and "personal behaviour" in tackling the money laundering revelations.
Gulliver's total pay and benefits for 2012 came in at £7.4m - more than 500 times that earned by the bank's lowest paid workers. A total of 204 HSBC staff were handed more than £1m in pay and benefits last year.
Britain's biggest union, Unite, described the scale of the pay as an "outrage" given that some of its members at HSBC take home £14,000 a year and are facing changes to their pension schemes and holidays.
In an AGM that divided between conventional shareholders worried about scrip dividends and earnings per share, pitted against protestors who had gained a platform by purchasing a few shares, Gulliver said the bank's top priority was returns to shareholders, followed by global standards and streamlining the business. Flint added that despite "tumultous times" the bank's share price had risen from 514p a share to 742p since the preceding AGM, and that its market value had jumped from $144.6bn to $208.1bn.
Bill Oddie said that while HSBC had offered numerous apologies for the financial damage it had caused, "there has been no mention of the environmental damage it is causing to wildlife habitats. That is a major crime, and HSBC has been financing that crime. In Sarawak, 95% of the natural forest has been damaged. It is a huge desecration, and at root it has been funded by HSBC." Earlier this year Oddie was evicted from HSBC's London headquarters when filming a spoof documentary examining "the natural habitat of the HSBC banker, a predatory species driving rainforest destruction".
Gulliver said that HSBC is the first major bank to put in place a policy framework for logging and timber and promised it was not mere "lip service". He also warned Oddie: "If HSBC exits from the business, regional banks will enter and you will have no leverage over them."
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Night 7 in Sweden: Cars ablaze, police attacked as nation debates immigrant policy
Pockets of violence and vandalism continue to pose a challenge to police in Stockholm, the Swedish capital that is home to an increasingly diverse 2 million residents. "When it comes to car fires, there have been a few, spread out in various locations, but not as many as in recent days," Stockholm police spokesperson Lars Bystroem told Swedish Radio.
In Vaarberg, a suburb south of Stockholm, police were attacked by stone-throwing youths, while in Jordbro, another southern neighborhood, police resorted to teargas as they met resistance while attempting to arrest several individuals, AFP reported.
Violence has broken out in other parts of the country as well. In Orebro, a town in central Sweden, some two dozen masked youths set fire to three cars and a school and attempted to torch a police station, Reuters reported, citing police. About 200 km (124 miles) to the southwest in the city of Linkoping, several vehicles were set alight and youths tried to torch a school and a kindergarten.
Police reinforcements arrived in the capital on Friday from Sweden's second- and third-biggest cities, Gothenburg and Malmo. At the same time, neighborhood volunteer groups have been patrolling the streets in a display of vigilance against the rioters.
These initiatives have helped reduce the intensity of the riots in recent nights, Stockholm police spokesperson Kjell Lindgren said:
"With the strong presence on the streets of the good forces, and the police reinforcements, I think we are well on our way towards calmer times in the coming days." The riots began one week ago in Husby, a predominantly immigrant suburb of Stockholm, following the fatal police shooting of an elderly man who police said was brandishing a machete in his home.
Analysts believe the shooting ignited deep-seated frustration among disenfranchised youths – many of whom have not assimilated into Swedish society and are unemployed – who claim to have suffered from police brutality and racism.
Sweden has long been heralded as a model of egalitarianism and fairness. But the recent civil disturbances have sparked a heated debate among Swedes over the government’s policy on immigrants, who are flocking to the country due to its attractive social programs.
The Scandinavian country is ranked as one of Europe's most popular destinations for immigrants, both in absolute numbers and relative to its size, but critics say the new arrivals are failing to learn even the basic language skills necessary to find employment, and despite free government assistance programs.
Ingrid Carlqvist, editor-in-chief of Dispatch International, told RT that Sweden is an attractive destination for immigrants because the government gives them “money for nothing.”
“For the last 20 years or so, we have seen so many immigrants coming to Sweden [who] really don’t like Sweden,” Carlqvist said. “They don’t want to integrate, they don’t want to live in this society – working and paying taxes, and so on – they come here because they know Sweden will give them money for nothing.”
Carlqvist also suggested that the Swedish police were not being tough enough on the rioters:
“[The police] could use water cannons, they could [enforce curfews]; there are so many things they could do within the law, but they don’t do it.” The change in Sweden's domestic dynamics comes at a time when far-right groups are commanding attention across the EU, with many residents furious over austerity measures, high unemployment and the general consensus that the individuals most responsible for triggering the collapse of the global economy have escaped responsibility.
"We have tried harder than any other European country to integrate, spending billions on a welfare system that is designed to help jobless immigrants and guarantee them a good quality of life," Marc Abramsson, leader of the National Democrats Party, told the Telegraph.
"Yet we have areas where there are ethnic groups that just don't identify with Swedish society. They see the police and even the fire brigade as part of the state, and they attack them. Multiculturalism does not recognize how humans actually function, Abramsson added, emphasizing that such a stance should not be confused with racism.
According to the OECD, Sweden still ranks among the nine most equal member-states of the organization, but inequality rates surged by one-third between 1985 and 2008 – the largest increase among OECD countries, the organization said in a report released earlier this year.
In Vaarberg, a suburb south of Stockholm, police were attacked by stone-throwing youths, while in Jordbro, another southern neighborhood, police resorted to teargas as they met resistance while attempting to arrest several individuals, AFP reported.
Violence has broken out in other parts of the country as well. In Orebro, a town in central Sweden, some two dozen masked youths set fire to three cars and a school and attempted to torch a police station, Reuters reported, citing police. About 200 km (124 miles) to the southwest in the city of Linkoping, several vehicles were set alight and youths tried to torch a school and a kindergarten.
Police reinforcements arrived in the capital on Friday from Sweden's second- and third-biggest cities, Gothenburg and Malmo. At the same time, neighborhood volunteer groups have been patrolling the streets in a display of vigilance against the rioters.
These initiatives have helped reduce the intensity of the riots in recent nights, Stockholm police spokesperson Kjell Lindgren said:
"With the strong presence on the streets of the good forces, and the police reinforcements, I think we are well on our way towards calmer times in the coming days." The riots began one week ago in Husby, a predominantly immigrant suburb of Stockholm, following the fatal police shooting of an elderly man who police said was brandishing a machete in his home.
Analysts believe the shooting ignited deep-seated frustration among disenfranchised youths – many of whom have not assimilated into Swedish society and are unemployed – who claim to have suffered from police brutality and racism.
A failure of multiculturalism?
Sweden has long been heralded as a model of egalitarianism and fairness. But the recent civil disturbances have sparked a heated debate among Swedes over the government’s policy on immigrants, who are flocking to the country due to its attractive social programs.
The Scandinavian country is ranked as one of Europe's most popular destinations for immigrants, both in absolute numbers and relative to its size, but critics say the new arrivals are failing to learn even the basic language skills necessary to find employment, and despite free government assistance programs.
Ingrid Carlqvist, editor-in-chief of Dispatch International, told RT that Sweden is an attractive destination for immigrants because the government gives them “money for nothing.”
“For the last 20 years or so, we have seen so many immigrants coming to Sweden [who] really don’t like Sweden,” Carlqvist said. “They don’t want to integrate, they don’t want to live in this society – working and paying taxes, and so on – they come here because they know Sweden will give them money for nothing.”
Carlqvist also suggested that the Swedish police were not being tough enough on the rioters:
“[The police] could use water cannons, they could [enforce curfews]; there are so many things they could do within the law, but they don’t do it.” The change in Sweden's domestic dynamics comes at a time when far-right groups are commanding attention across the EU, with many residents furious over austerity measures, high unemployment and the general consensus that the individuals most responsible for triggering the collapse of the global economy have escaped responsibility.
"We have tried harder than any other European country to integrate, spending billions on a welfare system that is designed to help jobless immigrants and guarantee them a good quality of life," Marc Abramsson, leader of the National Democrats Party, told the Telegraph.
"Yet we have areas where there are ethnic groups that just don't identify with Swedish society. They see the police and even the fire brigade as part of the state, and they attack them. Multiculturalism does not recognize how humans actually function, Abramsson added, emphasizing that such a stance should not be confused with racism.
According to the OECD, Sweden still ranks among the nine most equal member-states of the organization, but inequality rates surged by one-third between 1985 and 2008 – the largest increase among OECD countries, the organization said in a report released earlier this year.
MasterCard and Visa battle it out with retailers in world war fees
The credit card giants may get a spanking from the regulator, but it is consumers who are set to be the real losers
Are MasterCard and Visa ripping us off every time we make a payment using a debit or credit card? In a class action that makes the battle fought by Erin Brockovich look like peanuts, American retailers last year secured a giant $7.25bn payout from payment processors and card issuers after a bitterly-fought legal tussle. Europe is battling hard, too, with a lengthy EU probe into "anti-competitive" behaviour expected to reach a culmination this summer, while Australia has imposed fee caps and stiff regulations.
The fight pitches giant conglomerates such as Wal-Mart and supranational regulators, against card companies which have become monster-sized themselves. Visa handled $6.3tn in payments last year, MasterCard another $3.6tn, on over four billion cards across the globe carrying their logos. No wonder the battle is being called "world war fee".
At issue are what are known as interchange fees. These are not the card surcharges applied by budget airlines to bump up their revenue, loathsome as they are. They are the fees set by Visa and MasterCard, which are paid by the bank that issues the card, but are then passed on to retailers – and, inevitably, through to consumers.
In the US, Visa and MasterCard were accused of "excessive fees" and "opaque business practices". Meanwhile, last week the EU's second highest court found that MasterCard overcharged for cross-border transactions (it is yet to say if it will appeal).
What is "excessive" about the fees? In the US, the average cost to a shop when they accept a credit card is 2%. Considering how we're so accustomed to "rip-off Britain", it's remarkable that the average fee here is much lower, at 0.79%. No issue then? Yes, until you look at the fact that on the continent shops pay around 0.3% – so we are paying twice as much as the French.
There is talk of regulators capping interchange fees, possibly at 0.3%. But will that make shoppers better-off? MasterCard is adamant we'll all be losers – issuing dark warnings that slashing interchange fees could even mean the end of free banking on current accounts, and no more freebies on credit cards, such as cashback or Air Miles. Of course, they would say that, wouldn't they, although they do have some evidence.
In the US, where Congress introduced legislation that halved interchange fees on debit cards, studies suggest retailers are pocketing the gain and passing nothing on to consumers. "Customers paid an average of 1.5% more for the same products at retailers after the new rules entered force," concluded a report by Edgar, Dunn & Company.
However, it's a payments consultancy, and you might want to read its report in the light of the fact that its clients include the card issuers. The British Retail Consortium calls the card companies' stance "scare tactics" and "profit protection."
What is the right outcome for consumers? The truth is, nothing's really working. Ultimately the banks, processors and retailers share the same interest – their shareholders and bonuses, not the customer. If the regulators give Visa and MasterCard a spanking, they need also to devise a way to make sure the money doesn't just end up in someone else's pocket. • In 1995, as a fresh-faced young reporter on an investment trade magazine, I went on my first international press trip, to Hong Kong, ahead of its transition to Chinese control.
The place was buzzing. Shenzhen, just across the border, was a marvel. But as we visited fast-growing companies and factories, it struck me that everything was "in the price" of shares, which had already shot up in value. The Hang Seng stock market index was at 9,000, three times the level it had been five years earlier.
I proudly filed a report warning investors of the dangers of an out-of-control bubble. Hopefully, few people read it. Within two years the Hang Seng was trading at a level of 22,000.
It taught me two lessons. Firstly, never issue predictions of where markets are going. Secondly, asset price bubbles don't stop at mad levels, they move onwards into sheer lunacy. Are we in a bubble right now? Don't ask me…
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Are MasterCard and Visa ripping us off every time we make a payment using a debit or credit card? In a class action that makes the battle fought by Erin Brockovich look like peanuts, American retailers last year secured a giant $7.25bn payout from payment processors and card issuers after a bitterly-fought legal tussle. Europe is battling hard, too, with a lengthy EU probe into "anti-competitive" behaviour expected to reach a culmination this summer, while Australia has imposed fee caps and stiff regulations.
The fight pitches giant conglomerates such as Wal-Mart and supranational regulators, against card companies which have become monster-sized themselves. Visa handled $6.3tn in payments last year, MasterCard another $3.6tn, on over four billion cards across the globe carrying their logos. No wonder the battle is being called "world war fee".
At issue are what are known as interchange fees. These are not the card surcharges applied by budget airlines to bump up their revenue, loathsome as they are. They are the fees set by Visa and MasterCard, which are paid by the bank that issues the card, but are then passed on to retailers – and, inevitably, through to consumers.
In the US, Visa and MasterCard were accused of "excessive fees" and "opaque business practices". Meanwhile, last week the EU's second highest court found that MasterCard overcharged for cross-border transactions (it is yet to say if it will appeal).
What is "excessive" about the fees? In the US, the average cost to a shop when they accept a credit card is 2%. Considering how we're so accustomed to "rip-off Britain", it's remarkable that the average fee here is much lower, at 0.79%. No issue then? Yes, until you look at the fact that on the continent shops pay around 0.3% – so we are paying twice as much as the French.
There is talk of regulators capping interchange fees, possibly at 0.3%. But will that make shoppers better-off? MasterCard is adamant we'll all be losers – issuing dark warnings that slashing interchange fees could even mean the end of free banking on current accounts, and no more freebies on credit cards, such as cashback or Air Miles. Of course, they would say that, wouldn't they, although they do have some evidence.
In the US, where Congress introduced legislation that halved interchange fees on debit cards, studies suggest retailers are pocketing the gain and passing nothing on to consumers. "Customers paid an average of 1.5% more for the same products at retailers after the new rules entered force," concluded a report by Edgar, Dunn & Company.
However, it's a payments consultancy, and you might want to read its report in the light of the fact that its clients include the card issuers. The British Retail Consortium calls the card companies' stance "scare tactics" and "profit protection."
What is the right outcome for consumers? The truth is, nothing's really working. Ultimately the banks, processors and retailers share the same interest – their shareholders and bonuses, not the customer. If the regulators give Visa and MasterCard a spanking, they need also to devise a way to make sure the money doesn't just end up in someone else's pocket. • In 1995, as a fresh-faced young reporter on an investment trade magazine, I went on my first international press trip, to Hong Kong, ahead of its transition to Chinese control.
The place was buzzing. Shenzhen, just across the border, was a marvel. But as we visited fast-growing companies and factories, it struck me that everything was "in the price" of shares, which had already shot up in value. The Hang Seng stock market index was at 9,000, three times the level it had been five years earlier.
I proudly filed a report warning investors of the dangers of an out-of-control bubble. Hopefully, few people read it. Within two years the Hang Seng was trading at a level of 22,000.
It taught me two lessons. Firstly, never issue predictions of where markets are going. Secondly, asset price bubbles don't stop at mad levels, they move onwards into sheer lunacy. Are we in a bubble right now? Don't ask me…
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Fuga de radiación en un laboratorio nuclear de Japón
En uno de los laboratorios nucleares de la empresa Japan Atomic Power se ha registrado una fuga de material radiactivo. El incidente tuvo lugar el jueves, pero solo ahora lo ha confirmado el comité para el control de la energía nuclear en el país nipón.
Se calcula que al menos diez personas pudieron verse afectadas por la radiación, aunque ningún miembro del personal ha sido hospitalizado. Las autoridades informan que no existe ninguna amenaza de propagación de partículas radiactivas fuera del laboratorio. Actualmente, el laboratorio está completamente aislado.
Se calcula que al menos diez personas pudieron verse afectadas por la radiación, aunque ningún miembro del personal ha sido hospitalizado. Las autoridades informan que no existe ninguna amenaza de propagación de partículas radiactivas fuera del laboratorio. Actualmente, el laboratorio está completamente aislado.
Freight train crash in Missouri triggers highway overpass collapse
Seven injured as goods trains collide at rail intersection, resulting in derailment and damage to overpass section
Two freight trains collided at a rail intersection in rural southeastern Missouri on Saturday, triggering the collapse of a highway overpass when at least a dozen rail cars derailed and struck a support pillar, authorities said.
None of the seven people hurt in the fiery crash – two train workers and five people who had been in the two cars on the overpass – suffered life-threatening injuries, Scott County sheriff Rick Walter said in a statement.
"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis said of the pre-dawn crash near Chaffee, about 15 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
The collision of the BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific trains also sparked a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.
The crash came just over a week after a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.
Then on Thursday, a truck crash triggered the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the frigid Skagit River and raising concerns about the nation's aging infrastructure. Three people were rescued.
In Missouri, Wayne Woods told a regional CBS affiliate that he had rushed to the scene as soon as he heard the crash to try to halt traffic as he called in the emergency.
"We heard the crash and we stepped outside and my son said the overpass was down. Then we heard a car's tires squealing like it was coming to a stop and then a crash and a horn continuously blowing," he told KFVS television.
"I got over there, the train was on its side. They got the guys out and lifted them down off the train and got them off the overpass. One was kind of bloody and the other one looked like he was pretty shook up," he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash.
Union Pacific said its train had been primarily carrying auto parts from Illinois to Texas when it struck the side of another train, and that a Union Pacific engineer and conductor were lightly injured, according to spokeswoman Calli Hite.
The Union Pacific locomotive and about a dozen cars derailed in the crash, she added.
BNSF said that its train had been hauling scrap metal from salvage facilities and was heading south along the Missouri River when it was struck, and that none of the crew were injured. Authorities had earlier said conductors for both trains had been hurt
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Two freight trains collided at a rail intersection in rural southeastern Missouri on Saturday, triggering the collapse of a highway overpass when at least a dozen rail cars derailed and struck a support pillar, authorities said.
None of the seven people hurt in the fiery crash – two train workers and five people who had been in the two cars on the overpass – suffered life-threatening injuries, Scott County sheriff Rick Walter said in a statement.
"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis said of the pre-dawn crash near Chaffee, about 15 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
The collision of the BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific trains also sparked a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.
The crash came just over a week after a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.
Then on Thursday, a truck crash triggered the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the frigid Skagit River and raising concerns about the nation's aging infrastructure. Three people were rescued.
In Missouri, Wayne Woods told a regional CBS affiliate that he had rushed to the scene as soon as he heard the crash to try to halt traffic as he called in the emergency.
"We heard the crash and we stepped outside and my son said the overpass was down. Then we heard a car's tires squealing like it was coming to a stop and then a crash and a horn continuously blowing," he told KFVS television.
"I got over there, the train was on its side. They got the guys out and lifted them down off the train and got them off the overpass. One was kind of bloody and the other one looked like he was pretty shook up," he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash.
Union Pacific said its train had been primarily carrying auto parts from Illinois to Texas when it struck the side of another train, and that a Union Pacific engineer and conductor were lightly injured, according to spokeswoman Calli Hite.
The Union Pacific locomotive and about a dozen cars derailed in the crash, she added.
BNSF said that its train had been hauling scrap metal from salvage facilities and was heading south along the Missouri River when it was struck, and that none of the crew were injured. Authorities had earlier said conductors for both trains had been hurt
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Detienen a un hombre tras denunciar que el MI-5 intentó reclutar al asesino del soldado
La Policía británica detuvo a Abu Nusaibah por violar las leyes antiterroristas después de declarar en un comunicado que el servicio de seguridad británico Mi-5 intentó reclutar hace unos meses a uno de los dos sospechosos del asesinato de un soldado en Woolwich.
Según la Policía londinense, los agentes antiterroristas detuvieron al hombre de 31 años bajo las "sospechas de la comisión, preparación o instigación de actos de terrorismo".
Según la Policía londinense, los agentes antiterroristas detuvieron al hombre de 31 años bajo las "sospechas de la comisión, preparación o instigación de actos de terrorismo".
Why worrying about food miles is missing the point
Getting your lamb from New Zealand isn't hurting the planet and buying your potatoes from the other end of the country is fine. Jay Rayner says food miles are not the problem and, below, visits an abattoir
In November 2009, I lost my temper in front of a bank of television cameras in a way I have never done before or since. I was in Los Angeles working as a judge on the second season of the American TV series, Top Chef Masters. For the final, the three remaining competitors had been asked to cook a series of dishes that told their story: their first food experiences, where they are now, where they are going and the like. For the dish that defined where he was going, the famed Las Vegas-based chef Rick Moonen had cooked a venison dish, using meat imported from New Zealand.
This was baffling. Throughout the competition Moonen had described himself as "the fish guy". He was also "the sustainability guy". He cared about the planet, he told us day after day in the competition. I can't pretend. I had not warmed to the man. The sustainability guy? His flagship restaurant was in Las Vegas, one of the least sustainable cities on the face of the planet. I had no doubt he sourced his ingredients sustainably, but just being in Las Vegas, a city that gulped water and petrochemicals like they were going out of fashion (they are), was in itself an unsustainable act. And now here was the fish guy, the sustainability guy, announcing that he had used meat imported from halfway across the world. When he was in front of us I asked him some pointed questions. Once the competitors were gone, and we were deliberating, I let rip.
I shouted. I raged. Veins bulged.
HAD THE MAN NEVER HEARD OF THE BLOODY CONCEPT OF FOOD MILES?
The producers saved me from myself. They included none of my rant in the final edit. I made up for it once that episode had aired, by writing a piece for this newspaper explaining my fury. Moonen responded online by calling me out; the venison had arrived in LA by sea, he said. It was fully sustainable. His supporters in Vegas alleged I had robbed their man of the prize. I can say firmly that the Kiwi venison was not why Moonen lost. The cooking by Marcus Samuelsson, an Ethiopian-born chef adopted and raised by a Swedish couple before making his name in the US, was so much better. Samuelsson deserved to win. But Moonen and his well-travelled bambi did himself no favours.
Cut to three years later and I am reading an academic paper with a very snappy title: Food Miles – Comparative Energy/Emissions Performance of New Zealand's Agriculture Industry by Caroline Saunders, Andrew Barber and Greg Taylor. I'm citing the full title so you can look it up, and you may want to. It's not a breezy read, but it is an important one. At the very least it requires me to apologise to Rick Moonen. Having read it I can now say that while it's in no way certain it is possible venison raised in New Zealand and shipped to California could well be more sustainable than the alternatives in California. At least he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Sorry Mr Moonen. I'm still not a fan and it really doesn't change the result of the contest. There were three other judges. But on this point it looks like he may have been right and I may have been wrong.
Because, according to this exceptionally detailed study from 2006, lamb, apples and dairy produced in New Zealand and shipped to Britain have a smaller carbon footprint than the equivalent products produced in Britain. To be exact, the UK uses twice as much carbon per tonne of milk solids produced as New Zealand, and four times the amount as New Zealand for lamb. I was so baffled by the report I wanted to know whether I had read it correctly. I emailed Tim Benton, professor of population ecology at Leeds University who is also the "UK Champion for Global Food Security", charged with co-ordinating work on the subject between research councils and government departments. He truly understands both the global food challenges that we face and what sustainable intensification means. He had been an invaluable source of academic papers and scholarly advice for my investigation into the challenges of food security from the very start. I wanted to know whether the report was simply a function of the New Zealand agriculture sector attempting to protect its commercial interests by ferociously massaging some numbers.
He threw in some caveats but, he said: "The overall picture is probably true."
For me it was the final nail in the coffin of localism. Then again I'd been listening to the hammering for months.
In the late 90s, when the term "food miles" was first coined by Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, it was a vital and important part of the debate on how our food system worked. It was a simple and easily understandable notion: the further your food travelled from point of production to point of retail the worse for the environment it was, by dint of the amount of fuel that journey took. It was that simplicity which made it a rallying cry for food campaigners across the developed world. Here, finally, was a tangible way in which to describe what was wrong with our food system. It also gave environmentally minded consumers a simple way to judge whether they should buy a product. Had it come from as close by as possible? If yes, then into the basket it went.
The problem is it's far too simple. Looking only at transport costs for your food is not just to miss the bigger picture, it's to miss the picture entirely. The only way you can get some sense of the footprint of your food is by using what's called a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which brings everything about the production of that item into play: the petrochemicals used in farming and in fertilisers, the energy to build tractors as well as to run them, to erect farm buildings and fences, and all of that has to be measured against yield. It's about emissions per tonne of apples or lamb. The New Zealand report used nearly 30 different measures in its LCA. And it's when you start drilling down on those that the point is quickly made.
Using a wide sample of apple farms both in the UK and New Zealand, the researchers found that the actual weight of nitrogen fertiliser used was roughly similar in both countries (80kg per hectare in NZ to 78kg in the UK). However, in New Zealand they were getting a yield of 50 tonnes per hectare, as against 14 tonnes in Britain. Where lamb was concerned yield was higher in the UK than New Zealand, but so was nitrogen fertiliser use by a factor of more than 13. New Zealand simply has a better landscape and climate for rearing lamb and apples. Of course, as Professor Benton pointed out to me, some of these figures may be out of date – but not by much. There are also endless arguments about what things ought to be measured and what ought not to be measured. But even if it is the most extreme example, it makes its point.
Jan Kees Vis, global director of sustainable sourcing development at Unilever in the Netherlands, has overseen research which puts the proportion of the global carbon footprint of your food as a result of its transportation at 2-3%. Not convinced? After all, Unilever would have rather more than a small vested interest in this. Fair enough. Look instead at the detailed and independent study by Christopher Weber and H Scott Matthews from Carnegie Mellon University from 2008. They put it at 4%. Or as Professor Benton put it to me, "If you want to wipe out all the food miles in what you eat, all you need do is swap one day's red-meat eating a week to white meat. Not even to a vegetarian diet. Just to white meat."
There's an awful lot of research to back this up, showing how just how much extra land you would need if food production moved from where it is now, to be conveniently close to you so you could feel good about your food miles. But even I would find that tedious.
So, instead, come with me briefly to the fens of Lincolnshire. Generally I hate flat places. They sap the will, drain away ambition. But I'll put up with it to make a killer point about comparative advantage in agriculture. If you look at a map of potato growing in Britain you'll quickly see that it's concentrated here on the flat expanses around King's Lynn and the Scottish borders. It's no accident, as potato farmer Bill Legge explains to me while he gives me a tour of his fields, hemmed in on each side by the grassy banks that keep the waters at bay. Legge has been farming potatoes around here all his life, on land which was under water until the 17th century. "It's peat soil here so we need to use less in the way of nitrogen fertilisers," he says. Not only that. This dark loose soil is good for the harvesting of potatoes. "Here, we get about 20 tonnes of potatoes an acre," Bill tells me.
So how about if potato production was moved closer to the capital? After all there are more people living in London than, say, King's Lynn. "Well it's a clay soil there and it's not as productive. Plus, it's bloody hard to harvest them from the solid clod."
How much less productive is it?
"You'd get 16 tonnes an acre there."
So the yield would be 20% less. In other words, to get the same amount of potatoes to grow local to London you would need 20% more land. Or you'd have to bombard that land with huge doses of fertilisers. Either way the footprint of your potatoes would be bigger. That's why they are grown in Lincolnshire and not in Essex.
Of course, if you live in Lincolnshire that's where you should get your potatoes from. They're local to you. They are the most sustainable option. Look, I never said this was simple. It's anything but. Just as food miles made everything too simple, the end of food miles as a single measure makes everything very complicated. And let me make it a little more complicated: there are other good reasons for buying local food which have nothing to do with sustainability. It can be great for rural economies and viable rural economies can be good for communities. But if you get caught in the corner of the supermarket by some goggle-eyed food-warrior examining the contents of your basket for signs of food-mile transgression you can tell them that I said they should sod off. Go on. Have a practice. Shout at the mirror. It feels good, doesn't it?
It should be obvious by now that all of this also applies to issues around seasonality. The argument has long worked like this: if an ingredient is available out of season it must have been grown somewhere far away. Therefore, by dint of the miles it has travelled, it is unsustainable. But this may well not be the case.
A strawberry ripened beneath the winter sun of Morocco can have a smaller carbon footprint than one raised in a polytunnel at the height of a so-called British summer. You can make lots of arguments about seasonal British strawberries tasting nicer. That's purely about aesthetics. You can, I suppose, also argue it's healthier for our food culture if we only eat with the seasons – though in an globalised world, where we happily consume film, music, television and books from all corners of the globe, the argument does not exactly have legs of steel. What you can't immediately assume is that it's the less sustainable option. Explaining this to people who have built entire patterns of behaviour around the idea of seasonality is tough. Nevertheless, they do need to be told.
I am intimidated.
The morning started for me not long after 6am and I had already thought it had been full on. I am in the abattoir of John Penny and Sons in Rawdon, that part of Leeds where it bows its head to the smudge of Bradford just over the hill. J Penny is a rare business, an integrated beef farm, slaughter house and butchers, famed not just for sending some of the highest quality meat to market, but for its complete openness. The slaughterhouse industry in Britain – the world over – is notoriously secretive, and unsurprisingly so. Animal-welfare campaigners can and have made their lives very difficult, and with good reason; the worst abuses of animals at the moment of death have generally been identified by exceptionally brave campaigners, who have made it their job to record the suffering – let's call it torture, which is what it is – perpetrated by people to whom we have delegated power.
For that is the reality. We want to eat meat but we want to have no part in what obtaining that meat requires. We turn away from it. We ask others to perform that role for us and we do not look. While the BSE crisis of the 1990s vastly overhauled the regulation and oversight of abattoirs in Britain, they still remain very wary of any outside examination by the media. They don't generally let people in. The current Penny in charge of this business, John, believes in letting people in. He's a big solid, Yorkshireman who keeps his hair buzz-cut short, as if it to save time. "We have nothing to hide," he tells me. "Look at everything."
The beef animals they raise travel only a matter of metres from the farm down the hill to slaughter, which reduces the levels of stress. They also slaughter for other farmers, but their livestock travels from pretty close by in Yorkshire. And it's small. In a month, J Penny will slaughter around 2,000 sheep, 6,000 pigs and 1,000 cattle. There are industrial-scale abattoirs in the US which kill 5,000 cattle in a day. There are records showing the Penny family have been farming around these parts since the end of the 18th century. Certainly they've been on this site since 1891, opening the first abattoir here in 1938.
Now I was to work there. To really understand what was going on, to understand the relationship between ourselves and our once-sentient dinner, I felt I had to go for long-term exposure. I had to be there for long enough to be inured to what was happening around me. John Penny agreed that I could come for a couple of days, that they would put me to work on whatever unskilled tasks there were.
And so early one morning in summer I turn up at the site and am invited to follow a herd of sheep through what are called "the layers" – the shed of holding zones, separated out by clanking metal gates. As the gate in front opens to let through the flock, the one behind closes, in a continuous corridor that snakes back on itself as it rises up the concrete incline, bringing the animals ever closer to the point of slaughter.
Clive, a former butcher who now runs the slaughterhouse, leads me to a spot just above the chamber at the start of what is called the "kill line". There, a young man by the name of Josh – "They call me the special one," he says with a grin, when we are introduced – would be using a pair of huge electrified paddles shaped like tongs to stun the sheep.
"It's only Josh's mum who calls him the special one," Clive says, with a shake of the head.
The sheep are let into the room in batches of eight or so, a hatch clattering shut behind them as they enter. Josh positions himself with his legs either side of a sheep's hind quarters. He presses the paddles to the side of the head and down they go, unconscious. Running over Josh's head is a long continuous rail, from which hangs a set of chains. He hooks one of these to the animal's front leg and it's lifted up so that it is dangling, head to the ceiling.
It moves down the line to where an older man in a plastic apron is waiting, the sticking knife in his hand. Allan, coming up for 65 and retirement, has been here most of his working life. He is grey and solid and a little round at the belly, where the apron bows. He grabs hold of the sheep as it passes and shoves the blade in below the ear to sever the artery. There is a quick but contained spray of blood. The animal twitches. It is done.
"The pigs twitch even more than the sheep," Clive says to me, as we stand there watching.
Josh stuns another sheep. "That's a perfect stun, that is," Clive says. "Front legs out, back legs in."
I say to Josh, who is in his 20s, "How long have you done this?"
"It's the only job I've ever done," he says.
"Why?"
He shrugs. "They offered me the job." He stuns another sheep and it passes onwards to Allan.
As we talk, the sheep keep coming through. Josh keeps stunning. Allan keeps sticking. I am staring down a white-painted corridor, its walls sprayed with blood. At the end, the rail turns, taking the dead sheep to a long line of men each with a different task: the sheep will be beheaded, skinned, disembowelled, the bodies sawn in half. All of those men are waiting. We can chat but the work must not be stopped. There are 700 sheep to come through here.
I ask Clive if they have to look carefully at the type of people they employ.
"Of course," he says. "You get some. You see if they're getting something out of the experience they shouldn't." They are taken off the job. That said, he refuses to deny how the kill line can make you feel. "No mistake. It gives you a sense of power doing this. You see a big animal and realise how easy it is to put them down." He does not say this boastfully or with enthusiasm. He says it with the thoughtfulness of a man who has been in the trade all his life, who knows there are certain facts of life that must not be avoided. We watch the sheep dying for around half an hour. It stops being quite as dramatic as it was at first. There is a rhythm. But it does not stop being compelling.
This is life, halted.
The sheep are through and it is time for the pigs. Clive invites me to work on the tank and I know I can't decline. This is what I am here for. It is a tank of hot water – 62C – around 20ft long, 4ft deep and 10ft across. Behind the wall at our backs, in the kill-line corridor, the pigs are being stuck by Allan. I can hear the noise of them squealing and grunting in the holding area before they receive the stun from the electric paddles. I can hear the chains clanking. At one point I look around the wall and see the slaughterman. Our eyes meet. He is weary.
With the sheep, Allan was merely a little splattered. Now he is drenched. He is covered in blood, from his ankles right up to the transparent visor of his face mask. It is everywhere, and the pigs continue to bleed out as they come round the corner, a huge swirling scarlet tide. As they get to us, one of my colleagues lifts a handle which in turn lifts an articulated section of the overhead line. He can now lift the pigs up and over the lip of the tank so he can deposit them into the water with a huge splash. There is the smell of fresh blood and the tang of urine and shit and, above the top of it all, something familiar which I eventually identify as pork stock. Which is what happens when you dunk just-dead pigs in hot water.
When the pigs hit the water our job is to grab hold of the chains around their legs, three or four at a time, and hook the end over the side of the tank so the bodies aren't lost to the depths. Then we must drag the animals down the length of the tank, heaving them against the fluid tension, straining to get them moving. Danny, working alongside me, is short and wiry and prefers to push the chains down; I prefer to use my weight to pull, but sometimes find my feet slipping on the wet concrete floor. Then again I am trying to move around 300kg of pig at a time. Waiting at the end is the bristling machine. We push them through the water on to the platform which raises them out of the water into an open-sided chamber. There, they are flailed by furiously rotating rubber paddles with metal teeth at the end that strip off any hair and, while they're at it, toenails, too. Every minute or so there is a searing burst of violent flame designed to finish the job. Finally they are spat out the other end, re-chained and sent off down the line.
It is 90 minutes of pig drama, as scripted by Hieronymus Bosch. There's the stench and the splash of the hot water and the drag of the pigs. There's the roar of the machine and the heat of the belching flame. And over the top is the noise of the animals and the splatter and spray of the blood that cannot help but get you. Occasionally an animal comes round that is twitching more than the others and Danny takes a knife to them to check they are properly gone, hunkering down under the gush of something hot and arterial to finish the job as quickly as possible. And, of course, it is continuous.
I do what I can to keep up, to not be a hindrance. Occasionally I lose a pig to the water and somebody has to come to my aid to retrieve it from beneath the surface. I feel ashamed and literally unmanned. I am a writer. I sit at my desk. I type. I have never done anything that feels remotely male. I feel I am failing. And then I feel ashamed, not for trying to measure myself in this way, but for thinking like this when really what's going on around me, the deaths of pigs to feed my own intense pork habit, is so much more important.
Then there is the strain. I feel the effort in the core of my abdomen and in my arms and in my neck. I feel it everywhere. And when, after 90 minutes or so, Clive invites me to try my hand at something else, I grab the chance, reasoning that I have to do as much as possible while I am here. I leave Danny and Alan to it. I am happy to say goodbye.
A Greedy Man in a Hungry World, by Jay Rayner, is out now at £12.99. To order a copy for £10.39, with free UK p&p, click here or call 0330 333 6846
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
In November 2009, I lost my temper in front of a bank of television cameras in a way I have never done before or since. I was in Los Angeles working as a judge on the second season of the American TV series, Top Chef Masters. For the final, the three remaining competitors had been asked to cook a series of dishes that told their story: their first food experiences, where they are now, where they are going and the like. For the dish that defined where he was going, the famed Las Vegas-based chef Rick Moonen had cooked a venison dish, using meat imported from New Zealand.
This was baffling. Throughout the competition Moonen had described himself as "the fish guy". He was also "the sustainability guy". He cared about the planet, he told us day after day in the competition. I can't pretend. I had not warmed to the man. The sustainability guy? His flagship restaurant was in Las Vegas, one of the least sustainable cities on the face of the planet. I had no doubt he sourced his ingredients sustainably, but just being in Las Vegas, a city that gulped water and petrochemicals like they were going out of fashion (they are), was in itself an unsustainable act. And now here was the fish guy, the sustainability guy, announcing that he had used meat imported from halfway across the world. When he was in front of us I asked him some pointed questions. Once the competitors were gone, and we were deliberating, I let rip.
I shouted. I raged. Veins bulged.
HAD THE MAN NEVER HEARD OF THE BLOODY CONCEPT OF FOOD MILES?
The producers saved me from myself. They included none of my rant in the final edit. I made up for it once that episode had aired, by writing a piece for this newspaper explaining my fury. Moonen responded online by calling me out; the venison had arrived in LA by sea, he said. It was fully sustainable. His supporters in Vegas alleged I had robbed their man of the prize. I can say firmly that the Kiwi venison was not why Moonen lost. The cooking by Marcus Samuelsson, an Ethiopian-born chef adopted and raised by a Swedish couple before making his name in the US, was so much better. Samuelsson deserved to win. But Moonen and his well-travelled bambi did himself no favours.
Cut to three years later and I am reading an academic paper with a very snappy title: Food Miles – Comparative Energy/Emissions Performance of New Zealand's Agriculture Industry by Caroline Saunders, Andrew Barber and Greg Taylor. I'm citing the full title so you can look it up, and you may want to. It's not a breezy read, but it is an important one. At the very least it requires me to apologise to Rick Moonen. Having read it I can now say that while it's in no way certain it is possible venison raised in New Zealand and shipped to California could well be more sustainable than the alternatives in California. At least he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Sorry Mr Moonen. I'm still not a fan and it really doesn't change the result of the contest. There were three other judges. But on this point it looks like he may have been right and I may have been wrong.
Because, according to this exceptionally detailed study from 2006, lamb, apples and dairy produced in New Zealand and shipped to Britain have a smaller carbon footprint than the equivalent products produced in Britain. To be exact, the UK uses twice as much carbon per tonne of milk solids produced as New Zealand, and four times the amount as New Zealand for lamb. I was so baffled by the report I wanted to know whether I had read it correctly. I emailed Tim Benton, professor of population ecology at Leeds University who is also the "UK Champion for Global Food Security", charged with co-ordinating work on the subject between research councils and government departments. He truly understands both the global food challenges that we face and what sustainable intensification means. He had been an invaluable source of academic papers and scholarly advice for my investigation into the challenges of food security from the very start. I wanted to know whether the report was simply a function of the New Zealand agriculture sector attempting to protect its commercial interests by ferociously massaging some numbers.
He threw in some caveats but, he said: "The overall picture is probably true."
For me it was the final nail in the coffin of localism. Then again I'd been listening to the hammering for months.
In the late 90s, when the term "food miles" was first coined by Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, it was a vital and important part of the debate on how our food system worked. It was a simple and easily understandable notion: the further your food travelled from point of production to point of retail the worse for the environment it was, by dint of the amount of fuel that journey took. It was that simplicity which made it a rallying cry for food campaigners across the developed world. Here, finally, was a tangible way in which to describe what was wrong with our food system. It also gave environmentally minded consumers a simple way to judge whether they should buy a product. Had it come from as close by as possible? If yes, then into the basket it went.
The problem is it's far too simple. Looking only at transport costs for your food is not just to miss the bigger picture, it's to miss the picture entirely. The only way you can get some sense of the footprint of your food is by using what's called a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which brings everything about the production of that item into play: the petrochemicals used in farming and in fertilisers, the energy to build tractors as well as to run them, to erect farm buildings and fences, and all of that has to be measured against yield. It's about emissions per tonne of apples or lamb. The New Zealand report used nearly 30 different measures in its LCA. And it's when you start drilling down on those that the point is quickly made.
Using a wide sample of apple farms both in the UK and New Zealand, the researchers found that the actual weight of nitrogen fertiliser used was roughly similar in both countries (80kg per hectare in NZ to 78kg in the UK). However, in New Zealand they were getting a yield of 50 tonnes per hectare, as against 14 tonnes in Britain. Where lamb was concerned yield was higher in the UK than New Zealand, but so was nitrogen fertiliser use by a factor of more than 13. New Zealand simply has a better landscape and climate for rearing lamb and apples. Of course, as Professor Benton pointed out to me, some of these figures may be out of date – but not by much. There are also endless arguments about what things ought to be measured and what ought not to be measured. But even if it is the most extreme example, it makes its point.
Jan Kees Vis, global director of sustainable sourcing development at Unilever in the Netherlands, has overseen research which puts the proportion of the global carbon footprint of your food as a result of its transportation at 2-3%. Not convinced? After all, Unilever would have rather more than a small vested interest in this. Fair enough. Look instead at the detailed and independent study by Christopher Weber and H Scott Matthews from Carnegie Mellon University from 2008. They put it at 4%. Or as Professor Benton put it to me, "If you want to wipe out all the food miles in what you eat, all you need do is swap one day's red-meat eating a week to white meat. Not even to a vegetarian diet. Just to white meat."
There's an awful lot of research to back this up, showing how just how much extra land you would need if food production moved from where it is now, to be conveniently close to you so you could feel good about your food miles. But even I would find that tedious.
So, instead, come with me briefly to the fens of Lincolnshire. Generally I hate flat places. They sap the will, drain away ambition. But I'll put up with it to make a killer point about comparative advantage in agriculture. If you look at a map of potato growing in Britain you'll quickly see that it's concentrated here on the flat expanses around King's Lynn and the Scottish borders. It's no accident, as potato farmer Bill Legge explains to me while he gives me a tour of his fields, hemmed in on each side by the grassy banks that keep the waters at bay. Legge has been farming potatoes around here all his life, on land which was under water until the 17th century. "It's peat soil here so we need to use less in the way of nitrogen fertilisers," he says. Not only that. This dark loose soil is good for the harvesting of potatoes. "Here, we get about 20 tonnes of potatoes an acre," Bill tells me.
So how about if potato production was moved closer to the capital? After all there are more people living in London than, say, King's Lynn. "Well it's a clay soil there and it's not as productive. Plus, it's bloody hard to harvest them from the solid clod."
How much less productive is it?
"You'd get 16 tonnes an acre there."
So the yield would be 20% less. In other words, to get the same amount of potatoes to grow local to London you would need 20% more land. Or you'd have to bombard that land with huge doses of fertilisers. Either way the footprint of your potatoes would be bigger. That's why they are grown in Lincolnshire and not in Essex.
Of course, if you live in Lincolnshire that's where you should get your potatoes from. They're local to you. They are the most sustainable option. Look, I never said this was simple. It's anything but. Just as food miles made everything too simple, the end of food miles as a single measure makes everything very complicated. And let me make it a little more complicated: there are other good reasons for buying local food which have nothing to do with sustainability. It can be great for rural economies and viable rural economies can be good for communities. But if you get caught in the corner of the supermarket by some goggle-eyed food-warrior examining the contents of your basket for signs of food-mile transgression you can tell them that I said they should sod off. Go on. Have a practice. Shout at the mirror. It feels good, doesn't it?
It should be obvious by now that all of this also applies to issues around seasonality. The argument has long worked like this: if an ingredient is available out of season it must have been grown somewhere far away. Therefore, by dint of the miles it has travelled, it is unsustainable. But this may well not be the case.
A strawberry ripened beneath the winter sun of Morocco can have a smaller carbon footprint than one raised in a polytunnel at the height of a so-called British summer. You can make lots of arguments about seasonal British strawberries tasting nicer. That's purely about aesthetics. You can, I suppose, also argue it's healthier for our food culture if we only eat with the seasons – though in an globalised world, where we happily consume film, music, television and books from all corners of the globe, the argument does not exactly have legs of steel. What you can't immediately assume is that it's the less sustainable option. Explaining this to people who have built entire patterns of behaviour around the idea of seasonality is tough. Nevertheless, they do need to be told.
Death in the afternoon: Jay Rayner witnesses the workings of an abattoir
It is early on a Monday morning. I have been put to work on the pig tank and I'm trying hard to regulate my breathing to deal with the sensory overload. Danny and Alan, the two blokes I'm working with – and they are blokes; lean and hard-bodied and sinewy, with a clench-jawed sense of purpose – are getting on with it. They are doing the thing. They do this thing every day, sometimes for six or seven hours and I can't quite imagine how. For all the extra weight I carry I am fit, as a result of a gym habit. I am probably fitter than I have ever been in my life, but I am genuinely afraid that this job on the pig tank will defeat me; that I will crumple at the knees and disgrace myself, overcome by the noise and the smell and the heat and the sheer relentless heft of it all.I am intimidated.
The morning started for me not long after 6am and I had already thought it had been full on. I am in the abattoir of John Penny and Sons in Rawdon, that part of Leeds where it bows its head to the smudge of Bradford just over the hill. J Penny is a rare business, an integrated beef farm, slaughter house and butchers, famed not just for sending some of the highest quality meat to market, but for its complete openness. The slaughterhouse industry in Britain – the world over – is notoriously secretive, and unsurprisingly so. Animal-welfare campaigners can and have made their lives very difficult, and with good reason; the worst abuses of animals at the moment of death have generally been identified by exceptionally brave campaigners, who have made it their job to record the suffering – let's call it torture, which is what it is – perpetrated by people to whom we have delegated power.
For that is the reality. We want to eat meat but we want to have no part in what obtaining that meat requires. We turn away from it. We ask others to perform that role for us and we do not look. While the BSE crisis of the 1990s vastly overhauled the regulation and oversight of abattoirs in Britain, they still remain very wary of any outside examination by the media. They don't generally let people in. The current Penny in charge of this business, John, believes in letting people in. He's a big solid, Yorkshireman who keeps his hair buzz-cut short, as if it to save time. "We have nothing to hide," he tells me. "Look at everything."
The beef animals they raise travel only a matter of metres from the farm down the hill to slaughter, which reduces the levels of stress. They also slaughter for other farmers, but their livestock travels from pretty close by in Yorkshire. And it's small. In a month, J Penny will slaughter around 2,000 sheep, 6,000 pigs and 1,000 cattle. There are industrial-scale abattoirs in the US which kill 5,000 cattle in a day. There are records showing the Penny family have been farming around these parts since the end of the 18th century. Certainly they've been on this site since 1891, opening the first abattoir here in 1938.
Now I was to work there. To really understand what was going on, to understand the relationship between ourselves and our once-sentient dinner, I felt I had to go for long-term exposure. I had to be there for long enough to be inured to what was happening around me. John Penny agreed that I could come for a couple of days, that they would put me to work on whatever unskilled tasks there were.
And so early one morning in summer I turn up at the site and am invited to follow a herd of sheep through what are called "the layers" – the shed of holding zones, separated out by clanking metal gates. As the gate in front opens to let through the flock, the one behind closes, in a continuous corridor that snakes back on itself as it rises up the concrete incline, bringing the animals ever closer to the point of slaughter.
Clive, a former butcher who now runs the slaughterhouse, leads me to a spot just above the chamber at the start of what is called the "kill line". There, a young man by the name of Josh – "They call me the special one," he says with a grin, when we are introduced – would be using a pair of huge electrified paddles shaped like tongs to stun the sheep.
"It's only Josh's mum who calls him the special one," Clive says, with a shake of the head.
The sheep are let into the room in batches of eight or so, a hatch clattering shut behind them as they enter. Josh positions himself with his legs either side of a sheep's hind quarters. He presses the paddles to the side of the head and down they go, unconscious. Running over Josh's head is a long continuous rail, from which hangs a set of chains. He hooks one of these to the animal's front leg and it's lifted up so that it is dangling, head to the ceiling.
It moves down the line to where an older man in a plastic apron is waiting, the sticking knife in his hand. Allan, coming up for 65 and retirement, has been here most of his working life. He is grey and solid and a little round at the belly, where the apron bows. He grabs hold of the sheep as it passes and shoves the blade in below the ear to sever the artery. There is a quick but contained spray of blood. The animal twitches. It is done.
"The pigs twitch even more than the sheep," Clive says to me, as we stand there watching.
Josh stuns another sheep. "That's a perfect stun, that is," Clive says. "Front legs out, back legs in."
I say to Josh, who is in his 20s, "How long have you done this?"
"It's the only job I've ever done," he says.
"Why?"
He shrugs. "They offered me the job." He stuns another sheep and it passes onwards to Allan.
As we talk, the sheep keep coming through. Josh keeps stunning. Allan keeps sticking. I am staring down a white-painted corridor, its walls sprayed with blood. At the end, the rail turns, taking the dead sheep to a long line of men each with a different task: the sheep will be beheaded, skinned, disembowelled, the bodies sawn in half. All of those men are waiting. We can chat but the work must not be stopped. There are 700 sheep to come through here.
I ask Clive if they have to look carefully at the type of people they employ.
"Of course," he says. "You get some. You see if they're getting something out of the experience they shouldn't." They are taken off the job. That said, he refuses to deny how the kill line can make you feel. "No mistake. It gives you a sense of power doing this. You see a big animal and realise how easy it is to put them down." He does not say this boastfully or with enthusiasm. He says it with the thoughtfulness of a man who has been in the trade all his life, who knows there are certain facts of life that must not be avoided. We watch the sheep dying for around half an hour. It stops being quite as dramatic as it was at first. There is a rhythm. But it does not stop being compelling.
This is life, halted.
The sheep are through and it is time for the pigs. Clive invites me to work on the tank and I know I can't decline. This is what I am here for. It is a tank of hot water – 62C – around 20ft long, 4ft deep and 10ft across. Behind the wall at our backs, in the kill-line corridor, the pigs are being stuck by Allan. I can hear the noise of them squealing and grunting in the holding area before they receive the stun from the electric paddles. I can hear the chains clanking. At one point I look around the wall and see the slaughterman. Our eyes meet. He is weary.
With the sheep, Allan was merely a little splattered. Now he is drenched. He is covered in blood, from his ankles right up to the transparent visor of his face mask. It is everywhere, and the pigs continue to bleed out as they come round the corner, a huge swirling scarlet tide. As they get to us, one of my colleagues lifts a handle which in turn lifts an articulated section of the overhead line. He can now lift the pigs up and over the lip of the tank so he can deposit them into the water with a huge splash. There is the smell of fresh blood and the tang of urine and shit and, above the top of it all, something familiar which I eventually identify as pork stock. Which is what happens when you dunk just-dead pigs in hot water.
When the pigs hit the water our job is to grab hold of the chains around their legs, three or four at a time, and hook the end over the side of the tank so the bodies aren't lost to the depths. Then we must drag the animals down the length of the tank, heaving them against the fluid tension, straining to get them moving. Danny, working alongside me, is short and wiry and prefers to push the chains down; I prefer to use my weight to pull, but sometimes find my feet slipping on the wet concrete floor. Then again I am trying to move around 300kg of pig at a time. Waiting at the end is the bristling machine. We push them through the water on to the platform which raises them out of the water into an open-sided chamber. There, they are flailed by furiously rotating rubber paddles with metal teeth at the end that strip off any hair and, while they're at it, toenails, too. Every minute or so there is a searing burst of violent flame designed to finish the job. Finally they are spat out the other end, re-chained and sent off down the line.
It is 90 minutes of pig drama, as scripted by Hieronymus Bosch. There's the stench and the splash of the hot water and the drag of the pigs. There's the roar of the machine and the heat of the belching flame. And over the top is the noise of the animals and the splatter and spray of the blood that cannot help but get you. Occasionally an animal comes round that is twitching more than the others and Danny takes a knife to them to check they are properly gone, hunkering down under the gush of something hot and arterial to finish the job as quickly as possible. And, of course, it is continuous.
I do what I can to keep up, to not be a hindrance. Occasionally I lose a pig to the water and somebody has to come to my aid to retrieve it from beneath the surface. I feel ashamed and literally unmanned. I am a writer. I sit at my desk. I type. I have never done anything that feels remotely male. I feel I am failing. And then I feel ashamed, not for trying to measure myself in this way, but for thinking like this when really what's going on around me, the deaths of pigs to feed my own intense pork habit, is so much more important.
Then there is the strain. I feel the effort in the core of my abdomen and in my arms and in my neck. I feel it everywhere. And when, after 90 minutes or so, Clive invites me to try my hand at something else, I grab the chance, reasoning that I have to do as much as possible while I am here. I leave Danny and Alan to it. I am happy to say goodbye.
A Greedy Man in a Hungry World, by Jay Rayner, is out now at £12.99. To order a copy for £10.39, with free UK p&p, click here or call 0330 333 6846
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Brasil condona 840 millones de dólares de deuda a países africanos
Brasil ha anunciado la cancelación de deuda externa de 12 países africanos por valor de 840 millones de dólares, indicó el portavoz de la presidencia de Brasil, Thomas Traumann.
Según Traumann, la medida contribuirá a construcción de una estrategia más amplia para estrechar los lazos entre el país sudamericano y el continente africano.
Según Traumann, la medida contribuirá a construcción de una estrategia más amplia para estrechar los lazos entre el país sudamericano y el continente africano.
Nine year old admits burgling house
A boy aged just nine has admitted burgling a house and stealing the keys of a car that was later found crashed at the side of the road.
EE.UU.: Detienen a un estudiante por fabricar un artefacto explosivo que iba a detonar en su escuela
Grant Alan Acord, un estudiante de 17 años de la escuela secundaria de West Albany (Oregon), fue detenido después de que llegara a oídos de la policía que había fabricado un artefacto explosivo y que planeaba detonarlo en su escuela.
El estudiante fue detenido como sospechoso bajo los cargos de posesión de un dispositivo destructivo y de fabricación de un dispositivo destructivo.
El estudiante fue detenido como sospechoso bajo los cargos de posesión de un dispositivo destructivo y de fabricación de un dispositivo destructivo.
20 injured, 61 arrested as Swiss street parade turns violent (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
This year’s Tanz Dich Frei ('Dance Yourself Free') parade, the largest street party in Switzerland in over 20 years, ended with scuffle between security forces and protesters after dozens of masked Black Bloc members tried to break through barricades surrounding the Parliament building.
Later in the night, clashes between police and rioters moved to the station, where garbage cans and ATMs were vandalized. Police estimated the damage caused by vandalism and looting to be several hundred thousand Swiss francs.
Sixty-one protesters were arrested, and some police officers were hospitalized.
A police spokesperson declined to give immediate details on the arrests. However, those detained were apparently a fraction of what police estimated to be a 7,000-strong turnout for the parade, which was organized by an anonymous collective.
Participants organized the event on social networks, particularly Facebook, where 13,000 people said they would attend.
The rally's message was quasi-political, with protesters carrying banners with slogans like "Fight for freedom, don't just dance." They also pushed an anti-capitalist message, blasting neoliberal economics, commercialism and police brutality, AFP reported.
A statement was posted on the event's Facebook page warning troublemakers not to attend: "Help one another, keep your alcohol or drug use under control and organize your fights somewhere else. That way, we'll show the police and the authorities we can organize a successful event without them."
Despite the violence, by pre-dawn Sunday many youths were still dancing in the street, local press reported.
"It's too bad that the event could not be celebrated, but still ended peacefully," the organizers wrote on Facebook.
The rally, now in its third year, is tolerated by the authorities, but just like a year ago when 10,000 participated, it was not given official permission to take place.
Like last year’s parade, hardliners managed to spray graffiti on parliament, leading authorities to take extra precautions. Bern's Old Town was locked down on the eve of the event, with extensive riot police deployments and barricades erected around Parliament Square.
Later in the night, clashes between police and rioters moved to the station, where garbage cans and ATMs were vandalized. Police estimated the damage caused by vandalism and looting to be several hundred thousand Swiss francs.
Sixty-one protesters were arrested, and some police officers were hospitalized.
A police spokesperson declined to give immediate details on the arrests. However, those detained were apparently a fraction of what police estimated to be a 7,000-strong turnout for the parade, which was organized by an anonymous collective.
Participants organized the event on social networks, particularly Facebook, where 13,000 people said they would attend.
The rally's message was quasi-political, with protesters carrying banners with slogans like "Fight for freedom, don't just dance." They also pushed an anti-capitalist message, blasting neoliberal economics, commercialism and police brutality, AFP reported.
A statement was posted on the event's Facebook page warning troublemakers not to attend: "Help one another, keep your alcohol or drug use under control and organize your fights somewhere else. That way, we'll show the police and the authorities we can organize a successful event without them."
Despite the violence, by pre-dawn Sunday many youths were still dancing in the street, local press reported.
"It's too bad that the event could not be celebrated, but still ended peacefully," the organizers wrote on Facebook.
The rally, now in its third year, is tolerated by the authorities, but just like a year ago when 10,000 participated, it was not given official permission to take place.
Like last year’s parade, hardliners managed to spray graffiti on parliament, leading authorities to take extra precautions. Bern's Old Town was locked down on the eve of the event, with extensive riot police deployments and barricades erected around Parliament Square.
Perú: Falsa alarma de bomba paraliza un aeropuerto
Una llamada anónima que advirtió a la Policía peruana sobre la presencia de una bomba en el aeropuerto de Arequipa ‘Alfredo Rodríguez Ballón’ resultó ser una falsa alarma, informan medios locales.
La Unidad de Desactivación de Explosivos (UDEX) realizó un operativo de búsqueda y confirmó que la amenaza era falsa, por lo que se han reiniciado las operaciones en el aeropuerto.
La terminal estuvo paralizada por más de una hora y media y todos los vuelos de salida y entrada fueron suspendidos. Los vehículos estacionados en el parking fueron evacuados y el acceso al aeropuerto se restringió momentáneamente.
La Unidad de Desactivación de Explosivos (UDEX) realizó un operativo de búsqueda y confirmó que la amenaza era falsa, por lo que se han reiniciado las operaciones en el aeropuerto.
La terminal estuvo paralizada por más de una hora y media y todos los vuelos de salida y entrada fueron suspendidos. Los vehículos estacionados en el parking fueron evacuados y el acceso al aeropuerto se restringió momentáneamente.
Corea del Norte condena el lanzamiento de un misil balístico por parte de EE.UU.
Rodong Sinmun', el diario oficial del Partido de los Trabajadores de Corea del Norte, criticó duramente el lanzamiento que hizo EE.UU. este miércoles 22 de mayo de un misil balístico intercontinental no armado.
El diario calificó los lanzamientos de este tipo de provocación y de amenaza nuclear para la seguridad del país.
El diario calificó los lanzamientos de este tipo de provocación y de amenaza nuclear para la seguridad del país.
Rioting ebbs in Stockholm, parents walk streets
Swedish police say rioting in Stockholm has ebbed despite a seventh night of scattered violence. The unrest has spurred debate among Swedes over policies to integrate immigrants in a country long seen as egalitarian.
See rare sight Sunday: Jupiter, Venus and Mercury together
By Tariq Malik, SPACE.comThree planets will perform a rare celestial dance in the sunset sky Sunday, a cosmic show that stars Jupiter, Venus and Mercury.Weather permitting, the three planets will shine together in a triangle formation low in the western sky in a planetary meet-up known as a conjunction. But there is more to the night sky sight than meets the eye."Triple conjunctions of planets a...
Ancient cave art unearthed in Mexico
By Megan Gannon, LiveScience In the mountains of northeastern Mexico, archaeologists have unearthed thousands of ancient paintings on the walls of caves and ravines from a time before Spanish rule.The rock art offers rare evidence from native cultures living in the area around the Sierra de San Carlos, a mountain range in Mexico's state of Tamaulipas, researchers say.Almost 5,000 of these pain….
Alien planets could shed light on Earth's climate future
By Leslie Mullen, Astrobiology Magazine, SPACE.comA Comparative Climatology Symposium held at NASA Headquarters on May 7 focused on new approaches to climate research by highlighting the similarities and contrasts between the environments of the rocky worlds Venus, Earth, Mars and Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan. The symposium also included discussions about exoplanets, the sun and past, present and….
Scotland’s oil: wistful thinking
It is optimistic to think that, in the event of independence, oil still under the North Sea is going to produce Norway-style wealth
IFAI ordena a SHCP dar datos sobre deudas estatales
La Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público deberá entregar a un particular copias simples o certificadas información sobre la deuda de estados y municipios, para el periodo que va del 2000 a 2012
Gandhi 'devastated' by India ambush
The head of India's Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, says she is "devastated" by an attack on party officials in Chhattisgarh, which left at least 24 dead.
'The Sumatran rainforest will mostly disappear within 20 years'
In only a few years, logging and agribusiness have cut Indonesia's vast rainforest by half. The government has renewed a moratorium on deforestation but it may already be too late for the endangered animals –and for the people whose lives lie in ruin
Our small plane had been flying low over Sumatra for three hours but all we had seen was an industrial landscape of palm and acacia trees stretching 30 miles in every direction. A haze of blue smoke from newly cleared land drifted eastward over giant plantations. Long drainage canals dug through equatorial swamps dissected the land. The only sign of life was excavators loading trees onto barges to take to pulp mills.
The end is in sight for the great forests of Sumatra and Borneo and the animals and people who depend on them. Thirty years ago the world's third- and sixth-largest islands were full of tigers, elephants, rhinos, orangutan and exotic birds and plants but in a frenzy of development they have been trashed in a single generation by global agribusiness and pulp and paper industries.
Their plantations supply Britain and the world with toilet paper, biofuels and vegetable oil to make everyday foods such as margarine, cream cheese and chocolate, but distraught scientists and environmental groups this week warn that one of the 21st century's greatest ecological disasters is rapidly unfolding.
Official figures show more than half of Indonesia's rainforest, the third-largest swath in the world, has been felled in a few years and permission has been granted to convert up to 70% of what remains into palm or acacia plantations. The government last week renewed a moratorium on the felling of rainforest, but nearly a million hectares are still being cut each year and the last pristine areas, in provinces such as Ache and Papua, are now prime targets for giant logging, palm and mining companies.
The toll on wildlife across an area nearly the size of Europe is vast, say scientists who warn that many of Indonesia's species could be extinct in the wild within 20-30 years. Orangutan numbers are in precipitous decline, only 250-400 tigers remain and fewer than 100 rhino are left in the forests, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Millions of hectares are nominally protected, but the forest is fragmented, national parks are surrounded by plantations, illegal loggers work with impunity and corruption is rife in government. "This is the fastest, most comprehensive transformation of an entire landscape that has ever taken place anywhere in the world including the Amazon. If it continues at this rate all that will be left in 20 years is a few fragmented areas of natural forest surrounded by huge manmade plantations. There will be increased floods, fires and droughts but no animals," said Yuyun Indradi, political forest campaigner with Greenpeace southeast Asia in Jakarta.
Last night the WWF's chief Asian tiger expert pleaded with the Indonesian government and the world to stop the growth of palm oil plantations. "Forest conversion is massive. We urgently need stronger commitment from the government and massive support from the people. We cannot tolerate any further conversion of natural forests," said Sunarto Sunarto in Jakarta.
Indonesia's deforestation has been accompanied by rising violence, say watchdog groups. Last year, more than 600 major land conflicts were recorded in the palm plantations. Many turned violent as communities that had lost their traditional forest fought multinational companies and security forces. More than 5,000 human rights abuses were recorded, with 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries.
"The legacy of deforestation has been conflict, increased poverty, migration to the cities and the erosion of habitat for animals. As the forests come down, social conflicts are exploding everywhere," said Abetnego Tarigan, director of Walhi, Indonesia's largest environment group.
Scientists fear that the end of the forest could come quickly. Conflict-wracked Aceh, which bore the brunt of the tsunami in 2004, will lose more than half its trees if a new government plan to change the land use is pushed through. A single Canadian mining company is seeking to exploit 1.77m hectares for mining, logging and palm plantations.
Large areas of central Sumatra and Kalimantan are being felled as coal, copper and gold mining companies move in. Millions of hectares of forest in west Papua are expected to be converted to palm plantations.
"Papuans, some of the poorest citizens in Indonesia, are being utterly exploited in legally questionable oil palm land deals that provide huge financial opportunities for international investors at the expense of the people and forests of West Papua," said Jago Wadley, a forest campaigner with the Environment Investigation Agency.
Despite a commitment last week from the government to extend a moratorium on deforestation for two years, Indonesia is still cutting down its forests faster than any other country. Loopholes in the law mean the moratorium only covers new licences and primary forests, and excludes key peatland areas and existing concessions which are tiger and elephant habitats. "No one seems able to stop the destruction," said Greenpeace International's forest spokesman, Phil Aikman.
The conflicts often arise when companies are granted dubious logging or plantation permissions that overlap with community-managed traditional forests and protected areas such as national parks.
Nine villages have been in conflict with the giant paper company April, which has permission to convert, with others, 450,000 hectares of deep peat forests on the Kampar Peninsula in central Sumatra. Because the area contains as much as 1.5bn tonnes of carbon, it has global importance in the fight against climate change.
"We would die for this [forest] if necessary. This is a matter of life and death. The forest is our life. We depend on it when we want to build our houses or boats. We protect it. The permits were handed out illegally, but now we have no option but to work for the companies or hire ourselves out for pitiful wages," said one village leader from Teluk Meranti who feared to give his name.
They accuse corrupt local officials of illegally grabbing their land. April, which strongly denies involvement in corruption, last week announced plans to work with London-based Flora and Fauna international to restore 20,000 hectares of degraded forest land.
Fifty miles away, near the town of Rengit, villagers watched in horror last year when their community forest was burned down – they suspect by people in the pay of a large palm oil company. "Life is terrible now. We are ruined. We used to get resin, wood, timber, fuel from the forest. Now we have no option but to work for the palm oil company. The company beat us. The fire was deliberate. This forest was everything for us. We used it as our supermarket, building store, chemist shop and fuel supplier for generations of people. Now we must put plastic on our roofs," said one man from the village of Bayesjaya who also asked not to be named.
Mursyi Ali from the village of Kuala Cenaku in the province of Riau, has spent 10 years fighting oil plantation companies which were awarded a giant concession. "Maybe 35,000 people have been impacted by their plantations. Everyone is very upset. People have died in protests. I have not accepted defeat yet. These conflicts are going on everywhere. Before the companies came we had a lot of natural resources, like honey, rattan, fish, shrimps and wood," he said.
"We had all we wanted. That all went when the companies came. Everything that we depended on went. Deforestaion has led to pollution and health problems. We are all poorer now. I blame the companies and the government, but most of all the government," he continued. He pleaded with the company: "Please resolve this problem and give us back the 4,100 hectares of land. We would die for this if necessary. This is a life or death," he says.
Greenpeace and other groups accuse the giant pulp and palm companies of trashing tens of thousands of hectares of rainforest a year but the companies respond that they are the forest defenders and without them the ecological devastation would be worse. "There has been a rampant escalation of the denuding of the landscape but it is mostly by migrant labour and palm oil growers. Poverty and illegal logging along with migrant labour have caused the deforestation," said April's spokesman, David Goodwin.
"What April does is not deforestation. In establishing acacia plantations in already-disturbed forest areas, it is contributing strongly to reforestation. Last year April planted more than 100 million trees. Deforestation happens because of highly organised illegal logging, slash-and-burn practices by migrant labour, unregulated timber operations. There has been a explosion of palm oil concessions."
The company would not reveal how much rainforest it and its suppliers fell each year but internal papers seen by the Observer show that it planned to deforest 60,000 hectares of rainforest in 2012 but postponed this pending the moratorium. It admits that it has a concession of 20,000 hectares of forest that it has permission to fell and that it takes up to one third of its timber from "mixed tropical hardwood" for its giant pulp and paper mill near Penabaru in Riau.
There are some signs of hope. The heat is now on other large palm oil and paper companies after Asia Pacific Resources International (APP), one of the world's largest pulp and paper companies, was persuaded this year by international and local Indonesian groups to end all rainforest deforestation and to rely solely on its plantations for its wood.
The company, which admits to having felled hundreds of thousands of acres of Sumatran forest in the last 20 years, had been embarrassed and financially hurt when other global firms including Adidas, Kraft, Mattel, Hasbro, Nestlé, Carrefour, Staples and Unilever dropped products made by APP that had been made with rainforest timber.
"We thought that if we adopted national laws to protect the forest that this would be enough. But it clearly was not. We realised something was not right and that we needed a much higher standard. So now we will stop the deforestation, whatever the cost. We are now convinced that the long term benefits will be greater," said Aida Greenbury, APP's sustainability director. "Yes. We got it wrong. We could not have done worse."
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Industry, fires and poachers shrink Sumatran tigers' last stronghold
No Sumatran wild animal is safe as contact with humans rises with disastrous results
Karman Lubis's body was found near where he had been working on a Sumatran rubber plantation. His head was found several days later a mile away and they still haven't found his right hand. He had been mauled by a Sumatran tiger that has been living in Batang Gadis National Park and he was one of five people killed there by tigers in the last five years.
Contact between humans and wild animals is increasing disastrously in Sumatra as deforestation, mining and palm oil concessions expand, fragmenting forest habitats and driving animals out of protected areas. The exact number of tigers left in the wild is uncertain but latest estimates range from under 300 to possibly 500 in 27 locations.
Batang Gadis is one of the last strongholds of the Sumatran tiger with anywhere between 23 and 76 tigers in the dense forests, making up nearly 20% of all Sumatra's tigers. But with a single tiger worth as much as $50,000 to a poacher on the black market, hunting is rampant. Conservationists fear that unless concerted action is taken, the Sumatran tiger will go the way of two other Indonesian subspecies. The Bali tiger was hunted to extinction in 1937 and the last Javan tiger was recorded in the 1970s.
Many Sumatran tigers, says Greenpeace, are being killed by accident. In July 2011, one was found dying in an animal trap on the border of an Asia Pulp and Paper acacia tree concession where rainforest had recently been cleared. Others have been found caught in electric fences or have been killed by farmers in retaliation for the killing of humans.
No wild animal is now considered safe in Sumatra. An Australian-owned gold mining company has a 200,000-hectare concession which overlaps into Batang Gadis and illegal logging is encroaching upon the park from all sides.
Other Indonesian animals are faring even worse than the tiger. Widespread forest fires, many set deliberately to clear land for oil palm plantations, have been disastrous for Sumatran orangutans. Thousands are thought to have burned to death, unable to escape the flames both in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
The species' range is now severely circumscribed, says WWF in Jakarta. Of nine populations left in Sumatra, only seven are thought viable. "The fate of Sumatran orangutans is inextricably linked to the island's fast-disappearing forests. If we want to save the Sumatran orangutan we have to save their forest home," said Barney Long, WWF's Asian species expert.
The Sumatran rhino could be extinct within a few years because of poaching and habitat destruction. A report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature last month estimated that there were now fewer than 100 in small, fragmented populations.
Conservationists fear that the whole species may be extinct in 20 years and are planning to move individual rhinos between Indonesia and Malaysia. Last year the first Sumatran rhino calf was born at a semi-wild sanctuary in Indonesia. It was only the fourth time in a century that captive Sumatran rhinos have given birth. A similar sanctuary, with large pens in natural forest, has also been established in Malaysian Borneo. These two sanctuaries, which house eight rhinos between them, are increasingly being seen as insurance policies against extinction.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Karman Lubis's body was found near where he had been working on a Sumatran rubber plantation. His head was found several days later a mile away and they still haven't found his right hand. He had been mauled by a Sumatran tiger that has been living in Batang Gadis National Park and he was one of five people killed there by tigers in the last five years.
Contact between humans and wild animals is increasing disastrously in Sumatra as deforestation, mining and palm oil concessions expand, fragmenting forest habitats and driving animals out of protected areas. The exact number of tigers left in the wild is uncertain but latest estimates range from under 300 to possibly 500 in 27 locations.
Batang Gadis is one of the last strongholds of the Sumatran tiger with anywhere between 23 and 76 tigers in the dense forests, making up nearly 20% of all Sumatra's tigers. But with a single tiger worth as much as $50,000 to a poacher on the black market, hunting is rampant. Conservationists fear that unless concerted action is taken, the Sumatran tiger will go the way of two other Indonesian subspecies. The Bali tiger was hunted to extinction in 1937 and the last Javan tiger was recorded in the 1970s.
Many Sumatran tigers, says Greenpeace, are being killed by accident. In July 2011, one was found dying in an animal trap on the border of an Asia Pulp and Paper acacia tree concession where rainforest had recently been cleared. Others have been found caught in electric fences or have been killed by farmers in retaliation for the killing of humans.
No wild animal is now considered safe in Sumatra. An Australian-owned gold mining company has a 200,000-hectare concession which overlaps into Batang Gadis and illegal logging is encroaching upon the park from all sides.
Other Indonesian animals are faring even worse than the tiger. Widespread forest fires, many set deliberately to clear land for oil palm plantations, have been disastrous for Sumatran orangutans. Thousands are thought to have burned to death, unable to escape the flames both in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
The species' range is now severely circumscribed, says WWF in Jakarta. Of nine populations left in Sumatra, only seven are thought viable. "The fate of Sumatran orangutans is inextricably linked to the island's fast-disappearing forests. If we want to save the Sumatran orangutan we have to save their forest home," said Barney Long, WWF's Asian species expert.
The Sumatran rhino could be extinct within a few years because of poaching and habitat destruction. A report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature last month estimated that there were now fewer than 100 in small, fragmented populations.
Conservationists fear that the whole species may be extinct in 20 years and are planning to move individual rhinos between Indonesia and Malaysia. Last year the first Sumatran rhino calf was born at a semi-wild sanctuary in Indonesia. It was only the fourth time in a century that captive Sumatran rhinos have given birth. A similar sanctuary, with large pens in natural forest, has also been established in Malaysian Borneo. These two sanctuaries, which house eight rhinos between them, are increasingly being seen as insurance policies against extinction.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Migrant jobs squeeze alarms UK fruit farmers
Kent apple farmers say loss of seasonal eastern European pickers will raise prices and bring industry to its knees
The rise of Ukip is having unexpected consequences for Britain's countryside. Farmers fear that the political upstart's success has the government running scared on immigration, with the result that foreign workers could soon be absent from Britain's fields.
"We can see there's a toxic mix brewing," says Alastair Brooks, who employs 200 temporary foreign workers to pick strawberries and raspberries at Langdon Manor Farm in Faversham, Kent. "People have understandable concerns about immigration, but temporary migrant workers have got tied up in the debate," he said.
Brooks has 130 acres of his farm devoted to fruit. Without foreign workers, he says, he will have to cut production. Many other farmers are in a similar position, says the National Farmers Union, because they fear that without foreign workers they will not have the staff to do the job.
It is not an idle concern. A shortage of foreign workers in 2007 and 2008 resulted in crops being left unharvested. Since then, the seasonal agricultural workers' scheme (Saws), which supplies about a third of the sector's temporary labour, has been open only to Romanians and Bulgarians. However, at the end of this year, both countries' citizens will gain full access to the EU job market. There are concerns that many of the 21,500 on the Saws scheme – which was established after the iron curtain came down to help the families of Polish and Czech servicemen unable to return home – will look for permanent jobs rather than seasonal work.
However, Brooks questions whether many will even come to the UK once the restrictions are lifted, given that their countries are closer to a booming Germany mode. For this reason, the NFU warns that finding a successor to Saws is now critical if the UK's £3.1bn horticulture industry is going to thrive. The union's concerns are echoed by the government's migration advisory committee (Mac), which has warned that a shortage of seasonal migrant labour would lead to a 10% to 15% rise in supermarket prices.
But food inflation is the least of the fruit growers' concerns. Brooks believes that supermarkets would source from abroad rather than risk food inflation. Countries such as Poland or France – and even the US – would be the beneficiaries, he says. Under this scenario, East Anglia's salad industry would move to Hungary, the asparagus industry would struggle to maintain production and many recent horticultural successes would be reversed.
"The Kent apple industry was on its knees and now it's coming back because they've got the workforce," Brooks says. His own industry – worth almost £1bn a year to the UK – would suffer dramatically. In 1988, when he started fruit farming, about 60% of strawberries consumed in the UK were imported. Today almost three quarters are homegrown. His concerns are shared by most farmers in his industry. An NFU survey found that more than 95% of growers who used Saws last year believed the end of the scheme would have a negative impact on business.
Finding employees locally is difficult because British workers are not interested in fruit-picking. Of the 25 non-Romanian and Bulgarian applicants who recently expressed an interest in picking fruit on Brooks's farm, 20 were British and five were Polish. By the end of the week, only the Poles remained. The early start times, the weather and the hard work involved seems to put many Britons off. "It's understandable; British workers are looking for more permanent jobs," Brooks said.
The NFU has made tentative suggestions about hiring former prisoners and called on the government to follow Spain and allow benefit claimants to work on a daily call basis without losing entitlements. There are hopes that new EU accession countries such as Croatia will be able to fill the gap, but it has a population of only 4.4 million and is relatively prosperous.
The migration advisory committee suggests that, ultimately, the government may have to allow workers from other non-EU countries such as Russia or Ukraine and Ukraine. However, this would play badly with voters now that Ukip has made immigration a major political issue, and the Home Office appears to be cool on the suggestion. "We shall consider the Mac's advice very carefully. However, in general we want to encourage employers to recruit from the resident labour market where possible," a spokesman said.
The NFU says that ending Saws would be bad for British jobs. For every 3.5 jobs created by Saws another is created for a British worker. But all this hangs in the balance.
Fruit farmers such as Brooks have to make hiring decisions a year ahead. They will soon have to decide whether to curtail their operations, something that would deal a major blow to the government's ambitions to make half of the fruit consumed in the UK grown domestically.
Last Thursday morning, Brooks drove his battered Land Rover around fields that have been farmed since the 14th century. Young Bulgarian and Romanian workers, seemingly oblivious to the unseasonal chill of the British spring, worked under the protection of polytunnels. The tunnels come down in November. Brooks has no idea how many will go up again next year
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Men charged with endangering plane
Two Britons, aged 30 and 41, to appear in court on Monday after flight from Pakistan to Manchester diverted to Stansted on Friday
Two men will appear in court charged with endangering an aircraft after a passenger jet was diverted mid-flight on Friday.
The men, British nationals aged 30 and 41 who have not been named, will appear at Chelmsford magistrates court on Monday.
They were detained on Friday when a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Pakistan to Manchester was diverted to Stansted airport in Essex, where it landed at 2.15pm.
An RAF Typhoon jet was scrambled to escort the Boeing 777 over UK airspace, and the pair were arrested after armed police boarded the plane.
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En México extravían más armas de las que decomisan
La Policía Federal Ministerial de México, adscrita a la Procuraduría General de la República, durante los últimos siete años extravió más armas de las que decomisó, reveló un informe de información pública que da cuenta de cifras de 2006 a 2012.
Información oficial proporcionada por el órgano de la dependencia federal indica que, de 2006 a 2012, elementos de la Policía Federal Ministerial reportaron el extravío de 475 armas. En ese mismo lapso, la Policía Federal Ministerial decomisó 288 armas; de ellas, 252 largas y 36 cortas, según el diario Excélsior.
Información oficial proporcionada por el órgano de la dependencia federal indica que, de 2006 a 2012, elementos de la Policía Federal Ministerial reportaron el extravío de 475 armas. En ese mismo lapso, la Policía Federal Ministerial decomisó 288 armas; de ellas, 252 largas y 36 cortas, según el diario Excélsior.
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