Thursday, 6 January 2011
Chinese coffee cup
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Cheap food, it's an obsession.
'Cheap food is damaging our health, the farming industry, and the environment', says a managing director of Waitrose.
'Value' is the favourite red-lettered sticker for their own-brand recession-proof ranges in supermarkets, but due to poor content cheap food may not be good value at all. There are no requirements for minimal contents to be stated on, for instance, a simple meat pie, where the proportion of meat may be very low.
Our grandparents spent a higher proportion of their wages on food than we do today, and amazingly we possibly spend a higher proportion of our income on our mobile 'phones than we do on food!
One bag of food in three is chucked out uneaten, and at the end of the day huge amounts of 'past their sell by date' perfectly good food is thrown away by supermarkets.
Cheap food also causes hunger when self sufficiency is destroyed by globalisation. When Mexico, for example, was flooded with US corn imports the poorer farmers were put out of business and the entire economy suffered. The Mexican environment suffered, there was increased poverty among food producers, inevitably increased food dependence, and subsequently hunger. Globalisation cheapens everything, and our land and life-sustaining food should never be cheapened.
In their rampant desire for increased profits Supermarkets are the culprits. Food has become a purely financial commodity, and the more people consume the more the money makers like it. The general public should wise up and realise that the real cost of cheap food is a high one, both to our own health and the welfare of those in other countries. With an ever increasing incidence of obesity, people should consume less, waste less, spend a little more, and buy wholesome home grown preferably organic food , and never plump automatically for the cheapest product on offer.
'Value' is the favourite red-lettered sticker for their own-brand recession-proof ranges in supermarkets, but due to poor content cheap food may not be good value at all. There are no requirements for minimal contents to be stated on, for instance, a simple meat pie, where the proportion of meat may be very low.
Our grandparents spent a higher proportion of their wages on food than we do today, and amazingly we possibly spend a higher proportion of our income on our mobile 'phones than we do on food!
One bag of food in three is chucked out uneaten, and at the end of the day huge amounts of 'past their sell by date' perfectly good food is thrown away by supermarkets.
Cheap food also causes hunger when self sufficiency is destroyed by globalisation. When Mexico, for example, was flooded with US corn imports the poorer farmers were put out of business and the entire economy suffered. The Mexican environment suffered, there was increased poverty among food producers, inevitably increased food dependence, and subsequently hunger. Globalisation cheapens everything, and our land and life-sustaining food should never be cheapened.
In their rampant desire for increased profits Supermarkets are the culprits. Food has become a purely financial commodity, and the more people consume the more the money makers like it. The general public should wise up and realise that the real cost of cheap food is a high one, both to our own health and the welfare of those in other countries. With an ever increasing incidence of obesity, people should consume less, waste less, spend a little more, and buy wholesome home grown preferably organic food , and never plump automatically for the cheapest product on offer.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Monsanto, a huge beast, and a very dangerous one
Monsanto, the notoriously aggressive biotech giant have been caught by Wikileaks with 'their hands in the cookie jar'.
Monsanto was founded in 1901. The first product they made was saccharin, the artificial sweetener that they subsequently sold to Coca Cola. Monsanto established their first foothold in Europe in Wales where they went into partnership with Graesser's chemical works. They expanded in the 1920s, and in the 1940s became leading manufacturers of plastics, herbicides, Agent Orange (a highly carcinogenic defoliant agent used during the Vietnam War), other artificial sweeteners, and bovine growth hormones.
During the same decade they were involved with the development of the first Nuclear weapons, and in 1944 they commenced manufacturing DDT. After forming a partnership with the chemical giant Bayer they marketed polyurethanes in the US. In 1982 they were the first to genetically modify plant cells. It was during the years 1997 to 2002 that Monsanto moved from chemical giant to biotech giant. They have, since 2005, patent claims on the breeding techniques of pigs,developed the so called 'terminator' seed which requires customers to repurchase seed for every planting, and developed bovine somatotropin, a synthetic hormone introduced to increase milk production. Not a pretty history!
Virtually every chemical Monsanto have manufactured has been detrimental to human well being and other animals, and many have been/are excessively dangerous. Like a cancer Monsanto attempt to spread and control the world with their own deadly variation of the disease.
Wikileaks have done a good job exposing the American Ambassador for chatting up the Vatican and generally sucking up to the EU . Thankfully, so far, those in power in the EU have not succumbed to their bribes and aggressive lobbying, but Monsanto play a very long game. We must all beware.
Monsanto was founded in 1901. The first product they made was saccharin, the artificial sweetener that they subsequently sold to Coca Cola. Monsanto established their first foothold in Europe in Wales where they went into partnership with Graesser's chemical works. They expanded in the 1920s, and in the 1940s became leading manufacturers of plastics, herbicides, Agent Orange (a highly carcinogenic defoliant agent used during the Vietnam War), other artificial sweeteners, and bovine growth hormones.
During the same decade they were involved with the development of the first Nuclear weapons, and in 1944 they commenced manufacturing DDT. After forming a partnership with the chemical giant Bayer they marketed polyurethanes in the US. In 1982 they were the first to genetically modify plant cells. It was during the years 1997 to 2002 that Monsanto moved from chemical giant to biotech giant. They have, since 2005, patent claims on the breeding techniques of pigs,developed the so called 'terminator' seed which requires customers to repurchase seed for every planting, and developed bovine somatotropin, a synthetic hormone introduced to increase milk production. Not a pretty history!
Virtually every chemical Monsanto have manufactured has been detrimental to human well being and other animals, and many have been/are excessively dangerous. Like a cancer Monsanto attempt to spread and control the world with their own deadly variation of the disease.
Wikileaks have done a good job exposing the American Ambassador for chatting up the Vatican and generally sucking up to the EU . Thankfully, so far, those in power in the EU have not succumbed to their bribes and aggressive lobbying, but Monsanto play a very long game. We must all beware.
Monday, 3 January 2011
D.H.Thoreau, another great American.
David Henri Thoreau was born in Concord Massachusetts in 1817. His father was a pencil maker of French descent. He studied at Harvard University between 1833 and 1837. He joined the Faculty of the Concord Public School but resigned after a short time because he refused to administer corporal punishment.
With his brother John he opened a school where he introduced several progressive concepts but closed this when his brother died in 1842. He returned to Concord and met R.Waldo Emerson and resumed work at the family pencil factory. Here he rediscovered the process of mixing graphite with clay (the Conte process), and later converted the factory to produce graphite which was used for typesetting machines.
In 1845 he embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living in a small self-built cabin on the shores of Walden Pond on land that belonged to Emerson.Here he spent an incredible amount of time reading and writing. He had a brush with the tax man in 1846 when he refused to pay poll tax because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War, and slavery, and had to spend a night in prison. This incident had a strong impact on him, and in 1848 he delivered an important lecture on the "Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government".
He left Walden Pond in 1847 but worked for several years continuously revising his manuscript "Walden, or Life in the Woods". This book had mixed reviews but Robert Frost said of it - "In one book he surpasses everything we have in America".
Thoreau became increasingly fascinated by natural history and travel, he admired Darwin, became a land surveyor and wrote very detailed natural history observations on fruit trees and the migrationary habits of birds etc. He believed that one should "Live at home like a traveler". He was a life-long abolitionist. He died of tuberculosis at 44 in 1862- "Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind". Thoreau. Wise words.
With his brother John he opened a school where he introduced several progressive concepts but closed this when his brother died in 1842. He returned to Concord and met R.Waldo Emerson and resumed work at the family pencil factory. Here he rediscovered the process of mixing graphite with clay (the Conte process), and later converted the factory to produce graphite which was used for typesetting machines.
In 1845 he embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living in a small self-built cabin on the shores of Walden Pond on land that belonged to Emerson.Here he spent an incredible amount of time reading and writing. He had a brush with the tax man in 1846 when he refused to pay poll tax because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War, and slavery, and had to spend a night in prison. This incident had a strong impact on him, and in 1848 he delivered an important lecture on the "Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government".
He left Walden Pond in 1847 but worked for several years continuously revising his manuscript "Walden, or Life in the Woods". This book had mixed reviews but Robert Frost said of it - "In one book he surpasses everything we have in America".
Thoreau became increasingly fascinated by natural history and travel, he admired Darwin, became a land surveyor and wrote very detailed natural history observations on fruit trees and the migrationary habits of birds etc. He believed that one should "Live at home like a traveler". He was a life-long abolitionist. He died of tuberculosis at 44 in 1862- "Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind". Thoreau. Wise words.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Factory farmed pigs, how shameful!
A short programme on radio 4 this morning featured a US farm that intensively breeds and fattens pigs, on a massively industrialised scale.
Americans are supremely trained in the use of euphemisms. They are past masters at turning truth into lies, never call a spade a spade if you are an American , just hide nastiness by giving it a pleasant sounding word. This particular 'farmer' likes to stress that pigs are not human beings, he insists we must not anthropomorphise pigs yet he constantly uses the word 'gals' for his breeding sows. He keeps these in the most degrading and dreadful conditions. The trapped sows eventually go mad, chewing on the bars of their tiny crates in bleak despair.
Gestation crates are used in US, Canada, Denmark, and Mexico.In some states in the US namely Florida, Arizona, and California they are banned, they are also banned in the UK, and from 2015 it will be illegal to use sow crates on New Zealand pig farms.
Systems for housing pigs for fattening (piglets are taken from their mothers at a few weeks old) are equally horrific. They live crowded together in a small pen indoors on a concrete slatted surface without straw. They, like the sows never see the light of day. Excrement passes through the slats, and pigs which are highly intelligent naturally clean animals have to live their entire lives above the smell of their own waste. Piglets are subjected to tail docking, teeth clipping, and ear notching without anaesthetic, they are put on drug programmes , and antibiotics, vitamins, and hormones are administered pre-emptively. In the US there is a Humane Slaughter Act but there are repeated violations of this in the slaughter houses. North Carolina houses approximately 10 million pigs, with the greatest state of barbarity reserved for breeding sows. They spend 70 days a year confined to their metal crates where they produce c2.5 litters per annum, and are despatched to the slaughter house if they fail to reach this number or in any way fall below par.
How can anyone eat bacon or ham without checking its origins first? The association of greed and the human being is mindblowing. A pig, or indeed any other animal, is not a machine!
Americans are supremely trained in the use of euphemisms. They are past masters at turning truth into lies, never call a spade a spade if you are an American , just hide nastiness by giving it a pleasant sounding word. This particular 'farmer' likes to stress that pigs are not human beings, he insists we must not anthropomorphise pigs yet he constantly uses the word 'gals' for his breeding sows. He keeps these in the most degrading and dreadful conditions. The trapped sows eventually go mad, chewing on the bars of their tiny crates in bleak despair.
Gestation crates are used in US, Canada, Denmark, and Mexico.In some states in the US namely Florida, Arizona, and California they are banned, they are also banned in the UK, and from 2015 it will be illegal to use sow crates on New Zealand pig farms.
Systems for housing pigs for fattening (piglets are taken from their mothers at a few weeks old) are equally horrific. They live crowded together in a small pen indoors on a concrete slatted surface without straw. They, like the sows never see the light of day. Excrement passes through the slats, and pigs which are highly intelligent naturally clean animals have to live their entire lives above the smell of their own waste. Piglets are subjected to tail docking, teeth clipping, and ear notching without anaesthetic, they are put on drug programmes , and antibiotics, vitamins, and hormones are administered pre-emptively. In the US there is a Humane Slaughter Act but there are repeated violations of this in the slaughter houses. North Carolina houses approximately 10 million pigs, with the greatest state of barbarity reserved for breeding sows. They spend 70 days a year confined to their metal crates where they produce c2.5 litters per annum, and are despatched to the slaughter house if they fail to reach this number or in any way fall below par.
How can anyone eat bacon or ham without checking its origins first? The association of greed and the human being is mindblowing. A pig, or indeed any other animal, is not a machine!
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Fuel, government's milch cow.
The cost of filling a tank of petrol will shortly rise to record heights. Today there is an increase in fuel duty followed by a rise in vat to 20% on Tuesday.
In 1896 the Marquess of Salisbury put 9d on a gallon of petrol, no fuel duty existed then , it was introduced in 1909 by the Liberal government. By 1919 the price of petrol rose but duty was abolished, then replaced by vehicle taxation. The tax disc was introduced, and this was based on the horsepower of the vehicle.
It was the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George who replaced fuel duty with road tax. In 1929 fuel duty returned under the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin making a gallon of fuel cost 1s.6 3/4d. Under the first Labour government of Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald fuel duty rocketed to 45% where it remained until the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. It stayed virtually unchanged until John Major's premiership when the increase gathered pace and rose to 70% plus. The increase in fuel tax led to serious protests in 2000, 2005 and 2007, and in 2008 UK tax rates were one of the highest in Europe.
Government revenue raised from fuel duty in 2009 was £25,894 billion plus £3,884 billion being raised from vat on the duty! Jet fuel is exempt from duty, and there is a rebate system for bus service operators, agricultural and construction vehicles.
Successive governments have used the people's need and strong desire to use the motor car to squeeze and squeeze for more tax. The general public are an easy sitting target because it is almost impossible to live life now without a motor car due to totally inadequate public transport.
In 1896 the Marquess of Salisbury put 9d on a gallon of petrol, no fuel duty existed then , it was introduced in 1909 by the Liberal government. By 1919 the price of petrol rose but duty was abolished, then replaced by vehicle taxation. The tax disc was introduced, and this was based on the horsepower of the vehicle.
It was the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George who replaced fuel duty with road tax. In 1929 fuel duty returned under the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin making a gallon of fuel cost 1s.6 3/4d. Under the first Labour government of Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald fuel duty rocketed to 45% where it remained until the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. It stayed virtually unchanged until John Major's premiership when the increase gathered pace and rose to 70% plus. The increase in fuel tax led to serious protests in 2000, 2005 and 2007, and in 2008 UK tax rates were one of the highest in Europe.
Government revenue raised from fuel duty in 2009 was £25,894 billion plus £3,884 billion being raised from vat on the duty! Jet fuel is exempt from duty, and there is a rebate system for bus service operators, agricultural and construction vehicles.
Successive governments have used the people's need and strong desire to use the motor car to squeeze and squeeze for more tax. The general public are an easy sitting target because it is almost impossible to live life now without a motor car due to totally inadequate public transport.
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