Chinese agriculture older than domesticated rice

This video is called Neolithic part I, shows the change in lifestyle brought about by the Neolithic revolution.

From the University of Leicester in England:

New discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged

17 May 2013

Archaeologists have made a discovery in southern subtropical China which could revolutionise thinking about how ancient humans lived in the region.

They have uncovered evidence for the first time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised agriculture –before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.

Current archaeological thinking is that it was the advent of rice cultivation along the Lower Yangtze River that marked the beginning of agriculture in southern China. Poor organic preservation in the study region, as in many others, means that traditional archaeobotany techniques are not possible.

Now, thanks to a new method of analysis on ancient grinding stones, the archaeologists have uncovered evidence that agriculture could predate the advent of rice in the region.

The research was the result of a two-year collaboration between Dr Huw Barton, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, and Dr Xiaoyan Yang, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing.

Funded by a Royal Society UK-China NSFC International Joint Project, and other grants held by Yang in China, the research is published in PLOS ONE.

Dr Barton, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Leicester, described the find as ‘hitting the jackpot’: “Our discovery is totally unexpected and very exciting.

“We have used a relatively new method known as ancient starch analysis to analyse ancient human diet. This technique can tell us things about human diet in the past that no other method can.

“From a sample of grinding stones we extracted very small quantities of adhering sediment trapped in pits and cracks on the tool surface. From this material, preserved starch granules were extracted with our Chinese colleagues in the starch laboratory in Beijing. These samples were analysed in China and also here at Leicester in the Starch and Residue Laboratory, School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

“Our research shows us that there was something much more interesting going on in the subtropical south of China 5,000 years ago than we had first thought. The survival of organic material is really dependent on the particular chemical properties of the soil, so you never know what you will get until you sample. At Xincun we really hit the jackpot. Starch was well-preserved and there was plenty of it. While some of the starch granules we found were species we might expect to find on grinding and pounding stones, ie. some seeds and tuberous plants such as freshwater chestnuts, lotus root and the fern root, the addition of starch from palms was totally unexpected and very exciting.”

Several types of tropical palms store prodigious quantities of starch. This starch can be literally bashed and washed out of the trunk pith, dried as flour, and of course eaten. It is non-toxic, not particularly tasty, but it is reliable and can be processed all year round. Many communities in the tropics today, particularly in Borneo and Indonesia, but also in eastern India, still rely on flour derived from palms.

Dr Barton said: “The presence of at least two, possibly three species of starch producing palms, bananas, and various roots, raises the intriguing possibility that these plants may have been planted nearby the settlement.

“Today groups that rely on palms growing in the wild are highly mobile, moving from one palm stand to another as they exhaust the clump. Sedentary groups that utilise palms for their starch today, plant suckers nearby the village, thus maintaining continuous supply. If they were planted at Xincun, this implies that ‘agriculture’ did not arrive here with the arrival of domesticated rice, as archaeologists currently think, but that an indigenous system of plant cultivation may have been in place by the mid Holocene.

“The adoption of domesticated rice was slow and gradual in this region; it was not a rapid transformation as in other places. Our findings may indicate why this was the case. People may have been busy with other types of cultivation, ignoring rice, which may have been in the landscape, but as a minor plant for a long time before it too became a food staple.

“Future work will focus on grinding stones from nearby sites to see if this pattern is repeated along the coast.”

Related articles

• Ancient Agriculture in China Predates Rice Domestication: Tropical Palm Diet (scienceworldreport.com)
• In ancient China, sago palms were major plant food prior to rice cultivation (ancientfoods.wordpress.com)
• Sago Palms, Bananas were Major Food Prior to Rice in Southern Areas of Ancient China (sci-news.com)
• Origins of Chinese agriculture pushed back by 12,000 years (ancientfoods.wordpress.com)

Manure explosions at United States hog farms

This video from the USA, Iowa State University Extension, is called David Schmidt: Foaming Manure Pits.

From Mother Jones in the USA:

Mysterious Poop Foam Causes Explosions on Hog Farms

—By Tom Philpott

Wed May. 15, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

When you hear about foam in the context of food, you might think of molecular gastronomy, the culinary innovations of the Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, who’s famous for dishes like apple caviar with banana foam.

But this post is about a much less appetizing kind of foam. You see, starting in about 2009, in the pits that capture manure under factory-scale hog farms, a gray, bubbly substance began appearing at the surface of the fecal soup. The problem is menacing: As manure breaks down, it emits toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide and flammable ones like methane, and trapping these noxious fumes under a layer of foam can lead to sudden, disastrous releases and even explosions. According to a 2012 report from the University of Minnesota, by September 2011, the foam had “caused about a half-dozen explosions in the upper Midwest…one explosion destroyed a barn on a farm in northern Iowa, killing 1,500 pigs and severely burning the worker involved.”

And the foam grows to a thickness of up to four feet—check out these images, from a University of Minnesota document published by the Iowa Pork Producers, showing a vile-looking substance seeping up from between the slats that form the floor of a hog barn. Those slats are designed to allow hog waste to drop down into the below-ground pits; it is alarming to see it bubbling back up in the form of a substance the consistency of beaten egg whites.

And here’s the catch: Scientists can’t explain the phenomenon.

Check out this amazing 2011 video presentation [top of the post] on the matter by University of Minnesota researcher David Schmidt. He opens by describing a 2009 explosion that lifted a hog barn a “couple of feet off the ground” and blew the farm operator himself 20 feet from the building. (Thankfully, he wasn’t injured, and there were no animals in it.) And check out the footage, starting about 3:19 in, of the foam itself, which must be seen to be believed. At one point , a shovel dips into the mire and scoops up as sample—which jiggles and pulsates, alive, apparently, with microbial activity. Schmidt also does a great job of explaining just how manure foam can cause explosions.

Related articles

• The Latest in Job Safety Hazards: Poop Foam (lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com)
• New in Factory Farming: Exploding Poop Foam (newser.com)
• Latest Factory Farm Byproduct: Exploding Foamy Pigdoots (wonkette.com)
• Explosive Hog-Shit Foam (motherboard.vice.com)
• There’s a Mystery Foam on Some Hog Poop, and It Causes Explosions (geekosystem.com)
• U.S. Agriculture Secretary Responds to Hog Farm Protestors (5newsonline.com)

British allotments’ history

This video from Britain says about itself:

The English Enclosures

July 19, 2011

The devastating enclosures of the English commons forced peasants into the labour market and the factories of the industrial revolution. This video explains how and why.

By Nick Matthews in Britain:

Oases of contemplation, exercise and recreation

Wednesday 15 May 2013

I was delighted when the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners joined Co-ops UK.

It has been around since 1901, and as a bona-fide Industrial and Provident Society has long been a co-operative.

Allotments hold a special place in working-class culture. While there is no typical allotment holder or allotment site, nonetheless they have produced an instantly recognisable landscape.

Interestingly, in their seminal book The Allotment, Its Landscape and Culture – now sadly out of print – David Crouch and Colin Ward argue that the allotment began as a moral project that promoted what was almost a parody of William Morris’s “useful toil.”

They say that the allotment was adapted over time to provide individual space away from the home and a means of escape from “real” life. Today it remains a sociologist’s dream space and is important as a place where a range of significant social activities, attachments and cultural encounters take place.

We are seeing a huge upsurge in demand for allotments. There are around 300,000 in Britain and Northern Ireland and it is said that there is a new breed of young professionals who are seeking to “grow their own.” These may be untypical, but, as Crouch and Ward point out, in over 150 years there has never been a typical allotment gardener.

There are more young professionals, families and groups embracing allotment culture, and demand has outstripped supply in many parts of the country with long waiting lists.

In 2009 the National Trust pledged to create 1,000 new allotments on its land and they were soon snapped up.

We can date the development of the modern allotments movement back to the Enclosures Acts of 1836 and 1840, which deprived many working-class people of access to the land.

The General Enclosures Act of 1845, following a degree of popular unrest, introduced the idea of “field gardens” for the landless poor, but while hundreds of thousands of acres of land was enclosed only a couple of thousand was set aside for such use.

It was not until 1887 that local authorities were obliged to provide allotments, but even this was uneven in its application.

It was the Smallholding and Allotment Act 1907 that imposed responsibilities on parish, urban district and borough councils to provide them and further legislation in 1908 consolidated this position.

For the late Victorians allotments were thought of as productive use of time for the working poor, taking them away from the demon drink. They where also thought of as a way to provide wholesome food for a workforce housed in high-density gardenless homes.

German U-boats in the first world war cemented the allotment in popular culture. The blockade cut off the supplies of many products, and workers took to the allotment as a way of filling the gap. Interestingly the Dig for Victory campaign in World War II was based on the same principle.

During the war many railway companies released land to their workers to grow food and this is why many sites are next to railways to this day.

After the war there was a steady decline in the number of allotments but in recent years this decline has stabilised and in parts of the country we have seen a growth in numbers.

Allotments have always been good for physical as well as mental health. They are obviously a space for recreation and exercise, but are also a space for contemplation and solitude.

Of course, while it’s hard work, for many poor people the chance of growing one’s own food was a great boon. Today when we are so alienated from the natural world and most of our food comes shrink-wrapped there is almost something spiritual about growing something you can eat yourself.

Allotments and urban agriculture projects often offer an opportunity for excluded groups to participate in gardening and horticulture and can contribute to a sense of self as well as a sense of community.

An allotment is defined as an area of land, leased either from a private or local authority landlord, for the use of growing fruit and vegetables. In some cases this land will also be used for the growing of ornamental plants, and the keeping of hens, rabbits and bees.

Rods, poles and perches are Anglo-Saxon names for the same unit of measurement – one rod equals five-and-a-half yards. An allotment is traditionally measured in this way and 10 poles is the accepted size, about the size of a doubles tennis court.

Never has such a small parcel of land carried so much cultural significance and added so much to our countries’ well-being.

Related articles

• Allotments – a great British legacy (ideasbankatuea.wordpress.com)
• My Cool Allotment is a guide to the prettiest allotment gardens around (treehugger.com)
• New lease of life for allotments as they turn to graveyard a plot at a time (eveningharold.com)
• I haven’t been to the allotment in two (myallotmentandme.wordpress.com)

English criminals’ horsemeat sold as Dutch ‘beef’

This video is called IKEA detected horsemeat in European meatballs.

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

“Selten horse meat from England”

Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 18:41

A criminal gang from England and Ireland delivered thousands of horses, mostly from Ireland, to meat processor Willy Selten in Oss. These were then mixed with beef, EenVandaag reports. The news show says so, basing itself on information from “British insiders”.

The meat was then sold as a hundred percent beef in the stores. Initially it was thought that horses came from Polish and Romanian slaughterhouses.

The kingpin in the scandal, according to these sources, is one of the most notorious English slaughterhouses: Red Lion in Cheshire, which is now closed. Hence, trucks transported the carcasses of horses, which were often unsuitable for consumption, to Oss. The route is said to have been recorded with GPS transmitters, mounted on trucks. It is not clear who did this.

The British and Irish authorities knew earlier than previously known about the criminal activities of the slaughterhouse, says the news show. Last year someone was arrested and convicted because he had ordered slaughter of horses which should not have been butchered, at Red Lion.

The animals had been administered the drug phenylbutazone, a substance which is dangerous to people. It can cause bone marrow cancer. Phenylbutazone residues, according to EenVandaag, have been found in several European countries in Willy Selten’s meat.

Research in the Netherlands has shown that more than a thousand restaurants, shops and butchers have sold meat from the meat processor in Oss. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, because of this, recalled 50 million kilogram of Selten’s meat.

Eventually, 1.5 million kilogram was actually traced. MEP Esther de Lange of the CDA party concludes from this that the rest, 48.5 million, was consumed.

Related articles

• Dutch horse meat scandal update (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Horsemeat scandal’s prime suspect revealed: Is this the tycoon who butchered the meat trade? (mirror.co.uk)
• New horsemeat scandal in the Netherlands (bigpondnews.com)
• You: UK abattoir linked to Dutch distributor investigated over horsemeat scandal (guardian.co.uk)
• Dutch recall 50,000 tonnes of meat (bbc.co.uk)
• Horsemeat Scare: 50,000 Tons Of ‘Beef’ Recall (news.sky.com)
• Taco Bell, Burger King & Other Brands Using Horse Meat in Products (occupycorporatism.com)
• Dutch horsemeat sold as beef for two years (thelocal.de)
• Dutch horse meat scandal update (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Swedish dioxin salmon scandal

This video says about itself:

Save Wild Salmon & Bristol Bay: Paul Greenberg

Jul 20, 2011

Sign Petition: http://www.freshthemovie.com/salmon Wild Alaskan salmon is one of the most sustainable and healthy fish you can find. But if we don’t act now, it may disappear forever. Critical breeding grounds for wild salmon are endangered by the proposed construction of America’s largest open pit copper and gold mine, deep in the heart of Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Go to www.freshthemovie.com/salmon

Your Action Can Make A World of Difference.
Sign the Petition. Start the Ripple Effect Today.

Next year, developers plan to apply for permits for the construction of Pebble Mine. It’s not too late for us to stop them if we act now. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently considering requests from stakeholders to use its power under the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay. Pebble Mine would cover 20 square miles in the Bristol Bay watershed, in a seismically active region, and require the construction of the world’s largest earthen dam for a 10 square mile waste containment pond. Up to 10 billion tons of toxic mine wastes could be produced. Any release of these wastes could cause irreparable damage to the Bristol Bay salmon runs.

Even worse: while our wild salmon are under threat, genetically-modified salmon may be introduced to the market any day. This video contains exclusive footage with Paul Greenberg, best-selling author of Four Fish, as well as amazing footage of spawning salmon in the bay.

From the BBC:

8 May 2013 Last updated at 16:57

Swedish salmon sales ‘breached EU ban’ over dioxins

Firms in Sweden have sold about 200 tonnes of Baltic salmon in Europe despite an EU ban targeting toxic chemicals in fish, officials say.

The ban does not apply to Baltic salmon sold to domestic consumers in Sweden, Finland and Latvia. But the sellers are required to give advice about safe limits for consumption, set by the EU.

Dioxins found in Baltic herring and salmon prompted the EU ban in 2002.

A French firm imported 103 tonnes of Swedish salmon, but no longer does so. …

Jan Sjoegren of Sweden’s National Food Agency told the BBC that Baltic salmon had also been exported illegally to Denmark and the Netherlands from Sweden.

The agency has alerted the European Commission, which deals with national food safety authorities.

A firm in Karlskrona has been reported to the Swedish customs authorities over the salmon exports, and a firm in Hammaroe is also being investigated, Mr Sjoegren said.

Dioxin hazard

The latest alert about Baltic salmon exports follows a horsemeat contamination scandal in the EU which affected many countries.

“We don’t think more salmon is being exported now, but because of the horsemeat scandal we are stepping up action on food fraud,” Mr Sjoegren said.

Sweden’s National Food Agency says the average intake of dioxins among adult Swedes is well below the “tolerable weekly intake” set by the EU.

Children and young women, it adds, should especially limit their consumption of wild Baltic fish because dioxins pose the most risk to babies and young children.

Dioxins spread by incineration and chemical pollution can accumulate in the body over years and can trigger cancer or reproductive abnormalities.

The European Food Safety Authority says that, on average, Baltic herring and wild Baltic salmon are respectively 3.5 and five times more contaminated with dioxins than non-Baltic herring and farmed salmon.

Related articles

• Swedish companies breach salmon export ban: report (terradaily.com)
• Sweden sells toxic Baltic salmon to EU (thelocal.se)
• Help Save Alaska’s Magnificent Bristol Bay (ramyabdeljabbar.wordpress.com)
• Mine project threatens Bristol Bay salmon fishery: EPA report (seattlepi.com)
• Revision: Week 12 (srwylie.wordpress.com)
• Provincial vet should guard public interest (timescolonist.com)
• Video: Diseases from farmed salmon threaten wild Pacific salmon stocks (sfgate.com)
• Salmon farm accused of putting diseased fish into area shared with wild fish (theprovince.com)
• EPA Releases ‘Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment,’ Opens Public Comment Period (alaskapublic.org)

Horse meat scandal update

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Horse meat fraud man fined £42,000

NETHERLANDS: An appeals court upheld the conviction today of a man who sold horse meat labelled as Halal beef to French traders.

Jan Fasen was convicted in 2012 for buying horse meat from Brazil and Mexico and claiming it was beef slaughtered according to Muslim dietary law.

He had been handed nine months in prison, reduced on appeal to a six-month suspended sentence and €50,000 (£42,000) fine.

More about this is here. And here. And here. And here.

Related articles

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• Yummmmmmy….Horse meat….Welp…Its Derby Week…Perfect week to announce that Horsemeat is Found in Meatballs, Lasagna, More (sunsetdaily.wordpress.com)
• Horse Meat Found in 5% of Beef in Europe (newser.com)
• Drug found in Polish horse meat (independent.ie)
• Dutch man who sold horse meat labeled as Halal beef given €50,000 fine (theglobeandmail.com)
• Greeks second to French in inadvertently consuming horse meat, report shows (ekathimerini.com)
• Italy, France find more horse meat in beef (worldbulletin.net)

How Egyptian pyramid builders ate

This video from Egypt is called Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids of Giza.

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor:

Giza Secret Revealed: How 10,000 Pyramid Builders Got Fed

23 April 2013 Time: 11:50 AM ET

The builders of the famous Giza pyramids in Egypt feasted on food from a massive catering-type operation, the remains of which scientists have discovered at a workers’ town near the pyramids.

The workers’ town is located about 1,300 feet (400 meters) south of the Sphinx, and was used to house workers building the pyramid of pharaoh Menkaure, the third and last pyramid on the Giza plateau. The site is also known by its Arabic name, Heit el-Ghurab, and is sometimes called “the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders.”

So far, researchers have discovered a nearby cemetery with bodies of pyramid builders; a corral with possible slaughter areas on the southern edge of workers’ town; and piles of animal bones.

Based on animal bone findings, nutritional data, and other discoveries at this workers’ town site, the archaeologists estimate that more than 4,000 pounds of meat — from cattle, sheep and goats — were slaughtered every day, on average, to feed the pyramid builders. [See Photos of the Unearthed Giza Pyramid Site]

This meat-rich diet, along with the availability of medical care (the skeletons of some workers show healed bones), would have been an additional lure for ancient Egyptians to work on the pyramids.

“People were taken care of, and they were well fed when they were down there working, so there would have been an attractiveness to that,” said Richard Redding, chief research officer at Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), a group that has been excavating and studying the workers’ town site for about 25 years.

“They probably got a much better diet than they got in their village,” Redding told LiveScience.

Feeding the Giza work force

At the workers’ town, which was likely occupied for 35 years, researchers have discovered a plethora of animal bones. Although the researchers are still unsure of the exact number of bones, Redding estimates he has identified about 25,000 sheep and goats, 8,000 cattle and 1,000 pig bones, he wrote in a paper published in the book “Proceedings of the 10th Meeting of the ICAZ Working Group ‘Archaeozoology of southwest Asia and adjacent Areas’” (Peeters Publishing, 2013).

About 10,000 workers helped build the Menkaure pyramid, with a smaller work force present year-round to cut stones and complete preparation and survey work, the AERA team estimates. This smaller work force would have ramped up for a few months starting around July of each year. “What they would do is, for about four or five months a year, they would bring in a big work force to move blocks, and they would do nothing but move blocks,” explained Redding, who is also a research scientist at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and a member of the faculty at the University of Michigan. [In Photos: The Beautiful Pyramids of Sudan]

Needless to say, pyramid building is hard work. The workers would need at least 45 to 50 grams of protein a day, Redding said. Half of this protein would likely come from fish, beans, lentils and other non-meat sources, while the other half would come from sheep, goat and cattle, he estimated. Milk and cheese were probably not consumed due to transportation problems and the cattle’s low milk yield during that time, Redding said.

Combining these requirements and other protein sources with the ratio of the bones (and the amount of meat and protein one can get from an animal), Redding determined about 11 cattle and 37 sheep or goats were consumed each day.

This would be in addition to supplying workers with grain, beer and other products.

Vast herds … and herders

In order to maintain this level of slaughter, the ancient Egyptians would have needed a herd of 21,900 cattle and 54,750 sheep and goats just to keep up regular delivery to the Giza workers, Redding estimates.

The animals alone would need about 155 square miles (401 square kilometers) of territory to graze. Add in fallow land, waste land, settlements and agricultural land for the herders, and this number triples to about 465 square miles (1,205 square km) of land — an area about the size of modern-day Los Angeles. Even so, this area would take up just about 5 percent of the present-day Nile Delta.

These animals also needed herders — likely one herder for every six cattle and one herder for every 50 sheep or goats, based on ethnographic observations. This brings the total number of herders to 3,650 overall and, once their families are included, 18,980, just under 2 percent of Egypt’s estimated population at the time.

These herds would have been spread out in villages across the Nile Delta, then brought to the workers’ town at Giza to be slaughtered and cooked. At the end of their lives, the animals were likely kept in the southern part of the town, in a recently unearthed structure that researchers have dubbed the “OK corral.” (“OK” stands for “Old Kingdom,” the time period in which the Giza pyramids were built.) The structure, which includes two small enclosures where animals may have been slaughtered and a rounded pen, is partly hidden under a modern-day soccer field. [Image Gallery: Amazing Egyptian Discoveries]

The boss eats the beef

The research revealed interesting details about life in the workers’ town. For instance, the overseers — who lived in a structure the archaeologists call the “north street gatehouse” — got to eat the most cattle, and those living in an area called the “galleries,” where the everyday workers lived, ate mainly sheep and goats.

Redding said it wasn’t surprising that the overseers preferred to dine on beef, considering it was the most valued meat in ancient Egypt. “Cattle is, of course, the highest-status meat,” he said, noting that it appears far more frequently then sheep or goat in tomb scenes, and that pigs never appear in tomb scenes.

The settlement located adjacent to the workers’ town, dubbed “eastern town,” wasn’t as rigidly planned as workers’ town, and its residents were eating a considerable number of pigs, the researchers found. Evidence also suggested the people in eastern town were trading with people in workers’ town for hippo-tusk fragments.

These finds suggest that the residents of the eastern town were not as directly involved in pyramid building and had a special relationship with the pyramid workers.

“They were not provisioned; they were not given their meat and food every day,” like those in the workers’ town were, Redding said. “It’s more of a typical urban farming settlement, and there was a symbiotic relationship between the two —probably,” he said.

Future discoveries at Giza

Research at workers’ town suggests that not all the workers lived there and some may have actually camped out near the Giza pyramids.

“What we think now is — and this is something we’re going to be coming out with in the next little while — is that, more likely, it was a large portion of the work force, the more skilled laborers [living at workers' town], and that there were temporary camps up by the pyramids where the temporary workers who came in would be housed,” he said.

“They probably (didn’t) need much in the way of housing; they would need more shade than anything else. They wouldn’t need any kind of warmth because it wouldn’t be winter.”

Future studies will look for the remains of the workers’ towns of Khufu and Khafre, the two other pharaohs who built pyramids at Giza. A dump area, investigated in the 1950s, may hold them; seal impressions found at the dump have the rulers’ names on them.

“What we think was going on was that Menkaure came along, he establishes his reign, he leveled that whole area and he took all the levelling debris, took it to the top of the hill and threw it over the back in a big dump,” Redding said.

“That dump on the back side of the ridge may represent a remnant of Khufu and Khafre’s construction’s town,” Redding said, adding that he hopes new excavations will begin on the dump in the next year or two.

Related articles

• New ancient Egyptian discoveries (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Giza and The Orion correlation (yaphetkottoalienlexicon.wordpress.com)
• Fools’ Culture: The Orion correlation theory confirmed (dailynewsegypt.com)
• Climbing the Egyptian Pyramids (aforeignsunrise.wordpress.com)
• Photographer clicks pictures from top of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza (dpreview.com)
• Pyramids in Black & White (quintinlake.com)
• EGYPT: The Pyramids of Giza (lovingtraveling.wordpress.com)
• 35 pyramids found in Sudan necropolis: Links found between ancient Egypt and Africa’s Kush kingdom | Mail Online (innerstandingisness.wordpress.com)
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Monsanto threatens food security, Internet petition

From Avaaz.org:

Dear Avaazers,

One mega-company is gradually taking over our food supply — putting the planet’s food future in serious danger. But we can turn the tide on Monsanto and other companies that push through policies that prioritise their profits over the public good. Pledge €5 now to help stop this dangerous domination of our politics and our food:

One mega-company is gradually taking over our global food supply, poisoning our politics and putting the planet’s food future in serious danger. To stop it we need to expose and break up Monsanto’s worldwide grip.

Monsanto, the chemical giant that gave us poisons like Agent Orange and DDT, has a super-profitable racket. Step 1: Develop pesticides and genetically modified (GM) seeds designed to resist them, patent the seeds, prohibit farmers from replanting their seeds year to year, then send undercover agents out to investigate and sue farmers who don’t comply. Step 2: Spend millions lobbying government officials and contributing to political campaigns, get former Monsanto bigwigs into top government jobs, and then work with them to weaken regulations and push Monsanto goods into markets across the world.

As long as US law allows corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence policy, they can often buy the laws they want. Last year, Monsanto and biotech giants spent a whopping $45m to kill a ballot initiative that would have labelled GMO products just in California, despite 82 percent of Americans wanting to know if they are buying GM. And just this month, the company helped ram through the “Monsanto Protection Act,” that blocks courts from stopping the sale of a product even if they’ve been wrongly approved by the government.

Monsanto’s power in the US gives them a launch pad to dominate across the world. But brave farmers and activists from the EU, to Brazil, to India and Canada are resisting and starting to win.

We’re at a global tipping point. If enough of us pledge just €5 now, we can join forces to break Monsanto’s grip on our politics and our food and help stop the corporate capture of our governments. Avaaz will only process the pledges if we get enough to make a real difference:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd4/?bHFhfab&v=24248

Monsanto is driving an industrial farming takeover — trampling small farmers and small businesses as vast ‘monoculture’ farms of single crops leech the land of nutrients, diminish genetic diversity, and create dependency on fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. The irony is, it’s not clear that the decimation of natural, sustainable farming has brought any boom in crop yields. Just more profit for the corporations. Our governments should step in, but Monsanto’s lobbying obstructs them.

Monsanto’s near monopoly is breath-taking, with patent rights over 96% of the GM seeds planted in the US. And despite concerns about health and safety, the same patents allow Monsanto to prevent any farmer or scientist from testing their seeds! Still, a few countries have banned or restricted Monsanto products.

They claim their products cost less, but often farmers are lured into multi-year contracts, then seed prices rise, and they have buy new seed each season and use more herbicides to keep out ‘superweeds’. In India, the situation is so dire that one cotton area has been called ‘the suicide belt’, as tens of thousands of the poorest farmers have taken their lives to escape crippling debt.

But farmers and scientists are also fighting back — and winning. One group in India has helped win three patent battles against the corporations, and in Brazil five million farmers sued Monsanto for unfair collection of royalties, and won a $2 billion payout! Scientists are campaigning for sustainable agriculture models, and just last week 1.5 million of us joined the fight against conventional patents in the EU.

Only a massive, global, united force can stand up to Monsanto and the corporate capture of our governments. Let’s expose this dominance of our democracies, help farmers speak out, challenge unjust laws and patents, and go head to head with the corporate lobbies. Pledge €5 to support action now:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd4/?bHFhfab&v=24248

We are running out of time. As we confront massive environmental, climate and food crises, we need sustainable agriculture and innovation, but that is best done by multiple farmers and scientists who know what works best in different ecosystems, rather than one monolith driven by their own profit, taking control our food future.

This corporate Goliath is increasing in power across our world. But if our 21 million strong community stands together, we have a chance. Avaaz members have repeatedly stood up against the world’s biggest bullies, and won. Now it is time for us to go big to save our policies from special interests, protect our food supply, and get justice for poor farmers.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Oli, Joseph, Ricken, Pascal, Chris, Michelle, Emily, and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Seeds of discontent (Texas Observer):
http://www.texasobserver.org/seeds-of-discontent/

Monsanto sued small farmers to protect seed patents, report says (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents

Political contribution discloslures (Monsanto):
http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/Pages/political-disclosures.aspx

The Real Monsanto Protection Act: How The GMO Giant Corrupts Regulators And Consolidates Its Power (ThinkProgress):
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/10/1832621/monsanto-protection-act-power/

Monsanto Protection Act put GM companies above the federal courts (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/04/monsanto-protection-act-gm

Biodiversity for food and agriculture (UN Food and Agriculture Organization):
http://www.fao.org/sd/EPdirect/EPre0040.htm

Monsanto’s harvest of fear (Vanity Fair):
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805

Wikileaks shows US pushes GM on EU (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops

USDA Greenlights Monsanto’s Utterly Useless New GMO Corn (Mother Jones):
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/monsanto-gmo-drought-tolerant-corn

Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research (New York Times):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=0

Additional sources (Avaaz):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_sources/

Related articles

• Stop Monsanto corporate food power grab, petition (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• March Against Monsanto – May 25, 2013 (sunnyromy.wordpress.com)
• Avaaz campaign – No to Monsanto patents in the European Union (swytla.wordpress.com)
• The Real Monsanto Protection Act: How The GMO Giant Corrupts Regulators And Consolidates Its Power (thinkprogress.org)
• Monsanto Protection Act Proves Corporations More Powerful Than US Government (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• ‘Monsanto Protection Act’: Chemical monopoly writes its own law (workers.org)

Fukushima disaster, agriculture, and food safety

This music video from Japan is the song FUCK TEPCO!! by Fukushima punk rock band Scrap; whose members lost everything to the nuclear disaster.

From Springer Science+Business Media:

Looking at food safety in Japan after the disaster at Fukushima

16 April 2013

Publication title: Agricultural Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Author: Tomoko. M. Nakanishi, Keitaro Tanoi, University of Tokyo (Eds.)
Publication type: Book (Hardback)
Number of pages: 204
ISBN number: 978-4-431-54327-5
Price: 49.99 EUR Euros

New open access book provides information on the effects of radioactive contamination on agriculture after the nuclear power plant accident

Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, a large volume of data was collected about the soil, air, dust, and seawater in the area. Data was also gathered about an immense number of foods supplied to the market. Little is known, however, about the effect of radioactive fallout on agriculture. Although more than 80 percent of the damaged area is related to agriculture, in situ information specifically for agriculture is scarce.

A new book Agricultural Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident provides information about the actual movement and accumulation of radioactivity in the ecological system—for example, whether debris deposited on mountains can be a cause of secondary contamination, under what conditions plants accumulate radioactive cesium in their edible parts, and how radioactivity is transferred from hay to milk. The book is published in Springer’s open access (OA) program and is freely available on SpringerLink (link.springer.com) to anyone with access to the internet.

Co-editor Tomoko Nakanishi said, “Since the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in March 2011, contamination of places and foods has been a matter of concern. Unfortunately, agricultural producers have had few sources of information. At the request of agriculturists in Fukushima, we at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at The University of Tokyo have been urgently collecting reliable data on the contamination of soil, plants, milk, and crops. Based on this data, our book comments on and proposes effective ways of resuming agricultural activity.”

Edited by Tomoko. M. Nakanishi and Keitaro Tanoi, Agricultural Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident presents the data collected from the only project being systematically carried out across Japan after the Fukushima accident. The Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences of The University of Tokyo has diverse facilities available throughout Japan, including farmlands, forests, and meadowlands. Many specialists with different areas of expertise have formed groups to conduct on-site research, with more than 40 volunteers participating.

Related articles

• National › IAEA begins fresh probe into Fukushima nuclear accident (japantoday.com)
• Nuclear watchdog vows to regain trust 2 yrs after Fukushima accident (english.kyodonews.jp)
• Fukushima Visited by IAEA as Tepco Faces Risk of Dumping Claims – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Tepco Faces Decision to Dump Radioactive Water in Pacific Ocean (bloomberg.com)
• French activists protest on nuclear fuel to Japan (nuclear-news.net)
• Concentration of Strontium-90 at Selected Hot Spots in Japan (plosone.org)

Bee-killing pesticides out of British supermarkets

This video is called Science Bulletins: Bee Deaths Linked to Common Pesticides.

From Wildlife Extra:

Waitrose removes three neonicotinoids from supply chain

Buglife delighted that Waitrose remove dangerous neonicotinoid products from supply chain

April 2018. Following on from The UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) recommendation that the use of toxic insecticides, known as neonicotinoids, be suspended, supermarket giant Waitrose is asking all of its suppliers of fruit, vegetables and flowers to avoid the use of three formulations of neonicotinoid based pesticides on crops destined for the supermarket. The move comes in light of concerns about their effects on bees, butterflies and other important pollinators.

‘Seven Point Plan for Pollinators‘

Under a ‘Seven Point Plan for Pollinators’ (see below) that begins immediately, farmers supplying Waitrose are to stop using three systemic formulations of neonicotinoids by the end of 2014 at the latest. The three formulations – imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam – will no longer be used on crops attractive to bees and other pollinators. The restriction on use is a precautionary measure and will remain in place until scientists can demonstrate conclusively whether or not the formulations are adversely affecting populations of pollinator insects.

The approach will also be rolled out progressively to commodity crops such as oil seed rape on the Waitrose Farm at Leckford in Hampshire and as soon as practicable to other areas of the arable sector that supply Waitrose.

Buglife delighted that Waitrose remove dangerous neonicotinoid products from supply chain

Vanessa Amaral-Rogers, Buglife Pesticides Officer said “This is a huge step in the right direction, leading the way for other retailers to follow. By voicing their concern for pollinators they are adding pressure and weight to the campaign for a ban on the use of neonicotinoids”

…

Vanessa said “By taking these precautionary measures Waitrose have shown an admirable commitment to the long term security of our wild insect pollinator health and populations.”

Waitrose owns its own 4,000 acre farm at Leckford in Hampshire, which has been part of the John Lewis Partnership for nearly 90 years. Managed to high environmental standards, it produces a rich variety of goods for Waitrose including milk, cider, apples, mushrooms, Leckford chicken and rapeseed oil.

Research project

In addition the supermarket chain has announced that it will fund a significant research project with the University of Exeter into the effects on pollinators of multiple pesticide use. The work will look at the impact of combinations of neonicotinoids and other pesticides on pollinators. The results of the three year programme will be used to develop alternative methods of pest control.

Waitrose Director of Quality & Technical David Croft said: “We have been looking at pollinator health for some time in close collaboration with our fresh produce suppliers. Given the concern about these pesticides and the need to support pollinators we believe this is a responsible precautionary step as part of a wider, holistic approach under our seven point plan.

“The role of pollinating insects such as bees is crucial in sustaining agriculture in the long term, as part of a thriving ecosystem that will support food security, healthy diets and the wider agricultural economy.

“The current debate on the decline of pollinators has raised attention about the potential adverse impact of neonicotinoid pesticides. With this in mind, and in favour of strengthening pollinator presence, Waitrose is supporting a precautionary approach with these chemicals.”

The Waitrose Seven point plan for pollinators

Waitrose is:

Supporting the EU’s review into the use of three key neonicotinoids (imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam), on crops attractive to bees.

Avoiding the use of these three neonicotinoids in our fruit, vegetable and flower supply chains for Waitrose products. This will focus on flowering plants attractive to pollinators and see these pesticides being phased out worldwide, beginning immediately and working over the next two seasons.

Supporting further research into pollinators through the University of Exeter. The work will look at the impact of neonicotinoids, other pesticides and the combination of both on pollinators. The results will contribute to the development of alternative methods of pest control if the chemicals are found to have long term adverse effects. This will be a three year programme of work.

Ensuring, through our farm engagement and supply chain development work via the Waitrose Farm Assessment that all fresh produce farms initially (and arable farms subsequently) monitor and develop bee/pollinator activity. This is based on our previous work with the University of Sussex, via our Agronomy Group, where Waitrose and our fresh produce suppliers work closely together to strengthen standards.

Strengthening control frameworks for our commodity crop ingredients such as wheat and oil seed rape, adopting the LEAF standard in these sectors as a proven platform for future environmental development. This will support the delivery of learnings from our produce agronomy and CEUKF activity in the arable sector. Our own Waitrose farm at Leckford is already LEAF certified for these crops.

Engaging our consumers including Waitrose Partners (who are co-owners of our business, as well as working in our business) to gather more data on pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, through their own observations. Customers will be asked to share their observations via web developments and apps that are being developed jointly with Earthwatch and the University of Sussex, to contribute to the growing fact base on pollinators and so help to frame future developments that support pollinators.

Investing in the development of organic farming to support a wide range of crops that enable choice for consumers. Our support for organic farming also extends to funding from the sale of Duchy Originals from Waitrose that, via the Prince of Wales Charitable Trust, is enabling the Soil Association to develop and share learnings from organic farming across all farming areas to support and strengthen sustainability for the future.

Study shows reproductive effects of pesticide exposure span generations: here.

Related articles

• Waitrose asks suppliers to avoid bee-harming pesticides (guardian.co.uk)
• Waitrose Bans Pesticides Linked to Bee Decline (environmentalleader.com)
• Waitrose removes three neonicotinoids from supply chain (greenreview.blogspot.com)
• Stop bee-killing pesticides, British parliamentarians say (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Ban pesticides to save bees, say MPs (bbc.co.uk)
• Bee vs. Neonicotinoid (slowfoodedinburgh.wordpress.com)
• Pesticide makes bees forget the scent for food, new study finds (guardian.co.uk)
• United States bees neonicotinoid court case (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Greenpeace Calls for EU Ban on Seven Pesticides Due to Bee Risk – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)