US revs up efforts to power cars with waste

Straits Times 26 Jul 08;

Govt offers grants to help waste-to-fuel plants kick off, and subsidy for such fuels

NEW YORK - AFTER years of false starts, a new industry selling motor fuel made from waste is getting a big push in the United States, with the first commercial sale possible within months.

Many companies have announced plans to build plants that would take in material like wood chips, garbage or crop waste and turn out motor fuels.

About 30 small plants are in advanced planning stages, under construction or, in a handful of cases, already up and running in test mode.

Scientists have known for decades that it was possible to convert waste to fuel, but in an era of cheap oil, it made little sense.

With oil now trading around US$125 a barrel and petrol above US$4 a gallon (3.8 litres), the potential economics of a waste-to-fuel industry have shifted radically, setting off a frenzy to be the first to market such products.

'I think American innovation is going to come up with the solution,' said Mr Prabhakar Nair, research chief for UOP, a company working on the problem.

The federal government is offering grants to help plants get off the ground and a subsidy of US$1.01 a gallon for one type of fuel. This is twice the subsidy it historically offered for ethanol made from corn.

Potential controls on global warming gases would heighten the appeal of these fuels, since many of them would add little new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Tellingly, the type of companies placing bets on the field has started to expand.

The earliest were small start- ups founded by people with more technological vision than business experience.

Now, some of the giants of global business, including Honeywell, DuPont, General Motors, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, are taking stakes in the nascent industry.

And advancing technology has made the notion more plausible.

Virtually any material containing hydrogen, carbon and oxygen could potentially be turned into motor fuel.

That includes plastics, construction debris, forest and lawn trimmings, wood chips, wheat straw and many other types of agricultural waste.

The potential fuels include ethanol, which can be blended with petrol or other liquids that could displace petrol or diesel entirely.

Government studies suggest the country could potentially replace half its petrol supply in this way - even more if cars became more efficient.

The government is pushing to get the industry off the ground. Legislation passed last year mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year by 2022, less than half of it from corn ethanol.

Almost all the rest is supposed to come from non-food sources, though the requirement could be waived if the industry faltered.

A handful of small companies have long made a diesel replacement from waste oil, or sold kits to individuals to do the same. One company in Carthage, Missouri, even turns turkey guts into fuel.

The goal of the emerging waste-to-fuel industry is more elaborate, however: to take bulky, solid feedstocks and transform them into high-grade motor fuel.

And an increasing interest from big companies - ones with a track record of solving technical problems - suggests that a waste-to-fuel industry may not remain out of reach forever.

NEW YORK TIMES

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Agri firms form group to push case for biofuels

Business Times 26 Jul 08;

Their plan is to increase agricultural productivity to meet fuel, food demands

(ST LOUIS) The argument over using crops to make biofuels is about to get a little louder, courtesy of a new group formed by some of the biggest agribusiness companies in the world.

The new group - formed by Monsanto Co, Archer Daniels Midland, Deere & Co and DuPont Co - announced on Thursday that it will use national advertisements and lobbyists on Capitol Hill to build the case for using crops to make fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, even as grain prices climb worldwide.

Just a niche market three years ago, the biofuels industry has blossomed because of federal mandates requiring the US to use nine billion gallons (34 billion l) of alternative fuel annually by 2009. The mandates are under attack from a wide variety of groups that blame the new industry for rising food prices that have sparked riots and hoarding everywhere from Haiti to South-east Asia.

Organisers of the newly formed Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy said that they want to change the debate about biofuels. Their plan is to convince consumers and politicians that both goals can be met at once by increasing agricultural productivity.

'I think the only path forward is one that meets both food and energy security demands,' said Monsanto's chief technology officer, Robert Fraley. 'I think we can add a component of science and technological perspective to the discussion.'

Monsanto hopes to double the yield-per-acre of crops like corn and soya beans by 2030, he said. Pioneer Hi-Bred, a division of DuPont, plans to boost yields of its seeds by 40 per cent within a decade.

The alliance plans to lobby federal lawmakers to keep current ethanol mandates while increasing funding for agricultural research and development that could increase crop yields. It also plans to try to sway consumers by telling them that new technologies will make it possible to grow enough food to affordably fill petrol tanks and grocery carts.

Companies behind the alliance stand to benefit from any increase in farming and grain consumption, whether it be increased use of Archer Daniels Midland's new ethanol plants, Monsanto's seeds or Deere & Cos farming equipment.

The alliance did not say how much it will spend on the campaign, beyond saying that the project has a budget worth several million dollars. But even that kind of cash does not guarantee that Congress will not revisit the wisdom of biofuels mandates.

The alliance faces opposition from well-funded agricultural interests that are suffering under rising food costs, including the American Meat Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA).

The GMA is already funding a campaign to highlight the negative effect of rising grain costs for average consumers, and it wants Congress to reconsider the federal ethanol mandates. The GMA is not swayed by the idea of waiting for agricultural productivity to improve, GMA vice-president for federal affairs Scott Faber said in a statement.

'While improvements in global agriculture are vital, this work must not distract us from the fact that while we wait, millions of people will be pushed deeper into hunger and poverty because we are diverting more and more food and feed supplies to producing ethanol,' he said in a statement. 'Congress and the administration can take immediate action to curb hunger by revisiting these flawed policies.'

About 22 per cent of the US corn crop went to produce biofuels this year, which is virtually the same as last year, according to the National Corn Growers Association. A full 33 per cent of this year's harvest, or 3.9 billion bushels, is expected to go towards ethanol production.

While virtually all experts agree that using crops for biofuels drives up the price of grain, opinions vary greatly as to how much.

White House economic advisers said the ethanol industry accounts for just 2 per cent to 3 per cent of the recent jump in grain prices, which are up more than 40 per cent this year over last year.

Estimates cited by the International Food Policy Research Institute and others say biofuels account for more than 30 per cent of the increase.

Cutting back US ethanol mandates would badly damage a booming US biofuels industry that is just now starting to deliver domestically produced fuel to consumers, said Archer Daniels Midland vice-president Todd Werpy\. \-- AP

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Researchers hope to cultivate 'calming herb'

Melanie Dabovich, Associated Press Yahoo News 25 Jul 08;

The plant has been described by local residents as magical, its qualities almost mythical.

The native herb yerba mansa, translated from Spanish as the "calming herb," has been used for centuries throughout the Southwest by American Indians and Hispanics for ailments ranging from toothaches to sinus infections.

Though the herb is relatively unknown outside the region, those in the folk herb industry say yerba mansa could become as popular as goldenseal and echinacea.

But before the ancient herb can get its day in the sun, researchers must find a way to protect the ecologically threatened plant from depletion by habitat loss and urban development.

Charles Martin, a researcher at New Mexico State University's Sustainable Agriculture Science Center, has found a solution. He has made yerba mansa a viable agricultural crop for New Mexico's small farmers.

"As far as I know, our center is the only place in the U.S. conducting production research (on yerba mansa)," Martin said. "We targeted native herbs in an effort to find alternative crops for small farmers that are drought-tolerant and have a built-in pest resistance, and yerba mansa is an ideal plant that meets that criteria."

Also called yerba del manso, lizard tail or swamp root, the small plant with large white flower spikes is a perennial native to riverbanks and wetlands in the Southwest and northern Mexico.

The effort to grow yerba mansa for commercial cultivation benefits farmers, but it is also an attempt to protect the plant's future.

The herb is on the "to-watch" list by United Plant Savers, a Vermont-based organization dedicated to protecting native plants used as folk remedies.

Many herbal products that have been scientifically studied have not lived up to their claims. And many, like yerba mansa, have not been rigorously studied at all. Herbal supplements do not require government proof of safety and effectiveness to be sold.

Martin said it's hard to quantify how much yerba mansa, or Anemopsis californica, remains in the wild. Researchers look to the plant's shrinking habitat as an indicator of its well-being.

In New Mexico, riverside acreage along the Rio Grande continues to be swallowed by homes and development. Irrigated agricultural land once dominated, but now it has been reduced to less than 1 percent of the state's entire land base.

Martin and his staff established a small demonstration plot that has grown because of the plant's prolific spreading abilities. This feature could help farmers in keeping an established stand growing indefinitely, he said.

The only limiting factor in growing yerba mansa is water, Martin said.

"It will grow in a wide variety of conditions and soils, including alkaline-encrusted soil and in all degrees of sunlight," he said. "Once established, it doesn't need any more water than a typical crop, than say alfalfa."

As commercial demand for so-called herbal treatments increases, some plants run the risk of being over-harvested.

In 2007, U.S. sales of herb and botanical dietary supplements totaled $4.8 billion, a 4.3 percent increase over 2006 sales, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.

Yerba mansa is gaining attention as a goldenseal substitute, said Michael Moore, director of the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine in Bisbee, Ariz. If yerba mansa becomes widely used, cultivation is the only way to ensure a steady supply.

"There are a lot of plants that have almost been picked to extinction," including goldenseal and American ginseng, Moore said. "A hundred years ago, American ginseng could be found in 22 states and now it's only found in a few."

Martin's research in New Mexico could expand into other regions that already grow yerba mansa on a large scale. Several nurseries in California grow yerba mansa for ecological restoration projects.

"We could easily go into cropping. It could be a branch of what we're doing already," said Jeff Nighman, vice president of Santa Barbara Natives Inc. in Gaviota, Calif.

Bill Quiroga, president of Native American Botanics and Yaquis tribe member in Tucson, Ariz., has tested different growing techniques for yerba mansa using aeroponics. Aeroponics is a form of hydroponics that uses a water-and-fertilizer solution to grow root crops instead of soil.

Though the research has been halted because of lack of funding, Quiroga said his goal is to get American Indian farmers to grow the herb using aeroponic technology to supply his wholesale company.

But as his state's population swells and creeks dry up, Quiroga worries some native plants like yerba mansa could be lost.

"We have to find ways to grow it so that we keep the herb for later generations," he said.

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UN food agency calls for research on tropical root crop

Yahoo News 25 Jul 08;

The UN food agency on Friday called for more research into the tropical root crop cassava as a way of helping poor countries threatened by soaring food and oil prices.

Cassava "has enormous potential," the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement that cited the conclusions of a meeting of experts in the Belgian city of Ghent.

"At present average cassava yields are barely 20 percent of those obtained under optimum conditions."

The scientists called for increased funding for research and development to boost farmers' yields and explore other uses such as the production of biofuels.

Cassava, a staple for nearly one billion people in 105 countries where it provides up to a third of daily calories, is widely grown in tropical Africa, Asia and Latin America.

It is also the cheapest source of starch and used in more than 300 industrial products.

"One promising application is fermentation of the starch to produce ethanol used in biofuel," it said.

FAO warned, however, that policies that encourage a shift to biofuel production should "carefully consider its effects on food production and food security."

Initially hailed as a weapon in the fight against global warming, the tide of public opinion and policy has recently begun to turn against biofuels.

They are now cited by UN agencies, the World Bank and non-government organisations as contributing to higher food prices as farmers rush to cultivate the more profitable crops used for biofuels rather than food.

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Best of our wild blogs: 25 Jul 08

Horseshoe crab rescue from a ghost net in Mandai mangrove
on the Habitatnews blog with video clip.

Sand stars on cyrene
lots of video clips of sand stars moving, with regenerating arm and with an unidentified hole on the sgbeachbum blog

Oriental Magpie Robin taking cockroach
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

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Economists assign monetary values to Puget Sound's 'natural' gifts

Study considers how to make cents of the Sound
Robert McClure seattlepi.com 24 Jul 08;

Lower doctor bills. Drinking water. Protection from floods. Food.

Those are just a few items on a newly compiled list of goods and services provided to people living around Puget Sound by the "natural capital" of the region's forests, mountains and waterways, says a report being released Friday by a team of economists.

After examining how wetlands, the Sound and other natural features benefit people living here, the economists behind the report pegged the value of those goods and services at between $7.4 billion and $61.7 billion a year. And they admit upfront that's a big underestimate -- it's just the best they could do for now.

If the ecosystems that surround the region's cities had a price tag, what would it be? At least $243 billion -- and perhaps as much as $2.1 trillion, the economic team says. Again, that's a "rough cut, first step" at putting a value on the nature that surrounds us.

Why do this?

"It gets us beyond the confrontational debate. It's not the environment versus the economy," said co-author Robert Costanza, director of the Gund Institute of Environmental Economics at the University of Vermont. "We live in a complex, interconnected system, and the environment is one of our huge assets."

Costanza, who helped pioneer the field of attaching economic values to natural areas in the 1990s, said the Puget Sound study is only the second time this kind of analysis has been performed for a regional ecosystem. The first was completed last year in New Jersey -- the state's Pine Barrens were given an environmental value of $1,476 an acre.

The concept has faced criticism from environmentalists who resent anyone attaching a dollar value to rivers and mountains and salt marshes and eelgrass beds, said the study's lead author, economist David Batker, director of Earth Economics, a Tacoma-based think tank.

But by putting price tags on natural assets, Costanza and other researchers say polluters can be fined more accurately for the damage they cause and governments can get a firmer grip on the importance of preserving forests and limiting sprawl.

The study, "A New View of the Puget Sound Economy," notes that the plusses that nature provides around here include clean drinking water, recreation, fish, flood protection, buffering from storms and erosion control.

"If lost, these valuable economic goods and services have a price tag," the report argues. "While ecosystems like the Puget Sound Basin are priceless, Puget Sound also does work. Just as a person's life is priceless, and that person gets paid for work performed, Puget Sound ecosystems provide valuable economic goods and services."

The report examines the value of ecosystems from the mountains to the Sound. First it details nature's local contributions, including:

# Lower doctor bills. It cites a 1998 study by the pro-tree American Forests that found urban forests surrounding Puget Sound remove 78 million pounds of pollutants annually, letting residents avoid health care and other costs of $166 million a year.

# Drinking water. It's stored underground, in wetlands and even in the snows that coat the Cascades and Olympics in the winter and the melt in the summer.

# Reducing property damage. Floodwaters are soaked up by wetlands; coastal wetlands and shores buffer the land from storm-whipped waves.

# Food. Besides the obvious ones -- crops, fish and shellfish -- there are wild berries, mushrooms, seaweed and wild game.

The study also catalogues some of the known contributions to the local economy: Nearly 80 percent of Washington tourism revenues come from the Puget Sound region; statewide, wildlife-watching brought in $980 million in 2001 (more than double expenditures for hunting and fishing), with a half-million visitors annually coming to see orcas, for example.

The second part of the report attempts to put dollar values on these -- but doesn't succeed in many cases. In fact, some of the more obvious benefits -- including food from local farms and the Sound, as well as drinking water from snowpack in the mountains -- just haven't been translated into dollar values that mesh with the methods used in the report, said Batker, the lead author.

"Even though this is a gross underestimate of the true value of ecosystem services, it's far better than counting them as zero, which is what we've done in many policies," he said.

The authors said they are working on better methods that would more fully capture nature's economic benefits and also allow them to measure values as they change over time.

Paid for by the Russell Family and Harder foundations, environmentally oriented philanthropies in the Tacoma area, the study took about 1 1/2 years. Its release comes as a unique state agency called the Puget Sound Partnership is trying to put together a multiyear Sound restoration "action agenda."

The person spearheading that effort, Bill Ruckelshaus, chairman of the partnership's leadership council, said he welcomed this kind of analysis, calling it "a major contribution to our understanding."

"We're diminishing the value of our natural capital," said Ruckelshaus, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency. "We need to figure out how to put it back."

Puget Sound is plagued by pollution dumped into it, overfishing, destruction of shorelines and more. But the new state agency is focused on the idea that fixing the Sound's problems means adjusting how residents treat the land all the way to the mountaintops.

That's because way up there and everywhere in between, water falls as rain or snow. Then, because of the way cities and suburbs traditionally have been built and forests have been cut, that water is polluted and funneled downstream in fast-moving surges.

Those bursts of water scour out stream bottoms and dump into the Sound its biggest slugs of arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, zinc, mercury, the banned pesticide DDT and phthalates.

On the eve of the report's release, Gov. Chris Gregoire, who convinced the Legislature to launch the Puget Sound Partnership, was on a boat tour of the estuary.

She emphasized the ecological and economic value of the Sound at a stop at Seattle's Golden Gardens.

"Think about the recreational fisheries, the tourism, the commercial fisheries, the clams and the oysters we send around the globe," Gregoire said. And when it comes to recruiting companies to the state, "they talk about the quality of life. ... Puget Sound is one of the biggest selling points to get businesses here."

Her opponent in the governor's race, Republican Dino Rossi, said through a spokeswoman that he has fought for funding for state parks and "supports a cleaner Puget Sound."

"However, state efforts need to do more than just provide rhetoric and set unattainable goals," Rossi's spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "The incumbent has made big promises, but has provided less than 2 percent of the funding that experts say is needed clean up Puget Sound."

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From the kelong to your table - the cobia

Premium fish used in yusheng now farmed here as part of AVA's project to cut reliance on imports
Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 25 Jul 08;

FRESH from last year's success with locally bred sea bass, Singapore's growers are ready to harvest another variety of farmed fish from Singapore waters.

The cobia, also known as the black kingfish, ling, or lemon fish, is among the six species of fish identified as suitable for local farming by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).

About eight tonnes of the fish are ready for harvest. This means that Singapore can significantly cut back on imports, a key aim of the programme to farm fish here. Forty tonnes of cobia were brought in from Taiwan and Vietnam last year.



The cobia is the sixth species of fish researched, reared and found suitable by the AVA to be introduced to local farmers since the 1970s.

The others are the sea bass, the four-finger threadfin, two species of grouper and mangrove red snapper.

The sea bass was the most recently harvested, having had its turn last October. The others were harvested earlier.

The AVA, meanwhile, is looking into introducing new species to fish farms here.

The crimson red snapper, a popular fish in Singapore, is next on its list.

Singapore consumes about 89,000 tonnes of fresh fish a year.

More than 90 per cent of this comes from farms mainly in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, as well as from fishing vessels from around the world.

The rest comes from farms in Singapore and local fishermen.

The AVA had said in the past that it hoped offshore farms would increase their contribution to 40 per cent, but The Straits Times understands that this target is currently being reviewed.

The cobia is eaten raw in Japanese restaurants and has been offered in hotels as part of the tossed fish salad, or yusheng, during Chinese New Year.

Ms Wee Joo Yong, the head of research at the AVA's Marine Aquaculture Centre, said: 'The demand is still from a niche market but, with increased availability, we expect its popularity will grow to reach the mass market.'

The AVA has been trying to breed cobia, a premium fish much in demand in many parts of the world, since 2005.

The first batch of the locally bred fish will be harvested from the Changi Fishery, a 10-minute boat ride from the mainland.

Its general manager, Ms Rosemary Lau, 45, one of the few women in the aquaculture industry, runs the kelong for her surgeon husband.

Ms Lau said that consumers could expect the price of her 'farm-fresh' fish to be about the same as the current listed price of $45 a kilo for imported chilled cobia.

But she added a sweetener: 'Our initial price to restaurants will be about half that, to promote it.'

Singapore-bred Black Kingfish or cobia goes on sale this weekend
Liang Cheong/Dominique Loh, Channel NewsAsia 24 Jul 08;


SINGAPORE: For the first time, fish farmers in Singapore have successfully bred the cobia or Black Kingfish for commercial sale.

Starting this weekend, the first batch of cobias will be sold in the open market.

Already, six Japanese restaurants have snapped up the first 500 cobias.

The batch is not only fresh, but cheaper by some 50 per cent than imported frozen ones from Thailand and Vietnam.

From February next year, some 5,500 cobias will be ready for market.

Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has been trying out a new way of breeding cobias since 2005.

The cobia, with its high levels of vitamin E and protein, is said to be an excellent fish for sashimi.

- CNA/ir

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The salmon business: Can marine farming every be eco friendly?

Every day, a million Britons tuck into salmon, and demand is rising fast. Marine farming is the supermarkets' answer – but can it ever be eco-friendly? Martin Hickman reports

The Independent 24 Jul 08;

Salmon is an easy fish to love. Simple and tasty, its pink flesh is pulled from supermarket shelves and transformed into an array of increasingly exotic dishes.

Fried with wasabi, baked with sea-salt, or served Thai-style on a bed of noodles, the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is an everyday stalwart of the nation's cookery shows, recipe books and domestic kitchens.

So common, in fact, that a species once an aristocratic delicacy has become the fish most commonly eaten in the UK – more popular than tuna, cod or haddock. One million people eat salmon every day.

Until now, though, little attention has been paid to its provenance. People know about the threat to cod posed by overfishing, or how tuna trawlers also scoop up dolphins. But salmon? Is it farmed or wild; kind or cruel; sustainable or environmentally damaging?

Salmon is actually one of the hidden problems in the meat and fish business, according to environmentalists and animal welfare campaigners.

Salmon are naturally programmed to swim hundreds of miles, moving downstream from their birthplaces in British rivers to the open ocean, and then back – leaping upstream in the rivers – to spawn.

In fish farms, their complex life cycle is artificially managed by man. Despite their extraordinary journey in the open sea, the fish are kept in 100-ft wide pens. Some escape and infect their wild cousins with lice.

To answer the critics, some British supermarkets have begun to insist on their salmon being produced to higher standards. This summer Marks & Spencer became the first retailer to switch its entire range of farmed salmon to the Freedom Food scheme run by the RSPCA. Sainsbury's has also introduced Freedom Food salmon as part of its pitch to middle-market gourmands.

Both companies are vaunting their newly accredited salmon as evidence that they take animal welfare seriously; that their fish is virtuous. Five million fish a year will have their lives improved as a result of the conversion to RSPCA standards.

But just how much better is fish with the Freedom Food label than ordinary salmon – and, in any case, should we be eating farmed salmon at all?

To start with, we need to look at the reality of Britain's most popular fish. The overwhelming likelihood is that unless your salmon was sold as "wild", it has been farmed, perhaps in Scotland, but quite possibly in Norway or Chile, both big players in the industry.

According to the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming, fish farmers have traditionally paid little attention to the welfare of their silvery charges.

Environmentalists have complained that salmon farming is denuding the sea of the smaller wild fish fed to the carnivorous salmon. By the time it is harvested from a Scottish loch or Norwegian fjord, a salmon will have consumed many times its final weight in sand eels or whiting.

Whatever the concerns, there is little prospect of a large-scale return to wild salmon. Fish farming is likely to be with us for the long-term, prospering from the failure of political leaders to stop over-fishing, which, according to one recent study, is likely to destroy wild populations as soon as 2048.

With the world's seven billion people demanding protein, aquaculture is filling the gap. In the past 35 years, the proportion of farmed fish has risen from 5 per cent to 40 per cent in 2005 of all fish consumed.

Aquaculture is scheduled to go on rising, eventually soaring way above the diminished annual wild harvest.

According to the Scottish Salmon Producers' Organisation, the UK salmon industry is now worth £1bn a year. Conventional fish is stocked in densities of 20kg per cubic metre of seawater. The most cramped fish can be identified by their withered dorsal fins; their flesh is flabbier, the white fat thicker. They don't taste as nice as salmon given more space and care.

So three years ago Marks & Spencer decided to look afresh at its salmon and devise a new system that would be better for the animals and kinder to the environment. It came up with the Lochmuir brand, now used in all its products from ready meals to smoked slices. The fish are farmed in the west of Scotland, where the jagged coastline shelters the sea coves and lochs.

Instead of being hauled to shore in nets, the salmon are slowly gathered by a £10m well-boat, which lowers their temperature to make them less sensible to their slaughter. As they swim gently round the large well around which the boat is constructed, John Rea, Scottish Sea Farm's production manager, says: "I'm impressed by those dorsal fins. They're not very typical on farmed fish. They're an expression of what M&S are trying to do. If you had these in an intensive farming situation you would find the fins were quite eroded. But the fin condition here is pretty good – they are pretty close to wild dorsal fins."

The creatures certainly look calm. "If there was a lot of thrashing around here, the fish would be very stressed," says Jim Gallagher, Scottish Sea Farms' managing director.

Andrew Mallison, M&S's fish buyer, specified that the wild fish used to feed the salmon should come from sustainable species and that the salmon should have 20 per cent more space. They grow 10 to 15 per cent slower than the industry standard. Fat levels are 15 per cent, rather than 22 per cent.

"Aquaculture can be done right, but there will always be horses for courses," says Mallison. "There will be people who don't want to pay a fair price for their salmon: they will always want it as cheap as possible. And you can make it cheaper than we do here. We have incurred costs by saying that we want better feed and we don't want to push so many fish into a cage, but all those things we believe are worth it because we think that's what our customer wants: they want fish grown well with a good eating quality.

"You can go to another farming operation and you will have two boys in boiler suits sitting in a Portakabin on the shore of a loch somewhere," Mallison adds, "and they will go out and look at a couple of cages and will throw a bit of feed in. And they will harvest when they are required to, but they won't really know how good that fish was. They will never hear anything more about it unless it was really bad."

Gallagher suggests the perception of the industry is now "historic" – that salmon farming has improved, with better sea-lice treatment and stronger cages. He points out this is an industry which has only been around for 30 years – 10 life cycles of a salmon.

"Remember, our livelihood is based on not having escapes. We want to grow the fish on the farm to harvest size and then we want to sell it someone who appreciates what we have done. The industry has invested heavily in the infrastructure."

So what does Compassion in World Farming think of Freedom Food salmon?

"On an ideal level, we just don't like the idea of fish being farmed, particularly salmon," says Peter Stevenson, the organisation's chief policy adviser.

"In natural conditions, they travel and swim very long distances. They roam the oceans and therefore to farm them in cages, even to an organic or better standards is something we are unhappy with.

"But if you are going to buy farmed salmon then please go for organic fish or the Freedom Food brand. The RSPCA scheme shows that it is commercially feasible to have higher standards for farmed salmon."

Dish of the day: salmon facts

* Like trout, salmon is unusual in being both a freshwater and seawater fish. Salmon swim out to the ocean and back to lay their eggs.

* There are six stages in the salmon life cycle, which takes several years to complete, from spawn to adult: eggs/spawn; alevin (babies feeding from a yolk sac); fry (small fish that adapt to freshwater); parr (quickly growing fish that turn silvery-blue); smolts (young salmon ready to migrate); adult fish.

* UK shop sales of salmon are worth £1bn a year.

* Salmon generates £400m a year for Scottish fish farms

* Every day, one million Britons eat salmon.

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A park to suit every interest,in 15 years’ time

Today Online 25 Jul 08;

TRAILS and treks, cycling and tranquil nature — in 15 years’ time, these may not be the only things you would associate with parks in Singapore.

Try dining outlets, spas, adventure and sports activity centres, for example. These are some of the wide range of amenities being planned for the island’s parks.

Improving the quality of green spaces will be a key part of the next phase of Singapore’s greening, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said yesterday.

The plans to enhance the island’s greenery in a big way include increasing the amount of land set aside for parks by another 25 per cent in the next 15 years.

This means nearly 60 per cent of the island would be covered by greenery, compared to 47 per cent last year.

Mr Mah promised: “To meet the diverse recreational needs of an increasingly sophisticated population, NParks has set for itself the aim that whatever your interests, you will be able to find a favourite green spot to spend your leisure time within our parks.”

Besides developing new parks and rejuvenating existing ones, NParks will think vertically by undertaking research to identify plants and planting methods suitable for skyrise greenery. NParks will work with the industry to help guide developers to implement sky gardens and green roofs.

Enhancing urban biodiversity and environmental sustainability will be another area of focus, Mr Mah said at the awards gala of the Singapore Garden Festival.

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The stray dilemma for animal groups

One plans to sterilise 400 industrial dogs this year, but it may not save them from being culled
Esther Ng Today Online 25 Jul 08;

THE volunteers get stray dogs sterilised, shelter them for a few days while they recuperate, then release them back where they came from, whether factories, industrial estates or the neighbourhood.

This year alone, one animal welfare group, Noah’s Ark Cares, hopes to get400 industrial dogs sterilised, in an effort to curb Singapore’s growing stray population.

All this adds up in terms of personal time and costs — some $250 a dog :— but for all their efforts, the dogs still risk being caught and culled by the authorities.

Responding to Today’s queries, the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it does not condone the release of sterilised dogs into the environment, and it would round them up if they are found in public places.

“The sterilised dogs should be re-homed and licensed but not released into the environment,” said Mr Madhavan Kannan, head of AVA’s Centre for Animal Welfare and Control. Last September, the AVA had introduced tougher penalties for dog-owners to discourage abandonment, including a fine of up to $5,000 for not leashing one’s dog in public.

The problem? There are more dogs than there are people willing to take them in, and animal shelters such as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Doggie Rescue Shelter are already overwhelmed.

“Every year, the SPCA receives around 9,000 animals; only a tenth find homes,” said its executive officer Deirdre Moss. “Not only are we competing with the many pet shops and pet farms to find homes for these animals, there are also limited avenues to re-home dogs because of restrictive housing board rules and no restriction to commercial breeding.”

So why do volunteer groups such as Noah’s Ark and Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD) persist with sterilisation, if their efforts are undone when the dogs are caught and put down? Their response: It is better to have sterilised strays roaming the streets than unsterilised ones that could add to the stray population.



A tough sell to the public

Noah’s Ark launched its Project Industrial Dogs scheme in June 2005 providing low-cost sterilisation, while ASD started its scheme in 2002. Noah’s Ark president,Ms Chew Gek Hiang, said the group often tries to get factory owners to take ownership of the dogs in their compounds.

“We encourage them to sterilise the dogs, have them micro-chipped and licensed.”

At Alexandra Village, where stray dogs have been a fixture for years, workshop owners that Today spoke to supported a mass sterilisation programme, although most were reluctant to share the costs.

Pointing to a dog nearby, Mr Tay Tai Hua, 58, of Champion Auto Air-conditioner Company said: “This dog is very pitiful. She gives birth three times a year. It would be good if she was sterilised, but I don’t know if I want to pay for it.”

Sterilised dogs are identified by a clipped left ear, and according to ASD’s president Ricky Teo, the group used to sterilise 10 to 20 dogs a month — but they kept getting culled by AVA, so they now only sterilise pregnant industrial dogs, which number two to five a month.

He added: “We just had to pay$500 to bail a sterilised dog out of AVA’s pound this week. The dog was outside the factory’s premises when it was trapped. All this is extra cost.”

For the strays’ sterilisation procedure, vets charge the groups a subsidised rate but even so, to achieve its target this year, Noah’s Ark needs to raise $50,000.

While animal activists maintain that sterilisation is a more effective way of reducing the stray population :— since new strays will simply enter the area where dogs have been culled, and multiply :— have they managed to convince the public of the merits of their case?

Said Mr YK Chan, 50, a security guard who patronises the Alexandra Village hawker centre: “I’m afraid of dogs. Some are more aggressive than others; I was bitten when I was a child.”

But sales executive Kelvin Yong, 27, said: “So long as the dogs are not near populated areas, I think we should give the sterilisation project a go.”

Dog trainer Patrick Wong said sterilised dogs are generally less aggressive and are not likely to roam, especially if caregivers provide food.

“Unless cornered or perceived as a threat, most dogs will leave humans alone,” he said. And if faced with a strange dog? “Remain calm and walk steadily. Do not run, scream or appear frightened.”

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Weather study competition extended to int'l schools for first time

Heather Tan, Channel NewsAsia 24 Jul 08;

SINGAPORE : Schools across Singapore have been invited to take part in the National Weather Study Project 2009.

While teams may propose projects on any topic related to climate change and the environment, organisers hope to receive more proposals for water-themed projects from participating schools.

For the first time, international schools in the country are being invited to participate in this annual inter-school competition, now in its third year.

Singapore's largest power generation company, Senoko Power Limited, said the rules were relaxed to enable international school students to gain first-hand exposure to climate change issues.

The previous two competitions were only open to local primary and secondary schools, as well as junior colleges.

Participants are encouraged to undertake projects which extend beyond their geography curriculum and embark on multi-disciplinary studies, comprising the various sciences, mathematics, economics and social studies.

Students will work on their projects from January 1 to March 31, 2009. Assessments will end by May and the winners will be announced in June.

Winners stand to win a sponsored overseas trip to showcase their project work.

More information on the competition is available at this website. - CNA /ls

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Singapore Garden Festival: Green fingers point to carbon footprint

Business Times 25 Jul 08;

The event's organisers and designers of the showcases have displayed a heightened environmental consciousness, reports AMANDA DE GUZMAN

THE 2008 Singapore Garden Festival is much greener than its predecessors.

The shift is not due to some genetically modified chlorophyll, but to the heightened environmental consciousness displayed by both the individual designers of the showcased gardens and the organisers of the event.

To drive home the importance of environmental issues, the Clarins Learning Garden is designed to simultaneously entertain and educate children from ages four to seven about the notion of carbon footprinting.

'Its not an easy concept,' says this year's festival director, Wong Wei-Har. 'How do you make it fun?'

The answer comes in the form of Sara, the beloved botanicosaurus, a cartoon dinosaur that has been beguiling younger visitors to the Botanical Gardens for years. She appears in a colourful booklet made for the Learning Garden, along with other polychromatic animal friends, to teach kids about issues like global warming and fossil fuels, as well as how to lessen their carbon footprints through methods such as recycling or taking public transport.

While Dr Wong says that she is 'not running a childcare centre', she adds that the main part of the festival is geared towards adults, but she 'wanted the kids to have just as good of a time'. Hence, while the primary purpose of the garden is to introduce urgent environmental issues to the youth, it also contributes to making the overall event much more kid-friendly.

Educating others

Many of the designers of the gardens on display have also chosen to exhibit environmentally conscious messages in their work.

'I think people in the horticultural industry have an inbred passion for plants and the environment,' says Jim Fogarty, a designer from Australia. 'Doing a show like this gives you a chance to educate other people to look after the planet we live on.'

Mr Fogarty's design, which is in the fantasy category of the festival's competition and was awarded a gold ranking yesterday, was inspired by an place in Australia called Jervis Bay, an area located 200 km south of Sydney that is rich in both beach and bush. Protected from development, it has been classified as both a national park and marine park. Replete with marine and animal life as well as local flora, Mr Fogarty believes it to be a 'great story' that could provide the template for the future of eco-tourism.

'If you protect the natural environment, you can create a wonderful attraction,' he says. 'Maybe in the long term, governments could make a lot more money through conservation, rather than just selling to developers.'

Mr Fogarty's garden is designed to capture the natural wealth of Jervis Bay by displaying plants from the area in his exhibition as well as using other materials to symbolise other aspects of the bay's beauty. Jervis Bay's pristine white sand - ostensibly the whitest in the world - is represented by white aggregate paving, while the garden's Waterfall Wall is meant to recall the aesthetics and the importance of its blue waters.

Charlie Evans, also a designer from Australia, did not base his garden, Message in a Bottle, on a particular place. Actually, it is unclear what or where he based his work on but that is the point, he says.

'It is open to interpretation,' he says. Besides a sign in the front that reads 'tread lightly on our blue planet', the environmental concerns of the piece are all in the details. For example, his use of steel pieces, discarded as waste by factories and rescued by his team, to create exquisite screens could be seen as an ode to the beautiful results of recycling.

'I have had a lot of people describe the garden differently, and that is fine,' he says. 'The Message in a Bottle is whatever you want it to be.'

Effects of global warming

In contrast to the oblique nature of Mr Evans' work is Best in Show winner Peter Cheok's piece, Seeking Shangri-La, which leaves only one interpretation to its viewer: the devastating possibilities of global warming. Situating the mythical paradise of Shangri-la in a cavernous underwater prison, the design is a terrifying meditation on the effects of global warming.

'Shangri-La was an ideal subject because it is so high up in the mountains,' Mr Cheok says. This ups the ante on the urgency in which the issue displayed in his work, given that global warming has purportedly caused glaciers to melt faster than ever before. However, there still is hope in Mr Cheok's piece.

'If it was really bad, there wouldn't be any beautiful plants anymore,' he says. 'The main focus of the work is to bring people's minds to Shangri-la, even if it is underwater.'

Whether abstract or obvious, reality or mythology, these three works have all evinced an artistic rendering of an intensified eco-consciousness. Teamed with the Clarins Learning Garden, they provide insight and education about the environment for everyone both young and old.

The Singapore Garden Festival is on at Suntec Singapore from today until Aug 1

Brighter blooms, daring arrangements at Singapore Garden Festival 2008
Chio Su-Mei, Channel NewsAsia 24 Jul 08;


SINGAPORE : An explosion of blooms and imaginative arrangements will greet visitors at this year's Singapore Garden Festival, which opens on Friday.

Over 200,000 temperate and tropical plants have been modelled into 32 masterpieces by award-winning designers.

Winner of the "Best of Show" in the Landscape Design category was a creation by Kazuyuki Ishihara. Called 'The Green Breeze' (Ryokufu Tei), it is made with moss and native Japanese plants that are reminiscent of the designer's childhood hideaways in his rural village.

"Best of Show" winner in the Floral Windows of the World category was "Four Seasons" by Canadian Hitomi Gilliam. Gilliam's arrangement offers a sensory experience of the changing seasons along Canada's Northern Frontier.

The judges were impressed by this year's entries. They said standards were higher than the inaugural competition two years ago.

"It certainly compares favourably to our show in the UK, and... also to the shows in Europe. I think it has come a long way, and I'm really amazed at what has been achieved," said Michael Balston, head judge of the Singapore Garden Festival.

For the second time running, Singaporean Peter Cheok clinched "Best of Show" in the Fantasy Design category. His creation, which is an ode to global warming, took five months to create. Called "Seeking Shangri-La", it features the Himalayan peaks submerged in rising oceans.

"I really didn't expect it because this year the level of competition has increased. And I do see a lot of better works," said Cheok.

Ranging from the whimsical to the philosophical, the Singapore Garden Festival packs a visual feast into 24,000 square metres at the Suntec City Exhibition Centre.

The festival runs from July 25 to August 1, and is open to the public from 10am to 10pm daily.

More information is available at this website.

Come to my Shangri-La
A garden inspired by Lost Horizon novel wins Best of Show award
Tan Yi Hui, Straits Times 25 Jul 08;

A FANTASY garden inspired by the James Hilton novel Lost Horizon has won Singaporean Peter Cheok a Best Of Show award at this year's Singapore Garden Festival.

It is his second win in a row: he picked up a similar award in the same Fantasy Gardens category two years ago, at the inaugural festival.

The 28-year-old sales and marketing director of Far East Flora received his award last night from President S R Nathan at the Awards Gala, at Suntec Convention Centre. Also present was National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.

The awards dinner kicked off the festival, which opens today at the convention centre.

Visitors to the biennial event, held over eight days this year, will be able to check out garden and floral displays by 32 award-winning designers from 17 countries. Some 200,000 people are expected to attend the show.

Mr Cheok said: 'This year the competition was intense. I wasn't expecting us to win, so it was a surprise.'

His garden, called Seeking Shangri-La, is a lavish depiction of an underwater mythical paradise. The garden consists of plants from Malaysia such as sedums, cacti and sarracenias, which were planted to resemble corals.

Two others won Best Of Show awards.

Japanese designer Kazuyuki Ishihara topped the Landscape Design category with Ryokufu Tei (The Green Breeze), a serene garden sanctuary built like a secret hideaway.

In the Floral Display category, Canada's Hitomi Gilliam took the top spot with Galerie Aux Saisons (Seasons Gallery Canada), which takes the visitor through the seasons of the Canadian Northern Frontier.

Aside from viewing these award-winning gardens, visitors to the festival will also be able to check out award-winning orchids, buy exotic flowers, plants and botanical artworks.

The Singapore Garden Festival 2008 is on from today to Aug 1 at Suntec Convention Centre, 10am to 10pm daily. Tickets cost $6 (weekday) and $12 (weekend) for adults, and $3 (weekday) and $6 (weekend) for children, students and senior citizens. Family tickets for two adults and three children cost $18 (weekday) and $36 (weekend) and are available at level one of the Suntec Convention Centre. For more information, log on to www.singaporegardenfestival.com

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