Move to give China's animals legal protection

Draft law moots up to 3 years' jail for cruelty to animals
The Straits Times China Bureau 17 Oct 09;

IN HEILONGJIANG province in 2006, a woman posted a video online showing her killing a kitten by stepping on it repeatedly with high-heeled shoes.

This June, the authorities in the western city of Hanzhong culled more than 30,000 dogs after an outbreak of rabies.

But China's animals - whose rights have traditionally been seen as unimportant - may be in for more humane treatment.

Scholars have just drafted the country's first Animal Protection Law, which could see those committing serious acts of cruelty towards animals jailed for up to three years.

The law - important, its drafters say, in China's harmonious society project - has received applause from animal welfare activists both in China and abroad.

'We've waited so long,' said Madam Wang Liping, 52, who runs a dog shelter in Beijing.

But legal scholars warn of an uphill battle, saying it could be many years and countless amendments before the draft is law. If successful, it will criminalise mistreatment of pets, farm animals, and those used in transport, scientific experiments and films.

And the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Professor Chang Jiwen, the draft's key architect, said: 'Most people in our society are against cruelty to animals, so this simply converts these feelings into formal legislation.'

Prof Chang worked on his idea with more than 20 professors and experts for 18 months before posting the draft online for public comment.

China currently has legislation protecting endangered species, but not most other animals.

No action was taken against the cat-killer, as she had not broken any laws. Prof Chang added that the Hanzhong cull would also be illegal under the draft law.

A poll by Chinese portals Sina.com and Sohu.com in June found 80 per cent of respondents favoured some form of anti-cruelty legislation, and 75 per cent wanted those who tortured animals to be criminally prosecuted.

Professor Li Xiaobing of Nankai University warned, however, that some clauses in the draft law are clearly 'ahead of their time'.

For example, one clause requires that animals for food be slaughtered 'humanely, using methods that reduce the pressure, terror and pain', a requirement which could conflict with the lifestyles of many people in rural areas, he said.

At the same time, the draft law is not on the 2008-to-2013 agenda of the National People's Congress, the top legislative body, said Tianjin lawyer Ren Xiufu, 'so it still has a long way to go'.

But Prof Chang, who plans to lobby officials, says: 'Draft legislation can be placed on the agenda at any time... It is very likely the law will be passed within 10 years.'

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Indonesian law must be upheld on environmental violators: Activists

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 16 Oct 09;

If the government has the will to upgrade the quality of the country’s ailing environment, the results of the Proper rating system should be used as an entry point for law enforcers to impose sanctions on polluting companies, green activists say.

They said, with or without the Proper rating system, all environmental violators must be punished as a deterrent, so companies will adopt green practices.

“The law must be upheld on environmental violators, with or without the Proper rating system,” executive director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) Berry Furqon told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The State Ministry for the Environment announced the results of the environmental performance ranking (Proper) on 627 companies in which some 56 firms were awarded a black rating and another 130 companies put in the red category.

The black rating was given to firms that intentionally do nothing to manage air, water and hazardous toxic pollution and have a poor record of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar stressed that the voluntary basis of the Proper rating was a tool to encourage companies to improve their performance on environmental management rather than to impose punitive sanctions.

Executive director of the Mining Network (Jatam) Siti Maimunah said the Proper system was the easiest way for mining companies to improve their image as green companies.

“We have long criticized the criteria used in the Proper system. The green label gives mining companies better access to get loans from the banking sector,” she said.

Siti said the government needed to upgrade its criteria by evaluating the companies’ impact on the local people and assessing other environmental damage caused by mining activities.

“It does not make sense that companies which are expanding their mining activities in protected forests get a green label under the Proper system,” she said.

Siti agreed that there were no reasons for the government not to impose sanctions on polluting companies within the Proper system.

Time needed for Indonesia environment law: official
Sunanda Creagh, Reuters 16 Oct 09;

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's tough new environment law, passed last month and aimed at any firm with an effect on the environment, may take as long as two years to implement, a senior government official said on Friday.

The law allows the government to revoke polluters' business licenses, which environmentalists said could lead to more effective enforcement.

Indonesia's rapid economic growth has been accompanied by widespread pollution of its waterways, soil and air, and destruction of forests and wildlife by firms in the mining, timber, palm oil and manufacturing sectors.

Law enforcement remains generally weak in many areas, including the environment, and despite efforts to curb graft, Indonesia ranks as one of the world's most corrupt countries.

According to a draft seen by Reuters, the law requires companies whose operations impact the environment to obtain an environmental license and undergo an environmental assessment before starting operations. It sets tough fines for polluters.

However, Dana A. Kartakusuma, an assistant Environment Minister, told a mining conference in Jakarta that it could be two years before industry would know exactly what had to be done to comply with the law.

"I foresee that the regulations under this law will be done in one or two years, and the implementation of this law will be executed stage by stage during the next five years," he said in a speech.

Under the law, companies that breach the terms of the new environmental permit could have their operating licenses for those projects revoked.

Anyone deliberately polluting the environment could face up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to 10 billion rupiah ($1.07 million).

Those two aspects of the law have been welcomed by environmentalists, but Kartakusuma told Reuters it could be a year before details about the environmental permit are released.

"We will target to have it within one year but sometimes it takes longer," he said. "Theoretically, companies have to comply with the new law, but in order to implement it we need the government regulations. On that we have to wait."

The environmental group Greenpeace has expressed concern that even with the implementing regulations, the law may not be uniformly or strictly enforced.

($1=9350 Rupiah)

(Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Government Asked to be Serious in Handling Environmental Problems

Tempo Interactive 14 Oct 09;

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The next five-year period of government is urged to be serious in handling environmental problems that have been increasing due to global climate change.

A member of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA), Emil Salim, warned the government about potential disasters if Indonesia does not prioritize management over climate change phenomenon because of global warming.

He mentioned illegal logging as an evidence of government's inability to handle environmental problems. This has caused forest fires every year in many regions.

The largest release of carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming come from forests that are used widely. Moss land and tropical rain forest keep the carbon dioxide.

“If this is ignored, Indonesia will not be known anymore as a country with its maritime resources and tropical rain forests,” he said during the national seminar on the prospects of long-term national security at the office of National Development Planning State Ministry, Wednesday (14/10).

According to Department of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, 29 islands out of 17,508 islands in the country has been sunk due to the higher sea surface. It is estimated that more than 2,000 islands will be sunk as well by 2030.

“We lose the islands without having wars,” he said.

State Minister of National Development Planning, Paskah Suzetta, admitted that Indonesia’s geographic position was sensitive to climate change including sea surface, drought, flood, and even national security problems.

“Higher sea surface will make small islands disappear that actually own strategic values as they mark exclusive economic zone, continent lines, and the country's security belt,” he said.

AGOENG WIJAYA

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Surabaya Asia's third most polluted city: survey

Antara 16 Oct 09;

Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA News) - Surabaya has been named as the third most polluted city in Asia, head of the East Java Environment Agency Dewi J Putriatni said here on Friday.

"Surabaya is third after Bangkok and Jakarta as the most polluted cities in the Asia region," she said.

Dewi expressed disappointment with the result of the survey since Surabaya has always been a national finalist for the cleanliness award, Adipura, from the Environmental Affairs Ministry.

"This is ironic," she said, adding that from 38 districts in East Java, 25 among had received the Adipura award from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"We urge the Environment Ministry to revise the judging criteria for the Adipura award," Dewi added.

According to her, evaluation of the Adipura award only focused on city`s cleanliness, including the trash dumping system.

"I suggest the committee to also put air quality as one of the variables," she said adding that the East Java administration also needs to find a solution to air pollution problems in Surabaya.

Air pollution is known as dangerous to human beings. According to a study in the United States published online on April 2009 in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, women who lived within 50 meters of highways or primary, multi-lane roads were 31 percent more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis (RA) than those who lived more than 200 meters from highways.

The study also found that women who lived within 50 meters of the largest highways had a 63-percent increased risk.

The study based its findings on analysis of the records of 90, 000 women and measurement of the distance between each woman`s home and the nearest major roadways.

"Even after accounting for the effects of age, race, sex, socioeconomic status and smoking, the increased risk for women located near major roads remained substantially higher," Jaime Hart, a research fellow in the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women`s Hospital in Boston, said in the study.

Previous research also found that air pollution might alter cell activity or reduce the amount of oxygen and nutrients received by a fetus. (*)

Jakarta air among Asia’s cleanest? Say it ain’t so!
Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post 16 Oct 09;

The Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) made an audacious and uninformed claim Friday that Jakarta’s air quality was the third-highest in Asia.

Right. If all the other cities in Asia were struck off the list.

Misciting data from the Clean Air Initiative Asia (CAI Asia), agency head Peni Susanti said Jakarta’s average level of particulate matter (PM10) was 68.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2008.

Particulate matter is fine suspended particulates small enough to penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and cause health problems.

“This makes us the number three city in Asia for clean air,” Peni said at a press conference, attributing it to the city’s various green programs.

CAI Asia is an international forum established by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and USAID to share experiences and build partnerships to improve air quality in Asian cities.

According to the study, Peni said, Singapore ranked first with a PM10 level of 30 micrograms per cubic meter, followed by Surabaya with 60 micrograms per cubic meter — despite the fact Tokyo and Taipei clearly had far lower PM10 levels than the East Java capital.

The study Peni had quoted, available at http://www.cleanairnet.org/caiasia/1412/article-59689.html, showed Jakarta had the 10th-lowest PM10 level of the 20 cities studied, and was the fifth-cleanest of the Southeast Asian cities.

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Green consumerism can avert climate disaster, say top UK firms

Tesco, Coca-Cola and Reckitt Benckiser bosses press politicians for action and argue against need to curb economic growth

Patrick Wintour, guardian.co.uk 16 Oct 09;

Climate change catastrophe can be averted by "greening" consumer behaviour rather than by curbing economic growth and mass consumerism, leaders of some of the world's biggest businesses including Tesco, Coca-Cola and Reckitt Benckiser argued today.

They urged politicians to be braver at the Copenhagen talks on climate change in December, saying voters could be persuaded of the need to act. They were speaking, along with David Cameron and Professor Robert Puttnam, the sociologist and advocate of the importance of social capital, at a conference in London on the role of the consumer and business in combating climate change.

The degree of focus on climate change by the businesspeople would have been impossible five years ago. But some in the audience angrily insisted that they underestimated the need to slow consumerism.

Sir Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco, told the conference that combating climate change was now the number one priority of his company, and announced that his multibillion-pound business would be zero-carbon by 2050. "Survival is the issue, not just for our business, but the entire planet," he said.

The president of Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent, warned politicians: "Act now or you will fail, and so will the world. Politicians need to think like businesses and think about the long term." He claimed that consumers now put the environment at the top of their priorities in all of its customer surveys, including in developing countries such as Brazil and Mexico.

Bart Becht, the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, expressed his fear that a deal would not be made in Copenhagen. "Are we there yet? We are nowhere near. Government is not set up to handle global issues effectively. They have short time horizons, and elections, but we are institutions built to last."

Paul Polman, of Unilever, said: "We need a whole new business model, but it takes time."

The businessmen repeatedly argued that neither regulation nor government would be sufficient to bring emissions down, pointing out that 70% of emissions came from consumers.

Kent said Coca-Cola's surveys suggested that as much as 70% of future advertising would have an environmental focus, and his aim was to reduce by 40% the energy footprint of its 10m refrigerators across 206 countries.

He said: "I think it is a fallacy to think growth and a sustainable world are mutually exclusive."

Kent pointed out in the next decade there would be many millions more middle class people living in cities. "How can businesses continue to serve the needs of these new middle classes and yet embed sustainability into business plans? That is the goal."

Leahy praised the carbon reduction targets being set by governments, but said: "It is only by realising our potential as people, citizens, consumers, as users that we can turn targets into reality. It will be a transition achieved not by some great invention or some great act of parliament, but through the billions of choices made by consumers every day all over the world."

He warned that too often climate change was seen as a threat that "is turned into a demand for retreat. Consumers are told they must accept ever greater limits on their ambitions and a reduction on what they can desire all so their emissions may be cut. This is not just unrealistic, but also fails to see the enormous positive potential of consumers."

Tesco replace 'Bogof' with 'buy one get one free - later'
'Buy one get one free' will be replaced by 'Buy one get one free – later' under plans by Tesco for a 'green consumer revolution' to cut waste.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 16 Oct 09;

Consumers have long been frustrated by Buy one get one free or 'Bogof' offers that give away products for nothing but ultimately mean food is wasted because it has gone off by the time you get around to eating it.

By introducing a 'Buy one get one free – Later' or 'Bogofl' on perishable items, Tesco hopes to minimise the amount of food people throw away. Consumers will be given vouchers that last for months at a time so they can claim the free item at a later date.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, said the initiative was part of a wider drive to help consumers waste less such as cutting packaging and offering refills in store.

"As one small, new step we will adapt our 'buy one get one free' offers in perishable foods to give our customers a new opportunity – 'buy one get one free – later'," he said. "So customers will be able to get that other salad or vegetable or yogurt when they want it and when it will be used, not all together when it may – in the end – go to waste."

Consumers account for 75 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

In the run up to a key UN conference in Copenhagen in December, where world leaders are expected to agree a new deal on climate change, some of the globe's leading brands met to discuss how consumers can contribute to cutting carbon.

The Sustainable Consumption Institute conference in London brought together the heads of Coca-Cola, Unilever and SC Johnson to talk about cutting their customers' carbon footprints.

Tesco has already cut prices on goods like energy saving light bulbs and will encourage consumers to buy more low carbon alternatives, like low impact washing powders. The supermarket, where more than one in every £7 is spent by consumers, will also offer points on the Tesco Clubcards for buying "carbon conscious purchasing".

A Tesco Home Energy and Emissions Service will send out green auditors to people's homes and offer free advice on insulation, double glazing and fitting solar panels.

David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, who attended the announcement of the new initiative yesterday said Government should be using the "carrot rather than the stick" to encourage behaviour change.

He said a Tory government would offer incentives for recycling, more money to help people insulate their homes and help for businesses to sell green products like electric cars.

He also announced a new working group that will encourage companies to phase out standby mode and ensure all electrical products have economy mode as the default setting.

"For a Green Consumer Revolution to happen, we need government to work with business and consumers. We should use the mechanisms of what we describe as the post-bureaucratic age, creating frameworks rather than rules; influencing behaviour rather than issuing diktats; understanding human behaviour rather than ignoring it," he said

However, Helen Rimmer, food campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said it was "staggeringly hypocritical" for companies like Tesco to claim the high ground on environmental issues.

She said that if Tesco really wanted to help the planet it will take more than replacing 'bogofs' with 'bogofls'.

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Responsible Travel has ditched offsetting flights and holidays for environmental reasons

Carbon offsets can distract tourists from the need to reduce their emissions from travel and lifestyle
Justin Francis, guardian.co.uk 16 Oct 09;

With one click of a button, the guilt caused by a return-flight to some far-flung destination is wiped away in the same way one might approach packing the suitcase: "Suncream? Tick. Sarong? Tick. Carbon offsetting? Ah yes, tick."

For responsible travellers, the impact of flyingon the environment is difficult to ignore and carbon offsets have become an established tool to reduce the impact of holidaying. Offsetting has been embraced by the travel and tourism industry at large, too. More and more holiday companies, airlines and hotels have been turning to carbon-offsetting schemes in order to support claims that they are carbon neutral businesses, offering travellers a "guilt-free" travel alternative – the chance to have their cake and eat it.

Having been one of the first travel agents to introduce carbon offsets in early 2002, we have now decided to remove the offsetting functionality for travellers from responsibletravel.com, making us one of the first travel companies to do so for environmental reasons.

Why? I believe that too often offsets are being used by travel companies to justify growth plans. In June this year, Friends of the Earth produced a report entitled Offsetting: A Dangerous Distraction. The report argues that carbon offsetting fails to reduce, and in some cases is even increasing, carbon emissions.

We sought advice from Friends of the Earth and the tourism academic Prof Harold Goodwin (a co-founder of responsibletravel) among others. I concluded that where travel is concerned, carbon offsets can distract tourists from the need to reduce their emissions from both a travel perspective as well as where everyday lifestyle habits are concerned. They create a medieval pardon for us to carry on behaving in the same way (or worse).

Ultimately we need to reduce our carbon emissions rather than offset. We can do this by flying less – travelling by train or taking holidays closer to home for example, and by making carbon reductions in other areas of our lifestyles too, alongside travel.

There is also no hiding the fact that tourists will continue to want to visit destinations requiring a flight to get there. Indeed, it has long been established that tourism can contribute to livelihoods, and local economic development and the conservation of the world's cultural and natural heritage. It is for this reason that it's more important than ever that when we do fly, we ensure we make that trip count as much as possible by choosing a holiday that makes a real difference in the destination – one that seeks to reduce CO2 impacts, supports local community programmes and community developments.

Those in favour of offsetting would argue that we should be doing all we can in terms of carbon reduction through lifestyle adjustments as well as by offsetting our impacts. For the traveller who has done their utmost to reduce their emissions then I agree that offsets do have a role to play. My concern is that too few people use them in this way.

Ultimately it is about striking a balance between flying less as well as reducing our everyday carbon emissions, and also ensuring when we do fly that we "make it count".

It remains to be seen how committed governments around the world are to making aviation part of the emissions-trading scheme or taxing it – essential if we are to reduce the numbers of that people fly.

• Justin Francis is MD of the travel agent responsibletravel.com

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UK consumers 'dump old electrical goods rather than recycle them'

Consumers claim it is easier to bin radios, irons, kettles and digital cameras than recycle them, Which? survey finds
Rebecca Smithers, guardian.co.uk 16 Oct 09;

Old electrical items are being thrown out with household rubbish because many people don't know how to recycle them, a new survey reveals today.

Just half of respondents knew they could help the environment by reprocessing small products such as radios, hairdryers and irons.

More than half (53%) agreed it was easier just to throw them away with other refuse, according to the Which? online survey of 1,007 consumers.

The research by the consumer group also found almost three-quarters of those questioned admitted to hoarding products that were broken and in need of repair or simply no longer used. The items routinely left abandoned by householders in their attics and lofts were video recorders, radios, irons, kettles, digital cameras and DVD players.

Recycling electrical goods helps preserve resources and energy, and stops harmful chemicals entering the environment, Which? points out. The survey also comes as councils warn of a £1bn hike in their rubbish disposal bills because of rising landfill taxes.

About four in 10 respondents admitted they felt guilty about not doing more, and three in four felt there should be better facilities for recycling old electrical items locally.

Jess Ross, editor of which.co.uk, said: "Most people have good intentions about recycling but, when it comes to old electrical items, there is still a lot of confusion about what goes where and when. We would urge consumers to think twice before throwing things out with their rubbish."

Among its recycling tips are contacting the local council to ask it to pick up unwanted large electrical products – they must collect under EU law, but may charge a fee. The same law, the waste electronic and electrical equipment directive, means shops must offer a free take-back scheme where you can drop off old electrical items when you buy a like-for-like new one. Which? also advises cash-strapped consumers to think about whether their old electrical items are in good enough condition to sell, as they may even be able to make some money.

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Economic crisis is devastating for the world's hungry

FAO 14 Oct 09;

1.02 billion hungry people in 2009 - FAO hunger report published

14 October 2009, Rome - The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report released today by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The combination of food and economic crises has pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels — more than one billion people are undernourished, according to FAO estimates.

Nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries. In Asia and the Pacific, an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic hunger; in Sub-Saharan Africa 265 million; in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million; in the Near East and North Africa 42 million; and in developed countries 15 million, according FAO's annual hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity, produced this year in collaboration with WFP. The report was published before World Food Day, to be celebrated on 16 October 2009.

Decade-long trend

Even before the recent crises, the number of undernourished people in the world had been increasing slowly but steadily for the past decade, the report says.

Good progress had been made in the 1980s and early 1990s in reducing chronic hunger, largely due to increased investment in agriculture following the global food crisis of the early 1970s.

But between 1995-97 and 2004-06, as official development assistance (ODA) devoted to agriculture declined substantially, the number of hungry people increased in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. Gains in hunger reduction were later reversed in this region as well, as a result of the food and economic crises

The rise in the number of hungry people during both periods of low prices and economic prosperity and the very sharp rises in periods of price spikes and economic downturns shows the weakness of the global food security governance system, FAO said.

"World leaders have reacted forcefully to the financial and economic crisis and succeeded in mobilizing billions of dollars in a short time period. The same strong action is needed now to combat hunger and poverty," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.

"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable. We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever. Investing in agriculture in developing countries is key as a healthy agricultural sector is essential not only to overcome hunger and poverty but also to ensure overall economic growth and peace and stability in the world," he said.

"We applaud the new commitment to tackle food security, but we must act quickly. It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry," added Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of WFP.

"At a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory. We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs — we just need the resources and the international commitment to do the job."

Another blow for poor households

Several factors have conspired to make the current crisis particularly devastating for poor households in developing countries.

First, the crisis is affecting large parts of the world simultaneously, reducing the scope for traditional coping mechanisms such as currency devaluation, borrowing or increased use of official development assistance or migrant remittances.

Second, the economic crisis comes on top of a food crisis that has already strained the coping strategies of the poor, hitting those most vulnerable to food insecurity when they are down. Faced with high domestic food prices, reduced incomes and employment and having already sold off assets, reduced food consumption and cut spending on essential items such as health care and education, these families risk falling deeper into destitution and the hunger-poverty trap.

In for a penny, in for a pounding

The third factor that differentiates this crisis from those of the past is that developing countries have become more integrated, both financially and commercially, into the world economy than they were 20 years ago, making them more vulnerable to changes in international markets.

Many countries have experienced across-the-board drops in their trade and financial inflows, and have seen their export earnings, foreign investment, development aid and remittances falling. This not only reduces employment opportunities, but also reduces the money available to governments for programmes promoting growth and supporting those in need.

The 17 largest Latin American economies, for example, received $184 billion in financial inflows in 2007, which was roughly halved in 2008 to $89 billion and is expected to be halved again to $43 billion in 2009, the report said. This means that consumption must be reduced, and for some low-income food-deficit countries, adjusting consumption may mean reducing badly needed food imports and other imported items such as health-care equipment and medicines.

The report includes case studies compiled by WFP in five countries — Armenia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nicaragua and Zambia — showing how households are affected by the fall in remittances and other impacts of the economic downturn and how governments are responding to the crisis by investing in agriculture and infrastructure and expanding safety nets.

These interventions will help to save lives and families, the report says, but given the severity of the crisis, much more needs to be done.

FAO and WFP continue to advocate a twin-track approach to address both the short-term acute hunger spurred by sudden food shortages and the longer-term chronic hunger that is symptomatic of extreme poverty as a way for durable solutions.

"Small-scale farmers need access to high-quality seeds, fertilizers, feed and technologies to be able to boost productivity and production," Diouf said. "And their governments need economic and policy tools to ensure that their countries' agriculture sectors are both more productive and more resilient in the face of crises."

* The State of Food Security in the World 2009 is available at: www.fao.org/docrep/012/i0876e/i0876e00.htm
* FAO has also launched a new website on world hunger that includes an interactive map showing trends in the percentage of the world's population experiencing hunger in recent decades and providing country-specific data: www.fao.org/hunger/en/

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Joel Salatin, America's farming heavyweight

Virginie Montet And Caroline Groussain Yahoo News 16 Oct 09;

SWOOPE, Virginia (AFP) – A diehard activist for some, a pioneer for others, Joel Salatin is fighting against America's genetically-modified foods and for local subsistence farming.

Leading his crusade from the heart of the Shenandoah Valley in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, this anti-globalization messenger who dubs himself a "Christian Libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer" has become the face of healthy eating and agriculture.

"The desire from consumers to eat this kind of food is exploding," Salatin said at his 500-acre (200-hectare) farm in Swoope, Virginia.

Small farmers' markets -- still scarce just a few years ago -- are now in full swing in the United States.

The online Farmers' Market Directory lists 5,274 markets across the country, a 13 percent rise from 4,685 a year ago. The number has grown by nearly 4,000 nationwide since 1994.

"Nobody trusts the industrial food system to give them good food," said Salatin, surrounded by the many cows, pigs, turkeys, rabbits and chickens he raises in methods that remain unconventional in the highly-industrialized US agricultural sector.

"The distrust is very real."

An iconoclast who has authored several books with titles like "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal," Salatin makes regular media appearances and now spends a third of his time at conferences.

But farming is still a family affair built over three generations on the rocky terrain of his "Polyface Farm".

Chickens and turkeys run free here, transported in a chicken coop built on wheels to a different pasture every three days.

The 1,000 cows and 700 pigs raised for meat each year change pastures every week.

Salatin, 53, hails his "healing farming" method, where each animal plays an environmental role.

"The cows shorten the grass and the chicken eat the fly larvae and sanitize the pastures. This is a symbiotic relation," he explained.

This natural approach to farming is just as profitable as industrial farming, Salatin insists, because he saves where big chicken and beef producers are forced to invest in structures, drugs and labor.

His customers are 400 families, about 50 restaurants and a dozen shops in the area. He also charges 800 dollars for a two-hour tour of his farm.

"Yes, the prices are higher, but it's because all of the costs are in the price of this chicken and you are paying it here at the cash register, not paying it in sickness and disease and pollution and stink," he explained.

But his unorthodox methods leave some thinking Salatin is a "terrorist", he claimed, "because the new word is science-based agriculture and this is not science-based."

Salatin's products are not certified as organic -- a booming food sector in the United States, now accounting for 3.5 percent of all food sales -- because he refuses to do the necessary inspections and paperwork.

"We are beyond organic," exclaimed Salatin, observing that government-certified organic meat products do not necessarily come from chicken and cows on pasture.

"Organic doesn't mean what people think it means."

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Bill Gates says ideology threatens hunger fix

Christine Stebbins and Roberta Rampton, Reuters 16 Oct 09;

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - The fight to end hunger is being hurt by environmentalists who insist that genetically modified crops cannot be used in Africa, Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of software giant Microsoft, said on Thursday.

Gates said GMO crops, fertilizer and chemicals are important tools -- although not the only tools -- to help small farms in Africa boost production.

"This global effort to help small farmers is endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two," Gates said in his first address on agriculture made during the annual World Food Prize forum.

"Some people insist on an ideal vision of the environment," Gates said. "They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in recent years has turned its focus to helping poor, small-holder farmers grow and sell more crops as a way to reduce hunger and poverty.

The foundation, which has committed $1.4 billion to agricultural development efforts, announced on Thursday nine new grants worth a total of $120 million aimed at raising yields and farming expertise in the developing world.

Funding will go to legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil, higher-yielding varieties of sorghum and millet, and new varieties of sweet potatoes that resist pests, Gates said.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) will get $15 million to help train analysts and encourage farmer-friendly policies on seeds, markets, land tenure and women's rights in five countries that have made strides in developing agriculture.

"Externally imposed solutions do not necessarily work," AGRA President Namaga Ngongi told Reuters, noting "people who are likely to live with the consequences of the decisions if they do not work" need to be more involved.

Gates told the World Food Prize forum, which honors people who make major contributions to reducing hunger, that farmers need training and access to markets, not just new seeds.

"People are always telling me not to be too naive about the path from the trials to the breakthrough advance to how that will get out to the small-holder," Gates said.

The World Food Prize was established by Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist known as "the father of the Green Revolution" for his work with rice and wheat.

Gates acknowledged the first Green Revolution had negative impacts on the environment as it dramatically raised yields.

"The next Green Revolution has to be greener than the first," Gates said. "It must be guided by small-holder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment."

The Gates Foundation is working with research partners on drought-tolerant maize using both conventional crop-breeding techniques and biotechnology, Gates said, noting he hopes seeds will be available in two or three years.

The impact of those new varieties could help convince skeptics of the benefits of biotechnology, he said.

"The technologies will be licensed royalty free to seed distributors so that the new seeds can be sold to African farmers without extra charge," Gates said.

"I hope that the debate over productivity will not slow the distribution of these seeds," Gates said.

He also called on research companies to adapt technology to the needs of small farmers, and to make them available without royalties in the poorest counties.

African governments must invest in the work, Gates said, and rich counties that have pledged to increase funding for development must spell out the details of their plans.

"How much is old money, how much is new, how soon can they spend it, and when will they do more?" Gates said.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Christine Stebbins; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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Seeding a safer world: Hillary Clinton

Food and security are inextricably linked: all our futures rely on a co-ordinated effort to revitalise the blighted global farming market
Hillary Clinton, guardian.co.uk 16 Oct 09;

For a billion people worldwide, the daily effort to grow, buy, or sell food is the defining struggle of their lives. This matters to all of us.

Consider the world's typical small farmer. She lives in a rural village, rises before dawn, and walks miles to collect water. If drought, blight, or pests don't destroy her crops, she may raise enough to feed her family – and may even have some left over to sell. But there's no road to the nearest market, and no one there who can afford to buy from her.

Now consider a young man in a crowded city 100 miles from that farmer. He has a job that pays pennies. He goes to the market but the food is rotting or priced beyond reach.

She has extra food to sell and he wants to buy it. But that simple transaction can't take place because of complex forces beyond their control.

Meeting the challenge of global hunger is at the heart of "food security"– empowering the world's farmers to sow and harvest plentiful crops, effectively care for livestock and catch fish, and then ensure that the food they produce reaches those who need it.

Food security represents the convergence of several issues: droughts and floods caused by climate change, swings in the global economy that affect food prices, and spikes in the price of oil that increase transportation costs.

So food security is not only about food, but it is all about security. Chronic hunger threatens individuals, governments, societies, and borders.

People who are starving or undernourished and can't care for their families are left with feelings of hopelessness and despair, which can lead to tension, conflict, even violence. Since 2007, there have been riots over food in more than 60 countries.

The failures of farming in many parts of the world also have an impact on the global economy. Farming is the only or primary source of income for more than three-quarters of the world's poor. When so many work so hard but still can't get ahead, the whole world is held back.

The Obama administration sees chronic hunger as a key priority of our foreign policy. Other countries are joining us in this effort. Major industrialised nations have committed more than $22bn over three years to spur agriculture-led economic growth. On 26 September, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and I co-hosted a gathering of leaders from more than 130 countries to build international support.

Our approach will be informed by experience. We have spent too many years and dollars on development projects that have not yielded lasting results. But we have learned from these efforts. We know that the best strategies emanate from those closest to the problems, not foreign governments or institutions thousands of miles away. We know that development works best when it is seen as investment, not aid.

With those lessons in mind, our food security initiative will be guided by five principles.

First, there is no one size fits all model for agriculture. We will work with partner countries to create and implement their plans.

Second, we will address underlying causes of hunger by investing in everything from better seeds to insurance for small farmers. And we leverage the skills and perseverance of women, who are the majority of the world's farmers.

Third, we will emphasise co-ordination on the country, regional, and global level, because no single entity can eradicate hunger on its own.

Fourth, we will support multilateral institutions, which have unmatched reach and resources.

Last, we pledge long-term commitment and accountability, and will invest in monitoring and evaluation tools that make our efforts transparent.

Our efforts in agriculture-led development will complement our commitment to providing emergency food aid when tragedies and disasters take their toll – as is happening now in the Horn of Africa, where drought, crop failures, and civil war have caused a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Revitalising global agriculture will not be easy. Indeed, it is one of the most ambitious diplomacy and development efforts our country has ever undertaken. But it can be done. It is worth doing. And if we succeed, our future will be more prosperous and more peaceful than our past.

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Cane ethanol helps cut greenhouse emissions: study

Inae Riveras, Reuters 14 Oct 09;

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Use of sugar cane-based ethanol as a substitute for gasoline is among the cheapest and easiest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Brazilian study published on Wednesday.

Cane ethanol provides about eight times the energy used to produce it and adoption of new cane plant varieties and processes could increase its efficiency further.

The study looked only at the future production of cane over pastures or as a replacement for other crops -- not over native forests.

Most new cars in Brazil can run on ethanol alone and the biofuel's environmental benefits are redoubled by burning its bagasse byproduct in thermoelectric plants powering mills and sometimes even feeding into the grid.

"As ethanol is already competitive with gasoline at current oil prices, the additional cost (in adopting ethanol) is zero," said Isaias Macedo, from the Interdisciplinary Center of Energy Planning at the University of Campinas, one of the study's authors.

"And the possibility of producing ethanol in several countries makes it especially attractive," Macedo added.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of cane-based ethanol. The United States is the No. 1 ethanol maker but its fuel is made from corn whose energy output is roughly equal to that used to produce it.

Ethanol's gradual replacement of gasoline since the introduction of flex-fuel cars in early 2003 and the blending of 20 to 25 percent of ethanol in all gasoline sold in Brazil, combined with the co-generation of energy through the burning of bagasse at mills, has slashed greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2006 alone, the drop in emissions by the transport and energy sectors was 22 percent of what they would be if the country's cars were burning gasoline, according to the study.

Still, Brazil remains one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases due to destruction of its massive Amazon rain forest. Trees release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when they're felled or burned.

Considering Brazil's total emissions unrelated to deforestation, ethanol helped reduce overall emissions by 10 percent that same year, according to the study which also involved researchers at the University of Sao Paulo.

Considering fuel production and emission-cutting targets set by Brazil in its 2008's climate change plan, ethanol could reduce emission levels in the transport and energy sector by 43 percent in 2020 and 18 percent for all emissions excluding deforestation.

Brazil is seeking to play a leading role in talks in Copenhagen in December aimed at agreeing a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

The ethanol industry does not want Brazil's poor ranking for total emissions to tarnish its environmental credentials. It has been fighting to show the world how cane is the most energy-efficient raw material for ethanol.

About 90 percent of Brazil's sugar cane is produced in the center-south region, which includes Pantanal wetlands. But the main producing areas are about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) from the Amazon forest. The rest in the north/northeast of the country.

Macedo said that, based on an estimated cost of $100 per tonne of CO2 avoided in 2020 or 2030, it would be possible to attribute to ethanol an additional value of 20 U.S. cents per liter.

"When you decide to use ethanol, this is how much you'll avoid paying for another option," the researcher said.

(Editing by Peter Murphy; Editing by David Gregorio)

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