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How can we put the taste back into British food?
Fresh local produce has been replaced by cheap, bland, industrial-farmed food as supermarkets slash prices. What will it take to bring change?
Four strawberries, picked an hour earlier, sit on a saucer on the dining-room table of Lindsey Lodge Farm, a 40-acre farm growing fruit and vegetables in Suffolk. It is June and these strawberries are the first of the English season. Andrew Sturgeon, a farmer for 30 years, smiles, certain of the quality. The aroma is heady, the taste is of strawberries as they ought to be, naturally sweet.
Sturgeon delivers to 45 stores belonging to the East of England Co-operative, owned by its members. It is independent from the Co-operative Group chain and has more than 200 shops in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. Ninety per cent of Sturgeon’s fruit is delivered straight to stores within 36 hours of being picked. They sell at £2.25 a punnet, compared with under £2 elsewhere. “Customers know what they are buying when they ask for our strawberries,” he says.
Continue reading...Shark attacks: Coalition to deploy extra drumlines to protect surfers
Strategy, which helps track and monitor sharks without baiting or killing them, will be prioritised on north coast
Up to 100 extra “smart” drumlines will be rolled out along the New South Wales coastline to keep swimmers safe from sharks, the state government has announced.
The controversial shark management strategy helps authorities track and monitor sharks without baiting or killing them, and the rollout announced on Sunday will be prioritised on the NSW north coast following a recent shark attack.
Continue reading...Hawaiian bees are first on US endangered species list
Debate: Would a legal ivory trade save elephants or speed up the massacre?
Horns will lock over the future of the African elephant at Cites CoP17. We ask experts whether they believe the ban on the international ivory trade is working
Enrico Di Minin, research fellow in conservation science at the University of Helsinki, and Douglas MacMillan, professor of biodiversity economics at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent.
Continue reading...Cheetah trade: Nations to suppress social media enticement
The 20 photographs of the week
The continuing violence in Syria, the Rosetta spacecraft’s final descent, Sam Allardyce leaves the England manager’s job, the ongoing migration crisis – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week
Continue reading...More than 15,000 homes and businesses were hit by winter floods
New analysis shows impact of storms across the north of England last winter, with some councils still helping homes to recover
More than 15,000 homes and businesses were flooded in areas across northern England in last year’s devastating storms, new analysis shows.
Councils are still helping flood-hit homes recover from the disruption caused last winter as storms Desmond, Eva and Frank swept across the country, the Local Government Association (LGA) said.
Continue reading...Searching for the ash trees of childhood
Cilgerran, Pembrokeshire Lime-green bunches clustered heavy on each branch, spinning down with the equinoctial gales or hanging as grim, dry, umber swags
Even before the first frost, ash trees along the Teifi gorge are taking on the pale autumn tints that are prelude to their fall. The river here roils darkly down to salt-marshes round Cardigan, its depths brown and turbid with slurry run-off, tide-lines blanched by agrochemical pollutant along each bank, dippers and wagtails gone, birds silent in the woods, the life departed. Salmon, sewin (sea trout) and brown trout, which once drew anglers and coracle-fishers to this place, raise scarcely a ripple now on the smooth and dying flow.
I’ve come to look for ash-keys, which vary so much from year to year. I think back to my childhood, when bright lime-green bunches clustered heavy on each branch, spinning down with the equinoctial gales or hanging as grim, dry, umber swags throughout the winter until late black buds of spring opened into leaf to hide them from view.
Continue reading...Gearing up for the hydrogen economy
Bees added to US endangered species list for the first time
Seven types of the yellow-faced or masked bees once found in great numbers in Hawaii are under threat, federal officials say
Seven types of bees once found in abundance in Hawaii have become the first bees to be added to the US federal list of endangered and threatened species.
The listing decision, published on Friday in the Federal Register, classifies seven varieties of yellow-faced or masked bees as endangered, due to such factors as habitat loss, wildfires and the invasion of non-native plants and insects.
Continue reading...Skimming across the earth's anaemic oceans
The lights go out in SA and Turnbull flicks the switch to peak stupid | Lenore Taylor
The PM ridiculed state renewable targets after the South Australian blackout, the very targets he has to achieve to meet his own emissions promises
One big storm and our climate and energy debate is surging back to peak stupid.
Now Malcolm Turnbull has encouraged the campaign to use the South Australian blackout to slow the shift to clean energy, saying state renewable energy targets are “extremely unrealistic”.
United Nations close to landmark deal to curb airplane emissions
2,000 government officials gathered in Montreal to adopt the first ever international mechanism to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation
A UN negotiation is inching towards a landmark deal to curb emissions from airplanes, although environmental groups have warned that the plan will not go far enough to help slow climate change.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency, has gathered more than 2,000 government officials from around the world at its Montreal headquarters to adopt the first ever international mechanism to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from aviation.
Continue reading...Panda cubs make public debut in China – video
23 panda cubs are collected in China ahead of the country’s national day on 1 October. The cubs were shown off at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base on Thursday. Aged between one and four months old, the cubs lay on their bellies, occasionally exerting just a little effort to crawl a few inches forward. This year, the team at the giant panda base reported double the number of newborn cubs, when compared with last year
Continue reading...Wildlife trafficking, air pollution and farm subsidies – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...EU gives green light to ratifying Paris climate deal
EU ministers are expected to ratify the agreement, along with India and Cananda, next week meaning enough countries will have signed up for the deal to come into legal force
EU ministers have agreed to ratify the landmark Paris climate agreement at an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Friday, all but guaranteeing that it will pass a legal threshold to take effect next week and sparing the bloc’s blushes in the process.
The European Parliament is expected to rubber stamp the decision in Strasbourg next Tuesday, allowing the EU to sign off on it as soon as the following day.
Continue reading...Rosetta: Mission control confirms probe has 'crash landed'
Rosetta mission: 'Really sad, but the legacy lives on'
Rosetta: British scientists and role of UK Space Agency
The week in wildlife – in pictures
A pair of parakeets, a baby tamarin and a lost species of frog are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
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