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100 years ago: The first sweet scent of harvest
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 5 August 1916
Surrey, August 3
There is more straw to the wheat and oats on the later lands toward our southern border than appeared a fortnight ago to be possible. The crop has shot upward as it ripened; a narrow path that runs through one wheatfield is now walled almost breast-high, and the growth is so strong that the light breeze sings through the long yellowing stalks without perceptibly bending them. A piece of oats is cut, and brings with it the first sweet scent of harvest. Some young rabbits, playing a little away from their burrow this morning, found more space to scamper in, and a host of sparrows was at work among the laid corn. We have had little dew; the nights have been almost as warm as the days.
Swallows and martins, which had begun to pack, are as busy, each in his own way, as in the earlier summer days, for at evening small winged insects swarm nearly everywhere, but mostly in the hot, low lanes, where the nut bushes droop under the sun, and the flowers dropping from the brambles reveal a promise of much fruit. On the roadsides the mountain ash is hung thickly with berries already red ripe; there is full colour now on the heaths, yellow and cream, and even more down by the side of the stream, where the loosestrife is in the best of its bloom. Many common plants have seeded; the finches were flitting in and out this evening, dropping a wing feather now and then, and one chaffinch, playing in the white dust of a chalk road, was quite disposed to make friends.
Continue reading...Why it's so hard to 'eat local' when it comes to fish
Australians are often taken aback to discover that we import about 75% of the seafood we consume. Yes, that’s right – in a nation girt by sea that vaunts its love of a shrimp on the barbie, three-quarters of our fish and shellfish comes from overseas.
Wander over to your local supermarket and look at the seafood on offer. Barramundi, the iconic Australian fish, is usually there but it is typically from Vietnam, having been farmed and frozen. The processed products – crumbed prawns or garlic prawns – are also usually from Asia, and bright yellow-dyed smoked cod is seemingly always from South Africa.
Then there are the truly “glocal” (local-global) items, such as crumbed products made using Australian fish that has been sent to Thailand for processing and then shipped back again. This type of practice is set to become more common, as the family-owned Australian seafood company Kailis Bros this year sold 90% of its seafood processing, wholesale and export business to a Chinese conglomerate.
Eating ‘glocal’?As anyone who has a passing acquaintance with contemporary food politics knows, it’s all about eating local, seasonal, and sustainable produce. As previous writers on The Conversation have pointed out, food choices have become loaded with moralism, which can make choosing the “right” food somewhat daunting.
Our research – including Elspeth’s forthcoming book, Eating the Ocean, and Kate’s soon-to-be-submitted PhD thesis on sustainable tuna – shows these problems become even trickier when it comes to fish.
Beyond the obvious problem of trying to eat local when talking about food that comes from a vast ocean, there is the added problem of the way in which fishing has developed as a globalised industry.
Over the past 20 years the ownership of fishing boats in the Global North (including Australia) has shrunk to a fraction of what it was. This has been part of a necessary move to regulate international fishing practices and ensure all countries have access to a fair share.
But the quotas introduced in Iceland, Canada, and Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s have also had the effect of concentrating ownership of the fishing industry in relatively few hands. In South Australia, for example, the number of licensed bluefin tuna fishers went from several hundred to fewer than 30.
Meanwhile, the downturn in inshore fishing because of overfishing, and the need to cover the costs of increasingly sophisticated technology to track fish, has led to ever-larger boats that can work farther from shore.
Simply put, this means you can no longer go down to the dock and “look the fisherman in the eye” as the US writer Michael Pollan has urged us to do for land-based farming. Long fishing trips means that fish have to be caught in vast numbers, flash-frozen while still at sea, then landed and immediately transferred to huge logistical operations covering hundreds or thousands of kilometres.
There are other reasons why Australia, despite having the world’s third-largest Exclusive Economic Zone, consumes so much imported fish. Our seas evidently suffer from low productivity and scarce nutrients. But no matter: the government reassures us that high seafood imports are common in wealthy nations.
One answer might be to catch your own, but be careful where you try, especially in urban areas. UNSW Australia’s Emma Johnston has described how Sydney’s stormwater overflows, combined with a history of industrial dumping, have rendered its harbour a toxic slurry – so it’s better not to eat any fish caught under the bridge.
Fish going in all directionsThe flow of fish goes both ways, or rather multiple ways. Australia exports high-value fish and seafood around the world. Our lobsters and abalone are loved in China, while nearly all of South Australia’s bluefin tuna goes to Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market.
The tuna barons in Port Lincoln, SA, a town that used to boast Australia’s highest number of millionaires per capita, have become experts in international currency. Their fish, fattened in pens and inspected by visiting connoisseur Japanese investors, are priced in yen – and the farmers listen carefully to the visitors' advice, knowing that a good product is worth even more yen.
Back in the supermarket, there’s evidence that consumers are willing to spend time thinking about tuna too – at least, if Kate’s collection of dozens of eco-labelled tuna cans is any guide. Unlike the Japanese market, where the quality of the flesh is paramount, the supermarket labels suggest ecological sustainability is the key consideration. But sustainability goes deeper than just the fish itself; we rarely think about how sustainable the can is, nor about how the metal was mined, nor about the transport costs for the fish or packaging.
Does it matter that we eat so much of other nations' fish, while sending our most prized delicacies to foreign buyers? The answers vary: some people worry about reports of illegal fishing practices and pollution in Southeast Asia, where some fish are still caught using cyanide.
Equally chilling are the reports of “sea-slaves” – indentured labourers from Cambodia and Myanmar who are forced to work in the Thai shrimp trade.
On the other hand, would we want to stop our fishers, who by and large work in a highly regulated, sustainable enterprise, from getting top dollar for their produce? It is a tough call, and an even tougher set of complex relations.
What’s certain is that guilt-tripping consumers into buying local doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the ethics of eating the ocean.
Prof Elspeth Probyn receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Kate Johnston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
South Yorkshire tap water restrictions to remain in place
Yorkshire Water confirms it is safe for residents of Thorne and Moorends to use tap water if it is boiled first
Thousands of people in South Yorkshire who have been unable to drink their tap water since Friday afternoon have been told restrictions will stay in place into Monday.
High levels of bacteria were detected in the water supply of 3,600 properties in parts of Thorne, near Doncaster, and the neighbouring village of Moorends on Friday afternoon, and residents were told not to drink or cook with the water.
Continue reading...Gibraltar caves reveal Neanderthals' secrets
How sun, salt and glass could help solve our energy needs
High in the stark Nevada desert, a couple of hundred miles north-west of Las Vegas, is the shimmering circular mirage of Crescent Dunes. Ten thousand silvery glass panes, each measuring 115 square metres, surround a tall central tower, which stands like a twinkling needle in the featureless landscape around it. Resembling a fabulous alien metropolis, Crescent Dunes is in fact a highly sophisticated, mile-and-a-half-wide solar power plant – “the next generation in solar energy”, according to Kevin Smith, one of the project’s founders.
The glass panes, which comprise a combined area of more than a million square metres, are not photovoltaic (PV) panels like those installed on rooftops and in solar farms worldwide. Instead, they are simply vast, multifaceted mirrors, which track the course of the sun like heliotropic plants. This field of mirrors harnesses and concentrates the blazing Nevada sunshine, directing it precisely towards the top of the central tower.
Continue reading...The eco guide to clean beauty
It’s the next big thing in cosmetics, but to be more than a fad it must be sustainable
An umbrella term meaning organic, natural, non-toxic/safe and ethical, “clean beauty” is the next thing in the beauty industry. Sales of clean products seem to be outperforming conventional brands, many of which use unsustainable petro- chemicals. Cleancult.co recently held the UK’s first clean beauty show.
This interest has led to a rush by giant beauty industry players to reformulate to “cleaner” ingredients. If that means phasing out microbeads and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs, which are linked to altered reproductive function and abnormal growth and neural development in children), great. But should these be our only focus?
Continue reading...From solar boom to bill shock: Australians face loss of rooftop payments
About 275,000 people across the country will have their solar energy payments reduced by up to 80% over the next six months
Jonathan Shaw got solar panels installed on the roof of his home in Sydney in 2011 and ever since has been riding something of a gravy train.
He has been getting 60c for every kWh he sells back to the grid. That’s much more than the 25c he pays for each kWh he buys from the grid.
Continue reading...Fears grow over danger of flooding around the UK as inquiry is shelved
Experts warn that time is running out to prevent similar devastation caused by last year’s floods as National Flood Resilience Review is delayed
On Boxing Day last year, Colette Jones was warned by neighbours that flood water was pouring across parkland near her house in Bury, Greater Manchester. The river Irwell had burst its banks as torrential rain swept the area. Within an hour, her house and hundreds of others nearby were inundated. Colette and her husband, Graham, had to struggle through water up to chest height to reach safety.
“It was terrifying,” she recalls. “It was also horrible. The water was mixed with sewage. Our house was ruined.”
Continue reading...'Ayahuasca is changing global environmental consciousness'
Interview with US scientist Dennis McKenna on powerful Amazon hallucinogen, plant intelligence and environmental crises
Ayahuasca, as it has come to be known internationally, is a plant medicine that has been used in the Amazon for centuries for healing and spiritual purposes. Renowned for the often extraordinary visions it induces - not to mention the deep vomiting - it is made from an Amazonian vine known to western science as Banisteriopsis caapi and usually at least one other plant.
Over the last 25 years or so ayahuasca has gone global, with many 1000s of people travelling to Peru and other South American countries to drink it, and expert healers - curanderos, shamans, ayahuasqueros, maestros - travelling abroad to hold ceremonies. Many drink ayahuasca because they’re looking for healing, some are just curious, some mistake it for a recreational “drug.”
May had objections to Hinkley Point, says Cable
Mysterious purple orb discovered by marine scientists in California – video
The marine scientists on the Ocean Exploration Trust’s research vessel, E/V Nautilus, find what is likely to be a variant of sea slug 5,000ft below the sea off Santa Barbara, California in a video published online on 25 July. The researchers have sent a sample of the purple orb to the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology for DNA analysis
- Video courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust. See the full video here
New species of Pacific beaked whale confirmed
Researchers confirm that as yet unnamed whale sighted by Japanese fishermen was previously unknown to science
Scientists have confirmed that a mysterious, unnamed species of beaked whale roams the northern Pacific Ocean. Sightings of the creature, which has a bulbous head and a beak like a porpoise, had been reported by Japanese fishermen, who call them karasu or ravens, but it was previously unknown to science. It has yet to be given a formal scientific name.
“Clearly this species is very rare and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants,” said Phillip Morin, a research molecular biologist at the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). His team revealed the existence of the new species in a paper published in the journal Marine Mammal Science last week.
Continue reading...Foul-smelling corpse flower finally blooms in New York – video
Visitors flock to the New York Botanical Garden on Friday to witness one of the world’s largest and smelliest flowers – Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the corpse flower – bloom. The rare blooming began Thursday afternoon after more than 10 years of growth. The bloom at its peak only lasts about 24 to 36 hours
Continue reading...Scientists fight crab for mysterious purple orb discovered in California deep
- E/V Nautilus team find likely sea slug 5,000ft below sea off Santa Barbara
- Analysis reveals foot and proboscis, making it ‘a gastropod of some kind’
More than 5,000ft below the surface of the ocean, in a canyon off the coast of southern California, the purple, globular creature appeared to glow under the submersible’s lights.
Related: Sea sponge the size of a minivan discovered in ocean depths off Hawaii
Continue reading...South Yorkshire town in tap water alert over high bacteria levels
Thousands of people in Thorne and village of Moorends, near Doncaster, told not to use tap water while utility firm investigates
Thousands of people in a South Yorkshire town have been warned not to use tap water for drinking or cooking after high levels of bacteria were detected.
The former Labour leader Ed Miliband said he was concerned over the situation affecting 3,600 properties in parts of Thorne, near Doncaster, and the neighbouring village of Moorends, which is in his constituency.
Continue reading...Lettuce towers and office block farms - is this the future?
Fruit and veg straight from the field
Hay-on-Wye, Powys Market town enjoys a renaissance of home produce picked the day before with no chilled storage in sight
Joe at the market garden called 100% Hay is always smiley, but this market day morning he’s looking especially chirpy. The sun is shining, customers are queuing, and the full bounty of summer is weighing heavy on his stall.
Laid out beside his year-round staples – potatoes, garlic, onions and chard – are boxes of summer fruit: red and yellow raspberries, deep purple blackcurrants, blush-red strawberries. Out of adjacent boxes spill the season’s first tomatoes and courgettes.
Continue reading...Hinkley Point: EDF's UK boss 'confident' of go ahead
Batteries and software energise renewables
New Yorkers flock to foul flower
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