GENEVA, Nov 9 (IPS) - Given the billions of dollars and euros that the U.S. and EU spend on trade-distorting support measures and the intractable lobby groups demanding these subsidies, these rich states' promises to reduce such amounts will come to nought. It makes no sense for poor African states to allow these goods to flood their markets.This is the view of Babacar Ndao, a farmer from Senegal and a member of the West African Network of Farmers' Organisations and Agricultural Producers, known by its French acronym ROPPA. He was in Geneva recently at the invitation of Our World Is Not For Sale's agriculture working group. Our World Is Not For Sale is a loose grouping of non-governmental organisations, activists and social movements "fighting the current model of corporate globalisation embodied in the global trading system". Like the other invited farmers from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, Ndao is critical of the text presented in December 2008 by Ambassador Crawford Falconer which still constitutes the basis of the Doha Round talks on agriculture. Ndao argues that developed countries will not eliminate export subsidies by 2013, as agreed at the World Trade Organisation's ministerial conference in Hong Kong. Neither will they reduce their trade-distorting domestic support. Instead, they have become skilful in shifting notifications between the so-called amber, blue and green boxes.
November 10, 2009: A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy is being unveiled by NASA on Nov. 10. This event will commemorate the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609. In celebration of this International Year of Astronomy,
Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one -- an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.
The annual meeting of the body charged with conserving Atlantic tuna opens on Monday to warnings that this is its "last chance" to manage things well.The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) is criticised for setting high quotas and not tackling illegal fishing. Stocks of bluefin tuna are at about 15% of pre-industrial fishing levels. US Commissioner Rebecca Lent said her country and others feel this is Iccat's last chance to put things right. "We think Iccat is the body that should be managing bluefin tuna, and this is its chance to prove it can do so effectively," she told BBC News from the meeting in Recife, Brazil.
The annual meeting of the body charged with conserving Atlantic tuna opens on Monday to warnings that this is its "last chance" to manage things well.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) is criticised for setting high quotas and not tackling illegal fishing.
Stocks of bluefin tuna are at about 15% of pre-industrial fishing levels.
US Commissioner Rebecca Lent said her country and others feel this is Iccat's last chance to put things right.
"We think Iccat is the body that should be managing bluefin tuna, and this is its chance to prove it can do so effectively," she told BBC News from the meeting in Recife, Brazil.
A problem-plagued Japanese mission to an asteroid just may have received its final blow. The Haybusa mission to asteroid Itokawa in 2005 is currently trying to return to Earth, but now has suffered a breakdown in the third out of four ion thrusters. The cause was a voltage spike due to problems with a neutralization vessel, which previously caused the failure of two other thrusters. The fourth and only remaining thruster was shutdown earlier by engineers after signs that it also might succumb to high voltage damage.
A problem-plagued Japanese mission to an asteroid just may have received its final blow. The Haybusa mission to asteroid Itokawa in 2005 is currently trying to return to Earth, but now has suffered a breakdown in the third out of four ion thrusters.
The cause was a voltage spike due to problems with a neutralization vessel, which previously caused the failure of two other thrusters. The fourth and only remaining thruster was shutdown earlier by engineers after signs that it also might succumb to high voltage damage.
Monsanto Facing `Distrust' as It Seeks to Stop DuPont (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
The new soybeans, known as Roundup Ready 2 Yield, boosted yields 7.3 percent, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in a presentation. That's at the low end of the company's prior forecasts for a 7 percent to 11 percent gain. The new soybeans were planted on 1.5 million acres in their first year on the market and will be on as many as 10 million acres in 2010, a 2 million acre increase from previous plans, Monsanto said. They cost growers $74 an acre, 42 percent more than the earlier product. Farmers' Expectations About 20 farm managers and seed distributors in five states said in a report released Oct. 27 that yields from the new soybean seeds didn't meet their expectations, said Jon Gates, research director at OTR Global, the research firm that conducted the study.
The new soybeans, known as Roundup Ready 2 Yield, boosted yields 7.3 percent, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in a presentation. That's at the low end of the company's prior forecasts for a 7 percent to 11 percent gain.
The new soybeans were planted on 1.5 million acres in their first year on the market and will be on as many as 10 million acres in 2010, a 2 million acre increase from previous plans, Monsanto said. They cost growers $74 an acre, 42 percent more than the earlier product.
Farmers' Expectations
About 20 farm managers and seed distributors in five states said in a report released Oct. 27 that yields from the new soybean seeds didn't meet their expectations, said Jon Gates, research director at OTR Global, the research firm that conducted the study.
GM soy suffers from "yield drag", ie it is less productive than non-GM varieties. This attempt at fixing that appears to be a resounding failure.
And note the price increase compared to real yield increase. All this is so you can use Monsanto's patent weedkiller Round-Up.
All this is so you can use Monsanto's patent weedkiller Round-Up
Or so that you do not get your farm stolen in court...
Right Livelihood Award: 2007 - Percy & Louise Schmeiser
Monsanto vs. SchmeiserIn 1998 Percy Schmeiser and his wife received a letter from the US agribusiness giant Monsanto claiming that they had used Monsanto seeds without a license in planting their 1997 crop. However, the Schmeisers had never bought Monsanto seed nor intended to have it on their land. It turned out that some Monsanto 'Round-up Ready' genetically modified canola (rape) seeds had blown over from the Schmeisers' neighbour or from passing trucks. Thus, genes that Monsanto claimed to "own" under Canadian patent law had ended up in the Schmeisers' seeds. Monsanto threatened to sue the Schmeisers for 'infringement of patent', seeking damages totalling $400,000 (CAD), including about $250,000 in legal fees, $105,000 in estimated profits from the Schmeisers' 1998 crop, $13,500 ($15 an acre) for technology usage fees and $25,000 in punitive damages. At the same time, Monsanto offered to withdraw the legal challenge if the Schmeisers signed a contract to buy their seeds from Monsanto in the future and to pay the technology use fee.
The IPR strategies of gm-companies looks very similar to those of record companies: "Nice life you are living there, now pay us or get sued for more then you can ever afford."
Of course, there are also similarities to older organizations but those generally threatened to break your bones instead. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
Keep It In The Family, GordonWhat makes this decision politically sensitive, is that Gordon Brown has close family connections to the nuclear industry. His younger brother Andrew Brown works for EDF Energy, the UK subsidiary of EDF, which operates nuclear power stations in France, and which is one of the leading companies pushing for a nuclear rebuild programme in the UK. Andrew Brown was appointed as EDF Energy's Head of Press on 13 September 2004.http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Gordon_Brown
Keep It In The Family, Gordon
What makes this decision politically sensitive, is that Gordon Brown has close family connections to the nuclear industry. His younger brother Andrew Brown works for EDF Energy, the UK subsidiary of EDF, which operates nuclear power stations in France, and which is one of the leading companies pushing for a nuclear rebuild programme in the UK. Andrew Brown was appointed as EDF Energy's Head of Press on 13 September 2004.
http://www.nuclearspin.org/index.php/Gordon_Brown
If you think the Labour government has done the right thing in its decision to expand nuclear power in the UK by 50%, see how you fare with this quiz. Are the following dozen statements true or false?
The UK experience is different in that we've been badly lied to about the nuclear power programme. Very serious accidents have been covered up and denied, large tracts of land and the people living there were irradiated and not told, the Irish Sea north of Windscale Seascale Sellafield was deliberately contaminated as part of a long term experiment into the effects of low level radiation (why keep changing the name unless for pr cleansing).
And all the time they were telling us that nuclear energy was our future, was too cheap to meter, even as costs sky-rocketed and they still don't know what to do with the waste. So, given our expeiences of the deceit and duplicity of government when it comes to nuclear power, that list is both persuasive and politically powerful.
I fully accept it doesn't have to be the way it has been here in the UK, that the french experience is somewhat different. So I accept you find the list unpersuasive. The British will see it differently. keep to the Fen Causeway
A bright nuclear future: true or false? | Jeremy Leggett | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
5) This July, a heatwave shut a third of French reactors, because rivers became too hot to act as coolant. France was forced to import electricity from the UK.6) Things got little better as winter approached. With almost one third of France's reactors out of service for maintenance and other reasons, France will have to import electricity at peak hours during the winter - for the second year running - to avoid the risk of blackouts.
5) This July, a heatwave shut a third of French reactors, because rivers became too hot to act as coolant. France was forced to import electricity from the UK.
6) Things got little better as winter approached. With almost one third of France's reactors out of service for maintenance and other reasons, France will have to import electricity at peak hours during the winter - for the second year running - to avoid the risk of blackouts.
At least if you ignore evironmental and security of supply issues, if you include them the the too high nuclear fraction becomes more reasonable. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
For a measure of solace in the city, Hugo Garcia climbs to the top of a hill crowned with walnut groves that El Sereno residents know simply as the Heavens. "The Heavens are as good as it gets" northeast of downtown Los Angeles, said Garcia, 52, a leader of a struggle to stave off development on what remains the largest open space left in the working-class Latino community. "The Westside has the Pacific Ocean. We've got this hill, a place of nature and solitude -- and we'd like to keep it that way." El Sereno residents were elated when the Los Angeles City Council voted a week ago to settle a lawsuit over a contested luxury subdivision planned for the hill, agreeing to buy the property for $9 million with a goal of transforming it into a nature preserve in a community with one of the lowest parkland-to-people ratios the city. The developers of the property, Monterey Hills Investors, had sued the city after the council demanded more environmental review of the project planned for the site.
El Sereno residents were elated when the Los Angeles City Council voted a week ago to settle a lawsuit over a contested luxury subdivision planned for the hill, agreeing to buy the property for $9 million with a goal of transforming it into a nature preserve in a community with one of the lowest parkland-to-people ratios the city.
The developers of the property, Monterey Hills Investors, had sued the city after the council demanded more environmental review of the project planned for the site.
