Captain Birdseye: Make piracy history

I just sent this letter to UniLever because of its lack of committment to eradicating and handling the problem with pirate fishing of Baltic cod.

This illegal fishing is overfishing!

Attention: Dierk Peters, Kees van der Graaf, Patrick Cescau

"Reports published earlier this year show that more than 25% of cod from the Barents sea has been caught illegally. Just last week Greenpeace revealed the shocking news that about 30% of cod caught in the Baltic sea are also illegally caught above quota. Additionally, ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) the EU Commission's scientific advisory body, is calling for zero catch quotas in the Baltic.

At the end of September the European Fish Processor's Association meets in a summit on pirate fisheries, in order to bring this disastrous situation under control. All major companies present at the meeting have made commitments publicly on steps they are taking to ensure their products are free of illegal cod.

This is not the case for Iglo and Birds Eye. There has been no public commitment by your company on steps taken against pirate fish in your products. Your company makes enough fishsticks every year to stretch around the equator - that's a lot of fishsticks! Currently your suppliers source cod from both the Barents and Baltic, and as a result you cannot guarantee that the fish in the products we eat is not caught illegally.

I realise you are in the process of selling your Birds Eye and Iglo brands in Europe to Permira, an investment company. Before the sale is finalised you should publicly commit to making sure they are buying a clean product, and ensure that the rest of your frozen food brands are free of illegal cod too.

This is why I am urgently asking you to publicly commit to the following minimum steps against illegal cod before this summit:

To buy no cod from:
- vessels listed as pirate vessels (by Norway or NEAFC)
- vessels under flags of convenience
- ports that do not report landings to Norway as well as Russia
- the Baltic due to high illegality and complete over fishing of the stock

There is an imminent threat that the summit will be a failure, at the cost of the last Atlantic cod stocks, if Unilever does not clearly signal its preparedness to fully and seriously engage in this issue beforehand."

You can do the same at:
http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/ocean-defenders/take-action/stop-stolen-baltic-cod

Ye Ol Farming Clubbe

In 2005 EU spent 100.1 billion euros (ie 100 100 000 000 euros!).
In the EU there are ca 462 000 000 inhabitants.
Or the EU spends (your tax money!) 2150€ per person and year!
Ca half of that or 1000€/capita goes to farming aids via the infamous CAP - Common Agricultural Policy.

So what is better: 1000€ out of the pocket per person before one fills up the first food basket or that extra 1000€ from January first?

For a normal family that is 4000€ extra to spend on food. Now, the food prices will go up, but then at least we consumer directly can see and decide where to put the money on food. And probably more importantly we will avoid export subsidies that will destroy the markets in developing countries. Also, we will avoid the export subsidy on tobacco (sic!).

Perhaps, a small portion of CAP could remain, but then only to help and develop better sustainable farming methods!

In town without my car

Today September 22 is the Car Free Day or as it is called in the European Union In town without my car.

I can honestly and proudly say that I went for a walk to work today!

How about you?

Demand better energy efficiency in the EU

I just got this from the good people of Friends of the Earth Europe.

"The European Commission is holding a public consultation on its Green Paper on Energy. The paper does not place enough emphasis on the predominant role that Energy Efficiency and Renewables must play in a future EU Energy Strategy, if it is to contribute to the fight against climate change.

Therefore we need YOU to make your voice heard through the Commission's online questionnaire.

Participation is very easy and involves just a few simple steps.
Friends of the Earth Europe has prepared a statement which clearly defines the important principles that a sustainable Energy Strategy must include.

We would like as many people as possible to submit this statement.

Have your say on the EU's future Energy Strategy and get Energy Efficiency and Renewables firmly on the agenda.

The deadline is 24th September so please act quickly!

Go to http://www.foeeurope.org/climate/deal/consultation.htm today."

You know what to do!

For some odd reasone FOE does not want you to fill in the questionnaire on the green paper website?! Especially the two sections D and E are definitively pertinent to this issue of renewable energy and energy efficiency!!!
Any I did answer the questions (or at least most of them) usually with OTHER and something about renewable energy and energy efficiency, and redundancy in the power supply systems.

Also the link in the botton of the ready made comment needs to be copied (right click - copy link address) and pasted.

Synthetic photosynthesis look-a-like?

I just read that a Italian research group is developing a means of converging CO2 to linear carbohydrates via photoelectrocatalysis. Ie put light on container with CO2 and an appropriate catalysis surfaces (and some other tricks along the way) and out pops petrol or diesel.

A way of diminishing the problems with fossil fuels?
But also perhaps of taking the fossil fuels out of the equation entirely?

Their critics say that at the moment the effiency is very low and would cost a bundle to implement as it is ...

I found the info on Solar alchemy on 2006-09-15.

In true Italian spirit there is absolutely nothing about this on the Messina University website (not even info on the researcher Gabriele Centi).

Every click counts

I recently switched from google to Everyclick.com.

Everyclick.com is a search engine that gives 50% of its revenue to charity. It enables you to raise money for your selected charity every time you search or shop online.

My charity of choice is War on want

Are you eating illegal rice?

I guess you also have noted the breaking news on rice illegal for human consumption has been sold in various counties throughout the European Union.

Why is this happening?
Why are the makers of GMO rice not more careful?
It is certainly will only give them a bad name!
In this case it is Bayer that has developed the illegal rice.

See more on:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/IllegalChinaGErice
http://www.euractiv.com/en/food/eu-strives-find-gmo-needle-rice-haystack/article-157769

The constant gardener IRL

News that makes it look like novel "The Constant Gardener" has come true ...

I quote from ISIS Press Release 01/09/06

"
FDA in Third World Drug Trial Scandals
*******************************

Experimental tests are conducted in developing countries on
sick and vulnerable children under the guise of free and
ethical treatments sanctioned by the FDA and complicit
medical institutions. Sam Burcher and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

Unapproved GM rice serum tested on sick infants

Two children suffered serious allergic reactions after being
used as guinea pigs by the California-based company Ventria
Bioscience in Lima, Peru [1]. The children were part of a
clinical trial of a genetically modified (GM) rice serum
containing two synthetic human proteins lactoferrin and
lysozyme (normally found in human milk and other bodily
fluids), not yet approved for testing in the US or anywhere
else in the world.

Read the rest of this article here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FDAinDrugTrial.php"

Scary, is it not!