Human Consumption

Many Factors Pushing Food Crisis

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

The new hunger has triggered riots from Haiti to Egypt to Ethiopia, threatening political stability; it has conjured up a raft of protectionist policies, threatening globalization. And yet the response to this crisis from governments the world over has been lackadaisical or worse.

Start with the lunatic story of rice stockpiles in Japan. A new paper from the Center for Global Development describes how Japan’s government imports rice in order to comply with its global trade commitments but withholds most of that rice from consumers lest they decide they prefer it to the local sort. Japanese traditionalists view the consumption of sticky, short-grained rice as a patriotic duty. So rather than letting Mrs. Watanabe corrupt her children’s dietary habits, Japan stores much of its imported rice until it has become unfit for human consumption, whereupon it is sold to feed livestock.

From the perspective of Japan, stockpiling rice is a costly exercise in chauvinism, but Japan can afford that. From the world’s perspective, the stockpiling is more serious. More than 3 billion people depend on rice as their daily staple, and half of them are very poor. Japan could save many of them from hunger if it released its stocks.

The scandal is not just Japanese, however. In order for Japan to sell its rice outside its borders, it needs permission from the countries that supplied it — the United States, Thailand and Vietnam. A bit of U.S. leadership could deliver that permission easily, but the Bush administration is apparently worried about a backlash from American rice growers who see no downside in high prices, thank you very much. Not for the first time in Washington do the fat welfare queens of the farm lobby trample on the poorest people in the world.

Speaking of welfare queens, Congress passed a farm bill last week with thunderous bipartisan support. The bill includes reasonable subsidies for low-income Americans hit by high food prices, but it also sprays money at farmers who already earn more than the average taxpayer and contains shockingly little for the world’s poor. Congress is considering a separate bill that would boost international food aid more substantially. But that measure has been met with shameful indifference by lawmakers and consequently has stalled.

Congress won’t even act on a common-sense proposal from the Bush administration that food aid be reformed. If the United States bought some of the food that it donates from other countries, it could get aid to the needy faster and more cheaply. But that would upset American farmers and shipping interests, as a new Council on Foreign Relations paper emphasizes. The president’s proposal has few takers on the Hill.

The Europeans, for their part, have their own way of entrenching hunger. Just as Japan is wedded to its rice culture, Europe is irrationally hostile to genetically modified food. Study after study has found no danger in seeds that have been manipulated to grow better, withstand insects or survive in arid soil. But the Europeans still feel squeamish, and their hang-up deters Africans from taking advantage of crop science lest their exports be barred from European markets. Again, a peccadillo that to Europeans is affordable starves people in the poor world.

Finally, poor countries themselves have made things worse. Panicked at the prospect of food riots, countries with crop surpluses have forbidden exports in an attempt to bottle up supply and keep prices down. More than 40 countries have imposed some kind of export restraint, with the result that countries suffering food deficits have seen prices hit the roof. This nationalized hoarding is frustrating international relief efforts. The World Food Program has sought to buy food from countries with surpluses, such as Pakistan, to ship to desperate neighbors such as Afghanistan. But Pakistan drags its feet about selling.

Tags: american rice, backlash, bipartisan support, bush administration, chauvinism, costly exercise, dietary habits, europe, farm bill, Food, food crisis, food price, food prices, food riots, ford, global trade, grained rice, hoarding, human consumption, international food aid, patriotic duty, political stability, protectionist policies, rbi, rice growers, stockpiles, traditionalists, ups, watanabe, welfare queens

Three treated for suspected toxic honey poisoning

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

A 38-year-old woman and her three-year-old son have been discharged from the hospital.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority and Waikato District Health Board today advised all consumers who bought comb honey from the Coromandel area in recent days not to eat the honey.
On Thursday the three all ate comb honey bought from the Coromandel area and hours later they started vomiting. The 32-year-old man was the first treated in Thames Hospital%26#39;s emergency department.
He and the three-year-old both had seizures, Waikato District Health Board spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said.
%26quot;The honey may have had high levels of tutin toxin which if consumed can result in symptoms include vomiting, delirium, giddiness, increased excitability, stupor, coma and violent convulsions,%26quot; she said.
A number of people have been killed, incapacitated and hospitalised over the years from eating toxic honey. The last recorded case from commercial honey was in 1974 involving 13 patients. There have been nine cases since 1974 with the last known poisoning occurring in 1991 in the Eastern Bay of Plenty area.
Two poisonings have been caused by comb honey produced by hobby beekeepers in the Marlborough Sounds in 1982 and 1983 and the highest levels of tutin ever measured in honey were produced in this area.
Symptoms usually develop within three hours of consumption. These honey toxins can be lethal, or make a person very sick. As little as one teaspoon (approximately 10ml) of toxic honey can have a severe effect on the human nervous system.
Any consumers who develop symptoms should contact a doctor immediately and notify them of any consumption of honey within the preceding hours, Ms Gill said.
Beekeepers offering honey for sale are required to complete a declaration relating to the time their hives were producing honey or bee products, for an area up to 3km from their hives.
Consumers who are unsure as to the safety of their honey should contact the producer to confirm that the honey is safe, check with their supplier to ensure the declaration requirements are met or alternatively discard the product.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority has reminds apiarists that the Coromandel, Eastern Bay or Plenty and Marlborough Sounds are areas where the conditions favour the production of toxic honey under certain conditions.
These include concentrations of numerous tutu bushes, high numbers of vine hoppers, hot dry weather to allow the honeydew to build up on the tutu (rain can wash it off), and an absence of more attractive food sources for bees, usually caused by drought.
Conditions this year are particularly suitable for toxin production.
Beekeepers are required to manage the risk of their honey containing tutin by either removing hives and supers containing honey for human consumption before the risk period, or by closely monitoring the tutu, vine hopper and foraging conditions in the areas within a 3km radius around the apiary while honey is being produced.

Tags: Food, human consumption, s hospital, spokeswoman, zeal

Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

MANY years ago, as branch manager of a large Australian bank,
part of my job was to vet home loan applications.
Such were the principles and strictly enforced guidelines of the
then “big four” banks, and the Reserve Bank’s oversight of their
lending activities, that a home loan application was not a fait
accompli. Issues such as ability to repay, equity in the proposed
purchase, career prospects and the quality and value of the
property were taken into account.
The system worked well for the banks and their customers, with
defaults on home loans almost unheard of and mortgages usually
repaid within 20 years.
So, bearing in mind the American fiasco, it was with some
professional interest that, under the guise of a 22-year-old wage
earner of indeterminate occupation, I embarked upon what I expected
to be mission impossible: scoring a home loan mortgage without
having the readies to pay a deposit, needing to borrow separately
to scrape up enough to pay stamp duty, legals and mortgage
insurance, and willing to contribute 35 per cent or more of my net
weekly wage to cover the repayments.
To sweeten the deal, I mentioned that my parents, pensioners,
owned their home, had some cash reserves and no borrowings, and
were happy to assist me by offering their guarantee, or putting
their own home up as additional security.
I contacted all the major banking institutions, and several
large regional building societies. All fell over themselves to sign
me up.
Most banks were prepared to lend 100 per cent of the purchase
price. Building societies were a little more constrained, offering
up to 97 per cent. My mention of the probability of Reserve Bank
interest increases, property value downturns, loss or reduction of
income, recession and illness, were all dismissed.
When I suggested that by borrowing 97 per cent of the price (let
alone 100 per cent), at first interest charge the loan amount would
exceed the value of the house, I was told that that was just
“arithmetic”.
Because of the degraded security quality of many Australian
lending institutions’ home loan portfolios, the situation in our
own “prime” home loan markets is remarkably consistent with the US
subprime loan market.
It’s time the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority took a
closer and more public look at our lending institutions, in
particular those smaller regional societies that cannot hedge their
home loan risks by offsetting them against other loan portfolios or
business units.
John Smeaton Newcastle
Fine Australians, and yet, many others go unsung
I agree with Lee Kernaghan (”All hail the country-singing angel
and the speed demon”, January 26-27). There is a list at least a
mile long of more deserving recipients of the title of Australian
of the Year.
Michael Throssell Narrabeen
It seems quite absurd that someone who sings an American style
of music and does his damndest to look like a Texan should somehow
be appointed Australian of the Year.
John White Dubbo
Why do we continue to give recognition to Australians of the
Year who already have it in abundance? Those who deserve it work
tirelessly with anonymity in areas of health, community, science,
research and military. Our history is littered with unsung heroes.
Do not hand me up high-profile entertainers and sports people and
tell me they are truly “Australian of the Year”.
Peter Barrow St Ives
If the middle-of-the road country singer Lee Kernaghan is
Australian of the Year, heaven help us if the Australian public
ever gets to vote for a head of state.
Peter Neufeld Mosman
If it is only that “[Casey] Stoner began racing motorbikes when
he was four years old, and last year won his first MotoGP world
title at the Japanese Grand Prix” that can be mentioned for his
receiving the Young Australian of the Year Award, I’m sorry but
that doesn’t cut it with me.
I don’t mean to belittle his achievements - there is no doubt
that what he has achieved at his age is extraordinary - but I don’t
see it as reason for such an award.
Let’s start putting things back into perspective for such
recognition - let’s make it about real contribution to the
community.
David Hevey Melbourne
Isn’t it just great that the Australian of the Year committee is
performing with the shallowness we have come to expect of it? This
year the members have excelled themselves with a country singer
most people have hardly heard of. If they were so desperate to find
somebody from the entertainment industry again, they might have
considered the best actor that this country has, Cate
Blanchett.
Robert Dunn Kewdale (WA)
I enjoyed (and slightly despaired at) the irony of the ABC’s 7pm
news report (January 25) on the four Australians of the Year. Not
one of them a woman, and the story was preceded by a report on how
women in Australia are still failing to break through the glass
ceiling.
Bronwyn Graham Gordon
Leave our hunted national symbol off the menu

As much as I usually admire James Woodford’s erudite environmental
deliberations, I believe he is tragically wrong in claiming that
eating kangaroo is somehow patriotic (”Worth two in the bush”,
January 26-27). On the contrary, our beautiful and beleaguered
national symbol has been exterminated, eradicated, persecuted,
culled, hunted and devoured for far too long.
While our nation rightly condemns Japan for killing whales,
millions of kangaroos are butchered every year, their joeys clubbed
to death and young at foot left to perish alone.
A growing commercial industry exists to carry out what is now
the largest slaughter of wildlife on earth. Only 10 per cent of a
kangaroo carcass is fit for human consumption, meaning that the
biggest specimens are targeted first and the gene pool is becoming
severely depleted. In fact, the average age of a red kangaroo is
now a pitiful two years, with an annual quota of over 20 per cent
of its estimated population.
If you proudly tucked into barbecued kangaroo on the nation’s
birthday, please spare a thought for these creatures whose
increasing presence on our menus is far from being either clean or
green. Almost half of Australia’s marsupials are extinct,
endangered or vulnerable, our land continues to be cleared and
degraded and kangaroos are effectively being mined for
unsustainable profit.
A more appropriate patriotic gesture might be for James to start
consuming some of the un-Australian feral pest species that cause
so much damage.
Malcolm Fisher Manly Vale
Lonely literary gong

David Marr (” %26#133; but one measly gong for an artist”, January
26-27) missed one lonely award for literature in Saturday’s honours
list. Marcel Weyland of Mosman was honoured with a medal “for
service to the Polish community in Australia and internationally
through the preservation and promotion of Polish cultural heritage,
particularly literature”.
A quick Google revealed Mr Weyland to be the internationally
acclaimed translator of that wonderful Polish epic poem Pan
Tadeusz, described by many as Poland’s most-read book.
Mr Weyland’s well-deserved recognition was a bright spot in an
otherwise bleak list for Australia’s creative community.
Agnes Mack Chatswood
Aged deserve better

As a senior citizen, I was concerned to read the federal Health
Minister, Nicola Roxon, stating benchmarks for the state health
systems if they are not to be taken over by the Commonwealth.
Certainly, she referred generally to reductions in preventable
admissions, but then went on to specify “cuts in hospital visits
for aged patients and others who can be cared for elsewhere”. If
you have any experience in hospital admission practice you know
that an admission does not occur unless the medical indications
justify it and it is nonsense to suggest otherwise.

To single out older members of the population for special
exclusion is nothing short of alarming. There is a problem with
patients, usually in the higher age group, who have been treated
medically and are ready for care in a nursing home or
rehabilitation centre - but a shortage of nursing home beds, in
particular, prevents this occurring. I certainly hope this is the
specific situation to which Ms Roxon endeavoured to refer,
otherwise she is getting off on the wrong foot.
Our hospitals and other infrastructure have been largely built
by the taxes and effort of older Australians and they do not
deserve to be put on the scrap heap.
Brian McGee Balgowlah
Enough of working families

Among the irritating catchphrases not listed in David Humphries’s
“Platitudes with attitude” (January 26-27) is the one from our
Prime Minister repeated ad nauseam by his ministers: “Australian
working families”.

Besides sounding trite, it is trite: it implies that if you are
not a member of a working family you can expect scant attention
from the Rudd Government.
And if you not Australian, either, I assume you have only heaven
to help you.
Michael Creswell Campsie
In danger of derision

On a weekend when I’m more proud to be Australian than any other
time in the year, I’m a little embarrassed.

I am living in Canada, where, on one of the most popular
breakfast shows on a national news network, they have read out on
more than one occasion the Australian Federal Government’s warning
about travelling to Canada. The show asked people in the streets
what they thought of the warning.
It is ridiculous. Canada is no less safe than Australia.
I don’t see any such warning from any other governments about
travel to Australia and it is the brunt of many jokes today on
Canadian television.
Aaron Harrison Toronto (Canada)
Falling ice, ravenous grizzly bears and seismic events have
nothing on the danger an Australian faces when not forking out a 15
per cent tip to a Canadian waitress. Beware!
Simon Parker Toronto (Canada)
Stallone’s monstrous delusion

Sylvester Stallone is deluding himself that injecting human growth
hormone for vanity’s sake is safe (”Stallone backs use of
hormones”, www.smh.com.au, January 27). It is quite apparent from
the accompanying photo that Stallone is giving himself acromegaly
(also known as giantism). The bony structure of his face has become
quite enlarged and deformed compared to older photos of him.
Acromegaly is caused by hypersecretion of human growth hormone. If
left untreated, it can lead to a number of other serious illnesses
such as heart disease and diabetes.

Maureen Chuck Cabarita
Commonwealth advantages

In response to Jude Quinn’s query (Letters, January 26) about what
we gain from membership of the Commonwealth, I would say quite a
lot, really. A prime example is that any subject of the Queen may
be employed in the British civil service. This has allowed
Australians to rise to quite high positions, including principal
private secretary to the Queen. Her Majesty’s Australian subjects
may also contend elections for the House of Commons and several
Australians are members of the House of Lords.

As for living in each other’s countries, Australians and Britons
enjoy equal rights regarding visas, etc.
Rob Turnbull Hunters Hill
Manly beats Bondi

I am disgusted that Bondi, with its grey concrete surrounds and
soulless Campbell Parade, was preferred over Manly for heritage
protection (”Extra layer of protection for a beach that’s under our
skin”, January 26-27). Manly has magnificent ocean beaches and
beaches facing the harbour, a unique combination in Sydney. With
country people on holiday and the ferries bringing daytrippers, it
has a happy holiday atmosphere that I have enjoyed for all my 70
years. The least the national heritage people can do is list Manly
too.
Andrew Macintosh Queenscliff
Something fishy about pet love
Ross Maiorana says he is attached to his pet goldfish (”Pet
project proves pair’s animal instinct is spot on”, smh.com.au,
January 27).
Clearly “attachment” is different from “love”. Fish have been
found to be intelligent - even altruistic - creatures that swim
huge distances in the wild.
To confine them to life imprisonment in a small bowl is
cruelty.
Jenny Moxham Monbulk (Vic)
Orbs spin a winner
The Golden Globes were a non-event, but the golden orbs are having
a huge year. I can’t walk outside these days without stumbling into
one of their masterpieces. Year of the rat? I think not - more like
year of the spider. Hang eight everyone.

Michael Deeth Como West
No rogue to ruin
The Societe Generale loses at least $8.2 billion, yet “France’s
second largest bank was able to absorb the loss and still turn in a
profit” (”$8.2b ‘genius of fraud’ vanishes”, January 26). I think I
must understand even less about the banking business than I
thought.

Antoinette Hirst Double Bay
If France’s rogue trader had gambled with the bank’s money and
won, would it still be fraud?
Anastasia Delaporta Dulwich Hill
Fruit for thought
And now for the bleeding obvious again. Sign in Woolworths
supermarket, fruit section, on the pineapple stand: “This fruit is
best eaten when peeled and sliced”. Who would want the rough end of
the pineapple anyway?

Don Davies Redlynch (Qld)
End to the chase?
Have I missed something or has the Chaser APEC prosecution quietly
gone away for fear of embarrassing the authorities?
Stephen Fox Arncliffe
A grand screamer
Congratulations to the young Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova
on her win in the Australian Open final over that nice young Serb
Ana Ivanovic. However, it just goes to show that a good loud scream
will generally beat a little squeak.
John Munro Toowoomba (Qld)
Joe Public is asked to remain silent at tennis matches while the
players grunt, groan and squeal. Why?
John Tuckfield Abbotsford
Printer problems
A friend recently tried to buy new ink cartridges for a
three-year-old colour printer. The cost was $96 for three colours
and double-size black.

A new printer, same brand, late model costs $59, including
three-quarters as much ink. He needs new ink three times a year and
so it is cheaper to buy a new printer each time and throw the old
one away. Something is wrong here.
Allan Thomas Lochinvar
Name of the game
According to the BBC news on Saturday, their representative on a
Greenpeace vessel chasing the Japanese whalers is Jonah Fisher.

Margaret Chaldecott Lindfield

Tags: attitude, australians, cate, ford, google, hats, hero, house of lords, human consumption, job, rbi, sake, target

Simple test shows lessons of US credit crisis yet to sink home

Friday, February 1st, 2008