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As an idea Carbon Capture and Storage looks like a great idea. After all no matter what people think about climate change, stopping the pollution from power generation has to be a good thing. The problem is that the only system that can be effectively used on existing plants means that the exhaust gasses have to be passed through solvents. Therefore there are different types of pollution created. Additionally, while this system is the most effective, it is also the most expensive.
This method of carbon capture does work on a laboratory scale, and even on small (micro) power generation plants, when scaled up to the size of power generation that really exists it fails to capture the volume of CO2 that would be needed to really reduce the carbon dioxide going into the environment. However just as sulphur scrubbers were eventually retrofitted to power generation, it is likely that eventually this will be made to work.
However the other aspect of this system is the storage. Going back to basic school room science, Carbon dioxide is a compound that has no liquid state it goes from a gas to a solid. Except when a catalyst is added or the gas is placed under pressure. Therefore the technical difficulties are quite large right from the start.
Yet in America, the Oil industry has been using CO2, captured from power plants, to help extract the last vestiges of oil from wells for years, therefore the science is not completely new and there are aspects that are tried and tested, relatively speaking. As the oil industry never developed this technology to alleviate carbon pollution but to extract every last cent of oil out of the ground.
This is where the real problem with carbon storage lays. When an oil well is drilled, the oil baring rocks, shale's normally, are saturated in the hydrocarbons and when extracted there is not some vast cavern left as the oil was in the pours of the rocks. Therefore sequestrating the carbon dioxide means pumping it in as a liquid under pressure. But just as when a CO2 extinguisher is used and the expansion of the gas cools it, the same principal applies. Therefore the act of pumping the liquefied CO2 into the rocks causes it to freeze and form dry ice. While this would slowly thaw and release the CO2 into the rocks, behind that ball of ice is more liquefied carbon dioxide at fifteen atmospheres.
That freezing and warming of the rocks will fracture and weaken the rocks, making leaks of the Carbon Dioxide more likely. This then raises another doubt regarding this as yet not fully developed technology. That of ensuring the greenhouse gases stay where they have been put.
Even if the carbon capture technology can be made to work, and it is likely it will, the storage sites will need to be monitored for thousands of years. Who pays? Who will do the monitoring? Even if we leave it up to the energy companies eventually it will be tax payers and governments who will have to do the work.
I can see a situation arising when a government wants to cut budgets and the funding for the monitoring gets cut. Just using the North Sea oil fields as an example, a bad winter storm could damage the technology and billions of tons of CO2 could be released in days.
The problem is that there is to much hope being placed upon technologies that have not been invented and systems that have not been created to solve climate change. I am not saying that Carbon capture and Storage will not work, but nor should we allow ourselves to be fooled that this is some easy solution. There is a risk that politicians and vested interests delude us that this is the solution.
A couple of weeks ago, I received a podcast from green.tv via itunes, regarding the cleanliness of Britain's beaches. For my readers (well tow humans and a cat) who don't know, green.tv is the UNEP channel and most of the material comes from independent sources but it all relates one way or another to the environment. This film was from the (British) Environment Agency and was the agency patting its self on the back regarding the cleanliness of the bathing beaches.
While interesting, had it not been for the fact that two days prior the BBC had transmitted a programme that was exposing that our beaches are far from a clean as our government claims. Was this propaganda, from the British government, who would have thought that!
I have had serious doubts about the cleanliness of the beaches for a number of years. As my regular reader, well only reader, will know, I used to live in North Shields. In the nearby former fishing village, now swallowed up by urbanisation, is the Dove Marine Laboratory, part of Newcastle University. While there one day I encountered two women who were sampling the water. As I helped stop a sampling bottle get blown away in the wind, I fell into conversation.
As I was told latter, had I not been asking some interesting questions, they would not have engaged in conversation. I had asked about the run off from farms and not just assumed they were testing for human sewage. It was from this conversation that I leant that the testing methods that the Department for the Environment (now the Environment Agency) used were nearly thirty years old and seemed to be taken (deliberately?) from locations, and at times, when they would give (them) the best results.
While the association with these students helped enlighten me to a point at the time, as I was not actively posting on these topics at the time I now regret that I lost touch with them, as they could have helped answer some of the questions I had regarding the BBC programme.
While the beaches in Britain have been cleaned up, back in the 1980s they really were foul. I remember regularly seeing human effluent on various beaches as the sewage treatment system back then relied predominantly on pumping it out to sea. The same system that the Victorians used.
Then because of European legislation regarding the quality of drinking water and regulations regarding discharges into the sea, the water companies were forced to clean up the water and sewage system. This lead to substantial rises in the price of water. It should also be noted that in the 1980s the then state owned water and sewage system was sold off to private companies and as part of the incentive to these private companies, they were allowed substantial above inflation price increases so that they could raise the funds to spend the billions needed to upgrade the sewage systems.
This all seamed to have been done and the visible pollution was greatly reduced. The beaches were visibly cleaner. However, as not all pollution is visible monitoring was needed to check on the hidden pollution and especially the bacterial load as this can cause illness. Even on the beaches that are rated as excellent there is a one in twenty chance of getting a Gastroenteritis as a result of swimming in the sea, according to the “Good Beach Guide. And on the beaches that are graded good, the ones that just pass the legal minimum standard, that increases to a one in seven chance. Hence the Environmental Agency monitoring of beaches and bathing water and the need for that monitoring. This monitoring is important as in the event of sudden downpours or extreme weather event the same pipes that carry the sewage also carries the storm water.
Now this is where the situation gets really interesting and was not looked at in the BBC programme. As the justification for the high price of water charges was so that the water companies had the income to make the investment in upgrading and improving the infer-structure so that no untreated sewage would ever need to be discharged in the sea. The outfall pipes would be left in place to act as storm drains to help stop flooding or in the worse case prevent storm waters causing a back up where sewage could escape into peoples homes. Even allowing for a changing climate these discharges should only happen twice or thrice per year.
Well that's fine! What is this wood mouse worrying about I hear you ask. Well with over twenty thousand of these combined sewage overflows, at the legal minimum that is nearly sixty thousand events per year. Also with some of these CSOs (Combined Sewage Overflows) discharging on a daily basis, then the sea is effectively being treated as a sewage treatment plant by the water companies.
As the Environment Agency licences the water companies to allow the discharge of raw untreated sewage, now here is the really clever bit, the water companies don't even have to tell the Environment Agency when they do discharge.
This has built up into a rather cosy relationship where the government agency responsible for monitoring pollution are deliberately turning a blind eye on what's happening and the water companies have under invested. They have already spent eight billion pounds on improvements to the sewage system. Improvements that should have made this a rare and unique event. This was the justification for the increased bills after all. But instead of the government ensuring the investments were made, the water companies have diverted large chunks of the extra income into dividends.
Britain and British consumers now face a bill for a further eight billion pounds to deal with the extreme weather events as a result of climate change. Now as this was part of the justification for the price increases being three and four times the rate of inflation and why water now costs four times what it did in the 1980s, I can see the consumer will have further price hikes.
We can not escape these costs as the European regulations are due to become even more stringent in 2012. Going back to the Environment Agency film, according to that; Britain is ahead of the game and have nearly reached the new targets already. That begs the question: Why is the European Union taking Britain to court for failing to meet the current regulations?
The European commission has selected some sample charges, using Torbay, Whitburn (Near me) and London, in England. Kilbarchan in Scotland and Burry Inlet in Wales as test cases. As the commission believes that Britain and the water companies are using the seas as an illegal sewage treatment works.
The volume of the sewage discharge is so great that when the local council at Llanelli tested the water at Llanelli Beach, the bacterial readings were ten times the legal limit. As Llanelli Beach is part of Burry Inlet a once important Cockle fishery, the impacts of the failures to hold the water companies to account has killed off an important fishing and wildlife area.
The Environment Agency are investigating the causes of the deaths of the cockles, they are dying by the billion. As are the European Commission. But the Environment Agency can not say if the twelve direct and forty indirect sewage outflows, are the cause. Is Homer Simpson running the Environment Agency? It beggars belief what government bodies will claim to get themselves off the hook. Or should that be out of the S...?
I have long been reporting here that the impact of Climate Change will happen much faster and be more dramatic than most people believe. I have not ever done this to be alarmist, nor have I ever exaggerated the impacts as I have always based my postings on the science and the data of credible climate modelling.
Often the researchers who are compiling the data and the analysing the results self censor the results, publishing only the lowest range of effects, normally the temperature range, that matches with the data that others are generating. Not least because any scientist that wants to keep their reputation and their job, has to ensure they don't alarm the public.
I have personally spoken to people involved in this research, who are genuinely alarmed by the results of the climate models. Even the average increases in temperature in the models I have seen say that temperature increases of three to five degrees is what we should expect. However, the most alarming aspect of the results is that this will happen far sooner than the conservative predictions the public have been told about thus far.
Now I know that even mentioning Climate Change turns off so many people, even amongst people who claim to be environmentally aware. I know that double glazed look so well. Equally I know that there are still many people who are not prepared to believe that humans can have this effect upon the planet. So while I could post nearly every day about “Global Warming”, I prefer not to totally bore my reader, well just partially bore you.
Well on Monday a study from the highly respected Meteorological office, here in Britain, has found that climate change is happening far quicker than most people would have expected. Not only that, but from the current data temperatures are likely to rise by four degrees (seven in Fahrenheit), by 2060-70.
In the media reports of this study, the media as still not willing to say that the extreme weather events are the result of the damaging human induced climate change that is happening. I have long been predicting that by 2012/13 we will see a sudden and dramatic rise in sea levels. Unfortunately it is likely that it will take a dramatic event like that to shock people and focus the minds on what we need to do.
This prediction is not based upon some desire to be a Cassandra, I genuinely hope that I am wrong, but the science is clear and alarming. Also while some action is being taken to de-carbonise human activity, far to much of what is happening is about reducing the rate of pollution rather than eliminating it. Therefore, while we humans are plodding towards the warmer future, while Climate Change races forward.
On Saturday evening there normally is nothing on that is worth watching, so I looked at the TV listings with a sense of disdain. However there was one programme that I did want to see, a tribute to the television chef Keith Floyd who died recently. Following that was a repeat of a satirical show that I had missed and I needed to watch. Its from shows like that that I pinch all my best material from.
Following that was yet another history documentary about the Nazis. When ever TV does history half the time is is about the Nazis. While it is important that we don't forget what racism and twisted nationalism can bring about, so often these “Documentaries” seem to be no more than veiled praise, even admiration, for what the Nazis did. Oh they tell you about the bad things too, but as they seem to linger so much on the way that the county was unified and regained its pride... yes it looked unified as the opposition was arrested and killed.
The point is that that there really is nothing new that can be said about the Nazis. I realise that each new generation needs to learn what race hatred can lead to, but not a week passes without yet another programme about this despicable form of ideology.
Then when I checked my email, there was an urgent call to action from Amnesty International regarding the war crimes that were committed in the war in Gaza.
As much out of guilt when the state of Israel was created and recognised by the west, there was a moral duty that the Jewish people had a homeland. But what started out as a state for the Jews, has become a Jewish state. A subtle difference, but a land for the Jews is one where the Jewish people can live in freedom alongside it neighbours. While a Jewish state is one where religion dominates. Therefore no matter how much the state may say all its citizens are equal, just as in animal farm, some are more equal than others.
While any state has the right, both under international law and morally, to defend its self and its borders, it genuinely breaks my heart to see Israeli turn from being the oppressed to the oppressor. Not least because of my own Jewish ethnic heritage. But I can not support any nation or state that commits crimes against humanity in the way that Israel has done and is still doing so.
I have no love for nor do I support Hamas, the legally elected authority in Gaza. But with the constant oppression of the Palestinian peoples by Israel and indirectly by Britain and the US, then the election of Hamas was and is the logical result of that oppression. Since the 1960s Israel has been building not just settlements but whole towns and cities in occupied land. In breach of International Law and United Nations security council resolutions. Yet Britain and America continue to support Israel.
Over the years this has empowered Israel to continuously breach international law and become more brutal and oppressive. This injustice in the middle east is the root cause for all the Islamic terrorism in the world today. The terrorist threat will not ever go away unless and until the West treats Israel with an even hand and condemns the abuses of human rights and international law that the state of Israel executes. It is this injustice that is feeding the resentment of the west by the Moslem peoples.
Even though the events of the genocide that was perpetrated against the Jewish people was and remains a unique crime against humanity. However it does not justify in any way, shape or form, the Jewish people or the Jewish state committing crimes against humanity either. It is like a criminal who blames a dysfunctional childhood for their criminal behaviour. While that criminal should receive the help and support to get over the abuses of the past that shaped them, they also need to be punished for the crimes they commit.
The State of Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza and the western nations need to condemn this with the same vigour that we condemn the nations we disapprove of.
Researching these latest postings has been an education for me, and I hope that they have provided a small insight into the way that British farming has changed in the last seventy or eighty years. The way that Beef farming has changed has been the greatest revelation for me.
It is not without reason that the French call the English “Le Roast Bough” as while the French, and across much of Europe, cattle was kept as a draft animal (Pulling the plough and harrow), the British kept cattle for milk and dairy and for meat.
In the original Agricultural revolution back in the 18th century, the earls and lords who were the major landowners had their prize winning cattle painted. Well I suppose they were like members of the family, either that or the inbreeding of the upper classes just made them overly eccentric. But these were rather large beasts. My assumption was that the artists had painted them to flatter the landowner. Yet that assumption was wrong as the beef cattle were that large, they had been breed to be that large. But even when I was a young adult, beef cattle were not that large. Or was that my memory playing tricks on me?
By the 1920s and 30s beef breeds had been breed to be smaller and more compact. The standard explanation for this was that following the first world war the great houses, the big estates the stately homes, there was not the same numbers of staff available. This combined with the depression meant that the very large joints were not required hence the breeds of beef cattle were shrunk to produce smaller joints for the smaller household. Nice story but as it takes thirty to forty years to breed the waist high cattle then this dwarfing of beef cattle must have started long before the first world war.
The truth was that via the empire the beef industry had been exported to places like Argentina and Australia. The reality was that this dwarfing of the beast helped the carcasses to be hung between the decks of the ships that transported the meat back to Britain. This is one of the reasons why the German U Boats were able to hold Britain to ransom during the first world war. When the second world war started, Britain imported eighty percent of the beef exported from Argentina and Australia.
While the current threat regarding food security is not impending war, the mistakes of the past are being repeated yet again. The ability to trade food between nations is important, but it should be trade of items that we don't have and items we can not grow or produce. Growing beef in the deserts of Australia was something particularly stupid. This is not just hindsight, as there were respected agriculturalist saying this back in the 1880s. To produce beef requires water, lots of it per cow. Further, to grow the maximum area of grass, most of the trees were cut down. These trees provided the micro climate that enabled the moist air to flow in from the sea at night and generate the small rain events that enabled the environment to function at all. Here along with sheep production we have the source of the major droughts and loss of ground water there is in Australia today.
While since the Second world war, Britain has based much of its beef production at home, the poorly thought out support system changed farming so that the mixed farm that had always been the feature of British agriculture became a thing of the past. It even separated Dairy farming from beef production. The traditional breeds that were kept for meat and dairy, were replaced over time with breeds that were either Dairy or Beef. Further, this intensification lead to cattle being fed concentrated feeds so they could bulk up quicker.
This led directly to BSE, as the cheapest protein came from diseased and fallen stock, and any illness these dead beasts had were inevitably going to be passed on to the animals that were forced to eat their fellow species. BSE alone cost the British tax payer eighty billion pounds.
While the farmers themselves were not totally to blame, the British government and the major retailers have to shoulder their responsibilities too, as it was this desire for ever cheaper food that lead directly to BSE. While not a welcome cure, the outbreak of Foot and Mouth and the mass slaughter programme that followed, did remove BSE from the national heard.
Now we face a situation where increasing volumes of beef are being imported, along with other meats. All driving down welfare standards and the margins that farmers make. Yet in dairy farming, each and every day new born male calf's are shot at birth as they are not “suitable” (profitable) to be grown for meat. Even with a beef carcase, as people have lost the skills to cook the cheaper cuts, about twenty percent of each beef carcase was being thrown away. Well this was true just before the banking collapse and recession, but no reliable figures are available for what is happening now.
The long term costs go far beyond the price we pay for beef. We need to rediscover the skills of nose to tail eating and to no longer expect to have meat as cheap as French fries. The reliance on feeding grains to cattle has to be stopped as cattle can and do thrive on grass. The problems of BSE would never have happened if the farming industry had applied a simple principal. Would the public approve of what was going on and if the public were to see the farms means of production would the farmer be able to justify what the lay man could see? Additionally in the news recently there has been reports about an outbreak of E.coli 157. This is a rather nasty newish variant of a gut bacteria that has existed for thousands, if not millions of years. One of the ways that beef production has been increased has been regularly giving anti-biotic to livestock. E.coli 157 is a direct result of this practice.
Farmers have a lot to be proud of, however far to often the people involved in the Agribusiness companies and governments of all flavours have allowed some diabolical practices to become mainstream. The emphasis has been on quantity and not quality. While it is vital that there is enough food to feed the population, we can already do that if we stop wasting food. Also we need to stop the practices that is causing food to be harmful. Food is supposed to nourish and nurture us, not kill us.
When you think of the symbols of food, bread is normally the first thing that comes to mind. Even in literature it is the staff of life, and anyone thinking of the farming harvest will conjure up images of the wheat harvest in their minds eye. Therefore it will surprise many folks, as it did me, that in the 1930s Britain imported most (about 90%) of the wheat for making bread.
While the climate in Britain makes growing the hard wheat (high in protein) required for bread making, it was the wall street crash and the depression that effectively created that situation. Following the 1929 wall street crash, the price of all commodities crashed and it became cheaper to import bread wheat from Canada and the US than to pay British farmers even the cost of production. In 1932 the world price of wheat was down to five pounds (money) per ton. Globalisation is not as new as some may imagine.
The way recent events mirror what happened back in time should be of very little surprise. It seams as though the human animal can not learn from past mistakes. Following the banking collapse and the so called credit crunch, as people were often relying upon credit cards to extend their salaries, the supermarkets suddenly found that people were cutting back on food. Combined with the hike in food prices that preceded the banking collapse, the supermarkets started falling over themselves to sell cheaper food. While it has to be added without impacting upon their profits. Thus, for the major retailers food miles were not an issue, just getting cheap food on the shelves.
Prior to the banking collapse in 2005 and 2006 there were serious worries regarding the world stocks of wheat. There were also shortages of rice and corn (maize) too. Then in 2007 with an increase in ethanol production from food crops, combined with weather effects as a result of global climate change, and there was genuine shortages of major food crops, including wheat. The price of bread here in Britain shot up by seventy five percent. This is based upon the actual prices I saw in the shops and not the official figures. While it did not cause food riots here in Britain, in other parts of the globe; Mexico and Haiti there were food riots.
Then because of the shortage in the previous year, in 2008 there was a global record harvest of wheat so that the price of wheat has fallen to seventy pounds (money) per ton. For Britain that is lower than the cost of production. It should be no surprise that the price of a standard loaf has not yet fallen back to where it was prior to the shortage when wheat was £140 to £145 per ton.
However the revolution that occurred in agriculture and wheat production during the twentieth century is remarkable. Back in the 1930s in Britain, farmers would expect 1.25 to 1.75 tons of wheat per acre. And it had to be an exceptional yield to get over one and half ton per acre. Now most farmers get over four tons per acre. This has been brought about with three major changes that have transformed agriculture. The first is simply mechanisation It was not until the 1940s and the second world war that farmers really changed from using horses to tractors. This mechanisation was needed as without it, the country could not have fed the population then and now. The second factor that enabled the near tripling in wheat yield was chemistry. Chemistry was not new in agriculture or horticulture, it was though the 1947 Agriculture Act that guaranteed the price that farmers would be paid for wheat. Therefore enabling the farmer the extra profit to buy these inputs and gain an increase in yield. Then the third factor was plant breeding. This was not genetic modification, but conventional plant breeding. By breeding wheat that was shorter, more of the plants energy went into the grain rather than the stalk and straw. These more dwarf plants are better able to cope with wind and weather and the mechanical harvesting too.
mechanisation was needed to help reduce the costs of growing wheat, but the down side has been the reliance upon oil. Further, as the machines grew in size, farmers removed hedges and trees and fields grew in size. Until the top soil was actually being lost in the wind and rain, as the hedges and trees that helped retain the soil were missing. There are other disadvantages to mechanisation but this posting can not cover all of them.
The use of chemicals in agriculture or horticulture enabled farmers to effectively remove any competition with the crop being grown. But when you examine some of the chemicals that were used in the 1940s through to the 1960s it beggars belief how these potions were ever allowed to be added to the environment. Lead, Arsenic, and many other poisons known to be toxic to man were freely and liberally thrown into the air and water, in the name of “Feeding the Nation”. In the rules of war you can not poison the air and water, yet in peace time it is possible to do this to yourself and others in the name of progress.
The problem was and still is that; agriculture or horticulture has developed a mentality of a war on nature. This genocidal approach to farming has seriously degraded the natural life cycles that previously the pests and diseases of crops in check.
The other aspect of the use of chemistry in agriculture or horticulture has been the use of oil based chemical fertilisers. The chemicals were so liberally thrown on the land that they were and are running of the land into the water and out to sea. So much so that in Britain half the cost of treating
water is for removing these chemicals from drinking water. That is six billion pounds per year. The effects on the rivers and salmon rivers in particular, has cost fifty billion pounds over the last thirty years. Add to that the loss of the salmon resource, via sports fishing and as food, and that cost could even be double at one hundred billion over the last thirty years.
The greatest change though that has brought about the remarkable increase in wheat yields has been plant breeding. This was, as previously stated, conventional plant breeding using the science of “Natural Selection” to improve the yield and quality of the plants and the seed stock. Even had this been the only way that yields were increased it was this branch of the second agricultural revolution that has had the greatest impact in increasing food production. The problem with this has been simply that the modern varieties are completely reliant upon tractors and mechanised harvesting. Further, these wheat varieties are so susceptible to mildew and rust that chemicals have to be used to produce a crop at all. In fact with out the use of chemicals the yield would be less than farmers were getting in the 1930s.
The Economic system adopted after the second world war was needed then to help feed a starving Europe. War always destroys the ability of a state to feed its population, thus growing as much food, especially the basics like bread wheat was essential. However, by the 1970s, long after that problem of a starving Europe had been solved, the system continued and we had vast surpluses of food going into intervention stores. Thus keeping the price of bread high and farmers rewarded for producing food that was never going to be eaten.
While we live under the illusion of a free market and the effect of the free market can be seen in the retail price that people pay for bread, there is no free market. Nor is the market one of fair trade, as the structure of the market offers the greatest support to the largest farmers and estates. The need for Britain, or any other country, to feed its own population first has to be central to the way food is produced. In fact it is essential that a small surplice is produced most years so that we can help any state that suffers a shortage or a shortfall in production. But this has to be based upon a price that supports the cost of production combined with quotas or limits so that we are not creating such a surplice that foods like wheat are produced in such volumes that we have millions of tons stored for years in intervention storage.
It is well known that the global population is forecast to rise to up to twelve billion humans. Equally the impacts of a changing climate mean that there needs to be a far better system developed to ensure that essential foods are produced while ensuring that it done at a price so that everyone can afford to eat. Further it is essential that this is not done in such a way that there is a cost to the environment. This cost is not just a degradation of the ecology of the natural environment, but as we now understand from scientific research, the methods of production has financial costs too. The cost of cleaning up polluted water is just one of the many costs.
The second agricultural revolution can be seen as source of pride as farmers and agriculture prevented people from starving when most needed. However it should also be seen as a source of shame as it has rewarded the industrial agricultural businesses that have a callous disregard for the environment. There should also be a real sense of shame as when there was millions of tons of wheat grain, as well as butter, beef and many other foods sitting in intervention storage, people in Africa, Asia and south America were starving to death.
We have created a system that relies on the use of chemicals and oil to grow the essential parts of our diet. If only because of the cost of bailing out the banks, the present system can not continue is now obvious. Additionally the current system rewards the farmer for polluting the environment.
Bread is far to vital a food to allow the “market” to run the system. Nor should there be a command and control style economic model. However, there needs to be limits placed upon the wheat grown and the price not only the farmers are paid but the price the consumer pays.
The second agricultural revolution has been called a green revolution, it time that we genuinely have a green revolution.
The second Agricultural revolution, often referred to as the green revolution, enabled Britain by 1978 to be self sufficient in temperate foods. As the last time this had been the case was in 1760s, combined with the population growth in the intervening two centuries and volume of food produced is remarkable. However it is not until you look at individual crops that the growth of yield becomes understandable. Even as late as the 1940s a British grown Tomato plant would yield about a pound of fruit. Now modern varieties yield forty pounds of fruit per plant.
Back in the 1940s tomatoes were seen as a luxury item, and it was one of the reasons why gardeners grew their own tomatoes and why foods like this were understood to be seasonal. Remember this is before mass travel and Elizabeth David, and the adoption of a Mediterranean style of diet in Britain. When I was a child, in the 1970s as an April fools joke the BBC even carried a report about the failure of the Spaghetti harvest. This caused panic buying in the shops of Spaghetti Even then I really only knew of Spaghetti in tins in tomato sauce, one of the 57 varieties.
Just at the time the that Britain became self sufficient in temperate foods, there was a genuine revolution happening in the food that people were prepared to eat too. People like me who were fed up of over boiled cabbage and bland flavourless food. Like a lot of people, I assumed it was influence of “Mrs Beaton” who had advised that Cabbage needed to be cooked for half an hour. While this was true in part, the other factor was that the seed varieties that had been developed for commercial growers provided fruits and vegetables that were more even and consistent in colour and size, but lacked flavour.
Also at the same time, 1976/77, I had read a book that had predicted BSE, so I had become much more aware of the food I was eating and became a vegetarian Therefore I inadvertently avoided many of the changes that the food industry was trying to impose upon us. By becoming vegetarian I knew that I needed to be more careful about ensuring I had the full range of vitamins and minerals, not least all the people that were telling me that I would become very ill by excluding flesh from my
diet.
Another aspect that was influencing food in Britain was the cultural impact of immigration adding herbs, spices and flavours to the British diet. Although to be more accurate these were being re-added to the diet as in the past many of these flavours had been part of the British diet as a result of the empire. This combined with Britain joining the Common Market, as the European Union was then called, and the nature of the British diet was changing.
While the adjustment in the diet was much needed, the farmers and growers were slow to change their production to match consumer preferences. This is one of the few times when I will defend the supermarkets, as they could see the change in peoples tastes and started selling the products that influenced by the Mediterranean diet. When I first wanted to buy olive oil, I was told that I could only buy olive oil from the chemist. I actually found it in a whole food shop, along with many exciting other ingredients.
Therefore, with the increase in yields of fruits like tomatoes, the British diet was set to become much more healthy and more varied. But just as these dishes are easy to cook at home, they are also easy for the food industry to mass produce and find ways to make them cheaper via adulterating them with cheap fats, bulking agents and starches. Therefore the improvement in the diet never happened.
While this adjustment in the diet was very welcome it has an environmental and economic impact. My first job was in Horticulture, at a nursery that grew a lot of tomatoes. I discovered that commercial growing was very different from growing a few plants at home. Equally I discovered that commercial growing was very hard work and poorly paid. It was clear even then that British growers were struggling to compete with imported tomatoes. British growers were also struggling to cope with the increase in the oil price, this was the 1970s. While importing cheap food can benefit the poor, and as an agricultural worker I was part of that demographic, the cost of importing food means there is a cash outflow from the UK economy.
The long term costs go far beyond the price we pay for the imported tomatoes as in Spain hundreds of hectares of land is now covered with the plastic of poly tunnels. As the plastic only lasts three or four years, this has created a major pollution problem of waste plastic in the environment. Also as these poly tunnels are in arid areas, the water needed to water the plants comes from ground water, and is lowering the water table. Add into the mix the effects of climate change and the effect of cheap imported fruit and vegetables starts to look rather stupid. While in a free market it is possible to buy fruit from any source, this way of growing and buying from the cheapest source is totally unsustainable as it is reliant upon groundwater and not rainfall. Further, in the event of a drought in Spain, where the majority of tomatoes are coming from, the low prices just would not be maintained.
Tomatoes are just one illustration of the madness that has prevailed in the food industry. The range of food available has increased and improved, but in the last forty years we have gone from being self sufficient in Britain to a place where over forty percent of our food is imported. Just as the availability of cheap credit created the illusion of greater wealth, the illusion of cheap food has only ensured that the poor have been kept in poverty.
The effect has also been that farmers and growers have lost the ability to grow many of the foods that are now part of the British diet. I really don't want to see a return to the bland and limited diet of the 1960/70s, but nor do I want to see the loss of the diversity of imported foods that we now see in the shops. However, we need to grow more of the food that we can ourselves.
The economic cost is an outflow of billions of pounds from Britain, and as well as importing foods that we could be growing here, we are importing water from water poor areas. The need will arise very soon for us to aid water poor areas much more than we do at the moment. This is not about folks feeling guilty about eating a diverse diet, but we do need to adjust the way we buy our food so that we in Britain (the same applies to where ever you live) are no longer buying as much imported foods.
This week at Stoneleigh was the National Dairy Show, an agricultural show that is geared directly to the Dairy industry. As I have reported here previously, the British dairy industry is in serious decline. Each and every day over one million litres of liquid milk is imported into Britain. That is the milk that is poured on the corn flakes or added to your tea. This is only happening because the major retailers, the supermarkets are refusing to pay British farmers a price that matches the cost of production. On average farmers are getting three pence per litre less than it costs to produce the milk.
While there is an argument that says the retailers are helping keep the price for cash strapped consumers low, this will not always be the case. As if in Britain we loose all the significant dairy production, and have to rely upon imports, there will come a time when the sellers, the overseas dairy farmers, will be able to dictate the price. The British Dairy Industry believes that this will happen in less than ten years.
Even just putting my economists hat on, this is a bad idea as every time you import basic foods like milk, it is a flow of cash out of the UK economy. While it is possible that some of that money could then be used to buy British goods, that is unlikely. The problem is that the British government and the major retailers just do not seem to understand that. Add into the mix the costs that the taxpayer has to now find to pay for the cost of bailing out the banks, and the cash outflow for basic food stuffs, and the cheap food policy of the major retailers is harming the UK economy.
The long term costs go far beyond the price we pay for the imported milk, as the loss of a meaningful dairy industry in Britain will impact the way that the countryside looks and is managed. We could loose the grass meadows and all the associated species, or it could mean that we have to pay to maintain these, when traditional dairy farming maintained them naturally.
The chaos caused by the banking collapse will be mirrored in the food and farming sector if the government continues to allow the major retailers to dictate food policy. Already over forty percent of the food Britain consumes is imported. This is not just the foods we can not grow or produce here, but staples imported from places where the cost of production (wages) are cheaper. This is driving down the farm gate price, the price the farmer gets, but often just to boost the profits of the major retailers. Therefore when something happens to disrupt the flow of imports or production the only logical expectation will be higher prices at best. At worst it will cause shortages and empty shelves in the shops.
If we allow a situation where farmers have left the land to occur, we will become hostage to the major retailers and overseas agriculture. None of this makes sense, as every state needs a mixed economy, this has to include all aspects of Agriculture and Horticulture. But the Governments response is simply that its up to the market. Just as they were saying about the banks before the collapse. When will they learn?
On Tuesday was the regular local Amnesty International meeting. As this is one of the passions that my better half and myself share, it enables us to share some time together too. While K has much more experience of working with another AI group, I have a lifetime immersed in the political geography of our planet. So while I have supported Amnesty International from a distance I have never become involved with an active group before. However, together we complement each other well, and my rigorous research abilities mean that I can help depth of understanding that means we gain a greater understanding of what lays behind the abuses of human rights that are central to the campaign work of Amnesty.
The last meeting we attended, the first for me, we were told about the prisoner of conscious who the local group are concentrated upon getting justice for. However as a very independent minded Wood Mouse, I wanted to look further into the details of the case in question. While I fully respect the integrity of Amnesty, I would prefer to ensure that I am not campaigning for the rights of a mass murderer without knowing that.
Also as Mohammed El-Sharkawi, the prisoner of conscious in question, is from Egypt I also wanted to understand what is happening in the country too.
What my own independent research uncovered has been shocking. It alarms me that the media are mainly ignoring the situation in Egypt. It appears that as Egypt is allied to the west, the regular and systematic abuse of human rights is ignored. Further, the government as a friend of the west, is allowed to abuse its people in a way that would be generating masses of condemnation were it a state and a government that was hostile to the west and western interests.
Therefore the presence of the Suez Canal and the strategic economic interests this represents to the west, that is allowing the Egyptian government to abuse the human rights of its people with impunity. Add to this the Egyptian role in the so called war on terrorism, and there appears to be a justification for the abusing other people. But as history shows, the more human rights are abused, the greater the chance that oppressed people will turn to violence. Put most simply the abuse of Human rights and injustice is the recruitment Sargent for terrorism.
However, just labelling a group as terrorist does not make them terrorists. Far to often that label is applied to any group that opposes a government and in Egypt where opposition to the Mubarak regime is treated as a criminal offence, then it is far to easy for Egypt to abuse its population and to hide this oppression as the Vail of stopping terrorism. Also in Egypt the army has many economic interests and one of the ways that army businesses prevent competition is by harassing and arresting their competitor.
Therefore while the country is a complex mixture of a repressive regime and a large army, it also has a large population of very poor people that is growing by a million people per year. In to this mixture there is a degree of militant Islam. Not least because of the oppression of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the Egyptian governments assistance in that.
So while any government has the need to stop terrorists and prevent violence on the streets, it has to be carried out via an open and fair justice system. No justice system is perfect but if justice is seen to be just and fair then there are less chances for abuses. We only need to look at the shameful period of Guantanamo Bay to see that. Holding people just because you suspect they are guilty can never be enough to justify a detention. Any evidence of their guilt has to be tested.
When people are held without trial it increases the rage within the population. I can remember incidences in Britain where this has happened and it has lead to violent protests in the streets here. Even in Burma, they understand this and while the show trial of Aung San Suu Kyi was fixed, the Burmese Generals knew that creating the appearance of a “Fair Trial” was an important symbol.
However for Mohammed El-Sharkawi, the Egyptian prisoner of conscious in question has had none of this. He has been held since 1995 without charge or trial under emergency legislation introduced in 1967. As I have argued here previously regarding legislation that removes civil liberalities here in Britain, while it may be introduced to deal with a real threat or legitimate reasons, it (the legislation or emergency powers) are kept and abused as they are far to easily used for purposes other than intended.
Mohammed El-Sharkawi refutes any involvement in the attempted assassination that he is accused of, and has suffered torture and ill treatment. As with any prisoner he needs to have a fair trial or be released. The Egyptian courts have even ordered his release, twice, but the prison authorities, the government and the army ignore these judicial orders. Further, he is refused the medical treatment he needs, and that to me is reason enough to campaign for his release.
I will be writing to the Egyptian authorities using the standard letter available from the Amnesty International web site. I hope there will be a reader or two here who will do the same.
However, before I close this posting, when I started looking into this case, I carried out a Google search. To discover greater understanding and try to uncover more of the background story. What I found was truly shocking. It is clear that Mohammed El-Sharkawi is not an uncommon name in Egypt as I found reports of another man, younger then the prisoner of conscious the local Amnesty group have adopted to campaign on his behalf, who has also suffered torture and ill treatment in Egypt. Here are links to his story too. And Here And Here
Personally I feel a little ashamed that I did not know more about the abuses of human rights that are happening in Egypt. If I want to know about some C list celebrity the media are full of it, but real news, or campaigning journalism appears to be moribund here. Equally I ashamed that our government who started in power saying they would have an “Ethical Foreign Policy” should have not allowed these abuses in Egypt to go unnoticed and uncommented upon.
Because of the location of my village, just within the boarder of one county, Tyne & Wear, and bordering two others, County Durham and Northumberland, local services are rather fragmented. For example if I needed to attend Hospital, I could not attend the one that is geographically close, Shotley Bridge, less than three miles away, but I would have to travel into and through Gateshead and three times the distance. As simply I live in a different administrative area to where these services are located.
Yet Tyne & Wear is an administrative construct and was formed in the 1970s and traditionally the village of Chopwell was in County Durham. These changes are always made with good intentions, but often the reasons that justify them adjust and the reasons for the changes become void. Therefore the people who rely upon the services wish the changes had never been made.
Thus while the public meeting regarding the public transport and bus services in my area was being held in County Durham, and while it effects me directly and personally, I would have little or no influence upon the services and routes I have to rely upon.
A major aspect of the problems we face now stems from deregulation of the buses back in the 1980s. Back before that happened, in Tyne & Wear there was a very good integrated network with the, then new, Metro (Light Rail Transit System) as the main means of travel with the buses acting as feeders to this. But under Margaret Thatcher anything that was state owned or run was bad and everything that was private was good. So a great system was destroyed and the service ethos was destroyed and services became fragmented.
While it did create a very short period of eighteen months when fares appeared to fall and there were more buses on the road, this was an illusion as the large companies were having a price war with the small companies. Once the competition was eliminated the fares went up and services have been cut time after time.
Now the bus companies are only bothered about the routes that are most profitable. While it can not be expected that any company (public or private) could be expected to run loss making services, there really does not appear to be any understanding of the customers/passengers needs by the bus companies. Further while there are three major Bus companies, each has their own territory and do not even attempt to create the illusion of real competition. The company local to me is Go North East, and there is no choice or competition. While I am personally critical of the company, on the whole the staff that I come into regular contact with, the drivers, are polite, helpful and doing their best even with vehicles that breakdown on a far to regular basis.
Equally the drivers have a lot to put up with as they are the people who suffer the complaints when the fares go up and up ad infinitum. Also the drivers often have to face aspects of anti social behaviour that must take the pleasure away from doing a job well.
The need for good public transport in an age of a changing climate must not be forgotten either. As only if good services exist can and will people make the choice to leave the car behind. The problem is that the bus companies have forgotten that the work commuters are their life blood. For example while the local bus company has made reasonable provision for buses to and from the Metro Centre, a major shopping destination, there are few services to enable the staff to get to work there when their shifts start early or end late.
Therefore the need for good transport connections has an economic impact upon not just my village but the whole region. It is worth remarking that the villages where there is greatest deprivation are also the places that are least well served by public transport.
While the public meeting was reasonably well attended, the majority of the people there were elderly. With the major trend of the complaints being that investment has been made in infrastructure, by other partners, such as a new medical centre next to the Hospital at Shotley Bridge, but that connections and timings are so poor, by the bus company, that people needing to visit a GP (General Practitioner) or receive regular treatment have to spend several hours travelling to attend appointments. Equally, the buses far to often are routed just via the main roads, therefore the elderly and infirm are forced to carry shopping up steep hills. As County Durham is a county of steep hills, the way that services are planned is vital. As a poorly planned and routed service will just not get the passenger numbers that the bus companies want and say they need.
Far to often in the past to reduce costs, services have been reorganised. Perhaps trying to merge two services, but normally the new service just fails to provide what the passengers of the two previous services needed and they are forced to make alternative arrangements. Thus the bus company see a fall in passenger numbers. The problem is that far to often it will be accountants and bean counters who are deciding on routes and services rather than thinking strategically that a marginal service that serves a few small villages could also be delivering customers to other services.
One of the responses from the Managing Director of Go North East that would have been funny had it not been derisory, was to a question of why drivers don't always allow passengers to gain their seats. In the past this was more of a problem, as drivers were under so much pressure to keep to timetable that passengers became an inconvenience. Therefore we customers would get the bovine treatment and feel that we were being shuffled up the truck on route to the abattoir. But with increasing cases of successful litigation combined with greater disability awareness amongst the drivers, and instances like this is now rare, in my experience. However, when asked about this problem of drives not being allowed time to gain their seat, the MD of Go North East rapidly turned it around so that he was placing the blame firmly on the passengers. To me that shows the contempt that the company and the management hold its customers in.
Several people also commented that these public meetings are held every year, the same issues are raised, but nothing ever really changes. I suspect that this will be the pattern for years to come until the county councils have the power, as they used to have, of saying that these are the services that are needed and getting the bus companies to bid to provide them. Most of the services that are now provided are only on the most profitable routes, and the Bus companies have lost the understanding that by providing the services that people need, they will get the customers and revenue they need.
It is not often that at half six in the morning that on the radio you can hear a programme that surprises and inspires. This Sunday morning I was up early enough to hear a broadcast of “On your Farm”. While I don't normally make a great effort to listen to this, I would not normally think of it as heart warming and inspiring.
What made this so uplifting was that this working hill farm in Hereford has connections with the Somali community in Britain, and was enabling people here escaping from the civil war to connect with the countryside.
It has long concerned me that people who are seeking refuge in Britain, are effectively dumped in deprived inner city areas. Not least because so many of the people who are escaping conflict, persecution and oppression so often come from a rural environment.
While this may well be where the housing is, normally cheap and poor quality too, and the facilities to process these asylum seekers are, it must add to the trauma of loosing your country to loose your countryside too. Further, often the location where these refuges are placed, the local indigenous populations are frequently hostile to asylum seekers and immigrants in general.
While I know that there are a few people who try and abuse the asylum system, the majority are genuinely escaping from a genuine fear. Whenever I hear of the bull that is reported about asylum seekers, I think of the reaction of Woodie Guthrie when he travelled from Oklahoma to California during the great Dust Bowl. There were signs and posts on the state border telling the Oakies to go home. Woodie Guthrie's reaction was when “I did not know I needed a passport to travel in my own country.”
Far to often the refuges face extra pressures based upon the lies and misinformation about what they receive. Like getting all the jobs, all the best houses, living off benefits etc. There is a shortage of social housing, and as I have reported here myself, the British government has adopted a racist housing policy as a result of this myth. Therefore often refuges end up living in overcrowded housing owned by private landlords who are milking the state for the rent. Further asylum seekers are not allowed to work, I know that some do but often where employers are exploiting them and illegally not paying the legal minimum wage. So asylum seekers are not taking all the jobs. One of the aspects of this that I personally find frustrating is that the people that normally are most vociferous about this are lazy benefit bandits that spend most of the day drinking in pubs and working hard avoiding work.
On two sites where I have had an Allotment Garden there have been the wish to have community gardens for refuges, the hostility has been really unpleasant. On both the sites there were vacant plots so it was not as though anyone was stopping others from getting a garden, but there really is a strongly racist mindset in the North East that is really distasteful.
Because of the way that asylum seekers are refused access to work and money, personally I would have thought that allowing refugees to grow their own food would at least have been humane. Further, it would have allowed people who have been traumatised by fleeing their home and displaced into an urban environment would have been able to make that connection with the land and the soil.
This is what I found so uplifting about the programme I heard, the people from Somalia were making a connection with the countryside. It was helping people to come alive.
Here is a link to the programme and I hope that my overseas reader can listen if they wish.
Firstly, I did get to attend the public meeting on public transport, but I want to find time to post on that fully.
Yesterday, I had some washing to do, it had reached such a critical mass that I have been expecting UN weapons inspectors to turn up. There is nothing better than climbing into a bed with freshly laundered lining. I needed that as by the end of the day I was rather tired.
I had used the time between dropping my washing off and collecting it, to try and film the birds that are feeding off the berries in the trees. While I could see the activity going on, often the birds were in the darkest parts of the trees so it was impossible to film. However, I was able to film the Butterflies and Wasps that were about too.
No matter what I may set out to film I am always able to find something worth filming.
Today I was up early, I was glad I had gone to bed early, as I doubt that I would have emerged in time had I not. I wanted to go to the HOP Garden, as this was their second selling day. Held once a month, it will help the garden to fund its self. I would love to be able to do more for and with the HOP Garden, but I can not as I just don't have the time. However, I can help by buying from the produce on sale. I bought some home made bread and some chillies. As I am doing a clear out curry, using all the odds and ends, these mild chillies will help add a little bite to the dish.
As we were standing there talking, I spotted a bird of Pray. Had I not looked more carefully I would have assumed it was a Red Kite, but it was not, it was a Sparrow Hawk. What a great sighting. It was to far distant and if I had tried to film or photograph the bird it would have just been a brown blob in a blue sky.
As I had some travelling to do today, before eleven I found myself at the bus stand in the village. I looked up and there was one of the Red Kites. As I watched that bird, I saw another come into view. While they were not quartering as a pair, it is likely that they are a pair. I would loved to have watched for longer but I had a connection to catch.
Had my timings been correct I would have had forty minutes or so before I had to make the connection, but I screwed up and I saw the bus that I was supposed to be catching as it went by the bus from my village. It was not a great problem as while I had an appointment to keep, I still had plenty of time. Also while I say that I had messed up, I had tried to look up the timetable on the web, I just could not find the service listed. Therefore I had to rely upon memory, never a good thing at the best of times.
So I went and did what I needed to do in Consett and went for a coffee and a teacake! Then as I had quite a wait for the bus, I was sitting outside of the bus station and in the air I saw a Red Kite. That is only the second time I have seen them over the town, and it is a good sign that they are spreading out naturally, increasing their range. What ever else the day was going to bring, today was definitely a Red Kite Day.
When I returned inside the Bus station, I noticed that the local MP is holding a public meeting about Public Transport. As my regular reader will know, trying to use Public Transport here can be unreliable at the least, so I was interested in seeing if I could attend. While I have other tasks to do I think I can make the meeting, if the buses are on time. The main reason I had needed to travel in to Consett was to get the times of this service, it links me with my better half's home, so it was important for that reason, but as it is not a service from the major bus companies, the timetable is not on the web. But now armed with these times, the service will be of use.
So I took my normal bus to the point where this route diverts to Hexham. I have been past this point so many times and I have wanted to stop and look at the church there as it is beautiful. I did not have my camera with me, so I do not have a picture. But it is a very attractive building. One of the older residents of my village told me that she got married there and as she only lived a hundred yards away thought that hiring a car to take her there was a waste. I suggested that she could have used a wheelbarrow. Well the joke has stuck and whenever I see her she asks if I have been delivering any brides to their weddings.
Anyway it was nice to get a closer look at the church and especially the wildlife that inhabits gods acre. As is traditional there is a covered gate and next to it a yew tree. As the tree is fill of fruits too the birds, mainly Blackbirds were eating their fill of the fruits.
I got into Hexham in plenty of time so to be relaxed for my appointment. As it was medical tests I could have been stressed by this, but I was fairly relaxed. While I have to await the results of Blood tests, I was given a clean bill. The only aspect that was difficult, was I had expected to provide a urine sample. As medical people always seem to like taking the P*** So I had avoided going to the loo. When the blood was being taken I asked if a water sample was needed and was told no. But I was able to visit the bathroom very soon after. The moral, never second guess a medical person.
I was able to meet my better half and we went for a wander and she showed me a few of her favourite places. We had a great coffee and an Ice Cream. I even got to see where she works. But in one shop I spotted a little carved Wooden Mouse. That is now sitting on my desk by the computer. Or is it typing this posting? Well if my writing starts to improve then it must be.
We waited at the bus station in Hexham for my last bus home. It was late and I worried that I had missed it, even though I was there ten minutes ahead of time. For me it was reassuring that others were waiting for the bus too as it meant I had not missed it. But as the bus was a different company no one had any information. Had the bus been cancelled?
It turned out that children on the bus had broken a window and a replacement vehicle had to be sent, therefore the bus was nearly half an hour late. Well at least I got home but the delay meant I missed the connection so I had even longer waits. I will have to make a special effort to attend that public meeting regarding public transport.
Even though I have had difficulties with the buses today, it has been a Red Kite day.
Occasionally you hear or read a journalistic piece that genuinely throws light upon a situation and promotes a real understanding of what's going on in the world. While watching the spiders the other night, I also played some of the news programmes that I download via the I player. One that I had downloaded just before the elections in Afghanistan gave me that understanding of what the hell is really going on in that benighted country and why Britain, America and others are really there.
The initial reason why Britain, America and others allies went there was to get the Bin Liner (Osama Bin Laden). That changed to supposedly getting rid of the Taliban. The trouble is that the reasons given by our governments seem to change and we the people are left wondering what is really happening.
Then Gordon Brown gave the standard policy statement saying that we are there to stop terrorism on the streets of London, that weekend. Well I can now see that this is mostly bull. While that was the reason why this war started, it is now much more about stopping the production of Heroin. As Afghanistan is the source of ninety percent of the Heroin and most of it is grown in Helmand Province, this revelation enabled me to finally understand what this war is really about.
I can see the logic in what has happened, as if in freeing Afghanistan from the repressive leaders the west also stopped the source of the drugs trade, that will genuinely stop much of the misery that drugs cause. While that may be a desirable outcome, it is not the reason why we went there.
As most of the British lives lost have been in Helmand, the way that this is is normally reported is that because Helmand is a stronghold of the Taliban but what is not reported or rarely so, is the criminal gangs that are in control of the drugs trade. For them the chaos of the war helps their vile trade.
However, rather than just make this posting a tirade about the war in Afghanistan, with this new understanding I have been able to go back and look at the reporting of the war and so much of what has happened and is happening is explained.
While the terrorist threat is real, most of the threat is actually coming from Pakistan not Afghanistan. Even yesterday with the end of a court case that saw the conviction of three more of the airlines bomb plot, the trail flows to and from Pakistan. Equally while the Taliban in Afghanistan did allow Al-Qaeda to operate in the country, they were never trusted by the Taliban. In reality the current insurgency is much more about getting foreign troops (us) out of their country.
No matter how bad a countries government is, the peoples will never fully accept foreign troops invading. Add to this the corruption of the government that the west is supporting and the Afghanistan population just see the devastation the invaders cause and their politicians enriching themselves. All fuelled by drugs money.
Also is the numbers of innocent Afghan civilians killed by allied air strikes or other allied actions. Given the tribal nature of Afghan society, these civilian deaths only serve to harden the Afghan people against the foreign invaders. Then if you add into this equation the manipulation of the intelligence by the Drugs barons and it looks as though many of the incidences of civilian deaths could be as a result of the Western forces persuading the Drugs traders rather than the dealing with the terrorist threat and the Taliban.
Now I am fully aware that the Taliban are a vile, dictatorial bunch of rouges, and there could be a justification for removing them, but that was never the stated reason for the west going to war with Afghanistan Nor is this covert war on Drugs that the west are fighting. If the public became aware that this now appears to be the main reason why we are there, would people in America, Britain et al support the war and the deployment of troops? Personally I doubt it.
When the Taliban were the government in Afghanistan they actually stopped much of the drugs trade in the country. So rather than stop the growing of poppies and Heroin production the war has created the circumstances where the Heroin trade can flourish.
We support a highly corrupt government that seems to care very little for the people. We build schools but fail to provide the security so that children, especially girls, can get the education needed. Far to much of the money that is supposed to be rebuilding the infrastructure gets siphoned off. Civilian deaths enrage the local populations and feeds into the mistrust of why the Allied forces are there.
If our governments were just honest about our objectives there then perhaps we can defeat the terrorist threat, and get the people of Afghanistan to support the end to the drugs trade too. But at the very least we need to stop supporting yet another corrupt government and be open about the war on Drugs. Unless this happens we will end up failing on all fronts as the war there at present is just acting as a recruiting Sargent for terrorists and the chaos is enabling the drugs trade to flourish.
No matter what folks circumstances are, when anyone significant comes in to your life, we all need to make adjustments to accommodate their needs, desires and tastes. So it is with my better half. I would never have bought cans of pop (soda) especially from a well known Atlanta Brand, but I now have to add these to my shopping list. Also as my better half not only does not drink coffee but the odour makes her bilious, I have to avoid drinking it or making it.
Both are not difficult adjustments to make, I just have to think her needs as well as mine. While I mainly see her at the weekends, it is often issues around food that I am having to think most about. Equally, while geographically we live relatively close to each other, travelling to meet each other can be tricky and the connections poorly timed. Therefore, when this weekend when K came to ruffle the fur of this Wood Mouse, she had to spend three hours travelling or waiting. The last bus then broke down. As this is something I have railed about before, I can understand her frustrations. However after the bus received some counselling it recovered and she was only ten minutes or so latter than expected.
I was able to take her for a stroll in the Woods, as I met her part way, and we walked back through the woods to my village from the next. It was nice to share this, but while she has not yet suffered from my irritating habit of stopping to look at all the weird things I can spot along the way, she was happy to share my passion. Also while the weather was dry, she enjoyed the stroll, but I doubt that she will be joining me when I am out in foul or cold weather. I had to put the heating on for her this weekend, even though I personally was not cold. We will have to discover where the compromise lays on this one, I can really wear any less clothes in the house as it is, but we will find a way of keeping me cool and her warm.
I don't want to create a false impression though, as when we are together laughter is the sound that is the soundtrack to our times together. I have laughed more in the last four weeks than I have the past four years. I just hope it lasts, and while we can both be serious when we need to be, we both seem to be able to get the other laughing in no time at all. Though there was one point where I told her that I would have to sack her as Girlfriend when she told me she wanted to watch X Factor. I can see that I will have to use that time to do something else. Unfortunately this week I had just finished cooking dinner when the programme started.
Talking of cooking, I am really enjoying cooking for her, and we seem to have similar tastes in food too, so I can be creative and productive as well. As K had to head off for part of Sunday, I was able to be creative in the kitchen and when she got back I had our evening meal more or less prepared. The only question mark was if the Chilli Con Carne was not to spicy for her pallet. It passed and she enjoyed it, and while it could have been hotter, getting the balance right to suite both our tastes will take time, but so far she has not refused any of my offerings. I also had the time to make a cake, to celebrate our first month together.
Hey I don't care if folks think this is a soppy posting, as I am happy with this part of my life and I will share this from time to time.
Having spotted the male suitor to my resident spider, I spent half of last night watching them. The female was busy adjusting the web, a sure sign that the was ready to breed.
I tried to use the video lights but as I though, the light was reflecting off of the window glass and as its a first floor window, I could not film from outside. Therefore, I contented myself with just observing. But all I actually got to see was her making the adjustments to the web. By three in the morning she seemed happy with the web and returned to her normal resting place. The male had not lifted a leg to help, there are some readers that will say that typical.
I was ready and willing to stay watching the spiders, but as I was watching I spotted a fox with three nearly full grown cubs, trotting by my back gate. Taking a chance I headed out with the camera and Infra red lights, I tried to film the fox family. I was able to track them reasonably well, but I was never able to get close enough to film as the lights are just not powerful enough to film at the sixty or seventy feet distance. The closest the vixen would allow me to get.
Finally after nearly two hours, I had drained the batteries, the lights drain the batteries so quickly, and the foxes were heading for cover more, I decided to give up. If I had more batteries I would have stuck with them, but I did not.
When I returned the spiders were still where I had left them, and it looked as if I may still get to see the mating occur. As I was now drunk with tiredness, I went to bed. Having garnered a few hours sleep, I went to check on the spiders and discovered just the female. Also she had dismantled the matting web she had made and was building a new web for catching food. The male was no where to be seen. While the female in some species can eat the male, this does not always happen and this time it looked as though this time the male had escaped being a meal.
While sitting and working yesterday, writing, I was able to observe the little spider that has made her home in the top corner of the window. She is only a centimetre long and is outside and sits by her web at the top of the frame and rushes out when ever a tiny fly lands in her lair. The first time she came out it seemed to be so that she could repair the web and was using her front legs to tighten the web and keep the orb tidy.
Then latter I saw her rush to an aphid size fly that had landed in the web but the fly got away, so no meal for her that time. I went away and when I returned with my obligatory cup of tea, I am English, she was sitting there feeding on another small fly.
Then today, I noticed that there was a second spider there, a male. Now I don't know if they have attempted to mate yet, but I will keep an eye open for that. I would like to film this but if it happens at night I may not be able to get a light on this as the light would reflect off the glass. At the very least I hope that I can see it even if I can not film it.
Talking of seeing things, yesterday evening after the heavy rain had cleared, I was actually looking to see if the rain had stopped, I spotted two Sparrow hawks flying as a pair over the roof tops at the back. I think they were both juvenile or sub adult males but I can not be sure.
Yesterday I was busy and was not back until late in the evening. Therefore I had not seen the news. So when my better half phoned, she informed me that on the news Nelson Mandela had been voicing almost verbatim what I had said about Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. While I joked with her that world leaders and I were close, the importance of compassion within the justice system and geopolitics is not lost on me and intellectuals like Nelson Mandela.
Here in Britain the majority of the media are trying to imply that the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was based upon some dirty deal regarding trade and oil. While his release has not harmed Britain's ability to trade with Libya, people are looking for links that just don't exist. I am not trying to defend this British government, I just don't see the conspiracy that folks are trying to build here.
The reality is that there are serious doubts about whether Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was even guilty of the Lockerbie Bombing, and had he died in prison Britain would loose all influence with the dictatorship in Libya. And this is where the legal system showing compassion really does have the calming effect upon volatile situations.
Colonel Gaddafi is a dictator, and Libya has been far from being a friendly country towards Britain in the past. Even now the Colonels dictatorship makes Libya a potentially dangerous state. Therefore, we need to be able to maintain a dialogue with this state until such a time as Colonel Gaddafi goes and a democratic government can emerge. Meanwhile, by ensuring we remain in communication we can stop Libya becoming a hotbed of terrorism This does not mean that we support the regime but ensures we can act to try and prevent the excesses that were the picture of the dictatorship in the past.
This contrasts with the way that Britain and America are dealing with Afghanistan Where the west are actively supporting a corrupt leader in Hamid Karzai. Anyone who has seen the elections in Afghanistan can not call them free and fair. With over one thousand complaints of stuffing ballot boxes, there is no real democracy in Afghanistan This was the west's man, the leader we supported and wanted as leader. The problem is that it is just another example of where the west supports another bad regime.
We have to remember that in Afghanistan troops are there to find the Bin Liner, Osama. The war was never supposed to be against the Taliban. While the Taliban was and is a vile group, as it is warped ideology and their interpretation of religion that drives them, fighting them with bullets, bombs and missiles will never defeat them. As ideas can not be defeated with violence. Also as Hamid Karzai passed a law where a woman could not refuse her husbands sexual demands, I can see no difference between Hamid Karzai and the Taliban.
What we need to do is start talking to the leadership of the Taliban. As vile as that regime is, only by communicating with these people can we stop the killing and the terrorism that flows from that. While the western powers who are fighting in the Afghan war don't do it intentionally, in war civilians get killed. This leads to further support for the Taliban and greater opposition to the presence of foreign troops. Thus making the building of any meaningful peace near impossible.
Only by talking to Colonel Gaddafi and acting with compassion have we stopped Libya being the source of terrorism Only by talking to the Taliban can we hope to stop the slaughter that is feeding terrorism Who knows if we start talking with the Taliban we could even get handed the Bin Liner and America can have justice for the mass murder that was the September 11th 2001.
Last year I reported that there was a claim by crofters, smallholders and farmers that the reintroduced White Tailed Sea Eagles were taking Lambs. Even as I first heard the claims, the numbers of lambs supposedly lost to the Sea Eagles just did not add up. Quite simply the supposed losses to the Sea Eagles would have required the birds population to be greater than actually exists and that the birds were feeding exclusively on the lambs. That means all year round and as lamb is seasonal, at the very least there appeared to be a great deal of exaggeration going on.
So as I reported here earlier this year, the various conservation bodies and charities undertook a study, scientific research, to discover what numbers of lambs were being taken. By radio tagging Lambs with a collar that would instantly alert the researchers if the lamb died, the conservation bodies watched and waited.
The tags can tell mortality by motion sensors, combined with monitoring heart beat and collar orientation. Not cheap equipment combined with having to have staff available to respond to an alarm so that if lamb had died the exact reason for the death could be established. As Sea Eagles could have also been feeding on the bodies of fallen stock where the birds had not been responsible for the death.
Now this technical detail is important as the preliminary results are now in. The details still have to be collated and a full report written, but during 2009 not a single lamb was taken by the Sea Eagles. As during 2008 the farmers were claiming that the Sea Eagles had taken three hundred lambs, this is a remarkable change in behaviour by the wild birds.
My reader will rightly see the tone of cynicism in my posting. Had the Sea Eagles been taking the number of Lambs claimed that would have been a genuinely serious problem. Not just for the farmers but it would have placed a serious question mark over any or all reintroduction programmes. Had the claimed losses been twenty or thirty lambs, then the Sea Eagles would have been the credible culprits. But this was nothing more than an attempt to defraud charities like the RSPB and government bodies like Scottish Natural Heritage for losses that were nothing more than natural losses that result from poor stock keeping.
I personally don't resent the costs of the research, as it was done so well that it will silence most critics of reintroductions.
Having spoken to animal behaviour specialists, it would be impossible for a bird, or a population of birds, to so suddenly change their feeding habits to have not even attempted to have taken a single lamb this year, when last year they were supposedly taking three hundred lambs last year.
It seems as though some people just don't want to see these magnificent Sea Eagles. Even though by being there they are bringing in tourists and the money they spend. Right from the start the whole claim of the White-tailed Sea Eagles was completely untrue. The difficulty is that should a particular raptor start really taking lambs, it will be more difficult for the farmer to be believed.
Further to this good news, I can report that this year at Kilder Forest a pair of Osprey nested for the first time. That means in England three pairs nested and reared chicks. Slowly the Osprey is naturally returning to England and Wales after having successfully re-established its self in Scotland.
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