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Looking at your Community
GO NUTS FOR FAIRTRADE! OURSELVES AND OTHER ANIMALS: MEDICAL RESEARCH On the street where you live Running on empty? International Dawn Chorus Day 7th May 2006
GO NUTS FOR FAIRTRADE! Supermarkets sell Fairtrade nuts for the first time
You can now buy Fairtrade nuts in the supermarket for the first time ever: Brazil nuts at branches of Tesco and roasted, salted peanuts at the Co-op nationwide.
This new addition to the range of Fairtrade marked products will contribute to Fairtrade’s key objective of improving the lives of some of the world’s most disadvantaged farmers and gatherers – nut producers and their families.
Consumers are also able to buy Fairtrade brazil nuts from independent stores, thanks to fair trade co-operative Equal Exchange. These organic-Fairtrade nuts from Peru were the first nuts ever to be awarded the FAIRTRADE Mark.
Gathering Brazil nuts from the heart of the Amazonian rainforest is an exhausting task, but provides a vital source of income to the hundreds of farming families in Bolivia who are supplying Tesco, and will now be guaranteed a fair return for their hard work. Meanwhile, peanut (groundnut) farmers in Malawi will also benefit from the independent guarantee of a fair deal provided by the FAIRTRADE Mark.
The growers' organisations supplying the supermarkets have been certified Fairtrade thanks to the on-going technical assistance and support work of Twin Trading, the alternative trading company behind leading hot drinks firm Cafédirect, the Day Chocolate Company and fresh fruit pioneers AgroFair UK. This has been facilitated by the long-term partnership between TWIN and the Fairtrade Foundation.
"These are the first steps towards opening up the mainstream market for Fairtrade nuts in Europe," says Duncan White, a Director of Twin Trading. "For the first time these nut gatherers and farmers will have a real say in the trading relationships and supply chains that they are involved in. These are great quality nuts and we hope UK nut lovers will also buy them knowing that they will be helping the people who harvested the nuts on the other side of the world lift their lives outside of the poverty trap."
Significant market opportunities exist with these products - both because of the ever increasing popularity of Fairtrade and because of the huge rise in purchasing of nuts. Sales of Brazil nuts have reportedly increased by 30% year on year.
The peanuts are the world's first to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark and are sold in 50g bags under the Co-op's own label. This comes at a vital time for the Malawian growers where production has been badly hit by the devastating droughts in Southern Africa.
The Brazil nuts are from the Pando region of Bolivia, from the Amazon Rainforest region and are a vital part of attempts to save the rainforest, providing local communities with a way to earn their living which does not involve cutting down precious timber resources. The nuts will be sold in 150g bags at Tesco under the supermarket’s own brand
One nut gatherer from the COINACAPA co-operative Benedicto Gonzalez says, “Since we started the co-operative it’s as if we’ve gained our freedom. It feels like we’re not slaves any more. We have more income, more work and more dignity.”
OURSELVES AND OTHER ANIMALS: MEDICAL RESEARCH The issue of using animals for medical research has again been in the news recently. Those against such use have long been vocal, and in March we saw a new PRO-test movement making itself heard on the streets.
There are cogent arguments on both sides. On the one hand, those in favour point to advances in medicine, some life-saving, in the development of which (they say) animal tests played an essential part. Those against claim that animal testing is not necessary and can even be misleading. They regard the practice as morally repugnant and scientifically out-dated. While they might concede that it brought some human benefits in the past, we now have an array of sophisticated techniques at our disposal, such as stem-cell research and computer simulation.
Organisations like the Dr Hadwen Trust and the Humane Research Trust are funding research into most major human diseases which use these modern, non-animal methods. Some pharmaceutical companies are adopting the new techniques, taking the view that if you now have information on human genes there’s no need to go back to monkeys.
A drug previously subjected to the usual animal tests recently made six men desperately ill when injected into them. What are we to make of this tragic event? It may be an isolated case, but it would seem to demonstrate that tests on animals thought to be similar to humans are not always a reliable indicator of safety or efficacy in people.
Nevertheless, is there a simple choice here between ethics and expediency, or is it a matter of somehow balancing benefits to humankind against the suffering of animals on which experiments are carried out? What do you think?
On the street where you live
The construction and civil engineering companies that scoop materials out of the earth in the course of their work are “putting something back” in an appropriate way by financing the ‘Save our Streets’ campaign currently being run by English Heritage.
The campaign, financed by the Aggregates Levy Scheme, is championed by the author Bill Bryson and endorsed by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and other bodies concerned about the environment.
“We are setting out to restore dignity and character to England’s historic streets, largely by removing unnecessary signs, poles, bollards, barriers and hotchpotch paving schemes,” says Bryson. “It is hard to imagine something that would make more improvement to our immediate surroundings and be so quickly and cheaply achieved.”
Although the Department for Transport promotes good design, signage and safety guidelines are sometimes followed too rigidly and without attention to local needs, making the streets feel cluttered.
‘Save our Streets’ is aimed primarily at streets in conservation areas or streets with historic buildings, but its principles can be applied everywhere. With a little imagination, almost every street can be de-cluttered and made easier to clean and maintain. It can be done within the law and without detriment to health and safety.
WI members are carrying out street audits and letting councils know that local people want their streets back. “Pleasant streets attract more people into them, making them safer. This is particularly important to women, who form the majority of pedestrians,” says Barbara Gill of the WI.
Over 100 councils have responded to the campaign so far and already the effects are being seen in many areas. Nottingham has even appointed a ‘clutter-buster’ to dismantle the city’s “at any time” parking signs, made redundant by yellow lines. Psychologists say that where there are lots of signs motorists can’t take them all in and are distracted (men more than women, apparently).
Surely this is a classic case of “less is more”?
Copies of English Heritage’s ‘Save our Streets’ campaign booklet and CD-Rom can be obtained free by calling 0870 3331 181.
Running on empty? The world is running out of fuel, and the burden on our planet is alarming. The world’s average temperature has risen by around 0.6 degrees C in our lifetime. As it rises even further, we will see higher rainfall, a rise in sea level and more flooding.
Our reliance on fossil fuels – oils, coal and natural gas – bears a lot of the blame. They produce ‘greenhouse’ gases – carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane – which trap the sun’s radiation inside the atmosphere. Scientists say we need to find renewable sources of energy to replace them.
International Dawn Chorus Day 7th May 2006 Originally conceived by The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and Black Country, The Wildlife Trusts’ International Dawn Chorus Day is an annual celebration of the world’s oldest wake-up call – the dawn chorus – and the beauty of bird song.
The day is now truly an International event, celebrated as far away as France, Italy, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand.
The dawn chorus occurs because as winter retreats, male songbirds sing to attract potential females, protect their territory and to warn off other males. However, as soon as it is light enough to look for food, the dawn chorus comes to a close which is why you have to be an ‘early bird’ to hear it.
Throughout the UK, people with gardens that attract birds are encouraged to wake up early, just after 4am, and hear the dawn chorus from their bedroom window.
For those who want to experience the dawn chorus in the wild, The Wildlife Trusts organise early morning bird walks and dawn chorus breakfasts.
Our local event is:…. (editor, you’ll need to visit www.idcd.info to find out)
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