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MP Don Foster will
be there to sign a pledge supporting the Organic Food and Farming Targets
Bill, the focus of the Organics Day of Action. The aim is to raise public
awareness and support for the Organic Food and Farming Targets Bill so
that it gets adopted as a Private Members' Bill in the new Parliamentary
session, which begins in November.
Don Foster has signed the Early Day Motion, along with 238 other MPs, and we hope to persuade him to adopt the Bill if his name is pulled out of the hat among the top ten in the Private Members' Ballot next month. The Bill proposes a target of 30% of agricultural land to be farmed organically by 2010 and 20% of food sold to be organic, with a strategy to ensure good intentions don't slip. The Bill contains clauses to make organic food more accessible to all sections of society.
Some supermarkets have stated that they would reduce organic food pricesif they could buy locally instead of importing. One price study showed that organic food is a third cheaper at farmers' markets than at supermarkets, which underlines the need for local organic food.
In July the Bill failed to get its vital second reading for lack of parliamentary time. In this session, we want to see it progress to law.
But it is likely to meet with opposition from the government. Those holding the purse strings have offered farmers no money at all to convert to organic farming since October 1999. They will release a measly £140 million for organic farming in April 2001, but this has to last seven years until March 2008. Pinch-penny in the extreme, when the total annual farm budget is £3 billion.
The government is well aware of the consumer demand for organic food, which is growing at a staggering 40% a year, while total supply is increasing by only 25% a year. Between 70 and 80% of organic food sold in Britain is imported, so British farmers are losing out.
So far this government, just like every other British government in the last several decades, has failed to support British farming. The continuity of neglect is how we ended up a net contributor to the European Union budget. This is how, even now, British farmers with bags of initiative and business sense are less "competitive" both on the home and international markets than their continental European counterparts whose governments do provide support. This is why so much of British farming has gone over to City of London investors, who place their money and shift that money at will to follow the subsidies that the government and EU do provide.
Farming is not a purely market-driven business, nor should it be because it is the basis of the nation's health. Organic food is obviously healthier than food laced with a cocktail of residues from pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilisers, and, in animal produce, antibiotics. Local food is fresher and tastier. It stays less time in cold store, and for fruit, does not need artificial means of ripening, such as gas injected into apples.
I feel my supermarket Cox's, Braeburns, Worcesters, Spartans, expensive Pink Ladies, ritzy Sundowners, and others taste suspiciously similar. No doubt that crisp juiciness is the flavour of ripening gas. I am looking forward to biting into a Real Apple on Saturday. We will be starting early, 9 am for 9.30 am at the Farmers Market, Green Park Station.
Susan Traill, Tel/fax: 01225 339861, email: susantraill@tinyonline.co.uk
There are over 2000 species of English apple. No exaggeration. But some are so rare, they will not be for sale at Bath Farmers Market on Saturday. It will be a matter of "look, don't touch" at these breeding specimens and their less rare cousins in the Apple Display. We anticipate the results of their sex life with bated breath. But there will be plenty of locally-grown apples of traditional varieties to buy and to try. For those of us who grew up in apple country, it will be a delightful trip down memory lane. There will be apple tasting, in the buff (the apples, not the tasters, please!), as well as clothed in toffee, chocolate, cake, sausages and burgers.
For those who have mysterious old apple trees, whose type and genealogy they do not know, there will be apple identification.
Keith Goverd is the apple guru, as well as Chairman of the Bath Farmers Market.
Susan Traill
While floods, storms
and droughts wreak havoc around the globe, world leaders are about to scupper
the vital Kyoto Protocol - the only treaty with any hope of curbing dangerous
climate change.
In December 1997, world leaders met in Kyoto, Japan, and agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, in order to reduce the devastating effects of climate change. This November, they meet again in The Hague, Holland. It is feared that some countries may try to water down the Kyoto agreement. If this happens, industrialised countries will be able to increase their emissions, rather than reduce them.
We must stop the Kyoto Protocol being weakened if we are to prevent global catastrophe. The only way governments will listen is if they see the full force of public support for real action on climate change.
We've recently seen protests about high costs of fuel. But any cuts in fuel tax would only serve to reduce the incentive for people to buy more fuel efficient vehicles, and to use less fuel. The protesters' 60-day deadline expires just as The Hague talks begin, so it is important that we show the Government that many people feel strongly about the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Friends of the Earth is urging people from all over the world to gather at the climate talks in The Hague this November for a peaceful show of strength. By acting together, we will give governments no option but to uphold the treaty.
Help us build the dyke, and take part in a host of other events such as music, art and bike rides. Join other FoE members from the UK, Europe, and the world! The activities are hosted by FoE Netherlands.
Price: FoE have made a group booking on the ferry, so this will cost only £20, return. The train fare to Harwich is £53.60 for a Saver Return, but only £30 for an Apex ticket, or £40 for a Super Advance (both of these are best booked well in advance.)
If you'd like to go, or for more information, contact David Beasley (01225 425200), or contact Elaine Gilligan at FoE HQ (020 7490 1555). But do hurry. The group bookings and free accommodation all needs to be organised in advance.
Come and join this exciting international Friends of the Earth event!
Dave Beasley
1. Urge Tony Blair to personally attend the sixth Conference of the Parties (COP6) at the Hague. Ask him to press for strong international rules to protect people from the destructive impacts of Climate Change and to seek an agreement that leads to a phase out of fossil fuels, securing real emission reductions now.
2. Write to the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. The Australian Government continues to promote the setting up of plantations as a way of meeting emissions targets rather than reducing fossil fuel emissions. Ask him to commit to direct emission cuts at home rather than to the planting of trees.
3. Join the Climate OnLine campaign - send an email to: majordomo@foe.co.uk Leave the subject line blank. Write the message:- subscribe climateonline Requests for action will come direct from FoE and actions will take just a few seconds.
4. Join the Climate Voice campaign at www.climatevoice.org Sign the petition online and spread the word.
In the US the government spends more than $20bn a year to subsidise the development of oil, coal and natural gas.
In Europe more than $10bn of taxpayers money is spent each year to subsidise the fossil-fuel energy systems that accelerate climate change. Only $1.5bn a year is provided for clean renewable sources such as solar electricity and wind power.
The intergovernmental panel on climate change has estimated that the effect of removing energy subsidies to polluting industries worldwide would be a cut in CO2 emissions of up to 18%.
This is more than 3 times the cuts agreed in Kyoto in 1997..
Terry
Here are some points
putting the other side of the story - should the car lobby decide in November
to renew its campaign for lower petrol prices:-
Fuel tax rises are an essential part of policy to tackle climate change. Road transport is the second fastest growing British source of CO2, the main climate change gas. (Aviation is the fastest growing source). The current floods in the UK may help to concentrate the minds of even the car lobby.
Most of the rise in petrol prices in the last year has been due to rises in oil prices, not rises in taxes.
Motorists pay nothing like the real cost of their motoring. Research has estimated the total cost of road transport to the environment at £42 billion pa. This compares with tax raised from road transport of £23 billion pa.
Government (DETR) figures show that the cost of motoring in the UK is no higher in real terms (after inflation) than 25 years ago. However, train fares have gone up by 53% and bus fares by 87%.
Cheaper fuel will do nothing to tackle congestion, air pollution or accidents.
Fuel does cost more here than in other countries but drivers abroad pay more than British drivers for road and new car tax and in many cases also have to pay road tolls. The overall cost of motoring can be higher in other countries than in Britain.
Cutting petrol tax by 2p a litre, as suggested by the Dump the Pump campaign, would cost £1billion pa but would save the average driver less than £2 per month. The tax shortfall would leave the Government with two options: raise tax levels elsewhere or cut public expenditure.
The recent rise in oil prices does mean that the Chancellor has "more in the bank" than he anticipated . The best thing to spend this on is not cutting petrol taxes but boosting investment in public transport.
Most of Britain's poorest households do not own a car, and so would not benefit from petrol price cuts. They would benefit from increased investment in public transport, including a cut in fares.
In rural areas the answer is not petrol price cuts but investment in rural public transport, particularly buses and keeping open local rural services such as shops, post offices and doctors' surgeries to reduce the need to travel.
Farmers already get special treatment on fuel prices - the diesel used on farms is taxed much less and only costs around 23p per litre. Action is needed to address the problems faced by small farmers but cutting fuel taxes for everyone is not the answer. More help to allow them to produce the real food we all need would be a much better solution.
British haulage companies do pay more for their diesel than in other European countries. But foreign hauliers pay higher taxes in other areas of their business. The total tax burden faced by UK hauliers is not dissimilar to that of foreign operators when corporation tax, social costs and tolls are taken into account. Claims of foreign truckers stealing UK domestic business are not borne out by the facts. Less than a tenth of 1% of UK domestic haulage is carried out by foreign firms. The Government should address the truckers' concerns by charging foreign lorries for using British roads, in the same that British lorries have to pay for driving in some European countries.
Above-inflation rises in petrol tax were introduced by the Tories in 1993. Former Tory Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, when announcing a petrol price rise, said that those who supported tackling climate change but opposed petrol tax rises were "dangerously near to hypocrisy"
The protesters' deadline expires just before the meeting. in the Hague. The Government must stand firm and not cut fuel tax. It must give out the right message at this crucial time and fully explain the environmental case.
Terry
B&NES Council considered
the plans for the redevelopment of the Southgate Shopping Centre again
in September. Once gain, they rejected the proposals, telling the developers
to go back and think again.
On behalf of Bath FoE, I submitted a highly critical, 48-page commentary on the redevelopment proposals. Among the criticisms: the new bus station is too small - it has fewer bus stops than there are at present. Furthermore, the latest information from the developer shows that the redevelopment will have a significant impact on climate. For years we have been pressing them to provide the figures on this. Finally, they have calculated that, when considered in relation to the carbon dioxide emissions from the City of Bath, the redevelopment will increase those emissions by around five percent That's a huge amount for one single development.
I spoke at the Council meeting, making these points. The inadequacy of the bus station was accepted by everyone. Even the developer only claims that it will be "adequate for the immediate future"! One Councillor described it as "a feeble attempt at an interchange". The Council's architectural consultant, Sir William Whitfield, said that it was wrong to try to compress the bus station into an area which is the wrong shape and size. He said a complete re-think was needed. The villain of the piece here is not so much the developer as English Heritage. They rejected previous plans which would have removed some parts of the old railway station structures in order to make room for a bigger bus station. At the meeting, English Heritage were widely condemned for this, not only by David Redgewell, speaking for Transport 2000, but also by many of the Councillors. "We should tell English Heritage where to go!", said one.
Several Councillors also expressed concern about the impact which climate change might have. Our written submission was reproduced in full in the notes issued to Councillors prior to the meeting. This is not standard practice for all submissions, so we were fortunate here that our message was fully conveyed to all Councillors. We received several complimentary comments about the submission. Peter Metcalfe (Liberal Democrat Leader) said our submission was "substantial", and he hoped that the Council Officers would use it to help come to a quick decision. The Council Officer in charge, Roger Guy, referred to our "inventive" ideas for how more housing could be incorporated into the scheme.
Getting this kind of support for our views in a public meeting means that the developer will have to take our criticisms more seriously. All the developer's key people were there, so they will definitely have got the message.
A resolution was passed, requiring the developer to increase the housing further - at least another 20 units must be added. And the car parking provision must not be further increased.
Peter Metcalfe said that this has all dragged on for too long, and the developers should sort things out quickly - and return to the Council with new proposals in three months' time.
However, that's what they said last time the Council considered the proposals - and that was 16 months ago! It looks like things will go on a bit longer yet. Even if B&NES do give the go-ahead, there is sure to be a public enquiry. So, the end isn't in sight yet ....
Our submission to the Council can be found on our website, www.bath-foe.org.uk, on the Campaigns page. A printed version is also available for inspection at envolve.
David Beasley.
More or less every
summer since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986, there has been a Standing
Conference on Low-Level Radiation somewhere in England. This year it was
hosted by the Nuclear Awareness Group of Reading in the local Quaker school
at Leighton Park.
As usual the line up of speakers represented all shades of opinion in the nuclear debate from the establishment-apologists, such as Dr Roger Clarke of the National Radiological Protection Board, through to the rebellious campaigners, such as Dr Chris Busby, of the Low-Level Radiation Campaign.The first speaker on the Saturday IO attended (15th July) was Dr Carol Barton, Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, who outlined her research into the incidence of childhood Leukaemia in West Berkshire. This area has been in the headlines for some years, since radiation was found to have leaked into local streams from the triangle enclosing various Government Nuclear facilities at Harwell, Aldermaston, Burghfield and Amersham.
Dr Barton and her colleagues first discovered the excess leukaemias in 1987, and is not merely a laboratory-based scientist, but a physician who has daily contact with the children who have this modern disease, of whom she showed several touching pictures of those who survived. In recent years she has noticed a reduction in the number of cases of leukaemia and thought, at first, that the problem was improving. But then she realised that the birth-rate had fallen, and so the excess was still apparent relative to the population increase.
The second lecture was by Dr Helmut Hirsch, on the suppressed hazards of nuclear power plants in Germany; including a leukaemia-cluster at the plant at Krummel, and embrittlement of the Stade reactor, due to inadeqate design.
There followed a three-way discussion by Drs Jane Hunt, Cat Euler and Cris Busby on the dangers of depleted uranium,- which is now being used by the Military for strengthening shells and missiles to make them capable of piercing tanks.Such shells were used in the Gulf War and in Bosnia and Kosovo where cases of radiation-induced illness are already occurring
After lunch. Dr Roger Clarke of the NRPB outlined his position as a regulator of radiation exposure and explained his position of being a `pig in the middle' between the opposing camps of the nuclear industry on one hand and the radiation campaigners on the other.
A selection of workshops was available and I chose the ones on Public Perception of Radiation as a cause of cancer, and Risk assessment.
Out in the lobby there was a variety of literature available and I was approached by a tall man who drew my attention to his publications on the `Chernobyl Catastrophe and Health' and a booklet by Dr Michael Bandazhevsky of Belorus on the `Medical and Biological Effects of Radiocaesium incorporated into the human organism'. I later discovered that he was Dr Michael Fernex, the Editor of the PSR News (Physicians for Social Responsibility),- which was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1985..
The first of these tells the scandalous story of how the proceedings of the World Health Organisation's conference on Chernobyl at Geneva in 1995 have been suppressed by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and remain unpublished. The second deals with Dr Bandazhevsky's discover of pathological effects of caesium since the Chernobyl explosion, such as tumours, cardiac and vascular disorders. His discoveries so alarmed the Government in Belarus, which is trying to suppress evidence of radiation-induced disease, that on 13th July last year he was arrested and charged with taking bribes from students. His case has now been take up by Amnesty International.
Concerned people should write to the Minister of Justice. Ul.Kollectornaya, 10;220084g, Minsk, Belarus. (Copies of these two documents have been donated to the library at Envolve, Bath Environment Centre).
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (in Somerset), the vigorous new campaign instigated by Jim Duffy of STOP HINKLEY has succeeded in getting the older magnox reactor, Hinkley A, closed down permanently because of embrittlement in the Pressure Vessel. Well done, Jim!
Richard Carder
An opportunity to find out more about the issues and also meet like-minded activists comes up on Saturday 11 Nov. The World Development Movement is holding its West of England Area Conference in Broadmead Baptist Church,Bristol from 10.30am to 4pm and has invited FoE members to attend. There will be workshops on "The Globalised Economy" and a debate - "Can Globalisation work for Developing Countries?" There will be no fee for the day although participants will be asked to make a donation to cover costs.
I will be going along and can provide further details. The WDM contact is Neil Gaskin 01823 665356
Terry