World Preservation Foundation

India's farmers profit from organic boom

"My input costs are lower. I don't have to spend money on buying chemicals," Singh says, "plus, it's healthier."

"We tell people eating an organic apple is not only good for you, it's good for the environment and will help the farmer grow another organic one," Katyal said.

Researchers find future temperatures could exceed livable limits

"Although areas of the world regularly see temperatures above 100 degrees, really high wet-bulb temperatures are rare," Huber said. "This is because the hottest areas normally have low humidity, like the 'dry heat' referred to in Arizona. When it is dry, we are able to cool our bodies through perspiration and can remain fairly comfortable. The highest wet-bulb temperatures ever recorded were in places like Saudi Arabia near the coast where winds occasionally bring extremely hot, humid ocean air over hot land leading to unbearably stifling conditions, which fortunately are short-lived today."

"Whole countries would intermittently be subject to severe heat stress requiring large-scale adaptation efforts," Huber said. "One can imagine that such efforts, for example the wider adoption of air conditioning, would cause the power requirements to soar, and the affordability of such approaches is in question for much of the Third World that would bear the brunt of these impacts. In addition, the livestock on which we rely would still be exposed, and it would make any form of outside work hazardous." 

Celebrity Chef Mario Batali, The King of Pancetta, Embraces Meatless Monday

Starting Monday and every Monday thereafter, chef Mario Batali adopts Meatless Monday in his renowned restaurants such as Babbo, Del Posto, Esca, Lupa, Carnevino Italian Steakhouse and Osteria Mozza.

"If anybody can entice meat lovers to enjoy their veggies as well, it's Batali!" says Sid Lerner, founder and chairman of Meatless Monday. "We're delighted that Maestro Mario is helping to move the movement."

Batali's 14 restaurants will feature at least two vegetarian entrees as part of his Meatless Monday promotion. These dishes will be designated on menus with his Meatless Monday logo. By advocating more plant-based meals, Mario not only joins a growing global movement, he sends a powerful message to other chefs and restauranteurs that we should all start the week right by eating our veggies.

"The fact is, most people in the U.S. eat way more meat than is good for them or the planet," maintains Batali.

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Eat less meat and dairy: official recipe to help health of consumers – and the planet

To fight climate change and tackle the growing crisis of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, British consumers must cut down on meat and dairy produce, reduce their intake of processed foods and curb waste.

These are the three priorities identified in a report by the government's independent advisory body on sustainability, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), which calls for radical changes in patterns of consumption.

While about 18% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions are related to food and drink consumption and production, the industry is the single biggest manufacturing sector in the UK, accounting for 7% of GDP and employing 3.7m people. The report recommends a shift away from meat and dairy to more seasonal and field-grown (as opposed to glasshouse-grown) vegetables and fruit.

The way that farmland is used would have to change. There should be "an increase in consumption of foods produced with respect for wildlife and the environment, eg organic," it adds. It estimates that 70,000 premature deaths in the UK could be avoided if diets matched healthy guidelines.

SDC commissioner Professor Tim Lang said the recommendations represented the first coherent advice on a sustainable diet. "So far we've had fragmented and contradictory thinking on what dietary intakes should be. Advice to consumers ought to change and stop compartmentalising issues.

Cutting down on meat and dairy, eating only sustainably sourced fruit and vegetables, would all help reduce the impact of our food system as well as improving health,

he said.

The government's approach to addressing the priorities in the report has been "mixed", according to the SDC. Food waste and consumers' shopping have received high-profile attention but cutting meat and dairy and junk food has not.

 

Recommended diet for a warming planet

1 Cut consumption of meat and dairy products

Health benefits: Reduces incidence of cardiovascular disease, of some forms of cancer, and of animal-borne infections.

Environmental benefits: Large reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, slowing of deforestation, freeing of farm land for other use, freeing of water resources, slowing loss of biodiversity, lower food prices and cheaper diets, higher employment.

2 Cut consumption of processed foods and drinks, especially fatty, sugary ones and stimulant drinks

Health benefits: Reduced obesity, reduced tooth decay, likely to particularly improve health of low income groups.

Environmental benefits: Cut in GHG emissions from energy-intense production of highly processed foods and bottled water. Reduced land use.

3 Reduce waste

Consume no more calories than needed, accept different standards of food quality and that some foods may not always be available in UK.

Health benefits: Cut in obesity problems, cheaper diet would benefit poor particularly; less air pollution from food freight, less food poisoning.

Environmental benefits: Reduced GHG emissions, reduced waste in agriculture, reduced imported food and associated emissions.

Other recommended changes:

• Eat more fruit and vegetables
• Eat more foods produced with respect for wildlife and environment
• Shop on foot or on internet and cook and store food in energy-saving ways
• Drink tap water, not bottled water

Source: SDC advice to government on priority elements of sustainable diets - December 2009

Source: Eat less meat and dairy: official recipe to help health of consumers – and the planet - Guardian UK

Date: 11 December 2009

UK study shows 94 percent fish stock fall since 1889

British fish stocks have dropped by 94 percent in the past 118 years and commercial fishing has profoundly changed seabed ecosystems, leading to a collapse in numbers of many species, scientists said on Tuesday.

The dramatic decline means fisherman working today land only a fraction of the fish caught by their predecessors 100 years ago, when the British fleet brought in four times more fish, according to a study by researchers at the University of York.

It is clear that seabed ecosystems have undergone a profound reorganization since the industrialization of fishing and that commercial stocks of most bottom-living species, which once comprised an important component of marine ecosystems, collapsed long ago,

wrote Callum Roberts and Ruth Thurstan in the study published in the Nature Communications journal.

The findings show fishing quota systems have done nothing to mitigate the fall and underline the need for urgent action to stop the overexploitation of European fisheries and rebuild stocks, the scientists said.

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2009 was the Fifth-Warmest Year on Global Record since the Beginning of Instrumental Climate Records in 1850

The year 2009 is nominally ranked as the fifth warmest year on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records around 1850.

On the decadal scale, the analysis shows that the 2000s decade (2000–2009) was warmer than the 1990s (1990–1999), which in turn were warmer than the 1980s (1980–1989) and earlier decades.

Global temperature assessment is provided with an uncertainty margin that affects the global surface temperature figures and consequently their ranking, mainly as a result of the existing gaps in data coverage. The magnitude of the uncertainty in assessing the global surface temperature in 2009 is estimated at 0.10°C. Therefore, the most likely value of the global surface temperature anomaly for 2009 is between +0.34°C and +0.56°C.

The southern hemisphere was particularly warmer than the long-term average, especially during the austral winter and late spring.

Source: WMO statement on the status of the global climate in 2009 (PDF) - World Meteorological Organization

Date: 23 March 2010

Vegetarians gain more options for fine dining with 50% rise in foodie eateries in UK

Vegetarian food was never really synonymous with fine dining, but today a new generation of sleek, modern restaurants offering meat-free fine food is banishing the sector's former reputation.

The number of high-end vegetarian eateries is rising fast, despite the recession, prompted by culinary innovation by leading chefs, interest in healthy lifestyles and a growing belief that carnivorous cuisine is bad for the environment.

Vanilla Black, which opened in 2008 near Chancery Lane in London, epitomises the trend. It is one of two Michelin-recommended vegetarian restaurants in Britain, alongside Brighton's long-established Terre à Terre.

"It's very classical, the way we cook," said Vanilla Black's head chef and co-founder Andrew Dargue. "We don't cook for vegetarians, we cook vegetarian food. And we don't market it to vegetarians, we market it so that the concept appeals to everybody."

Dargue said:

Vegetarian restaurants are doing well partly because people are realising that meat-eating is bad for the planet but also because the traditional view of vegetarian food as bland and boring is changing. Fewer people hold that view; they're looking for something different.

"The vegetarian food market has been growing for decades," said the Vegetarian Society's head of communications, Liz O'Neill. "Although the number of committed vegetarians has remained stable in recent years, the number of meat-reducers has increased enormously.

Both groups often choose vegetarian meals when eating out, partly because it's the only way to be sure that you're not eating factory-farmed meat and partly because they've realised that good food doesn't have to include a dead animal.

 

Source: Vegetarians gain more options for fine dining with 50% rise in foodie eateries - Guardian UK

Date: 30 April 2010

Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe

Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.

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Scientists investigate Ecuador's receding glaciers

A study to be published this year by Ecuadorean glaciologist Bolivar Caceres suggests that the country's glaciers lost more than 40% of their surface area between 1956 and 2006.

For example, the Cotopaxi mountain with its famous volcanic cone has lost 40% of its glacial cap since 1976.

And one of the glaciers on the nearby mountain called Antizana has also retreated by nearly the same amount in the last 50 years.

"There's been a definite acceleration since the 1980s, which is consistent with what's happening to tropical glaciers in other parts of South America and the world," says Mr Caceres.

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'Paltry' Copenhagen carbon pledges point to 3C world

Pledges made at December's UN summit in Copenhagen are unlikely to keep global warming below 2C, a study concludes.

Writing in the journal Nature, analysts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany say a rise of at least 3C by 2100 is likely.

The team also says many countries, including EU members and China, have pledged slower carbon curbs than they have been achieving anyway.

They say a new global deal is needed if deeper cuts are to materialise.

"There's a big mismatch between the ambitious goal, which is 2C... and the emissions reductions," said Potsdam's Malte Meinshausen.

"The pledged emissions reductions are in most cases very unambitious," he told BBC News.

In their Nature article, the team uses stronger language, describing the pledges as "paltry".

"The prospects for limiting global warming to 2C - or even to 1.5C, as more than 100 nations demand - are in dire peril," they conclude.

Between now and 2020, global emissions are likely to rise by 10-20%, they calculate, and the chances of passing 3C by 2100 are greater than 50%.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this implies a range of serious impacts for the world, including

• significant falls in crop yields across most of the world
• damage to most coral reefs
• likely disruption to water supplies for hundreds of millions of people.

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