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ARCHIVE JAN 2005 - JULY 30 2005

July 30 2005 ~ Three US astronomers have found a 10th planet, the largest object found in our Solar System since 1846. BBC A giant patch of frozen water has been photographed nestled with an unnamed impact crater on Mars. BBC

July 30 2005 ~ Pro-hunt campaigners have lost their second High Court challenge to laws outlawing hunting with dogs.

July 29 2005 ~ US BSE "Dr. John Clifford, head veterinarian for the United States Department of Agriculture...... : "In this case, we had some staining, but the staining did not match up with what they would typically see in a BSE case. It didn't have the normal distribution it would see within the samples." MeatingPlace.com

July 29 2005 ~ Freak tornado Twenty people were injured when it ripped through south Birmingham on Thursday PA

July 29 2005 ~ 50% drop in marine species The variety of species in the world's oceans has dropped by as much as 50 percent in the past 50 years, according to a paper published today in the journal Science. Washington Post
Vital marine species under threat Guardian

July 28 2005 ~ Conservative Animal Welfare Group. "The illegal Bush meat trade is a game of Russian roulette with the bullets being: Foot & Mouth disease, Swine fever, Avian flu, Ebola, Monkey Pox, SARS" says this press release from "CAWG". "...The trade is illegal, the risks to the UK both in human and animal terms are significant. This trade also adds to the destruction of endangered species in other parts of the world. Turning a blind eye to the Bush Meat trade is both dangerous and morally indefensible." See also Dirty Meat pages on warmwell.

July 28 2005 ~ Avian Influenza - vaccination: ProMed "....Viet Nam .... Reportedly, vaccinations will begin 1 Aug 2005 at commercial poultry operations and smaller household farms in northern Nam Dinh province and southern Tien Giang province in the Mekong Delta. - Mod.AS"

July 28 2005 ~ 9-5 job "Same over here," writes a farmer from Germany, referring to the email below, " the last one who made a suggestion ("What about doing B & B? It's such a wonderful place you live in..") I sent away and told him not to come back before he had managed to get himself a job with the mail delivery services. Once he had delivered all the letters and has managed to do his office job properly he is very welcome to come back with some more good ideas..."

July 28 2005 ~".....The very latest insult comes in the form of an extremely expensively produced magazine from the Rural Development Service entitled Options for Change Your Farm Your Business Your Future in which, under Livestock Farmers, comes the suggestion that everyone should get a 9 - 5 job as well. .." email about this, about DEFRA howlers and about waiting and waiting for a taxi if you do not look British...

July 28 2005 ~ US BSE The government is investigating another possible case of mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said yesterday. Washington Post

July 28 2005 ~ The plans to build a £57m road and visitor centre at Stonehenge have been rejected by Salisbury district council ..." a move greeted by cries of triumph from local residents and of astonishment even from some opponents of the scheme" Guardian.

July 28 2005 ~ Sometimes emails arrive that seem to justify the apparently disparate nature of the issues on warmwell. They show that other readers join up the dots too. This email is such a one. And this one disagrees that a parallel can really be made...to which this restrained riposte, received at midday.

July 28 2005 ~ New Zealand. Following the FMD scare in May, reports TVNZ " there is some disquiet among farmers who believe they were left out of the loop during the feared outbreak. There is frustration too that farm leaders were given no advance warning of the scare, and that just months earlier there had been no farm involvement in an operation to test New Zealand's preparedness for foot and mouth....This year is the 60th anniversary of Federated Farmers and with an election looming, outgoing president Tom Lambie reminded those present that the federation "speaks with a credibility that cannot be matched by a politician or bureaucrat, no matter how well intentioned"."

July 28 2005 ~ "The oil giant's profits - equivalent to £1.3m an hour - were in line with the figures released by its rival BP earlier this week, which established a new record for a UK company..." peak oil news

July 28 2005 ~ Climate Change In a paper that has been described as "weep-silently-aplogize-to-your-children-and- throw-yourself-out-a-window depressing," Tim Dyson of the London School of Economics says "....Apropos carbon emissions and climate change, however, it is argued here that not only is major behavioral change unlikely in the foreseeable future, but it probably wouldn't make much difference even were it to occur. In all likelihood, events are now set to run their course...... it is worth considering the notion that the very interdependent complexity and high degree of specialization that characterize the world's most economically advanced countries could be a potential source of vulnerability for some of them..." (pdf in new window)

July 28 2005 ~ Tireless Bryn Wayt has responded to warmwell's wail of frustration yesterday at not being able to locate Defra's Hornbeam report on the part of the Defra website where it was said to be... Here is an account of his own finally successful attempt to track it down (but not on the DEFRA website).

July 27 2005 ~ FMD Directive One of the stakeholders who attended, at his own expense, a DEFRA meeting on Monday to discuss the transposition of the FMD EU Directive and the implications of control strategies on the Processing and Retail Industry was, at first, refused entry in spite of having confirmed attendance on two separate occasions. Questions were sent out for consideration by attendees after office hours on Friday for Monday morning's meeting (see also Front Page). The Chairman's area of expertise appears to centre on the Rural Payments Agency. Recent requests to DEFRA for minutes, notes or action points from these meetings have so far failed to produce results. If Defra meetings - at its own premises in Page Street - are poorly organised, what hope for an outbreak of FMD anywhere in the country?

July 27 2005 ~Georgina Downs, the campaigner who continues to receive emails and letters from people all over the country reporting clusters of various cancers, leukaemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and neurological problems along with many other medical conditions, has applied for a Judicial Review in the High Court. It is currently "stayed" pending the outcome of a Royal Commission study. However, a report published in the US today will add fuel to her assertion that pesticide exposure constitutes an unacceptable health risk. See her press release today and our page on her unstoppable fight against the largely unregulated pesticide use in the UK.

July 26 2005 ~ DEFRA's website. Anyone looking for Defra's report on Operation Hornbeam on their somewhat labyrinthine website will eventually find on the page entitled DEFRA PUBLISHES REPORT ON EXERCISE HORNBEAM a hopeful looking link to the report on Operation Hornbeam. It leads to the index page for the Contingency Plan. So does the link for the Contingency Plan. One does rather wonder what would happen if DEFRA were reduced to asking for small donations to help keep their website online. Our own pages on Operation Hornbeam are a little easier to locate - but can anyone direct us to DEFRA's own report on its FMD simulation exercise? (They could!)

July 26 2005 ~ GM superweed has been found in the UK. Telegraph "The plant, which is resistant to some types of weed killer, is the result of GM oilseed rape cross-breeding with a common weed in farm scale trials." Friends of the Earth (FoE) said the finding, which comes less than a month after the UK tried to persuade other European countries to lift their own bans on growing GM oilseed rape, raises serious concerns about the impact of growing GM oilseed rape in Britain. GM page latest

July 26 2005 ~ Cepheid has announced that it has identified a software bug in one function of the diagnostic software utilized in conjunction with its SmartCycler® system. The company has notified its customers of a simple work-around that permits continued reliable use of the system. See press release

July 26 2005 ~ oil prices "....Campbell reserved his harshest criticism for the way that oil executives remunerate themselves, especially at such a volatile time in the oil marketplace. “It is obscene what these people pay themselves, absolutely obscene. And of course once again these huge payments to executives are included in the balance sheet as running costs, offset against tax.." See peak oil pages

July 26 2005 ~ Defra has announced on its website that a pilot programme of lay TB cattle testing is to start next month. "The 'Veterinary Surgery (Testing for Tuberculosis in Bovines) Order 2005' permits trained and competent State Veterinary Service Animal Health Officers, under direct veterinary supervision, to carry out tuberculin testing, and measure and record the results. The pilot is expected to involve up to 11,000 tests and 18 Animal Health Officers and 4 Senior Animal Health Officers..."

July 25 2005 ~ The future of warmwell.com. An offer to contribute towards keeping the website's archive at least open on the internet by paying some of the technical costs involved has been received. Please do email warmwell if you would like to help me to cover these costs.
The Coordination Action website on FMD and CSF (new page), also has up to date news and readers' forum.

July 24 2005 ~ Fishing "Mr Bradshaw, no doubt, will continue to maintain that the conduct of the French is "exemplary", while his officials continue to harass British fishermen in every way they can devise..." From Booker's Notebook today

July 24 2005 ~ Concreting over green fields.. Sunday Times Focus on Mr Prescott ".... Bulldozing thousands of historic Victorian terraces, concreting over green fields, giving the nod to a tower block that will shadow the Houses of Parliament. .."

July 24 2005 ~ Solar energy. Until now, solar panels have been expensive and not really practical for most people. The news extract suggests that efficient and less expensive panels are on the way. "...Ordinary, flat-plate solar modules have their entire sun-receiving surface covered with costly silicon solar cells and are positioned at a fixed tilt to the sun. In contrast, Amonix's systems offer significant cost savings by using inexpensive flat, plastic Fresnel lenses as an intermediary between the sun and the cell. These magnifying lenses focus and concentrate sunlight approximately 250 times onto a relatively small cell area."

July 24 2005 ~ ProMed on FMD in China ".....Since 13 May 2005, 9 outbreaks of FMD serotype Asia 1 have been officially notified to the OIE by the Chinese authorities. They are located in 7 provinces, spread over distances of about 4000 km, from the far eastern parts of China (Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei and Beijing) to the centre (Gansu), midwest (Qinghai) and the far north west (Xinjiang autonomous region)...This situation puts the countries bordering China at risk....."

July 24 2005 ~The suspected avian influenza in Russia is " unlikely to pose a threat to humans, a senior Health Ministry official said on Friday [22 Jul 2005]. " according to ProMed in this report, which also carries a useful paragraph of explanation: " Avian influenza virus is split into strains [serotypes] such as H5 and H7. Both of these have the potential to be high or low pathogenic [in birds]. Of the H5 strain, there are potentially 9 different subtypes such as H5N1, H5N2 and H5N3. The deadly strain of the virus that has struck Asia recently is the high-pathogenic H5N1 type that can be transmitted to humans."

July 21 2005 ~ Professor Hugh Pennington has predicted that up to two million Britons could die from a mutated form of the H5N1 virus. However, as far as anyone yet knows, the virus has not mutated. One wonders at the reason for such scaremongering at the Daily Mail and elsewhere. ProMed's July 15 entry about the conflicting results in Vietnam was worrying - but not in any way reason for a global scare.

July 21 2005 ~Traceability "... has become a buzzword in the food industry. Consumer demands for higher-quality foods and more variety have never been greater. Spurred on by recent food scares around the world, such as mad cow disease and bioterrorism fears, governments are forcing the adoption of food traceability systems. Everyone from producer to retailer will be affected by food traceability. This state-of-the-art review deals with the key topics of traceability - technology, law, forecasts and case studies. A must read for anyone involved in the food industry." www.idtechex.com

July 21 2005 ~ " James Roth, director of Iowa State's Center for Food Security and Public Health.... told the Senate Agriculture Committee that the government should develop animal vaccines that could be deployed within 24 hours.." Desmoines Register

July 20 2005 ~ Newcastle Disease French authorities "undertook active surveillance and sampling which has now allowed them to conclude by blood sampling that birds on one farm have been exposed to the ND virus in the Loire Atlantique "Departement" of France..... and have reported the incident to both the EU Members States and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) today.... investigations in both countries must continue....." ProMed Digest.

July 20 2005 ~ FMD epidemic policies- truth will out? An email from a reader who asks for anonymity: "The art of spinning did not work for the Lions rugby tour" (see BBC) " - no amount of rhetoric from Campbell could alter the score - so perhaps there is a message here for the abolition of spin in politics?
Stephen Byers, under oath, has admitted to lying - perhaps we might discover a similar trait if our Prime Minister was to be examined under oath for matters such as the 2001 FMD epidemic and the war in Iraq. He can protest as much as he likes about inquiries, but on no occasion has he had to give evidence under oath..." Read email and ethics test that readers may have seen before - but still makes one smile.

July 20 2005 ~ Climate Change "... many questions remain unresolved, ..."Lords a Leaping is written by Cécile Philippe, director of the Molinari Economic Institute, an independent, non-profit, non-partisan research and educational institute. It is about the report from the Committee for Economic Affairs of the House of Lords - which " recognizes that the Kyoto Protocol will have only a very small impact on lowering global warming ... unlikely the plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will succeed.... invites the British government to review its energy and climate policies." The final paragraph says of the House of Lords, its members remind us of truths too often kept from the public.

July 20 2005 ~ Bees ".. it didn't take long to find just the right academic..... Getting hold of DEFRA for a statement was a bit more difficult, but finally one was dictated down the phone... Michael hoped this meant there might be movement, that maybe DEFRA was going to change its mind; I was less convinced..." Extract from Today Programme Newsletter
See below for what DEFRA is doing to its Honeybee Health Programme "....all to save £250,000, and to show dutiful compliance with a directive many other countries will ignore."

July 20 2005 ~ RCVS Consultation - - The Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 - is now open for public consultation.
Mona has written an email telling us that a" Regulation of veterinary services under review is being conducted by the Royal College of Veterinary surgeons (RCVS), "and they are looking for input from animal owners" She notes that a response is required by August 1st

July 19 2005 ~ EU outlines plans to relax BSE restrictions The EU's TSE Roadmap is dated 15th July. "...any relaxation, although scientifically justified, may call upon the political courage of the Member States to reduce the current measures in place..." says the "Roadmap". Now, evidently feeling that there's no time like the present to demonstrate "political courage", the FSA will hold stakeholder meetings in the UK " to discuss proposed changes to the Over Thirty Months Rule (one of the BSE Controls) and the outcomes of recent trials of BSE testing.." They are to be held between the 25th and 29th July. See also front page

July 19 2005 ~ CAP ~ Euro MP Jonathan Evans, leader of the European Conservatives on Margaret Beckett's address to the European Commissioners last week icwales: "When she was asked what Tony Blair meant when he called for CAP reform she could not say.... when she was asked what the UK's plans were for reform she was not able to respond. Half the commissioners walked out of the meeting at that point because they felt there was no point in carrying on the dialogue if there was nothing to be said."

July 19 2005 ~ Fishing WMN "The industry has moved on but the ministry has not. It's clear that they just want their pound of flesh." Jim Portus, chief executive of the South West Fish Producers' Organisation, said the accused men would strongly contest the charges said that any fishermen who were penalised with large fines could face bankruptcy. Mr Portus added that soaring fuel prices were exacerbating the problem..." Yesterday's cases were heard at Newton Abbot Magistrates Court. All were adjourned until August, when trial dates will be set.

July 19 2005 ~ a new Sustainable Energy Europe campaign was launched today by the European Commission “This campaign will promote better living standards, stimulate economic growth, create jobs and enhance the competitive position of European industry on world markets,” said European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

July 19 2005 ~ There are now extreme weather conditions throughout Europe. Drought in France, Spain and Portugal - where cattle are dying - and floods in Germany, Austria and the East. See report in the Independent As for the UK, the drought conditions in the South East are described (also in the Independent) as "critical". Phil Burston, the RSPB's senior water policy officer is quoted: "To save our wetlands, our wildlife and the livelihoods that depend on them, we must stop wasting so much water in homes and gardens, build houses to the highest water efficiency standards and force water companies to address their shameful rate of water leakage. Failure to do it will see our wetlands ruined and billions of pounds squandered on unnecessary new reservoirs and more desalination plants."

July 19 2005 ~ BSE"......on the Canadian front. Prior to the ban, the U.S. imported about one million head of cattle per year, many of which went to slaughterhouses and meat-packing plants in northern states. Those plants are now at risk of being shut down; already, 7,800 jobs have been lost to protectionism. Then there is the cost to consumers: Beef prices have risen by 20% since the ban took effect, no small price to pay for burying one mad cow..." Interesting article in Truth abut Trade org. daring to question the BSE/vCJD link and deploring mad cow protectionism.

July 19 2005 ~ Common Fisheries Policy. Seen on a Forum ".....On Saturday we had a stall at the local Fish Docks Open Day ( Grimsby) and were handing out leaflets condemning the CFP. The response was great with the vast majority of people whole heartedly supporting the cause. But one guy emphatically refused to accept a leaflet. I was so astonished at his hostility that I asked him why he was refusing to support the British Fishing Industry.
" I'm from the Opposition" said he.
Puzzled... I asked who that might be.
"Defra" he replied.
Now if that don't say it all!"

July 18 2005 ~ DEFRA spending on legal fees and consultancy :"Figures supplied in a Parliamentary answer to the Lib-Dem MP Andrew George show that Defra has spent more than £480 million on "consultants and professional services" in the last three years, with a £180 million bill run up last year alone. ..." WMN reports on DEFRA's 480 million pound bill for "consultants and professional services" in the last three years. (DEFRA spent £42 million on disease prevention and £63 million on animal welfare, according to its annual report .) Read in full

July 18 2005 ~ Dirty Meat. Dr Yunes Teinez writes, "Please feel free to reprint the letters . There is a slow progress but the issue of the hot meat from licensed plants is affecting the meat safety in the UK due to the fact that the slaughtered ewes are very thin, not kept to set for 24 hours for fitness, and then sent to the market mis-described: for the Muslim as Halal , for the African as "goats"....usually ending as mince, to schools, hospitals and the kebab industry.
The reality is that this type of meat is unfit for human consumption."

July 17 2005 ~ Wind farms " Scottish Tories have called for a rethink of energy policy and a moratorium on controversial windfarm proposals. .." Scotland on Sunday

July 17 2005 ~ "Britain's farmers are being forced to throw away as much as a third of their fruit and vegetables — most of it perfectly edible — because supermarkets are imposing ever-tougher rules on its cosmetic appearance. .." Sunday Times

July 17 2005 ~ Booker's Notebook today says of the EU Directive about vitamins and supplements (see also below) : " There is no scientific reason for the new law. Its greatest beneficiaries will be the pharmaceutical companies who have lobbied for it in Brussels, because it will drive thousands of their smaller competitors out of business. They have freely used bogus science to whip up a scare that misuse of food supplements can cause adverse reactions (albeit in only a tiny minority of users), while hiding away the fact that tens of thousands of people each year suffer much more serious, even fatal health damage from their own proprietary drugs, all licensed, at vast expense, as being safe to use."

July 17 2005 ~ On the subject of Ben Bradshaw (see below) and Stephen Byers, Booker also has a few words to say: "...what it is that can so isolate ministers from reality that they can claim in the most brazen manner that black is white in this way. Yet these are the men who have the power to both make and enforce the law." Booker's Notebook

July 17 2005 ~ On the same subject, Simon Jenkins today on "This is a good week to bury the ministers with a licence to steal" See also warmwell's updated blog page (new window)

July 16 2005 ~ Wind turbines - An accident involving a 70 ft wind turbine has happened between Dittmansdorf and Neukirchen in Saxony. A defect in the lower segment of the steel tower is apparently the cause. The crashed turbine is not a pretty sight. Damage is estimated at about two million euros. report

July 16 2005 ~ Meat Scandal An end to "hot meat"? Hundreds of old cull ewes, often in a deplorable condition, are slaughtered every day at Meat Hygiene Services licensed plants. The meat is transported without proper refrigeration for the Muslim markets all over the country, often reaching the markets in a condition unfit for human consumption. The updated DirtyMeat page (New page) reports on progress following the ICC letter to Shaheen Zar of the Meat Fraud and Diversity Branch Enforcement Division at the FSA.

July 16 2005 ~ First case of Newcastle Disease in the UK for eight years. 9,000 pheasants in Surrey are to be culled. The affected pheasant chicks are just two weeks old and were imported from France a fortnight ago. The Times and the Telegraph carry the story. Valerie Elliott writes that it has " led to an immediate ban on all exports of live birds, hatching eggs, meat and eggs outside the European Union. The disease is as damaging to the poultry industry as foot-and-mouth is to livestock."

July 15 -16 2005 ~ Coordinated Action website "To make this a broad and responsive platform, we seek your participation, especially to contribute to the online discussion fora on topics of interest.." After more than four long years, a hopeful sign. There were so many empty references to the "best scientific advice" in 2001; here at last is the project that will coordinate the real thing. Read the announcement of the website for the EU FMD/CSF Coordinated Project. Front page "Breaking News"
After only a quick look at the site, one page particularly to be recommended is FMD control policies – who decides and on whose advice?

July 15 -16 2005 ~The schools tuberculosis vaccination programme for young teenagers is to be dropped after more than 50 years in favour of a system aimed at babies in the population who are most at risk. Telegraph

July 15 -16 2005 ~ Food Miles "More than half the food imported into the UK could be grown in this country according to a new report released last night, that warns the environmental cost of so-called "food miles" has reached £9 billion a year. The report, commissioned by the Government, explodes the myth that the huge growth in food imports has been driven purely by consumer demand for exotic or out-of-season produce..." WMN

July 15 -16 2005 ~ Bird flu is suspected to have caused the deaths of three people in Indonesia, the health minister says. BBC

July 15 -16 2005 ~ "International scientists say they have sequenced the genomes of three parasites responsible for diseases that kill more than 150,000 people a year. ...... Chagas disease, African sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis caused by the three pathogens. It might even be possible to make vaccines, they told Science journal. " BBC

July 14-15 2005 ~ "....The Government's target figure for Britain's 2010 saving in carbon dioxide emission by means of all renewable electricity generation in Britain is 9.2 megatonnes of carbon dioxide per year. This amount is less than four ten-thousandths of the global carbon dioxide emission of nearly 25,000 megatonnes per year recorded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. " See letters in yesterday's Telegraph

July 14-15 2005 ~ Norm in Australia writes, "I see you have a letter on the UK governments 'Global Warming' strategy captured from the Telegraph. Well here is a website that has an alternative view on the weather and prediction.."

July 14-15 2005 ~ The march of bovine TB. The discovery that bovine TB had been found in pigs in Cornwall " is unusual and unwelcome" says BBC South West Environment Correspondent Adrian Campbell. The later BBC report quotes Andy Biggs, president of the British Cattle Veterinary Association, who said "the evidence so far showed the disease had been confined to the farm." There is no risk of bovine TB spreading to humans, says the BBC. A senior ProMed moderator does not appear to be so sure: "If the current situation continues, it might be only a matter of time before humans are infected."

July 14-15 2005 ~ New Zealanders are no longer allowed to feed family pigs untreated food scraps from the family kitchen. Stuff.NZ reports that "a campaign is underway to advise dozens of backyard operators who keep a handful of pigs that they must comply with the new regulations."
The cost is now going to skyrocket. The unconfirmed blame for the UK's FMD outbreak in 2001 on swill and the inflated fear about BSE have led to global restrictions on small farmers . If only one could really feel confidence that it is common sense that drives these regulations. At a time when the price of oil is going to make it harder and harder for foodstuffs to travel long distances the ability of small farmers to produce their own food should surely be encouraged.

July 14-15 2005 ~ Last June, the Times reported on a Zoological Society of London report calling for a unified national agency that would track animal disease continuously through clinical, post-mortem and population studies. " It could also employ newer methods of disease tracking such as satellite monitoring, which can be used to identify weather patterns such as El Niño that can be linked to outbreaks of animal disease. "

July 14-15 2005 ~ a pill for every ill or a no-brainer?
Guardian "Launching the report yesterday, the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, said that brain-enhancing drugs developed to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's were likely to find increased use among healthy people looking to improve their perception, memory, planning or judgment..."

July 12- 13 2005 ~ Wind power: The WMN reports that "crucial sections of the guidance to planners on consulting the public over windfarm applications were produced by a consultant for the British wind industry.....The report, Wind Power in the UK, is being distributed to councillors, planners and environmental decision-makers and is presented as a "good practice guide to ensure decisions are based on a good understanding of the real issues"...... one of the report's main consultants was David Milborrow, who has strong links with the wind industry."

July 12- 13 2005 ~ "....after a series of replies deemed insubstantial or misleading, at least five MEPs left, prompting an apology from Ms Beckett..." The Independent reports that Mrs Beckett was repeatedly challenged in Brussels yesterday over the UK's calls for a thorough reform of agriculture spending up to 2013 . Her replies were considered misleading and evasive.

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ The CLA has urged the government to give a greater role to biofuels and biomass when developing its policies on climate change FWi
See also "Green Fuels maintains that one tonne of oilseed rape will, when crushed, produce on average 350-litres of oil. The set-up, which includes Alvan Blanch's new XT150 press and Green Fuels' processing plant, will produce 300-litres each day and is anticipated to cost in the region of £15,000. "Although this seems to be a fairly high capital cost, it's an investment which will easily pay for itself within a year," says Mr Hygate." FWi

July 11 - 13 2005 ~

(One would feel a certain sympathy for Mr Bradshaw as a matter of fact, were it not for his extraordinary outburst. A close reading does indeed support the view that the suggestion was "kite-flying" - and the response duly noted. However, the whole affair underlines two deplorable aspects of government - the ungoverned arrogance of some of its Ministers and the lack of clarity - unintentional or deliberate - in government documents. Such impenetrable communication is - especially for a government that says it believes in "improved access to information and wider participation of the public in decision-making processes .." - very much to be regretted.

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ Sites chosen for new windfarms will be revealed by the Welsh Assembly Government when it unveils its energy strategy later on Tuesday. BBC

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ The European Court has decided to tighten rules on the sale of vitamin and minerals. "... The HFMA and NAHS argued the directive was an unlawful restriction on freedom to trade, that implementation would impose an unnecessary burden on British business and there are no reasons to believe it is necessary to protect consumers' welfare." BBC

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ Bovine TB: Steve Dube reports on the NFU badger cull plan icwales. ".. measures would tackle a problem that is harmful to badgers as well as farmers and livestock and that could not wait for the results of current trials into the effects of culling badgers. ..... "The measures are aimed at diseased badger populations, and do not threaten the thriving badger population as a whole." Tim Bennett See also BBC
( In the UK, the number of farmers diversifying away from cattle to reduce the risk to their businesses is on the increase. )BBC

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ WMN "Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw used a television debate yesterday to accuse the Western Morning News of lying about a fishing report. London Editor Jason Groves reckons the Minister should be a little more careful with his facts before being so free with his language..." Read in full and see the relevant part of the report here

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ Cornish fishing leader and Caradon Conservative councillor Sheryll Murray, of Millbrook, appeared on the programme. She said:

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ An antidote to rage? See windfarm game at SOCME. Windfarm page or Run the programme from here

July 11 - 13 2005 ~ BSE: USDA has killed the 29 herdmates of the BSE positive cow in Texas.....in spite of an earlier report from Chron.com that said none had tested positive and that no more testing was to take place.
USDA's own website asserts " There is no evidence that the disease is transmitted through direct contact or animal-to-animal spread."
We read at Charlotte.com

It is interesting how many journalists seem to be certain both about "how the disease first spread" and the necessity of killing herd mates of a disease that has never been shown to be contagious.
Adlyfe, Inc. has developed a sensitive blood test for protein folding diseases that could provide earlier diagnosis of BSE, "possibly before visible symptoms occur." The test has been under development for three years under the support of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institutes of Health.

July 9 - 10 2005 ~ The World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) met in Kuala Lumpur this week and have produced a $100 million plan to reduce the likelihood that bird flu could spread to humans. The strategy includes compensating farmers when they report disease, compensation for the culling of infected flocks and paying for poultry vaccination in high-risk areas. "Without international support, poor countries will not be able to battle bird flu," Dr. Domenech said. Joseph Domenech has called on all governments to step up animal vaccination programs. See Environment News Service or read here in full

July 8 - 10 2005 ~ According to FWi, in the past financial year DEFRA spent almost £180 million pounds on “consultancy and professional services” – more than on its environment strategy (£165m) or on animal welfare (£63m), disease prevention (£65m) and forestry (£125m). Norman Baker, the Lib Dems’ shadow environment secretary: “With many British farmers struggling to make ends meet and environmental projects crying out for funding, why is the government throwing so much money at private consultants when it has its own civil servants and independent experts queuing up to give free advice?”

July 8 - 10 2005 ~ Windfarms latest. Sir Donald Miller, late of Scottish Power, submitted evidence at the Whinash Inquiry.

July 8 - 10 2005 ~ PMWS. Australia's pig producers may sue the Federal Government, if it is confirmed the disease has entered the national herd. ABC.net

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ Avian influenza has reached the Phillipines. It is not yet clear if it is the H5N1 strain. BBC

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ Hill farming. The Western Morning News has three articles today. None pulls any punches "The dire financial prospects facing many Westcountry hill farmers stem from the way the Government chose to implement the Common Agricultural Policy reforms in England."
Mrs Browning, the Tory MP for Tiverton and Honiton, said. "In many of these upland areas there is simply no substitute for grazing by livestock. It is all very well the Government talking about environmental payments, but you cannot get machinery and equipment up on to the moors, nor would you want to. You do wonder whether Margaret Beckett understands all this."

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ The National Trust says it has carried out an analysis of farming on 370,000 acres in the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and Moors, Peak District and Northumberland and the Telegraph headline is Hill farms on edge of extinction, warns National Trust The NT told Charles Clover that it had carried out the analysis after being faced with an outcry about its decision over High Yewdale( see warmwell pages) Charles Clover writes

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ Test results expected in the next two days will determine whether the pig disease, post-weaning multi-systemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), has entered Australia for the first time. See ABC.net

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ Cancer in the UK. Norm has added to the email sent yesterday. Among other quotations, we read: "....At least 18 tonnes of Depleted Uranium weapons have been test-fired in Britain at army ranges in Kirkcudbright and Cumbria. Most of the munitions landed in the Solway Firth, where they remain..."

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ The San Francisco Chronicle says, "There is no evidence to date that the bird flu virus can be transmitted readily among humans, but epidemiologists fear that it could easily." The article quotes UC Davis veterinarian Dr. Carol Cardona, an expert on avian influenza..."This virus has been around for nearly a decade, and human movement of domesticated birds usually explains it, '' she said. "If birds get sick, they don't walk far, but people walk far with them.''

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ A day of bad news. Avian influenza has been found in migratory wild geese in China. USA Today calls it "an ominous development that could allow the virus to spread .... to parts of southern Asia not yet infected, as well as into Europe, say the authors of the Nature report" and also talks of the "futile" attempt to stop the disease by culling. "25 million chickens have been killed in a futile effort to stop the virus"

July 7 - 10 2005 ~ Oil is now at $61. www.chicagotribune.com

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ On the very day that Tony Blair opens the G8 summit with a focus on global warming, the House of Lords Select Committee on economic affairs has reached some uncomfortable conclusions for him - and for Professor King, Sir Robert May et al - ( interestingly, members of the same group whose actions over FMD in 2001 caused such destruction and misery.) The Committee chaired by Lord Wakeham, says in its report that the Kyoto protocol will make little difference to rates of warming and that "serious questions" are being raised about the IPCC; "....there are concerns about the objectivity of the international panel of scientists that has led research into climate change ." See press reports new window (Wednesday) See also what Professor Dennis Bray said about scientific consensus and why Chris Landsea resigned from the IPCC

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ Dependency on debt was the subject of an enlightening email last week. 34,215 people have now signed the petition against secured debt adverts on Children's TV and 53 MPs have signed the Early Day Motion here There is apparently no sign that TV channels are about to take any notice.

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ The Register's Charles Arthur on the big politics behind the science of the energy crisis:

July 5 - 7 2005 ~"... The problem is that renewables like wind, waves and solar can't cover the energy shortfall once the UK's nuclear power stations go offline around 2020; presently fission produces 25 per cent of the UK's electricity. Building more nuclear fission stations looks the easy option, but Margaret Beckett, at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, hates them and talks them down as fiercely as King talks them up. .." (read in full)

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ Norm in Australia has looked at the Telegraph article; Revealed for the first time: the cancer map of Britain and notes "a very remarkable coincidence" not mentioned in the article. Could the depleted uranium used at military firing ranges behind the highest incidence? - (and is anyone able to open, rather than merely save, the pdf file at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/cancer0705.pdf?)

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ From the icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk "...Big dogs have such a bad reputation. Trooper, who is a rescue dog, has not only overcome what he has been through but his determination to look after Edith meant he overcame his disability and his fears. Edith could have been lying on the floor for hours if it wasn't for Trooper. She is devoted to the dog, I think she would kill anyone who tried to hurt him."
(regular readers may like to know that Morgan, too, is considerably better.)

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ Britain received its first-ever shipment of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Monday. The UK must now rely on imports since the North Sea fields are increasingly drying up. The gas will be pumped into National Grid Transco's new LNG terminal. See ABC news. Even now, few have woken up to the coming rise in fuel and energy prices - and the implications of this.
Comment

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ The Times reports on the results of an unofficial infected badger extermination strategy in Devon. ".....Mr Bennett said: “The NFU is not seeking to eradicate all badgers, rather we wish to see a healthy badger population and a healthy cattle population.” A vaccine for cattle and all wildlife is the ideal solution, he said, but farmers could no longer wait for such a development.

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ At the same time that Portsmouth was patriotically celebrating Trafalgar, three Royal Navy armed guards from the fisheries protection vessel HMS Mersey (acting under the orders of DEFRA and enforcing the EU's Common Fisheries Policy) took up a position in the wheelhouse of an astonished English skipper. His crew were placed under arrest and forbidden to communicate with anyone via the satellite phone. See Dr North's article No charges were laid and no explanation given to the vessel owners as to why the action had been taken.

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ Avian influenza: International health experts have called for mass vaccination of birds across Asia to prevent avian influenza from becoming pandemic General Front Page

July 5 - 7 2005 ~ ProMed Mail " the overall total number of definite or probable vCJD cases (dead and alive) remains unchanged at 156. These data are consistent with the view that the vCJD outbreak in the UK is now in decline.."
A 12-year-old boy in Portugal with no history of visiting the UK has been diagnosed with vCJD. A patient in a Dublin hospital is also suspected to be suffering from variant CJD. It is not yet known if he has travelled in the UK. See also Britain's most expensive myth

July 4 - 7 2005 ~ An emailer writes, ".... Elliot Morley is right now trying to persuade other European nations to drop their opposition to GM crops. ..... he is clearly preparing to position the UK as a champion of genetic modification. George Bush and Tony Blair want African farmers to use GM seeds..... Bob Geldof and Bono are deflecting the public away from the real issues. " (See also Guardian for June 24)

July 4 - 7 2005 ~ More than 100 pigs have been seized from Brian Hagan's smallholding at Briston near Holt by the RSPCA. The newspaper article does not say why. It may be remembered that Mr Hagan was made the subject of an ASBO last December.

July 4 - 7 2005 ~ Windfarms An article by Dr David Toke (see Windworks.org) examines how the financial regime of the Government's Renewable Obligation is influencing wind power deployment in the UK.".. The UK’s ROCs system seems is expensive, it is prone to manipulation by the oligopolistic electricity suppliers, and it is too inflexible to allow offshore wind schemes to be easily financed." Read in full

July 4 - 7 2005 ~ "... trying to prevent a private company from creating a wind farm on Whinash comprising 27 turbines, each one of them more than 370 feet tall. That is roughly 70 feet higher from ground to the tip of a blade than the Statue of Liberty from a toe to the tip of the torch....Even on these buffeted uplands, wind does not blow steadily enough to generate constant power; Britain's 100 wind farms produce only a tiny sliver of the country's electric power; and government subsidies mean that wind power costs consumers much more than power from Britain's gas, coal and nuclear-powered stations...." NY Times

July 4 - 7 2005 ~ Organophosphates. A new study has found that the health of 367 sheep farmers who reported a range of serious health problems as a result of using OP-based dips was "generally poor", with most suffering neurological problems and fatigue. DEFRA remains defiant and says there is "nothing in the new report that would lead to OPs being withdrawn ... the report did not provide conclusive proof that long-term use of OP-based dips posed a direct threat to health...OP dips would continue to be licensed for sale." Read in full particularly about the government's fear of compensation claims.

July 4 - 7 2005 2005 ~ Asia needs about $100 million in the next three years to fight avian flu, but only about a third of that has been pledged, health and livestock experts said. See Reuters

July 1-3 2005 ~ "....the vast majority of the general public assumes that what the future holds is “more of the same”. ....Such a view is untenable because it ignores the fact that almost all materials essential to modern civilization will be orders of magnitude more costly, and scarce.... In 2150, for example, a wind turbine constructed of steel, concrete and plastic may not be able to generate, during its lifetime, as much renewable energy as would have been used up in creating it. .." See windfarms page and peakoil page

July 1-3 2005 2005 ~ Prof John Brignell's blog: http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2005%20July.htm "...The science of global warming is not settled, not as long as different methods of measuring temperatures give conflicting answers, not as long as weather satellites and weather balloons show little if any warming in the past 25 years, not as long as computer models used to predict future temperatures and other climate effects remain unvalidated. It would be foolhardy to base far-reaching decisions affecting national economies on insubstantial evidence."

July 1-3 2005 ~ Photovoltaic schemes – which harness sunlight to generate electricity – are being phased out from this summer by the Department of Trade and Industry even though the Government promised support from 2002 to 2012

July 1-3 2005 ~ The Sunday Telegraph article about proposed energy ration cards carries a somewhat less than flattering photograph of Elliot Morley with the caption: ‘We should have an open mind’ Ministers "believe they need to start a public debate on energy rationing." BBC "...The plan would see people issued carbon units - each equivalent to 1kg of greenhouse gases - to use when buying products such as flights and petrol.."

July 1-3 2005 ~ The Hexham Courant reports that David Smith, the Haydon Bridge farmer who, as chairman of the National Sheep Association " went head to head with Government ministers during the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001" has been awarded the George Hedley Memorial Award. ".... I spent countless hours travelling from home to London to lobby and talk to ministers. It often felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere; I hardly ever met the minister for agriculture Margaret Beckett, and had to deal with junior ministers who could not give you a direct answer. Any questions had to be deferred to the minister, and it would take a week or two to get an answer. .."More

July 1-3 2005 ~ Foot and mouth outbreak: lessons for mental health services David F. Peck is Professor of Health Research at the University of Stirling. "The 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak in the UK was widespread and devastating. Some areas (e.g. Cumbria) were very badly hit, but all farmers were affected to some degree. Huge numbers of animals, infected and healthy, were slaughtered.....systematic studies found elevated levels of psychological morbidity among farmers and other rural workers, especially those directly affected...."

July 1-3 2005 ~ EU Referendum blog ".... The Independent has been assiduous in making the case against the CAP, with an article today headed: "How the CAP helps our poorest farmers", pointing out that The Queen gained £545,897 from agricultural subsidies last year, the Duke of Westminister £448,472, the Duke of Bedford £365,801, the Prince of Wales £225,465 and the Duke of Northumberland £450,740. Never mind that much of this money actually goes to the estate tenants – many of whom are far from wealthy – this is a propaganda war being waged, and one which plays well with the public. .."

July 1-3 2005 ~ World governments have agreed that the Iter project - an attempt to re-create the energy at the heart of the sun - should be built at Cadarache, near Aix-en-Provence, in southern France. Iter = International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. "... The hope is that within 30 or 40 years the project will master a clean, cheap, safe and virtually inexhaustible form of energy by fusing atoms, rather than splitting them." Independent report

July 1-3 2005 ~ "Ministers are to introduce sweeping changes to the way that common land is managed ...the principal objective is to make it easier to protect the many wildlife sites that exist on common land and that have been threatened by farming and other activities. ..... some fear that the decline in the farming industry could lead to problems associated with under-grazing in the future. ..." WMN

July 1-3 2005 ~ An emailer writes, "Why is it taking both the US and the UK government so long to "validate" the rapid on-site diagnosis tools? It simply doesn't make sense. You say on the website that the UK Health Protection Agency itself says that "For avian influenza, use of the RT-PCR diagnosis tool is now considered essential" and that Real Time PCR is "the most sensitive test is RT-PCR for the detection of viral RNA"
But this has been the case since early in 2001. WHY was its use refused then - and why are the authorities STILL dragging their feet to validate such tests when they are evidently being "unofficially" used? It is impossible to escape the conclusion that they do not want to be able to detect the disease quickly enough to preclude pre-emptive culling. Why this should be is another matter."

July 1-3 2005 ~ Joyce writes, "Western Isles top brass have caved in over the windfarms, despite 88% of the population being against them in a recent poll...I only hope that the councillors, who have obviously forgotten who pays them, get a reminder in the next election of who works for whom."

28/30 June 2005 ~ An emailer writes, "Can't believe they are going ahead with that windfarm in the Western Isles. I see it's the " 'socio-economic' factors associated with it" that swayed the vote. .... why are people prepared to sacrifice the really valuable things in life (eg the environment, family closeness, community involvement) to get their hands on some ready cash/create more jobs? ..."
Gill recommends a fascinating book by Michael Rowbotham which, among other things, explains why "debts mean that a small farm can be productively very efficient, but financially not 'viable'. .." Read in full

28/30 June 2005 ~ Herald June 29 ".....During the meeting, councillors warned that Lewis was greatly in need of extra income and that the wind farms could provide it. Anne Macdonald, from Lochs, said: "The government has given our area a title of outstanding beauty. "It is beautiful, but beauty does not put food on the table . . . renewable energy can be a vital part of our economy and it is the only sector that offers the prospect of a substantial number of jobs."..."

28/30 June 2005 ~ Bovine TB WMN "...Robert Forster, the chief executive of the National Beef Association.... said many farmers in the Westcountry were close to breaking point over the Government's failure to tackle the badger issue. ... Government's plans to cut compensation payments for TB and to introduce a costly new cattle testing regime in hotspot areas like the Westcountry could prove the final straw....." Mr Forster said farmers had written to the Chancellor in the hope that the potential cost savings would prompt him to investigate Defra's stance. ......"

28/30 June 2005 ~ bio-fuel. ".... Malcolm Shepherd, managing director of Green Spirit Fuels, said: "These are exciting times for the UK's developing bioethanol industry. We have been exploring the possibilities of production in this country for a number of years, and learning lessons from countries such as Sweden, Spain and the USA where plants have been successfully running for some time. The establishment of Green Spirit Fuels is the next step in a process which will see the production of bioethanol at a number of sites in the foreseeable future. For UK growers bioethanol production could use a large proportion, if not all, of the current exportable surplus of wheat. This would bring stability to the market." WMN

28/30 June 2005 ~ Polly Toynbee ".....for a fraction of the ID card cash another fledgling industry might be given the kiss of life. Micro-energy investment could mean windmills and solar panels on millions of homes, all fitted with combined heat and power (CHP) boilers. (These save the 40% of gas wasted by power stations, and convert gas to electricity in the home, cutting bills.) Blair was eager for a photo opportunity at Solar Century, a leading solar power manufacturer, on the day he announced climate change as a key theme for G8. But since then the solar industry has been left to face all its funding ending next April, with only vague promises for the future..." Guardian

28/30 June 2005 ~ While very briefly on line, the news is that thunderstorms are making it impossible to update warmwell at the moment. Apologies.

28/30 June 2005 ~ On the grim news that the green light having been given for the wind farm on Lewis, (there were more than 4,000 objections) an emailer writes from Germany, "Last year I was nearly sent to prison when cutting down one old tree that was damaged by storm and was close to falling down on the railtrack...."damaging a nature monument"... And these guys just spoil an whole island and can get away with it, what a mad world."

28/30 June 2005 ~ That the Western Morning News has been one of the few beacons of light since warmwell's inception is owing to Mr Williams' fearless, committed editorship. While he was there one was able to point to the WMN as the exception to the rule when mourning the passing of the independent press. Comments or appreciation on the sad news of his retirement may be emailed to warmwell.
".....We do not want an editor who toes the party line!!..." messages have begun to arrive

28/30 June 2005 ~ High Yewdale - the National Trust have conceded on virtually all the points raised by those aghast at the decision, but show no sign of reconsidering their decision. Updated pages show a visit by HM Queen Elizabeth to High Yewdale and make an urgent appeal for your support.

28/30 June 2005 ~ GM concern "If you just grow GM crops you are pushing farmers down the line of just producing a commodity. That is really not what we need, particularly in a region like the Westcountry where we can establish a reputation for growing high quality and safe food." John Sherrell, chairman of FARM
WMN reports on Elliot Morley's view that European ministers are going against "sound science". EU ministers have overwhelmingly rejected the proposals to lift the GM bans imposed by Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Greece. See also the article by Geoffrey Lean showing "Stalinist tactics" by the FSA.

28/30 June 2005 ~ "Shadow Wales rural affairs minister Helen Mary Jones has called on the Welsh Assembly Government to act immediately to tackle bovine TB in Wales. ... more than £18m has been spent on bovine TB compensation, and the Government's lack of understanding of the problem was highlighted by budget despite the incidence of bovine TB continuing to rise. ...." icwales

28/30 June 2005 ~ GM. "Britain's official food safety watchdog - which prides itself on its "openness" - is embroiled in a row over the blanking-out of large sections of a document relating to a banned GM maize illegally imported into the country..." Article by Geoffrey Lean last week in the Independent about the FSA. "..the maize contained a gene conferring resistance to antibiotics that could potentially cause people to resist vital medicines."

28/30 June 2005 ~ "London and many other coastal cities could disappear beneath the waves within 200 years.." Benfield Hazard Research Centre at University College London See Independent

28/30 June 2005 ~ If you cross the Channel you are likely to be met by smailing French farmers bearing gifts.... Reuters ".....Tony Blair has not stopped attacking French agriculture. His only aim is to break up the CAP and create one big free-trading market in Europe," the union said. "French farmers don't want this unbridled liberalism

28/30 June 2005 ~ ProMed moderator on wildlife smuggling "The United States and Europe are some of the biggest markets for smuggled animals." Read that and weep. This illegal trade is a threat to us all. The Northern Hemisphere pandemic of Newcastle disease in 1970-73 was a direct result of a demand for pet parrots, which was met by parrots being smuggled north out of South America and Africa. There are repeated scenarios like this all the time. And the animals that reach their sales points are but a trivial fraction of the many captured that die en route, quite apart from the adults shot to capture the youngsters. They come with their infections and internal and external parasites. The same applies to the illegal tropical fish industry. - Mod.MHJ"

24/27 June 2005 ~ "....In preparation for the Senate votes and the G-8 conference, radical environmentalists have been trying to smear scientists and other Kyoto skeptics. No wonder. Over the past few years, emotional claims of global-warming champions -- like the famous "hockey stick" chart of rising temperatures -- are being coolly repudiated. Sensible researchers are looking to activity on the sun itself as the instigator of recent warming on earth..." http://www.techcentralstation.com/062405F.html

24/27 June 2005 ~ Oil prices. Warmwell's peak oil news pages began in April 2004. There are now louder voices warning of the pending peak in world oil production that may well lead to a global economic collapse.The Guardian today talks of "... the early stages of an energy crisis that will fundamentally affect our lives over the next few decades. If that is so, western policymakers need to be thinking hard - and thinking hard now - about what life is going to be like when the oil and gas run out. .."

24/27 June 2005 ~ More than 4,000 objections have been lodged against the £430million Lewis project by energy giant Amec a plan for the world's biggest windfarm - 80% are from Western Isles residents. In addition, there have been 1,400 objections to another massive windfarm on Lewis, planned by Beinn Mhor Power. That plan will also be considered tomorrow. Communities throughout Lewis and Harris have voted overwhelmingly against both. The RSPB are against.

24/27 June 2005 ~ 80 years ago, Devon entrepreneur Charles Seale-Hayne left £100,000 for a college of agriculture and technology "in the immediate neighbourhood of Newton Abbot". Farmers from all over the Westcountry and elsewhere studied at Seale Hayne. Campaigners to save it won the backing of Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross, and Sir Donald Curry. Students past and present joined the campaign. We hear (WMN) that just four weeks after a memorial service marking its closure, it was proposed that it be sold off for urban development.

24/27 June 2005 ~ The Western Mail last week:

Farming Editor Steve Dubeargues "...the British rebate, achieved by the Thatcher administration at Fontainebleau in 1984, has benefited the Treasury to the disadvantage of anyone living in the British countryside......Fontainebleau means that £86 of every £100 of EU rural development funds spent in Britain above a low allocation effectively is from the Treasury. Under the deal that Tony Blair is defending ...Britain's allocation is just 3% of the EU rural development budget - and that includes farm subsidies. It compares with, for example, Ireland's 9% and France's 17%. ...." Read in full

24/27 June 2005 ~ Monday's Guardian "For dairy farmer Roland Uglow, the worst thing is having to hold down bull calves, healthy and full of life, to give the man from the knacker's yard a clean shot at them.
....plants barley at Trecarne Farm in Delabole, near Camelford, to provide a habitat for the scarce corn bunting; he loves to see deer on his land; unlike most farmers he even has a soft spot for the fox. But he is convinced that it is the badger that is spreading bovine TB - after all, he ran a closed herd: in other words he did not bring in new animals but bred his own. He said: "Badgers have to be caught and checked. If they are positive we have no choice, we have to get rid of them. We destroy infected cattle - surely we have to destroy infected badgers as well." . .." Read in full

24/27 June 2005 ~ We see from the Bovine TB Blog that DEFRA is funding a study at Warwick using PCR in spite of apparently dismissing its availability or efficacy in TB research.
Real Time PCR is being used widely in animal disease research - yet its dismissal by Professor King in early 2001, when Professor Fred Brown tried, face to face, to explain its importance to him, was one of the great scandals of the whole fiasco. See also front page

24/27 June 2005 ~ Efforts are under way in Africa to establish regional animal health databases. This is part of the global livestock information management system to be established in the course of implementing the Promotional Regional Integration (PRINT) - a Livestock project funded by the European Union. See http://www.delbwa.cec.eu.int/en/eu_and_sadc/integration_livestock.htm

24/27 June 2005 ~ ".. a ruling from East Sussex county council that children must no longer bring egg boxes into school to be turned into dinosaurs and Daleks, because they might contract salmonella poisoning. ......the egg scare had been based on a complete misreading of the science. But right at the forefront of that media hysteria, which led to 5,000 small egg producers being driven out of business, was the Daily Mail." Booker's Notebook

24/27 June 2005 ~ Of the report on ProMed about the "new and worrying development" of possibly widespread outbreaks of foot and mouth on the Chinese mainland, the moderator writes,

See relevant page of ProMed Read also the warmwell pages about government cuts at Pirbright.

24/27 June 2005 ~ BSE in America. The US Department of Agriculture said it had started an investigation to determine the animal's herd of origin. Yet there can't be many concerned who do not have reason to suspect that the animal came from Texas.
Interesting is this comment from http://sify.com

The "real concern" then is not a concern about public health but about trade. Yet all news articles about this case continue to trot out variations on the "Experts believe the pathogen leapt the species barrier to humans through the consumption of contaminated beef..."theme. We recall Magnus Linklater's article" They drive us mad with false fears about mad cows"

24/27 June 2005 ~ The front page of warmwell is devoted to foot and mouth disease. To see the more general front page - also updated - click the link at the top of the front page - or click here. (opens in new window)

24/27 June 2005 ~ Inefficient meetings, rife with meaningless drivel and hot air are the result of bad management skills. Print out and play with colleagues this simple game (opens in new window) - sent by an emailer - to check how quickly it's possible to shout Bingo! ("People are now even listening to mumblers - thanks to Bullsh*t Bingo") More seriously, bad communications and bad management skills make effective meetings impossible. Unfortunately, this is happening at the highest levels.

24/27 June 2005 ~ emailed warning: "Apparently someone posing as a telephone engineer rings up and says he is checking the line and tells you to dial 90# and then hang up. DO NOT DO IT. If you do, they have complete control over your line and use it to make calls.”

24/27 June 2005 ~ Oil price hits $60 a barrel ... BBC

24/27 June 2005 ~ The Tescopoly website encourages people take action to end supermarket abuse ".... Tesco controls nearly 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2005, the supermarket chain announced over £2 billion in profits. Growing evidence indicates that Tesco's success is partly based on trading practices that are having serious consequences for suppliers, farmers, overseas workers, local shops and the environment....."

24/27 June 2005 ~ "... Colin Tudge observes, ‘The modern food supply chain is convoluted and so long that it allows endless opportunities for malpractice of all kinds – including many that beggar the imagination of those who are not criminally inclined. The supply chain is impossible to police because it is so complex, and because policing is so expensive (and nobody wants to pick up the bill – certainly not the governments who win votes by keeping the price of food down). .... new diseases are emerging and more virulent forms of old diseases are growing ..." Interesting article from SlowFood.com (India)

20/23 June 2005 ~ Extraordinary true story in the Scotsman of 3 lions, in in a remote corner of Ethiopia, rescuing a 12-year-old girl, kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage. They chased off her abductors and guarded her until police and relatives tracked her down.

20/23 June 2005 ~ WMN "The National Beef Association has warned that farmers will resort to shooting badgers infected with bovine TB if the Government does not press ahead with a controlled cull....More than 2,000 farms in the Westcountry are currently under restrictions because their herds have been infected with the disease..."

20/23 June 2005 ~ WMN "...Many farmers feel they are being "scapegoated" for the Prime Minister's failure to win reforms on the future of Europe and aid for Africa.
Ian Johnson, spokesman for the South West National Farmers' Union: "........ Mr Blair wants to be seen as the saviour of the world and is prepared to sacrifice what he considers to be an insignificant proportion of the population along the way. But farming is the backbone of the whole rural economy. This isn't just about farmers. We also have a huge rural tourism industry in this region and a huge food industry and they are all interdependent. "

20/23 June 2005 ~ The European Food Safety Authority is now officially inaugurated "...a significant ratching up of the integration process, a deliberate move intended to increase the visibility of "Europe" by ensuring that obscure technocratic functions are given a specific, high profile European identity" says Dr Richard North.

20/23 June 2005 ~ Peak Oil. Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) optimistically report that "global oil-production capacity should increase dramatically by the end of the decade..." (See Bradenton.com) we are reminded that Jean Laherrere says," In the past there was only one worldwide source of field reserves, being Petroconsultants funded by a geologist (bought by IHS in 1999). Now IHS, who bought recently CERA, has lost its geological background and uses more and more political data...."
In a balanced article in last Sunday's Sunday Times, David Smith nevertheless writes that if Matthew Simmons is right, "now might be the time to start panicking.."

20/23 June 2005 ~ An emailer writes that the decision by the UK to make non-notifiable a disease that wipes out whole colonies of honey bees, (European Foul Brood, or EFB), "... will result in increased incidence of this and other diseases. When, not if, all this comes to pass all we nasty farmers with our wicked chemicals will get the blame. The politicians, the conservationists and our “leaders” will be whiter than white. Our “leaders” with their expensive pensions will still be able to afford honey on their toast.." See also front page

20/23 June 2005 ~ China Daily reports that Xu Shixin, MOA's division director of the veterinary bureau has "refuted a report by the Washington Post on Saturday that the Chinese Government had encouraged farmers to use amantadine on their chickens to prevent bird flu. "The report was groundless," Xu said. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have both expressed concerns over the issue.

20/23 June 2005 ~ "The country's fastest-growing pastime involves setting up a pressure group to campaign against some disproportionate regulatory imposition, only to be fobbed off by politicians and officials who insist they know better..." Article in the Telegraph about the likely consequences of the Licensing Act on the income of village halls. "....there is a curious disjunction between what the Government says will happen under the new Licensing Act and what the people affected by it say is already happening or fear is about to happen. Whom do we believe?"

20/23 June 2005 ~ The American Press - Cleveland.com for example - are mentioning Peak Oil more and more: "...recession will grip the globe because the price of oil, and everything tied to it, will skyrocket. Starvation will abound because oil-based fertilizers we've grown to depend on will be in short supply. Energy wars could erupt to control the remaining oil fields..."I think peak oil is every bit as important as the threat of thermonuclear war," said Matthew Simmons, head of Simmons & Co. International of Houston, an energy investment-banking firm. Simmons compares today's lackadaisical approach to the coming world oil crisis to Europe as it stood on the brink of World War II in 1938. ... "

20/23 June 2005 ~ Worry over climate change - or the realisation that oil and gas depletion means big trouble?
We read in "The Business" that "While the politicians focus on researching climate change technology, the UK prime minister has struck up a provisional agreement with a number of firms, including BP, Electricitie de France (EdF) and Rio Tinto, for them to declare their intention to find new sources of energy ..."

17/19 June 2005 ~ ".... "..... many OPEC members ....are unable to prevent prices rising because of such refinery capacity shortages ..." Barclays Capital analysts wrote in a note Wednesday. "We expect $60 for crude to be breached in pretty short order." See peak oil pages

17/19 June 2005 ~ "Domestic gas bills are expected to soar this winter as the future cost of gas hits record highs. The price of gas for delivery in October is currently 66p a therm, a 75% premium on this point last year..." This is Money

17/19 June 2005 ~ Today's Booker's Notebook "....with wild bees gone, and other pollinators not appearing until after many fruit trees and crops are in flower, it seems crazy to risk losing thousands more beekeepers and millions of bees - all to save £250,000, and to show dutiful compliance with a directive many other countries will ignore. .."

17/19 June 2005 ~ "For every dollar to be dished out to Africa at the G8 meeting next month, another is snatched away by Western protectionism" The Independent on Sunday explains why millions of Africans have a stake in the outcome of Europe's farm row - and that "while much of the wrangling in Brussels was over the future of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, the last thing on the participants' minds was its impact on Africa." The article spells out the real life impact of tariffs and EU undercutting on the poorest nations. Read in full .

17/19 June 2005 ~ Cefn Croes "....Mr Wright can see from his house the 225ft turbines capable of generating 59.5MW of electricity, stretched over several miles of mountain. But from the top of nearby Plynlimon, he has a panorama of more than 300 machines in eight smaller windfarms. "The door has been opened to the industrialisation of the Cambrian mountains," he said yesterday. " See windfarm page for a round-up of recent news about windfarms. BWEA's Embrace the Revolution campaign was launched in Wales this week. It claims that "an overwhelming majority of people in Wales - three quarters - agree that wind farms are necessary to help meet the country's current and future energy needs"

17/19 June 2005 ~ Large-scale vaccination of cattle against foot-and-mouth disease is under way in Russia's Amur Region after the disease broke out in a village near the border with China. More than 250,000 doses of vaccine have been brought in to treat all the region's cattle. See M&C News
ProMed reports this outbreak

17/19 June 2005 ~ The determinedly optimistic Fordyce Maxwell reports in the Scotsman on the speech by Bob McCracken, president of the British Veterinary Association " Given fair treatment and co-operation at all levels, vets, farmers and civil servants can counter the threats and give farming a future....At last, he said, and how true, we are seeing some fruit borne from the never-ending flow of consultation documents. The ball is now in the hands of the veterinary profession, and its clients, to ensure its success. .."

17/19 June 2005 ~ An emailer wonders if "...the expansion of oilseed biofuels is something to do with trying to drive cattle farming out of England ? But where will our soil fertility come from if the livestock manure is no longer an input within the system?" Read extract

17/19 June 2005 ~" a new emphasis on environmental leadership, caring for rural England and delivering a sustainable future for farming..."
This is the 2005 DEFRA Report's verdict on itself.
Its Vision may be read and marvelled at here.
Its Five Year Strategy can be found on the Defra website (pdf )

17/19 June 2005 ~ Last night's Channel 4 item about electricity micro-generation was excellent, according to an emailer :

See also http://www.est.org.uk , http://www.micropower.co.uk/ and a firm called Encraft who specialise in providing advice and analysis to home-owners on this issue. http://encraft.co.uk

17/19 June 2005 ~"..... closed herd on the remote Roseland Peninsula for 40 years, but now bovine TB has taken a hold - and a rising local badger population appears to be the only source. Despite repeated requests from the couple, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is refusing to test badgers on the farm, leaving the source of the disease unconfirmed...
...."Defra are content to have that level of unreliability for cows, but not for badgers - that is unfair," she said. "If they are waiting for a test that is 100 per cent accurate they will never get there. We could say the cattle test is unreliable, but we have to use it." ....." WMN

17/19 June 2005 ~ A Hexham Chronicle article begins: "Emergency vaccination is set to be moved to the forefront of foot-and-mouth disease control by the EU Foot and Mouth Disease Directive....."
But that is where it has appeared to be from soon after the 2001 debacle. What worries many of us - but not, it appears, the Hexham Chronicle which dutifully trots out what is on the Defra website - is that "the basic policy of slaughter of susceptible animals on infected premises and those identified as dangerous contacts" remains. Unfortunately, "dangerous contacts" and "susceptible animals" can still mean exactly what the government wants these terms to mean. For the Secretary of State to have a "duty to slaughter" will mean that there will be no personal accountabilty for any decision to carry out future unnecessary slaughter. It will be legal (as it was not in 2001) and no one will have any right to protest.

13/15 June 2005 ~ The Independent reports that "the hospital bug Clostridium difficile, which is sweeping through NHS hospitals, is killing twice as many people as MRSA..."

13/15 June 2005 ~ An email from Kansas will interest other PMWS watchers. This is a disease largely unheard of by the public at large. But, as the writer says, "millions of pigs born, have never reached the 40th pound since the year 2000, all over the world....with the exception of Australia - so far...PMWS is a world-wide epidemic now....no questions about it....but still is not a "reportable" disease.."

13/15 June 2005 ~ An extract from Wednesday's "Snowmail" update:

China today. And tomorrow?

13/15 June 2005 ~ That splendid arch heretic, Bjørn Lomborg, writes in the Telegraph, "the world's most distinguished economists.... found dealing with communicable diseases like Aids and malaria, malnutrition, free trade and clean drinking water were the world's top priorities. The experts rated urgent responses to climate change at the bottom. .The national academies must stop playing politics ..The urgent problem of the poor majority of this world is not climate change. Their problems are truly very basic: not dying from easily preventable diseases; not being malnourished from lack of simple nutrients; not being prevented from exploiting opportunities in the global economy by lack of free trade. ." Read in full

13/15 June 2005 ~ Government policy is causing Britain to become dangerously over-reliant on imported gas, the consultancy group Ernst & Young claimed yesterday. Independent

13/15 June 2005 ~ A Cologne court has granted Greenpeace access to a 1,139-page study by Monsanto. The study found that rats fed GM corn had smaller kidneys and raised levels of white blood cells and lymphodcytes compared with rats fed a non-GM corn. "Monsanto initially handed the study over to the EU regulatory authorities with the proviso that it be kept confidential ..." See http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/87876/.htm

13/15 June 2005 ~ Western Morning News "Ministers have been accused of stifling debate on bovine TB by railroading independent experts into "rubber-stamping" government policy on the issue. .." Read in full

13/15 June 2005 ~ Defra incompetence. An email today: "....He feels it is somewhat of a coincidence that BOTH reply paid envelopes went astray. ....My friend is now ineligible for payments I gather. He is less worried about the money, than the time he wasted filling in the ****** forms!"

13/15 June 2005 ~ The fluoridation of water, seen as a boon - but in the opinion of eminent and ethical scientists, an expensive, dangerous con trick. Yet another area where scientists will not admit that there is so much undeniable evidence to show they are wrong. Yet another area where open debate is squashed. See http://www.slweb.org/ "..public policy is too often influenced by breach of scientific integrity in high places."
The Observer yesterday: "New American research suggests that boys exposed to fluoride between the ages of five and 10 will suffer an increased rate of osteosarcoma - bone cancer - between the ages of 10 and 19. In the UK, fluoride is added to tap water on the advice of bodies such as the British Dental Association. .... " But see warmwell fluoride pages and see also http://www.fluoridealert.org

13/15 June 2005 ~ Wildlife crime. The Independent points out that this is now the world's third largest criminal activity after arms and drugs. ".....At each sell-on more money changes hands. "If you kill a tiger, you can buy a motorbike," someone told me in Laos. But when the skin reaches London or Shanghai it is worth a hundred motorbikes. Collectors from Vietnam or Japan pay more if a species is endangered. .." Read in full

12 June 2005 ~ The oil crisis is bringing coal driven steam engines back in Indian Railways. See peak oil news. (and how cheering it would be to see steam trains back in the UK.)

12 June 2005 ~ BSE a second American animal has tested positive for mad cow disease. See ProMed Mail

12 June 2005 ~ Avian Influenza. China has announced details of a second outbreak of bird flu, this time in the western region of Xinjiang. Vietnam started a pilot project to inoculate poultry against the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus in two provinces this month
Xinhuanet "France... has purchased about 40 million doses of vaccine and more than 10 million masks, which will be ready for use by 2006, when maneuvers against a massive bird-flu outbreak among humans will be staged"

12 June 2005 ~ ".....just as the clamour for action grows in anticipation of next month's G8 meeting in Scotland, another group of academics has begun fighting to have its voice heard. It includes experts in fields ranging from agriculture to medicine, and most of them agree that something strange is happening to the Earth's climate. Where they part company with Lord May is in their assessment of the threat it poses...." Sunday Telegraph

12 June 2005 ~ Prof Philip Stott, Emeritus Professor of Biogeography, University of London wrote to the Telegraph on friday:

12 June 2005 ~ "... Climate change is big business. It shares star billing with Africa at next month’s G8 Gleneagles summit...... For every account of looming catastrophe there is a reassuring study that proves the climate change industry wrong. Based on available science, the debate should be balanced — but it is not.....The Bush administration allegedly uses any scientific source that corroborates its position on climate change, dismissing those that contradict it. But so does the green lobby. ..." Comment: Jenny Hjul in the Sunday Times 'Global warming' is melting our brains Read in full

12 June 2005 ~ A list of sites earmarked for the disposal of nuclear waste in the 1980s was published on Friday under the Freedom of Information Act. See New Scientist "...Although the list was drawn up in the late 1980s, some of the sites are likely to become candidates for waste disposal again in the future. For this reason, the release of the list is likely to reignite the ferocious debate over nuclear waste disposal."

12 June 2005 ~ Secret plans to postpone solving Britain's nuclear waste crisis for up to 1,000 years are being drawn up by the nuclear industry says the Independent on Sunday.
What British Nuclear Fuels' scheme ( the result of "looking at new, innovative ways of doing things" as part of drawing up "a broad range of options" ) amounts to apparently is the frightening delaying tactic of storing waste in aptly termed "millennium domes" in the hope that future generations may know better what to do. Read the article by Geoffrey Lean

5 June 2005 ~ Mandelson wants to fast-track GM by Geoffrey Lean in the Independent

4 June 2005 ~ BioMed Central Over 100 Open Access journals covering all areas of Biology and Medicine

4 June 2005 ~ Matthew Parris Opinion in the Times "..... As a human being I am complicated by tenderness for the losers, even where my species wins. This makes us lords of the Earth. We are the bow, we are the arrow, but we feel for the arrow’s mark. Alone among the species which populate the planet we cannot hurt without feeling hurt, cannot diminish without feeling diminished. This does not separate us from “Nature” but unites us to the whole of it. .." interesting and melancholy article

3 June 2005 ~ David Ball, Professor of Risk Management at Middlesex University, has resigned from the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) Times "...proper use of technical expertise would have allowed CoWRM to have narrowed the list to six options within weeks. A year was wasted in trials of a public consultation technique that had to be abandoned because of its flaws.." See also This is life and death, not a spinning matter by Magnus Linklater at the end of April.

3 June 2005 ~ More Global Warming heresy. A case for re-assessment of the science of GW. This week's Sepp newsletter points out that the editors of Science rejected a study by German professor Dennis Bray, based on a poll of some 500-climate scientists, which showed a complete lack of scientific consensus. This extract is a letter by Madhav L Khandekar submitted to Physics Today a year ago which points out that "current temperature data may be significantly contaminated by extraneous factors like population growth, economic activity, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) etc. in many regions of the world."
While the truth may well be with the global warming gurus, it does worry us that those who seriously question received wisdom on scientific issues involving millions of pounds of public money and very far reaching legislation (such as the causes of BSE and Global Warming) are silenced or smeared by the establishment. The public good is not served by this lack of open debate.

3 June 2005 ~ "...since 1939 the number of farms in Britain has fallen from 500,000 to 191,000; three out of four jobs in agriculture have been lost since 1945; Defra figures for 2004 show an average farm income of just £14,000. In the South West, the problems are perhaps at their most prevalent and the beef suckler herds, producing prime West country beef, are especially under threat. Jilly Greed, from the National Beef Association South West, stated in the WMN yesterday that prices paid to farmers for beef are currently 20 per cent below the price paid in 1994, which means many Westcountry beef herds are loss-making units.." WMN

3 June 2005 ~ Bovine TB. A report, commissioned by the South West Regional Development Agency is due to be published next week. It shows that £88 million of public money was spent in the last financial year. Researchers from Exeter University (WMN) "...discovered the human toll of bovine TB, with farmers and their families suffering higher levels of stress and anxiety. ..."... All of this is compounded by an acute sense of frustration and dismay about an apparent lack of progress in regaining control over a disease that was once thought to have been eliminated ..."

June 3 2005 ~ "Pesticides and other man-made chemicals may lower male fertility for at least four generations, according to new research. .. the findings, published today in the journal Science, suggest that toxins may play a role in inheritable diseases that were previously thought to be caused solely by genetic mutations. "It's a new way to think about disease. We believe this phenomenon will be widespread and be a major factor in understanding how disease develops," Dr Skinner said..." Independent

2 June 2005 ~ vCJD ".... it had not been possible to identify either the specific cause of the disease in the local cases or establish any link between them. Suppliers of butchers' shops in the area had been investigated but experts had not identified any common food source linked to the cases or found any butchery practices which raised concern..." Doncaster Today

2 June 2005 ~ "..Ministers yesterday moved a step closer to ordering compulsory new tests on cattle in TB hotspot areas - despite warnings from farmers that the move would be "unacceptable" unless action was also take to tackle the disease in badgers..." WMN
The scientific journal, Nature, has found that cattle movements could lead to bovine TB becoming established PressTrust "Movement is more important in spreading TB than anything else from the national point of view," co-author William Wint, of the Environmental Research Group in Oxford, told the BBC News website. "Our study certainly doesn't let badgers off the hook, but then it doesn't hang them up on a cross either."

2 June 2005 ~ Letter in Ipswich Chronicle (US) ".....Reducing consumption of all kinds of energy is a worthy aim, but wind turbines — no matter how big or how many — have nothing to do with our use of oil. They don’t have much effect on our use of current electricity sources, either. Krafchuk reports an average wind speed of 11.5 mph. That translates to an average output from the 1.5-MW turbine of only about 150 KW, 10 percent of its capacity. Two-thirds of the time, the output would be less than that. .... “success” is not in the small amount of unpredictably variable electricity generated by wind, but in the profitable sale of “green credits.” ..."

2 June 2005 ~ West Country beef herds are under threat. Jilly Greed, of the National Beef Association South West. writes in the WMN ".... A looming crisis is gradually unfolding ...any immediate and even long-term prospect of an improvement seems to be thwarted as big business sucks the life out of the British beef industry. Their concern is margins and pursuing corporate stratagems, which continue the unsustainable, cheap food policy. Supermarket price wars are as damaging to the Westcountry beef industry as the large volumes of imported beef. ...."

2 June 2005 ~ Kevin Feakins has won a court order to force the government to remove waste left in the clean-up operation during the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001. We are hoping for further details. The BBC report is very short. Mr Feakins may not be everyone's idea of the ideal farmer. However, he has been determinedly fighting DEFRA over this case for four years. Warmwell links

1 June 2005 ~ Mark Purdey agrees with the farmer who wrote in near despair about the Single Farm Payment Scheme. A farmer himself, Mr Purdey writes "...these schemes are having a negative effect on the environment so far. ....... why can't these public funded payments go to farmers for simply keeping those sacred corners alive and uncontaminated by humanity - as they always have been ? I want our children to have those aesthetic rustic experiences that made such an intrinsic impression upon me during my childhood..." It is an important letter that should be read in full

31 May 2005 ~ "Media coverage of the Dr Thomas Butler case has been extensive Science, The Scientist, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, BBC, CBS, and many other news sources have run stories suggesting that Butler may have been a victim of the widespread fear about (bio)terrorism and may have been singled out, presumably to serve as an example, as part of a flawed strategy to fight bioterrorism. ..." See Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005;40:1644-1648

31 May 2005 ~ Max Hastings in the Guardian says, "..Anyone who supposes that wind turbines can meet demand is a mathematical duffer. A wind farm the size of Dartmoor would be required to provide the energy of one nuclear plant. ...We are all energy junkies. We may argue about means of satisfying the global craving, but it seems wildly fanciful to suppose that it can be met by wind farms. .... I will bet my socks that half a century from now our children will depend heavily on nuclear power to keep their lights burning - because there will be nothing else that is clean, affordable and works."

31 May 2005 ~ BSE - 3 cases in Dyfed in young cows
. Times "Experts are trying to discover if the cows, from a farm in Dyfed and aged between 36 and 43 months, were infected by the same route, possibly through imported feed.." See warmwell's BSE pages and emediawire.com We wonder how the independent study by Professor William Hill FRS is coming along and feel it may be just a matter of time before it becomes acceptable to contradict the infectious prion theory of BSE.

31 May 2005 ~ The vast forests of Russia are under threat from an unprecedented surge in the number, frequency and scale of forest fires. Independent "Twenty years ago forest fires destroyed about two million hectares of Siberian forests - the loss of an area the size of Wales. Last year 22 million hectares - about half the size of France - were lost to fire....."After a fire, the timber improves and is even better, it comes in better quality after a fire, and that is the time when people can come in, fell the trees, and sell the timber to China and get good money," Dr Sukhinin said. "The Chinese pay good money, and they pay the same money for timber from affected areas as for timber from unaffected areas, and that is the reason for the arson. .."

30 May 2005 ~ Health experts are concerned at a sudden increase in the number of British cases of Lyme disease, an infection carried by ticks. Times

29/30 May 2005 ~ "...the public should heed the silent alarm sounded by the ExxonMobil report, which is more credible than other predictions for several reasons. First and foremost is that the source is ExxonMobil. No oil company, much less one with so much managerial, scientific, and engineering talent, has ever discussed peak oil production before.." Peak Oil pages

29 May 2005 ~ "As the Government was later tacitly to concede, this cull was against the law. The Government had no legal power to destroy healthy animals which had not been directly exposed to the virus. I hope there are no animals on Sir David's desert island..." Christopher Booker too was a little less than impressed with last week's Desert Island Discs. Booker's Notebook

29 May 2005 ~ "....the effective subsidy for each megawatt of turbine capacity, generating for a third of the time, equates to a staggering £135,000 a year. Even after an initial capital cost of £750,000, this makes wind power one of the most lucrative "licences to print money" ever known..." Booker on Wicks in the Sunday Telegraph

29 May 2005 ~ Dirty Meat "This Bank holiday weekend hundreds of carcases of smokies , and illegally imported cattle feet , arrived at the capital without any action being taken by the authorities....." Dr Yunes Teinaz has sent us the letter from the Islamic Cultural Centre to the Food Standards Agency, hoping to find a legal way to permit sheep and goat carcasses with their skin on to be health marked and placed on the market. This could stop a filthy, cruel and illegal trade. .

29 May 2005 ~ Independent on Sunday (Geoffrey lean) "Two legal initiatives are to be launched to force European bureaucrats to make public secret research on the effects of feeding GM corn to rats..." read in full

28 May 2005 ~ Defiant statement from DEFRA's Old Guard is reported in today's WMN "...yesterday senior Defra officials told the WMN that the contiguous cull would remain a policy option that could be used in some circumstances." Read in full

28 May 2005 ~ Wind turbines "... they did not disclose is how nPower, a subsidiary of a German company, has persuaded this Government and the (Welsh) Assembly to erect giant money-making farms on our hills. This is how it works. A turbine developer gives a donation of £240,000 to the Labour Party election campaign, in return they give them a subsidy of £160 million! They can possibly make a profit of £3.25 million per annum on this and with subsidies make £10 million per annum..." See windfarm pages for roundupof the last week or so in Wales.

28 May 2005 ~ In the NAO report Sir John Bourn says that DEFRA has made improvements but that there is still scope for improvement. "Increased senior level oversight of the process and giving stakeholders as much certainty as possible will help the department to achieve better and more consistent results ."

28 May 2005 ~ A report in the BBC claims that patterns of bovine TB in Britain are more closely associated with cattle movements than proximity to badgers

28 May 2005 ~ The Brazilian government is helping its farmers by encouraging the use of ethanol, a fuel that can be made from sugar and used to power cars.

26 May 2005 ~ The New Zealand FMD hoax cost the country "as much as $2 million" which does not include los of staff time and compensation - presumably paid to farmers for the movement controls imposed. See www.stuff.co.nz

26 May 2005 ~ The penny is starting to drop. www.medfordnews.com ".....oil production will never again increase. This, even as demand and population are soaring globally. Eighteen of the world's largest oil producing countries have already entered decline....... The problem, simply stated, is one of population overshoot, collapse and die-off. ..." (The article reports the coming lecture by Michael Ruppert, 54, author of "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil")