CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Don’t you know there’s a war on?

Aspartame¹'s back in the news. The data we've been waiting for since I was last moved to post on this deceptively sweet little dipeptide has been published.

The European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences in Italy published their latest findings in the journal European Health Perspectives. 'Lifespan exposure to low doses of aspartame beginning during prenatal life increases cancer effects in rats', by Soffritti and colleagues, reports that when exposed to either 400 or 2000ppm of the sweetener from day 12 of foetal life, and for the rest of their natural lives, rats' propensity towards certain cancers is increased in general, especially mammary tumours in females and lymphomas/leukemias in both sexes. This increase was especially significant when the dose was 2000ppm, a dose roughly equivalent to the acceptable daily intake for humans. The effects were dose dependent.

While the FDA has been reported as viewing this latest data as 'no reason to review its opinion is safe as a general purpose sweetener in foods', although it has not yet conducted a thorough review of the new data; and EFSA has not yet issued an opinion, the US consumer group; the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) immediately issued its support for the Ramazzi Foundation's conclusion that 'a review of the current regulations governing the use of aspartame cannot be delayed', particularly in products that are heavily consumed by children.

Hug fat trees

The ancient tree hunt is on.  I heard a story on the radio this morning about a tree, the Fortingall Yew (Taxus baccata) in Perthsire, which is guestimated to be 5000 years old.  It was around when Stonehenge was built, had already been standing for 3000 years when the Romans invaded, and is thought to be the oldest living thing in Europe.
We, the public, are now being asked to help locate and record ancient trees (the UK is thought to have more than any other part of Europe) just like this.  The aim is to produce an official register, as there isn’t one at the moment, and treat these trees the way should be treated - as historical monuments. 

The ancient tree hunt began in 2004 and has collected more than 6000 records, with the aim of recording more than 100,000 trees by 2011.  Funding has been secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, amongst others, to help find and protect these important features of our heritage.  Ancient trees also play a vital ecological role, often supporting hundreds of different species.

Go here to get involved and find, measure and record ancient trees.  If a tree is old, fat and gnarled then you should record it.  You can start by hugging - 3 hugs is about right for an ancient oak. You can also search for ancient trees on this Woodland Trust database, to find out which ones you can easily visit.
For more info about the Fortingall Yew go here or here, and, if you have access, go to CAB Abstracts or the Forest Science Database (formerly TreeCD) - a search of the latter for ‘ancient’ and ‘tree’ gave 310 records.

Changes in the veterinary profession.

Think of a veterinarian and, thanks in part to James Herriot, most people conjure up images of genial man in tweed jacket (except when he has his arm down the back of a cow). Most of his time spent trundling down country lanes from farm to farm treating livestock and dealing with farmers. When Alf White, the author of the James Herriot books, was working in practice in during the 1940s and 1950s, the veterinary profession was a largely a male dominated, and most of its work involved farm animals. Things have certainly changed since then and now in many countries the profession is becoming a largely a female profession with most working on dogs, cats and other companion animals. A recent paper in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association identifies 2007 as the year in which women will out number the men in the profession in the USA. At December 2005, there were 36,383 female veterinarians in the USA (and 43,186 men) making up almost 46% of the profession. In that same year, 918 male veterinarians and just 50 female veterinarians retired. The graduating class of 2007 (2,489 total students) is split 75.3% (1873 students) and 24.7% male (616). So as 90% of veterinarians retiring are male and 75% entering the profession are female, you see how rapidly this change is talking place.

This rapid change raises a number of questions, such as ‘Will it have any effect on the profession?’ and ‘What is the reason for the change?’ One of the reasons why more women are going to veterinary school is that, in the past, schools often discriminated against female applicants. It was generally considered to be ‘an unsuitable profession for a woman’. I can remember a very lively debate in the letters page of the Veterinary Record in the 1980s, between those who thought that the influx of women would ruin the profession and those with a more progressive view. This brings me on to the second question, ‘what effect will this demographic change have on the veterinary profession?’ There are certain changes and trends that happening alongside the gender change, such as the reluctance of veterinarians to work in large animal practice in remote rural areas. Another concern noted recently in the UK was the reluctance of younger veterinarians to become partners in practice. The younger veterinarians appear to have different aspirations to their predecessors. The continued growth of corporations running practices is another trend changing the face of private practice. Whether these changes can be linked to the gender balance of the profession is not clear, as it could just be a generational change, or a change due to economic pressures.

Looking in the CAB Abstracts Database to see if there was anything on these issues, I came across a reference to a paper written to help the middle aged veterinarian running his own practice deal with these new veterinarians who arrive in practice from veterinary school with a different outlook and with different expectations. It has the intriguing title of ‘Living with the alien spawn: an old fart's guide to associates’ by C Woloshyn. He describes the ‘old farts’ as middle aged practice owners who were expected to sacrifice themselves for their jobs, and with little responsibility for raising the family. The ‘new alien spawn’ on the other hand see that ‘jobs are not investments, but that careers are’. Woloshyn lists a number of characteristics of these new veterinarians which all lead to the conclusion that today’s veterinarian does not want to grow up to be like her boss. These attributes include: love their career, don’t want to be owners, hate unpredictable hours, woefully ignorant about finances, place a low priority on income, and places a high priority on mentoring. The message of the paper is that if the practice owner takes these considerations into account, they can get the best from their newly qualified veterinarians for the benefit of their clients.

Reference: Woloshyn, C. Living with the alien spawn: an old fart's guide to associates. Small animal and exotics. Proceedings of the North American Veterinary Conference, Volume 19, Orlando, Florida, USA, 8-12 January, 2005, 2005, pp.1017-1018

Report Warns of MRSA in Farm Animals

The UK's Soil Association is calling for live farm animals and imported meat to be tested for MRSA following reports of the 'superbug' in livestock in Europe, particularly the Netherlands.

Research published this week [1] by the environmental charity says that a new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has developed amongst intensively farmed pigs, chickens and other livestock on the Continent. Furthermore, farm-animal MRSA (which is a different strain from MRSA found in British hospitals) has already transferred to farmers, farm-workers and their families in the Netherlands.

Although there have been isolated cases of MRSA in farm animals since 1972 (when it was detected in milk from mastitic cows [2]), the report claims MRSA is becoming a major problem in some countries. In one survey carried out at nine abattoirs across the Netherlands, 39% of pigs were found to be carriers of MRSA and nearly 50% of Dutch pig farmers have been found to be carriers of farm-animal MRSA. The farm-animal MRSA has been associated with skin infections, endocarditis and osteomyelitis in Dutch patients.

So should we be concerned in the UK? MRSA has not yet been found in UK livestock or meat products, but there are no routine tests of live pigs or chickens (although cattle are tested) or imported meat. The Food Standards Agency says it is aware of the issue and is keeping an eye on developments across Europe, along with a number of government agencies. It says proper cooking destroys MRSA in meat.

In 2005, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) set up a subgroup of the Defra Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination (DARC) Group specifically to discuss MRSA and they produced a position statement on MRSA in animals. A study to test Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained from bovine clinical submissions for MRSA commenced in Autumn 2006 but as yet there appear to be no plans to extend testing to other livestock species. A major focus of the subgroup has been the study of MRSA in companion animals as there have been increasing reports in pets in recent years [3]. In other countries, including Canada, USA and Japan, MRSA infections in horses are also becoming a concern [4].

One theory on the emergence of the new strain of MRSA in farm animals is the high levels of antibiotics used in livestock farming. The Soil Association is calling for a reduction in farm antibiotic use in the UK.

References

[1] MRSA in farm animals and meat, A new threat to human health, report five in the series 'The use and misuse of antibiotics in UK agriculture'. Soil Association, June 2007 Cóilín Nunan and Richard Young

[2] Methicillin (cloxacillin)-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from bovine mastitis cases. Devriese, L. A.; Damme, L. R. van; Fameree, L. / Zentralblatt fur Veterinarmedizin, B, 1972, Vol. 19, No. 7, pp. 598-605.

[3] Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in dogs and cats: an emerging problem? Duquette, R. A. , Nuttall, T. J. / Journal of Small Animal Practice, 2004, Vol. 45, No. 12, pp. 591-597

[4] Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in horses and horse personnel, 2000-2002. Weese, J. S. , Archambault, M. , Willey, B. M. , Dick, H. , Hearn, P. , Kreiswirth, B. N. , Said-Salim, B. , McGeer, A. , Likhoshvay, Y. , Prescott, J. F. , Low, D. E. / Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2005, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 430-435

The CAB Abstracts database has an additional 800 records on MRSA.

Plants uproot and head North

Plants are moving northward to find cooler habitats, so it would seem that the blog I wrote earlier on human assisted migration might be moot – they’re doing it for themselves.

Using DNA fingerprinting techniques, a study by Inger Greve Alsos and her colleagues has found that ‘long-distance colonization of a remote arctic archipelago, Svalbard, has occurred repeatedly and from several source regions.’ In order to reach their destination, most plants have travelled more than 620 miles, probably arriving on drifting sea ice and the wind. However, species’ temperature requirements will restrict colonisation so, even if dispersal is unlimited, plants favouring cold conditions will have nowhere to go.

And this may all come sooner than expected.  The retreat of Arctic sea ice is predicted to accelerate rapidly, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in the US has predicted that ‘the Arctic Ocean could become nearly devoid of ice during summertime as early as 2040.’

It now also appears that seasons in the arctic are arriving much earlier than they once were, with spring an average of six to eight days earlier than 30 years ago, and the local organisms are acting accordingly, with earlier flowering and emergence.  Research by Toke Hoye from the University of Aarhus, Denmark has been published this week and finds that over time the ecosystem stability may be affected.  Species from southern latitudes will ‘establish themselves (in the region) and increase competition for food.’ So while more species are finding this region accessible, those already there may suffer and long term survival may be affected, and this could  as well as disruption of the food chain. See the BBC story.

So, it’s good news for the plants looking for new homes, not so good for the species already there, and hopeless for at least one of those, the Polar Bear, unless they too can adapt …

Clouds in my decaf

Whilst sourcing news for AgBiotechNet I came across a story about the genetic modification of coffee - I read on, intrigued. 

Why on earth would you want genetically modify coffee? Well, the problem is the relatively poor quality of decaf compared to that of fully leaded. During the traditional process of chemical decaffeination a large part of the aroma is lost thus leading to a reduction in overall quality. However, by genetically modifying the caffeine biosynthesis pathway a 'naturally decaffeinated ' coffee is produced with no lost aromas.

Obesity- now blame the microwave or lack of sleep.

Two stories I noticed in the last week add to the long list of culprits for the obesity epidemic, invention of microwave ovens and not getting enough sleep.

Blaming microwaves seems a bit unfair. What they are really saying is that microwaves, combined with ready meals and the freezer have encouraged people to take an easy option when preparing dinners. Its increased consumption of 'ready meals', fizzy drinks and other processed foods that are high in fats and sugars that is the culprit. The introduction of corn syrup into processed food, and fizzy drinks hasn't helped.

The sleep story was interesting, epidemiologists have shown before that more sleep correlates with slimness but this small study, (which needs more corroboration) showed that tired people eat badly. After a bad or short night's sleep the subjects were less likely to cook their own food and more likely to rely on eating out or takeaway food. 'Ready meals' again. I know that feeling, especially on Fridays after a hard day blogging (and a few other tasks).

These two stories just indicate the complexity of the origins of the current obesity epidemic. Obesity seems to really be a result of changes in our general lifestyle in the last few decades: cars, televisions, (and adverts on television), computers, less manual labour generally (housework was a pretty good workout when there were no labour saving devices), cheap, more processed food, supermarket shopping, women working outside the home.... To tackle it I think the environment needs to change as well as our behaviour.

We could try turning the clock to when hardly anyone had a car, or central heating or telly and food was less processed and people ate their main meal at lunchtime. Could be hard.

Then again think about what might happen when the oil runs out or we start rationing carbon consumption?

Nutrition and food sciences database covers all the research that has gone into the causes of obesity and there is a recent review on prevalence and causes of obesity in children too.

Here’s a smattering of further reading selected from Nutrition and Food Sciences database including something to try yourself:

Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. Bray, G. A. , Nielsen, S. J. , Popkin, B. M. / American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2004, Vol. 79, No. 4, pp. 537-543, 55 ref.

The epidemic of obesity and changes in food intake: the Fluoride Hypothesis. Bray, G. A. / Physiology & Behavior, 2004, Vol. 82, No. 1, pp. 115-121, 36 ref

Obesogenic environments: exploring the built and food environments. Lake et. al., Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 2006, Vol. 126, No. 6, pp. 262-267

Sleeping more as a way to lose weight. Sivak, M. Obesity Reviews, 2006, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 295-296, 9 ref.

Inadequate sleep as a risk factor for obesity: analyses of the NHANES I.Gangwisch, J. E. , Malaspina, D. , Boden-Albala, B. (et al). Sleep, 2005, Vol. 28, No. 10, pp. 1289-1296

CABI fungi examined for medical marvels

Hot off the press is this news release from CABI's Bioservices department:

CABI houses one of the world’s largest genetic resource collections of fungi, numbered at over 28,000 strains. We will be supplying the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Drug Research (SIDR) with extracts from filamentous fungi to be screened for pharmaceutically active compounds, which could potentially be developed into drugs.

Compounds with diverse medical applications have been discovered many times in the past. Penicillin, the critically important antibiotic was isolated from a strain of Penicillium chrysogenum, a commonly occurring fungus. Incidentally, the very isolate used by Alexander Fleming in his work, is a part of the CABI collection. The CAB Abstracts database can amaze you with the range of uses of fungal compounds against a multitude of targets such as fungi, bacteria and parasites in medical, veterinary and agricultural settings. I think the abstract for this paper, available in the database, provides a neat summary.

“This is a really exciting collaboration and we are looking forward to working with the expertise of the scientists at SIDR.  We are hopeful that our partnership will prove the winning formula for discovering new pharmaceutical drugs to fight cancers, diseases and resistant strains of infections such as MRSA", said Joan Kelley, Executive Director of CABI Bioservices.

You can read the complete CABI press release here.

World Ocean Day and Chinese water news round-up

World Ocean Day is here and the G8 summit is on the go, what better time to highlight the marine and freshwater issues plaguing China than today? Here's a summary of the news items I've been collecting recently; many of the issues they involve are covered in the CAB Abstracts database and I've included links where they're accessible to everyone.

• 11th May - 10% of the flow of the Yellow River is now untreated sewage and industrial discharge, according to the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based NGO. [CAB Abstracts]
• 21st May - According to a research paper published in Geophysical Research Letters, the Three Gorges Dam retains some 151 million tonnes of sediment each year. The researchers claim that this would lead to significant downstream erosion of riverbanks and the Yangtze delta, impacting on many lives. [CAB Abstracts]
• 30th May - Outrage from Xiamen residents halted the planned construction of a factory which would produce paraxylene for the textiles industry. Such was the concern of locals for their seaside environment and their health, expressed to city officials through text messages and the Internet, that the project was suspended.
• 1st June - Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province was engulfed by a massive bloom of freshwater algae in an event described as being like a green oil paint slick. The water was rendered undrinkable for the nearby city of Wuxi, with a population of 2.3 million. The algae was dispersed after authorities diverted water into the lake from the river Yangtze and seeded clouds with silver iodide to induce rainfall. [CAB Abstracts]
• 6th June - A red tide of massive proportions has been lurking on the southern coast, near Shenzhen. These blooms of toxic algae pose a serious threat to marine life and consumers of seafood. Discharges of human waste and heavy industry byproducts have been highlighted as factors in producing the bloom. [CAB Abstracts]
• 7th June - Another lake, Chaohu, in Anhui Province showed the beginnings of an algal bloom, similar to that in Taihu lake, but reports are that control measures are confining the algae, away from population centres. [CAB Abstracts]
• 7th June -  Pan Yue, deputy head of China's State Environmental Protection Administration, called on the city of Xiamen, proposed site of a chemical factory (see 30th May) to scrap the suspended plans entirely.

B-list celebrity in shock relationship scandal

It's not easy being a high-profile B-lister. One minute you're being promoted as so necessary to human survival that you have to appear everywhere, from TV to cereal packets, the next, you're caught in a 3-in-a-bed romp with some very unsavoury characters.

Maybe I've been reading the tabloids a little too much, or maybe it's just the nutrition press releases I receive, but in the world of vitamins, that celebrity of the B-group, folic acid, is currently experiencing all the roller-coaster ups and downs of public life.

Have you ever milked a hemp?

No, me neither, but organic hemp milk is on its way to join the lactational secretions of soya beans, rice grains and almonds on the supermarket shelves in the US.

Hemp Bliss is the latest product line to be promoted by the Canadian organic hemp manufacturer Manitoba Marvest. The line already includes hemp oil, hemp butter, hemp protein powder, but this latest development is going up against heavy competition. In a week which has seen the UK's dairy industry exhaustively promoting the benefits of milk and milk products, The North American market for dairy milk alternatives is reported to be worth around $1bn.

Soil, a potential large scale carbon store

We have all heard in the news that to tackle climate change, greenhouse-gas emissions must be reduced on a global scale. Fossil fuel emissions still remain the largest contributor to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, therefore reducing their contribution to global energy is key¹. However, as this is a process that can not be done overnight, an additional strategy to withdraw CO₂ from the atmosphere is also required. One suggestion has been to plant trees around the world. However if afforestation is done in the wrong areas (e.g. away from the tropics, in tundra areas) then it does more harm than good. As one of the screeners for the Soils section of CAB Abstracts, I have seen a dramatic increase in the discussion of the potential of biochar (agrichar) to alleviate this problem.

What is biochar? It is a black carbon byproduct of a process called pyrolysis, which involves heating green waste or other biomass without oxygen to generate renewable energy. Compared to afforestation (left), when biochar (right) is used as a soil amendment, it has a net 20% gain in carbon sequestration (click on image for larger version).

^{Copyright Nature magazine}

Melting Ice - a Hot Topic?

5 June 2007 is World Environment Day and the slogan for this year is 'Melting Ice - a Hot Topic?' In support of International Polar Year, the theme focuses on the effects that climate change is having on polar ecosystems and communities, and the ensuing consequences around the world.

Ice, in the form of sea ice, glaciers, ice caps and snow, plays a critical role in climate change and the Earth’s environment – it reflects some of the sun's heat, cooling the planet in contrast to the dark surfaces of the open sea and snow-free ground which absorb heat. As ice disappears, the earth retains more of the sun’s heat and therefore warms up which, in turn, causes more ice to melt. This will have devastating consequences for the plants and animals that are adapted to the extremes of the harsh Arctic environment, e.g. polar bears and ice-dependent seals, and the people for whom these animals are a primary food source.

Melting ice is not limited to the polar areas, but also occurs in mountainous areas in many parts of the world. Ice holds large freshwater supplies and is a vital part of the ecosystem. A rise in temperature leads to a reduction of ice and snow in mountain chains, which changes the supply of freshwater via rivers. Melting polar ice sheets contribute to a rise in sea level, which affects the people living on low islands and in low lying coastal areas.

The impacts of melting ice will reach far beyond the Arctic, affecting global climate, sea level, biodiversity and many aspects of human social and economic systems.

Do cows sneeeze in June?

Its that time of year again. If I were a master criminal, this would be the one time of year I would not commit a crime, all Mr. Sherlock Holmes would have to do would be to release grass pollen in my vicinity and he’d track me down by the uncontrollable fits of sneezing.

Family concerns & work have caused me to be taken unawares by the rising pollen count: a feat unheard of as I’ve been living with this since I was 4 and always ensured I had a good supply of 3 types of medication (eyes, nose and whole body dampen-things-down pills) . I’ve even in the past done a 1 month detox plan in preparation for June. I’ve been on herbal teas for months now, and generally following a wholefood diet, so it’s a bit of a shock to find I need those pills again. I now find myself resorting to drastic measures whilst I organise the pills (showers and polo mints, but I refuse to do my Dad’s Vaseline up the nose trick!).

So what better time to consider whether diet can help hayfever sufferers like moi.  (And  I don’t mean feverfew or butterbur sandwiches). First up: I see that unpasteurised farm milk reduces allergy levels in  European children whether you live on a farm or not (1)(but I think I’d rather have the allergy than TB or brucellosis). Besides, as a child that wouldn’t have helped me as I loathed the stuff and these days I’m on herbal teas sans milk. [Of related interest: there is an increased incidence of allergies in New-Zealand farm-children, although early life exposure to cats seems protective for hayfever(2)].

Next up : Mediterranean diet can help. Jolly good, another reason not to fall off my low GI diet. All that fruit and veg may have a  protective effect on allergic rhinitis in adults (3) due to the high β-carotene content,  but then I found earlier work claimed the exact opposite (4).  That 2003 study looked at adult onset hayfever & suggested high intake of oleic acid and β-carotene was positively associated with hayfever symptoms, whereas eicosapentanoic acid was inversely related (thanks Mum for all the malt & cod-liver oil extract).  A more recent paper by Nagel (5) shows high intake of oleic acid  also linked to adult asthma.

For those of you who love milk & still not sure if its a good idea for your hayfever, then you could try camel milk soon to be on your local EU supermarket shelf. 3x more vit. C, rich in iron, unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins. A new date flavoured drink made from camel milk is being marketed as naturally probiotic. It seems such a ridiculous idea here in the UK but then I’m the idiot buying rice “milk”.

So what about those cows sneezing? Well that’s me muttering to myself “I bet they don’t suffer from **** hayfever" as I pass said cows in fields full of grass going to seed.  No doubt the CAB Abstracts vets will prove me wrong!

NB AS hayfever is not  a CAB thesaurus term, the best searchstring terms are (allergies OR allergic rhinitis) AND pollen

References

1. Nutrition & Food Sciences: In Brief/In Depth 11/05/07
2. Wickens K. et al, Allergy 2002, 57, 2, 1171-1179
3. Kompauer I. et al, Public Health Nutrition 2006, 9, 4, 472-479
4. Nagel G. et al,  Allergy 2003, 58, 2, 1277-1284
5. Nagel G. & Linleisen J., European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2005, 59, 1, 8-15

What a load of rubbish!

Last week there was a lot of rubbish on TV and radio. Literally. On Thursday I watched Channel 4's Dispatches, snappily titled Bin Wars. And Friday evening the topic of recycling popped up again on Radio 4's Any Questions?. Apparently Britain is drowning in its own garbage and the government can only think of extreme measures to control it.

One comment from former journalist and MP Michael Gove met with applause from the Any Questions? audience, 'If you make it easy for the British people to do the right thing they will.'

Make it easy, now there's a thought… Part of the problem here is that of packaging. Most consumer goods, from eggs to televisions to teddy bears come wrapped in a various assortment of cardboard and plastic. There are, of course, some things we buy that are arguably already about as minimally packaged as they can be. Liquid, for example. But even here, there are steps that drink manufacturers and supermarkets can take. Anyone of my generation might remember the days when fizzy drinks came in glass bottles which were 'recyclable' - you took them back to the shop and got 10p in return. So not only were our parents and grandparents recycling long before it was fashionable (or enforced), but provided they could spare the 10p for sweets, they had an enthusiastic workforce of children willing to cycle to the shop to do the 'recycling' for them. Of now we pay the local council to take our recyclables away. In many other European countries, however, The Netherlands, Germany and Austria, for example, do have active bottle recycling cultures, for glass beer bottles and plastic pop bottles. What you do is simply take your empty, rinsed bottles back to the supermarket, where they are exchanged for a voucher, the value of which you redeem at the checkout against your shopping, which might include another bottle of something you've just recycled. That way you only pay for the drink, plus a contribution to the cost of recycling.

Now, what interested me about this debate wasn't particularly the politics or environmental issues surrounding recycling, but what life would be like if we didn't have any packaging. Packaging on food products isn't used just to make the food look nice and persuade us to buy products, although marketing is part of the reason for it. Without packaging, there would be no atmosphere control that helps maintain the quality and shelf life of some delicate products; and where would manufacturers put all the information about ingredients, nutrient content and allergen warnings that they are required to do by law?

Like governments, it seems consumers around the world are in two minds about packaging. There are many reasons why we need it on some products (though I am certainly not saying all products). In fact there is probably enough scientific literature available on various aspects of food packaging to create a mountain of paper comparable to the cardboard and plastic one the media is so worried about at the moment. Luckily, it's also available electronically.

Grasping the Great Ape Situation

Last night I attended a talk by Dr Richard Leakey entitled Climate Change and the Great Apes: Can anything be done? It was a thought-provoking evening. Leakey covered a number of contentious issues from biofuels to nuclear energy, and poverty to mass consumerism. The main thrust of his talk was that the threat of extinction to the big four - gorillas (Gorilla beringei, G. gorilla), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus) and orangutans (Pongo abelii, P. pygmaeus) - can only be lifted by a change in behaviour by humans, the fifth great ape. Leakey outlined the work of the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) Partnership (UNEP and UNESCO) and his own on-the-ground fundraising organisation WildlifeDirect. Although only functioning in Africa at the moment (but with plans to expand) WildlifeDirect in a online fundraising website which acts as a conduit for funds to go directly to field workers and conservationists at the ground level. The website is fuelled by continuously updated blogs, written by conservation workers to give the reader a true taste of what is going on in the field.