coppice willow photo courtesy of http://woodlands.co.uk
Some metals, such as zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) are
micronutrients needed in small amounts by plants, animals and humans alike, for
optimum health. Others, such as cadmium (Cd), aluminium (Al) and lead (Pb) are
not needed and can be toxic to humans, animals and ecosystems. Thankfully,
there are plants called hyperaccumulators that can remove these metals from the
soil and store them, usually in the vacuole, out of the way. The accumulated
metal serves no apparent purposes to the plant, but some believe (e.g. Rascio
and Navari-Izzo 2011) it serves as a defence against natural enemies, such as
herbivores.
Salt has been used for thousands of years to flavor
& preserve food BUT reliance on fast food, biscuits and tinned goods, with
their hidden salt content, has created for us a high salt diet and with it an
alarming rise in cardiovascular disease.
Reducing our salt intake, by working
with food industry and educating the public (World Salt Awareness Week), should
counter this disease epidemic. BUT take this too far, and could an old
disease re-emerge? I speak of iodine deficiency in the diet, which can cause abortion,
stillbirth, goitres, mental retardation & birth defects: iodized salt
solved it.
WHO recommend universal salt
iodization for developing countries as a simple, safe and cost-effective
measure to address iodine deficiency, and many developed countries follow this
too.
Image: Amanda Mills, USDA.
People afraid of salt so a disease re-emerges or is unaddressed?
If we ever needed
a reminder of the importance of iodized salt & public attitudes to health, you
only had to read “salt
rumors add to health crisis in pakistan” (Washington Post).
A fuller discussion of these issues can be found in the March issue of Global Health Knowledge Base, along with the latest research on iodine
deficiency and salt iodisation.
As a
healthcare researcher with both professional and recreational interests in
food, nutrition, and cooking, I was drawn to a book I casually found whilst
scanning a bookstore shelf in the cooking section called “Salted: A manifesto
on the world’s most essential mineral, with recipes”. The writer is ‘selmelier’, Mark Bitterman.
Image: Mark Bitterman
For a book in
the cookbook section, I found it highly enlightening and detailed, almost like
a scientific textbook on salt. Make no mistake, this is not a regular cookbook.
It is a book with three sections that (1) highlights human’s history with salt,
especially the production of salt and culinary traditions of using salt, (2)
has a section on identifying all the many different types and features of
artisanal salts, and finally (3) a section with recipes for cooking and using
salt for food (e.g. seasoning, curing).
What I learnt
about the salt industry really opened my eyes. Some of the
points highlighted in the book and by skeptics of the salt industry in the
public, match - that there appears to be an agenda by big industry to sell iodised salt.
Recently, I attended a conference on the theme of environmental conservation and sustainability, and during the questions
and discussion at the end of the presentations someone stated that ‘soil is the most
important thing!’ I thought: no, water has got to be the most important thing,
since without water there’s no life – look at the planet Mars, lots of soil, but no water
and no life!
Water is essential for life and it is an important resource to
virtually all economic activities, including food production, energy and
industrial outputs. Clean water is an indispensable natural resource for a
healthy life for humans and for freshwater ecosystems and, therefore, demands
careful management. A growing world population and climate
change are adding pressure to already scarce water resources.
To mark International Day of Forests, we brought together
three experts in the field to suggest their own thoughts on what lies ahead for
forests. Below they offer their hopes, and fears, for these vital ecosystems in
the years to come.
Rachel Carson has sparked the modern day environmental
movement with her book Silent Spring
published 50 years ago and Ruth Harrison’s book Animal Machines, also written 50 years ago, alerted
the public to the undeniable suffering of calves living in veal crates and
birds in battery cages. The second and final day of the conference revisiting
these two books was about the current challenges of conservation and animal
welfare and what the future holds. The two sessions comprised five
presentations:
I’m attending the ‘Rachel Carson & Ruth Harrison 50
years on conference’, which is taking place on 12-13 March 2013, at the Oxford
University Biodiversity Institute. These two women whose books changed science
certainly deserve the recognition. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) was a wake-up call for the environment and
helped to turn conservation into the mainstream scientific and public concern
it is today. In Silent Spring, she described
how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in animals and human tissues, causing
cancer and genetic damage. Ruth Harrison’s Animal
Machines (1964) was also a wake-up call for the conditions of farm animals and
helped to turn animal welfare into the mainstream scientific and the public
concern it is today.
National Parks all around the world attract many millions of visitors, help to protect habitats and wildlife, and provide areas where urban dwellers can go for a break from their normal lives. The world's first national park is generally held to be Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 in the USA. But while parks and other protected areas are still being established, many existing ones are under pressure from growing populations, recreational pressure, and not least from tightening public purses. So it's probably not entirely coincidental that a report on the economic value of national parks in the USA, where the concept was first put into practice, was released on 1 March, the same day that 'sequestration' - the automatic implementation of budget cuts implemented when legislators failed to come up with a new budget deal - came into force, with national parks hit along with all other areas of government spending.
Ahead of the upcoming Biodiversity Institute Conference, Marian Stamp Dawkins, Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Oxford, highlights the pioneering work of two women who spoke out about the negative effects on animals of greater efficiency in food production.
‘Greater efficiency’ may for some people be an obvious goal for producing sustainable food for an increasing human population, but it sends shivers down the spine of the animal welfare community. Fifty years ago, Ruth Harrison published her landmark book Animal Machines and drew the public's attention to what was being done in the name of more efficient food production: hens in battery cages, veal calves in crates, sows in stalls.
This
week is Climate Week (CW), a campaign which started in Great Britain, in March 2011, when the first CW resulted in 3000 events, which were
attended by half a million people, making it probably Britain’s biggest
ever environmental occasion. This year, 3226 events were registered in
the Climate Week web page, ranging from events run by schools, businesses, charities, councils and many others.
