Greenpeace Europe announced yesterday, that GM crops are still largely restricted to the Americas. The article published on the 7th Feb 2012, reports Industry figures confirm GM food is a commercial flop in Europe.

Only around 0.06% of the EU’s farmland was used in 2011 to grow GM food, according to data in the report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a group funded by the biotech industry to promote GM crops.

Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: “There is no escaping the hard facts: GM food has flopped in Europe, is increasingly opposed in Asia and is retreating to the Americas. The industry’s own figures show that GM crops are only grown in a measly 0.06% of Europe’s farmland. Public rejection and market failure have already forced BASF to scale back in Europe, while Monsanto is left holding on by its fingernails.”

After 16 years of aggressive commercialisation, over 80% of global GM crop production is still restricted to only four countries in the Americas: the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. Recent attempts to introduce GM food to China (GM rice) and India (GM aubergine) have failed.

Greenpeace postulates the nations widespread opposition of GM foods was largely responsible for the failed induction of GM foods in Europe. This sentiment is acknowledged in Australia where GM crops are permitted.

In a statement last year, CSIRO’s Chief Executive Megan Clark, said there is a gap between the concerns of the community and the knowledge of scientists around genetic research.

“We recognise that the modification of genes in plants causes concern in sections of the community. However, we also know that many people will be comfortable with genetic modification in food products if they can be assured they are beneficial for human health and safe for the environment.

“Across the very extensive and prolonged use worldwide, there has been no evidence of harm to human health associated with the use of GM technology. In Australia we’ve been growing and consuming GM products for at least 15 years with GM cotton and carnations grown commercially since 1996 and GM canola since 2008,” Ms Clark said.

 

Gestures of love vary amongst cultures, traditions and species – a few of the more unusual courtship behaviours ‘worth a read’ listed here.

However for the majority, Valentines Day is typically celebrated with a gift of roses and/or chocolate. Adding a handmade touch to a heartfelt present is a great way to evolve the tradition making it uniquely yours!

Romantic (Bloke Friendly) Recipe – Tart of Hearts (Serves Two)

Ingredients (Crust)
1 cup macadamia paste
(soak 130 grams of macadamias overnight, rinse and blend with 1 espresso and seeds of half a vanilla pod)
1 tablespoon of coconut flour
1 tablespoon of Coconut Oil / Butter

Ingredients (filling)
1 cup fresh blueberries
2 cups of Raw Cacao Powder
2 tablespoons Agave Syrup
4 tablespoons coconut cream

Directions
Blend wet ingredients for the crust to a smooth consistency then slowly sift flour and stir until a soft dough forms. Line one large or two small-medium tart cases with cling film and press the mixture into each (tip: use a dipping bowl of water to wet your fingers).

Place in a preheated oven 200 degrees F for 8-12 minutes or until slightly golden. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before adding filling.

Next add all the ingredients for your filling into a blender and whiz to a rich velvet cream consistency – pour into cooled tart cases and chill in the fridge for 7 hours or in the freezer for 3 hours.

Garnish with a sprinkle of Mesquite Powder and side serve of fresh cherries.

 

Great Valentines Day gift ideas, for a nature loving lass or wildly curious chap!

For she who enjoys the good things from Nature…

Shower your lady love with the essence of nature. Rethink the chemically derived perfume and skincare opting instead for something pure and planet friendly. The velvety smooth sensation of organic skincare blended with fragrant notes from nature is a beautiful gesture made even more meaningful as the KORA Organics range of products are crafted with care to preserve the earth.

Valentines Day Offers from KORA Organics

Online: To celebrate Valentines Day this year KORA Organics is offering all online shoppers near and far the opportunity to receive a custom made Valentines Day card personally signed by Miranda. Spend $100 or more from Monday 6th February on KORA Organics products for yourself or the one you love most and receive your Valentines Day card in the post with your products. This offer is limited for the sake of Miranda’s right hand so please order as soon as possible and avoid any disappointment.

In Store: Join Miranda this Valentines Day at David Jones Elizabeth St store as she shares her KORA Organics skincare secrets and reveals her idea of the perfectly romantic Valentines Day gift. Simply purchase 2 KORA Organics Products from David Jones to receive a custom made Valentines Day card for Miranda to personally sign.*

Event details- Tuesday 14th February, 12:30pm – 1:30pm, Signing located Ground Floor, David Jones Elizabeth St store (Sydney), near the piano.

*Customers must purchase two KORA Organics Products from David Jones between 6/02/12 and 14/02/12 in one transaction. On 14/02/12, the first 150 customers to present their receipt from the purchase will receive the above offer. Only one card per customer.

For he who explores the Great Outdoors…

Give your mountaineering man the gift of gear. Unless you come prepared, exploring rugged backcountry takes a toll on the sole – this is where Wolverine Footwear excel.

Wolverine believes it is paramount that your feet should be comfortable at all times, whether it’s on the hardest of hikes or completing day to day activities. That is why Wolverine’s unique Individual Comfort System (iCS) has been incorporated into the latest range of Off-Road Hiking and Lifestyle footwear (the range is expecting new releases due out in Autumn 2012 including: Metron Waterproof Off Road Hiker, Orly Wolverine iCS Chukka and Idlewild Wolverine iCS Oxford).

Help your man go wild in Wolverine!

 

Remember the Good’s? A hapless couple of country converts willing to forgo their 9-5 for a chance to become self sufficient – cultivating small harvests on their suburban lot and crafting necessaries from bartered goods or items already on hand. Now it appears that this BBC series which introduced many to the concept of inner city farming in the mid 1970′s, appears to have provided a blueprint for innovative growers of today.

In one episode Tom Good experiments with generating his own source of electricity powered no less by materials from the pig pen. The methane producing energy to run Mr. Good’s lightbulb and little more, may not have supplied a surplus of power as required for modern means but the principle has helped inspire others to devise a system utilising spoiled goods to do just that.

British celebrity chef Gary Rhodes recently highlighted this practice in series one of the BBC programme ‘Great British Food Revival’ in which he investigated the use of rotting fruit and vegetables by tomato growers as an effective strategy for reducing the energy cost of heating a glasshouse.

In the UK it is necessary to heat the glasshouses in the winter and at night in the summer. To counter the effects of CO2 emissions green thumbs are generating power in evermore ingenious ways and putting waste to work as in the case of methane powered energy is just one. This has a two-fold effect for the environment, capturing harmful methane gases from an abundance of produce waste to generate power replacing CO2 producing energy sources.

Some other methods encapsulating the Good’s spirit include pollinating crops with the help of bumblebees as practised at the Eric Wall Nursery and piping hot water from corporate plants to heat glasshouses a strategy utilised by British Sugar.

So, here is to The Good Life, and growing more produce from green processes.

 

Wrapping up the week in nature science we learn valuable insights from the arachnid family that could help innovate visual technologies, unearth a growing trend for cultivating in the clouds and take a look at the new mapping technology globally evaluating the health of coral reefs.

Science Now reporter Elsa Youngsteadt, explores the leap of understanding scientists have made into optical abilities of the jumping spider. With their keen vision and deadly-accurate pounce, jumping spiders are the cats of the invertebrate world. For decades, scientists have puzzled over how the spiders’ miniature nervous systems manage such sophisticated perception and hunting behavior. A new study of Adanson’s jumping spider (Hasarius adansoni) fills in one key ingredient: an unusual form of depth perception.

Read the Full Story ’3D Vision for Tiny Eyes’

In other news, Dickson Despommier reports on the growing trend for high-rise farming. Writing for Scientific American the journalist examines the motivation behind vertical farming. Farming is ruining the environment, and not enough arable land remains to feed a projected 9.5 billion people by 2050. Growing food in glass high-rises could drastically reduce fossil-fuel emissions and recycle city wastewater that now pollutes waterways. A one-square-block farm 30 stories high could yield as much food as 2,400 outdoor acres, with less subsequent spoilage. Existing hydroponic greenhouses provide a basis for prototype vertical farms now being considered by urban planners in cities worldwide.

Read the Preview Story ‘Growing Skyscrapers: The Rise of Vertical Farms’

Finally, we turn our focus on a light reflecting living reefs. The NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center describe a new mapping method being used to detect detrimental change in coral reefs. Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover’s Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan—a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula—found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.

But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close. In the late 1970s Dustan helped build a handheld spectrometer, a tool to measure light given off by the coral. Using his spectrometer, Dustan could look at light reflected and made by the different organisms that comprised the living reefs. Since then, he has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that Landsat offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find ‘hotspots’ where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.

Read the Full Story Detecting Detrimental Change in Coral Reefs