EC74, Dec 2001/Jan 2002 - Balfour Beatty pull out of the Ilisu dam project, Friends of the Earth report on chemicals in children's products, villagers in Derbyshire protest against Rolls Royce radioactive waste and Air France targeted for freight trade in primates
EC73, Oct/Nov 2001 - Report on pesticide residues, illegally logged timber on sale in the UK and Nestle scuppering foot and mouth vaccinations
Fairtrade News
Garstang in Lancashire has been named as the first
Fairtrade town in the world. A Public Council Meeting last year declared
the town as such after a survey showed that 71% of people living in Garstang
recognise the Fairtrade Mark. This compares to a national average of only
20%. The Fairtrade Foundation, which presides over the Mark, has launched
an Action Guide to encourage other towns and cities to follow Garstang’s
example.
Another
first – Fairtrade mangoes in Britain.
Oké mangoes will be distributed by the new Fairtrade company,
AgroFair UK and will be available, to start with, from the Co-op, which
was the first supermarket to sell Fairtrade bananas. The mangoes will
come from Ecuador, Burkina Faso and Mexico. The Day Chocolate Company
– which is one third owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana – has
added a plain chocolate called Darkly Divine to their milk chocolate
Divine and Dubble chocolate bars. See Reader Offer on the centre pages.
The company will also be selling Divine Mini Eggs during Fairtrade Fortnight
and on to Easter.
For more information, a Fairtrade Fortnight Action Pack, resource packs
for teachers, leaflets, recipe cards and a list of Fairtrade Marked
products, contact The Fairtrade Foundation, Suite 204, 16 Baldwin’s
Gardens, London, EC1N 7RJ Tel: 020 7405 5942
Website: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk
Worlds apart
Last year, one in ten holidays taken by British people were in some
of the poorest countries in the world, such as India, Kenya, Nepal,
Peru and Mexico. But hardly any holiday money ever reaches the local
economies of developing countries. In Thailand, for example, 60% of
tourism revenues leave the country. A new report reveals that there
is a growing demand from the British public for holidays abroad to be
more ethical.
The report, from the Christian relief and development agency Tearfund,
calls for the tourism industry to become socially responsible. The report
asks travel agents and tour operators to:
put money into developing local business partnerships in destinations;
produce codes for responsible behaviour for holidaymakers when abroad;
report back to investors and customers the steps taken to promote responsible
tourism.
Anita Roddick also urges holidaymakers to ask tour operators for their
responsible tourism policies: “As consumers we have a right to
know the impact that our money and holidays have on people in the destinations.
Tour operators have a responsibility to supply us with information so
that we can make informed choices.”
For more information, or a copy of the report, contact Tearfund on 020
8977 6061 or visit the website
Trade for life
A new book outlines Christian Aid’s view of why we must urgently
rewrite the global rules to benefit poor people. The book provides a
detailed analysis of the international trading system and how it impacts
on the poor. It explains how the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s
decision making process is biased against the poor and why governments
must act now to regulate the huge power of multinational companies.
The book costs £9.99 or is available to download for free as a
pdf on the Christian Aid website at http://www.christian-aid.org.uk
Contact Christian Aid at PO Box 100, London SE1 7RT
The green machine
The
first healthier food and drink vending machines for schools have been
installed in the southeast, prior to a rollout across the country.
The products are organic wherever possible and contain no artificial
additives, colourings or flavourings. Ownership of the brands is also
checked out. For example, Libby’s organic juice was rejected because
of its links to Nestle. Products for sale include Yeo Valley organic
yoghurts, Jonathan Crisp crisps, Jordan’s cereal bars, organic
soya shakes, organic fruit purees, freshly squeezed juice and mineral
water.
Schools installing the machines are also offered educational support,
such as visits from nutritionists and visits to manufacturers’
farms and factories.
For more information, contact Organic and Natural Food Company, 75-85
Summerstown, London SW17 0BQ Tel: 020 8971 0055
Good Fish Guide
If
you eat fish then the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide
will help you to make the most eco-friendly choices. The guide details
over 60 species commonly on sale in the UK, how and where they are caught
and whether they come from sustainably managed stocks.
The guide also lists the 20 most vulnerable species to be avoided. There
is also information on a range of environmental and social issues associated
with catching, processing and eating fish.
The guide costs £9.50 (incl. p&p) from Marine Conservation
Society, Gloucester Road, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5BU Tel: 01989 566017
Lifting the lid on food additives
In the nineteenth century, tea traders were prosecuted when they added
copper colouring to used tealeaves to sell as new. Bakers were prosecuted
for adding alum, pea powder or chalk to flour. But today, 400 E-numbers
and thousands of un-named flavourings are allowed to be used.
A new poster from the Food Commission shows how food additives encourage
us to buy poor quality, processed foods. Often a food additive, a colour
or a flavour, is used to replace a real ingredient. For example, red
colourings are added to sausages to make cheap, fatty meat look like
healthier lean meat, and a fruit drink can contain no real juice at
all. And foods typically using additives are high in fat, sugar or salt.
The A2 poster lists the questionable additives, including artificial
sweeteners, which are a problem to sensitive people. Children’s
foods are most likely to contain the colourings and flavour boosters
that cause concern.
The poster costs £2.50 (including p&p) and is available from
the Food Commission, Freepost KE 7564, London N1 9BR
EC 74 Jan/Feb 2001/02
Air France Rage
A campaign to stop airlines transporting primates destined for the vivisection
industry is now focussing on Air France. Many airlines have stopped
the trade, but Air France remains one of the world’s biggest primate
carriers. The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection is asking
supporters to send protest cards to the Air France Director and write
to the French Prime Minister. Contact BUAV for an Air France pack and
an Air Rage list of other airlines still transporting primates. You
can send an email to some of the airlines on the list at www.buav.org
Ethiopian Airlines was the latest carrier to announce that it would
stop the transport of primates. The airline was one of the main carriers
of wild-caught baboons from Tanzania, the subject of another BUAV campaign.
BUAV supporters have inundated Tanzanian authorities with protest postcards.
You can now email a virtual postcard from the BUAV website. Postcards
are also available to send by snail mail. BUAV maintains that the baboons
are caught to order for the international vivisection industry and are
kept in appalling conditions in tiny crates without food or water. For
more info, contact BUAV at 16a Crane Grove, London N7 8NN Tel: 020 7700
4888 Web: www.buav.org
Dam damned
Campaigners celebrated a victory in November when construction firm
Balfour Beatty pulled out of involvement in the controversial Ilisu
Dam in the Kurdish region of Turkey. Ilisu was the subject of a Feature
in EC65 (June 2000). “This is a tremendous win for campaigners
against a disastrous dam project,” said Friends of the Earth Director
Charles Secrett. “Balfour Beatty’s very welcome decision to
drop out of the project shows the power of shareholder pressure and
publicity campaigns by groups like Friends of the Earth and the Ilisu
Dam Campaign.”
Balfour was the main contractor in the dam and its departure throws
the future of the project into doubt. The dam would have made more than
30,000 people homeless, and it could have threatened water conflicts
with the downstream states, Syria and Iraq. Dozens of towns and villages
would have been submerged including the archaeologically important ancient
town of Hasankeyf.
Earlier this year, FOE bought £30,000 of Balfour Beatty shares
so that it could submit a protest resolution to the company’s AGM
in May. Balfour Beatty’s work on the Dam was due to be underwritten
by the government’s Export Credit Guarantee Department using $200
million of taxpayers’ money.
For more information, contact FOE at 26-28 Underwood Street, London
N1 7JQ Tel: 020 7490 1555 Web: http://www.foe.co.uk
or the Ilisu Dam Campaign at http://www.ilisu.org.uk
Peasants revolt
Villagers in Derbyshire are actively challenging the dumping of radioactive
‘waste’ by Rolls Royce Marine Power Operations, previous protests
having been stifled by government secrecy.
Since the mid 1960s, Rolls Royce has been burying enriched uranium,
Cobalt-60 and Carbon-14, by-products of building nuclear submarine reactor
cores, in geologically questionable holes in Crich, just fifty metres
from the local primary school. Tests on local watercourses have revealed
the presence of Cobalt-60 and steeply increasing levels of Thorium-232
and Uranium-235 in the silt. The company has refused to explain the
results and local people have consequently been operating a picket-line
since last July.
The Environment Agency, under campaigners’ pressure, is beginning
to act on the issue, but as local campaigner, David Lane reports: “…it
has become clear that this organisation does not have the teeth to do
an effective job.” In other words, legislation does not afford
the Agency the powers required to achieve basic environmental common
sense. With nuclear Labour planning to increase nuclear waste by 500%
by 2010, campaigners plan to lobby politicians to adopt best practice
for its disposal.
More info from David Lane of Crich & District Environmental Action
Group, Poplar Cottage, The Dimple, Fritchley, Belper, Derbyshire DE56
2HP; 01773 853260 or 07980 872525.
Consumer power
‘Socially responsible business’ newsletter Ethical Performance
(November 2001) reports that the latest MORI polling evidence
shows Britons are becoming more concerned about corporate social
responsibility issues. The percentage of people considering such
issues to be ‘very important’ when deciding to buy a
product or service has gone up from 28% in 1998 to 46%.
More info from Charlotte Hines at MORI on 020 7347 3090.
Safer chemicals for children?
As part of its Safer Chemicals campaign, Friends of the Earth recently
surveyed babies’ and children’s products and found that many
contained ‘risky’ chemicals such as phthalates, bisphenol
A, brominated flame retardants, and artificial musks. FOE questioned
large retailers and asked them whether the products they sold contained
any of these chemicals.
For toiletries such as baby wipes, the worst responses came from Boots,
Superdrug and Tesco which could not say whether their toiletries were
free from these chemicals. Sainsbury’s and Waitrose both said their
own brand toiletries were phthalate and artificial musk free.
For toys, phthalates (hormone disruptors used in PVC) are banned in
PVC baby toys “intended to be put in the mouths of children under
three” but the law does not protect other baby toys. Only IKEA
said that it had removed phthalates from all its toys. FOE recommends
that consumers look out for ‘PVC-free’ toys.
The linings of some food cans contain bisphenol A, another known hormone
disruptor. Sainsbury’s own brand baby food and Nutricia baby food
are sold in containers free from bisphenol A.
Other things to look out for are plastic baby bottles and beakers made
from polycarbonate, which can leak bisphenol A when scratched or worn.
A better option is to buy glass bottles such as those available from
Green Baby. Contact them on 020 7226 4345
For the full results of the survey, visit http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/safer_chemicals
EC73 Nov/Dec 2001
Nestlé scuppers vaccination plan
Way back in April, at the start of the foot and mouth outbreak, Tony
Blair and his ministers were convinced of the need for vaccination against
foot and mouth disease. But Nestlé led a powerful business lobby
which apparently persuaded the government to change direction.
Within days of deciding that vaccination was the best option, industry,
led by Peter Blackburn, the then chief executive of Nestlé UK
and president of the Food and Drink Federation, had forced an about-turn.
Mr Blackburn was concerned that Nestlé’s exports of powdered
milk and chocolate would be compromised by the vaccination policy. No-one
would want to buy vaccinated meat and milk, he said. Nestlé has
a factory in Dalston, Cumbria. The plant is Nestlé’s major
producer of powdered milk, with 75% of its output going to developing
countries. A vaccination policy, said Mr Blackburn, could have risked
its exports of powdered milk to developing countries and even threatened
its closure.
Ministers blamed farmers for not accepting vaccination and played down
the influence the food industry had. The agriculture secretary, Nick
Brown, was subsequently replaced and MAFF became the Department for
Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
UK tops illegal logging league
As much as 60% of tropical timber sold in the UK is from illegal sources,
say Friends of the Earth and the Environmental Investigation Agency.
The EIA, in conjuction with Indonesian NGO Telapak, has produced a report
on timber trafficking. The majority of these imports are destined for
EU countries, with 740,000 hectares of tropical forest illegally felled
for European consumption in 1999.
Ed Matthew of Friends of the Earth commented: “Major corporations
are making millions from trading in illegally sourced tropical timber.
This is having a devastating impact on wildlife rich forests and on
the people that depend on them.”
Indonesia contains ten percent of the world’s remaining tropical
forests and 80% of remaining orangutans, whose numbers have fallen sharply.
Powerful syndicates operate in Indonesia to move stolen tropical hardwood
trees through Malaysia and into profitable export markets such as Europe.
The Director of the EIA said: “The link between buying a picture
frame in London and the death of the forest and wildlife in Indonesia
must be dealt with immediately…serious action must be taken to
stop illegal logging now.”
More information from:
Friends of the Earth,
26-28 Underwood Street,
London, N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
http://www.foe.co.uk
or
Environmental Investigation Agency,
62/63 Upper Street,
London N1 0NY
Tel: 020 7354 7960
http://www.eia-international.org
Supermarket pesticide residues
Nearly half the fruit and vegetables sold in supermarkets over the last
three years contained pesticide residues, Friends of the Earth recently
revealed.
M&S and Somerfield were the worst offenders whilst Waitrose had
the lowest incidence of residues. Some of the highest incidence of residues
occurred in celery, grapes, oranges, strawberries and lettuce. 81% of
pears and 74% of apples were found to contain pesticides. The data came
from the Government’s official residue results which are published
at www.pesticides.gov.uk
In response to FOE’s report, M&S has committed to ban 79 pesticides,
work towards zero residues and join the Co-op in publishing its own
testing data on its website. The Co-op has already committed to banning
50 pesticides and reduce residues. Waitrose also has a policy of banning
the most risky pesticides and reducing pesticide use. FOE is calling
on the other big supermarkets to make similar commitments.
More information from Friends of the Earth, 26-28 Underwood Street,
London, N1 7JQ Tel: 020 7490 1555 Website http://www.foe.co.uk
Green Building Store goes online
A new on-line and mail-order shop for green consumers' DIY needs has
been launched under the name of http://www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
The store stocks products like the Natural Paint Collection, which contains
zero and minimal VOC content paints at costs comparable to mainstream
brands, Warmcel recycled insulation, steel rainwater goods and timber
windows and doors.
DIWhy?
The Real Green Building Book 2001, produced by the Association for Environment
Conscious Building (AECB), is a directory of all AECB members in the
UK and Ireland. Members are listed by products, trade and by county.
The guide is free to EC readers. Get a copy and a sample copy of the
AECB’s magazine Building for a Future by sending an A4 SAE (£1.12
worth of stamps) to: AECB, PO Box 32, Llandysul, SA44 5ZA
