Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
After wreaking havoc in Nigeria, spinal meningitis has spread to a dozen other countries close to the Sahara, from Mali and Burkina Faso in the west to Sudan in the east. According to the World Health Organization, at least 6,000 people have died in recent weeks and more than 300 …
Yet another fracas centering around a dam: the Malaysian government is going ahead with its plans to construct the Bakun hydro- electric dam on the island of Borneo. While the Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the benefits of the dam in a seminar held recently on the project, the …
Nearly 100 caged baboons had the fright of their lives when the inundated Olifants river climbed under their cages at a remote reserve in northern South Africa recently. Rescue workers worked night and day to carry the baboons and some other animals like jackals, civets, warthogs and monkeys to the, …
The lions of Serengeti National Park in anzania must be cured of canine distemper. Veterinarians working with the Institute of Zoology in London and the various national parks in the country have resolved to deal with the menace - that has killed almost 1,000 lions since mid-1993 - once and …
GLOBAL conflagarations of the next century might very well be over water, says a World Bank report presented at the 20th session of the International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies held recently in Erice, Italy. The report warns that overconsumption of water in the developed nations and its growing scarcity in …
CAN IT: Rotten foodstuff in sealed tin cans will now be a thing of the past. Elbicon, a Belgian company which produces equipment for food processing industries, has developed a new quality control technology which uses laser, infrared or X-ray to detect bone pieces in canned meat, bits of wood …
FINDING itself caught on the wrong foot, the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra reversed its decision to amend the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, calling for a total ban on the slaughter of bullocks. On August 2, it withdrew the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (amendment) Bill, 1995, following waves of protests. …
Animals in industrilized countries both farmers and animals are becoming specialized. Thus dairy farmers keep high milk producing cows. Beef farmers keep specialized beef animals - sheep are specialized in producing meat or wool. Likewise the crops are specialized and crop residues generally discarded or ploughed in. This total market …
SAFE REACTORS: A new model of safer reactors is coming up, announced Framatome of France and Siemens of Germany. The 2 nuclear power reactor suppliers have joined hands to desigrethe new and improved European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPR) for export and home markets. They have floated a joint venture, Nuclear, …
Pressure mounts in the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for an HIV law. At a United Nations Development Programmeis HIV and Development Regionat Project Workshop held in Colombo in mid-February, the need for more, proactive legal responses to the increasing number of AIDS cases was stressed upon. Among …
ANTI-POLUTION GIZMO: Diesel engines will be spewing less nitric oxide fumes, promise KMH, a Doncaster-based business house, and Leeds University in the UK. They have jointly developed a steam-based anti-pollution device, which they claim is cheaper and requires less maintenance than catalytic converters. The De-NOX device, as it has been …
The magnificent Great Barrier Reef in Australia has again been in news: it has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. A recent comparison of contemporary photographs with pictures taken in 1980 has laid bare this distressing fact to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The …
Helicopters have made mountaineering a less arduous prospect in Nepal, but chopped down the daily earnings of the Sherpas. While tourists can now wing their way up to inaccessible areas, mountaineers can fly out their heavy gears instead of hauling them. "With the helicopters, there is a danger that Sherpas' …
President Boris Yeltsin has sent Russia's advertising industry reeling by banning tobacco and alcohol advertisements. In the last 3 years Russia's advertising market has seen media organisations catering to Western multinationals who have been vying to get a toehold in the country. The tobacco and alcohol markets have seen an …
Russia is stonewalling international investigations into a nuclear smuggling case in Czechoslovakia, complain Czech and Western nuclear regulatory authorities. On December 14, 1994, 6 pounds of highly enriched uranium-235 were seized in Prague. Acting on a tipoff, Czech police charged 3 men -- a Russian, a Belorussian and a Czech …
British farmers are on the defensive as opposition mounts from animal welfare groups on current animal farming practices. In early February, a group of about 2,000 animal lovers clashed with the police in an attempt to prevent a truckload of veal calves from reaching the small port of Brightlingsea in …
Australia's burgeoning kangaroo population seems in for a hard time. Already unpopular with farmers (Down To Earth, September 15, 1995), the country's national symbol may end up soon as a major industry. With government support, kangaroo meat processors, tanners and leather goods manufacturers are applying the final touches to a …
FINALLY waking up to health hazards from genetically manipulated drugs, the Union government is trying to monitor their production and marketing by setting up a new safety-test system. The ministry of industries has recently issued a list of such drugs and formulations. These are used on humans and animals as …
Alexis, last of the four cheetah's brought from Great Britain five years ago, died due to gross negligence in mid-January in the Delhi Zoo. This brings to focus the dismal state of veterinary services in Indian zoos. Alexis' death followed soon after its mate, Charlie, died the same month. Experts …
The sorry state of India's animal care services was highlighted when a cub of the elusive and highly endangered snow leopard that died because of a lack of medical facilities in its natural habitat. The cub was brought from Ladakh, its natural home, to Chhatbir in the plains for treatment, …
