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Curbing supermarkets' power: will the Groceries Code Adjudicator have the teeth to bite?
Murray Worthy
Tackling the unfair buying practices of the big supermarkets is a vital step forward for securing the rights of over a million workers. From fruit to textiles to cut flowers, abuses in the supply chain are rife. Now we must guard against lobbying from the retail giants, says Murray Worthy
After years of campaigning by activists throughout Britain the government has finally promised to curb supermarket bullying by introducing a watchdog. The Queen’s Speech contained a pledge to introduce new legislation for a Groceries Code Adjudicator to police the buying practices of the UK’s biggest supermarkets.
War on Want has campaigned for many years to end the exploitation and abuse of workers in the supply chains of supermarkets and has been at the forefront of the campaign to introduce a supermarket watchdog. Tackling the unfair buying practices is a vital step forward to securing the rights of over a million workers in the largest supermarkets’ supply chains.
In 2005, the charity published a report that revealed how Asda squeezed its banana suppliers. Asda sparked a banana retail price war with lasting...
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Should Coca Cola be allowed to sponsor the London Olympics?
Andrew Wasley
Following the row over Dow, BP, and Rio Tinto sponsoring the forthcoming games, another Olympic partner, Coca Cola - linked to a controversial orange harvest in Italy - should now face scrutiny says Andrew Wasley
Some of the sponsorship choices for the London 2012 Olympics have proved controversial in recent weeks, with Dow Chemicals, BP and Rio Tinto, amongst others, coming under sustained fire from environmental and human rights campaigners. Activists say the involvement of these 'unethical' companies brings the games into disrepute and undermines claims that London 2012 will be the most sustainable Olympics ever.
With its connection to the Bhopal tragedy - in which it is claimed over 3,000 people died and as many as 50,000 required hospital treatment after a massive gas leak in the Indian town of Bhopal - Dow's sponsorship generated headlines internationally and led to protests and boycott calls.
BP, responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and linked to controversial tar sands oil extraction in Canada, has been accused of 'greenwashing' its way into securing the prestigious title of London 2012 'Sustainability Partner'.
‘We are ready to die for our land’, say pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley
Elizabeth Hunter
A hydroelectric dam Gibe III in south-west Ethiopia threatens the livelihood of the ancient tribes of the Lower Omo River, say the campaign group Survival
Agro-pastoralist peoples have lived with their cattle along the Lower River Omo in south-west Ethiopia for several thousand years.
From its source in the Ethiopian highlands the Omo flows through one of Africa’s most spectacular landscapes and into Africa’s largest saline lake, Lake Turkana in Kenya. In a harsh and challenging environment, it is a vital lifeline for humans and a rich assortment of wildlife.
The Lower Omo Valley became a World Heritage site. UNESCO describes it “unlike any other place on Earth in that so many different types of people have inhabited such a small area of land over many millennia… The discovery of many fossils there, especially Homo gracilis, has been of fundamental importance in the study of human evolution.”
Grave threat of pesticides to bees' billion-pound bonanza is now clear
Damian Carrington, Guardian Head of Environment
Replacing the pollination of food crops that the UK's bees perform for free would cost £1.8bn. With hard data now linking pesticides to bees' rapid decline, there is no excuse for inaction, says Damian Carrington
How valuable are bees? In the UK, about £1.8bn a year, according to new research on the cost of hand-pollinating the many crops bees service for free. If that sounds a far-fetched scenario, consider two facts.
First, bees are in severe decline. Half the UK's honey bees kept in managed hives have gone, wild honey bees are close to extinction and solitary bees are declining in more than half the place they have been studied.
Second, hand-pollination is already necessary in some places, such as pear orchards in China, and bees are routinely trucked around the US to compensate for the loss of their wild cousins.
The new figure comes from scientists at the Reading University and was released by Friends of the Earth to launch their new campaign, Bee Cause. Paul de Zylva, FoE nature campaigner, said: 'Unless we halt the decline in British bees our farmers will have to rely on hand-pollination, sending food prices rocketing.'
So what's...
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Midwifery on screen: how 'One Born Every Minute' gets it wrong
Sarah Montagu
Forget alarmist TV birthing dramas- get the real low-down on midwifery from Sarah Montagu
The drama of midwifery lies in the long quiet hours of focussed attention on the miracle unfolding before you, the satisfaction at hearing the change in a woman's voice from querulous exhaustion to triumph, awe and love as she welcomes her baby and the fulfilment in escorting families on their journey through childbirth. It's therefore not really surprising that most TV depictions of birth are profoundly annoying for midwives to watch, as the drama for TV has to be contained in short episodes with as much excitement, alarm and agitation as possible.
I try where possible not to watch most TV depictions of birth, as it's bad for my blood pressure - moaning ‘not again' where a pregnant character in a soap who five minutes ago was absolutely fine, clutches her abdomen, shrieks in sudden agony, a minute later yells ‘my waters have gone' and five minutes later is clutching a baby (who incidentally looks about two months old), or burying my head in the sofa cushions... Read More...
Latest Entries
- Curbing supermarkets' power: will the Groceries Code Adjudicator have the teeth to bite?
- Should Coca Cola be allowed to sponsor the London Olympics?
- ‘We are ready to die for our land’, say pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley
- Grave threat of pesticides to bees' billion-pound bonanza is now clear
- Midwifery on screen: how 'One Born Every Minute' gets it wrong
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