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In October 2021 Sustain, the UK-based alliance working for food and farming system change, published ‘Beyond the farmgate – Unlocking the path to farmer-focused supply chains and climate-friendly, agroecological food systems’. The report explores the results of a survey of 500 farmers in England and Wales, with recommendations on how better systems can be created to benefit farmers, the environment and the public. Vicki Hird unpacks some of the details.

Farmers in England and Wales want to move away from centralised supply chains where they say they have little influence over prices, not enough connection to consumers, and are not rewarded for delivering positive climate and nature outcomes. This is according to the findings of Sustain in its report ‘Beyond the Farmgate‘ which lays out the results of a new survey of 500 English and Welsh farmers. Only 5% of farmers surveyed want to sell to supermarkets. In contrast, 80% would like to sell to food hubs, box schemes, independent retailers and other more local markets.

Local Supply Chains – barriers and cooperation

More localised supply chains would do a much better job when it comes to fair and better prices (75%), supporting climate and nature objectives (30%), and greater business resilience (42%), farmers felt.

But finding new markets has its barriers, which were also drawn out of the survey. The biggest challenges for farmers were access to affordable finance (48%), limited time and know-how when it comes to marketing and market research (44%), and the lack of locally available infrastructure like grain mills and abattoirs (28%).

Given the multiple challenges ahead, from trade deals, to climate and a continuously harsh retail environment, it was unsurprising that most farmers surveyed either want to be part of a cooperative (55%) or would be willing to consider joining one (25%)…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Zog Energy becomes 25th UK supplier to go bust in three months

December 3, 2021

Zog Energy becomes 25th UK supplier to go bust in three months

Company, which supplied gas to about 11,700 households, is another victim of record market prices

A pan on a domestic hob — Zog Energy was founded in 2012 with a plan to offer households simple, affordable gas tariffs. Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images

Another of the UK’s small energy companies has gone bust, bringing the total number of suppliers that have collapsed in the past three months after a record surge in energy market prices to 25.

Zog Energy, which supplies gas to about 11,700 households, announced on its website that it had ceased to trade and that the energy regulator, Ofgem, would appoint a new supplier to take on its customers.

Ofgem has been forced to find new suppliers for more than 2 million households affected by the collapse of energy suppliers since the start of September. The fate of another 1.7 million Bulb Energy customers is yet to be decided by a special administrator, which was appointed to handle the large-scale collapse.

Note: this table does not include MA Energy (2 November) or CNG Energy (3 November), which supply only non-domestic energy customers

Zog Energy was founded in 2012 with a plan to offer households simple, affordable gas tariffs. It said it was “starting with gas” because this was “normally the highest proportion of domestic customers’ annual fuel bill” but did not go on to offer electricity tariffs.

Bills have rocketed in recent weeks after a global gas supply crunch that has caused the wholesale market price to reach record highs in October, and remain at historic levels as temperatures have plunged.

Neil Lawrence, Ofgem’s retail director, said Zog’s customers “do not need to worry” because the regulator’s safety net process would ensure they have uninterrupted energy until a new supplier is appointed, and their bills would be protected by the energy price cap.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

UK will ‘pause’ publication of data showing biodiversity in decline

November 24, 2021

UK will ‘pause’ publication of data showing biodiversity in decline

Next year will see an important meeting to agree global biodiversity targets, but the UK says it won’t be publishing key data on wildlife and habitats

Lulworth skipper butterfly — A male Lulworth skipper (Thymelicus acteon) in Dorset, UK. Oliver Smart/Alamy

Conservationists and politicians have criticised the UK government for its decision to temporarily stop publishing new data on the state of the country’s wildlife and habitats in 2022, the same year as a landmark UN biodiversity summit.

Figures published today by the Department for Food, Rural Affairs & Environment (Defra) show a deteriorating picture for habitats, as well as for priority species, such as otters and red squirrels; woodland birds and butterflies that are reliant on specific habitats, such as the Lulworth skipper (Thymelicus acteon).

The UK, like many other countries, has failed to arrest declines in biodiversity in recent years despite signing up to global targets to protect nature. In April 2022, nations are expected to renew their commitment to act by agreeing new biodiversity targets for 2030 at the COP15 summit in Kunming, China.

However, Defra said that it will “pause” publishing new data on the state of UK biodiversity in 2022 to enable a “thorough review” of the indicators, such as the pressures from invasive species or the health of bird populations and other animals. Publication will not resume until 2023.

Mark Avery, a conservationist and former conservation director of the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, says: “It seems like Defra’s response to a biodiversity crisis is to stop publishing the data that show it’s happening. That’s not very good, is it?”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

UK Bans Gas Heating

November 9, 2021

UK Bans Gas Heating

Zero Carbon Sooner—Revised case for an early zero carbon target for the UK

November 7, 2021

Zero Carbon Sooner—Revised case for an early zero carbon target for the UK

Cover image: Anthony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ in Liverpool; photographed by Donald Judge / flickr.com (CC-BY 2.0); modified

Summary

This paper is an update of an earlier briefing note[1], revised to take account of new findings from the IPCC’s updated 6^th Assessment Report (AR6). The broad aim of the paper is to establish how soon the UK should aim for (net) zero carbon emissions. The paper first derives a ‘fair remaining carbon budget’ for the UK. It then analyses a variety of emission pathways and target dates for their adequacy in terms of remaining within this budget.

A first key finding is that a target date for zero carbon is not sufficient in itself to determine whether the UK remains within its carbon budget. Policy must specify both a target date and an associated emissions pathway. A second key finding is that the sufficiency of these targets and pathways depends crucially on whether emissions are accounted for on a ‘territorial’ basis or on a ‘consumption’ basis.

For a linear reduction pathway not to exceed the remaining carbon budget the net zero target year would have to be between 2027 and 2032, depending on the accounting framework. For a target year of 2050, the average rate of emission reductions must lie in the range 17-27% if the UK’s fair budget is not to be exceeded. As measured on a consumption basis, these rates would require absolute reductions approaching 95% of current carbon emissions as early as 2030. Consequently, this paper argues in favour of setting a UK target for net zero carbon emissions no later than 2035, with a maximum of around 5% of the mitigation effort achieved through negative emission technologies.

Download

The full working paper is available for download in pdf (1.4MB). | Jackson T 2021. Zero Carbon Sooner…

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Chris Hedges: The Most Important Battle for Press Freedom in Our Time

November 3, 2021

Chris Hedges: The Most Important Battle for Press Freedom in Our Time

If he is extradited and found guilty of publishing classified material it will set a legal precedent that will effectively end national security reporting.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Scheerpost) – For the past two days, I have been watching the extradition hearing for Julian Assange via video link from London. The United States is appealing a lower court ruling that denied the US request to extradite Assange not, unfortunately, because in the eyes of the court he is innocent of a crime, but because, as Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January concluded, Assange’s precarious psychological state would deteriorate given the “harsh conditions” of the inhumane US prison system, “causing him to commit suicide.” The United States has charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of trying to hack into a government computer, charges that could see him imprisoned for 175 years.

Assange, with long white hair, appeared on screen the first day from the video conference room in HM Prison Belmarsh. He was wearing a white shirt with an untied tie around his neck. He looked gaunt and tired. He did not appear in court, the judges explained, because he was receiving a “high dose of medication.” On the second day he was apparently not present in the prison’s video conference room.

Assange is being extradited because his organization WikiLeaks released the Iraq War Logs in October 2010, which documented numerous US war crimes — including video images of the gunning down of two Reuters journalists and 10 other unarmed civilians in the Collateral murder video, the routine torture of Iraqi prisoners, the covering up of thousands of civilian deaths and the killing of nearly 700 civilians that had approached too closely to US checkpoints…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

People in UK Who Post “False Information” About Vaccines Could be Jailed For Two Years

November 2, 2021

People in UK Who Post “False Information” About Vaccines Could be Jailed For Two Years

New law criminalizes “knowingly false communication.”

Coolpicture via Getty Images

People in the UK who post “false information” about vaccines online could face two years in prison under a new law.

Yes, really.

The Online Safety Bill, described as “the flagship legislation to combat abuse and hatred on the internet” has faced fierce criticism from civil liberties groups for its broad overreach.

The law would create a “knowingly false communication” offence which, according to the Times, “will criminalise those who send or post a message they know to be false with the intention to cause “emotional, psychological, or physical harm to the likely audience”. Government sources gave the example of antivaxers spreading false information that they know to be untrue.”

Given that authorities have deemed all kinds of information about the pandemic and vaccines “false” that later turned out to be true, this is a chilling prospect.

For example, claims that vaccines are not fully effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19 would have once been deemed “false,” but that position is now a proven fact.

The bill would also change the current stricter standard of “indecent” or “grossly offensive” content to the much broader definition of “harmful effect” when deciding if a post or a message is criminal.

This is more in line with UK hate speech laws that determine whether an act of hate speech or a “hate incident” has been committed not on the basis of whether or not it actually happened, but on the basis of the supposed victim feeling like they’ve been targeted.

“The new offences will include sol-called “pile-ons” where a number of individuals join others in sending harassing messages to a victim on social media,” reports the Times.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Great Dying: Ireland as a Distant Mirror

October 30, 2021

The Great Dying: Ireland as a Distant Mirror

After a series of six posts on the “age of exterminations” (one, two, three, four, five, and six) I wrote that I was moving to different subjects. But then I stumbled into this video on the Irish famine of mid 19th century. It is so fascinating (in a certain sense) that I can’t avoid sharing it with you.

You may know something about the great Irish famine that began in 1845. History tells us of millions of deaths, but the whole thing for us remains remote. We don’t really realize who the victims were, how, why, what exactly happened. But I strongly suggest you set aside 50 minutes and watch this movie. “Hunger” from 2020.

It is a hit direct to the stomach. After having seen this movie, I don’t know how to describe what happened in Ireland from about 1845 to 1850. A nightmare? A horror movie? A Flemish painting of the triumph of death? Munch’s Scream multiplied by one million? Just imagine for a moment what it might have been like to live in those years for the Irish. No food, no money, no possessions, no power, no friends, and no hope. Even burying the dead became impossible: you can still see in Ireland the mass graves of the time where the bodies were thrown in thousands. The film doesn’t mention cannibalism, but there are reports that it happened at least in two cases. Surely there were many more.

What’s really horrifying is how the British government treated the Irish. Think about it for a moment: the Irish were citizens of the United Kingdom, at least theoretically. You could define them as “second-class” citizens. But they were not treated as such. Not even as non-citizens, they were treated as not belonging to the human race…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

From Press Freedom To Prison Systems, Everything Assange Touches Gets

October 30, 2021

From Press Freedom To Prison Systems, Everything Assange Touches Gets

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

The US appeal of a British court ruling on the Assange extradition case has concluded, and the judges will probably not have a decision ready until at least January—a full year after the extradition was denied by a lower court. Assange, despite being convicted of no crime, will have remained in Belmarsh Prison the entire time.

During that time the judges will be weighing arguments they’d heard about the cruel nature of the US prison system, which formed a major part of the reasoning behind Judge Vanessa Baraitser’s rejection of the US extradition request. They’ll be considering the draconian policy of Special Administrative Measures, whose victims are cut off from human contact and from the outside world. They’ll be considering the brutality of the supermax ADX facility in Florence, Colorado whose inmates are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, and where Assange could easily wind up imprisoned despite the prosecution’s flimsy assurances.

Assange probably never set out on this journey with the goal of calling attention to the abuses of the US prison system as his foremost priority, but, as is so often the case with anything his journey touches, those abuses keep getting pulled into the light of public awareness anyway. His case is now no longer just about press freedom, US war crimes, corrupt governments collaborating to stomp out inconvenient truth tellers, and the malfeasance of US alphabet agencies, but about the abusive nature of the US prison system as well.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Gamechanger’ Hearing As US Seeks Overturn Of Extradition Ban

October 27, 2021

Julian Assange In Court For ‘Gamechanger’ Hearing As US Seeks Overturn Of Extradition Ban

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who still languishes in London’s high security Belmarsh Prison, will appear in court on Wednesday and Thursday for a key hearing that could prove to be a potential gamechanger.

The court will decide among other things whether the US Justice Department’s assurances that he won’t face cruel confinement in the US should be extradited are convincing enough to overturn a prior ban on extraditing him. This is precisely what the US is seeking to do after gaining an appeal following the January decision of the High Court which said he’d be facing the American federal prison system’s strict, harsh confinement, likely at a place like ADX Florence supermax.

Ahead of the start of this week’s proceedings, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said it woudl be “totally unacceptable” and “unthinkable” for the London court to reverse the prior decision, lifting the extradition ban.

“It is unthinkable that the High Court will come to any other decision but to uphold the magistrates’ court decision. Anything else is totally unacceptable,” Hrafnsson said.

“It would be such a stain on the system in this country that I certainly hope there will be enough pressure and realization of how devastating it would be for this country if somehow the judge comes to the decision of reversing the magistrates’ court decision.”

Also not helping the case of the US prosecutor is the recent devastating Yahoo News investigation exposing details of an alleged CIA plot to either assassinate or kidnap Assange, and render him to US soil by force. Both Assange’s legal team and his family – especially his fiancé – have lately pointed out that the CIA revelations alone destroy Washington’s case and standing:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

This is not 1997

October 26, 2021

This is not 1997

Not that minimum wages are anything new. The USA introduced its Federal Minimum Wage as far back as 1938; although today each state sets its own rate. And the general consensus is that minimum wages help raise wages in general with little or no impact on employment as a whole. The broad theory being that by increasing wages at the bottom – where people’s propensity to spend is higher – we increase demand across the economy. As the economy grows, demand for labour increases and forces wages up still further. And so, demand rises and promotes further growth.Although introduced to the UK by a Labour government, the National Minimum Wage is closer to the Tory approach to economic policy. This is because it passes the costs onto someone other than the state immediately. In this case, Britain’s employers. Labour governments, in contrast, have generally sought the politically easier approach of passing costs onto future generations via public borrowing… which was often the better policy if a combination of inflation and growth served to lower the real cost of the debt even as the state’s ability to repay it became easier.

This was no doubt the outcome desired by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown when they were elected in 1997. After two decades of suppressed wages – first under James Callaghan, and then under Thatcher – and despite the deregulation of the City of London and the increasing revenues from North Sea oil and gas, it was hoped that a legal minimum wage would generate the growth needed to lift people out of poverty. In neoliberal terms, it would “make work pay.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Deleted Government Report Celebrates How Public Loves to “Conform”

October 24, 2021

Deleted Government Report Celebrates How Public Loves to “Conform”

Climate change technocrats plan on using same methods that convinced public to obey lockdown.

Alex Segre via Getty Images

A deleted government report exploring how to make the public alter its behavior to accept the new ‘green economy’ reveals how COVID-19 restrictions have created a population with a “deep set reverence” for authority and a “powerful tendency to conform.”

The report was inadvertently published by the British government before being hastily pulled down, but numerous journalists were able to retrieve its contents.

The document explored how to weaponize behavioral psychology to ‘nudge’ the public into supporting measures and adopting behavior without them explicitly knowing they’re being manipulated.

The investigation found that the same techniques the government used to force people into accepting lockdown could be used to make them change their lifestyles in the name of preventing climate change.

Under the heading “principles for successful behaviour,” the paper noted;

“Government statements, actions and laws powerfully shape perceptions of normative and acceptable behaviour. For instance, even with public criticism being high, many still perceived government approval as the yardstick for safe behaviour during COVID-19 ‘we’re allowed to do this now [so must be safe]…’. This reveals, for many, a deep set reverence for legitimate government authority, regardless of one’s personal political views.”

While PR stunts such as having officials vaccinated live on television worked to convince people of the narrative, elite hypocrisy (public officials violating lockdown rules) was found to cause significant damage to public trust.

“Perceived hypocrisy can do a lot to undermine efforts to build public engagement and support. This was observed during the COVID-19 pandemic when prominent authority figures broke guidelines, leading to measurable reductions in public compliance as well as shifting attitudes.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Coal Generation In UK Jumps As Wind Speed Drops

October 17, 2021

Coal Generation In UK Jumps As Wind Speed Drops

Coal met some 3 percent of the UK’s electricity demand on Friday morning, reaching its highest level of Britain’s power generation in one month, amid lower wind speeds this week and an outage at a gas-powered plant, Bloomberg reports.

The last time the UK generated 3 percent of its electricity from coal was in early September when low wind generation reduced renewable power supply and triggered the massive spikes in UK wholesale electricity prices.

Utility Uniper fired up its coal-powered plant in Ratcliffe early on Friday, while the gas-fired plant in Pembroke, Wales, operated by RWE, suffered an unplanned outage.

Over the past week, gas has consistently accounted for the largest share of the UK’s electricity generation, according to data from National Grid ESO. For example, on Wednesday, gas produced 44.8 percent of Britain’s electricity, more than wind with 19.2 percent and nuclear with 12.6 percent.

Surging natural gas prices and warm and still weather in September forced the UK to fire up an old coal plant that was on standby in order to meet its electricity demand.

The UK has pledged to phase out coal-fired power generation by October 2024.

UK power company Drax could have its last two coal-fired plants in the country operating beyond the 2022 deadline it had set for closure if the UK government asks it to keep them operational amid the energy crisis in the country and the whole of Europe.

“If the government wants us to rethink our plans, we need to talk to them in the next few months,” Drax’s chief executive Will Gardiner told the Financial Times at the end of September.

Last week, the UK government committed to decarbonizing the country’s electricity system by 2035.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Energy Crisis-UK Industry Could Grind to a Halt

October 12, 2021

Energy Crisis-UK Industry Could Grind to a Halt

British Army Begins Deliveries To Ease Fuel Crisis

October 4, 2021

British Army Begins Deliveries To Ease Fuel Crisis

Last week, British Army personnel were on standby as service station pumps ran dry across the country, forcing vendors to ration sales as a shortage of truck drivers strained supply chains of major oil and gas suppliers. AFP reports Monday that as many as 200 military tanker personnel have been deployed to alleviate the energy crisis.

Troops in military fatigue were spotted across London and southeast England, delivering various fuel grades to gas stations to alleviate fuel shortages.

“More than half of those who have completed training to make fuel deliveries are being deployed to terminals serving London and the south east of England, demonstrating that the sector is allocating drivers to areas most affected in this first phase from Monday,” a UK government spokesperson said.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the fuel crisis is abating, and signs of stabilization were materializing.

“While the situation is stabilizing, our Armed Forces are there to fill in any critical vacancies and help keep the country on the move by supporting the industry to deliver fuel to forecourts,” Wallace said.

The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), representing 65% of the country’s independent service stations, welcomed the news of military supporting efforts to resupply service stations but warned the soldiers were likely to have minimal effect.

PRA chairman Brian Madderson said 20% of the fueling stations in London and southeast England were out of fuel, and the rest of the country had adequate supply.

For two weeks, long queues of motorists at gas stations extended into city streets as people panic hoarded fuel due to the uncertainties of shortages.

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