The Future Is Here Today

The Future Is Here Today
Where Business, Nature and Leisure Provide An Ideal Setting For Living

Advertise in Almere-Digest

Advertising Options

August 11, 2015

US Congress - GMO Labeling: The Monsanto Protection Act is back -- worse than before - impact on EU TTIP negotiations

The biggest threat to GMO labeling that we ever saw could soon become law if people don’t react now.

US Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo, Monsanto’s hand-picked representative in Washington, has combined his anti-GMO labeling bill, the “DARK Act,” with the Monsanto Protection Act – and it’s even worse than before.

This newly revised Monsanto Protection Act would not only prevent states from enacting their own GMO labeling laws, but it would go even further by nullifying all existing restrictions on GMO crops already on the books.

This unbelievable power grab by Monsanto and its Republican supporters is quickly making its way through Congressional committees and could be up for a final vote by the end of the month.

According to the Environmental Working Group, a leading advocate for GMO labeling and major opponent of Rep. Pompeo’s legislation, the new Monsanto Protection Act would:
  • Block all state laws requiring mandatory GMO labeling, including Vermont’s landmark labeling law;
  • Prevent the FDA from establishing a national mandatory GMO labeling program;
  • Possibly block non-GMO claims until the USDA creates a non-GMO certification program, which could take up to 10 years;
  • Block all state and local efforts to protect rural communities and farmers from the impacts of GMO crops;
  • Prevent claims by food companies that non-GMO foods are better than GMO ones.
The consequences of this legislation for the US food system would be drastic and widespread.

US State-level efforts to label GMO foods that have already passed in states like Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut would be nullified. All local oversight and restrictions on genetically modified crops would be prohibited. Laws and regulations in states and communities with GMO-free agricultural zones, including in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, could be completely overturned.

Monsanto has significantly beefed up its lobbying efforts to pass this bill, spending nearly a half million dollars per month in total lobbying and boasting that it has contacted every single member of Congress.

Recent polling shows that even though more than 90% of Americans are in favor of GMO labeling, corporate money  is being used to influence Congressional legislators to vote against preventive health measures and consumer choices provided by food labeling.

The EU negotiating team at the EU-US Trade Negotiations (TTIP) are hopefully also aware of the going's on in the US Congress in relation to GMO's and food labeling. 

New EU food labeling rules came into force in the EU on December 13, 2014 to ensure that consumers receive clearer and more accurate information about what they buy and eat.

The new EU  rules will now even  force restaurants and cafés to list 14 different allergens in the menus - including nuts, gluten, lactose, soy or milk.Displaying allergens was until then only mandatory for pre-packed foods.

Nano components will also have to be included in the ingredients list. Oils will need to refer to the plants used in their production, such as sunflower, palm or olive.

Fresh meat from pigs, sheep, goats and poultry will need to carry a mandatory origin label, with a font size of at least 1.2 milimetres.   

As one EU parliamentarian noted: "we must keep that unlabeled American Junk-Food out off the European food supplies". 

EU-Digest

August 10, 2015

Japan - Hiroshima and Nagasaki Genocide: 70 years on: Survivors remember horror of nuclear bombs

More than 200.000 civilians massacred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Thursday July 6 marked 70 years since the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

It killed around 140,000 people in the Japanese city by the end of 1945. The only structure left standing on ground zero is now known as the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome.

Now recognised by UNESCO as “a stark and powerful symbol of the most destructive force ever created by humankind”, it has been transformed into a peace memorial.

During World War II, the building was used to house government offices.

Kimie Mihara, now aged 89 and a great-grandmother, worked there as a teenager.
“I survived because I was late for work,” she said.

“So I felt lucky because I was not here at the time but when I think of those who died because they were diligent and on time, I am just so sorry for them.”

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped by the US on the city of Nagasaki bringing the total number of people killed to over 200.000 people,  and on August 15, Japan surrendered.

Their ranks dwindling, survivors continue to suffer the after-effects of radiation. Some find it too painful to talk about their experiences.

Others do speak out, so that the world will never forget.

Read more: Hiroshima Genocide:  70 years on: Survivors remember horror of nuclear bomb | euronews, world news

Germany: Boost for German industrial orders

Strong demand from abroad has helped boost German industrial orders. According to figures from the economy ministry contracts for goods from Europe’s largest economy were up 2.0% on the month.

The increase for industrial orders was the biggest in the April-June period since early 2011 despite a slowdown in China and uncertainty caused by the Greek debt crisis.

A breakdown of the data showed factories received 4.8 percent more bookings from abroad while domestic orders fell by 2.0 percent.

“Boom. German industrial orders just defied any concerns about a slowdown in the economy,” was one economist’s reaction.

Read more: Boost for German industrial orders | euronews, economy

EU Migrant Crises: The economics behind Europe’s migrant crisis - by Mohamed A. El-Erian

Fleeing economic and social miseries of home countries
As our Eurostar train zipped from London through the Chunnel to Paris, I couldn't help thinking about the thousands of migrants languishing on both sides of the English Channel. Once again, national and regional political systems are struggling to cope with a mounting human tragedy whose spillover effects involve disruptions to commerce, and all this is stoking a political crisis.

The economics of the Channel migrant crisis are quite clear, being basically about supply, demand and regulatory failures. They also shed light on the potential solutions, though they will take time to materialize.
The supply of migrants to Europe is fueled by waves of people fleeing the economic and social misery of their home countries — and, in some case, political oppression, persecution and violence.

They do so in hopes of a better future for themselves and their children. The temptation for some to try and make it all the way to the U.K., often after a perilous sea crossing and a fraught trip through western Europe, is amplified by the attractiveness of an economy with low unemployment, comprehensive social services and a country where many already know the language. 

Although the supply of migrants has increased, the demand for migrant labour has gone the other way. Tougher laws have made it harder and more dangerous for employers to hire undocumented workers. And with a European unemployment rate of more than 10 per cent, the demand is further damped. 

This imbalance in supply and demand isn't one that can be sorted out by the markets' normal equilibrating mechanism. The market-clearing wage — that is, the price that would lower the migration incentive while facilitating the absorption of those still inclined to risk life and limb — is well below the minimum wage prevailing in Europe; and any meaningful reduction in the wage would involve significant and unacceptable social disruptions to local populations in Europe.

Read more: The economics behind Europe’s migrant crisis: MIGRANTS

Oil Giant Shell Dumps ALEC Over Climate-Change Position - by Ben Geman

Royal Dutch Shell said Friday that it's severing ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a coalition of companies and conservative state lawmakers, over differences on climate change.

"ALEC advocates for specific economic growth initiatives, but its stance on climate change is clearly inconsistent with our own.

We have long recognized both the importance of the climate challenge and the critical role energy has in determining quality of life for people across the world," Shell said in a statement.

Shell, which has faced pressure to dump ALEC from groups including the Union of Concerned Scientists and Common Cause, said it would let its association with ALEC lapse when "the current contracted term ends early next year."

It's the latest major corporation to bolt ALEC, which is under pressure from liberal activists over its stance on global warming and attacks on state green-energy standards, among other issues. Over the last year, a number of major corporations including Google, Facebook, BP, and Occidental Petroleum have abandoned the group.

Read more: Oil Giant Shell Dumps ALEC Over Climate-Change Position - NationalJournal.com

August 2, 2015

EU-Digest July-August Poll results shows majority polled want stronger European Union - by RM

A recent EU-Digest poll  (see insert) shows a majority of those polled favor a stronger, better structured and governed European Union.

Only 20%  favored a return to independent nationhood for the 28 nation member Union.

A large percentage (40%) felt that the EU has not become stronger, or more unified over the past 10 years to face the challenges of globalization

If there is any finger pointing to be done about the progress that has been made so far in Bruxelles, as to creating a stronger and better functioning Union, it must be noted that more than half of the 28 EU governments are run or led by Conservative and right-leaning Liberal governments. This political picture is also reflected in the EU Commission and the EU Parliament.

Consequently legislation on a Financial Transaction Tax, the regulation of casino capitalism, off-shore tax evasion, an independent foreign policy, or more social justice in the area of immigration and migrant policies have not been forthcoming. Mainly because legislation within the EU and among member states has been blocked by inward looking nationalist and conservative political forces 

Another major issue looming high above the EU's weak and "toothless" legislative structure is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, as it is known. TTIP will be the most important global trade agreement of its kind, representing nearly half of the world's GDP.  It is a trade deal between the USA and the EU, whose impact will be felt by all and everyone.

Is the EU able to control these negotiations, or at best, to keep them on an even playing field against the slick US corporate trained and supported negotiating team? Not really, if one looks at how the US's NSA got away with spying on the EU commission, EU corporations, local EU governments and EU citizens.

Bottom-line: Europe needs some imaginative thinking and vision to lift it out of its current torpor.

Watered down solutions will eventually bring this amazing and most promising global project of this century, called the EU, which has brought peace and prosperity to the European continent now for over 50 years, to a standstill.

Our new EU-Digest is about the election of the EU President  - should it be by popular vote or by parliamentary majority ? 

EU-Digest