Posts

Showing posts from May, 2016

Pet dinner with conscience

In June 2014 there were  released news from a six-month investigation about slave labour to fish prawns for supermarkets in US and UK . It was revealed that large numbers of men are being bought and sold like animals and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand to work in the production of prawns (commonly called shrimp in the US) sold in leading supermarkets around the world. The news raise the discussion about seafood traceability and retailers as Carrefour took action in dissociating their supermarkets from a human exploitation and lack of human rights production source. At this time the discussion was about prawns, an expensive and high value seafood product, but more is needed to discuss when it comes to Thai seafood industry for low quality standard as pet food: The USA is the biggest customer of Thai fish, and pet food is among the fastest growing wxports from Thailand, more than doubling since 2009 and last year totaling more than $190 milion. The a...

Blue Growth, aquaculture and mussels

Image
If you are a fish consumer, it is almost certain that you eat seafood produced in aquaculture such as salmon, sea-bream, sea-bass, turbot and mussels. On average every person in European Union (EU) consumes 5.5 kg of seafood from aquaculture production per year  [1] . Mussels are the most produced species in the EU followed by trout, salmon and oysters; but the total output of European aquaculture represents only 1.5% of the global production. Given that 57% of farmed fish consumed in the Europe is imported, the European Commission (EC) now wants to encourage the growth of aquaculture production in all member states and aquaculture appears as one of the five strategic areas in the "Blue Growth" designed by the EC, which includes also the development of coastal tourism, biotechnology, mining seabed and ocean energy  [2] . Decisions relating to aquaculture, even if they are made through the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), unlike as it happens with fis...
Image
It is sad to assist the last days of something but even more sad when it is something big, unvaluable, timeless and with no material heritage. It is there now and will never be there again. It will change forever a river, ecosystems, vineyards, a railway, landscape, people's life! There will be no way to come back after this is done. We should enjoy the last days. Please, take action and find more about the issue  here . Moreover we should be able to decide where the energy that we pay comes from. I do not want to pay energy that comes from this dam and I do not want my taxes being used to fund the construction of a dam like this, which in the end will be used by a private company. What do you want?