How About A Nice Glass Of Snake Wine?

Scottish salmon leaps into China
Is GM salmon swimming against the tide? China is to open its kitchens to Scottish salmon it has emerged. In agreement between the Scottish and Chinese governments, exports are to be allowed into the Asian giant's market for the first time. The move, for AQSIQ, a Chinese Food safety agency to approve a range of products, is being seen as a big boost to Scotland's fish farming industry. It already supports 6,000 jobs in Scotland, worth £500m to The Economy, with exports worth nearly...

Joel Reynolds: Sanction Iceland, the World's Whaling Outlaw
A U.S. response, with teeth, is needed to stop Iceland's violations of international treaties. Weighing up to 80 tons and almost twice the length of a School Bus, the massive fin whale -- known as the greyhound of the sea for its swimming speed -- was the Victim of decades of commercial slaughter that killed the whales by the tens of thousands each year. Then, in 1986, with the species on the brink of extinction, the nations of the world agreed to a Moratorium on commercial Whaling, and this ...

In first, China buys salmon from Scotland
EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- The Chinese Government, for the first time, reached an agreement to import Atlantic salmon from Scotland, the fisheries secretary said from Edinburgh. Chinese demand for salmon and salmon products is more than Scotland produces in a year. China is one of the largest Seafood markets in the world and the Scottish Government said it expected demand for Atlantic salmon to increase. Scotland is the third-largest producer of Atlantic salmon in the world. "The Scot...

Fighting for fish where's the catch?
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall with mackerel, a fish that is much more sustainable than the cod, tuna and salmon on which the Fishing Industry relies. Photograph: Andrew Crowley The premise of my three-part series Hugh's Fish Fight (shown on Channel 4) is to highlight that the fish-eating habits of this nation are seriously misaligned with the long-term viability of our fisheries. More than half the fish we eat comes from just three species - cod, tuna and salmon. You don't have to think ...

Jewel-Osco Unveils 'nutrition iQ' Food Labeling Program to Help Shoppers Make Choices for Better Health
nutrition IQ, which is now in all JEWEL-OSCO stores, uses color-coded shelf tags and signs that allow consumers to quickly identify better-for-you food options.  The program comes as research shows consumers are having difficulty making sense of nutrition guidelines and are looking for an easier way to make informed food choices for better health.  For example, a survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation shows almost half of Americans feel food and health informat...

China animal rights groups protest seal meat deal (AFP)
Beijing (AFP) – More than 40 Chinese Animal Rights groups on Thursday hit out at Canada for turning China into a "dumping ground" for its seal meat and oils, after the products were banned in the European Union. The agreement to allow the imports into China was reached during a visit to Beijing by Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, and follows a EU ban on seal product imports imposed after an Activist outcry over commercial seal hunting. "'Do not give to others wha...

Ponce Inlet Restaurants Face New Regulations
On January 20, 2011 , the town council of Ponce Inlet will vote on a new proposed sound ordinance. Should the town approve the ordinance as written, it will deliver another blow to the sustainability of businesses here in Ponce Inlet and most of all Down the Hatch Restaurant.  According to police records, since 2007 the average number of noise related complaints attributed to the restaurants here in Ponce Inlet is 3 per year per restaurant [Jerry's Pizza, Inlet Harbor, Racings Nor...

Ocean acidification: one less thing to worry about
Carbon dioxide has been named as the chief culprit in rampant “ocean acidification” which, according to Environmentalists on the Natural Resources Defense Council, will soon start killing off fish and dissolving Coral Reefs, putting a major dent in the Seafood and eco-tourism industries. According to a 2009 statement by Britain’s Royal Society, co-signed by Dr. James Hansen, of NASA’s Goddard Center, and Dr. Mark Spalding of The Nature Conservancy: “Temperature̴...

How to Fish Sustainably
Photo by Fir0002, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Community-based cooperative management—wherein fishers, fisheries managers, and scientists work together to create sustainable fisheries—yields big catches. Now the authors of a new paper in Nature present their findings on what elements of co-management are most effective. They write: The dominant theme in fisheries management has been that privatization is necessary to avoid Hardin...

Report: British seafood claims misleading
LONDON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A British environmental group said several Grocery Stores are misleading consumers by posting confusing claims on products such as canned and farmed fish. A ClientEarth report said claims on Supermarket Seafood -- such as statements that the product is "sustainably sourced," "protects the marine environment" and "responsibly farmed" -- were misleading or unverified on 32 of the 100 products examined, the environmental law organization said. ClientEarth says 22 of the cla...

Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Review Roundup
Ciano Ciano, the East 22nd Street Italian Restaurant helmed by chef Shea Gallante (Cru) gets an enthusiastic two star review from Sam Sifton in the Times this week. Sifton says Gallante's food "is ambitious, beautiful and flavor packed, a kind of Italian home cooking made grand and attractive, rich as Berlusconi, not as oily. It is less precious, less purposefully fancy, less aggressively upscale than what he was putting forth at Cru, where he cooked until 2009 and which closed last year... He...

Panel is unanimous: Don't tear down Waterside
NORFOLK Instead of tearing down Waterside, the city should refurbish the downtown landmark and hire a private developer to manage it, according to a five-person group tasked with studying the struggling marketplace. Three influential groups - the Downtown Norfolk Council, the Greater Norfolk Corp., and the visitors and convention bureau - urged Mayor Paul Fraim and the City Council in September to tear down the facility, saying it had outlived its usefulness. Since opening in 1983, Waterside has...

Stranded travelers make the best of it
Stephanie Nelson and Dan Shine sit in the bar at McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant downtown after making an attempt to drive home to Bucks County, Pa., and then deciding to wait a day. Providence -- Stranded travelers huddled in hotel lobbies Wednesday, sipping wine in warm bars and making plans for a snowbound night in the Capital City. Mostly, they made the best of the almost-blizzard, choosing to revel in a few unplanned hours rather than rail against the weather ...

Second time's the charm for The Green Onion II
The Green Onion II opened its doors in November 2009 in the refurbished Burger King in Virginia Beach's Great Neck Village Shopping Center. A recent Friday night visit shows the restaurant needs to work harder on its food and service. A second visit was better. On the first visit, I reserved a table for 8 p.m. to coincide with the live entertainment offered every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from 8 to 11. We were seated in a stylish round booth and read menus for the 15 minutes it took ou...

Kentucky editorial roundup
It's no secret Americans are financially illiterate. Take, for example, a huge financial paradox to which we subscribe: We decry any increase in any tax, yet we believe our governments should foot the bill for everything from crayons for school kids to wars in two countries. We can't have it both ways. Politicians know that, but it's not really to their advantage to do much about either (a) educating the population on fiscal matters or (b) acting in a beneficent manner. Sure, our representatives...

Gingrich to make Iowa stop
(CNN) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich continues the tour of key presidential primary states ahead of his likely campaign for the Oval Office, set to court Ethanol proponents in Des Moines at the end of January. Gingrich, who previously visited the key Caucus state in September and November, will address the Iowa Renewable Fuel Association's annual summit, according to Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler. The event will be open to the media. Gingrich's appearance will come shortly after another po...

Senators doubt WTO would uphold U.S ethanol tariff (Reuters)
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Senators John McCain and John Barrasso said on Monday the extension of U.S. Ethanol Subsidies and a tariff on imports is likely illegal under international trade rules, Lending some support to Brazil's opposition to U.S. Ethanol policy. "I believe the WTO would rule against the United States because it's clearly a subsidy that is neither warranted nor in keeping with WTO regulations," Senator McCain of Arizona told reporters after a meeting with Bra...

A Step Toward Car Fuel From Wood Waste
Mascoma The Mascoma Corporation, which demonstrates cellulosic Ethanol production at this site in Rome, N.Y., plans to break ground on a commercial biorefinery in Michigan. Almost everybody likes the idea of cellulosic ethanol, or Ethanol made from the non-food portion of crops and from waste like wood scraps or paper. But so far nobody is producing bulk amounts. A federal law requires companies that produce Gasoline to blend in 250 million gallons of cellulosic Ethanol this year, but the Envir...

Carl A. Miller, PhD, Joins iDiverse's Business and Scientific Advisory Board
DEL MAR, Calif., Jan. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- iDiverse today announced that Dr. Carl A. Miller has joined the company's Business and Scientific Advisory Board. "We are extremely pleased to have Dr. Miller join our team at this time," said John Burr, president and CEO of iDiverse. "Dr. Miller has over forty years of extensive, hands on experience in the commercialization of novel bio-based technologies that have greatly improved the economics of production of Biofuels and biomaterials. He has be...

The Food Price Spike
It's a huge strain on the budgets of the global poor. Yglesias asks whether the US is in any way culpable: A good rundown from Lester Brown suggests a few ways in which American policy is making things worse. Most notably, Ethanol subsidies aren’t a good way to clean the environment, but they’re a great way of raising the price of agricultural commodities. Farmers like it, but people who need to eat suffer. Similarly, pro-sprawl and anti-density policies incentivize the redevelopment o...

Taxpayer advocate proposes spending cuts
The new House Speaker, Rep. John Boehner, has said cutting spending will be a priority for his chamber. And the Watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has some ideas on where he can look. The group this week sent both House and Senate leaders a list of Spending Cuts that would total roughly $148 billion over five years.  House Republicans said recently that a vow to lop $100 billion off the federal Budget this year was based on the idea that President Obama’s Budget would be passed. But ...

Ethanol subsidies against the ropes
Ethanol has as many different Subsidies as it has negative side effects, and today we get word about two of those Subsidies that are currently on Life Support. First there's the 45-cent-per-gallon credit for gas stations that buy Ethanol to blend with their Gasoline. That credit, in the face of expiration, was extended last month by Congress, but only for a year. Right after the election I predicted that Ethanol Subsidies would be an early test for the GOP's professed interest in free markets. B...

EPA delays climate rules for biomass energy
The Environmental Protection Agency is backing off application of greenhouse-gas permitting rules to Power Plants and other facilities that use Biomass for energy. The decision announced Wednesday to delay permitting for three years comes amid pressure from the forest industry and some Capitol Hill lawmakers who are fearful that applying emissions rules to Biomass would stymie the market for the energy source. EPA said it will use the time to gather more scientific analysis about how to accoun...

Richard Koo and the Andes
David R. Kotok Richard Koo and the Andes January 12, 2011 > Fishing trips have down time. You go out in the morning. Chase some trout and then hurry in for lunch, a fabulous lunch of grass-fed beef from gaucho country cut as a New York strip, a squash and potato mashed combo with Nano’s selected local seasoning, Ahí chileno, and a fresh salad picked that morning from the Alto Puelo Lodge organic garden and dressed with extra virgin and balsamico. A nice Mendoza cab, and the lunch is comp...

Senators doubt WTO would uphold U.S ethanol tariff
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Senators John McCain and John Barrasso said on Monday the extension of U.S. Ethanol Subsidies and a tariff on imports is likely illegal under international trade rules, Lending some support to Brazil's opposition to U.S. Ethanol policy. "I believe the WTO would rule against the United States because it's clearly a subsidy that is neither warranted nor in keeping with WTO regulations," Senator McCain of Arizona told reporters after a meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rou...