Feed the world
I read that 800 million people are hungry, while one billion are overweight (“Hunger management”, October 20). This seems to suggest that if we freely shared the food all we fatties needn’t be eating, this might just, in theory, be sufficient to feed the world. However, I also read that “at the current average level of global consumption, our planet can support only about 4.8 billion people, which means that even now we have about 1.4 billion too many” (Ron Nielsen, The Little Green Handbook). And, if all Third World inhabitants adopted First World living standards, the world would (or rather wouldn’t) sustain 12 times its current impact from humans (Jared Diamond, Collapse). So, it may be theoretically possible for the global population to feed itself, but clearly not for the global population to live like us oil-ivores.
Then, it strikes me as a bit ironic, a bit crazy, a bit selfish for we First World countries to, as an environmental response, begin demanding and producing oil from crops, so we can continue our glorious but unsustainable lifestyles.
Well, if we are collectively too short-sighted to pay attention to the survival of our species within our children’s lifetimes, perhaps the price of food (as with fuel) within a decade will encourage some clear-thinking and appropriate action.
Melanie Voyce (Orakei, Auckland)
SAFE AS MILK
The A1/A2 milk debate (“The big milk shakeup”, September 29) raises many questions. Has A1 beta-casein always been with us? Or is it an unforeseen consequence of selective breeding for maximum production?
Masai cattle produce A2. Is this the case with all the old breeds? And goats, sheep, yaks, camels …?
Weston A Price, DDS, in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (1945), documented the deterioration, particularly in the offspring, of cultures that abandoned traditional diets in favour of the “devitalised foods of commerce”. Of the Masai he said, “Their estimate of a good dairy stock is based on quality not quantity.” He also observed that they drank their milk raw.
Price’s colleague, Francis M Pottenger, Jr, MD, in Pottenger’s Cats, described how a diet high in pasteurised milk caused progressive genetic decline (including allergies, narrowed dental arches, decreasing bone density, etc). The damage increased in severity through successive generations, and took several generations of excellent nutrition to gradually reverse. Pottenger could not replicate these effects in raw-milk-fed cats.
Although we cannot extrapolate directly from cats to humans, this research seems relevant in light of recent comments by Professors Elliott and Woodford on the likelihood that heat treatments increase the problem and that further research is needed.
Historically dairy-free cultures (Maori, Pacific, most Asian and African, among others) lack the enzyme lactase, necessary for effective digestion of milk. Some sufferers of dairy intolerance say they can handle raw milk with the help of its intrinsic enzymes unaffected by heat.
It seems that A2 and unpasteurised is the ideal. Considering advances in herd testing and modern sanitation, is there any reason why certified raw milk could not now be made available in New Zealand?
Estelle Bellamy (Te Atatu, Auckland)
Before entering the trenches of the raw v pasteurised milk conflict (Ecologic, October 6), I think it is instructive to review the significance of epidemiological evidence and conclusions drawn from experimental studies. A robust epidemiological study usually examines a specific hypothesis involving exposures to an agent (in this instance raw milk) in a population and purported effects arising from that exposure – either disease or supposed health benefits. There are many peer-reviewed publications, usually as a result of outbreak investigations showing that bacteria in raw milk have resulted in human illness, yet I am still looking for similiar studies showing significant health benefits of drinking raw milk as compared to pasteurised milk. Direct extrapolation to humans from the results of experimental studies using laboratory animals should always be done cautiously.
I have examined the material in the website cited in the column (www.westonaprice.org) and the lead article is a biased summary of papers that I suspect would not be acceptable in most scientific journals.
Pasteurisation is an old technique (1886) and one of the most successful public health measures to ensure the safety of dairy products and therefore extend the health benefits of milk to millions of youngsters. Veterinarians have been successful in eradicating/controlling several infectious diseases in cattle, including brucellosis and tuberculosis, which historically have resulted in much human illness.
However, a number of infectious agents may be present in cows’ milk, including campylobacter, salmonella, eserichia coli and listeria. Cows may appear healthy, but we have no reliable testing programmes for them.
Raw milk enthusiasts conveniently overlook the increased susceptibility of the very young, the elderly, pregnant and others whose immune systems are compromised by underlying chronic disease or therapy to any pathogenic bacteria in raw milk.
In summary, to promote behind-the-counter retail sale of raw milk is, in my opinion, regrettable.
Ashley Robinson,BVSc, MPH, PhD(Woodend)
RAPE LAW
Barbara Mountier (Letters, October 20) and others want to change the rape laws, but stop and think.
When a person is charged by the Crown and comes to court, it is up to the Crown to have the evidence to convict; the Crown has to prove guilt. It is not for the accused to prove innocence. If the Crown does not have sufficient proof, beyond reasonable doubt, then the accused goes free.
In a rape trial, as with any other, it is perfectly right that the person who brought the complaint to the police be thoroughly tested in court. Complainants have lied, so to say that the complainant should not have to give evidence and be cross-examined by the defence is ridiculous.
B Fynn (Te Awamutu)
THE ALL BLACKS
I, too, mourned on “National Mourning Day”. But my mourning was not for the fact that a group of individuals had not won a rugby match.
I mourned for the millions of dollars that had been expended to get that group to the field in Cardiff – millions of dollars that are desperately needed here at home in the fields of education, medical care and the rest.
I mourned for the widespread, publicly expressed grief for the loss of a game when the murder of helpless babies seems to raise just a few eyebrows.
I mourned the vilification of players and referee who had done their utmost but not lived up to the overly high expectations of rabid enthusiasts.
And perhaps most of all, I mourned the fact that what should be a test of skill, determination and sportsmanship has become merely a financial and political battlefield.
Joy Shannon (Waikanae)
Rugby needs to get a grip. Says who? Look at the Listener (October 20): the editorial (unable to resist its tuppence worth about rotation), half a page of letters, Jane Clifton (Politics), Diana Witchell (Television), Bill Ralston (Life), Russell Brown (Wide Area News), even Denis Welch’s Wordsworth, for heaven’s sake, all had comment about the All Blacks’ loss. Did I miss any others? Maybe that was a subtle poke, as well, in the poem’s “silver shield with a smash of inky landscape”. But then we turn to Paul Lewis’s Sport column and, of all places, not one mention of rugby.
So it’s rugby’s fault that enthusiasm is ready to escalate into fanaticism? Do me a favour. Give rugby back to rugby and only then is there a chance of avoiding a repeat of the current off-field rubbish in 2011 – apart from an All Blacks win, of course.
Ted Walker (One Tree Hill, Auckland)
See Sport, page 54.
MINORITY APPEAL
If TVNZ can elect to pander to the approximately one percent of the population who are petrolheads and therefore fascinated by eight hours of non-stop car racing extending through prime time viewing hours (TV1, October 7), perhaps it would also consider pandering to the approximately one percent of the population who enjoy opera, and play Der Meistersingers in its entirety of five hours. Or, to cater for the approximately one percent of the population who enjoy horse jumping, provide full unabridged coverage of the Badminton Horse Trials, which go on for three days. No wonder TVNZ ratings are declining: I for one discovered the delights of TV3 News.
F Vagg (Pukerua Bay, Porirua)
CROSSWORD
I’m sure that I got them all right
As a “puzzler” , I think I’m quite bright!
E’en so, ’twould be fine
If Solution 529
Has appeared in the Listener – all right?!
Eileen van Trigt (Greytown)
The error is regretted. See page 62 for Solution 529. – Ed
CLIMATE CHANGE
Growing numbers of US and Australian citizens have not waited for their governments to agree to emission reduction targets (Editorial, October 6) and have already taken action at state (California and South Australia), city and individual levels. Common sense supports joining those prepared to take charge of their destiny rather than those continuing to put “business as usual” ahead of survival.
The defeatist argument that as a country of four million we are too few for our emissions trading scheme “to make a jot of difference to global warming” applies equally to every other grouping of people on the planet and ignores the value of hope and example. This crisis transcends national boundaries and we can avert future disaster if sufficient global citizens act collectively. It is already too late to prevent the heating that is causing the recession of glaciers worldwide, the polewards expansion of the tropics, changes in the frequency, intensity and energy transfer of tropical and Antarctic hurricanes, changes in the distribution of plants and animals and accelerated movement of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.
The editorial repeats the key objections raised by un-named business lobbyists against governmental action to control greenhouse gas emissions. I hope its author(s) noted that the NZ Business Roundtable persists in doubting both the reality of human-induced global heating and the undesirability of any such heating (www.nzbr.org.nz/documents/submissions/070330_sub_climate_change.pdf). But many businesses do accept the challenge to operate in accordance with new environmental realities and encourage governments to set the new rules needed.
Peter Grant (Wanganui)
CALCIUM SUPPLEMENTS
The report on calcium supplementation for osteoporosis (Health, October 13) and the unwanted side-effect of increased heart disease in the elderly merely highlights the folly of applying a reductionist approach to nutrition. It is ridiculous to suggest that we know more about the effects of new drugs than we do about calcium supplements. Supposedly “alternative” practitioners have been warning against just this effect of calcium, based on population studies and other research, for decades. It is only news to the local medical establishment.
Bones are not made of calcium alone, and the effectiveness of dietary or supplementary calcium depends on other factors, of which vitamin D is the best known. When we were advised to cover up against sunlight in the 1980s, to slip-slop-slap, etc, we were not told to compensate for the resulting loss of vitamin D; instead, we were reassured that we did not need as much vitamin D as we thought. Now we know that high vitamin D levels are associated with significantly lower rates of many common cancers, cancers that kill far more people than melanoma ever did.
In the elderly, high vitamin D levels are associated not only with fewer fractures, but with stronger muscles and fewer falls. Why vitamin D was never made part of the calcium experiment is beyond me.
George D Henderson (Dunedin)
Linley Boniface writes, “The chances of having a heart attack or stroke increased by up to 50 percent in the group taking [calcium] supplements.” Strictly speaking, this is correct, but the figures quoted – of 1500 studied, 22 died not using, and 36 died using, supplements – mean that the risk rose from less than two percent to less than three percent.
Carl Watson (Whakatane)
PRICE FALLS
Phil Scott, of the Foundation for Economic Growth Incorporated, chides me for not presenting a theory of value (Letters, October 13). He then offers an account that even 19th-century economists knew was wrong. It is disappointing to see it being repeated in the 21st century.
Brian Easton, Economy columnist
WE SHALL REMEMBER THEM
Maggie Barry’s conversation with Wayne Mowat (Saturday Morning, Radio New Zealand National, October 13) on the 90th commemorations at Passchendaele and Ypres reminded me of a family visit in 1988 to the grave of my uncle, Allen Victor Eade, at Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Belgium. He was killed on June 7, 1917.
As our son had injured his ankle, our host’s doctor recommended that we take him to the Ypres hospital to get it x-rayed. When the hospital heard where we were from, they said: “New Zealanders? No charge.”
(The GP didn’t charge us, either.)
Patricia Booth (Brooklyn, Wellington)
UNWANTED
At least a partial solution to telemarketing (Letters, September 29) was offered by TV1’s Fair Go.
You need to get on to the Marketing Association Name Removal Service, either by phoning 0800 222 332 and writing to the address they give, or online at www.marketing.org.nz.
I added my name and number several years ago, and could count the telemarketers on the fingers of one hand since then. The service cannot guarantee complete silence from marketers, but only from their members. It works!
Margaret McAlpine (Rangiora)
SAFE CORN
In the article on the GM corn LY038 (“Feeding frenzy”, October 13), which has been modified to produce much higher amounts of the amino acid lysine, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) has this to say: “All foods contain hazards, usually in the form of natural toxins or micro-organisms. None of the hazards identified for LY038 are unique to that GM variety.”
Unique compared to what? To another GE variety. They’ve taken one scrambled set of DNA and compared it with another, scrambled in a different way.
Every scientist in this field should have been trained to compare a novel GM organism with its non-GM “parent” or counterpart. End of story. To compare a nutritionally altered GM corn with another GM corn is simply not acceptable or “rigorous” science.
Elvira Dommisse (Dr) (Christchurch)
SCHOOL BUILDINGS
If school buildings were privately owned (Editorial, October 13), the owner would expect a reasonable rate of return. With public (ie, state) ownership the costs are capital costs plus ongoing maintenance. A business’s aim is a financial return to the owner/shareholders. A public service’s aim is delivery of a service.
Buildings for other public institutions such as police, WINZ, etc, primarily require fairly standard office accommodation, of which there is a plethora in the open market, with ample opportunity for competitive supply. Such is not the case for the specialised facilities required for a school. Moving an office is disruptive, moving a school much more so.
Kit Bishop (Waitakere City)
FUNNY ON TELEVISION
I watch funny things on TV, sure, but
they are always two or three times funnier when I read Diana Wichtel’s take on them (Television). Good for her, she’s a national treasure. She’s eating media dinner.
Mark Webster (Auckland)
FUEL USE
“Air pollution is pernicious and will become an important consideration in future engine designs.
“Eventually economical use of fuel must transcend the whim or wasteful habits of any country, even this one [the US].”
Words of alarm from the 21st century? No. Observations made by Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine bearing his name, following his visit to the US in 1912.
N W Stirling (Glengarry, Invercargill)
