AI-controlled vertical farms promise revolution in food production

by Peter Grad , Tech Xplore

DECEMBER 30, 2020 REPORT

Credit: Plenty

When you think about it, early civilizations had a rough time when it came to dinnertime. With no supermarkets, McDonald's, or Cheesecake Factories, you pretty much had to find and prepare your own meal every day. And since Uber would not be invented for another 14,000 years, primitive peoples around 12,000 BC had to walk, sometimes for miles, and learn to hunt, fish, gather and cook for their daily meals. In the rain. Even on Sundays.

Farming evolved quite a bit since then. But with a world population hurtling towards 8 billion, we face a problem. As the 18th century economist Thomas Malthus observed, human population increases geometrically, while food production increases only arithmetically. That means the more civilization grows and thrives, the more likely it will be unable to keep up with demands for food.

While advances in food technology have helped forestall Malthus' dire predictions, there remains great concern for the future of food production as the Earth's population soars on a planet with shrinking farming real estate. National Geographic recently predicted that by 2050, there will be more than two billion additional mouths to feed while the Earth's irrigable land remains essentially the same.

A San Francisco agricultural-technical startup thinks it might just have an answer. Nate Storey, who co-founded the appropriately named Plenty, wants to reinvent farming.

To do so, he has constructed climate-controlled vertical farms that are so promising, they have drawn $400 million in funding from former Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and SoftBank.

These upright farms take up only 2 acres yet produce 720 acres worth of fruit and vegetables. Lighting, temperature and watering are controlled by AI-controlled robots. Sunlight is emulated by LED panels, so food is grown in optimal conditions 24/7. And water is recycled and evaporated water recaptured so there is virtually no waste.

The operation is so efficient it uses 99 percent less land and 95 percent less water than normal farming operations.

"Imagine a 1,500-acre farm," Storey says. "Now, imagine that fitting inside your favorite grocery store, growing up to 350 times more. That's efficient."

It is so efficient that these rows of hanging plants produce 400 times more food per acre than a traditional farm.

AI monitors growth patterns and constantly adjusts environmental factors such as temperature, water and light patterns to ensure ever-more efficient and economical output.


In an era that has seen food production lines disrupted by a pandemic, wildfires and hurricanes, Plenty's approach will play a key role in ensuring future stability in the food chain.

Plenty's web site explains vertical farming "free agriculture from the constraints of weather, seasons, time, distance, pests, natural disasters and climate."

Also noteworthy is that the crops are grown "GMO-free" and use no pesticides or herbicides, according to Plenty.

Plenty will soon supply more than 400 stores in California with its produce. The company says its packaging is specially designed to keep produce fresh longer and is 100 percent recyclable.

In October, Driscoll's, a leading producer of fresh berries, reached an agreement with Plenty to produce strawberries year-round in its Laramie, Wyoming-based farming operation, currently the largest privately-owned vertical farming and research facility in the world.

The Plenty website lists several products currently offered in stores, including lettuce, arugula, bok choy, mizuna and kale.

If the first civilizations to invent farming back around 12,000 BC only had the convenience of vertical farming, maybe they could have saved 8,000 or so years by spending more time working on inventing the wheel. And ear pods.


Explore further  The yield potential of wheat grown in controlled-environment vertical farms

More information: www.plenty.ag/about-us/

© 2020 Science X Network

Silent Running - Wikipedia

Silent Running is a 1972 environmental-themed American post-apocalyptic science fiction film. ... Lowell, Huey and Dewey set out into deep space to maintain the forest. ... 1972 films · English-language films · 1970s science fiction films · 1970s dystopian films · American films · American robot films · American science fiction ...

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Eastern Caribbean issues rare alerts for rumbling volcanoes

by Dánica Coto
DECEMBER 31, 2020

Volcanoes that have been quiet for decades are rumbling to life in the eastern Caribbean, prompting officials to issue alerts in Martinique and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as scientists rush in to study activity they say hasn't been observed in years.

The most recent warning was issued late Tuesday for La Soufriere volcano in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a chain of islands home to more than 100,000 people. Officials reported tremors, strong gas emissions, formation of a new volcanic dome and changes to its crater lake.

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said that scientists observed an "effusive eruption within the crater, with visible gas and steam" on Tuesday.

The government warned those living near the volcano to prepare to evacuate if needed, declaring an orange alert that means eruptions could occur with less than 24 hours' notice.

La Soufriere, located near the northern tip of the main island of St. Vincent, last erupted in 1979, and a previous eruption in 1902 killed some 1,600 people. That occurred shortly before Martinique's Mt. Pelee erupted and destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing more than 30,000 people.

Mt. Pelee too is now active once again. In early December, officials in the French Caribbean territory issued a yellow alert due to seismic activity under the mountain. It was the first alert of its kind issued since the volcano last erupted in 1932, Fabrice Fontaine, with Martinique's Volcanological and Seismological Observatory, told The Associated Press.

While the eastern Caribbean is one long chain of active and extinct volcanoes, volcanologist Erik Klemetti, at Denison University in Ohio, said the activity at Mt. Pelee and La Soufriere are not related.

"It's not like one volcano starts erupting that others will," he said. "It falls into the category of coincidence."

He said the activity is evidence that magma is lurking underground and percolating toward the surface, although he added that scientists still don't have a very good understanding of what controls how quickly that happens.

"The answers are not entirely satisfying," he said. "It's science that's still being researched."

Klemetti said the most active volcano in recent years in the eastern Caribbean has been Soufriere Hills in Montserrat, which has erupted continuously since 1995, destroying the capital of Plymouth and killing at least 19 people in 1997.

Seventeen of the eastern Caribbean's 19 live volcanoes are located on 11 islands, with the remaining two are underwater near the island of Grenada, including one called Kick 'Em Jenny that has been active in recent years.

Explore further Lava lake forms as Hawaii volcano erupts after 2-year break

© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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More from Earth Sciences

THIRD WORLD USA

Major rail safety technology installed before deadline

by Josh Funk

DECEMBER 30, 2020

An N train moves through the Long Island City neighborhood 

Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York.

(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

The railroad industry has installed an automatic braking system on nearly 58,000 miles of track where it is required ahead of a yearend deadline, federal regulators said Tuesday.

Federal Railroad Administration chief Ronald Batory said railroads worked together over the past 12 years to develop and install the long-awaited technology known as positive train control, or PTC. The roughly $15 billion braking system is aimed at reducing human error by automatically stopping trains in certain situations, such as when they're in danger of colliding, derailing because of excessive speed, entering track under maintenance or traveling the wrong direction because of switching mistakes.

"PTC is a risk reduction system that will make a safe industry even safer, and provide a solid foundation upon which additional safety improvements will be realized," Batory said.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said more than 150 train crashes since 1969 could have been prevented by positive train control, which was required in 2008 after a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train near Los Angeles, killing 25 and injuring more than 100. That agency had recommended positive train control for years before Congress mandated it after that crash. Then Congress extended the original 2015 deadline twice and gave railroads until the end of this year to complete the system.

Bob Chipkevich, who oversaw railroad crash investigations for several years at the NTSB, said positive train control is a significant safety improvement for the industry, particularly in areas where commuter trains operate and where hazardous gases are transported, but added that it could have been done years earlier and it is still not required on all tracks nationwide.

The W train passes an MTA official at the Mid-Day Storage 

Yard Services Building during a news conference on Positive

 Train Control, a federally mandated rail safety technology,

 Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York.

(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

"When I was at NTSB, we were quite disappointed in how long it took to actually move forward with the requirements and development of the system," Chipkevich said. "It is a disappointment that it has taken so long."

CENTRAL PLANNING WOULD HAVE AVOIDED THIS CHAOS OF CAPITALISM
Railroad analyst Tony Hatch said the industry had to make sure each railroad's system would work with those installed by other railroads because trains hauling people and goods often travel across several different railroads' tracks.

"It was an expensive, complicated and time consuming project," Hatch said.
CENTRAL PLANNING WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS COSTLY MORE EFICACIOUS 

The braking system uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train position and speed, and it can give engineers commands. The NTSB said the system could have prevented the December 2017 derailment of an Amtrak passenger train in Washington state that killed three passengers and injured 57 people.

Ian Jefferies, CEO of the Association of American Railroads trade group, said completing the positive train control systems is an important milestone for the industry that will "enhance safety and springboard innovation long into the future."

Explore further  Railroad safety: Few likely to meet deadline for technology

© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Mexico City ban on single-use plastics takes effect

by Christopher Sherman

JANUARY 2, 2021

A customer receives his order of fried plantains, served on a non-biodegradable disposable plate along with a plastic fork, from a street vendor in central Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. The few street food vendors out working on New Year's Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic said they were either unaware of or were still figuring out how to comply with a broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws, and other ubiquitous items that took effect Friday in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation.

 (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws and other ubiquitous items takes effect in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation.

On Friday, Mexico City's environmental secretary said via Twitter that "from today on Mexico City without single-use plastics." The message urged people to think of always carrying reusable containers like never leaving home without their cell phones.

Mexico City lawmakers passed the ban on plastic bags, utensils and other disposable plastic items in 2019. The city of 9 million people has spent the past year adjusting or in some cases ignoring the impending law change. The ban on plastic bags took effect last year.

Light, allegedly biodegradable bags have become more common at the city's street food stalls. Plastic straws are offered less often. Fresh tortillas are handed over wrapped in paper or cloths that buyers bring with them.

But without the imposition of fines, the change will likely be slow in coming.

On Friday morning, a woman selling tamales under a large umbrella at the corner of a busy Mexico City avenue slid two into a plastic bag and offered two small colorful plastic spoons from a cup filled with them. Asked if she was aware of the ban taking effect she said she was, "but with the coronavirus, they (authorities) forgot about it."

A vendor serves up a green juice in a disposable plastic cup, at a street stand in central Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. The few street food vendors out working on New Year's Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic said they were either unaware of or were still figuring out how to comply with a broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws, and other ubiquitous items that took effect Friday in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Biodegradable plastic bags, in compliance with a 2020 plastic bag ban, hang at a taco stand in central Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. The few street food vendors out working on New Year's Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic said they were either unaware of or were still figuring out how to comply with a broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws, and other ubiquitous items that took effect Friday in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Snacks are displayed for sale in disposable cups, on the cart of a street vendor in central Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. The few street food vendors out working on New Year's Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic said they were either unaware of or were still figuring out how to comply with a broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws, and other ubiquitous items that took effect Friday in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A vendor serves up tacos on disposable plates, at a street stand in central Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. The few street food vendors out working on New Year's Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic said they were either unaware of or were still figuring out how to comply with a broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws, and other ubiquitous items that took effect Friday in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Plastic straws are offered for clients at a street juice stand in central Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. The few street food vendors out working on New Year's Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic said they were either unaware of or were still figuring out how to comply with a broad ban on single-use containers, forks, straws, and other ubiquitous items that took effect Friday in Mexico's capital, one of the world's largest cities, after more than a year of preparation. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Mexico City is currently under red alert as its hospitals' COVID-19 beds hover near capacity.

The woman, who declined to give her name because she didn't want to be singled out for enforcement, said it wasn't just her. She said vendors and market stalls were still using plastic all over the city.

She asked how she was supposed to give customers steaming hot tamales without a plastic bag.

The ban also covers disposable plastic cups, plastic stirrers, single-use coffee capsules and balloons among other items.

In 2019, Mexico City produced about 13,000 tons of garbage per day, according to the capital's environmental agency.

Explore further  Canada to ban single-use plastics such as bags, straws by end of 2021

© 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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EU & USA
Pandemic has revealed our dependence on migrant workers

Rye and O'Reilly are clear on what the research shows: migrant workers and seasonal workers are marginalized, invisible and exploited.

by Svein Inge Meland, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Major geopolitical changes have influenced labour migration in Europe. The fall of communism, EU expansion, globalization and the dismantling of national borders have enabled extensive labour migration, says Professor Rye. Photo: Johan Fredrik Rye

The coronavirus has taught us an important lesson.

"The pandemic has shaken the entire system. Migrant workers weren't allowed in. Production dropped and people were afraid that the fields wouldn't be sown or harvested. A number of steps were taken to limit the effects, including separate entry rules for agricultural workers. This demonstrated the important role of migrant workers in the European food industry," says Johan Fredrik Rye, professor in NTNU's Department of Sociology and Political Science.

In Norway, the state wanted to stimulate farmers to entice domestic labor to take on the spring planting and fall harvesting of this year's crop. In the UK, Prince Charles was at the forefront of trying to get the English to go out into the fields.

Both attempts were unsuccessful.

"The challenge is that migrant workers do the jobs that a country's own population no longer wants to do. These are jobs that are often poorly paid, poorly regulated, monotonous, dirty and sometimes dangerous," says Rye.

When migrant workers take over manual jobs, the status of those jobs drops further and makes them even less attractive to local people. The emphasis is more on the employer's needs than on the employee's right to a decent job, according to the migrant researcher.

Karen O'Reilly and Rye teamed up to edit the recently published book titled International Labor Migration to Europe's Rural Regions.

The book includes contributions from a number of research groups that have studied different aspects of the diverse labor migration patterns in Europe.

Migrant workers range from Russians and Poles in the Norwegian fishing industry, Polish seasonal workers in container barracks on German farms and Thai berry pickers in Swedish forests, to Ukrainian farm workers in Poland, Eastern European strawberry pickers in Norway and England, Albanians in Greek agriculture and shepherds in the Mediterranean countries.

Two chapters compare American and European agriculture.

Rye and O'Reilly are clear on what the research shows: migrant workers and seasonal workers are marginalized, invisible and exploited.

"Poor working conditions and low status characterize Norwegian rural communities more than before and will continue to do so. Migrant workers often find themselves in the marginal zone of the regulated labor market, both in Norway and elsewhere in Europe," says the sociologist.

"A lot of people are trying to change these conditions, but it's tough, even when you try to pass laws to regulate working life. The problems lie more with how global food production is organized than in the unwillingness of individual employers."

Change is difficult because farming needs to be profitable, so the wage level has to be kept low.

Consumers are happy to say yes when asked if they would be willing to pay a little more for their food if it were produced in a more responsible way, but when they're actually shopping they opt for the cheapest choice. It's not easy to do anything about that, says the professor.

Europe is estimated to have 5.5 million migrant workers, and the number may well be higher. Photo: Johan Fredrik Rye

According to Rye, migrant workers are expected to work hard—and settle for little.

Poles in Norway are said to be ideal workers despite the fact that their living conditions are poor and isolated. We find similar situations all over the European continent. For example, Romanian strawberry pickers in Andalusia are housed in rooms with anywhere from two or six others. They're far from home and are only minimally integrated into the host culture.

Common to the various host countries is that the authorities ignore the migrants' poor working and living conditions. Recruitment companies minimize the possibility of employees participating in collective bargaining schemes.

"Working life in Norway is among the most regulated in Europe. It's a good starting point. But at the same time, the state's attention has been less focused on some parts of working life in the rural districts. The labor market in rural areas may seem more immune to attempts at state regulation, making migrant workers' ability to organize that much harder," says Rye.

More than almost any other industry, food production depends on migrant workers. Employers defend low wages by saying that migrants earn much more than they would in their home country.

"The system maintains an idyllic picture of a triple-win from labor migration: the employer gets good, cheap labor, the employee earns more than at home, and the family and home country benefit from it," says Rye.

Rye points out that major geopolitical changes have influenced labor migration in Europe. The fall of communism, EU expansion, globalization and the dismantling of national borders have enabled extensive labor migration. Cheap flights have made it easy to get around. In theory, you could live in Gdansk and commute weekly to Norway. The book refers to the fact that there are 5.5 million migrant workers in Europe, and says that the actual number is probably even higher.

THIRD WORLD USA
Agriculture in the United States is highly industrialized. The country's two million farmers produce as much as 10 million farmers do in the EU. American working life is also far less regulated, less unionized and the welfare schemes much worse than in Europe.

Rye says that large parts of the agricultural and food production sectors in Europe are heading into similar industrialization at full speed.

"This is most evident in labor-intensive fruit and vegetable production in the Mediterranean countries, such as in southern Spain, where a 450 square kilometer area is covered with plastic for growing vegetables," he says.

"But agriculture is becoming much more centralized in Norway too. Small farms are dying out and being replaced by much larger enterprises. This development sets the stage for bringing in more farm workers from abroad," Rye adds.

Labor migration has a lot to do with emotions, says the professor. Migrant workers' driving force is most often the hope of a better life for themselves and their families. But for many of them, it's a demanding life, even if they make more money than at home.

The jobseeker leaves home and often has to live in a shared household. That might not pose a problem for a young Swede who's spending a few months cleaning crabs on the Norwegian coast. It's something else for a father with three children back home in Poland.

"Migrant workers live a kind of shadow life. They aren't at home nor are they part of the community they've come to for work. Right-wing populism in Europe is strongest in rural areas, which probably affects migrant workers in some countries. The main impression in the Norwegian debate, however, is that people have a positive view of labor migration from Eastern Europe," says Rye.

The researchers' use a broad definition of "migrant worker." It includes Poles who have worked in fish processing on Frøya island for ten years and Thai berry pickers who comb Scandinavia's forests for a few weeks.

A high percentage of those who come to Norway as refugees also end up in low-paying agricultural jobs or in the food industry in rural areas. Getting a job without a Norwegian education and with poor language skills is difficult.

Explore further COVID-19 gets to India's villages via migrant workers

More information: International Labour Migration to Europe's Rural Regions, edited by Johan Fredrik Rye and Karen O. Reilly, Routledge.

Provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The new geography of labour migration: EU11 migrants in rural Norway

Author links open overlay panelJohan FredrikRyeMarie HolmSlettebak

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.01.014

Under a Creative Commons license

open access

Highlights

•

In recent years, larger immigrant populations have arrived in rural destinations.

•

EU11 migrants are unevenly distributed across rural Norway.

•

Localities with larger primary industries host more labour migrants.

•

EU11 migrants reside in areas with higher unemployment and few refugees.

•

The rural localities that struggles the most with depopulation have received fewer EU11 migrants.

Abstract

Historically, immigration to Western countries has been an urban phenomenon, but in recent decades, larger immigrant populations have also arrived in rural destinations. In this paper, we address the dynamics of inbound flows and geographical distribution of labour migrants within rural regions: While some rural localities have received large numbers of migrants, others have seen just a few. Specifically, we explore the case of Eastern and Central European labour migrants (EU11 countries) travelling to Norway's rural regions following the EU enlargements in 2004, 2007 and 2013. Which factors explain the spatial distribution of EU11 labour migrants in Norway's rural regions? We evaluate three assumptions in the extant literature – that labour migrant inflows are related to labour market characteristics, demographic profiles and localities' degree of peripherality. Norwegian register data at municipality levels are employed to estimate a regression model for how these characteristics impact sizes of EU11 labour migrant populations in rural municipalities. Finding show that EU11 migrants are found where the most labour-intensive rural industries dominate; industry-particularly fish processing industry, agriculture and the hospitality sector. Further, they reside in areas with higher unemployment and few refugees. Lastly, we find that the rural municipalities that struggles the most with depopulation has not received the relatively largest number of labour migrant, as EU11 migrants are more often found in the more demographically viable rural communities.

Amazon to face U.S. union push in year ahead

By Jeffrey Dastin and Krystal Hu

(Reuters) - In 2021, Amazon.com Inc is poised to face a renewed challenge from groups it has long countered: unions.

Energized by protests at Amazon's U.S. warehouses and a more labor-friendly administration assuming office, unions are campaigning at the world's largest online retailer to see if its warehouse or grocery workers would like to join their ranks.

A major test is expected early next year when workers at one warehouse decide whether to unionize. The company has not faced a union election in the United States since 2014, and a "yes" vote would be the first ever for a U.S. Amazon facility.

Amazon, America's second-biggest private employer behind Walmart Inc, has told workers it already offers the pay and benefits unions promise, and it has trained managers to spot organizing activity. Its operation in France offers a picture of what the company would avoid: strong unions there precipitated a month-long closure of its warehouses this year.

The upcoming vote is for associates in Amazon's fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama; they will weigh whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The organizing committee has launched a social media campaign, shared union authorization cards and collected enough to hold the election.

This week and last, the RWDSU and Amazon negotiated the election terms. By Tuesday they agreed to have seasonal workers in the bargaining unit, as well as process assistants, whose inclusion the union had questioned for their supervisory authority, according to the election hearings presided by a government labor board. That board will set the election date.

The larger the bargaining unit's size - now expected to be over 5,700 - the more votes the union needs to win.

In a statement, Amazon said, "We don't believe this group represents the majority of our employees' views. Our employees choose to work at Amazon because we offer some of the best jobs available everywhere we hire." Average pay at the Bessemer facility is $15.30 per hour, and jobs come with health and retirement benefits, it said.

Precedent shows the RWDSU faces an uphill battle. Union membership has fallen to 10% of the eligible workforce in 2019 from 20% in 1983, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January.

Employees at the Alabama facility did not answer requests for an interview.

VOTE 'WOULD PASS'

Amazon workers are organizing elsewhere, too. Alexander Collias, a cashier for Amazon's subsidiary Whole Foods, said he has been participating in walkouts because the pandemic has put workers' health at risk and he claims management has brushed off others concerns.

"We’re definitely extremely pro-union," he said of his Whole Foods store in Portland. "If we had a vote today, I think it would pass."

Courtenay Brown, a process assistant at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey, said work has increased 10-fold in her building during the pandemic, and colleagues have fallen ill. So she's started circulating work-related petitions via Facebook.

"We need to be able to have a voice," said Brown, 30, adding she was neutral about the impact a union could have at her facility.

Reuters was introduced to both Brown and Collias via pro-labor groups campaigning at Amazon. One of them was Whole Worker, a group of current and former Whole Foods staff looking to organize the grocery chain.

Its strategy is to focus outreach and actions at the half dozen Whole Foods stores, including in Portland and Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, where it already has secured majority staff support, said Katie Doan, one of the group's directors.

"We’d rather focus on little stores here and there who are for sure going to fully unionize, rather than fail nationally," said Doan, who worked for Whole Foods in California until earlier this year.

Likewise, representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers International have reached out to discuss unionization, hazard pay and other issues with Whole Foods staff, according to interviews and copies of the communication shared with Reuters.

Seattle-area unions are meeting with Amazon tech workers, too, their coalition leader said. One local is helping corporate whistleblowers whom Amazon fired contest their termination as a violation of U.S. labor law, according to a public record obtained by Reuters. Amazon said it supports workers' right to criticize the company, but the employees in question violated internal policies.

Labor advocates say the administration of President Joe Biden is poised to help with union efforts, making the U.S. National Labor Relations Board less beholden to corporate interests and supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.

That bill passed the U.S. House in February and would add penalties for companies that hinder organizing; Senate approval is far from guaranteed. Its passage would help level the playing field for workers, said Stuart Appelbaum, RWDSU president whose Mid-South Council is behind the Alabama union drive.

"With a change in administration, Amazon workers are going to have a much better chance of coming together," he said.

(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Treaty Six First Nations sign protocol agreement with Alberta

Fri., January 1, 2021

(ANNews) - The Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations – which represents sixteen First Nations within the province such as Enoch, Samson, and Sunchild -- recently signed an historic agreement with the Alberta government.

The Alberta Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations Protocol Agreement outlines a formal process for ministers, chiefs and councils to meet several times throughout the year with the focus being on six key areas: land and resources, health care, education, justice, economic development, culture and tourism.

“The protocol agreement gives Alberta and the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations a way to have meaningful discussions, share information and explore issues of mutual concern,” said the Government of Alberta in a December 16, 2020 press release.

The agreement also commits to an annual meeting between the Chiefs of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations and the Alberta Premier.

Treaty Six Confederacy Grand Chief Billy Morin stated that “a protocol agreement is more than a document. It is a promise between governments about communication and collaboration with a focus on shared prosperity, now and for years to come.”

Rick Wilson, Alberta Minister of Indigenous Relations said, “I’m proud to walk a path of reconciliation with Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations. We will work together in a spirit of respect and partnership to move forward our shared social and economic priorities.”

“I couldn’t be more proud to sign the first agreement between Alberta’s government and the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations since 2008.”

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney remarked, “The recovery we are driving for this province, after unprecedented economic and social challenges, will not be complete without Indigenous involvement.”

“It’s a great moral imperative – ensuring Alberta’s opportunities and prosperity are shared with First Nations – the first peoples, the first entrepreneurs and the first stewards of this rich land on which we stand. And the protocol agreement we’re signing today is key to making that happen,” concluded the Premier.

Grand Chief Morin explained the significance of signing the protocol with the province. "It's not enough to say we didn’t sign Treaty with the Province and then wait decades for Canada, their courts, Alberta and the Crown/Queen to do right by us.

"We will never stop movement to uphold Treaty Rights, holding Canada, Alberta and the people who live on these lands accountable to Treaty as long as the sun shines, grass grows and rivers flow. But it doesn’t always have to be in front of a Canadian Judge, or fighting, that we find ways to uphold Treaty.

"Truly the faster way, often times, is to create a leadership table and spaces for anyone ... spaces where respectful agreement and (dis)agreement can be had outside lawyers rooms. This is why we created this Agreement with Alberta, to have our say as Chiefs of Treaty 6.

"I thank Chief Watchmaker, Premier Kenny & Minister Wilson for finalizing this.

"With this agreement, we have another option to make it clear that the Department of Fish and Wildlife have no right to stop hunting for our people; that we have a table to create better resource revenue sharing mechanisms below the depth of a plough; that we have a space to have our say for our kids in the Alberta School system. Alberta can learn more about our right to create our own justices systems for our people ... maybe it will be an even better system they learn from and can implement in the Alberta Justice System.

"Realistically the 4,000,000+ citizens of Alberta are here to stay on this Treaty Territory. We have to work with Albertans in some way. Treaty was meant to share.

"While still not letting past wrongs be forgotten and unaddressed, we still honour that spirit and intent to share and do right by the land and creator moving forward with all Peoples who call this Treaty Land home.

"We won’t always agree, but I’m willing to focus more time on things we do agree upon, so we can achieve results for First Nations and Albertans in the spirit of the ultimate law of this land ... Treaty."

The Protocol agreement between the Treaty Six Confederacy and the Albertan Government is the latest in a trilogy of protocol agreements created between Alberta and First Nations within the province.

The first Protocol being between the Government of Alberta and the Blackfoot Confederacy. Signed in September 2019 by the Premier, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Chiefs of the Blackfoot Confederacy. the agreement renewed the previous agreement that was signed in 2017.

This agreement sets out ways the Blackfoot Confederacy Chiefs and the government will work together to address topics such as: Education, environment and lands, health, economic development and employment, political and legal.

The second agreement was with the Stoney Nakoda-Tsuut’ina Tribal Council, signed in October 2020 by the Premier, the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Chiefs of the Stoney Nakoda-Tsuut’ina Tribal Council.

This Protocol acts much like the others, as the agreement commits both parties to engage in mutual government-to-government discussions on these topics: health, economic growth, education, family services and housing.

In 2020-21, Alberta’s government will provide the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations with a $300,000 grant to support the agreement’s implementation.

The agreement will remain in place for as long as both parties wish to keep it active.

Jacob Cardinal is a Local Initiatives Reporter for Alberta Native News

Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Painful 2020 ends for US workers and layoffs could rise again


Chris Stein and Heather Scott
Thu, 31 December 2020

Despite a drop in weekly jobless claims, the US economy is far from healed after a year in which tens of millions of people lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of whom remain out of work.

New filings for unemployment benefits last week dropped below 800,000 for the first time in a month, the Labor Department reported Thursday, but experts say that is more likely a statistical fluke related to the holidays and political maneuvers in Washington, rather than a sign the economy is finally on track for a sustained recovery.

As the United States continues to weather the world's largest coronavirus outbreak even as vaccines are finally being deployed, analysts see more layoffs on the horizon, at least in the early weeks of 2021.

"While prospects for the economy later in 2021 are upbeat, the economy and labor market will have to navigate some difficult terrain between now and then," Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics said.

New initial jobless claims slipped to 787,000 for the week ended December 26, a drop of 19,000 from the prior week, the Labor Department said.

Another 308,262 people filed new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), one of the programs available to jobless workers who would not normally be eligible for benefits.

That means the total new applications remain above one million long after the business closures ordered in March to halt the spread of Covid-19 turned the economy upside down.

Those business closures sent the unemployment rate spiking to 14.7 percent in April, but it has since declined, falling to 6.7 percent in November as companies modified or restarted operations even as the virus remained rife.

Nonetheless, the weekly filings for unemployment aid have remained above the worst single week of the 2008-2010 global financial crisis, and 19.6 million people were receiving jobless benefits under all government programs as of the week ended December 12, according to the Labor Department.

WATCH: The impact of covid surge on jobless claims

Covid-19 cases also are hitting new record levels in parts of the country, prompting local governments to order renewed business restrictions, meaning another jump in claim filings could be waiting in the new year.

Industries like travel, hotels, restaurants and entertainment have been devastated.

Grant Thornton chief economist Diane Swonk tweeted that she is "worried about a jump in claims post holiday as those who delayed reup and containment measures by states intensify with post holiday surge."

In addition to the holiday impact, applications also could have been held down by legislative confusion in Washington over the fate of PUA and other special pandemic aid due to expire before the end of the year.

Congress finally approved both, but President Donald Trump did not sign the new relief package into law until the day after some programs expired on December 26.

"We think that holiday noise and uncertainty about extensions of benefits may have held down claims last week," Oxford's Vanden Houten said.

"The risk is for a rise in claims in the weeks ahead now that emergency programs have been extended and an additional $300 in weekly benefits is being provided" by Congress.

"THE ANARCHY OF CAPITALI$M"

BioNTech and Pfizer warn 

of vaccine supply gaps

LaToya Harding
·Contributor
Sat, 2 January 2021,

The German startup has been slow to provide its shot in the European Union due to late approval from the bloc’s health regulator. Photo: Manuel Velasquez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

BioNTech (BNTX) has warned that there would be gaps in the supply of its vaccines until others are rolled out, as it continues to work with partner Pfizer (PFE) to boost production.

The German startup, which has been at the forefront of the vaccine race, has been slow to provide its shot in the European Union (EU) due to late approval from the bloc’s health regulator — the European Medicines Agency — and the small size of the order placed by Brussels.

Ugur Sahin, chief executive of BioNTech told Germany’s Spiegel: “At the moment it doesn’t look good – a hole is appearing because there’s a lack of other approved vaccines and we have to fill the gap with our own vaccine.”

Sahin founded BioNTech with his wife Oezlem Tuereci, who is the company’s chief medical officer. She told the Spiegel: “At some point it became clear that it would not be possible to deliver so quickly. By then it was already too late to place follow-on orders.”

While the United States ordered some 600 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer shot in July last year, the EU placed an order for only half that size in November. More than 300,000 lives have been lost to the pandemic across Europe.

The UK ordered 40 million doses in total, enough to inoculate 20 million people, under a third of the total population of 67 million.

The NHS is giving top priority to vaccinating those aged 80 and above. Frontline healthcare workers, care home staff and residents will be among those first in line. A UK grandmother became the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid-19 jab last month.

Some logistical challenges around the vaccine also await the government and health services. Not only is this the most crucial vaccine rollout in recent history, the shot needs to be stored at -70C.

BioNTech has said that keeping it at -70C is only necessary for long-term storage over many months. It can be kept in the delivery thermoboxes at vaccine centres for up to 20 days and stored in a normal fridge for up to five days.

Each vial contains five doses, diluted with saline solution, which is “more than enough” to vaccinate five people, the company said. They must be used within six hours of opening.

The vaccine is given as two injections 21 days apart from each other, with the second dose being a booster. Immunity starts to kick in after the first dose but reaches its full effect seven days after the second dose.

U.S. Goes All In On Nuclear Power In Space Race With China

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Jan 02, 2021

The United States is doubling down on nuclear power and propulsion systems in the new space race with China.  The Trump Administration unveiled in the middle of December a National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion, the so-called Space Policy Directive-6, aiming to develop and use space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems to achieve scientific, national security, and commercial objectives.  

In the new space race between Western nations and China, the United States is betting on developing and demonstrating the use of new SNPP capabilities in space.  

The strategy on nuclear power and propulsion sets a goal for the U.S. to develop uranium fuel processing capabilities that enable fuel production that is suitable to lunar and planetary surfaces and in-space power, nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), and nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) applications. Another objective is to “demonstrate a fission power system on the surface of the Moon that is scalable to a power range of 40 kilowatt-electric (kWe) and higher to support a sustained lunar presence and exploration of Mars.” 

Collaboration with the private sector is also a pillar of the nuclear power and propulsion strategy. 

NASA strongly supports the nuclear space strategy, pointing out the advantages of nuclear power and propulsion in driving spacecraft. 

“Space nuclear systems power spacecraft for missions where alternative power sources are inadequate, such as environments that are too dark for solar power or too far away to carry sufficient quantities of chemical fuels. Space nuclear systems include radioisotope power systems and nuclear reactors used for power, heating, or propulsion,” NASA said, commenting on the new national strategy. 

NASA believes that nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is an attractive option for in-space propulsion for exploration missions to Mars and beyond. NTP offers virtually unlimited energy density and specific impulse roughly double that of the highest-performing traditional chemical systems, according to NASA. 

As part of the U.S. strategy, NASA’s near-term priority will be to mature and demonstrate a fission surface power system on the Moon in the late 2020s, in collaboration with the Department of Energy and industry. Such a system could provide power for sustainable lunar surface operations and test the potential for use on Mars. 

Earlier in 2020, the Department of Energy said that NASA plans to build a base and a nuclear power plant on the Moon by 2026 and is inviting proposals from companies ready to take on the challenge. The plan will involve the construction of a 10-kW class fission surface power system to be used for demonstrative purposes. The plant is to be manufactured and assembled on Earth and then shipped to the Moon on a launch vehicle. This vehicle will take the plant to Moon orbit, from where a lander will take it to the surface of the satellite. The demonstration will continue for one year, and if successful, it could open the door to other missions on both the Moon and Mars.

“Space nuclear power and propulsion is a fundamentally enabling technology for American deep space missions to Mars and beyond. The United States intends to remain the leader among spacefaring Nations, applying nuclear power technology safely, securely, and sustainably in space,” Scott Pace, Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, said in a statement, carried by SpacePolicyOnline.com.

The U.S. should continue to enable American entrepreneurs and innovators to further bolster its commercial space industry to continue leading the space race, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross wrote in an op-ed in December.  

“Competition is increasing, especially between Western nations and China. Our advantage in this new space race is the U.S. commercial space industry. It is critical that we continue to enable American entrepreneurs and innovators, lest we miss the opportunity and potentially lose the race,” Secretary Ross said. 

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com