Missing island explains how endemic species on the Miyako Islands emerged

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE MIYAKO KEELBACK SNAKE ABOVE AND THE MIYAKO GRASS LIZARD (BELOW) ARE ENDEMIC TO THE MIYAKO ISLANDS. THERE HAS LONG BEEN DEBATE ABOUT HOW THESE SPECIES ARRIVED ON MIYAKO ISLAND. view more 

CREDIT: S. SEKI

Did an ancient island facilitate migration amongst the Ryukyu Islands? Compiling the latest geological and biological data, a research group from Tohoku University has provided compelling evidence that this was the case.

The Galapagos of Asia

The Ryukyu Islands stretch from the southwestern coast of Kyushu all the way to the eastern part of Taiwan. This island chain is home to an array of endemic species such as the venomous snake Habu, or wild black rabbits know as Amami rabbits.

Even within the differing islands, unique species can be found. Sitting 300 kilometers to the southwest of Okinawa, the Miyako Islands are home to the Miyako keelback snake (Hebius concelarus) and the Miyako grass lizard (Takydromus toyamai).

Despite being separated by the Kerema Gap, these species are closely related to taxa/lineages/populations found on Okinawa and more northern islands and land areas, more so than the Yaeyama Islands, which are located to the southwest of the Miyako Islands and much closer in distance. Additionally, these species have limited ability to travel over water, leading to questions as to when and how they got there.

Inconsistencies

Largely flat, with the highest point stood at 110 metres, the Miyako Islands are entirely covered with a type of limestone known as the Ryukyu Group. Based on their distribution location and ages, scientists know that the Ryukyu Group were deposited between 1.25-0.4 million years ago, during which the sea levels fluctuated, repeatedly submerging the Miyako Islands.

Molecular phylogenetic analysis estimates that the Miyako keelback snake became an independent species around 3.7 - 1.8 million years ago. But this contradicts evidence that Miyako Island was submerged before 2 million years ago, and it was not until roughly 400,000 years ago that it became the land it is today, after which organisms began arriving.

Further muddying the waters is that deposits in limestone caves and fissures have contained Habu fossils, which are not native to the Miyako Islands. These fossils date back to 26,800 - 8,700 years ago.

A New Explanation

Yasufumi Iryu, a professor at Tohoku University's Department of Earth Sciences within the Graduate School of Science who has studied the Ryukyu Group for over 40 years, has proposed a new hypothesis to account for such inconsistencies and in light of the latest geological and biological data.

"We believe that a land area between Okinawa and Miyako existed from 5.5 million years ago to 270,000 years ago. This island served as a transit site for biological migration from Okinawa to the Miyako Islands."

Iryu and his team dub the hypothesis the Okinawa-Miyako Submarine Plateau (OMSP) hypothesis. It incorporates plate tectonics into the mix of evidence, something previous explanations surrounding migratory patterns to the Ryukyu Islands have failed to do. It proports that the vertical component (up to 1000 m displacement) of the right-lateral strike-slip faulting that formed the Kerama Gap and the corresponding Chinen Disturbance Event drove the uplift. Migration from the OMSP landmass to the Miyako Islands occurred after they were uplifted 400,000 years ago and before the OMSP landmass was submerged around 270,000 years ago.

Iryu states that their results rest on the integration of various data sources. "By combining relevant geological and phytogeographic data, we have been able to explain the enigmatic composition of modern and Late Pleistocene terrestrial fauna of the Miyako Islands. The study also highlights the high scientific value of the Miyako Island biota and will hopefully lead to greater protection and conservation of endemic species."

Details of the research were published in the Journal Progress in Earth and Planetary Science on July 20, 2023.

Figure 3 (IMAGE)

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

Changes in the paleogeography of the Okinawa-Miyako area and migration of terrestrial vertebrates. Ma = millions of years ago.

A Bathymetric map of the Okinawa-Miyako Submarine Plateau.

CREDIT

Watanabe et al.

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JOURNAL

Progress in Earth and Planetary Science

DOI

10.1186/s40645-023-00567-x 

ARTICLE TITLE

Geological history of the land area between Miyako Jima Island and Okinawa Jima Island of the Ryukyus, Japan, and its phylogeographical significances for the terrestrial organisms of these and adjacent islands

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Jul-2023

ICYMI

Gloomy climate calculation: Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century.

Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations from the University of Copenhagen that contradict the latest report from the IPCC.

Contrary to what we may imagine about the impact of climate change in Europe, a colder future may be in store. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute and Department of Mathematical Sciences predict that the system of ocean currents which currently distributes cold and heat between the North Atlantic region and tropics will completely stop if we continue to emit the same levels of greenhouse gases as we do today.

Using advanced statistical tools and ocean temperature data from the last 150 years, the researchers calculated that the ocean current, known as the Thermohaline Circulation or the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), will collapse – with 95 percent certainty – between 2025 and 2095. This will most likely occur in 34 years, in 2057, and could result in major challenges, particularly warming in the tropics and increased storminess in the North Atlantic region.

"Shutting down the AMOC can have very serious consequences for Earth's climate, for example, by changing how heat and precipitation are distributed globally. While a cooling of Europe may seem less severe as the globe as a whole becomes warmer and heat waves occur more frequently, this shutdown will contribute to an increased warming of the tropics, where rising temperatures have already given rise to challenging living conditions," says Professor Peter Ditlevsen from the Niels Bohr Institute.

"Our result underscores the importance of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible," says the researcher.

The calculations, just published in the renowned scientific journal, Nature Communications, contradict the message of the latest IPCC report, which, based on climate model simulations, considers an abrupt change in the thermohaline circulation very unlikely during this century.

Early warning signals present

The researchers' prediction is based on observations of early warning signals that ocean currents exhibit as they become unstable. These Early Warning Signals for the Thermohaline Circulation have been reported previously, but only now has the development of advanced statistical methods made it possible to predict just when a collapse will occur.

The researchers analysed sea surface temperatures in a specific area of the North Atlantic from 1870 to present days. These sea surface temperatures are "fingerprints” testifying the strength of the AMOC, which has only been measured directly for the past 15 years.

"Using new and improved statistical tools, we’ve made calculations that provide a more robust estimate of when a collapse of the Thermohaline Circulation is most likely to occur, something we had not been able to do before," explains Professor Susanne Ditlevsen of UCPH’s Department of Mathematical Sciences.

The thermohaline circulation has operated in its present mode since the last ice age, where the circulation was indeed collapsed. Abrupt climate jumps between the present state of the AMOC and the collapsed state has been observed to happen 25 times in connection with iceage climate. These are the famed Dansgaard-Oeschger events first observed in ice cores from the Greenlandic ice sheet. At those events climate changes were extreme with 10-15 degrees changes over a decade, while present days climate change is 1.5 degrees warming over a century.

Facts:

• The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is part of a global system of ocean currents. By far, it accounts for the most significant part of heat redistribution from the tropics to the northernmost regions of the Atlantic region – not least to Western Europe.
• At the northernmost latitudes, circulation ensures that surface water is converted into deep, southbound ocean currents. The transformation creates space for additional surface water to be moved northward from equatorial regions. As such, thermohaline circulation is critical for maintaining the relatively mild climate of the North Atlantic region.
• The work is supported by TiPES, a joint-European research collaboration focused on tipping points of the climate system. The TiPES project is an EU Horizon 2020 interdisciplinary climate research project focused on tipping points in the climate system.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-39810-w 

ARTICLE TITLE

Warning of a forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Jul-2023

 

How does El Niño affect precipitation over the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: ANTARCTICA SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION IN 2019 view more 

CREDIT: SHUANGLIN LI

The precipitation in West Antarctica, especially around the Antarctic Peninsula, exhibits large variability on the interannual time scale. In recent years, scientific research activities, tourism and fisheries have been experiencing remarkable growth there. Thus, understanding the variability of precipitation in West Antarctica, including the Antarctic Peninsula, is of substantial importance both for scientific and practical aspects. As the strongest signal of interannual climate variability, El Niño exerts significant impacts on climate in the Antarctic, especially in the West Antarctic. However, a recent study indicated that the effect of ENSO (which stands for El Niño–Southern Oscillation and refers to the broader climate pattern comprising the phases of El Niño and La Niña) on precipitation in West Antarctica is not significant, which is inconsistent with its significant impact on the West Antarctic climate through modulation of the Amundsen Sea low pressure system via Rossby wave trains (atmospheric or oceanic waves that form as a result of Earth’s rotation).

 

In a paper recently published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, Prof. Shuanglin Li from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, and Xueyang Chen and Dr. Chao Zhang from the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China, clear up the impacts of different types of El Niño events on precipitation over West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula, and explain the uncertain connection between the two.

 

“Previous studies show that precipitation over West Antarctica, especially the Antarctic Peninsula, is less correlated with El Niño. One possible reason is that these studies did not classify El Niño into its two known sub-types: EP [Eastern Pacific] and CP [Central Pacific] El Niño,” explains Prof. Li.

 

EP and CP events have similar impacts on precipitation over the Amundsen–Bellingshausen seas, but opposite impacts on that over the Weddell Sea, including the eastern Antarctic Peninsula, thereby cancelling each other out in terms of the precipitation response they induce. This of course then accounts for the uncertainty in ENSO’s influences on precipitation over the Antarctic Peninsula.

 

“EP events force two branches of Rossby wave trains that propagate southeastward and converge in West Antarctica, which causes an anomalous anticyclone and cyclone over the Ross–Amundsen–Bellingshausen seas and Weddell Sea, respectively. Consequently, anomalous southerly winds occur over the Bellingshausen–Weddell seas, acting to decrease the amount of precipitation there. In comparison, only one weak and westward-shifted Rossby wave train is stimulated under a CP event, which induces an anomalous anticyclone and cyclone in the Ross–Amundsen seas and Bellingshausen–Weddell seas. Anomalous southerly winds reduce the precipitation over the Amundsen–Bellingshausen seas, while anomalous northerly winds increase the precipitation over the Weddell Sea,” adds Xueyang Chen.

 

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JOURNAL

Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters

DOI

10.1016/j.aosl.2023.100387 

 

Syrian refugees are diagnosed with breast cancer younger and with more advanced tumors, study finds

Brigham researchers and international collaborators identified the association with younger age and advanced stage at diagnosis, coupled with the trauma associated with displacement, as likely contributors to the disparities

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM

Brigham researchers and international collaborators identified the association with younger age and advanced stage at diagnosis, coupled with the trauma associated with displacement, as likely contributors to the disparities.

War and other conflicts impact health in ways that extend far beyond an active combat zone. In a study led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, in collaboration with international colleagues, researchers found that Syrian migrants, including refugees, with breast cancer were more likely to be younger and diagnosed with late-stage cancers when compared to Jordanian women. The paper, published today in JAMA Network Open, could help scientists and policymakers identify treatment gaps for refugees and improve their cancer outcomes.

“We know that there is stigma, a delay to accessing care, and competing interests for funding in regard to treating breast cancer in Syrian refugees,” said lead author Aditi Hazra, PhD, MPH, a genomic epidemiologist and assistant professor in the Brigham’s Division of Preventive Medicine. “What this paper adds is a quantitative description of the tumor characteristics of refugee patients.”

Prior to the start of the Syrian Civil War, the country was burdened by a severe drought that devastated local agriculture and the economy, and more recently, several large earthquakes have destroyed infrastructure. Researchers have spent over a decade documenting widespread cancer cases amongst refugees fleeing the crises, but until recently, little was known about the types of disparities displaced patients faced when searching for care.

When researchers began looking at cancer outcomes for Syrian refugees in 2014, they noted that breast cancer was the most common malignancy in women. They also discovered that in order to receive care for their cancers, patients had to apply for treatment funds from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Many patients with advanced cancers were considered to have poor odds for survival, and, therefore, denied care.

“Many of these refugees did not have access to early cancer detection. They were diagnosed late, and they were not going to receive care because of it,” Hazra said. “That seemed at odds with the idea of health as a human right.”

Early studies struggled to collect quantitative data to describe the characteristics of patients’ tumors. To address this, Hazra collaborated with officials at the Jordan Cancer Registry (JCR) to analyze data from 7891 case reports from breast cancer patients, 375 of whom were Syrian refugees.

In the new study, the investigators discovered that women with breast cancer who were refugees tended to be younger than patients who were Jordanian natives. Jordan is considered a middle-income country, and the team noted that both groups developed breast cancer at younger ages than women in high-income countries, such as the United States.

Breast cancers in Syrian refugees also appeared to be further developed than those reported in Jordanian women. Nearly a quarter of refugees with breast cancer had late-stage cancers that had metastasized to faraway locations. Less than 12 percent of Jordanian women had similarly widespread tumors.

Delays in care, coupled with the trauma associated with displacement, were hypothesized to likely be associated with the disparities. Refugees’ breast cancers had likely evaded detection that would have been routine prior to the intersecting crises in Syria, causing them to advance to late stages.

The researchers pointed out that gaps in the data limited some of their findings. For example, 23 percent of the cases they reviewed did not include data on the stage of the patient’s cancer, potentially clouding results. Data on the treatment patients received after being diagnosed with breast cancer was also incomplete. To combat this, Hazra suggested digitizing records to scale data collection and facilitate the continuity of cancer care.

The study’s authors hope that their work will draw attention to the specific healthcare gaps of Syrian refugees with breast cancer. They say multistakeholder support, drawing in refugee and local perspectives, integrating refugees in national cancer plans, and resources for scaling early cancer detection with the Jordan Breast Cancer Program for Jordanians and refugees will allow scientists to improve health systems and survival rates.

“Only one to two percent of global health funding goes to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer,” Hazra said. “Those are the major killers. We need multistakeholder support to reduce delays in care, provide trauma-informed cancer care, and improve NCD outcomes.”

Disclosures: No conflicts of interest

Funding: None

Paper cited: Hazra, A et al. “Disparities in Breast Cancer Characteristics Among Syrian Migrants and Jordanian Women in the Jordan Cancer Registry from 2010 to 2016” JAMA Network Open DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.25197

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.25197 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Disparities in Breast Cancer Characteristics Among Syrian Migrants and Jordanian Women in the Jordan Cancer Registry from 2010 to 2016

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Jul-2023

 

Forgotten tropical plants rediscovered after 100+ years with the help of community science

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: FLOWER OF NASA HUMBOLDTIANA SUBSPECIES HUMBOLDTIANA view more 

CREDIT: X. CORNEJO

Deep in the tropical Andes are hiding plants that were discovered and then forgotten; plants that we knew almost nothing about. Now, thanks to the combined efforts of botanists from Germany, Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica and amateur plant enthusiasts, these plants have been rediscovered, some of them after more than 100 years. The findings were described in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.

The plants belong to Nasa, a genus from the Blazing Star family (Loasaceae) that has long caused headaches to scientists as its delicate but painfully urticant leaves make it difficult to collect. Most of them are rare, highly endemic, and only around for short periods, which makes them even more unlikely to end up in a herbarium collection.

Luckily, today’s scientists don’t have to rely on herbaria as their sole source of material and clues. Thanks to the advent of global networking and the increasing use of free data repositories, there is a lot more biodiversity data now that is available to use and easily accessible, for example as geo-referenced occurrence records and photos. Citizen science platform iNaturalist, where users can, among others, post photographic occurrence records, has turned into a valuable tool for biodiversity scientists, and plays a significant role in the rediscovery of these Andean plants.

One notable species, Nasa colanii, had only been recorded once, in 1978, until the research team came upon a photograph from 2019. This scarcity in records might have to do with the fact that the plant grows in a highly inaccessible region: in a cloud forest in the buffer zone of Peru’s Cordillera de Colán National Sanctuary, at an elevation of 2605 m.

Another species hadn’t been reported for approximately 130 years when iNaturalist users confirmed its existence in 2022 by uploading photographs. Nasa ferox had been known for centuries, but it didn’t get its scientific description until 2000. “Given the location of the park close to the [Ecuadorian] city of Cuenca, and the fact that the important road 582 goes through the park makes it particularly surprising that the species has not been reported in such a long time, even more so if we consider the numerous botanical expeditions that have been carried out in the general region,” the researchers write in their paper. In fact, only a small population of about ten fertile plants of N. ferox has been found, with the plants always growing in sheltered places such as in rock crevices or at the base of shrubs.

Remarkably, the typical form of Nasa humboldtiana called Nasa humboldtiana subspecies humboldtiana was rediscovered after 162 years, when the research team found a specimen in a conserved remnant of montane Andean forest in the province of Chimborazo, Ecuador.

But probably the most exciting discoveries happened when the team found species that have been considered extinct in the wild. Two species of Nasa, namely N. hastata and N. solaria, were believed to share this fate, both from the Peruvian Department of Lima, a comparably well sampled area, given the proximity to the national capital. Until very recently, both species “remained unknown (or almost so) in the wild.” Earlier attempts to recollect these species near their type localities where they have been found some 100 years ago failed and it needed the help of iNaturalist to reveal that they are still present in the area.  

Nasa hastata was recently rediscovered, after, for the first time, photos of living plants showed up taken by the sister of one of the authors. Only a handful of plants have since been reported from two sites, some 7 km apart. Similarly, a few dozens of plants have been found so far from N. solaria occurring in four small relict populations in remnants of forest that once covered larger areas in this region.  

Observations uploaded to iNaturalist also revealed important information on another species, Nasa ramirezii, providing the first photographs of living plants from Ecuador and the first data on its exact location.

“All these discoveries serve as a reminder that even well-studied regions harbor diversity that can so easily remain overlooked and unexplored, and point to the role of botanists in documenting biodiversity which is an essential prerequisite for any conservation effort.” leading author Tilo Henning form the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) says.

“Hopefully, as more scientists and members of the public contribute to the database, and more professionals get involved in the curation, more undescribed or ‘long lost’ taxa will be found. Our examples of the rediscovery of Nasa ferox after 130 years and Nasa hastata after 100 years, both ‘found’ on iNaturalist underscore this point,” the researchers say in their study.

Nasa solaria

CAPTION

Nasa hastata.

CREDIT

P. Gonzále

Flower of Nasa ferox

CREDIT

E. Segovia

CAPTION

Flower of Nasa hastata.

CREDIT

P. Gonzáles

Original source:

Henning T, Acuña-Castillo R, Cornejo X, Gonzáles P, Segovia E, Wong Sato AA, Weigend M (2023) When the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence: Nasa (Loasaceae) rediscoveries from Peru and Ecuador, and the contribution of community science networks. PhytoKeys 229: 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.229.100082

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JOURNAL

PhytoKeys

DOI

10.3897/phytokeys.229.100082 

ARTICLE TITLE

When the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence: Nasa (Loasaceae) rediscoveries from Peru and Ecuador, and the contribution of community science networks

UK

JOHNATAN SWIFT REDUX

Channel 4 viewers bamboozled by Gregg Wallace mockumentary about ‘eating human meat’


Isobel Lewis
Mon, 24 July 2023

In this article:
Gregg Wallace
Chef and pudding enthusiast

Channel 4 viewers have been left baffled by a Gregg Wallace-fronted mockumentary about eating human meat.

On Monday (24 July), the channel aired a new “documentary” from the Masterchef presenter, with the unassuming title Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat.

On the Channel 4 website, the episode description reads: “With food prices soaring, Gregg Wallace investigates a controversial new lab-grown meat product that its makers claim could provide a solution to the cost-of-living crisis.”

However, the show in question was actually a mockumentary created by comedy writer Matt Edmonds. It sees Wallace – who hosts BBC Two documentary series Inside the Factory – introduced to a fake company called Good Harvest who are pioneering technology in the sales of “human meat” used by struggling people during the cost-of-living crisis.

Wallace, 58, is shown visiting a human meat-harvesting plant in Lincolnshire, where he meets some of the donors. Looking around the factory, he explains that “under EU law, we couldn’t possibly operate machines like this due to legislation. But now we can harvest people and pay them for their flesh”.

The host then travels to London, where TV chef Michel Roux Jr cooks the “meat” for him at his Michelin-starred restaurant Le Gavroche.

The cooks try the so-called human meat and attempt to guess which person it came from in a line-up.

In one shocking scene, viewers are also told that children under the age of seven, volunteered by their families, make for particularly good donors. Wallace is then offered some “toddler tartare”. 

The mockumentary was created to raise awareness of the cost-of-living crisis and the lengths people will go to to keep their families out of poverty.

Wallace is shown meeting Gillian, a 67-year-old retired receptionist who has been forced to donate to look after her family when her plasterer husband’s back went.

“Am I excited about donating?” she asked Wallace. “You know there’s something wrong when you’ve got to jump on a bus and have some flesh scooped out of your arm for money.”

At the episode’s end, Wallace explains: “No wonder the state is behind their sacrifice 100 per cent. The Trussell Trust says a future without food banks requires a benefits system that works for all and secure incomes so people can afford essentials. So it’s no surprise eating children seems a more likely path for our country.”

While The British Miracle Meat was a parody, many viewers admitted to falling for the episode’s conceit.

In The Guardian, Lucy Mangan wrote that “it took a shamefully long time for me to work out what was going on”.

The Telegraph’s Anita Singh, meanwhile, called it “a Black Mirror episode stripped of cleverness and subtlety”.

Twitter users were equally bamboozled, with one commenter writing: “Just caught the end of some kind of f***ed up Black Mirror style s*** on Gregg Wallace’s The British Miracle Meat in which a scared woman was having her flesh harvested to pay her energy bills. That couldn’t have been real surely?! Surely? It’s impossible to tell nowadays.”

Others also fell for the episode, one viewer asking: “Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat on Channel 4 is like an episode of Black Mirror. Harvested human meat… is it April first?”

“This Gregg Wallace meat program on C4 had me going for about 30 seconds, nice try mate…. I’m assuming this is a test to see how people can fall for fake news?” one commenter asked.

“Is anyone watching this Gregg Wallace show on Channel 4? This absolutely cannot be real. WTF am I watching. My stomach is turning,” another commenter said.

“I am not buying this Gregg Wallace miracle human meat program on C4,” another tweet read. “It has to be a spoof, they all look like actors. Is it a joke?”

Food critic Jay Rayner seemed equally baffled by the whole thing, writing: “So @Channel4 is currently running a two-minute sixth form comedy sketch, as a 30-minute fake doc. Fronted by Greg Wallace. I mean. Okay. On you go.”

 

Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat review – this look at eating human flesh is a total curveball

Lucy Mangan

THE GUARDIAN
Mon, 24 July 2023

Gregg Wallace
Chef and pudding enthusiast


Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat begins in the usual way – with me reaching for the volume button, checking the running time (only half an hour – hurrah!) and wondering, yet again, why this man is shouting at me. This time it is about “THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS! NOW IT COSTS A PACKET JUST TO BRING HOME THE BACON! AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON EGGS!”

Off we go with GREGG to a guarded processing plant in Lincolnshire belonging to a food technology firm which houses a production line and clinical facilities, that for the last eight months, have been producing meat made from human cells. Line manager Mick Ross explains that it is a relatively new process. “Under EU law we couldn’t possibly operate machines like this.” We see little shavings of flesh (donors are paid about £250 a time, which as Wallace points out is enough to cover an average fortnight’s energy bills) hanging in a nutrient-rich vat and quickly developing into huge slabs of meat (“STUNNING!”). They can yield up to 100 steaks which – according to taste tests carried out with men and women in the street by co-presenter Michelle Ackerley – are remarkably fine substitutes for the real thing and at a fraction of the price. Could this be the answer to part of the cost of living crisis?

Wallace takes three steaks from different donors to Michel Roux Jr at Le Gavroche to see if their provenance makes a difference to the quality. Is human terroir a thing? The third steak is by far the best, but that is part of a premium line, the details of which are still under wraps.

Now, at some point in this description or when viewing the programme the penny will have dropped. It took a shamefully long time for me to work out what was going on, but I am never at my best when Wallace is on screen. I flinch, I cower, I basically experience him as some form of minor assault. But for anyone even more gullible than I am, and especially if they have read their Swift, the next twist leaves no room for doubt about what is – quite unexpectedly on a weekday evening from mischievous Channel 4 and writer Matt Edmonds – actually happening.

The CEO of the company, Tamara Ennett takes him to the donor facilities, where fearful 67-year-old retired receptionist Gillian is being prepared for her extraction surgery. “Will it hurt?” asks Wallace. “It’s pain-subjective,” replies Tamara before ushering him smoothly into the boardroom to reveal the secrets of their new premium line.

Have you guessed it yet? Yes – it’s babies. Well, under-sevens anyway. Tender, unstressed meat, there for the taking. Toddler tartare canapes are on the table. Wallace – uniquely, as far as I am aware, in the annals of television history – falls silent. And then asks quietly and uncertainly if they are expecting any moral objections to be made when the product goes public. “It’s testing very positively,” says Ennett.

He is given a tour of the children’s facilities (“Like livestock on the way to the abattoir, any stress could affect the quality of their meat”) and meets Gillian’s grandson, who is about to make his contribution to the family finances, too. He is nervous, so Tamara crouches down to reassure him. “Have you heard of inflation, Jimmy? Price spikes? The cost of living crisis means that decent people like you don’t have many options. This is an amazing opportunity for you to do your bit and make your nana proud.”

No, Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat is not subtle. And it gets even less so with Wallace’s outro (“No wonder the state is behind their sacrifice 100%! The Trussell Trust says a future without food banks requires a benefits system that works for all and secure incomes so people can afford essentials. So it’s no surprise eating children seems a more likely path for our country!”) though it gains something from being delivered in his trademark bluff, mansplainy, unhinged tones. He was the right choice for the part.

It is a neat idea, cleverly executed in the half hour and has the attraction and value of novelty. It could have been more pointed, more vicious, or packed more in to satiate those who are already aware of the issues it raises, but that isn’t what it is aiming to do. Rather, it is a nice little curveball thrown into the schedule to capture the attention of a slightly different demographic, perhaps, those who wouldn’t necessarily sit down to watch a documentary about the food crisis, or poverty or politics.

I’d just keep a close eye on any suggestions for solving the cost of living crisis that the Tories come up with in the next few months after broadcast, that’s all.

• Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat is on Channel 4.

Suspicion and regret on Arctic border still open with Russia


Pierre-Henry DESHAYES
Sun, 23 July 2023 

Norwegian Sergeant Lars Erik Gausen scans the Russian border with his binoculars as he patrols the Pasvik River (James BROOKS)

Assault rifles at the ready, binoculars pointed at the Russian shore, the patrol boats carrying Norwegian soldiers power up the Pasvik River at full speed.

This is NATO's most northern border, the only one still officially open between Russia and Europe.

It may be 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) from Ukraine's front lines, but the war has turned lives upside down here, and left the Arctic region torn between vigilance against the Russian threat and its historic ties and dependence on cross-border trade with its giant neighbour.


On each bank, watchtowers rise above the canopy of pine and birch trees.

"When I arrived here in the early 2000s, we used to play football with the Russian border guards," recalled Sergeant Lars Erik Gausen, sitting in the stern of the boat.

Nowadays, they watch each other like hawks and barely say hello.

The men and women of the Pasvik company patrol the river that runs along more than half of the 198-kilometre border between Norway and Russia by boat, 4x4, snowmobile and on foot.

It was across this frozen frontier that Andrei Medvedev, a suspected deserter from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, fled to Norway to seek asylum in January after fighting in Ukraine.

He claims to have got over the barbed wire at the border with dogs on his heels after being fired on by Russian guards.

- 'Wake-up call' -

Norway is Russia's only European neighbour with which it has never been at war.

"The conflict in Ukraine has been a wake-up call for many," said Lieutenant-General Yngve Odlo, head of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters. Even so, "(military) activity in the High North is fairly stable".

For once, Norwegian forces now outnumber Russian troops in the border region.

The Russian 200th Motor Rifle Brigade and the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade -- which are normally stationed nearby -- were among the first to be sent to Ukraine, where they have lost thousands of soldiers.

"We're following them and have a good idea of what they're doing, but whether there are 1,000 or 10,000 soldiers, that's not what makes the difference," said Odlo.

Because the Kola Peninsula on the other side of the border is also home to Russia's fearsome Northern Fleet and the largest concentration of nuclear weapons in the world.

Yet despite the war in Ukraine, Norway's ever-pragmatic diplomacy means it is the last Western country to keep its border with Russia open, at least on paper.

The frontier post at Storskog, 15 kilometres from the town of Kirkenes, is the only land entry point for Russians into Europe's Schengen area.

But the border is not open to anyone who wants to breeze through, said Gøran Johansen Stenseth, the head of the police unit controlling it.

Oslo has in reality stopped issuing tourist visas to Russians, and the documents of many border residents -- who don't need visas under a bilateral agreement -- have expired, generally because they were not renewed during the pandemic.

Crossings dropped to 5,600 in June, around a fifth of what they were a few years ago. Those who do cross are mainly fishermen and people who have both Norwegian and Russian nationality.

- Sharing the cod -

A customs dog sniffed through a bus that had just brought Russian fishermen to the border barrier.

While the rest of Europe has closed its ports to them, Norway still welcomes Russian fishing boats.

Oslo justifies this exception to the sanctions by pointing to the importance of its agreement with Moscow to co-manage the world's largest stock of cod in the Barents Sea.

Kirkenes is one of three Norwegian ports where Russians are allowed to land their catches -- a cause for concern in a country that has become Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas since the war via a vast network of undersea pipelines.

The explosion that cut the Nord Stream pipeline that was carrying Russian gas to Germany in the neighbouring Baltic Sea has shown how vulnerable they are.

Russia is using scores of military and civilian vessels in northern Europe to scout for possible sabotage targets, according to a documentary broadcast in April on Nordic public service channels.

Adding to the growing suspicion, Soviet-era radios were discovered in locked compartments during inspections of Russian trawlers.

And in January, two Russian sailors were fined after disembarking in Kirkenes in military-like uniforms -- an episode reminiscent of the "little green men" who appeared, armed and without insignia, in Crimea before its annexation by Moscow in 2014.

- 'They're part of us' -

On a hill above Kirkenes, a monument to the Red Army has been newly adorned with a wreath of flowers in Russian colours.

With the Danish island of Bornholm, the region was the only one in Europe that Soviet troops voluntarily withdrew from after World War II after liberating it from the Nazis.

And the links have endured. Many street signs in Kirkenes are written in Cyrillic, and on the ground floor of the town hall, a statue celebrating friendship between the two countries has a Norwegian lion dancing with a Russian bear.

"I don't know how long we're going to leave it here," the mayor admitted.

From her office, Lena Norum Bergeng looks out on the Russian consulate, an imposing yellow building with windows protected by thick bars. The trees on the road facing it have been hung with hearts in Ukrainian colours.

Some 400 of Kirkenes's residents have Russian nationality.

"They are part of us," insisted the Labour party mayor.

The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 plunged the population into shock and disbelief, then into sadness, she said.

Even though she was on the same side as the government in Oslo, the mayor was initially against supplying arms to Kyiv before changing her mind.

- Economy hurting -

Coming hard on the heels of the pandemic, the local economy, which was largely oriented towards Russia, is suffering badly from the drop in cross-border traffic.

The largest private employer, the Kimek group, which mostly serviced Russian ships, is no longer allowed to do so because of sanctions. Twenty jobs have just gone in the first batch of layoffs out of a workforce of 86.

"Everyone is furious," said Kim Rune Lydersen, 36, who got a new job before his was cut. "We didn't start this war with Putin. We understand that sanctions are needed, but then we need the government to help us."

Oslo has tried to cushion the local economy with 105 million kroner (9.3 million euros) in aid.

But the fear in Kirkenes is that young people will leave as skilled jobs disappear, when many insist Norway needs to keep a strong presence in the region in the face of an unpredictable neighbour.

Before Covid and the war, Russians came to buy nappies, instant coffee, jam and other consumer goods, while Norwegians went to Nikel on the other side of the border to fill up on cheap petrol.

Today, the aisles of Spar Kjøp, a discount store with signs written in both languages in Kirkenes are virtually empty.

"There are very, very few Russians coming in to do their shopping now," said manager Ann Kristin Emmanuelsen.

Emmanuelsen has mixed feelings about the sanctions.

"We had such a good relationship with Russia. I think it's a real shame... to make it so difficult for them to come here," she said.

At the Barentssekretariat, an organisation dedicated to cross-border cooperation, projects have dried up. It is impossible now to work with Russian universities and other state bodies.

For Marit Egholm Jacobsen, its acting head, restoring the old harmonious relationship will take "at least" a generation.

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