Punjab's Sikhs fear Canada-India row threatens them at home, abroad


Himmat Singh Nijjar, 79, uncle of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, sits inside his house after an interview with Reuters at village Bharsingpura


Himmat Singh Nijjar, 79, uncle of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, arranges the family pictures inside a room at Nijjar's house at village Bharsingpura


A sticker is pasted on the gate of the Dal Khalsa, a radical Sikh group, office in Amritsar


Himmat Singh Nijjar, 79, uncle of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, takes a pause during an interview with Reuters at village Bharsingpura

A member of the Dal Khalsa, a radical Sikh group, takes a nap inside their office in Amritsar

Sun, September 24, 2023 
By Manoj Kumar

BHARSINGHPURA, India (Reuters) - A bitter row between India and Canada over the murder of a Sikh separatist is being felt in Punjab, where some Sikhs fear both a backlash from India's Hindu-nationalist government and a threat to their prospects for a better life in North America.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a plumber who left the north Indian state a quarter-century ago and became a Canadian citizen, was shot dead in June outside a temple in a Vancouver suburb where he was a separatist leader among the many Sikhs living there.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week Ottawa had "credible allegations" that Indian government agents may be linked to the killing.

India, which labelled Nijjar a "terrorist" in 2020, angrily rejected the allegation as "absurd", expelled the chief of Canadian intelligence in India, issued travel warnings, stopped visa issuance to Canadians and downsized Canada's diplomatic presence in India.

Sikhs make up just 2% of India's 1.4 billion people but they are a majority in Punjab, a state of 30 million where their religion was born 500 years ago. Outside of Punjab, the greatest number of Sikhs live in Canada, the site of many protests that have irked India.

DREAM OF CANADA

An insurgency seeking a Sikh homeland of Khalistan, which killed tens of thousands in the 1980s and '90s, was crushed by India, but embers from the flame of the independence drive still glow.

In the village of Bharsinghpura, there are few memories of Nijjar, but his uncle, Himmat Singh Nijjar, 79, said locals "think it was very brave of Trudeau" to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of potential involvement in the killing.

"For the sake of one ordinary person, he did not need to take such a huge risk on his government," the uncle told Reuters, sitting on a wooden bench by a tractor in his farmhouse, surrounded by lush paddy fields and banana trees.

Still, though, the elder Nijjar said he is worried about deteriorating diplomatic relations with Canada and declining economic prospects in Punjab.

The once-prosperous breadbasket of India, Punjab has been overtaken by states that focussed on manufacturing, services and technology in the last two decades.

"Now every family wants to send its sons and daughters to Canada as farming here is not lucrative, said the elder Nijjar.

India is the largest source for international students in Canada, their numbers jumping 47% last year to 320,000.

'ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR'

"We now fear whether Canada will give student visas or if the Indian government will create some hurdles," said undergraduate Gursimran Singh, 19, who wants to go to Canada.

He was speaking at the holiest of Sikh shrines, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where many students go to pray for, or give thanks for, for student visas.

The temple became a flashpoint for Hindu-Sikh tension when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allowed it to be stormed in 1984 to flush out Sikh separatists, angering Sikhs around the world. Her Sikh bodyguards assassinated her soon afterward.

Ties between Sikh groups in Punjab and Prime Minister Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government have been strained since Sikh farmers led year-long protests against farm deregulation in 2020 and blocked the capital, forcing Modi to withdraw the measure in a rare political defeat for the strongman.

Modi's government has created "an atmosphere of fear", especially for young people, said Sandeep Singh, 31, from Nijjar's village.

"If we are doing a protest, parents wouldn’t like their child to participate because they are afraid their children can meet the same fate" as Nijjar in Canada, he said.

Kanwar Pal, political affairs secretary for the radical separatist Dal Khalsa group, said, "Whosoever fights for Khalistan fights for right to self-determination, rights for plebiscite in Punjab. India perceived those Sikhs as their enemies and they target them."

A BJP spokesperson declined to comment on the accusations.

Senior BJP leaders have said there was no wave of support in Punjab for independence and that any such demands were a threat to India. At the same time, the party says no one has done as much for the Sikhs as Modi.

Listen to the Reuters World News podcast episode, "How the killing of a Sikh plumber in Canada led to a diplomatic war with India."

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in Bharsinghpura; Editing by YP Rajesh and William Mallard)

India had been riding a geopolitical high. But it comes to the UN with a mess on its hands

KRUTIKA PATHI
Sun, September 24, 2023 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is welcomed at the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters, where he was felicitated a day after the women's reservation bill was passed by the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, Friday, Sep. 22, 2023.

 (AP Photo/STR)

 Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, walks past Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi's cremation site, during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. Trudeau said that Canada wasn't looking to escalate tensions, but asked India on Tuesday, Sept. 19, to take the killing of a Sikh activist seriously after India called accusations that the Indian government may have been involved absurd.

(Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. On Monday, Sept. 18, Canada expelled a top Indian diplomat as it investigates what Trudeau called credible allegations that India’s government may have had links to the assassination in Canada of a Sikh activist. Trudeau told Parliament that he brought up the slaying with Modi at the G-20. 

(Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau upon his arrival at Bharat Mandapam convention center for the G20 Summit, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Canada has expelled a top Indian diplomat on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, as it investigates what Prime Minister Trudeau called credible allegations that India’s government may have had links to the assassination in Canada of a Sikh activist.

 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)



NEW DELHI (AP) — The Group of 20 Summit, hosted by India earlier this month, couldn’t have gone better for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His pledge to make the African Union a permanent member became reality. And under his leadership, the fractured grouping signed off on a final statement. It was seen as a foreign policy triumph for Modi and set the tone for India as a great emerging power.

Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was expected to seize on India’s geopolitical high in his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday. But circumstances have changed — quite abruptly — and India comes to the General Assembly podium with a diplomatic mess on its hands.

On Monday, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau made a shocking claim: India may have been involved in the killing of a Sikh Canadian citizen in a Vancouver suburb in June.

Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” of links to New Delhi, which India angrily rejected as absurd. It has been a free fall since: Each expelled a diplomat, India suspended visas for Canadians, and Ottawa said it may reduce consulate staff over safety concerns. Ties between the two once-close countries have sunk to their lowest point in years.

“In the immediate term, this will bring New Delhi back down to Earth. It has a crisis that it needs to work through, quickly but carefully,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute.

TENSIONS WERE ALREADY SIMMERING

On the last day of the G20 summit, Trudeau posed and smiled with Modi as world leaders paid respects at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial. Behind the scenes though, tensions were high.

Trudeau skipped an official dinner hosted by the Indian president, and local media reported he was snubbed by Modi when he got a quick “pull aside” instead of a bilateral meeting. To make things worse, a flight snag saw him stranded in New Delhi for 36 hours. Finally back in Canada, Trudeau said he had raised the allegations with Modi at the G20.

As India heads to the United Nations, the allegations have “thrown cold water on India's G20 achievements," said Happymon Jacob, founder of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defense Research.

India has long sought greater recognition at the United Nations. For decades, it has eyed a permanent seat at the Security Council, one of the world’s most prestigious high tables. But it has also been critical of the global forum, partly because it wants more representation that’s in line with its rising soft power.

“The U.N. Security Council, which is the core of the United Nations system, is a family photo of the victors of the Second World War plus China,” Jacob said. India believes “it simply does not reflect the demographic, economic and geopolitical realities of today,” he added. Others in the elite group include France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

In April, Jaishankar said India, the world’s most populous country with the fastest growing economy among major nations, couldn’t be ignored for too long. The U.N. Security Council, he said, “will be compelled to provide permanent membership."

The United States, Britain and India’s Cold War-era ally Russia have voiced support for its permanent membership over the years. But U.N. bureaucracy has stopped the council from expanding. And even if that changes, China — India's neighbor and regional rival — would likely block a request.

INSTEAD OF THE UN, INDIA MAKES SOME END RUNS

Kept out of the U.N.’s most important body, Modi has made sure that his country is smack at the center of a tangled web of global politics. On one hand, New Delhi is part of the Quad and the G20, seen as mostly Western groups. On the other, it wants to expand its influence in the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Russia and China dominate.

The deft juggling of the West and the rest has come to define India’s multipolar foreign policy.

Its diplomatic sway has only grown over its reluctance to condemn Russia for its war in Ukraine, a stance that resonated among many developing countries that have also been neutral. And the West, which sees an ascendant India as crucial to countering China, has stepped up ties with Modi. By doing so, it looks past concerns of democratic backsliding under his government.

In the immediate aftermath, the first reaction from Canada’s Western allies — including its biggest one, the United States — was tepid. But as the row deepens, the question likely worrying Indian officials is this: Will the recent international fiasco jeopardize its surging ties with the West?

After an initial muted response, the White House has intensified its concerns. “There’s not some special exemption you get for actions like this, regardless of the country,” security adviser Jake Sullivan said. On Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. was deeply concerned about the allegations and that “it would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation.”

While there's been no public evidence, a Canadian official told The Associated Press that the allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada — including intelligence provided by a major ally. On Friday, the U.S. ambassador to Canada confirmed this, saying information shared by the intelligence-sharing ‘Five Eyes’ alliance helped link India to the assassination.

At the United Nations, where he held a news conference and meetings but will not be speaking for his nation on Tuesday, Trudeau told reporters that he doesn’t want to cause problems but said his decision was not made lightly. Canada, he said, had to stand up for the rule of law and protect its citizens.

For New Delhi, the U.N. meeting may present a possible opportunity. Indian and Canadian diplomats could meet on the sidelines to try to lower temperatures with a potential assist from Washington, Kugelman said. Canada's delegation chair, Robert Rae, is delivering the country's remarks 10 spots after India.

Jaishankar could also hold face-to-face meetings with other key partners to minimize the damage. Since arriving, he’s held chats with ministers from Australia, Japan and Britain.

“Let’s be clear: We’re not going to see foreign leaders avoid or isolate Jaishankar at the U.N. General Assembly,” Kugelman said.

But it could also lead to more fireworks if they bring the spat to the U.N. podium and the global audience of leaders it tends to command. Ultimately, though, India “doesn’t want the Canada row to be a sideshow here, and especially not one that moves to the center stage,” Kugelman said. “That would take attention away from the achievements it hopes to publicize on one of the world’s biggest global platforms.”

Sikh groups ask Canadian political parties to present 'united front' against India

The Canadian Press
Sat, September 23, 2023 

THE CONSERVATIVES FAILED TO SHOW UP FOR THE EMERGENCY PARILAMENTARY DEBATE ON THE ISSUE


Two groups in the Canadian Sikh diaspora are calling for Canada's political parties to "present a united front" on India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a "potential link" between the shooting death of a local leader and the Indian government.

In a joint statement, the Ontario Gurdwaras Committee and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council say that "Canadian parties of all stripes must be unequivocally clear" about their opposition to possible foreign interference relating to the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

Trudeau revealed in Parliament on Sept. 18 that Canadian intelligence services were investigating possible ties between the Indian government and the fatal shooting of Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., outside of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

India, which had issued an arrest warrant against Nijjar for his advocacy for an independent Sikh state, has denied the accusation as "absurd and motivated."

Federal leaders have spoken out against possible Indian involvement in Nijjar's death, with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre saying shortly after Trudeau's announcement that Canada "must be united for our home and for each other" while asking the prime minister to present "more facts" surrounding the case.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who is himself a Sikh, said he has written directly to Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josee Hogue to ask for the inclusion of India in Canada's inquiry into foreign interference.

Hogue is leading the 16-month inquiry that is expected to delve into alleged meddling into Canadian affairs by countries such as China and Russia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2023.

The Canadian Press

AI is on the world's mind. Is the UN the place to figure out what to do about it?

Sun, September 24, 2023



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Just a few years ago, artificial intelligence got barely a mention at the U.N. General Assembly's convocation of world leaders.

But after the release of ChatGPT last fall turbocharged both excitement and anxieties about AI, it's been a sizzling topic this year at diplomacy's biggest yearly gathering.

Presidents, premiers, monarchs and cabinet ministers convened as governments at various levels are mulling or have already passed AI regulation. Industry heavy-hitters acknowledge guardrails are needed but want to protect the technology's envisioned benefits. Outsiders and even some insiders warn that there also are potentially catastrophic risks, and everyone says there's no time to lose.

And many eyes are on the United Nations as perhaps the only place to tackle the issue at scale.

The world body has some unique attributes to offer, including unmatched breadth and a track record of brokering pacts on global issues, and it's set to launch an AI advisory board this fall.

“Having a convergence, a common understanding of the risks, that would be a very important outcome,” U.N. tech policy chief Amandeep Gill said in an interview. He added that it would be very valuable to reach a common understanding on what kind of governance works, or might, to minimize risks and maximize opportunities for good.

A CONVERSATION THAT IS GAINING MOMENTUM

As recently as 2017, only three speakers brought up AI at the assembly meeting’s equivalent of a main stage, the “ General Debate.” This year, more than 20 speakers did so, representing countries from Namibia to North Macedonia, Argentina to East Timor.

Secretary-General António Guterres teased plans to appoint members this month to the advisory board, with preliminary recommendations due by year's end — warp speed, by U.N. standards.

Lesotho’s premier, Sam Matekane, worried about threats to privacy and safety, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal about potential misuse of AI, and Icelandic Foreign Minister Thórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir about the technology “becoming a tool of destruction.” Britain hyped its upcoming “AI Safety Summit,” while Spain pitched itself as an eager host for a potential international agency for AI and Israel touted its technological chops as a prospective developer of helpful AI.

Days after U.S. senators discussed AI behind closed doors with tech bigwigs and skeptics, President Joe Biden said Washington is working “to make sure we govern this technology — not the other way around, having it govern us.”

And with the General Assembly as a center of gravity, there were so many AI-policy panel discussions and get-togethers around New York last week that attendees sometimes raced from one to another.

“The most important meetings that we are having are the meetings at the U.N. — because it is the only body that is inclusive, that brings all of us here,” Omar Al-Olama, the United Arab Emirates' minister for artificial intelligence, said at a U.N.-sponsored event featuring four high-ranking officials from various countries. It drew such interest that a half-dozen of their counterparts offered comments from the audience.

Tech industry players have made sure they're in the mix during the U.N.'s big week, too.

“What’s really encouraging is that there’s so much global interest in how to get this right — and the U.N. is in a position to help harmonize all the conversations” and work to ensure all voices get heard, says James Manyika, a senior vice president at Google. The tech giant helped develop a new, artificial intelligence-enabled U.N. site for searching data and tracking progress on the world body's key goals.

LOTS OF PEOPLE TALKING, BUT PERHAPS A SLOW PROCESS

But if the United Nations has advantages, it also has the challenges of a big-tent, consensus-seeking ethos that often moves slowly. Plus its members are governments, while AI is being driven by an array of private companies.

Still, a global issue needs a global forum, and "the U.N. is absolutely a place to have these conversations,” says Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory firm.

Even if governments aren't developers, Gill notes that they can “influence the direction that AI takes.”

“It’s not only about regulating against misuse and harm, making sure that democracy is not undermined, the rule of law is not undermined, but it’s also about promoting a diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem" and fostering public investments in research and workforce training where there aren't a lot of deep-pocketed tech companies doing so, he said.

The United Nations will have to navigate territory that some national governments and blocs, including the European Union and the Group of 20 industrialized nations, already are staking out with summits, declarations and in some cases regulations of their own.

Ideas differ about what a potential global AI body should be: perhaps an expert assessment and fact-establishing panel, akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or a watchdog like the International Atomic Energy Agency? A standard-setting entity similar to the U.N.'s maritime and civil aviation agencies? Or something else?

There's also the question of how to engender innovation and hoped-for breakthroughs — in medicine, disaster prediction, energy efficiency and more — without exacerbating inequities and misinformation or, worse, enabling runaway-robot calamity. That sci-fi scenario started sounding a lot less far-fetched when hundreds of tech leaders and scientists, including the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, issued a warning in May about “the risk of extinction from AI.”

An OpenAI exec-turned-competitor then told the U.N. Security Council in July that artificial intelligence poses “potential threats to international peace, security and global stability” because of its unpredictability and possible misuse.

Yet there are distinctly divergent vantage points on where the risks and opportunities lie.

“For countries like Nigeria and the Global South, the biggest issue is: What are we going to do with this amazing technology? Are we going to get the opportunity to use it to uplift our people and our economies equally and on the same pace as the West?” Nigeria's communications minister, Olatunbosun Tijani, asked at an AI discussion hosted by the New York Public Library. He suggested that “even the conversation on governance has been led from the West.”

Chilean Science Minister Aisén Etcheverry believes AI could allow for a digital do-over, a chance to narrow gaps that earlier tech opened in access, inclusion and wealth.

AN INTRICATE PATH FORWARD, BUT WITH CLEAR UPSIDES

But it will take more than improving telecommunications infrastructure. Countries that got left behind before need to have “the language, culture, the different histories that we come from, represented in the development of artificial intelligence,” Etcheverry said at the U.N.-sponsored side event.

Gill, who's from India, shares those concerns. Dialogue about AI needs to expand beyond a “promise and peril” dichotomy to “a more nuanced understanding where access to opportunity, the empowerment dimension of it ... is also front and center,” he said.

Even before the U.N. advisory board sets a detailed agenda, plenty of suggestions were volunteered amid the curated conversations around the General Assembly. Work on global minimum standards for AI. Align the various regulatory and enforcement endeavors around the globe. Look at setting up AI registries, validation and certification. Focus on regulating uses rather than the technology itself. Craft a “rapid-response mechanism” in case dreaded possibilities come to pass.

From Dr. Rose Nakasi's vantage point, though, there was a clear view of the upsides of AI.

The Ugandan computer scientist and her colleagues at Makerere University's AI Lab are using the technology to streamline microscopic analysis of blood samples, the gold-standard method for diagnosing malaria.

Their work is aimed at countries without enough pathologists, especially in rural areas. A magnifying eyepiece, produced by 3D printing, fits cellphone cameras and takes photos of microscope slides; AI image analysis then picks out and identifies pathogens. Google's charitable arm recently gave the lab $1.5 million.

AI is “an enabler” of human activity, Nakasi said between attending General Assembly-related events.

“We can’t be able to just leave it to do each and every thing on its own," she said. "But once it is well regulated, where we have it as a support tool, I believe it can do a lot.”

Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press

Analysis-EU's bid to save bees stings sugar beet farmers

SUGAR BEETS TAKE LOTS OF IRRIGATION & LAND

Sun, September 24, 2023 



By Maytaal Angel and Gus Trompiz

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's sugar beet growers are turning away from the crop in a move that could drive soaring prices even higher, as the EU's environmental rules clash with its bid to stem food inflation and secure supplies.

Farmers are switching crops after the European Union's top court ruled in January they can no longer be granted exemptions to a ban on so-called neonics - insecticides which protect against diseases like virus yellows in sugar beet but are toxic to bees and other pollinators vital to food production.

The ruling, which the bloc and environmental groups say is critical for safeguarding pollinators, some of which are currently threatened with extinction, has led to a cut in acreage devoted to sugar beet as crop yields suffer, farmers and industry experts told Reuters.

"In our region, we lost 15% of the (sugar beet) area (this year)," said Alexandre Pele, who has a 240 hectare farm in central France.

"I have struggled to meet volume commitments with the sugar factory because my yields have declined notably due to the ban on neonicotinoids," said Pele.

The EU is the third largest sugar producer in the world so a reduction in output could impact soaring global prices and frustrate efforts to bring food inflation down.

"We’ve entered a new paradigm in sugar, low prices are a thing of the past," said an analyst at one of the world's largest sugar traders. "Global stocks are low, demand is growing and supply is vulnerable all over the world due to climate change, due to the difficulty expanding production anywhere, not least Europe."

EU sugar prices are at their highest ever levels, roughly double prices seen two years ago, driven partly by an increased reliance on costly imports as the local sugar sector shrinks.

The European Commission expects sugar imports to have risen about 60% in the current season. The bloc relies on imported sugar, mostly subject to duties, for about 15% of its needs.Neonicotinoids were banned in Europe on non-flowering crops like sugar beet in 2018, but after a 2020 attack of virus yellows crushed output in France and Britain, EU member states granted temporary exemptions.

Since January's court ruling banning exemptions, the area devoted to growing sugar beet in France, the EU's largest sugar grower, has hit a 14 year low.

The European Commission said it expects the entire EU beet area to fall some 3% below a five-year average this year due to the ruling. The EU beet acreage has already fallen 17% percent since the 2018 neonics ruling, EU data shows.

The acreage fall led the world's second largest sugar producer Tereos to close a factory in northern France this year, losing 123 jobs. Tereos said at the time it was expecting to receive 10% less beet from farmers.

French grower Pele said he hasn't yet reduced his sugar beet crop because of the investment he's already made, but the yield from one of his plots is down by 45% this year.

One in 10 bee and butterfly species, critical for safeguarding biodiversity, are currently threatened with extinction, and environmental groups along with the EU pin much of the blame on neonics.

"The harm of neonics to pollinators is undeniable. They are the most studied pesticide in human history, and we know very well how they work," said Noa Simon Delso, scientific director at Beelife, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation.

Several seed makers, including Germany's KWS Saat are working on new sugar beet varieties that would be naturally resistant to virus yellows, but farmers say they may not be available until 2027.

By this time, those who have left the sector and sold costly equipment might be loathe to return.

"Consumers will have to appreciate if more constraints are put on farming, for good reason or not, the costs of production will increase until we find other methods to cultivate this food," said Andrew Blenkiron, who runs a 7,000 acre farm in the east of England, which thanks to Brexit, can use neonics this year.

He said he would move away from beet if he can't protect his crop.

"It's a dilemma - producing food at a cost effective price while ensuring we have good environmental protection," he added.

A shrinking sugar beet sector could hit other staple crops because farmers need to plant alternates like sugar beet or oilseeds on their wheat, barley and corn fields every other year in order to maintain soil health.

Oilseeds were one of the first crops targeted by the ban in late 2013, and rapeseed production has since fallen 12%.

"If I lose a crop like sugar beet, that's an agronomy (crop rotation) issue but also, because weather threats are multiple these days, having a number of crops allows me to better manage risk," said Pele. "If I no longer have sugar beet it would be a real loss."

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Sugar Beet vs. Sugar Cane: Why It Really Makes a Difference - Utopia

Sugar Beets’ Environmental Toll Isn’t That Sweet (bloomberglaw.com)

Link.springer.com

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12355-019-00734-9

Sustainability of the Sugar Beet Crop | SpringerLink 

Jul 6, 2019 ... The sustainability of modern sugar beet growing has been proved considerably high. Its improvement has been gradual, streamlined with ...

Sidneymintz.net

https://sidneymintz.net/sugar.php

Sugar - Sidney Mintz 

Download PDF; 2009 “Notes toward a cultural construction of modern foods,” Social Anthropology 17 (23): 209-16. 2009 “Afterword,” Ethnology 47 (2): 129-35 ...ABOUT SUGAR CANE IN THE CARRIBEAN AND NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICAS

THE DARK TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR BEET

6th Dec 19

by Jessica Sinclair Taylor, Head of Policy and Communications

We all know sugar is bad for our health. But were you aware just how bad it is for our soil?

We all know sugar is bad for our health. But were you aware just how bad it is for our soil? Today, Feedback publishes a report uncovering the hidden damage growing sugar beet is doing to our soil.

In the UK we use over 100,000 hectares of prime agriculture land to grow a product we really need to eat less of: sugar. British Sugar, the monopoly company controlling the UK sugar beet industry refines around 7.6 million tonnes of sugar beet grown on English soils every year, turning it into over a million tonnes of refined sugar. And they have plans to expand, with a goal to increase production by 50%.

That much sugar sounds like pretty bad news from a health perspective, especially when you take into account that in the UK most adults consume double their recommended daily allowance. But it turns out there’s another casualty of all that sweet stuff: our soil.

Sugar beet is a hard-wearing crop on our soil. Harvesting it, especially late in the year when soil is wet, leads to large quantities of soil being lifted from the fields, stuck to the crop and to farm machinery. We’ve calculated that the sugar beet harvest caused an average soil loss of around 489,000 tonnes a year in the period 2014-2018. To put that in context, the UK’s total soil loss per year, excluding soil loss from harvesting, is estimated at 2.9 million tonnes – so the sugar beet harvest could be adding as much as 20% to our annual soil loss per year.

Consider the fact that it takes between 200 and 400 years to form 1cm of topsoil, and that soil is a resource at the very heart of our agricultural production. Surely, we should be doing everything we can to care for it?

It gets worse. Sugar beet is largely grown in East Anglia and the Midlands, in areas Natural England describes as having some of the best and most versatile land in the country. If we shrunk the area of land used to grow sugar beet by 40%, around the decrease needed to produce just enough sugar to meet our recommended daily allowance, we calculated that we could be growing 150,000 tonnes of peas, 3.1 million tonnes of carrots or 1.8 million tonnes of potatoes.

Once harvested, beet is delivered to one of four sugar beet refineries all owned by a single company, British Sugar. British Sugar is a monopoly: nearly 40 years after the state sold its stake in the company, the company remains the only buyer for the UK’s sugar beet growers, negotiating a fixed yearly price with NFU Sugar, the body representing UK beet growers. We asked British Sugar to comment on our estimate on sugar beet’s contribution to soil loss, but they did not respond to our request.


“We Welcome This Report, And Urge The Approach Outlined In It To Be Applied Across Our Entire Food System So That The Public Health And Environmental Impact Of The Crops We Grow Can Be Considered Alongside One Another – And Informed, Ambitious And Holistic Choices Made As A Result.” Ellen Fay, Director, Sustainable Soils Alliance

On the one side, two vital and finite resources: our land and our soils. On the other, our health, and the costs to the NHS of treating ill-health related to excessive sugar consumption. Spending on treating Type 2 diabetes alone comes to £8.8 billion per year. With the government adopting policies to incentivise lower sugar consumption, like the ‘Sugar Tax’, it seems nonsensical to continue to use significant area of land to grow sugar.

Sugar is bad for us, and it is bad for the land it is grown on. Yet amidst these challenges, British Sugar plans to grow production by 50% annually – potentially with grave potential effects for our health, land use and soils.

Today, the UK shareholders of Associated British Foods Plc (ABF), the parent company that owns British Sugar, meet for the companies Annual General Meeting. ABF is forecasting strong earnings growth next year, including in its sugar divison.

We hope our new report will open a new front in the fight to tackle our addiction to the sweet stuff. Between 2008 and 2018 (so, excluding the potential impact of the Sugar Tax, which kicked in April 2018), the average decline in sugar consumption has been just 0.2% annually – at this rate, it would take the UK 386 years to reach the WHO recommended daily sugar intake. Policy to address high sugar consumption through demand alone are failing. It is time to explore the potential to constrain supply of UK-grown sugar.

Such a move poses the opportunity to staunch the rapid erosion of UK soils, to incentivise production of healthy vegetables improving food security, and to orient agricultural policy around the twin goals of public health and planetary health. As well as reconsidering the sugar in our tea, it is time to reassess the role of sugar beet in our fields.

Read our full report.

TELL THE SUGAR INDUSTRY TO 'BEET IT'

Front Microbiol. 2023; 14: 1151052.

Published online 2023 Apr 17. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1151052

PMCID: PMC10149816

PMID: 37138624

Understanding the sugar beet holobiont for sustainable agriculture

Adrian Wolfgang, 1 Nora Temme, 2 Ralf Tilcher, 2 and Gabriele Berg 1 , 3 , 4 , *

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Abstract

The importance of crop-associated microbiomes for the health and field performance of plants has been demonstrated in the last decades. Sugar beet is the most important source of sucrose in temperate climates, and—as a root crop—yield heavily depends on genetics as well as on the soil and rhizosphere microbiomes. Bacteria, fungi, and archaea are found in all organs and life stages of the plant, and research on sugar beet microbiomes contributed to our understanding of the plant microbiome in general, especially of microbiome-based control strategies against phytopathogens. Attempts to make sugar beet cultivation more sustainable are increasing, raising the interest in biocontrol of plant pathogens and pests, biofertilization and –stimulation as well as microbiome-assisted breeding. This review first summarizes already achieved results on sugar beet-associated microbiomes and their unique traits, correlating to their physical, chemical, and biological peculiarities. Temporal and spatial microbiome dynamics during sugar beet ontogenesis are discussed, emphasizing the rhizosphere formation and highlighting knowledge gaps. Secondly, potential or already tested biocontrol agents and application strategies are discussed, providing an overview of how microbiome-based sugar beet farming could be performed in the future. Thus, this review is intended as a reference and baseline for further sugar beet-microbiome research, aiming to promote investigations in rhizosphere modulation-based biocontrol options.

Keywords: biofertilization, Beta vulgaris, Rhizoctonia, phylosymbiosis, microbiome, biocontrol, soil-borne pathogens

1. Introduction

The holobiont concept (Zilber-Rosenberg and Rosenberg, 2008) changed the view on microbes in many scientific disciplines. It states that practically all multicellular lifeforms are inhabited, depending on—or at least are affected by—the interplay with microbial life. The collective genome of plant-associated microbiota exceeds the host genome in both size and number of functions by far and is thus referred to as its second genome (Berendsen et al., 2012; de la Fuente Cant et al., 2020). Given the importance of plant-associated microbes for the health, vigor, and resilience of their host, the microbiome of plants and its modulation is a potential key factor for crop management and crop development in the future (Berg et al., 2015, 2021; Mendes and Raaijmakers, 2015).

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris, L.) is the most important regional source of sucrose in moderate climates of the northern hemisphere. Its biomass production is ranked eighth amongst the most produced field crops worldwide (FAOSTAT, 2022). Sugar beets are biennial, meaning that flowers and seeds are produced in the second year. Since flowering detracts sucrose from taproots, sugar beets are harvested annually. The wild ancestor of all beet crops is the sea beet (Beta maritima L.), a native plant still frequently found on European coastlines. Sugar beet thrives on most soil types, as long as pH is near neutral, easing its geographically widespread cultivation (Draycott, 2003). In contrast to many other crops, the breeding of sugar beet out of the Silesian Beet happened in times when the basics of genetics were understood. Therefore, its development and breeding trends over the decades are comparably well documented (Panella and Lewellen, 2007). Early sugar beet cultivars were bred in Northern Europe, a region with a non-humid, temperate climate and low pest and disease pressure. When these cultivars were planted in other regions, the yield was severely decimated by pests and pathogens (Panella and Lewellen, 2007). Sugar beet was intensively studied regarding physiology, anatomy, chemical, biochemical constitution, genomic traits, nutrient requirements, and convenient agricultural practices to optimize yield in the last 150 years, and was first genome sequenced in 2014 (Dohm et al., 2014). Still, leaf pathogens, root and storage rots, and microbes interfering with sucrose extractions illustrate the importance of sugar beet-associated microbial communities for both plant health and yield. All these mentioned facts make sugar beet an interesting model plant for microbiome research.

Despite the widespread cultivation of sugar beet, our knowledge in sugar beet microbiomes and microbiome-based strategies in future agricultural systems have not reached their full potential thus far. To fully exploit this potential for crop protection and plant growth promotion (PGP), a deep and holistic understanding of both the plant itself and the environment-plant interactions is crucial. Since the rhizosphere is the primary soil-plant interface, we have to especially emphasize the establishment, formation, and dynamics of its microbiome in this context. We hereby try to connect current knowledge about sugar beet-associated microbial communities to their physical, chemical, and biological context, namely the specific traits of the host plant. We aim to describe the sugar beet holobiont as defined by Berg et al. (2020), as the entirety of the microbial community members and its “theater of activity”. In the first section of this review, we will provide an overview of the current knowledge on sugar beet microbiome to be considered in experimental setups of future studies, highlight knowledge gaps, and discuss the sugar beet holobiont following its ontology from seed to postharvest roots. The second section summarizes potential or already tested biocontrol agents and their natural occurrence in the plant host and presents the current application strategies for microbiome-based agricultural practices.

Figure 1

Simplified temporal (Left) and spatial (Right) holobiont model of sugar beet taproot. The arrow width indicates the relative importance of vertically and horizontally assembled endophytes (Top Left). A: Root exudation and/or endophyte release leads to an increase in measured diversity in taproot-associated rhizosphere communities (Zachow et al., 2014; Cardinale et al., 2020; Wolfgang et al., 2020). CFU number in the peel can exceed the CFU number in the rhizosphere (Okazaki et al., 2014). B: Relative sugar content increases toward the center, higher in proximity to vascular bundles. Sucrose further decreases with increasing distance to the secondary cambia (Milford, 2006; Hoffmann and Kenter, 2018). C: Diversity decreases toward the center, while the relative abundance of copiotrophic bacteria increases (Lilley et al., 1996; Okazaki et al., 2014). D: Microbial abundance is highest in the root elongation zone near the root tip, with a high relative abundance of exudate responders, e.g., Variovorax and Pseudomonas (Jacobs et al., 1985; Lübeck et al., 2000; Shi et al., 2009a). E: The sugar content of beet tissue is highest in lower taproot (Milford, 2006).

2.2. Microbial assembly and dynamics in the sugar beet rhizosphere

Ultra-processed foods are not only bad for our bodies, their production damages our environments


Laila Benkrima, Agronomy Consultant, B.C. Centre for Agritech Innovation, Simon Fraser University
Sun, September 24, 2023 

THE CONVERSATION

Our grocery stores are increasingly filled with ultra-processed foods, which have little to no nutritional value and a huge environmental impact. (Nathalia Rosa)

Ultra-processed foods (UPF) have become increasingly popular and range from chips to microwave meals and even bread. Even just a casual glance at supermarket shelves in Canada also reveals a plethora of UPF offerings in all their elaborate and enticing packaging.

Besides their affordability, UPF not only offer time-saving convenience but also momentary satisfaction drenched in saturated fat, sugar, salt and additives. After all, who can resist enjoying a tasty snack when indulging in a football game or an electrifying new TV series?

Although much is discussed about the direct negative impact of these products on our health, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, little has been said about the impacts of UPF on the environment.
What are ultra-processed foods?

UPF can be defined as “formulations of ingredients, mostly of exclusive industrial use, that result from a series of industrial processes” and contain little or no whole foods.

They are made using industrial processing methods that may include moulding, chemical modification and hydrogenation (which can turn liquid unsaturated fat into a more solid form).

The consumption of ultra-processed foods is not new. In Europe, processed products on an industrial scale have been widely consumed since the late 18th and 19th centuries. A 2020 Canadian study shows that the percentage of total purchased calories attributed to UPF in Canada increased from 24 per cent in 1938 to 55 per cent in 2001 and, in 2013, Canadians purchased an astonishing average of 230 kg of UPF per person.

Even more alarmingly, 99 per cent of Canadian adults consume UPF at least once a week. In comparison, 57 per cent of people in the United Kingdom consume some kind of UPF on a weekly basis.

The consumption of UPF in Canada is largely associated with men, youth, those struggling with low income and those with obesity.

Read more: The rise of ultra-processed foods and why they're really bad for our health

Unfortunately, UPF tend to be more affordable than fresh, whole foods. They have a longer shelf life, require no preparation and can be enticing due to high sugar content that trigger feel-good dopamine responses.

However, consuming UPF comes at a high cost not just to our health but to our environment as well.

Cutting costs, raising emissions

UPFs rely on energy-intensive manufacturing processes and long supply chains, leading to substantial greenhouse gas emissions.

The most substantial environmental impacts of UPF-rich diets predominantly stem from the post-farm stages, specifically the final product creation and packaging processes.

One specific additive that has the most environmental impact is palm oil. Palm oil is responsible for deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests. It is the world’s most consumed vegetable oil that can be found in half of our food.

Another villain is high-fructose corn syrup, which not only leaves a long carbon footprint but is also linked to obesity, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

Read more: Two surprising reasons behind the obesity epidemic: Too much salt, not enough water

The massive waste generated by over-packaged UPF is another factor to consider. Their plastic packaging doesn’t degrade in landfills or in nature, and has a dramatic impact on soil health and marine life.

One recent study published in Nature Sustainability demonstrates that UPF processing and packaging stages have the greatest environmental impacts of the whole system, and are a major source of environmental waste worldwide.

The path to sustainability

There is no simple answer to the problem, but there are alternatives that can help reduce the pressure on the natural resources available on the planet. Embracing sustainable agricultural practices that prioritize regenerative farming, waste reduction and local sourcing of ingredients can effectively lower the carbon impact of UPF.

In addition, companies should adopt water-efficient technologies and support initiatives that restore natural habitats, as these are essential steps towards water conservation and biodiversity preservation. Public and health agencies need to put pressure on governments to adopt new policies and implement measures that will protect public health and the environment.

Advancements in agricultural technology could play a pivotal role in mitigating the environmental impact of food additives. Precision farming techniques, data-driven decision-making, and AI-driven supply chain optimizations can enhance resource efficiency and reduce waste.

Small and medium-sized agri-food enterprises and small family farms often prioritize sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients, contributing to a more sustainable food system and enhancing biodiversity. Supporting local businesses not only encourages a healthier food ecosystem but also bolsters community resilience and regional economic development.

Indigenous communities as well possess a profound knowledge of sustainable agroforestry practices, and collaborating with these communities can provide essential teachings into more sustainable food production and responsible land and water management.

Read more:  Australia's agriculture sector sorely needs more insights from First Nations people. Here's how we get there

The environmental impact of ultra-processed foods cannot be ignored any longer. As we become more and more conscious about what we buy and how it is produced, we hold the responsibility to advocate for change.

High rates of UPF consumption indicates an essential failure of our food system to provide universal access to affordable, wholesome food. Whether such a goal is even possible may be up for debate, but what cannot be denied is that our current industry-driven proliferation of UPF is inflicting harm on both our planet and our health.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. 

It was written by: Laila Benkrima, Simon Fraser University.

Read more:

Why taxing ‘junk food’ to tackle obesity isn’t as simple as it seems

Colonists upended Aboriginal farming, growing grain and running sheep on rich yamfields, and cattle on arid grainlands

GOOD NEWS

Incidence of long COVID 'strikingly low' in children, Alberta researchers find

CBC
Sun, September 24, 2023 


New research from the University of Alberta has found a "strikingly low" incidence of long COVID among children ages eight to 13 who contracted COVID-19.

"It's reassuring that in our study we found that most kids resolve symptoms within two weeks," said Lyndsey Hahn, a postdoctoral fellow in the pediatrics department of the University of Alberta's faculty of medicine and dentistry.

Hahn is lead author of the study, Post-COVID-19 Condition in Children, which was published this month in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Only one child in a study group of 271 developed long COVID after a COVID-19 infection, the study found.

"The incidence of [long COVID] in this study was strikingly low," the authors say in a research letter.

Hahn, however, cautioned in an interview that the study is only "a tip of the iceberg" and that more research is needed to better understand long COVID in children.

Between August 2020 and March 2021, researchers from the U of A and the Women and Children's Health Research Institute in Edmonton recruited a study group of 1,026 children ages eight to 13.

Parents provided consent and tracked their children's symptoms. The children were followed for 76 weeks.

At the time they were recruited for the study, none of the children had been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

University of Alberta researcher Lyndsey Hahn is the study's lead author.
 (Submitted by Lyndsey Hahn)

Of the 1,026 children, 572 did not test positive for COVID-19 during the study period while 454 did.

The researchers focused on a group of 271 children who tested positive for COVID and for whom there was sufficient data to determine the presence of long COVID.

Of that group of kids, only one — or 0.4 per cent — met the World Health Organization's definition of the condition.

That child's symptoms resolved near the end of a 14-week post-infection followup period, the study authors noted.

Common symptoms of long COVID include fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction, although the WHO says more than 200 different symptoms have been reported.

The WHO definition of long COVID says it involves "continuation or development of new symptoms three months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, with symptoms lasting for at least two months with no other explanation."

Because the participants signed up for a study before they got COVID, scientists were able to see if they had any symptoms of an infection before they got COVID itself.

Sometimes a child had the dual misfortune of getting one respiratory infection first, such as common flu, and becoming ill with COVID immediately afterwards.

In such cases, it took longer for children to recover from their symptoms completely, Hahn said.

That finding is a cause for concern, said Dr. Candace McNaughton, a research scientist and an emergency physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. McNaughton was not involved in the study.

"Having a child who is sick with a fever or headache for four weeks or more is a big deal, even if it does not qualify as post-COVID condition," she said.

"My take-home from the study is that a large proportion of children have symptoms that could impact their schooling or work for parents for a month, which is a big burden for parents and families to bear," she added.

McNaughton said the Alberta study is "another piece in the very large puzzle that we have right now with regards to the long term effects that COVID may have on children."

These long-term effects, McNaughton said, may include having difficulty speaking or remembering things, high heart rate that lasts for several months after getting the infection, and Type 1 diabetes.

"There's enough evidence for me as a mother, and a physician, and as a researcher to say, this is a virus I'd like to avoid," McNaughton said.

Dr. Tehseen Ladha, an assistant professor in the pediatrics department at the U of A, praised her colleagues for conducting the study. Ladha was not involved in the research.

"I think long COVID is an area that we know so little about, and to see researchers and academics really focusing on it from my home university is really uplifting," Ladha said.

In her work as a clinician, Ladha has observed that children between eight and 13 do not appear to be developing long COVID often.

"I did notice that the ones that have long COVID were generally over the age of 13," she said.

"I can see evidence of what they've shown in this article in my own practice."