Organic food has become mainstream but still has room to grow

August 17, 2021

Organic vegetables at the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, Goleta, Calif. Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

CC BY-ND

Organic food once was viewed as a niche category for health nuts and hippies, but today it’s a routine choice for millions of Americans. For years following passage of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established national organic standards, consumers had to seek out organic products at food co-ops and farmers markets. Today over half of organic sales are in conventional grocery store chains, club stores and supercenters; Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Target and Safeway are the top five organic retailers.

Surveys show that 82% of Americans buy some organic food, and availability has improved. So why do overall organic sales add up to a mere 6% of all food sold in the U.S.? And since organic farming has many benefits, including conserving soil and water and reducing use of synthetic chemicals, can its share grow?

One issue is price. On average, organic food costs 20% more than conventionally produced food. Even hardcore organic shoppers like me sometimes bypass it due to cost.

Some budget-constrained shoppers may restrict their organic purchases to foods they are especially concerned about, such as fruits and vegetables. Organic produce carries far fewer pesticide residues than conventionally grown versions.

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Price matters, but let’s dig deeper. Increasing organic food’s market share will require growing larger quantities and more diverse organic products. This will require more organic farmers than the U.S. currently has.

There are some 2 million farms in the U.S.. Of them, only 16,585 are organic – less than 1%. They occupy 5.5 million acres, which is a small fraction of overall U.S. agricultural land. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. farmland is dedicated to growing animal feed and biofuel feedstocks like corn and soybeans, rather than food for people.

In my view, converting more agricultural land to organic food production should be a national goal. Organic farmers produce healthy food, promote soil health and protect watersheds. Ruminant animals like dairy cows when raised organically must graze on pasture for at least 120 days each year, which reduces their methane emissions.

The list of climate and environmental benefits associated with organic is long. Organic farming consumes 45% less energy than conventional production, mainly because it doesn’t use nitrogen fertilizers. And it emits 40% less greenhouse gases because organic farmers practice crop rotation, use cover crops and composting, and eliminate fossil fuel-based inputs.

The vast majority of organic farms are small or midsized, both in terms of gross sales and acreage. Organic farmers are younger on average than conventional farmers.

Starting small makes sense for beginning farmers, and organic price premiums allow them to survive on smaller plots of land. But first they need to go through a tough three-year transition period to cleanse the land.

During this time they are ineligible to label products as organic, but must follow organic standards, including forgoing use of harmful chemicals and learning how to manage ecosystem processes. This typically results in short-term yield declines. Many farmers fail along the way.

The transition period is just one of many challenges for organic farmers. Greater federal government support could help. In a recent report, Arizona State University’s Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, which I direct, identified actions the Biden administration can take within existing budgets and laws to realize the untapped promise of organic agriculture.

Current USDA assistance for organic producers is paltry, especially given the billions of dollars that the agency spends annually in support of agriculture. Two-thirds of farm subsidy dollars go to the top 10% richest farms.

Our report recommends dedicating 6% of USDA spending to supporting the organic sector, a figure that reflects its market share. As an example, in 2020 the agency spent about $55 million on research directly pertinent to organic agriculture within its $3.6 billion Research, Education and Economics mission area. A 6% share of that budget would be $218 million for developing things like better ways of controlling pests by using natural predators instead of chemical pesticides.

Organic food’s higher price includes costs associated with practices like forgoing use of harmful pesticides and improving animal welfare. A growing number of food systems scholars and practitioners are calling for use of a methodology called True Cost Accounting, which they believe reveals the full costs and benefits of food production.

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According to an analysis by the Rockefeller Foundation, American consumers spend $1.1 trillion yearly on food, but the true cost of that food is $3.2 trillion when all impacts like water pollution and farmworker health are factored in. Looked at through a True Cost Accounting lens, I see organic as a good deal.

Author

Kathleen Merrigan
Executive Director, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Arizona State University

Disclosure statement
Kathleen Merrigan directs the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, which receives funding from the Organic Trade Association. She is co-director of a project on inadvertent chemical contamination of organic crops funded by the US Department of Agriculture. Merrigan is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Organic Farming Research Foundation. She also is an advisor to S2G Ventures and a Venture Partner at Astanor Ventures, two agtech firms that have some organic companies in their much broader portfolios. As a US Senate staffer, Merrigan drafted the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. She has served on the National Organic Standards Board, as Administrator of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service and as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.

How a 'stubborn' Canadian saved thousands of American babies from birth defects

Frances Kelsey's first big break as a world-changing scientist may only have occurred because people assumed she was a man

Author of the article: Anna J. James,

 Special to National Post
Publishing date:Aug 17, 2021 • 

Frances Oldham Kelsey, is shown working in the lab in the mid to late 1930s with Dr. E.M.K. Geiling. She would later become instrumental in barring Thalidomide from the U.S. market. 

PHOTO BY MIKE HENSEN/THE LONDON FREE PRESS/QMI AGENCY

While you were busy memorizing interminable details about Responsible Government or Laura Secord, you missed out on some of the best parts of our national story: Secret Nazi weather bases, Mackenzie King’s extremely weird sexuality or the fact that Canada has been a surprise bit player in everything from the breakup of the Beatles to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln to the fall of Communism. Hopefully we can rectify things somewhat in a new occasional series, The Secret History of Canada, documenting the little-known (and often R-rated) parts you missed. Today, how a Canadian scientist averted an American medical disaster.

It’s been called the worst manmade medical disaster in history: An estimated 10,000 children born with stunted or non-existent limbs, and as many as 100,000 so chemically deformed that they were never born at all.

The culprit was an over-the-counter German-made sedative that once came close to rivalling aspirin in total sales. As thalidomide sowed disaster in worldwide maternity wards throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, only one developed country would be spared — and it would be thanks almost entirely to a Canadian.

Approving thalidomide for the U.S. market was to be Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey’s first assignment with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Born on Vancouver Island in 1914, Kelsey had come from a family that expected her to get an education equal to her brothers. Although she had a master’s in science from McGill University by 1935, one of Kelsey’s first big breaks into the medical field — a research assistant position at the University of Chicago’s new pharmacology department — may have occurred only because recruiters assumed she was a man.

Frances Kelsey, pictured in the 1960s. 

PHOTO BY FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

She received an offer addressed to “Mr. Oldham” — which she never corrected based on the advice of her professor. As the professor said, “don’t be stupid. Accept the job, sign your name and put ‘Miss’ in brackets afterward.”

Years later, Kelsey mused “that had her name been Elizabeth or Marie-Jane her career might have ended there.”

By the fall of 1960, Kelsey was in Washington, D.C., as one of seven full-time medical officers hired to review human drug applications at the FDA. Their caseload was heavy — about 300 applications per year.

The thalidomide approval was meant to be a straightforward one. Being a woman, a foreigner and new to the agency, the drug manufacturer William S. Merrell assumed Kelsey would be a pushover, even eager to please in her new role.

At that time, drugs could go to market only sixty days after a manufacturer had filed an application with the FDA. If no decision was reached by then, the drug was automatically approved. At the time, drug manufacturers also had “open door” access to the FDA officers assessing their applications, which allowed for coercion and pressure.

Kevadon, the thalidomide drug that was intended for the U.S. market. 

PHOTO BY NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

By the time the application for thalidomide hit Kelsey’s desk, it was already being prescribed to pregnant women in Europe and Canada as a miracle cure for morning sickness and insomnia. Intended to be marketed as Kevadon in the United States, its selling point was that it was a safe alternative to barbiturates.

It wasn’t as easy to overdose on the drug, and it was thus pegged as an ideal medication for vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly and pregnant women. Merrell even claimed it was “suicide-proof,” stating in its FDA application that one man had taken 140 tablets and woke up days later with a mere hangover.

Merrell had applied to the FDA to distribute it across the U.S. in time for Christmas 1960.

In Kelsey’s position, denying this application in her first month at the FDA — even on solid scientific grounds — could attract labels of “skepticism” and “stubbornness” (the exact words later used to commend her decisions on thalidomide).

A 1968 photo of German thalidomide victims. 

PHOTO BY D.P.A./ ARCHIVE PHOTOS

The pill was already being sold in more than 20 countries. At the time of application, almost 2.5 million thalidomide pills had already been administered to about 20,000 patients, many of whom were pregnant.

But Kelsey, along with two other FDA officers held out their approval, citing a lack of clinical data to support the claims that the drug was safe and effective.

“It was just too positive; this couldn’t be the perfect drug with no risk,” she once said. Kelsey then ran the application by her pharmacologist husband, Fremont Ellis Kelsey, who worked at the National Institutes of Health.
In December 1960, he confirmed her suspicions, calling the submission “an interesting collection of meaningless pseudoscientific jargon apparently intended to impress chemically unsophisticated readers.”

Alvin Law, a drummer and Canadian motivational speaker who was born without arms due to thalidomide. PHOTO BY CHRIS EAKIN/QMI

Over the course of nine months (which was then an unheard of length of time to review an FDA application), the team reviewed a growing spate of data proving the horrifying effects of thalidomide on pregnant women.

In February 1961, Kelsey was thumbing through a copy of the British Medical Journal when she saw a letter to the editor from a physician who reported cases of nerve damage among four of his patients who’d taken thalidomide.

Kelsey and her team also reviewed several studies attesting that if a child lived long enough to make it out of the womb, many were born with severe deformities including atrophied limbs, missing toes and fingers, and even absence of the anus and organ damage. Kelsey even met with pediatrician Dr. Helen Taussig at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who had seen the effects of thalidomide first-hand in Europe.

Frances Oldham Kelsey at 100 years old.

 PHOTO BY MIKE HENSEN/THE LONDON FREE PRESS/QMI AGENCY

Meanwhile, Merrell executives hounded Kelsey for a favourable outcome through the phone, fax, and in person. They went so far as to complain to her FDA bosses up to three times per week, calling her a bureaucrat, irresponsible, and unreasonable. “Most of the things they called me, you couldn’t print,” Kelsey later told reporters.

It was ultimately denied by Kelsey and her team, citing that thalidomide’s safety was unproven. Furthermore, it caused significant harm, particularly to the unborn fetus. Within months, growing evidence of the toxic effects of thalidomide would ensure Kelsey’s title as “the most famous government regulator in American history.”

Had thalidomide taken root in the U.S. at the same rate with which it did in the U.K. or Germany, thousands of Americans — now in their 60s — would still be carrying the signs of thalidomide deformity. Instead, just 17 “thalidomide babies” were born in the U.S.

Frances Oldham Kelsey, is shown receiving the President’s Award for Distinguished Civilian Service in 1962 from then-president J.F. Kennedy. 

Kelsey’s home country would not be so lucky. Thalidomide was released in Canada on April 1, 1961 and officially pulled from shelves three months later after the damage had become apparent across Europe. In 2015, the federal government admitted fault and granted pensions to the nearly 100 thalidomide survivors still alive.

Kelsey would live to 101 and for a brief period in the 1960s was hailed as a hero across the U.S. In 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy awarded her the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service. She was only the second woman to receive the honour. Scores of mothers who had been pregnant in the early 1960s mailed Kelsey directly to thank the physician for sparing them the likely fate of being prescribed thalidomide.

An asteroid is named in her honour. In 2015, she was presented with the Order of Canada only hours before her death.

And her influence would not be limited to thalidomide. Her refusal of Merrell’s application put a spotlight on the FDA’s flaws, and in 1962, the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 was amended to abolish the 60-day time limit for FDA reviews and require manufacturers to prove a drug’s efficacy as a non-negotiable criterion for approval.

Throughout her century-long life, however, Kelsey was always quick to deflect personal praise, saying she couldn’t have done it without the full support of her FDA superiors.

In 1962, Kelsey gave this staid assessment of the bureaucratic decision that staved off a human catastrophe: “They (Merrell) certainly thought I was unreasonable, but I didn’t feel the material to back it up was very adequate.”

 

Feds drop court fight to block documents on firing of National Microbiology Lab scientists

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Opposition parties want to know why Xiangguo Qiu, husband Keding Cheng were fired from Wininpeg lab

The Canadian Press · Posted: Aug 17, 2021 

Scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired last January. (Governor General's Innovation Awards)

The Trudeau government is dropping its quest to have a court prohibit the disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada's highest security laboratory.

A House of Commons order to produce the documents was terminated, along with all other business before the House, when Parliament was dissolved Sunday for an election.

Consequently, a Justice Department official says no purpose would be served in continuing the government's application to the Federal Court to block the release of the documents which it maintained would be injurious to national security.

The government has served the Federal Court with a notice of discontinuance in the case.

• O'Toole seeks intervener status in government's court battle to shield lab documents

• Government interfering with 'exclusive jurisdiction' of House, Speaker tells court

The decision leaves unresolved the question of whether the House of Commons is supreme and has unfettered power to demand the production of any documents it sees fit, no matter how sensitive and regardless of privacy or national security laws.

Opposition parties joined forces to demand the documents in hopes that they'd shed light on why scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were escorted out of Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired last January.

• Federal government's move to take Speaker to court raises questions that divide experts

• CBC INVESTIGATES
  Mystery around 2 fired scientists points to larger issues at Canada's high-security lab, former colleagues say

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/canadian-scientist-sent-deadly-viruses.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/05/opposition-right-to-be-wary-of-liberals.html

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MICROBIOLOGY LAB WINNIPEG 

 

Manitoba passes Pension Act amendments, making it easier to unlock funds

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Amendments go into effect Oct. 1

CBC News · Posted: Aug 17, 2021 2:55 PM CT | Last Updated: August 17

Finance Minister Scott Fielding says the legislation will give Manitobans more flexibility with their pensions. (Mikaela MacKenzie/The Canadian Press)

Manitobans with pensions will soon be able to unlock some of their money under certain conditions without needing the government to approve requests, the finance minister announced on Tuesday.

Effective Oct. 1, the Pension Benefits Amendment Act, which was announced in 2019, will allow Manitobans greater and easier access to their pension funds if they're facing financial hardships.

"Manitobans work hard for their pensions and we want to ensure those funds are protected while at the same time giving them greater flexibility to meet their needs," Finance Minister Scott Fielding said in a news release on Tuesday. 

The amendment will allow Manitobans of all ages with funds in Manitoba locked-in accounts at a financial institution to unlock their money when under certain financial hardships, such as low expected income, threat of eviction, mortgage foreclosure and medical or dental expenses not covered by other insurance or government programs.

Manitobans 65 and older will have the option to unlock all of their funds from locked-in retirement accounts (LIRA) or life income funds (LIF) with a financial institution.

• Tories introduce bill to make it easier for Manitobans to access their pensions

People in relationships who break up will also be able to split pension assets based on their shared circumstances, rather than the currently mandated 50/50 split or no division at all.

The amendments are an effort to reduce red tape and administrative inefficiencies for pensioners, financial institutions and the government, Fielding said.

The changes are similar to what's been done in other provinces, he said, and were made after the provincial government received recommendations from the Pension Commission of Manitoba and feedback from online consultation.

Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck considers the changes a gamble.

"Most people aren't actuaries or pension experts," Rebeck said.

"To unlock your funds and go gamble it in the market in the hopes that you might do better while people are taking additional fees from it — the reality is most people are much better off if their money is kept in the [pension] plan."

Rebeck would rather see the province call on other provinces and the federal government to create a pension insurance program "to make sure that when companies like Sears go under that workers aren't the last ones paid and get screwed at the end," he said.

"This this is a move in the wrong direction, in my mind."

Drought conditions impacting cattle prices across the Prairies

By Quinn Campbell

Global News
Posted August 16, 2021 


Cattle producers across the Prairies are facing some tough decisions this year due to the widespread drought. As Quinn Campbell reports, with so many cattle going to market, prices are expected to soften as the fall run continues.

As drought conditions and wildfires continue to worsen across the Prairies, the volatile market continues to keep those in the agriculture industry on edge.

“This fall, this next five to six months, is going to be dramatic with the number of cows, unfortunately, that are going to come to town and the only place for them to go is to slaughter,” said Bob Balog with Balog Auction Services in Lethbridge.


READ MORE: ‘It’s looking terrible’: Alberta ranchers struggling in provincial drought

Balog said the calls just keep coming from concerned producers spanning all the prairie provinces.

“Most of the calls coming in have been about a lack of pasture, now the last 10 days we are getting lots and lots of calls because people are out of water. So it’s a double whammy, there is a third whammy with the fact there is very little, if any, hay.”

READ MORE: CFA working on initiative to send hay from Eastern Canada to Western farmers

Senior analyst Brian Perillat with CanFax, a division of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association that tracks cattle market data, said the drought has driven the price of slaughter cows down about 20 cents a pound and August is usually the strongest month for price of the year.

“It takes a good cow probably to make 80 cents now. Lots of cows trading in the 70 cent range. In June, a couple months ago, we were over a dollar a pound. And some of these cow prices are pretty much the lowest we’ve been in August in almost 10 years,” added Perillat.

Perillat added a continued downslide is expected into the fall for cattle. The early price on calves is holding on, but it’s also expected to slip as the realities of the drought continue for farmers and ranchers.

“Some of those five weights, six weights are just over two bucks a pound, $2.10 to $2.15 in spots, which is close to where it was a year ago. And last year wasn’t a great market either.”

The federal government announced Sunday it is increasing the AgriRecovery funding up to $500 million to address the extraordinary costs associated with the drought and wildfires, that includes the $100 million announced at the beginning of August. The rollout has not been finalized.

READ MORE: CFA working on initiative to send hay from Eastern Canada to Western farmers

Hay crimes expected to grow in southwest Saskatchewan as drought persists


The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is also looking into sending any extra hay from farmers on the East Coast to farmers in Western Canada, to help ease the burden. Balog said any help is a step in the right direction, but it needs to come now.

“If they can find hay, which is going to be a problem, they need to buy it, if they are going to bale crops up, they need to do it right now. So time is of a very significant factor right now and all the help we could get, the sooner the better.”

Perillat said if farmers can look ahead, there is some optimism. With less cattle in North America in the coming years, the futures prices are looking optimistic in the long term.

“April futures are 140 which is some of the highest levels we have seen in five, six years.”


READ MORE: Severe drought in Alberta brings on early harvest

The season is just beginning, and Balog said only time will tell just how disruptive the drought will have been, especially since it is hitting all aspects of the agriculture industry.

Mining company gave $750K to dark money group that boosted Nevada GOP

By Matt Corley
August 13, 2021


Last year, Nevada Gold Mines, a mining company that describes itself as “the single largest gold-producing complex in the world,” deposited $750,000 into a dark money nonprofit that spent significant sums of secretly-sourced funds backing Republican candidates during the 2020 election. The disclosure of the contribution marks the first known revelation of a donor to the dark money group, the American Exceptionalism Institute, Inc., which gained notice in 2020 with large, anonymously-sourced contributions to super PACs.

The funds Nevada Gold Mines provided the dark money group appear to have flowed into a political committee that worked to elect Republicans to the Nevada state legislature. In 2020, the Democratic-led state legislature took initial steps that could ultimately lead to the state’s mining industry having its taxes raised for the first time in more than a century, which may help explain the company’s significant financial investment in state-level political committees.

Nevada Gold Mines is a joint venture between two mining companies, Newmont and Barrick. Newmont, which owns 38.5% of Nevada Gold Mines, disclosed the contribution to the American Exceptionalism Institute in a voluntary report the company released on its policy influence in 2020. Barrick operates the venture and owns 61.5% of the company.

In a footnote attached to Newmont’s description of its 2020 political giving, the company said that in 2020 Nevada Gold Mines “made $1,991,250 in political contributions to Nevada candidates and political action committees associated with Nevada campaigns.” The disclosure added that the total “included $750,000 to the American Exceptionalism Institute, a 501(c)(4) fund commonly referred to as a ‘dark money’ fund.”




The footnote in Newmont’s disclosure suggests that the dark money contribution was a point of contention in the relationship between the two companies that own Nevada Gold Mines. After noting that it has “no control over the political activities of Nevada Gold Mines,” Newmont stated that it was “not involved in and did not approve of any of” Nevada Gold Mines’ contributions and that its own political contributions policy “does not allow contributions to dark money funds.” Newmont said it informed Barrick’s management that it “does not support such contributions” and that it would disclose the contribution in the company’s annual sustainability report.

Organizations that are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code are not required to disclose their contributors, which is why they are often described as “dark money” groups when they engage in political activity. Advocates warn that the secrecy provided by dark money groups poses a serious corruption risk, a position that was validated last month when an energy company was required to issue a public statement as part of a settlement with the Justice Department stating that it “used the 501(c)(4) corporate form as a mechanism to conceal payments for the benefit of public officials in exchange for official action.”
Silver state spending

Newmont’s description of the contribution to the American Exceptionalism Institute makes clear that the money is related to state level political activity in Nevada, but it doesn’t spell out exactly how the dark money group was involved in the state’s elections — whether the group spent it directly or subsequently used the money to contribute to political committees. Additional available information suggests, however, that the Nevada Gold Mines contribution helped fund political contributions the American Exceptionalism Institute made in the state.

While there are no indications that the dark money group paid for any political ad campaigns or other election-focused communications in the state, the American Exceptionalism Institute did contribute a little more than $1 million in 2020 to Stronger Nevada PAC, a political action committee affiliated with former Nevada Lt. Governor Mark Hutchison, according to records filed with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. The American Exceptionalism Institute was the largest contributor to Stronger Nevada PAC, accounting for 38.5% of the more than $2.6 million the committee raised in 2020.

At least, American Exceptionalism Institute was the largest contributor publicly reported by Stronger Nevada PAC. The committee’s second largest reported donor was Nevada Gold Mines, which gave $500,000 in two contributions. If $750,000 of the American Exceptionalism Institute’s contributions were reattributed to Nevada Gold Mines, as Newmont’s disclosure suggests it arguably should be, then Nevada Gold Mines would become the PAC’s top donor, accounting for 47% of the PAC’s total revenue. Notably, one of the American Exceptionalism Institute’s contributions, $760,000 given on September 21, 2020, nearly matches the $750,000 Newmont reported Nevada Gold Mines giving to the dark money fund.

What kind of activity did these contributions, both disclosed and undisclosed, support? According to the Nevada Independent, Stronger Nevada PAC, which paid for ads in several races, has been credited for “Republican success in down-ballot races” during the 2020 election when the GOP gained seats in both the state Assembly and the state Senate.

Republican state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, who reportedly worked with former Lt. Gov. Hutchison on the PAC efforts, praised Stronger Nevada PAC’s impact to the Nevada Independent while attributing some of its financial success to business interests who were wary of Democratic power in the state legislature. “This was an instance where businesses that were feeling under attack by their state government decided to step up and take a stand,” Kieckhefer said. “And part of that was investing in the effort to gain legislative seats for Republicans. And we did that. So, this was a statement, and hopefully people are paying attention.”

When the Nevada Independent highlighted Nevada Gold Mines’ financial support for Stronger Nevada PAC, the nonprofit news outlet contextualized the contributions by noting that Nevada’s “mining industry soured on legislative Democrats after the 2020 summer session, where lawmakers pushed through three proposed constitutional amendments that would remove the cap on net proceeds of minerals,” which effectively meant the industry’s taxes could potentially be raised. Additional news reports on the mining industry’s 2020 political giving in the state, which included significant contributions from Nevada Gold Mines, also framed the spending around the potential for future fights over changes to industry’s tax liabilities.

Now, with Newmont’s disclosure of Nevada Gold Mines’ previously hidden contribution to the American Exceptionalism Institute, the mining industry’s investment in the 2020 elections are even more significant. Still unknown, however, is who else funded the little known dark money group’s spending in the state and if the other donors, like Nevada Gold Mines, have interests that could be affected by the lawmakers the money helped elect.

A rising dark money player

On its own, the American Exceptionalism Institute had no clear interest in the outcome of Nevada’s elections. When the group initially formed in 2017, it told the IRS in its application for tax-exempt status that it “was founded with the goal of researching and proposing domestic and foreign policies that promote the general welfare of the American people and assert America’s traditional role as a leading nation on the world stage.” Though the organization held out the possibility that it might engage in political activity in the future, the American Exceptionalism Institute told the tax agency it did not then have “any specific plans” to do so at the time.

For the first few years of its existence, the American Exceptionalism Institute largely stayed under the political radar. The group gained a little national attention in 2018 when it paid less than $100,000 to run an attack ad against Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tied to a Senate nomination fight, but otherwise remained quiet until 2020 when its political contributions began to draw attention.

While the American Exceptionalism Institute maintained a nearly invisible public profile in 2019 and early 2020, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t active. Though its most recently filed tax return, covering May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020, is not yet publicly available, the topline information from the return is available through an IRS database called the Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract. It’s also visible in the search results of databases like ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and Guidestar that aggregate and summarize nonprofit data.

The data is eye popping. It shows that the American Exceptionalism Institute raised $13 million dollars by the end of April 2020 after raising no more than $50,000 the year before.




It didn’t take long for the group to start spending that money. In addition to the more than $1 million the American Exceptionalism Institute contributed to Stronger Nevada PAC in 2020, the dark money group gave $2.7 million to two federal super PACs, most of which went to a group called Security is Strength PAC that backed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) reelection campaign. The group also gave to Georgia United Victory, which supported then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA).

It’s not altogether surprising that the American Exceptionalism Institute, which recently paid for emblazoned trucks criticizing Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) ahead of his announcement of a Senate campaign, would become a larger dark money player. What little was known about the American Exceptionalism Institute when it first appeared in public indicated that it had wider connections in the world of anonymous political spending.

In fact, CREW has since identified the group as part of a dark money network that’s responsible for tens of millions of secretly-sourced funds entering American elections. With several of the entities in the network shutting down recently, including some that had been targeted by Federal Election Commission complaints filed by CREW, the American Exceptionalism Institute may be stepping in to fill the void.

With all these groups, the ever-present question is who is funding their efforts to impact elections. In the case of the American Exceptionalism Institute at least, the public now knows that one of the group’s funders was a mining company with a major stake in the outcome of the elections.

UGANDA

How middlemen fleece gold miners in Busia, Karamoja


TUESDAY AUGUST 17 2021

Rupa gold mine - Wikipedia

Summary

Lost revenue. According to the Auditor General’s report, minerals worth Shs34.6b were between 2017 and June 2020, exported out of the country without being declared, which resulted in the country losing billions of shillings

By Fred Wambede
More by this Author

Deep down in the rural village of Tiira in Busia District, Mr Robert Wafula, pours ore onto a sluice.

“When this ore, which is mixed with water, is poured on this sluice, the gold sediment sticks on the blanket,” Mr Wafula says as other miners look on.

After that, he gathers the gold sediment, which he then sieves in a plastic basin using mercury.

“It’s tedious work, but we earn little from it. What you have seen is the lighter part of the gold mining work,” he says as he points to his colleagues, who are digging ore from a nearby gold pit.

The miners say they excavate about 300 to 400kgs of ore to possibly extract one gram of gold.

The excavated ore is then carried downhill from the mine for processing. Though the work is slow and tedious, it’s gold dealers seem to have a big say on how much to offer.
Mr George Kweboli, the chairperson of Tiira Small Scale Mining Association, says most of the dealers buy a gram of gold at Shs150,000 or less.

The price also depends on the bargaining power of the seller. “We know they cheat us, but there is no way out. The prices are not commensurate with the work,” Mr Kweboli says.
Daily Monitor learnt that middle men, most of them not licensed, sell their gold to traders, who are mostly Indians based in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb, between Shs230,000 and Shs250,000 per gram.

There are about 1,300 miners in the Tiira area who make their living from gold mining. The local leaders interviewed say gold mining in the district has existed since the 1930s.
So far, there are four associations dealing in gold mining in Tiira, which include Tiira Small Scale Mining Association and Tiira Landlord and Artisanal Miners.

Others are Busia United Small Scale Mining and Uganda Association of Small Scale and Artisanal Association.

Ms Josephine Aguttu, the secretary of Tiira Small Scale Miners’ Association, says on average, the association produces up to three kilogrammes of gold in a year.
“But the challenge is, we don’t have a streamlined market and due to that, it’s the middlemen earning more from our sweat,” she says.

Ms Aguttu says the miners incur a lot of expenses, especially during the rainy season, when the pits get flooded.

The miners say setting up water pumps to help drain the water is expensive.

Covid-19 effect

Mr Paul Angesu, the chairperson of Tiira Landlord and Artisanal Miners Association, says due to the effect of Covid-19 pandemic, middlemen keep on reducing the price.
“Covid-19 has also affected us in terms of accessing market for gold and this has resulted into low prices,” he says.

One of the middlemen, Mr Micheal Mugeni, says they buy a gram at Shs150,000, but said the price changes depending on the exchange rate.

Another gold dealer, commonly known as Willy, who is based in Busia Town, says the price at which he buys gold from miners is not anyone’s business. “This is my personal business and there is nothing I can tell you,” he says before he switched off his phone.
Important to note, however, is that many of the miners at Tiira sell their small gold quantities to on-site traders.

Mr Thomas Wadiha, a miner, said apart from low prices, the high taxation and tiresome process of acquiring and renewing licences from the Directorate of Geological Surveys and Mines discourages them.

“We are paying a lot of taxes to the government but they only look at us as destroyers of the environment, which is true but we also try to minimise such through covering up abandoned pits and planting trees,” he said.

When Daily Monitor visited Tiira, Amonikakine and Akobwaat, our reporter found miners extracting gold with bare hands due to lack of protective gear such as glasses, masks, gumboots, helmets, and gloves.

There were also hundreds of residents, including children and women, in open pits, which measure up to 100-feet deep, searching for gold without protective gear.
The miners use mercury, which they mix with gold-containing materials to form a mercury-gold amalgam, which is then heated and vaporised to obtain the gold.

2018 survey

In 2018, the National Association of Professional Environmentalists in conjunction with Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health (NACOH), carried out the survey in gold mining areas including Busia and Karamoja and established that the miners use mercury, a neurological toxicant, which affects the nervous systems of the people, who get exposed to it.

Ms Jane Ujaala, a miner, says despite mining one of the precious minerals, their living standards are still low.

“We are engulfed in abject poverty despite the fact that we deal in extraction of one of the highly valued minerals in the country,” she says.

Though there is some development, Tiira remains with high school dropouts. The mining sites have poor hygiene and massive environmental degradation.

Mr Basil Oketch, the technical adviser of Morulem Gold Mining Association in Abim District, says from February to June this year, the price of gold per gram in Kampala was between Shs250,000 and Shs260,000 but the middlemen in Karamoja were buying at between Shs120,000 and Shs170,000 depending on the location.

“The dealers cheat miners. They don’t disclose the actual price. The mining method is by trial and error. This is why numerous pits are opened but the miners find no gold.
Gold mining in Karamoja is carried out in several districts including Moroto, Abim, Nakapiripirit, Nabilatuk, Karenga, Amudat, and Kaabong.

“The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has not done much to create awareness about the value of gold so the miners just give it away,’’ Mr Oketch said.
He, however, says the government is also losing a lot of revenue for failing to reorganise the miners .
“The sector needs regulation. Most of the dealers are not licenced,” he said.
According to the Auditor General’s report, minerals worth Shs34.6b were, between 2017 and June 2020, exported out of the country without being declared, which resulted in the country losing billions of shillings.

Mr Moses Ongom, the chairperson of Morulem Gold Mining Association with about 100 members, says most of the buyers of their gold are Ugandans, who claim to be based in Kampala.

“They come and station here for a month, buying gold from the miners. Other buyers are from Kenya,” he says.

Mr Ongom says as an association, they mine about five to 10 grams of gold per month.
“This is because we use rudimentary means,” he said.

At Nakabaat Village in Rupa Sub-county, Moroto District, about 1,500 households eke a living from gold mining.

One of the middlemen found at the mining site declined to comment, but the miners said they were being cheated.

Ms Mary Napeyok, a miner at the site, said they are developing a strange skin diseases because they bath with contaminated water in River Nakabaat, which miners use to wash their gold.

Ms Sandra Aleper, another miner, says they are mistreated by men when they get money from selling gold.

“Whenever we get our gold and sell it, they [men] take the money from us and they use it to buy alcohol,” the mother of one says.

Findings on abuse

A survey carried out by Ecological Christian Organisation, a non-government organisation, between July and August, 2018, indicates that children and women working in the mining and quarrying centres are exploited and girls are sexually harassed.

The organisation is implementing the Karamoja Mining Governance project funded by Democratic Governance Facility.

Ms Dylis Ndibaisa, a senior programmes officer at Ecological Christian Organisation, says there is need for more transparency and accountability in the mining sector.
Ms Ndibaisa says the legal and policy frameworks should be strengthened to effectively support sustainable management of the mining sector and safeguard interests of local communities.

Mr Sam Loumo, a researcher and advocacy officer working with Karamoja Development Forum, says most of miners and gold dealers are operating illegally.

“The entire sector needs reorganisation. For instance, sometimes, the buyers offer little in excuse of dollar depreciation, when it’s not true,” he says.

The Moroto natural resource officer, Mr John Lotyang, says they are working hard to ensure the mining activities are organised and legalised.

“We want to ensure the mining activities are in order, so that miners and buyers obtain licences,” he adds.

The chairperson of Busia, Mr Stephen Mugeni Wasike, says the government should construct gold refineries and airstrips in gold mining districts.

“We need a mineral processing centre and this is the only viable way of eliminating middlemen in the sector,” he said.

Mr Mugeni says the government should create a mining department at the district level.
Mr Hanns Kyazze, a communication specialist at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, says it’s mandatory for all dealers to get licenced before embarking on the business of buying gold.

“Those buying gold without licences do it illegally. The government only works with licenced dealers,” he say.

Report

According to the Directorate of Geological Surveys and Mines performance report for the Financial Year (FY) 2019/2020, there was an increase of 5.6 per cent in the number of valid licences by close of FY2019/2020 compared to FY2018/2019. This was mainly attributed to the e-government licensing system, which was established.

The production of minerals including gold dropped by 25.6 per cent in FY2019/2020 compared to that of FY2018/2019. This was attributed to a ban on export of unprocessed minerals, which is one of the local factors affecting mining and exploration activities.

Artisanal miners in Karamoja decry poor working conditions



By Fred Wambede

In a remote village of Nakabaat in Rupa Sub-county, Moroto District, lives about 1,500 households who eke a living from gold mining.The miners here risk their lives to dig ore out of the earth, from which they extract gold.At Nakabaat mines, about 300kgs of ore must be excavated to extract one gram of gold. Traders buy a gram between Shs110,000 and Shs210,000.This is done under hazardous conditions worsened by lack of access to clean water, a health centre, a school and other basic necessities.River Nakabaat is the only source of water for bathing and drinking in the community. The same river is used by the animals.The river is now more contagious as some miners use mercury, a deadly chemical, to extract gold.Ms Mary Napeyok, a miner at the site, says they are developing strange skin diseases due to drinking and bathing contaminated water. Advertisement

“We have no option but to drink it. We also use it for cooking and bathing. Many of us have wounds but they heal by themselves,” Ms Napeyok says.In 2018, the National Association of Professional Environmentalists in conjunction with Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health (NACOH) carried out the survey in gold mining areas, including Karamoja, and established that mines use mercury, a neurological toxicant, which affects the nervous systems of the people who get exposed to it.Ms Napeyok says they have tasked leaders to drill for them a borehole so they can stop drinking contaminated water but they have never received any positive response.“Even when we fall sick, we use herbs because walking to the healthy centre in Moroto Town takes us about eight hours and yet the roads are also in poor state,” she says.Ms Sandra Aleper, another miner, says they are mistreated by men when they get money from selling gold, which they toil for hours to get.“Whenever we get our gold and sell it, they take the money from us and they use it to buy alcohol,” a mother of one, says.Findings from Ecological Christian Organisation (ECO), a non-government organisation, which is implementing the Karamoja Mining Governance project funded by Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) show that children and women, working in the mining and quarrying centres are also exploited and the girls are sexually abused.Ms Prisca Ilukol, a project officer working with ECO, says children, who are employed in washing gold, excavating sand and grinding stones, suffer cough, chest pain and other waterborne diseases such as typhoid, diarrhoea, among others.She said there is a need for legal and policy frameworks to effectively support sustainable management of the mining sector and safeguard interests of local communities.The Moroto deputy chief administrative officer (CAO), Mr Edward Eko, says as a district, they are working to ensure that artisanal miners are organised so that they can obtain licences to operate legally.editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Visualizing global gold production by country in 2020

Visual Capitalist Elements | August 17, 2021 | 9:38 am Intelligence Gold

Global Gold Production by Country in 2020

People usually come across gold in the form of jewelry and admire it for its beauty, value, and permanence.


But before gold makes it into jewelry and vaults, it goes through a long and difficult production process that begins with mining.



The price of gold broke an all-time high of $2,000/oz in 2020, giving miners a brief boost to profitability. However, mine shutdowns due to the pandemic ultimately dented global gold production relative to 2019.

The above infographic breaks down gold production by country in 2020, highlighting the biggest nations for gold mining.
The Top 10 Gold Producing Countries

Although gold mining is a global business, just three countries—China, Australia, and Russia—accounted for 31% of global gold production in 2020.

China topped the list partly due to the resumption of gold mining activities after pandemic-induced lockdowns. Furthermore, China accounted for 30% of global demand for gold jewelry in 2020, offering miners an additional incentive for production.

The U.S. produced 190 tonnes of gold in 2020, the majority of which came from mines in Nevada. Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold mining company, produced roughly 85 tonnes or 45% of U.S. gold in 2020.

Indonesia ranks seventh in the list partly due to the Grasberg Mine, one of the world’s largest gold mines, which has produced over 1,500 tonnes or 53 million ounces of gold since 1990.

In total, miners produced 3,241 tonnes of gold in 2020, a 3% drop from the 3,300 tonnes mined in 2019. This also brings the total above-ground stocks of gold to around 201,296 tonnes, which are distributed between jewelry, investments, and central bank holdings.

How Much Gold is Left to Mine?

Gold derives part of its value from scarcity. So how much gold is left in the world?

According to the World Gold Council, the latest year-end estimate of underground gold reserves adds up to 50,000 tonnes. Of these, Australia and Russia collectively host around 35% or 17,500 tonnes.

At current production rates, these gold reserves will last less than 16 years. However, 2020 also saw $2.9 billion flow into gold exploration and development projects, which might one day add to the world’s gold reserves in the future.