It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
UK Billions of lockdown savings funnelled to funds
(Reuters) - Asset managers St James's Place, Rathbone and Man Group saw billions of pounds in inflows during the first half of the year, as household savings jumped during COVID-19 lockdowns, their results showed on Wednesday.
Wealth managers have seen their fortunes turn around drastically as stimulus cheques and vaccinations reassured investors about the economic outlook following the first few months of last year when clients pulled out money.
St. James's Place (SJP) expects gross inflows to grow 20% in the second half of 2021, the money manager said, after attracting 5.5 billion pounds ($7.64 billion) in net inflows in the first half.
Improving confidence and an increase in household savings rates have helped attract 9.2 billion pounds of gross inflows, SJP's chief executive Andrew Croft said in a statement.
Funds under management at SJP, which provides advice on investment and retirement planning, swelled to 143.8 billion pounds at end-June from 129.3 billion pounds in December.
Rathbone Brothers increased its interim dividend by 8% to 27 pence, following an 8.2% jump in total funds under management and administration to 59.2 billion pounds.
"Investment markets improved in the first half of 2021 as sentiment began to look beyond the pandemic," Rathbone Brothers Chief Executive Paul Stockton said in a separate statement.
Shares in St. James's Place (SJP) jumped 5.4% to the top of the FTSE 100, while hedge fund Man Group and Rathbone were up 2% and 1%, respectively, by 0809 GMT.
SJP reinstated its interim dividend and set an 11.55 pence a share payout.
Man Group raised its interim dividend by 14% to 5.6 cents per share and announced a $100 million share buyback plan as its funds under management rose to a record of $135.3 billion from $123.6 billion.
The company added that clients were interested in particular in alternative strategies, which typically aims to provide diversification.
($1 = 0.7197 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M and Chris Peters in Bengaluru; editing by John O'Donnell and Carolyn Cohn)
Universal access to high-speed internet will make home-based work more productive, study
Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Shoreline
(Reuters) - More people will work from home in the future - and if high-quality internet access is available to all Americans, that could lead to a sustained boost in worker productivity which could increase economic output by $160 billion a year.
That’s the main conclusion of a new study released Wednesday by the Aspen Economic Strategy Group.
Before the pandemic, about 5% of full workdays were done from home. That spiked during the pandemic as Americans hunkered down to avoid infection and, while it will decline, is expected to settle at about 20% of full workdays going forward, said Steven J. Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago who did the study with Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University and Jose Maria Barrero of the Instituto Tecnologico Autónomo de Mexico.
“If you suddenly shift a lot of people to a different location, it becomes more important that this new location is a productive one,” and the quality of internet access is key to increasing productivity, said Davis.
According to his calculations - based on an ongoing survey of workers and employers on work-from-home issues - providing high-quality internet access would raise earnings-weighted labor productivity by an estimated 1.1%. The calculations are adjusted for earnings because a disproportionately large share of workers who will work from home in the future are higher skilled, well-paid workers. As demonstrated during the pandemic, many lower-skilled jobs don't lend themselves to remote work.
The researchers also concluded that better home internet access could increase the propensity to work from home in the future. If that were to happen, it would “slightly” raise their estimate for the productivity gains, according to the paper. Better internet access would also help make the economy more resilient during future disasters that curbed travel and reduced interpersonal activities.
(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Manitoba RCMP have spent years investigating abuse allegations at residential school
WINNIPEG — A residential school in Manitoba known for harsh discipline and fatal runaway attempts has been the focus of a large-scale, years-long investigation into sexual abuse allegations.
Mounties said Tuesday that officers with the major crime unit began looking into the Fort Alexander Residential School, northeast of Winnipeg, in 2010 and a criminal investigation began the following year. The school was opened in 1905 in the community of Fort Alexander, which later became the Sagkeeng First Nation. It ran for 66 years until 1970.
Sagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson said he was a band councillor when the probe started. He was only informed of the investigation by RCMP last week, he said.
Henderson said he is waiting to see what legal steps may be taken before he speaks more about the allegations.
"We ask that the trauma our community has experienced and continues to live every day is respected and that those affected are afforded their privacy at this time," he said.
Arlen Dumas, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, reserved comment so as not to prejudice the investigation.
"We expect it to be a thorough investigation and, at the end, for those guilty of horrendous crimes against children to be brought to justice using the full extent of the law," Grand Chief Jerry Daniels with the Southern Chiefs Organization said in a statement.
RCMP provided few details on the allegations, but did say the investigation has involved reviewing archived records of the school, including student and employee lists. Officers have also interviewed more than 700 people across North America.
Mounties said they’ve collected 75 statements from witnesses and alleged victims and are waiting on advice from the province's Crown prosecutors regarding charges. None have been laid so far.
It's the only investigation into residential schools currently underway in Manitoba, they said.
"This is a very significant investigation by RCMP."
The Catholic Church operated the Fort Alexander school through the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Ken Thorson with the Oblates said the group has not been contacted by police about the investigation. He said it would fully co-operate if that were to change.
The Oblates operated 48 schools across the country, including the Marieval Indian Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan and the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Unmarked graves were located at both sites in recent months.
Sagkeeng First Nation recently began a search near the Fort Alexander school using ground-penetrating radar and drones to detect any evidence of graves.
There are 17 residential school grounds and 114 day school sites in Manitoba.
The Fort Alexander school had a reputation for abuse. Survivors told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about starvation and harsh discipline.
The commission's final report said Phil Fontaine, former grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and a past national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, put experiences at residential schools on the national agenda in 1990 when he disclosed his own sexual abuse at the Fort Alexander school.
"It took the revelation of the experiences of residential school survivors to crystallize the reality that Canada was not the nation we wished it to be," Fontaine wrote in the forward for a book about the schools.
In the commission's final report, survivor Victoria McIntosh said life at the school taught her not to trust anyone.
"You learn not to cry anymore. You just get harder. And, yeah, you learn to shut down."
Children from nearly two dozen First Nations attended the school for about 10 months of the year. McIntosh told the commission the school reminded her of a "prison yard" that trained children to put up their guard and respond with violence. Crying was a sign of being weak, she said.
In 1928, two boys drowned after they attempted to run away from the school using a boat. Muriel Morrisseau told the commission that she ran away from Fort Alexander almost every year she attended.
"I remember running away again trying to cross the river and it started freezing up. We all got scared. We had to come back again with a tail under our legs," she told the commission.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2021.
The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering with trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.
Kelly Geraldine Malone and Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press
African Nova Scotian flag flies over Macdonald Bridge to mark Emancipation Day
Two flags commemorating people of African descent will flutter in Halifax skies this weekend.
Both the African Nova Scotian flag and the Pan-African flag will be raised in lieu of Emancipation Day.
The date marks the end of slavery in Canada and other British colonies when the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect in 1834.
In March, members of Parliament unanimously voted to designate Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day in Canada. A month later Nova Scotia officially introduced legislation to annually recognize the day.
“This is something that we've been looking forward to, for a very long time, to be recognized so that everyone knows that slavery did happen here in Canada and when it was abolished,” said artist and educator Wendie L. Wilson, who designed the African Nova Scotian flag.
“People can take the opportunity to kind of do a little bit of research and find out what did slavery look like in Canada and how has it affected the people that have been here for generations.”
Halifax Harbour Bridges, which operates and maintains both the Macdonald and MacKay bridges, put up the African Nova Scotian flag on the Macdonald Bridge Tuesday morning.
Wilson watched the unfurling with pride. As she walked away after the flag was raised, she couldn’t help but look behind her every few steps and marvel at the sight.
“I know traditionally you would only see the Nova Scotian flag and the Canadian flag, so for the first time in history to have a cultural iconic flag hung from the bridge actually is thrilling.”
She designed the flag in 2012 after her daughter brought home a school project about Mi’kmaw, Acadian, and African Nova Scotian history. As she and her daughter embarked on research for the project, Wilson couldn’t find a documented flag that represented African Nova Scotians’ unique culture and heritage.
“I really do want it to be an opportunity for African Nova Scotian students in school to feel proud when they're doing research on their community.”
The colours on the flag each have significance. Red represents the sacrifice that African Nova Scotians endured, gold represents cultural richness, and green represents fertility, growth, and future generations.
The symbol at the centre is Wilson’s interpretation of the West African Adinkra symbol, the Sankofa.
“Sankofa simply means to reach back and get it.
To reach back to the past; to appreciate the past; to use all that information that has been accumulated through our ancestors and our elders, to grab that information and bring it to the present to help propel ourselves into the future.”
Wilson said she took the flag on the road to share it with different community groups and organizations across Nova Scotia.
The flag was finally unveiled almost a decade later in February 2021 in collaboration with the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia and the Africentric Learning Institute.
Another flag-raising ceremony is planned to mark the day. The Halifax Regional Municipality will raise the Pan-African flag at Grand Parade on Friday, July 30.
The Pan-African flag was created in 1920 to represent people of the African Diaspora and to symbolize black liberation. While the flag has been used by many Black people for decades, the city of Halifax first raised the flag in 2019 to kick off African Heritage Month.
“There are two flags now that people of African descent in Nova Scotia can fly. There's a Pan-African flag and the African Nova Scotian flag. And we're hoping that, you know, in some cases, there'll be flying flown in unison,” said Wilson.
She added that the African Nova Scotian flag was not meant to replace the Pan-African flag.
“I know that there's some people that have never seen this flag before. And I hope that if this is your first time that this is something that you might want to use to represent you, to represent your community, to represent your family.
This is an offering; this is something that we are hoping people will adopt. We want it to happen organically.”
As many people mark Emancipation Day this weekend for the first time, Wilson suggested they think about what freedom means.
“Does it just mean being able to move about at will wherever you want? Does it mean mental freedom? The freedom to gain agency over yourself and your community?”
Researching some of the important figures in Black history and sharing that knowledge is another way to mark the day.
“Mary Ann Shadd is someone you really need to look up,” she said smiling.
Anyone interested in purchasing an African Nova Scotian flag can contact ansflag@gmail.com
Proceeds will go towards the development of Africentric education initiatives in Nova Scotia.
Nebal Snan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle Herald
CANADA
Farmers say heat wave, drought show vulnerable agricultural sector needs support
When an unprecedented heat wave "cooked" the cherries growing at his family's farm in Oliver, B.C., Pravin Dhaliwal tried to see past the financial loss to the passion that spurred him to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather
Provided by The Canadian Press
"Seeing those trees go from seed to budding to leaves to fruit and actually eating that fruit is a rush, and that's why I'm in farming as well," he said.
But scorching temperatures that recently hit a record 41.5 C in the Okanagan region and even higher elsewhere in British Columbia had over 54,000 kilograms of cherries at the Dhaliwals' farm shrivel up on trees that "looked like they'd been set on fire."
Much of the apple crop was also ruined, with 40 per cent of it being sunburned.
"It's devastating," said Dhaliwal, 23, who decided to carry on with the 16-hectare family farm two years ago after finishing a business degree at the University of British Columbia.
Now, he's looking to the future by relying on the lessons he'd learned on the farm — focus on better seasons to come while trying to stay competitive with growers shipping their produce north from California and Mexico.
However, that optimism is being tested by the ravages of climate change for the Dhaliwals and farmers across Canada as they look to provincial and the federal governments for support.
Dhaliwal's family has filed an insurance claim with the B.C. government, but he said the returns won't be enough to even cover expenses so farmers need more support.
"I would consider this heat wave a disaster. It's not a few farmers that are affected by the heat wave, it's impacted everybody There's drought in Alberta, in Saskatchewan," he said.
British Columbia's Agriculture Ministry said growers can buy insurance to cover crop yield with a 20 per cent deductible as part of a joint program with the federal government for the loss of fruit and some plants damaged by weather.
Brent Preston, a founding member of Farmers for Climate Solutions, said the future of farming in Canada will require government support for growers trying to deal with big fluctuations in the climate.
"We're going to be in a lot of trouble if we don't try to insulate ourselves from these effects," Preston said from his farm near Creemore, Ont., about a 90-minute drive north of Toronto, where he primarily grows cut salads.
Farmers need funding to implement practices specific to various regions of the country to help them become more resilient to extreme weather, he said, adding the cost of not taking action will add up for governments and those frustrated in an increasingly challenging livelihood.
More farmers could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by growing cover crops when they're not producing those they sell in order to build organic matter in the soil and make it healthier so less fertilizer is needed, he said.
"When you have an extreme rainfall event, that moisture stays in the soil instead of running off and eroding the field. And when you have a drought that moisture is available to sustain the crops in your field."
The practice could have farmers risking money and time to figure out how to do it properly, sometimes without the help of a professional they can't afford, Preston said.
"The federal government has, in the last federal budget, included a fairly modest amount of money to subsidize farmers to plant cover crops. And that's a really, really good start," he said of his group's lobbying efforts. "But I think these kinds of weather crises we're seeing show that we're really going to need to scale that up."
Subsidies for growing cover crops could meet the cost of seed and equipment for about three to five seasons until the practice has been established and farmers start reaping the benefits, he said.
In Ontario, for example, there's a strong incentive for farmers to make the most amount of money by growing nothing but corn one year and soy the next, Preston said. But a short rotation of only two crops could result in increased use of nitrogen fertilizer, leading to higher greenhouse gas emissions because it can turn into nitrous oxide and contribute to climate change, he added.
Instead, farmers need government policies to help them switch to planting wheat after a year of corn and soy and then another crop later in the season over the winter, he said.
"We're not talking about huge disruptions in the agricultural system or the way people farm. It's tweaking systems and adding things so that they become more sustainable over the long term."
Importing water-intensive crops like fruits and vegetables from drought-ridden California is not a reliable option overall and encouraging consumers to buy local will only go so far, he said.
"In every sector in Canada, the government is playing a role in supporting the transition to the green economy. And that has to happen in agriculture, too. We're not asking for anything different than what we're seeing in transportation or manufacturing or anything else."
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said in a statement that is "working very closely with the province of British Columbia as well as other provinces impacted by extreme weather to monitor and respond to the evolving drought situation."
Hannah Wittman, a professor at the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at the University of British Columbia, said expected higher temperatures mean farmers will have to switch to crops that are less dependent on water, but that could be an expensive proposition.
Varieties of carrots that can tolerate drier, hotter conditions are now being studied at the university and would require farmers to simply plant different seeds, unlike perennial crops including berries, grapes or apples, which take four to five years to come to full production, Wittman said.
"It's not something that farmers can do lightly. They need to be pretty sure that if they're replanting they need to choose varieties that are appropriate for the upcoming climate, not the climate we used to have."
Many small-scale farming families diversifying and rotating their crops lack sustainable irrigation systems and the infrastructure to harvest and store their products or to market them, Wittman said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2021.
Camille Bains, The Canadian Press
REPARATIONS NOW
France owes French Polynesia 'a debt' over nuclear tests: Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Paris owed "a debt" to French Polynesia over nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific territory between 1966 and 1996, but stopped short of apologising.
"I accept responsibility and I want truth and transparency together with you," Macron said in a speech to Polynesian officials during his first official trip to the territory, adding that there should be better compensation for victims of the tests.
"The nation owes a debt to French Polynesia. This debt is from having conducted these tests, in particular those between 1966 and 1974. Nobody can claim that they were clean." Advertisement
The legacy of French testing in the territory remains a source of deep resentment and is seen as evidence of racist colonial attitudes that disregarded the lives of locals. The tests were conducted from 1966 to 1996 as France developed nuclear weapons.
Officials denied any cover-up of radiation exposure earlier this month after French investigative website Disclose reported in March that the impact from the fallout was far more extensive than authorities had acknowledged, citing declassified French military documents.
Macron echoed the sentiments in his remarks on Tuesday.
"I want to tell you clearly that the military who carried them out did not lie to you. They took the same risks... There were no lies, there were risks that weren't calculated, including by the military."
"I think it's true that we would not have done the same tests in La Creuse or in Brittany," he said, referring to regions inside mainland France.
"We did them here because it was further away, lost in middle of the Pacific," he said.
But Macron said he nonetheless "fully" stood behind France's post-war ambition to acquire nuclear arms, including for the defence of French Polynesia.
France conducted its first successful atomic bomb test in 1960, making it the world's fourth nuclear power after the US, the Soviet Union and Britain.
- Calls for apology -
Ahead of Macron's four-day visit, residents in the sprawling archipelago of more than 100 islands located midway between Mexico and Australia had been hoping that Macron would apologise and announce compensation for radiation victims.
Only 63 Polynesian civilians have been compensated for radiation exposure since the tests ended in 1996, Disclose said, estimating that more than 100,000 people may have been contaminated in total, with leukaemia, lymphoma and other cancers rife.
"We're expecting an apology from the president," Auguste Uebe-Carlson, head of the 193 Association of victims of nuclear tests, said ahead of Macron's visit.
"Just as he has recognised as a crime the colonisation that took place in Algeria, we also expect him to declare that it was criminal and that it is a form of colonisation linked to nuclear power here in the Pacific."
Meeting Macron on Tuesday on the island of Moorea, Lena Lenormand, the vice president of the association, renewed the call.
"There are urgent demands, people who are suffering. We're asking you to own what the state did to these Polynesian people, for an apology and real support," she told Macron.
"We can't help but think that you are at the end of your term, so words are one thing, but afterwards, what will be done concretely?" she told Macron.
In response, Macron said he was "committed to changing things" regarding compensation.
"I've heard you, and I've heard what you are asking of me, and you will see my response."
In his speech, Macron said that since his election in 2017, there has been progress in compensation claims, but he admitted that it was not enough and said the deadline for filing claims would be extended.
2021-05-19 · In 1985, French secret service agents planted two bombs and sank the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior. Docked in Auckland, New Zealand, Greenpeace was preparing for …
Trudeau in N.L. for child care announcement, Innu Nation calls foul on Muskrat Falls
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Labrador's Innu Nation is sounding the alarm ahead of a meeting today between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey
Trudeau will be in St. John's today to announce Newfoundland and Labrador as the fourth province to strike a deal with Ottawa for a $10-a-day child-care program, The Canadian Press has learned.
But government sources say Muskrat Falls rate mitigation will be at the top of the agenda when the prime minister and premier meet before the announcement.
Furey has said that when the troubled Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project comes online in November, the province will need another $600 million a year to pay bills that will come due.
Without help, he says, that cost could be borne by the province's ratepayers, who would see their electricity bills nearly double.
The Innu Nation said in a release Tuesday it has been left in the dark about any rate mitigation announcement today, despite being assured it would be kept in the loop and despite the impact on its people of past energy agreements, such as the 1969 Churchill Falls deal with Quebec. "This time, unlike 1969, our voices will be heard and our rights will be respected," the release said. "Our land is not a commodity to be sold to solve (Newfoundland and Labrador's) economic crisis."
The Churchill Falls project resulted in a massive flooding of traditional Innu territory, eliminating travel routes, hunting grounds and burial sites, the release said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2021.
3 Mexican ships taking fuel, medical aid and food to Cuba
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Mexican ships carrying food, fuel and medical supplies were sailing to Cuba on Tuesday and a third was getting ready to head there Wednesday, in what experts said was Mexico's biggest aid run for Cuba in almost three decades.
The first ship left late Monday loaded with 100,000 barrels of diesel fuel that the Mexican government said would be used to provide power for Cuban hospitals.
A second ship operated by the Mexican navy left Tuesday, and the third ship will leave Wednesday. The Foreign Relations Department said those two ships are carrying oxygen tanks, needles and syringes as well as basic food items like powdered milk, cooking oil and beans.
The department described the shipments as “humanitarian assistance” to help Cuba weather the coronavirus pandemic.
Rafael Elias Rojas, a Cuban historian and professor at the College of Mexico, said that “this is a new phenomenon,” comparable only to Cuba's “special period” in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union cut off the island's economic subsidies.
“There have been minor instances of aid during hurricane seasons, but the last big aid efforts of this scale or larger, were during the administration of (former Mexican president) Carlos Salinas de Gortari, when exchanges with Cuba increased significantly and when, as now, there was a deep economic crisis on the island," Rojas said.
Carlos Salinas de Gortari governed from 1988 to 1994. And until Mexico's democratic transition in 2000, Mexico's old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party had a longstanding policy of opposing U.S. interference in Cuba, in part because Mexico feared outside criticism of its own less-than-democratic regime.
Lorena Ruano, a professor at Mexico's Center for Economic Research and Teaching, said Mexico's policy was “to defend the sovereignty of other countries, so that 'others won't criticize me.'”
While much of Cuba seems stuck technologically in the middle of the last century, López Obrador did not appear to be speaking ironically when he proposed the world heritage designation, which is usually used by the United Nations to honor historical sites.
López Obrador praised Cuba’s ability to stand up to U.S. hostility since 1959, but did not mention recent street protests that were violently repressed by the Cuban government.
López Obrador has in the past stated his opposition to U.S. sanctions that limit commerce with the island, and said they should be ended.
On Thursday, the U.S. government tightened the sanctions on some Cuban officials over the suppression of the rare street protests earlier this month. The new sanctions target a Cuban official and a government special brigade that the United States says was involved in human rights abuses during the government crackdown.
Maria Verza, The Associated Press
'Extremely volatile': How COVID-19 threatens the global coffee industry
Kevon Rhiney drinks his coffee black, with just a hint of honey. He favours a medium-dark roast, especially from Jamaica’s Blue Mountains — coffee so legendary it has its own day on the Japanese calendar (Jan. 9, when the first large shipment left Kingston for Tokyo in 1967). Half a kilogram of beans from one of his favourite producers sells for more than $60 on eBay. But the author and assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Rutgers-New Brunswick, N.J., doesn’t need to pay a premium. When in Jamaica, he drives through the haze of the aptly named peaks to buy beans directly from the farm.
Like Rhiney, Canadians appreciate a good cup of coffee, though thousands of kilometres away from where it’s grown, most are removed from the realities of what goes into producing a bag of beans. At 6.5 kilograms per capita, Canadians are devoted coffee drinkers. In 2020, Canada rounded out the top 10 coffee-consuming countries , making it the only non-European nation to do so. But there’s a disconnect when it comes to our love for the beverage and an awareness of the challenges facing the people who produce it.
Coffee is under threat from climate change, deforestation and disease, the most devastating of which is coffee leaf rust. While there are 124 species of coffee, we drink only two: arabica, by far the world’s preferred brew, which is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust; and the hardier (and less desirable) robusta. Sixty per cent of wild coffee species are at risk of extinction, including endangered arabica .
As Rhiney and researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Hawaii at Hilo, CIRAD, Santa Clara University, Purdue University West Lafayette and University of Exeter conclude in a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , COVID-19 is likely to deliver yet another blow to an already precarious industry.
Drawing on recent studies of coffee leaf rust — a fungal disease that destroyed coffee production in Sri Lanka in the late 1800s, and now affects coffee-growing regions the world over — the researchers examined the root causes of past outbreaks. They found that a host of socioeconomic disruptions brought on by COVID-19 will likely result in new epidemics: including rising unemployment, travel and mobility restrictions, and stay-at-home orders.
In turn, they predict that these epidemics will probably cause a coffee production crisis, threatening the livelihoods of the roughly 100 million people who work in the global industry
Through his previous work on the impact of coffee leaf rust on Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, lead author Rhiney realized that though much of the scientific focus has been on developing rust-resistant coffee varieties and chemical controls, socioeconomic factors play an important role in major outbreaks.
The “big rust” of 2012-13, for example, which affected coffee-producing countries across Central America and the Caribbean, can be traced back to the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. The environmental conditions were ripe for coffee leaf rust, the researchers say, but the outbreak was also a function of the way people managed their farms.
“It took years to eventually manifest itself, but it was linked to changes in market prices,” says Rhiney. “Coffee became less viable in the years following the recession; many farmers pulled back from their investments on the farms. And by the time the prices started to get back up, farmers realized that their farms were literally infested with this coffee leaf rust disease.”
Weaker plants are more susceptible to coffee leaf rust, and the authors were concerned that COVID-19 would have a similar effect. Following the 2008 financial crisis, many of the boards established to ensure coffee farmers had access to vital equipment and information were either defunded or disbanded, explains Cathie Aime, a Purdue professor of mycology in the College of Agriculture and co-author of the study.
During her work with coffee farmers in Central and South America over the past decade, she’s seen firsthand the damage a lack of fungicides, spraying equipment and coffee leaf rust information can do.
“It’s a plant disease, yes. But a lot of the disease epidemic — the massive resurgence of disease we’ve seen — can be traced back to socioeconomic factors more than anything else,” says Aime. “It’s all a matter of getting resources and information to farmers. And when you don’t have the infrastructure, you have these catastrophic failures.”
The “big rust” had a knock-on effect throughout the coffee industry, adds Zack Guido, assistant research professor in the Arizona Institutes for Resilience and co-author of the study: “30 to 50 per cent of the plants were impacted; something like $500 million of export value was lost. And that rippled through the owners, to the labourers, to the exporters, to the coffee shops there and to our coffee shops.”
When Rhiney started his work on coffee leaf rust in 2015, three years had passed since the outbreak in Jamaica. Many producers had been forced to start growing other crops or leave farming altogether. Entire households were affected as quality of life changed and supports fell away, which came with its own set of psychological consequences.
“I don’t think many people realize how volatile the coffee industry is. It’s extremely volatile. And anytime there is a crisis, the people who feel the brunt of that are the smallholder farmers, the migrant and seasonal labourers who depend on coffee for a living,” says Rhiney. “And thinking about poverty reduction and all of these issues, even though coffee is considered a high-end product, it is extremely important in sustaining the livelihoods of millions of farmers and farmworkers across the Americas and throughout the world.”
It took several years for the 2008 financial crisis to have a visible effect on coffee production. Similarly, the researchers predict a one-year lag before the full effects of COVID-19 on the coffee industry are seen. When dealing with a fragile production chain such as coffee, says Guido, even when impacts aren’t immediately apparent, they can still be long-lived.
Guido has also worked with Jamaican coffee farmers over the past decade, and has seen the challenges they face bringing the product to market. Volatile prices, climate-related impacts and biological issues such as coffee leaf rust are constant concerns. For the most part, he explains, coffee is grown by smallholder farmers — primarily on parcels of land fewer than five hectares — in countries largely in development.
When we buy a cup of coffee, the vast majority of the profit goes to the end of the supply chain: roasters and retailers, not producers. Consequently, coffee farmers often don’t have the resources to deal with disruptions, such as those caused by economic crises and pandemics, and often operate at a loss.
“COVID is just another thing that is added on top of it, that exacerbates … all of the other issues that they continually deal with,” says Guido. “We can abstract this and think about, ‘Will the coffee cup be more expensive to us?’ But unless we’re thinking about how that coffee is produced and the different challenges that people experience within the context of COVID, I think we’re missing an opportunity to empathize. And really, we’re missing an opportunity to correct what I see as an imbalance.”
The authors draw a parallel between “essential but underrecognized parts of the production process, such as human health, food security and sustainability.” And they hope that a lasting side effect of the pandemic will be a widespread understanding that individual health is tied to collective health. In the case of COVID-19, that’s demonstrated in vaccinations and taking precautions to limit the spread; and in coffee, Guido adds, it means ensuring people earn enough income to continue to farm.
Breeding rust-resistant varieties shouldn’t be seen as a “silver bullet,” says Rhiney. An issue with strong socioeconomic drivers warrants cultural, economic and social solutions. As coffee drinkers, valuing the labour that goes into its production is key, he adds, as is recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the global coffee system.
“How can we harness the positive elements within that interconnected world that we live in to ensure this idea of one health,” says Rhiney. “Where you’re not just sitting in a coffee shop in Vancouver enjoying this delicious cup of coffee, being far removed from the social and economic realities of the people who produce it. How can we be more aware of the world we live in and the foods that we consume?”
Wildfire tears through forest near Athens, homes damaged
STAMATA, Greece (AP) — A wildfire north of Athens swept through a mountainous pine forest Tuesday, seriously damaging at least a dozen homes and burning cars before being contained by an intense firefighting deployment, officials said.
The blaze prompted authorities to evacuate homes around the Stamata area, 30 kilometers (18 miles) northeast of the capital, while the flames sent smoke over Athens limiting visibility in parts of the city.
Eight water-dropping planes and 12 helicopters were being used Tuesday to fight the blaze, joined by more than 300 firefighters on the ground.
“It was a difficult and dangerous fire,” Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said.
“Fire crews had to operate between inhabited areas and between homes ... The fire is currently receding, but is still burning at several different sites.”
A leased Russian Be-200ES firefighting plane was used in the effort Tuesday as well as two Greek army helicopters fitted with water-dropping buckets.
Residents in the area received cellphone alerts and were being urged to keep doors and windows closed to avoid exposure to smoke and prevent hazardous sparks from blowing inside homes.
Authorities said the cause of the fire wasn't immediately clear, adding that local reports of arson were being investigated. Four people were detained for questioning, Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said without providing further details.
Fires near cities are often blamed on arson to clear forest land for illegal development.
The fire department is currently on alert in several parts of Greece with a heat wave expected through Friday with temperatures expected to reach 43 C ( over 109 F) in central Greece.
Tuesday’s fire was contained following a lull in strong winds.
Deadly wildfires in greater Athens three years ago killed more than 100 people and left over 1,000 homes destroyed or seriously damaged.
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Derek Gatopoulos reported from Athens. Yorgos Karahalis in Stamata contributed to this report. ___
