Category Archives: Viva!

Survey Finds Shoppers Define “Local” as Being Within 100 miles

The third annual A.T. Kearney survey of U.S. shoppers’ local food-buying habits finds that local food has made the leap from a “hot” consumer trend to a central growth driver for grocery retailers and restaurants. Two years ago, when A.T. Kearney conducted its first study of local food-buying habits, merely offering local food was a differentiator for retailers. In 2015, participation in the local food category is table stakes and merchandising excellence in the category is critical for growth.

For this year’s study, A.T. Kearney surveyed more than 1,500 U.S. shoppers who indicate they are the primary shopper or share shopping responsibility in their households. The report summarizes the findings of the study and provides retailers with specific recommendations for growing their share of the local food market.

Randy Burt, A.T. Kearney partner and co-author of the study, noted, “The ‘locavore’ movement has taken root. Consumers—especially women and young people—have come to expect not only high-quality local meat, seafood, and produce, but also jams, ice cream, and bread. Forward-thinking retailers and restaurants with a distinctive definition of local and a focus on marketing and merchandising fresh, high-quality products at the right price will capture a long-term advantage in this growing market.”

Survey findings include:

  • “Local food” has been redefined. Almost all consumers have coalesced around a stricter definition of local: 96% now describe local food as products grown or produced within 100 miles from the point of sale—up from 58% in 2014.

  • Access to local food is no longer the primary roadblock to increasing local food sales; only 27% of consumers say products are not available. However, about half say they are not buying local because of a lack of clear advertising/in-store signage.

  • 93% of respondents associate local with “fresh,” which is the primary purchasing factor for grocery consumers.

  • Regardless of the category, 78% of consumers are willing to pay a premium of 10% or more for local food, up from 70% in 2014.

  • Demand for local food is expanding beyond produce, meat, and seafood. More consumers say local is also an important attribute for prepared foods and dry groceries. For canned and jarred products, local increased in importance from 5% in 2014 to 13% in 2015; for prepared foods, the jump was from 10% to 23%; for bread, the increase was from 9% to 18%.

The online survey was conducted in May 2015 and included 1,519 U.S. respondents. Sixty% of the respondents were women, and all were older than 18. Household, income, age, and urbanization characteristics were representative of the U.S. population as a whole. For a copy of the full report, “Firmly Rooted, the Local Food Market Expands,” visit www.atkearney.com.

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Blue Moon Sued Over Craft Beer Marketing

A California man plans to amend his lawsuit alleging that MillerCoors deceived consumers by marketing its Blue Moon beer as a craft brew.

Evan Parent, of San Diego, originally sued MillerCoors in April. He claimed that he purchased Blue Moon in 2011 and 2012 believing that he was sipping craft beer instead of a product owned by one of the largest brewers in the world.

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | I Want to Breathe

I want to be myself with my own body,

my own soul,

my own name,

with my own opinion,

an independent Afghan Muslim girl,

without others’ propaganda and lust.

I want to become one with the river

and sing the travel songs

to go where women are not second class,

where women can move ahead.

I want to really know the meadows  and give tulips to all women of my generation

because we all know how much

we have sacrificed.

Because of our bad customs

we sacrifice so much for crimes we do not commit.

We are punished.

We cannot even wear light colors.

We just wear black.

We hide ourselves from the derogatory looks of the profligate.

We had to leave our laughter with the past generations.

Laughter is a crime.

We have no peace even in our own homes.

We grieve for our lost happiness.

With all of these sacrifices, what more do you want from us?

We wanted to be with our own feelings and thoughts.

Participate in our community activities.

This is our legal right and

the right that Allah has given to us.

Our skirts are clean.

We are innocent of these community accusations.

Our hearts are so clear you can see our wishes and dreams.

What is our crime?

That we raised our voices?

They have accused us.

We are not guilty.

We are shamed and abused

because we stood our ground.

They injured our souls and feelings.

We just stood silent and crying.

We let our happiness go and we can no longer see it.

May the next generation of girls be independent.

May they be able to live their lives with feelings and ideas.

May they be able to live colorful lives with their own souls,

and may they tell the stories of our generation,

the story of the brave women of Afghanistan.

The story of our bravery.

The story of our sacrifice and honesty.

And may we be remembered.

By Friba

Source: Afghan Women’s Writing Project | I Want to Breathe

Meat Processor Recalling 167,427 Pounds of Ground Beef

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A meat company based in Nebraska is recalling 167,427 pounds of ground beef that might be tainted with E. coli bacteria.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Sunday that All American Meats Inc. is recalling the meat that was sold to retailers nationwide. No illnesses have been linked to the beef.

The recalled meat was produced on Oct. 16, and it was sold in either 60-pound or 80-pound packages.

All the meat that is being recalled had a sell-by date of Nov. 3 and establishment number 20420 in the USDA inspection stamp.

Nicaragua’s Interoceanic Canal, a Nightmare for Environmentalists

Hundreds of small farmers came to Managua from the Caribbean coastal region in southern Nicaragua on Oct. 27 to take part in the 55th protest against the construction of the interoceanic canal, which is set to displace thousands of rural families. Credit: Carlos Herrera/IPS

Hundreds of small farmers came to Managua from the Caribbean coastal region in southern Nicaragua on Oct. 27 to take part in the 55th protest against the construction of the interoceanic canal, which is set to displace thousands of rural families. Credit: Carlos Herrera/IPS

By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, Nov 3 2015 (IPS)

The international scientific community’s fears about the damage that will be caused by Nicaragua’s future interoceanic canal have been reinforced by the environmental impact assessment, which warns of serious environmental threats posed by the megaproject.

The report “Canal de Nicaragua: Executive Summary of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment” was carried out by the British consulting firm Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and commissioned by the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development (HKDN Group), the Chinese company that won the bid to build the canal.

The 113-page executive summary sums up the study, whose unabridged version has not been made publicly available by the government, ERM or HKND.

In the study, ERM says the megaproject could be of great benefit to the country as long as best international practices on the environmental, economic and social fronts are incorporated at the design, construction and operational stages, for which it makes a number of recommendations.

But it spells out specific risks and threats to the environment in this impoverished Central American country of 6.1 million people with a territory of 129,429 square kilometers.

The canal will go across the 8,624-sq-km Lake Cocibolca, also known as Lake Nicaragua – the second largest lake in Latin America after Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. The route will be nearly four times longer than its rival, the Panama Canal.

The 276-km canal will link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; of that length, 105 km will cross Lake Cocibolca.

Salvador Montenegro, former executive director of the Aquatic Resources Research Centre of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (CIRA/UNAN), stressed that the executive summary suggests additional studies on Lake Cocibolca, to fully assess the risks to the environment and to recommend actions to mitigate them.

“These are the same observations that I have been making, which were never taken into account,” Montenegro told IPS. “On the contrary, they accused me of being a traitor to the government and of being in the opposition, when the only thing I was doing was trying to preserve the health of Lake Cocibolca.”

The scientific researcher was dismissed from his post in the university allegedly due to pressure from the government of left-wing President Daniel Ortega, in office since 2007, who backs the canal project driven by the government investment promotion agency, Pro-Nicaragua, headed by his son Laureano Ortega.

Now Montenegro forms part of the Grupo Cocibolca, a group made up of scientists, academics, environmentalists and activists openly opposed to the future canal.

Ometepe Island within Lake Cocibolca in western Nicaragua. Scientists, environmentalists, political opponents, academics, social organisations and people whose lives will be affected have come together against construction of the interoceanic canal and in defence of the lake. Credit: Karin Paladino/IPS

Ometepe Island within Lake Cocibolca in western Nicaragua. Scientists, environmentalists, political opponents, academics, social organisations and people whose lives will be affected have come together against construction of the interoceanic canal and in defence of the lake. Credit: Karin Paladino/IPS

Mónica López, an activist who belongs to the group, summed up for IPS the main findings in the ERM study which she believes make it clear that the project would open the doors to an unprecedented environmental catastrophe for Latin America.

She said ERM concluded that neither HKND nor the government have the experience to carry out a project of this magnitude.

The report says “the government would be wise to consider engaging with international development agencies such as the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank,” to avoid damage in sensitive areas like the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, the San Juan River, Lake Cocibolca and surrounding nature reserves.

“The study says that in normal situations, these areas would generally be considered untouchable due to their social and ecological fragility,” López noted.

ERM says that if further studies are not conducted and “mitigation and offset measures” are not successfully implemented, “biodiversity impacts would be significantly worse than described.”

It recommended further studies to identify seismic risks posed by construction of the canal; gauge the impact of dredging in the lake; identify the threats from the introduction of saltwater into the lake; and assess the risk of a reduction of the outflow of water from the lake to the San Juan River.

It also concludes that without the implementation by HKND and the government of the environmental and social mitigation measures recommended in the report, not even Route 4 – the one that was selected and the only one considered viable – would have the positive net impact for the environment that could justify construction of the canal.

Based on the ERM executive summary and the considerations of local and international scientists and other experts, the Grupo Cocibolca sent a letter to the president on Oct. 26 asking for the repeal of the law that made the canal project possible.

Ortega has not responded. But HKND, through its officials outside of Nicaragua, announced further studies with a view to moving ahead on the project that will have a projected cost of 50 billion dollars – the largest megaproject that the world has seen in the last few years.

HKND’s chief project adviser, Bill Wild, told the local media that the company had made some “optimisations, with a higher cost to the project, to avoid and reduce environmental and social impacts and keep the risks to a minimum.”

According to Wild, the studies that began to be carried out in 2013 will continue until 2016 and will be complemented by additional topographic and hydrological research, to be conducted by the Australian consultancy CSA Global.

Map of southern Nicaragua with the six projected canal routes. The fourth, in green, was the one that was selected. Credit: ERM

Map of southern Nicaragua with the six projected canal routes. The fourth, in green, was the one that was selected. Credit: ERM

The executive vice president of HKND Group, Kwok Wai Pang, told the local newspaper El Nuevo Diario that now that the ERM study has been presented, “more in-depth studies will be carried out along the route.

“During the feasibility study we conducted topographical, seismic, hydrological and archaeological research and we collected a large volume of seismic information and data on water levels, salinity intrusion and other questions, to draft a conceptual design.”

Telémaco Talavera, spokesman for the president’s Great Interoceanic Canal of Nicaragua Commission, downplayed the concerns expressed by ERM and environmentalists.

Speaking with IPS and three other journalists, he expressed confidence in HKND’s capacity “to work out, with great wisdom, any inconvenience that may emerge, and which are normal in projects of such magnitude.”

Not just environmental problems

But despite the government’s and HKDN’s upbeat attitude about the project, it is overshadowed by factors other than environmental issues.

On one hand, specialised media outlets reported in September that because of China’s current financial crisis, HKND magnate Wang Jing had lost as much as 84 percent of his fortune, previously estimated at more than 10 billion dollars, which has shrunk to some 1.2 billion dollars.

On the other hand, growing resistance by peasant farmers along the projected canal route has hurt the international business climate for the company, according to López, the activist.

So far, 55 demonstrations against the project have been held in Nicaragua. The latest, held Oct. 27 in Managua by rural residents from different parts of the country along with other protesters, made the international headlines because of the violent clashes between the demonstrators and supporters of the megaproject.

In its executive summary, ERM says the social opposition affects the project’s viability.

“The land expropriation and involuntary resettlement process to date has not met international standards,” the ERM report states. “The Project risks losing its social license to operate and may jeopardize the viability of the Project by not following international standards.”

So far, the government has given HKND permission to expropriate 2,909 square kilometres of land along the projected route.

The canal law was approved in 2013. But small-scale work on the project along the Pacific Ocean did not officially get underway until December 2014.

HKDN projected that the work would take five years, and the canal would be operating in 2019. But ERM predicts that it will not meet that deadline.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes