A WHO staff member's parting salvo to the international health agency and its neoliberal approach to health Sam Burcher

Social scientist, Alison Katz has left the World Health Organisation (WHO) after 17 years of devoted service, condemning its “Let us live and let them die” attitude, which sums up the neglect of millions of people over the past three decades, suffering and dying from diseases of poverty, including notably HIV/AIDS [1]. She is the second AIDS researcher to leave within the past 12 months (see On Quitting HIV [2]).

“For over twenty years now, the international AIDS community has persisted in a reductionist obsession with individual behaviour and an implicit acceptance of a deeply flawed and essentially racist theory.” Katz writes. She believes that the narrow and totalitarian approach to AIDS by the WHO not only has had negligible effect, but also has betrayed public health principles and perversely forbidden exploration of any alternative perspectives. Like many others, Katz questions the exclusion of a plethora of co-factors known to increase biological susceptibility to infection by all disease agents, including HIV, among which are under-nutrition, poverty, powerlessness, and the basic necessities for a healthy and dignified life.

She believes that the WHO has fallen victim to neoliberal globalisation, and by default, to the economic interests of powerful nations and the transnational corporations. In an open letter dated January 2007 [3] addressed to Dr. Margaret Chan, the incoming Director-General of WHO, Katz set out seven key points to steer her focus back to serving the public, including the critical importance of addressing the commercialisation of science, and the close relationship between industry and academia as highlighted in ISIS' Discussion Paper Towards a Convention on Knowledge [4].

Read more: “Let Us Live and Let Them Die”

5th August 2019

New developments in GM can sometimes seem very remote to those of us living in the UK, In part that is because we have been protected by strict EU laws about the cultivation and sale of genetically modified crops and foods.

Over the past twenty years or so commercial GM crops like the golden rice in Africa which was supposed to improve eyesight, but didn’t work, or rainbow papayas in Hawaii that contaminated 50% of non-GM papaya or flavr-savr tomatoes designed to not over-ripen but rejected by consumers worldwide, seemed too far away to be worrisome.

But this year, field trials of GM crops including potato, broccoli, brassicas and a false flax plant engineered to produce Omega-3 fish oil in its seeds have just moved much closer to home.

A fresh round of GM field trials, taking place until 2023, has recently gained approval from DEFRA - a signal that, post-Brexit, the UK is gearing up, once again to become a GMO nation.

Fish Oil in Flax

Rothamsted Research is growing Camelina sativa, a  member of the brassica family commonly known as false flax, in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. The plant, which is similar in appearance to its cousin, the yellow-flowered oilseed rape, will be subjected to a “pick and mix” approach to re-engineering with over 100 different elements that could be inserted in to the trial crops in multiple different combinations.

The oil pressed form the seeds is intended as feed for farmed salmon.

Fish farming is big business, netting some £600 million a year in exports for Scotland’s fishing industry alone. But salmon are top predators and their natural diet is smaller fish which are rich in a particular type of omega-3 oil known as DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid. Fish farms consume roughly 80% of all fish oil harvested from the oceans as fish, well beyond sustainable limits.

Read more: GMOs in The UK - Where Are We Now?

July 1st 2019

Lisbon is a city of lines: amarela, azul, verde, vermelho: red, blue, green, yellow. The simplicity of the network of fifty-five cool tiled stations is a weary travellers dream. I come down into my body and out of my head and feel safe from the prying eyes of a Metro line predator.

On the bus leaving the city the temperature reads 35 degrees centigrade, and thankfully dropping. The hills are yellow and the people are yellow and hot. The Torres das Amoreiras or Amoreiras Towers line up standing to attention.The architect of these yellow fortresses of post-modernity is a standing joke since sex tapes showing him roughly buggering a succession of young girls in his Lisbon office were released on the internet.

The universe has provided me with a yellow hat with the label cut out so I don’t have to worry about whose make it is. It’s just what I need in this heat and I’m grateful it was left in the ladies lavatory at Luton Airport. Sweet serendipity, because I’d resisted buying a sun hat in Departures, obeying the call to my boarding gate instead. On board EasyJet flight attendants confide they pay £11 for a holiday flight, a price probably closer the true cost of fuel per person.

Renewables Revolution

An Atlantic wind is blowing through the hills and whistles noisily inside the bus's air conditioning system. Outside the tinted windows Nordex wind turbines are busily spinning megawatts of energy for a yellow city. Amongst the verdant native forests patches of drooping genetically modified eucalyptus and pine stand out like dry, sore thumbs dwarfed by plantations of steel windmills producing nearly a quarter of Portugal’s electricity.

A revolutionary wind blows through Portugal. The Carnation Revolution in 1974 heralded the change from an authoritarian state to a democracy with barely a shot fired. It was thanks to the people who, despite being told to stay indoors, mingled peacefully with the insurgent army putting flowers in their rifles and defusing hostilities. The spirit of freedom and self-empowerment lives on. No longer dependent on natural gas, 63% of the country’s total energy is provided by renewables; a carbon saving combination of on-shore and off-shore wind, wave and solar.

Read more: Olliopolis - Lisbon - And Beyond

Monday 3rd June 2019

Extinction Rebellion has collaborated with folk singer Sam Lee and The Nest Collective to perform a musical rebellion in Berkeley Square. The song of a nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) live-streamed throughout the Square to a large crowd highlighting the plight of a bird not heard in Central London for around three centuries and nearing extinction in the UK. The RSPB’s single featuring the song of critically endangered birds was also played. The assembly joined Sam in his re-worded rendition of the original song written in 1939 about the nightingale in it’s notional home.

Cosmo Sheldrake, the musician son of biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake and Buddhist overtone chanteuse Jill Purce created a poignant soundscape by naming insects, amphibians, mammals and birds that have disappeared in what the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal has described as “biological annihilation via the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction.” Cosmo named the Atlas Bear, the Tasmanian Tiger and the Passenger Pigeon amongst many others, all now extinct.

A circle of candles representing the distinctive Extinction Rebellion logo lit up the glorious Square, where London Planes have stood for 300 years. Participants were invited to take the flames to other places and other protests. Satish Kumar, veteran editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine told the gathering that we can only save the Earth by taking personal responsibility. “What we do to Nature, we do to ourselves,” he said, praising the efforts of David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, and reminding us of Rachel Carson’s early warning about the effects of pesticides in her 1962 book Silent Spring.

Read more: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

“Nothing is being done to stop the environmental and ecological crises that have been ignored for decades by the politicians and the people in power. We will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer. Humanity is standing at a crossroads, we have chosen our path and we are waiting for others to follow. We will never stop fighting for the future of our children and grandchildren. “ 

Read more: Extinction Rebellion - Rebel for Life

A documentary film about people-powered change to be worked with, not consumed.

Down to Earth is the story of one family’s call to freedom after questioning the home, school, work system. As they quit the rat race we follow them on a five year journey in search of the wisdom of sages and shaman, or Earth Keepers, hidden in remote tribal communities of Australia, the Amazon, Africa, the Andes, India and Ireland.

Gaining access to tribes never filmed before in the outback, desert and jungle with just a backpack and camera each was no mean feat. Despite the different locations, the family kept making the same connections, having the same conversations, just with different faces. And the Earth Keepers sharing their insights and wisdom for the first time with outsiders acknowledge that now is “the time for change.”

We are family

The film grew from director Rolf Winter’s dream of finding a retreat in nature for his wife and three young children, then aged 6, 7 and 10 (see his TED talk below) After spending a year in Hiawatha Forest, Michigan they encounter Nowaten, a medicine man living there in isolation. He reluctantly agrees to being filmed, becoming the film’s main contributor.

Nowatan (He who listens) believes there is no purpose in living if you lose the land and forests. We depend on forests for our spiritual connection and wellbeing. People are lost because they have lost connection with nature, and we are all members of nature, he says. “Life is simple, we complicate it, take only what you need.”

But, as Rolf says, we can’t all go back to the forest. So the film asks how do we lead a connected life in a fast-paced world? Real change is only going to happen with a changed mindset of you and me. The diverse problems facing humanity can no longer be delegated to our politicians and scientists, who ultimately are a reflection of us, the people. The time has come to transform our lives and create a new story, our own story. How exciting!

Read more: Down to Earth

The Lush Summit 14th-15th February 2018

Lush is a global soap franchise with 105 stores in the UK, its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street. Known for using primarily ethically sourced ingredients in bath bombs, bubble bars, floating islands oils and the like, Lush's charity arm holds an annual summit for some of its international staff members from 900 stores in 49 countries to learn more about key environmental and social issues.

This year Chris Packham, zoologist, BBC personality and birder, was Lush’s on-the-spot reporter covering the two day event. He tirelessly patrolled the cavernous building on the former site of Billingsgate fish market talking to campaigners working to conserve the oceans, whales and other marine, animal, plant and bird life. I was part of this unique atmosphere with Pat Thomas, director of Beyond GM and GM Free Me, who gave Chris an informative interview for broadcast on the Lush Summit livestream. Pat also chaired a roundtable discussion finding that young people are concerned about GM food and trade agreements with the US since UK’s impending Brexit from Europe.

Lush does not test on animals and in 2015 co-ordinated a march on Downing Street to protest animal rights with Common Decency, The League Against Cruel Sports and Animal Aid. Sourcing most of their ingredients from fruits and vegetables, Lush no longer puts palm oil into its products and invests in small scale producers growing and processing essential oils and other materials in Guatemala, Pakistan, Kenya and the Lebanon. The Summit also showcased responsibly managed cork, cotton and paper. Founded by a small team in Poole, Dorset originally supplying fragrances to The Body Shop, one of the world’s first ethical high street cosmetics businesses. 

Doing its bit for charity, Lush launched Charity Pot hand and body lotion, donating 100% of the sale price to grassroots organisations working for environmental conservation, animal welfare and human rights. Since 2007 Charity Pot has given $10 million to 850 charities in 42 countries, and donated a further £3.8 million to charity in 2014. Lush is an avid supporter of peaceful direct action, anti-roads, anti-incinerator campaigns, Syrian refugees and a One World freedom group in Palestine. Lush has also launched a ‘Gay is Ok Soap’ and is active in protecting Hen Harriers from illegal persecution, providing funds to satellite tag these Scottish upland birds. 

Chris Packham flagged up his concerns about the effects of palm oil production on communities in Indonesia illustrated by his own stunning photographs. He then enlightened his captive audience about a teenagers fraught battle to save the Honey Buzzard in Sicily. Lastly, he promoted his own passion project to protect the Golden Eagle, showing his short film called Fred the Golden Eagle. Fred was hatched in the only breeding nest on the Scottish border, his movements tracked by tag in the woodlands around Edinburgh. But in February 2018 Fred's signal mysteriously disappeared. More than forty Golden Eagles have vanished under suspicious circumstances in recent years in the region. Merlins and Ravens have also been persecuted in areas close to driven grouse moors. A review of grouse moor management has been ordered by Scotland’s Environment Secretary and Chris repeated his vow to protect the Golden Eagle, of which there are only 440 pairs in the UK. 

For further information on Chris Packham https://www.chrispackham.co.uk/news/golden-eagle-fred

More information on Lush Summit https://summit.lush.com/en Photo: Chris Packham with Sam Burcher

1st December 2017

As Europe renews glyphosate’s licence for another five years, a timely documentary on the International Monsanto Tribunal shows the devastating health impacts of Roundup taking us to the brink of a public health crisis. Sam Burcher 

Le Roundup face à ses juges (2017) [1] is Marie-Monique Robin’s second documentary film exposing the activities of agri-giant Monsanto. Her earlier film, The World According to Monsanto (2008) [2] dealt with the hold the multi-billion dollar corporation has over the global food system. This one documents the Tribunal Against Monsanto at the Hague in 2016, which followed the format of proceedings of the International Courts of Justice. Five eminent judges heard compelling evidence of damage to human, animal and environmental health by Roundup, the company’s best-selling herbicide from witnesses, experts and lawyers [3]. Monsanto declined to attend. 

Roundup contains 41% glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine), together with adjuvants, chemicals that are added to enhance its effect. Monsanto patented glyphosate first in 1974 as a broad spectrum weedkiller [4] to be sprayed from a bottle, backpack or tractor, or from low flying aircraft. Glyphosate was patented again in 2010 as a general human antimicrobial/antibiotic. [5]. In 2016 it was classified as “probably a human carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is the part of the World Health Organisation (WHO) whose task is to conduct and coordinate research into the causes of cancer. Over half a century, the IARC has assessed nearly a thousand substances.

The film takes us to the Hague, to the towns, villages and homes in France, Argentina and Sri Lanka, to see the effects of exposure to glyphosate ranging from rashes, skin lesions, mouth ulcers and swollen joints. We hear of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, miscarriage, kidney and liver disease, and death in shocking testimonies given by victims of glyphosate.  

Impact of glyphosate on children

The film opens with testimonies of adverse health effects in children. Sabine Grataloup is a mother who used glyphosate over a 700m2  paddock around her home in France during the early stages of her pregnancy [7]. Since her son Theo was born nine years ago he has undergone fifty operations, including a tracheotomy, to help him breathe, and a gastrectomy tube to feed his stomach. Now he can do without the feeding tube, but will depend on the tracheotomy and an oesophageal voice box until he is eighteen and fully grown.

Maria Liz Robledo lives in Baigorrita, an agricultural province of Buenos Aires. Her daughter Martina was born with an abnormal breathing condition: oesophageal atresia with a tracheoesophageal fistula, as a result of glyphosate being routinely sprayed in neighbouring gardens and fields, “which for us is normal,” she says. Canisters of glyphosate are piled high in a barn next to her house. Another child in the locale was born with the same condition as her daughter, and neither mother carry the gene that would cause that malformation. She wants to see changes in the law regarding spraying public places that is making people sick [8].

Read more: Roundup Facing its Judges