UC31 december 1978 - January 1979 by Christopher Squire

Undercurrents December 1978 - January 1979 Contents

1 Eddies - An eco-perspective 7 What’s What and What’s When 9 Factory Farming - Lizzie Vann: An examination of the cruelty to livestock in the name of efficiency. 11 Make It Orange - Norah Sea: About the 5 Ibs of food additives we consume per year. 12 Consumed With Desire - Eric Pidgeon: A personal view of food. 13 Whole foods Here .... - Lizzie Vann: The growth of the wholefood co - ops in Britain. 15 ..... and There - Ellen Buckingham: How the food co - ops are more developed in the USA. 16 Commodity Campaigns - John Clark: Are single issue commodity campaigns good propaganda? 19 How Brussels Made the Mountains - Jeremy Jones: Common Agricultural Policy in One Lesson. 22 Operation Flood - Steve Godfrey: Who will benefit from the world’s biggest development project? 23 Spud Threat - Tim Lang: The political economy of the potato. 26 The Further Adventures of Alice - Jo Nesbitt An everyday story of commune folk. 27 Feminism and the Politics of FoodCarol Smith: Our health is an integral part of our autonomy. 29 Grain Games - John Clark: Or why a bad harvest in the Ukraine means starvation in Ethiopia. 32 Organic Farming - Mark Brinkley: A look at the organic farming movement. 36 Letters . . 38 Reviews . . . 46 Small Ads 48 Subscription Form and Book Service: Antinuclear Big Red Diary Special Offer

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The Food Politics Group write: A YEAR AGO a group of people working in various aspects of food and publishing met, and decided there was a need for a radical publication specifically about food and its production. We felt that food was a long ignored subject, and that too little has been written about its consumption (what was all this junk food doing to us? where had it all come from?), and its production (what was happening to agriculture in Britain and the EEC? what are conditions like for the food processors and growers? From the first meeting came a small group, living in widely separate areas of the country, hoping to produce a magazine. After many meetings it became clear that the group didn’t have the experience, money or commitment. So we searched for an appropriate outlet for our material. We decided to try to produce an issue of Undercurrents specifically about food and food politics, in order to gain the experience needed of working on a magazine, and also to see what people’s response to our ideas was. We are unsure about the direction to take now, as there still aren’t enough committed people to produce a magazine regularly. But we feel a lot clearer about the areas to work in. All of us who have put this issue together have been working with food in one way or another, either in research, farming, or retailing in collectively run wholefood shops. Food is a subject that concerns everyone and we cannot hope to cover in one issue all the different aspects of nutrition and politics. We are aware that the ease with which we relate to food at the eating end can cause us to overlook the politics of its production, the struggles of farm workers, the problems of land ownership, the exploitation in every step from farm to factory to supermarket. What has emerged as the articles have come together is the lack of general knowledge about food; the lack of real choice of and access to food; and the many problems facing the alternative food movement. The linking factor in all this has been the realisation that we can’t want better food and ignore the working conditions of the people who produce it; we can’t set up an alternative system for them as can afford it, and ignore everyone else; and so on. To change any of these things, we have to change the whole economic structure of society.

____________________________________________________________________________________________ Published every two months by Undercurrents Ltd, 27 Clerkenwell Close, London ECIR OAT. Full details of editorial meetings, distribution, etc are on page 48. Undercurrents 32 (February March) will be our Seventh Birthday Issue. On Sale Date: Saturday January 20th, 1979.

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S WE go to press, the pro aerate trial-in which Joh i*r

4own Duncan Ca

are being dona for is once again lookino

bldb*cnutMdundfa weight SJction 1 md 2 chiron for [wiuJqmd giving information, ding andabettingothir paoph t o u n the <am<tding.and storing up FÂ¥utr@8sb librerim of aacrni Hut Motcow would low to get iti w o n . a Snqe then, the collecting of information charge has been abandoned, not least because it ymodout that Duncan's libtary wascompilddfrom o m sources maddidn't W e anything much in thatany competent rionsldefenceJournalist ex#acted â‚ had. And examination of stich 'tOQttttiiJs a$ the good Colonel .(whothoyht that matters like the

I costs

UK-USA joint spying treaty wore terrific secrets until news cuttings &Ithfem were ~ o i n t e d out to him! have led to the~ection1 'spying' charges being dropped. I n addition, the trial has had to bÃ stopped and resorted with a new Jury after it was revealed on TV that the foreman of the jury 6 s an ex-Special Air Service spook, who was pressing for a quick andcdmplete conviction without wasting any more time listeningt o 'evidence'. The suspicion of jury-fixing which this 'coincidence" raises if likely t o recur in future political trials. + Despite the discomfiture of W e d m h ~ ~ i i c o f t h e Ã § o ) ) b * s ' , - , 'the prosecution, some of the charges may be made t o stick. end J ^ ~ h ~ ~ ] G ~ N T , not long after this issue of the CON6NT and dated aclMlles TheyDayustofindlhebest magazine appears. What the Prosecution w i l l h t likely do n o w .Domestic or Internanonat YouSneverkrfawÃ‘unlessyouas is go for a sudden death convi&oo StaffingConsuhants/RecnJifment of all three defendants on a -

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'THE COST of the 'human error' that led to corrosive wa wfer W n t o thwU* of Na 4 reactor con I Huntanton B nUClMI power mti-on continue!to

climb and hm now topped Â£3 m. Thh h more than twice tha original mimate. The House Of Commons Scottish Grand Committee was told by Scottish Minister of State Gregorklackenzie that the actual repair costs were up to Â£ m and that the cost of providing electricity from other aources would come to Â£2 rn. The Â£ m re ir cost double previous e s t i m g - a r i s i from the discovery by SSEB engineers that there haq been extensive corrosion of thermal insulating materiel, which will have to be replaced. The reactor is expected to be out of commission until the middle of

water is used. A bo*nl of enquiry subsequently discovered thit'thi. had happenedvia Ã§ incomplefly closed valve at a time when the reactor vms deprenurimd for maintenance. It was establishedttu the contaminated water contimud flow into the reactor base f y tw9 days before being detected. Perhaps the most important point to arise from thÃ§enquir is that the ma voter tad bmn connected t o the demineraliied water system fey a temporary cross-connection installedto by-pass a faulty Ã‘all The deiion concept for the cooling 8yttÃ§ dictates that the two shouldha quite separate. This modification procedure, end the unauthorisedconnection had been in place for six month* without anybody on the site questioning its prxenc*. The %

undercurrents 3'

Poland St cull to go ahead

Contrary t o the impression given b y a recent, discreetly-worded announcement f r o m Friends of teh Earth's London headquarters, chubby T o m Burke is n o t resigning f r o m his job as FoE's Executive Director voluntarily-he is being gehtly b u t f i r m l y eased o u t b y FoE's controlling board. I n Mid-October, an FOE press release (clearly written b y Burke himself) announced blandly that Burke "wished t o devote more time t o writing, international affairs and the development of the environment movement i n genera!", and that he would "leave his present post whenever a suitable successor can be found." It quoted the weary Burke la frequent traveller t o Brussels, where he is a member o f the European Environment Bureau and other International Environmental organisations) as saying that "Four years i n the maelstrom is long enough." I n fact, disquiet over Burke's increasingly dictatorial attitude to the running of FOE has been building up, particularly among FOE'S London staff, over the last couple of years. Of course, Friends of the Earth Ltd, the company which coni-rols FOE'S London headquarters, has never exactly been a haven of worker democracy: there has never even been a staff representative o n the FOE Board o f Directors. But when Burke too? over as executive director in May 1975, his style of management-described b y one FOE worker as "increasingly megalomaniac"exacerbated existing feelings that the London FOE office should be organised o n a democratic basis. U n t i l this year, however, Burke has repeatedly succeeded in defeating moves b y the staff to gain a bigger say i n the runnirsj of the organisation. Indeed, when markers at Earth Resources Research (ERR), an Off-shoot of FOE, Succeeded i n getting staff representatives appointed t o the ERR Board, Burke made veiled threats that he would resign f r o m the main FOE Board i f staff at FOE 1

H AEG buys out of nukes T H E WEST G E R M A N electrical power firm, AEG-Tetefunken, has had t o pay D M 1,215m (Â£30m ) t o extricate itself from the contracts f o r six boilinu water reactors it entered i n t o while it was still part o f nuclear power construction company Kraftwerke Union. AEG formed K W U jointly w i t h Siemens i n 1969 b u t six years later, faced w i t h heavy losses and growing opposition t o nuclear power, started negotiations t o get o u t of the deal.

were given a similar concessi,.~n. But the FOE Board has o f late begun t o take more seriously staff complaints about Burke's high-handedness-and more general complaints b y local FOE groups that they have too little say i n FOE policy-making. The Board also had misgivings about a recent "forward plan" submitted t o i t b y Burke. So, i n the early summer, i t decided that Burke would be asked t o resign. T o ease the blow, he was given nine months, until March 1979, t o findanother

lob. I n its manner o f appointing Burke's successor, the FOE Board seems t o have learned a t least a few lessons in participation. "Applications for the vacancy" i t says, "will be sought b y way of public discussion w i t h the staff of FOE and the organisation's 200

local groups." Meanwhile, what n o w for T o m Burke? A tasty sinecure with the EEC or UNEP, perhaps? Rumours that he has been shortlisted for the Â£0,000 a year j o b o f Director o f the Rowntree Trust have been denied b y their Y o r k office, though one can see t h e attraction of appointing such an experienced poacher o f cnaritable moneys as gamekeeper o f the chocolate preserves. It seems more likely that he w i l l develop his natural talents as an orator and publicist; indeed we hear that he will be addressing the faithful o f the Church of Scientology at a symposium o n the'waste end Inefficiency of Natural Resources' [sic1 at the Porchester Half, Queensway, London W2 o n Monday November 27th at 10.30 am. Admission is Â£ so don't all rush.

Midwife on A C A L I F O R N I A N lay midwife, Marianne Doshi, is being charged wit'^ t! ::murder of a baby she delivered a t home. Under Californian law it is a misdemeanour t o practice medicine without a licence, and i n 1976 the state Supreme Court ruled that practising midwifery without a licence was the same as practising medicine without one. I f a death occurs during the course of a misdemeanour, the charge is automatically murder. The parents, Christine and Robert Gannage, had n o wish t o prosecute Doshi, who, they said, d i d everything physically possible t o resuscitate the child. The state authorities, however, seem determined t o stamp o u t the increasingly popular-and illegalpractice of unlicenced midwifery, (which means, in effect, home

delivery) and have seized o n this tragedy as a way o f doing it. Robert Gannaw said of the County Sheriff's office, "They had an axe t o grind, and it was obvious. Their attitude was'Ah ha, we've been waiting f o r a case like this.' " "This is gonna be a shot heard around the world," said the detective investigating the case. Marianne Doshi's statement says "My arrest-was n o t solely aimed at me, b u t is an attempt t o intimidate parents w h o might choose t o deliver their children at home." Help is needed if a woman's right t o have her baby at home has t o be legally established. Contributions should be sent t o the Marianne Doshi Defense Fund, P.O.Box 522, San Luis Obispo. California 93406.

Siemens bought complete control o f KWU's operations i n 1976, b u t this d i d n o t include completion of the six BWRs that A E G had contracted t o b u i l d during 1970-1972. Worried about the risks attached t o these contracts, which had been delayed b y technical and political problems, the A E G board decided that i t wa better t o spend the money and ge back t o making washing machines and refrigerators. A p i t y more firms don't feel the same.

Comfrey exploded THE HENRY DOUBLEDAY Research Association, w h o have long promoted the use o f Comfrei f o r its health-giving properties, are n o w strongly recommending that its use internally should cease. According t o the HDRA, comfrey, along w i t h ragwort, crotallaria, Borage, Echium and heliotrope contain alkaloids whict can cause liver damage leading t o liver cancer. Wheat contaminat! b y w i l d heliotrope seeds recently caused illness in 22% o f the peopli i n a district i n Afghanistan. The H D R A stresses that there is n o evidence so far that comfrey has caused any harm, b u t that as a precautionary measure i t should n o t be consumed. Their comfrey is o n the other hand regarded t o be completely safe since the alkaloid is n o t absorbed through the skin. It is similarly safe t o use comfrey foliage for compost and mulching. A leading researcher i n these alkaloids f r o m Australia, D r C Culvenor, is beginning long term studies o n comfrey, b u t has said that they may take t w o or three years t o complete. Meanwhile the H D R A d o w n under are flooding h i m w i t h their experiences o f feeding livestock w i t h it and its use for medical purposes. Questionnaires to people w h o have regularly eaten comfrey are being circulated. I t appears that those most at risk are vegans who have been trying t o get all their Vitamin B12 quota f r o m the plani Although the Associaion have stated that n o human or animal should eat or drink comfrey i n any form, many o f its members, convinced o f the plant's benefits, are continuing t o use i t

Undercurren , .. , <+.

6 THE GREAT and good

REAL BREADIS NOW +?@; Â¥s>-. muchthÃi n thing. Such

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Prizewm the LUCK ' cxpac* Combim Shop Sfwards ittea Their pl<n f a twntivM to urn production on* Of the argunxnti mad thÃ§hiwks,andr&cmgth of w u p o m w Ã § N u n f p*K&

THE VALUES PARTY is fielding a full Jute ofcandidate! in Now Zedand's Nommlttr elactions Their share of the vote rose from 1.8% i n 1972 (when they contestad less then half of the 87 seats) to 5.2% i n 1975. In a recent

than just the bread of w u All the different makes o mills were on test and th visitors were able t o them out for thems

ihows. like the wa ones. However, t fair number of co includin$-~ordans, whose products are now widely available in supermarkets, an

;9 "Tha future of our country lies i n Thp Hfetpconscious eyelid inBoiton illustratas the &nth of January Â N d o n a i Frbnt gevtrnment plus ,in the CYCLING/RECYCLING calmdir, produced by the ~ r e h r , the nuclur doattitication of PhiladelphiaBicycleCoalition, PO Bbx 8194, Philadelphia, Pa 19101, USA. ' OrÃ‘ Britain." As writ ax 12 cycling illustrations, the calendar contains a complete " " .:Â¥'Wbmus view with the d i m ~ o r yof Un 80 orgnniutions forming tha Bicycle network in 19 icjon Â ¥ ItÃ~c&&M. O ~ W -mnmi~onmd * * &ndmr come $3 in the W, 34 b y airmail e b w h m . grounds." "Buildingthe plan6 and dfvrioping th* m W industries

I 1

. + + %

London Cycling Campaign

& $ l y & ~ Y CYCLISTS in London nmw hf n iwÃ PrÃ‘tir group t o ", m p ~their t intonsst5 and n*Ã§Bs Tin London QVcliIUCOmptiDn WM $#nched on September 28th to b m p i i n tor all thou who u bicyclei for j w ~ i t tchwl, o work.

Loncton Council roads, the L.C,C win concentrate on putting pressure from enerw-A N i t i ~ f l a&2f@~ / on this tier of government and cofar National S~rvibWt.Douglas ordinating local effort. Priest in the NFs Spearhead In their first month of existence membership i s approaching 300 and they have already receivedtheir first ihoppingm whaunr. rebuff. The proposal in question, a SIT George Young, M.P., leader of few yards yards of contra-flow cyclelane cutting into Hyde Park near the 'the House of Commons' 70 cycling The SACUS&& tovr of China * ;,M.P.~~mouthedsome word of infamous Hyde Park Corner, has been emi0uncad in ~ n @ f c u r i w i t s 3 0 --encouragementat the opening do rejected.Commented Nick Lester for will take place from March 18 t o and a stunt was staged to gain the campaign, 'the GLC will not take April 7 1979..The iainwary i -mhmpublicity. Twelve commuters any notice of cyclists needs and they PekiwNanking-Shangai-Quilian"fromfour starting points travelling are prepared to take decisions on Canton, and as more than fifteen by bike, car,and public transport inadequate and inaccurate informalJndercurrentsreaders have $0far 'raced' into the centre to trv and tion.' applied, there shduld be a strong prove the bike's superiority. It has been suggested that some of The London Cycling Campaign AT bias. the other big cities could benefit' I f you aruintetested in going, yvill be based on'existing local groups from a similar or~animtion. please write to usas soon as 1 The latter will continue to The London Cycling Campaign is possible. The cost wilt be Â£80 at the local lml but sinw at 40James Stmet, London W ; to Â£850 , ' ' the worst d?ath-wavs ere Greater Membersh!p is 76 pence plus sa.e. 'owironmenttlirt' lobby."

Simple solar oven East London Jewish baker with contracts to supply the fancy stores end supermarkets, and also Pasta Foods Ltd.. the brown wholevriwat spaghetti people. The latter are particularly notable since they are owned by the giant group, Rank Hows McQwgal 11977 - E l 107 millionl, which is still gloating over the carcass of theSpillws Bakeries (Homepride etch A glance at the g l q hand-out from Pasta

China tour .

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Undercurrents

Labour getting greener

HEAI PUMP UNVEILED

The encouragement o f more National a n d local self-suficiency . . . . the maximum decentralisation o f political a n d economic activitv . . . . . the development o f small co-operatives, workshops a n d urban allotments . . . . .intensive resource conservation . . .the creation o f recycling a n d re-use industries, the p r o m o t i o n o f lonplifegoods. . These are just some of the proposals contained i n the Labour Party National Executive's statement Labout a n d the environment, presented to, and passed by, this year's annual Party conference i n Blackpool. The conference had earlier avoided putting an explicitly anti-nuclear m o t i o n t o the vote b y Vemitting' it t o the NEC, b u t the more general NEC 'environmental' statement received wide support. As Lena Jeger MP commented, if Labour was n o t careful, environmental activists on the fringes "will go elsewhere and set u p their o w n organisations t o challenge the parties". On energy, the NEC statement

called for "a substantial s h i f t . . . n the balance between nuclear fuel and other options, especially n the research and development o f renewable energy sources" and pointed o u t that "there would be most important implications for jobs in such a shift of emphasis. . . the production and installation of heat pumps, insulation, maximum tariff alarms, solar equipment, automatic doors, w i n d and wave power generation, solar collectors and small city-based heat and power systems could come t o employ thousands. People would be engaged in socially useful w o r k requiring a wide range o f skills i n a wide range of locations w i t h a massive export potential as a fraction of the cost of nuclear equivalents." Even if the government fails t o act o n these proposals, the NEC document, reflecting as it does many o f the ideas developed b y S ~ R A represents , a major shift in Labout Party thinking-a shift presumable designed t o change the 'Big Brother' image of sociaI8?m purveyed b y the media.

Women's workshop A t least one of the Lucas Aerospace shop stewards' many proposals for' socially useful products is n o w well under way t o becoming socially useful. This gas-powered heat pump, b u i l t b y engineers at Lucas' Burnley olant f o r the Open University's Energy Research Group (ERG) is now undergoing final testing before installation i n a normal M i l t o n Keynes Development Corporation 'council house'. Unlike most heat pumps, which are powered b y mains electricity (and which, i f their use becomes widesoread. could strenuthen the CEGB's case for building more nukes) the ERG heat pumDisfuelled b y natural gas, burned i n a small 5HP marine engine which drives the heat pump'scompressor. Heat input t o the system comes f r o m the surrounding air, which is blown over a large heat exchanger ( t o p o f picture), while the heat output is i n the f o r m o f h o t water f o r feeding directly t o orthodox central heating radiators. B y reclaiming waste heat f r o m the engine, the total heat output of t h e system isexpected t o be about 1.3 times the energy content of the gas input. This compares very favourable w i t h a conventional gas boiler's 'efficiency' o f 0.7,or less. Although electrically-powered heat pumps can, i n contrast, deliver u p t o three times as much heat energy output as electrical energy input, this gain is offset b y the fact that normal electric power stations have an electrical o u t p u t of only about 30% of their fuel energy input, so giving an overall net 'efficiency' o f about 0.9. Promising though the system appears, however, a few snags have emerged during development. One is bulk: the u n i t will take u p a fair amount of the test house's garage space. Another is noise; the small engine's gentle 'put-putting', despite extensive sound-proofing, is still audible, and may prove slightly irritating i n practice. Y e t another is cost: the relatively small engine required t o power a heat p u m p for a single house is relatively expensive i n terms of price per horsepower. B u t mass-produced engines, though much cheaper per u n i t horsepower, produce far t o o much heat and work output f o r a single house. For all these reasons, o n the other hand, the concept seemsvery likely t o prove b o t h economically and technically viable i n providing heating for a group o f 20 t o 30 dwellings rather than a single home.

E.T.S.U. BRUTE A further b l o w t o the .oroiect . came recently when the Department of Energy's Technology Support U n i t (ETSU), located at Harwell (ronnniracv ,. . . - , theorists nlease notel refused t o orovide continued funding for the project. B u t ERG researchers are hoping ETSU's decision can be reversed, or alternative funding found.

WOMEN I N M A N U A L TRADES, a group of women who choose t o work i n traditionally male-. dominated jobs. got together in London on Sept 1 6 t h for their 4 t h national conference. About 50 women f r o m all over the country came-carpenters, electricians, building workers, plumbers, gardeners, and others w h o were interested i n doing such work. There was an exhibition of press-cuttings relating t o women in 'non-traditional jobs', and it was rather discouraging t o see the amount o f sensationalism some papers feel is necessary t o disarm the threat of women being seen t o be capable of doing men's jobs. There was also some idea of what t o say when asked 'Why do a man's job?'-the pay's better-it's more interesting. I n the workshops we talked about combining w o r k and childcare, sharing our skills, training, particularly the government courses, and the difficulties of working in isolation alongside men i n our jobs. A n d the continuous problem o f how we as women within women's liberation can work i n male jobs and n o t merely be exploited in the same way. it's n o gain i f b o t h men and women are working i n poor conditions, or doing unnecessary work that is harmful t o society. A number o f the women there work in co-operatives, usually building co-operatives, which can be one solution.

The next conference w i l l be i n Leeds i n March or April 1979. There'll be a newsletter o u t w i t h notes f r o m workshops at this conference-contact W I M T at either address below. The London group is preparing a video f i l m for use i n schools, and the Leeds group is preparing a leaflet t o go with it. Women I n Manual Trades can be contacted at: WIMT c/o 23 Bridge Avenue Mansions, Bridge Avenue, London W6, or at WIMT c/o 1 6 Sholebroke Avenue, Leeds 7.

WHAT THE WINDSCALE

11 ENQUIRY REALLY COST

A GROUP of objectors called the Windscale Appeal used t o p legal counsel against British Nuclear Fuels L t d at last year's 1 enquiry. Because i t went o n for much longer that expected, costs were n o t Â£8,000 b u t an t incredible Â£14,252.30 1 As a result, some o f the committee members are individually o u t o f pocket b y I as much as Â£800 Please help b y sending your cheque or P.O. t o , The Windscale Appeal Fund. t c/o Nuclear Information Network, 29 Gt. James St., London W.C.2.

; 1,

Tn save time and oostaae, .

receipts cannot be sent, so thank y o u very much indeed i n advance, . , , , , , , , , ,

Undercurrents31-

THE OCCUPATION w the sit* of e p m p a d nuclor powu nation at Tormas, INU Bunbmr, Scotland, began lit*on 29th ~ o p i b u The . mxupauon is the tint act of civil di(obÃ§dienc8a8ilut e nuclear p o w nation in this country. About two dozen people from different groups in the Torness Alliance had met in Edinburgh a week previously to prepare for the occupation. The group was divided into occupiers and those who would wpport them. Within a few days weryone had moved to whet became the supporters' camp and preparationscontinued. Fridav 29th was scent bv the occupie& in nonviolencetraining. Soma supporters produced a Iwflat for distribution and others began to work on restoring a denllct cottage, round which the occupation would be based. The occupien to the site in the wening, an operation that left wryone soaked to the skin. ~t midnight on Saturday the farmer's leau on the land ran out and the occupation became illegal. Over the next week the occupier*, with enthusiutic help from sonw loo1people, began gardening and continued work on the cottage which has been named Half Moon Cottage. Meanwhile the supporters were bringing in aupplies and putting a lot of energy into contact with local people. The police visited the site and chatted over cups of tea, Scottish national and local papers

sent reporters and a number of previously uriinvolved local People dropped by, with offers of Practical help, some bearing gifts (cabbages and things-lovely). The occupation is still going on and we would welcome your support. You can work with your local anti-nuclwr group endlor you can send a donation (better still a standing order). For a list of groups affiliated to the Torness Alliance contact SCRAM, 2a Ainslie Place, Edinburgh 3, tel: 031 225 7752. Send donations to and get info about bank account from: Cotin & Louise McFarlane, 1 Abbeylands, High St., Dunbar, East Lothian. Letters of support to: Half Mood Cottage, Torness Point, nr Dunbar, East Lothian.

generally ignore such features as thick cement walls and emergency cooling systems. However, in the c a r of the firat Finnish reautor, the Finnshaving to respond to public Opinion in a way unknown t o the Sovtoffwwe forced t o order . tpKlalPIÃ‡fei lyifina from Wan Gumany, the Netherlancb artd Weatinghouie. The Soviets h a n a i m learned their leswn,,and (re now including mom complete d e y system in their rtacton.

Austria CHANCELLOR BRUNO KREISKY h i thrÃ‘tÃˆ to quit if t:m Novmbu 9th mf8mndum to tttrt

Assuming that this threat will not be enough to ensure a 'yes' vote, the media have been putting on a strong propaganda campaign, threatening an energy crisis in the mid-eighties and large price rises should Zwentendorf not be bt-ought into service. The anti-nuclear opposition say that there is no contingency plan for emergencies. no solution has been found to the waste dirocmtproblem, end that there i s no need for additional enerav -. sourcn. Austria could perfectly well manage using its oil and hydro-electricity reserves and by exploiting solar energy and insulation techniwes. Dr Kreisky seems to regerd the whole thing as a oersonal vote of

USSR WHILE THE DEBATE wer th* safety of nuclear Â¥nwa continua In WMem Europa end North Amuiu, the SovIat Union, untroubled by public d i m * . continua - to build rwctore In Eastern EuroP*. Swiet reactors have so far' been built in the more-or-less captive states of East Germany, Poland. Hungary and Bulgaria. Little neutral Finland, next door to the Soviet Giant is in somewhat Of a .squeeze, and recently ordered two Soviet reactors, despite the American Westinghouse having offered to build them for 20% less. The resulting reactors are so much like the Westinghouse product that the local population has taken to calling the project Eastinghouse. The major problem with Soviet reactvrs-and the reason independent Communist states have rejected them-is safety. The Soviets

Queen's buoys

SCRAM (Scottith dmpaign to Ruist the Atomic Menace) have calculated the cost of nuclear electridtv. including SSEB's ellocationof Â£6. million per yar for futuh decommissioning, endhaw come t o the cmcluiion thet "Nudeer power It now wen to be m& Ã§x& t h m electricity from foKitfud ttations."(At I.&/umi compared with 1.342) In addition t o these hidden costa, the sheer bulk of the 5,000 tons of highly radioactive steel and concrete from each reactor present major difficulties. The article points out that "None of the present generation of recant British report admits that

poses major disposal problems". Also the Electricity Boards presently plan t o wait for up to 150 years after the end of a reactor's useful life before they begin t o finally dismantle it. This i s to aliow suffkiant time for the radioactivity to decay. SCRAM concluded: "Despite the palliative prw statements from the UKAEA, nuclear scientists are now seriously concerned about the cost and technical probtems of scrapping reactors. It seems certain, though, that monuments to their endeavours, made from radioactive steel andconcrete, will be standing around our coastline for many years to come." SCRAM'Senergy bulletin is available from 2 AinsliqPlace, Edinburgh, and costs lop (add lots Of postage).

LATEST ENTRY in the wwpowr s t & ~ is this air turbine driven

gmemtor produced by Quun's Univnity, Belfast, pictured h u e at trials on Stanford Lough. Inland's shortaga ofindiinous focsil fuels and Â¥xt*nii eontlim, with w w w uninturupted for smeral thousand mil-

an attractiw eltuntiwe t o nukes. Dr. Adrian n u k u this form of 0-1 Long ">fQ.U.B. that w8vu breaking on the west coast of Ireland g i n enwgy of 60kW per m8tm of wowfront. If all this could be up i n xnrmtrÃ§etÃˆNorthern Idand's pÃ§a dunuid could be met by h a r m i n g only 20 kilometm of wudront. TIN nujor problem, of 8xtracting u much errrgy as possible from normil w w a while baing able to cope with storms, has been cleverly onreom in this W n . ThÃ owMrKing buoy is ttached by struts to a spherical venel confining enough water t o give it neutral buoyancy but considerable inertia. The spherical buoy provide! damping mint normal wave, so that the water lwel in the upper buoy changes, forcing air through iturbine. Howwr, during hewy weather, both buoys rise and fill together in the long waves that am characteristic of storms, thus avoiding Â¥xcÃ‘Ã arm. The Ã‘Ã‘nt future of the upper buoy is the special turbine deviled by Dr A l q Welh, f o r m hud of tha Civil EngineeringDept., which rotaUs the nnw way whatww t h i dirvction of airflow. The rotor speed is high\wer 4000 rpm-so its momentum is enough t o keep the speed sufficiently comtmt t o driwe the directly coupled generaton S m m I influential bodies are intarattad in the trials, but only the Wolfson Foundation hm be*n funding the expuinwnts, which v~ now udng th* rnults of the fir# trill to dwelop the second sea-trialbuoy (STB2) leading wentuelly to full sule boo- of 10MW power output. Peoole who are very int8rÃ‘te in wave wwr can sand e chwue for t1W UKAEA H&I and m8nd iWEirrgy Confumci h the Hathrow Hofl from 21-23 Novniber. We would bm intarattad in what in dternatir power. ulurtor motin is behind UKAEA'i in-

England .

THE SWEDISH GOVERNMENT MIon Oetoirr 6th onr the h e of wdou p o ~ rPrime . Minister Tborbjorn Felldin, War of tlm eMn ~ . his Liberal and . T t.vtold ConÃ‘rvitiv coalition pirtiwre ~refund t to v m8ke anv ~concmiorU on the nuclear

thn his .~

hie. When thaw two parties continued to p r m , the Cantm Party dfiMnd^d a Mtiond mfwndum, I hid b Ã ‘ agreed two yean befon whÃ§the three-party centre-right gowrnmmt took office. Dwpite tkn,the other two partix diuorÃ‘d ind Felklin wxsforced

mrwign. He hm bmn replaced by the the undl L i b m l Party, Qte Ulbten, who can be expocud Swikn's marcti into th6 t o <lipa g e . POHIindicat* tint thÃ So& D-rate will be rrturmd a comfortable mljority i n i r x t SlittmlMr's elKtIom. hut es lhÃ§ warei f t e r 4 4 yean, if eaoMJm thought that their MI t i f t r to thair attitude on nuclear

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thouand MI b i n n i n g to (all Um nuclwr p o w r ppofirimmaa "urmthÃ‘u which will be greduelly faded o u t

THE STORY of the Lucasshoe nmÃ‘rdt campaign was broadcast 10 one and all in a documentary film Wt'm&eys done it this wsv. haven't we? on Seot 9 on followed by a "deibate" on .%pt 20. Many people found the film exciting but the "debate" rather dull-in fact, it nearly didn't hartpen! 'The Lucat workers were originally told that there would be a 30 minute debate following the film, involving Lucas workers and management, p l u s Eric Varlev. This wÃ subsequently changed to a one hour roor ram ma on the following night. Although they felt that this "chat" show was unnecaoary, the Lucas workers eventually agreed to appear. However, just before the recording, on Sunday 17 September, they w e informed of a number of change*. Eric Varley end his deputy, Gerald Ktufman, had M i n e d to appear, but would iimead, be in a separate interview at the end of the programme, MM)* the workers would appear

ITV,

ABOUT BOO PEOPLE turtwd up at M&cambe pier for t h e . beginning of the Heysham antinuclear demonstration. The atmosphere was one of frivolity, with people making music, singing and dancing. Some people fro* SCRAM provided street theatre. A t 1.00 the4-mile walkto teh rallying point (opposite Heysham.l Power Station) started, led by the horse and cart and children. We got to the site to find a windmill demonstrating beautifully (the wind must have been at least f a c e 7 that day). As we stood braving the weather, we listened to Tony Webb and a number of locnl councillors who spokeabout the plant. Unfortunately people f rom the body of the demonstration who wanted to speak weren't allowed to. The demonstrators then dispersed, some going home and others going on to the campsite where there was spontaneous workshop on what was wrongwith the demonstration. Next morning there was a Stoo URENCO meeting t o decide on the next action at Capenhunt, and a T u n e s Alliance meeting to discuss the forthcoming occbpation (see later). The local paper gave a very favourable report of the demonstration, which was good,tout there weren't many locals actually on the march.

as part of a large, cumbersome panel. They were to placed physically that it was difficult to do more than Jutrespond to the chairman's inane comments and so-called questions. The large., invited audience had come along on the understanding that they would be able to take part i n the discussion, but it transpired that the chair was under instructions from the producer to include the audience only if they got up and yelled. As they were under the impression that they would be 9""" time during the programme to comment, the audience stayed politely seated and so were never heard at ail. This piece of dishonesty caused Mike Cooney to apologise to the audience and say that he and his colleagues proposed to occupy the studio until there was some audience participation. The technicians agreed with him and continued t o operate the cameras in spite of a furious row and threats from a "security" person. v

This terrace of 14 mid-Victorian houses in E is being used a> a research project by the Department of Energy. The performance of the solar lands will be monitored for the next two vein to assess the potential for solar water heating in the UK. DOE is spendingÂ£ m over 4 years on solar energy (rather less then is being spent on nuclear research), and hopes to encourage local authornje t o implement limilar schemes. It also partly funded the research and development programme d m I the South London Consortium, who designed this initillation.

From the next issue (No. 32)the cover price of Undert'urrents will ba 50p;( u b ~ r i ~ t i orates n will ba unchanged for the time being. This seems a convenient peafor another biennial financial report (see Undercurrents 8 & 17for previous reports) so here are some facts and fiwres: it has cost us'abwt Â£2,20 to publish each issue of the last nine Undercurrents but average income has only been Â£205 an issue. We have been able to absorb the loss of Â£15 an issue up to now because of our income from Radical Technology: not only do we sell it by mail order and get royalties from the publishers, Wildwood House, we also managed t o sell the Japanese rights for a substantialsum. This nest egg has now been exhausted and we have had to drew On our overdraft to cover our losses. So we have decided, with some regret, that to hold the price any longer would be foolish, even though many members of the collective think that 45p is already too much. A bp increase, our first since April '75, will bring i n only Â£7 an issue, so a further increase in both cover price and subscription rates may be needed next year If there are no unpleasant surprises like increases in postage rates or paper prices, 5p will be enough to see us through to 1980. It i s a fact of life that a movement paper with a smat~'circulation and not many ads will always seem dear compared to a trade or consumer paper heavily subsidised by advertising. At 50p your '79 model Undercurrents is no dearer, relative to current prices, than it was a year ago, and cheaper than at any time in the six years before . that It all depends on how you look at it!

CURRENT BUDGETED COSTS

.............................................................................. Subscription office costs .................................................... Subscription poftane .......................................................... Typesetting ........................................................ .............. Editorial office rent ........................................................... Postage meter .................................................................... Packing .............................................................................. Pictures .............................................................................. Phone .................................................... *.......................... Airfreight ......................................................... . ..............\.. Print hill

Sundry Items ................................................................... TOTAL

.............................................................................

E 800 330 210 210

100 100 60 50

30 260 2090

Sundry Items includes editorial postage. travel expenses. copvim bank c h a m audit fea, fnnklng -hine him, L e t r ~ t donation* , etc All m a l l i t r n n hut thw mount UD. Costs am soma Â£15lowthan a yew Ãˆ(K>d n l y bMauÃ we h& moved to a cheaper printer and we are no longer paying someone t o work odd days for the PDC, our main distributor.

are hell evenings (Ã§far) at 5 Cardozo Roe London N7 (near Caledonian Roai Tube Station).

SERA

NUCLEAR WASTE & THE ENVIRONMENT is a wminar oqanised b y the Northumberland Newcastle Society o n Saturday December 1 6 at the Curtis Auditorium, Newcastle University. It is claimed to bethe fint Laur~estonHall is holding a long 14 50p, students Â£ (for all day), weekend of RELEASE DANCE independent seminar o n the subjec or Â£ for evening only, from in Britain; speakers will include A N 0 CONTACT IMPROVISATION People's Festival CPGG, 28 from Thursday November 23 t o Proftnors Roy and Tolttoy, Or Hathersage Road, Manchester Monday November 28. I t is open Alice Stewart, Robin Grove White M I 3 OFâ‚ or t r y and get a ticket and Mr J Simmons. the mechanical t o a limited number of 15 people at the door. anginwf featured i n Windscale ~m at a cost of Â£2 each. Kate Hollinbury will lead the course. in Undercurnmts 30. Cost i s Â£5 Other courses in the winter serin TheALBANY Community Students t2.50. Details from Mr ""'"treh""abenefit for 0 Wilbie-Chalk, The School of are GESTALT INTENSIVE led b y *ildinOfund (-pic of t h t r e Architecture, n he university, John Whitley, which will be from WrnbV N*-fn Newcastle-on-Tyne NE1 70U. December 1-3, at a cost of E20, Undvcurmnts3W at the Nuional and the following weekend, a London SE1, on Mdndv WOMEN'S BODY SENSE he &aech& ( E November 27 at Only 6bto WEEKEND from Dec 8-1 0 The Lane, Roundtuy, Leecls 8) is the sea thia'new musical and satirical venue of and 2-d.y courm idea for this one arose from a one-day workshop on sexuality at *ref' 0880. o n ADMINISTRATION FOR the Women's Arts Festival The SMALL eoW8 iponiored b y idea is t o have two small groups ICOM and thÃ F N W a n d RURAL RESETTLEMENT (1-3 to explore sensuality and sexuality. December) is one of e organiwd by CENA (11 Wharf St, of I t may be run as a self-help event meetjnfli organiKdby the Rural tel: 0532449S881. The f i m For details of all thse write to: ^ReÃ‘ttlemmi Group, con*Hot la f o r m e a m p , was on Winter Courses, Laurieston Hall, November 1 2 Ã 13. The others with newapprOtchCTto the social Sastle Douglas, KircudbriBhtshIre, ' and economic p r o b l e m of rural ""HI -1 with Boo* K M p i f l ~(2 Scotland. Please send sae. l-nimniinitio~ b further rtetfils FilMKid Hwmffl~12 dawk. fl*ÃˆlA send i n t o Dick Kitto, LOW *W FinSIKS. Ttxation, JLfW, Al^WHCtd Three weekend courses at the TU and AiSiwKSdAccount!~ Farm, Shaw, Swindon. Wilts. ~lso. Exmoor study Centre before d at the tame venue, a NEW YEAR Duttf have vat to be f i x e d Colt is Christmas are. WHOLEFOOD CELEBRATION, which will fSa-d>v bborarinll. COOKERY (Nov 24-261; YOGA i n d u b a New Y a m ftity, but will 5 SELF KNOWLEDGE (Dee 1-31 alto be a ikilli/InterMts exchange [The NATIONAL CONSERVATION Went; It W Uindude I ~ erafu, C O R p s k M a i n looking for and METHANE DIGESTERS [Dec 15-1 7). Cost 1s Â£6 each. drama, yoga. carlbike maintenance, people t o help with a wide range o f Bookings t o the Warden, New group work^mmie irking.. .it twkÃ ow tah W s t m e s I N w i YW Mills, Luxborough, Nr Watchat, depends o n who comn. Book now, holiday period. The projects range Somerset; tel 098 44 281. info from Dick Kitto. from d u r i n g derelict land i n S w u u Ã t o treeplanting o n the M a EDUCATION-TO WHAT END? HOUSING ACTION CONVENTION of Rhum (a fortnight including IDectmber 2nd) is a conference is holding a follow-up conference Hoamanay). Volunteers contribute organised b y English New i n Saturday November 2 5 a t 11am. 60p per day toward* the cost of Education Fellowship i n I t will be at Action Space, their accommodation, etc. O e c i l i association with Scientific and Chenies Street, London WC1 (near from Wendy Pettigrew atthe NCC, Soodge Street tube station). ~ h & y Medical network. The speaker is The Zoo, Regents Park, London James Robertson. Enquiries t o i m t o discuss and decide on a NW14RY, who can abo provide a Frances McCartney, :omposite document which will free leaflet tea plane) O N & # Northumberland College of Higher a CO-tion draw together the proposals, Profct to help , Education, Ponteland, Newcastlem t h on policy and organisation, teachersand group leader! to won-Tyne N& OAB. which arose from the Sheffield arrange 8uch projects. convention. They hope that a :oherent set of policy proposals ill emerge, and that they will be ible t o decide on the best form of :ampaign organisation t o continue the fight for decent housing. a n t a c t Self-Help Housing resource Library, Ladbroke House, 4ighbury Grove, London N5. ref: 01-607 2789 ext 5027.

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centre

THE PEOPLES FESTIVAL 78 ill be on November 26th at Belle due, Manchester, from 11 am to 11pm. Organised by the Greater Rochester area of the Communist 'arty, it aims t o celebrate the 'skill, initiative, creativity and nilitancy of the working people". The programme promises a lot of events-a political rally, theatre, music ranging from brass bands and azz t o middle eastern and Chilean founds, stalls and sideshows, a -h:i^-?n's festival, exhibitions, food .ink, and live groups i n the la. Tickets Â£2children under

'Don't be afraid to say 'no' i f i t i s too complicated, too big or too boring' TOWARDS A MATERIALIST SOCIOLOGY is the topic of a seminar t o be held on Tuesday Dec 12. The speaker is Philip Boys, who is a sociology lecturer. The talk is organised by the Radical Science Journal and is one of a series. If you have any ideas for further discussions etc write t o Bob Young at the address below. The seminars

Advance warning: a date t o note i t your diary is June 5th 1979WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY. The theme is t o be Only One Future for our ChildrenDevelopment without Destruction, The United Nations has declared 1979 as the International Year of the Child, hence the WED theme. More news next year.

SERA (Sociilitt Envimmmnt R~ourm AModitimJ is growing rapidly and h m lust launched a energy d w , (li~lgned to strengthen if l i n k with the trade union movement on the nuclear powot isw. SERA Energy Group,

oneofsevaralstudygrouptin

SERA, has itself sub-divided into sevfrel project groups, all of which welcome new recruif; *FBR Study Group-looking into hÃ‘lth ofeiv, economic and ufÃ§ implications of the prop& , , breeder programme, i n particularon the ithcmct on workers i n ft* indunry. ~ traruport ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ *Spmkers Panel-training <Ã‡n held for new mflynbws, to build. UPa pool of speaken for Trade '. Union Ixanch, trades councilsid Labour Partv meetings. T r a d e Union contact prom* grant from Rowntrw 1c wppoftIng a rutlonwxta dmpaign t o c m t m trÃ§dÃˆunioniiÂ¥all Ixnhon*

nudeer nw.

*?ublications-whila working on the Pluto book Th@&lit& of Atoc/&AnÃ‘ the group recently producedthree publications ', outlining SERA'S o r g u m m a o n nuclear power and alternathnt; W 9 uP o w , a Infin. Hoelur Pow-Wfi~ Not?a d . m .and a booklet Honiwelwr options for ttn UK. A l l avaitaU* from SERA, address below. *The one-day Briefing Confmna

. -

for Trade UnIonista on JVuc/or Power on November 2 5 at Ruskin College was designed t o bring together trade unionists to d i q the implications of nuclear pomr., See report i n Ed& "There are plans t o set u p a kctear Hazarda Group, perhaps i n ,conjunction with B m . SERA is ado actively supportingthÃ Lucas Aerospace WorkÃˆm cÃ‘nnign ha working group8 on urban Planning, trampon, economic* em, plus ten local groups and contact! dth NEC study groups, so thw nud m o r e p Ã § tat ~ lth&r POI& S t m t office. They would also hkÃ some donations toward* thn* unpaid volunteer workas. A l l hetp, and money to SERA, 9 Poland street; London Wl. Tel01-439

374B WHOLE EARTH WAREHOUSEa natural food self-service cash and carry is now open i n Willesden. They have a variety of flours, rice and grains, plus nuts, honeys, eggs, veg and fruit etc. Many are grown organically, and all are unrefined with no sugar, preservatives or extras. There is no minimum order, and goods are sold in mini-bulk as well as bulk quantities. Open TuesFri, 3 5 , Sat 10-5, plenty of parking space. Give them a visit-Cobboli? Road, London NW10, or p Ann Mason. 01-451 31 13.

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Undercurrents 31

h*gry' would not food m a

ARMS TRADE (CAATI ere making some progress with their struggle to discredit and embnreu the government's a r m salesmen. Thby have just got together a 'mini exhibition' of 30 sheets on the a r m trade with the Third World, which now accounts for three quarters of the worlrfs arms exports, (Â£3.5 by post from 5 Oledo$~im Road, London N1)

CAN WE MAKE JOBS? is a pamphlet by John Pearce of the Local Enterprise Advisory Project et Paisley Technical College in the Wit of Scotland It is intended to stimulate thinking about what can be done at thb community level end by the Local Authorities, which have considerable powers but often lack the political will t o use them. It says nothing at all about how established national firms arb to be dinuededfrom undercutting small local initiativesand driving them out of business, but otherwise it is e handy guide for local activists to the problems they face end soma powibla solutions. Â£1.5 from LGU, Paisley Tech, High Street, Paisley PA1 ZBE, Scotland.

l ASSOCIATION aim to improve

North Country rndwa who want to hurry along what Tom M i r n haÃ§calle"the long-term, irreversible degeneration of the Anglo-British State" should give their support to the CAMPAIGN FOR THE NORTH, Blrchcliffe Centre, hbrjen Bridge, W Yorta HX7 BOG), en all-party pressure group set up in 1977 to press the case for e self-governingNorth Country within a federal Britain. Â£will get you their pamphlet UP N o r m How to Unshacklew Forgotten flMCle end e year's membership, which includes a quarterly broadsheet Nontiwn Democrat. The UHURU COOKING GUIDE ( 6 2 ~70p ~ ; post free from 48 Cowley Road, Oxford) is a useful introduction t o theart of cooking with whole grains and pulses, from eduki beans t o whole wheat. I t also tells you whet to do with such "oddities" as miso la lactic fermentation of whole soya beans) and tahwi (sesame butter). Recommendedfor anyone just starting to wean theottelvw from meat end two veg.

conditions for public transport users wid watkers in towns endcities. For intttnce-governmem aid for local rail end bus mutes should be increased, (peed limits enforced, more heavy freight thould be transferred t o railways, or else heavy lorries should be charged more. Also the lead level in petrol should be lower and owners of large lorries should provide their own maging off the road. The PA feel that these are the questions you should ask your local MPs or Parliamentary candidates. F p more info contact the Pedestrians Association, 114 Crawford York Street, London W1. The CUDDLY H A L FOE Birmingham (Â£2 front 54 Allison St., Birmingham I Di&eth. Birmingham 61 contains felt, pattern end instructions t o make a 50 cm soft whale, plus poster, badge, end information sheat.

lie ,,;^'&"?&^ Â

SERVAS welcod~&internationc travellers! I f you have ever wanted t o get beyond the usual tourist attractions join S f e ~ v ~ S a n d stay a few days as part of a family, helping them in their activities and learning about social end cultural conditions in that particular country. Or, if you wish, * you can register as a SERVAS host, end offer hospitality in you<own home. This organisation is a Donprofit, non-political, interracial end interfaith one, promoting peace, end with branches in different countries. I f you are interetted, send E4p in stamps or PO or cheque t o get newletters etc, to BaybeTa Acquah, British SERVAS Committee, 194 Moor Lane Crosby, Liverpool L23 2UH. ROUGH JUSTICE is a new magazine reporting on problems of homeless single people, produced by the National Cvrenians, (Â£(or 4 issues from 13 Wincheap, Canterbury CT1 3T8). The first issue leadi'on the sorry tale of how ' the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral made ssses of themseWes by objecting t o a hostel an the groundsof 'potential danger to women attending services at the Cathedral'; planning permission was refused in consequence (but this decision was reversed later on peal). A useful read for anyone the 'caring industry'.

the

"tile HAY HERALD (25p post free

,.,"WS."(

EIRE have publishedA ' " /nonsense View (5011ooitfrei from 17 Arbutus Race, South Circular Road, Dublin 81, e critiqut of Energy Ireland, the Irish Government's recent lamentable 4 attempt at a 'discussion' paper on energy policy, which proved t o be no more than sloppy special pleading for their proposed nuke at Carsnore Point'; even the arithftitttic was wrong. FOE have e lot ot work to do persuadingtheir rulers to think again; this pamphlet is e gum

I'm sot7 sir it's a secret 'S,

ENERGY MANAGER if e new glossy free sheet for 'mior UK exe0Utives' (from IPC ~cien&e& Technology Pres8,f.O. Box 147; 40 Bowling Green Lane, London EC19 1QQ) edited by our wry own Pat Coyne. It aims to "hew you manage your energy more efficiently and t o conserve whar really matters-profit". The first issue investigates th* hidden world of secret for at least, unpublished) e m t a r i f f s and describes the work of Croydon based htional Unility Service, a company f o u m by an out of work operasimp in the depression which gets a living saving energy and negotiating . special agreements for industrial users. They take 50% of the savings, and their toughest problem i s to make their client* awarethat the Problem exists. Maybe this smoothly written and produced*, trade paper will do the trick

or Â£1.6 for 6 issues, from the Self-buildnrs arid DlYers who don't already know thataftwi& to a house (as opposedto repairs Newspaperof the Independent State of Hayon-Wya". The Autumn and maintenanel are free of issue features Hay's recent VALUE ADDED TAX should writ* to their local Cuitonn & Excim referendum decision to quit the EEC, UD1 by the "Free end offiw for VAT Notices 71Swri t . Sovereign City of Kite" 719. Some degree of persi<tÃˆnce (Cambridge), a report from wilt be needed to get the inoney \ Frettopie f London W11), Private back, not t o mention '0'-tWl Parts, a &he of the EM, an maths end a complete set Of bills ', intaMW with King Richard of for materials, etc., but it canHay, and e roundup. of news from done. In cats of deliberate ". : Editor, Hay Herald, Hay-on-Wye,

vh Hereford) is "The National

ON YER BIKE claims t o be a 'radical motorcycling journal': No. 1 (45 p from PDC outlets. or Â£ for e 12-issue sub from 30 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1) features a guide to 'Urban Dirt' (wasteland suitable for dirtbiking), the joys of riding dispatch, profits vs safety end Biking on the Breadline. Recommendedfor anvone who thinks that it is 'radical' to make a

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1 "AKI

Undercurrents..

THE FACTORY O R THE EGG? FOOD IS something that we all relate to easily and personally. Our diet, the

significance o f food t o our bodies and minds, and the absence o f choice about what t o eat, are rarely seen in the context of a move to 'change society'. We have either not thought about food at all - w e eat what we can affordlate i n our childhoodlwhat big'business wants us to eat (Heinz, Hovis, Country Life, when all we wanted was beans on toast); a we have a vague consciousness about preservatives/meat being 'wrong', and so become wholefood addictslvegetarians. A t the end o f the Second World War, egg farming i n America and most o f Western Europe underwent a boom bankers were happy to make loans, the war had firmly fixed in peoples' heads that eggs had nutritious, cheap, highclass protein i n them - there was a growing market, and a five-acre smallholding with 2,000 chickens seemed an ideal way t o make a living. Chicken farms sprouted rapidly, and at first, prices and profits were high. Fvrryone s; and expanded until the market fi

chicken products was saturated. Prices fell, and the farms had to cut costs, expand and automate in order to survive. O f course expansion was easier for those farms with capital and the security needed for loans. Farms amalgamated, merged, signed contracts with marketers to sell the eggslchickens before they were even produced, in order to get loan capital. Later, when demand for eggs fell with the highly publicised cholesterol scare (eggs, relative t o other foods, contain a high amount o f cholesterol, which is thought to be a contributing factor to susceptibility to heart disorders etc.) again prices had to come down, this time t o make them an attractive buy. The 'go to work on an egg' and 'E for B' campaign was a similar result q f t t e scare

Egg City Following this pattern, the large companies have gained control o f the production, and can then use their size to stay in the too position.

AUTOMATIC DEBEAKERS Fast economic efficient Forchicks-one

With the fall in prices, small farms were more o f a risk t o banks and insurance firms, and found it hard to get loans in order to expand. Larger egg companies moved i n and expanded their inputs by buying up lots o f smaller businesses, e.g. Egg City (!) near Los Angeles in California at present has two million hens - that's almost the population o f Manchester - in a fully automated farm. Each hen is slaughtered and replaced every year, usually being used for chicken and ham pies, or processed chicken foods, as their bodies are so ropey from the bad conditions that they aren't saleable in their whole state. Beir~,. large, and therefore having a relatively stable place on the market, they can attract new capital more easily; they have large advertising budgets to preserve their place on the market; and they can draw large amounts o f government subsidies, which are usually geared towards larger farms. As the larger companies o'ften have strong links with one or some o f the major multinationals, they can easily implement restrictions on smaller producers, as the multinationals i n their turn either own, or have strong influences over, supermarket chains. Unilever, for example, owns Macmarket, Liptons, Birds Eye, Walls and Batchelors. The restrictions imposed are often complex, but very effective, e.g. in the Bay Area o f America, one o f the large supermarkets switched its policy from buying eggs from small local producers to buying from one central marketing co-operative - who had close connections tinancially with the larger egg farms (who in turn were either owned by the multinational that owned the supermarket) - in order to streamline production. The supermarket then temporaily reduced egg prices, forcing all the local small egg producers t o stop selling direct to the customers, as they couldn't compete price-wise, and sell to the marketing co-operative, who were the only company to offer them a decent price. The marketing co-operative, after a short while, began to make specific demands on the egg farmers - such as offering the best price for large volume loads, until eventually this combined pressure forced the small farms t o sell

out to the larger farms, or g6 out of busihess altogether.

~ o r n ~ k i oisn~ oEnough t

The 23 Hour Day

punctllla is inserted into the base of the skull of the animal-to cut the part of the spinal nerves responsible for the

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So it's not as if a few of us educated

fresh chicken$ wak saturated, and w processing openedup more possibilities a new market ' . - -,.: '.,-,

but teratogens (birth defects) and i,:k.> h .uiditi~ are a f x t 0 .+ 2 utagens (alterations to the genetic , 1 ' ,%ode) often aren't. Cancer-forming affect bred, for instance, h up in human Food products have beeom9 c~mrnoditiesdesigned f ~ saleability,&-* r ' ban , $or 10-20 years, and no foLlow ups at all profitability and shelf life, rather than nutritional value. Norah Se& ',. F e done on us, the consumers, who discussefthat histow, politics and dangers of food additives, aonsume on average 5 lbs a vear. i Tests are rarelfdone on &aln-anr

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wturring flavoum; d longevity off&, The more processing done> the l e s the product looks, tastes,or feels like its partnt co*tituents. Additives have t h d w fore b ~ o m q e n t i a l tarestore some semblanck o f the original t o e n h a w 'L ~ V ~ U Krestore , textwe, re~laceq ~ l o u r *~rn nutritive value, prevent growth mulds, bacteria and y~asts,arid prev$t rhe oxidation that leads to rant-~ty. , Additives can also be used t o make, y w l y tnvented synthetic f w d s palatal.de in the first place, e.g. Textured V e g e w e Proteins. They are used to give complete uniformity i n texture, flavour and c o l y f of foods produced in continuous mixedproduction lines. Consumers have bem led t o expect such uniformity in the highly processed foods that they begin to fear the natural diversity of unprocessed fwds. All oranges must bq orange all over, soan orange coal-tar dye is injw,ted into the skins t o cover natural green patchiness. All breadshcakes and pastries,/ all batches o f icekream must beexactly the same, so extenders, stabilisers, emulgfiers, and colourings, etc, are added. Food additives can be used to replace more expensive ingredients with cheaper ones -which is not usually reflected in the price the consumer pays. Use o f carbohydrates and sugars t o extend vegetable soups withoutadding any useful, value, or foods, proudly enriched, adding i n one instance, a 45% i n c r e w in consumer price for an additive costing less than 1% of the price. Enriching i n any case rarely replaces the original quality, or i n the right balance. The danger t o health is the a e ~oft f w d additives @at concerns most peopje -so some words about the tests carded cat. Tests are qarried out by the food manufacturers themselves who h e n submit evidence to government

enquiries, or 4n,the vSA.to the Fw$s and? . Drugs body. lndepdntlenrmbiarch fnto addit6es isn:t done routinely. 4t's possible that FA0 and WHO do do r e a r e h but I

a d animals b e such test show, :ho~Me differences in the effec-

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Effea8' the R w e I ~ocimtvis t w i m to wnibla to dateet,piedic~and quant& the risks and tenefii associatedwith and existing the introductionof ~fntanws. or p-.Dn amwnital dafmcts wh~cham a mbjov problem ,,, ihem is wry ICttIe idea of thdr axcwt to strongly amoa tha environmental f m o n am impomnt.lndustry w a h m i l y mndommad for koepiw the results of tOXicoIo@icdtmls secret,and the w o r t also c r i t i c i i the usa of animals for tOX*&i -,myins that the pwdiiion

Monwglyceride (emulsiiery Potassium bromntclmaturing -

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Aluminum phosphate fimpmvqr) Cdcium phosphate mombasic - (dm& wndiioner) ChloraminbT ( h rbleach) Aluminum m s i u m sulphatc (add baking powder w e n t ) A w r b a t e (anti-oxiht) Sodium or potassium nitrate (color tikative) sodium chloride (pmsewative) Guar p n (binder) Hydmgen p m x i d a (bleach) FR & C yellow #3(wloring) Nardihydmguairetic a d d (antioddant) Alkmate (dye) Methylviolet (markingink) Amfoetide (onion flavoring) Sodium phosphate (buffer) Magnesium w b o ~ t e awt) Calcium p r o p h a t e (praemative)

Food manufacturers are secretive about revealing information and reluctant to label products with all the additives used, claiming this will confuse the consumer. Such secrwy encourages over-reaction, when it's possible that quite a number of additives are quite safe and useful. Above all these considerations is that of just what is the need o f all these new fabricated and processed foods which contain so many additives -what is their nutritive value, what is the effect on the gmeral health of the population, incteasingly using such foods; and who really gains out o f it?Convenience foods fit into a society which expects its population to spend most of its life employed, rather than concerned with creating an individually. determined lifestyle, having time for producing and gathering our own foods. If you read food manufacturers trat$e Iierature, you will see that it is only concerned with making profits.'You will discover that NESTLE VEE-CRr ''a w c essfully replaces a whole series o 0th r ingredients in your fnrm~~la. That ~oney!' saves y w time; trouble - i

'TVP looks like meat; can be flavoured like meat; it's high i n protein like meat. But it's plentiful, and just afraction of the cost of meat', 'We show you why it pays to fortiQ' (With vitamins). Their concern with health only goes so far as to not too obviously be doing damage; not in maintaining or increasing healthiness. Only where'a health producing supplement can be used as a gimmick to increase $ales and profit margins as in some breakfast cereals are useful nutritional additives included. The competitiveness of the food manufacturing industry is such that they fight for the newest novelty, and huge advertising budgets are set aside to persuade consumers of the necessity-ofbuying. Such advertising i s of course paid for by the consumer - new foods are rarely I cheap. Ultimately, we as consumers do hold lhe power over the food and additive manufacturers, but only i f we act in a concerteband solid fashion. Over the

If we are really concerned about the mass production of these 'foods', and of many additives usd, we can act in various ways deciding to change our own diet, publicising the secrecy surrounding, and inadequacy of experim n u , lenfletlng, s m t theatre, soap box harawueiq, maktng self-adhesive I&ls with relevant info to 'sabotage f w d on shop shelves; pmsurize shops to label fresh goods with all additives, and educate as to the use of wholefoods, encourage I d production, sensible use of food additives, and public discusion and openwss of manufacturers.

lha USA Food and Drqp administrmh

piaw to phase out nitrites after 0 tmnr 'khtma tnntitum ofTechnology w r i thatWymqbecarcinlgeniciffmito I m s in t a w d o s s . l b UK's Ministry o# AaricuItum is r#u&g the data to its

l m b p o ~expert t commitlw.&dium

nitrita is used to inhibit toxins in proamd meats. l n d u t ~ +in tha eatm b not worried abow &at M iWng b n n d from k o n dnm sodium a a c o h * a d potassium sorbma wm da iw.

years, the growth in the tholefood movement in the USA seems to have worried General Foods, who a~ launching a $218 million campaign to persuaze people that manufactured foods and their additives are merely slightly processed natural chemicals, and food of such i s fine. Certain{y one aspect of it i s that they are trying to reorientate a growing public awareness of dangerous food additives, by implying that many are straight out of 'Nature's Larder'.

Food, like any other pofitiwl issue, cannot be isolated from who Y? This is one person's account of food and what it has meant for him at various points in his life.

MEALS USED to be so different,A tablecloth every time - knife, fork and W n , salt and sauce, sitting at the table, waiting for mum to bring it in from the kitchen. I remember her saying when we

were quite poor that *atever happened she'd sx us fed all right. wentalong wlth her advice to make sure to marry a woman v/ho could c d , 'cos you'll always need food, but looksfade.)

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'30 w got fed, catered to oufi fussy , ta$tes, provided with traditional breakfasts, predictable dinners anh bread and cake tea, Each day somehow ran into the next, starting with Sunday roast, Monday d d mast, Tuesday, shepherds pie f r o h what was.left, followed by a variation of sausages, processpd meat, tkh and htew, back to the Sunday roast. Always mat, milk, white bread, sugar, and sugary subsawes, supplemented generdbsly by sweets bought from my pocket money. And l'didn't half grow up big and strong and healthy (making sure I cut the fat off the meqt and avoided 'nasties' like onions, tomatoes and marrows). Pitched into unlvLrsity at the te"der age of 1g9learning ta cook for myself rather than be restricted by canteen times. Learning to buy cheap: 'bargain basement Pat', Igot called by a certain person. Joining with others to buy and wok, a weekly trip to Sainsbuws and the market. Istarted to cook '1 pan' meals - variations on a theme of mum htdid start eating rice as a savoury and learnt that porridge oats eaten raw with milk and sugar are 'nice'. Then, working in a factory, eating q m w n dinners; vast dollow of cottage 1 pie and steamed pud and custard. Carbohydrates galore to fill up and fuel ' up for the cold outside on the loading' bay. Leaving $is job and goiog to India on acoach laden with tinnbd meat, , 1 dehydrated veg and fruit, d h d milk and water-purifying tablet$, safe against any thing strage we might e?i in other . Pk=.

Ahd, somewhere between India and returning, I became vegetarian, mainly because Ithink killing animals is wrong. It was a form of vegetarianism which saw me and Steph buying granomeat from Heath and Heather and nuts from the pet s y l on the market. I don't hink there was a lot o f theory t o it, just 'eat n o meat'. In 1973 I made a big change i n my life and consequently in my food habits by going to live at Laurieston, a commune in an lenormous house miles from anywh.ere..wi~ a l1%acre walled garden and greenhouses. A t the outset we were fresh from, the city,bnd on the whole had brought our well-off lifestyles with us. ~ o s < ~ e o there ~ l e were a bit older than me and more advanced in their ideas, so that vegetarianism meant lentils and dried beans and buying stuff from Community %pplies in London. And Muesli entered my life, never t o leave as yet. A t first we had money for things like real coffee and drie&fruit. As the money got less and the garden got more productive our diets and attitudes changed. I was more and more involved in growing and understanding food, enriching the soil, coaxing hoards of vegetables from the light, sandy soil, some vegetables I'd never seen or heard before -Swiss Chard, artichokes, green peppers. -. We began t o realise the simple truth o f how good it was t o grow what w ate, how much better it mted. With this awreness came agradual adaptation amongst many o f us t o the eating of meat that we had reared as animals. or had caught - billy kids, fish, chickkns and rabbits. Realising that the pertinent point was to use the land to i t s best advanme, we mu\dnlt grow but we could keep pigs, I learnt t o kill and skin and feel all right about doing it. All new feelings.

I began to learn cooking as a part of living, a fine part. To cook regularly for 20peopIe and in the summer for up to 100, using the big old solid fuel range. Making vast bowls o f salad, baking 40 loaves in one day. A boiling h o t kitchen on a boiling hot day, surrounded by a mass of garden produce looking like the cover of a John Seymour publication. Great! Sometimes it was horrible. Hacking parsnips out o f ground frozen solid to 1 foot down, or %raping thv mud o f f a mass of blig-ricfden potatoes.

We weren't purists, more pragmatists when it came to feeding children. Our own children subsisted on a diet o f bread and cheese, and joined with the groms i n the now infamous b u t occasional wild bouts o f cornflake eating. Their refusal to like vegetables and the noises o f distaste made at almost every offering of SOUP Was a Weat source of conflict with the cook o f the day. This sometimes ex,tended t o conflicts with Parents Or others who would feed the children snacks against the cook!^ wishes. We learnt t o feed visiqng childrm from cities with their food initially (white 5li~edand =usages), but we tried to introduce them t o some of our 'normal' diet over the week or so. they stayed with us. A surprisi~gnumber of them got into baking and eating their own bread -first white, then mixed with brown and sometimes wholewheat by the end o f the week. Increasingly over the years we learnt to live with the seasons, storing food in clamps (and freezer lately), having gluts -.like 7 cwt of beewoot - a n d lean times, particularly in MayIJune before the first spring greens. Moving t o Crabapple from Laurieston was quite a change. A new house, 20 acres of usable land and an established wholefood shop, the first time I remember using wholefoods as a common term. A t first I was ove~whelmedby the nature of the diet and produce: nuts and fruits of all sorts, flours in the plural - soya, granary, wholewheat, carob, rice, rye - in fact, a range of food almost as wide as we sold in the shop. A t first I felt the goodness and rightness of selling these foods, separate from the refined, mass-prw duced multi-national-owned vast profit-making~oodso f the supermackets. I saw a bit of the revolution , in eating these foods and selling them through an efficient collective shop. I felt the necessity to pditicise what we were doing, or rather, to make explicit the politics prcsent. I started doing window displays explaining our , finances, our collectivity, and talking of how our food was a real alternative t~ that aailable elsewhere. A t the ,same time others w r e giving shop talks, telling local groups aboutwhole

foods. Through getting so involved I began to sqe contradictions. Who was being ripped off so that we could eat nuts, raisins and lentils? The Third World undaboutedly. We were buying as cheaply as possible to sell as cheaply as possible, almost certainly giving little to the grower and giving us a rich source of protein, Moreover we were selling cheap, largely to the well off of Shrewsbuw who on the whole cared little whether we were a collective, as long as the dates and figs were cheap. We were selling to the converted, excepting the occasional person who came in for cheap bulk porridge oats. Surely, if t was to make a statement of my life and opinions I should be selling local produce, better still, ,bartering it. This could be veg, fruit cheese, maybe anything from Britain, but preferably more local, buying from likeminded ceoperatives where possible. Doing this might avoidclasic contradictions like apple rings from China. Well, they have collectivity there, so it feels OK to buy from them, but to bring apple'rings round the world t o tbe heart of apple-growingcountry can't help but feel peculiar. I learnt t o regulate myself a bit, and t o cook at home asat Laurieston, with home-produced food. So I've become more purist, unhappy with the 'revolution' which what we call wholefoods brings. When did these foods change fcom being just 'food' into 'wholefood'? could it have been just another commercial gimmick? I want t o eat food as far as possible grown free from chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, prese~ativesand additives. But I live in the city again, and I'm back to eating the cheapest, best value veg, probably sprayed with all sorts of delights. Eating the occasional pound of mince and half of bacon scraps: still largely kept alive hy food from SUMA, the wholefood warehouse, though. Working 40 hours a week niakes cooking a chore at the moment, a sustainer more than anything. But I know the life that can make food sweeter for me and with a bit o f luck I should be back in it soon. Growing food and liking it, and sharing that by growing and cooking it for as many others as possible. , Eric Pigeon

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where important decis~onsare having to be made with regard to how all the tmsic q communicate emfivety -' without losing the informal a t do u ~we, d 4:fhe c~ectives.~Also, in whatnway

a group of i'etailcrs want to grow? ; *.-t;?, . d *w There is a theoretical com~itmenr t6 ,

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vertical integration as the only way of .controlling the conditions of~roduction. 7%>&<*7 <: v&.< *1.e. we should involve ourselves ih the 1 growing, processing and Wanspwt of the The growth in the nu&; [ling 'wholin -- a-, food as well as the retailing. This i s idready done to a IimiMd extent with years has been remarkable, not only in what tfwy sell; h$flso in . plans for a cbllective farm being talked. owrate -- along d e m a t i c l i m . It is-aisfact& whkh A may be the most significant, 8s people's consciousness of the d q r @ ' ," . about, and small scale processing happdrt lng -for example peanut butter. But dl of adulteration of food grows, and moves are made to increase' such projects need financing, and we a@ h e number of outlets for nourishing food. Lizzie Vann, from the only just beginning to build up afinancia service cooperative (CENA) of the Federation of Northern w h o l e f d ' support system. Collectives gives a personal perspective on the gr There is a voluntary levy of 1%on she Shops. takings, which is estimated to amount to over Â£7A00a year. At present there are J large meetings every three months, whem WHOLEFOODS ARE unprocessed', i t least one person from every member foods, grown without synthetic f e ~ i l i h #hop is enc~uragedto attend. These harmma or penticides. Ifany processmetings are usually three day social ing i s done, nothing like preservat~es,. events, rotated around various locations mn-federated, a s during the last six emdliet~ts,colourings or flavourings is 5-1the no& (the last one was at Laurie* months a South Cbast, a Midlands, and a dded, and nothing of nuwitiQnal imw,, ton Hall in %otl%nd), with much discusSouthern Wholefoods Federation have tame is tdken away. sion of FkWC policy and direction, both all formed. But these are all relatively Most of the products in whoiefwd in large meetings, and informal workshop new and based along the same lines as shops are dried gminsl fpitand the Federation of Northern Wholefoods In between the large meetings, each nuts, as the shops cannot cope with Collectives, which is basically 50 shops region meets to work out more everyday perishable goods, but the definition apd cafes, and three warehouses in the. problems, offer support (both financid also incluk frwange meat and ~ r t of h England and ScotJand. The and otherwise), to the businesses involvanimal products, and o%anic fruit and H~~ the m4 havehad most coned, a ~ ~rganise d mutual benefits like vegetables. tact with, and i t s devei&ment i s i m iccountancy, cookery qnd nutrition, and Many Of the the portadt in any discussion of moves that ce-operative I ~ W C O U , ~ . north and south of England, and also are being made to cha&e the food Scotland and Wales, are ruq under the , Cena vstem Inthis counq. principle of direct representation, which At present the businem are divided Last E~~~~a financial workin practioal terms meam that all shop &ta five separate geographical regions, ' lng party was set up, with one person Metings are open; consensus must be M @ n gfrom Akrdeen and Qban in from each region to handle the levy, and reached in all decisions taken; surplus Scotland to Loughborough In Leices*rto suggest what volume of it is to be made from any business will not be shire. Set up in 1975 as agroup of about dealt with on a regional level, and what passed on to individual members* but ten shops and a prospective warehouse by the consensus of the whole Federatia will go towards the development of ' in Leeds, the Fedqration has grown At present, Cena, a service and inform* the business and the collectives and tion co-op set up in Leds gets Â£2 a fast and is thought by sdme , @markably food movement as a whole; and alL people tq have [wched a crucial stage, week for materials, and some of the levy shops must show a commitment to isused for a newsletter and the costs of coliective practice within the shop it' self by registeringiis a common ownership enterprise with ICOM (the 4ndw trial C m o n Ownership Mwernent). . Wage differentials are based solely on need and not skill and all types of jo are rotated on a time basis so that tendency towards specialisation i s resisted and skills are exchanged. , The attraction andproliferation of th collectively-runshops i s a reaction against the hierarchical and exploitative structure of most businesses. Working in a collective -i.e. an organisation where every worker has equal status - gives you the challenge and satisfaction of having full respon* .ibility for, and wntrol of, a retail business, along with the support, responsibility and growth of confidence h i e h , working equally with people implies. As with working in any 'alternative' . . shop, there i s a d1rdc.t means of contact with the consumer, thus there is . a stronger p o W m for influence than, say, on the street, or in p o I i W broadcasting.

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Although I have no personal exper-

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and effectively. ICOM is a Iong-establ'Aed organisathn

and growers once we become a-threat Under such conditions prices i n the promoting common oynetship of wholefmd shops will have to rise, untll 'xtsinesses and iAwlving many large com w m n-ompetitiw W+~IIsup-ems, such as Scott Bader Comm~nwealth markets, and the..mq& &bated argu-.U.,but during the p a t year individuals mcnt of co-operativp work situations nd co-operative businesses have &enx versus hierarchical efficiency will rear u q m e much more active in+& policyits ugly head again. M d maybe rwdlt m8king. Our growth in involveqtentwith in businesm fallhg apart, or t&ing on a ?em qan be seen as indicitave of our 'more efficientat and therefore theapw .5mcture, inorder keeppric& down W m i t m ~towards t democratic work hctures in general. in order twemaih competitive. Unless By registeringand being involved we haqe evolveda basic mmmiment to with ICOM w are formallsing the mweand agreement h u t the need for m n t awards worker control of the operative work situations, the whole .mmS of productim the ~ I W PY t-. movement will merely become second' an able way of workingzand this i$ mvk insatu~*ndc w e f a t i v e society. imporfdnt and integral Part of what C M (#yourcafing/fidng nei&bh& be seen as the Federation's polities It wholefood co-op'?). is important thatwe build up the strength I: is likely that the hmber of shops, of the co-cperatives/dlectives part of which have grodng rapidly in our working as wII a the wholefood last two years, will stabilise pretty soon side of it, if the shops aren'tgoing to in the north, m d the future direction fall back into ahierarchicd structure and~pqliticalsignified of the FNWC WhdefOd incre* the demand is uncemin, but hopefil. & really hope-$'@ such aq extent thet we become

FOOD COOP$, like so much else', more developed in the States than uer over here. Ellen Buckingham compares and describe8 the 'New Wwe' adicd CQ-OPS. IAVINGSPENT two years working in small food co-op in Fennyslvania and the dtowim two v m s In Oxford at the J h w &llw&e, I went back for seven to see h6w the food co-op movemenr had evolved there. Areas bf the S p 4th somwka& tft-w@nde&s such as Boston v d pan Francisco seem to be where most%f w more interesting co-ops are located. h e x localities are where the first of the at-Vietnam War cpops became estab#ed,and have a lot to show for their dl$ctjve prowth. These CO-OPS h' &en actively encouragin5 $e gro%'of ther co- s. Competition i s happening 4 t h : d E W en the capitalist shops. 'or tnstance, The Cambridge Food Cop in'Bostoq mainly sprang out of the l a w n Food Co-op and smaller prefder c w s . Its ideal w a to attract a ' k e r n group of W b r i d g e residents 8th a mixed cutturkl and ecmmic k#igr~nd.It itartkd o#t with a W QOO loan from the Cambridee t o c k ~ i t i e sproject in 1975 and al5@h& it is % si&.of a supwmarket .has the friendly .atmosphere of a cornluqity shop. Prices are kept on average ' 5% below the big supexmattats because 1 f a workin8 membership of aver 3000. m s e the shop i s just trying to break m it suffers when rip-offs . . ~verely ,

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occ"r, which is almoit inevitable with a group that size. The CFC sells food that ~ e w l want e not solely wholefoods - thire6y managing to encourage a Wide cross-section of the Cambridge population to become 'involved in the c o ~ r a t i u e movement. A special nutrition committw (one of th; many CFC committees which form . thtthckbone of the group) does search , into all the food in the shop and posts the results so that members can be informed, but they are allowed to decide fcir them$elves wttat they eat. Metnh~rsspend 2% hours a month helping to run the co-op. They bag grains, cut meat and cheese, run the information desk, sweep floors and are encouraged to use their initiative in following any activity which furthers the purpose of the co-op. CFC is also involved in specid pr& grammes in which members can fulfil their work requiremen& The E l d m , F d Van makes ~heduledtttps to areas where the elderly live. The 'Playspot' i s the Co-op's child-minding service, ,wd there is a programme to teach ~nglishto Spanish speaking neighbpurs. The board of nel cofnmittee are voluntt%rs. They c h w wf~q Will be theL pqid m a n e ~wmsible fW day-tq-ifq ...

it would be good to have to have more communication with them, so that we can share our experience, and they can learn from our mistakes(!). Many individual shops, both in the north and south are very active within their local community, and often on a larger scale. Some shops were actively involved in the a i l e Solidarity (boycotting all Chilemgoods) and windscale camearlier this Year, and some co- , ordinate mearch into 41 aPeC8 of foO&nutrition, politics, distrjbution co-operathe structure ek. We have a iot to teach each other, and there i s a lot to be learnt from examples tike the People's Food System in America. With more communication and self-criticism we should go a long Way towards understanding the Way, towards changing the society which has &en usjunk f w d ~ d e v e ~ t h i n g associated with iL

Lizzie Van

decisions, ordering, book-keeping, coordination of shop operatiom and volunteer work. Thisco-op is one example of our 200 'New Wave' co-ops originating from the post-Vietnam war decade. The differenc~ from th6'old wave' beina that thev demand that members cork, thereby passing on savings direct., not rebated, and encouraging member control. These coc p s are mt aiming to be highly centralised whereas the 'old wave' (past World War 11) co-ops are trying to become more and more centnlised and techaocratic in, the interests of the customrs. They see their function as purely an economic OF. 'New Wave' co-ops have wider visions of fundamental changes in society and want to upset controlling institutions and/or replace them with non-powerful people-oriented organisations. A prime example of this is taking place in the San Francisco Bay area. There has been much activity with food co-ops dividing and growing all o F r the area. Co-ops around San Francisco are depending less and less upon commercial food producers and processors t~ stock their shelves. Cdlec$iveVy run milk companies, vegetable wholesalers, bakeries, cheese makers, wqehouses and herb wholesalers are a few. Transporting of goods is organised by trucking collectives and the San Francisco Common Operatin8 Wmhous. Repairs of trucks are carried out by the trucking collectives y d collective garyes. Refrigeration rpA

T h e production and sale of commodities is t h e m a i n objective of t h e capitalist economy. Political groups m a y initiate campaigns around commodities t h a t are particularly horrendous o r particularly good. These campaigns have b o t h a real and a symbolic propaganda effect a n d encourage consumer awareness. John Clark looks a t some recent campaigns. MOST WOULD agree that a key problem which radical groups face particularly in the western world - is not so much the researching and analysis o f information but its dissemination. I t is all too easy and unfortunately too common for a group to spend months - years sometimes - researching an issue to produce no more than a pamphlet and perhaps a few articles for alternative magazines. This has a purpose, undeniably. The information is ammunition for the radicals who read those magazines and who frequent the radical bookshops where those pamphlets are sold. But i t clearly is not good enough to circulate the information round and round in a small (percentagewise) clique of middle-class intellectuals. Someone somewhere has to take it on themselves to break out of this introversion, produce material aimed at the Daily Mirror rather than the Guardian reader, and put some effort into building up a forum outside the alternative scene. Some organisations have made enormous progress in popularising their politics. For example aspects o f the women'movement are gradually creeping into everyday life and the anti-Nazi League is making great progress in catching the attention of the general youth.

On a more modest scale, commodity campaigns and political packaging have attempted to appeal to the general public asconsumers. The politics of food come home to people - if they are alerted to the facts - every time they see those products in their local supermarkets. That's the theory at least and i t seems fairly successful in practice. People are more likely to take an interest in something they come across every day than a subject which seems a million miles removed from them.

Baby Killers Perhaps the farthest reaching commodity campaign we've seen so far has been the 'Baby-killer action' - the campaign against Nestles and other manufacturers of powdered milk for baby food. This issue was first 'exploded' by the New Internationalist and quickly taken up by the Sunday Times and other European and Third World newspapers. The charity organisation, War on Want, brought out a pamphlet called 'The Baby Killers' which describes the Third World activities of the leading baby food manufacturers. It describes the lavish advertising campaigns designed to persuade mothers to use powdered milk rather than breast feed, i t tells of the use of saleswomen dressed in

pseudo-nurses uniforms to appear more convincing, and it gives accounts of the deaths and diseases of babies whose impoverished mothers, believing bottlefeeding to be better, gave over-diluted powdered milk because this was all they could afford. The War on Want pamphlet was translated into German by a Swiss group. Its publication then led the group into a protracted legal battle with Nestles. The action group lost the court case but were given minimal fines. The judge said he sympathised with the group but that, technically, they had committed libel. The most high-powered campaign has been that conducted in the States, co-ordinated by INFACT (The Infant Formula Action Coalition) and the ICCR (The Interfaith Centre for Corporate Responsibility). Their campaign has relied on two main tactics. Using shareholders' meetings to generate publicity and interest, and the organisation of a boycott of Nestle products. Th? boycott has grown impressively. Even the governor of the state of Minnesota has joined in and directed state agencies to stop buying Nestles products. Demonstrations have been held all over the country. In Boston a 'Nestca' party was organised with Nestles being dumped into the harbour. In San Francis-

Undercurrents 31

, -

co apopconcert with Peter Yarrow of Peter Paul and Mary raised money and launched an outburst of Nestle boycott songs. With the assistance of the ICCR, the Sisters of the Precious Blood, a Daytonb a d order of Roman Catholic nuns sued the Bristol Myers company in which they held 1000 shares, charging it with making 'false and misleading statements' to stock-

on sm 1 single-family farms (shambas) which re organised into co-operatives. Great - we thought! Must get some. Allowing for the usual delays of getting it together, getting it through meetings, getting the bread for it,,and getting it to Oxford, i t took about one and a half years for this impulse buying to materialise itself in the form of crates: af instant coffee in our storeroom. And as Soon as it came, it went. It sold out in just a few weeks - all Â£25 worth of it (and a pound was worth a lot of money in those days if you were buying coffee). So we thought about it (for six months or so) and decided to go 'the wh'ole way' and order a vast amount (i.e. one ten thousandth of total UK coffee imports!). We placed our order for 2%tonnes of the coffee - rushed around finding the money for it (we needed some Â£1,500 of which over Â£8,00 came from Interest free loans in response to advertisements). After a few months (when we still hadn't heard from Tanzania) one person went to check things out. He found that the factory -although jointly owned by die Tanzadbn government and the Bukoba Co-operative Union - was not all, that we thought it was. It transpired that the factory hadbeen unable to find its feet after a vary atorrrf ' start in life and, to avoid closing down, (t had taken on Nestles to manage tfie factory. The two top people there were European Nestles executives and the fee that Nestles was charging for t h i s was more than the wage bill for the whole of the Of the 80-strong Even so the factory was only operating at half capacity and much of the coffee soid in East ~ f r i c aunder a '~escafe' label rather than the factory's own label (hence if q d yhen the fattory and Nestles pan ways, consumers will, out of habit, continue to buy Nescafe - but then it won't be produced by .the Tanzanian factory, butprobably in a Nestle's owned factory elsewhere). , This was our first ideological dilemma. Could we sell it as politically pure coffee ' anymore? Was ifour intention to pander to the middle classes by selling morally pure coffee, anyway? Shouldn't we instead concentrate on using the coffee to politicise the c~nsumers? But in that case why not just sell conventional Brazilian coffee - it's cheaperanyway? Those debates caused us a few head-

tions of tea workers there * organised boycotts of South African holders about its marketing of baby milks. ' produce (outspan Oranges etc) and Chilean foodstuffs (British dockers are An out-of-court settlement was reached, now blacking all cargoes of Chilean with the company agreeing to distribute food) copies of a report by the Sisters on baby * The Alushock campaign of Germany milk abuse to 'Milk Nurses' - company in which chocdate wrapped in consales staff who are dressed as nurses ventional aluminium foil was sold in i n Jamaica. Documentaries produced for television , packagingwhich described briefly the cocoa and bauxitetrades (for manuhave aided the mobilisation of public facture of chocolate and aluminium opinion. 'The Formula Factor", which " tesp-ctively), and the unfair tariffs on was produced by CBC with the assistan* rocessed goods imported from the of INFACT has already been screened ird World. , coast to coast in Canada, twice, and will shortly be distributed nationally TO describe all these their successes, in the U.S. The programme i s seen as a limitations objectives and failures - , follow-up to thelBottle Babies', and would me& writing a book, and that since it focuses on Jamaica, fts impact might not be such a bad idea - it would has more impact on American audiences, make a useful campaigning textbook. For INFACT are also engaged in their the present, thou*, I'll move on with own research. They are working on a just $he passing mention of these more survey of the problems associated with notable commodity actions of recent bottle feeding in poor families in the yea% US. The project involves interviews with For the rest of this article Iwill des-, 3000 mothers, and results are expected cribe the experiences of our collective next year. Uhuru - in Oxfotd, and in particular the coffee campaign which we organised in, Meanwhile, elsewhere. 1976 and which (he says with 99% The 'Battle against the Bottle' has certainty) is about to arrive bat been the most protracted and widespread scene. action ever waged against a food manufacturer and it is well worth a close me Oxford Connection study. The Uhllru collective started about At different times other commodity 5% years ago as a 'Third World~shop' campaigns have been waged including, which sold wholefoods and had the idea notably:ofstartinga cafe. Now we've ditched all * acampaign inUK and E~~~~~for the the handicrafts we used to sell and we've guaranteed future of the commongot involved in all sorts ofwmmunity wealthsugar producerson U K ' entry ~ and political issues - not just the Third to the EEC; World. a tea campaign in UK, Holland, Austraearly days Tessand Iwwtto ,n lia and elsewhere aimed chiefly at Tanzania. While we were'tfrre; we Blade Brookebond for its dealings with Sri cry ^ichmade Lanka and for die appalling condiwnrfcof^'&a,d grown instapt coffee -e< * -, , -\.

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o sell politics - not- whatever that ft to the middle-ofbuy the coffee if they thought the onb difference was the wrapper. If people thought it was morally pure (and in spite of its faults it was a hell of a lot betpr ideologically than conventional instant cpffee) then that was the sugar on the pill, as it were. To many custom-' ers, perhap, k i n g our coffee rather t h a n ' w f t wis a meaningful act in itself As far as we were concerned it

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only had any significance If they read

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it (although, of course, it h ped us financially to have brisk sales So we shot over the rst round of hurdles and ran headlong into the most intense storm of overwork Ihave ever known. There were two of us working full time;-full pelt on the campaign, twoOthers in the collective who were highly iholved and a number of others who made invaluable contributions. One of the causes of the work crisis was worrying about making ends meet The two of us who were full-timers decided to bring in an additional income from freelance journalism (we were comrnitted, too, to the things we were writing about). We overdid it a bit, and instead of losing money (as we feared) we made wer Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ200profit in a year. Out of the work crisis arose the second and, for the campaign, fatal series of ditqnmas. Isn't it the Third World activistsin the main whoare buying the coffee - not exactly the wo/man in the street -especially as the coffee is more expensive than meat? Does it have any chance of changing people's ideas anyway? Why sell the coffee at all when it is encourafing Ttiird WorM farmers to depend on cash cropsand when, in any event, coffee is probably harmful to the cohsupr's health?Is the immense amount of hard work needed run the campaign justified in the light of all our doubts? We discussed these at length in the collective (and Incidentally by that time Uhum had given rise to a daughter collective-- Campaign Co-op which

handled tht coffee, jwmdism etc

.. Undercurrent* 31 . . .,.

a separation which continues to the present day), Idon't know what would have happened if the price of coffee hadn't shot up to astronomic heights on the world market. As it was, a decision about what to do was almost theoretical because we all agreed thatit would be suicide to order coffee at that time (thinking that the price had reached its peak by the autumn of '76 in fact the price continued to rise steeply until spring *of '77). So we announced our decision to pull out of the coffee campaign and we were greeted'with uproar from scores of let-down supporters. All those keen activists who kept as quiet as mice when things were going smoothly (when we were working our baits off, wondering whether there was any point to what we were doing) suddenly found their voices. The coffee campaign was. the best thing they had ever been involved with - they told us that it had changed their way of thinking. With the coffee, they insisted, they were able to approach an audience they had not been able to communicate with before about the Third World. But it was too late. The coffee campaign is no more, we replied.

Pdby .

the packagingand were a

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Where are we at now? Some of the keener ones asked if there was a hance of restarti'ng the campaign and so'- for the past 18 months or so (there have been getting on for a dozen meeti& in Oxford, Leeds, Manchester and London to talk about the pros and cons. Now under fie auspices of the

specially formed Campaign Co-op (London) (linked to the Lewisham World Shop) the coffee campaign is about to roll again (he says again with 99% certainty). Nick, who helped a great deal witfixthe '76 campaign, and myself, are involved in the new effort, so be- , tween us we can share our experiences and our reservations. The ideological problems have not been forgotten -but we'll try and get round them somehow. Perhaps our two major doubts have been:Was the campaign worth the immense amouit of hard work? (We now know that there are a lot of ways of cutting comers to reduce this work.) Was the message getting through? (This time x/e hope to have money from trusts and charities to be able to employ someone specifically for the education and follow-up work. We also have some teachers in the group who've got some good ideas for intro- ' duclng the campaign into schools.) We know that the campaign's not perfect. It will be a long time before the Campaign Coffee is the shelves of your local supermarket (and perhaps the supermarkets will be very different institutions 6en). But we feel that to wait for the ideal campaign - ideologically flawless - is to wait for Godot.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

., .

Back in Oxford, the Uhuru collective are continuing with the idea of political packaging but with nothing as ambitious (yet) as the coffee campaign. We limit ourselves tog etting biodegradable cellophane bags specially printed with ~r0~aEaIIda about for examole:

EEC targetprice. The levy would bethe difference between the world and EEC price. I n the reverse case, which is all toofg' common a t present, EEC prices will be higher than those on the world market. To sell V C produce, exporters are paid an export refund (or restitutton) to bring the price down to world levels. Once . again thelarger organisations in farming with exporting agencies are obviously i n a far better position to take advantage of such arrangements, the small farm@ having t o be content with local sales or selling to an exporter.

J e r e m y Jones a t t e m p t s to d e m y s t i f y t h e w o r k i n g s of t h e Common Agricultural Policy T h e C A P Components The CAP is composed o f two main policies. The most well known i s the pricing policy. The lesser known being the structural policy. T h e Pricing Policy Each year price levels are set for pro ducts covered by the CAP (those not covered at present include potatoes, mutton, lamb -eggs and poultry are controlled only at the import price point). A targetprice i s set for each product. This is based on the expected market price. In some cases a guide or basic price is set which serves the same purpose. An intervention price is hso decided This represents the lowest price farm products need be sold for. When the price on the open market falls below this level government-run bodies called intervention agencies guarantee to buy up that ford. The price paid is a fixed proportion o f the target price. For fruit and vegetables it is roughly 45%, for olive oil roughly 95%. The original aim was to handle surplt es in times o f good harvests. However, i t is now becoming increasingly clear that the stores are having t o cope with regulc surpluses o f certain products such as butter, beef, skimmed milk powder and wine. The agencies cannot therefore resell when prices are high to cover their costs because continual surpluses keep the price low (by CAP standards - not necessarily consumer standards). I n fact they usually have to sell the food at a loss (more o f that later). In the case o f fruit and vegetables there are no 'mountains' because the producer i s paid the intervention price and will either dump the food or plough it back in the ground, unless it can be fed to animals.

Imports Various systems are used to protect EEC-produced food from competition by cheaper imports on the world market. The main principle works as follows:A thresholdprice is set for each product, this being the lowest price at which imports may be allowed into the EEC. The general effect is that once transport costs are added, the imports will sell at o r above the target price. Where the world price is lower than the thresfiold price, an import levy is made t o raise it to the threshold price. The levy is known as the variable import levy as world prices are prone to fluctuation, which the levy must be flexible t o deal with. A more complex system applies t o some products. The import levy will be based on a sluicegate price or reference price and transport costs may be ignored. Any o f these systems result i n imports only being cheaper when EEC produce is fetching more than the target price. The agencies mainly buy only large amounts o f food. They may also not wish to collect from more remote areas. Small farmers are thus forced t o sell to wholesalers at lower than the intervention price. Larger farms and agribusinesses on the other hand may deal direct with the agencies ordrive harder bargains with wholesalers on account o f their scale o f operation. So the concept o f a set price is altered by the scale of farming being operated. Exports I f world prices are higher than those o f the EEC, farmers may wish t o export, forcing up EEC prices in the process. T o combat this an export levy may be charged, resulting in an exporter receiving only the equivalent o f the current

E x c e p t i o n s t o t h e rule The foregoing is, in principle, the basis for dealing with agricultural products that are covered by the CAP. Some have schemes peculiar t o that product, such as sugar. I n this case the intervention agencies will only buy a certain amount at the intervention price. Further amounts will be paid for at a lower price and an upper limit is set, after which no further sugar is purchased.

Who sets t h e prices? Proposals on farm price levels are made out by the EEC Commission staff. They consult with, i.e. are n o t bound by the opinions of, trade associations, farmers unions,khe Consumer Consultative Committee (who have representatives from all EEC countries) and those they deem appropriate. One crucial group who feel thew ?re not included are those who produce the food - the farmworkers. A t the 1976 Congress o f the European Confederation o f Agricultural Workers' Unions the President o f the British i n Europe there NUAAW said this - ' is a real lack o f consultation with farmworkers. We feel that we are very junior partners i n the role o f determining agricultural policy. Farmers organisations are consulted all along the line9?The final decisions are made by the nine farm ministers at the Council o f Ministers. They have been briefed by their own advisers. The Council attempts t o come to unanimous decisions. This often proves extremely difficult given the divergent interestseach Minister may be pursuing for their own country. The ultimate effect is that power over agricultural policy is now vested in a centralised system that is unaccountable t o both those who produce and those who consume the food for which prices are set.

...

H o w has t h e CAP a f f e c t e d prices? I n thiscountry, prices have risen as our previous access to world markets has been altered by CAP policies on imports. This is not t o say that world prices are as cheap as they used t o be. But i n relation t o EEC prices the world market is predominantly cheaper. If a world price for an EEC product were rated as 100, in the year 1975-76, prices for the equivalent EEC food would be;-

Undercurrents : d % ~

iehcy o f farmingSmalt-Kite schemes The policy aims to improve farmers' 3'0' 'kimwd mi'k haw b prompted u f i d the$AP ~ and ' and f a ~ w o ~ ~ r s l by in&.~ing 226. Otive oil 207. Beef & veal 156. these are the main ones:the efficiency of farming. byever, hi Rice 137. Eggs 131. Maize 128.. the moves towards larger ecopomics of 1) Help to d e m i s e farms - farms Barley 124. Pork 113. Sugar 107. scale and the introduction 0 mom judged-to have 'good potential' are given so, although prices havenot fluctuatmechanization the farmworker in access sloans and is given Imuch from year to yew they are genparticular has not seen wages rise ir for beef productio&&pite ally at a higher level than if the CAP line with either an industrial cdunter- , surpluses of it), and first refusal of land ere not so'protectionistand bought part or with the increase in profitabilf r Â retired ¡ " ore on the world market Reasons for ity of larger-scale farming. In fact in i s are given later. Prices will'remain 2, EncOYr*ment @? retire highly mechanised Britain a farmwork. gh while present CAP policy onwarand 65*amotfedonal' er$' mihimum wage in 1977 was Â£39Th iteed prices ~ n . '!luying in of surpluses pension o a lump sum if they give up fact is that the efficiencylis really the afs as i t i s . farming. efficiency of capital that is employed. he s i n i ~ l u ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 3)~ lnfordtion and training cvufles with less labour a greater return i s made for fmmrs and farmworkers about on capital. This i s hot necessarily the The struttura miicy of the CAP sets modern methods and alternatives to most high yielding form of agriculture ~tto increase the. efficiency of farming farm work. in terms of quality or quahtity of food. f the'reorganisation of its methods.) Higher degress of mechanisation 'ithin the, EEC there are a wide range 4) Aid to hill and mountain farmers require more energy inputs such as imF methods in fhe different countries and in the form of special @antsand extra ported oil and fertilisers for the prachelp in modernisation. This aid has e n om region to region. For example, in tice of monoculture that larger farms fairly marginal compared to the possiritain there is a greater degree of predominantly practice. These are repchanisiition and larger farm units bilities that it holds out for food'producplacing an energy source, people, of ian in the rest of the EEC. In West tion. there i s m shortage. More people ermany two out of three farmers are 5) fmp&redmarketing through new on the land would mean less profits art-time and have small farms. France systems o f fad distribution. though if a decwt wage were paid, as a mixture of large, rich grain farms \ Ironic?ly the CAP price policy has something that is not likely to occur. i d small, poor farms. The CAP orthor helped keep many small farmers in The structural policy has encouraged oxy is that large, highly rnechanised 'busings through its high guaranteed agribusiness to step in and cobsolidate i n n s are more efficient and that Small prices. This is hardly surprising ~uftsider. its position from ~rodu'ctionto diitrii n n s need to be reorganised to wit fftis bUti0h. Modernisation is another way attern. ing the significant force of the mall . fvws of France in particular. Much, of saying 'I'ationalisation', a much-used SOfar the CAR price policy has taken has W n made their lobbying Power word in the world of high finance. rst place in terms of money and effort and this may reftect the comparatively Farms get bigger - owned by fewer he governments of individual countries small steps taken by the structural 'pople/distribution and processing are ave financed and set up most of the poticy. 'modernised' and go the same way. Aemes to alter the structure and efficLess and less individuals have a stake in agricultureand it becomes another industry, the 'criteria being applied become financial not food needs or the working conditions of farmworkers. Shareholders' interestsbecome more important than consumers' or workers' opinions. What i s developing* is a two-tier system in the EEC, a lower tier of the small farmer supported by higher guaranteedprices and the upper tier consisting of agribusiness with coptrol over all stages of agriculture from growing and processing to distribution and exporting.

The

pound and MCA's

Although there is a common policy on agriculture in the EEC, as yet there is no sign of monetary union or a Euro-currency. To keep agricultural, prices at %setlevel all over the EEC, a complex system of 'green' currencies had to be introduced to somehow adjust prices to the currency strengths and weaknesses of individual countrtej' Currency. The standard set to base this on i s called the unit o f account (UA). TMs was originally based on the US dollar in terms of gold. In 1962 the origihal UA was 1UA: 1 US dollar: 0.88 grammes of gold. Since then gold has risen and the dollar has fallen, Now an added refinement is made; the .value of tfrt UA in measured agaimi the 'joint float' or 'snake' of the, clirrencies of Fr&ze, Wtet Germany Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium.

Undercurrents 31" *

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quality of the, soil. mere is considerable; scope for moving production from country to country 'or farmingsector to make the most profit from the ECA'~.

Repercussions ofjfte CAP ,d

vance to any other EEC traded products. Ifcshould be adjusted to match d u e the P O the at market exchange rates. This has been done several times since joining the EEC but in general has lagged behind the falling value of the Â£ Between 1973 and 1977 the Â£fel by 40% while the green pound was devalued by only 20%. This is eesentially a political manoeuvre by the gwernment, as each devaluation of the green pound increases food prices; the consumer lobby is thus being considered more than the farming one which stands to gain from it (maybe this wifl change now that we have Farmer Jim as Prime Minister!). In Germany the opposite situation prevails, the mark beingstrongand the green mark not being revalued, which means higher prices for the farmers there. The upshot of this system is that , although food products are priced at acommon UA level, e.g. wheat intervention price being 131 UA's, the different currency values demand that a compensating mechanism be introduced. This will stop the* imports from one EEC country to anofher undermining the agricultural economy of the country on t e receiv irtg end. A set of taxes and subsidies known as monetary compensatory . units (ECA'S) is used to effect thisThe MCA's raise or lower prices to .ensure that any food will be the same price throughout the EEC. For exampie, if British butter became cheaper through the Â£fallin in value, exports of it would be taxed by an MCA that brought it up to the price in the recipient country. In the reverse case 1subsidy MCA would be given to countries wishing to export butter J Britain if their price was higher d e to their currency being stronger. i-x i s complex system cost the EEC a total of roughly E250 million in '1976;.i3ritain receives roughly Â£40 million yearly due to government reluctance to devalue the green Bound. Our EEC partners are upset by this strategy. In contrast, both 1 West Germany (strong currency and an importer) and Ireland (weak currency and exporter) contribute

M~~~ &the c A p has been with the suvluses. Diwram 1 showsbst how big they are, what it costs to store them and associated Costs. The figures for days of supply k based on how long they - i ~ take to contun,A ifno other, supply was available. In 1976 the total EEC pay t for all s l s a n d Â£2,06 million - or Â£for eve,, oerson in the EEC That doesn'teveh take account high prices consumefs Pay gum'edwice'wthe low level of wages paid to farmworker's. The skimmed powder mountain attempts is worth more have examination. been made to Numerous disposeof

it and hide the embarrassment of the continuing saga of its overproductioq. One way was to *bsidiassales Of it animal feed manufacturer;. This led the Assistant General Secretary of the AEUW to say in March 1976, 'They save a lotbf time and storage space if^'Nt connected the cows' udders to the cows' 'Wths'?

pood prod"ction diplomacy

and

We shouldbe by the ment that surpluses are a boon in a world of widespread starvation. All food market has be paid for and the world pot based On altruism,but in the search 'for profit. - America had for years the capacity to produce a su@uMf many agriicultural products. The surplus often ended up on the world market and prices would lower as th^sesurplusesgfewlarger. This resulted in the squeezing+the agricuip a l ecor,omies of E u r ~ s o u n t r i e s , particularly France, M e t a M o d ~ t i o n costs were higher due to smaller-scale farming. This was a v e obvious ~ rimon to set up a CAP that protects the EEC market against US competition. Having done this, European agriculture could expand through having a captive markex with guaranteed prices. The result has been that prospects for financial gain opened up and this is when European ' capital diversified into agriculture aid, ' helped shape the direction of CAP policy. While guaranteed prices remain high, overproduction will continue. Whatever sector of the CAP produces the best return on capital will be @at which attracts most investment. Under present policy, ^airy production is favoured. There is a ruth by agribusine<Ãto invest in Irish dairy land where prices are now reaching 3 times that of British land2 'f>.atternsof enfployment an@develop- ' ment re thus changed by the cetftralised po$<;iesof both the-CAP and Euro-

1..

~nother'~minous sideline i s the manipulation of world food supplies. With a CAP policy of encouraging selfsufficiency in agriculture and protectionist measures t6 exclude imports, the developing world has less chance to export those foods which it can produce ^^Y-It then finds it hard to gain imp0rt Wrrency to pay needs from the developed world. Sub Gdisd fdTrom EEc and us forces local food production to decline. Eventually dependence is established these new sources. Once this i s operational the potential for usingfood as a weapon of diplomacy is wide open.

TheEarl US Secretary in 1974, Butz, had of thisAgriculture to3ay - 'Food is a weapon; it is now one of the principal weapons in our negotiating kit? In ,1972 food aid from us was SIA. ed by 50%;Life and death for millions of peoplwesting in the hands of ode gwernment. The US paid 60 billion dollars in 1972 to keep 15%of farmland out of production thus causing food to Soybeans, a sourceof good rotein for the starving, account for 95%of world sales in the control of America. In 1973 an export embargo, w a imposed on them?ls this the way theEEC will control developing countries that are fighting for better prices for raw materials theindustrialikd EEC consumes so rapaciously? , World food shortages are unnecessary. The US and EEC have the capacity to high saks and wrpluses of ,many foods. The criteria that dictate d a b i l i t y are not what the world needs at aprice it can afford. Food availability is contrdlled by international capital and its search for the best profit. Shortages force up prices;the only reason the EEC .has such obvious ov rproduction is the CAP prices policy. I?this were to change to a bw of guarmtetdprices, production would fall. In the final analysis there is no point in the consumer calling for reforms of CAP policy or the farmworker pressing for wage rises. kn the short term thew may ease the respective burdens of the CAP. In the long term there must& alliance between the condm era and all those involved in agriculture and food production to oust the forms of political and economic control that :deny ds and, leave them powerless against centralised policy making t h a t suits only the needs of forces of tional and European capital.

Jeremy Jones

References 1 me L e r k e r , suptember 1976 2me Bis Red Food Diwy.1978 3 Guardian,Augun 21,1978 4 me Big Bis Usd ~ e Food d Daw, Diary, 1978 Other urces ~aed: ich .June,Ãˆ97 common

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OPERATION FLOOD isthe world's largest agricultural development project; it aims to treble Indian milk production over the next seven - years. But, as Steve Godfrey reports, this 'White Revotution"promises to be as little help to the poor as the Green Revolution was before it. 'FLOOD', which i s built on an earlier scheme organised through the World Food Programme, is made possible by a massive 'gift' o f dried skimmed milk and butter oil from Europe's dairy mountains. Once i n India this produce will be reconstituted and sold through the Indian Dairy Corporation (IDC) in urban areas, building demand by compensating for the disruptive fluctuations in supply which characterisescurrent local production. The second stage is the use by the IDC of the counterpart funds - receipts from these sales - in a sustained programme t o build up Indian milk production. It does this by subsidising the price offered to farmers, and by grants and loans to develop the infrastructure of the industry-breeding programmes, veterinary services, transport, and marketing networks

The White Revolution The White Revolution i s not intended fdr the urban poor: at 2 rupees (1 l p ) a litre they do not have the purchasing power t o benefit from new milk supplies. So much is admitted by the architect of the project Verghese Kurien, Chief Executive of the IDC: 'Milk is an expensive source o f protein as compared, for example, with ipulses. So what i s wrong ifthe farmer sells it to the urban rich and gets money? I have no compunction aboutmaking money from the urban rich'. But neither will it benefit the rural poor. A fundamental problem of the Indian dairy industry is overstocking coupled with low yields - India has 18% of the world's cattle but produces only 1/2% o f its milk and beef output. The sale of milk from cowsis a major source of cash income to the landless millions. The higher prices offered for milk by the IDC will encourage the keeping of more cows on already overstocked communal land, causing a further reduction in yields. New veterinary services will ironically compound the problem by keeping more cows healthy without providing more land for them to feed off. Richer peasants will be affected differently by 'Flood'. Their ownership of some land enables them t o grow cattle fodder - rice, wheat - and they will be able to benefit from IDC grants to improve their productivity. These farmers will be encouraged by the Â¥*

higher milk prices t o divert land from grain and pulse production to dairy production, thus raising the price of these present staples of the Indiap diet This will be directly harmful t o both rural and urban poor at the margins o f existence: for them 'Flood' means less food.

Europe and the Third World 'One sixth o f milk output is already surplus to requirements, while total ,consumption of milk is declining' ( ~ 6 y Jenkins, President o f EEC, July 1978.) Withbut the dairy mountains i n Europe 'Operation flood' would not exist: 'Flood' is ascheme which the EEC hopes 'other developing countries will follow (the) example'. Europe's contribution is 4% the cost a small price to pay for an expedient way o f reducing the embarrassment of surplus which threatens a crisis i n the political cornerstone of the community, the Common Agri'culturil Policy. The problems of surplus have arisen because of a post-war decline i n the and inindemand for dairy ' crease in the demand for beef. (How demand is created needs investigation too). The CAP prevents any simple solution t~ this --such as lowering the , price of m i l k i n relation t o beef - by tying shop prices t o prices paid to far, mers. Small dairy farmers are blamed for lobbying for higher prices, but they need them t o stay alive in competition with larger holdings. 60% of community milk is produced by farmers with more than twenty COWS, and these are increasingly farms held by agribusiness concerns. So CAPSin itself - means a good price for dairy products and consequent overproduction, surplus and fat profits for the larger producers. The

smalt fanner doet~'t.'WirKlthe? hyf'the Milk ~ a h t i n Board g nolonger wants t o collect milk i n the remoter 'parts o f Wales aiia the North-West. Whatever the social dislocations of agricultural production from which small farmers suffer, large farmers can functionmore profitably and comfbr&lv behlnd the political and ece smokescreenthey create. Disposing o f milk mountains througn schemes such as 'Flood', is only one way i n which European milk production distorts agricultural development in Third World countries away from the interests and needs o f the poor. 50% o f feedgrain and concentrates for European cattle are made up from 'imports - sorghum, oil seed, tapioca and groundnuts - o f which India and other developing countries are major suppliers. These cash crops compete with, and displace, food grown for local consumption. The desperate irony of this state of affairs was illustrated when in the recent drought and famine in the Senegal, oundnuts continued to be exported feed Europe's cattle, while dried skimmed milk was sent as emergency food for the starring (many of whom lacked the enzymes to digest it, but that is another story).

Who Wins? The whole programme makes sense only as a marketing exercise. The British Prime Minister understands this perfectly well. As afarmer himself with over 60 head o f cattle, he addressed a dairy cooperative in Gujurat: 'Now I,speak t o you as a farmer. You need good stock. You need t o take good care o f your animals. You need to feed them well. Because you only get out o f a cow what you put into kt'. To make this possible British and European agribusiness will be anxious to take the lion's share of the technology of 'Flood' which requires at least $4001~1 worlh o f hardware as a start. For these companies, whatever the effects dairy production has on Third World develop ment, it will be profitable for them. Unilever for example, is one of the three largest food companies in the world including large holdings i n India, and they have a stake in every level of European dairy food production - farming , processing marketing and their accom panyiw technologies. ~ uthere t is an impressive list of losers to go with the success story. European consumers, facing high prices and the bill for overproduction: dairy surpluses cost Â£860 i n 1976. Europe's many small farmers lose too. Their long-term interests re not met by a policv - CAP leaves an increaiingly disparate two-tier system of them and agribusiness. Finally, although they should be first,, there is the poor majority inlndia ant other Third World countries who are threatened by dairy development witt further im~overishment.^tho cares?

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SPUD TIEEAT The potato, t h e innocent spud no longer, is n o w a target for the plant breeder, t h e chemical factories and the processing machines --not to , give us a tasty, versatile and spending and maximise prof 'American farmers not to plant wheat on 20% of the US'Swheatlands - and jn the same Act set up a 'philanthropic' under threat. From foreigners what's . ; Grain Bank to feed-the-starving-millions. more. Immigrating. 'Colorado Beetle', *erthd~satleastthe ec" nlOwr&ltt This was a sop to fob off the Third exclaims the poster. 'A ddestructive has tried to make sense of The richWorld and the liberals. In fact, as the foreign pest of potatoes. It cap sortie. er and more human-centred traditions& E E C CAP ~~ reservescan be a in ships, aircraft, cars or luggage etc.' socialism have in recent years been good way of controlling the market too: As someone who grows potatoes bn a s t u d h s l silent. ~ Only a weak and Overwine lakes, butter mountains, and this field scale Ifind it both amusine and . stretched NUAAW (workers' union) h ~ * year a potato mountain. The PMB is disgusting that so much space and effort maintained any interest. Mostly it has moving over to an EEC type system. It is put to warning the Gfeat British - held on to strti es which while beingis offering to buy up to 10%of any Public of the least of the sped's enemies. very importantike the tied cottage M 'J B farmer's crops to maintain In this article Iwant to suggestthat the issue) nolonger strike fear into the prices. So all this shows us that the eco fate of the spud illustrates the poverty hearts of Food Capitalism. s mption is utterly wrong. There i s not just of 'official' (i.e. State, scientific , n o b o r & e . ln fact TO capitalists there ' ' and capitalist) thinking about Food and \ F~~ i s a tendency to OVERPRODUCTION. -.J,J,~ F~~~ rood Agriculture, but also more recent an*Meanwhile elsewhere in the world there ses. Let me explain what Imean Kids' book has it that food is the small prtblem of starvation. is produced by farmers. It's a natural. : The ecology and particularly the =if. But no matter, ,that lot are so poor they sufficiency movement has certain unalchemy. and potatoes' cannot afford to buy lourt rood. Still theisoil. POPin the seed. and ridge critically accepted assumptions. Notably csn alwayspretend tohelpthem. *em. Ljft them. Sell them. TO. kid that organic methods of food production be potam Instit,,& in pew . thinking emphasises method. It has a are best and that's the ekd of the matter. s studiously developing new spud certain value if we consider primitive (I must add that I'm not making totally strains as though there aren't already \ gardening economies. The trouble is we uwomradely criticism. Our farm uses with 5 , ~ . don't live in such a world. Even a recent organic methods.) So it i s assumed that spud history illustrates the point. In the organic spuds are best. But what does Agriculture or Money Culture?. 1930's ag"'ulare wasin a complete Ă&#x201A;ÂĽbest mean? what are the criteria?This slumps. Low meS5. Boomsmd Meanwhile on the UK scene, there B is abiy prcblem before which most wholevim Farmer uncertainty.The Potato a bit of a crisis. The PMB doesn't fit Into fooders get a bit woolly. The Soil AssociaMarketing Board was set up along with the EEC's economic style so it has t t tion says it's a matter of Quality. But a ""'& of ofher marketing or radically change. I interpret this a_ what's quality? What if1 like trash foods? eggs, vegetables, milk etc- Why was this? part of the crisis of UK agricapitalism ~bresponse to this question is usually Because as even bourgeois agricultural which we can only understand by wnsilence or else elitism. Trash foods are we know best. ' ' Aonomists will tell you, food is a sidering two major economic developbad hause we say so so much One OsWibutive problem ments since the War. The first is the and you're stupid. The trash food eater Of growin& YetthejPMB (like the huge effort put into refining agricultural then quite rightly dismisses tfie food f only the MMB fully . b a r d s ~which methods -.notably of course our friends freakm why do Isay rightly?&cause mrvives) was producer dominated. SOU the fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. neither side understand the degree to m w t h e marketers and merchants are , Special miracles have been worked for which food is not a matter.of personal myl recod& through aconsuttati* (he spud. Naturally. By IC1, Fisons, .or private consumer choice. Learning to;.: In* CIBA-GEIGY, Cynamid, Monsanto. All like some foods is a cultural process. S& .* Cnwnittee;with hn? the 9 be'ated of these inputs maximise production on ifwe are serious in exploring food poHttes* capital intensive farms. And 'neutral' we must look at what governs the vast historical movements of human culture. , Quite clearly organic and wholefood , .* . fetishists have refused to do this. And $, sohave raid themselves open to dismissal as faddists. I don't think t h i s s i ation need be so. But flfst two assumpti s must go. The split between thinking about how things are done and what for. Ecofreakery worries too much about the spud in the field or the stomath and rarely about the.worker or how capitalism controls the whqle crazy system.

the soil than it have

GO INTO yoyr local Post Office what,do you learn about the spud. I

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The uncritical assumption that the problem with agriculture is Underproduction. Organic methods have lower yields, so their rationale must belooked for elsewhere, say their ,adherents. Hence the awful number of people

no more th labour and production chain, Labour losfcs &A, this all point to the demise of the spud

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demand interpretationpulls the housewife out again: A s the standard of living has improved the housewife spends more processed potatoes which are, The more convenient to use fall in dfemand for our potatoes is largely due to their alleged capacity for putting on weight. Paradoxically, processed potatoes that probably put on more weight because of added fat are not recognised in this way'. (Lyn Hinton Potatoes M Scarcity Cambridge Univ. 1977). Surprise surprise. Restraining my cynicism for a moment, I'd like to spell out

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axricultural scientists mix the ingredtents in ever ingeniously wasteful ways. Lika the Ministry of Agriculture's Blueprint scheme which uses inordinately

Food is a subtle and uncritikised con-

,mlmechanism. While we in the West

don't really know starvation, we have our different forms. Like hatrased .mathers in the sucernwket aueue buy.ng a bit of peacewith a bag of crisps. for boredkids. Since the War crisps _. , havb.become a huge market of Â£200 per year! In their report on , British Food Markets published in January this year Hatliday Associates s* of the crisp market 'm brand has become a game a fun concept in a bag'. H are bought by kids and all limed at $em.

ones too. The secondmajor development i s a

change in the food economy towards convenience foods. Fewer and fewer spuds can escape a processing machine. Even irt the drought years more consumers bought the expensive processed po@toes. And in die catering sector (which has m a third of the market) in just

contrary pressures: to work to maxi mile income and for independence and yet to be a 'real wife/mother/ lover' b y d i i i n g up food/Into thTs cultural contradiction capitalist interests come crashing with their fake

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~. ' , * b,w . ' mFÃ§Ml^0artofin the who eat,~~ore he3 t d w1stefuhs of Qp economy. : dependent on them for4tamihC Â¥Therb not just * ~ ' u W pro* The cost of all this is fafitastic. 2 (sewing. Them's the hidden waste. The main mealsare increasingly proceued arbitrary altering of standards like the processing takes out their costrises, ft t PMB altering riddle sizes, One year a nutrients and so generates a 'need* for 1" spud is u m u t a b f ~the next it is padtfmg between meals. Also aswork ,acaeotabie,m it's-not it k 'denambecomes mow technologised and , ed- (EECterm), and colQUr-dyed and boring so food becomes a moment of ch~ctaal.Waste. Processing uses more meaning- Hence the meaningful plug? , enerffthanisleft.8tolOIbsof in the ads for snicks. The Brit* Food spuds are used to make 1 Ib of deMarket Survey estimated that 20% of hydratad which with wafer makes UP consumer food and drink expenditure , toe. 5 Ibs. According to Halliday goes on food between meals. The Research it takes 14 Ibs of spuds to average consumer eats around 300 make just over 2 of crisps. And then bags of crisps a year which costs ' there's denourishment Skinning them ~ ~ - all that Â for 17£lbs of, 2 for processingloses their Vitamin C spuds. ti ' Yet traditionally one third of the UK * These costs hit the poorest hardest d k f s Vit c comes from spuds. The 5 1970-1 ail fpods doubted in price, no sudden rise for they doubled 1965.75 too (Family Expendltwe Survey 1975 HMSO). So the poorer you are the greater the percentage of your wage goes for the same food asthe rich buy. There is also the m r p sensitive issue , of the class basis ta what sorts of foods people eat Wholefoods are expensive and mainly a middle class concern. Historically theworking class depended uponspuds and bread because they were cheap and nutrtttcys. But what they were offer4 to 'pbose' from was not under thetr'bontrol.'It's the same today. A woman working in a convenience Heinz factory on 'Woman's work' (i.e. line work) will be more likely to opt for a quick-pack meal than the Harrods Health Bar upper class woman. All of these comments have taken us a long way from the techniaues of growing-spuds andthe i m p o r k t but limited issue ofiu-tificlal fertilisers and the soil. Yet class issues dominate the reality of the spud. The comparative stability of UK potato farming has been due to the growth of e&venience industrial processingwhich itself is part of the general trends of late capitalism. Whatever we may wish for, organic wholefo&cannrit escape this structure. At present things may be loaded against organic methods. But what if they become more profitable? What about the worker* in ICI. They're not to blame. And what difference would organic spuds make to the crisp worker? None. Becaub what bugs thpm Is a different order o f problem. When Smith's Crisps introduced Salt add Vinegar Flavour to aftercontinentalholidays their Liverpool factory, the women , workers got dermatitis. Rather than alter the process Smith's took the women off and put others on in their stead.-With rubber gloves! I persoiwlly find it hard to conceive of any adequate Food system while it Is dominated by the pursuit for profit q ~ cond trol whatever the human cost. That is the real problem for organic farming and wh foods, not the growing or the ladybi s, although I don't fee why we cannot so@ themout at the

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n a t i o n in acreage. will continue, concentrating more power into fewer growers and fanners. Promping will increase unless unemployment gets so high that the bottom drops out of the market or it levels off. More power will be held off the land, with the usual tendency to monopoly control. The PMB will fade away and we'll be &for an exciting time following the battle for economic control. Giant farmer co-ops versus industry versus - the State (itself torn between codsurner palliatives and business). Iflcrpgngly non-EECcountries will be used to provide cheap food inputs for EEC-based processing. My bet i s for a neo-cblonialisation of Mediterranean Africa (Like Mexico is for the

USA). Theft will be a decline in even token consumer ppwer. Already the Min. of WSConsumer Committee talks of 'attitudes' a@d'consultation', but nww of participation,or control. Yet Ãˆ(Ã is food grown? You got it: profit. atio ion at ism will bloom. (It's already'part of National Front policy (in their policy docyment 'Beyond Socialism and Capitalism'). This balance of payments focus will keep Treasury economists quiet If 'tve' import spuds to process, 'we' will be alright when 'we' sell seed to the w d d that's if the seed industry survive their imminent battle for the UK (wrket with the hovering Dutch industry.

There will be growth in Shock-horror probe media coverage f o the ~ new . methods of creating waste. Interest will gradually fade, until a new wration of Little Englanders or uros firmly believe all is for the best in the best (theirs) Of all possible worlds. We will talk with affection of the old cheap food days, and forg e their different forms of exploitation. In 1977 labour got only 9% of last the farm end of spud costs. This was 5% less than spent)on sprays !a fertilisers.

In these trends and more, there are me of the new contradictions of Agricapitalism. To begin to understand them is hard. We've all been brought up on Jolly Fanner Growingmyths. Like the Colorado past. Understanding the Potato Economy is one thing, transforming it is another. Which i s why Ihave written net about whether to mulch spuds in June or July, and other such interesting agricultural issues, but about the political culture of the spud.

Tim tang

Feminism 7-4 ILL the Politics of ""3

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Capitalist ideology has alienated us from our bodies;'we believe that we have no control over what happens to us, and that some people are just more prone toillness than others. Carol Sm~thargues that althwgh some of us make efforts, half-hmma or otherwise, to do something about our health, most of us never seem tb see our health as an integral part of our autonomy.

bodies out? Iti s Very hard to take resftori-" sibility for ourselves in any area; we have been taught too well, and for too long not to; it's easier to ruh away from emotional crises than it i s to deal with them; but they'll happen again and again until we do. It's easier to go to the doctors than to find out how our bodies work, to stop abusing them, and to take positive action to heal the damage we've done to them. Learning to take responsibility for , ourselves in all areas of our lives is an essential re-reauisite to being a revolutiinary. evolutionary c o n s c i ~ ~ s ~ s s isn't only aboilt class; it's also about being aware of all the ways capitalism affects US; emotionally, politically and physically. In order to fight back effectively we need to be aware, to be conscious of the towway our lives as I don't want tochange the world and still have women oppressed. 1 don't want to change the world and still have ~eople eat shit. This society i s geared towards taking away people's initiative, towards rnystHytng medicine, towards patchingup its messes, an$ towards profit. It i s not into self-help except when we are prwidi n g w i a l services on the cheap, 9.g. Women's Aid Refuges.

,How can we talk about autonomy and independence, when we're crippled with period oairs, our backs ache, we get migraines, we've got asthma, eczema, vaginal discharge, etc., etc. What about the cripplin effect our bodies have on our ability to cope with our emotions, . let alone the rest of our lives? HOWcan I \,Ă&#x192;Ë&#x2020; t we do anything positive to the state of to distinguish b&inw.,, our heads when our heads are busy thinkself-help as a revolutionary concept and ing how awful we feel? ourgeois ideal. The question is, in We are fairly clear about how capitalose interests is the self-help? I am not' ism has screwed up our heads, but what about the desirability of everyone about how it is destroying our bodies, and *, health in hand in order to our ability to take responsibility for ourillions of pounds, or to selves in terms of healing, and the to industry of hundreds we eat? Capitalism has made us se because of people being lives and our bodies as compartmen crease the profits of healti and very obviously isn't into analysing As well as the ideolog@ the very clear relationships between dical expertise, control of people's messed-up bodies and its . edical information, etc., we need selfmass-produced, supermarket, plastic tlp because capitalism 'cconvenience'foods. Along with othe aspects of our lives, the ruling c ss ndtgoing t6 provide us with the know-* ledge, either practical or theoretical, of also controls what we eat1hey ight against attempts to cdntrol women's how to look after our bodies. The whole -a medical profession i s geared to the ideal:bodies by the withholding of abortion bodies. A few us are se ogy of mystif~ation,and.recoils in horror facilities. Why are we not also finhtin~ Which in the main concentrate on specifagainst its control of our bodies?TO . from the idea that the patient might want disorders: some of us have accept the quality of"food it nrnriv,r~tfor , tally know about herself well. Tales of some knowledge of hefbal medicine and us is to accept that control. dwm warnings about the damage we-^ , naturepathy, but because they take do to ourselves have been,well documentlonger to work, very often we give in ed by women and health groups. Taking Responsibility a ~ resort d to allopathic medicine; most , The medical profession is, however, We accept that feeling emotionally bad of us do little or nothing, or at best try i s out to make it hard for us. The Departmakes us feel unable to cope with the . some or all of the alternatives but get physical aspects of day to day living, let , discouraged because we don't see 3 ,' " (Bent of Health refused to fund thp alone trying to fulfil our commitments m(racu\oui cure after 24 hours. ~sually' " printing ofleaflets produced with the'help of gynaecologists, telling women how as revolutionaries. We know that feeling -vy go straight to the doctor and/or t o avoid cystitis and thrush, on the ground physically bad for whatever reasondoes chemist and spend a lot of money on, t h y did not encourage self-medica-. , the same thing. We put a lot of energy .some drug that wil~alleviatethe svmp- , ' tion as an alternative to clinical treatment into trying to sort ourselves out emotiotbt ,^om and we donstthinkabout the side t by a doctor. ally, some of us have endless discussiop eqgcts because itts toohorrible and We should also be aware of the class i n women's groups about the politics of rather j___, nature of self-help. Dropping out of personal relationships, crying, writing, &-Refonnian institutionalised medicine i s easy if reading things that are supposed to help, But by doing any of Die above, I fit and affluent, the trouble is, the majorsome of us go to therapy groups, a few think it's areformist attitude. We choose' """ity of the population isn't, poverty is a o f us end up at psychiatrists. serious cause of ill health even under any of these methods to try to alleviate Therk seem to be so many ways We tty to sort oar heads opt, but what d o about our bodies? Not alot, h e yomen's movement has left :--elf-hep health groups, which has emphasis on resp nsibitity for

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the family willeat. the consumer side o f , food production is usuallyaiimed at It is important t o distinguish between mm ~ o o advertising d is health as an issue connected toour overall .ly bla& reinforcer of therolesthat autonomy, and health as a cult for its own women are supposed t o be playing. sake. Health as a cult has fascist underL o o k a t the 'Shredded Wheat ad on the tones: the white, male, heterosexual man an two men,,nmy to fly: i s also supposed to be strong and healthy, I mother, fie a a 'real,' man. Consider for a moment the of a pgm, total patriarchal structure of the O l ~ m p i c of w h i i h e eats. only talks about Games. it's interesting that Hitler was a how i e shm shredded Wheat. if teetotaller and a vegetarian and a man. He v m t o be so good, why isn't she also thought smoking should be banned-. e a ~ n it g she'Sdoinghewwa by the state for health reasons, and planby not eating it,but Ibet, ned that 'society in the future'should lead eat muesli,instead! a vegetarian existence'. One of the accusations thrown at people, with any political perspective on food is ; that we are denying people choice, that we are making a fetish of nutrition, and are seeking to impose our 'purist' ideas 'about food on everyone else. But just 'choice' aboutabortioni . ' , ' . pregnancy has t o be a real 'choice', with the natureof and access to social fac'ilities controlled by the people who , use them ,so does choice about food , , have to be a real choice.'We consume the food that capitalism provides, . for us because we have no choice. here isn't any other kind (assuming that not all o f us consider it practicable or desirable mat everyone , live on self-subsistence farms and eat organically grown vegetables all the ti'me). The objectives of the food industry,are not tosupply whole fresh nutritious f q d based on need but to supply 'palat-. able' food that will sell quickly. The majority of the workforce have little choice a b u t the production processes which . . make them more susceptible to physical . . andmental ill health. Many of the 2500 , additives usedare hazardous t o produce as well as to consume. . ~ h i n ~our i nfood ~ seems tb have a much more far reaching effect on our Food and ~ e & m mothers than changing our politics generally. All the vegetarian lesbians 4 In any discussion o f the politics of food know say that their mothers have been i d health, it i s essential tolook at the much more freaked out as,aresult o f way in which the food issue affects their rejection o f junk food thin 'women. J'he nurturing and servicing role have been by their lesbian sexuality. ' of women as defined by bourgeois ideoRejecting.their food i s much more siglogy has resulted in women's identity nifica-it; it'sseen @,arejection o f the a very complex way to serve. The provision o f whole o f your childhood. Your bodyis built almost entirely from the food f@ is loaded with social paradoxes, which they prepared,so to refectthat atid is permeated with cultural signififood is to reject them. ,&awes. The distorted position of women The nurturing role has become . i n society is expressed through food, almore and more oppressive because the though there,are obvious disparities home is increasingly a refuge against . within women's position: the working

The Healthy Fascist?

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take this quote from t h e ~ r i t i s h ~ o d File: 'Manufacturers mayIncorporate.' ':? ,into theirproduct. atttrlbute~which ' , , odd t o the housewife'sstature andenable her to provide variety andnovelty inh e r menus and dtsplqv a kvel of culinary ex- , pertlse which noone (herself incfudift] thovght her'capaWeof. Or this one from. the Institute for Motivational Research:. , . 'After an Initialresistance, the housewife now tends to accept Instant coffee, iprecooked foods. andlabour saving Items aspart o f her rout/ But she needs a justfhtton, d ~ ? f i n d s it 1" the . , , thought that 'By using frozen foods I'm freeing m p l f to accomplish otherimportant tasks a&a modern mother and . , wife' . This ineons essentially that even though the housewife may buy canned , , food, for Instance, qnd @us save time andeffort, .she doesn't let i t g o at that. Shi has a great need for 'doctoring up' the can, and thus prove her personal partic&t/on and her concern' with g/ving satisfaction t o her family '. It i s inevitable that, because we are , w b k t t o such .anidologic,al onslautfit,.. which is expressed partially throughadvertising, that certain 'roles' are intemalised that is, t o be a model .- . wife/mother,etc.. While we might buy convenience foods ' to enhance our culinary experti#, it is also the case that they @rye a real~wed\ because many women do two jobs and are forced to buy things that are quick to prepare. However, we should be aware. that i n general it is a myth that whole, food takes longer t o prepare than processed food: what takes longer is the thought that has togo intoit. There is a real differ'ence between havingto remember to put we beans on to soak the. night before, going to the comer shop at five-tosix, buying a can of beans, a packet Of Smash, ancapacket of fish fingers. The actual preparation of the meal probably takes aboutthe same time, but the planning o f it'iswhat takesthe sort o f time women haven't got. , The'politics of food is crucially tied up withsocialist feminism.-ind revolutionary p&tifc^, and should be linked t o our overall political' perspectives. . > , a

used t o be dependent &'women's skills, such as preserving'and sewing. B u t now her role has been reduced to continuous instant.servicing using food mixers and packet foodsso that her social value if reduced, Food njuiuf& turefs exploit the fact that women" : haveto achieve s&e kind o f psych&ogicd gratification from work that , has become imtrimi&allyincapable of satisfying anyone..

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market to magnify the conseqliential . price hange. But obviously t h i s is only possible if there is little in the way ef stock pile. A large stockpile has the effect of buffering prices - purchasers respond less to market scares if $hey know that, whatever happens, hundreds of silos are full to overflowing with

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bier's delight.John Clark desWHEAT is both a staple,food a wlh.lCT. a tad W t in the Ukrain. means f a m w n Ethiwia, thanks to the greed of the corporate speculators.

last year's wheat. For decades up till the eyly seventies, the world's production of wheat had exceeded the market demand (of course, even though the price was relatively low the poor consumer countriescould not afford all they needed to allay

~'&"'f~~~;~'~5$k~~ Ã£lk ing about). Especially in t h e US this

resulteo in growing stockpiles of wheat -

hamest ex~ecbtions(and hence both . WHEAT ISinextricably intertwined much tn tfe displeasure of the wouldl i k l y supplies to and demands 6n the with the evolution of the human be speculators. market) the corporations are uniquely ~h~ largest single step in social hisThe gr'ain chiefs worked closely with banf r o a to a equipped to play the future's market play fair, either, ' the government to explore ways of shiftand they always PWW life. T h i s sw ww + t e r m i d at ing this surplus and hence opening the am,dw i weculation in genFral is the end of the ice'age by the arrival in way to a new era of grain trade, which probably the Wst corrupt business the Middle East of hybrid wheat.For the would also improve the US'S deteriorab ' sector anywhere in the world. It has next 10,000 years, starting with the ing balance of trade. sickle hwe*ing-in jericho, cultivah n estima*d that commodit~SP~CUThe first significant attempt to reduct .' lators have evaded,ovef $500 million in tionhd agricultural tehnolthe bigest surfelus came during the First World Q~ taxripoffofalltime.' ,^ War. The US started selling grain to both 'ogy throughout the world. There is nothing more like making Germany and the Allies. This W N Prompttoo,the corporations fieIn trading, tnounteins out of molehills than the

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Iy blocked by the UK and the USA instead

~ ~ ~ mv rda l ti t owr s mwifytng ~ w W climatic change, any social occurrence, or change of government into a major factor, (throwingthe market into turmoil4, Â¥causinexcitementin the futurets marketor giving rise to 'panic buying or selling'. Were this speculation not tragic in its consequences its ridiculousness would be farcical. And nocommodity trading , ismore ruthless and more tightly than the *eat trade. Three quarters of the woridfs wheat exports are controlled by the USA which consequently has a greater sontrot of thiscommodity than OPEC does of what ismere, 85% of all US wheat exports are controlled by just five huge corporati ' s Cargill, Continental Grain, Coo e Industries, Bunge, and Dreyfus.

set up the 'Philanthropic Commission fpr

~ Â ¡ , ' ~ ~ e ~ $ : & a d e Relief in Belgium', Ironically this the wheat for expor is a c m m e first ever food aid programme - had as ~O'W this- a hi^ price can b? its subject the rtmt self-sufficient food":rewed out of the purchaser. In 1975 producing nation in Europe. Aid was not of this happenedto a huge consignment the object but commerce. The wheat US wheat bound for India. ^PP^ to Belgium could be sold across ' ne grain main problem (up the border to Germany, a country with the seventies that is1 has been the which, because of her avowed'faithfulness\ 'cfisis of overproduction'. This may to the UK, the USA was not allowed to sound cr& in a world where famine trade. is a toning stwkpfles o f surplus, but in business terms The Food Aid Game it is true. 'Demand' i s determined not In 1954 the 'Food Aid' game had a . by what.people want but by what they new tease of life with the introduction in can afford. Most international wheat the US of Public Law 480 - the 'Food sates are to the richer countries, and in f o Peace' program&. A stated aim at the these countries the quantity purchastime was to 'increase consumption of ed does n r t depend very greatly on the US agricultural commodities in foreign , going price - richer people don't change prices go their up (although eating habits they greatly may lay when . countries'by on imported wheat.This introducmg'aid' dependency (usually

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~ a r d ~ o r kSpeculators in~ These gram giants have an extre sophisticated intelligence network *faftwork closely withatheu merit They maintain offices i majord*t-growing to monitor yields, local prices, weather conditions and the like. They even use infrared satellite, to keep a close eye omthe wheat-growing areas. These corporations may well be able t o predict yields more accurat*lv th the local farmers. With this detailed knowledge of

off luxuries such as coffee). This means that a small change in supply to the market results in a big change in wheat price (and this adjussthe'demand accordingly). It is this 'inelasticity' in the market which pays such high dividends tothe speculators and is , devastating the+oorbuyers.

stockyand. scares,

Any factor which has any bgaring

on wheat yield?i s exaggerated on the

;"fact a sale on a 30-40Ywr loan basis at 2-3% interest) benefited America politically too. The aid was not available to communist governments nor even, generally, to countries who permitted trade with such 'unfriendly governments'. Mostly it was used to strengthen US international policies. So, for instance, in 1974 $499 millions worth of Food for Peace produce went to Cambodia and , Vietnam whereas only $41 million went to famine-stricken Bangladesh.

Undercurrents 31

Famine

The host tragic episode in this story, though, comes in 1972 and resulted in whit has been described as the first ever international famine in the world's +istory - the gr atest possible monument to corpor! ? te injustice. In that year, the grain giants claimed, there was just not enough wheat to go round. The bad weather was blamed as was the failure of the Russian harvest and consequent massive buying of grain from the US. What the corporations never stressed, though, was that the world harvest fell only 1%below the previous year's total which, itself, was the second biggest harvest ever. What has subsequently come to light is that the big companies knew well in advance of the likely failure of the - Russian crops (both through their IR satellite intelligence network, and through advance orders from Russia). Yet they worked in collusion with the government to whittle away the stockpile of yheat which, to them, was a major obstacle. That year the US gove ment gfwe subsidies to thousands of farmers'NOT to grow wheat. This kept 60 million acres (an area equivalent to the total land area of the entire United Kingdom) out of grain production. When the enormous grain deals with Russia were announced, the media porfrayed them as the Russians taking the US for a ride - buying wheat cleverly from many different sources at a subsidised price. Whether the Russians really

thought they werehoodwinking the Americans is unknown, but what is now certain is that the US knew very well what was going on (those bulging storage silos emptying their conte boats bound for the USSR. that is) loved every minute of it Within a period of mon that had been growing for was got rid of - the suppliers T i n charge of the market Panic buying. Before 8000 BC the ancestor ot today' speculation and massive buying on the wheat was merely a wild grass. A genetic future's market sent prices skyrocketting. accident caused wild wheat to cross with The Poor countries (who were irregular a natural goat grass to fpnn a fertile hycustomers bying only in years of poor brid. Fourteen chromosomes of wild local yields) couldn't afford these new wheat combined with fourteen cbtomosomes of goat grass to produce Emmer wheat with 28 chromosomes (which because of its chromosome structure is much plumper). This hybrid was able to spread naturally - the seeds being attached to the husks which are scattered by the wind. After the Ice Age came a second genetic accident. Emmer crossed with mother goat grass to produce the 42chromosome bread wheat of today - by a genetic freak this plant is completely unable to spread by itself. Thtears of wheat are very tight and difficult to open. Even when the ears do open, the husk blows off in the breeze, but the seeds fall to the ground - landing in a heap on top of the parent plant. Unless these seeds are dispersed by artificial means, the species would die out - the seeds stifling each other by their overcrowding. Wheat needs people as much as people need wheat. It is only by harvesting the grain and scattering the seeds every season that wheathas survived. And for millions of people around the world it is on the successful harvesting of this.freak of napre that their survival depends.

pricesand massivefamine ensued. The fmiM inJ~thiooia. for instance, is believed to have been the most serious famine in Africa ever, with the possible on of an sgyptianfamine so& tion in the course of the

t, O f c o w , other factors playing rotes inthese famines, it

remains true that, but for corporate selfood have ken m.lhk to swe eyery single life ever t,mnationai famine lost in the in history.

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Or ROOTWhitahead,dinctor of the M ~ l i c aRwarch l Councils Dunn Nutrition Unit at Cdnbridae told the British Association conference recentlv that whÃ§tBritai rinds is a nutrition policy rather than a food policy.Prwious Gwernment policies had been primarlly food v o l k l u ~ i m e dmerely at providing ~aoolawith enough of whafthev want.d.iIa pointed out that actual dktary nnds and the relationship betwen types of food and d i ~ awen r b n l y cowidend wen though there were know associltloru betwwn eating habits,heart disease obesity, tooth decay and wme forms of cancer. ' There has Ieon virtually no attempt to direct the course of agricultural and food manufacturing practices t o fit . in with nutritional concept* of what people should be eating if they are to k o n r healthibr'iaid Whitehmd.A recent white omer on disease prevention and health includes broad recomendationswhich could Ã‘N m a bnis for a foot! policy bawd on 'sound illtritional principles'.

Definitions Dietary fibre is the indigestible plant matter (cellulote,pectin and liguin) in vegetables, pulses and whole grains or cereals, which is (Hsciided in the r e f i process. Wheat bran and rice polish are obvious sources of fibre, and also contain important nutrients. Fibre is the main component of rural or uncMliwd diets which is licking in that of today's city dweflera.This difference has been used to explain the relative unfitness of city dwellers which is keeping our life expectancy relatively ahoft. now that infant mortidity and infectious epidemics have been 8% but conauered. A high fibre diet gives the intestines more ubst&,ice to work on, eases food thou@ (he bodv 3 times as fast and produces stood of 3 times the weight of those of a refined diet I t also absorbs more water from the intestines. dilutes ba-terim. and aids their eggs, fish, elimination. Fats, algal, meat and alcohol contain no fibre. At the beginning of the laat century everyone ate about a pound of bread per day. Â

THIS article was written as part of the research being done into the breadand wheat industries by the Agricapital Group, asubgroup of BSSRS (The British Society for Social Responsibilityin Science). The AC Grouo is three veers old. and was initially just a few individuals interested i n the politics of food and agriculture, with the common fmling that little work 'was being done on the subject, and a desire to discuss these issues with others. Around Christmas 19Z5 we decided m formulate our ideas more clearly by focussing on one food commodity and researching i t thoroughly. We wanted to choose a commodity which showed she 1stBrd World connection, but was at the same time of importance to agriculture and the food industry in the UK, and was also a staple food. We chose bread and wheat, which we feel illustrates many of the problems associated w'th food and agriculture in general. I n the winter of 1976some members decided to form a Northern Agricapital group, c/o Campaign Co-op, 35 Cowlev Road, Oxford. A cartoon leaflet which draws outsome o f the most important of the whits sliced loaf (5p each). A slidetape presentation tracing the story of wheat and breadhas been prepared with the help of the Ruskin Trade Union College Media Group. A t the time of writing this we are organisinga week of action in Sheffield on the politics of food. This m.11 ham taken place between 16th-21st October and bread will feature prominently in 'the week's activities. The programmes will include: A display i n a caravan in the city centre; lunchtime meetings, leaflettinn and street theatre outside sukrmarkets and bakeries; an evening meeting on 'The Politics of Your Food; a cultural evening; a

specially written play about the politics of your food;posters, badges and leaflets; and a series of articles i n one of the Shaffield daily ~apers on different social aspects of food. We intend the Sheffield week of action to be the start of a national campaign to call for specific reforms to be made in the breadindustry, and to call for more utopian. more revolutionary changes to be made in the politics o f this - our most basic need food. The Agricwital group is also concarned abwtiother issues: the oersonaf politics of food and health, sexism in advertising food, fascism and vegetarianism, and nationalisation, seed banks, the EEC and organic farming. I f you wouldlika any more information, any o f the Agricapital Group publications, or e report on the Sheffield week o f action (which will be over by the time you read this/ andplans for the future, please write to us wi'th s.a.0. c/o Campaign Co-op.

Professor Watkin Williams of the UniVertity of Readingsaints out that the natural products of plants are grossly underinvestigated.Yet they represent an enormous potential resource of chemical faadstocks and new drugs,ln the intensively farmed areas of the world stocks of almost all of the major food commodities are running ' embarassingly higher than demand. .areas ..- -- o-f curolus . - cannot forever waste their resources on over-production, said p r o f a o r Williaim.One sensible solution would be to utilise crops for new purpoxes.eioeciallv 1 those which will reduce dependence 1 on finite supplies of energy and mimrats, he iaid.Perh~sanother wlution is not to have the sur~luxesin the fint plam.

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VEGETABLE OIL AND MARGARINE Vegetable oil cold processedfrom weds or nuts is mutable and subject to rancidity if cttetessly stored, and the process is fairiy inefficient Mechanical extraction involves crushing the feeds, adding water, and heating (he mix for half an hour at 230F. before crushing at 10-20 tons per squk inch, considerable heat which destroys som nutrients. Most oils sold in wholefood shopn lie extracteduring this method. Commercial oils are extractedmore efficienfly using petroleum based chemical solvents. 100 Dartsoex million of which m w Amain. The oil may then be treated with lyelsoap to removifree fatty acids, bleached. deodorised at 330-680F i n a vacuum for 12hours, and mixed with anti-oxidant Vegetable oils can be falurated (i.e. hardened) partially or totally,by hydrogentlion, which meansusing a nickel catalyst and hydrogen gas in a pressure reactor at ' Â¥bou380F. The molecular structure of the oil is disturbed, an it is in the alternative process of interesterification; and a blend of oils from these various processes may make up the fmal product on the

-.- ~. -

Ã§helf

Undercurrents 31

Markeriiig M ~ s e l i THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT h growing fast in this country. A large number of back-to-the-landersare convinced of the authenticity of organic agriculture and, anyway, avoid the expense df buying fertilisers: wholefood outlets?fcarry an increasingnumber of organiclines, often being preparedto pay over the odds fofthe magic t i g 'organically grown'; and a small but number offarmers a h prepared to turn their backs on the gmwdmOdem fming as by Fisons, ICI and the Agricultural Researchcounciland launch themselves into organic agriculture. The market for organically grown produce is still almost entirely the and trade' The 'Onventional health food shops tend to stock large ranges of nutritional supplements anhany nuinber of fancily packaged processed foods - like soya sausages - and don't place a largeeemp)i%is on flours and grains. In contrast, the wholefood shops, relatively new to the scene, place heavy emphasis on basic vegetable foodstuffs and most of them emphasize the organic foods. A typical wholefood outiet will, however, only carry a few organic items simply because there are not that many available. These would typically be wheat, rye, and barley as grains, flakes and flours: brown rice (though most stores carry a choice of organic and non-organic because of the price difference): apple juice: maybe one or two beans (out of about.15 varieties): mayb6 raisins: possible a few fresh vegetables. Rarely would organic produce represent more than about 25% o f a shop's turnover. Porridge oats are obtainable organically grown but most shops don't carry them because they ate some 50%more expensive, and there is a reluctance to buy them because, for mahy . shops, porridge oats is one of the few lines where they are. competing directly

While the alternative food movement grows apace and the demand for organic grain continues to outstrip supply as it has done for the past two years, the mar* keting of organic produce is becoming increasin ly centralised and efficient (ye inset). Whilst there are many thousands of people producing food organically on a small scale, they tend to con-, centrals on dairy produce and vegetables and these are mostly intended for home consumption. What surplus there may be i s often sold on the open market and herefore has little impact on the wholefood trade- The grains which make UP the oiterwhelming majority of traded organic produce are grown almost exelusively by commercial farmers. Some of these farmers have been farming organically for a long time (mmc might ' Say ~ I W ~ Ybut S ) most are fairly ?Cent

. .

old me: 'Ireckon most British farmers o not want to use chemicals but are afraid not to because of lhe loss of profits. Advertising puts the fear of God in@ farmers that without fertilizers they won't get a big enough crop'. In fact, for the small nurrtber of farmers Who have dared d t e m p t fate and stop applying fertilizer as is deemed the advertising, the move seems Worked. There is littie evidencecatastrophic decline in yields - indeed the average wheat yields for organic farmers are liigher than the national average and there is money to be saved from not buying fertilizer and money to begained ftom the premium h i c h o m i c gmin fetches in the market place (about 20%for wheat, though Stickland reckons that as more and more fanners 'turn organic' this premium will decline and perhaps level off altogether in 4 or 5 years). Nor is there a much higher labour input than on conventional

*'*,,

rms. Cost comparisons are very diffilit as there are still many variables t o ke i ~ t account o (it i s unrealistic t o ok at the profitability o f just one field, ie must consider the farm as a whole, king into account the number of ;Ids in l e y number of animals etc). !rt Capon, one of the old school organfarmers who owns his farm outright s told me that he wouldn't be able farm the way he does if he had had nortgage to pay off; Stickland, in con1st, is adamant that organic farming as profitable if not more profitable an conventional farming, if done !I1and skilfully. If Stickland i s right then one must k whey there are so few organic farmi. There are 180,000 farms i n the UK d around 100 are farmed organically. , h y is it that such aproven and viable alternative attracts so few adherents, especially seeing there is a marked dislike o f chemicals by so many farmers? We've touched on one o f the most important reasons when mentioning advertising and it's here that we see the most radical aspect o f organic farming. For conventional farming, like conventional everything else, we are living in the era o f the techno-fix: if that soil is short on minerals, bung some more on; if there's wild oats coming up, spray them; if the cattle aren't fattening up quick enough, give them hormones. Whatever might impede the farmer's progress there will be a technological solution to it. The Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ5 million annual budget spent by the Agricultural Research Council goes on developing technological solutions to various problems (none of it is spent on organic techniques) and, of course, the role o f the agrochemical combines parallels ' closely the"role of the drug companies i n medicine. Agrochemicals, despite their heavy reliance on fossil fuels for their production, are still very much a growth industry and even with the enormous price rises resulting from the 1973 oil crisis, most farmers still identify chemicals as the kev to success' ful, progressive farming.

Muck and Mystery There is, however, another reason why organic farming has made so little impression on modern farming generally and that i s it's muck and magic reputation. However successful or profitable it may show itself t o be, organic farming still has along way to go to avoid its reputation as being the domain o f the health crank. How justified are these views of organic farming? It is a complex, difficult question to assess the validity of the organic school and very little debate has taken place around the correctness o f the differing agricultural technologies. The organic school are convinced they are right: the convertional school does not even bother t o address itself to the question. To my mind there are some points which $he organic school must come to terms with tf they are t o achieve their wider

ORGANIC FARMERS AND GROWERS is a farmers' marketing co-operative, formed in 1975. There are about 80 members at the present time, ranging from 1!4 acre herb growers to 5 farms larger than 1,000 acres. Almost all are mixed and see livestock as an essential part of organic growing. The director of OF & G is David Stickland who runs the co-operative from small officein Stowmarket. Suffolk. He worked for three years with the Soil Association trying to promote organically grown produce and it was the failure of the Soil Association's Organic Marketing Co. which led directly to the formation of OF & G. The links with the Soil Association are strong: two-thirds of OF & G members are also members of the Soil Association and the standards adopted by OF & G to denote their organically grown produce (known as OFG 1) are the Soil Association standards. The co-operative has been growing fast and Stickland believes that the success of OF & G has bad a lot to do with attracting conventional farmers. Recently, OF & G has formed a company to handle importing and exporting (OF & G Import-Export Ltd); as demand for organic British grain has outstripped supply for some time in the home market, the possibilities for exporting remain small, bu-t importing has become a fairly substantial business: brown rice, hazelnuts, figs from Italy, alfalfa from New Zealand, red beans and muscatel raisins from Argentina, tts UK activities have been mostly the buying (from its me,mbers) and selling of grain. Stickland and Michael Cooper are co-directors of Walsham Mill in Suffolk which is used as a warehouse and mill for much of this grain. Chances are that the wheat, rye and barley flakes that you eat'in your muesli wilt have been ^<own by an OF & G 'member, bought by OF & G sold to one of the wholefood \ wholesalers (Harmony, Sunwheel, S u m ) and thence to your local wholefood shop or

CO-OP.

acceptance. One is in defining itself in ;terms which are biologically justifiable t o the scientist and to the layman. I n drawing up its criteria of what consitutes organic growing, the Soil Association concentrated on the role o f chemicals in farmingThere i s obviously a lot more to farming than just the application o f organic or non-organic matter to the land or the livestock but these are scarcely affected by the Soil Associations' (although they do lay down some specifications as t o how livestock should be kept) definitions, and whilst the organic movement has expanded from these narrow definitions of what can and can't be used in organic farming todevelop various techniques of growing which are not directly related to the useinon-use o f chemicals, the 'original definitions set out in the 1940's must appear increasingly incomprehensible to'the conventional farmer. For while it was easy t o point out the dangers o f DDT and the like in the 19601s, many artificial agrochemicals are becoming increasingly benign in ecological terms. We have seen the develooment o f selective pesticides which attack only specific pests and do not destroy all insect fife - something which the organic sprays often do. Also the argument that chemical farming leaves unnecessary and possibly polluting residues on the food is being challenged by the advert o f biodegradable chemicals. The key issue that defines organic farming is the non-use of artificial chemicals and the reason for this is solely that artificial chemicals are potentially harmful - to the consumer, t o the farmworker, do the animals, and to the land itself. But if some artificials can be shown to be useful, harmless and benign, then organic theory is on shaky ground. And, if this is to be the case, many of the other organic principles which have been developing over the years may become discredited.

Biological Husbandry

Not all the organic movement is blind to'these criticisms. Bert Capon, who farms 200 acres in Suffol k, does not like to be described as an organic farmer (though he manifestly is by the Soil Association standards) as he feels the word organic is fast becoming just a commercial~sellingpoint instead of describing an alternative farming system: indeed there i s now an organic seaweed shampoo on the market, and what i n Gcd's name is the difference between organic and non-organic seaweed! David Stickland is also aware of these criticisms and i s keen to show that organic theory is scientifically valid. He has been instrumental i n starting the international Institute o f Biological Husbandry which hopes to be the research arm o f the organic movement I t steers very clear of anything in the least non-rational or folksy and indeed eschews the word 'organic' . in favour of 'biological'. To quote from an IIBH handout: 'There is undoubtedly some merit in the use of certain chemicals in agriculture.at.the present time, but such chemicals must be subservient to the use of biological management and not predominate as they do now. The actions and effects of these chemicals must be considered much more fully than has been done u'p to now, with a full realisation of their action on the biological life of the soil and their residual build-up'. For the time being though the actions and effects of agrochemicals are considered solely by their producers and there is virtually no money to assess the ecological suitability of chemicals, artificial or organic. There is certain t o be strong resistance to anyone who tries to redefine the limits of organic/biological/ ecological farming for there i s a strong element o f conservatism in the movement. Yet if this alternative branch of agriculture is t o widen its impact and attract public money into research, then

."*

it may well'have to redefine itself in other 'than organic vs artificial terms. The conptatism of the organic g r w e n in this v n t r y is not confined tn the technologies applied to farming and horticulture. British farmers are not, as ' a group, known for their politicalradiialism and organic farmers would appear to be no exception. In many ways, the action of rebelling againstcurrent chemical orthodoxy in farming is in itself a very radical act bu with few exceptions, it is an act of individualisticdespair, a hankering after times gone by and increasingly a way of keeping upprofits. Attitudes to social farming problems, . suchas the fate of tied cottages or the Employment Protection Act (reckoned by fanners to be the bane of their lives), seem to be the same however the farming is done. This contrasts markedly and ambiguously with the wholefood co-opera*es and stores which are becoming increasingly radical in their outlook on food. The ambiguity arises from the fact that these stores almost invariablystress the importance of organic food in their philosophies and, a$ I have already mentioned often support the organic growe n by$aying a premium above the going marker rate for food that i s organically

grown, despite the fact that most whdefood outlets ai to sell food as cheaply as possible. ~u&ennore, with many wholefood businesses now starting or reorganising as collectives with many utopian socialist ideals uite apart from the food @at they sell, it seems odd that there has not been more emphasis on buyingfood from non-capitalist sources as i s widely done by the World shops in oil and. with the exception of the Campaign Co-op's importing of Tanzanian instant coffee there has been no major link-up with GO-operative growers in the 3rd World and it would seem that, in this country at least, the alternative food movement i s still more interested in the purity of the food than the conditions of the producers. The wholefood trade and the whole. food consumers must decide what their relation to the organic growers should be: whether it is enough to let farmers get on with what they know best and to try and persuade others to move away from using potentially noxious chemicals: or whether there should be a move to support and build-up tome more radical farming systems that challenge

. .,

90.7111 tons , 362m tons, 4% up on 76/77 and i t s coming from Thailand Indonesia, Pakistan and Korea wheat slightly up. EEC farmers have planted 8% more acreage this year milk a record year for the UK mre the butter since liquid sales are falling. - Will they drop the price to

for sugar

Mark Brinkley

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ing investment in agriculture by financial institutions, notably insurance companiec and pension funds, has helped to push u$ prices. These institutions are buying between a quarter and a third of all land fhxt conies on tht market. (Each year about ,I%%of Britain's farmland comes up for sale.) The Government's success in achieviq ' ' greater security of tenure for tenant, farmers has meant that landowners are. determined not to reled land once tenant; retire or die. Financial institutions are interested almost,exclusively in land with vacant possession, and negotiating , their own contracts, usually including rents, with tenants of their choice.

AT@mc thee-'&*a'. Ihfmarkitdam Thfy b u M a butar mountfln. to i t w ~ ttiemfrom~fieurn. ' afropm* wit ant of e m , wrf frornumwinsttleynwk: t tins wid forHurnmi~,an

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FARMING NEWS Britain's powerful food industry has sueceeUed in persuading its opposite numbers in the other EEC countries of the need fortheir participation in reforming the Common Agricultural Policy, Mr. Jasper Grinling of the Grand Metropolitan Group and current chairperson of the confederation of EEC food manufacturers, said that in future the industry would demand to be consulted before farm prices are fixed in Brussels. This i s the first time that food manufacturers have managed to adopt a joint position in ah area so far dominated by the strong farmrs' lobby. Many of these mmapnies also have stakes inthe farming world. Such a move can only increase the stranglehold agribusiness has on the European food system. 70% of all food i s processed inone way or another.

not only modem farming techniques bu +so the ownership of the land an the m i n s of production, and wh'ethe , links should be forged with ove ,fftod producing co-operatives. %citation o f Organic Farmers & Growers a lot to both advertise organicgrowinf a viable alternative amongst the farming community, and to make organic pro ducts available to wholesalers and r.&aili ers. As pub[kinterests in pure-fo& j continues to grow there would k m $$ be an assured future for the farmer who switches to specialised organfc fooif ' production, but as business grows it resemblesless and less the Small is Beautiful mode of production. The farm ers are able to utilise every aspect of modem farming technology, bar chemical-~ the marketing becows increasing? ly.centralised, efficient and remote from the producer. I predict that this paradox between ideals and business will result in a split between t h e who wantto see the organic food movement grow to meet as many people, both producers*./: and consumers, as possible and those , who want it to d velop along more : radical lines - J a n alternative B ig Business, notas a specialised part Of it

HUDO Dewy , $

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Undercurrents 3'

The distinctive feature

FOOD CO-OPScome in many different &a sand sizes, and from the outsi& may seem to move in mysterious ways. ere Gregg Shoop and Martin

L a ~ $ ~ odescribe ft the workings of the Havering Tech bulk food co-op.

flour attract the volume orders which permitreal bulk buying. We stick t o fame technical wllege on the ond don/ wholefoods which store well, are easy to Essex borders. We began by ordering handle, and provide benefits in terms o f small quantities o f cereals from Sam nutrtion, economy and flavour. We buy Mayall's, but we wanted ,more food, some foods in the more manageable but mob variety, and t o enhance the comslightly dearer sizes where i t makes munity aspect of college fife. Ideas were distribution easier. Honey in one pound floated, meetings were held, and some jars is beautifully easy t o hand around; interest, if not exactly enthusiasm, yas ladling it from a 66 Ib can is a sticky <lpparent. $0 we issued our first order nightmare and hopelessly inaccurate. ' -form (based on Community Wholesale's The order form itself has five vertical price lilt) and then it happened: columns: item, unit p r i g quantity. The size of the first order amazed us. ordered, cost of quantity ordered, and We found ourselves'with thirty-two a blank column for recording adjust.order*, a shopping list for nearly a ton ments, refunds, receipt of goods, etc. of wholefood worth over Â£300and a There is a 3t)p service charge on each place in the big league, as food co-ops 60. order to cover costs - bags, plus the in%.two Years since then, wmbers shopping team's lunch and petrol. We have remai~ed~steady while the size of collect cash or cheques with the orders. ' ordete hasdoubled, even' though members From the order forms received we come and go as staff join or leave the compile a Master Sheet. This is the v i h l wHege. All members pay a Â£2.5 sub document on which all subsequent scription (refundable on leaving). This stages are based. The Mastersheet is a give* us a permanent 'float' so that we large double page spread which lists buy bargains or extras easily without commodities vertically on the left and members' names alphabetically and collecting cash by cheque and the low horizontally across the top. The sheet percentage error (296-396) in our finanare told, pretty good i ciaf records is, gives a complete picture of who wants tar an operation o f this kind. what, and the total quantities o f each We aim to deal with one order per commodity are found by. adding across from left to right. The 'shopping college term, i.e. thfee per year. Three , members are needed t o organise this; list' i s obtained by consulting the andto date it hasalways been the same wholesalers' lists and calculating the three, although originally we had hoped number of sacks or cartons needed t o that members would take turns. Sadly equal these totals. We always round this hasn't happened. The three jobs of up t o the next,whole bag or box bethe convening trio'are: cause purchases in excess of members' needs can easily be sold t o the rest o f 1.' circulating and collecting orders staff in a stock clearance sale. the Â¥2 shopping' / The shopping team of four or five 3. finance - - sets off on a Saturday morning. Initially pistribution is the one genuinely collecwe used a fleet o f cars, until a new tfve task - more about that later. member with a large van and trailer neatly solved the transport co-ordinagon problem (worth the slight reduction Choice of foods in participation). One car follows the Order forms show about 40 items van to our main supplier, and returns via which we know from experience our a second wholesaler to collect products members will buy. Exotic foods like not available from the first. The two or bulgar have attracted little vehiclescarry dome two tons o f food to the College; where it is unloaded and attention; the perennial fwourites like muesli, browrice, and wh.olewheat5 stored. i .,

IT STARTED with three or four founder members, all lecturers at the ,

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O u r approach to distribution is the distinctive feature of our scheme, me Master Sheet is our guide. Volunteers go to the store as and when they ha@ time. The first arrival starts with the first commodity and proceeds t o divide it up into the quantities required by each individual order, e.g. 5 Ibs rice for Appleby, 3 Ibs for Atkins, etc. He labels each bag with name and quantity and ticks off the appropriate entry on the sheet. When the first 'bagger' rushes off to give a lecture the next volunteer can pick up where he left off. I\ an accidenttat shortfall means that Zimmerman getsonly 3 Ibs instead o f 5 Ibs, the M p . =Sheet is amended the bagger as he works so refunds can be made. When all orders are complete they are grouped by name and a notice in the main office asks members t o come and collect. W~th our thirty members we now find it easier to weigh out and distribute orders from members A-M one week, M-Z the next. A heavy vertical line in the centre of the Master Sheet indicates this. This system economises on effort: all the rice is weighed out i n one sequence, thus saving 32 separate trips to the rice sacks. Any member who is free can go in and do some weighing without causing confusion, as the Master Sheet both guides and records his or her work. Members can spend ten minutes or a whole afternoon carrying the job forward accurately and productively. Wq differ from bulk food co-operatives like that described by Robin Roy in Undercurrents 15, principally because we are workplace-based, not neighbourhood-based, and our system has evolved to cope with this. We do our distribution in odd moments when workloads permit It i s true that we miss out on the 'together ness' of a neighbourhood distribution session, but we are forever communicating by phone, memo and chance encounter in the corridors. People whose College duties never overlap are thus brought together by the co-op. However, we do not claim to-have greatly improved coml munity feeling or to be truly co-operative. We just claim to have fed ourselves better and more cheaply through working and buying together.

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serin of reactors, and therefore not a commitment to the much debate! 'plutonium economy'. Third, o n tactics, Elliott under emphasises the importance of the inquiry as a means of soliciting info nation. Whatever one's reaction to Windscale, it generated information not hitherto available and w? we* argue that mud) canbe done with this information which may b e s u r prising in terms of the 14sultsit <vv yields. Fourth, the Governmay make the mistake of repeating N U the Parker format for CDFR 1,but I doubt it. Promises can be broken, UNDERGROUND Flowers but scrutiny of their response Report and the Greento the I recall your expodngs of Ministry Paper on Energy Policy !&om% that they are committed to something of 'Defence' secrets being built into very different. the London Underaround system. I wopder if they're doing the same in Finally, while we have argued the new, improved Glasgow Understrongly for public information cam ground? Here's a mip which was paigns we know the idea in not well printed in the Glasgow Herald, June received within Government. If so, 28th, 1978. The 'Ministry ofDefence it may be politically realintic to Project' on the map isn't mentioned accept the next best thing - an in the article. Maybe a reader in inquiry which is obligated to itfour Glasgow could have a look and tell as well as advise. However jll-ad* us what's there. Justice Parker was to be so selective in his approach t o evidence, it is a Trauisootter

As for the lack of information about the way in. which the yequana Indians organise themselves maybe this is an oversight on the author's John Whifflegs 53, Dement Road, Part, but maybe also it is not so much what we do, but the attitude Lancaster. with which we do anything that is f-; B of import. I sum Edwards ffi t* 8 - 6 hescent Rd, Kingston-an-Thames, Surrey

I would like to hear from them. Yours faithfully,

With the birth of my first child. I am suffering the apparently u h cascade of twee, useless, consum-' erist baby items from well-meaning relatives and friends. This has forced me to think about appropriate 'toys' for a young child. Do any of your readers have ideas on economical, useful creative and enjoyable toysfor a baby - or should we go with the tide and give o w child a golliwog boy doll, a Teutonic girl doll and other similar stereotyped playthings, items which seem designed to (a) please the purchaser and (b) catch 'em young ideologically? Angela Thomas

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Although I appreciate the s a c tion of the reviewer to what I felt she saw as yet another manual of child rearinrl wish to offer another

[did not feel that the message of the book was ensuring a satisfactory life purely by holding the baby al11 Myrtle Road though this is obviously an importan Bristol BS2 8BL. * focal point. White in a r m the babv is in active contact with muchthafwill be part of its life rather than spending time staring at cot side$ etc. all wasted timein human development. Jean Liedloff writes, 'If she wives his mouth . . it is in the halfCHILDREN attentive manner with which she Dear sir, groomsher own person'. The baby Your recent advertisement plat- throug close contact has become ed by the National Centre for Alan extension of herself and not ternative Technology (Underanother tedious aspect of "total bondaee*the reviewer sees it to be. currents No. 28) would imply that he reviewer seemingly sees the delights of alternative technology are to be confined to one getter only mothers holding their babies. Jean Lie-'loff says, 7 t u well to ation, or one generation minus the make clear the maternal role d m amount of time when it finds itself not have to be taken by the babies incapacitated by illness, infirmity tfioloeical mother-nor does the and old age in its later years. mother suncgate have to be either female or adult except at feeding While I expect N.C.A.T. has times'. superficially sound reasons for Maybeinthe reviewer's response is tflid -with its promulgating this death wish, e.g. quarries being nasty places for family isolation, lack of paternal children, I suspect that so01ething invobement and the lack of respondeeper is at work. Children get in stbuity and maturity with which the way while you adjust your we credit older children. Maybe our social structure Servanius oil drums, or fine-tune should be questioned and derided e your solar cells, and r o m e ~ has rather than that of the Yequana to cook for them and 'educate' t h e and e n look e m . Indians. It is to us to 'pen oumlves to its possibjlities wiihin How much mw wfialt it is to our culture. 'educate' our own children than it Jean Liedloff described, from is f o hawk an alternative life-style her experiences, what I felt to be round a faddish middle-class wma very special way of being within munity of devotees. Children are this tribe - non-critical, nonrejecting; where energy is not good for us. They are resilient, intelligent and tenacious. Our future wasted in reacting against as there is norigidity and therefore, rather lies with them. jnrejecting children, than rebound from, t h e y a n absorb an lifestyleis fostered d v e r the contact with wch which is not alternative to anyother brings. thing! I t is part of the decadent The reviewer feels that Jean capitalist mainstream Of our a@&Liedloff negates the mother always, ing, achieving and consuming I felt however that she showed . herself to be much concerned Â¥ockty If anyone loves childmn has Mth the mothers and with her loss of confidence and the undermining a real and practical vision of an oT t w f d i n t s and fa"t"";ts by laaernative- lifeele, which copes. ad",t bl=llecr e m s for cess and the frustrations which aspirations and child-centred Cares, these bring.

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moot matter as to whether he failed WINSCAIE * h;= '--a* ^"ties as an Inspector in The debate now t a k i i place witn- not reporting the debate that &ail in the anti-nuclear camp on the 'right' ' took place as opposed to the one tactics to follow after Windscale is t important (I leave judgement to om of the iitmost importance as your side). If Roskill is the only precedent contributors, Martin Ince and Dave Elliott fundercurrents 281 emnhasise, = - .--- . for a PIC, (hen at least RoskUl report Can I enter a brief plea f& giving the ed what people had to say (with one establishment one more chance with or two glaring wver-ups in the Final the CDFR-1 Inquiry? I hold no brief Report). The ultimate worry is for them, nor for anti-nuclear groups. straightforward: if the anti-nuclear I am concerned that boycotting the movement as a whole, or in signifies inauirv and ootine for disobedience ~....-- humbere. .-.. bovcotts the CDFR-1 camp&%, inwhatever form, will inquiry, aq opportunity for gcneratir be C O ~ n t t r p r ~ d ~ ~ tthat ~ C part foi valuable information through a quasi of the population so far untouched adversarial process is missed. How by the professional debates we have one tlwn informs the public 1 do pot witnessed at Windscde and elsewhere know. But the logic is rather compel] - the great British public. mg that tells us there u nothing to First. the CDFR 1 mtiuin willbe inform them ofif the information is not eked out ol the system. held next wear. not this (as Ince I appreciate many UndereWirents states). ~ n l i k e ~ i d s c a ltherefore, e, readers will not find these sentiment the parties to the inquiry have more attractive since their miirk me made time to prepare. Second, while weeup on nuclear issues and e&a inforfl iog that one has to know what to tion is redundant to the process. But Dreoare for. the whole ooint of refor many others this is not the case by adding the 'D', & k t ~ CFR-1, g is to prepare participants for the fact and "don't knows' can hardly constithat, as the establishment sees it. this tute half of the adversarial process. This leaves the professional camis an inquiry infoone prototype reactor.Jt is not a commitment to a ers with a suggested obligation to the

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he refuses to limn himself to mere support of organisations like the Bremen Institute for Biological David Pearce, Security k d by hi friend, Walther Windscale-Asessment Review Soyka. He tried to conduct a, , Project hunger strike against the decision of the party wnference, but it appears that he was unable to re^ University of Aberdeen cniit the helpers needed to influenIIep&nt of Political Economy ce the public. Then he could only Cdwud Wright Building nee three remaining po~iiflities: D u n k Street 1) Conducting a hunger strike on Old Aberdeen ABY 2TV. b his own which would have led to FÃ S M h forced feeding in hospital 2) A return to his profession which, in his opinion, WOUM havetimptiled ^\ his credibflitv and thus made him U <J \Ã V incapable of'turthff appealing to f a wider public, or 3) The self-immohe finally decided upon. A FLAMING TORCH OF lation We d p r n here GrwmlWs PR OTE ST mistake. He should have confessed to himself and to the nubile the f On 16th November 1977, the failure of his hunger-sstrikeplan& party conference of the German which would only have strengthenSociil-Democrats,decided to ed his credibility by showing him continue the building of atomic capable of learning how to adopt power dtions. As a direct result the rieht measures. Since Govem47 year-old teacher Hqttmut mentT~awCourts, Parties, Public Gniendlier made of himself a Media, are all intfavour of profitable fkm& torch of protest in front atomic death and against protection of St. Peter's Church in Hamburg; of life, the struggle against them he died of hit b u m in the early has to.be conducted to persistent h o u r s of November 21, Having and patient enlightenment of the differed agony for several days. people. If Hartmut Gruendler's Newspapers, radio, tetevfaion etc. death in the flames helps to bring (which at the time had made home that lesson, his self-sacrifice much of the self-hmolaticin of will not have been in vain. Jan Palla& in Prague), omitted P.B. to t e w it' one p r even refusc/o Confrontation Pass ed to ~ublisha paidadvertisement 63a Brick Lane of death. , ' London E l It was therefore left to a'few opposition periodicals and lb the duplicated circular! of the antiauclen movement to mÃ§kknown 'Gruendlei's He Was ~-~ - - - messass. -~ oppoacd not so much to atomic power stations as to the untruths used t o make propaganda for buildifit them. He attacked Chancellor Schmidt whose book Taking Alan Campbell (Undercurrent Political Decision!as a Christian 30) has failed to understand the he demanded to have &d to his politics behind our 'Micro Is coffin because the Chancellor had Beautiful' article (Undercurrents refused to hold a dialogue with 271. We wrote about how computer ' dissetating citizens as promised in tn-hn~~nt.v *id .---- -- --,CNM - - -- - ho - - "ird -- - to .- that book, or even toconcede to anv correction of the erosslv - - ~ ~ mis- . workers' control. community leading statements made by the control, and decentralisation if Federal Government. there is the political will accomIn spite of the greatest respect,oho must feel for Gruendlrt pursu- panied by mass political action .We thought that the readership of ing his consistency to the point of Undercurrents was sufficiently self-aicrifi. one must however .-.--sophisticated to understand that concede that this method has been such goals are not achieved by proved m utter failure. Opposed waving a magic wand. Urifortqn(6 violence in an shape or form, he had to admit however reluctant ately the political left in this ly. that his action would 'in the country suffers from a chronic eyes of superficial observers, put lack of imaaination. and is not him in the neighbourhood of thinking clearly on this subject. taider-Metohof. For whle there we know to a great differencebetween sacriy^^ fiiing ow's own life and that of ,others, both have m common the Any busine* that ;hape ofilf.king their conte poi amfts in *oloiiy a G , ~ m S t ~ f t h * m t h y by%ni, d i = t i t i v m d ~ a ~over e stforialdeedf. Despite thesefean &d that,%* of (hemateyi$ss ,* 2;% - / Â¥'*'I.i. ,> , ac^^ '*st, t h nwj.ority, who would like to' be informed.

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that capital intensive firim intend to drive labour intensive firms out of business.There is no doubt that the way c d u t e r s are being used now will mean very nasty consequencesfor millions of people. Govbrnments and industry are using this technology for their purposes, not for outs. We were writing on the alternative uses for thia technology. Computers are machines. Maybe they are more sophisticated and flexible than other maclpst, but they are still tools that have to be given their orders by people. We . are very much against the mystique and hocuspocus developed by the aspiring priesthood of the computer industry. We feel if is vital that ordinary people undtrstand and learn how to me camputer technology. However, without political under&niliBg and action the information systems we described will not be Ã§eup. What is needed is not more neeative thinking, but II wide rang& public debate on how to control this technology, and me it democratically. t

66 Waterer Gardens Burgh Heath Tadworth

0 m .I am a Ã§clf empldyed woman. Apart from a brief couple of terms a t the age of 21 (55 now) when 1 was employed as a teacher, 1 have always been a self-employed woman. And 1 really am a woman - married eighteen years (unfortunately t o a totally irresponsibk male who landedfull responsibility for our mutual work on my shoulders), fom children, several lovers. And ftankly your 'woman's'issue'with all its contributing bra-burning females made me sick! In my professional capacity as a mologisi, 1 look at the h u m being as I would at any other iei of animal, various facb enwIw.~~~d rtandpcant of

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awe than the male - a bull can

serve a herd of cows, while a cow can produce only a single calf per, year. This has led to many intersexual practices from the throwing out of surplus drones from a colony of bees to the "women and children fist' tradition in a shipwreck. Both of these have a sound biological bask; but apart from such times of crisis or during actual courtship and mating, the sex of the individua iÃ of no importance whatsoever in day-to-day living. For this reason, I am primarily aware of myself as a person doing ajob, and my sex has nothing whatsoever to do with my daily life except in specifically sexual situations. Why, then, I ad; my elf, do so many women have to spend, apparently, their whole lives in justifying themtclvesas women? Why does Anna Mac& want 'an Wormation magazine for womenun technolw?'Is she suggesting that women are too dmple to understand technology unless it be presented to them in a specifically female way? Technology seems to me to be a totally sexless subject, equally wmprehendble (or incomprehenable?) to eithet sex. So I would beg ail your adult readers to remember that they are adult animals, and, as such, should by all the laws of nature be selfdependant. Forget your 'social seem ity' and John Seymour's 'Ntnny', forget whether you w a r a bra or Y-fronts, forget whether your 'boss' exploits you - and get out into the world on your own two feet and start living. I'm nothing out o f the ordinary, and 1have! Jill A. Shiw 31,North Street, Whitwick, Codvffle, Leicestershire.

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A. LONG SHOT Advice please, if you can spare effort; being (1) trained in film-mak ing (2) desirous of leaving the city (: interested in 'natural* ecolo "calsystems capable of nroducin~food, e.e. ~ceam,'forests-where best can I start to get mvolved with the amorphous A.T:, Ecological, movement? A vague question I know, but ~ c c a sionally a sh6t in the dark pays off. 53 R e a t o n Rd,

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to be seen in the-context of the complete diet. For this reasona recommended.

book i s 'Nutrition Survival Kit' which clearly points out con ietions between' the fashionable dietary theories. So,donlt forget, before yo change the way you lobk at food, read several books and compare their ideas.

Food Politics

. +

This could be virtually endless and go into the whole section of books about capitalism and agriculture, world food policy, etc. but we decided to limit this section and refer you to the booklipt 7 p*pared by the BssRs Avicapia . group instead. See earlier article. * The Wealth o f Some Nations Malcolm CaTdweH, Zed Press, '78, Â£1.40 Very recommended although it is not specifically on food, more food as a resource, and the structures that control how it is used. * Beyond tsolation - about 50p, available from Community Supplies, 78a fenny Street, Lancaster. A look at the alternative food and supplies network on the west coast of America. Raises the questions of working @Wards a collectivisedfood distribution network. Read it and see how it alters your perception of the British whobefood scene. * Food First - Frances Moore Lappe and J. CoIlins(GR) Sept '77. * How The Other Half Lives - Susan George. Penguin 76. Â£3.00 Both a quite similar approachto demolishing the myth that overpopulation is the cause o f famine and malnutrition, in any country. But Food First is more

The Famine Business - Colin Tudge.

plan as to how to change the present situation in agriculture in relation to the whole structure of society. * Food for People, Not for Profit C. L e ~ and a M. Jackson - Â£1.4 (GR) * Changing Food Habits in the Uf( * Wastage in the UK food system Chris Wardle did both, earth resources Research Ltd. Nice but not profound. * Fat is a Feminist Issue - Suzy OrbachPaddington. Â£3.95 Goes into the psychology of eating and has spawned a number of feminist therapy groups

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wholefood shop - how it began, its trials and tribulations, internal and external politics. Written with honesty as well as k( collectively so it's no one person's dew.

Food Co-op Handbook, Â£3.50 Definitely the best book around about every apect osfod - prx.ical md theoretical - a@ even though American, still very applicable to the UK. , -

Food Co-ops, Colin Hines. Friends of the Earth about 60p. Similar. :Our Dot& Bread who rndkesth; dough. Agricapital Group of BSSRS. &&report o f the milling, baking and

(Nutrition * Nutrition Suw/ml Kit- Kathy Dins' bm and DjAnn Akel-pmjandmm pm ?, Â£3.75~Covers all latest nutritional theories and includes recipes and information for the best way to change to . a healthy diet ..

* Back to Eden - jethro Kloss - (71, (GR). A comprehensive guide to medic;n& properties of hundreds of herbs, genera information on nutrition, food prepantion, diet and health. * Diet For a $ma// planet Frances Moore Lappe Ballentine, Â£.W. An analysis of theeffects of meat-

tein from non-meat sources. However, the only it dms make yw fml nutrient of any importake. Usefulcharts. , poodf~r~oug R~~~ ht~ Hume H# Vintage Â£2.75~Very recommended. ' Looks at the decline in nutrition of OUF ,? most common foods. * Trace Elements and Nutrition - Henry A- Schroeder - Faber Â£4.95~ Extremely well presented documentation of how tr& elements affect our he*,,;' with particular reference to their rote ,. in nutrition. \

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wholefoods is beginning to moveaway front. * Chtap and Cheerful - Joanna Lawton, Veg Society, 75p - Very ample, well thought out, OK on recipes, but , not that imaginative, Good beginners book.

&health. well explained, and doesn't >retendto be the final word on the subect. Survivai into the 21st Century - Viktbas Kulvinkas-Omangod Press - Â£6.50 Large section on nutrition (with exteniive bibliography to back up the claims). Mainly about natural healing. Utopian ipproach to the subject will either inipire or amuse. ,

oftenyour ,-,d holefood ,hop and Friends of the Earth group will be worth contacting for their own self-produced cookery/food leaflets.

~utririoaAimonac. (GR). Â£2.50

Loose leaf style book best for its tables af analysis of every type of food for ;ach nutrient, and it;section on which nutrients with which to treat which illness, as well as possible causes, etc. L Nutritional Science and Hwith Education - CC Shears-Steiner.

Â¥Q55s.*Ã Indigestion- Occasional, 2%. All areas of food covered, from production to consumption, and the politics involved in these processes. Problems of developed and third-world countries discussed.

"let's Get WeiiJLetsEat Right and Keep Fit/etc Adelle Davies. Mien and Unwin, about Â£1.2 each. Good comprehensive books, but both authors fail tp give a logical pattern to their analysis of what causes ill heal and back up outrageous claims by g lng one example of a miracle cure. N t reference material. v Eating Your Way to Health - Ruth Bircher- Faber, Â£1.20 CohserVative, but with some good arguments against,, and alternatives to, dairy produce. Also good for special diets nutrition.

'New inernationaiist - Monthly - 40p. Tries to cover all aspects of world development, casting a critical eye on the 'aid' and imperialist strategies of Ihe developed world. Some good material on third world africulture.

pookbooks This could be endlw, and as this booklist can't hope to be comprehensive, and is almost sure to miss out most ' peoples' favourite books, here's lust a mere smattering of the alternative cookery books to tempt your appetite. Ã Natural Foods Cookbook - Beatrice Trum Hunter - Faber - Â£2.60/Â£1.0 The original natural foods eookbook. Still one of the best.

*, 7 " - r eCookery~r<&SQjara Bread& o k - Zambala Zen Centre - Both around Â£3'4.00 Beautifully designed, andbotKbooks ire good for a beginner, yet contain r e e m for the xperinced as well. Indian Vegetarian Cookery - K. Jack- Santa &ria Rider Â£1.45 Fed up of junky Indian Takeaways?'Canlt go wrong. One of the best.

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Magazines

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Science for People - Quarterly - 3%. Each issue usually takes a theme based on a socialist critique of the present direction of science and technology. See Food, Farming and Finance, Issue 24, but there are also relevant articles in many other issues. Turnover - Radical Food Politics. Magazine produced by West Coast American Food System. A mixture of features on the specific (much further advanced than British) food collectives. and wider discussion of the food system and American food policies. Grass Roots may be able to get this. If not, try Cena (address mentioned earlier). News and Views - Wholefood School of Nutrition, 62 Carneddi Road, Bethesda, Gwynedd, N. Wales 35p. Reallv .--., directed -..- - -- - at - the middle-class housekeeper who is just beginning to look ak. food. The contents concentrate on practical nutrition and dietary informa-, tion -have cwared such topics as seaweed, diets during pregnancy, grinders clear of politics in and blenders. anv shave. The WSN also run a series of evening classes and weekend classes around the country teaching wholefood cookery.

Moosewood Cookbook. Mollie KaQen. Witdwood House. Â£3.50 The Uhuru Cook Guide. Uhuru Cafe, 35, Cowley Rd, Oxford, Cheap. ,

THE MOOSEWOOD book is no purist wholefood cookbook. The recipes come from the Moosewood Restaurant (New York State) which has had a host of workers supplying and embellishing dishes culled from their family backgrounds, and so Russian grannies pop up here, Asian uncles there. It's out and out eclectic. So, how to review a cookery book? Maybe, let's do some cooking. After reading through the book, some of the ideas flowed into useful action. Now the vex. ! peelings gc straight into the stockpot; pity the compost bin. With specific recipes the action often came to an abrupt halt. Too many items, which would make sense bought in restaurant bulk, seemed downright extravagant on the kitchen scale, for a one-off job. Then,again, I like cheese; however, the unenAing procession of ricotta, feta, Parmesan (two cuofuls!!. cottaee and occasion all^ cheddar, quigput me off my cheese-&toast. Hardwear complaints: Does every American kitchen have an electric blender? I f so, I'll stay here. I s the pressure M e t really redundant, or just undiscoveredpt Moosewood? The large format and decorative layout make it a fine ornament for the kitcften shelves, providing beautiful, oftenexpen-

* Uhuru Cooking Guide - Uhuru 60p. Inexpensive, extensive, and well illustrated. Food for Thought - Marilyn King and William Scott, Prism Press. Â£1.95 Good illustrations, but space taken up with a lot of quotes and not many actual recipes. Imaginative. * Nature's Foods - Karen Betteridge and Peter Deadman, Rider Â£2.95 Attempt to adjust macrobiotic theory to a British range of foods. A nice book tohave as it's all hand designed, but it doesn't say an awful lot. Some recipes aregoodsandthelayout is good, but has the.'other wffrtd' feel about it that - i ,f 7 s ' "fK 3,

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while cooking), it details precisely how to, get started with the beans, grains, flours, etc. that are found on the average whole- * food shop's shelves. Once you've started, the rest is up to you. Pointed in the right direction, who needs a book of recipes? Jackman/JolaSclclndca

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Our Daily Bread (who makes the dough). Agricapital Group BSSRS 37 pp, 60p individuals, Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ institutions. INFORMATION ABOUT the chemicals in white bread is two-a-penny nowadays, so when I first picked up this booklet I didn't expect to read anything that I didn't already know. But I was pleasantly surprised, as the Agricapital group have written this booklet from a different viewpoint, concentrating more on the big companies involved in the business and the shocking conditions and health hazards that the workers face, than bn the purely nutritional aspects. The socialist bias of the authors shows through clearly.

Most of the bread we cat is controlled by 'the hi" three', namely Rank-HovisMcDougall, Assbciated British Foods and Spillers-French (although Spillers no .longer bake bread, they still operate flour mills). These companies are totally unscrupulous - they make a large profit on flour milling but a small one on baking, thereby ensuring that small bakeries go out o f business (they have to buy highpriced flour and can't afford t o make losses on baking). Workers are paid abysmal wages, and they work long hours. Health hazards abound at each stage of the bread-making process. There is a detailed description of the Chorleywood Bread Process, the revolutionaG (?) method o f factory baking that came into use i n the early sixties. There are tables o f nutritional values of different floors, price comparisons of different types o f bread, and facts such as: the iron which i s added to white bread, is in the wrong form, and so it passes straight out of the body without being absorbed. A conversation between bakery workers reveals that paraffin oil i s still used in bread factories, and that an incredible amount of bread i s wasted each day - it is pulped into fish bait All nasty stuff. The book ends on a hopeful note, with ideas such as workers co-op bakeries being proposed. One gets the impression that under a socialist system, everything would be hunky-dory with no * chemicals, tasteless bread, bad working conditions, etc. I think they're being

Ihave only a few minor criticisms of this booklet. A few points they make are not quite clear, e.g. do the millers add the chemicals to sacks of.flour or do the bakers do this? Also some o f the terminology they use is not clear. e.g. what are guards? Finally, some points they ma e, such as advertising. animal feedstu s and master bakers, are repeated several times. However, overall it is avery good booklet and .. well worth reading.

Lowana Veal

THIS NEW GBG should be taking its due place in the best-selling non-fiction lists before long. It i s attractive and wellpresented with a front cover illustration of a map of Britain cleverly constructed from brimming beer glasses. The Isle of Man is represented by what looks like a half of lager; surely it can't be as'the island is a major beer haven '- it must be one of the pale hoppy bitters o f the North. Real ale, in case you don't-know, is beer served without the use of carbon dioxic)? fizz. CAMRA, the Campaign , for Real Ale, has been gaining great influence, in the brewery trade, and the' GBG is its annual showpiece. The GBG lists over 5,000 of the best o f Britain's 25,000 real ale pubs. The main criterion for selection i s that the pub serves consistently excellent beer; other criteria are friendliness and cleanliness. The GBG is essential for discerning drinkers travelling round Britain. Each pub gets a short descrintion; i,f you prefer 'tastefully renovated and friendly coaching houses', then you cah find the sortof pub you want. One snag; maps are not particularly .adequate. London back street pubs can only be found with the help o f an A to Z, though possibly you could ask a policeman. Obscure country pubs get an ordnance survey grid reference, but who carries stacks of os maps around?, Gill Knight.

AT.. .AT..

Appropriate Technulogy $ourceliMk:,a guide t o practical books a dplow for $ village and s d community technoftwp Ke Darrow & Rick Pam o f Volunteers in k i a 304 pages. MAN have you ever been into one these bookshops, y'know, the ones fro the other side? And glaring at you fro1 the walls is one helluva l o t o f pulped trees all on AT and you have the task of picking THE ONE for you, to suit yo needs, wants, desires, lusts, purposes, pocket, whatever, Wot I'm saying is that there is that there is and will continue to be a plethora of books on all aspects o f A T and it's a bleeding headache trying to work which one will help y'solve y'problem; dig. About one year ago the dynamic duo of Darrows and Pam produced a h a l l blue booklet reviewing some 5 W books on A?. It was'good. Now b e have Son or Daughter, depending on your se~kt" standpoint, of the Appropriate Tech-yla? og</ Sourcebook. But what is it about? 'This book was produced to Inform people about some of the small scale systems that have been used'. (p6). And Brother or Sister that's what it does. It's an in-depth review of some 600, yes folks 600, books, periodicals and plans related t o AT. It starts with sources of materials re- ' viewed then into reviews on AT phildophy, reference books, agriculture, agri ture tools, there are seven sections on energy reviews going from wind t o ped, power, water, architecture, housing, health care, print, co-ops, beekeeping, soapmaking village industries, periodic and (phew) finally a glossary and appi dix, and for those of you who are not converted a metric endish/% english . metric conversion table It's a mimi reference book i n itself filling the mud needed gap o f 'wot's inside this ere bot and will i t elp me'. Their reviews are practical and honest and pretty fail sa if they say it's no good then believe em, conversely if they say its Highly recommended then go fer yer life, if it's wot yer want. * Their philosophy is that we do not need all the books on A T in fact if we did have then it would be a waste o f natural and financial resources (anti AT). The first thing to do is to isolate your problem and then refer to those items of A T software that are of direct relevance i n you solving your AT problem The A T Sourcebook gives you the inside lowdown on some of the AT softwar?, tells ya where and how to get them and some idea o f cost Personally it isthe most used book on my shelf and has come up with answers when other sources have failed, it's also saved me a lot of time and money. All I can really say i$ thanx to the autbora , and in their own inimitable words 'Highly recommended'.

.. .

Gwff Smith

ih@

study I've ever heard of on any large 'fungus that cw do s~mething~to your head, and/or the rest of you. It's not a field guide, so it won't be the most useful book you could use to find fungi, But it's the best around to tell you what's in them. what thev'll do to v w . about it if you need to: andwhat B Trv at least to have access to this book. if intend to eat a lot of mushrooms for AÃ ‡! food or oleasure. ~ o s t o t h e books r on hallucinogenic and poisonous fungi are published by small presses on U.S. atfd the Westcoast i*3 They are quite expensive and ewer a fungal flora which isn't much knqwn in ye Qj this country. The mformation relevant to the UK has for the most part been distilled from these books i n b Richard Cooper's Hassle Free pamphlet If you S5Ã do want more information than Cooper's

to do

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Fungi ,

Fun

Ifyou wantto get in on the great 1978 TOgic mushroomcraze (a) it's probably too late wait for the 1979 magic flushroom craze, {b) you won't get much irip from the books we reviewed last ssue, except the general background and sxperience you'll need to identify any

...

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nushr-~mi.

Probably the best book to supplement Richard koper's A Guide to British Psitocybin Mushrooms (Hassle Free Press, BCM Box London WC1V 6XX, 86ppostpaid). As a bide to finding the most widely known >sych-tive mushroom (the Liberty ^Ã§pfwocybe suni-lanceata) it's excellml. Ithd a useabledescription, a black and white illustration, and a lovely set it colour photos to help you. & a guide to other British psychoactive species it's TOt so great. At least one Scottish species s left out1; those that are mentioned are llustrated only by line drawings which I wouldn't advise you to use as your main guide to the species. Richard Cooper loesn't give adequatecoverage to what's mown ahout individual species*drug antent. For most species the evidence for psychoactivHy is very confused, potent@ munchgrs of Paneolus foenesveil or Aminlta pantherlna ought to mow how little experts agree with each ither about them. The definitive work of the moment hat does outline virtually everything mown on mushroom hallucinogens and loisons is a very expensive text by 3wy Lincoff and D.H. Mitchel (Toxic md fMluctnogenic Mushroom Poisoning, and, Â£13.75) It mentions eveiy flair P Istraight fungus field guide is

be purchased f i t from their publishers, if you're prepared to wait a few if yy:rpnoLtry Conyenmpnths dium Bookshop in London. Finally, we%e had a look at Dover's l i s t of fungi titles.2 They're all reprints of very old American titles, presumably reprintable, because they're out of copyright With one exception they are not worth bothering about out-ofdate terminology, American species, poor reproduction. The exception is Mcllvaine's book (see references below: Charles Mcllvaine was a maniacal mycophagist, and appears to have tasted every possible fungus. He's one of the few authors who thought stinkhorms made a great meal. He's worth reading, if you're adventurous in your eating. I'd take his recommendations with a grain of caution pinched from Lincof and Mitchel, though. A lot of things Mcllvaine ate have poisoned others. He must have had a cast-iron digestion.

.'..

Karen Haard's PoisonousandHaiiucinogenic Mushro~ms(Cloudburst Press, Alan Campbel I Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada, $2.95 plus postage). In addition to 4. Pty{ccybs firnetaria, desribed by P.O. Orton being fairly accurate amateur mycoloNates Hovtl Bomnical Gardens Edmburnh. -. gists, the Haards seem to be experienced 26:119641. 2. Vera K. Charles, Introduction Mushroom trippers; tf-eir first-hand experiences of Hunting, 95p; Louis Krieiger, Mushqom various mushrooms are worth reading. Handbook, Â£3.16~ i m E. n Hard, MvihIt is a far better book than Gary Menser's rooms, Edibis md OHierwis9. Â£5.70'Hallucinogenic and Poisonous Mushroom chartea ~ c ~ l v a i grid n e ~ o b e r Macadam, t Field Guide (And/or Press, Berkeley, On* TfiwwdAmrican Fungi, Â£3.61A& priceqfor paper editions. $5.95). which omits a number of common and deadly species, despite their occurrence on the Coast, and which generally seems full of errors and omis'iions. A curious American fitle, is Richard Norland's What's in a Mushroom Part 111: PsychoactiveMushrood. If you're an enthusiastic fungal chemist, i f s lust what you've been looking for - a compendium of information concerning psychpac ve , chemicals in fungi. I'm a little suspic ous of his results . he claims to have read the entire relevant literatore, but never indicates that authors very often report conflicting results for particular chemicals in samples of the same species. Ha's a l d found some shotgunnish chemical tests (e.g. photo developer as a test for psilticybin). Still, i f you like to mess with psychoc":emistry, you can get the The Unheated Greenhouse, by Ronald book from Pear Tree Publications (PO H. Menage, Thorsons Publishers Ltd. Box 517, Ashland, Oregon, $4.95 plus 128pp. postage). Remember that extracting THIS BOOK i s acomprehensive guic chemicals like psilocybin is an offense,, to everythingyou need to know about even if oossessing-it inside a fungus the buying, siting, building and use o'f the isn't, so what your biochemistry . cold greenhouse. Wanna grow your own? You could W e d 1 began reading it I was c itical start with another arcane text, The and found myself nit-picking. By the Psilocybin Magic Mushroom Grower's time Ireached the end of the boo Iwas -6uide (by O.T. Oss and.0.N. Oeric, extremely imprewed by the breadkjof -And/or Press, PO Box 2246, Berkeley, the information, which i s clearly laid out 94702, $4.95). Looks a very competent and easily understood. The author, is not instruction manual, though it's tohelp an organic gardener,but this does not you growstropheria (-Psi/ocy&) affect the usefulness of the book to those cubensis, a species which wants mild jvho are. Anyone consideringtinvesting temperatures and high humidity. in a greenhouse will find this book inv+Providing the right sterile environment liable: itprovides all the necessary inmeans a lot oiwork and* bit of eqwipformation to helpyou use the greenhouse mow complicated than brewment to its fullest potential. , ing, or huntin&Uherty Caps. i , , All these odd American titles qn

Cold House

...

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Gregory Tillett, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 236pp, Â£4.9 paperback.

A TASTY LITTLE book, thihion neat

elt to wish paper, with several goody

illustrations by Elizabeth trafford smith.

ion, Exorcism, Vampires, tanism, V?odoo.. Although when you actually get there the writings are pretty sensible, there seems to be an unnecessary and distasteful pandering to 'News-Of The World Occultism' wffich we could well

at to0 many people aren't aware of e fact that Kirlian Photography tells ou little ifanything about the human aura (there are too many variables, and arigorously-controlled experiment + tells you that the discharge doesn't relate to any bodily state but to tern- perature and humidity. There is no doubt an WA,but the K i r j h s haven't photographed it,and neither has anyone else using the same principles). Try looking up Pyramid Power. It isn't

The Awbuw Wcle Michael Dames

Thames and Hudson 240pp, Â£6.50

A ~ h ~ r t h s t o of r y tfie b m p n ~ a n e i Hoult Gothic Image 39pp. Â£0.95.

in the chambers representing the Swallowhead waters; it is the long Goddess, the hag; but, as she was once a mother, she is also the squatting Goddess in the five ,

'When the snail stone is enlarged, it becomes the Sanctuary ground plan'figure constantly in acquaric ('snails. cosmology, as well as in sexual symbolism, and participate In the sacred powers which are concentrated in the Waters, in the Moon, andin Woman',) Michael

Dames writes that the adolescent girls' would be initiated in? womanhood in the Sanctuary (by wise women). -flying ' together their menstrual cycles Would : s~~h+i#, they would , -- + ' , +

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by way o f the Beckhumpton avenue. The symbolism is o f snakes mating; of ovaries

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her.

And throughout the book he gives us wry and gentle words o f wisdom. The the old avenue snake shows some signs o f revival, because our n e e are about to change (though these vibratiws do n o t at first penetrate heavily upbolstered chairs/ and the gentle - 7n a harmoniouscivilisation, men show what women know'. ' I n this very unharmonious civilisation many women are now trying t o know

%-'. .. . -,. ...--- .- .--.-

at the Nev. -, -," that women i n tune with their feminine menstruate at the New Moon. The young women left the Sanctuary at the beginning o f May by way o f the snake - the West Kennet avenue t o the Henge at Avebury; the young men

**Â¥Ã The Barefoot Psychoanslyst, by John southgate an& Rosemary Randall, with illustrations by Frances Tomlinson, Â£2.9 from The Association of Karen Horney, Psychoanalytic Counsellors, 12 Nassington Road, London NW3. The field of antipsychiatry is currently i n the doldrums. R.D. Lain% its earliest father-figure, languishes in a,private world of impenetrable verse, many self-help therapy groups have collapsed in disarray, and Humpty Dumpty, ence the movement's best perio'dial, has not been seen for over a year. There isstill a feeling at large that the professional/psychotropic/ mechanistic axis o f mental health provisionoffers little t o the sufferer beyond light k l i e f and long-term dependence, but there is little consensus about what to replace it with qnd how. This is a great shame, since one of the tantalising aspects of life in the twentieth century is the feeling that a certain deg o f self-awareness is almost within our grasp and yet.= a society, we never owe much to spite and recrimination, ly resignation. They owe nothing at to the idea of the mind as a series of scious and unconscious processes which could. with a little application, be better

such issues as women's rights, abortion, sexuality. football hooliganism. racial intolerance and industrial d e m k y (tc draw six issues more or less at random from a week's supply of newspapers) is

and M i nd

what WOrnen have always known .. . ^Y are IUC~Y, ^Y to0 are helped by wise women. Janet Hoult is a young woman who has beautifully and carefully published 'A Short History o f the Dragon'; gleanings about dragons which she hopes to make into a larger book - a larger publisher still has to be found. 'Driving down an ordinary street in London, f s'aw above one o f the houses a bright object, a ball o f Fire, within which were writhim gold 'serpents'.,' writes sue who has seen a dragon. I have only met the dragon in a dream: people had formed a circle then there was an inner circle. A woman entered the circle and sat down then it was my turn. I went into the circle -everyone within it was sitting down. I went into the inner circle and turned t o the woman who went 'before me and asked her if Ihad to walk right round the inner circle. She scathingly said, 'Yes, o f course'. Today women meet the dragon in . visions and dreams; tomorrow wise women might create ahother Sanctuary. This little book, full of mazes and spirals, stone ca~ings'and legends, will help us to famthe dragon. Fiona Canted resultant of two sorts o f factors - those

of which are concealed we $re from aware view, andwhich thoseare which equally real and equally powerful. P$choanalysis is the study of the hidden frequently conducted in a manner bristcauses o f mental experience; Freud's ling with rage, indignation,crude 510gans original work i n Vienna was subsequentandequally crude generalisations. They ly continued by a number of disciples are areas of disagreement in which the in other countries, including Karen protagonists of different causes often Horney in the USA. The Barefoot react with extraordinary venom, citing Rsychoanalyst adopts her particular scriptures ancient and modern, principles post-Freudian methods. traditional and radical, It is essentially~manual for use by grievances and world.weary disenchantgroups who are interested in exploring arguments words often theuse o f the Karen Horney method. cease t o have comrnonly accepted meanIt is about the psychpanalysis which. instead form of thin-, ;,,@ =rn f& f o t~ h d v and ~ for ly veiled assault. each other, rather than the preserve o f Clearly people's behaviour is determinthe classic couch-owning shrink of ed by powerful, mysterious forces hidden deep within the unconscious mind - fears, innumerable jokes. It i s intended t o be on1 t o m e w t T o a@ of v cravings, pain, abandonment, warmth, serioViiswrbe&oto~ybne security, erotic pleasure - all attached t o functioning adequately whp neverthe a composite of half-remembered and less wishes to discover more about long-forgotten events and associations. themselves. It has been produced i n They unleash their fury unexpectedly, comic-strip format with an emphasis and for the individual who experiences on clear, jargon-free explanation aided ch a groundswell of implacable em'oby simple drawings. What it proposes it is easier t o cling to a-convenient is a series of insights and exercises which ionalisation than t o seek the underlyenable people working together cause. The object of self-awareness equals, i n groups o f two, to loo more is t o try t o understand the unconscious deeply at what and why they feet. Anycture which lies beneath the surface. one interested i n the potentiil fok radiAlthough this applies particularly cal self-help mental health will find IYt o the arena of political struggle, ' it interesting and useful. the normal process of everyday life is similar. Thought and behaviour is the

Md \ w \

Exploring About Chinese Women by Julia Kristeva Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd. 1977, Â£2.9 Paper. IF YOU WANT to understand China, you must understand Chinese women. Who would wish to quarrel with this premise of Julia Kristeva's scholarly study, About Chinese Women? But accepting the premise is one thing; arriving at an understanding of China's postrevolutionary women is, for the Westerner, something else. The author, an Eastern European who lectures at the University of Paris, confesses that in China, she felt not 'like a foreigner, the way / do i n Baghdador New York' but rather 'like an ape, a martian, an other'. I t i s this sense of otherness that provides the perspective from which we peer, as if through a glass darkly, at Chinese villages, farms and factories, hospitals and nurseries, family life. . . and always at the centre are the women, sober and serious in their grey-blue uniforms, exuding both austerity and sexuality, encompassing afuture as yet unknown but in which the dim outline of a new humanity are becoming visible. The crucible in which this new humanity is being forged is the transformation of the Chinese family from Confucianism to its present functional organisation in which we see 'women brandishingpaintbrushes, machine guns and hammers, wearing men's clothing and more frequently, shouting orders to men - but surrounded as well by a sweet community o f children with relaxed, rounded bodies. . The transformation, we discover, is far from complete. In a society which has been patriarchal for thousands of years, tt is not, after all, surprising that Mao should warn against the seductiveness of power for women and that in the theatre, cinema and opera, women should serve ascatalysts but never as 'the miraculous agents of success'. Yes, vestiges of feudal China remain. But what a great leap forward we are witness to; from the Confucian woman classified as a 'slave' or 'inferior man', the woman as fetish with her deformed feet broken and bound in infancy, the successive wives subordinated to wife number one, the concubine with her ambiguous role in the symbolic social system - from these to Zhan Goufei, who, at twenty, is the vice-chairwoman of the Naval Shipyard Union in Shanghai, an immense enterprise concerned with the repair and construction of gross tonnage ships, which employs 7000 workers o f whom 1400 are women. Or Bai Qixian, an intellectual who decides to remain in the countryside, marries a peasant and becomes a teacher in the village secondary school without giving up her work in the fields. Her husband takes care of the children and does the cooking, which leaves her some time to organize the active political life of her students.

China But does the author pernaps m a ~ etoo much o f Communist China's inaccessi, bility to western models? Are there not, along with the differences, some striking similarities in the historical experience of the Western woman? She may not have had her feet bound, but her mind was shackled and the patriarchal system kept her in a state o f poverty, subservience and humiliatmn. She, too, sought selfrealization through such prototypical roles as the all-powerful mother and the courtesan manipulating events through male authority figures. And i s she not today beginning to glimpse the possibility o f a new order of relationships between the sexes, through which as 'companions living together' and equal partners, a new humanity may emerge? Readers of About Chinese Women may wish that the author had introduced more real live individual Chinese women and had done so earlier on. But this is a solid, thoughtful book which raises important questions not only about Communist China and its women but also about current critical problems in the capitalist societies of the West Perhaps; in order to fully understand our own or any other society, we need Kristeva leads'usskillfully through to develop a deeper understanding o f the this remarkable transition, elaborating , women who have had the 'luck' the with a high degree of sensitivity the themes author puts it, to be defined, particularwhich she has chosen as dictated by the ly i n patrilinear and class-stratified questions which her trip to China provoksocieties as 'always foreign to the social ed in her: the sexual difference; the sacriorder'. The luck o f the outsider, which fice of the other sex in a paternally is running out in China, and we can dominated family where women is 'the hope along with Julia Kristeva, in t h e other race'. She weaves these themes rest of the world ""'11 throughout her discussion of women in Elinor Lenz ancient and modern China, revealing a complex pattern of sexual and religious practices, family structures, law, political and economic Dower. as these have evolvReport's from China, 1953-1976, Joan ed and in the convulsion of revolution, Robinson, Anglo-Chinese Educational altered Chinese society in fundamental Institute, 1977, 131pp, Â£1 and far-reaching ways. The section on 'the present state o f mind is somelaw spells out in some detail how the thing new and p o werful. I t is like a great Marriage Law adopted in 1951 broke the technical discovery - a source of energy back of the bourgeois family. This Law, hitherto unknown'. which i s essentially a moral code, insists This i s how Joan Robinson described on equality of husband and wife as the atmosphere in 1953 in China after 'companions living together', provides liberation. This rapidly dispelled my not only that a woman may retain her fears that this book by the famous ecomaiden name after marriage but that nomist might be a brief economic appraiher children may take her name rather sal of China between the years 1953than her husband's, and elevates house 1976. This is not the case. Joan Robinwork to the status of other forms of son simply reports on what is there. labour. She first visited China in 1953 with a I t i s the Chinese attitude toward sexual party of businessmen and, in the last love which may, more than anything quarter century has returned there a else, widen the abyss across which the number of times, with each visit adding Westerner directs his gaze at modern to her insight of the country. The book China. Love, i t seems, is 'the possibility comprises a collection of her writings of finding the other in a universal code made at each visit, in which she has where 'you' and 'I' have no more reason followed China through her early days to exist since 'we' are in total agreement'. after the Liberation when land reform With our Western exaltation of romantic had just been completed and agriculture love and our cult o f the individual, the was in the hands of private peasants, sublimation to such collectivist forms through her Great Leap Forward, then may becloud the lenses through which onto the bitter years of 19'"" '1 when we attempt to view the contemporary Soviet advisors were sudde withdrawn, Chinese scene.

. ..

Undercurrents 3 .-, . then the Cultural Revolution o f the late Sixties and the subsequent period o f reconciliation. She looks at each phase of the Republic's development with an intelligent and deep-searching understanding, which leaves one with the feeling that she knows her subject better for her lack o f preconceived ideas o f it She goes right to the root of any question which interests her, and analyses it with compassion and great intellectual honesty. Ifound it interesting t o follow not only the development o f China through these years, but also the development in the author's own interpretation. I would recommend this book t o anyone wanting t o learn more about China. It is concise, honest and exceedingly interesting. My only (small) criticism is that the section headings are not dated, so one is constantly referring back to the contents page t o find which period is being discussed, as this is not always immediately obvious from the t e x t However, this is a very minor criticism. I found reading this book made me want t o visit China. Should it have the same effect on you, perhaps you would like t o take advantage (money permitting) of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding's offer in UC 30 of a study tour to China in 1979 or 1980.

Annette Ford

Not Just Books

THE HALFMOON GALLERY

The Halfmoori Gallery is a lovely place. Just East o f where the bankers plot i n the City and the commuters wait interminably at Liverpool Street, the surprised stranger finds himself i n a real bit of old London, and in the middle of it (27 NLStreet, El), he gets to one of the few places where good photography can be seen which has been taken and put together with political responsibility as well as flair. And there is also a Halfmoon Workshop at 119-121 Roman Road, E2, where the ideas take shape. But the good news about Halfmoon is that i n addition to being a good London showplace for radical photography, it has an impressive array of about 20 travelling exhibitions on different themes, which can be used in arts centres, exhibitions and anywhere where good visual exhibitions can be deployed. The best known touring show is Mike Abrahams's Growing Old, but more recent ones o f great interest include Using Photography - a record of people's photography on London's South Bank Factory Photography, Portugal, A Social Revolution and Life In the Orkneys. The exhibitions cost about Â£3 a month plus two-way carriage (not much because drastically) and more from Nicki Hughes at

o f straight society 1 shall wait as usual for some benevolent oil company t o gi\ me an Economist diary for 1979. It may be boringbut at least, I don't have to hide the damn thing when I'm making lunch appointments with the rich and influential. Martin Ince

Martin Ince

THE PUBLISHINGeventof the vear is. in case you'don't know yet, the appear: ance o f the 1979 Big Red Diary, put together by Undercurrents and published by Pluto at Â£1.5 - see elsewhere i n this issue for a mail order offer via us. The first page at which it opened - not having been involved i n ip production - contains a ludicrous howler in which ~ e n e r h Electric i n the USA is confused with our own beloved Weinstock-type General Electric Company. But apart from that the diary seems to be an improvement on its predecessors, at least to this disinterested reviewer. I t contains a plethora of information about nuclear developments, anti-nuclear (and pro-nuclear) organisations, and the like, more or less keyed to anniversaries throughout the year. Unlike previous big red diaries it actually looks good as well, and it can even be used as diary, unlike its predecessors which have all had artwork over the date spaces. That objection goes t o an extent for Zed Press's Pan Africa Diary for 1979, its first year. It costs Â£ in Africa, Â£1.5 in UK, and $3.50for the rest o f the world from 57 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DN. It's uch more use for third world readers th!~ the big red diary, with sections on African debt to the West, African development, southern African nutrition, and a whole host o f other topics. I f nd it much more interesting than the Red Diary. But as a member

The Working women's Artists Calendar The Working Women's Artists Calendar 7979. The Women's Press Ltd, 12 Ellesmere Rd, Bow London E3 5QX plus 75p for p&p. This is the first in a celebration of work , being produced by contemporary women artists from all over the world. It attempts to reflect the range and variability of media, technique, ideas and achievements o f women who work as artists. It is not a statement about what art should be. Much of what is happening in art today is difficult to record in a single image. The Women's Press has chosen work which is strong and original, as well as of great variety in style and subject matter. The purpose of the calendar is to make women's art widely and inexpensively available, as well as to give to women artists a new, extended audience. A t the low price of Â£4.9 for 12 very beautiful prints (size app. 20" x 16") I feel it more than succeeds. The Women's Press Limited is a feminist publishing company. Their major commitment is to art history and living art, but they also publish books in the areas of fiction, literary criticism, physi and mental health, social history and politics. A complete list of their titles i s available from the above address.

unaercurreiiui

Sell your wholefoods here! Small Ads at special giveaway price: 3p per word: Box Nos. 75p. Copydate for No. 31 is Dec. 20. Please send copy and replies to Box Nos. to our London office.

COMMUNITY VEGETARIAN collective. We have two acres of land in the South of France, on a small plateau, three miles from nearest village, sixty miles from Mediterranean, ten miles from a lake, forty miles from the nearest city. Interested in creating an organic nursery, being self-sufficient, making all sorts of things with a view to 'starting a small business? We want to live ecologically, intend to build a solax-powered ecological shelter. Would like to share and work with others of similar mind. Others would have to be vegetarian, not afraid to fight for a better and happier life, be prepared to invest a modest amount of money, not afraid to rough it a bit until it flowers. Telephone Colchester 71384 and meet us. CONCRETE and poetry. Great Georges Community Cultural Project offers hard interesting work to menlwomen. Opportunities to learn construction skills alongside experienced builders, and to work on our cultural programme (games, sound and other workshops, events), and to share administration, housekeeping, etc. Accommodation available. Further information from Great Georges Project, Great George Street, Liverpool (05 1 709 5109). IS THERE a community in the country but not too far from London with room for mum and small son? Mum works in higher education and likes growing things and working with nature, energetic people. We'd like to hear from YOU. Hemel Hempstead 68160. ALTERNATIVE communities movement -join it, send s.a.e. for details to: The Teachers Cornmunity (MA3), 18 Garth Road, Bangor, North Wales. THE TEACHERS is a community searching for hard-headed realists who are not into money, status, marriage, religion and politics. We're looking for those into social responsibility and reform through education. We work like stink and we don't allow aggro. If it sounds like you, write for more information sending 30p to: The Teachers (MAS), 18 Garth Road, Bangor, N. Wales. GERMAN family wants to join a community based on Walden Two or consensus government. Selfsufficiency and home education for the kids is important for us. Income and work sharing too. Rolf is 27 years old, skilled tailor and artist. Since a few years I'm 'houseman', cause of the kids one must stay at home. Gisela is 32 years old, a teacher of art and German language. We have four kids, aged one, five, six and seven. We're grateful for any relevant held in finding out. Replies to: Rolf Lutzerath, Pfinztalstr. 54,7500 Kalrsruhe 41, W. Germany.

MALE, 25, with two kids, practical and adjustable, seekshome in friendly, smallish rural community. Usual ranee of interests bin no specialisation. Peter Brooks, The Nurse's House, Wellington, Hereford. YOUNG family, (32.28, 10,3) want vaguely similar to share their 14 acre smallholding in Aberdeenshire. We have large, well equip ed furniture makine worksho~with nlentv of mace for other iroiects. we ak looking for intelligeni, challenging and hard-working folk to help us radicalise our lifestyle: more AT. freedom from sex roles. sabbaticak for commitment with-. out stagnation, etc. No experience of fanning necessary but this place would only suit fairly realistic . practical, . ~eople. Minimum canitalE5.000. or ~ ~ lialf s hak of place Â£15,000but we won't rush the money bit. Might consider puttingÂ£15,00 plus into similar joint venture elsewhere, but we've got a lot going here. Box YF. FEMALE, wishes t o join group travelline overland to Far East/ ..- ~Australia, departing ~ovember/ December this year. L. Wood, 8 Albany Terrace. Dundee, Scotland. ~

PUBLICATIONS

PEACE NEWS for non-violent revolution. Reports, analysis, news, of nonviolent action for social change, building alternatives and resisting the mega-machine. Covers anti-militarism, sexual politics, ecology, decentralisation, etc. 20p fortnightly, Â£5.5 for a year's sub. from 8 Elm Avenue, Nottingham. REHEARSAL FOR THE YEAR 2000 by Alan Beam, one person's experience of the Alternative Society 1966-76. 'One of the most important biographies of our generation' ( G ~ n e Zweig r review). Â£1.9 (+ 55p p&p) from Revelaction Press. 65 Edith Grove. London SW10. orreserve a copy through your local library. FREE Windscale Report, Volt 1& 2. Will give to people with greatest need, least resources. Write Portia, c/o Peaceworks, 58, Wakefield Road, Aspley, Huddersfield. DIRECTORY of Alternative Communities lists many such groups, Â£1.5 (cash with order, please) from: The Teachers (MAS), 18 Garth Road, Bangor, Wales N. ISOLATED lesbians have Sequel publication. SAE to B/M Sequel, WC1V 6XX. GET YOUR 1979 Friends of the Earth Calendar earlv. An ecothemeiverv -. month-. on -~~ 100%recycled oaper. 50p (+ l0p p&p) from Milton Keynes FOE, 9 Warren Bank, Simyoson, Milton ~

Applications are invited from experienced Mechanical Technicians, to join a team with research interests in various aspects of energy supply, alternative technology, control engineering and environmental control. If you have a relevant ONC, City and Guilds Full Technician's Certificate or equivalent, and would like t o work on a wide range of interesting problems, which may well involve exercising some of your hobby skills, whilst living in an attractive part of the country where new housing is readily available at short notice, please send for application form from The Recruitment Office (MH2362/3102/3), The Open University, PO Box 75, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AL or telephone Milton Keynes 63405: there is a 24 hour answering service on 63868.

DISPLAY ADVERTISING RATES .

Cover: Quarter page Â£5 Other sizespro rata ~ ~ , Inside: %column layout 65p per col. cm. 4-column layout 50p per col. cm. For full details write t o us at our editorial office for a rate card, or phone Chris Hutton Squire on Of 261 6774.

ETCETERA

TRAVEL

THE OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING MECHANICS & TECHNICIANS

~~~

~~~.

MALE, into most topics in Undercurrents, rarely meets females with similar interests. Anyone like to prove an exception? I'm 30, unattached, and dwell reluctantly in the West Midlands. Box 123. PETER and Elizabeth de la Cour are you there in your community near Milton Kevnes - or elsewhere? I have your letter of two years ago: please contact Hemel Hempstead 68160. Thanks. ASTROLOGER offers accurate personal birth chart and character analysis; send Â£6including 12 month or 5 year future trends/ potentials, send Â£10Alternatively send for literature. John Willmott, Millbrae, Bunessan, Mull, Argyll. LOST INDIAN parchment prints Belfast hitchhikers leaving these on Transit Van on M6 ring 041334 9468. RECYCLED pavers and nenonal letterhead service. ~ o m e s t i cand commercial papers and envelopes Also Conservation Society Re-use Paper - Save Trees envelope reuse labels, posters and comprehensive environmental book service. For details of any of the above, please send a large s.a.e. to: conservation Books, 228 London Road, Reading, Berkshire RG6 1AH. THRIVING Somerset wholefood shop wants a whole food bakery nearby. Do you want to be the baker? Commitment, self-rnotivation and energy needed; in return - hard work, complete control, and a lot of support from friendly people. Capital investmeat welcomed but not essential. Contact Pagj, Chris or Paul at Ceres Natural Foods, 42 Princes Street, Yeovil,

CUDDY WHALE KIT. Felt, Pattern, Easy sewing. In'struction; for 50 cms whole plus colourful Save the Whole Poster, Badge and Information about Whales Â£2.5 & 20p p&p from Friends of the Earth, 54-57 Allison St, Birmingham 5. STILL searching? Postal course or answers to YOU spiritual questions (no dogma). Send sae to Lynne Harris, 65 Clophill Road, Gravcnhurst, Bedfordshire. BIJA PRESS prints new age wort exclusively - we are cheap, quid good - we use recycled papers (will also supply same unprinted, cut to size at cost). If you consider that we can help write to: Bija Press, Hourne Farm, Crowborough, Sussex. Tel: Crowborough 63819. 100%RECYCLED stationery: please send s.a.e for details and samples. 'Recycler', Ebrington, Bow, Crediton, Devon. BALANCE THE BALL is a book urging first and foremost the industrialised world to decrease its populations to about l/lOth of that today. Curves describe the result when each couple has only one child each, consequences are discussed and practical problems are solved. This would solve almost all trouble today, which originates from overpopulation in the wealthy countries, who consume the main part of the World's income. The rest of the World must follow in decrease to get the opportunity to become in parity. Plenty for all! Send Â£1.0 via Nat. Giro to Swedish Postgiro Account 604025-7 orÂ£l.3 to noncommercial: Balance Box 9121,

adical Technology by Godfrey Boyle, Peter Harper and Undercurrents; 304pp, ~4illustrated;Â£4.2 including p&p; all ordersmust be prepaid. Bulk order discount for 10 or more copies: Â£3.70 'For people who s t i l l think about the future in terms of mega-machinesand all-powerful beaucracies, Radical Technology will be an eye-opener. There is an alternative. Radical Technology offers a fresh way t o think about tomorrow'-Alvin Tofflei

Practica1 Methane

by Fn; Â£3.5 including P~,. This is generally acknowledged t o be one of the best books on small-scale methaneplants yet written*As a resul arrangement with the publisher, t h book is available to Undercurrents readers at this special price. Contents incl Building a vertical drum digester; a top-loader digester; a full-scale digester; scum accumulation; gas holders; bio digestion; raw materials; use of gas and sludge; safety precautions; glossary and bibliography. Anyone interested conversion of organic waste into aclean, useful fuelwill find Practical Methane invaluable.

Land for the P O.O D ~ ~

t f i .

edited by Utrtien Girardet, 144pp illustrated. ~ 1 . 4 including 0

'e.

A manual of radical land reform. Topics covered include food resources, self-sufficiency, enclosures, clearances and the Diggers, Highland landlords, lessons of resettlement, land reform and revolution, new towns, new villages, and the revival of the countryside. 'It is essential reading for readersof Undercurrents and all those who wish t o understand the nature of For more books from Undercurrents see page 48. the crisis we are facing.'

Vack issues

We like to think that Undercurrents is not so much a periodical as a growing collection of useful information, most of which retains its value long after publication. The following back-issues are still available at 50p for one copy and 25p for each extra copy, andihere's a form at the bottom of page 48 for ordering.

Undercurrents 8 COMTEK / National AT Ceittre / Organic Gardening / Free Radio / Building with Rammed Earth / Windmill Theory / Hermeticism / BRAD Community

Undercurrents 9 Special Nuclear Power Issue DIY A-Bomb Design / Kiddies Guide to Nuclear Power /Waste Disposal Dangers / Energy Analysis of Nuclear Power / Uranium Supply Nuclear Proliferation Perils / Solar Collectors / Grow All Your Own Vegetables

Undercurrents 10 joint Issue with Resurgence

IT & The Third World / Chinese Science / IT & Second CIms Capt tall Supermacker Cartoon / Leyhunting : the Lineto Dream / Hydroponics / Luqas

Undercurrents 19 Health Issue

Wind Power Part 2 / Alternative Medical Care / Alternative Culture. part 3

Limits to Medicine / Politics of Self-Help / Babes in the Ward / Guide to Alternative Medicine / Findhorn Community / ~ a t i o n a l Undercurrents 13 Centre for AT Revisited / Danish Diggers / Energy & Food Production / Anti-Nuclear Campaign 1 Alternative History of England Industry, the Community & AT / Alternative England & Wales SuppleUndercurrents 20 Fifth Anniment / Planning & Communes / Methane / Alternative Culture: versarv Issue Part 4.

Undercurrents 14 Jack Mundey on Australian Green Bans / AT Round the World / Build- Report / Paper Making / Annan Report on Broadcasting Assessed / ing with Natural Energy / DIY ' Canals / Whole Food Chain in US Insulation / AT in India / BRAD & Canada . Community / AT & Industry Conference Report

Undercurrents 21

Undercurrents 15 'Who Needs Nukes' Issue

A.C. Inverter Design

Solar Collector Theory & DlY Undercurrents 16 Special Habitat Design / Sward Gardening / AnarchIssue ist Cities / Future of AT / Land for carden ViHages Wood Food Gui the People / General Systems Theory / Alternative Culture: Part 1. DIY N~~ Towns Solar Terraces / Lifespan Community / Bypassing the Planners / Citizens' Undercurrents 11 Last Few Band Radio / Free School Wind Power Theory & D1Y Windcharger Design / Beekeeping / Ley Hunti.ig / Autonomous House / Undercurrents 17 Inner.TechnolMind Expansion / Karen Silkwood's ogy Issue Mysterious Death / Alternative Culture: Part 2. Computer Ley Hunt / Dowse-ItYourself / Kirlian Photography / Undercurrents 12 Saving Your Own Seed / Women & i u c a s Aerospace / Biofeedback / AT / Terrestial Zodiacs 1 Invisible Community Technology / COMTEK / College

Undercurrents 18 Intermediate Technology Issue

Fascism &'the Counterculture / Motorwav Madness 1 Nuclear Pol-

Undercurrents 24 Nuclear Weapons Accidents / Electronic Surveillance / Making Cheese & Cider / Compost & Communism / Small-Scale Radio Transmitter: part 2 / Magic Mushrooms / Forestry / SWAP0 Medicine / Chickens' Lib

Undercurrents 25 Emotional Plague in Co-operatives / Compost & Communism: Part 2 / Water Power / Findhorn Revisited / Oz Community Radio / Car-sharing Saving Energy / Thai Dilemmas /

Undercurrents 26 AT Days that Shock Portugal / 'Growing Dope at Home / Crofting in the Orkneys / Community Ham Radio / Repairing Boats / New'castle AT Group / Lucas's Alternative Hardware / Russian Weaponry /

Undercurrents 27 Soft Energy: Hard Politics / The Fast Breeder Inquiry / Not so Small Tools for Small Farms / Anti-nuclear Countermeasures / Free Wheelin' / Hull Docks Fish , Farm / Shaker Communities /

Undercurrents 28 Tomess Demo / After the Windscale Inquiry / The Tviud Windmill / Primal Therapy at Atlantis / Basque Co-ops / AT in UK & Canada / Behaviour Modification /

Undercurrents 22 Paranoia Power / Windscale Background / Crofting / Food Co-ops / Stonehewe 1 Fishing Limits 1 prima1 Therapy / Italian Free Radio 1 Methane Fish "arming

Womens Undercurrents 29

Seabrook Anti-Nuclear Demo /

Women's & AT Movements Linked? Windscale Visit / Anti-nuclear Dance / Feminists Against Nukes / Polymorphously Perverse Futures / Women & Science / On Roles / Women, Work &Trade Unions / Welfare Services & The Cuts / ATman Cartoon / Birth Control .'

Woodstove / Fortean Phenomena f D1Y Solar Collector Design / SmallScale Radio Transmitter Plans / Australian Citizens' Band /Paranoia Power Part 2 / Oxfam Wastesaver Centre

Barefoot Socialism / Alternative Nurseries / Solar California / AT and State Money / Ectopia lnterview / NF Countermeasures / Parish Politics / Ecology and Feminism / Windscale scandal

Undercurrents 23

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Undercurrents 30

The Politics of Nuclear Power Dove Elliott with Pat Coyne, Mike George and Roy Lewis Should

Â¥nww~~nen welcome or (elect nuclear power?QBVÃˆmo and t his co-author*look at the effect ofthewiwilWteyonjoba, onhealthandaafety, on rights. 'theyshow who pays for it taide vaa<fM and who benefits;&ey consider the evidence for atternalive energy sources and how we might avoid the of adear-powered society. The authors are actively involvedin the Socialist Environmentand Resources &ssocia!ion and Unde~~~l~ffnts.

Pluto Press 7 Chalcot R o a d London NW18LH Telephone 01-722 0141

Stable Court. Chalrnlngton, Dorchester, Dorset DT2 OHB Tel Maiden Newton (03002) 524

ENERGY PRIMER

W Bryant,Kim J w p y & Tim Atack Â¥loto grow trout, am,catfish and tllapia: nutrition,

Edited by RichardMerri// 2nd Revised Edition; 40% new material "It's no good I've spentftha last couple of days trying to pick hole* in 7 ' ' E i w y y Rfnw,end thnÃ just aren't any worth talking about. Without a doubt, evBryone interested in knmsinflrwiemble Ã § n Ã §murcet r ought to have copy. It flfithtri togrthera van multitude of ptrandsof Informationabout reiWBBble energy, Informationwhich would Wm you van of digging around in reftftnce l l b r u i n i o compile yourself, and pretend ttuwn In -at that Is Mtlrtictay to the tachnicallvminded,but not to technic41Ã‡ to put averyon* (lie off. -Godfrey Boyla in Undercurma 14

Paperback â‚¬4.

256 pages comprehmsively Illustrated

THEoWNERBUILTH~%~E Ken Kern Many pBOple,mm of building their own home. This innowtiva

and qdginil book ttemonstratw that thÃ owier-built hoire can

imaainB.

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ml@forvardrronnar all tht! elonttnw th#Up Into makingi home, d c g an approach that halp~thÃ teU-bull* mlutho thÃ author, IS Â molt of tiff mdÂ¥urrotincdnaÃKttt CaliforNan architect, builder Ãˆn sRIBUhoIdar.

)tivÃ§lo)ogyeconomic*, law and disease. iardback Â£3.5 Paperback Â£1.5 128 pages

How to chooi* the but of both modern and traditional methods

of Â¥mallfioldin$.Th author is both e smallholder and a Ministry of Agrlwltun advitor.

Hardback Â£4.9 Paperback Â£2.5 288 &es Lavishly Illustrated Also available by Ann William$: Backyard Pig, Rabbit and Shesp Fanning; and by Andrew Singer, The Backyard Dairy and Poultry Books.

PRACTOCAL SOLAR HEATING Kevin McCarrfiey with Brian Ford

'Delightfully and straightforvvBrdly written .they have croateda masterpl~aDIY text . .plain jargon-free English, technology fully damyttlfiad, and put in a bit of (octal context, and conttructivn details so complete barely a twiat of a manner iiomittad." Pete Glad In Undercurrents30

Paperback 0.96 354 paces

Hardback Â£3.5 Paperback Â£1.9 210 pages To be published early In 1979 More than 100 Illustrations These titles are available f r o m all good bookshops or direct f r o m the publishers. If ordering direct f r o m the publishers please enclose an additional 15% t o cover postage charges. Send us a stamped and addressed .envelope and we will let y o u have details o f our full list b y return.

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