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Anyone who develops new products for a living must be aware of a multitude of influences. Acknowledging this, we cover

scientific discoveries

consumer trends

product design and formulation

engineering technology

process engineering

manufacturing

filling and packaging

logistics and distribution

retail merchandising

end of life disposal

Then there are the legal and regulatory issues, such as safety and labelling, as well as intellectual property rights, brand management, competition and international trade that we have to take into account.

But it all means nothing without the creativity and insights of men and women who can put things together in new ways to create new products that improve our lives.

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Ian Grant

Publisher

Pesticides poison 25m/y, threaten trade
Bell to boss FSA
Brits vote for GM foods
Americans silent on weighty issue
Coca-Cola buys into college TV channel

Trade

Pesticides poison 25m/y, threaten trade

Pesticides poison 25 million farm workers a year, nearly all in developing countries, and damage land, forests, water resources and biodiversity, delegates heard at the Pesticide Action Network for Asia and the Pacific congress in Manila last week.

Speakers warned that industrial farming by transnational corporations is undermining the resources needed to sustain local food production, reports the Environmental New Service.

Delegates plan to lobby to exclude food and agricultural products from the present round of World Trade Organisation negotiations.

"The Third World accounts for 99 percent of deaths from pesticides even though it uses only 20 percent of the pesticides produced globally," said Rafael Mariano, national chairperson of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines.

Trade liberalisation is bankrupting peasants, the congress claimed. Corporate farms and plantations displace peasants through contract growing schemes, and crop conversions, or eject them through land use conversions and outright takeover of their lands, water and other productive resources.

Moreover, developments such as tourism, golf courses, large dams, and corporate mining displace traditional communities.

A few powerful global companies own farmland, food processing, agrochemical, seed, pharmaceutical and veterinary industries, the delegates said. This monopoly is intensifying dependence on pesticides and chemical fertilisers, they added.

Genetic technology, which ensures that second generation seed is sterile, threatens the right of more than 1.4 billion farmers to save seeds for the next season's planting and makes them dependent on the transnationals, they heard.

The participants affirmed people’s right to "to decide their own food and agricultural policies, right to food, the right to land and productive resources, knowledge and skills, and right to fair income."  

People

Bell to boss FSA

Dr Jon Bell is the UK food Standards Agency's new chief executive. Bell took over from Geoffrey Podger who is executive director of the European Food Standards Authority.

GM

Brits vote for GM foods

A “citizen’s jury” convened by the UK’s Food Standards Agency voted yesterday by nine to six to put GM foods on retailers’ shelves.

The 15-strong jury and an Internet audience heard evidence over three days from organisations such as Friends of the Earth, Bayer CropScience, Sainsbury’s and the Consumers’ Association.

The majority thought GM food should be available to buy in the UK because they believe in the safety measures, that freedom of choice and benefits outweigh the risks, and that the UK needs to embrace new developments in science or be left behind.

But all agreed that education of the public is vital. So too is effective labelling and monitoring of GM foods. Some worried about the long-term safety of GM organisms, the ethics of GM, and the environmental impact of GM crops.

The jury’s deliberations and presentations are available as video-on-demand on the FSA website.  

Obesity

Americans silent on weighty issue

Maybe the issue is too obvious, but Americans won’t ask for advice about their weight problems, says a new survey.

The survey, conducted during National Public Health Week last week found that overweight Americans, ie nearly two out of every three, seldom ask their doctors how to lose weight.

Only seven percent had ever made an appointment specifically to discuss it, even though more than half felt their weight was a risk to their health and well-being.

Almost half (46%) never discussed weight with their doctor, and 63 percent of them said they haven't done so because they don't believe their weight is a serious problem. Even so, eight out of ten had tried to lose weight on their own.

Marketing

Coca-Cola buys into college TV channel

Soft drinks maker Coca-Cola is to spend $15 million to invest in and form a marketing partnership with the new College Sports Television channel. CSTV covers sports at 1,200 US universities and colleges.