Thai Sticks?

From Thailand comes this hemp news - new meaning to Thai Sticks? Cabinet approves hemp farming Writer: BangkokPost.com Published: 22/09/2009 at 05:11 PM The cabinet on Tuesday agreed to set up a committee to promote growing of hemp as a new economic plant on high land, as proposed by the National Economic and Social Development Board, deputy government spokesman Vachara Kannikar said. Mr Vachara said the NESDB submitted a proposal for planting and growing hemp on high land from 2009-2013 to the cabinet. The plant was already being grown by various royal projects aimed at generating supplementary income for farmers. The NESDB had concluded that hemp can be used to produce textiles, food, furniture, health products, and cosmetics. However, there were limitations on growing hemp since it is categorised as a No 5 narcotic plant in the form of marijuana. Therefore, farmers have to grow it secretly, despite the fact that hemp is an economic plant. The spokesman said the cabinet agreed to set up a committee to implement the plan.

Tiny Glimpses of Real Cost Accounting

It is reported in this article that the Environmental Protection Agency is about to issue a final rule that would establish the nation's first mandatory greenhouse-gas registry. Under the rule, any entity emitting the equivalent of 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year would have to declare how much pollution it releases into the atmosphere. Additionally the Securities and Exchange Commission has been petitioned by Ceres, a Boston-based network of investors, environmental organizations and public-interest groups, to require companies to report climate-change risks as part of their regular financial disclosures. Not long ago, (can we spell B-U-S-H), such rules would never get any where and the SEC would not even consider such a petition. Small steps towards true cost accounting. Firms Start to See Climate Change as Barrier to Profit By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 21, 2009 As the real-world impacts of climate change begin to materialize and regulation of greenhouse gases appears more likely, corporate America has begun to grapple with a challenging question: How do you quantify the risks associated with climate change? The answer depends on one's perspective. But companies are beginning to show increased willingness to disclose the extent to which they're contributing to global warming and what they're doing to keep it from harming their business. "If we don't move now, it just becomes more expensive, more complicated and a bigger risk," said Brad Figel, director of government affairs at Nike, at a Capitol Hill briefing last week sponsored by Oxfam America. On Monday, the Carbon Disclosure Project is set to release a report surveying the climate policies of the majority of the S&P 500, in which 52 percent of respondents said they've set emissions-reduction targets for the companies, compared with 32 percent last year. Many of these groups also see global warming as a threat to their bottom lines -- including 84 percent of financial-sector respondents -- citing concerns including a potential shortage of raw materials and supply-chain disruptions because of severe weather. When it comes to climate, corporations "are demonstrating they are willing, ready and able to engage with it," said Carbon Disclosure Project chief executive Paul Dickinson. "We are moving, without any doubt, into a carbon-constrained world," he added. The Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers say that some of the prescriptions to address climate change, such as the climate bill passed by the House in June, present more risks to the economy than global warming does. But a number of companies have split with the chamber to back the House bill and are taking steps to curb their own carbon footprints. Anna Walker, senior manager for worldwide government affairs and public policy at Levi Strauss, said 95 percent of her company's offerings are made from cotton. Climate-related water shortages threaten cotton supplies, to say nothing of the tornadoes and floods that could threaten the company's cut-and-sew operations in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and other countries. "This is very practical and happening for us," Walker said. "We really do get it." Companies that depend heavily on the goodwill of both consumers and their employees are also sensitive to the issue. "Climate is top of mind for our customers right now," said Jim Hanna, Starbucks's director of environmental impact, who added that the company is aware that its workers are also eyeing its business practices and public policy positions. "For us to attract the best talent coming out of college, and for us to retain that talent over time, we've got to operate that way." But calculating a firm's emissions, as well as how much of a risk climate change may pose to the business in the future, can be complicated. Dickinson's group -- which represents 475 institutional investors that manage $55 trillion in funds -- is working with the world's four biggest accounting firms to establish the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, which aims to make greenhouse-gas reporting more uniform. Ceres, a Boston-based network of investors, environmental organizations and public-interest groups, has petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to report climate-change risks as part of their regular financial disclosures. "It is such a material risk that it needs to be moved from off the balance sheets into the formal disclosure that needs to be made," said Ceres President Mindy Lubber. "To build our economy, we need to be looking at all the risks and opportunities related to climate and water and other limited resources that we use to fuel our economy." SEC staff is looking at the issue this fall, according to agency spokesman John Nester, though he did not indicate when the agency might make a decision on the matter. The Environmental Protection Agency is about to issue a final rule, as early as this week, that would establish the nation's first mandatory greenhouse-gas registry. Under the rule, any entity emitting the equivalent of 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year would have to declare how much pollution it releases into the atmosphere. Lou Leonard, director of U.S. policy on international climate affairs for the World Wildlife Fund, said programs like the Carbon Disclosure Project and the WWF's Climate Savers, where private companies made voluntary commitments to cut their emissions, "had an important role to play" in the past, in part because they helped companies "internalize greenhouse-gas emissions as part of their business operations." But he added, "We cannot let them substitute for mandatory, economy-wide limits in these key countries" that emit the most carbon pollution. Wal-Mart has instituted a range of measures aimed at cutting its emissions, including adopting a more fuel-efficient fleet and installing skylights that can substitute on sunny days for electrical lighting. But as a growing global company, it still boasts an expanding carbon footprint, increasing at a compound rate of 4.3 percent a year even as its emissions relative to sales have decreased by the same proportion. "We're still growing, but we're getting more efficient at it," said Greg Trimble, Wal-Mart's senior director for global energy development and reporting. In the meantime, corporate types such as Nike's Figel are trying to convince lawmakers that capping greenhouse gas emissions and providing money so vulnerable countries can adapt to climate change makes sense. "People would say to us, 'You really don't have any skin in the game,' " he said. "No one really thought about what it would do to our supply chain."

Rosh Hashana, Tunisian style

latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-roshhashana16-2009sep16,0,3562104.story latimes.com Rosh Hashana, Tunisian style Exotic, delicious -- and yes, kosher. The Sephardic community has its own way of celebrating the Jewish new year. In L.A., an expat is spreading the word about the spicy cuisine. By Mary MacVean September 16, 2009 Alain Cohen holds out a gorgeous spiral-shaped loaf of challah, the color of cherry wood. On the top of the bread is a graceful open hand made of dough. Cohen and his baker, Yuri Amsellen, have been experimenting again. From the crowded kitchen of Cohen's Pico Boulevard takeout shop, Got Kosher? Provisions, comes the hypnotic smell of yeast. In the weeks before the Jewish new year, the store has baked loaves in the shape of Jacob's ladder, and others in a circle with a well in the center, meant to hold honey for dipping. They've added dried fruits, apples and raisins. For Rosh Hashana, which begins Friday at sunset, challah is essential. The braided oval bread that Jews break and share after lighting candles each Sabbath gets reworked once a year into a spiral to call to mind the cycle of life. A loaf topped with an open hand, however, is uncommon. But in this, as in other food customs, Tunisian Jews have their own way. "It's something from Djerba, to mark a period of reflection before Yom Kippur, a time when Jews are asking for and receiving judgment from God," says Cohen, whose mother's family comes from that island, located off the coast of Tunisia, where a small community of Jews traces its heritage back more than 2,500 years. Cohen, who with a partner made the short documentary film "The Jews of Djerba," today is the chef-owner of Got Kosher? Provisions, in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, and is working to spread the word about Tunisian food. "Kosher food can be great," but in the United States, it too often is not, he says. "It should be something you don't have to apologize about." Sephardic Jews, those from the Mediterranean region including North Africa and Spain, were blessed with the region's bounty of ingredients; Ashkenazi Jews, who come from Eastern Europe and make up the majority of Jews in this country, had a smaller palette from which to work. There's a joke that's told of a Jew who invites a non-Jewish friend to a Passover meal. Afterward, the guest remarks that the food wasn't too good. "It's not supposed to be," the Jew says. That joke "never would have been told in a Sephardic community," says Clifford Wright, a Santa Monica cookbook author, teacher and expert on Mediterranean food. In Tunisia, "the food is so exotic and interesting and spicy hot," Wright says. For this Rosh Hashana, a couple of dozen people will join Cohen and his partner in life and in business, Evelyn Baran, at their table. Like for a Passover Seder, many Tunisian holiday tables will hold about a dozen symbolic foods over which prayers are said. Figs, apples and honey are there for prayers for a sweet year. Dates are included so "that we elevate ourselves like palm trees and that our sins disappear forever," Cohen says. Sesame seeds suggest a proliferation of virtues. A fish symbolizes fertility. Most powerful to Cohen are spinach leaves, thinly sliced pumpkin and garlic cloves, which are fried in an egg batter and dipped in honey or a sugar syrup. The garlic and pumpkin are to ward off enemies, the spinach a symbol of renewal. "Just an amazing taste. It's amazing. For me, it's like Proust's memories," says Cohen, 53. "It is those tastes I am looking forward to." He also recalls that Jews would pierce a quince with cloves, to make a pomander they'd keep for the nine days from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur. Jews fast on Yom Kippur, and the smell of the pomander worked to ward off feelings of hunger, he says. In his childhood home in Paris, he says, neighborhood women would come to cook with his mother, who would send the men off to Rosh Hashana services. The feast would include fava beans with cumin; grilled lamb's liver stew; a frittata with ground chicken and lemon juice; a selection of salads; and t'fina pkaila, a stew of spinach, beef, sausage and beans, served over couscous. Not a week goes by without couscous, with meat or fish, beans and vegetables. "Every Tunisian family, every Friday night of their life, eats it. There is no escape. There is no need for escape. Everyone is happy to eat it," Cohen says. "Some people have milk when they're growing up. We had couscous," says Amsellen, the baker at Got Kosher? His family moved from Morocco to Lyon, France, where he was raised and went to cooking school. In Paris, where Cohen's father had a kosher restaurant, now run by his brother, called Les Ailes (the Wings). It was next door to the Folies Bergère cabaret, and Cohen says that as a child he was told there was a hole in a restaurant wall through which he could see the showgirls next door. He jokes that he looked for that hole for 20 years but never found it. He started busing tables at age 9, and later became a waiter, bartender, chef and manager. Twenty-eight years ago, he came to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute. "I came here to escape the food business, Tunisia and the French. I put a continent and an ocean between myself and my family," he says. And, of course, he eventually found himself back in the food business -- at first, he says, out of necessity; later, it became a joy. Got Kosher? began as a wholesale business, with the store opening in July 2008. It stocks items that Tunisian Americans will recognize, such as fish roe called boutargue (similar to Italian bottarga) and the "Tunisian sandwich," which holds tuna, egg, potato, olives, peppers and other ingredients. The shop's harissa is made on premises , and, with advice from Cohen's father's butcher in Paris, Cohen has developed a line of sausages that includes kosher merguez and andouille. And word has been spreading fast about their pretzel challah, which is a sellout most weeks. Cohen and Amsellen worked furiously for 2 1/2 months to develop the bread and began selling several versions in January, plain and with chocolate chunks, sesame seeds or green olives, among others. The dough is eggless and lighter than traditional challah. "I spent hours and hours and hours tasting challah. In the end, I couldn't even feel it anymore," Amsellen says. For Rosh Hashana, there will be spiral-shaped pretzel challah in several varieties, as well as traditional sweetened dough challah -- one with apple, raisins and honey and one with only raisins. The bakers plan to top them all with open hands. But the point is to share the bread with others. His father's restaurant, Cohen says, was a second home to Tunisian immigrants and gave him a sense of community that he couldn't find in this country until he began cooking Passover Seders for upward of 50 people -- mostly Jews who also felt rootless in Los Angeles. "It was so wonderful that every year it became bigger," Cohen says, with guests from France, Colombia, Mexico and northern Africa all telling the stories of their heritage, their families. Still, it wasn't enough. "The rest of the year I was missing Tunisian food. If you grow up with it, this food really marks you," he says. "I realized that my father, despite my resistance, gave me a beautiful gift -- cooking and tradition. You try to escape your destiny, but it always catches up with you." mary.macvean@latimes.com Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times