Food wasted: the horse meat crisis in Europe

The news is overall, talking about the food scandal in Europe where horse meat was used without proper labeling, mostly to save money. There is little health concern, except for some sporadic painkillers that may have entered the horse meat supply chain.
Some may object to eating horse meat but few people talk about that. In Belgium you can find horse meat in shops and most people do not realize that salamis often contains horse meat, to enhance the flavor rather than to save money.
Now what happens? Massive recalls that will lead to all the food being dumped and wasted. What a shame. Why not simply put a sticker on the items to reveal the real content and sell at a big discount instead? I am sure people would buy it, thus avoiding one source of food waste. If others object to the horse meat, they have a choice. In my case, I would certainly object to cat and dog meat (China!) but not horse or donkey meat.

Fracking in China

In my book I show China’s imports, overseas deals and its goals to tap into its huge shale gas reserves and the way it is trying to implement the process – facing much more difficult geological conditions than in the USA. But also barring access to foreign companies.
Some experts have doubts China can achieve the targets set, being 80 billion m3 (bcm) by 2020, or 23% of total expected demand. Until now, it has not yet started commercial production.
Experts contacted by Bloomberg have now reduced their estimate for 2020 to rather 18 bcm.
According to U.S. specialists (and they are the only ones who have the technology and expertise), China needs to invest more in exploration and development of the projects, and should relax fuel price controls.
Under the present conditions, foreign entities have very limited access to the projects, not allowed to bid directly for the blocks and playing subcontractor while Chinese companies involved in winning bids seem to have little or no expertise: there is limited enthusiasm to invest with the current low price ceilings.
That could well mean that China will continue to massively import natural gas; it is spending US$17 billion a year on imports of natural gas, mostly in the form of LNG (US$8.3 billion in 2012), mainly from Australia and other countries. It also has thousands of kilometers of  natural gas pipelines coming from other countries, through western or northern provinces.
As said, with the low quality of the winning bids the companies involved are raising the question in how far they will do it right and not cutting corners.

Urbanization, agricultural reform and land rights in China

China is speeding ahead with urbanization. The process requires new land and there have been many serious incidents as people are being evicted from their land, often without a fair compensation. Corruption is part of the process and many Maseratis driving around might well be financed by those shady deals.
On the other hand, productivity in agriculture is much needed but that can only be achieved by merging plots of land to allow more advanced mechanization. Until now this has been nearly impossible as landownership has been badly defined and no official data are available, so farmers cling to their small plots, afraid to lose their rights.
There is now hope on the way.
China has started a satellite program to map tiny plots of land and set up a vast database, leading to official ownership certificates.
The pilot project has started in Anhui Province and seems to advance well, despite some initial reluctance and the difficulty to match the satellite data with existing rights.
China has legalized land transfers in 2008 to allow villagers to aggregate land.
China’s annual rural policy document, released early 2013, calls for farmland titles to be defined nationwide during the next five years. It is a technical challenge that could cost US$16 billion.
Estimates for the cost of the satellite mapping range from a national total of about 18 billion renminbi, to 100 billion renminbi, and even 150 billion renminbi.
But it would solve a host of problems.
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/technology/satellites-put-small-farms-on-chinas-map.html
“Satellites Put Small Farms on China’s Map”, by LUCY HORNBY and HUI LI, REUTERS, IHT/NYT, published: February 6, 2013

Why the unemployment in Western Europe?

A recent survey in France among the 18 to 29 years old shows one in four wants to leave the country to start their business. Estimates say that in 2012 a record 5,000 entrepreneurs left. Not to be surprised when we see the sclerotic labor and tax laws, the inefficiency of governments, the corruption, the vested interests, the monopolies with their strong lobbies in countries such as France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, … Then people wonder why the high unemployment, why the Chinese want to come over and buy companies. As explained in Toxic Capitalism, we cannot improve the environment and society if those countries do not completely overhaul their system. It does not look promising at all as the old guard refuses to abandon their privileges (among them, the labor unions, the farmers, …). You must be ”weird” to start in business in those countries, or completely crooked. A good friend in Belgium is trying to expand his factory over there but bumps into the most cumbersome and irrational obstacles. And oh yes, the guy in the administration who needs to give him an approval is away on a ski vacation.
Sometimes I wish the Chinese would take over those countries, and get things going. Chinese being oh so socialist the first thing they’d do would be to shut up the labor unions and make people work. As they did in a port in Greece – that part of the port is now doing very well, thank you.

Air pollution in Beijing and fuel quality

Fuel quality is a much overlooked issue. Beijing tries to enforce higher fuel standards but gasoline and diesel fuel sold in other locations is often of a very poor quality, not only affecting pollution but also messing up the engines and exhaust systems of the newer cars. Some famous brand cars can simply break down because of the bad fuel and then the brands are attacked for being “of poor quality”. Things that need to be done: reduce the power of the big oil companies, enforce quality and adjust fuel prices.
Beijing has been having some really bad, bad days with its air pollution. Today we were again at AQI levels of over 400 for some time. It does not help we have now in the city 5.2 million vehicles, increasing at 200,000 per year. In 2008 we had 3.13 million.
As far as I understand, transport in the city is responsible for about half of the pollution (car exhaust, dust, etc.). According to estimates, 20% of the pollution comes from coal burning, 20% comes neighboring provinces and 25% from vehicle emissions.
The big oil companies are dragging their feet as it requires big investments. In Beijing sulphur content is supposed to be under 50 ppm; neigboring provinces are at 150 pp. Then we have diesel with 2,000 ppm. So, the bad air comes to Beijing and cars outside of the city face breakdowns.
See more about it:
“State-owned oil companies in firing line over Beijing’s pollution”
Ministries are almost powerless to enforce air quality standards amid state-owned entities’ influence and their quest to keep costs down
4 February, 2013 – Reuters in Beijing – SCMP
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1142784/state-owned-oil-companies-firing-line-over-beijings-pollution
“The search for culprits behind the rancid haze enveloping Beijing has turned the spotlight on the mainland’s two largest oil companies and their resistance to tougher fuel standards.
Bureaucratic fighting between the environment ministry on the one hand and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Sinopec Group on the other has thwarted stricter emission standards for diesel trucks and buses – a main cause of air pollution blanketing dozens of cities.

Delays in implementing stricter emission standards are rooted in money – chiefly, who should pay for refining cleaner fuels. By some estimates, vehicle emissions contribute as much as a quarter of the most dangerous particles in Beijing’s air.”