Hot & Cool Blog

Debate raging on pub anti-violence measures...

Sydney people are watching the 'social media' campaign by pubs to overturn restrictions on the 48 'most violent' hotels in the inner city.

It's been called a fightback against tough new drinking laws and is heavily backed by the local branch of the Australian Hotels Association. For once the media are not taking the message at face value but looking at who's organising and funding the campaign. There are even signs the government may hold firm and back their very young police force.

Cool tools being used are a website DontPunishUs.com.au and a blog (where most comments seem to support the restrictions) plus a Facebook group.

It's actually not a popular uprising by young people. More likely a small army of cool young (paid) PR kids who hit the bars on Friday night and ask, with a winning smile, if anyone would like their photo taken holding a funny protest sign. Go back 10 years and these were the same dudes who gave away 'sample' cigarettes after advertising was banned. How differently this is being handled by the new AHA leadership compared to previous supremo John Thorpe, who delivered them the goldmine they're fighting to preserve.

The Future of Food - from a Japanese perspective

This cartoon is a simple but compelling view of how food supply and nutrition has changed:

Working for the community...or something

An inspiring Vision Statement (or is that a Mission Statement?) from the Butt Littering Trust:

"The Trust seeks to be Australia’s recognised leading organisation on butt littering reduction and provider of Butt-Free Solutions to reduce cigarette butt littering."

Yep, there's no end to the ways the smoking lobby will twist and turn to make itself a good citizen.

Reminds me of the time Philip Morris sponsored a local conference on domestic violence - when they were called out for spending more on publicising their good works than on the actual good works themselves!

The many effects of massive food price increases

It's obvious that the huge and continued increase in the price of commodity products isn't showing up in headline Consumer Price Index figures - there are too many convenient price deflaters bundled into that cocktail. Butter prices for bakers have almost doubled in price, and flour costs up more than 50%, but official inflation is around 3%.

No wonder there's such a note of panic in the voice of small operators who are trying to maintain quality, using the ingredients they've always relied on. Something has to give - either their business or the 'good old ways'. We're seeing a wrenching shift in the price of basic foodstuffs, and only those operators with purchasing power and the research capacity to invent new products at a lower price will prosper. Expect casualties. The technology that's been shunned by small business (or simply unaffordable) is part of the new competitive advantage: making more with less - less labour, less time, less energy, fewer expensive ingredients, more clever substitutes.

Not unconnected is today's announcement that ex-supermarket boss Roger Corbett is teaming up with the former president of the National Farmers Federation to exploit the so-called soft commodities super cycle. The Eureka Report says their new company PrimeAg aims to 'take advantage of the increasing demand for mainstream soft commodities such as wheat, barley, chickpeas, sorghum and cotton, as well as livestock...the next hot sector as global demand for food outpaces supply.'

Another example of economist Joseph Schumpeter's famous description of the market economy and its 'perennial gale of creative destruction - incessantly destroying the old...incessantly creating the new'.

No danger, no fun...

Everywhere I turned on a recent trip to the Maitland pool, there was a sign warning me not to enjoy myself. In fact the biggest hazard was the kiosk, where all the food was 100% deep-fried.

Looks like dancing, running, diving and most kids' games are now out. There's also a separate warning for campaigning politicians who may consider changing their mind.

New documentary: King Corn

All about the subsidised crop that drives a fast-food nation. More about the film making and politics at KingCorn.

Tracking the 2007 Australian election

In the spirit of Politics 2.0, I've started gathering the efforts of local politicians as they use YouTube and MySpace to share their message. You can watch it unfold at Australian Elections 2007. Will we see activity like the YouTube Debates in the US?

Not hard to find a ton of low-grade abuse and over-long opinions by YouTube subscribers, but the overwhelming impression so far is how little the politicians are making use of the medium.

Only 1 or 2 are using it as a conversation, and a few others are 'placing things on record'. Nothing officially yet from Labor leader Kevin Rudd - even the PM is having a go. The effort from our alternative government, which is alarmed by the low quality of national broadband is...lamentable.

Corn, beef, gas prices and poverty - it's all connected

The surging price of corn (from $2.50 a bushell to $3.50 in 6 months) is largely related to the surging demand for ethanol. Most US beef is corn-fed, so beef prices follow.

There are plenty of people who say ethanol is not the answer, in itself, to the environmental problems of fossil fuels, although it's deeply popular with influential US corn growers. And in the meantime, the rising cost of corn has caused the Mexican staple food, tortillas, to increase in price by 50% this year.

It's all connected - what happens when government environmental initiatives are hostage to special interests.

Award-winning presentation on Sustainable Food

Take a few minutes to flick through this - you can also see the text here.

Carbon footprint calculator

BP have an easy-to-use Carbon Footprint Calculator - it only takes 2 minutes to complete. Covers your living arrangements plus travel impact. Our household footprint is 10 tonnes of CO2, compared to the country average of 14.5.

How much is a tonne of CO2? They have a good explanation:

1 tonne of CO2 emissions occupies 556 m3 of space at 25 degrees Celsius and standard pressure. The volume of water in an Olympic swimming pool is approximately 2500m3. Therefore the average household CO2 emissions in the UK (approximately 10 tonnes per year) would be enough to fill about two Olympic swimming pools and the average household emissions in the USA (approximately 20 tonnes per year) would be enough to fill about four and half Olympic swimming pools!