The global obesity epidemic cannot be halted by conventional means and demands a radical rethink of farming and food production worldwide, a leading scientist has warned. In a keynote address on agriculture and trade delivered to the International Congress on Obesity in Sydney, Prof Philip James, [who chairs the International Obesity TaskForce], said that existing farm policies, particularly agricultural subsidies in the EU and USA, had been damaging people's health for decades. "We have concentrated on using taxpayers' money to featherbed the very parts of the food chain that are causing the obesity epidemic today. The over-production of oil, fat and sugar, largely due to government subsidies to protect farm industry revenues, has contributed over decades to the health crisis we have today.

I know lots of folks who exercise religiously but pay no attention whatsoever to their diet. Conversely, I know lots of folks who are fastidious about their diet, but avoid exercise. If we assume an identical genetic profile for both groups, and if we assume that both groups maintain a reasonable body weight throughout life, who will do better in the longevity department - the exercisers or the healthy eaters?

The case for improving diet is gaining momentum, whether the issue is heart disease, stroke, cancer or diabetes. Can lots of exercise compensate for a lousy diet? No. At one time I was staunchly in the exercise camp. I exercised daily, and I pushed myself to exhaustion in every workout. I paid no attention to my diet. Was my heavy exercise program keeping me healthy? Sadly, no. My diet was killing me in many ways, especially with an elevated serum cholesterol level. As I have studied diet, exercise and health over the years, I have come to the conclusion that about 80 percent of good health comes from diet and the remaining 20 percent comes from exercise. However, while a good diet may add more years to your life, exercise can add more life to your years. [By Bryant Stamford, professor and chairman of the department of exercise science at Hanover College, Kentucky.]

It's come to this. In mid-August, the Food and Drug Administration approved the spraying of live viruses onto poultry and meat products...to kill listeria, a germ that sickens an estimated 2,500 Americans yearly. As a doctor, I would like to call for a reality check. Decades ago, we learned that the fat and cholesterol in meat boost the amount of cholesterol in consumers' blood. And that leads to heart attacks. Then it was carcinogens. As meat is grilled, cancer-causing chemicals form on its surface. Chicken turned out to produce much higher levels of carcinogens than beef. Then it was chemicals. Studies showed that mercury, other heavy metals, and various pesticides show up in animal tissues. Suddenly, fish was our worst nightmare. Then it was germs [like salmonella and E.coli].

The headlines went a step further. Mad cow disease emerged. Meanwhile, scientists might observe that there is no mad asparagus or mad eggplant disease. And there is no strawberry flu or avocado flu, either. But bird flu has emerged as a potential pandemic. And now, to kill some of the germs that come from an animal's intestinal tract and land on a piece of meat containing saturated fat and cholesterol, we need to spray the meat with viruses. It's time to wake up and smell the problem. Millions of Americans now say no to meat. As they do so, their cholesterol levels plummet. Their coronary arteries open up again. Their waistlines shrink, and their cancer rates drop 40 percent. A healthy vegetarian diet could revolutionize the health of the nation.

It turns out that Jean Anthèlme Brillat-Savarin was right in 1825 when he wrote in his magnum opus, The Physiology of Taste, that "the destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they are fed." Food is destiny, all right; every decision we make about food has personal and global repercussions. By now it is generally conceded that the food we eat could actually be making us sick, but we still haven't acknowledged the full consequences - environmental, political, cultural, social and ethical - of our national diet. These consequences include soil depletion, water and air pollution, the loss of family farms and rural communities, and even global warming. When we pledge our dietary allegiance to a fast-food nation, there are also grave consequences to the health of our civil society and our national character.

It's no wonder our national attention span is so short: We get hammered with the message that everything in our lives should be fast, cheap and easy - especially food. So conditioned are we to believe that food should be almost free that even the rich grumble at the price of an organic peach - a peach grown for flavor and picked, perfectly ripe, by a local farmer who is taking care of the land and paying his workers a fair wage! When we claim that eating well is an elitist preoccupation, we create a smokescreen that obscures the fundamental role our food decisions have in shaping the world. The contributors to this forum, have been asked to name just one thing that could be done to fix the food system. What they propose are solutions that arise out of what I think of as "slow food values," which run counter to the assumptions of fast-food marketing. [The forum commentators include Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, and Dr. Vandana Shiva. Many of the forum participants have written books, which are available at The VegE-Store ]

Iceland is resuming whale meat exports after a gap of more than 15 years with sales to the Faroe Islands despite objections from environmentalists that the shipments undermine a global trade ban. "We have created a joint trade area between Iceland and the Faroe Islands," Iceland's whaling commissioner Stefan Asmundsson told Reuters. "There is free trade within that area and whale products are simply one item therein."

Asmundsson said the sales were legal even though trade in whales is banned under the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Norway, Japan and Iceland have exempted themselves from the CITES restrictions. "The Faroe Islands are not covered by CITES," he said. The Faroes, a self-governing region of Denmark, have a population of almost 50,000 on islands between Scotland and Iceland. But some environmentalists said the sales violated the spirit of CITES because Denmark is a signatory and handles foreign policy for the islands.

Lax European Union policies play a leading role in depleting shark numbers not just in European waters but around the world, a report said [August 30]. Sharks are vital to the ecological balance of the oceans but, because of their slow growth rate and lengthy pregnancies, are also among the most vulnerable. The Shark Alliance, a coalition of non-governmental organizations dedicated to shark conservation, said not only did loopholes in EU regulations allow shark finning, but the few catch limits imposed were well above scientific recommendations.

"Europe is playing a lead role in the overfishing, waste and depletion of the world's sharks," the report said. "EU restrictions on shark finning remain among the weakest in the world and no overall plan to manage EU shark fisheries and restore depleted populations exists." Shark finning - slicing off a shark's fins for the growing Asian shark-fin soup market and discarding the body [leaving disabled animals to die a lingering death.] - is banned by many countries which insist that bodies are landed with fins, the report said.

Vegetarian diets are a lasting health trend according to a 2003 American Dietetic Association report, with 2.5 percent of the U.S. adult population consistently followed a vegetarian diet and affirming that they never ate meat, fish or poultry. Twenty to 25 percent of U.S. adults in the United States reported that they "usually or sometimes maintain a vegetarian diet."

Studies show that vegetarians are slimmer than non-vegetarians, with two-thirds of Americans currently overweight or obese, and have lower rates of death from heart disease. Vegetarians also showed lower blood-cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer. The popularity of vegetarian diets come in the wake of recent findings that eating too much meat contributes to colon cancer.

Legendary rock band Def Leppard is enjoying critical acclaim for its 12th studio album, Yeah!, and guitarist Phil Collen took time out of his busy schedule to record a public service announcement for PETA in which he sings the praises of a vegetarian diet. "Not only is a vegetarian lifestyle healthier, it's better for the animals and for the environment," says Collen, who has been a vegetarian for more than 20 years. In an exclusive interview with GoVeg.com, Collen talks about how making the connection between living, breathing animals and the carved up bodies on his plate was what convinced him to forgo animal flesh once and for all.

"It started freaking me out eating dead body parts. The whole Jeffrey Dahmer fridge concept of things was weird. It started when I was a kid, but you know, you have that whole parent propaganda. And I think when I got to a certain age, when you start making choices for yourself, that's when I was like well, I am not going to do this anymore." Collen has even raised his 16-year-old son Rory as a vegetarian. When Rory was taunted by his friends for not eating meat, Collen says, "I told him to mention that when they were eating hot dogs and burgers that they were eating assholes and eyeballs...and so they stopped harassing him." Collen joins a list of legendary rockers who have kicked the meat habit, including Chrissie Hynde, Sir Paul McCartney, Anthony Kiedis, Joan Jett, Geezer Butler, Rob Zombie, Tom Sholz, and Rikki Rocket.

Vegan Ella Soryl (11) has challenged Professor Robert Pickard to prove his claims that her diet is lacking. Ella, a life vegan who has never eaten animal products, won her school triathlon this year. Ella has challenged Professor Pickard to compete with her in a one on one triathlon. "If you're going to say silly things like children must eat animal products, you have to be prepared to put your money where your mouth is" says Ella.

Professor Pickard, whose trip to New Zealand has been financed by the animal foods industry, has been unable to provide references as proof for his claims when asked by vegetarian organisations in the UK. His claims contradict the position of the New Zealand Dieticians association that a vegan diet is appropriate for all stages of the human life cycle. "Pro meat 'experts' sponsored by animal industries are as credible as tobacco industry 'experts' who promote smoking," says New Zealand Vegetarian Society spokesperson Yolanda Soryl, the mother of the vegan triathlete. [She] wishes Dr Pickard the best of luck if he is brave enough to try to match her daughter in the race.

Urban consumers with little understanding of life on a farm are likely to increasingly influence the welfare of production animals, says Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton. "They have clear views of what is acceptable to them, and what is not, and they will vote with their wallets," he said.

"Public opinion will be shaped to an increasing extent by campaigns such as those being run by the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Compassion in World Farming," Mr Anderton said. "We will ignore the impacts of these campaigns at our peril. We can show that we are sensitive to the issues being raised, rather than attempt to counter campaign messages with denial and rebuttal - a battle we are likely to lose," he said.

Protesters [marched] on the Japanese Embassy to demand the country halts the 'brutal and inhumane' slaughter of thousands of dolphins. It comes after horrific footage taken by animal rights activists was broadcast across the world, showing Japanese hunters trapping a terrified pod of dolphins in a cove before netting their victims and cutting their throats out with large knives. These gentle, intelligent mammals can be seen thrashing about in agony in a blood-red sea, some taking up to 10 minutes to die from their wounds.

Around 20,000 dolphins and porpoises will be butchered by fishermen off the coast of Japan in the next six months, if the Japanese Government does not ban the 400-year-old hunting tradition. This savage practise is now largely bankrolled by 50 Japanese aquariums, which will pay up to £3,500 for a hand-picked specimen. Only a handful of the dolphins were picked out for aquariums, while the rest are killed for meat. More than 60 conservation groups in 32 countries, including Britain and the USA, [took part] in the first international protest on [September 20], in the hope adverse publicity will persuade the Japanese Government to revoke the hunters' fishing permits.

Animal rights campaigners and an MEP are fighting to thwart a campaign to delay a Europe-wide ban on battery-caged hens. The ban on conventional cages under the European Laying Hens Directive 1999 is due to come into force in 2012, but the British Egg Industry Council wants to push the ban back an extra five years. It is reluctant to change to the larger enriched cages that the directive recommends until a review that was due in January 2005 is completed.

Labour MEP for Scotland David Martin and charity Advocates for Animals are urging European commissioners to uphold the ban. Martin said: "There continues to be strong scientific evidence that these cages represent an extremely poor environment for hens each of which is given floor space of less than an A4 [letter-sized] sheet of paper." Currently 300 million hens are kept in battery cages throughout the EU.

Though modern animal factories look nothing like what is idealized in children's books and advertisements, there are also many misconceptions about the practices and principles of a "humane" operation. The unappetizing process of turning live animals into isolated body parts and ground-up chunks of flesh begins at birth and ends in youth, as the animals are babies when they are sent to slaughter, whether they are raised conventionally or in operations that are labeled "humane," "sustainable," "natural," "free-range," "cage-free," "heritage-bred," "grass-fed" or "organic."

Many who speak of "humane" meat are really referring to the conditions under which animals are raised - not killed. And there's a big difference. Animals from both conventional and "humane" farms are all transported to the slaughterhouse. The transportation process is excruciating and often fatal. Regardless of how they're raised, all animals are sent to mechanized slaughterhouses where their lives are brutally ended. Everyone from federal meat inspectors to slaughterhouse workers have admitted to routinely witnessing the strangling, beating, scalding, skinning, and butchering of live, fully conscious animals. When we tell ourselves we're eating meat from "humanely raised animals," we're leaving out a huge part of the equation. The slaughtering of an animal is a bloody and violent act, and death does not come easy for those who want to live...In short, there is nothing humane about eating meat.

A panda who gave birth to twins on [September 5] accidentally crushed one of her newborns in her sleep and is now listless and despondent, Chinese state media said [September 8]. Ya Ya, who lives in Chongqing Zoo in southern China, had fallen asleep [September 7] for the first time since the delivery said the Xinhua News Agency. A zoo handler noticed the cub, which weighed only about three ounces, had fallen away from her mother's nipple. An autopsy showed that its heart, liver and other organs had been crushed.

One summer evening when I lived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, I was snipping basil from the potted herb garden that I kept on the stoop in front of my brownstone apartment. Kids were playing on the sidewalk, their high-spirited shouts echoing through the dense, humid air. I absently popped a basil leaf in my mouth, savoring its flavor. One kid took note. "Oooh!" he shouted. "He ate a plant!" Suddenly, seven or eight ten-year-olds were pointing and gaping at me. I had done something exotic, strange, suspect even: I had eaten plant matter. For me, the story illustrates how far we in the so-called advanced economies have traveled from our agricultural roots. In 1930, 20 percent of Americans owed their livelihoods to farming. Today, fewer than 2 percent do.

Where does our food come from? For most Americans, the answer is simple enough: supermarkets and restaurants. In a nation in which almost nobody farms and few regularly cook, that's a fair response. Of course, such skim-level reasoning hides vast social, ecological, and economic chains that ultimately tether us to the earth. People can blithely devour, say, Chicken McNuggets dipped in ketchup, without ever thinking about the lot of factory-farmed chickens, working conditions in slaughterhouses or on farms, or the chemicals used to fertilize fields and kill weeds and pests. Happily, a cottage industry has emerged within the publishing world to right the matter. [The article discusses five books on the subject, all available at the VegE-Store]

What if you could carve off a chunk of the most succulent slab of steak you've ever eaten, clone a bull from it, then produce weeks of identically delectable dinners? Irina Polejaeva, chief embryologist at ViaGen, a livestock-cloning lab in Austin, Texas, aims to bring cloned beef to the American dinner table within the next few years. Since 2005, ViaGen has cloned half a dozen cows from strips of beef, a procedure that enables the company to test the quality of the meat before bringing it back to life. Clones would head to a breeder, and their offspring would go into a chain of feedlots, slaughterhouses and, finally, your burger. But first, the Food and Drug Administration must rule on the safety of cloned meat, a decision that could make or break the most controversial idea in the food industry since the transgenic tomato.