Climate Change and Food Security

This paper explores the global trends associated with food security and climate change and the linkages between them. This comes at a time of unprecedented international concern for global food security, against a backdrop of dramatically fluctuating world food prices. Underlying the food security issue is a trend of rapidly growing populations in many developing countries, and projected changes in food production dynamics associated with a warming and drying climate for many regions during the 21st century. This paper looks into demand and supply trends associated with world food security, in an effort to inform a coordinated policy response to this emerging crisis. The final sections of the paper explore the implications for New Zealand, and then reflect on options for a broader global policy response

Submission to NAWAC on the Public Draft Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code Of Welfare 2001

The SPCA is a not-for-profit organization established for the purpose of preventing cruelty to animals, whether these animals are farmed for the table, wild, or are kept as pets. The Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare 2001 concerns farmed animals that are destined for the table. There are a number of farming practices currently permitted in the pork industry and also permitted in the Draft Code that constitute cruelty. This cruelty is not consistent with the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and for this reason the SPCA submits that a number of changes to the Draft Code are required in order to meet the spirit and letter of the Act. The SPCA welcomes the opportunity to make this submission. There are a number of pork industry management changes that are coming into force in the European Union that improve the welfare of farmed pigs in member states. The EU commissioned an independent Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC 1997) to gather scientific information on pig welfare and write a report. Article 6 of the Council Directive 91/630/EEC lays down the minimum standards for the protection of pigs for the EU and was recently amended following recommendations by the SVC. At the very least, the New Zealand minimum standard for pork farming practice should be consistent with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 1999. There is also opportunity for New Zealand to have a higher standard than what is required by the Act, particularly if we wish to be a world leader in agricultural practice. We note that the NZ dairy industry makes much of our free range cattle when marketing their product in countries where feedlots are the norm. The changes to the Draft Code submitted by the SPCA form an integrated whole and combine animal welfare requirements with improvements in environmental standards. In some cases the recommendations have a dual (or multiple) effect and purpose. For example, the requirement to provide bulk fibrous food in the diet (e.g. straw) serves the purpose of satisfying dietary requirements (satiation), which assists in improving behavioural conditions (providing for the foraging instinct), whilst providing for improved welfare (cushioning on joints and limbs for housed pigs), as well as lowering the emissions to air and water (producing an economic by-product in the form of nitrogen rich compost). The changes that are proposed by the SPCA will require modifications in the quality of husbandry for some pig farmers, as a minimum standard. While some of these changes may require more financial input for those farmers in comparison with the status quo, we submit that the status quo (for some farmers) is in breach of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore is not a sustainable or legitimate situation. The Animal Welfare Act (1999) is clear on a number of points that relate to the New Zealand pork industry. Section 4 of the Act requires animals to be able to display normal patterns of behaviour. This point is not under debate: it has been decided, the New Zealand public requires it, and now it needs to be enforced. Section 10 of the Act requires animals to be cared for in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge. The following submission presents ample scientific evidence to support significant improvements in the husbandry of pigs

An Annotated Bibliography of Scientific Publications on the Risks Associated with Genetic Modification

In order to help facilitate scientific debate on GMO risks a literature search of peer-reviewed science was conducted on GMO risks resulting in the following bibliography. While there is a great deal of published science on genetic modification in general, there is far less that specifically targets the bio-safety issues associated with genetic modification. In order to make scientifically informed decisions relating to the adoption or regulation of this emerging technology, it is important that all of the relevant information is available to decision makers. One of the themes that has coloured the portrayal of the “GE” debate in the popular media is that of science on one side (supporting these innovations) and uninformed emotional arguments on the other. This bibliography is designed to help bring this debate into a scientific arena by providing references to bio-safety concerns that can be obtained by any decision making body. The decision to restrict this bibliography to scientific publications is designed to ensure that the arguments and the information presented has been scrutinised by scientists in the peer review or editorial process and as such should guard against non-scientific contributions to this important scientific debate. This has meant, however, that books written by scientists have been excluded from this bibliography, even though they may provide important contributions to the scientific debate. Of course, the issues surrounding the adoption and regulation of genetic modification are more than scientific, and include ethical, economic, cultural, legal, intellectual property, and liability dimensions. These themes are beyond the scope of this bibliography, which is explicitly focused on biological science

Submission to NAWAC on the Public Draft Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code Of Welfare 2001

The SPCA is a not-for-profit organization established for the purpose of preventing cruelty to animals, whether these animals are farmed for the table, wild, or are kept as pets. The Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare 2001 concerns farmed animals that are destined for the table. There are a number of farming practices currently permitted in the pork industry and also permitted in the Draft Code that constitute cruelty. This cruelty is not consistent with the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and for this reason the SPCA submits that a number of changes to the Draft Code are required in order to meet the spirit and letter of the Act. The SPCA welcomes the opportunity to make this submission. There are a number of pork industry management changes that are coming into force in the European Union that improve the welfare of farmed pigs in member states. The EU commissioned an independent Scientific Veterinary Committee (SVC 1997) to gather scientific information on pig welfare and write a report. Article 6 of the Council Directive 91/630/EEC lays down the minimum standards for the protection of pigs for the EU and was recently amended following recommendations by the SVC. At the very least, the New Zealand minimum standard for pork farming practice should be consistent with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 1999. There is also opportunity for New Zealand to have a higher standard than what is required by the Act, particularly if we wish to be a world leader in agricultural practice. We note that the NZ dairy industry makes much of our free range cattle when marketing their product in countries where feedlots are the norm. The changes to the Draft Code submitted by the SPCA form an integrated whole and combine animal welfare requirements with improvements in environmental standards. In some cases the recommendations have a dual (or multiple) effect and purpose. For example, the requirement to provide bulk fibrous food in the diet (e.g. straw) serves the purpose of satisfying dietary requirements (satiation), which assists in improving behavioural conditions (providing for the foraging instinct), whilst providing for improved welfare (cushioning on joints and limbs for housed pigs), as well as lowering the emissions to air and water (producing an economic by-product in the form of nitrogen rich compost). The changes that are proposed by the SPCA will require modifications in the quality of husbandry for some pig farmers, as a minimum standard. While some of these changes may require more financial input for those farmers in comparison with the status quo, we submit that the status quo (for some farmers) is in breach of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore is not a sustainable or legitimate situation. The Animal Welfare Act (1999) is clear on a number of points that relate to the New Zealand pork industry. Section 4 of the Act requires animals to be able to display normal patterns of behaviour. This point is not under debate: it has been decided, the New Zealand public requires it, and now it needs to be enforced. Section 10 of the Act requires animals to be cared for in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge. The following submission presents ample scientific evidence to support significant improvements in the husbandry of pigs

Reducing Road Transport Carbon Emissions: Options for Government Policy

Worldwide, carbon emissions from fossil fuel use in the transport sector are increasing faster than carbon emissions from any other sector. The transport modes responsible for most of this carbon emission growth are car travel, road freight and air transport (IPCC 2001). New Zealand statistics reflect this trend and show that New Zealand transport sector carbon emissions grew by 42% between 1990 and 2001 (MfE 2006). The growth in New Zealand transport sector carbon emissions is linked to growth in road transport use, which is projected to increase further in the near future (WRC 1999; NZGovt 2002; WCC 2004; WCC 2006). However, carbon emissions (including those from road transport) are playing an increasing role in climate forcing and global climate change (IPCC 2001), and road transport use is increasingly recognised as a contributing factor in a number of local environmental and social challenges (NZGovt 2002; Ray 2006)

Reducing Road Transport Carbon Emissions: Options for Government Policy

Worldwide, carbon emissions from fossil fuel use in the transport sector are increasing faster than carbon emissions from any other sector. The transport modes responsible for most of this carbon emission growth are car travel, road freight and air transport (IPCC 2001). New Zealand statistics reflect this trend and show that New Zealand transport sector carbon emissions grew by 42% between 1990 and 2001 (MfE 2006). The growth in New Zealand transport sector carbon emissions is linked to growth in road transport use, which is projected to increase further in the near future (WRC 1999; NZGovt 2002; WCC 2004; WCC 2006). However, carbon emissions (including those from road transport) are playing an increasing role in climate forcing and global climate change (IPCC 2001), and road transport use is increasingly recognised as a contributing factor in a number of local environmental and social challenges (NZGovt 2002; Ray 2006)

Constructing Minimal Perfect Hash Functions Using SAT Technology

Minimal perfect hash functions (MPHFs) are used to provide efficient access to values of large dictionaries (sets of key-value pairs). Discovering new algorithms for building MPHFs is an area of active research, especially from the perspective of storage efficiency. The information-theoretic limit for MPHFs is 1/(ln 2) or roughly 1.44 bits per key. The current best practical algorithms range between 2 and 4 bits per key. In this article, we propose two SAT-based constructions of MPHFs. Our first construction yields MPHFs near the information-theoretic limit. For this construction, current state-of-the-art SAT solvers can handle instances where the dictionaries contain up to 40 elements, thereby outperforming the existing (brute-force) methods. Our second construction uses XOR-SAT filters to realize a practical approach with long-term storage of approximately 1.83 bits per key.Comment: Accepted for AAAI 202

BGrep and BDiff: UNIX Tools for High-Level Languages

The rise in high-level languages for system administrators requires us to rethink traditional UNIX tools designed for these older data formats. We propose new block-oriented tools, bgrep and bdiff, operating on syntactic blocks of code rather than the line, the traditional information container of UNIX. Transcending the line number allows us to introduce longitudinal diff, a mode of bdiff that lets us track changes across arbitrary blocks of code. We present a detailed implementation roadmap and evaluation framework for the full version of this paper. In addition we demonstrate how the design of our tools already addresses several real-wold problems faced by network administrators to maintain security policy

A Review of Toxicological Research on Sodium Monofluoroacetate (1080) and its Policy Implications

Sodium monofluoroacetate (1080) is used for large-scale pest control operations in New Zealand, to control the brush tailed possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) (an introduced marsupial pest). Wide-scale opposition to the use of 1080 has grown in recent years with the development of a substantial “anti-1080” lobby. Concerns for public health and effects on non-target animals among critics of 1080 have prompted the Department of Conservation to seek a review of the chemical by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA). In 2002 ERMA declared its intention to undertake this review, but in May 2003 announced that the review would be postponed due to impending adjustments to the HSNO Act. This report was prepared in anticipation of this official review and encompasses an independent evaluation of the peer-reviewed scientific literature on the risks associated with the use of 1080, in order to ascertain the degree to which regulations on 1080 reflect current scientific knowledge of the toxicology of this poison. Key areas of concern revealed in the literature include evidence that 1080 could have endocrine disrupting capabilities, and that it is relatively slow to break down at low temperatures (when microbial activity is low). These two issues are yet to be fully resolved through further research and represent significant gaps in current knowledge. If regulations are to take full account of current science on 1080 they will need to acknowledge and reflect what is known, the gaps in this knowledge, and the risks associated with this uncertainty. Recommendations include further targeted research to fill these gaps in current knowledge, regulatory precaution until such research is completed, and explorations of alternative methods to be used either in conjunction with, or (perhaps in certain areas) instead of this toxin