Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/310131
THIS WEEK maltatoday, SUNDAY, 11 MAY 2014 31 THIS WEEK You just can't miss this plant right now (and for the past few weeks). Fallow elds, roadsides and meadows all over the place are jammed tight with boar thistles. It is a very common annual shrub but some years it grows in greater abundance, and this seems to be one such year. Apparently the weather conditions over this particular winter happened to favour this particular plant. A bumper crop of boar thistle (M: Xewk Abjad) is an apiarist's perennial dream, since this humble plant – so persecuted by uninformed gardeners for daring to grow outside their meticulously planned patch – is hands down the honey-bee's favourite spring ower. The plant's many owers are largely white but often tinged pale pink. The boar thistle isn't just the bee's favourite, either. Many other insects revel in its pollen and nectar, not least butteries and several beetles, especially that hairy hippie, the barbary bug, who lives and loves in owers. As for the 'boar' connection, sorry no idea!Text and photo Victor Falzon Text Victor Falzon Photo Desirée Falzon 403. BOAR THISTLE Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us www.foemalta.org. You can also support us by sending a blank SMS donation on 50618070 (€4.66) or 50619223 (€11.65). GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 305: FIND OUT MORE - Click here to read more about this issue: https://www.foeeurope.org/who-benefits-gm-crops-industry-myths-280314 Global acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops is in decline, with the number of countries cultivating falling for the first time, according to a new report from Friends of the Earth International. Poland and Egypt are the latest countries to suspend or phase-out GM crop production. The report 'Who Benefits from GM Crops?' reveals that in Europe, production of Monsanto's GM maize, the only GM crop permitted in Europe, dropped in Portugal, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Over 90% of the European Union's GM crop production is based in just one country, Spain. Globally GM crops are grown predominantly in USA, Brazil, Argentina and India. Friends of the Earth Europe believes that there is public resistance to GM crops on every continent, with increasing social and environmental impacts wherever they have been planted. In Europe it is clear that the public don't want them, shops refuse to sell them and an increasing number of countries have banned them. Countries such as the USA and Canada are faced with escalating problems associated with GM crop production. In the USA, 49% of farmers report problems with herbicide resistant weeds; in Canada around 10% of farmers report about the same problems, resulting in increasingly toxic weed-killers being sprayed. In Africa GM crops are grown only in three countries, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Sudan. However, extreme pressure from biotech companies threatens to open up the continent to GM crops. A recent Kenyan decision to ban GM crops came under fire from lobbyists intent on profiting from the sale of seeds and pesticides. In Europe, a new proposal to grant national governments more say over cultivating GM crops on their territory in Europe is currently under discussion in Brussels. The proposals, if agreed in the current version, would provide biotech companies strong power to decide if national government can ban the cultivation of GM crops or not, according to Friends of the Earth Europe. Instead of allowing GM crops, the European Commission and national governments must urgently support existing farming methods that protect the environment and deliver healthy food for all. Text by Martin Galea De Giovanni Who benefits from genetically modified crops? The clashing, shadowy past LANĠLU tal-Lament is a con- temporary Maltese novel by Carlo D'Emanuele, in which the narra- tor meets a strange character by the name of James Oldens while travelling on a business f light to Lisbon. A particular bond devel- ops between the two men after James confesses that he will die soon – giving way to another thread in the story. We discover that James is a man of contrasts. His past is an enmeshed tale of both the mun- dane and the fantastical. A tale of physical and emotional abuse that also brings with it a heady dose of creativit y, dreams, angels and spiritualit y. The encounter proves to be a trying one for the protagonist, as it gives way to his own doubts about life. As the lines demarcat- ing the two characters continue to blur, the narrator is forced to reassess his own past. Set in a retro-chic Lisbon involv- ing a web of colourful characters, this novel evokes a dynamic set of emotions f lirting from a dramatic context of childhood recollections to a present enhanced by creativ- it y, illusion and thought. Towards the end it is the reader who is to decide James' fate. L-Anġlu tal-Lament is a topi- cal novel which is occasionally shrouded in mystery but which is free of any narrative hesita- tion – remaining unreserved in throughout. YOUR FIRST CLICK OF THE DAY www.maltatoday.com.mt Download the MaltaToday App now