Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/741600
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 OCTOBER 2016 43 Twenty five thousand people from around Europe are asking to "stop the squeeze out and make orange juice fair", The petition launched by members of the international SUP- PLY CHA!NGE campaign carried out a stunt in front of the Hilton Hotel in Antwerp, Belgium. Caged in a mas- sive trolley they attracted the at- tention of 100s of passers-by to the annual Juice Summit, where all the main players in the worlds' juice in- dustry meet. After rolling out a red carpet cov- ered with pictures of Brazilian work- ers in front of the hotel's entrance, the activists put up a stop sign, with the order "Don't step on worker's rights!" Workers are harvesting approxi- mately 1.5 tons of oranges for an income of 10 Euro per day. The fruits are collected by leaning simple lad- ders against the orange trees. The workers climb up and down these un- stable ladders carrying up to 30 kg of oranges under great time pressure." Two thirds of all orange juice is sold as a supermarket own-brand product. Supermarkets in Europe are directly or indirectly influencing the conditions of millions of work- ers worldwide and contributing to environmental devastation. The campaigners are putting pressure on European supermarkets to take responsibility and stop this destruc- tion. The average Maltese consumer drinks 11 litres of Orange Juice in a year, 80% of which originates from Brazil. As such, it is imperative that Maltese people understand the con- sequences and impacts that such products have outside of our shores. Brazil is home to over 3,000 bee species but the massive use of pesti- cides in Brazilian orange plantations has a tremendous negative effect on these insects. This is worrying as bees are essential for most food pro- duction. As part of the SUPPLY CHA!NGE pro- ject, civil society organisations from across Europe and the Global South are working to make supermarket store brands fairer and more sus- tainable. Campaigners highlight that while supermarkets gain influence in the global supply chain, they are fail- ing to use their power to prevent hu- man rights violations and to reduce environmental damage along the supply chains. This Week About two dozen species of wild duck have so far been recorded in Malta. Ducks can be grouped in roughly two types: the dabblers and the divers. Dabblers generally live in shallow lakes and feed by up-ending and ducking half their body, without actually diving, to reach down with their beak for aquatic vegetation, the way domestic ducks do. Divers, on the other hand, can live in deeper waters because they can dive and swim down to graze on the bottom vegetation, maybe even snap up the odd slow fish. Among the diving ducks that visit Malta we get the common pochard (M: brajmla) but don't let the 'common' bit fool you because it's actually rather scarce. Still, a few do turn up every year in autumn or winter, usually in bays and creeks, but also in places like Is- Simar and Għadira nature reserves. The male's lovely rust-red head and black breast are distinctive. GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 432: FIND OUT MORE: Read more about orange juice production in Brasil - http://supplychainge.org/research-eu2/orange-juice-en/ Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text Victor Falzon Photo Raymond Vella 529. COMMON POCHARD Stop squeezing out the orange juice workers Commemorating Cervantes with folk song at the Malta Book Festival THE National Book Council will be celebrat- ing the legacy of one of the defining works of West- ern literature at this year's edition of the Malta Book Festival, which will be tak- ing place at the Mediter- ranean Conference Centre in Valletta from Novem- ber 9 to 13. In collaboration with the Department of Spanish at the University of Malta and the Spanish Embassy of Malta, together with SKS, the Festival will pre- sent a talk entitled 'Cer- vantes and Don Quixote in Literature and Culture' to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of the seminal Spanish author Miguel Cervantes, who gave Don Quixote to the world. The presentation will feature a number of speak- ers, chief among whom Professor John Ardila, an expert on Cervantes and his importance in contem- porary literature. As a special feature for the event, Emmanuel Ab- ela, a popular 'għannej' from Żejtun known among folk singing circles as Il-fenka, accompanied by popular guitarists, will relate in song parts of Dun Kixott Mill-Manċa (SKS), a Maltese translation in poetic form of the work of Cervantes by Pawlu Mon- tebello. The event will also feature the book launch of Żwieġ Qarrieqi (The Deceitful Marriage), one of Cervantes' 'exemplary novels', translated into Maltese by Fiona Sciber- ras. The Embassy of Spain has supported the publi- cation of this short novel on the occasion of this an- niversary. The Spanish Ambassa- dor in Malta, José Pons, will be present at the conference which will be held at Sir Temi Zammit Hall (MCC, Valletta) on Sunday, November 13 at 10:00. Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) For more information about the Malta Book Festival, log on to: http://bit.ly/2dy6YKw or find it on Facebook: http:// bit.ly/2eCodNl