An organic farmer and farm inspector is calling for better testing of food before it can be sold as organic.

Mischa Popoffof Osoyoos, B.C., said the government certification by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is not adequate. Organic vegetables need tougher testing to ensure they are what they claim to be, says organic farmer and farm inspector Mischa Popoff.
(CBC)

Given that organic food has become abillion-dollar business, “somebody’s cheating,” he said, andthe CFIAis just rubber stamping paperwork.

In a recent posting on the Consumer’s Association of Canada website, Popoff said “organic food isn’t tested.” Instead, the CFIA relies on honour-based self-auditing, and checksreceipts for approved inputs like manure, used by organic farmers rather than chemical fertilizers.

The most troubling thing is farmers are notified before an inspection,Popoff told CBC News. “The person you’re visiting is just going to make sure that you see what they want you to see and their records are going to be in order or they wouldn’t agree to the meeting in the first place.”

The CFIA website said it oversees the system involving existing accreditation bodies, whose officers will do”on-farm and facility organic production system verification.” The agency will carry out “compliance verification and enforcement activities.”

The federal government announcedthe certification program in 2006, with a two-year phase-in ending in December 2008.

Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Stahl saidin July that underthe federalprogram, consumers will know that products with the federal logo “have met strict criteria and are certified organic.

Federal certifications require:

- Using natural fertilizers.
- Raising animals in natural conditions as much as possible.
- Productsto containat least 95 per cent organic ingredients.

After December 2008, all organic products that cross provincial or international borders must be certified. At least two provinces British Columbia and Quebec have provincial programs.

The federalprogram offering cash grants to buyers of fuel-efficient cars is a first step to cutting fuel use but it has”several defects,” according to astudy by the C.D. Howe Institute.

In the study, policy analyst Robin Bannerjeesupports the use of grants, but notes that the majority of vehicles attract neither grant nor tax.

“This reduces the effectiveness of the policy and reduces the impetus for manufacturers to make continuous improvements,” he writes.

He’s critical of Ottawa for failing to adequately consult the industry and for not phasing in the policy. He also notesthatthe program will hurt the market share of theBig Three North American automakers, which are disproportionately affected by the selective application of thepolicy.

The Conservative government unveiled the program, dubbed a “feebate,” in its March budget. It gives grants of up to $2,000 to buyers of new cars that burn lessthan 6.5 litres of gasoline per 100 kilometres. It also imposes a tax of up to $4,000 on gas guzzlers that use more than 13 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres.

Bannerjeealso says the plan won’t do much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.He cites anotherreport by the Toronto-based think-tankthat said the feebate will reduce Canadian greenhouse gas emission by, at most, one megatonne of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2010.

“Clearly, the plan alone will make only a small contribution to achieving ambitious emissions reduction targets,” he writes.

Bannerjeerecommends thatOttawa maintain and even boost measures that encourage people to travel less such things as increasing the basic fuel tax or bringing in a carbon tax.

“Such taxes would also provide an added incentive for drivers to switch to more fuel-efficient cars,” he writes.

Commodities settled broadly lower Monday on the last day of 2007, but markets from energy to metals to agriculture saw their largest annual gains in at least a decade.

Crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange, or Nymex, settled down 2 cents at $95.98 a barrel. For the year it was up 57%, the biggest gain for a front-month contract since 1999, when prices more than doubled from a $10-a-barrel low.

Gold futures for February on Nymex’s Comex metals division closed down $4.70 at $838 an ounce. For the year, gold was up 24%.

The spot price of gold bullion rose about 30% on the year, its biggest annual gain since 1979, and was less than $20 from hitting record highs.

U.S. copper for March settled down 3.10 cents at $3.04 a pound on the Comex. For the year, it was up about 8%.

In agricultural products on the Chicago Board of Trade, soybeans for January were down 8 3/4 cents at $11.99 a bushel. On the year, the market showed a gain of more than 60%.

Investors in commodity indexes in 2007 saw some of their biggest gains in 30 years, as five indexes in the energy, metals and agricultural markets ended the year with profits of almost 30% on average.

Five leading commodity indexes namely the DJ-AIG, under Dow Jones and American International Group; the S&P GSCI, owned by Standard & Poor’s and previously Goldman Sachs; the RJ-CRB, named after Reuters and Jefferies; the RICI, under the Rogers International Commodity Indexes family; and the DBLCI, operated by Deutsche Bank averaged total returns of 28.72% between Dec. 29, 2006, and Dec. 28, 2007.

Of the five, the RJ-CRB rose 8.07% in September alone, marking the largest gain since July 1975 for the basket of commodities it represents.

Analysts said early indications for 2008 are that growth in China and other emerging markets will keep demand for raw materials bubbling, while trouble in nuclear-capable states like Pakistan could send oil and gold to new record highs.

Comex gold hit 28-year highs above $850 an ounce in New York in November, while Nymex crude soared to a record of nearly $100 a barrel. Even the prospect of a U.S. recession next year has a possible bright side. A Federal Reserve interest rate cut to spark the economy would further weaken the U.S. dollar, making commodities priced in dollars more attractive in foreign-exchange terms.

Every year the tech market sees scores of new products, discoveries and startups. Most of them are gone or forgotten within the decade.

But a few of them go on to have a lasting impact on the way people work, live and play.

While it’s hard to know which ones will wane as fads and which will change the world, several trends emerged in 2007 that appear to have long-term potential. While none is a brand-new concept, here are the top five ideas that went mainstream and promise to have an even bigger influence in 2008:

Cloud computing

True, this is just another way of saying “Web services,” a concept that’s been around almost as long as the Web itself. Now, it’s finally reaching the masses.

Think of it as the third wave of computing: first there was the mainframe, hulking, centralized computers that doled out access to the lucky few. Then came personal computers anyone could own. Unfortunately, they were mostly islands of computing, disconnected from one another except in small client-server networks. Then came the Internet, which has helped connect every computer to almost any other anywhere around the globe.

Web pages and e-mail were only the beginning. Thanks to faster connections and easier-to-use services, it’s now a snap to use faraway software and data storage as if they were on your own computer. By tapping into this “cloud” of Web-based services, you have access to your information no matter where you are.

Offerings such as Google () Docs and Zoho Office make it possible to create, edit and share documents online. And others such as Mozy, Box.net and Xdrive let you use the Internet as your own personal hard drive.

Next year, Google is expected to launch a service that lets users easily store and share documents online. And Microsoft plans to add its own twist to the concept with Office Live Workspace. An add-on to Microsoft’s () Office applications will make saving to the Web as easy as saving to your hard drive.

Greentech gets practical

If idealism was the root of the early ecology movement, a more down-to-earth business sense seems to be fueling the tech industry’s recent shift to cleaner, more sustainable policies. Besides the PR benefits of going green, companies are saving real money.

Case in point: Sun Microsystems () says its switch to electronic annual reports alone saves it close to $1 million a year.

This year, expect companies to consider the ecological impact of their products at the design stage. Instead of merely supporting the recycling of electronic waste at the end of a product’s life, Sun and other companies are thinking about how to design a product from the start that’ll be easy to recycle later.

At the same time, rising oil prices and global-warming worries have sparked a wave of investment into alternative energy, alternative-fuel power conservation and efficiency.

Batteries used in hybrid and electric cars are set to get cheaper and longer-lasting, while computers promise to offer more bang for the kilowatt.

Getting Social

While some scoff at the $15 billion valuation suggested by Microsoft’s investment a few months ago in Facebook, the trend is clear: technology is getting more social.

Social networking sites help you stay connected with friends and colleagues and their friends and colleagues. And those features aren’t limited to social networking sites such as Facebook, News Corp.’s () MySpace and business-focused LinkedIn. Case in point: Google’s news-gathering service, Google Reader, added a feature that lets you see items shared by other Google Reader users.

And Microsoft’s Xbox Live gaming service now lets players see not just their friends, but those friends’ friends.

Google’s recently launched Open Social effort could make it even easier to keep in touch.

Solid-state storage

If you own a cell phone, iPod Nano or digital camera, you’re already using solid-state storage in the form of flash memory.

The technology, which stores information on computer chips rather than magnetic film, is fast, compact, rugged and easy on batteries.

But it’s been too expensive to use in large capacities until now. The ever-shrinking size and price of chips make it possible to put lots of storage on small devices and making flash memory a realistic substitute for hard-disk drives.

Several computer makers offer the option of flash-based storage instead of hard drives. And flash-based portable devices are now capable of holding thousands not hundreds of songs and videos.

The upshot: tiny devices get more powerful; powerful PCs get tinier.

Ubiquitous Internet

Wi-Fi wireless networking and WAP (wireless application protocol) cellular data services gave many laptop and cell phone users their first taste of data on the go in the late 1990s. It also exposed the technology’s maddening limitations: namely, speed and coverage.

Users who want to stay connected have had to make a frustrating choice: enjoy fast connections, but only at a few scattered Wi-Fi hot spots, most of which charge serious money. Or stay connected anywhere a cell phone works, but at slow speeds on tiny screens.

That’s poised to change in 2008, thanks to a mix of technologies that will blanket more areas with high-speed connections.

The first is 3G, or third-generation, data networks being rolled out now by wireless carriers.

AT&T’s () HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access/universal mobile telephone system) offers download speeds of up to 1.4 megabits per second.

Also, more computer makers are rolling out notebook PCs with built-in connections to EVDO (evolution, data only) networks run by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. ()

Another technology called WiMax could offer even faster speeds. Expect fast data to become commonplace. As science fiction writer William Gibson put it: “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

ONE of the jockeys accused of throwing races in a multi-million pound betting scam declared he had given his horse a “good ride” in a suspect race, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Darren Williams, 29, was questioned by an investigator from the security department of the Jockey Club, then the sport’s ruling body, in January 2003.

He was asked about tactics for his ride on Legal Set, the joint top-rated horse in the 2:15pm race at Lingfield on 30 December, 2002.

The price on the horse drifted from 9-4 to 5-1 on Betfair, the online betting exchange, and it started at 4-1 with bookmakers, the jury was told.

Williams was asked if he gave the horse “too much to do” after being held up at the rear and dropped his hands to give the horse a “tender finish”.

Williams said he was “quite annoyed” at this idea. “I gave the horse a good ride to the instructions given to me,” he said in the interview, read out in court.

“I got stopped twice on one run, on the straight and just turning in.

“I’ve always won on that horse - not hitting him ever. Same as Fergal Lynch. He’s won on him on the same tactics.”

Williams, Lynch and six-time champion jockey Kieren Fallon are among six people accused of involvement in a conspiracy with others between December 2002 and September 2004 to defraud Betfair customers and other punters.

Legal Set was owned by Platinum Racing and trained by Karl Burke. Williams spoke to Mr Burke after the race and he told the investigator: “I said [to Mr Burke] I should really have won and apologised to the owners, telling them if I could have ridden the race again I would have done things different.

“I also asked Mr Burke if I could ride him again the same way and he agreed.”

Fallon, 42, formerly of Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, but now of Tipperary, Ireland, and fellow jockeys Fergal Lynch, 29, of Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, and Williams, of Leyburn, North Yorkshire, deny the charge.

Shaun Lynch, 37, of Belfast, Miles Rodgers, 38, of Silkstone, South Yorkshire, and Philip Sherkle, 42, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, also plead not guilty. Rodgers also denies concealing the proceeds of crime.

The trial continues.