Chicken, beef and pork that has never been a living animal could be better for people and the planet. But will it catch on?

Here is a question that you must try to answer honestly. Would you eat meat that had been grown in a Petri dish? Let’s be clear: I don’t mean “mock” meat made from soya, or even the flesh of a cloned animal. I mean real, in vitro meat that has been cultured in a laboratory from, say, pig stem cells but has never formed part of a living, breathing, kicking, oinking creature. Meatro, if you like.

If the idea makes you reach instinctively for your Tesco vacuum-packed streaky bacon, perhaps you had better steel yourself and get used to it. Last month, in Norway, the first international In Vitro Meat Symposium was held, and scientists seem to agree that “victimless” meat - be it beef, pork or chicken - bought off the shelf could become a reality within the next decade.
(more…)

NEW YORK - Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump, following oil’s recent path higher.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that suggested closer ties between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and rebels attempting to overthrow Colombia’s government. Chavez has been linked to Colombian rebels previously, but the paper reported it had reviewed computer files indicating concrete offers by Venezuela’s leader to arm guerillas. That appears to heighten the chances that the U.S. could impose sanctions on one of its biggest oil suppliers.
(more…)

NEW YORK - Gasoline and crude oil jumped to new records Thursday, with gas rising 3 cents to an average national price of nearly $3.65 a gallon and oil crossing $124 a barrel for the first time.

At the pump, the average price of a gallon of regular gas nationwide rose 2.7 cents to a record $3.645, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices also rose, adding 0.9 cent to match a record national average of $4.251 a gallon.

Gas prices tend to lag oil futures, and with crude rising to a new record near $124 a barrel Wednesday and likely headed higher, it’s widely expected the average price of gas will soon rise as high as $4. Motorists in many areas, including parts of California and Hawaii, are already paying that much, or more.
(more…)

NEW YORK - Oil futures extended their seemingly relentless advance Wednesday, rising to a new record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the market’s upward momentum looked past the government’s report of an increase in crude and gasoline supplies. At the pump, gas prices rose for the first time since last week.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery hit a new trading record of $123.90 in after-hours activity on the New York Mercantile Exchange after settling up $1.69 at a record close of $123.53 a barrel.

Analysts attributed oil’s rise to continued buying from the surge that pushed prices past $120 for the first time earlier this week. The fact that prices didn’t decline sharply after the inventory report was released signaled to some investors that the market was ripe for another rally.
(more…)

Authorities in Chile have ordered the complete evacuation of two towns after a volcano erupting nearby increased its activity, spewing out lava and ash.

Chaiten volcano in the southern Patagonia region began erupting on Friday for the first time in 450 years.

Ash from the volcano has caused disruption in neighbouring Argentina.
(more…)

The cyclone that has devastated Burma is not only set to push world rice prices higher but may have jeopardised the country’s long-term ability to feed its own population, Asian food experts say.

As well as unleashing a catastrophic loss of life, Cyclone Nargis appears to have been fiercest in Burma’s main rice-growing region, the Irrawaddy delta.

Full details of the damage are not yet clear, say World Food Programme officials, but the growing fear is that millions of tons of salt water have flooded onto the precious rice paddies, making them unfit for planting for some time.
(more…)

NEW YORK - Oil futures blasted to a new record of $122 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks.

A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday’s buying, although a falling dollar and increasing concerns about declining crude production in Mexico and Russia contributed, analysts say.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped to a new record of $122 a barrel before retreating slightly to trade up $1.92 at $121.89 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(more…)

Tens of thousands of people rioted over high food prices in Somalia’s capital on Monday, hurling stones that smashed car windows and prompted hundreds of shops to close.

Witnesses said Somali soldiers opened fire during the protests in Mogadishu, killing at least two people.

Dr. Dahir Dhere said a man wounded in today’s protests died on the way to an operating room at the capital’s main hospital.
(more…)

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures rose to a new record high for a second day on Tuesday, with crude oil futures for June delivery touching a record of $120.70 a barrel.

London Brent crude oil futures set a new record of $119.03 a barrel.

Supply disruptions in Nigeria have helped push oil to new peaks. Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) production from Nigeria, for example, is down by about 164,000 barrels per day.
(more…)

Efforts to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from being killed by ships are being blocked by Vice President Dick Cheney according to leaked documents.

A behind the scenes struggle is raging between the White House and US government scientists who want to force ships to slow down near the calving grounds of the almost extinct right whale.

The right whale controversy is the latest example of the Bush Administration sidestepping the advice of its on scientists which are aimed at protecting endangered species or threats to the environment. On Monday, a judge had to order the administration to release its much-delayed decision aimed at protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.
(more…)

WHALE and dolphin watchers are puzzled and alarmed at an unprecedented spike in the number of deep-water species being stranded and found dead on Irish beaches in the last 14 weeks.

There has been a similar worrying increase in the number of strandings on UK coasts — especially in Scotland — according to Mick O’Connell of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).

The species involved include pilot whales (Globicephala melas) Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), and Sowerby’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon bidens).
(more…)

May 2 (Bloomberg) — Russia, the world’s second-largest oil supplier, produced the least amount of crude in 18 months in April as aging fields and rising costs threaten the country with the first annual decline in oil output in a decade.

Production dropped to 9.72 million barrels a day (39.8 million metric tons a month), 0.8 percent less than in April last year and only slightly higher than in October 2006, according to data released today by CDU TEK, the dispatch center for the Energy Ministry. Compared with March, output fell 0.4 percent.

Russia’s output may have peaked as producers struggle with aging fields, rising costs and increasingly remote new deposits, Moscow-based OAO Lukoil and OAO TNK-BP, the country’s two- biggest independent oil companies, said in April. The finance and energy ministries are working on tax-cut proposals by July to stimulate investment.
(more…)

(AP) Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.

Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.

Oil is priced in U.S. dollars on the world market, and the currency’s depreciation has concerned producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and eroded the value of their dollar reserves.
(more…)

That the news is familiar makes it no less alarming: 1.1 billion people, about one-sixth of the world’s population, lack access to safe drinking water. Aquifers under Beijing, Delhi, Bangkok, and dozens of other rapidly growing urban areas are drying up. The rivers Ganges, Jordan, Nile, and Yangtze — all dwindle to a trickle for much of the year. In the former Soviet Union, the Aral Sea has shrunk to a quarter of its former size, leaving behind a salt-crusted waste.

Water has been a serious issue in the developing world for so long that dire reports of shortages in Cairo or Karachi barely register. But the scarcity of freshwater is no longer a problem restricted to poor countries. Shortages are reaching crisis proportions in even the most highly developed regions, and they’re quickly becoming commonplace in our own backyard, from the bleached-white bathtub ring around the Southwest’s half-empty Lake Mead to the parched state of Georgia, where the governor prays for rain. Crops are collapsing, groundwater is disappearing, rivers are failing to reach the sea. Call it peak water, the point at which the renewable supply is forever outstripped by unquenchable demand.
(more…)

RENO, Nev. - Scientists urged residents of northern Nevada’s largest city to prepare for a bigger event as the area continued rumbling Saturday after the largest earthquake in a two-month-long series of temblors.

More than 100 aftershocks were recorded on the western edge of the city after a magnitude 4.7 quake hit Friday night, the strongest quake around Reno since one measuring 5.2 in 1953, said researchers at the seismological laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The latest quake swept store shelves clean, cracked walls in homes and dislodged rocks on hillsides, but there were no reports of injuries or widespread major damage.
(more…)

The two biggest U.S. warehouse retail chains are limiting how much rice customers can buy because of what Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., called on Wednesday “recent supply and demand trends.”

The broader chain of Wal-Mart stores has no plans to limit food purchases, however.

The move comes as U.S. rice futures hit a record high amid global food inflation, although one rice expert said the warehouse chains may be reacting less to any shortages than to stockpiling by restaurants and small stores.
(more…)

UNITED NATIONS - The conflict in Darfur is deteriorating, with full deployment of a new peacekeeping force delayed until 2009 and no prospect of a political settlement for a war that has killed perhaps 300,000 people in five years, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

In grim reports to the Security Council, the United Nations aid chief and the representative of the peacekeeping mission said suffering in the Sudanese region is worsening. Tens of thousands more have been uprooted from their homes and food rations to the needy are about to be cut in half, they said.

“We continue to see the goal posts receding, to the point where peace in Darfur seems further away today than ever,” said John Holmes, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.
(more…)

April 22 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose to a record $119.74 a barrel in New York as the dollar dropped to an all-time low against the euro, kindling interest in commodities as an inflation hedge.

The dollar touched $1.60 per euro for the first time on signs the European Central Bank won’t cut interest rates because of inflation concerns. Dollar-based commodities like oil are often bought to counter the currency’s weakness. Oil also rose on a U.K. strike threat and a Nigerian supply disruption.

“The euro is strong against the dollar, which is once again providing an impetus for a push higher,'’ said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at TFS Energy LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. Crossing $1.60 per euro means “there will be a lot of commodity buying, especially oil.'’
(more…)

NEW YORK - Gas and oil prices prices marched further into record high territory Tuesday, with retail gas reaching a national average of $3.51 for the first time and crude passing $118 as the dollar weakened against the euro.

At the pump, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas rose 0.8 cent Tuesday to $3.511, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices, used to transport most food, industrial and commercial goods, also rose overnight to a new record of $4.204 a gallon.

Gas prices are nearly 66 cents higher than last year, when prices peaked at a then-record of $3.23 in late May, and are prompting many analysts to raise their estimates of where gas is going to go.
(more…)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing.

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.

“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”
(more…)