BIC NEW YORK — A committee of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday, calling on Iran to observe human rights for all its citizens, including members of the Bahá’í Faith.
The Third Committee of the General Assembly approved the resolution by a vote of 79 to 32, with 64 abstentions.
The resolution calls on Iran to “eliminate, in law and practice, … all forms of discrimination on the basis of thought, conscience, religion or belief, including economic restrictions, … the denial of and restrictions on access to education, including for members of the Bahá’í faith…” The resolutions also urges an end to “other human rights violations against persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities.”
For over 40 years, the entire Bahá’í community in Iran has been subject to continuous state-sponsored persecution, which the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) describes as multidimensional and affecting every one of its members across generations, within every phase of life, and even in death.
The BIC says, “While the specific tactics employed by the Iranian authorities have sometimes changed, their aim of destroying the Bahá’í community as a viable entity in Iran continues in full force.”
Bani Dugal, the BIC’s Principal Representative to the United Nations, says, “Through various means, the authorities maintain focus on this goal by striving to exclude Bahá’ís from the public sphere, prevent them from expressing their beliefs, impoverish them economically, undermine their intellectual advancement, erase traces of their history and culture, as well as spread disinformation about them and incite the public so as to create an environment of hatred against them.
“Let us hope that Iran will at long last pay heed to the recommendations in this resolution and the international community’s call for it to uphold the human rights of its citizens.”
The resolution will be confirmed by the plenary of the General Assembly in December.
An MSNBC contributor suggested GOP attacks on Georgia senate candidate Raphael Warnock’s faith are hypocritical, citing outrage over anti-Catholic attacks on Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
“Why are Raphael Warnock’s faith and sermons fair game for attack but Amy Coney Barrett’s religious views not?” asked Sam Stein, who is also a writer for the Daily Beast.
While attacks on Warnock have focused on the candidate’s public comments and actions, many attacks on Barrett mostly focused on her personal faith and her family.
An MSNBC contributor suggested GOP attacks on Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock’s faith are hypocritical, citing outrage over anti-Catholic attacks on Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
“I don’t think I’m overstating matters when I say that the entire Republican Party said questions of her faith were off limits and, indeed, anti-Catholic,” he continued in response to another tweet. “The media did run stories. And those stories were condemned by Republicans for being attacks on faith.”
Stein emphasized that he thinks “those stories were fine,” and that he thinks “stories exploring Warnock’s faith and sermons are fine too (assuming done in good faith, pardon the pun).”
“But I’m wondering why Republicans who oppose Warnock are comfortable with those stories now,” he added.
Screenshot, Twitter.
Stein’s tweets came after Warnock’s comment that “you cannot serve God and the military” was widely reported this week. Warnock made the comment during a 2011 sermon that has sparked a backlash on social media. Warnock has quickly become a focal point of attacks from the right as he prepares for a January runoff for the Georgia senate with Republican Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
So, to summarize, what I’m getting from R’s is that Warnock’s beliefs are fair game (and matter materially more than Barrett’s) because
1. He was delivering sermons 2. They were political in nature 3. Elected office v. Judicial nom
Even before her 2020 confirmation hearings, Democratic lawmakers questioned Barrett about her Catholic beliefs during her 2017 confirmation hearings, suggesting that her beliefs might make her unfit to serve as a judge.
“The conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you,” Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein told Barrett in 2017. “And that’s of concern.”
Media pundits and high profile Democrats also suggested that Barrett’s faith was extreme, and some went so far as to suggest that Barrett adopted her children for nefarious reasons.
Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies on the third day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on October 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. (MICHAEL REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Disgraced former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill tweeted: “If her religion never made it into her court decisions, she can believe what she wants. But, yes, personally, I DO object to any religion that still insists women be subservient.”
The Washington Post’s Ron Charles highlighted Barrett’s comment that the ultimate goal in life is to build “the Kingdom of God.”
“Amy Coney Barrett, the judge at the top of Trump’s list to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has said we should always remember that a ‘legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God,’” Charles tweeted.
Filmmaker Arlen Parsa called Barrett a “Catholic extremist with 7 children” in a since deleted tweet, hitting Barrett for her pro-life views while noting that he will vote for pro-abortion 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, who is also Catholic.
“She wants the rest of American women to be stuck with her extreme lifestyle,” he tweeted.
Democratic activist Dana Houle said that he would “love to know which adoption agency Amy Coney Barrett and her husband used to adopt the two children they brought here from Haiti.”
“Does the press even investigate details of Barrett’s adoptions from Haiti,” he asked. “Some adoptions from Haiti were legit. Many were sketchy as hell. And if press learned they were unethical and illegal adoptions, would they report it? Or not, bc it involves her children.”
“Would it matter if her kids were scooped up by ultra-religious Americans, or Americans weren’t scrupulous intermediaries and the kids were taken when there was family in Haiti? I dunno. I think it does, but maybe it doesn’t, or shouldn’t,” Houle said.
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An elderly Indian Jesuit priest, who is in prison on charges of terrorism for championing the rights of Adivasis (indigenous people) and the marginalized in Jharkhand state, says he is overwhelmed by the humanity of his fellow prisoners.
In a letter to his friends, Father Stan Swamy says that his cellmates, who are from “very poor families,” help him with his daily needs. “I ask you to remember my companions and colleagues in your prayers,” Father Swamy writes.
Officials of the National Investigation Authority (NIA), a federal agency to combat terrorist activities, arrested Father Stan Swamy on Oct. 8 from Bagaicha, a Jesuit social action centre in the outskirts of Jharkhand capital, Ranchi, which works for the rights of indigenous people in Jharkhand. He has been accused of links with Maoist insurgents who are said to have been behind the violence in Bhima Koregaon village in the western state of Maharashtra in January 2018. He is being held in Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The lawyers of the 83-year old ailing priest had applied for bail on humanitarian grounds under a provision by the Supreme Court to release prisoners in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The NIA rejected his plea for interim bail on October 23, saying he was taking undue advantage of the pandemic.
The frail priest suffers from Parkinson’s disease and hearing impairment, and has had two surgeries for hernia. He finds it very difficult to wash or eat on his own. His cellmates help him bathe, wash his linen and eat. For the Jesuit priest, these are signs that “despite everything, humanity overflows in Taloja prison.”
Father Swamy says that the prison also holds other activists in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, such as Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira. The priest is NIA’s 16th, and oldest, arrest in the case. He meets them during prison recreation.
Denied aids
Given his Parkinson’s disease, Father Swamy had been using straws and sippers, as he is unable to hold a glass in hand. The NIA refused to hand the straws and sipper back to the priest after he was flown to Mumbai after his arrest and neither did prison authorities provide him with these simple assistive items, the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) said, according to The Hindu.
Father Swamy sought the permission of the NIA court requesting the use of these aids, and the court on Nov. 6 sought 20 days to file a reply to the application. The matter will now be heard on November 26, according to The Hindu.
Meanwhile, the NPRD has sought the “immediate intervention” of the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) to ensure that Father Swamy is provided with requisite age and disability appropriate accommodation; assistive aids, including straws and sippers; and human care assistance as required.
UN’s plea
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Oct. 20 noted that “the 83-year-old Catholic priest Stan Swamy, a long-standing activist engaged in defending the rights of marginalized groups, was charged and reportedly remains in detention, despite his poor health.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, urged the government to “release people charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for simply exercising basic human rights that India is obligated to protect.”
Below are some excerpts from Fr Stan Swamy’s letter written with the help of a fellow prisoner:
Dear friends: Peace!
Although I do not have many details, from what I have heard, I am grateful to all of you for the support and solidarity you express on my behalf. I am in a cell of approximately 4m x 2.4m, together with two of my cellmates. It has a small bathroom and an Indian dressing table. Luckily, I was given a western-style commode. Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira are in another cell. During the day, when the cells and wards are open, we meet.
From 5.30 in the afternoon to 6 in the morning, and from 12 noon to 3 in the afternoon, I am locked in my cell with my two companions. Arun assists me in eating breakfast and lunch. Vernon helps me take a bath. My two cellmates help me during dinner, washing my clothes and giving me knee massages.
They come from very poor families. I ask you to remember my companions and colleagues in your prayers.
Despite everything, humanity overflows into the Taloja prison.
Editor’s note: Daily Universe senior reporters Andrea Cabrera and Sydnee Gonzalez interview individuals in Utah and Washington, D.C., to see how politics and religion intersect in the United States.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Growing up, Latter-day Saint Sam Dearden frequently heard comments like “You can’t be a liberal or a Democrat and be a good Mormon.”
Dearden, who now works for the U.S. Agency for International Development, didn’t quite fit in when his family moved from Boston to Utah when he was 11, even though he shared the same religion with the majority of his peers. As an adult, he realizes the differences stemmed in part from a distinction in how he approached politics compared to many other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I think for a lot of members of the Church, who tend to have conservative backgrounds, it’s just second nature often to say these two identities go together very well,” Dearden said. “I think that’s pretty inappropriate considering that conservative and Republican are nowhere near as important identities as Christian.”
(Footage by Sydnee Gonzalez and Andrea Cabrera, editing by Andrea Cabrera)
In today’s political climate members of all faiths are having to balance their religious beliefs with their political views — and it’s no easy task
The balance between politics and religion is nothing new in the United States. Separation of church and state is written into its founding documents, yet the philosophical ramifications of that idea are still debated. Where’s the line between the two? Does it fall between a classroom and an invocation to the divine? Or does it lie somewhere near the declaratory lines of “One nation under God?”
Americans are divided on the question. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that although 63% of U.S. adults want religious groups to stay out of politics, more than half of Americans also view religion as a force for good in society.
A blurred line: Political ideologies and religious principals
For Sen. Mike Lee, religion is a fundamental part of his political ideologies. “My religious beliefs form every aspect of my life. There’s nothing in my life that isn’t influenced in one way or another by them,” the Latter-day Saint told the Daily Universe.
UVU student Ryan Griffith, who hosts a conservative podcast called “Not at the dinner table,” also uses religion to shape his political stances. “I always look at it through the lens of what eternal truths are at play here,” he said. “So when I look at issues like abortion, I can see the internal truth of agency, but I also look at choice and accountability, and I look at the eternal value of life.”
Mo Elinzano, a digital organizing associate for Biden for President, tries to focus on which party’s platform best represents her religious values and morals. “I am very passionate and proud of being both a Mormon and Democrat,” she said. “If we’re really trying to emulate being like the Savior, I don’t think the Republican Party, especially under Trump or conservatism, reflects that.”
Mixing the two isn’t always straightforward. Lee received widespread criticism in October for comparing President Donald Trump to Book of Mormon hero Captain Moroni during a political rally in Arizona. He acknowledged that not all members of his faith agreed with the comparison, but added that he wasn’t impressed with the manner in which individuals expressed their disagreement.
“We shouldn’t belittle others when they draw on a spiritual or a scriptural argument in defense of what they believe,” Lee said. “Saying,‘Thou shalt not invoke scripture,’ or compare a fallible mortal human being to someone revered from the scriptures, just doesn’t do it for me … It has the effect of essentially banning religious thought and religious expression from the public square.”
Lauren Lethbridge, a copywriter from Utah who leans conservative, believes trying to keep religion and politics separate can be exhausting and that individuals should let their morals and personal beliefs, which can often be based on religion, guide their actions and decisions.
She remembers politics and religion being mixed from a young age and said her parents often looked to church leaders to determine their political choices or opinions. That connection, though, is something she’s broken away from growing up. “If I have a dissenting view from the majority of the Church, it does not reflect on my personal standing within my religion or my relationship with God,” she said.
For Georgetown student Matteo Caulfield, it wasn’t his family or friends that were melding religious leaders’ opinions with political choices, it’s his own church.
“The Catholic Church is an inherently political organization that often gives guidance to its members on how to engage with public policy,” he said. “These teachings are branded as Catholic Social Justice.”
He noted, though, that seeing politics talked about from the pulpit doesn’t necessarily mean Catholics are tied to one political party of the other. In fact, the Pew Research Center has found Catholic voters have been equally divided between the two major parties.
Religious freedom for all: Dissecting policy from beliefs
BYU alumnus Bogdan Banu, an NGO director in D.C. who is originally from Romania and a member of the Romanian (Eastern) Orthodox Church, said the heavy intersection between politics and religion in U.S. politics is unusual, especially compared to European politics.
“You’re more articulate in presenting your point if you have good arguments as to what your point of view is,” Banu said. “Simply saying that ‘I believe in something,’ it may work in a religious context, but if you want to translate that into policy, you have to have certain things to back up your religious point of view.”
Arsalan Malik, a non-religious lawyer in D.C. whose religious upbringing was split between an atheist father and a Muslim mother, is concerned by what he sees as an inauthentic melding of politics and religion from politicians.
“When politicians generally bring up religion, at least recently, it’s not for altruistic purposes, it is for their own self interest in expanding the electorate,” Malik said. “The other thing I’m concerned about lately with religion and politics, is that it’s becoming more divisive and religion is also becoming a way to weaponize against minorities.”
He pointed towards Trump’s Muslim ban as an example and emphasized the fact that while politicians can help protect religious freedom, there is a fundamental distinction between enhancing freedoms for all religions and pandering to just one religion.
The intersection of politics and religion 1Protestors mix politics and religion with signs in Lafayette Square, sandwiched between St. John’s Episcopal Church and the White House on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.
Rev. Patrick Conroy, who serves as chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives, echoed Malik’s sentiments. He said there’s a line between the government protecting religious prerogatives and protecting religious freedom.
“We ought not to ask government to enforce our positions,” Conroy said. “We’re doing religiously important and valuable work when we try to work within our system rather than demand that our system enforce our black-and-white, morally truthful positions, because those aren’t shared across the board.”
Middle ground: Finding a balance between politics and religion
Conroy believes religion has an important presence in the political atmosphere. He’s found that many members of Congress value having someone in their midst who can remind them of the gravity of their positions and the impact they have on Americans. “(My) being present, as I’ve been told, really matters to them.”
Conroy’s ministry serves as a model for how religion in the political sphere can be unifying rather than divisive. Although a Jesuit priest, Conroy strives to make his ministry inclusive to individuals of all religions and those who aren’t religious.
“I want this office to be the one place where everybody can say amen,” he said. “The one time, maybe all day or all year, they can agree on something should come out of the Chaplain’s Office.”
His advice to individuals trying to balance politics and religion is to weigh the practical work of government as opposed to the religious certainty of a church.
For some, balancing religion and politics is easier said than done. For Latter-day Saint Alicia Moulton, the road to political engagement hasn’t been easy. “I’ve had a love-hate relationship with politics. I feel like it’s important to be a good citizen, but I’ve often been very turned off by the way in which people talk about political topics,” she said. “It’s taken a lot of work in my life.”
One of the things that’s helped her navigate engaging with politics has been her faith. “Our belief in people as children of God and that everyone is worthy of respect can be a guiding star to us, and not in dictating our opinions but in helping us do it in a way that’s Christlike.”
Dianna Douglas, a journalist who currently produces Zion’s Suffragists (a podcast about LDS women’s political involvement), said Latter-day Saints have a long legacy of political involvement.
“My faith is the reason that I am involved in politics today,” she said. “It is our job as Latter-day Saints to try to change the country for the better, to try to change society for the better, to work on our communities, to save our communities, to improve our communities.”
A key step to a healthy political system is diversity of opinion and thought. Douglas has seen first hand the downsides of communities of faith overly identifying with one political party after living in both Utah and D.C.
“The Church and Utah would be so much better served if there was a little bit more balance and diversity in the politics there, in the same way, I also think D.C. politics would be better served with a little bit more room for more opinions and more perspectives,” she said.
Jeffrey Stark, a geographic information systems analyst for USPS currently based in D.C., has also experienced Mormonism on the East and West coast. “There is less of an attitude out here of ‘The Democratic Party is the great and abominable church’ than you’ll see in the western United States,” he said.
He hasn’t been drawn into liberal politics during his time in D.C., instead deciding to remain a moderate — an identity he’s come to in part because of his faith. He’s been frustrated, though, to see other Church members’ “sanctimonious bashing” of fellow members with opposing religious views.
“Not everything in the Republican platform or the Democratic platform is entirely in line with, as I see it, the teachings of the gospel,” Stark said. “There isn’t necessarily the Lord’s way versus the world’s way when it comes to various policies.”
“Religious beliefs do have a place in the public’s view on the political sphere,” Rugh said, adding that even members of the same faith can end up endorsing different solutions. “Religion is your values and your principles; politics is the process of compromise and consensus, coalition building, passing laws and getting something done.”
Ben Mack, a Latter-day Saint with Capitol Hill experience and a U.S. congressional campaign under his belt, believes Americans, and especially Latter-day Saints, have an opportunity in the current political environment to create bridges.
“(Religion) helps me personally to see other people around me in a certain way. I see them as my brothers and sisters and I see them as children of God, no matter how passionately I feel about a certain policy stance,” Mack said. “The camaraderie and the brotherhood and sisterhood, the commonality that we have is so much greater.”
For LDS freelance writer Jared Burton, the camaraderie of the Church has sustained him during a political identity crisis. Although he was raised in a conservative Republican family in Colorado, he felt like politics had changed after he returned from serving an LDS mission in Brazil.
“It’s been kind of cool to have this, as I sort of have this political identity shift whatever’s going on, sense of community in the Church. I don’t have to worry about belonging to a (political) party,” Burton said.
The countdown is almost over. On Thursday 19 November, The Economy of Francesco event kicks-off setting into motion the 12 “EoF” thematic villages that will be working on key topics relating to a new, and more just, model of economy.
Preparatory work has been going on since the event was convoked by Pope Francis in 2019. At the time, the Holy Father asked economists and young people to give life to the idea of a different kind of economy, one that is more attentive to the weakest members of society and is not focused exclusively on increasing material wealth.
The Economy of Francesco will come to life on a virtual platform due to the global coronavirus pandemic, and foresees three intense days of webinars and seminars streamed on the organization’s official YouTube channel.
The conferences feature internationally recognized key speakers, including Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and economists and experts such as Kate Raworth, Jeffrey Sachs, John Perkins, Vandana Shiva, Stefano Zamagni, Mauro Magatti, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Jennifer Nedelsky, Sr. Cécile Renouard as well as many top business entrepreneurs and managers.
Among the members of the Central Organizing Committee for the initiative is Valentina Rotondi, a post-doctoral researcher at Oxford University and at SUPSI University in Lugano.
Valentina, who is also coordinating the “CO2 of Inequalities” village, told Vatican News about how she got involved in “The Economy of Francesco” and of her hopes and long-term expectations for the initiative.
Listen to the interview with Valentina Rotondi
“It was a gift,” Valentina Rotondi said, as she recalled having sent in her application without many expectations and then being invited to be part of The Economy of Francesco’s Central Organizing Committee, where she has been directly involved in helping other young people around the world to join the event.
She pointed out that this is “completely innovative and completely new” in the fields of social sciences, economics and applied economics.
“I really think it will change the way we think about our economy, the way we think about people living in our economy,” and about how we can change this economic model that is having adverse effects on so many people around the world, she explained.
Valentina said that in the next three days she will be coordinating workshops, in particular one that involves Kate Rawarth and John Perkins, together with 12 young people from around the world who are among those who have given life to The Economy of Francesco.
“And then I will listen, listen to the contribution of other important people around the world, and these people are young people trying to change the economic background in their countries of origin and in the world in general,” she said.
Of course, she said, the legacy of the event must live on and have an impact, so Valentina described these three days as “a sort of middle-way event” because it comes on the heels of a lot of hard work that started the process and that will be continued over the years to come.
A multi-faceted process
“The process is based on different pillars: there are people working in the stream of research and publication, there are people working in the stream of business and innovative businesses, and there are people working in the stream of community projects,” she explained.
Each participant, she added, now has a task that aims at bearing concrete results in the next month.
For example, in the “CO2 Inequality” village that Valentina coordinates, there are some people from Argentina, Peru and Italy working to build places where children can go and learn about inequalities and how to tackle inequalities in their daily lives.
A new perspective for academic training
Valentina is an academic, deeply involved in university life as she continues to research new models and principles in her quest to provide alternative solutions to unjust systems.
One of her hopes, she said, is that the fruits of The Economy of Francesco will find their way into the curricula of academic institutions. For sure, she said, the event will inform her own work.
“I will take the principles of this event and transfer them into my research,” she said, as well as try to establish some specific courses related to “The Economy of Francesco”.
Pope Francis
Valentina said Pope Francis’s contribution to this conversation has been fundamental.
“His contribution has been, first of all, to call young people, to trust their intelligence and ability in thinking about the future, and to trust in their enthusiasm,” she said.
And then, she concluded, his documents – his encyclicals – are at the basis of The Economy of Francesco and provide the framework within which we can build a new economy.
Not shocked #Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Raphael Warnock said “You cannot serve God and the military” at the same time. These & even crazier things is what the radicals who control the Democratic party’s activist & small dollar donor base believepic.twitter.com/bQyBuKLwjb
“This sermon is based on a biblical verse that reads ‘No man can serve two masters … Ye cannot serve God and mammon,’ a biblical term for wealth,” Clark said. “Reverend Warnock was speaking about the need to commit to moral life before pursuing other priorities. As the video of the congregation’s response makes clear, this is another blatant effort by Kelly Loeffler to take Reverend Warnock’s words completely out of context. Given her own decision to spend her first days in the U.S. Senate profiting off the pandemic, perhaps she should watch the sermon more closely.”
Its meaning wasn’t particularly difficult to decipher. Several Twitter users were able to do so with little trouble. Journalist Wesley Lowery tweeted: “this is extremely standard Christian rhetoric about “serving two masters” [Matthew 6:24, since I know you like verses]”
x
He’s literally quoting Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other, Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Journalist Sam Stein asked: “Why are Raphael Warnock’s faith and sermons fair game for attack but Amy Coney Barrett’s religious views not?” The newly appointed Supreme Court justice has been associated with the religious group People of Praise, which isn’t in and of itself some crime of consciousness. But being a complete stranger to a judge’s responsibility to remain unbiased, Barrett apparently likes to spew her religious teachings to law students to teach them “how God can use them as judges, law professors and practicing attorneys to help keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel in America.”
But in following GOP logic, we should all overlook that and focus instead on what Warnock—who’s been quite upfront about being the pastor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s church home Ebenezer Baptist Church—says on the pulpit. Feel free to roll your eyes now.
Mushroom growing matter makes great compost but contains a lot of water, making it heavy and unprofitable to transport, so it currently goes to waste. Credit: needpix.com//licenced under CC0
Cultivating mushrooms produces a lot of waste. For every kilogram of mushrooms produced, about three kilograms of soil-like material containing straw, manure and peat is left behind. In the EU, this results in more than 3 billion kilograms of waste per year.
Managing this waste is a challenge. Although it is rich in organic matter, and therefore useful as compost, used mushroom substrate—the soil-like material—contains a lot of water, which makes it heavy and unprofitable to transport. Some of it is used as compost in agricultural land close by but the vast majority that remains ends up being stored temporarily then landfilled.
“Every year we have more and more waste,” said Pablo Martinez, project manager at the Mushroom Technological Research Center of La Rioja in Spain. “So, we need larger and larger areas just to manage this waste.”
More mushroom waste could soon be given a second life though thanks to new innovations. Dr. Bart van der Burg, Director of Innovation at BioDetection Systems in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and his team are interested in discarded mushroom parts, such as stems, and deformed mushrooms, which are part of the cultivation leftovers. They are aiming to extract components such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats and chitin—a fibrous substance—from them as part of the Funguschain project. Their goal is to incorporate these extracts into new products such as novel foods, cosmetics and bioplastics. “I think we will end up with at least three products coming out of this project,” said Dr. van der Burg.
The team has been experimenting with different extraction techniques. After milling and grinding the mushrooms, they found that a technique using microwave radiation was effective for removing antioxidants, antimicrobials and organic compounds called polyols, for example, which could be used in food and bioplastics. A pressurised hot water tea-like technique was suitable for extracting other components such as proteins and polysaccharides—a type of carbohydrate—for use in food products.
Food
At the same time, they have been developing new products with different companies. Extracted mushroom protein is being incorporated into food for older people with swallowing problems, for example, in the form of solid, edible gels. The protein is also of interest for vegetarian burgers where both the nutritional value and mushroom taste are desirable.
Mushroom powders could also be incorporated in functional foods, another avenue they are investigating. However, these products will take longer to develop since potential health benefits need to be evaluated.
In terms of cosmetics, the team is developing a natural line of creams that contain chitin, a preservative, extracted from mushrooms which acts as a natural preservative. Mushroom components tend to become brownish when they come into contact with oxygen, which would make creams an unappealing brown colour, but they’ve managed to prevent a colour change. ‘(Discolouration) depends on additional ingredients,” said Dr. van der Burg.
The team thinks mushroom waste could be reduced by up to 40% with the products they are creating. But they are also investigating other uses, such as composting and biogas production, which utilise all the soil-like leftovers from mushroom cultivation and could increase the amount of waste that is repurposed. These applications are more straightforward and would be easier to commercialise says Dr. van der Burg. “That’s one reason why we are still investing in that part.”
Martinez and his team are developing a system to remove water from mushroom waste and turn it into pellets of organic fertiliser as part of their SmartMushroom project. “Once it’s pelletised, we can deliver it anywhere for agricultural use,” said Martinez.
Their goal is to develop an environmentally friendly process that doesn’t use electricity or traditional sources of energy to power the drying. They are using some of the mushroom waste to produce biogas as a power source by optimising an existing production process that usually uses waste slurries from other agricultural processes.
Waste management
At the beginning of the project, a pilot plant was set up in an existing waste management facility. But their process can be set up wherever it’s needed. It uses four containers and doesn’t require building infrastructure. For the past year, the researchers have been perfecting the drying process by performing tests that experiment with different temperatures. If temperatures are too high, the waste can decompose, releasing nutrients that are important components of fertilisers.
The team is currently trying to increase the amount of biogas produced by combining mushroom byproducts with other types of agricultural waste. For example, several companies nearby produce marmalade so they are reusing the water used to clean machinery which contains sugar and fruit residue. “At this point, we are measuring the volume and quality of the gas produced by adding different co-substrates to our material,” said Martinez.
The project is also trying to produce fertilisers that are tailored to different crops. Before the dried waste is pelletised, extra nutrients can be added. Vineyards, for example, require balanced levels of potassium, phosphorus and manganese so the fertiliser can be supplemented to match the exact amount required.
Being able to produce organic pelletised fertiliser could have huge economic benefits for mushroom growers. At the moment, cultivators bear waste disposal costs which range from €10 to €50 per tonne of spent mushroom substrate in Europe. But in the future, they could make a profit by bringing their waste to a plant that will transform it into fertiliser and enable them to operate within a circular economy. “They will get paid depending on how much they bring to waste management facilities,” said Martinez.
Eventually, all the mushroom growing industry’s soil-like residue could be turned into pelletised fertiliser once the technology is commercialised, says Martinez. So far, there is high demand for the fertiliser from farmers in Spain and their pilot plant can’t produce enough to meet it. “If we can pelletise all our production, we will sell all our production,” said Martinez. “That means there will be no waste remaining from the mushroom cultivation sector.”
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Mushroom cultivation produces three times its weight in waste. It’s now being turned into burgers and fertiliser (2020, November 18)
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Retired General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who was Mexico’s Minister of Defense from 2012-2018, was arrested last month in Los Angeles International Airport, accused of drug trafficking and money laundering for an offshoot of the Beltran Levya drug cartel, which also involved him allegedly protecting them from law and order. He denies all the charges.
Zepeda was due to appear in a US Court today to answer those charges. However, in an extraordinary turn of events prosecutors from the eastern district of New York have announced: “The United States has determined that sensitive and important foreign policy considerations outweigh the Government`s interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant.” Under escort, the General will be returned to Mexico to face the accusations.
The arrangement was jointly agreed by US Attorney General William Barr and his opposite number in Mexico, Alejandro Gertz Manero. The Mexican Government was outraged that the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), hadn’t shared any of the evidence leading up to the General’s arrest on US soil. Mexico lodged a formal complaint, and the incident threatened to have serious and long-lasting effects and consequences on bi-lateral cooperation.
On Thursday, the authors of two studies will present their work and discuss with MEPs in a joint Constitutional Affairs and Legal Affairs committee meeting.
Dr Christoph Demmke, Professor of Public Management, University of Vaasa, Finland, will present “Conflict of interest policies: effectiveness and best practice in Europe“. The study analyses the effectiveness of relevant rules, policies and practices within member states regarding conflict of interest for top political appointments.
Dr Markus Frischuut, Professor, Jean Monnet Chair “EU Values & DIGitalization for our CommuNITY (DIGNITY)”, at MCI / The Entrepreneurial School, Innsbruck, Austria will follow with “Strengthening transparency and integrity in the EU institutions by setting up an independent EU ethics body“. Based on a comparison covering France, Ireland and Canada, this study proposes an ‘Independent Ethics Body’ (IEB) via a new interinstitutional agreement.
