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Stay informed with the latest breaking news from Fragaria on our comprehensive webpage. Get up-to-the-minute updates on local events, politics, business, entertainment, and more. Our dedicated team of journalists delivers timely and reliable news, ensuring you're always in the know. Discover firsthand accounts, expert analysis, and exclusive interviews, all in one convenient destination. Don't miss a beat — visit our webpage for real-time breaking news in Fragaria and stay connected to the pulse of your community

Chemical and genetic basis of orange flavor

Chemical and genetic basis of orange flavor
science.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from science.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

Fragaria , Washington , United-states , Canada , La-mirada , California , Valencia , Carabobo , Venezuela , Groveland , Palo-alto , Environmental-protection-agency

UC research finds eating one fruit could reduce risk of dementia, memory problems

Local researchers released a new study on Wednesday with some berry good news.

Cincinnati , Ohio , United-states , University-of-cincinnati , Robert-krikorian , Uc-college-of-medicine , Health-medical-pharma , Cognitive-disorders , Krikorian , Strawberries , Fragaria , Fruit

Farmhouse & Wild Ale fest returns to Von Ebert Glendoveer, plus more beer news

Also in this week's Oregon Brews and News: Breakside opening in Astoria, StormBreaker takes over in The Yard, and Grand Fir expands lunch.

United-states , Montavilla , Oregon , Saddle-mountain , Spain , Dublin , Ireland , Oxbow , Forest-grove , Marine-drive , Washington , Glendoveer-golf-course

Ferment Brewing Unveils Five Year-Round Beers in Cans

After releasing many one-off cans during its nearly five-year run, Ferment Brewing has officially announced that five canned beers will be part of its year-round lineup. This new year-round lineup includes 12° Pils, India Pale Ale, Hana Pils, Lost in Fragaria, and Nitro Dry Stout. A few of these beers were the ones that debuted

Fragaria , Washington , United-states , Japan , Dublin , Ireland , Czech-republic , India , Oregon , Saaz , Czech-republic-general- , Czechia

Native Plant Appreciation Month: Planting for tomorrow | Garden Notes

April is Native Plant Appreciation Month in the state of Washington — home to more than 3,000 native plant species. 

“It’s a time to celebrate Washington’s native …

Washington , United-states , Fragaria , Oregon , Sequim , Puget-sound , Becky-stinson , Yarrow-achillea , Lissa-bennett , Barbara-faurot , Kul-kah-han , Katherine-darrow

Pelican Brewing's Siletz Bay location gears up in wondrous fashion for first full summer

Also in this week's Oregon Brews and News: The national Brewers Association reports 2022 was stable in craft beer, and check out breweries' Earth Day events.

Wildwood , Michigan , United-states , Columbia-river , Oregon , Deschutes , North-portland , Washington , Tillamook , Hood-river , Haystack-rock , Switzerland

Ask an expert: Pruning off fruiting wood may be culprit behind low-producing pear tree


Ask an expert: Pruning off fruiting wood may be culprit behind low-producing pear tree
OregonLive.com
3 hrs ago
Kym Pokorny, oregonlive.com
The gardening season has started and if you’ve got questions, turn to Ask an Expert, an online question-and-answer tool from Oregon State University’s Extension Service. OSU Extension faculty and Master Gardeners reply to queries within two business days, usually less. To ask a question, simply go to the OSU Extension website and type it in and include the county where you live. Here are some questions asked by other gardeners. What’s yours?
Q: We have a Bartlett pear tree at our house that is espaliered. For the last two years, the production is extremely limited. (In good years, the squirrels steal most of our pears, but that is another story).

Oregon-state-university , Oregon , United-states , Portland , Fragaria , Washington , Benton-county , Lane-county , Multnomah-county , Andony-melathopolous , Jacki-dougan , Kris-lamar

Ask an expert: Pruning off fruiting wood may be culprit behind low-producing pear tree

Ask an expert: Pruning off fruiting wood may be culprit behind low-producing pear tree
oregonlive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oregonlive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

Oregon-state-university , Oregon , United-states , Portland , Fragaria , Washington , Benton-county , Lane-county , Multnomah-county , Andony-melathopolous , Jacki-dougan , Kris-lamar

Two Scientists Named to ARS Science Hall of Fame : USDA ARS

Two Scientists Named to ARS Science Hall of Fame : USDA ARS
usda.gov - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from usda.gov Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.

California , United-states , Maryland , Oregon , Washington , Central-valley , Fragaria , Beltsville , Jan-suszkiw , Williamp-kustas , Chad-finn , Simon-liu

BBC World Service-20191017-210000

This program comes from Argentina one of the world's producers of lithium this versatile mineral that powers our mobiles tablets and electric cars has found in brine deep below Salt Flats high up in the Andes but there's anxiety about whether lithium mining affects water supplies if you use and you take the brains out for leaking projects you might affect the fresh waters we do believe that they were from a should we have even if it's incomplete is a ready show in that that means he's already been done we don't know he sticks Ted of the damage some Indigenous communities have said an ambiguous no to listen mines there's a standoff but the local government denies there's a problem we cannot any impact on the wildlife at the prison in fact he wants an increase of be cool Yes I mean losing the idea that's Argentina's white gold rush after the news I'm Stuart McIntosh with the b.b.c. News Hello president President bigger pardon a senior Kurdish commander says his forces will accept the 5 day suspension of fighting with Turkish soldiers in northern Syria the pause in hostilities was announced after talks in Ankara between President of the one of Turkey and the Us vice president Mike Pence Mr Pence of the us would help facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the border our correspondent Mark Lowen reports quite so whether this deal is exactly what is being laid out by the u.s. Side we will have to wait and see because at the moment the top Kurdish commander general Muslim is saying that the cause in operations that the Kurds have now accepted and the withdraw of Kurdish military hardware from those areas only applies to 2 parts of northern Syria where fighting has erupted in the last 9 days that is Russell Lyon and Talab Iyad towns that are close to the Syrian Turkish border President Trump said sanctions against Turkey would impose 3 days ago would no longer be necessary. The Acting White House chief of staff has acknowledged that Washington withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure Kiev to investigate what he called corruption by Democrats in the 2016 u.s. Presidential election Chris Buckley reports from Washington the White House has consistently denied that there was any quid pro quo when Donald Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival Joe Biden but officials nicely into the admitted the hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid was held up by Washington in order to try to get Ukraine to launch a wider probe into corruption the White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says that Mr Trump was particularly keen to push for an inquiry into computer server used by Democratic Party staff during the presidential election 3 years ago it's alleged that it was located in new Korean The British prime minister Boris Johnson says he's convinced that the British parliament will back a new breaks it deal that many thought he could never secure after European Union leaders in Brussels gave it their unanimous backing he urged M.P.'s to get Britain out of the e.u. At the end of the month by voting for the deal on Saturday more from Kevin Conley who's in Brussels Boris Johnson's tone as he arrived in Brussels was breezy with the work of extraction complete He said the work of building a new relationship could begin the mood on the e.u. Side is more nuanced The president of the European Commission junk so the certainty of the deal replaced the uncertainty of Bragg's it and declare there be no need for any further prolonging action as he put it but asked what would happen if the deal wasn't approved it was Mr Donald just President of the European Council was more circumspect saying only that he'd consult with the e.u. Governments about possible extension Kevin Colley I'm still McIntosh in London bringing you the latest world news from the b.b.c. . The head of the International Monetary Fund Christina Georgieva has welcomed progress in trade talks between the u.s. And China but warned that more needs to be done speaking ahead of the i.m.f. Said annual finance ministers meeting she called for trade to be reinstated as an engine of the world economy here's our economics correspondent Andrew Walker miscue gave a set out what she called a global policy agenda and 1st on her list of priorities for i.m.f. Member countries which do under the harm caused by trade conflict and to find a lasting solution for the future she said that i.m.f. Economists had looked at the extent of the economic damage being done by new terrorists or taxes on traded goods she described their conclusions as fairly dire $700000000000.00 or no point 8 percent of global economic activity by next year a senior former politician from the Gambia has admitted to the country's truth commission that he was responsible for the execution of soldiers accused of trying to topple the former president yeah yeah Jeremy Edward Singletary was one of 4 junior officers who carried out the coup in 1994 that brought Mr Germany to power Mr Singletary said he and Mr Jamie had agreed to execute the soldiers although he says he didn't fire the shots international observers of highlighted some concerns over the elections in Mozambique monitors from the European Union say Tuesday's vote was well organized and peaceful but marred by an unlevel playing field a climate of fear and the obstruction of campaigns information gathered from civil society groups suggest the ruling for a limo party is heading for a comfortable victory in the world renowned Cuban ballet dancer Lisa along so has died in Havana at the age of $98.00 Alonso worked as director of the Cuban National Ballet and was recognized as a prima ballerina absolute or an Honor awarded to the very best female ballerinas b.b.c. News. It's already on the car started yes absolutely it's just one beep and tiny light that says go and that's it. Let's go. And there aren't so many electric cars here so every time somebody sees one of these many of them ask me if this is an experimental car but some of them ask me if we do some kind of conversion from combustion engines to electric currents I'm Linda Presley and in Argentina for this week's assignment on the b.b.c. World Service I'm taking a ride with Fernando condemn a him. In one of only about 50 carbon neutral electric vehicles or even on the road here in a motorway or a highway we can get up to 210 kilometers driving around the city their maximum range we had worse $311.00 but there are very few charging points here one a series we only have 2 to charge public then there are some in some private parking and then well I have a charger at home and I have a charger out of the company. Car Market in Argentina is nice and and in a nation where the economy has taken yet another catastrophic nosedive this isn't likely to change soon Fernando's beloved e.-v. Is powered by the lightest of metals able to store substantial amounts of energy in batteries lithium and the largest global reserves of this white gold found in brine deep beneath ancient salt flats straddling the borders of Chile Bolivia and Argentina mining lithium means pumping up the salty water to extract this precious mineral car companies tell us electric vehicles are the future and in an era of climate change emergency even governments across the globe have target. The Netherlands lines to go electric by 2030 China wants 7000000 Evey's on the road by 2025 the aim of the development of the electric mobility should be precisely to lower down the carbon footprint from my point of view I would put in the environment think the top priority. But what if you list the empowered electric cars aren't as green as Fernando and the rest of us think they are in Argentina in remote regions where this versatile mineral is mind some Indigenous communities have said a resounding no to listen their complaints about mining companies failure to consult local people and farm about when is areas based environmental campaign group claims lithium exploitation threatens fresh water resources. Is the NGOs policy director if you use and you take the brains out for leaking projects you might affect the freshwater us so there would be a huge impact in terms of water availability for communities and for any Most of the whole of his systems living in depending on these freshwater is also the areas that are considered a fragile ecosystem it's a dry area there's not a lot of rain coming in so that's why it's very important to keep the water balance between salt water and fresh water for this week's assignment Abhi exploring the impact of lithium mining in who the province with the highest percentage of indigenous households in Argentina. It's a 2 hour flight from the capital to the far northwest and I travel with one of our is based journalist and translator to slightly they. Say was there but others are made of the meat of Lama and also vegetables such as potatoes tomatoes onion and storm or the eggs. In a land of pastries stuff with llama meat takes the way it is we head out to the Andes towards the border with Chile and into the Altiplano one of the most extensive areas of high plateau on the planet it's a landscape of colossal lava outcrops volcanic cones and deep coaches skittish Vic camel It's like llamas dot away from the sporadic traffic on flimsy limb the road zigzags to a dizzying 4000 meters and over a ridge we see it blinding in the sunlight a mammoth expanse of magical wind one of lithium which salt flats. The province's only in production lithium factories solace to her a joint venture between the Australian for. Toyota and the mining company the provincial government sits close to the border with Chile beside the also an expanse of. It's a huge salt flat is surrounded by beautiful pink chemos mountains and from where I'm standing on a slightly elevated piece of ground I'm looking down at what is one of the largest lithium producing operations here in Argentina and what I can see are some of the pool is the size of football pitches where the lithium brine is put after it's been extracted from deep below the the salt flat and it's pumped up and it's put in these pools to evaporate from there you get the lithium rich brine. The management of solace to her aid turned down our request for an interview so we head up the mountainside to the community closest to the plant all out of Chico. The roads aren't paved there's a lot of traditional model houses wonky windows Curry gated ion roofs held down with stones on top what we've been told is that there are about 100 people who live here permanently. And of those who work maybe 70 percent now are employed by the. Lithium industry here. And it's high. Hence my contempt. Stoffel is stacking up a pile of ceramic bricks he's about to start building his house so what kind of house are going to build Gustavo it's. About 3 rooms a living room in the kitchen and you're just 24 years old is it normal for somebody of your age to be able to afford to build a house like this here. Yes no yes most people can do it with the money I make in the factory materials and equipment so 10 or 15 years ago could somebody at the age of 24 what they've been able to build a house like this in Chico No it was serious and I would have been impossible if the factory would have been here. I would have been looking for work far away from here for referral from. Just about it's the connect the villages here I'll paste this is a stony mountainous parched landscape and we're off to one because it's a village in the catchment of the sun lockout Chardy production of lithium is imminent Wanka the name of the community is spelled out in white stones high on a hill above the streets and simple mostly my brick. We're told the president of the community is in hand so we called on his secretary. So you know while though which of us the. Event also. Doesn't want to talk to us but on the other side of the village Thomas a Saudi Yano you know royal blue jumper felt hat tips back on ahead dots on the front but as time goes by. Some of Thomas' 5 children are playing cards in the back yard to baby goats forage for scraps but they aren't actually the main event we must remain within him. The moment as you well know she has 97 llamas so she and my whole life I've always had animals I can make a good living here from keeping llamas do the Lowden run America you know so she can live and also jobs here and there and then her husband works in the factory put all it's going well but of course we don't know how long it's going to go road because along with our state and with your animals because some people have told us that there's a problem with water in this area is having any impact here he's a little. Much less water in the in the rails in the geisha and be very worried about the weather because a suit necessary for us to live here and for the animals why do you think that is what he thinks happening here with typically might put out a budget it may be partially because of climate change but also we suspect because of the lithium industry I've been informing myself a bit of being a course about water problems and they use a lot of water when the president of the village when they ask the company about this what's happening with this what kind of answer to you get over when you go to meetings when Rush is only one of these and if there's a meeting the people from the factory they say that everything is in control that there is no problem that we don't understand much about what I said. We had well soirees from most people we talked to how much is needed depends on the lithium facility but to produce a ton of lithium. Roughly half a 1000000 liters of brine or evaporated and 30000 liters of fresh water use. The solids to hurry plant produce $14000.00 tons last year. So in terms of freshwater only That's the equivalent of well over a 150 lympics sized swimming pools for many these are alarming quantities in such an arid region the Argentinian NGO farm has modeled what I think's happening in hood his peer macho Giani if you use and you take the brains out for lithium projects you might affect the freshwater us so the idea is that if you pump up the brine the fresh water at the sides will gravitate towards that and still the vacuum that's been left by the Brian is is that more or less it exactly exactly so the water that is around us all floods in the east where basically the communities in the animals take for a living will be affected the levels we drop and become more salty they will lose their the qualities of fresh water you have said though that there's sufficient evidence that the water systems have been damaged irrepairable that's a big claim yes but we do believe that they were from ration we have even if it's incomplete is a radio show in that the damage is already been done when we don't know is the extent of the damage we have also a principle in environmental law that is called the precautionary principle which says that if there is not enough and if information or when the literature does not agree exactly and probably impacts that this shouldn't be a cause to stay inactive you need to act in advance phone wants a halt to all new lithium operations in the region Miguel Celera the secretary responsible for mining in the provincial government of who is irritated we are not any. In Blood On The Water Resource to the present we are not any impact on the wildlife or the. Reson In fact it was an increase of be good yes and flamingos in the idea send us strikes the table with one hand to reinforce his points and hold his mouth a traditional her tea in the other to the present with you not is anything we have up more than 10 years of that of only doing something about what a quality we have a lot of recalls money taught in the deep of the what their work is done by the companies is review by the government but environmentalist are concluded that there is a problem with the water I only see one report from the far who is really a chip that is not was a cat is no well supported We don't want to the bill of any mining business in the area if they are really impacted negatively to some mental stuff or some the community but you could solve this issue if you commissioned an independent study and then also the people who are consuming Argentinian lithium batteries overseas people who are really looking forward to their electric car who want to know that it's green and ethical they'll be happy with that we are starting that program with a local university the best way to to know what is happening below the earth is not guessing is not. Really this putting your finger in the wind not doing that you know collecting data and the only way to collect that is really and the only way to deal is with money. And the only way to do with money is work together with money who called the money to do the pollution Argentina's lithium producing provinces are among the poorest Not only do they lack the human resources to do their own monitoring but with an economy in virtual free fall ahead of national elections they're dependent on the jobs lithium companies provide and although the world has of just over a 1000000 u.s. Dollars paid to the provincial government of her hurry last year may not be megabucks in straitened times they're not insignificant everything we do related to lithium batteries we do it inside here Victoria flexors a professor of electrochemistry at the University of her hoodie and directs an interdisciplinary lithium research group so what does she think of the claims environmentalist make about freshwater I haven't seen sounds figures to prove RINGBACK or disprove that my person I would believe is that these environmentalist groups they are a little bit overcautious in the sez I attribute the drying of small freshwater course to the mining industry something that cannot be proved or these proved in just one year time because in the desert the lakes and the reverse they sometimes just dry naturally we would need measurements over at least 5 years to be absolutely sure this variability is due to the mining and not just the variation in the rains but no independent studies have been done and although talk to flex isn't persuaded by the environmentalists research water and saving it is a driver for her team so we are trying to develop new methods to recover lease him from the brine without needing to evaporate the water what we mostly do is what is called Electric chemistry we believe we could produce Barwell to the least sim carbonates we could produce fresh water it would be like a side product so instead of using water in the industrial process you'd be making water to be creating water creating fresh water that's our aim problem without this it's that it's costly because we need quite a lot of electricity. Presently producing the mineral that powers our mobiles tablets and electric vehicles from brine is cheap because it relies on the sun to evaporate the salty water ahead of lithium extraction No no. East from the politicized Indigenous communities of Salinas commanders and quietly or halted lithium exploration earlier this year Clemente Florida says a local activists who are very thrilled with them they sent in February about 300 people from the different communities gathered here because a company started to do drilling without consulting us last for more than 20 days the miners left I asked resources a Canadian company didn't want to be interviewed by the b.b.c. Other sources told me there was consultation with villages close to the exploration now there's a whole queue of lithium companies with concessions here Whiting to see how the standoff and. Like other communities we visited the people are subsistence farmers and keep Panama but they also have a significant economic relationship with the beauty in their midst so we're driving now right across the Soul Plane of Salinas Grande it's Clementine where we going but most say don't look I've been there you're going to do it about a spreader got think the South literally like a MacGregor of bricks and the depths of the So how deep is the heart soul to that which I think I'm now got by itself could be unable to solve layer here is about 40 or 50 centimeters some place where we go it's going to be around 20 centimeters It's like being on the moon or it's come or star in lunar sea. So that somebody here is just harvesting the salt as they call a hand. Crank a llama said 28 year old is hard at work in a tracksuit and fright wreck by spoke to. Muslim in a suggestion but I've been working here since I 15 years old getting the sulks this is a murderous also my father my grandfather have been doing the rougher 4th you know . So Frank has got a huge axe here and he's cutting the saw into quite large chunks and putting them in a very very neat gross here before he starts the next bit of the process I asked Frank what he thinks about lithium companies coming here with a mild soap and it but it's a problem because when they would go would lose my work and they also bring a lot of contamination in and we also have an immense who obviously also need water so I'm against it I feel I would be betraying my coach or if I was working with lithium maybe I can buy a little truck by happens the company goes and my family all that they're going to do for me and it's your business food now today but tomorrow it's hunger. Lithium it's off to all of a finite resource and who knows how quickly battery technology might jump to something entirely different as we speak back across the salt flats there are a selfie taking tourists and a large sign know to lithium at makeshift stalls they're a knick knacks for sale called llamas a napkin holders all fashioned from salt we want to see if. So this is the salts co-operative that we just have bribed right in the middle of Salinas Grande this state is bet on it. But on a Chavez's tiny a thick dark hair tucked under a baseball cap She's the elected president of our own village and a cooperative employee in the corporate If there's this massive great bank of salt so how many times do you think heaven on account of the Miller who's probably about 1000 on not a 2nd more high tech in Amish not to make big business here just to be able to pay for our daily expenses that these are the salt is extremely cheap between $6.00 and $7.00 u.s. Dollars for one ton of salt but a lot of people might say well if you welcome to the lycée and companies the communities will make a lot more money in a multiple Kyocera for us in the south playing here son you know John this is like a secret mother so we have to respect her because she takes care of me or my family of my children she has been taken care of my ancestors so we feel deep respect for it there's no room for exploitation of to you Jeff we get them as you in the letter I went to the other plane of all our else which was being commercially exploited and I could see my own eyes the amount of water that is being consumed there for the exploitation of lithium water is life for us now but scientists and engineers are talking about the possibilities of using other methods of getting the lithium which would use much less water you know no harm in that no we're not going to allow anything because they're lying to us no way we are convinced that the real fight for this until the last if I have to die I will die for it in Europe and in America everybody thinks that with electric vehicles what we're going to be able to do is decarbonise so much faster in these areas of climate change what would you say to those people who really wants electric vehicle to to help the the. Planet Julie Amanda at the at the. Message to all these people that you talk about Contras are saying we also have a right to live in peace as you always have done here and there the consequences of those people wanted to save the planet because they're killing us. It's emotional maybe unsightliness grandees companies are reaping the legacy of mining outfits that for decades of trampled on the Rights of Indigenous people in Latin America and exploiting the natural resources on the other side of the ongoing deadlock that's frustration his secretary of mining again. Goldman who grew up totally they're open to talk we respect the community but at the same day we need to live by the law do you think the exploration will continue there in Salinas Grandis Yes because in this study because we need to know the not a lot of those that we cover believe will in who brought in and look for the best way to use those not a lot of resources are degrees the quality of the life of the people. In point as areas we glide noiselessly through the cities traffic in front and O'Connor amas electric car lithium insiders tell me claims that fresh water sources are affected by mining not only on true but based on bad science so what does fun and I think I would like to have a really serious study about that independent of the studies I think that's the problem with all of this that the independent studies in Argentina just haven't been done yes absolutely agree with that I really love T.V.'s bad beef it's going to be more damage than a benefit for the environment I could go back to the combustion engine I guess. That's all from assignment I'm Linda Presley the producer in Argentina has got to slightly. This is the b.b.c. World Service exploring the importance of makeup in Middle Eastern identity the $100.00 women. Made from a traditional recipe dating back over 40000 years something says it is magic a tradition the believed ancient Egypt itself Sorman a type of black 2 eyeliner adorning the rise of canvas the Persian women after taking a bath the 1st thing they do is put their makeup on and they don't go out without it for preoccupied with added eyes or pathways and doorways it's not just cosmetic make up at that point became something more than make up there with amplifying desires that aspirations and I guess youthful play its part of the reign identity and helps those within the diaspora keep their Iranian heritage personal history at b.b.c. World Service dot com slash documentaries. On the b.b.c. World Service in just a few minutes it is not an easy job standing. In the sun in their tree and because of that many of the women they have beings on Emily Thomas and on the food chain this week I'll be finding out how a shortage of fruit pickers in many parts of the world could change the way your food is harvested and even how it tastes join us after the news. B.b.c. News with Stuart McIntosh a senior Kurdish commanders says his forces will accept a 5 day suspension of fighting with Turkish soldiers in northern Syria the pause in hostilities was announced after talks in Ankara between the Turkish president Richard Duran and the Us vice president Mike Pence Muslim Co Barney of the Kurdish led Syrian democratic forces so the agreement would be limited to the area between the towns of Russell Ein and tell of Yod Turkish forces crossed into the region last week the acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has a knowledge that military aid was withheld from Ukraine in an effort to put pressure on the government there he said the aim was to encourage Kiev to investigate what he called corruption by Democrats in the 2016 us presidential election. The British prime minister Boris Johnson says he's convinced that the British parliament will back his new Bracks it deal after even leaders gave it their unanimous backing in urgent M.P.'s to get Britain out of the e.u. At the end of the month by voting for the deal during a parliamentary session on Saturday the head of the i.m.f. Christine or George over has welcomed progress in trade talks between the u.s. And China but she warned that more needed to be done to resolve the issues of dividing them economists estimate that new tariffs and taxes will knock about $700000000000.00 of the world economy next year it's been announced that next year's g. 7 summit will be held at a golf club in Florida owned by President Trump a White House official denied that Mr Trump would profit from it the Cuban ballet dancer Lizzy along so has died at the age of 98 in the 1930 s. She worked in American musicals before eventually becoming the director of the Cuban National Ballet she was renowned for the stylized beauty of her choreographer choreography and dance artistry b.b.c. News. Hello and welcome to the food Jane I'm Emily Thomas. You bite into an Apple tastes good do you care how it came off the tree whether it was plucked by human hands or robot claw. I'm on low end farm in Kent in the southeast of England where organic apple and pear orchards stretch across about $100.00 acres. It's a crisp autumn day and beneath a clear blue sky Nicko I need to the farm manager is leading me through straight rows of trees which run to meet the horizon big bright red apples pop out against the leaves on one of their trees the apple and that would provide you with with the stock and that's so we will pick. It up with the yes actually you don't have to squeeze the apple in with in your hand because otherwise you're provoke a mechanical bruising. So what you have to do is just like. Over the world as fruits ripen teams of pick set out across the fields the were paid low skilled and physically demanding many farmers rely on immigrants to do it whether it's Mexicans picking strawberries in California or intonations harvesting bananas in Malaysia. But politics around immigration could be changing all that many farmers are experiencing labor shortages and having to rethink. What does the picking. In this age I'm going to ask what the rise of robots because even for our most delicate freight might mean for the workers themselves and for how much your food costs and tastes. Nikos from Romania and has been working here for 5 years she uses recruitment agencies to find seasonal pickers most of them come from Romania Poland and bug area when I'm looking for the right there to drill it's mainly about. The willingness of being able to work more than anything else that that their nation of being able to be long days in difficult weather conditions and you know just to be able to put up with the havingness of the work because that's not an easy job How heavy is a bucket sometimes gets 7 and a half than kilos and how many kilos a day might one person picking Garg it would be in the region of 4 bins and they each been waiting in the region of $330.00 kilos. That's a lot of apples to carry it is and all the work is paid by how many apples they pay now we do pay them hourly rate and on top of that we do pay the overtime and also we've implemented the bonus scheme and that is incentivizing them for taking more and more and more. But despite that in recent. Harvard to find anyone to do the job since the U.K.'s fight to leave the European Union there's been a decline in seasonal pickers coming from Eastern Europe only this year the National Farmers Union warned of a 20 percent short for when the number of seasonal work is needed and last year almost Hoffa farmers said some of their crops were going on harvested because of labor shortages a weakening of the pound and improved working conditions for takers in other countries have also contributed to the problem I've started with working for this farm in 2014 at that time it was really easy to get stuff for picking but as soon as the denounce came out. It was really difficult to recruit people really are difficult but I think you know it's a kind of a scare mongering and also Europe. And these competing big time wage wise with with Great Britain now we're used to have people with university degrees Nowadays we've called people which barely can read the right you see an educated person would be able to speak in English yeah it's harder than harder for us they would cope with translating you must explain to them the way of speaking now that it's less easy to find the labor that you need if you had to change anything about your recruitment if you have to offer more to workers Yeah the companies pay more for the labor you're much more well I think 3rd and that cost is that being absorbed by the company or is that being passed on to the consumer you know it's observed by the company and also sometime you're right you have to proceed to do more as well because otherwise you really you couldn't do a business so we are paying above the minimum rate and on top of that is this bonus scheme and why is it that we need these workers from Europe why can't we find a way in the u.k. Of picking these apples ourselves where. We've tried we had students interested in speaking and we had local people but the number of them is so low that wouldn't cover for the amount needed to be you know short time frame so you can't get your hands on on on neighbor simple as that let's say for a moment no one can come over from Europe what happens to the apples to sit on the trees or do you stop paying wages so high that no one can resist coming to pick these apples. Are so very difficult question Are you the know is hard to answer for that one because you would then like seeing your crop rotting going on the trees and orders or you would then like seeing that crop forming underground and paying more than we are already paying I don't think any of us going in a shop would be able to afford buying that product. So this is one of my dreams it's formed over Carians. Out of which 2 of them are right for the 5th year in a row the other one arrived there are 15 acres here this morning some of them are up stepladders and others are working from the ground their hands deftly search through the leaves find an apple twist of it stem place it gently in the bucket tied around the shoulders and then repeat repeat repeat thousands of times they'll be here for 8 to 10 hour we've got story on there and we've got both here here and straw for how many apples today pick her minutes. Or maybe 100 apples in a minute I'll go cut. A small track to drive slowly along the rice and the knowledge crates behind it for the workers 20 that buckets into. Once you know I'm. Here and where you from will get how many years of even during this season disarm me this is my 6th year why is it that you come here all the way to the u.k. To pick apples because I like this job and I think it's up especially for me because I'm taller and. Feel better here you're very tall and you look very strong but this is physically demanding work isn't it the air but doing this to feel the sun in the body is the thing he's very good he's saying is it who have a cause and I can never have cannot take this man who is impossible it's much more than you couldn't know you are you're maybe 3 or 5 times more have you heard about . The conditions on so get ready for work and the different and fun here and he's not so great like here and the and then another fun and we don't have nothing we need to go to and then I got a base to take a shower and to make the cooking. Made that without attractive living and working conditions she couldn't depend on enough pickers turning up for the whole season and then pretending the following year. It's a problem faced by farms in other developed economies like the us Australia and China where population shifts from rural areas to cities along with changing patterns of immigration have left farmers struggling to attract enough people to pick their fruit in the u.s. For example President Trump's immigration policies have contributed to far fewer seasonal labor is coming from Mexico the country's largest supplier of farm workers and as in the u.k. Local people aren't exactly lining up to do this physically demanding paid work so developing machines to pick fruit has become an increasingly attractive option farmers are obviously no strangers to mechanization but crops requiring delicate handling or selective harvesting have long posed a technological challenge. Alan James is chief technical officer for a u.k. Firm code suggest there has been a big trend in the automation of fruit picking over the last or 5 or 10 years it's really been driven to a large degree by startups rather than the big companies mainly because they see that it's kind of one of the last areas in the farm and it is being automated and the difficult things that are left are things like strawberry picking apple picking great picking progress is being made in this area but I don't think that at the moment anyone's really solve the problem of especially of saw fruit and the fact you see some success with rasboras is really good and you see some success with tomatoes as well there's no flow of hype style you have to really cut through a lot of the hype because last startups in the space you see a lot of positive talk because it's trying to generate revenue for themselves get venture capital people involved however it's very much one farmer having a trial run with one machine and what are the challenges that still need to be overcome by this machinery so much of it's the handling but it's Pick something like strawberries the human will be at spot the right strawberries will be out to assess how right beside strawberry So you have to get a machine This able to do all of that what the challenge really will become will be the picking side so with strawberries we seem to pick it dies and so if you don't pick exactly when it's ripe you will never mature you never ripen and so you've wasted that fruit and then if you squeeze it too hard or you drop it too far you bruise it and again the value of that freedom and she's very quickly you've described the start ups going for this area but there is a lot of investment coming from farmers themselves particularly in countries like the us whether there's a shortage of labor isn't there I think that's true if you look at particular California where a lot of the fruit is grown you find there's a lot of market workers who are increasingly being prevented from coming in this is becoming harder and harder for those guys to recruit people the indigenous population don't want to work you know coaches back breaking work. As world population is increasing farmers need to become more more efficient and if the rule labor source is going down then the look into automation as a solution so far seniors I think there will be relatively widespread adoption of picking of relatively easy things to pick crops like apples or mangoes and every loss of farms using automation in Fox News you might find one or 2 major farms using Strober pickers and Ross repeat as a soft root a pretty much ignore 14 years after that for those things to become more widely adopted. This is the free chain from the b.b.c. World Service with me Emily Thomas we've been hearing that farmers in many developing economies have long relied a migrant labor to pick their fruit and vegetables and this changes in patterns of immigration have led to labor shortages there's been increased investment into new technologies to solve the problem. But how does all this look in parts of the world where fruit and vegetable picking jobs provide the sole source of income for the millions of local people. Sankey to Tatar is from the northeastern Indian state of Assam my mother was a plantation worker at a very early age she was who were king in the plantation and meant you got married she moved to the city but my family my relate Deaves they are still working in the plantation my cousins my uncle my and they're all in the plantation Sankey just told me that being brought up in the city and given a good education men she could aspire to something more than life on the tape plantation She now works for an organization that aims to improve conditions for workers in Assam almost a 6th of the world's tales produced in the region which is home to around $800.00 plantations which are thought to employ more than a 1000000 workers about 70 percent of them are women the leave has to be very carefully very tenderly it has to be plucked and we men are considered you know they are more Gary then the men it's a delicate job but a hard one to they get I think it is hardly $2.00 us dollar body and they are the lowest be workers in a some what's a working day like early morning they get up at 4 o'clock and they do the household work do the cooking cleaning and then feed the children and then they go to work they have to raise the work in time or otherwise even if they are late for 5 minutes they won't get the job they will be sent back and not doing a work in a de means you're losing one day's reach reach it means a lot for a family to run and at the workplace they have a basket on their head and they just block and they put it in the basket the working are all the women is 8 hours and in this way 8 hours they have to pluck beautiful gauges of To Live and it is not an easy job standing the whole. In the sun in the rain and because of that many of the women they have a lot of baccy they have the Hindi they have beings and the workplace also there are really a buse if they are not able to pluck the amount of tea leaves they are supposed to give other other types of abuse that take place on tea plantations there Vicky says like especially in the in the manager's bungalows where the girls were employed to work there and then violin sceptic and please those girls in some private d. Gardens yes the workers are beaten up if you raise your voice demanding what is your right or if you are late you are beaten up but as far as in the plantation you know there are birds abused their school lead for not doing the work or even like some women in so one of the plantation was sharing her story that she has to feed her baby hiding under the tea Bush because if the civil right to seize it she will be scolded and does this type of work where women are working in the field does this create a situation where sexual harassment is rife you know many of them they fear to share their stories to us if they shared their stories that she was sexually abused she may lose the job and losing her job is like she may have to be evicted from the house that the employer has provided to her teacher told me that there are limited employment opportunities for women elsewhere in Assam which means there's little incentive for plantation owners to treat workers well with exploitation across the region rife I wondered what she thought about the growing investment in automation in other parts of the world and whether should welcome it in Assam if missions abroad and of course you know popular. You know if work was real lives will be lively would we be at there is a media workforce will be at a risk in one part of us they brought this machine for blocking after a few months they removed this machine because so you know when they used machine it got everything we men when the black delivers the blood the very tender lose but when you use the machine even the tender leaves and the other leaves it gets you know it's got oh so it was a loss for the plantation there and saw you know they removed the machine and then begin they employed the work was in that plant vision Alan James from Syngenta doesn't think robots will be appearing on Indian t plantations any time soon either for him it's because labor costs a solo and machinery so expensive but even if that changes he says there shouldn't be cause for concern so I suspect that by the time the automation is cheap enough in those countries and their labor costs are high enough to warrant automation by that time the economy is no longer developing and so has already done that migration of farm workers no longer wanted to be farm workers aspire to do something else instead in your work in this area as you develop machines to do jobs that were done by humans is there any suggestion that the food should change so we start growing a particular fruit with a long stem because that makes it easier for the machine to pick or we start developing this breed of Apple for example because then the color makes it easier for the robot to identify Do you think the as we develop machines to do this kind of work it's going to change the actual fruit itself the taste of our food Alternately I think there is a there was a significant risk that that will happen but we've already seen that if you take tomatoes as an example heritage seeds if you like are no longer growing by the farmer because they're just not productive enough so there are lots of things driving close to monoculture type environments which is in itself a dangerous and I think that's where I can see. Humans have a role to play in that we should be demanding variety when you buy a pepper in a store but you willing to accept it's maybe not the perfect shape because it takes just as good if it's wonky but this isn't going to help you so robots is it if the consumer doesn't mind what he fade away and we need really uniform feed for the robots to pick where we are I think that's that's the point I think we should be developing robots that don't care where the food is perfect we should be perfectly ripe but shouldn't be necessarily perfectly shaped also about the environmental implications of this when you use alternation for picking do you create more or less food waste the money to do it if it works well it should improve you ought and should get better quality of harvest it will only pick the things that are optimal ripeness it should preserve the quality of that through the picking process a Shouldn't squash the strawberries and destroy it so it's only good enough to jam and so I think that we actually left waste with automation However of course there is an environmental impact in terms of the machinery itself in terms of. Few and also the environment impact on the land itself because of course the machines tend to be relatively heavy in Syria and against and grand compaction she went out with parts if it was not productive anymore. Do you think that the consumer cats have a fruit is pitched do you think we'd be prepared to pay more for fruit that was picked by hand this is something people even think about but I think people think about that so people are crying to go back to an era where code was cut by hand and said it was made with we've had it with you know and harvested grain I don't think people think about that oh. Back on my Canton England manager told me there's been no talk of getting machines today that yet and she disagrees with Alan that the consumer doesn't care who or what is picking their freight it's giving you your feeling of belonging somewhere and doing something right what's right that's a human doing at a human would care about the tree and cares about the tree humans are having a different type of approach to the trees to the nature to everything and what about the people who actually do this for 8 hours a day. I asked Dr Kay this season. Whether he was worried that one day a robot could be standing in this field in his place I don't think so that's why I know it's because there was a soft. But there are increasingly. The 3 you do but there are very sensitive robots being developed that can even pick strawberries and raspberries. You have a different because the machine is think like you are. The 3 and. 4 and from that I stand. If you don't if you're going to make an effort. Some people feel so profoundly about the importance of humans picking off rate. For fruit. Is a travel journalist for The New York Times it came one she felt her education wouldn't be complete without taking part in the great harvest some 3 years ago she joined a group of paid pickers and volunteers it's a small family on champagne house in the north west of France you'd think wine makers would jump in. But she told me it was only through her extensive contacts in the industry that she could find a place to take her on the harvest in France volunteering is a bit of a grey area it's like in some cities where you're not really supposed to do it but people still do it there are very strict labor laws in France that regulate the harvest and harvest employment in many cases the volunteer help is being phased out it's not something that is advertised talked me through the work that you were doing so a typical day would begin very early around 6 or 630 before that it gets very hot for the day picking grapes involves no previous knowledge or skill at all you just go out with a pair of secretary and a bucket you go down the rows of grapes and clip and drop the grapes into your bucket and you know they all get. Collected into large crates if this really nice skill to the picking of the grapes Why do this by hand why not do this by machine in France many vineyards are moving towards machine picking because it is less expensive the hand picking is done in the Premier regions there is less damage you get more grapes and less foliage that will either need to be sorted out or is included in the pressing do you think you can taste the difference in a wine whether grapes have been handpicked Yes you can and that is why in the Premier wine making regions of the world they pick by hand do you see any irony in the fact you were doing this work for free when most of the people here involved in picking fruit around the world to doing it because their life choices are very very limited to his very life paid very physically demanding work but there you are doing this by choice definitely I mean I think my experiences are extremely frivolous compared to people who pick fruits and vegetables for a living at the same time actually doing the work gave me such a greater appreciation for the food that I eat and the food that I purchased Can you put your finger on what it is exactly you got out of picking the grapes Well there's a connection to the actual am and it's just so green and lush and the idea that this has been happening for so many centuries in this very same spot it's sort of like living history it's very sensory The whole experience you have the sounds of the snipping seculars and the rustle of the leaves and then the feeling of the cool air and the dew that's drenching your hands in your sleeves you're picking the grapes that are glowing really in the sun and then all of that transforms of Entia Lee into a bottle that is kind of a magic. And what would be lost if all of this was automated and no one anywhere picked grapes by hand I guess the human connection to the bottle the grapes being tended to for the whole year long and watched over and cared for nursed through Frost some bad weather and then that someone has cared enough to send people out to pick the grapes Yeah a human connection not just to the bottle of wine but to history tradition. That's all for this week let us know what you think. Thanks for listening and join us again for the food chain next week. You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service and here's what's happening in the studio this week it's the biggest entertainment industry in the world video games a big business and hugely competitive I'm Alex Humphries and I'm in. The team in the found the music department at World of Warcraft one of the most popular multiplayer games. P.c. World Service don't call slosh in the studio. And in an hour the foreign with Bajan downtown domesticated cats live on every continent and unfortunate study living alongside humans move a 9000 years ago since then they'd be worshiped vilified and would be by various societies around the world that in an hour miniseries is next on the b.b.c. World Service the world's radio station. 22 hours g.m.t. Welcome to the newsroom from the b.b.c. World Service mime Nick Miles a temporary halt in Turkey's offensive against the Kurds in Syria they. Agreed to receive. Turkish I was Operation use free. 120 hours Also today a break sit deal is agreed with the e.u. It means that the u.k. Leaves whole and entire On October the 31st and it means that we can take decisions about our future will M.P.'s agree that later in the program she overcame so much hero by a war that it was terrible they told me not to move my head quickly or to lower it is not that the 2 years they told me I'd never dance again we look back at the life of the Cuban prima ballerina at least here a lot so you're listening to the b.b.c. World Service coming to you from London. I'm still not in touch with the b.b.c. News hello a senior Kurdish commander says his forces will accept a 5 day suspension of fighting with Turkish soldiers in northern Syria the balls in hostilities was announced after talks in Ankara between President Ellen of Turkey and the Us vice president Mike Pence which depend said the u.s. Would help facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the border Mark Lowen reports quite so whether this deal is exactly what is being laid out by the u.s. Side we will have to wait and see because at the moment the top Kurdish commander general Muslim is saying that the whole wars in operations that the Kurds have now accepted and the withdraw of Kurdish military hardware from those areas only applies to 2 parts of northern Syria where fighting has erupted in the last 9 days that is Russell Lyon and Talab Iyad towns that are close to the Syrian Turkish border one of Donald Trump's top officials as a knowledge that military aid was withheld from Ukraine earlier this year in an effort to put pressure on the government there the Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the administration wanted care to investigate whether it'd help the Democrats in the 2016 u.s. Presidential election here's Chris Buckley the White House has consistently denied that there was any quid pro quo when Donald Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival Joe Biden but officials most seem to have admitted that hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid was held up by Washington in order to try to get Ukraine to launch a wider probe into corruption the White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says that Mr Trump was particularly.

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