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News24
27-04-2025
- Science
- News24
Austria trials DNA testing to uncover honey fraud
A laboratory in Austria is DNA testing about 100 honey samples a month to determine whether they have been adulterated. When a honey sample contains a high proportion of DNA traces from rice or corn - this indicates a honey is not genuine. Besides cheating consumers, fake honey threatens the livelihood of beekeepers, who struggle to compete with the far lower prices of imported honey. For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future. At a laboratory in Austria's mountainous Tyrol province, scientists are DNA testing about 100 honey samples a month to learn about their composition - and in some cases to determine whether they have been adulterated. With fake honey flooding markets, and only a few European laboratories running such analysis, the small Austrian company Sinsoma began offering the tests two years ago. "It is really something new for the honey market," said Corinna Wallinger, head of sales at Sinsoma. It is essential that technology "always moves forward - just as the counterfeiters" do, she added. Honey cannot have ingredients such as water or inexpensive sugar syrups - which might boost its volume - added to it, according to EU legislation. But tests have shown that is common practice. Between 2021 and 2022, 46% of the honey tested under an EU investigation as it entered the bloc was flagged as potentially adulterated, up from 14% in the 2015-17 period. Of the suspicious consignments, 74% were of Chinese origin. Beekeepers' livelihoods threatened Seeking to better detect fraud, Austria's health and food safety agency (AGES) used DNA testing for the first time this year and is still evaluating the results. European supermarket chain SPAR also ordered DNA tests for its honey. The chain put its honeys - taken off the shelves late last year in Austria for testing - back after they passed DNA tests and another analysis. Besides cheating consumers, fake honey threatens the livelihood of beekeepers, who struggle to compete with the far lower prices of imported honey - often blended from various countries - and are demanding more effective testing. READ | Sweet lies: Sting launched to get fake honey off SA shelves "We don't have a chance at all," said Matthias Kopetzky, owner of the Wiener Bezirksimkerei, which takes care of up to 350 hives in Vienna, as bees buzzed around him on a meadow overlooking the capital. While the European Union is the world's top honey producer after China, it is also the second-biggest importer after the United States. Most of the bloc's honey imports come from Ukraine, China and Argentina, according to EU data. An EU directive adopted last year stipulates that honey labels from mid-2026 must detail the countries of origin, as opposed to merely referencing a "blend of EU and non-EU honeys". Beekeepers like Kopetzky hope the new rule will raise consumer awareness. Brussels also set up a group of experts, with a mandate until 2028, to "harmonise methods to detect adulteration in honey and trace the product back to the harvesting producer or importer". Rigorous process Austria's Sinsoma has specialised in DNA testing. "Honey is full of DNA traces, of information from the environment where bees collected the nectar. Every honey has a unique DNA profile," Wallinger said. When a honey sample lacks a wide range of DNA traces or for example contains a high proportion of DNA traces from rice or corn - which bees do not frequent - this indicates a honey is not genuine, she added. Co-founded by Wallinger in 2018, Sinsoma now employs about a dozen people working in the small laboratory room and adjacent open office space in the quiet town of Voels near Innsbruck. Sinsoma charges beekeepers 94 euros ($103) for a basic DNA test targeting plants - about half of what a classic pollen test would normally cost, she said. For the DNA profile, beekeepers also get a QR code which allows consumers to see exactly which plant species the bees making the honey have frequented, she said. Experts warn the DNA method can detect certain types of fraud but not all, and that a rigorous process of validation is required to ensure trustworthy results. Wallinger recognised the need for standardisation of the methods but said this will take time. "It is always somewhat of an issue - and this is also the case at the EU level," she said.
News24
25-04-2025
- Business
- News24
War-hit Congo park turns to chocolate gorillas in conservation push
Virunga National Park in the Congo is turning to chocolate gorillas to boost conservation efforts. Africa's oldest national park is home to many of the world's last mountain gorillas. Much of the park is under rebel control, and fighting has accelerated forest loss. For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future. Threatened by armed conflict, volcanic activity and rampant deforestation, Africa's oldest national park is turning to a new product to raise its profile and boost conservation efforts: chocolate gorillas. Virunga National Park in war-ravaged eastern Congo is marking its 100th anniversary this month by producing 25 000 handcrafted treats at a nearby chocolate factory to be sold in Europe, including Belgium, Congo's former colonial power. Spanning more than 4 828 square kilometers, Virunga is home to many of the world's last mountain gorillas, yet much of the park is under rebel control and fighting has accelerated forest loss. M23 rebels have seized eastern Congo's two largest cities since January in an unprecedented advance that has risked igniting an all-out regional war. Cocoa for the chocolate gorillas comes from farms created at the periphery of the park, part of a push to promote agricultural and industrial activities in the area so residents do not turn to logging and poaching. The chocolate factory is located five kilometres outside the park. Profits from sales of the chocolates are meant to be reinvested in nearby communities. Clarisse Kyakimwa has been working her small cocoa farm for three years. "This cocoa has several benefits. It helps me send my children to school, feed them, pay my hospital bills," she said. Buyers take her crop to the Virunga factory, but she has not seen the finished product: a glistening chocolate rendering of a full-grown gorilla with its arms on the shoulders of one of its young. "They say this chocolate is taken abroad... I've never seen this chocolate, since we're not used to eating it," Kyakimwa said. Instability has been a problem at Virunga since well before M23's latest advance. "With the insecurity we're seeing in the region, it's sometimes difficult to access the raw material, which is cocoa," said Roger Marora, master chocolatier and a native of North Kivu province. The United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to M23. Rwanda denies backing M23 and says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo's army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Mediation efforts by various African leaders as well as Qatar have not yet yielded a ceasefire. "The chocolate gorillas symbolise the park's resilience in the face of multiple threats," said Virunga National Park Director Emmanuel de Merode.
News24
24-04-2025
- Science
- News24
Giant prehistoric kangaroos perished during 'climate upheaval'
Giant prehistoric kangaroos perished when "climate upheaval" turned lush Australian rainforest into desert, scientists said. The kangaroos weighed as much as 170 kilogrammes, almost twice as hefty as the chunkiest living kangaroos. The mega-herbivores lived in a rainforest that started to wither around 300 000 years ago as the climate turned "increasingly dry and unstable". For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future. Giant prehistoric kangaroos perished when "climate upheaval" turned lush Australian rainforest into desert, scientists said Thursday after studying ancient fossils with new techniques. Weighing as much as 170 kilogrammes almost twice as hefty as the chunkiest living kangaroos - the extinct "Protemnodon" bounded across Australia as many as five million years ago. Researchers were able to recreate the foraging habits of one population by matching long-lived chemicals from fossilised teeth to recently unearthed rocks. Similarities in chemical composition helped to mark how far the kangaroos hopped in search of food. "Imagine ancient GPS trackers," said Queensland Museum scientist Scott Hocknull. "We can use the fossils to track individuals, where they moved, what they ate, who they lived with and how they died - it's like Palaeo Big Brother." Scientists found the mega-herbivores lived in what was then a verdant rainforest - barely venturing far from home to forage. The rainforest started to wither around 300 000 years ago as the region's climate turned "increasingly dry and unstable". "The giant kangaroos' desire to stay close to home, during a time of major climate upheaval 300 000 years ago, likely contributed to their demise," the researchers said. Species of giant kangaroo survived in other parts of Australia and Papua New Guinea, with the last populations surviving until around 40 000 years ago. READ | Heavy metals contaminate up to 17% of world's arable land - study Scientist Anthony Dosseto said the new techniques could be used to better understand the disappearance of Australia's megafauna. Prehistoric species of giant echidna, wombat-like marsupials weighing over two tonnes, and hulking flesh-eating lizards once roamed the Australian continent. "The debate about the extinction of the Australian megafauna has been going on for decades, but now we can take it to an individual and species-by-species perspective," said Dosseto, from the Wollongong Isotope Geochronology Lab. "With these precise techniques, each site and each individual can now be used to test and build more accurate extinction scenarios." The findings were published in peer-reviewed journal PLOS One.
News24
23-04-2025
- Politics
- News24
Indonesia food plan risks 'world's largest' deforestation
Indonesia's plans to plant vast tracts rice to ensure food security and sugar cane for biofuel could be the wprld's largest deforestation project, warn environmentalists. Deforestation is already underway, by late last year, an area larger than Paris had been cleared. Indonesia's government says the land targeted is degraded, already cultivated or in need of "optimisation". For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future. An Indonesian soldier gives a thumbs up as he crosses a rice field on a combine harvester in remote Papua, where a government food security mega-project has raised fears of mass deforestation. Keen to end its reliance on rice imports, Indonesia wants to plant vast tracts of the crop, along with sugar cane for biofuel, in the restive eastern region. But environmentalists warn it could become the world's largest deforestation project, threatening endangered species and Jakarta's climate commitments. And activists fear the scheme will fuel rights violations in a region long plagued by alleged military abuses as a separatist insurgency rumbles on. The project's true scale is hard to ascertain; even government statements vary. At a minimum, however, it aims to plant several million hectares of rice and sugar cane across South Papua province's Merauke. One million hectares is around the size of Lebanon. Deforestation linked to the plan is already under way. By late last year, more than 11 000 hectares had been cleared - an area larger than Paris - according to Franky Samperante of environmental and Indigenous rights NGO Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat. That figure has only increased, according to analysis by campaign group Mighty Earth and conservation start-up The TreeMap. Their work shows areas cleared include primary and secondary natural dryland and swamp forest, as well as secondary mangrove forest, savanna and bush. READ | Tentative tree planting 'decades overdue' in sweltering Athens "Usually, deforestation is a product of government not doing its job," said Mighty Earth chief executive Glenn Hurowitz. "But in this case, it's actually the state saying we want to clear some of our last remaining forests, carbon-rich peatlands, habitat for rare animals," he told AFP. Indonesia's government says the land targeted is degraded, already cultivated or in need of "optimisation", dismissing some areas as little more than swamps. Tragedy Environmentalists argue that misunderstands the local ecosystem. "In South Papua, the landscape and the ecosystem is lowland forest," said Samperante. "There are often misconceptions or even belittling" of these ecosystems, he added. Mapping done by Mighty Earth shows the project threatens a broader ecosystem range - including peatlands and forests the group says should be protected by a government moratorium on clearing. "The tragedy in this project," said Hurowitz, "is that Indonesia has made so much progress in breaking the link between agricultural expansion and deforestation." "Unfortunately, this single project threatens to undermine all progress." Indonesia has some of the world's highest deforestation rates and Papua retains some of the largest remaining untouched tracts. Indonesian think-tank CELIOS says cutting down so much forest could derail Jakarta's plan to reach net-zero by 2050. READ | Global warming is a security threat and armies must adapt - experts For President Prabowo Subianto's government, criticism of the project ignores Indonesia's agricultural and economic realities. He has made the scheme a priority, visiting soon after taking office. In January, he said the country was on track to end rice imports by late 2025, and reiterated its energy independence needs. The agriculture ministry did not respond to AFP's request for comment. In Papua, planting is in full swing. In the region's Kaliki district, AFP saw farmers supported by soldiers tending rice paddies in recently-cleared land. "This location used to be like the one on the right here. Non-productive and neglected land," said Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, a soldier serving as the agriculture ministry's food resilience taskforce chief, at an event lauding the project. That characterisation is disputed by Mighty Earth's satellite analysis, which found that at least two areas in the region cleared for rice overlap with government-designated peatland. Indonesia's military is heavily involved in the project. Local farmer Yohanis Yandi Gebze told AFP soldiers gave him "tools, agricultural equipment and machinery" for rice cultivation. Speaking not far from Ramdhani's event, he praised the military. "I see them cooperating with the people very well," he said. Cannot refuse Others say that is only part of the story. Indonesia officially seized Papua, a former Dutch colony, in a widely criticised but UN-backed vote in 1969. It has since been accused of abuses in a decades-long separatist conflict in the region. "The community feels intimidated," said Dewanto Talubun, executive director at Merauke-based environmental and rights group Perkumpulan Harmoni Alam Papuana. "Not all members of the community agree with this project, and they cannot directly refuse," he told AFP. Samperante too reported local fears. "Almost every day a human rights violation occurs," he said. The defence ministry told AFP the military had the resources and "high discipline" to accelerate the food project while securing "stability and security" in the region. However, there are significant doubts about the project's viability. "Soils in Merauke are likely too acidic and the climate too extreme... to grow rice," said David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap. He warned that draining Merauke's wetlands for agriculture risks turning the area "into a tinder box" - a fate seen elsewhere in Indonesia. Critics do not dispute Jakarta's food security needs, but said crops should be grown elsewhere on abandoned agricultural land. "It should be done in places that are capable of absorbing it," said Hurowitz.
