Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 21.4.2008

Reuters: Potatoes celebrate comeback all over the world

As prices of rice and cereals increase, simple potatoes - mocked for a long time and deprecated as a boring bulb after whose consummation one becomes fat - come again into their own as a nutritious crop-plant which could cheaply appease the still more and more hungry world. Potatoes coming from Peru can be grown almost in any elevation above sea-level and in any climate: from bare, cold slopes of Andes to tropical Asian plains. They need only a very small amount of water; they ripen just in 50 days and produce twice to four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice, the agency Reuters writes.

Government approved higher support to bee-keepers

Increase of financial support to Czech bee-keepers in total height 25 million crowns was approved by the government at today's meeting. The money will help to compensate loses caused by death of colonies of bees which happened owing to bad climatic conditions. The Cabinet by its decision granted suit of the Minister of Agriculture Petr Gandalovič to release means from ministerial reserves. The cause of increased depth of colonies of bees in the CR was demanding climatic conditions caused by higher average temperature in winter months. According to resources of the Ministry of Agriculture it can be supposed that minimally 60 thousand colonies of bees died.

Too many eggs increase in men risk of premature death

A probability of risk of premature death in men of mid-age consuming seven and more eggs weekly is higher. Results of a study realized at Harvard Medical School in Boston published in a magazine American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 87, no. 4, p. 799-800, April 2008) show that a risk of premature death in men of mid-age who consume seven and more eggs weekly is higher. Men with diabetes face increased health risk when they eat any amount of eggs.

Biofoods in the CR? Most harm air

The Czechs spent record 1,29 billion crowns for bio-products last year. From it 62 percent is represented by import which produces green-house gases. The Czechs spend still more for bio-foods. In 2007 it was 1,29 billion crowns which is by seventy percent more than a year ago. Annually ten thousand tons of bio-foods are consumed inland. Unfortunately, not only consumption grows, but also a share of imported bio-products over the Czech ones. And the import is the factor which harms the environment - to which just bio-foods want to prevent.