Summary of newspapers of the previous day - 20.4.2010

New mark of quality Czech foodstuffs will appear. It will unifies regional ones

In a flood of logos, which are about to draw attention to quality Czech products, a new one will appear – Regional foodstuff. The Ministry of Agriculture want in this way to mark products which will guarantee a local uniqueness and home quality, and to unify particular regional food marks. To be able to use this mark, domestic foodstuffs have to win in regional competitions for the best local product. “Already at the summer end, first products marked with this new mark should appear on the market”, a director of the Department of Communication at the Ministry of Agriculture, Hugo Roldán says.

Farmers can spend support for landscape elements

Farmers, who will have registered internal landscape elements by means of Agencies for agriculture and country, will be able to obtain some concrete payments per their area (direct payments, supplemental payments, subsidy to farmers in areas with less favourable natural conditions – so called LFA payments, and supports for agri-environmental measures). “Landscape elements have positive influence on agricultural landscape of which they are part and parcel. Now, farmers have newly a possibility to take subsidies for the landscape elements inside land blocks, as it were agricultural land”, Jiří Urban, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture told.

Czechs spent for fair trade products record sum last year

Consumption of products with a mark fair trade, which is a symbol of so called fair trade, increased by 22 percents in our republic last year. The Czech spent for them record 50 million crowns. People buy the most coffee, tea, chocolate and other confectionery. It results from a survey of the agency Green Marketing and the Fair Trade Association. “Increase in fair trade products consumption in the Czech Republic is very fast, since 2005 it has increased by 1600 percents”, a chairman of the Fair Trade Association, Jiří Hejkrlík, stated. With growth of demand also assortment enlarges. At the end of 2009, the supply represented approximately 2500 products.

Geologist: Volcanic ash can affect weather and crop

Clouds of volcanic ash in stratosphere can affect the weather and crop in next two to three years on a big part of the Earth. How big impact the activity of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull will have can not be said meanwhile, according to a chief of Geographical Institute of Academy of Science Václav Cílek, however, the men history shows that volcanic eruptions led also to disappearance of civilizations. The volcanic ash in stratosphere is, according to Cílek, a global problem because a circulation on interface between troposphere and stratosphere roughly in height of ten kilometers will distributed it all around the earth.