Food for thought

Headlines

RESEARCHERS in Australia and Fiji are cooperating to produce information lon Ithe nutrient com position of Pacific Island food. Dr Heather Greenfield of the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of New South Wales in Syd ney and Dr Bill Aaldersberg of the University of the South Pacific in Suva are collecting information for a data base on the food content.

A laboratory has been established in Suva to collect food and analyse con tent. The data is then scrutinised by Dr Greenfield in Sydney. A similar labora tory has been set up in Papua New Guinea.

“We are concerned with how well the data is described. For instance, food labelled as ‘pig’ will differ considerably in fat content depending on which part of the animal is analysed and whether it s raw or cooked,” Dr Greenfield said.

“We need to know which part of the animal is commonly consumed. The same with insects, which are consumed all round the world. It depends on whether it is the head, wings or interior that people eat.”

The research will result in food com position tables which will allow the assessment of the adequacy of people’s diets. It will also allow researchers to look at the relationship of diet to dis ease.

Dr Greenfield said the Pacific Islands diet included a lot of imported proces sed foods. She hoped the food com position tables would promote the in creased production of indigenous foods and foster a Pacific Island identity with indigenous cuisine suitable for the tour ist industry and for local processing.

The research project is being funded by US Aid through the South Pacific Commission. □

Immigration policy changes

THE Fiji Government has announced

major changes to its immigration policy

relating to permanent resident status for investors, work permits and visitors visas. The changes include raising the

qualifying period of registration for Fiji

citizenship from five years to seven years. The current regulations for visi tors and tourists from a number of countries to have their visas issued on arrival will remain in force but bona fide visitors will be barred from partici pating in political activities, work, study or research.

On business applications, the new policy says the minimum investment re quired to purchase or set up a business

in Fiji is F 5500,000 (U 55350,000) with project proposals to be approved by the Ministry for Trade and Commerce. Ap plications for investor status will be res

tricted to industry, manufacturing,

agriculture, fisheries and forestry.

Commerce, imports and the retail trade will be reserved for Fiji citizens.

Applications for investor status in joint venture with indigenous Fijians will be given special consideration.

The new policy makes it mandatory that applicants seeking permanent resi dence status must have police clearance from their country of origin. In addi tion, they will not be permitted to join or finance any political party or take part in any national or local govern ment political activities or election cam

paigns. □

Rabuka on culture MAJOR-GENERAL Sitiveni Rabuka is listed as one of the key speakers at the Fiji Tourism Convention at the Hyatt Regency Fiji from June 14-16. Rabuka, who commands the Fiji Military Forces after staging two military coups in 1987, has been asked to speak on the topic, Interfacing with Fijian culture.

He “heads an impressive line-up of local and overseas speakers who will cover a wide variety of topics related to the convention theme Fiji. The Future is Now”, says a statement from the organisers.

The convention will be chaired by Savenaca Siwatibau, the former Gov ernor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, who now heads the Pacific Operations Cen tre for the United Nations Economics and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Port Vila. □

Chemical weapons dumped CHEMICAL weapons from United States military bases on the Japanese island of Okinawa have been trans ported to Johnston Atoll for destruc tion. An army spokesman, Major Joe Padila, confirmed the nerve gases were now stockpiled on the atoll 1120kilometres south-west of Hawaii. The burn-off is expected to be the first step in using Johnstone Atoll for the des truction of United States chemical

weapons deployed in Germany.

Padila said an assessment by the Un ited States Army in 1983 indicated the weapons could be disposed of safely and in an environmentally acceptable manner. In February, the Army re leased an environmental impact assess ment report which said destroying the weapons at one of eight possible loca tions on the continental United States would have many disadvantages, the

biggest being risks in moving them

across the country. It said that on John stone Atoll the environmental impacts of incident-free handling and disposal will be minimal. □ Workshop on environment THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will host a work shop on “Environmental management and sustainable development in the South Pacific” in Suva from the 17th to 21st of this month. It is designed for senior environmental officials at perma nent secretary level.

UNDP has invited participants from Fiji, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa. □