Indian military to weaponize world's hottest chili - Yahoo! News

Indian military to weaponize world's hottest chili - Yahoo! News

By WASBIR HUSSAIN, Associated Press Writer – Tue Mar 23, 7:19 am ET
GAUHATI, India – The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world's hottest chili.
After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday.
The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world's spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India's northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat.
It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000.
"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.
"This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs," R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said.
Srivastava, who led a defense research laboratory in Assam, said trials are also on to produce bhut jolokia-based aerosol sprays to be used by women against attackers and for the police to control and disperse mobs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_india_chili_grenades

Padma Laskhmi, Supermodel, Chef, TV Personality and Author

India born, Padma Lakshmi, is even more in demand now than when she
was as a supermodel. Her cookery shows and books are more popular than
ever.

"The newly single Lakshmi -- she divorced novelist Salman Rushdie last
summer after three years of marriage -- is using her break to tend to
more business: She's still settling into the New York apartment she
bought in January and on the horizon are more cookbooks, another
cooking show, her own brand of bottled chutneys, perhaps a jewelry
line and a memoir," says an article in the LA Times, "If I don't
conquer the world, that's fine," said the Indian-born former model
with a few acting credits to her name, including Mariah Carey's
"Glitter" and a memorable turn on "Star Trek: Enterprise." "I want to
teach people about things and places and foods they don't necessarily
know. I think in America it's very important to sample and taste what
the rest of the world is about. Maybe it comes from being an immigrant
child and wanting others to understand me."

Read the full article at--
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-padma11-2008jun11,0,5647612.story

How Restaurateurs Cope With Soaring Food Prices

Less than six months ago the price of rice was $9.99 for a 20 lb bag.
Tday it is flirting at almost $30.00 for the same 20 lb bag! For the
residential domestic consumer it is one thing, what do restaurateurs
who have to maintain the quality of their menu, manage with the
soaring cost of ingredients, I kept wondering.

This question was answered by a New York Times article which says,
"All across New York City, cooks, chefs and restaurateurs are
struggling to cope with soaring costs of many of their basic
ingredients, including flour, eggs, rice and cooking oil. "Everything
is going up at once" is a universal complaint among them, so they are
devising all sorts of strategies to avoid having to pass the brunt of
the price increases on to their customers. Some are cutting back on
waiters and kitchen help, others are staying open longer or expanding
their offerings to increase sales. One sheepishly admitted that she
had started adding the sales tax to customer's bills rather than raise
the prices printed on her elaborate, laminated menus."

"Suvir Saran, the owner and a co-executive chef of Devi, an Indian
restaurant in the Flatiron district, said he was weighing whether to
pare down portions, because he did not think he could raise prices.
Devi already charged $65 for its "chef's tasting menu" before the cost
of rice and chapati flour doubled over the past few months. A 30-pound
sack of rice has risen steadily this year to $43 from $22, while a
15-pound bag of flour has gone to $22 from $8 and a 4.6-gallon
container of canola oil is up to $34, from $18 or less at the start of
the year, Mr. Saran said.
"Rice is such an important part of our business," he said. "We've been
getting battered by these huge price increases." Mr. Saran said that
he earned little profit on a dinner of tandoor-grilled lamb chops
priced at $30, but that in the past he had been able to make up for
that by selling rice dishes. No longer. "This year we're not making as
much money selling rice," he said," to the New York Times.

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/nyregion/04prices.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Now An Indian Napa Valley?

First it was the city of Bangalore, becoming India's Silicon Valley,
now is the city of Nasik in the state of Maharashtra becoming the
Indian Napa Valley?

According to this article in the New York Times, "Eight years ago, Mr.
Dhuru, who made his fortune in the software business, bought land
outside Nasik, a city about 100 miles northeast of Mumbai that has
become the center of India's rapidly expanding wine industry.

This year, with the help of a consulting oenologist from Bordeaux, Mr.
Dhuru expects to produce about 300,000 bottles of white and red wines.
By next year, he estimates that a million bottles will bear the
Chateau d'Ori label.

The aggressive optimism of entrepreneurs like Mr. Dhuru is easy to
understand. In Maharashtra state in central and western India, where
Nasik is, more than 40 wineries are in varying stages of development.
Government officials say that investment in wine increased by 74
percent over the last year.

"In the next 10 years there will be 300 million upwardly mobile
Indians who can afford wine and for whom it will be a lifestyle
choice," Mr. Dhuru said. "A lot of them will be drinking Indian
wines."

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/dining/04india.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Don't throw It Out...

One of my pet peeves has been food wastage. I am appalled at the
portions served in restaurants and the amount of food wasted,
considering how many people and children are going hungry each day.

A really concise commentary in the Hartford Courant today emphasizes
this, "We obviously have no way of getting that softening head of
lettuce in the back of the fridge to a Third-World country, and if we
could we still wouldn't halt global warming. But we can be more
careful about what we buy and eat. In most major cities, food rescue
organizations save and refrigerate food from participating cafeterias
and restaurants. Cities such as San Francisco compost organic wastes.
Some restaurants are offering smaller portions.

These are relatively easy steps, useful in themselves and helpful in
informing larger decisions on food. Is the subsidy of corn ethanol
substantially hurting the production of food? Do U.S. agricultural
policies hurt local farming around the world? Can we continue to spend
hundreds of billions on wasteful farm bills?

If we remember that food is precious and not to be wasted, perhaps we
can make better decisions across the board."

Read the full commentary at --
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-compost.artjun02,0,3258854.story

Sen on the Global Food Crisis

Amartya Sen, Nobel price winning economist has an op-ed piece titled
"The Rich Get Hungrier" in the New York Times today.

He says, "WILL the food crisis that is menacing the lives of millions
ease up — or grow worse over time? The answer may be both. The recent
rise in food prices has largely been caused by temporary problems like
drought in Australia, Ukraine and elsewhere. Though the need for huge
rescue operations is urgent, the present acute crisis will eventually
end. But underlying it is a basic problem that will only intensify
unless we recognize it and try to remedy it.

It is a tale of two peoples. In one version of the story, a country
with a lot of poor people suddenly experiences fast economic
expansion, but only half of the people share in the new prosperity.
The favored ones spend a lot of their new income on food, and unless
supply expands very quickly, prices shoot up. The rest of the poor now
face higher food prices but no greater income, and begin to starve.
Tragedies like this happen repeatedly in the world.

A stark example is the Bengal famine of 1943, during the last days of
the British rule in India. The poor who lived in cities experienced
rapidly rising incomes, especially in Calcutta, where huge
expenditures for the war against Japan caused a boom that quadrupled
food prices. The rural poor faced these skyrocketing prices with
little increase in income."

Voicing a popular concern that is causing a lot of debate he says,
"There is also a high-tech version of the tale of two peoples.
Agricultural crops like corn and soybeans can be used for making
ethanol for motor fuel. So the stomachs of the hungry must also
compete with fuel tanks."

A very thought provoking op-ed, this can be accessed at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/opinion/28sen.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Mango Eating Competition In Bombay

"With the arrival of summer and mango season, India's western city Mumbai plays host to the 6th annual mango eating competition. Around 30 people took part, having to eat as many mangoes as possible in 3 minutes. And if they could stomach any more, the winners were rewarded with a fresh box of the fruit. The competition was a part of the six-day Konkan Festival that started on May 06 and ended on May 12," reports Reuters.

Food Crisis -- Argument versus Action!

I was wondering why it took so long for the he said and she said to
begin after Bush made his statement, saying that the food crisis was
started by India's middle class.

Yesterday, yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, voiced his frustration at Bush's
statements and today the New York Times reports that, "Instead of
blaming India and other developing nations for the rise in food
prices, Americans should rethink their energy policy — and go on a
diet. That has been the response, basically, of a growing number of
politicians, economists and academics in this country, who are angry
at statements by top United States officials that India's rising
prosperity is to blame for food inflation. The debate has sometimes
devolved into what sounded like petty playground taunts over who are
the real gluttons devouring the world's resources."

As someone who lived and grew up in India it amazes me to see wastage
of food and other natural resources, not just by non-Indians but by
visiting Indians as well. The same folks who struggle without water in
Chennai, waste water in the US as though it was an eternal resource.
The same folks who watch people starve in Delhi, throw away food like
there was plenty of it to go around, the same folks who go without
power in Kolkatta, leave fans and lights on all over the place without
conserving any energy.

Instead of arguing, it is high time each individual stepped back and
assessed what they are each doing to make the problem better or worse.
Time to stop the bickering and get to some real action, don't you
think?

See the Times Of India video, with Baba Ramdev's statements here--
http://broadband.indiatimes.com/showvideo/3034648.cms

See the New York Times article here --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/14/business/worldbusiness/14food.html&tntemail0=y

Another recent New York Times article on this subject-

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18martin.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

A Time Magazine article on this-

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1806579,00.html

Read about Bush's statements here--
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703405.html

See what President Bush said about India being responsible for the
food crisis here--
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/may/03food.htm

Empty Bellies In India Add to Global Hunger

Effects of the global food crisis are rippling across the world. Each
time I see wasted food at restaurants and homes, I think of how many
mouths this food, that just got thrown into garbage, might have fed.

The New York Times has been publishing several articles and editorials
on the subject of hunger and the food crisis. Todays paper carries an
article titled, "Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger." The
article features examples from several poverty stricken nations, real
life people who are struggling to eat, and do not know where their
next meal will come from. The photograph itself is an eye opener.

An excerpt --
"The rising prices are altering menus, and not for the better. In
India, people are scrimping on milk for their children. Daily bowls of
dal are getting thinner, as a bag of lentils is stretched across a few
more meals.
Maninder Chand, an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi, said his family
had given up eating meat altogether for the last several weeks.
Another rickshaw driver, Ravinder Kumar Gupta, said his wife had
stopped seasoning their daily lentils, their chief source of protein,
with the usual onion and spices because the price of cooking oil was
now out of reach. These days, they eat bowls of watery, tasteless dal,
seasoned only with salt."

We only hear about India and China being the economic boom towns. Very
few speak about the majority in these fast growing economies who are
struggling to put food on the table everyday. The more we become aware
of issues such as these, the more obvious are the misplaced priorities
of many governments and policy makers.

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.html&tntemail0=y

India Will Limit Rice Exports...

First it was lentils, and now it is rice...

The International Herald Tribune reports that, "Vietnam and India on
Friday tightened limits on rice exports, joining Egypt and Cambodia in
trying to conserve scarce supplies for domestic consumption at the
risk of triggering further increases in global rice prices, which have
roughly doubled since the start of this year.

Soaring prices for rice, a staple for nearly half the world's
population, are already causing hardship across the developing world,
particularly for urban workers. Together with rising prices for other
foods, from wheat and soybeans to pork and cooking oil, higher rice
prices are also contributing to inflation in many developing
countries."

When my family and friends from India visit the US they always talk
about how Basmati rice, cashews and some other staple products, that
are grown in India are very expensive in India and sometimes not even
available domestically, because most of the best quality produce is
exported to the US. This has been going on for a while, it was just a
matter of time before it became necessary to make a rigid move like
this.

Read the IHT article at--
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/business/rice.php