Agriculture brings us a bounty of food. Unfortunately, one third of that nourishment never makes it to anyone's plate. In wasting this food, we're also unnecessarily consuming about a quarter of the water used in agriculture, as well as three billion barrels of oil annually. On the flip side, the bowls of an estimated one billion people still go empty.  Eliminating this hunger is essential for their long-term human development. Fresh food can be amazingly tasty and diverse in its appearance and variety. However, there is little monitoring for contamination or mishandling in local food markets. And more importantly, local food supplies are easy to disrupt, either by nature or through the course of human events. And indeed, with climate change, we expect that the rate of those disruptions and their severity will grow. So the problem we have currently is not so much a lack of food, but a lack of food where it is really needed. Modern food supply chains can span continents. Unfortunately, the tools to manage that supply chain have not kept pace. Typically, food is disposed of simply based on arbitrary disposal dates, expiration dates, or on extraordinarily high levels of appearance. If we had accurate knowledge of freshness, we could avoid using energy to send food to landfills. We would send it instead to really where it is needed. Also, by not having that food go to landfills, we would avoid the greenhouse gases that are produced when the food is consumed. We all know to err on the side of caution in terms of food safety. In 2011, the CDC reported that one in six Americans fell ill because of food poisoning. This resulted in 128,000 hospitalizations and over 3,000 deaths. So it is really important to answer correctly, is our food safe to eat? Even apparently fresh food can harbor pathogens. This very fresh looking piece of cantaloupe can have lurking inside bacteria such as listeria, which can cause serious illness. Of course, the techniques of traditional microbiology can tell us the answer of if our food is safe to eat. However, these techniques require days to give us the answer. Additionally, these techniques require costly specialized labs and trained technicians. If instead we could imagine a food sensor that was as simple, cost-effective, and rapid to use as a piece of litmus paper. Instead of measuring acidity, this test would tell us, is our food safe to eat? Nature has given us antibodies which are specific for pathogens. And we can use those antibodies to create this food sensor on a piece of paper. In this picture, the antibodies, the Y-shaped molecules, are shown to float freely in solution. However, for a diagnostic test, they would be affixed to a surface. The larger the surface area, the greater the sensitivity of the test. And that's why in my lab we use paper-based substrates because all the surfaces of the fiber give us higher sensitivity because of the increased surface area. The green fluorescence that you see here represents the successful attachment of the antibodies to these essentially pieces of paper. So now we have the first component down. And now what we create is a lock and key mechanism where the antibody only works for a specific pathogen. And the yellow fluorescence that you see here is the evidence of that successful lock and key mechanism. We can do this type of processing on roll-to-roll machinery, which is analogous to traditional printing. And we can also convert that biochemical reaction into an electrical signal, basically a change in electrical resistivity that we can read out by many devices, including a mobile cell phone. To do so, we simply coat the paper with electrically conducting polymer before we attach the biological components. So our goal is to create a food security index that's universally verdant across the globe. And the questions that I will hope to discuss with some of you are, what types of sensors would bring the most benefit and how should those sensors work in combinations with other technologies such as mobile devices and big data to radically slash food waste in the world. Thank you.


Hey everybody, it's Hari Swaminathan, Friday, Jan 26th. We are looking at our swing trades. You can see ES futures just down a little bit. We've got all our positions pretty much hedged. So I say and all of these are doing fantastic. You can see that we have a total profit of almost $14,000. If we were to close these positions today, this is what it would look like. Yesterday booked a total of 600 overall on Costco. Nvidia is 5,000 right now, Microsoft is 3,400, JP Morgan is minus 700. But I was thinking that because futures were down a lot more, so I was thinking we'll close it, but now the futures have recovered. And you can see it's down only about two points. So I think some of these stocks may move up, but the others we do have them hedged up. So I say we go into the weekend with these positions. And as for the new trade, what I want to do is Tesla has reported quite bad, but it got hammered up too much. It went down about 10%. So it's probably found a little bit of a breath over there. Regardless, we can put an iron condor in next week's expiry, Feb 2nd. On the call side, we'll go to 195, 197.5. On the put side, we'll give it a little bit more room, 170, 167.5. That's the new trade for today. Let's take all these trades into the weekend and see if we can do better with them. Thanks a lot and have a good weekend everyone. Thanks.


We're live. We're here at 3 o'clock rock on Community Matters. You're gonna give it Monday. We're moving past statehood We're talking about what comes next in the Evolution of Hawaii Heavy stuff. It's Ray Tsuchiyama. He's an informed citizen and he has a lot he has a lot on his plate in terms of he he has been an observer of these things for a long time and His ideas are really scintillating with possibility. So we'd love to talk to him. Welcome to the show. Well, thank you very much and You're absolutely right that statehood in 1959 was a disruptive moment in Hawaiian history And it catapulted Hawaii before this very small string of rocks in the middle of the Pacific During World War two through Pearl Harbor, of course it became very famous Into a state equivalent to New York, Texas, California all of us overnight and that was after Alaska Now, of course, if you go back in time there were there were some people in the Senate in the in the Congress who did not Look positively toward a state with a very large non-Caucasian population and the leadership of a white state Decided Alaska first kind of kind of strategy. So Alaska went first they got statehood and Everybody thought Alaska would emerge very dynamic, but right now Hawaii Population-wise and this is a big point is over 1.2 1.3 million residents The state Alaska is barely 750,000 So we are bigger than Alaska in population and that's one of the things that we have to talk about because it introduced a boom in population whereas The focus has been on other things, but I think one of the things that really By becoming a state the population boom occurred how I mean, what was it? Where do they come from? What were they doing? What drew them to our shores? well, it didn't occur overnight and in fact if I lived on Maui for several years and people forget from 1445 the end of the war till the late 70s the Maui population actually declined because they had one business sugar people began leaving for Honolulu people began leaving from Kauai the whole Coffee industry on the corner side of the Hawaii island collapsed during the late 50s and 60s And there is a group of people in Hawaii in Oahu called the Kona Club Who is whose roots go back to that closing of the coffee plantations? All roads began to lead to Oahu Pearl Harbor the military the Vietnam War UH banking Bishop Street insurance. There was a huge Rise in population in Oahu and so the neighbor islands did not enjoy a similar rise until the 80s and 90s and Maui of course during the 90s and 2000 became one of the fastest-growing areas Especially Kihei in South Maui and now is out 165,000 people Before the war and after the war when my father was there it was barely 45,000 people and completely self-sufficient so population The economy was centered on Oahu You know just to just to have a footnote on that Before statehood seems to me and you lived on Maui so you can speak to this the connection The nexus between the neighbor islands and Oahu was pretty robust This is before a lot of aircraft. It was when there were steamers Steaming between the islands on a regular basis or it was a heavy schedule of steamers people were visiting family had family It was not unusual for a family on Maui to have members of that family on two or three other islands And it wasn't it wasn't necessarily a differentiation between neighbor islands versus Oahu was all the islands and there were Connections families and people talk about you know the old days They talk about how they they were actively involved in some other neighbor island Somewhere after statehood it's it's worthy of a whole discussion I think the the islands began to drift away from each other now It could be that because we got airplanes and the steamers went away, and it became more difficult more expensive Whatever a different way of dealing with the neighbor islands the neighbor islands not only did they reduce in population in favor of Oahu But they reduced in connection among themselves and with the people on Oahu and other neighbor islands and that Changed some essential quality of the state that phenomenon all by itself That's a complicated question because if you go back in time during the Kingdom under King Kamehameha the third and others They were actively seeking to keep the islands together all the time That is why if you compare Hawaii state to the mainland, why is there just one school board for the entire state? Why is the state so centralized that when you put coins in the meter of the city and county it goes to the state a Taxation you see how centralized there is no mayor of Kailua. No mayor of Lihui. No mayor of Hilo You know that takes place other than So you have on the mainland you can have a school board for kind of 10,000, but no we have one centralized say back in in the early 19th century the leadership of the of the Kingdom was very very Actively seeking to thwart the island kawaii going to Russia the Maui going with England and so forth and so on They try to keep the islands together So sometimes when we talk about the state and how onerous the state is in terms of bureaucracy and overreaching and and Containing itself and and from the neighborhood perspective. They still refer it to the state of Oahu I'm serious everything runs on Oahu time or who you know It just it just is and there's a resentment. Yeah, there is there's a tremendous resentment that that But however, that's complex because for a Maui or even a Molokai a Molokai seven thousand five hundred people Which was made into the part of Molokai County in the early 20th century where before is to report directly to the kingdom in Honolulu So these are artificial counties when you think about it and so forth so Why refer to Molokai is that When you think about the the taxes paid by Molokai residents and the time and the monies that go back into Molokai There is a this disconnects the taxes greater than the ball Well, the benefits are far greater than the taxes paid by Molokai residents But Molokai is a good example of what I call insulate drift where you know these islands are drifting apart Conceptually in terms of relationships in terms of you know You know sensibilities about the other place and what's really you know sad about Molokai is that they don't want tourists there They don't want people from Oahu there. They you know, they Fishing boats fishing boats. It can't come there. They do. There are no Cruise liners that go there even though they could They don't want people from other islands, especially Oahu to come to Molokai What kind of a thing is that and when you go back to statehood in 59 people voted overwhelmingly Statehood because that would be one state. Yes, all the islands together moving together and and it will mean that a little kawai economically or Molokai or Lanai or whatever could could not exist in the world without the larger islands supporting it, especially Wahoo. So there is a Kind of an economic give and take there But they voted for statehood because they thought that everybody would rise up economically and and and Financially and their lives would be better in terms of schooling and so that so the thought is going back to the kingdom Even today the thought is that the same level of schooling will be in Lihui to Kahala to the Hilo, right that that is the concept Quality ideally yes, the same health service should be in Lihui in Kahala and in Hilo and Kahaloohi that's again the ideal That's what statehood meant to people because they had a disparity if you lived in In a Waimea on on the island of Kauai There was a disparity of living in downtown in Honolulu and so they they believed very much 59 that everybody will rise up to the same level and that there will be First-class citizens within their own state. You see what I mean? Yes Because people believed that there were second-class citizens as a territory vis-a-vis the mainland US, which was the great very profound Great so but but there was a great turnout of people who expected a level of playing field and they because of the disparities of You know of high and low in the society. Yeah, and this goes to a larger discussion Which we should spend some real time on that is the expectations of the people in the state You know forget about what Congress expected or how Alaska saw us and all that the expectations of people in the state coming up Plantations or coming in from you know the big five crowd What did they think was going to happen? Remember all those smiley pictures? Oh, yeah celebrations in 1959 The world was our oyster. We're going to be really fabulous What you know part of it, of course was what you just said sort of an equality uniformity of benefits Pulling together of all the islands. That's only part of it though. Can you describe the rest of it? What did people expect? What are they want in at the time? What were those faces so smiley about and you have to go back To what I said about my father's Generation before the war in education. It was very good. They had radios. They had you know Cars remember in the third-world country. They're just getting TVs They're just getting cars and and getting on the road They had cars in the 30s before the standard living was rising, but that set of expectations They had very good education as English standard education back before the war Patsy Min's father on paya was the first Japanese-American graduate of New York, Hawaii in the 20s So you could see rising expectations through education. Patsy Min could get her law degree at Chicago You know where we're gonna get his law degree in Georgetown So their high school McKinley and Maui high school was great preparation for them So I think and her and what you're saying though. It's really important is that okay? It was a bit of a surprise Everything is going well. We're having good education. We're increasing our standards of living But when you when you make that analysis, you're also saying that before that started happening things weren't so good Say at the time of territorialization Say in the time of World War one It wasn't so good life on the plantations wasn't so good right education Standard of living wasn't so it wasn't so good. And but of course, why do people come to plantations? All right, my grandparents left in 1907 from Kumamoto prefecture to Japan About 15 years before in 1894 Harry Baldwin from Maui graduated from MIT in civil engineering So the big five were thinking ahead. They were bringing new types of Irrigation and and and science and technology back to implantations which would bring people there And comparatively speaking my grandparents had a better life on Maui than in Japan Comparatively and their children my father's generation Would enjoy English language education and then during the war and the war was a great catalyst They saw Rome. They saw new york. They saw london. They saw california They also saw segregation in the south and they brought this all back to hawaii and say oh, we can develop a new society equal to the mainland with Remember Inoue and Yoshinaga and all these for 42nd Veterans were in their you know barely in the late 20s early 30s. It was a young crowd They're in 59 very vital and they had come through the war. They were fearless fearless And they figured they could really do some stuff and they wanted to be equivalent to the mainland society So they so during the 50s they ramped up the they became politically conscious. They were not conscious before then organizations unions all of a sudden turned Into more powerful organizations and began controlling political structures and by 1959 I'm trying to catch all these things at the same time by 1959 We were going to build a utopia a nirvana. We were going to come crashing into the 20th century I remember in all the mainland things were going the same way in 1961 61 There would be a president barely 40 to 43 years old, uh, you know, uh, Mr. same thing and The new deal will be coming up very soon. So it was a in the east-west center and and and Also the beginning of the war vietnam war that would also begin to Say the vietnam war had a very Effect on the country in general but query. This is not an easy question. What kind of effect did the vietnam war have on hawaii? Tremendous positive experience for why because Remember, uh, where did tens of thousands of gi's take their r and r experience It was in waikiki and they brought their wives and families to meet them in waikiki It was a glorious and that led to a building boom within waikiki for all these Gis and their families and and it was a awakening. They would go back to uh, kansas or new york or michigan Louisiana says let's go back and that would start to repeat visitor boom in hawaii So and again because of military investment in pro harbour hickam wheeler and so forth school field It was a huge rise in in federal spending and employment in hawaii. Yeah Let's take a short break. Ray. This is like a fire hydrant of information things we need to know about You know because you you if you if you don't study history Remember history. You are doomed to repeat it. Um, what was his name? We'll be right back Aloha everyone i'm maria mera and i'm here to invite you to my bilingual So we've a hawaii in cindex hawaii every other monday at 3 p.m. We are here to talk about news issues and events local and around the world Join me aloha Aloha, my name is josh green I serve a senator from the big island on the conus side and i'm also an emergency room physician My program here on think tech is called health care in hawaii I'll have guests that should be interesting to you twice a month We'll talk about issues that range from mental health care to drug addiction to our health care system And any challenges that we face here in hawaii. We hope you'll join us again. Thanks for supporting think tech Aloha, i'm kawi lucas host of hawaii is my mainland every friday here on think tech hawaii I also have a blog of the same game at kawi lucas.com where you can see all of my past shows Join me this friday and every friday at 3 p.m. Aloha Okay, so we're back And we have this you know utopian view this dream and it's reinforced by At least the first parlor kennedy administration and we have the vietnam war at least in the first blush was pretty positive We had all these these soldiers and sailors here. We had the blooming of All you know the military establishment. It was all it was all good But but now let me ask you again So on the mainland now in that same period late sixties it was turning pretty sour and there was you know There was all kinds of unhappiness in the generation and in fact in the country in general Did that ever reach hawaii? There was a certain amount of protest, but i'm not sure that it was profound What do you all know? Well, I would say yes and no there were There was an incident at bachman hall university of hawaii involving the then president thomas hamilton and the occupation of bachman hall that occurred about 68 And so there was a lot of turmoil and the burning of the rotc building Back in that time. There was still rotc at uh I'm spilling the blood on the files. Remember that? Well, yes, and also avocados And of course there were deserters who camped out at the church at the crossroads. So there was a And and some unions Liberal unions also supported the end of the war and Patsy mink of course ran on anti-war platform. I mean she was the first Person from hawaii actually running in a presidential election that we we forget about So there was a feelings and and there was a nascent kind of connection with the Newark riots and the And the civil rights movement among the hawaii community at that time. It was just a resonance. There was awakening The first real awakening in the late 60s of the native hawaii movement in terms of music in terms of hula In terms of looking back at the overthrow and that did not exist I I barely had one year of hawaii history at clock hour in communion, for example I rarely heard hawaii music. It was at the home or or in waikiki. Yeah, so that that really didn't Transform itself and then there will be periodically every 10 years a kind of a revisiting, you know renaissance kind of thing In the hawaii community, but that was the first time something happened So until, you know, this whole thing about r and r rest and recreation and the military and fort to russey and all that Um, it seems to me that people have to appreciate that hawaii was like on the other side of of the ocean Hawaii's not, you know, right now we we take it on make an assumption that that hawaii is connected with the country Every minute of every day internet television all that but in those days the television shows were flown in on planes It was not directly streamed The culture was really local And you know, even mcdonalds didn't get here until the late 60s And it was all okazuya until that time Then we had a special culture and it was not necessarily including You know people away from hawaii or ideas that came from far away And and I guess the question, you know, it's like the french protecting their culture There was some people wanted to protect the old times still do and there were other people saying no, let's bring it on And there were an enormous number of people that came with the r and r movement And during the time of vietnam to make their lives here And that that's always an interesting phenomenon making your life in another place because you bring Your skills your way of looking at things and your expectations with you and then ultimately Especially in this kind of disparity of culture you try to change the place you just arrived at and You block other people from following you in the pipeline. This is a you know, very traumatic I think also a disruptive thing to have so many people coming here in such a short period of time late 60s. Yeah well You're correct about the culture changing because um at the time of mid to late 60s There was a vibrant locally made tv Business, uh, including uh checkers and pogo pogo captain Honolulu for children Don't forget filipino fiesta filipino fiesta senor espusio. Don't forget it libya spinda on On the commercials and and a lot of professional wrestling and you're correct that the the news will be very I mean Local and that uh, you you you would look away when they show You know they'll show the scores of the mainland and you're correct that you would wait and then you have And then you watch the show after you know football or basketball show so And and so there was a local culture and then um, if you fast forward to now Cost scores is where you meet your friends. It's your neighborhood Or mcdonald's or mcdonald's and and and you're correct that the many many smaller mom and pops Oh, god's the hour chinese. Uh chop sui jue neighborhood places in Power hour Kali heat they're all gone. They're all gone and and you're you're right at the mainland types of fast foods And so for really really took over a lot of cuisines and and in in hawaii I think well, I think part of this, um, you know imagery that you're building about the expectation of people here in the Around statehood early 60s was they they wanted to have these mainland influences They wanted to be just as just as advanced as anywhere in the mainland I'm you know looking back Which respectively may have not have been the greatest thing in the world to do that But that was the expectation and they wanted it and the question is you know, it took a long time by the way It didn't come right away. It's not like you snap your fingers in 1963, you know and everything comes rolling in on you Um, and I remember uh, some pictures of the development of the downtown area state capital building Gee around statehood a lot of construction in that area.  You see and No more pigeon. Well well, if uh, but if if somebody was going to uh, uh, You know go take a survey in asia in the years. What is america to you? Oh, it is innovation It is high tech. It is high standards of education That's what one image is the other image is loss of manufacturing, you know empty jobs exports coming in and and and nothing made in america service industry only mcdonald's and finance or whatever Only our kind of things and uh, so there are some parts of america that uh, we are part of and not It's so so after the decades are we more like peoria or are we more like paloalto? You see what I mean because when you say america, there's many americas. I mean america of of uh, you know of peoria illinois or Or in in the rust belt of cleveland and and uh, you know downtown paloalto or or Or la or or new york city quite different. There's different americas composite.  Potato man kind of american dream And I can't help but thinking of that scene in miss sygon Where the guy jumps on the hood of a yellow convertible yellow catalacan verbal and he sings his song the american dream So so we're at a point where um, you know Has hawaii Become america become part of america, but which america kind of which america are we more like in in uh, That we define ourselves or we are making our own rule because let's hold this point. It's supposed we went In 59 we went to bankok sol Tokyo manila singapore, right? We saw how everything was at that point in those cities We look at honolulu. I would bet on honolulu English language, you know University investment in education though.  Wow medical tourism infrastructure a lot of things singapore. Wow We got to talk about yeah kind of how they eclipsed us. Yeah 59. I would never put money on on At one point there's certain countries though Like the philippines was advancing and faster economically than japan in the early 60s and then it stopped because of corruption And japan just took off see what can happen if 59 keep the right mental set. Yeah, it falls apart My uncle was uh mailing a penicillin to my relatives in japan. They had no medicine He was shipping spam and and all kinds of corned beef to japan. They had no protein And and then in 20 years it's the opposite. They're coming here with yen to buy kahala, you know Let's let's talk about those shopping centers You know, I don't think we give enough credit or for the uh, the effort and the impact of those shopping centers And i'll name three kahala mall Uh, ala moana and pearl ridge those have had a salient effect on on a wahoo and probably On the state and if not in direct terms then setting the pace for other places But what was 1964? I think um that ala moana was done out of the duck farms there After that was uh, uh, kahala mall, right, which was a little wee Right, uh grocery store or something and those guys packaged it and it was not local investors I thought that was so interesting in both cases. Nobody locally could figure out what to do They were busy building these You know small rental units or condos Up in makiki, but they were nobody was really putting capital together For big things like, uh, ala moana or for that matter kahala mall And I you know think what what I get out of it is that you have to have a certain Mental, you know picture of the future if you were going to put in that kind of money And we didn't we had it, but we didn't want to put the money in you know We weren't fully committed and then these guys came to town They came to town with millions and millions and they built the structures. We should have built. That's what happened And that ended many many, you know in the kaimuki many kalihi many areas just collapsed You know business-wise and and every all roads led to Alamona in the end and when we when we start this conversation up again rey I hope it's soon We'll we'll take off on retail We'll talk about the connection of retail and tourism and real estate and see how that you know like usurped The economy and the culture of the state and when it happened and why it happened And how that effect is still being felt today Ray tsuchiyama


I remind members of the Covid-related measures that are in place and that face masks should be worn when moving around the chamber and around the Holyrood campus. The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 1536, in the name of Alexander Stewart, on 100 years of the puppy in the UK. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I call on Mr Stewart to speak to the motion for around seven minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am delighted to have the opportunity of being able to open this highly poignant member's business debate this evening. During the last session of Parliament, I was extremely privileged to have been able to mark two significant military centenaries in the chamber. The opportunity of making such an anniversary of the most all-encompassing symbol of remembrance for all those who served and are still serving in Her Majesty's Armed Forces throughout the United Kingdom in commonwealth, as well as their families is a special moment for me. I would like to thank my fellow MSPs who supported my member's motion in allowing me to have this privilege this evening. The history of the puppy as a symbol of remembrance may not be as clear-cut as has been previously assumed. The first reference to the puppy has been traced back to the Napoleonic Wars. Several documents have been unearthed, which note that the falling of the Napoleonic Wars poppies became abundant on the battlefields where soldiers had fallen. The same source also drew from the first comparison between bloodstained individuals and the red colour of the puppy. As many of us know, the scarlet corn puppy's growth is aided by massive disruption to soil. Thus, the devastation of the natural environment caused by such conflicts saw fields littered with bodies alongside red puppies. Fast forward to modern times, whilst puppies remain popular in the United Kingdom and the commonwealth, countries across other nations have become involved. It may have been an American on a Mitchell who was first credited with the first charitable puppy sale. She worked for the YMCA overseas war secretary's office in New York. She was so stirred by the perhaps the most famous war poem of all time in Flanders fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McRae that she vowed to pin a puppy to her lapel and swore to always wear one to honour the war dead. Using money that she had earned from the YMCA, she purchased 25 silk puppies and distributed them among her colleagues. She continued her endeavours to ensure that the puppy was adopted as a national remembrance and the National American League eventually adopted the puppy as an official symbol of remembrance two years later. The popularity of the new custom grew exponentially and the tradition crossed the Atlantic. A lady named as Madame Egerin had travelled from France to attend the conference at the American League. She was so involved that she saw the puppies as a great way to raise money for those children who had suffered of the Great War in France. She was quick to organise a team of French widows who immediately began making paper puppies on an industrial scale. They made £1 million by 1921. Following the tremendous success of her puppy sale, she sent a delegation of puppy sellers to London in bids to ensure that United Kingdom was becoming involved. Field Marshal Douglas Hague was highly enthusiastic about the idea that was forwarded by Gernt's delegates. To this end, the British Legion adopted it almost immediately. The first ever annual puppy day in the United Kingdom occurred on 11 November 1921, marking the third anniversary of Armistice Day. The puppy grew its North American roots and rapidly was immediately adopted by Canada and Australia in 1921 and New Zealand the year later. At this time, the puppy, indeed the distribution, was still being made by war widows in France. However, in 1922, a factory here in Burmsley was opened. It employed just five disabled ex-military personnel to produce puppies all year round for distribution in the weeks prior to remembering Sunday. The very first official UK puppy appeal in 1921 raised £106,000, equivalent to nearly £5.5 million today. Nowadays, the Royal British Legion aims to make £25 million annually. In Scotland, the Lady Hague puppy factory opened in 1926 at a formal woodcutting factory in the grounds of Routford house, opposite this Parliament's Queensbury house. It then moved to the warmest in the area of the city in 1965. In the terms, 34 veterans now proudly produced 5 million puppies and 15,000 wreaths annually. It relocated to Redford barracks in 2019 to allow substantial refurbishment to be carried out but moved back here this summer. As a result of this enormous financial success, it is almost important to mention that the adoption of the puppy as a symbol of charity has transcended its purely metaphysical and commemorative status. Indeed, the red wildflower has become a physical palpable object providing financial stability for those who are affected by war. That is a special result of the tireless endeavours of volunteers, the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. That also helps only to support the Royal British Legion, Puppies Scotland and Angkor Som Association, for which I am proud to be the honorary ambassador for Scotland and to hold the post of honorary president for the Riven of Puppies project. To echo the words written by the Canadian journalist MacGerry, I say to those who accuse the red puppy of glorifying war that the red puppy is inherently a symbol of peace, not just of peace in a concept, pleasant a concept it is, but also to the hard won peace of hundreds of thousands of individuals who came at the great cost. The puppy is not a symbol of anyone's victory. Flags of a nation, a country or a military ensign, for example, all serve far more ably in that role. Neither is the puppy a symbol of military conquest or national glory. They are a natural reminder of all the reverges of war and conflict to deal with. To this end, none of us needs to be reminded as to why the red puppy was chosen as a symbol of remembrance. In Flanders fields, all of this is very poignant. Because of that, we must always remember and we will always remember them. I encourage any member who wishes to participate in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now or an R in the chat function if you are joining us online. I call on Kenneth Gibson, who will be followed by Douglas Ross, for our four minutes. I congratulate Alexander Stewart for securing debating time on this important anniversary. In 1915, while the second battle of a prey was raging, a Canadian medic, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a grandson of Scottish immigrants from Cacodbrisha, noticed how bright red poppies grew amidst the war-torn Flemish landscapes. Despite the suffering around him, McCrae was inspired by the growing poppies to write in Flanders field, as Alexander Stewart pointed out. Today, that poem, most closely associated with appalling losses of the First World War, is renowned throughout the world. It first appeared in Punch Magazine and was quickly republished to become synonymous with sacrifices of fallen soldiers everywhere. Although an association between the poppy and conflict can be traced back to the appalling like wars, McCrae's poem greatly inspired the poppy's adoption as a flower of remembrance in Britain, France, Canada, across the Commonwealth and the United States. In World War I's aftermath, poppies came to symbolise the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in the conflict, including an estimated 147,000 Scots, representing 14 per cent of the British Empire's total war dead at a time when barely 1 per cent of the empire's population were Scots. Four of those who made the ultimate sacrifice were the mockery brothers James, Matthew, Robert and Andrew from Kilburnie in my constituency in the town where I live and where their family lives on. James, Matthew and Robert tragically all died while serving in different regiments on the opening day of the battle of Luce on 25 September 1915, where Scots made up almost half the 72 battalions deployed and where, in barely three weeks, British casualties numbered 60,000. The fourth brother Andrew died later on 9 June 1917 on the battlefield of Arras. While no graves of those men exist, all four brothers appear in bronze, along with 155 others on Kilburnie's war memorial. A fifth mockery brother who served in a minesweeper survived, as did their sister, a Red Cross nurse who sadly lost her own son on the hood in the Second World War. While so many soldiers lost their lives in the conflict, tens of thousands died subsequently from wounds, my material grandmother lost her uncle, captured in 1918 and sent to the Silesian mines. A guard hit him with a shovel. He died two years after returning home in 1921, age 23. His name appears on no memorial. My own maternal grandfather was mustard-gassed at age 18 a month before the end of the war. He died of emphysema at 41 years old of age when my mother was only a toddler, his life inevitably shortened by his time in the trenches. The mobbed soldiers often returned home struggling with psychological trauma as a result of the horrific scenes witnessed in the battlefields. Many also faced unemployment, poverty and homelessness. Red silk poppies were first worn 100 years ago not only to keep the memory alive of those service men and women who died. Their production offered employment to men disabled during World War I, while proceeds were used to help other veterans with employment and housing. Of course, the great war to end all wars, as it was known a century ago, was not the last in Scotland's Lady Hague poppy factory still there today, providing dignity through work to 34 mainland disabled veterans who, between them, have seen service from career to the Persian Gulf. Money Race provides invaluable assistance to Scotland's armed forces community, ranging from local signposting, housing, mental health, mobility, employment and financial support. While poppy Scotland's important advocacy work highlights the experience of serving personnel, veterans and their families. To go with the Royal British Legion poppy Scotland's long campaign for the UK Government to scrap fees for military personnel from the Commonwealth and their families who wish to stay in the UK once they leave service and I wish them success in that campaign. The 100th anniversary of the first poppy appeal makes us reflect and I remember those from Scotland and beyond to give their lives in World War I and in the many conflicts since. Behind each statistic lies a human story of a life taken often at a young age such as those of Kilburnney's own mockery brillers. We are all indebted to their sacrifice and it is our duty to ensure veterans and their families have access to services and support that they need. Therefore, I once again congratulate Alexander Stewart on bringing this important commemoration of poppy Scotland's 100th anniversary to the chamber. Thank you very much indeed Mr Gibson and I call Douglas Ross who will be followed by Martin Whitefield again four minutes Mr Ross. Thank you very much Deputy Presiding Officer and can I congratulate my friend Alexander Stewart for securing this important debate at this important time. We all reflect in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday just what has gone before us and the sacrifice made by so many servicemen and women in two world wars and conflicts around the globe and we wear our poppy with pride. I say that as someone who represents the Highlands and Islands region which has many strong military links including my own area of Murray. We are home to RAF Lossymouth and Kinloss Barracks and in communities like Murray and communities across Scotland we can see the support for our military personnel both current and the active role they play but the many veterans who are amongst us in our communities that we all represent. Earlier today I was at the Lothian Veterans Centre in Dalkeith to see the outstanding work Ian Stewart and his team do there. They've got a drop in centre in the high street that I know is extremely busy and I went along to one of their events earlier on today as well and it really is encouraging to see the support that is available to our veterans but there is more that we can do and I also want to pay tribute as Alexander Stewart and Kenny Gibson have done to the work of the Lady Hague factory and we are all seeing that with the poppies that we're wearing and the reese that we will lay later on this week and I want to congratulate everyone for the work that they do with the charity and Poppy Scotland but I also want to use my time today to speak about one individual in particular it's a Murray constituent of mine Sir Alistair Irwin because Sir Alistair Irwin has been president of Poppy Scotland now for 15 years and he was at the launch of the Poppy Scotland appeal here in the Scottish Parliament a couple of weeks ago and it will be his final appeal as president of Poppy Scotland and I think for someone who has given so much service over such a long period of time both to Poppy Scotland and the Royal British Legion I think it's right that we in this Parliament today say thank you to Sir Alistair for his efforts not just over not just over a few weeks or months or years but well over a decade and a half and that commitment to the armed forces started with his own career he joined the black watch in 1970 and retired from the army in 2005 but with people like Sir Alistair you never really retire and his contribution to the role in the armed forces and the work he does for veterans across Scotland and indeed across the United Kingdom has continued ever since as I say he has been president of the Royal British Legion in Scotland and Poppy Scotland since 2005 along with since 2006 along with the officers association in Scotland he'd also served between 2006 and 2011 as the president of veterans Scotland and he was vice chairman of the commonwealth war graves commission and whenever you meet Sir Alistair and you speak to Sir Alistair you can see the passion which he takes to the role it's a role many people only do for a year or two but for him to have done it now for 15 years just shows how important it is to him but I think it's also important for us to say what he has achieved over that time he has brought a lot of professionalism to the organisations that he has worked with he has changed those organizations significantly and we have all benefited from the work he has done over such a long period of time he is a regular volunteer selling poppies in Murray so not only is he at the top of the organization he wants to get out there with other volunteers helping to collect the funds as Alexander Stewart mentioned in his opening speech the millions of pounds that have been raised from communities who have been selling poppies right this time I want to finish deputy Presiding Officer by saying the Royal British Legion motto is service not self Sir Alistair Irwin embodies that motto as do every single volunteer who at this time of year sells these poppies that we all wear with pride and we thank Sir Alistair and every single one of them for the work they continue to do thank you thank you very much indeed Mr Ross and can I add my personal recognition of the contribution Sir Alistair Irwin has as you say rightly made Martin Whitfield to be followed by Stephen Kerr around four minutes Mr Whitfield I'm very grateful deputy Presiding Officer and I'd like to congratulate my colleague and I'm going to add friend Alexander Stewart for securing this member's debate and I do think it's fitting that it is indeed a member's debate and I'll come back to that and I would also like to echo the words of Douglas Ross and extend my thanks congratulations and possibly well deserved rest to Sir Alistair coming forward and also to the thanks obviously to the Lady Hague Poppy factory into the 34 veterans that it helps and the many many veterans it's helped over time and I would like to take this short time just to put on to the record the various poppy designs of the countries that have been referred to and why the poppy is so important to those countries from here in Scotland where we have four petals with the central black we used to have a leaf but it was removed to make it easier to post to England and Wales and Northern Ireland where they adopt the two petal with the black centre and some a leaf often said to reflect the addition of the events of world war two but to the USA where they wear their poppy on memorial day the last Monday in May theirs is a crepe paper style but has a green centre to Australia who celebrate or remember on Anzac day April the 25th where they have a single red corrugated petal and to New Zealand which is a very similar design to Australia but they choose to lose the corrugation and have it flat why do I raise this I raise this because at the heart the poppy reflects the thoughts of individuals it reflects differences but it also reminds people of a similarity a tragic loss a memory of generations a memory of individuals who have paid the ultimate sacrifice or indeed as Kenneth Gibson so rightly says those who have returned bearing scars some of which are invisible and I think one of the powerful images about the poppy is that it may look different to different people around the world but what is felt inside is the same and that is a thanks that is a gift that others they may not even know have given and I think to have the opportunity in this chamber to extend our thanks to those people to extend our thanks to the volunteers who stand in the rain selling the poppies my son who visited the cinema at the weekend said he and his friend rushed around trying to find a sea cadet who could sell them a poppy because they were on their lunch but a sea cadet did stand up put his burger to one side and offered them a poppy to wear and I think those individual acts of young people speak of such great hope going forward from such a tragedy that is moving further and further into the past and I would just like to say and this is really in response to the young people the opportunities that poppy Scotland give to the variety of fundraising methods so that everyone can take part they can challenge themselves I think of the poppy Scotland sportive which happens in September an ability to ride your bike of one of three distances around the beauty of East Lothian ending up in my hometown of Preston Pans or if you're feeling very brave you can take on 102 miles that takes you down into the borders and back I am utterly astounded at the ability of cyclists to do that but I am enormously proud that they do that to raise money for our veterans to raise money for the families of our veterans and through poppy Scotland we see that work day in day out and for that I say to them thank you thank you very much indeed mr workfield and our final speaker in the open debate Stephen Kerr again four minutes please mr Kerr. Thank you Mr President and it's a pleasure and privilege to follow Mark Woodfield to give an excellent speech and I want to congratulate my friend and colleague Alexander Stewart on securing this debate for 100 years the poppy has been our nation's symbol of gratitude and remembrance for our veterans and of those for whom it is rightly said for your tomorrow we gave our today as we all know the poppy is also a symbol of hope and life and freedom from the horrors and destruction of the first world war the war to end all wars it wasn't to be the first world war cost allies of over 800,000 british and commonwealth servicemen men and boys from these islands and from far flung parts of the then empire like many of you i have stood at the men and gay to eat and the tiet fal memorial and read the names of the thousands of men and boys sons brothers boyfriends fiance's husbands all of them missing with no known burial place it is humbling it is moving it is upsetting my family like many of yours has graves in Flanders and France where lie my great uncles there's something powerful and poignant about the rows of headstones in those immaculate war cemeteries in 1922 King George V visited Tyncott and looked out over the rows of thousands of wooden crosses planted in memory of the fallen he said i have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth to the years to come than this mass multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war after the fighting ended the poppy grew in the turned up barren battlegrounds with its blood red colour the poppy quickly came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice of a generation and was formally adopted as it's been said by the royal british legion in 1921 as the symbol of remembrance for all those who died in first world war and later conflicts i also believe there's another layer to the symbolism of the poppy after such horror after such a grand scale of death life reemerges that the sacrifice of the fallen and the loss and pain of their families should not be in vain therefore deputy president officer may i humbly on the record of our parliament expressed my personal gratitude and the feelings i'm sure of so many more people in central scotland for the work of poppy scotland those who make the annual scottish poppy appeal possible the service of the veterans at lady hags poppy factory making millions of poppies and thousands of wreaths and many hundreds of volunteers over the generation since 1921 to the present day who sell poppies make collections and to the many businesses organizations and individuals who see that each year the poppy continues to be prominently displayed and may i say to our veterans and their families and to those who continue to serve our country in the uniform of her majesty's armed forces at risk of life in limb thank you for your vigilance and your service because of what you do for us day in day out every single day we are free we need to remember we need to remember a hundred years of the poppy and a hundred years of caring and it must be it must never it can never end because remembrance and the poppy is a mark of who we are and the people we have become thank you very much indeed mr kerr and i call on keith brown to respond to the debate cabinet secretary around seven minutes please thank you sign officer and also thank you to alexander stew for securing this member's debate to mark the centenary of poppy scotland's iconic poppy appeal and what's clear from the contributions that we've heard is across the chamber we are i think unanimous in recognising the formidable work of poppy scotland over the last hundred years and their dedication and support to our armed forces community alexander stew mentioned of course the symbolism of the poppy and he was quite right to do so but he also mentioned the practical benefits of crew from people buying poppies and the work of poppy scotland which is the real point of poppy scotland obviously the remembrance period that we're currently in serves a vital purpose in allowing everybody in scotland a moment to pause to reflect and to be thankful to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and it is very important that we continue to remember those who served and lost their lives in all conflicts not to glorify war again as alexander stew said but to recognise the sacrifice that was made to protect the freedoms and the way of life that we hold so dear and the poppies we were inspired as we've heard i think from Kenneth Gibson by Lieutenant Colonel John McRae's poem in Flanders Fields written during the first world war are a tangible symbol of remembrance and the enduring courage loyalty and commitment of our regulars and reservists and it shows that after 100 years no matter how much time we pass we will never forget their sacrifices or those made by their families and loved ones for my part i was delighted to attend the launch of the 2021 poppy appeal in parliament at the end of last month as mentioned by Douglas Ross to hear first hand how it has evolved over the last 100 years no more so than in the last 18 months of course with increasingly innovative approaches to raising funds and the absolute necessity of doing so in the face of the pandemic increasingly and indeed for many now exclusively payments are made digitally and so the move to digitise the poppy appeal which Sir Urban had some problems with i have to say i'm only sure that digitisation will strengthen the poppy appeal going forward and the scottish poppy appeal is poppy scotland's largest fundraising event and all money raised goes to the armed forces community here in scotland to provide support in six key areas financial support advice employment mobility housing and mental health and the appeal success relies on the dedication and hard work of the 10,000 volunteers across scotland and without them it would be impossible to raise the vital funds used to deliver support to former service personnel and their families so for that reason and many others i'd like to give my personal thanks to those dedicated poppy scotland staff and volunteers against something that Sir Alasr did when he was speaking at the event that's being mentioned to thank them for all that they do and one or two of the people who i think on that night received the words i know Steven Kerr was there as well some of the work done by some individuals is absolutely phenomenal it includes of course the devoted team of 34 disabled veterans based at new hake house who have produced more than 2 million poppies and 10,000 wreaths every year representing also the poppy appeal and commemorative events have a vital purpose to the people of scotland in allowing time for reflection on the sacrifices that have been made to protect their freedoms and scotland as we all know has a large and vibrant armed forces community and the role of the charity sector is essential in delivering valuable support to veterans right across scotland i'm sure that i can speak for all in a chamber today when i extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who supports these charities whichever way they can and since i first took responsibility for the veterans portfolio in previous ministerial roles and more recently since being appointed cabinet secretary for justice and veterans i've been very fortunate and humble to hear directly the experience of our veterans in our community including the vital assistance veterans received from third sector organisations so for our part in the scotland government we remain committed to supporting our veterans community we recognise that veterans and their families are true assets to their communities to their employers and the wider society and that includes those such as war widows who have given so much i'm honoured to be representing the scotland's government at the war widows association annual service of remembrance at the cenotaph in london this weekend i won't be able to stay for the festival of remembrance which i think is also another hundredth year anniversary because i'm returning to glasgo to go to the remembrance event there on the sunday so we remain committed to those remembrance events i should also say that i will be providing parliament with an update on the scotland's government's continued support for veterans and armed forces community in scotland in the chamber tomorrow which will also include a focus on remembrance commemorations and just a final couple of words that i've acued to Presiding Officer on some of the points which have been made a very interesting account as we've heard from alexander stewart from Kenneth Gibson and from martin woodfield on the origins of the poppy as a symbol. Kenneth Gibson i think mentioned incredibly and the stories that you can hear i think four brothers called mockery from airshire to think four brothers from the same family all killed in the war the sacrifice was truly astonishing i was interested to hear Douglas Ross talk about Lothian's veteran centre mainly because subcentre i visited before but he mentioned ian stewart i think ian stewart is a friend of mine i think that because he's involved in the veterans centre just down the road from the parliament and we both served in four five commando and during the falcons war together and also a former editor of the scotsman i should mention as well he's in some fantastic work with veterans i'd also want to associate myself with the comments about seralser urwin and the contribution that he's made over many years i've stood at many remembrance events with him but the work that he has done has been tremendous and we should remember that and like Douglas Ross i'm fairly certain he will still be seen at remembrance events in moray and elsewhere when he has a chance to do that i think it will leave something of a hole in his life and he admitted as much to me when i spoke with him at the remembrance event in prince of street gardens recently i think martin wittfield raises a really important point about differences in poppies and i wrote an article about this some time ago could be construed as being contentious and the point of it was to say it really doesn't matter what colour poppy what poppy what design of poppy people wear they have the same intent when they do that but i'd also make the point perhaps more contentiously that it's also true if somebody doesn't wear a poppy i always wear a red poppy because i know that the money is going to a cause which i'm very keen to see supported but others don't want it and we have to remember that the people that we are commemorating fought those wars so that people had choices about what they're doing and that includes if they don't want to wear a poppy i would encourage everyone to wear a poppy but i want to respect the rights of those that don't for whatever reason and i think martin wittfield did draw out some of the differences that we have and i think he also said that we all feel the same in our hearts in relation to what we're trying to commemorate so i would just say as well to um steven ker that i think we've attended a number of events and with alexander stewart and bridger vallon and elsewhere together in the past and i've visited many of the places he talked about the many gates and eap, control maze on our ass and so on and i also mentioned the um poignancy of some of the graveyards which are incredible when you witness them really good to see so many schools over the years now having battlefield tours which really drives at home to young people they're very interested in particular in people that they can see who were 17 or 18 years old when they died but my personal inclination when going to these is to go to the furthest points of the cemetery and find those ones which often say a soldier known only unto god which i think is really poignant the fact that the families of the people involved don't have a physical place to go to remember those people like Kenny Gibson was saying about the mockery brothers earlier on and the point of that is to say that we of course should continue to remember we should never forget not least because we should not allow that kind of event to happen again so presenters i'd like to close today's members debate by offering my congratulations to poppy scotland as they mark the centenary centenary of the poppy appeal they deserve every plaudit they received tonight in the chamber and have every reason like others to be proud of their achievements thank you thank you very much indeed cabinet secretary that concludes the debate and i closed this meeting of parliament