Julia Olmstead’s Posts

• More beef = fewer babies?

  Growth promoters in beef may damage sperm 6

  Posted 2 years, 7 months ago

  As reported by the BBC, a University of Rochester study found recently that men whose mothers ate lots of beef during their pregnancies had lower sperm counts than the sons of women who ate little or no beef while pregnant:

• Corn on conservation land

  'Cause what else can we feed our cattle? 18

  Posted 2 years, 8 months ago

  According to a recent story in the Corn and Soybean Digest, a group of 30 state and national agribusiness groups are asking the USDA to let farmers plant corn on land currently set aside for conservation through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

• The myth of grass-fed beef

  It's only natural 32

  Posted 2 years, 9 months ago

  About twice a day, an email from a mystery man/unflagging anti-ethanol crusader named Ray Wallace appears in my inbox, chock full of excerpts from the latest ethanol slams and, on lucky days, choice quotes from politicos and the like sounding less-than-smart about the whole business. I'm not sure how I got on his listserv, and I can't quite say how you can (but if you'd really like to, let me know and we can probably work something out).

  Anyhow (I'm getting to my point), I mention Ray so as to credit… Read More

• Yum!

  Season Shot: Ammo with flavor 0

  Posted 2 years, 10 months ago

  Here's something for Mr. Khosla to throw some money at: Season Shot, ammunition that dissolves upon baking, leaving behind only the delicious flavor of your choice -- Cajun, Lemon Pepper, Garlic, Teriyaki, or Honey Mustard.

  Think this doesn't belong on an environmental blog? Think again. According to Season Shot's creators:

• 'We just want our land back'

  Carbon offsets and human rights 3

  Posted 2 years, 10 months ago

  More evidence was released today demonstrating the complexity and oxymoronic nature of "ethical capitalism." This time it has to do with carbon offsets.

  According to "A funny place to store carbon," a report issued today by the World Rainforest Movement, villagers living along the edges of Mount Elgon National Park in east Uganda, the site of a Dutch-owned carbon offset project, have been beaten, shot at, and repeatedly denied access to their land by armed park rangers guarding the "carbon trees" inside the park.

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Julia Olmstead’s Recent Comments

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  speaking of $, and Cal, and sustainability

  Way to go Berkeley students! It strikes me as a little pitiful, however, how hard they must work to get $200,000 when BP recently gave $500 million to UC-Berkeley for biofuels research, which is all about sustainability and the environment and such, right? RIGHT? Seems like they could kick in a couple hundred grand a year, no?On Berkeley students vote on a new sustainability fund posted 2 years, 7 months ago 4 Responses

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  Fidel

  Wow, thanks Ron for the heads up on Fidel's ethanol commentary. I read through his op-ed (here for all you Spanish-readers; I haven't found an English translation anywhere), and thought I'd pick out another quote (my own translation):

  In our country, land that could by dedicated to ethanol production is better used to grow food to feed our population and for environmental protection.

  Every country in the world, rich or poor, with no exceptions, could save itself fuel and billions of investment dollars exchanging all its incandescent lightbulbs for fluorescent bulbs, something Cuba has acheived in every home in this country. This would be a meaningful action against global warming that would not starve to death millions of people around the world.

  On Biofuels force the choice on us posted 2 years, 7 months ago 16 Responses

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  good movie, not perfect (kinda like Cuba itself!)

  We showed this movie last year at our public library. While it is interesting to look at Cuba as a model for how societies could re-adjust to deal with limited energy supplies, the film is a bit naive/pollyanna-ish in its presentation of Cuba's success coming out of the Special Period (post-Soviet collapse). But it's definitely worth seeing.

  But ah, the Cuba debate. I worked in Cuba for about a year, and I agree with Bart about comparing apples to apples. Like any place, Cuba has good and bad, but in my experience, most Cubans are proud of and supportive of their government and what their "revolution" has achieved for the people. As it's their country, that's what's most important, no?On Cuba's response to its peak oil emergency posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses

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  Breastfeeding isn't always an option

  (please note: I'm still nursing my two-year-old)

  Under ideal circumstances, breast is best, but not everyone can do it. We need to be sure there are safe systems for feeding formula (or juice or water or whatever, because even my breastfed son drank/drinks things other than milk from bottles and cups) to our babies.

  We use small Sigg aluminum bottles (they come in cute kid-friendly designs) to avoid plastic. But for all I know, there are probably issues with the aluminum as well.On Meany in a Bottle posted 2 years, 8 months ago 5 Responses

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  We've done this before, and look what happened

  As a colleague of mine pointed out yesterday - we've done this before. In the 1970's export demand boosted prices, leading farmers to plow up fragile lands to grow more export grains. Then, as is happening now, the price of everything went up for farmers (land rent, farm equipment, inputs, etc.), and the high prices were only "high" for a short time. Then the crash happened, prices dropped, and farmers were worse off than before the boom and hence, the farm crisis of the 1980's. We decided to help farmers out by funding the CRP program...

  And jabailo -- I don't think you'll find a collection of bloggers much more skeptical of biofuels than those of us here at Gristmill.On 'Cause what else can we feed our cattle? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 18 Responses