wren7’s Recent Comments

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  Chip, congratulations!!!  What an honor to win this prestigious award, and what well-deserved recognition of your work on behalf of the environment.  We long-time Grist subscribers know that Grist is the best darned environmental site out there, but for the establishment to also recognize it is awesome.

   

  I used to subscribe to numerous other environmental email services but finally un-subscribed to all of them except for Grist -- because all the others were total doom and gloom.  I was about to jump off a cliff from the depressing news.  With Grist, I get the important environmental news, but it always makes me laugh.  Your original idea of bringing some levity to environmental reporting really works!

   

  I'll be reading Grist for years to come.

  On Wow: the Heinz Award (or, hands off my mic, Kanye!) posted 2 months, 1 week ago 4 Responses

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  HFCS

  I haven't bought any products containing HFCS in years because of the numerous reports on how bad the stuff is in general, and one reason I buy organic versions of things like ketchup, jam, etc. is because they contain organic sugar, not HFCS.  I don't drink soda, which is probably one of the main sources of the stuff for many Americans.  But, my husband and I both work and get home late, and so we eat out a fair amount.  No telling how much of the crap is in restaurant food -- probably a lot.  Didn't I read that Obama introduced a bill a couple of years ago to ban mercury-grade caustic soda?  Hopefully he will pursue this now that we know mercury is ending up on store shelves in products containing HFCS.On Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup? posted 9 months ago 7 Responses

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  From a birder and a cat owner ...

  I found these posts and the article interesting, because I'm a birder and a cat owner.  By birder I mean I go on week-long birding trips to see new species to add to my life list; I don't just "like birds."  I love both species, birds and cats.  However, I have read enough (and seen enough behavior from my prior cats and my current cat) that I realize as much as I'd like to let my cat roam outdoors, it is hugely unfair to the wild bird population, which as some posters above correctly pointed out, did not evolve with domesticated cats and so cannot escape from them.  It's a grossly unfair balance, with birds on the losing side.  Every study that's been done says that cats kill many millions of birds annually.  And only some of these birds are non-native, nuisance species such as European starlings and House Sparrows (neither of which are protected in the U.S.).  As annoying as some may find blue jays, they are a native species and are protected.  Cats kill millions upon millions of warblers, wrens, flycatchers and other native (and endangered or threatened) birds each year.  Really, songbirds and other wild bird species are in enough trouble due to humans (habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, etc.) that they shouldn't have to deal with cats too.

  My current (one) cat has been indoors-only since we adopted him from a rescue group as a young kitten.  And he's a happy cat.  Actually, he loves watching the birds at the feeders just outside our kitchen window.  He's safe and the birds are safe.  I love cats -- but I wish every cat owner would keep their cat(s) indoors.  On Umbra on cats and birds posted 2 years ago 72 Responses

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  Amen, Biodiversivist

  I've long been struck by how Little Shrub can't construct a grammatically correct sentence (and how idiotic he appears whenever he's speaking next to someone like Blair) ... I had never even heard of the word "malapropism" until Bush's presidency; "ludicrous misuse of words, especially through confusion caused by resemblance in sound."  A perfect description of the "leader of the free world."

  The only laugh I've gotten out of this sorry excuse for a President's occupancy of the White House has been the various "Bush calendars" with daily quotes which prove that the man could not have possibly graduated from a university (wasn't it Harvard?  Yale?) on his own.
  On Al Gore's commitment to public service in the face of cynicism posted 2 years, 1 month ago 15 Responses

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  From a regular Whole Foods shopper

  I live in Austin, TX, the headquarters of Whole Foods. We have one of their "flagship" stores downtown, and it is truly an incredible place.  It's enormous; the selection is almost overwhelming; you can buy nuts freshly roasted in the store or sit down and eat at one of about 15 stations scattered throughout the store with freshly prepared foods. It is a beautiful place.  But the prices are extremely high pretty much across the board. We do have a couple of other, much smaller natural food stores here, including two Sun Harvest stores, which are owned by Wild Oats.

  The prices at Sun Harvest are usually lower, and often much lower, than those at WF. Sun Harvest also has fantastic sales that I never see at WF, such as 25% off of all vitamins and supplements or 25% off of all body care products. If WF is allowed to take over Wild Oats, I'd be surprised if they kept the Sun Harvest stores here open, and even if they did, they would never keep these types of prices and sales. The result would be fewer choices for purchasers of natural and organic products and higher prices.

  On a different note, I was saddened after reading the (excellent) post by Tom Philpott. This was the first I've heard some of these facts about John Mackey and the apparent philosophy of Whole Foods.  I used to have a positive opinion of WF, but that just changed. It doesn't sound that different to me from Wal-Mart or Microsoft. It just wants to gobble up all of its competition and hurt its suppliers and many others in the process.  

  I hope the FTC does block this takeover. I'm amazed the FTC is even paying attention, since I don't remember it ever blocking a corporate merger or takeover (it probably has but I can't recall an example), but as Tom pointed out, Mr. Mackey gave the FTC ample ammunition with his own words.On Why the FTC is right to block Whole Foods' buyout of Wild Oats posted 2 years, 4 months ago 28 Responses