Wednesday, 14 Nov 2001

Welcome Back, Qatar

Qatar ain't Seattle -- for one thing, it's almost always sunny -- but the anti-globalization spirit is alive and well at the latest round of World Trade Organization talks. Well, sort of. Actually, the press is preoccupied and the protesters largely stayed home, thanks to a paucity of visas and a plethora of airplane phobia. But never fear: In daily dispatches from the desert, intrepid Grist correspondents Ben Lilliston and Mark Ritchie from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy give you the latest on the WTO talks, straight from the camel's mouth. Don't miss the update on everyone's least favorite organization, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Double Tall, Hold the Pesticides

Starbucks announced this week that it will pay an extra 10 cents per pound for coffee beans that are grown on environmentally and socially responsible farms. The announcement, which was made at a growers conference in Costa Rica, comes at a time when a world coffee surplus has depressed wholesale prices to 40 cents per pound, with devastating effects on many growers. Starbucks, which pays at least $1.20 per pound and buys about 1 percent of the world's coffee and 15 percent of specialty coffee, said it would reward suppliers who conserve water and energy, reduce pesticide use, recycle, provide safe working conditions, and comply with local wage and benefit laws. The group Conservation International will help to oversee third-party verification of the suppliers. However, critics say that until the company publicly discloses information about its suppliers, the announcement amounts to little more than a P.R. stunt.

Start Spreading the News

Finally, some good news for New York: The Big Apple beat out 49 other U.S. cities in a Sierra Club analysis of spending on mass transit and programs to reduce vehicle-generated smog. According to the group's air pollution report card issued yesterday, New York is the only big city in the country to spend more money per year on alternative transportation ($460.69 per person) than on roads ($360.97 per person). The city also produced the least amount of vehicle-generated smog per person (about 54 pounds annually). Thirty-two of the 50 cities flunked, with the last-place slot going to Oklahoma City, which spent just $15.31 per person on public transportation, compared to $262.96 on highway construction. The report had scathing words for the country's overall transit habits, noting that the average American driver spends the equivalent of 55 eight-hour work days behind the wheel.

Polar Opposition

Last month, the leader of an Eskimo village in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service claiming that the Alaska Wilderness League, which works to prevent oil drilling in the refuge, misrepresented itself to obtain nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax status. The complaint alleges that the AWL is a lobbying group masquerading as an educational organization. (The IRS caps how much 501(c)(3) organizations can spend on lobbying.) In its defense, the AWL says it conforms to all IRS regulations. The complaint seems to be part of a growing trend of attacking conservation organizations' nonprofit status; this summer, the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, a pro-business think tank, asked the IRS to audit the Rainforest Action Network on similar grounds. Nonprofit status is critical to environmental organizations because it saves them millions in taxes, makes them eligible for foundation funding, and allows donors to give them tax-deductible contributions.

Sunny Dispositions

San Francisco may be making headlines with its innovative plan to radically expand solar power generation, but other places deserve kudos as well, according to a study released last week by Greenpeace. The study, produced before the San Francisco plan was approved by voters last week, compared both planned and installed solar energy systems in the 50 states. Leading the list for planned systems was Nevada, which is making preparations to generate 50,000 kilowatt of solar energy. California was a distant second, at 11,153 kW, while New Mexico and Illinois took third and fourth places with 3,000 and 2,499 kW respectively. California topped the list for installed systems, generating 10,013 kW, followed by Arizona (1,880), New York (1,180), and Texas (1,001).