Wednesday, 12 Nov 2003

Beyond the Pale Green

Small-Scale Farmers Are Going "Beyond Organic" to Push Local Foods

Once the perceived purview of hippies and wackos, organic food has become so mainstream that you can purchase Safeway-brand organic frozen peas. But is buying organic enough? That oh-so-healthy pesticide-free mango you bought in Minneapolis sure as heck didn't grow in your neighbor's back 40; in fact, the average food product in the United States travels 1,500 to 2,500 miles from farm to table. That makes for a lot of burned fossil fuels -- and food that's not fresh. To counteract this trend, a loose network of farmers, consumers, and advocacy groups is trying to push agriculture one step closer to sustainability by urging consumers to go "beyond organic." Michelle Nijhuis documents the movement, only on the Grist Magazine website.

The Non-Peace Non-Dividend

U.K. Cuts Funds for Amazon Protection to Pay for Operations in Iraq

In the latest evidence that war is bad for the environment, biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest stands to suffer because of the conflict in Iraq. Sounds a bit roundabout, but the reason is simple: money. Straining to come up with almost $900 million for rebuilding Iraq, the British government is poised to slash funding for an internationally backed program that helps indigenous communities in Brazil's Amazon combat illegal logging and take up sustainable forestry. At least one Labor Party member of parliament is protesting the diversion of conservation funds, as are a number of enviros. "The Amazon contains 20 to 50 per cent of the world's land-based resources," said John Sauven of Greenpeace. "I find it quite incredible that these vital resources are being diverted to rebuild Iraq."

They Blinded Me With Pseudo Science

Bush Administration Waves Off Scientists Whose Findings Are Inconvenient

If you don't like the science, change the scientist -- that seems to be the Bush administration's approach when it comes to environmental research. Last week, Assistant Interior Secretary Craig Manson stuck to the pattern by dismissing a long-standing panel of Missouri River scientists whose research had ruffled the feathers of business interests. In their stead, he's calling up a so-called SWAT team of researchers that will do a quick assessment of river ecology and presumably produce findings much more to industry's liking. The same sort of string-pulling was behind the recent resignation of a U.S. EPA scientist in Florida whose findings were jettisoned in favor of research showing that wetlands can produce more pollution than they filter. Muckraker dishes the dirt on the Bush administration's latest anti-enviro shenanigans -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Take This Job and Love It

Grist Seeks Development Director and Assistant Editor

It's tough to find the perfect job. You know, that elusive position that lets you work for a great cause and also includes fabulous, funny, smart coworkers, a supportive environment, room to grow, money to pay the bills, and great benefits to boot. Amazingly, we here at Grist think we've got TWO great jobs to offer -- and we'd like to invite you to apply for them. Yep, that's right: Grist is hiring a development director (to help get the word out about our stellar publication and ensure that it lives long and prospers) and an assistant editor (to help write these daily emails you love so much, and to assist in conceptualizing, assigning, and editing our stories). Check out the full job ads -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Feel the Burn

Wildfires Likely to Worsen as Planet Warms

From Southern California to the French Riviera and beyond, big wildfires have dominated headlines this year -- but you ain't seen nothin' yet. Out-of-control blazes are likely to become an even more vexing problem as climate change intensifies, say a number of scientists. Warmer weather, stronger winds, and longer, drier summers would mean more fires and more acreage burned, say researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Forest Service in a study to be published in the journal Climate Change. In a federal report on the expected effects of global warming in California, Robert Wilkinson of the University of California at Santa Barbara wrote, "Fires may be hotter, move faster, and be more difficult to contain under future climate conditions."

Zoo Doo Voodoo

Zoo Doo in Tokyo Will Be Used to Produce Energy

A Tokyo-area zoo, weary of spending more than $275,000 a year to dispose of 1,060 tons of animal waste, has a new plan: It will ferment the droppings to create biogas that can be used as fuel. An experimental processing plant at the zoo should start producing biomass energy in 2005. If all goes according to plan, even the buses that shuttle visitors around the zoo will eventually run on methane derived from the animal dung. The processing plant will also produce fertilizer from the liquid waste left behind after fermentation -- and if that fertilizer is used to grow food for the animals to eat, then the recycling project will have come full circle, said Shigeharu Asagiri, vice president of Kyodoshoji Corp., the private company that will build the processing facility.