Tuesday, 24 Feb 2004

Spoilent Green

Many Enviros Unhappy About Nader's Presidential Bid

Responding to the growing grassroots swell of support from ... uh ... well, we're not sure, really, consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced over the weekend that he will be running for president in 2004. This time he'll make his bid as an independent, not as a Green Party candidate as he did in 2000. His announcement was filled with sharp warnings about corporate power run amok and the two-party duopoly. Of the many folks who responded with horror to the news, fearing a repeat of Nader's alleged spoiler role in the 2000 election, none were more upset than mainstream environmentalists, who say they have learned the hard way over the past three years that Tweedledum is actually quite a bit more hostile to the environment than Tweedledee. Muckraker surveys the reactions -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

GM: Unsafe for Any Seed

Much of U.S. Food Supply Contaminated With Genetically Engineered DNA

Most ordinary crop seeds in the U.S. are contaminated with strands of genetically modified DNA, and unless federal regulations and farm practices are tightened considerably, the entire U.S. food supply will soon contain GM elements, says a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Currently, the foreign DNA come from organisms ruled safe by federal regulators and occur at low levels. However, the report warns that the trend poses several dangers. If the U.S. supply is widely perceived as thoroughly contaminated, exports to GM-hostile countries (see: most of Europe) could be hurt, as could the burgeoning domestic market for organic food. More worrying, once GM organisms designed for pharmaceutical or industrial products become common, the contamination could pose a more serious health risk. As Margaret Mellon of UCS put it, "No one wants drugs or plastics in our cornflakes." Representatives of the Biotechnology Industry Association said, in so many words, that genetic contamination is inevitable and other countries should get over it.

Bad Crops, Bad Crops, Whatcha Gonna Do?

International Battle Over GM Food Continues

In other genetic modification news, skirmishes over the safety and labeling of GM foods are erupting this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as delegates from around the world convene to discuss the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The U.N. accord, which went into force last September, governs cross-border trade in GM foods, with strict requirements on shipment labeling and legal liability. The U.S., by far the world's largest producer of GM crops, has refused to sign the protocol and has appealed to the World Trade Organization to take action against European countries with extremely restrictive import controls on GM food. U.S. intransigence on labeling was among the targets of a report from Friends of the Earth, which claimed that after 10 years, GM food has not proven safer or cheaper than ordinary crops and has not solved hunger problems even in countries where it is common. Meanwhile, GM opponents were dismayed at the announcement on Monday that China will allow imports of GM crops.

Fish and Tips

Advice to Help Consumers Navigate Choppy Seafood Waters

This winter has been a grim one for seafood gourmands. We knew mercury buildup in fish posed a health threat to pregnant women and children, but then we found out that concentrations of mercury in fetal blood may be nearly twice as high as in a mother's blood. We also heard that tuna is on the list of highly mercury-tainted fish. And scientists told us that Great Lakes fish contain pesticides up the wazoo. With so many dangers and reports to keep straight, what's a fish-stick-loving consumer to do? Our latest Earthly Possessions column is here to help, with a user-friendly list of fish to eat, fish to avoid, and everything in between -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Wham, Bam, Thank You, Dam

Embrey Dam Removal Heralds Larger Trend

The Army Corps of Engineers blew up the Embrey Dam in Fredericksburg, Va., yesterday, allowing the Rappahannock River to flow unmolested from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay for the first time since 1910 -- and making it the longest free-flowing river feeding into the Chesapeake, a renewed migration route for fish that live in the bay but swim upriver to freshwater to spawn. The dam was originally used to generate power, and then to create a drinking-water reservoir, but for the past five years has been essentially useless. The multiyear community movement to remove the dam, led by local environmental groups, is part of a trend that has given some in the Corps a new sense of purpose. "We're not only restoring fish runs, but also restoring the entire habitat" in areas where dams are being removed, said Beverley Getzen, chief of the Office of Environmental Policy at the Corps. Several dams in California are scheduled for demolition in coming years.