Tuesday, 11 May 2004

Separating the Wheat From the Chaff

Monsanto Abandons Plans for GM Wheat

With little fanfare, biotech-food giant Monsanto announced yesterday that it would abandon plans to introduce genetically modified wheat to the market. Anti-GM activists, who have fought Monsanto's plans for some five years, celebrated the announcement as a major victory. However, the impetus for the shift was likely not the moral and ecological concerns raised by enviros, but the financial concerns of farmers. Some 50 percent of U.S. wheat is exported, and Japanese and European wheat millers -- the biggest purchasers -- had made it very clear they would not buy GM wheat. This led U.S. and Canadian farmers, who have embraced other GM crops, to lobby against GM wheat. While the three core GM crops developed by Monsanto -- cotton, soy, and corn -- are used in clothes and pressed into oils that end up in processed foods, wheat has a more direct and symbolically loaded connection to culture and the food on our plates.

Win Diesel

EPA Announces New Diesel Regulations

Today the U.S. EPA put in place tough new regulations on off-highway diesel engines -- tractors, bulldozers, locomotives, etc. -- which produce more soot than the nation's entire on-road vehicle fleet. The agency says the regs will cut emissions from such equipment by 90 percent over a decade by requiring that 99 percent of sulfur be removed from diesel fuel and that engine makers install new controls to remove other pollutants. The agency estimates that the rules will prevent 12,000 premature deaths and 15,000 heart attacks a year. Virtually every concerned party had praise for the EPA's move, including enviro and industry groups. "From the beginning, this rule was worked on together, collaboratively, with a wide range of stakeholders," said Allen Schaeffer of industry group Diesel Technology Forum. Emily Fignor of U.S. Public Interest Research Group said, "It's remarkable that these strong rules come from the same administration that has otherwise turned back the clock on 30 years of environmental progress."

This Land Is Mine Land

Old Mining Law Gives Taxpayers the Shaft

Under an 1872 mining law, private companies and individuals have laid claim to 9.2 million acres of public land for mining, often at prices of $5 an acre or less, says a new report -- and 1.2 million acres of that is controlled by foreign companies. The 132-year-old General Mining Law was passed to encourage settlement of the American West, a goal most observers agree has been fairly well accomplished, but unlike the Homestead Act, which had a similar aim, it has never been repealed. The law states that the right to extract minerals from public land belongs to "citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such"; combined with an 1898 Supreme Court ruling that gave corporations legal status as persons, it effectively opened public land for corporate use at fire-sale prices. Furthermore, mining operations on public lands often leave behind huge amounts of toxic waste and stick taxpayers with cleanup bills that can run to hundreds of millions of dollars. A year-long analysis by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group has exposed what is, in effect, a massive taxpayer subsidy of mining companies.

A Thorn in Our 'Cides

Study Finds High Levels of Pesticides in U.S. Bodies

A large percentage of U.S. residents have unsafe levels of pesticides in their bodies, and children, women, and Mexican-Americans are particularly at risk, says a new study. The Pesticide Action Network analyzed data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the levels of pesticides in more than 2,600 people. According to PAN, the average person in the study carried 13 of the 23 chemicals they focused on. The pesticides studied have been shown to lead to a variety of health problems, including infertility, birth defects, and cancer. A U.S. EPA spokesperson conceded that the study has "some validity," but questioned whether it reflected current or past exposure, and called for more screening. The study's lead author, Kristin Schafer, was not as circumspect: She said the data showed "a failure of our approach to how we protect people from toxic pesticides" and said there is "a case to be made that the primary responsibility for these pesticides in our bodies lies with the folks that manufacture and market them."

Bamboo-zled

Pandas Threatened by Loss of Bamboo

Up to half of the world's 1,200 species of woody bamboo are in danger of extinction because of deforestation, and their demise would spell big trouble for the animals that depend on them for sustenance, including one of nature's cuddliest critters, the giant panda. A study released today by the U.N.'s World Conservation Monitoring Center and the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan details the demise of bamboo, revealing that some 250 species have an area of about 1,200 square miles of forest left within their ranges. Woody bamboo not only provides habitat for a host of species, but is worth some $2 billion in annual trade. Along with the so-cute-you-could-just-pinch-'em pandas, who subsist almost entirely on bamboo, the Himalayan black bear, mountain gorilla, and less-cute-but-still-worth-saving lesser bamboo bat are imperiled by the slow destruction of the tall, wild grasses where they eat and make their homes.