Friday, 16 Mar 2007

Turnip Out is Fair Play

FDA issues voluntary produce-safety guidelines

If you've shied away from spinach since last year's widespread E. coli outbreak, this should give you comfort: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued voluntary guidelines this week to help keep fresh-cut produce safe. What, the "voluntary" part gives you pause? Pshaw. Pointing out that voluntary guidelines for production of sprouts reduced contamination during the 1990s, FDA officials say the "if you wanna" approach can work and is, in fact, more flexible and adjustable than mandatory regulations. Linda Halley, general manager of an organic farm in California, agrees: "Mandating inspections or certifications for producers of raw product ... would be difficult to enforce and overly burdensome on the small producer." But some activists say FDA's solution is hogwash. "What we have now is too little, too late," says Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, "and not sufficient to actually prevent further outbreaks from occurring." Mmm, who's hungry?


As a staffer at Seattle radio station KEXP, Lisa Shimizu can often be overheard talking about her favorite rock album. (This week it's Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem.) But recently, she's been talking about a different kind of rock -- planet earth. One of the 1,000 people chosen to attend Al Gore's Climate Project training sessions, Shimizu took home the Inconvenient Truth slideshow and the beginnings of an idea about making it palatable for kids like her 8-year-old daughter. This week, that idea came to life in the form of a presentation aimed at a family audience, and Grist's Sarah van Schagen was there to assess the results.

Sequester Requester

Coal sequestration a near-future necessity; one utility gets a jump start

If coal's going to be viable in an emissions-regulated future, we need to hurry up and learn the how-tos of carbon sequestration, says a new study from MIT. The U.S. should take the lead and fund three to five emissions-burying demo projects within the decade, says the report; meanwhile, companies should be charged for CO2 emissions and incentives for old-school coal plants should be removed. Study coauthor John Deutch drew an analogy between carbon sequestration and nuclear waste disposal, saying, "If you don't pay attention to it at the beginning ... later on it ends up to be a more unpleasant surprise than it has to be." Speaking of surprises, the report indicates that the U.S. Energy Department's "clean coal" research budget "falls far short of what is required." On that note, a big pat on the back to Ohio-based utility American Electric Power, which yesterday announced plans to conduct the nation's largest-ever sequestration project, using a technique on which the DOE has not focused.


Think of a cross-section of the global population that disproportionately lacks access to a clean environment. Got it? OK -- were you thinking "females"? Around the world, women are disempowered, says Anika Rahman; as president of Americans for the United Nations Population Fund, her role is to overcome barriers to equality. As InterActivist this week, Rahman answers readers' questions on her organization's successes, how to get hooked up with the United Nations, and the ever-hot topic of abortion.

And They're Off

As ministers gather in Potsdam, Germans still fuming over speed-limit idea

The G8 environment ministers are spending two days in Potsdam, Germany, chewing over the world's post-Kyoto possibilities with their developing-country counterparts. "We are going to speak about the barriers that have until now held back international climate-change negotiations and how to break them," said German eco-minister Sigmar Gabriel. Who, as it happens, was part of another high-profile convo about breaking barriers this week: When European Union Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas suggested an emissions-curbing speed limit on Germany's famed Autobahn, drivers bristled at losing their "freedom," a German auto-industry trade group said the industry needed "no coaching" on protecting the planet, and Gabriel snapped, "This is a ... trivialization of the climate problem." But a recent survey found that 60 percent of respondents would favor Autobahn speed limits if they cut emissions. Said one speedster, "I think anyone with half a brain understands that we all have to change our habits."