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4/5/04
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1. Take Action: Call For Regulation of GMOs!
2. Oceanic Dead
Zones Double In A Decade
3. The Dirty Dozen: Fruits and Veggies
To Watch
4. CAFO Foes Find Friend In Court
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1. TAKE ACTION: CALL FOR REGULATION OF GMOS!
The USDA's
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is, for the
first time, proposing to undertake an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) to investigate the impacts of the introduction
of genetically engineered organisms. Among the issues
APHIS is considering are how to regulate "biopharm"
crops and whether to allow low levels of transgenic material in
conventional crops. Please ask APHIS to protect consumers and
the food supply, not agribusiness.
You can send comments to regulations@aphis.usda.gov.
Key points to make are: 1) APHIS should regulate all genetically
modified crops as noxious weeds, as these can and do cause
environmental and economic harm; 2) APHIS should offer no
exemptions or tolerances for low-level presence of transgenes in
conventional seed; 3) APHIS should enact strict permitting
requirements to ensure that GM crops will not cause
environmental damage; and 4) APHIS should permit no open air
testing of plants engineered to produce pharmaceuticals or
industrial compounds, and should prohibit food or animal feed
crops from being engineered for this purpose. The deadline for
comments is April 13. Read
more.
2. OCEANIC DEAD ZONES DOUBLED LAST DECADE
Last week the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced that the
extent of oceanic "dead zones" has doubled over the
last ten years and poses as big a threat to fish stocks as over
fishing. According to the UNEP report there are now more than
150 dead zones around the world covering more than 27,000 square
miles. The main cause is excess nitrogen run-off from farm
fertilizers, sewage and industrial pollutants. The
nutrients trigger blooms of microscopic algae known as
phytoplankton. As the algae die and rot, they consume
oxygen, thereby suffocating everything from clams and lobsters
to oysters and fish.
"Human kind is engaged in a
gigantic, global, experiment as a result of inefficient and
often overuse of fertilizers, the discharge of untreated sewage
and the ever rising emissions from vehicles and factories,"
UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said in a statement.
"Unless urgent action is taken to tackle the sources of the
problem, it is likely to escalate rapidly."
3. THE DIRTY DOZEN: FRUITS AND
VEGGIES TO WATCH
In an attempt to educate consumers regarding
pesticide residue on various, the Environmental Working Group
created the "Dirty Dozen" list of the ten most heavily
laden fruits and vegetables on the market. Fruits
dominated the list taking eight slots while vegetables captured
only four.
At the top of the list were nectarines, where
97.3 percent of samples tested positive for pesticides, followed
by pears (94.4 percent) and peaches (93.7 percent).
Nectarines also had the highest likelihood of multiple
pesticides on a single sample — 85.3 percent had two or more
pesticide residues — followed by peaches (79.9 percent) and
cherries (75.8 percent).
Among vegetables, celery had the
highest percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (94.5
percent), followed by spinach (83.4 percent) and potatoes (79.3
percent). Celery also had the highest likelihood of
multiple pesticides on a single vegetable (78 percent of
samples), followed by spinach (51.8 percent) and sweet bell
peppers (48.5 percent). See the full report.
4. CAFO FOES FIND FRIEND IN COURT
According to an article last
week in the Chicago
Tribune, rural residents across the country
who find themselves faced with a CAFO in their backyard are
increasingly turning to the courts – a last resort in places
where lax regulations give them "no real say in whether the
facility would be approved."
"The federal regulations
are pitiful," said a Kentucky Sierra Club coordinator who
won an air pollution suit against Tyson in November. "The
states aren't taking care of the problems. Corporate polluters
seem to get their way and the ear of the legislators, and the
people with the problems don't."
In Illinois, local
governments can hold hearings and county boards can vote against
allowing CAFOS, but "in about half of the instances in
which a county board voted against a proposed CAFO, the
Department of Agriculture approved the project anyway."
In
Iowa, there are 14 lawsuits against CAFOs pending. Industry
representatives counter that most livestock operations are good
neighbors, and that the lawsuits "may accelerate
consolidation in farming, because only the largest farms will be
able to afford new technology that masks odor and limits
environmental problems."
Cultivating a vision where rural and urban communities join together
to ensure abundant family farms, healthy critters, clean water and a wild Earth.
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Rural Updates!
Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org
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