So, I am a little suspicious of rGBH and what it is doing to my child's
generation and their future fertility. We can argue about aspartame and the
FDA. But, I am seeing these pre-mature developments on my child with my own
eyes.
I've tried to alert the FDA, to no avail. I purchase organic milk products
whenever possible, but they have been hard to purchase here for the last
three months. Can you send me more information about the FDA studies.
I have read a lot about hormone mimickers, but not much on rGBH and young
girls. Do you know where I can turn for more understanding on this
phenomena?
Now, a slightly more hysterical woman and mother, Cathe' Fish
PS. I liked your response on aspartame
-----Original Message-----
From: sanet-mg-digest <owner-sanet-mg-digest@ces.ncsu.edu>
To: sanet-mg-digest@ces.ncsu.edu <sanet-mg-digest@ces.ncsu.edu>
Date: Monday, January 25, 1999 9:34 PM
Subject: sanet-mg-digest V1 #777
>
>sanet-mg-digest Monday, January 25 1999 Volume 01 : Number
777
>
>
>
>In this issue:
>
> March 1999 Small Farm Conference
> PANUPS: Resource pointer #192
> sanet-mg-digest V1 #776
> edamame, vegetable green soybean seed available
> Organic Products Exporters Group
> Re: Aspartame, Organic Food, Urban Myths
> Pesticide residues in farmlands and human health impacts (fwd)
> Avery/Sierra Club
>
>See the end of the digest for information about sanet-mg-digest.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 15:17:16 -0800
>From: Colette DePhelps <dephelps@pcei.org>
>Subject: March 1999 Small Farm Conference
>
>Please circulate....
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1999
>
>Cultivating the Harvest:
>Inland Northwest Small Acreage Farming Conference
>March 4-7, 1999
>
>Contact: Peggy Adams
>University of Idaho Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
>208-885-4636
>
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>The Inland Northwest Community Food Systems Task Force is coordinating a
>regional conference geared toward small acreage farmers. Cultivating the
>Harvest: Inland Northwest Small Acreage Farming Conference will take place
>Thursday, March 4 through Sunday, March 7, 1999 at the University of
>Idaho's Student Union Building. Cultivating the Harvest is sponsored by the
>University of Idaho Cooperative Extension, the Palouse-Clearwater
>Environmental Institute, and Washington State University's Center for
>Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources.
>
>Why a small acreage farming conference? At a time when conventional
>farmers are struggling for survival, the number of non-traditional, Inland
>Northwest small-scale, and organic producers is growing and profiting.
>Although the scale and diversity of their production systems are often
>outside conventional agricultural production norms, these entrepreneurs are
>increasingly important members of community food systems. Not only do
>these farmers contribute fresh and healthy alternatives to produce shipped
>from other regions, they also add to local rural economies - keeping
>grocery dollars local.
>
>Small acreage farmers, conventional growers who are interested in
>alternative production techniques or diversification opportunities,
>agricultural researchers, support agency personnel, and others interested
>in small-scale and organic food production are encouraged to attend the
>conference which will highlight innovations in small-acreage production,
>marketing, and financial risk management.
>
>The event will begin with pre-conference tours on Thursday, March 4. The
>tours will highlight sites at the University of Idaho and Washington State
>University where small acreage farmers can find helpful people and
>resources.
>
>On Friday and Saturday, March 5-6, conference participants will be able to
>choose from over thirty producer-oriented, marketing, management and
>technical sessions. These will cover topics such as soil health and
>microbiology, alternative weed and pest control, IPM, innovative marketing
>approaches, financing and managing a small farm, and how to decide what to
>produce.
>
>Featured speakers include Bob and Bonnie Gregson, owners of Island Meadow
>Farms on Vashon Island in Washington and co-authors of Rebirth of the Small
>Family Farm; Jeff Rast, farmer and founder of the Center for Small Acreage
>Farming, in Fairfield, ID; Larry Thompson, an Oregon farmer and chair of
>the USDA Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
>Administrative Council; and, Tim Blakley, of Frontier
>Herbs and author of Medicinal Herbs in the Garden, Field and Marketplace.
>
>On Sunday, March 7 Michael Shuman, a Fellow of the Institute for Policy
>Studies and author of Going Local: Developing Self-Reliant Communities in a
>Global Age, will lead a strategy session and discussion on how to develop
>community-based economies that are
>resilient and meet the needs of local residents. Shuman will share what he
>has learned about communities around the US who are regaining control of
>their economies by investing in locally owned businesses. Local speakers
>will also discuss innovative community development programs and
>community-based businesses within the Inland Northwest. This one-day
>session can be registered for separately and will be of special interest to
>Inland Northwest small-business owners, farmers, policy makers, economic
>development professionals, students, educators and local activists.
>
>Cultivating the Harvest has financial support from Patagonia, Inc., Jessie
>Smith Noyes Foundation and USDA CSREES Risk Management Education
>Initiative/WSU Cooperative Extension. For more information on this
>conference or the INWCFS Task Force, contact Peggy Adams at 208-885-4636 or
>(peggy931@uidaho.edu) or check
>http://www.uidaho.edu/ag/environment/sustain/inwcfs/conference.html.
>
>
>
>Colette DePhelps
>Community Food Systems Program Coordinator
>
> "...the more naps you take, the more awakenings you experience." ~Melanie
>Karr
>
>===================================================================
>Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute
>P O Box 8596; 112 West 4th St; Suite #1
>Moscow ID 83843-1096
>Phone (208)882-1444; Fax (208)882-8029
>url: http://www.moscow.com/pcei
>
>Celebrating twelve years of connecting people, place and community.
>===================================================================
>
>
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
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>
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>http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:32:38 -0800 (PST)
>From: panupdates@igc.apc.org
>Subject: PANUPS: Resource pointer #192
>
>=====================================
>P A N U P S
>***
>Pesticide Action Network
>North America
>Updates Service
>http://www.panna.org/panna/
>email panna@panna.org
>=====================================
>
>Resource Pointer # 192
>
>January 25, 1999
>
>For copies of the following resources, please contact the appropriate
>publishers or organizations directly.
>
>*All You Can Eat, Environmental Working Group (EWG) Web Site, January
>1999* Interactive web site allows users to determine what pesticides they
>consume on a daily basis and their potential health effects. By selecting
>items from a list of foods, visitors to the site can access EWG's search
>engine that matches foods against more than 90,000 government lab test
>results for pesticide food residues. Provides suggestions for minimizing
>pesticide residue intake. Web site www.foodnews.org.
>
>*U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Pesticidal Chemicals
>Classified as Known, Probable or Possible Human Carcinogens, Web Site,
>1999* Provides U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs' most current list
>of pesticides categorized by carcinogenicity. Lists registration date,
>use patterns, and regulatory status. Web site
>www.epa.gov/pesticides/carlist/table.htm.
>
>*Citizens' Guide to Chemicals Known to Cause Human Cancer and
>Reproductive Toxicity, December 1998* Ellen Connett. Six-part report that
>includes lists of chemicals used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, plastics
>and dyes that are known to cause human cancer and/or reproductive
>toxicity. Also lists 84 "high production volume chemicals" known to cause
>cancer. Includes categories of chemical use. 80 pp. US$25. US$35 outside
>of U.S. Contact Waste Not, 82 Judson St., Canton, NY 13617; phone (315)
>379-9200; fax (315) 379-0448; email wastenot@northnet.org.
>
>*Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee (EDSTAC)
>Final Report, August 1998* Two volumes. Committee's final recommendations
>to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on endocrine disruptor
>screening and testing procedures required by the Food Quality Protection
>Act and Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. Includes
>recommendations on conceptual framework, priority setting, screening and
>testing, and communications and outreach. Free. Contact Environmental
>Assistance Division (7408), EPA, TSCA Assistance Information Service, 401
>M Street SW, Washington DC 20460; fax (202) 554-5603; email tsca-
>hotline@epamail.epa.gov.
>
>*A Report on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Predecisional Draft, August
>1998* The Interagency Workgroup on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).
>Includes overviews of scientific literature pertinent to MCS,
>recommendations from various expert panels on MCS, and past and current
>federal actions. Presents the Workgroup's technical and policy
>recommendations. 100 pp. Free. Contact Agency for Toxic Substances and
>Disease Registry Information Center, 1600 Clifton Rd. NE, Mail Stop E-57,
>Atlanta, GA 30333; phone (888) 422-8737; email atsdric@cdc.gov.
>
>=====================================================
>Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
>49 Powell St., #500, San Francisco, California 94102
>Phone (415) 981-1771 Fax (415) 981-1991
>Email panna@panna.org Web site www.panna.org/panna/
>
>To subscribe to PANUPS, email to majordomo@igc.org with
>the following text on one line: subscribe panups
>To unsubscribe send the following: unsubscribe panups
>=====================================================
>
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
>"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
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>
>All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
>http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 18:39:51 -0500
>From: Jenny Warden <JennyWarden@compuserve.com>
>Subject: sanet-mg-digest V1 #776
>
>The Farmstead Marketing Project in Virginia is conducting preliminary
>market research to try to gauge interest among Washington D.C.
>area consumers for Piedmont Natural Beef. This is beef from cattle
>raised with no hormones, antibiotics, or pesticides on family-owned
>farms in Virginia. The animals are grown under humane conditions
>and do not go to large feedlots.
>
>Piedmont Natural Beef is lower in fat than conventionally raised
>beef and customers love the flavor and texture. It will be available
> in 20 pound boxes for $50 or 40 pound boxes for $90. The boxes
> will be a mix of steaks, roasts, hamburgers, and stew / fajita cuts.
>
>Remember, this is research at this stage. It will be the better part
>of a year before we can deliver. But your interest will help make it
>possible.
>
>If you're interested please email
>jennywarden@compuserve.come
>
>Many thanks,
>Jenny
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
>"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
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>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 17:53:02 -0700
>From: Cukbertson <pachamam@rmi.net>
>Subject: edamame, vegetable green soybean seed available
>
>We grow 6 acres of certified organic mixed vegetables at Pachamama Organic
>Farm in Longmont Colorado. The last two years we have grown fresh edamame
>(vegetable green soybeans) and sold them at farmers markets and wholesale
>to local Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Alfalfa's Markets. The feeding frenzy
>that engulfed us was almost overwhelming and was by far the most profitable
>crop that I've ever grown. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit you will
>want to include edamame in your 1999 crop plan.
>
>Edamame is translated as "beans on branches" in Japanese. Fresh beans are
>harvested by cutting the entire plant at 2" above ground level, leaves are
>stripped leaving "beans on branches". We formed one pound bunches using a
>2x3" "broccoli tag" that were custom made for our farm. Our farmers market
>price was $5.00/bunch, wholesale at $3.40/# selling at retail for $5.99#.
>Sampling and demos are critical for this "new" crop to be successful. We
>harvested 6000#'s/acre of saleable produce. Labor is high but it has been
>worth it to us.
>
>Here's the scoop on edamame seed. Johnny's sells Butterbean and Envy
>varieties. They are short season, pods are small, flavor is good. The
>Japanese varieties that I grow are harvested 5-7 days later, are 50% larger
>pod size and a have deeper green color. My experience shows that the
>Japanese varieties have a much higher customer appeal. You can buy them
>imported from Japan for $15.00-$20.00/ pound. Planting rate is 80#/acre.
>
>*****I'm working with a Japanese seed company that will be growing edamame
>seed domestically during 1999 for 2000 sales at significantly lower prices
>than imported seed. In the meantime, we are selling imported Japanese seed
>for the 1999 season at $10.00/pound. Quantities are limited. My experiences
>and advice is included.*****
>
>Growers, seed wholesalers (mail order catalogs) and frozen vegetable
>company inquiries are welcome. Home gardners please call Johnny's Selected
>Seeds at (207)437-4301 as I am not set up for small seed packets.. For
>additional information about edamame go to WSU's edamame website at
>http://agsyst.wsu.edu/edam.htm
>
>Email or call Ewell Culbertson, Pachamama Organic Farm, (303)776-1924.
>
>
>
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
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>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 13:28:06 +1200
>From: WOHLFART@chch.agnz.co.nz (Samira Wohlfart)
>Subject: Organic Products Exporters Group
>
>Hi SANETTERS
>
>The New Zealand Organic Products Exporters Group (OPEG) is now live
>on the web!
>
>The website (http://www.organicsnewzealand.org.nz) features
>information about OPEG, members, products available, membership
>information, links & publications. At present, available in English
>and German, soon also in Japanese.
>
>If anyone would like to suggest a link or any other suggestions,
>please either email myself (wohlfart@chch.agnz.co.nz) or use the
>'Contact Us' section on the site. Any comments would be much
>appreciated!
>
>Thank you for your time!
>Kind Regards
>Samira
>
>
>Organic Products Exporters Group Inc. (OPEG)
>PO Box 8640
>Christchurch
>New Zealand
>Ph: +64 3 348-0979
>Fax: +64 3 348-1867
>Email: wohlfart@chch.agnz.co.nz
>Website: http://www.organicsnewzealand.org.nz
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
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>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 20:39:00 -0500
>From: "Michele Gale-Sinex/CIAS, UW-Madison" <mgs@aae.wisc.edu>
>Subject: Re: Aspartame, Organic Food, Urban Myths
>
>A note, all, on Greg Stitz's sharing:
>
>> Regarding the Aspartame story that keeps popping up: WORLD
>> ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE and the MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS FOUNDATION IS
>> SUING F.D.A. FOR COLLUSION WITH MONSANTO Article written by Nancy
>> Markle (1120197).
>>
>> Please refer to an excellent website at
>> http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blasp.htm
>
>
>This Urban Legends article summarizes the Nancy Markle/Betty Martini
>complaints about aspartame and offers links to on-line resources. I
>am assuming it is authored by David Emery, founder of U.L., though
>there is no by-line, and I could be wrong about that. (But then why
>expect attribution of authorship in an article debunking what the
>writer calls "scarelore"?) Anyway, the article comments:
>
>> Far be it from me to insist that the FDA is infallible and
>> incorruptible, but I would point out that the agency has common
>> sense and years of accumulated research on its side when it
>> maintains that the sweetener is safe for most people. As to
>> aspartame's critics, it doesn't help their cause that the
>> information presented in the email is disorganized, hysterical, and
>> poorly substantiated.
>
>[commenting on symptoms that Martini says people have reported:]
>
>> That's a dizzying array of charges - to which it's perfectly
>> reasonable to respond: if it's provable that aspartame causes all of
>> these serious health problems, why isn't the entire medical
>> establishment up in arms about it? Why does the substance continue
>> to have the FDA's approval?
>
>> Can the anti-aspartame forces prove the results were tainted?
>
>Apart from this touching faith in the medical establishment (which
>took a fat waddling lapdog's age to acknowledge the health effects of
>tobacco, for instance) and the regulatory establishment (with its
>revolving-door relationship with the industries it regulates), the
>writer's understanding of the larger issues here strikes me as a tad
>weak.
>
>Therefore the writer isn't likely to understand what's behind the
>citizen concerns--however "inadequately" they're expressed, citizens
>*are* picking up on these larger issues of policy, proof,
>epistemology, and public health. They may lack degreed discourse or
>research budgets, and they may reason rather sloppily at times. But
>anybody who reads citizen discourse for scientific content might as
>well read Kenneth Starr or George Will for that, as well.
>
>As for those larger issues, I encourage you SANETters to read the
>Urban Legends aspartame article and then compare it with the
>Brewster Kneen piece that Rebecca Kneen posted earlier this very
>same afternoon, where he observed:
>
>> The rule change that industry wants, and which it is quietly
>> getting, is a radical redefinition of 'burden of proof'. Instead of
>> the manufacturer having to prove to the public authorities that
>> their product is safe, it is rapidly becoming the rule that it is
>> the responsibility of the regulator to prove that a product is
>> harmful in order to deny approval or licensing. Harm, however, is
>> much more difficult to actually prove, in the current ideology of
>> 'science', than no harm. For example, the manufacturers of rBGH
>> and their scientists, such as Dale Bauman at Cornell, simply
>> pointed to the absence of "catastrophic effects" on the health of
>> cows as proof of the drug's safety. Similarly, there are any
>> number of agricultural chemicals that cannot be clinically proven
>> to be specifically harmful but for which anecdotal evidence
>> indicates a level of probable harm that is quite unacceptable, as
>> with endocrine disruptors.
>>
>> For the manufacturer of genetically altered foods, the reversal of
>> the burden of proof from having to prove safety to demonstrating
>> the absence of harm also makes it possible to transfer liability
>> from itself or its agents to the regulatory agency. If the
>> regulatory agency does not find the g.e. food harmful or unsafe --
>> which might mean the impossible task of identifying previously
>> unidentified and unknown allergens or toxins -- then a person
>> affected by eating the food in question cannot hold the
>> manufacturer liable. This will protect corporate profits, but not
>> public health.
>
>You all can do your own noshings on these two pieces; I just wanted
>to raise the issue here. It was rather...uncanny...to have both these
>pieces in the same day's mail.
>
>I've been watching the aspartame issue since its inception in the
>80s. It parallels in my mind other consumer/citizen efforts to
>highlight and publicize observed health effects of substances that
>researchers insist cause no harm. So it interests me as a
>communications topic, and I've watched it in that way. In fact, a few
>weeks ago I drafted a piece on this to you all...then stuck it away.
>
>For now, I just want to say this.
>
>Greg, the Urban Legends writer has already decided that the e-mail
>campaign on aspartame effects is "scarelore," so presents the issue
>as a tale of the paranoid, ranting assertions of Hysterical,
>Conspiracy-Minded Women vs. the accumulated evidence of Cool
>Rational Science/Regulatory Oversight. (He even invokes MEDLINE as
>the authoritative source--as though appearance of evidence in that
>medium is conclusive in all realms of fact or observation.)
>
>Just the kind of deep-probing and far-ranging conceptual power we
>need applied to analysis of food systems and food safety issues, yo?
>
>Allow me to submit that the Urban Legends writer is passing along his
>own version of an urban legend: the Hysterical Female whose
>irrational observations plague Henpecked Scientists and Regulators.
>One need only set up the two sides in mythic battle and say, "Lo!
>Dear Reader! Behold! And decide for yourself!" Provide enough fuel
>(quotes, links, stage-direction) to get the sizz sizzling. Then
>withdraw...and wait for people to forward the content all over
>creation, like the Forest Fire Scuba Diver or the Nieman Marcus
>Cookie Recipe or the Good Times E-Mail Virus.
>
>And thus in my humble opinion the Urban Legends writer's reaction to
>the aspartame issue qualifies as a potential contribution to urban
>legend itself. It doesn't shed a cat's midnight-fur-spark worth of
>light on the larger issue of food safety, regulation of new
>products, industry response to reported health issues among consumers
>of a new product, or the evolution of food safety policy that puts
>the burden of proof--and risk--on consumers.
>
>As for the Urban Legends founder, David Emery, here is his bio at the
>UL Web site:
>
>> David Emery is a freelance writer and an avid chronicler of urban
>> folklore, with special emphasis on the lore and folklife of the
>> Internet.
>>
>> Experience: Mr. Emery's professional credits include stints as
>> creative consultant for the hit stage show All Grown Up and No
>> Place to Go and as a staff writer for the CBS-TV comedy series
>> Life...and Stuff. He established himself as an arch commentator on
>> the outer limits of Net culture with Iron Skillet Magazine, "a
>> compendium of offbeat views run through the blender of the author's
>> savage sense of humor [with] on-target skewerings of strange ideas"
>> (Houston Chronicle). He has been collecting and writing about
>> contemporary folklore on the Internet since 1997.
>>
>> Education: Mr. Emery received a B.A. in philosophy from Portland
>> State University, followed by graduate studies in philosophy and
>> classics at the University of Texas at Austin.
>
>I'd say he's probably as qualified as anyone to debunk Hook Man, the
>shivering Chihuahua, the microwaved cat, the choking Doberman, and
>the black widows in the B-52. I don't know that he's the author of
>the aspartame piece, but if he is, my guess is that food safety and
>food system analysis could strand him a wee bit out of his depths,
>conceptually. And we might pause before passing that along to others.
>
>By the way, Hook Man is real. I went to high school with some folks
>who knew somebody whose sister babysat for a girl whose big sister
>and her boyfriend saw him on Beaver Valley Rd. Really.
>
>Sifting and winnowing by the shores of beautiful Lake Mendota, I wish
>you
>
>peace
>misha
>
><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>Michele Gale-Sinex, communications manager
>Center for Integrated Ag Systems
>UW-Madison College of Ag and Life Sciences
>Voice: (608) 262-8018 FAX: (608) 265-3020
>http://www.wisc.edu/cias/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>There is something fascinating about science.
>One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture
>out of such trifling investment of fact.
>- --Mark Twain
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
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>
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>http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 22:48:03 -0500 (EST)
>From: Renewable News Network <rnn@rnn.com>
>Subject: Pesticide residues in farmlands and human health impacts (fwd)
>
>- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 13:06:33 -0500
>From: Bruce Coldham <brucecol@crocker.com>
>To: greenbuilding@crest.org
>
>We are considering a parcel of land adjacent to a highway in Hadley MA for
>a private high school. It has been farmed (raising corn) for a long time.
>Does anuone have any SPECIFIC knowledge of adverse human health effects
>from herbicide or pesticide in the soil from buildings and recreation
>fields so situated.
>NOTE:
>1. pesticide application is not likely to have been applied at the level
>that sometimes occured around buildings to kill termites etc.
>2. I am not talking about air-bourne pesticide drifting across from
>adjacent fields
>
>Bruce Coldham
>
>This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by CREST <www.crest.org>
>Environmental Building News <www.ebuild.com> and Oikos <www.oikos.com>
>For instructions send e-mail to greenbuilding-request@crest.org.
>
>Send press releases, announcements, and notices of interest to:
> <RNN> Renewable News Network
> 44 Norfolk Street
> Needham, MA 02492 USA
>Contact: Ross M. Donald 781-453-9668 <rnn@rnn.com>
>
>To receive the next edition of the Environmental Review,
>send, subscribe er-list, to <majordomo@world.std.com>;
>for Solar Utilities info, send, subscribe solar_utilities
>
>
><RNN>
>
>
>
>To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
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>
>All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
>http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 21:57:20 -0500
>From: "Michele Gale-Sinex/CIAS, UW-Madison" <mgs@aae.wisc.edu>
>Subject: Avery/Sierra Club
>
>Howdy, all--
>
>I was intrigued by the undocumented/sourceless report posted to our
>SANET circle last week, that Sierra Club's executive director, Carl
>Pope, had "endorsed high-yield agriculture, including bio-engineered
>crops, because high farm yields will help save wildlife habitat and
>wild species." My BS-meter pinned itself so far in the red zone it
>looped around to the other side of the peg at the zero point.
>
>As I reported to you on Friday afternoon, I did some legwork on U.S.
>Newswire, the only listed source on the piece, and learned U.S.
>Newswire appears to be a pass-along service--a Web-based
>dissemination service for other people's press releases.
>
>http://www.usnewswire.com/index.htm
>
>I wrote to you that the piece read to me like a Hudson Institute
>press release, passed along via this third-party service with the
>veneer of impartial credibility that such services can lend. And I
>mentioned that this is one of the tactics of--did I say sleazy? I
>meant some more tactful word--a certain kind of PR/media.
>
>This morning I talked to Daniel Silverman, press secretary for the
>Sierra Club's national office. He was aware of this issue, though it
>sounded to me like it was one of those issues that snuck up on them
>all at the end of a week, and he was trying to provide on a Monday
>morning what information he could, while still in the stages of
>understanding just what in hades was going on.
>
>That's the thing about misinformation/disinformation--it's hard to
>get hold of and drag into the light. Which is part of its power.
>(Like those of urban legends, might I add. And any resemblance
>between that phenomenon and the Averian High-Yield High-Chemical
>High-Tech Agriculture, I will not even hint at here. :^)
>
>Daniel Silverman referred to this paragraph in the U.S. Newswire
>piece:
>
>> Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues has researched and
>> advocated this agricultural production technique to help preserve
>> the world's environment. In a Dec. 21, 1998, letter to the editor
>> of Philanthropy magazine, Pope wrote: I strongly endorse (Dennis
>> Avery's) call for a renewed commitment to governmental and
>> philanthropic funding of agricultural research, including research
>> into conventionally bred or bio-engineered new varieties of
>> crops. A massive increase in such research is, as Avery argues,
>> absolutely critical. Only then can the promise of high-tech
>> breeding be combined with the social and environmental needs of
>> the world."
>
>Please look at this paragraph again as you read points 1 and 2.
>
>Silverman said that
>
>1) that letter from Pope has not been published in /Philanthropy/.
>
>2) Pope's comments were taken out of context; he was referring to the
>trend where governmental and philanthropic support for research is
>decreasing, and private/corporate support is increasing. And wanted
>to indicate an agreement with Avery's point that public sector and
>philanthropic sector research must be shored up.
>
>As for item 2), Pope's unpublished letter said: "While the data I
>have seen on the relative productivity per acre of low input
>agriculture does not support Dennis Avery's argument that it will
>require more acreage to feed the world than using chemically
>intensive agriculture, I strongly endorse his call for a renewed
>commitment to governmental and philanthropic funding of agricultural
>research including research into conventionally bred or
>bio-engineered new varieties of crops. In addition to the arguments
>that Avery offers for why we should not fall back into reliance on
>private agribusiness to do all of our research, there is another and
>fundamental reason. Approximately one billion poor farmers produce
>25% of the world's food, and also produce livelihoods for themselves
>and their families. These farmers do not represent an attractive
>commercial market for agricultural researchers in private industry.
>New varieties suitable for their needs, even if productive, would not
>be as profitable as equally useful new varieties meeting the needs of
>large or commercial growers or those with higher incomes. Worse, the
>exigencies of the marketplace are leading many bioengineering
>companies down a road that will make life dramatically worse for
>these poor farmers and for the global environment. The inflammatory
>conflict over Monsanto's "terminator" technology is only the latest
>example. The "terminator" gene, jointly developed by USDA and a
>research firm subsequently acquired by Monsanto, enables seed
>companies to produce high-yielding varieties of crops such as rice
>and wheat which will be sterile. This will solve the "problem" for
>seed companies that farmers currently save their seeds for such
>crops, because they cannot afford to buy fresh seed every year. What
>is a "problem" for seed companies is, of course, an important element
>of economic security for poor farmers around the world. But from the
>viewpoint of commercial bioengineers, there is relatively little
>incentive to develop a fantastic new variety of wheat or rice since,
>unlike hybridized food crops like corn, the market is relatively
>small. This is particularly true of a variety that may require low
>levels of chemical inputs and produce particular benefits when used
>in labor intensive agriculture with poor soils or weather-precisely
>where poor farmers are most in need. And from an environmental
>perspective, the terminator gene is a serious threat, since it will,
>inevitably, migrate at least to close relatives of the engineered
>crop, eliminating the natural fertility of wild strains and related
>endemic species and accelerating the alarming trend of global loss of
>germ plasm. (This same propensity of this gene to cross-breed, of
>course, means that even farmers who never buy the terminator seed may
>lose the fertility of some or all of their saved seed, because it
>will have been cross pollinated with the gene.) Only philanthropic or
>public sector research institutions can be expected to pursue
>promising breeding strategies without regard to such commercial
>exigencies, and a massive increase in such research is, as Avery
>argues, absolutely critical--only then can the promise of high-tech
>breeding be combined with the social and environmental needs of the
>world."
>
>Compare it to the quote from the Hudson [?] press release. This
>strikes me as a particularly cheesy taking-out-of-context.
>
>I plan to do a small spot of further legwork on this. Just wanted to
>share this with you before today turns into tomorrow. SANETters, I'd
>appreciate hearing from any of you who have more information than I
>do on this.
>
>Gotta scoot now; be righteous, all, and take no wooden nickels.
>
>
>peace
>misha
>
><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>Michele Gale-Sinex, communications manager
>Center for Integrated Ag Systems
>UW-Madison College of Ag and Life Sciences
>Voice: (608) 262-8018 FAX: (608) 265-3020
>http://www.wisc.edu/cias/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>Dennis: Anarcho-syndicalism is a way of *preserving* freedom!
>His Wife: Oh, Dennis, *forget* about freedom! We 'aven't got enough mud!
>
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