-Caveat Lector- [HardGreenHerald] # 13 "Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." --Dr. Seuss, 'The Lorax' --A RadTimes production-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --------------- --Earth First vs. Earth worst --French Farmers Sentence Upheld --Protesters take to tracks ahead of nuclear train --When the wind blows [radioactivity] --German police use water cannon on nuke activists --Protesters force back German nuclear waste train --Animals 'Could Be Buried Alive' --Nuclear Train Protesters Removed --Bill Moyers Takes On Chemical Industry --Foot And Mouth Crisis (links) --Animal rights protesters to defy police over demonstration --Cow Diseases Lift Luxury Leather Price --Green Party Report on Foot and Mouth --Chemical Industry Archives =================================================================== Earth First vs. Earth worst As planet degrades, Greens need to learn to fight smarter The Bush Administration is pushing back protections on clear air and water standards. Drilling for oil and gas could resume in these federally protected waters off the California coast. By Eugene Linden MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR March 22 - President Bush has caved to pressure from energy industry interests (code for campaign donors) and backed off a Sept. 29 pledge to take action on the threat of human-caused climate change. Bowing to pressure from the mining industry, Bush has also dismantled federal standards on arsenic levels in drinking water. Score two big wins for the corporate Browns in their long-standing rivalry with the Greens in this latest game in the World Environmental League. Greens need to toss their play book and find a legitimate way to level the playing field. THIS SHOULD NOT be a surprise, since the Browns are pros playing for money, while the greens are amateurs playing for effete liberal ideas like the viability of the planet. Those who protect nature always seem to be playing touch football while their opponents play tackle and buy the ref. This is true in the global warming division of the league in the U.S., and every division ‹ deforestation, biodiversity, oceans, etc. ‹ in the developing world. What is surprising is that the great majority of Greens would not have it any other way. This is not strictly an American problem. Not too long ago, I listened as a highly motivated group of environmentalists discussed plans to fund a pilot project on ecotourism in Quintana Roo, Mexico. The idea was to point the way towards nature-friendly projects in this beautiful but vulnerable stretch of Caribbean coast. I should have been swept up by their idealism, but I wanted to tear my hair. Twelve years earlier, I had visited this very area and heard highly motivated Greens discuss similar plans to raise money to fund pilot projects in ecotourism. In the interim, highly motivated developers have built real hotels, destroying mangroves, killing reefs, and fouling once-clear sinotes in the process. There are no pilot hotels. DANCE OF DESTRUCTION It appears that your browser doesn't support cookies, so we can't record your vote. If you've received this message in error, please contact MSNBC technical support. This was but one episode of a pas de deux of destruction now playing throughout the developing world. While Greens concoct pilot projects and scrupulously honor ³process,² developers develop, loggers log, and poachers poach. When a builder in Quintana Roo or Phuket, Thailand covets a piece of beachfront property, he does whatever necessary to get the necessary approvals, produces an environmental impact study that suggests that sewage is good for coral reefs, and then builds. When environmentalists find some natural treasure, they hold conferences, fund surveys and censuses, seek consensus with locals, and then, maybe, end up with a protected area, but no money for protection. A Green-run airline would have pilots perpetually training for flights that were forever delayed. EXPLOITERS¹ ADVANTAGE When they need it, exploiters have an ace in the hole: corruption. Payoffs and muscle, ubiquitous in decisions affecting natural areas in the developing world, utterly trump the law-abiding, bureaucratic approach of Greens. Mario Villanueva, the governor of Quintana Roo, accused of taking mordida to approve hotels, has gone on the lam, but the damage is done. When, during the Asian financial crisis, Greens asked then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to support making new loans to Indonesia contingent on environmental reform, he replied that the time to talk about environment was when the country was back on the path to prosperity. Wrong: it was when Indonesia was richest that its corrupt politicians and generals were the most destructive. Things are no better now, though, as free-lance loggers, squatters, and poachers take advantage of the country¹s instability to invade the nation¹s protected areas and remaining forests. RISING AWARENESS, DWINDLING CLOUT As we watch forests disappear, fisheries die, and creatures go extinct, the burden of proof lies with those who would protect nature rather than those would exploit her. Little wonder that decades of mounting environmental awareness have produced so little in the way of facts on the ground. The decline of earth¹s ecosystems has only accelerated despite a geometric growth in the number of environmental groups around the world. Perhaps the most aggravating aspect of this danse macabre is that even its victims accept it as the way it should be. As one environmentalist told me, ³Of course we have to do an assessment; how else can we make the case for what to save and where to put boundaries?² He¹s right. But, doesn¹t it seem strange that even as we watch forests disappear, fisheries die, and creatures go extinct, we continue to agree that the burden of proof lies with those who would protect nature rather than those would exploit her? Greens do their studies before entering an area, while if a company is building a pipeline in Kamchatka or a road in the Amazon, they make their plans first and let others worry about environmental impact. The practical reality is that once a development project is announced, with all its promise of jobs and profits, it is very difficult to halt. BILLS COMING DUE Still, what seems like common sense today, may go down in history as collective madness as the bills start coming due for the destruction of earth¹s life support systems. Greens need to toss their play book, and find a legitimate way to level the playing field. The huge reservoir of environmental awareness in the rich consuming nations offers enviros a powerful weapon to bring to bear on corporations, financial institutions, and international lending agencies that control the flow of money to the developing world ‹ a point made by activists at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. This is a useful step. And please, no more pilot projects. --------------- Eugene Linden is writes about the environment for Time magazine and is the author of books. He is a regular contributor to MSNBC.com. =================================================================== Thursday, March 22, 2001 French Farmer's Sentence Upheld <http://news.findlaw.com/ap/i/1103/3-22-2001/20010322143510290.html> MONTPELLIER, France (AP) _ A French appeals court on Thursday upheld a radical farmer's three-month prison sentence for ransacking a McDonald's to protest unchecked globalization. Jose Bove, a 47-year-old sheep farmer, has become a symbol of anti-globalization activists in France and abroad since he led an attack on a McDonald's restaurant under construction in the southern town of Millau in August 1999. The court in Montpellier upheld a September ruling that ordered Bove to spend three months in jail for vandalizing the fast-food restaurant. Lawyers for Bove and the other defendants in the case argued that the action was a symbolic, nonviolent protest against multinational corporations. Bove's defense compared the ransacking to the Boston Tea Party and the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution. His lawyers have argued that French farmers were "taken hostage" by a U.S. decision to slap a surtax on some European luxury products, including Roquefort cheese, a product of Bove's region. They argued that the farmers' only chance to defend themselves was to take radical action against U.S. multinationals like McDonald's. The surtaxes, backed by the World Trade Organization, were a countermeasure to protest Europe's rejection of U.S. hormone-treated beef. Bove, who spent part of his youth in Berkeley, Calif., has become a sort of folk hero in France. His trial last month turned into an anti-globalization festival, with thousands of costumed supporters dancing though the town's winding streets in a parade. =================================================================== Protesters take to tracks ahead of nuclear train About 1,000 anti-nuclear protesters have occupied a stretch of German rail line along which a train carrying nuclear waste is due to travel. Germany's largest ever peacetime security operation was under way to ensure that protesters do not prevent the controversial shipment being delivered to Gorleben in northern Germany. Earlier, police clashed with demonstrators and cut down Greenpeace activists who attached themselves to a rail bridge. Full story - BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1244000/1244540.stm Related story: Activists chain themselves to bridge - Ananova http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_256176.html Background: Gorleben nuclear plants resistance - OneWorldWeb http://www.oneworldweb.de/castor/english/wendish.html Feature: The anti-nuclear movement - Frankfurter Allgemeine, 26.3.01 http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub={B1311FE5-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88}&doc={A2E741C0-1338-11D5-A3B3-009027BA22E4} Previous events: Germany braces for week of protests - CNN, 25.3.01 http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/24/germany.waste/index.html Campaign: Stop the nuclear waste transports - Greenpeace (in German) http://www.greenpeace.de/GP_SYSTEM/1QIC5EME.HTM Special report: Nuclear industry - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/0,2759,181325,00.html =================================================================== When the wind blows <http://www.newscientist.com/newsletter/news.jsp?id=ns228434> Beware tumbleweeds . . . they may have strayed into a radioactive pond New Scientist magazine 31 March 2001 MIGRATING ducks and stray tumbleweeds have been contaminated with radioactivity after landing fleetingly in ponds of waste water at a nuclear facility in the US. The news raises questions about the practice of leaving such ponds open to the elements. In the mid-1990s, staff at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) realised that tumbleweeds were able to "blow into waste-water ponds, and wash up on shore and blow out again", says Ronald Warren, an independent environmental monitoring expert who is contracted to scrutinise radioactivity at INEEL. "The tumbleweeds blew against the [2-metre high] fence where they built up, forming a ramp other weeds could climb over," he says. In a two-year study, Warren and his colleagues measured how much radiation the tumbleweeds took with them from two waste ponds near a US Navy test reactor. The team found that the tumbleweeds, which were mostly Russian thistle (Salsola kali), carried out a total of 66 megabecquerels of radiation and spread it over a 32-hectare area. "The activity from those tumbleweeds made a relatively small, around 15 per cent, increase to the activity due to global fallout in that area," he says. Risk to humans is slight since the nearest house is 42 kilometres away and the tumbleweeds travelled less than a kilometre. Nonetheless, INEEL has taken action. "They've now made the fence higher and they go out and collect tumbleweeds and bury them," Warren says. Growing shrubs near the ponds has also hampered the tumbleweed. But birdlife is not so easily thwarted. In research yet to be published, Warren says he has found 21 species of migratory duck that fly over INEEL, and some take a rest stop in the waste ponds. Warren says the duck's radiation levels wouldn't harm you, even if you ate a whole one. "The maximum radiation dose you'd get would be less than you'd get from a dental X-ray," he says. This does not reassure everyone. "I haven't a clue why they don't cover the ponds with any kind of net," says Margaret Stewart of the Snake River Alliance, an anti-nuclear pressure group based in Idaho. "It seems like a sensible kind of thing to do if you're trying to keep birds out." But an INEEL spokesman maintains that radionuclide concentrations are so low in the ponds that birds would face more risk of death from entanglement in netting. Britain had its own problem with birds in 1999, when researchers found that pigeons visiting contaminated buildings at the Sellafield nuclear complex were concentrating radioactivity in their droppings in the nearby village of Seascale. ----------- More at: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity (vol 54, p 361) =================================================================== German police use water cannon on nuke activists <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10286> REUTERS NEWS SERVICE March 28, 2001 DANNENBERG, Germany - Clashes between German riot police and environmental activists trying to stop a nuclear waste train worsened yesterday as police fired water cannon to disperse protesters. Police said they fired after protesters in the north German town of Dannenberg shot flares in the direction of the gathered police ranks. "The situation has become more grave. Protesters have fired flares on police, including helicopters, there are reports that activists are preparing attacks with vinegar acid and a police car was set on fire," a police spokesman said. The train is carrying slag from a French plant that reprocesses fuel rods from German reactors. It is the first such shipment since a ban imposed three years ago and it has required one of the biggest peacetime security operations Germany has ever seen to keep the line open. The train was halted near the town of Dahlenburg about 14 km (nine miles) from Dannenberg after activists damaged a section of track by chaining themselves to the line. The six wagon-sized containers were to be unloaded at Dannenberg and moved 25 km (16 miles) by road to Gorleben on Wednesday. =================================================================== Protesters force back German nuclear waste train <http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/03/03282001/reu_train_42773.asp> Wednesday, March 28, 2001 By Kai Pfaffenbach Anti-nuclear protesters who dodged security forces to chain themselves to railtracks forced a train bearing atomic waste on Wednesday to retreat near the end of its journey to a dump in north Germany. Riot police broke up a separate blockade attempt further down the tracks after charging a group of some 200 activists who staged a sit-in on the line. Wielding pneumatic drills and heavy bolt cutters, police freed three of the five protesters who had attached themselves by their arms to tubes cemented into the bed of the rail line but they could not say when the train could move again. "Once the people have been removed, the tracks will need to be repaired," said a police spokesman on the scene in Sueschendorf, 25 km (16 miles) from the Dannenberg depot where the waste is due to be unloaded onto flatbed trucks for its final journey by truck to the Gorleben dump on the Elbe river. "It could take 10 minutes or it could take hours," he added. The train, travelling since Monday from a waste reprocessing plant in northern France, withdrew to nearby Dahlenburg for refuelling and maintenance. The action, carried out overnight by an environmentalist group called Robin Wood, delayed further the arrival of the six "Castor" containers of reprocessed nuclear waste which had been scheduled on Tuesday. "It's an amazing success to force the Castors to turn back," said one protester, saying this was the first such retreat since controversial transports of reprocessed waste starting in 1995. Some 20,000 police have been deployed to guard the shipments in one of Germany's largest peacetime security operations. A group of around 200 activists briefly staged a separate sit-in protest on the tracks in Dannenberg before being charged by baton-wielding riot police. A small number of protesters responded by firing flares and throwing stones before retreating. One was knocked unconscious during scuffles. "It was a shame, we could have had a good peaceful occupation of the track with two or three hundred people," said Matthias Hofmann, a 27-year-old student from Hanover who said he had taken part in many anti-nuclear protests. "If they can't send their waste to France then the reactors will have to be shut down," he said, describing the blockades as "strangulation tactics" on German nuclear plants which do not have their own reprocessing facilities. Police deployed water cannon and detained nearly 600 people Tuesday evening after protesters fired flares and threw stones. They said the scuffles were provoked by leftwing activists, some of whom used slingshots to pelt police with stones. If and when the train reaches its destination at Dannenberg, loading is expected to take between eight and 12 hours before the final 25-km (16-mile) road journey to Gorleben. Under pressure from France to reduce a backlog of German waste at its La Hague reprocessing plant near Cherbourg, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder lifted a transport ban imposed on safety grounds in 1998. Two cargoes a year are now planned. The transports are part of a deal struck with the electricity industry last year to phase out Germany's 19 reactors by about 2025 a timeline considered too long by anti-nuclear activists. =================================================================== Animals Could Be Buried Alive Fears have been raised that animals involved in the foot and mouth crisis could be buried alive, as 2,000 sheep arrived for culling and burial at the Great Orton airfield near Carlisle today. Army butchers are assisting in the operation. The RSPCA said it had "grave concerns" about many aspects of the slaughter, urging that animals must be killed and not simply stunned before burial. Defence secretary Geoff Hoon insisted that the RSPCA will have access to the site. Full story - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/footandmouth/story/0,7369,464503,00.html Related story: Blair makes tourism plea - ITN http://www.itn.co.uk/news/20010328/britain/10foottourism.shtml Related story: Plan for firewall vaccination - Guardian http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/footandmouth/story/0,7369,464340,00.html Audio: At the burial pits - Guardian Unlimited http://www.pixunlimited.co.uk:7080/ramgen/news/politics/0328richardson.ra Comment: Don't let farmers blackmail us, by Simon Jenkins - Times http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,248-105849,00.html Factfile: Foot and mouth disease - Maff http://www.maff.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/default.htm Special report: Foot and mouth disease - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/footandmouth/ Email: Sign up for Guardian Unlimited's daily foot and mouth update http://www.guardian.co.uk/footandmouth/email/ =================================================================== Nuclear Train Protesters Removed German police today managed to clear the last of the protesters who stopped a train carrying nuclear waste to north Germany by attaching themselves to the tracks with concrete. Track repairs will be carried out before the train continues its journey to Gorleben. Over the past three days police have battled against protesters trying to sabotage the train's journey, in Germany's largest ever peacetime security operation. Full story - BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1246000/1246928.stm Previous events: Germany braces for week of protests - CNN, 25.3.01 http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/24/germany.waste/index.html Feature: The anti-nuclear movement - Frankfurter Allgemeine, 26.3.01 http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub={B1311FE5-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88}&doc={A2E741C0-1338-11D5-A3B3-009027BA22E4} Analysis: Anti-nuclear protests hit Germany's Greens - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,464062,00.html Background: German nuclear protests - IndyMedia http://www.indymedia.org/ Campaign: Stop Castor http://www.oneworldweb.de/castor/english/wendish.html Campaign: Stop the nuclear waste transports - Greenpeace (in German) http://www.greenpeace.de/GP_SYSTEM/1QIC5EME.HTM Special report: Nuclear industry - Guardian Unlimited http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/0,2759,181325,00.html =================================================================== Bill Moyers Takes On Chemical Industry http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/ In a 2-hour PBS special called "Trade Secrets," Bill Moyers took on the chemical industry for decades of lies about its harm to people and the environment. When the chemical industry denounced Moyers, he proudly stood his ground. "I consider myself in good company to be attacked by the industry that tried to smear Rachel Carson when she published Silent Spring. As its own documents reveal, this is the industry that kept from its workers the truth about what was making them sick; that opposes the right of citizens to know what is polluting their communities; that manipulated its own science to hide the hazards of chemicals; that spent millions of dollars to buy political influence, carve loopholes in environmental law, and create a regulatory system that it controls. The people who watch TRADE SECRETS will decide for themselves who is guilty of malpractice." =================================================================== Foot And Mouth Crisis (links) Napalm solution suggested for foot-and-mouth http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_250974.html Dublin sends in troops as disease finally strikes http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_251484.html Army commander outlines slaughter plans http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_253391.html Mass burial of foot-and-mouth carcasses begins http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_255488.html Ireland plans north-south slaughter http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_255677.html Army may step in to slaughter animals http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_256126.html Animal culls are 'turning people vegetarian' http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_256328.html Animals could be buried alive, warns RSPCA http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_257016.html Uniq counts the cost of foot-and-mouth outbreak http://www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_257551.html Army prepares for biggest cattle pyre http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_258190.html MAFF say cull 'could cause welfare problems' http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_258094.html =================================================================== Animal rights protesters to defy police over demonstration <http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_253541.htm> Sat, 24 Mar 2001 Animal rights protesters are planning to travel from all parts of England for a demonstration, despite fears over the spreading of foot-and-mouth. Police have urged campaigners against pharmaceutical testing firm Huntingdon Life Sciences to abandon plans to gather at Dunmow, Essex. Three weeks ago demonstrators gathered in Diss, Norfolk, then travelled to HLS headquarters in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Police say their concerns about tomorrow's demonstration are greater because the protesters are set to gather in the county where foot-and-mouth was first spotted, and where thousands of infected animals have had to be slaughtered. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, the group which organises demonstrations against HLS, was unavailable for comment. But the demonstration is listed on its internet website. Three weeks ago SHAC officials said they would not cancel demonstrations because they did not think protesters were likely to spread the virus. They also said foot-and-mouth was an economic disease which affected farmers' profits, not a virus which posed a great threat to animals. "It is believed that the demonstrators will meet in Dunmow but previous experience suggests they may move on to any number of locations within the county or even the region," said a police spokeswoman. "This could spell disaster for counties such as Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire that have so far been relatively untouched by the foot-and-mouth situation, having had no confirmed cases." Police have criticised the organisers of the demonstration for refusing to talk to officers to discuss their plans. =================================================================== Cow Diseases Lift Luxury Leather Price <http://www.iht.com/articles/15227.htm> Leslie Kaufman New York Times Service Friday, March 30, 2001 NEW YORK In Europe, the animal diseases threatening beef cattle, sheep and pigs have produced an almost daily ritual of gruesomely charred animal carcasses. Farmers, beef sellers and rural tourist operations have been hit hard by restrictions aimed at containing the diseases and by customers who are boycotting meat. So far, the devastation in Europe has had little effect on U.S. pocketbooks. But for at least some consumers, that appears about to change. Europe, and in particular, Britain, is a major supplier of animal hides for luxury leather products in the United States like car upholstery, furniture, fine jackets and high-end handbags. A sudden drop in beef consumption because of concerns about mad cow disease means far fewer animals are being slaughtered for meat. This among other factors has contributed to driving the price of steer hides up about 12 percent in the last six weeks, according to HideNet.com, an online market report. The surge in prices is already placing cost pressure on tanneries from South Korea to Italy that many in the leather industry expect to see reflected soon in U.S. markets, especially for luxury goods. Leather is a particularly global product. Hides from Argentine cows may be tanned in China, sewed into bomber jackets in South Korea and then shipped to Japan for sale. But not all hides are equally prized. In the world market, European hides are more highly valued because the animals are raised in a way that leaves the skins with fewer blemishes. "So much of our product that we bring in is imported from Italy," said Jerry Epperson, managing director of Mann, Armistead Epperson, an investment banking and research firm based in Richmond, Virginia, that specializes in home furnishings. "We will probably see higher prices reflected as soon as April at High Point," he said, referring to the North Carolina town that is home to the furniture industry's largest trade show. Other luxury products whose prices are expected to go up include high-end cars with fancy leather interiors. "We are seeing a 20 percent spike in prices," said Mark Yost, director of technology communications for Lear Corp., an auto industry supplier based in Southfield, Michigan, that makes leather seats for Volvo, Saab and Jaguar, among others. Designer fashions will probably take a hit as well. Although clothes require much less leather than a car seat or a couch, manufacturers must purchase raw materials soon if they want to ensure that the perfect black leather trench coat is in the stores next September. The shortage of leather is mostly going to affect top-quality leather jackets and skirts, said Josephine Seidita, marketing promotion manager of footwear and leather and components at the Italian Trade Commission in New York. Advances in technology and changes in labeling requirements in the United States have served to broaden and cheapen the leather market in the United States. Kmart Corp. sold stadium jackets for $59.99 last Christmas because it used pigskin from China. Still, for high-end goods there is no substitute for the real thing: Americans from the middle class on up have become enamored of fine European leathers for a wide range of uses. Leather furniture, for example, now accounts from some 25 percent of furniture sales in this country, up from 4 percent in 1988. About half of the roughly $1 billion in furniture imports last year came from Italy, almost all of which was leather. Europe, of course, is not losing all its cows overnight. The most immediate threat is the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, which has been concentrated in Britain but has spread in scattered outbreaks in Ireland and the Netherlands and elsewhere on the Continent. Despite the widespread restrictions that have been imposed because of the disease, Britain has authorized the slaughter of some 156,000 head of cattle, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, a tiny percentage of the European herd, which is about 80 million head of cattle. While affecting only a relatively small number of cows, foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious, hurting the leather industry because farmers are burning animals, hide and all, as soon as a herd is identified as contaminated. By contrast, slaughter from mad cow disease does not lead to total destruction of the animal. But no country slaughters cattle and sheep for skins alone. The fear of eating beef tainted by mad cow disease has reduced the number of cows slaughtered from about half a million a week to 350,000, according to estimates from HideNet.com. "When OPEC shuts off the spigot, what happens at the pump?" asked Charles Myers, executive director of Leather Industries of America, a trade group. "Of course the price is going up." =================================================================== Green Party Report on Foot and Mouth Relocalising Europe's Food Supply - Green Party Report Originated via: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Nick Whittingham) Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Excerpt: "Why is it that Foot and Mouth, a disease that doesn't harm humans and from which most animals recover in a matter of weeks, has virtually shut down the countryside, downgraded vaccination, led to massive slaughter of healthy animals, and crippled our tourist industry? The answer is to ensure that we can continue to export meat in a world where politicians treat globalisation like a god." ------------------------------------------- A new report from the Green Party - 'Stopping the Great Food Swap - Relocalising Europe's Food Supply' shows how the globalisation of the food industry is causing huge environmental and economic problems. The report, by trade and development expert Dr Caroline Lucas MEP (Green, South East England), links the increase of long-distance food transportation with foot-and-mouth disease, climate change, economic instability, lower animal welfare standards, and other major environmental and health problems. The report reveals the extent of the export-import madness caused by policies of cheap fuel and subsidised road transport. In a single year: - Britain IMPORTED 61,000 tonnes of poultry from the Netherlands but EXPORTED 33,000 tonnes of poultry back to the Netherlands. - Britain imported 240,000 tonnes of pork and exported 195,000 tonnes. - We imported 125,000 tonnes of lamb, but exported 102,000 tonnes. - We imported 126 million litres of milk, while exporting 270 million litres. Caroline Lucas MEP commented: "Long-distance transportation of farm animals and meat has been a major factor in the spread of foot-and-mouth - but it will take over FOURTEEN YEARS' worth of meat exports to compensate for the =A39 billion damage caused by foot-and-mouth disease to the UK economy. "We need a major change of direction. We need local production for local need to protect vulnerable producers, to reduce environmental impacts, to improve animal welfare standards, and to help tackle climate change." For comment/interviews, please call Spencer Fitz-Gibbon on 0161 225 4863, [EMAIL PROTECTED] . ENDS PRESS RELEASE FROM MEPs OFFICE : 'STOPPING THE GREAT FOOD SWAP - RELOCALISING EUROPE'S FOOD SUPPLY' (contains more detail on report itself). The Greens in The European Parliament Dr. Caroline Lucas MEP, Suite 58 The Hop Exchange, 24 Southwark St., London SE1 1TY ---------------------------------------------------- Tel: 0207 407 6281 / Fax: 0207 234 0183 Countryside Sacrificed for Future Meat Exports That Will Take 14 Years to Earn What the Present Crisis has Cost =AD the Answer: Local Production for Local Consumption On Sunday 25th March, at the Green Party's Spring Conference in Chesterfield, Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas will launch a new report calling for a dramatic reduction of international trade in food. Dr Lucas, MEP for the South East region, will say, "Why is it that Foot and Mouth, a disease that doesn't harm humans and from which most animals recover in a matter of weeks, has virtually shut down the countryside, downgraded vaccination, led to massive slaughter of healthy animals, and crippled our tourist industry? The answer is to ensure that we can continue to export meat in a world where politicians treat globalisation like a god." The Report, Stopping the Great Food Swap - Relocalising Europe's Food Supply, shows that according to the National Farmers Union all the UK earns from meat and dairy exports is =A3630 million per year. Yet one estimate of the cost of the Foot and Mouth epidemic in terms of losses predominantly in tourism, but also to farming, was put at =A39 billion. Even this huge sum was based on the optimistic assumption that the problem would have peaked by the end of the month. In effect that means that it will take more than 14 years of exports to match the cost of the mayhem and damage done in a few weeks of the present 'cull to eradicate' approach to foot and mouth. According to the report, "It is time for a radical rethink of the need for ever more international food trade, which exacerbates climate change and forces down food and animal welfare standards and contributes to such disasters as Foot and Mouth and BSE." The Report, (based on background research by the UK food and agriculture group, Sustain, and Colin Hines, author of 'Localisation =ADa Global Manifesto') details the rise in exports in and out of European countries, points out how this often involves the same products and asserts that European countries could reduce imports and compensate for this by increased local production. That would result in safer food, better animal welfare and a dramatic reduction in carbon emission, thus helping to tackle climate change. Its findings include: -- Britain imported 61,400 tonnes of poultry meat from the Netherlands in the same year that it exported 33,100 tonnes of poultry meat to the Netherlands. -- Britain imported 240,000 tonnes of pork and 125,000 tonnes of lamb while it exported 195,000 tonnes of pork and 102,000 tonnes of lamb. -- In the UK in 1997, 126 million litres of liquid milk was imported into the UK and at the same time 270 million litres of milk was exported out of the UK. 23,000 tonnes of milk powder was imported into the UK and 153,000 tonnes exported out. -- In 1996 the UK imported 434,000 tonnes of apples, 202, 000 of which came from outside the EU. Over 60% of UK apple orchards have been lost since 1970. Even if all the UK's home-grown fruit was consumed domestically, the UK could at present be only 5% self-sufficient in fruit -- Trade-related transportation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions and is therefore significant in terms of climate change. Although most food is distributed by road and ship, the airfreight of foodstuffs is increasing. For example, UK imports of fish products and fruit and vegetables by plane between 1980 and 1990 increased by 240% and 90%, respectively. UK air freight (imports and exports) grew by about 7 per cent a year in the 1990's and is expected to increase at a rate of 7.5 per cent a year to 2010 The Report's demand that trade and relocalisation of food production be part of the debate about transforming the Common Agricultural Policy has been welcomed as 'a very important contribution' by the and Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Green MEP Friedrich Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf. He also commented that: 'Addressing the transport issue is also essential if we are to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to tackle climate change. This is therefore a key issue for debate not just in Brussels, but also in the World Trade Organisation and in environment and agricultural ministries everywhere.' Caroline Lucas MEP promised that: "As more consumers, farmers and workers are feeling the downside of destructive globalisation, now is the time to consider how we replace this with localisation. This would keep production much closer to the point of consumption and protect and rebuild local economies around the world. As a member of the European Parliament's Trade Committee, I am committed to working to achieve this. It is the race for ever greater international trade and competitiveness that should go up in smoke, not animals and the future of our farmers and countryside." The report ends with the demand that the Common Agricultural Policy be replaced by a Localist Rural and Food Policy which must: (a) give priority to short supply routes and regional markets by measures that would include introduction of eco-taxation to ensure that the real costs of environmental damage and unsustainable production methods are included in the costs (b) promote the production of healthy foodstuffs by providing assistance in change-over costs and marketing to ensure that intensive systems are replaced by more natural ones such as organic farming (c) end the long distance transport of animals (d) restrict the concentration and market power of the major food retailers and (e) encourage rural regeneration and employment Ends For further details contact: Caroline Lucas MEP =AD 0802 721996 (after 22 March) Colin Hines, Research Adviser =AD 0208 892 5051 Alan Francis, Press Officer =AD 0776 997 0691 =================================================================== Chemical Industry Archives EWG http://www.chemicalindustryarchives.org/ Trade Secrets http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/ This week, PBS aired a disturbing two-hour special hosted by Bill Moyers that explores the history of the chemical revolution of the past 50 years and how companies have long sought to withhold information from the public and their employees about the safety of many substances. The program draws on a large collection of previously secret industry documents unearthed during a ten-year lawsuit by the family of a man who died from a rare brain cancer after working at a vinyl-chloride plant. The family's lawyer eventually charged all vinyl-chloride-producing companies with conspiracy, and the discovery process brought to light hundreds of thousands of pages of documents which reveal a closely planned and well-executed campaign to limit regulation of toxic chemicals and the liability of manufacturers and to withhold important health information from all parties. A large selection of these internal documents, over 37,000 pages, is now available for the first time at the Chemical Industry Archives, created by the Environmental Working Group. The site offers several essays on the archive and the industry, including a selection of some egregious examples of companies hiding or denying known health risks of their products. The archive itself may be searched by keyword with several modifiers. The documents are presented in .pdf format. This site is sure to become an extremely important resource for health activists, journalists, and the concerned public. The companion site to the PBS program offers an overview of the film, interview transcripts, selected documents in HTML and .pdf formats, chemical worker profiles and videos, and a section on the 84 chemicals detected in Bill Moyers's blood and urine. Visitors will also find features on industry secrecy, regulation, money, and politics, as well as right-to-know efforts and what people can do to help protect themselves. These are enhanced by interactive features, documents, and links to related resources. If you only have time to visit two sites this week, they must be the Chemical Industry Archives and Trade Secrets. =================================================================== "Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children." -Kenyan Proverb ====================================================== "We cannot solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them." -Albert Einstein ====================================================== "The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders." -Edward Abbey ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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