Environment
Groups Challenge USDA Approval of First Perennial Gene Altered Crop
San Francisco, Calif. – Shortly after a government report cited problems with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) oversight of genetically engineered (GE) crops, a coalition of farmers, farm groups, consumers, and environmentalists filed a lawsuit today calling the department’s approval of GE alfalfa a threat to farmers’ livelihoods and a risk to the environment.
The suit contends that the USDA improperly allowed the commercial release of GE alfalfa, the first commercial release of a GE perennial crop, and failed to analyze the public health, environmental, and economic consequences of the release.
The suit also asserts that the GE alfalfa will likely contaminate natural alfalfa and ultimately prevent farmers from producing natural, non-GE alfalfa for markets that demand it.
San Francisco, Calif. – Shortly after a government report cited problems with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) oversight of genetically engineered (GE) crops, a coalition of farmers, farm groups, consumers, and environmentalists filed a lawsuit today calling the department’s approval of GE alfalfa a threat to farmers’ livelihoods and a risk to the environment.
The suit contends that the USDA improperly allowed the commercial release of GE alfalfa, the first commercial release of a GE perennial crop, and failed to analyze the public health, environmental, and economic consequences of the release.
The suit also asserts that the GE alfalfa will likely contaminate natural alfalfa and ultimately prevent farmers from producing natural, non-GE alfalfa for markets that demand it.
One wonders what the Wicked Witch of the West must have been thinking in
that terrifying moment in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy doused her with
water, when she realized that she was melting and no amount of evil spells
was going to change that? With the recent deluge of melting glaciers and
warming seas, it seems we residents of planet Earth may be reaching a very
similar moment.
Our glaciers are melting at an ever quickening pace and there seems to be little we can do to stop it. According to recent studies, the Helheim glacier, one of the largest in Greenland, is melting at a rate much faster than expected. If it continues, Greenland will likely become much smaller and SEAS COULD RISE AS MUCH AS THREE FEET DURING THIS CENTURY. The accelerated melting is attributable to Greenland's warming temperatures which have risen five degrees Fahrenheit in the last ten years.
Our glaciers are melting at an ever quickening pace and there seems to be little we can do to stop it. According to recent studies, the Helheim glacier, one of the largest in Greenland, is melting at a rate much faster than expected. If it continues, Greenland will likely become much smaller and SEAS COULD RISE AS MUCH AS THREE FEET DURING THIS CENTURY. The accelerated melting is attributable to Greenland's warming temperatures which have risen five degrees Fahrenheit in the last ten years.
CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN: The Cornucopia Institute has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA requesting a full investigation into allegations of multiple violations of federal organic regulations at the nation’s largest organic dairy. The Aurora Organic Dairy, located in Colorado and with a herd approaching 6000 cows, appears to have violated numerous organic regulations governing the rearing of animals entering its vast factory farm operation.
“We have filed this complaint following our visit to the site of a nearby ranch that has been supplying – on a contract basis – hundreds of replacement cows to the Aurora Dairy,” said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin-based Institute.
“From our investigation, review of records and extensive interviews with the ranch owner, it appears that the operation has never had its livestock practices certified as organic,” Kastel said.
“We have filed this complaint following our visit to the site of a nearby ranch that has been supplying – on a contract basis – hundreds of replacement cows to the Aurora Dairy,” said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin-based Institute.
“From our investigation, review of records and extensive interviews with the ranch owner, it appears that the operation has never had its livestock practices certified as organic,” Kastel said.
I’ve seen the future replacement for gasoline, its name is butanol.
In August, I was attending a conference of the International Association of Educators for World Peace at the University of San Francisco, when a 1992 Buick rolled up on campus. The sign on its door read, “Powered by: 100% BUTANOL www.Butanol.com.”
The driver, David Ramey, had just driven from Blacklick, Ohio to the west coast on a fuel that replaces gasoline, gallon for gallon, with no engine modifications. Within a few minutes, Dave had us touching, smelling and burning butanol in small samples he supplied. The first thing I noticed is the absence of black smoke when it’s burned indoors.
“I began this project looking for a sustainable fuel source for small farmers to put in their tractors, then I realized you could put it right in a car,” Ramey told us.
In August, I was attending a conference of the International Association of Educators for World Peace at the University of San Francisco, when a 1992 Buick rolled up on campus. The sign on its door read, “Powered by: 100% BUTANOL www.Butanol.com.”
The driver, David Ramey, had just driven from Blacklick, Ohio to the west coast on a fuel that replaces gasoline, gallon for gallon, with no engine modifications. Within a few minutes, Dave had us touching, smelling and burning butanol in small samples he supplied. The first thing I noticed is the absence of black smoke when it’s burned indoors.
“I began this project looking for a sustainable fuel source for small farmers to put in their tractors, then I realized you could put it right in a car,” Ramey told us.
Future historians will remember the George W. Bush administration for allowing two colossal catastrophes on U.S. soil: the 9/11 terrorist attack and the Katrina hurricane invasion. In both cases, Bush the Younger ignored mounds of evidence pointing to each impending disaster.
In December 2002, Bush announced that his administration planned to study the issue of climate change for five more years rather than be forced into any action regulating fossil fuel emissions. The question of global warming was put on the back burner.
Even if Bush refused on principle to read those boring policy papers he might have accidentally stumbled on the fact that New Orleans was in peril from leafing through the pages of Rolling Stone, glancing at the pictures and reading a paragraph or two.
The February 20, 2003 issue of Rolling Stone had a graphic of the U.S. Capitol under water, and citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said “New Orleans, which has an average elevation of eight feet below sea level could become the next Atlantis.”
In December 2002, Bush announced that his administration planned to study the issue of climate change for five more years rather than be forced into any action regulating fossil fuel emissions. The question of global warming was put on the back burner.
Even if Bush refused on principle to read those boring policy papers he might have accidentally stumbled on the fact that New Orleans was in peril from leafing through the pages of Rolling Stone, glancing at the pictures and reading a paragraph or two.
The February 20, 2003 issue of Rolling Stone had a graphic of the U.S. Capitol under water, and citing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said “New Orleans, which has an average elevation of eight feet below sea level could become the next Atlantis.”
Republicans, before I ask you to take a pledge I would like you to read about the consequences of global warming, greenhouse gasses, and depletion of the ozone layer. If we do not act to reduce the use of fossil fuels your children will inherit a world which is hotter, which has dirtier air and water, which has severe floods and droughts, increasingly intense hurricanes, and more wildfires. Also, the level of the ocean will rise dramatically causing massive flooding along the entire coastal areas of the United States. And as the ocean warms the intensity of hurricanes will become more severe causing great losses in lives.
US Enrichment Corporation (USEC) currently has an application with the NRC to build a new uranium enrichment facility at the Piketon PORTS site. Enriched uranium has a lower content of fissionable U235 than the highly enriched uranium formerly produced. Citizens have been told that this enriched uranium will be used for power plants only. This American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) would rely on a gas centrifuge process, which would not use as much electricity as gaseous diffusion. The old gaseous diffusion plant, currently on cold standby, was reported by citizen research to use as much electricity as the City of Los Angeles when it was in operation.
In July 2004, DOE issued approval for construction of a facility at the PORTS site that will convert highly reactive depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6, left over from the former gaseous diffusion process) to the more stable uranium oxide. Although this conversion would appear to be desirable, there are downsides to the operation. One is that the technology is unproven. Another is that large numbers of cylinders of DUF6 are being trucked to PORTS from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for processing in a facility which is already 14 months behind schedule in its construction. DOE has estimated that the conversion facility, when operational, will take at least 25 years, working around the clock, to convert this DUF6 to uranium oxide. There are also large quantities of DUF6 at Paducah, Kentucky. Ohioans want to make every effort to ensure that our state does not become a defacto waste dump.
Pashenko found a spike of radon gas when he tested a PORTS sample over time. Buske reported that radium, not uranium, would be the source of radon of that quantity. Radium can be used as a powerful source of neutrons. Buske, an expert on nuclear weapons facilities and the politics surrounding the production of nuclear weapons, concluded that a probable explanation for radium in the sample is that the US is engaging in micronuclear neutron weapons research. If this is proven to be true, it would be a violation of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty to which the U.S. is signatory.
Back in 1994, the Free Press crusaded against the cash-burning power plant and dioxin generator on the South Side of Columbus. The words “Shut it down!” with the subtitle “June Alexander battles cancer and the trash-burner” on the June 1994 cover. The July-August 1994 Free Press issue revealed a rigged trash-burning test hiding record levels of carcinogenics spewing from the plant. With Theresa Mills, the late Roberta Booth and the Loscko family and workers on the inside, the Free Press broke story after story. An article by Free Press Editor Bob Fitrakis appeared in the now-defunct Columbus Guardian with leaked internal safety memos showing a tenth of the workforce at the plant had died during its decade of operation. The plant was shut later year. Now the stacks have been turned to rubble and the plant is dead. May the workers rest in peace. These articles and more will be included in the fifth volume of The Fitrakis Files scheduled to be published this spring.