US aims to overturn EU biotech food import ban
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told the Senate Finance Committee last week that the Bush administration is working to build an international coalition to help lift the four-year old European Union moratorium on import approvals for genetically modified foods. The coalition would then file a challenge in the World Trade Organization. US farm and industry groups say the moratorium costs them more than $300 million in annual sales. Zoellick said that beyond winning EU compliance on import approvals, he was interested in addressing the larger need to educate the public in the benefits of biotechnology. He and other officials say that confusion over biotechnology is having “devastating effects” in the developing world, most notably in the refusal of famine stricken African countries to accept US food aid that is partially derived from biotechnology. Critics of biotech foods fear they could cause allergic reactions, will irreversibly contaminate indigenous and/or organic crops near them, and have not been scientifically tested enough to prove they are harmless to human health or the environment. (ENS)

Biopharming controversy grows despite new rules
The federal government will allow American farmers to continue field tests of genetically modified crops engineered to produce medicine and industrial products, the lead official at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said last Thurs. New rules announced by the agency tighten the regulatory framework for these plants — often called biopharm crops — and “reflect the latest science and information,” said the administrator of APHIS, which is an agency within the US Department of Agriculture. The new rules have done little to silence a growing wave of concern from environmentalists, public health advocates, and food industry groups who fear biopharm crops could contaminate food crops growing in nearby fields. Last November, biopharm corn grown by ProdiGene to produce a protein that serves as a pig vaccine contaminated 500,000 bushels of soybeans in Nebraska. “USDA’s new regulations are too weak,” said Richard Caplan, environmental advocate for the Public Interest Research Group. “By allowing pharmaceuticals to be grown in food crops, it is just a matter of time before another mistake happens and contamination occurs again.” (ENS)

GM food aid rejected by India
India, staggering under a 48 million ton food-grain surplus, last week rejected imports of 23,000 tons of corn and soy blend suspected to contain genetically modified (GM) corn. Volunteer agencies in India have been resisting the importation of GM food, helping to reject the first attempt in Nov. 2002 made by the US Agency for International Development, Catholic Relief Services, and CARE-India to sneak in consignments of corn or a corn/soy blend. These have been rejected by several countries and major manufacturers of processed foods on suspicion of being contaminated with GM Star Link corn which is not fit for human consumption. Food campaigner Vandana Shiva said the episode showed “the lengths to which the US government is going in order to push GM foods as aid to Third World countries with vulnerable populations.” (IPS)

Plan would double logging in Sierra
After a year of review, a US Forest Service team is recommending sweeping changes to a Clinton-era management plan for the Sierra Nevada: logging would more than double, ranchers could graze more cattle, and district rangers would be allowed to thin forests more aggressively, according to a report released last week. The proposed revisions, expected to be adopted by Regional Forester Jack Blackwell this month, would allow timber companies to cut larger trees — including old growth — and more timber volume than allowed under the Sierra Nevada Framework, a plan the Forest Service was heralding 28 months ago. Forest Service officials say the extra logging will help raise revenues for fire-prevention work. The framework will also set the stage for a lengthy series of environmental reviews.
Most agree the Sierra needs major restoration after decades of clear-cut logging, fire suppression, and periodic drought. But environmental groups are very wary of the new framework. “It looks like we are heading for a [legal] train wreck,” said the leader of the Sierra Nevada Protection Campaign, a coalition of 75 environmental groups that supported the original framework. “The Bush administration is totally running roughshod over forest protections,” said a representative of the Sierra Club. “This can only be viewed as an attempt to appease the timber industry.” (Sacramento Bee)

NJ water contains traces of daily life
Hundreds of compounds — prescription drugs, preservatives, caffeine, byproducts of nicotine — the residue of our chemical-intensive society, have been found in tap water around New Jersey, according to research by the state and Rutgers University. Epilepsy drugs, deodorants, and other compounds have been discovered in 30 brooks and rivers in a separate study by state regulators and the US Geological Survey. Two of the contaminated rivers supply drinking water to more than one million people in North Jersey. Some researchers believe the concentrations of the chemicals are so low they pose no risk, but they admit no one knows if they will accumulate in human bodies or what the chemical compounds are now forming as they mix. “To be honest, we are just starting to deal with the question,” said the chemist who led the four-year Rutgers drinking water study. (NorthJersey.com)

Washington state sues to block radioactive waste
Washington state filed suit in federal court last Tuesday to block shipment by the US Dept. of Energy of radioactive wastes from other states to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, located in the south central part of the state. State officials said the legal action results from the Energy Dept.’s failure to develop a plan for the eventual removal of the waste from the state, a commitment that was to be complete by March 1. “We received assurances that the federal government would prepare to ship approximately 78,000 barrels of radioactive waste currently [in the state] if we let another 170 barrels in,” said the WA Attorney General. “But the Dept. of Energy has not lived up to its end of the bargain, and now they have left us with no choice but to file suit.” (ENS)

Oil industry granted clean-water waiver
The Bush administration has decided to give the oil and gas industry two years to comply with a storm-water regulation that went into effect across the country Monday, and will consider granting a permanent exemption. Environmental groups and environmentalists in Congress argued the administration is granting special rights to a favored industry, at the risk of polluting rivers and lakes. The federal Environmental Protection Agency said they need the extra time because of conflicting information about environmental damage from the oil and gas industry’s construction projects and the potential damage to the industry. (Los Angeles Times)

Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental rules
With war looming in Iraq, the Bush administration last week asked Congress to exempt the Defense Dept. from a broad array of environmental laws governing air pollution, toxic waste dumps, endangered species, and marine mammals. The Pentagon says it needs the changes to assure unfettered training and readiness activities, and to provide the military with relief from environmental regulations on training ranges across the country. The proposed changes are certain to trigger a bruising battle pitting Pentagon officials and their allies in Congress against environmental groups and Democrats who fear a major rollback of some of the country’s most important environmental laws. Defense officials contend their plan is designed to strike a “common sense” balance between environmental stewardship and wartime readiness. Critics of the plan say it is not necessary because the Pentagon has not made a compelling case that the laws on the books have impeded readiness activities, and because existing regulations already can be waived in the interests of national security. (Washington Post)

Farmers fight to keep GM wheat out of Canada
Recent actions by Monsanto have sparked outrage among Canadian farmers and restarted a long-standing battle to keep genetically modified (GM) wheat out of the marketplace. Farmers say the introduction of GM wheat would destroy the international market for their crops. A Canadian family farmers group has launched a nationwide anti-GM tour and is calling for a boycott of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. The effort was sparked by what farmers allege is broken promises by Monsanto Canada to respect opposition to the introduction of GM wheat into Canada. While Monsanto has long said they will not push ahead with GM introduction unless farmers and consumers want it, on Dec. 23, while attention was focused on the holidays, Monsanto applied to move ahead with regulatory approval for GM wheat, one of the final steps before bringing the product to market. Some 82 percent of Canadian customers say they will not buy GM wheat, according to the Canadian Wheat Board. (CorpWatch)

Scientists: Arctic refuge damaged
As Congress prepares to consider opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas production, an elite scientific panel reported last Tuesday that 30 years of energy development in Alaska has already damaged the region’s environment and culture. Despite enormous strides by the oil industry and regulatory agencies in minimizing environmental effects, the consequences of development have been mounting over the years, according to the report conducted by the National Academies’ National Research Council, at the request of Congress. The report cited seismic explosions and massive networks of roads which have displaced animals and the subsistence hunters who live on them and have harmed the tundra, causing flooding, erosion, and damage to flora and fauna. There is no evidence of accumulated effects from oil spills, the panel found.
The extensive report, the first to thoroughly explore the cumulative impact of energy development in Alaska’s North Slope, will feed the coming congressional debates on permitting development in the ANWR. President Bush and GOP Congressional leaders are pressing to open the refuge to drilling as a means of bolstering domestic energy production. Most congressional Democrats and a handful of Republicans ardently oppose such a move. (Los Angeles Times)

UN report warns of coming water crisis
The world’s limited reserves of clean, fresh water are shrinking fast, posing a serious threat to public health, political stability and the environment, according to a massive analysis released Mar. 4 by the United Nations.
The 600-page report, the most comprehensive assessment of the planet’s most essential natural resource, predicts that as many as 7 billion people in 60 countries could face water scarcity by 2050. In just 20 years, the report predicts, the average supply of water per person worldwide will have dropped by one-third, affecting almost every nation and especially those already on the economic edge.
Mismanagement, global warming and population growth have caused the crisis, the report says. Solutions are within reach, but because of political “inertia,” it says, “the future for many parts of the world looks bleak.”
The release of the World Water Development Report, more than two years in the making, comes one week before the start of an international summit, the 3rd World Water Forum, in Kyoto, Japan. Delegations from more than 100 nations, along with thousands of other participants, will try to hammer out principles and goals to defuse the planet’s water problems and avert the water wars that some foresee. (Washington Post)

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