Alternate fossil energy sources pose their own hazards
This is the fourth blogpost in the series, “Corn-Fed Cars: On the Road with Ethanol.”
While ethanol is the main subject of our blog series, we want to take a look at other so-called alternative energy sources that have been finding their way into the news lately. Shale gas, oil shales, and tar sands are actually not new—they have been long known, but little exploited. Rising oil prices are making us take another look at them.
Some people are saying this era is the end of “peak easy oil.” While new technologies have lowered costs of production and processing, it is only a matter of time until we are in “peak difficult oil.” Read More >
On Thursday, CLF Director Dr. Robert S. Lawrence joined, Dr. David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner, and, Urvashi Rangan, PhD (JHSPH ’95), Consumer Reports, on the Dr. Oz Show’s segment entitled “What’s in the Nation’s Chicken?”
The guests on this national broadcast began by discussing the additives in our nation’s chicken supply, and, secondly, highlighted the role of purchasing power in driving industry change. In particular, Dr. Lawrence explained the role of antibiotics in promoting growth in chickens and the benefits and risks of the arsenical compound roxarsone.
Click on image to play
Although industrial animal production and healthy food choices have received more attention in academia and in legislation, we cannot forget the importance of engaging with the media in order to achieve CLF’s core goal of raising individual awareness of our responsibility for environmental stewardship, effecting individual behavior, and, consequently, stimulating societal changes.
Not convinced by the demonstrations and statements in the Dr. Oz segment? Check out previously published CLF blogs on related scientifically based research and testimonies:
By my estimation, seventy-five-year-old author Dr. Sylvia Earle has spent more than 1% of her life underwater.If her dives were connected in time, it would be as if she slipped into the ocean on New Year’s Day and did not re-emerge until some time after Labor Day.
Her book chronicles her experiences as a 1960s pioneer in underwater exploration, with stirring accounts of the inquisitive fish and mammals she met in the deep blue. Anthropomorphizing these animals would be an insult, given all the trouble humans have caused by overfishing, pollution, and acidification of the oceans.With these issues, she deftly takes an animal’s perspective in deconstructing our troubled oceans.
I once found an enterprising hermit crab with its vulnerable posterior neatly tucked into a discarded Bayer aspirin bottle, a modern, lightweight, durable substitute for a traditional snail shell.A decorator crab on a nearby reef had artfully placed a disposable fast-food ketchup envelope on its back along with bits of algae, hydroids and normal camouflaging elements.The ketchup container actually helped the crab blend in with other trash.
Over half of all humans live near the coast where impacts are felt from habitat destruction to overfishing.One report in the journal Nature found industrial fishing has removed 90% of all large fish from the ocean.As oceanic currents sweep away human litter, a convergence of garbage is amassing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.To make a small dent in the trash issue, Earle tells of the Ocean Conservancy’s yearly coastal clean-up that in 2008 drew participants from 100 countries, collecting 6.8 million tons of trash with the top 10 offenders being:1) cigarette butts; 2) plastic bags; 3) food containers; 4) caps and lids; 5) plastic bottles; 6) paper bags; 7) straws and stirrers; 8) cups, plates, eating utensils; 9) glass bottles; and 10) beverage cans.So many of these items are food related, which is a sign to me that our food system is in disrepair.Read More >
History was made Friday in Washington, DC as hundreds of chefs from more than 37 states descended on the South Lawn of the White House in hopes of accomplishing one thing — bringing an end to childhood obesity. Each of these gastronomical experts answered the call of First Lady Michelle Obama to adopt a school in their community and share their knowledge and passion for food. The Chefs Move to Schools program, a project of the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign, was conceived by White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass, the man behind the White House garden. So far, Kass says almost 1,000 chefs have signed up to be a part of the ambitious initiative.
Perhaps one of the most famous volunteers to take part in the event was celebrity-chef Rachel Ray. Ray has long championed the fight against childhood obesity. In 2006, she launched her own non-profit organization, Yum-O!, designed to “empower kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.” Not afraid to get her hands dirty, Ray joined the First Lady, fellow chefs and students from a nearby elementary school in harvesting veggies from the White House garden. Graciously, Ray took a few moments to answer a few questions from me.
Coming up soon, complete coverage of the Chefs Move to Schools program and more inspiring words from the First Lady, Sam Kass and several other trailblazing chefs from Maryland to Haiti
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) got folks in New York’s 2nd Congressional District talking turkey about the potential hazards that may be in their Thanksgiving meal.
With a Thanksgiving dinner–complete with all the trimmings–serving as a backdrop, Israel used the press conference to formally announce legislation he introduced in the U.S. House to get arsenic out of the nation’s poultry supply.
CLF’s Science Director, Dr. Keeve Nachman, joined Israel at the press conference on the proposed legislation (H.R. 3624), also called the “Poison Free Poultry Act.” The legislation would ban the use of an arsenical drug called roxarsone, which is commonly added to chicken and poultry feed, from being used as an additive in the U.S. food supply.
“Roxarsone is an arsenic-containing antimicrobial drug that is widely used in poultry production and to a lesser extent in swine production to make food animals grow faster, improve their pigmentation, and to combat intestinal parasites. Studies have shown that some of the arsenic fed to chickens remains in the edible portions of the birds. Arsenic has also been found in poultry waste, where it poses environmental and human health risks when the waste is managed, often by spreading on agricultural fields as fertilizer for food crops,” said CLF’s Nachman, Science Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and a leading researcher on arsenic in the food supply.
The Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine regulates tolerance levels for animal drug residue. The tolerance levels for arsenic in edible animal tissue are more than three decades old, predating the latest cancer and arsenic exposure research. Arsenic has been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological effects, and other health problems.
Israel’s legislation bans roxarsone for use as an additive in the food supply.
According to EPA estimates, the average American adult consumes more than 60 pounds of poultry a year. One way to avoid consuming meat produced using arsenical drugs is by purchasing products labeled “USDA Organic,” which means free of antimicrobial drugs, including roxarsone.
Israel’s legislation is endorsed by a number of organizations, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Humane Society of the United States, The Clean Water Network, Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition, Food & Water Watch, The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Waterkeeper Alliance, Illinois Citizens for Clean Air & Water, The Organic Consumers Association, Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), Ohio Environmental Council, Friends of the Earth, The Center for Food Safety, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Sierra Club, The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Family Farmers and Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
“The conference served as a great opportunity to publicly introduce the bill and to raise awareness among the general public about roxarsone-related food contamination and environmental impacts,” Nachman said after the ceremony. Here’s the full text of Dr. Nachman’s statement and a video from the event
Rep. Israel serves on the House Appropriations Committee.
An op-ed in the October 7th Wall Street Journal by Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent inspired me to do some fact-checking. In the article, “Coke Didn’t Make America Fat, Americans need more exercise, not another tax,” Mr. Kent defended his industry as being an easy target in the debate over obesity and its cause: “Sugar-sweetened beverages have been singled out in spite of the fact that soft drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and sweetened bottled water combined contribute 5.5% of the calories in the average American diet, according to the National Cancer Institute.”
While I’ve yet to confirm or refute Mr. Kent’s claim, his 5.5% figure seems extremely low compared to estimates from recent research. According to a 2004 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, soft drinks alone contributed an estimated seven percent of total caloric intake in the average U.S. diet. A 2004 study out of UC Berkeley, drawing from the same data, found soft drinks were the top contributor to U.S. caloric intake at 7.1%, followed by “cake, sweet rolls, donuts and pastries” at 3.6%. Read More >
Timing could be better considering the latest warnings of sugar shortages and price spikes by U.S. food manufacturers, but at least one public health communications and marketing researcher believes a tax on high fructose corn syrup could help in the fight against America’s obesity epidemic. I caught up with Dr. R. Craig Lefebvre, a professor at George Washington University School of Public Health’s Department of Prevention and Community Health, in Atlanta this week after he took part in a panel discussion at the CDC’s National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media. Dr. Lefebvre suggested that directly taxing consumers who buy sugary drinks or foods would be much more regressive than taxing manufacturers who use high fructose corn syrup. His argument: while producers may want to pass on the higher costs to their customers, market pressures may force them to come up with ways to reduce their dependence on high fructose corn syrup without raising prices. What do you think of Dr. Lefebvre’s proposal?
It looks like Meatless Monday’s “Inspiring a Movement” video is doing just that, but the meat industry is already grumbling. In particular, industry leaders have a beef with the video’s claim that, “Meat mass production, as currently practiced, is extremely inefficient.” The claim makes sense to me, especially when you consider research that suggests the amount of energy needed to produce industrial raised beef is at least 10 times greater than growing vegetables. But, wait I’m getting ahead of myself. Read More >
Watch a short interview with Dr. Robert Lawrence, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
Lawrence discusses the nation’s water pollution and his involvement in the production of “Poisoned Waters,” a PBS FRONTLINE documentary that examines the increased hazards to human health and the ecosystem caused by decades of polluted runoff from agriculture, development and industries.
“Poisoned Waters,” premiers Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS stations nationwide. Click here to check your local listings.
