Environment

Mad Deer/Elk Disease Is Spreading

Submitted by John Stauber on

The Denver Post reports that "Sixty-three elk exposed to chronic wasting disease (CWD) at a Del Norte ranch were exported to at least five states and three other Colorado ranches... Chronic wasting disease is ... related to mad cow disease. Unlike that disease, it has not been shown to infect humans." That's one spin to put on this issue, but the fact is that there is also no proof that CWD cannot infect humans, and laboratory evidence indicates that it might.

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Main Source: 
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E165899,00.html
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

"Beef Party" Held To Boost Japanese Consumer Confidence

Submitted by Laura Miller on

Following the first confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease in Japan last month, Japan's meat industry has launched a campaign to reassure Japanese consumers of the safety of Japanese beef. Over 100 politicians were invited to a "beef party" to eat Japanese produced beef.

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Main Source: 
Guardian Unlimited, October 2, 2001; BBC News, October 2, 2001
Topics: 
Mad Cow Disease

Toxic Sludge Plant's Toxic PR Defames Colorado Activist

Submitted by John Stauber on

Environmental activist and college instructor Adrienne Anderson has been the victim of an "outrageous" defamation campaign at the hands of the PR department of Colorado's largest sewage plant, and a judge has hit the plant with a $450,000 damage award. According to the Denver Post, the judge has ordered the sewage district "to publicly apologize in a full page ad." The Post notes that the judge "singled out Metro's public relations director Steven M.

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Main Source: 
Denver Post, September 24, 2001
Topics: 
Activism
Environment
Public Relations

"The Peaceful Atom Is a Bomb"

Submitted by John Stauber on

For decades opponents of nuclear energy have warned that each reactor and disposal site is a potential bomb capable of causing thousands of civilian deaths and billions of dollars in damage if struck by the type of terrorist attack witnessed September 11th. Such precautionary warnings were given little credence or dismissed as anti-nuclear fearmongering in the past. Now that the unthinkable has occurred, the terrorist threat to nuclear facilities is being generally acknowledged.

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Main Source: 
Wisconsin State Journal, September 18, 2001
Topics: 
Nuclear Power
Terrorism

PR Watch Examines How Corporate PR Defeats Environmentalism

Submitted by John Stauber on

Supporters of the Center for Media & Democracy have just been mailed the third quarter 2001 issue of PR Watch. It examines the strategies employed by corporations such as Philip Morris and BP/Amoco, and their PR firms such as Burson-Marsteller, to defeat environmental activism through partnerships and co-optation. Articles include "Keep America Beautiful: Grassroots Non-Profit or Tobacco Front Group?" by Walter Lamb; "Corporations 'Get Engaged' to the Environmental Movement" by Andy Rowell; and, "Endangered Wildlife Friends Are Here" by John Stauber.

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Main Source: 
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2001Q3/index.html
Topics: 
Corporations
Environment
Public Relations

Toxic Waste as Fertilizer

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Seattle Times reporter Duff Wilson was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his investigative series, Fear in the Fields--How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizer, which found that, across the United States, industrial wastes laden with heavy metals and other dangerous materials are being used in fertilizers and spread over farmland.

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Main Source: 
http://www.fatefulharvest.com/
Topics: 
Sludge

Idaho Officials Cancel Speech Fearing Anti-Ag Message

Submitted by Laura Miller on

MeatingPlace.com, which describes itself as "the premiere information provider for the red meat and poultry industries," reports that "An Oct. 3 'Success Breakfast,' sponsored by the College of Southern Idaho and the Twin Falls, Idaho, Chamber of Commerce and featuring activist Jeremy Rifkin, has been cancelled after officials became worried he might make negative comments about beef and milk, according to The Associated Press.

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Main Source: 
MeatingPlace.com, September 5, 2001
Topics: 
Agriculture

"The Food Police?" CSPI Got Big Bucks to Flack for GE Foods

Submitted by John Stauber on

Last year Michael Jacobson's Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI, also known as "the food police") received $200,000 from the pro-biotechnology Rockefeller Foundation to be a moderate voice in the raging debate over genetically engineered (GE) foods. CSPI has since made many statements very favorable to GE foods and recently called for government action against companies marketing non-GE foods. Ironically, CSPI's Integrity in Science Project criticizes and reveals the special interest funding and agendas of other nonprofit organizations.

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Topics: 
Food Safety
Genetic Engineering
Public Relations

Nevada Nuked Again

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

In Toxic Sludge Is Good For You we wrote about the "Nevada Initiative," a PR campaign that hired prominent Nevadans to endorse plans to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Now former Nevada Gov. Robert List has been hired by the Nuclear Energy Institute, making him the highest ranking former official in the state to align with the nuclear power industry.

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Main Source: 
Las Vegas Review Journal, August 16, 2001
Topics: 
Nuclear Power

Mystery DNA Found in Monsanto's Soybeans

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

In yet another blow to the biotech food industry's pretense of papal infallibility, scientists have found some unexpected DNA next to the inserted gene in the Monsanto Company's Roundup Ready soybeans, casting doubts on the biotechnology industry's assertions that its technology is precise and predictable.

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Main Source: 
New York Times, August 16, 2001
Topics: 
Genetic Engineering

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