April 12, 2001
Media Compilation #6: 1. Skeletons in Cheney's closet + 2. Solving the Energy Problem and CO2 Reduction + 3. Three Public Hearings on LFAS + 4. Modern Meat: A Brutal Harvest: 'They Die Piece by Piece' In Overtaxed Plants, Humane Treatment of Cattle Is Often a Battle Lost + 5. WHERE'S THE BEEF REPORT? + 6. THE UNWORKABLE TRINITY: TRUTH, MARKET FORCES AND THE MEDIA
Dear media person
With every passing day, we can see ever more clearly the real face and agenda of the new U.S. administration. Since most of the day-to-day decisions are actually made by Vice President Cheney, according to the whims of the corporate interests he represents and serves, it would seem important to better know who Cheney actually is. Anyone who may still harbor illusions about the direction taken by the most powerful and most environmentally-damaging country on Earth should read "Skeletons in Cheney's closet" below.
Also if you are still comfortable about eating beef, I doubt you will be able to swallow easily the revelations below about the most horrific and inhumane treatment of those gentle animals in U.S. slaughterhouses - which is only the tip of the iceberg of the massive abuse of most farm animals on Earth raised in factory-farm conditions. And then did you know that beef meat is laced with carcinogenic dioxin, not to mention antibiotics, growth hormones and all kinds of other chemicals that inevitably end up into your bloodstream and accumulate into your fatty tissues? (See " WHERE'S THE BEEF REPORT?") And do I need to remind you about the hidden Mad Cow epidemics in America?
Fortunately, thanks to some courageous investigative journalists, more and more mainstream media are reporting about all these terrible things now surfacing to the light to be seen for what they are and eventually corrected. Yet all too often, "media debate is restricted within tightly constrained parameters that serve capital, but not democracy." -- see THE UNWORKABLE TRINITY
Fortunately also, sleeping humanity is slowly waking up and change is under way...
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. Make sure to check "Solving the Energy Problem and CO2 Reduction" below. This man, Hal Fox, really knows what he is talking about. For more details see "Miracle in the Void: The New Energy Revolution" at http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/MiracleinVoid.htm
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1.
From: "Biannca Pace" <whitepeace@crystalgallery.com.au>
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001
Dear Jean,
As always your reports are more than interesting. I offer this information on Dick Cheney which appeared in an Australian Magazine.
SKELETONS IN CHENEY'S CLOSET:
"When Cheney accepted the Vice-Presidential nomination in August 2000, he said he would offer Americans "a stiff dose of truth". Not necessarily what one would expect from his past pattern of bobbing, weaving and dissembling. During the 1989 US invasion of Panama and the 1991 Gulf War, as Secretary of Defense Cheney ran the Pentagon with an iron fist, including unprecedented restrictions on the press. Ironically, one of the ink-stained wretches who felt Cheney's wrath was Time photojournalist Warren Bocxe. The ungrateful scribe was blindfolded and detained for 30 hours (by fellow Americans, not Iraqis) for allegedly violating Defense Department press restrictions. Working with sidekick General Colin Powell (now Bush's Secretary of State) Cheney exaggerated the accuracy of US missile strikes, covered up mistakes and in the words of one ABC TV producer "duped" the media. David Hackworth, an ex-Army Colonel who covered the war for Newsweek was blunt: "The American people did not get the truth."
Cheney's behaviour as Defense Secretary was tyrannical, so it's no surprise that his voting record in Congress was consistently hard-line. Domestically, he voted against affirmative action; against the "Head-Start" program for impoverished children; against the Clean Water Act and against sanctions on air polluters. However, he was not always Mr. No-no; he did vote in favour of easier access to handguns.
Cheney's shameful record continued in foreign-policy voting (the area of "expertise" on which Bush will supposedly draw). He voted (not just once but ten times) against economic sanctions on apartheid-era South Africa. And he was one of only two US Congress members who voted against a resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Asked to justify his egregious voting record, Cheney adroitly side-stepped the issue. " The American people want to hear about the future, not the past," he quipped. Perhaps worse is Cheney's slimy business career. During five years as head of the Dallas-based oil-services company, Halliburton, the firm openly courted regimes that flagrantly violated human rights - including Iran, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Libya, Nigeria and even the current US bete noir, Iraq.
The most extreme case of "constructive engagement" (the euphemism US business uses to justify profiting from unrepentant, despotic regimes) was Halliburton's dealings with Burma. Washington cut diplomatic ties with Burma a decade ago and most American corporations have since pulled up sticks and left. Not Halliburton. Cheney was not about to let little things like a vicious dictatorship and massive human-rights violations stand in the way of a profitable business venture. He helped broker a deal for a major pipeline project in Burma even though, in the opinion of one US federal judge, Halliburton already knew the project was benefitting from forced labour and "numerous acts of violence" by the Burmese military. According to the Texas Observer, the Gulf War helped Cheney launch "one of the largest privatization efforts in the history of the Pentagon, steering huge military contracts to private contractors". At Halliburton he cashed in on the same contracts he set in motion. When Cheney started with the company it was doing less than $300 million in business with the Defense Department. By the end of 1999 the amount had grown to $650 million, a classic case of what some critics call "revolving-door politics".
But that's all behind Dick Cheney now - at least for another four years. Not that he'll run out of pocket money in the meantime. During his career with Halliburton Cheney "earned" $12.5 million in salary and bonuses, received stock options worth another $39 million and got a $20 million "golden handshake" when he left. Hey, Big Oil knows that it pays to have friends at the top.
Alan Bisbort
Sources: Wall Street Journal, 27 Oct 2000;
American Journalism Review, Oct 2000;
New York Times, various issues;
http://www.earthrights.org;
The Texas Observer, 6 Oct 2000.
2.
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2001
From: "Hal Fox" <halfox@qwest.net>
Subject: SOLVING THE ENERGY PROBLEM AND CO2 REDUCTION
Dear Friend Jean Hudon,
Your analysis of the problem is excellent. Your solution omits the most important solution to healing the planet.
In a recent letter to President George Bush, I wrote the following:
SUBJECT: SOLVING THE ENERGY PROBLEM AND CO2 REDUCTION
Dear President Bush,
The Kyoto Agreement will not solve the problems of greenhouse gas reduction, only technology will. The current energy problem will also best be resolved by new-energy technology. Before, the first new electrical power plant can be designed, built, and placed on line there will be new-energy devices and systems available to provide less expensive and non-polluting power from abundant energy sources. While none of this new-energy technology has been developed using government funds, it would be wise to position your administration to take credit for the dramatic changes in energy production that will be occurring during your administration.
Attached are papers that describe these new-energy developments and the $4.5 trillion per year market to be tapped. The U.S. will be a technology leader in this new-energy industry. The results can be a new burgeoning industry far bigger than the combined computer, communications, and internet industries. It is strongly suggested that your Department of Energy become informed and become a major source of media information about new-energy developments. Under previous administrations, the DOE staff has been deliberately misinformed in an attempt to preserve the appropriations of billions of dollars allocated to the study of non-productive, nuclear-energy research.
After twelve years of world-wide search, we have found four new-energy inventions that are considered to have strong commercial potential. The enclosed papers provide more detailed information for your staff, including an estimate of market penetration over the next decade. The first of these new-energy developments is being readied for commercial production. One application of new- energy technology has been shown capable of on-site transmutation of high-level radioactive wastes (both liquids and solids). ...
Sincerely,
Harold L. Fox,
President, EEMF
Cc: Secretary of Energy
END OF EXCERPT FROM LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH.
The important point is that all the do-gooders in the world, including all of the environmentalists, must have some technology that replaces the burning of fossil fuels.
For more information, New Energy News is sent via email monthly to members of the Institute for New Energy. Any who are interested can join INE for only $35 per year, anywhere in the world.
Best regards,
Hal Fox, editor,
J. New Energy
AS A FOLLOW UP TO MY RECENT POSTS ON THE LFAS ISSUE
See also a recent compilation on this subject "Last Call for Action to prevent the US Navy from getting a permit to deploy their LFAS highly destructive sonar technology around the world" at http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/LastCall.htm
Read also: Researchers Fear Navy's Sonar May Harm Whales (April 10, 2001) at: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/10/science/10WHAL.html
based on the recent 60 Minutes excellent report "Who Killed the Whales".
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001
From: Cheryl Magill <shootdaguy@yahoo.com>
Subject: Three Public Hearings on LFAS
Dear Jean,
Please know how very much your attention to the whole LFA Sonar issue is appreciated! Kindly let your readers know that collective action has caused the National Marine Fisheries Service to delay their proposed ruling, to extend the comment period and to hold three public hearings.
This is not business as usual. We have the opportunity to engage in transformation. Please ask people to urge others to attend these hearings.
Thank you!
Cheryl A. Magill
---
Bowing to an extraordinary number of requests, both from the public and from members of Congress, the National Marine Fisheries Service has agreed to hold three public hearings on the Navy's Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar program. Now that we have secured an opportunity to be heard, it is crucial that we all take advantage of it.
--On *April 26*, there will be a public hearing in *Los Angeles, California*. It will take place from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Renaissance Hotel, 9620 Airport Boulevard (near LAX).
--On *April 28*, there will be a public hearing in *Honolulu, Hawaii*. It will take place from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Marriott Waikiki Beach Hotel, 2552 Kalakaua Avenue.
--On *May 3*, there will be a public hearing in *Silver Spring, Maryland*, just outside of Washington, D.C. It will take place from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon in the Auditorium of Silver Spring Metro Center Building 4, 1301 East-West Highway.
CLIP - More details from:
Michael Jasny, Associate
Natural Resources Defense Council
6310 San Vicente Blvd., Ste. 250
Los Angeles, CA 90048
tel/fax 323-934-2138
mjasny@ucla.edu
4.
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001
From: Mark Graffis <an403@detroit.freenet.org>
Subject: Modern Meat: A Brutal Harvest
From: http://www.washingtonpost.com
'They Die Piece by Piece' In Overtaxed Plants, Humane Treatment of Cattle Is Often a Battle Lost
By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 10, 2001; Page A01
Second of two articles
PASCO, Wash.--It takes 25 minutes to turn a live steer into steak at the modern slaughterhouse where Ramon Moreno works. For 20 years, his post was "second-legger," a job that entails cutting hocks off carcasses as they whirl past at a rate of 309 an hour.
The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't.
"They blink. They make noises," he said softly. "The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around."
Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. "They die," said Moreno, "piece by piece."
Under a 23-year-old federal law, slaughtered cattle and hogs first must be "stunned" -- rendered insensible to pain -- with a blow to the head or an electric shock. But at overtaxed plants, the law is sometimes broken, with cruel consequences for animals as well as workers. Enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated violations of the Humane Slaughter Act at dozens of slaughterhouses, ranging from the smallest, custom butcheries to modern, automated establishments such as the sprawling IBP Inc. plant here where Moreno works.
"In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants, but enforcement of the law varies dramatically. While a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare.
For example, the government took no action against a Texas beef company that was cited 22 times in 1998 for violations that included chopping hooves off live cattle. In another case, agency supervisorsfailed to take action on multiple complaints of animal cruelty at a Florida beef plant and fired an animal health technician for reporting the problems to the Humane Society. The dismissal letter sent to the technician, Tim Walker, said his dislosure had "irreparably damaged" the agency's relations with the packing plant.
"I complained to everyone -- I said, 'Lookit, they're skinning live cows in there,' " Walker said. "Always it was the same answer: 'We know it's true. But there's nothing we can do about it.' "
In the past three years, a new meat inspection systemthat shifted responsibility to industry has made it harder to catch and report cruelty problems, some federal inspectors say. Under the new system, implemented in 1998, the agency no longer tracks the number of humane-slaughter violations its inspectors find each year.
Some inspectors are so frustrated they're asking outsiders for help: The inspectors' union last spring urged Washington state authorities to crack down on alleged animal abuse at the IBP plant in Pasco. In a statement, IBP said problems described by workers in its Washington state plant "do not accurately represent the way we operate our plants. We take the issue of proper livestock handling very seriously."
But the union complained that new government policies and faster production speeds at the plant had "significantly hampered our ability to ensure compliance." Several animal welfare groups joined in the petition.
"Privatization of meat inspection has meant a quiet death to the already meager enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act," said Gail Eisnitz of the Humane Farming Association, a group that advocates better treatment of farm animals. "USDA isn't simply relinquishing its humane-slaughter oversight to the meat industry, but is -- without the knowledge and consent of Congress -- abandoning this function altogether."
The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, which is responsible for meat inspection, says it has not relaxed its oversight. In January, the agency ordered a review of 100 slaughterhouses. An FSIS memo reminded its 7,600 inspectors they had an "obligation to ensure compliance" with humane-handling laws.
The review comes as pressure grows on both industry and regulators to improve conditions for the 155 million cattle, hogs, horses and sheep slaughtered each year. McDonald's and Burger King have been subject to boycotts by animal rights groups protesting mistreatment of livestock.
As a result, two years ago McDonald's began requiring suppliers to abide by the American Meat Institute's Good Management Practices for Animal Handling and Stunning. The company also began conducting annual audits of meat plants. Last week, Burger King announced it would require suppliers to follow the meat institute's standards.
"Burger King Corp. takes the issues of food safety and animal welfare very seriously, and we expect our suppliers to comply," the company said in a statement.
Industry groups acknowledge that sloppy killing has tangible consequences for consumers as well as company profits. Fear and pain cause animals to produce hormones that damage meat and cost companies tens of millions of dollars a year in discarded product, according to industry estimates.
Industry officials say they also recognize an ethical imperative to treat animals with compassion. Science is blurring the distinction between the mental processes of humans and lower animals -- discovering, for example, that even the lowly rat may dream. Americans thus are becoming more sensitive to the suffering of food animals, even as they consume increasing numbers of them.
"Handling animals humanely," said American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle, "is just the right thing to do."
Clearly, not all plants have gotten the message.
A Post computer analysis of government enforcement records found 527 violations of humane-handling regulations from 1996 to 1997, the last years for which complete records were available. The offenses range from overcrowded stockyards to incidents in which live animals were cut, skinned or scalded.
Through the Freedom of Information Act, The Post obtained enforcement documents from 28 plants that had high numbers of offenses or had drawn penalties for violating humane-handling laws. The Post also interviewed dozens of current and former federal meat inspectors and slaughterhouse workers. A reporter reviewed affidavits and secret video recordings made inside two plants.
Among the findings:
One Texas plant, Supreme Beef Packers in Ladonia, had 22 violations in six months. During one inspection, federal officials found nine live cattle dangling from an overhead chain. But managers at the plant, which announced last fall it was ceasing operations, resisted USDA warnings, saying its practices were no different than others in the industry. "Other plants are not subject to such extensive scrutiny of their stunning activities," the plant complained in a 1997 letter to the USDA.
Government inspectors halted production for a day at the Calhoun Packing Co. beef plant in Palestine, Tex., after inspectors saw cattle being improperly stunned. "They were still conscious and had good reflexes," B.V. Swamy, a veterinarian and senior USDA official at the plant, wrote. The shift supervisor "allowed the cattle to be hung anyway." IBP, which owned the plant at the time, contested the findings but "took steps to resolve the situation," including installing video equipment and increasing training, a spokesman said. IBP has since sold the plant.
At the Farmers Livestock Cooperative processing plant in Hawaii, inspectors documented 14 humane-slaughter violations in as many months. Records from 1997 and 1998 describe hogs that were walking and squealing after being stunned as many as four times. In a memo to USDA, the company said it fired the stunner and increased monitoring of the slaughter process.
At an Excel Corp. beef plant in Fort Morgan, Colo., production was halted for a day in 1998 after workers allegedly cut off the leg of a live cow whose limbs had become wedged in a piece of machinery. In imposing the sanction, U.S. inspectors cited a string of violations in the previous two years, including the cutting and skinning of live cattle. The company, responding to one such charge, contended that it was normal for animals to blink and arch their backs after being stunned, and such "muscular reaction" can occur up to six hours after death. "None of these reactions indicate the animal is still alive," the company wrote to USDA.
Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water.
USDA documents and interviews with inspectors and plant workers attributed many of the problems to poor training, faulty or poorly maintained equipment or excessive production speeds. Those problems were identified five years ago in an industry-wide audit by Temple Grandin, an assistant professor with Colorado State University's animal sciences department and one of the nation's leading experts on slaughter practices.
In the early 1990s, Grandin developed the first objective standards for treatment of animals in slaughterhouses, which were adopted by the American Meat Institute, the industry's largest trade group. Her initial, USDA-funded survey in 1996 was one of the first attempts to grade slaughter plants.
One finding was a high failure rate among beef plants that use stunning devices known as "captive-bolt" guns. Of the plants surveyed, only 36 percent earned a rating of "acceptable" or better, meaning cattle were knocked unconscious with a single blow at least 95 percent of the time.
Grandin now conducts annual surveys as a consultant for the American Meat Institute and McDonald's Corp. She maintains that the past four years have brought dramatic improvements -- mostly because of pressure from McDonald's, which sends a team of meat industry auditors into dozens of plants each year to observe slaughter practices.
Based on the data collected by McDonald's auditors, the portion of beef plants scoring "acceptable" or better climbed to 90 percent in 1999. Some workers and inspectors are skeptical of the McDonald's numbers, and Grandin said the industry's performance dropped slightly last year after auditors stopped giving notice of some inspections.
Grandin said high production speeds can trigger problems when people and equipment are pushed beyond their capacity. From a typical kill rate of 50 cattle an hour in the early 1900s, production speeds rose dramatically in the 1980s. They now approach 400 per hour in the newest plants.
"It's like the 'I Love Lucy' episode in the chocolate factory," she said. "You can speed up a job and speed up a job, and after a while you get to a point where performance doesn't simply decline -- it crashes."
When that happens, it's not only animals that suffer. Industry trade groups acknowledge that improperly stunned animals contribute to worker injuries in an industry that already has the nation's highest rate of job-related injuries and illnesses -- about 27 percent a year. At some plants, "dead" animals have inflicted so many broken limbs and teeth that workers wear chest pads and hockey masks.
"The live cows cause a lot of injuries," said Martin Fuentes, an IBP worker whose arm was kicked and shattered by a dying cow. "The line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive."
A 'Brutal' Harvest
At IBP's Pasco complex, the making of the American hamburger starts in a noisy, blood-spattered chamber shielded from view by a stainless steel wall. Here, live cattle emerge from a narrow chute to be dispatched in a process known as "knocking" or "stunning." On most days the chamber is manned by a pair of Mexican immigrants who speak little English and earn about $9 an hour for killing up to 2,050 head per shift.
The tool of choice is the captive-bolt gun, which fires a retractable metal rod into the steer's forehead. An effective stunning requires a precision shot, which workers must deliver hundreds of times daily to balky, frightened animals that frequently weigh 1,000 pounds or more. Within 12 seconds of entering the chamber, the fallen steer is shackled to a moving chain to be bled and butchered by other workers in a fast-moving production line.
The hitch, IBP workers say, is that some "stunned" cattle wake up.
"If you put a knife into the cow, it's going to make a noise: It says, 'Moo!' " said Moreno, the former second-legger, who began working in the stockyard last year. "They move the head and the eyes and the leg like the cow wants to walk."
After a blow to the head, an unconscious animal may kick or twitch by reflex. But a videotape, made secretly by IBP workers and reviewed by veterinarians for The Post, depicts cattle that clearly are alive and conscious after being stunned.
Some cattle, dangling by a leg from the plant's overhead chain, twist and arch their backs as though trying to right themselves. Close-ups show blinking reflexes, an unmistakable sign of a conscious brain, according to guidelines approved by the American Meat Institute.
The video, parts of which were aired by Seattle television station KING last spring, shows injured cattle being trampled. In one graphic scene, workers give a steer electric shocks by jamming a battery-powered prod into its mouth.
More than 20 workers signed affidavits alleging that the violations shown on tape are commonplace and that supervisors are aware of them. The sworn statements and videos were prepared with help from the Humane Farming Association. Some workers had taken part in a 1999 strike over what they said were excessive plant production speeds.
"I've seen thousands and thousands of cows go through the slaughter process alive," IBP veteran Fuentes, the worker who was injured while working on live cattle, said in an affidavit. "The cows can get seven minutes down the line and still be alive. I've been in the side-puller where they're still alive. All the hide is stripped out down the neck there."
IBP, the nation's top beef processor, denounced as an "appalling aberration" the problems captured on the tape. It suggested the events may have been staged by "activists trying to raise money and promote their agenda. . . .
"Like many other people, we were very upset over the hidden camera video," the company said. "We do not in any way condone some of the livestock handling that was shown."
After the video surfaced, IBP increased worker training and installed cameras in the slaughter area. The company also questioned workers and offered a reward for information leading to identification of those responsible for the video. One worker said IBP pressured him to sign a statement denying that he had seen live cattle on the line.
"I knew that what I wrote wasn't true," said the worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing his job. "Cows still go alive every day. When cows go alive, it's because they don't give me time to kill them."
Independent assessments of the workers' claims have been inconclusive. Washington state officials launched a probe in May that included an unannounced plant inspection. The investigators say they were detained outside the facility for an hour while their identities were checked. They saw no acts of animal cruelty once permitted inside.
Grandin, the Colorado State professor, also inspected IBP's plant, at the company's request; that inspection was announced. Although she observed no live cattle being butchered, she concluded that the plant's older-style equipment was "overloaded." Grandin reviewed parts of the workers' videotape and said there was no mistaking what she saw.
"There were fully alive beef on that rail," Grandin said.
Inconsistent Enforcement
Preventing this kind of suffering is officially a top priority for the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service. By law, a humane-slaughter violation is among a handful of offenses that can result in an immediate halt in production -- and cost a meatpacker hundreds or even thousands of dollars per idle minute.
In reality, many inspectors describe humane slaughter as a blind spot: Inspectors' regular duties rarely take them to the chambers where stunning occurs. Inconsistencies in enforcement, training and record-keeping hamper the agency's ability to identify problems.
The meat inspectors' union, in its petition last spring to Washington state's attorney general, contended that federal agents are "often prevented from carrying out" the mandate against animal cruelty. Among the obstacles inspectors face are "dramatic increases in production speeds, lack of support from supervisors in plants and district offices . . . new inspection policies which significantly reduce our enforcement authority, and little to no access to the areas of the plants where animals are killed," stated the petition by the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals.
Barbara Masters, the agency's director of slaughter operations, told meat industry executives in February she didn't know if the number of violations was up or down, though she believed most plants were complying with the law. "We encourage the district offices to monitor trends," she said. "The fact that we haven't heard anything suggests there are no trends."
But some inspectors see little evidence the agency is interested in hearing about problems. Under the new inspection system, the USDA stopped tracking the number of violations and dropped all mentions of humane slaughter from its list of rotating tasks for inspectors.
The agency says it expects its watchdogs to enforce the law anyway. Many inspectors still do, though some occasionally wonder if it's worth the trouble.
"It always ends up in argument: Instead of re-stunning the animal, you spend 20 minutes just talking about it," said Colorado meat inspector Gary Dahl, sharing his private views. "Yes, the animal will be dead in a few minutes anyway. But why not let him die with dignity?"
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
5.
DAILY GRIST
12 Apr 2001
http://www.gristmagazine.com
1.
WHERE'S THE BEEF REPORT?
The chemical, beef, and poultry industries are lobbying the U.S. EPA to stall even longer before releasing a final report showing that animal fat and dairy products containing tiny amounts of dioxin can cause cancer in humans. The agency circulated a draft report early last summer that concluded for the first time that at least one form of dioxin is a "human carcinogen," while other dioxins are "likely" carcinogens. Agency scientists remain confident of their findings and have asked EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman to release the final report this summer. But industry groups and GOPers in Congress are so opposed to the findings that the report, already more than a decade in the making, may be delayed for several more years. Meanwhile, Carol Browner, who ran the EPA under former President Clinton, took a jab at the Bush administration yesterday, saying that "the breadth and speed of some of their anti-environmental actions has been stunning."
Washington Post, Eric Pianin, 12 Apr 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7743-2001Apr11.html
Philadelphia Inquirer, Frank Davies, 12 Apr 2001
http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2001/04/12/national/ENVIR12.htm
Take action and tell the U.S. to support a treaty banning dioxin
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/toxic.stm#dioxin
6.
THE UNWORKABLE TRINITY: TRUTH, MARKET FORCES AND THE MEDIA
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE INADEQUACIES OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SAYS DAVID CROMWELL, ASK ITS JOURNALISTS.
At http://www.theecologist.org/mediation.html
Here is a couple excerpts of this article
That many serious, major topics - sanctions against Iraq, vigorous business lobbying to create a corporateshaped economy, the paltry political response to climate change - are rarely raised by any mainstream newspaper or broadcaster is damning. Wouldn't a truly 'free' and healthy media, for example, examine itself rigorously - its own assumptions, prejudices and omissions? No doubt many editors and journalists are aware of this but are too afraid of bucking the system. After all, who wants to have one's career blocked or lose one's job when there's a mortgage to pay? And so, media debate is restricted within tightly constrained parameters that serve capital, but not democracy.
CLIP
