UNDERNEWS
Sam Smith
August 26, 1999
The Progressive Review
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WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS UP
Your editor is still in the land of nine-foot-plus tides where a lobsterman
friend swears a tourist stood on the Maine shore when the tide was out and
remarked, "Boy, the drought really has hit you hard here."
A LITTLE LATE FOR THAT, ISN'T IT?
Steve Roberts of USN&WR on a Sunday talk show: "I think that we in the press
have an enormous obligation to help the voters understand the judgment and
the temperament, and the morality and the character of the people who want
to be president and I think there's only one way we can do that, and that is
to explore the judgments that they have made in the past."
WACO MASSACRE
LEE HANCOCK, THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: The chairman of the Department of
Public Safety said that federal authorities also need to investigate and
fully explain why members of the U.S. Army's secret Delta Force
anti-terrorist unit were present on the day the compound burned. "Everyone
involved knows they were there ...." said James B. Francis Jr. of Dallas.
"Some of the evidence that I have reviewed and been made aware of is very
problematical as to the role of Delta Force at the siege. However, I think
it's only fair that real independent experts look into that highly sensitive
issue." A Department of Defense document released under the federal Freedom
of Information Act confirmed that members of a classified Army special
forces unit were in the area when the FBI's hostage rescue team used tanks
to assault the compound with tear gas.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/0826tsw1davidians.htm
FOOD NEWS I
Agribusiness Examiner
MAC ATTACK: French farmers, with the apparent support of the French people,
have launched an aggressive campaign to not only protest U.S. trade
sanctions against their country, but also to show their opposition to the
increasing domination of multinational U.S. food and agricultural
corporations. Their latest protest came last Saturday in southern France
where angry farmers driving tractors dumped peaches and six tons of manure
in front of McDonald's outlets .... 100 farmers in the southwestern town
of Montauban dumped peaches in front of a McDonald's and a large
supermarket. 400 fruit and vegetable growers blocked access to a supermarket
and a McDonald's in Martigues.
ORGANIC TEACHING: The Berkeley, California school board recently unanimously
passed a measure designed to encourage students not only to eat their
organic vegetables, but to grow them. With this new policy, Berkeley schools
will have gardens and will incorporate eating, gardening and nutrition into
the curriculum, i.e., a garden planning session might be a math exercise
calculating the area of vegetable plots. "We want the cafeteria to be a
learning experience," said Tom Bates, a former state assemblyman who now
heads the Berkeley Food Systems Project, which has been working with the
district on the new food policy. Reviewing current food serve in the
schools, Bates notes that "calling it airplane food would be a compliment.
School kitchens and cooks are disappearing, and instead you're seeing
cafeterias with warmers to heat prepackaged food. We want to break that."
AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CITY DESK
UPI: Black religious leaders in Boston plan to sit down with state health
officials and members of the AIDS Action Committee to find ways of combating
the high number of AIDS cases and HIV infections among African Americans
.... Health officials think the churches could be a valuable tool in
fighting the disease. In Massachusetts, blacks account for 26 percent of all
AIDS cases, but make up just 6 percent of the population
CORRECTION
An errant sentence caused yesterday's item about 21 homeless congressmen to
be undecipherable. The 21 are not living on the street but in their offices.
According to columnists Jack Anderson and Douglas Cohn, Rep. Ray LaHood, who
has been in charge of congressional retreats the past few years, said the
issue of sleeping in the offices to save money has come up at the retreats,
but he has dismissed it as "a silly lifestyle. Whenever I talk to members, I
encourage them to get away from the office. I don't know of anyone back home
who does this. It's not healthy."
PRESIDENTIAL DRUG ADDICTS
LIBERTARIAN PARTY: Here's how to end the controversy over Governor George W.
Bush's alleged cocaine use: Simply give every suspected drug user the same
right to "privacy" the GOP presidential front-runner demands. "Let's treat
every American like a presidential candidate: If you've ever used drugs, you
shouldn't have to answer questions about it," proposed Steve Dasbach, the
party's national director. "Not only would such a don't-ask/don't-tell
policy save the $17 billion the federal government currently spends on drug
prohibition, but it would also let hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug
offenders out of prison so they could lead productive lives -- and maybe
even run for president themselves as hypocritical Republicans."
LIBERTARIAN PARTY: http://www.lp.org/
Meanwhile, Jay Leno has pointed out that nobody thought Marion Barry, Jr.,
would become a trendsetter. Leno described the difference between a black
elected official and a white one: one gets his head slammed by the FBI, the
other gets his party's nomination.
FOOD NEWS II
The American Corn Growers Association is proposing that farmers should
consider planting non-GMO crops if certain questions are not answered. "GMOs
have become the albatross around the neck of farmers on issues of trade,
labeling, testing, certification, segregation, market availability and
agribusiness concentration. Until all these issues are answered, it is best
for production agriculture to examine alternatives to planting GMOs," said
Gary Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer of the ACGA. The ACGA is calling on
the following questions to be addressed:
-- How do we export GMO grains to unwilling foreign customers and will the
USDA encourage the sale of GMO free crops?
-- Who will be responsible for maintaining separate channels for GMO crops
and assuring the integrity of non-GMO crops? Will farmers who plant
traditional varieties be burdened with testing and other costs associated
with segregation or identity preservation?
-- How far do GMO and GMO free grains have to be planted from each other to
prevent cross-pollination?
-- Since GMO fields can cross-pollinate with non-GMO fields, will GMO
growers be required to plant buffer zones? How large should the buffer zones
be?
-- Will biotech companies be liable for contamination of non-GMO crops
caused by cross-pollination?
-- Will there be the need for liability waivers between neighbors to prevent
legal ramifications in the event of one neighbor not knowing what another
neighbor is planting?
-- How does a grain elevator plan to segregate GMO from GMO free and will
there be a price differential?
-- What kind of certification procedure will be needed for the elevator and
will each elevator have its own certification form?
-- Are the supposedly higher yields of GMOs marketable in a climate that
already has overproduction and oversupply?
FOOD NEWS III
Consumer Reports' tests of everyday groceries show that genetically
engineered foods are already on the shelves of American supermarkets in
products ranging from baby formulas and tortilla chips to drink mixes, taco
shells, veggie burgers and muffin mix. The findings, reported in the
September issue, indicate that American consumers are eating genetically
engineered food without knowing it, because unlike Europe, the U.S. does not
require labeling.
Consumer Reports went grocery shopping and bought a variety of processed
foods containing corn or soybeans, since those crops are the most likely to
be genetically engineered. Though none of the foods in the tests were
labeled as genetically engineered, DNA analysis showed genetically
engineered ingredients in:
-- Three powdered infant formulas: Enfamil ProSobee Soy Formula, Similac
Isomil Soy Formula, and Nestle Carnation Alsoy
-- Several soy burger products, including Boca Burger Chef, Max's Favorite,
Morningstar Farms Better 'n Burgers, and Green Giant Harvest Burgers (now
called Morningstar Farms Harvest Burgers). McDonald's McVeggie Burgers also
showed GE ingredients.
-- Ovaltine Malt powdered beverage mix
-- Bac-Os Bacon Flavor bits
-- Bravos Tortilla Chips Nacho Nacho!
-- Old El Paso 12 Taco Shells
-- Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
FOOD NEWS IV
GUARDIAN (LONDON): The government has suspended large scale planting of
genetically modified oilseed rape due to start today because it fears the
High Court may order they are dug up again. The decision was made by the
treasury solicitor yesterday after studying papers which claim that civil
servants used administrative short cuts to rush through licenses for large
new releases of oilseed rape.
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