Pure Food   Organic Consumers Association (formerly called Campaign  for Food Safety)

A pretty important topic!    National Organic Standards:  What Do We Do Now?

This site provides us with an overview of proposed organic standards, genetically engineered food, and tells us about "Campaigning for Food Safety,Organic Agriculture, and Sustainability. "  It recommends that you sign their petition Food Agenda 2000.    If you subscribe to theirfree electronic newsletter, "BioDemocracy News"  to learn about "Facts on the Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods."

                        The BioDemocracy Campaign is a public interest organization
                        dedicated to building a healthy, safe, and sustainable system of food
                        production and consumption. We are a global clearinghouse for information
                        and grassroots technical assistance.
 

 CORPORATE WATCH

    Corporate Watch provides news, analysis, research tools and action resources to  respond to corporate activity around the globe.

    We also talk with people who are directly affected by corporate abuses as well as with others fighting for corporate accountability, human rights, social and environmental justice.

    As part of the independent  media, Corporate Watch is free of corporate sponsorship.

    Our parent organization is the Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC), based in San Francisco.
 

     Stolen Harvest: Interview with Vandana Shiva Posted: 5/25/2000

A leading anti-globalization and environmental activist talks about how Indian farmers and consumers are
fighting genetically engineered crops. She also discusses global resistance to corporate control of the world's food supply.

LAND USE:  1000 Friends of Wisconsin

A statewide organization working to fight sprawl and promote effective land use reform in Wisconsin. 1000 Friends of Wisconsin educates the citizens and policy makers of Wisconsin about the benefits of sound land use planning.  We advocate for state and local land use policies that protect diverse natural communities, promote the preservation of productive farmland and livable communities, and provide for the most efficient use of taxpayers investment in responsible statewide growth.

Mark Hertsgaard has been tackling big issues throughout his 20-year career as a journalist. But his new book, "Earth Odyssey," is certainly his most ambitious work to date. Hertsgaard visited 19 countries over six years. His goal was to investigate and understand on ground level the impact of environmental devastation around the globe -- and the steps we must take to ensure our survival. The book that resulted is an extraordinary accomplishment, interweaving moving tales of raw personal encounters in China, Sudan, Thailand, Brazil, Russia and elsewhere with a compelling accumulation of quotes, facts and figures.

Hertsgaard's previous books include "On Bended  Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency" and "Nuclear Inc.: The Men and Money Behind Nuclear Energy." He teaches nonfiction writing at Johns Hopkins University.

Q:  Can you talk more about the Global Green Deal you describe in the book?

A:  Well, the Global Green Deal is just my name for an  idea that is scattered throughout the environmental
      literature. It basically says that there is a way for us to clean up our environment and to have economic
      improvement at the same time for both the poor and the rich. There's this myth that cleaning up the
      environment has to cost jobs, has to cost profits --and it's a myth that is shared by pretty much everybody
      that I talked to around the world.

      The Global Green Deal would be a major initiative by the United States government to grasp this opportunity     of making the restoration of our ravaged environment the single biggest business enterprise of the 21st century. Basically, we have to acknowledge that our current structures, our technologies, our social and physical infra-
structure in our societies, is not environmentally sustainable. And we have to renovate it to make it environmentally sustainable.

There's a wonderful quote from the guys at AT&T in my chapter on this that basically says, "We are talking about rewiring our entire civilization." And there's the Japanese official who says that the profits are virtually limitless, because the market is limitless; you're talking about essentially letting capitalism start over again. Think about it: putting new insulation into every uninsulated house and apartment building and so forth.

But in order for that to happen, we have got to change the economic rules of the road, and right now our market economies undervalue the environmental services that the planet performs for us: the fresh air, the fresh water, the soil, etc. So we've got to change -- government has got to change the incentive system that motivates how marketplaces function. We've got to have environmental tax reform, we've got to stop subsidizing environmentally destructive things and start subsidizing environmentally benign things. Once we do that, then we can allow the private marketplace to use its genius to pursue these goals.

The role of the government is to set the rules of the road and to prime the pumps. "Global Green Deal" is
obviously a takeoff on FDR's New Deal, but instead of a conservation corps that builds bridges, you're
building solar panels. Instead of government subsidies to the then-new Social Security system,                                there should be government subsidies to the solar industry.

The reason everybody's got a computer on their desk right now is because the Pentagon bought enormous numbers of computers in the 1960s and lowered the unit price. It's the same with Xerox copiers. The government can do that. In fact, the government is doing that all the time, in one way or another. It's just that now it's still choosing the old, environmentally destructive patterns. We have to break those patterns and go in a new direction. And I think that will make an enormous amount of money for most people, for most sectors of the economy.

The Conserve School recruits and educates academically talented students in a  holistically designed, technologically advanced, residential program (grades 9-12) to research, devise, and persuasively communicate environmentally sensitive solutions to global ecological problems. Conserve School's dedication to scholastic excellence defines itself as an ideal college prep school.

Tony and I are Friends of the Milwaukee County Museum.  Last Fall we were invited to enjoy Merlin Tuttle, founder and director of Bat Conservation International.  It is worth noting how this man was able to work with opponents and turned them into proponents.  Mining companies now come to him when they are ready to close a mine site to ask if there is some way they can make the mine people safe and bat friendly!  I really respect this man! Organizations that teach grass roots organizing, like Gamaliel, take note!

Want to know some interesting things about bats?  Want to join a neat organization?  Try this web site:  Bat Conservation International.

Here is a link to Wisconsin Stewardship Network's Public Action Alerts Page. 
It will give you the sad story of what has happened to the implementation of the Mining Moratorium Law.  They pointed me to the Mineral Policy Center (MPC) which is the leading environmental organization working to protect communities and the environment from the impacts of hardrock mining, in the U.S. and worldwide.

      Mineral Policy Center
      Working to Protect Communities and the Environment

        1612 K St., NW, Suite 808
        Washington, D.C.  20006
        202-887-1872 (ph)
        202-887-1875 (fax)
        web: www.mineralpolicy.org
        email: mpc@mineralpolicy.org

(please note the switch from the old mpc-us@msn.com)

"Sustainable" is the word now.  Heard a talk show describing our food system as heavily based on oil and a centralized food system which is very vulnerable, since food is shipped long distances by large producers.  Click on these links to see what they propose (and sell).  Just in time for Y2K!

The Sprout People  Food Circle
 

 Citizens for a Better Environment    cbewi@cbemw.org

I hope you have enjoyed your visit. I will try to make Lorrie's Place a place you will just love to visit. Come again, soon. Bring a friend!