Biodiversity
Italy ignoring bluefin tuna rules and further endangering species, conservation group charges. Countries agree to quotas, but Italy reports a fleet of 185 vessels and surveyors count 283. Spotter aircraft, banned by accord, also used, group says. Official says Italy is following the rules.
By Ariel David
The Associated Press; The Union-Tribune (San Diego, CA) 2008-10-07 (entry)
On border of Kazakhstan and China, conservationist has spent 70 years in 'fatherland' and forest of apples, cataloging as hedge against memories of famine. As solution to urbanization and loss, he proposes pairing restoration and commerce. Author (click 'See also'): Foragers and traditional farmers are food's safe-keepers. North America lost more than 15,000 apple varieties in 400 years.
By Gary Paul Nabhan
Orion Magazine 2008-05-01 (entry)
See also
Jellyfish unwelcome residents at beaches worldwide after severe overfishing removes their predators (tuna, sharks, swordfish) and food competitors, and pollution saps oxygen needed for other predators to thrive in coastal shallows. Their presence signals declining health of the world's oceans, scientists say. And: Jellyfish could take place of fish with chips (click 'See also').
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
The New York Times 2008-08-03 (entry)
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After population's mid-century exodus to urban Italy, grape vines tended for centuries were left to run wild. Now, vineyard sleuth in Alpine valley works to save grape varietals from extinction, to bring them back to cultivation and, finally to turn them into wine.
By Aaron Maines
The Wall Street Journal. (may require subscription) 2008-07-04 (entry)
Commercial and sport fishing will likely be affected as fish population undergoes quick changes in Lake Huron. Blame could be placed on exotic invasive species, including zebra mussel, quagga mussel, round gobies and the spiny water flea. Ecosystem evolution will be studied this year by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
By Jeff Kart
The Bay City Times 2008-03-05 (entry)
Refrigeration units begin cooling Norway's doomsday seed vault on remote Arctic archipelago to optimum storage temperature, ensuring long viability for about 4.5 million of the world's agricultural seeds. The foil packets are "final backup" of future food and crop diversity.
By Doug Mellgren
The Associated Press 2007-11-15 (entry)
Despite strong community opposition, European Union OKs imports of genetically modified corn and sugar beet for human and animal food; varieties were developed by subsidiary of DuPont, a unit of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and a German plant breeding company, KWS SAAT and taps into the $6 billion biotech crop market.
Bloomberg News; Reuters; International Herald Tribune 2007-10-24 (entry)
Bill requiring labels for cloned meats and milk is a small step in the right direction; FDA's movement toward no-label approval based on part, from biotech company data, is a slippery slope toward other questionable biotech products including human genes.
By Osagie K. Obasogie and Pete Shanks
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-10-05 (entry)
Praying to the god of corn has its price: nitrogen waste in the waterways, taxpayer money feeding the industry, low-nutrition meat from animals that eat it, but it provides a fertile field of medical research, and in Mexico, growing corn is the only way one farmer ensures his wife's tortillas have the authentic taste.
By Hugh Dellios
Chicago Tribune 2007-09-09 (entry)
Monsanto and Dow agree to stack designer-modified bug-killing, herbicide-resisting genes in corn seed, with eye on maximum yields; with 93 million acres dedicated to crop in U.S., critics worry about unintended deaths of insects beneficial to ecosystem and soil.
By Ana Campoy
Wall Street Journal 0000-00-00 (entry)
Ethanol craze looms dangerously large for fish and crabs in Chesapeake, since larger acreage planted in nitrogen-needy corn means more fertilizer runoff into water, which spawns growth of oxygen-depriving algae, study reports.
The Associated Press; Business Week 2007-08-27 (entry)
Though banned for sale in March, Monsanto's GMO alfalfa seed was already widely planted in Michigan; public interest group sues, citing concerns for human and animal health as well as possible contamination of conventional alfalfa plants through pollination by bees.
By Jeff Kart
The Bay City Times 2007-08-24 (entry)
Like prima donnas, heirloom tomatoes wait an extra week to ripen, but these voluptuous misfits with the tawdry, nightclub-act names - Cherokee Purple, Banana Legs, Green Zebra, Hillbilly, Black Russian - have it in their power to hold us all in thrall for a good part of the summer.
By Tim Stark
Washington Post 2007-08-15 (entry)
Seeking the perfect tomato means eschewing perfectly formed orbs in favor of a weedy tangle of vines in which antique, thin-skinned heirloom treasures are hidden; this obsession is an art in the Merrimack Valley, where growers proliferate.
By Kristi Ceccarossi and Darry Madden
The Hippo (NH) 2007-08-23 (entry)
Amber waves of wheat, once vital to Vermont's economy (and even part of the state seal), may return to the state fields, as bakers and locavores seek nearby sources and crops specialist uses USDA grant to grow three heirloom varieties - Surprise, Champlain and Defiance.
By Mel Huff
The Times Argus (VT) 2007-08-13 (entry)
Despite day jobs, couple hunt, fish and gather about a third of the food they eat, using a nearly comprehensive mental map of Seattle foraging spots to relish what they call unbelievably bountiful land.
By Huan Hsu
Seattle Weekly 2007-08-08 (entry)
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Bane and benefit both, blackberries cover the Oregon landscape with a thorny thicket but are high in antioxidants, show promise in tumor reduction, are a high cash crop, a primary food source for honeybees and other pollinators - and they're tasty as well.
By Joe Mosley
The Register-Guard (OR) 2007-08-11 (entry)
Program that last year brought 35,000 pounds of hunter-donated venison to low-income clients of southern Wisconsin food pantry endangered by budget cuts; testing the deer for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) reduced by 60 percent; experts predict explosion in deer population.
By Christina Beam
Reedsburg Times Press (WI) 0000-00-00 (entry)
Judging from plastic bottles clogging the landfills and SUVs clogging the highways, the news that we're killing ourselves and our world hasn't kicked in, so that makes "The 11th Hour," an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary, essential viewing.
By Manohla Dargis
The New York Times 2007-08-17 (entry)
Emaciated grey whales seen off the coast of Baja California may show a crucial break in ocean's food chain; algae mats, home to shrimp-like creatures that whales, walrus and sea ducks feed on, have disappeared as ice melts.
By Leonard Doyle
The Independent (UK) (entry)
Overfishing, poaching and pollution have depleted worldwide fish stocks to 10 percent of normal; for every pound of shrimp harvested, 10 pounds are discarded, along with turtles and dolphins, conservationists report.
By Eviana Hartman
Washington Post (entry)
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It's a stretch to blame the precipitous worldwide decline of marlin, swordfish, tuna and sharks on Hemingway, even figuring spawning rates over four generations, but quest for sportsman-trophy fish photos like his have targeted the at-risk bluefin tuna.
By Paul Greenberg
The New York times (may require subscription) (entry)
"The Zen of Fish," and "The Sushi Economy," offer lessons in how global economy works, dangers of over-fishing and how it thrives on demand, and why trout might not be the best choice for eating raw (think tapeworms).
By Stuart Biggs
bloomberg.com 2007-08-08 (entry)
In old days, no Kazakh man was a true man if he did not have a horse, a hunting dog and an eagle, but tradition is dying and poachers have endangered the saker falcon; conservation plan in Central Asia involves both birds.
By Natalya Antelava
BBC News 2007-08-06 (entry)
