carrot & stick - Brief Article

Vegetarian Times, May, 2000 by Abigail Chipley

A CARROT to CVS Corp., the nation's second-largest drugstore chain, for tracking the herbal supplements purchased by its customers. As people increasingly turn to herbs to improve their health, the potential for hazardous herb-pharmaceutical cocktails grows. CVS pharmacists now ask their customers which supplements they use and enter the information into a program that cross-checks for potential negative reactions with drugs. But it's important to note that you can avoid dangerous combinations by simply letting your M.D. know what you're self-prescribing. CVS says nearly 40 percent of people using supplements fail to alert their physicians.

A STICK to ABC's 20/20 reporter John Stossel for incorrectly implying that organic food is more likely than conventional food to make people sick. On the February 4 episode, he suggested that organic foods are more prone to E.coli contamination because the manure used to fertilize organic crops often harbors it. What he failed to mention is that many conventional farmers also use manure as fertilizer. Stossel then had a University of Georgia scientist run an experiment to compare E.coli contamination of organic food with that of conventional food. The results indicated that 5 percent of all the food showed evidence of E.coli; organics had more "by a small margin." But only one bacteria strain causes disease, and the "scientific" experiment didn't distinguish among them. Stossel also dismissed organic agriculture's positive impact on the environment and even suggested a warning label for organic that would read "It could kill you." We'd like to suggest a warning label of our own--for Stossel's biased and lopsided reporting.

A CARROT to the Chinese government for cracking down on illegal trading of wildlife. A recent 10-day campaign led to the rescue of 13,000 captured animals, 4,000 of which were members of endangered species. These critters, including lizards, birds and marine animals, are losing ground to a powerful force: the Chinese appetite for exotic wildlife. The government's antipoaching effort, which resulted in nearly 400 arrests, is a positive step, but even more important will be reforming the collective palate of the People's Republic. Of late, newspapers have run articles that emphasize not regard for animals, but the ill health effects of eating wild creatures. Whatever the strategy, we hope it works.