Carrot & stick: who walks the walk, who's nothing but talk

Vegetarian Times, April, 2005

CARROT TO

Palo Alto, CA, for its "green" electricity initiative. The city will burn the methane emitted naturally from a local landfill to produce steam. The steam will spin generators in a power plant that will produce enough electricity to power about 1,500 homes, meaning cleaner air and a reduced dependence on oil and natural gas, both non-renewable resources.

Ralph and Lisa Turner of Laughing Stock Farm in Freeport, ME, for heating their 7,500-square-foot greenhouse with used cooking oil from nearby restaurants. "The result is lush spinach, radishes and other vegetables that the Turners grow in the warm greenhouse and sell to restaurants and stores for Mainers to enjoy all winter long," the Portland Press Herald reports. Heating oil sells for nearly $2 a gallon in Maine. By contrast, the Turners say it costs 20-30 cents a gallon, labor and materials included, to burn the cooking oil. The Turners say that if Maine farmers recycled the 1.5 million gallons of cooking oil used each year in the state, more than 30 acres of greenhouses could grow fresh produce throughout the winter.

Office Depot for recycling cell phones and rechargeable batteries, free of charge. A leader in electronics recycling, Office Depot has partnered with the nonprofit Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation to accept the items at all of the retailer's 960 locations in Canada and the United States. Rechargeable batteries contain potentially harmful chemicals, so it's safer to dispose of them at Office Depot stores instead of in household trash.

STICK TO

Retiring US Representative Billy Tauzin of Louisiana for accepting the $2-million-a-year presidency of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the prescription drug industry's influential lobbying group. Until last year, the Republican lawmaker was the chairman of the House committee that regulates the industry he's joining; he was also a co-sponsor of the Medicare bill that critics say keeps drug prices high. "It's a sad commentary on Washington politics that a member of Congress who pushed through a major piece of legislation benefiting the drug industry then gets the job leading that industry," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a watchdog group.

L.L. Bean for selling clothing treated with a synthetic pesticide called permethrin, classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a possible carcinogen. Earlier this year, the retailer announced that it will offer BU77 OFF apparel, said to repel ticks, flies and other pests--but failed to warn consumers that permethrin may pose health hazards. It can be especially dangerous to children if used in combination with DEET, an insect repellent. Talbot's Kids, Eastern Mountain Sports and Hudson Trail Outfitters also carry the clothing.

The US meat industry for failing to heed safeguards against mad cow disease. A year after the US Department of Agriculture banned older cattle's brains and spinal cords from the food supply, meat processors are still using these body parts, according to a December 2004 report by the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, which represents inspectors--another reason to go veg!