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

Scientists at Great Britain's Royal Veterinary College for developing a way to determine if eggs labeled "free range" really are. The method uses ultraviolet rays to expose tell-tale patterns on the eggs' surfaces, according to the May 2005 issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. The system doesn't require actual visits to a farm and doesn't damage eggs, Professor Neville Gregory, the animal-welfare specialist who developed the technique, tells VT. Next step: commercializing the device so consumers can purchase verified free-range eggs.

Toyota Motor Sales, USA, for sponsoring the 12th annual National Public Lands Day to be held on Saturday, September 24, in parks around the country. Toyota has sponsored this even for the past seven years. On this day, about 90,000 volunteers will help spruce up hundreds of parks and other public spaces by picking up trash, testing water quality, planting seeds and building footbridges. To participate, visit the National Public Lands Day site: www.npld.com/involved/getting_started.cfm.> Illinois farmer Bill Dumoulin for recycling the waste from his family's 25,000 hogs into an odor-free compost. He then uses it to fertilize his 700-acre farm in an otherwise increasingly urbanized community 60 miles from Chicago. Dumoulin filters the manure through mulched leaves, grass clippings and wood chips supplied by nearby municipalities that have made it illegal to put yard waste in landfills or to burn it. The result is a nutrient-rich compost that he eventually hopes to sell. "This is an environmentally friendly solution to two problems: waste from the farm and waste from the city," Paul M. Walker, PhD, an Illinois State University professor of animal science, tells VT.

STICK TO

Broyhill, Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Stickley, Thomasville and other American furniture makers for buying mahogany logged illegally in Peru. In April, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Defenders of Wildlife called on these companies to stop importing the wood, which they admit using. The trade is depleting mahogany forests, endangering local wildlife and infecting indigenous tribes with viruses brought in by foreign workers.

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a group funded by restaurants, for its $600,000 ad campaign calling America's obesity problem mere "hype." And a twig from the same stick to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for handing CCF and other critics a perfect opportunity to ridicule well-founded health warnings. In March 2004, CDC claimed that obesity kills 400,000 Americans a year. In April 2005, it said 26,000 was more like it, adding that slightly overweight people often outlive thinner ones. It quickly backed off that, too, upping the deaths to 112,000 and saying that being overweight does not promote longer life. But by then the public was befuddled, CCF was running its ads and the damage was done.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for failing to respond to mounting evidence that it has covered up cases of deadly mad cow disease. In April 2005, former USDA veterinarian Lester Friedlander testified before the Canadian Parliament that, as a US meat inspector in 1991, he was ordered not to report mad cow cases. He also said that when private labs confirmed the disease, other USDA vets overruled the findings, ran their own tests and denied the original results. Only after the story made headlines did the USDA investigate--but it still denies wrongdoing. Makes vegetarianism look healthier than ever.