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

Vegetarian Times, Nov-Dec, 2005

CARROT TO

Washington state transportation officials for their plan to include up to 14 wildlife crossings over and under heavily traveled 1-90, which takes drivers over Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mountains. Some 27,000 vehicles barrel down this stretch of highway daily, killing an average of 50 deer and elk each year and countless smaller animals. The experiment in "road ecology" will guide wildlife to woodsy tunnels and bridges in areas where the animals are known to cross. Decreasing the number of collisions, not incidentally, will also reduce the danger to humans.

Pennsylvania dentists for voluntarily collecting and recycling stores of obsolete elemental--or liquid--mercury to prevent the toxic material from entering the environment. Working with Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, the dentists will also draw up best-management practices for reducing waste from the mercury amalgams used in some fillings (which are safe even though they contain mercury). If exposed to air, elemental mercury evaporates, and inhaling its vapor can cause serious pulmonary problems, especially in kids.

Wild Oats Natural Marketplaces for refusing to sell eggs from caged hens, a decision announced on May 31,2005. Currently, over 95 percent of eggs sold in the United States come from birds in cages so small they can't even spread their wings. Wild Oats, whose 75 stores sold 1.6 million cartons of eggs in 2004, is the second major grocery chain to adopt a cage-free policy. (Whole Foods Market, with 170 stores in North America and the United Kingdom, announced its policy in January 2005.)

STICK TO

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)--which faces cuts in many programs, from clean water to pesticide safety--for budgeting big bucks to buff up its image, in apparent violation of federal law prohibiting the use of tax dollars for "publicity or propaganda." A May 2005 request-for-proposal from EPA's Office of Research and Development seeks a vendor to enhance the research group's image for the hefty sum of $6 million. "Good science does not need spin," says Rebecca Roose, of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Florida Power and Light (FPL) for dumping radioactive nuclear waste into a pasture. FPL admits the action--one of many illegal acts alleged in lawsuits against it. The utility also alleged to have sent waste into municipal sewage treatment plants in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then have concealed the shipments from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The suits were brought by parents who say that their children developed cancer a result of exposure to the nuclear waste.

Vegetarian Times (yes, ourselves) for giving an agri-biz farmer a Carrot. The farmer had devised an eco-friendly way to recycle animal and urban waste into rich, odor-free compost--but the animal waste came from his factory farm of 25,000 hogs. There are no excuses, but some explanation may help. The item was from a contributor who mainly covers the environment for us and missed the core problem. We had just moved, were short-staffed, had huge tech problems and missed it too. Obviously, VT doesn't support factory farming--it goes against everything we believe. In the case of the hog farmer, we deserve the Stick.