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Canada plans inquiry into disappearance of BC sockeye
Vancouver Sun
11/06/2009
Canada will stage a judicial inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon runs on the Fraser River, which have been in a two-decade decline and hit a 50-year low in summer 2009. It has prompted concerns that sockeye are heading for a population failure on the scale of the collapse of Atlantic cod.
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Democrats push climate bill without GOP
New York Times
11/05/2009
Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee pushed through a climate bill on Thursday without any debate or participation by Republicans. The move suggests that President Obama and bill supporters will have serious problems assembling the votes needed to enact it when it comes to the Senate floor, probably not before next year.
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Views: A CA water deal at long last
San Francisco Chronicle
11/06/2009
For decades, California's water wars have flared unabated - cities versus farms, north against south - while half measures left the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta drained and decimated. A solution involving all sides was only a dream. Until now.
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Farmed salmon's ecological finprint measured
New Scientist
11/04/2009
The first cradle-to-grave analysis of the environmental impact of salmon farms has found that in some ways they're less harmful than, say, raising beef cattle -- but that there is plenty of room for improvement.
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The rise of the non-veggie vegetarian
BBC News
11/05/2009
Vegetarianism used to be simple -- its protagonists foreswore the flesh of any dead animal. Today there are "veggies" who eat fish, and people who eat no meat but don't call themselves vegetarians.
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Sustainable meat hits its hot spot
Willamette Week
11/04/2009
Portlander Berlin Reed used to be a militant vegan, until a series of off-restaurant jobs left him working behind a sustainably run butchery counter. "There was pretty much no argument against it. I knew exactly where the animals came from and how they lived. So I took a nice bite of rib eye at work and was like, 'I'm sold.'"
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Constantine wins King County exec
Seattle Times
11/04/2009
Riding a late-breaking wave of liberal support, Dow Constantine - a pro-abortion-rights, pro-labor, pro-transit Democrat - handily defeated Susan Hutchison on Tuesday in a rancorous race for King County executive. Now he has to clean up the county's budget, which is projected to face a $110 million shortfall over the next two years.
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Views: Smart, green and humane
Vancouver Sun
11/04/2009
According to the latest UN population projections, the next 40 years will see an almost doubling of urban populations. This growth will offer both unprecedented challenges and great opportunities to cities around the world.
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BC natives claim landmark fish victory
Vancouver Sun
11/03/2009
The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council claimed a legal victory Tuesday after the BC Supreme Court affirmed the right of aboriginals to sell the seafood they harvest. The court gave the aboriginal people of the west coast of Vancouver Island the right to harvest and sell fish and other seafood in their territory, although the right is not unrestricted.
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Consumer group finds elevated BPA levels in food
Los Angeles Times
11/02/2009
A consumer advocacy group's analysis of canned goods has found measurable levels of the chemical additive bisphenol A (BPA) across a range of foods, including some that were labeled "BPA free." Children eating multiple servings of some of the tested food could get doses of BPA "near levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies."
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Study: Half of US kids will receive food stamps
USA Today
11/02/2009
Whether for the long term or for getting through a temporary financial crisis, half of American kids will live in households receiving food stamps before age 20, according to a study reported Monday in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
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What does overfishing have to do with climate negotiations?
The Economist
11/03/2009
Overfishing erodes future prosperity by destroying today a resource that could yield benefits indefinitely. Yet it is subsidised by billions of taxpayer dollars, euros and yen. Now, with fuel subsidies on the table at Copenhagen, a new chance to halt this insanity has emerged in the unlikely form of climate-change negotiations.
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More Oregon farmers grow their own electricity
Coos Bay World
11/02/2009
More farms are installing renewable energy, said Stephanie Page, renewable energy specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The motivation was sparked by the 2008 spike in fuel prices, and is being fanned by a range of grants and tax credits handed out by state, federal and private agencies.
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Radio: The Perils Of Over-Fishing
NPR
11/02/2009
Daniel Pauly, a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, warns that the global fishing industry has drastically depleted the number of fish in the oceans
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Farmers growing electricity along with their crops
Corvallis Gazette-Times
11/02/2009
More Oregon farms are generating renewable energy with solar panels and micro turbines. Just how many remains unclear, but the motivation seems to be a desire to be green more than the bottom line, despite an increasing array of financial incentives.
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Rare BC abalone easy pickings for poachers
Victoria Times Colonist
11/01/2009
Northern abalone can spend their entire lives within a pond-sized patch of BC coastline. And that is where their problems begin.
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In troubled Vancouver 'hood, a place to grow food
Toronto Globe and Mail
11/01/2009
Hunger is a concern in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver, BC. Many people there rely on food banks, and don't get the nutrients they need. Fruits and vegetables are hard to come by. A new half-acre farm could help -- plus provide needed jobs.
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Wind breakers: Making methane on the farm
BBC News
10/28/2009
The man behind one of the most influential reports on climate change, Lord Stern, has highlighted the impact meat production has on greenhouse gas emissions.
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Suddenly, America digs farming
Los Angeles Times
10/28/2009
Farming, which many city folk once associated primarily with children's books and distinctive if not entirely flattering tan lines, is suddenly in vogue.
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Rural poor in 'double bind' with food
Corvallis Gazette-Times
10/27/2009
A new study by Oregon State University researchers shows that those in poverty in rural Oregon often know what kinds of foods they should be eating, but face tough choices. When times were tough and money tight, food became a flexible expense.
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Thousands rally for action on climate
Vancouver Sun
10/25/2009
About 5,000 people, including a shouting, sign-waving group of secondary school students, demonstrated on Vancouver's Cambie Bridge as part of the International Day of Climate Change. They were among millions of people around the world who took part in weekend demonstrations demanding government action on climate change.
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Food plants make comeback in Oakland
San Francisco Chronicle
10/25/2009
At a time when most industries in CA are suffering, Oakland's food business - including everything from tofu to doughnuts - appears to be expanding and hiring workers for living wage jobs.
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Portland harbor contamination poses risk
Oregonian
10/25/2009
Decades of industrial pollution in the Portland Harbor Superfund site have left high levels of contaminants in river sediment, an exhaustive survey concludes, posing risks to wildlife, fish and humans who eat fish from the nine-mile stretch of the Willamette River.
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Betting the farm
Mother Jones Magazine
10/25/2009
When the Waxman-Markey climate bill was written, power plants were covered. Chemical factories were covered. Refineries were covered. But agriculture? Not covered. At all. Farms can emit greenhouse gases until sea levels have risen enough to give Iowans an ocean view and never pay a dime.
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Awaiting decisions in OR's land use limbo
Bend Bulletin
10/26/2009
For years, Olaf and Jannis Bolken wanted to sell the older house on their 31 acres to their son Torfinn, who lives there with his family. They thought Measure 37, which loosened Oregon's strict land use laws in 2004, would be a solution to their problem. In the years since, however, the Bolkens have grown frustrated as their effort to subdivide their property has remained in limbo.
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