BREAST CANCER: Researchers have found that 50-something women who are overweight are at heightened risk for breast cancer. Breast cancer risk was twice as high for the heaviest women than for the lightest women; twice as high for women who gained more than 10 pounds in the preceding decade than for those with no weight change; and 30 percent lower for women who lost at least 10 pounds over the preceding decade than for those whose weight didn't change.

Source: Journal National Cancer Institute 1996;88:650 as cited in Nutrition Action Healthletter, Oct 1996, p3.

CROHN'S DISEASE: Crohn's Disease is a chronic illness involving the intestines. Though the cause of Crohn's Disease is uncertain, recent findings suggest that diet may play a role in its prevention. Researchers in Japan (where Crohn's Disease is growing in prevalence) found that animal protein is the nutrient most closely linked with the disease. Vegetable protein was associated with a reduced incidence of the disease.

Am J Clin Nutr 1996;63:741-745 as cited in Vegetarian Journal, Sep/Oct 1996, p14.

EXERCISE: The 1996 Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health found that fewer than 60 percent of US citizens are meeting the minimum guidelines for moderate physical activity—about 30 minutes a day, most days of the week. Hundreds of studies confirm that regular physical activity reduces the risk of premature death, heart disease, colon cancer, heart attack, high blood pressure and much more.

Source: Julie Walsh, RD, "No More Excuses; Uncle Sam Wants YOU to Get Moving," Environmental Nutrition, Oct 1996, p2.

FISH and CONTAMINANTS: A recent report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) warns consumers, "Shellfish feed by filtering two to three gallons of water an hour. That means they take in whatever's floating by—not only plankton and other foods, but viruses, bacteria, mercury, and who-knows-what-else."

Fish with fins aren't always squeaky clean either, CSPI adds, noting the risk of chemical contaminants. "Harmful metals, industrial chemicals, and pesticides like mercury, PCBs, dioxin, and chlordane often wash into rivers, lakes and oceans. In fact, 47 states currently have fish consumption advisories that warn about eating certain species. They cover 1,740 rivers and lakes (including all the Great Lakes) and large chunks of coastal areas."

Source: David Schardt and Stephen Schmidt, "Fishing for Safe Seafood," Nutrition Action Healthletter, Vol 23, #9, Nov 1996, p1-5.

FISH and PCBs: A Sept. 12, 1996 article in the New England Journal of Medicine reports lower IQs in Michigan children exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a persistent industrial compound once widely used in the manufacture of electronic equipment and in paper recycling. The average IQ was 6.2 points lower in children with the highest prenatal exposure compared with children with the smallest exposures. The children with the highest levels of PCBs were traced to mothers who had eaten large quantities of Great Lakes fish, infamous for PCB contamination. PCBs now taint most soils and waters. The study's authors note,"women who eat no fish may accumulate [PCBs] from other food sources, including dairy products, such as cheese and butter, and fatty meats, particularly beef and pork."

Source: Science News, Sep 14, 1996; 150:165. Also, New York Times, Sep 14, 1996, pA-14.

FOOD CHOICES and CHILDREN: A recent study finds that 10-year-olds are eating—and parents and schools are serving—less red meat but more chicken and seafood. Total meat consumption has stayed about the same. This trend more--or-less mirrors changes in adults.

Source: Rod Smith, "Kids, schools switching from meat to poultry," Feedstuffs, Oct 28, 1996.

FOOD CHOICES and CHILDREN and THE NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM: The percentage of public schools offering brand-name fast foods (like items from Pizza Hut, Domino's, Taco Bell and Subway) increased dramatically from about 2 percent in the 1990-91 school year to 13 percent in the 1995-96 school year.

Source: General Accounting Office, "School Lunch Program: Role and Impacts of Private Food Service Companies," August 1996.

FOOD SAFETY and ANIMAL DRUGS: In June 1996, a federal jury found a Wisconsin company guilty of importing illegal drugs including clenbuterol, and adding them to animal feeds. Evidence showed that Vitek Corporation sold more than 1.7 million pounds of products containing these unapproved drugs between 1988 and 1994. The US attorney involved in the case stated, "The evidence established that veal feed suppliers and veal producers throughout the country paid Vitek extra for veal [feed] containing these illegal and harmful animal drugs." The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are expected soon.

Source: "Guilty verdict returned in veal feed case," Feedstuffs, Sep 23, 1996, p19.

FOOD SAFETY and DAIRY: A recent report sheds new light on one of the largest salmonella outbreaks in US history. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculates that 224,000 people were sickened by salmonella-contaminated Schwan's ice cream in 1994. Only 300 cases of salmonella poisoning were reported to federal agencies from all causes that year, pointing out just how hidden and widespread food contamination (much of it associated with animal foods) is. One review of published studies estimates as many as 81 million cases of foodborne illness occur in the US each year, with only thousands ever officially reported.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine, May 16, 1996, cited in Science News; 150: Sep 14, 1996, p173.

FOOD SAFETY and E. COLI and GREAT BRITAIN: An outbreak of E. coli in Scotland had killed nine elderly people by early December, 1996, with at least 204 cases confirmed overall. The outbreak was linked to meat eaten at a retiree's luncheon. The British government said that there had been more than 1,300 cases of E. coli poisoning in Scotland since 1990.

Source: "Ninth person dies in British E. coli outbreak," Dec 8, 1996, found on WWW home page of Federal Meat Inspectors Union.

FOOD SAFETY and E. COLI and JAPAN and US BEEF EXPORTS: In the second-half of 1996, an outbreak of E. coli poisoning killed 11 Japanese and sickened more than 9,500 others. The outbreak has led to a sharp decline in Japan for US beef. Sales were down 30-50 percent.

Source: "E. coli outbreak in Japan takes toll on US exports," Meat Marketing and Technology, Oct 1996.

FOOD SAFETY and MEAT: In Sept. 1996, the editor of a meat industry trade journal called The National Provisioner warned readers, "brown may be the color of a cooked [hamburger] patty, but it may not be the color signaling that it is well done and thus safe to eat." This cautionary note was the focus of an editorial entitled, "Burgers cooked to the right color may still contain poison."

Source: Barbara Young-Huguenin, The National Provisioner, Sep 1996, p8.

HEALTH GENERAL: Half of all adults—100 million Americans—suffer from one or more chronic diseases such as heart, liver and kidney diseases, cancer, stroke, arthritis, diabetes and senility, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Two of three adults between 45 and 64, and nine of ten elderly have one or more of these health problems. These chronic health problems consume three quarters of all health care dollars. By the year 2030, according to government estimates, one of five Americans will be 65 or older, and 150 million of them will suffer from chronic diseases.

Source: JAMA, Nov 13, 1996;276:1473.

HEART DISEASE: Heard that we are winning the war against heart disease? Don't celebrate yet. According to the Feb. 1997 issue of Environmental Nutrition, "It seems that, contrary to previous reports, deaths from heart disease haven't dropped, they have merely been delayed. In other words, efforts to fend off heart disease may gain the average person a couple of years, but may not keep the disease at bay forever." EN continues, "last fall the health community was rocked by news that deaths from heart disease may actually be rising. According to government figures, instead of about 150 of every 100,000 people dying yearly from the disease, the toll might be as high as 260 to 270." The good news of the past, it seems, was based mostly on the decline in heart disease among 40-to-60 year olds. But four out of five heart disease deaths occur among people over 65. When baby boomers begin to reach 65, experts anticipate a surge in the incidence of heart disease.

Source: Marsh Hudnall, RD, "Heart Disease Handbook—Part 1," Environmental Nutrition, Feb 1997, p1-4.

HEART DISEASE and CHILDREN: Coronary heart disease risk factors are prevalent at an early age according to a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Researchers found that of the 14- and 15-year olds studied, 41 percent of boys and 48 percent of girls were obese; 14 percent of boys and 8 percent of girls were severely obese; dietary fat and saturated fat intake was higher than recommended; and cardiovascular fitness scores were below average. The results suggest the need to reduce intake of fat while increasing exercise.

Source: JADA 1996;96:238-242, cited in Nutrition Close-Up, Vol 13, #2, 1996.

HEART DISEASE and CHOLESTEROL and SOY: Numerous studies have demonstrated how soy foods can lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol. But a recent exciting finding is that soy also increases HDL ("good") cholesterol, in some cases by as much as 50 percent. To date, relatively few dietary approaches have been shown to raise HDL cholesterol. According to nutrition authority Mark Messina, PhD, "The combined effect of a decreased LDL and an increased HDL strongly support the use of soy for reducing heart disease risk."

Source: Mark Messina, PhD, "Researchers From Around World Present On Wide Range of Chronic Diseases," The Soy Connection, Vol 5, #1, Winter 1997.

HEART DISEASE and CHOLESTEROL and STROKE: HDL's (the "good" cholesterol) have long been known to protect against heart disease. Researchers in Israel have recently found that raising HDLs may also protect against stroke, which is caused by blocked blood flow to the brain. Smoking, older age, high blood pressure and diabetes are other stroke risk factors.

Source: Stroke, Jan 1997, as cited in Environmental Nutrition, Feb 1997, p1.

HEART DISEASE and ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT THERAPY: One of the strongest arguments for taking Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) has been the belief that it reduces women's risk of heart disease. But new research suggests that this may be overrated. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine say that the link between the two doesn't take into account the possibility that ERT users were simply healthier before menopause anyway.

Source: Amy O'Connor, "Heart to ERT," Vegetarian Times, Feb 1997, p22.

HEART DISEASE and FIBER: A recent Harvard University study concluded that a high-fiber diet alone—independent of fat intake—can prevent heart disease. Men who ate the most fiber—29 grams per day on average—were 36 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who ate the least, about 12 grams per day, which is roughly the US average fiber intake.

Source: "Fat and Fiber Square Off in the Fight Against Heart Disease," Environmental Nutrition, Oct 1996, p2.

Simply replacing four slices of refined bread with whole wheat bread can increase dietary fiber intake by as much as 8 grams per day and would be a significant step toward helping consumers reach the 20-35 grams that experts recommend.

Source: Mark Messina, PhD, "Small Changes Can Lead to Big Improvements," The Soy Connection, Fall 1996, p1.

HEART DISEASE and FISH: Despite high hopes in the early 1980s that fish consumption protected humans from heart disease, the consensus among researchers now seems to be that a little fish may still do some good, but more fish is not necessarily better. Since the early 80s, studies have shown conflicting results about the purported benefits to the heart from eating fish. Several studies have shown no link. A study of 45,000 male dentists in 1986 found that men who ate six or more servings of fish a week had no lower risk of heart disease than the men who ate only one serving a month.

Source: Bonnie Liebman, "Is Seafood a Heart Saver?, Nutrition Action Healthletter, vol 23, #9, Nov 1996, p6-7.

HEART DISEASE and FOLIC ACID: Researchers have known for some time that the B vitamin folic acid (also called folate) can prevent birth defects. Now cardiac experts believe that it can avert up to 10 percent of all cases of heart disease and stroke as well. Folate benefits cardiac patients by lowering elevated levels of homocysteine in the blood. Homocysteine is an amino acid found at elevated levels primarily in people who eat meat. High levels of homocysteine have also been linked to senility. Good sources of folate include dark green leafy vegetables, fruits (especially citrus), other vegetables, whole grains and enriched breakfast cereals.

Source: Frances Sigurdsson, "Folate For All," Vegetarian Times, Feb 1997, p22.

HEART DISEASE and FRUIT CONSUMPTION: Eating fresh fruits daily appears to significantly lower the risk of dying from heart disease, stroke and other causes, according to British researchers. A study of more than 11,000 adults aged 45 and older found that people who ate fresh fruit daily had 24 percent fewer heart attacks, 32 percent fewer strokes and 21 percent fewer deaths overall compared with those who did not.

Source: "The Healthy in a Study Eat Fresh Fruit Daily," Washington Post, Oct 8, 1996.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE and PLANT-RICH DIETS: Currently some 50 million Americans suffer from high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Patients taking part in a recent study at five medical centers across the country significantly reduced their high blood pressure within two weeks of consuming a diet rich in high-fiber fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. These results suggest that dietary improvements—along with lifestyle changes—can replace pharmaceutical drugs for some patients. Blood pressure drugs often have unwanted side effects.

Source: Stuart Auerback, "Diet Lowers Blood Pressure," Washington Post, Nov 19, 1996.

HOSPITAL FOOD: A recent survey of 57 teaching hospitals in the US found that hospital food is not only notoriously bad tasting, it's nutritionally substandard as well. The survey found that 39 percent of the hospital menus exceeded the recommended levels for fat, 47 percent for saturated fat, a whopping 81 percent for cholesterol and 54 percent for sodium. The researchers concluded, "Hospitals should assume a greater role in promoting healthful diets. We cannot think of a more appropriate place to encourage the nutritional health of Americans.

Source: Don Colburn, "Hospital menus fare poorly in nutrition," Washington Post, Jan 2, 1997.

IRON: New findings by US Department of Agriculture researchers indicate that women eating a vegetarian diet do not have significantly different levels of iron in their blood than women eating meat every day. The study's results suggest that the body may absorb the iron it needs from plant sources as well as it does from animal sources. Previous studies have found that people eating a vegetarian diet consume more iron-rich foods than do omnivores.

Source: Amy O'Connor, "The Iron-clad Truth," Vegetarian Times, Feb 1997, p22.

MAD COW DISEASE: In October 1996, British researchers reported in the journal Nature of having direct evidence that Mad Cow Disease was indeed transmitted from cattle to people.

Source: Science News, Vol 150, Nov 2, 1996, p282.

What worries many is that the US continues to recycle animal scraps, turning them into cattle feed. On January 2, 1997, the Food and Drug Administration proposed a ban on feeding cows back to other cows.

Source: FDA Press Release, January 2, 1997

MAD COW DISEASE and TIME MAGAZINE: In January 1997, Time magazine ran a 2-page story on Mad Cow Disease. Time cited a recently published paper suggesting that 1996's outbreak of human illness resulting from Mad Cow "might be only the tip of an epidemiological iceberg, and that thousands of Europeans are unknowingly infected and could die from the disease."

"The only thing that stands between us and an epidemic is unmitigated luck," Robert Rohwer told Time. Rohwer is director of molecular virology at the VA Medical Center in Baltimore. Rohwer added, "I hope we're not on the same course as the British, but we could be."

The Time article concludes, "There are 44 million head of cattle in the US, and 7 million are killed for food each year. If just one of those slaughtered cows turns out to be a mad cow, the illness that's now an ocean away could establish its first beachhead on American shores."

Source: Jeffrey Kluger, "Could Mad-Cow Disease Strike Here?," Time, Jan 27, 1997.

MAD COW DISEASE and NEW YORKER MAGAZINE: In its December 2, 1996 issue, The New Yorker devoted eleven pages to a story on Mad Cow Disease entitled "A New Kind of Contagion." "Is British beef safe?," the author asks. "If the infectivity is restricted to the parts of the cow's body which are being removed and discarded [that's the brain, the spinal cord, and so forth], and if we can trust the abattoirs to remove the offal, then the beef is probably safe... Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean that British beef has always been safe. From 1985 until the offal ban in November 1989, infected matter was routinely passing into the human food supply." After the ban, offal was still often passing into the food supply because the ban was rarely enforced... A single gram—less than a twentieth of an ounce—of infective BSE material given to a cow is enough to kill it.

Source: John Lanchester, "A New Kind of Contagion", The New Yorker , Dec 2, 1996, p70-81.

MAD COW DISEASE and FEED EXPORT: An article in the journal Nature on June 12, 1996 alleges that agricultural firms in England exported feed containing meat byproducts suspected of causing Mad Cow Disease for two years after those feeds were banned in Britain. Tens of thousands of tons of the contaminated feed may have been exported, apparently with the full knowledge of British authorities. Exports of the feed doubled after they were banned in Britain in 1988. Much of the exported feed was sold to France, but also to other European countries, the Middle East and Asia.

Source: Ian Elliot, "Exports of bad British feed alleged," Feedstuffs, June 24, 1996.

PLANT-BASED DIETS: The Center for Science in the Public Interest ran an excellent article in the October 1996 issue of their publication Nutrition Action Healthletter on the health and environmental benefits of plant-based diets. "There's no question that largely vegetarian diets are as healthy as you can get," says Marion Nestle, chair of the nutrition department at New York University. "The evidence is so strong and overwhelming and produced over such a long period of time that it's no longer debatable." Nestle adds, "My number-one reason for eating a plant-rich diet is that it tastes good. I feel deprived if my meal doesn't have lots of vegetables in it."

Source: Bonnie Liebman, "Plants for Supper: 10 Reasons to Eat More Like a Vegetarian," Nutrition Action Healthletter, Oct 1996, p10-12.

SENIOR'S HEALTH and SENILITY and FOOD CHOICES: Symptoms such as dementia, mental disorientation and memory loss, commonly associated with senility, may actually be due to nutritional deficiencies, according to several recent studies in prominent medical journals. In March 1996, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study showing that homocysteine, an amino acid found at high levels in the blood of people who eat meat, is linked with a type of mental disorientation frequently seen in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The study found that eating foods rich in folic acid lowers blood levels of homocysteine and improves mental functioning.

Source: Carol M. Coughlin, RD, "Nutritional Rx for Aging," Vegetarian Times, Feb 1997, p30.

WOMEN'S HEALTH and MENOPAUSE and SOY: Researchers at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in North Carolina found that women given soy supplements reported significantly less-severe hot flashes and night sweats than those taking placebos. The soy also had other beneficial effects for those in the 18-week study: total cholesterol dropped an average of 10 percent, LDL ("bad" cholesterol) levels dropped 12 percent and diastolic blood pressure dropped six points. Soy may prove to be a potential alternative to traditional estrogen replacement therapy. A much larger study using more soy protein is currently underway.

Source: "Research News," Environmental Nutrition, Feb 1997, p8.

WOMEN'S HEALTH and OSTEOPOROSIS and SOY: "Four [recent] animal studies and two human studies...strongly suggest a role for soy in inhibiting bone resorption [i.e. bone loss], stimulating bone formation or both, although all of this work should be considered preliminary."

Source: Mark Messina, PhD, "Researchers From Around World Present On Wide Range of Chronic Diseases," The Soy Connection, Vol 5, #1, Winter 1997.

BARBEQUES and GREAT BRITAIN: Britain's backyard barbequers burn 60,000 tons of charcoal each year to cook their favorite summer meats. Ninety-five percent of the charcoal is imported, with a third coming from Southeast Asia's mangrove forests.

Source: "Charcoals to Newcastle," Earth Island Journal, Spring 1996.

CHICKEN and CHINA: In news with both serious health and environmental repercussions, China is currently increasing its overall meat demand by four million tons per year. Of that amount, China's consumption of poultry meat is rising by 700,000 tons per year.

William A. Dudley-Cash, "Producers must get ready to supply chicken for 9 billion people," Feedstuffs, Oct 7, 1996, p11.

FISH and MEXICO and CALIFORNIA: In December 1995, the Sacramento Bee newspaper ran a remarkable 4-part series on the devastation of the Sea of Cortez between mainland Mexico and Baja California. The Sea of Cortez is 700 miles long, 60 to 150 miles wide, and nearly twice the size of Lake Superior, and more than 300 times larger than Lake Tahoe.

Part One: Tom Knudson, "A Dying Sea," Dec 10, 1995.

• "This great amniotic sea, this world showcase of marine life is being destroyed. The problem is basic. It is overfishing, aided by greed, corruption, poverty and lawlessness. This is 1995, but the Gulf of California is a frontier sea where marine life is slaughtered for markets in the US and Asia, for foreign exchange and sometimes for little more than gas money."

• "The Sea of Cortez is more than just a dazzling spectacle of nature. It is a Pacific Caribbean for the western US. It is California's Riviera."

• "Gone are the huge navies of game fish that fed so savagely they forced schools of bait fish to burst out of the water—volcanoes of fish erupting into the air. Gone are the immense, slow-moving cumulus clouds of turtles, manta rays, the thick, spiraling columns of hammerhead and thresher sharks, the clams thick as cobblestones on the beach. Gone too is the future for many families who make their living from the sea."

• "By all accounts, the entire gulf is being utterly devastated by overfishing," said Paul Dayton, a professor of marine ecology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Ca, one of the premier marine science centers in the world."

• "And there's something else: This is no isolated disaster. It is one spore in a larger pox, the plundering of oceans worldwide."

• "Catch a ride on a shrimp trawler, the sea's most destructive fishing machine. Watch the big nets scoop up tons of unwanted species, such as sea horses, starfish, manta rays and enormous quantities of baby fish. Help the crew sort out the shrimp and heave the excess overboard—dead. For every pound of shrimp caught in the Sea of Cortez, nearly 10 pounds of other marine life dies."

• "The world is not just losing the treasures of the Sea of Cortez. It is eating them. Fishing is supposed to be done conservatively to protect stocks. But in poverty-stricken Mexico, another rule applies: If you will buy it, they will kill it. They will liquidate their sea." And the US is the biggest buyer of Mexico's seafood.

• "Here the ocean was full of fish, like a smorgasbord. Now there's nothing. The gulf is exhausted." Manuel Palacio, 65, Mexican fisherman.

• "The damage doesn't stop at the water's edge. In some places, seabirds are fading from the sky too, apparently because there's not enough fish to eat."

Part Two: Tom Knudson, "Waste on grand scale loots sea," Dec 11, 1995.

• There is massive waste in commercial fishing. "It is one of the most serious environmental problems in the world," said Paul Dayton, of Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla. "And it's out of sight. Fisherman don't advertise it. People don't know what's happening."

• "Worldwide, more than 57 billion pounds of sea life are caught unintentionally and wasted every year, estimates the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. That is more than 200 pounds of dead, discarded marine life for every man, woman and child in the US. It is one-quarter of all annual marine catches on Earth and more than double the entire commercial marine catch of the world's largest fishing nation, China."

• "Almost 92 percent of northern Australia's prawn catch isn't prawns. It's 240 other species, mostly fish, crabs and mollusks."

• "By wasting so much marine life, fisherman may be literally throwing away the future."

• "In the Sea of Cortez, for every pound of shrimp caught, 9.7 pounds of other marine life dies. And sometimes, the ratio climbs to 40 to 1, according to people who live on the sea."

• The Sea of Cortez was once a place teeming with life—"a Serengeti of the sea." "It was like diving into an aquarium," says one old-timer.

• "The sea is a vast piece of machinery, composed of billions of moving parts. But whole segments are being stripped away before anyone knows how they work or fit into the larger whole...Species that were abundant 20 years ago are ghosts today."

Part Three: Tom Knudson, "Bribery, lawbreaking, scarce law enforcement abound," Dec 12, 1995.

• "Oceans everywhere are hard to police. And poaching is commonplace."

• "As the seas are depleted, something else is damaged, too: the human communities that depend on them...Ironically, those who suffer the greatest are those who need the sea the most—simple fishermen and their families."

Part Four: Tom Knudson, "It's not too late, and the sea itself may show the way," Dec 13, 1995.

• "But the biggest reason for hope has nothing to do with people. It is the Sea of Cortez itself. The sea is a recovery project waiting to happen."

FISH and SHRIMP: A recent report in Science News on the environmental horrors caused by shrimp fishing found, "Most of what trawlers catch in their nets is not what they seek. However, even the vast quantities of unwanted species that make it onto a ship's deck offer only a superficial glimpse of the unintended damage that deep trawls wreak as they scour the ocean floor."

Ten to 20 pounds of animals are being killed for each pound of commercially caught shrimp. What's more, trawling is inflicting havoc on the ocean floor and the species that dwell there, and may underlie the recent collapse of many commercial groundfish stocks, including cod, haddock, pollock and flounder.

Elliot Norse, director of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Redmond, Wash., told Science News, "We're talking about destruction of marine habitat that is, if not equivalent, at least in the ballpark with clear-cutting forests on land."

Researchers in Australia have found that a single pass by a prawn trawler removes from 5-20 percent of the seafloor animals. On average, commercial trawlers plow through most of the prawn-rich waters at least once, and as many as eight times annually.

Source: Janet Raloff, "Fishing for Answers," Science News, Oct 26, 1996, vol 150, p268-271.

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: A field of organically grown grain corn survived a summer drought much better than the same kind of corn grown using chemical fertilizers and pesticides according to researchers at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pa. Researchers attribute the organic fields' better production to the fact that they held water better than the chemically treated land.

Source: "Organic corn hardier than conventional," Science News, vol 148, Oct 14, 1995.

PESTICIDES and CUMULATIVE EFFECT: A study published in the journal Science has found that pesticides which by themselves are linked to breast cancer and male birth defects are up to 1,000 times more potent when combined. Such findings could force a revolution in the way that the environmental and health effects of pesticides are measured. "Instead of one plus one equalling two, we found in some cases that one plus one equals a thousand," said study leader John McLachlan of Tulane University.

Source: Associated Press, "Pesticide mix called riskier than alone," The Arizona Republic, June 7, 1996.

PESTICIDES and INERT INGREDIENTS: An historic court ruling in October 1996 means that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must now provide information about the identity of so-called "inert" ingredients in pesticide products. Inerts are any of more than 2,300 substances added to pesticides but not named on the product labels. Despite their name they are neither biologically, chemically nor toxicologically inert. Until now EPA has been routinely accepting manufacturers' claims that inerts are trade secrets. An appeal of the decision by the pesticide industry is likely.

Source: Caroline Cox, "Judge Rules Pesticide 'Inerts' Are Not Trade Secrets," Journal of Pesticide Reform, Winter 1996, vol 16, #4, p8.

PESTICIDES and SAN FRANCISCO: On October 15, 1996 San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed a landmark ordinance banning all city pesticide use beginning in the year 2000. There will also be an immediate ban on the most toxic pesticides used by the city.

Source: Anita Regan, "New San Francisco Ordinance Will End City Pesticide Use," Journal of Pesticide Reform, Winter 1996, vol 16, #4, p9.

OTHER
Economics/Food Trends/People/And More

McDONALD'S and CORPORATE WELFARE: The US Libertarian Party is calling for an end to government subsidies to multibillion dollar companies like McDonald's. The US Department of Agriculture funneled $1.6 million in tax money to McD's to help them advertise their fast foods to Europeans. "Anyone with a McNugget of common sense should be outraged by programs like these," says Libertarian Party chairman, Steve Dasbach.

Source: Libertarian Party press release, Jan 31, 1997.

McDONALD'S and INDIA: According to the Washington Post, the first McDonald's to open in India is a big hit. Located in upscale south Delhi near a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop, the three-story McD's is home to large crowds. A second store that opened in Bombay a week after the Delhi store drew 12,000 customers on its first day. Neither store serves beef or pork. The stores serve burgers made from mutton and chicken, as well as veggie burgers and "Vegetable McNuggets." Veggie items are cooked by a separate staff and made with eggless mayonnaise. Many Indians protest the arrival of McDonald's and other fast-food outlets in their country as a form of industrial-world profiteering and cultural pollution.

Source: Kenneth J. Cooper, "It's Lamb Burger, Not Hamburger," Washington Post, Nov 4, 1996.

ORGANIC FOODS: The sale of organic foods reached a new high in 1995: $2.8 billion. The US Dept of Agriculture reports that the acreage of organic farmland more than doubled between 1991 and 1994.

Source: Christine Blank, Coming to Market From All Directions," Vegetarian Times, Nov 1996, p24.

ORGANIC FOODS and JAPAN: Japanese officials expect that country's market for organic foods to triple to about $2.6 billion by the year 2000. The trend is attributed to growing interest in health and food safety among Japanese consumers.

Source: "Organic Foods Make Inroads within Japan," Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, Dec 30, 1996.

PEOPLE and WENDY'S DAVE THOMAS: Founder of Wendy's Dave Thomas underwent heart bypass surgery in December, 1996. Wendy's spokespersons denied any connection between the bacon cheeseburgers and other fast-food fare that Thomas hawks on television and the 64-year-old's recent heart troubles. Earlier in 1996, Wendy's Chairman James W. Near, 58, died of a heart attack while attending the Olympics in Atlanta.

Source: "Founder of Wendy's, Thomas, to Undergo Heart Bypass Surgery," Wall Street Journal, Dec 17, 1996.

PEOPLE and TEXAS LIVESTOCK OFFICIAL: In May 1996, the official in charge of promoting Texan cattle announced that she has been a vegetarian for the past 14 years. Diane Smith, who oversees livestock programs as assistant commissioner of the state agricultural department said, "It has nothing to do with my work. It's a personal preference."

Source: "Vegetarian Heads Texas Beef Program," Reuter's News Service, May 11, 1996.