Friday, September 27, 2013

Overkill Here and There

Oh no, they’re done it again. Replaced the ticket machine at the
railway station for the second time in surely no more than a year. Of course the instructions will be different and even more confusing. Grumble, grumble. The original machine was perfect, in my opinion. One made one either/or choice after another until one got what one wanted. Now the frequently traveled routes are indicated directly on the initial page, which means that one has to search for any other wish, like the 6-trip tickets I want to buy. Hmmmm….surely they must be here? No, let’s try this “other offers” category. Ah yes, here we go. Mission accomplished, I smile at the man waiting for the machine, who is staring at it with incomprehension. “May I help you?” I inquire. “Oh yes, please”. Together we attempt to navigate along baffling pathways until his ticket finally pops out, both of us feeling that we have accomplished a difficult task.

To add to this exasperation is the fact that the old machines seem to disappear into machine heaven rather than being installed at the bus stops outside the city. The bus that is already delayed by the construction I moaned about a while ago is held up by the passengers without 6-trip tickets or yearly passes, as they negotiate with the driver for their single-trip tickets.

OK, in all fairness I must say that it’s wonderful not to have to stand in line at the train station and a great convenience to pull out the particular 6-trip ticket one needs that day. I have a choice of 12 of them, covering every possible route that I travel, each in two versions, one for a one-hour journey and one valid for 24 hours. The system consists of zones rather than routes and one can travel by train, tram, bus or ship. Easy peasy. Really, I should not fuss. Particularly when the public transport here in Zurich is so terrific.

Of course that makes me think of the States – what sort of everyday overkill can one experience there? How about the extreme concern with germs? One hardly dares cut up a chicken without wearing surgical gloves and mask and sterilizing the instruments afterwards with bleach. Washing hands before eating was right up there with wearing gloves to church in my childhood – cleanliness of the hands coming only second to Godliness. The daily shower is a must. Packaged hand wipes are as ubiquitous as paper handkerchiefs. I was shocked when we came to Switzerland to find tarts with a custard filling sitting about at room temperature waiting to be sold at the shop or eaten in friends’ kitchens. Surely we would all come down with food poisoning? No, everyone seems fine. The “suspicion that typhoid lurks in every corner”, as I once read, is alive and well in the States.

Of course now that CAFOs are a fact of American life and packaged salad is shipped from one end of the country to the other, there is reason to worry about food poisoning. The lack of hygiene in factory farms and meat-packing plants is closer to that portrayed in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” than we would like to think. Not typhoid, but E. coli do lurk in many corners.

I think I’ll take the confusing ticket machines instead.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Golden Grain or Glitter?

In the hot controversy over gene manipulated organisms it is very difficult to distinguish between basic issues involving the organisms themselves and issues around the way they are being developed and used commercially. It is therefore refreshing and clarifying to consider Golden Rice, a GMO with a number of differences.



Golden Rice really is golden in color, the result of the insertion of two genes that are naturally involved in the synthesis of β –carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A. Golden Rice is seen as a future substitute for white rice in areas in the developing world where Vitamin A deficiency is rampant. Vitamin A is important for a strong immune system, and the World Health Organization estimates that 40% of children in developing nations have weakened immunity because of a deficiency of this vitamin. Their natural protection against disease is thus compromised, leading to illness and death.

We see immediately one difference between this rice and the GMOs we hear the most about: Golden Rice is meant for the consumer in the poorer parts of the world, whereas Monsanto’s Roundup Ready, for instance, is meant for farmers and for increased sales of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. There are other differences as well, most notably that free distribution of Golden Rice is planned, with a number of organizations and foundations footing the bill. Farmers will then be able to reuse the seed year after year. It does not displace traditional foods, a plus in highly conservative areas of the world. Because it is free it does not create dependency.

This sounds like a panacea, and indeed, proponents of Golden Rice see it as a major step forward in the battle to improve the diets of the poor. Why then are there detractors in several camps, not just that group that objects to the very idea of gene manipulation? Perhaps most convincing is the argument that it is a technical fix that does nothing to solve complex political, economic and social problems. A far better use for the money that will go into distributing Golden Rice would be expanding the diet of the proposed recipients to include vegetables with plentiful β –carotene, fortifying existing foodstuffs or distributing supplements. Indeed, a number of international agencies report success with just such programs, and at far lower cost than the money that has been poured into the development of Golden Rice.

Other opponents cite the over-corporatization of farming and fear that opening the door to Golden Rice will let in other GMO foodstuffs as well. They see it as a Big Aggie solution in a world in which local farming should be encouraged. They fear the loss of biodiversity that the introduction of this rice would bring.

The most telling of opposing arguments, however, concern the value of the rice itself. Will the original carotenoid levels in the rice remain after storage and cooking? Will the carotenoid really be “bioavailable” for malnourished systems? Will there be unknown health risks to consuming Golden Rice? Will developing world populations be used as guinea pigs to test this product, without being thoroughly informed about its possible dangers? The answers to these questions are as yet largely unknown. 

Opponents claim that we do not need to know the answers; we already know them for foodstuffs with naturally occurring Vitamin A; carrots and sweet potatoes, for instance, let’s encourage the planting of these vegetables instead.

What do you think about Golden Rice? Expensive, tech fix or the answer to a poor developing country’s prayers?

Friday, September 13, 2013

A Little Help from our Friends


Every so often those of us concerned about the environment feel personally overcome by the size of the problems. They are global or involve huge masses like the oceans (rising) or glaciers (melting). The contrast with our small efforts is enormous. One feels one goes to extra lengths to take public transport or recycle and goes without (meat, household stuff, jet travel) and one would like some reward for one’s efforts. At such a time, it does one’s soul good to hear about steps taken by organizations that serve the environment and make life more pleasant or easier at the same time.

One such move was taken by the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, earlier this year. All the public transport in the city is free to residents – the world’s first such move in a capital city. The step was taken partly in the hope of freeing the city from motorized congestion and it has done that, with the number of cars dropping by 15%. The new plan has other positive effects as well. Estonia is a relatively poor country, and the savings on commuting, for instance, are very welcome by the populace and enable more spending in other areas; good for the economy. The city fathers calculate that the loss of income from tickets is compensated by the fact that many people have moved into the city because of the transport, thus bringing new tax resources.

If you live in one of the larger cities in the US or Switzerland, you have probably watched cyclists whizzing about on free bikes – no pollution at all. And what a good way to see the city up close! Try it out yourself! Both this borrow-a-bike and free public transport are the result of thinking ecologically and outside the box and– seeing beneficial interconnections and realizing quite concretely that everything is connected to everything else. The contribution to goodwill is enormous, inspiring the citizenry and making them feel that someone cares.

Here’s another human-friendly offering: If you find statistics mind-boggling or boring, you may change your mind when calculating your global footprint. This is the number of earths that would be necessary to support the world’s population if everyone lived as you do. You are asked questions about various areas of your lifestyle and thus arrive at your footprint and its comparison to the footprint of Switzerland (yes, countries have footprints as well). You are also shown in a simple pie chart the contributions of various sections of your lifestyle to your footprint and can access suggestions for decreasing your footprint in these various sections. The presentation is what makes these statistics effective and easy to understand. To calculate your footprint go to http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/.

In an different sector now, that of food and agriculture, consider these clever moves by Pro Specie Rara, the Swiss organization dedicated to the preservation and propagation of plant and animal species. Sounds high-minded and indeed it is, but you can help with this and enjoy direct benefits for yourself as well, if you live in Switzerland. Just buying the unusual Pro Specie Rara fruits and veggies in the Coop is one way; choose psychedelic purple and white striped beets, beefsteak tomatoes, yellow carrots, blue potatoes, parsnips etc. A friend serves blue potatoes with salmon – beautiful! Or send for their free tomato planting kit at www.stadt-tomaten.ch. If you have a garden, requesting seeds from old varieties, planting them and returning next year’s crop of seeds to the organization’s seed bank is yet another. Have a lot of land? Get help from this organization in raising animals from endangered species. Hobby photographer? Contribute photos of unusual and endangered plants and animals. Enjoy cooking? Contribute recipes to the organization. For info on these activities go to www.prospecierara.ch (German, French and Italian only).

I feel better just writing about these inspiring examples. I hope that reading about them will lighten your day!

Note: for those of you living near Zurich, Pro Specie Rara will present a market with 15 stands at the Viadukt in the city this Saturday, September 14, from 10.00 to 17.00. You can sample various tomato varieties and purchase garden produce, preserves, fresh-pressed cider etc.

Friday, September 6, 2013

A Battery of Batteries

…on a personal scale

It was the night that I was recharging the batteries in no fewer than four electronic devices that the rapidly increasing use of electricity in our society acquired personal meaning. The electric toothbrush, digital camera, hearing aid and laptop were all glowing or blinking their way to a steady green light. Since that night less than two years ago, I have added cell phone, iPod and electric bike to the rechargeable mix – a veritable Christmas tree of little points of red, orange and green light.

Many of these items belong to the class of information-communication technology, which apparently demands as much energy today as was needed to illuminate the whole planet in 1985. Your iPhone takes as much power as your refrigerator. Streaming a film over wireless equals the energy needed to manufacture and ship a DVD of that movie. I can see why many environmentalists think that gains in efficiency and renewable energy production will be canceled out or overwhelmed by a steep climb in electricity usage.

As an environmentalist I of course ask if we really need all this stuff. Taking my seven rechargeable items as examples, the hearing aid is necessary if I am not to become increasingly isolated and the electric toothbrush is highly recommended by the dental profession. The laptop is portable, gives me hours of enjoyable work on the balcony each summer  and apparently uses less electricity than my old desktop computer. The digital camera is easy to use and it’s such fun and so fast to edit the photos in the computer! The cell phone is now necessary for those of us translating professionally. The iPod will soon acquire a docking station and will be my music center, replacing 120 LPs, a phonograph and a CD player, while the electric bike is both useful and enjoyable and certainly uses less energy and causes less pollution than my car did. All come with very high practicality and/or fun factors and I would not want to be without any of them.

Nonetheless, it is a little scary to realize that all of these things have been acquired in the last ten years and that this story is repeated in households all over the world, with electronic devices gobbling up an ever-increasing percentage of the available electricity. Whereas when I came to Switzerland 45 years ago all the women on the train worked on their knitting and the men read newspapers, nowadays everyone is wired, sending SMSs or listening to music. My older two grandchildren, teenagers, have recently acquired iPhones – the last in their school classes to do so. There are fewer and fewer public phones in Zurich – nearly everyone has a mobile. Looking up a fair price for my car before selling it, I found that I had to pay the small charge for this info by cell phone. 

Surely this marks a more rapid change than that taking place during the previous ten years? What will the next decade bring?

Well, there is an iPhone to replace my cheapy-cheapy cell phone, and a tablet because the laptop is rather heavy to cart about…and …and…