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.

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?

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.

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…

Infrastructure here and there

CH ≠ US

The other day I tried out a car from Mobility, our local car-share, for the first time. I was a nervous wreck, sure I would not be able to figure out the on-board computer or would mess up in some way. My fears were not eased by the fact that the car was nearly new, bright and shiny and perfectly clean. The on-board computer turned out to be simplicity itself, the car behaved much like the one I just sold, and soon I was bumping along a country road on the way to my favorite walking area. I pulled up to the parking lot that is my preferred starting point and…..it was being paved over! In the woods, big enough for perhaps 8 cars, and formerly covered with fully-effective gravel, it was roped off and being subjected to road-working machines.

This was only the latest in a series of summertime construction aggravations. The bus to the next town is often late because it has to wait for access to the one-way half of the street that is not being repaved, and we all miss our train. A street with a few patches that anywhere else would be considered perfectly serviceable, but here must be made pristine. Pulling up to a large grocery store parking garage to stock up just before selling my car, I found the entire garage closed completely for renovation, and there is no parking on the street nearby. Part of the train line to the pilgrimage town of Einsiedeln was closed for a week, with buses filling in. This would have been fine had the buses not taken far longer to make the journey, so one arrived late for Vespers. There are plans afoot to renovate, at a cost of thousands of francs, the parking lot in my town that serves the high school and one of the churches. It is also covered with gravel at the moment – just what is wrong with a gravel surface?

There is a difference between grousing because one is inconvenienced, on the one hand, and complaining about the necessity or not of such infrastructure projects, on the other. I’m afraid I fall into both categories, as it seems to me that much construction in the Zurich area is more cosmetic than anything else. I am not the only resident here who feels this way, to be sure. There are periodic demonstrations against sizeable spending for construction in lieu of expanded social programs, for instance. To be inconvenienced by necessary repairs is unavoidable, but it seems to me that too much money is being spent on unnecessary projects, with the construction industry benefitting hugely and the results neat and new but often not offering substantial added value.

Now let’s jump across the pond and consider the situation in the States – and this is a shocker.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has created a report card for showing the condition and performance of various aspects of US infrastructure. The country is near flunking. Consider:  
- 42% percent of major urban highways are congested, while 45% of American households lack any access to public transit. Roads are given a grade of D. 
- State and local school construction funding is in decline. Experts estimate that $270 billion or more will be needed to bring school facilities up to snuff. Schools are given a grade of D.
- One in nine of the nation's bridges is rated as structurally deficient. Grade for bridges = C+

The list goes on, with overall GPA for all aspects of national infrastructure = D+. In another ranking, that of the World Economic Forum, the United States fell from 6th place in 2007-2008 to 16th place in 2011-2012.

I have a personal story to illustrate the US situation too. Taking a bus from Boston to northern Vermont a few years ago, I wandered into the bus station at the end of the first leg of the journey to wait for my connection, and just stopped and gaped. The station looked exactly as it had when we left the States 40 years earlier, and it was certainly not newly renovated then. Same cracked linoleum on the floor, same battered orange chairs: I felt as if I were on a movie set for a period film. This is a station at a major junction for the only long-distance transit in the area – there are no trains.

One asks why the enormous difference in the two countries, both among the world’s wealthiest. Expensive cosmetic cleanup in Switzerland, too little drastically-essential renewal in the States, never mind cosmetics. Difference in mentality, certainly. What else? Worth thinking about, as this is a question of much more than infrastructure.

True Cost II

The real price tag on that cheeseburger meal 

 Last week I talked about the hidden costs of burning fossil fuels; this week I want to take up another glaring example - the hidden costs of the typical Western diet and “big aggie” – largescale agriculture.


Our eating habits

Overweight and its attending illnesses have become a major health problem, particularly in children, in the past few years. The United States has the second highest rate of obesity for large countries, exceeded only by Mexico. More than 1/3 of US adults are obese, and 17% of children and adolescents. In addition, another 1/3 of the adult population is overweight.

Strongly correlated with overweight is the prevalence of what used to be called adult onset diabetes, which has risen so alarmingly among children that it is now referred to as type II diabetes. The total costs of diagnosed diabetes in the United States in 2012 was estimated at $245 billion. Diabetes care consumes around 10% of European healthcare budgets. Add to these costs those of the cardiac problems aggravated by overweight and the figures climb even higher.

The hidden costs of cheap calories

It would be easy to assume that overweight and its associated problems are the end result of a wealthier society, but statistics prove this assumption wrong.  It is the poor who are more apt to be overweight. How can this be? We have only to look at food costs to find the answer: high caloric food is the cheapest, at least in the US. Leaving aside fast food takeout, which has been documented extensively in the book and film “Fast Food Nation” and the film “Super Size Me”, among others, such supermarket buys as sweet biscuits, potato crisps and soft drinks offer up to 4 times the calories contained in the number of  carrots that one can buy for the same price. When available, healthy food is often more expensive, whereas refined grains, added sugars, and fats are generally inexpensive and readily available in low-income communities. 
Again one asks how this can be, as carrots are raw materials while the others have to be produced and should, one would think, cost more. There are a number of answers, among them the fact that carrots are perishable while the shelf life of biscuits is far longer. But one answer stands out as a hidden cost: the surprising and upsetting fact that nearly all processed food in the States contains products made from corn, and corn is subsidized by the US government, while carrots are not. Only a tiny fraction of the corn grown is eaten in recognizable form, on the cob, in tortillas etc. The rest goes to feed beef cattle and to make more than 600 corn-based products, most of which end up in processed food.

Suffice it to say that the craziness inherent in a situation in which a government in effect subsidizes the production of cheap, unhealthy food, while at the same time issuing dire warnings about the meteoric rise of diabetes and heart disease, makes one wonder about the basic values of our society. Even more troubling is the fact that, in an age of economic globalization, the rest of the world can be expected to follow the US lead.

The farm as big business

And now let’s get back to corn. The way that the enormous quantities of this grain are grown is a prime example of the process of industrialized farming, or agribusiness. Natural produce grown on industrial farms is often low quality, while meat from animals raised on such farms often contains antibiotics given to ward off disease in animals fed an unnatural diet and kept too close together and in unsanitary conditions. In addition, this system has brought us impoverished soil, water pollution from nitrates, pesticides and pathogens, a decrease in biodiversity and wildlife habitats as well as an increase in air pollution and greenhouse emissions. The dollars or euros or francs we spend on such food are only a fraction of the total health costs, taxes for environmental cleanup and, increasingly, global warming that are the hidden costs of agribusiness.

In discussions about the whole huge subject of agribusiness, it is easy to forget that growing, purchasing, cooking and eating food should be a satisfying and healthy physical, social and cultural experience. There is something wrong with a society in which food grown organically and locally and sold unprocessed is largely a niche market for the well-off members of that society. Perhaps this is the deepest hidden cost of all.

True Cost I

The hidden costs of burning fossil fuels

Every time I read that solar power is not yet on a financial par with fossil fuels, my blood temperature begins to rise. If ever there were a skewed statement this is it. To simply equate cost with the price paid by the consumer for a kilowatt hour is to be wearing enormous blinders that prevent one from seeing anything to the left or right or very far ahead. It is an irresponsible statement; one which we might expect from a representative of the coal industry, for example, but which should not pass a journalist’s lips.

Let’s remove the blinder on the left. This enables us to see the outrageous fact that the fossil fuel industry is heavily subsidized. A recent report from the International Monetary Fund says global subsidies to fossil fuels amount to $1.9 trillion a year. At the same time, ExxonMobil and Shell earned profits in 2012 of $35 billion (Exxon) and $18.9 billion (Shell). As President Obama said in his recent Georgetown speech on the climate action plan, “…tax dollars continue to still subsidize some of the most profitable corporations in the history of the world”.

Now for the blinder on the right – here we see the hidden health costs of burning fossil fuels. Consider statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), which say that more than 800,000 people die prematurely in the US each year from urban air pollution, most of which comes from burning fossil fuels. Furthermore, transportation “powered by internal combustion engines”, particularly automobiles, reduces the amount of exercise Americans get, so that the WHO estimates that almost 2 million people die prematurely each year because of reduced physical fitness. It is obvious that these hidden health costs are measured not only in dollars, but in human anguish as well.

And now let’s look ahead, at the environmental costs of burning fossil fuels. We hear a lot about these nowadays, all the way from oil spills to severe storms to global warming and its gigantic effects. The cost in dollars is so overwhelming that it stuns us; the cost in disrupted lives, future mass migration away from coastal communities, drastic changes in farming patterns, yet more health problems etc. etc. is incalculable.

Who pays for these hidden costs? Certainly not the subsidized fossil fuel companies. They claim no one would buy their products if the monetary costs were greater…well, yes, isn’t that the idea? Basically we consumers “vote with our wallets”, and more costly gasoline, for instance, might force us to move ahead into the future – on public transport, electric automobiles and bikes – and into demanding greater subsidies for alternative energy sources. The market makes the decisions in our society; responsibility falls into the laps of those who make the purchases. In the words of the comic strip character Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us”.

Energy sources make up one major environmental field with hidden costs, food and agriculture make up another. That’s the subject for next week.

The Joys of the Summer Palate

When the eating is easy 

Are you a foodie? Or do you just want to keep it simple? Love to cook? Hate to cook? Have no time to cook? Suffering from the heat? Whatever describes your predilection, summer eating is made for you. As is eating locally and of course seasonally.
 

The summertime choice of super local food is staggering. How to choose among the various berries, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots and melons? Will it be a salad of mixed greens or the Italian national salad of tomato, mozzarella and basil? A main-dish salad with fish, cheese, meat or egg added?

There are many reasons in addition to freshness for choosing local. Little transport = little C02. You are supporting local farmers, not big aggie. Big aggie cares not about your health or your palate; it is a business and just wants to make money. There is very little money indeed in fresh fruits and veggies; but much more in processed food. It also does not care about your local economy, a meaningful aspect of which is local farming.

For the ultimate local farming, grow your own! I can assure you that a balcony is a fine place for even very tall tomato plants, pots of basil and cress and of course herbs. Leaf lettuce is another possibility, as are beet greens with baby beets attached. I found that the latter need a rather deep pot and should not be planted too close together. Basil does well in the sun or in a spot without much sun but plenty of light. Get out your blender for pesto, gazpacho, and cucumber-buttermilk soup with your own dill or mint. Pesto freezes well and is ready for a quick hot meal. Pine nuts are traditional, along with basil, garlic, olive oil and parmesan, but in parts of Italy hazelnuts are used instead. If you are feeling lazy these meals are for you, for you don’t really need to measure the ingredients and the blender does all the work.

While we are on the subject of the work – and time – necessary for meal preparation, let’s compare the homemade variety with the processed food toted home all ready to heat. There are a lot of ingredients in the latter, even when the additives and preservatives are subtracted from the list. Of course you can cook dishes with as many ingredients yourself, but summertime makes it possible to prepare delicious quick, simple meals. This is mostly because local fresh food just tastes better; it doesn’t need tarting up. Sliced tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, corn on the cob with butter and salt, raspberries with a little cream and sugar, the list goes on.

If you like to cook you get the chance to make something a little different in the summer – jams and chutneys, for example. For those of us in Switzerland, the Coop is offering their new Unique line of slightly imperfect produce, starting with hail-damaged apricots from the Valais, perfect for making jam. Try something new, like the fig and ginger jam I made last year, fabulous! A friend had a glut of figs, and even fig-loving I couldn’t keep up with them. Green tomato chutney is a must when the days get shorter and the last of the tomato crop has no chance to ripen. But before that you may well have so many tomatoes that your friends and neighbors run away when they see you coming with yet one more offering, so make some red tomato chutney from Jamie Oliver’s recipe: www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/recipes-view.php?title=easy-tomato-chutney. Or preserve some of them by drying. A world away from the leathery commercial items, these are simple to prepare: slice the tomatoes or cut cherry tomatoes in half, arrange on baking trays, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on a bit of salt and some basil leaves and garlic, place in very low oven for 4-6 hours. You can choose the degree of dryness. I like them half dry, and put them in jars in the freezer for making the very best pasta sauce imaginable.

Accompany your meals of fresh ingredients with a pitcher of ice tea with your mint added or sangria, red wine with fruit and club soda or lemonade – pretty and refreshing.

Time to get into the kitchen to make supper – fake red pesto. I toast pine nuts in olive oil, add chopped up tomatoes, garlic and basil leaves, and serve on pasta. I prefer real honest-to-goodness pesto, but with an injured finger that really shouldn’t get wet, I don’t want the fiddle of washing out the blender. You see – no matter what your situation, you can just enjoy summer’s bounty!

Mobile Me

 

I did it. I sold my car, and I won’t buy another one. It was almost certainly my very last car. This is a step I’ve been planning for some time, for I used the car very little. As a great fan of public transport, I generally took advantage of Zurich’s excellent offerings in this area, or I biked. It was just getting to be too expensive to pay the fixed costs of keeping the car housed and insured, its tires changed and other garage work done. I also figured I do not need the car enough to be contributing CO2 to the environment. Of course someone else will drive it and add their share of CO2, but hopefully someone with a greater need for a car.

So over the last few months I prepared well. I cleaned out the cellar and drove large recycling and second-hand items to their respective collection points. On other occasions when I thought of using the car I found other solutions; there is always a solution. More often, there are two or three.

Nonetheless, it was a lot harder to say goodbye to Huckleberry, my dark blue Corsa, than expected. It was the end of an era. I have been driving since I was 16 and have either owned or had the use of a car nearly all the years since. It also feels like an initiation of some sort. Into what, I am not quite sure. But it was an emotional time.

Part of the prep for being carless was replacing my old bike with an electrobike. Being of a certain age, I was finding the hills in this area, many of them steep, a trial on a normal bike. Also, there is something about the whole concept of this means of transport that fascinates me. I pedal as usual … and fly up the hills! I can choose more or less support from the motor, so I still get plenty of exercise. It is a strange experience, as I zoom along so smoothly, effortlessly changing gears, and at the same time am very aware that this bike handles differently and weighs a lot more. It will take time to get used to it, a fact driven home to me when I braked too suddenly with the excellent brakes and fell off, fortunately onto grass. Once the bike starts tipping sideways, its weight carries the rider with it. I’ll have to get those brakes adjusted – one can have too much of a good thing.

I’m also in the process of joining Mobility, the local car-sharing organization. I will use a Mobility car when my grandchildren or other people come to visit. I’ll get one occasionally to visit second-hand stores, friends who live in out-of-the-way places and maybe my favorite local walking area. Or I can bike to this area, or take public transport. As I say, there is always a solution.

Manipulation, anyone?

In the case of genetically engineered food, it is not only genes that are being manipulated.

To American environmentalists, accustomed to watching Monsanto get its way time and time again with the Congress and the Supreme Court, it must have seemed awesome that the company has given up hope of selling its GM seeds in Europe. The European Union bans the growing of nearly all GM crops. The reasons are many, but fear of this new technology in a field related to people’s health and eating habits stands out in first place.

Arguments about whether or not this fear is warranted rage back and forth across the Atlantic.

On the don’t worry, be happy side is the statement from Monsanto that they test the transgenic protein that is produced in the genetically manipulated crop, so they don’t need to test the food itself in humans. The US Food and Drug Administration, responsible for the safety of food and drugs, points to the fact that virtually all the companies making GMOs do voluntary testing. There are statements by any number of individuals and organizations that GM crops have now been around for long enough so that serious problems would have shown up by now.

On the negative side, however, are a number of compelling arguments. The protein tested by Monsanto is made by a bacterium and may differ from the actual plant-produced one, which may also act differently in situ. There has been no long-term research and little research on animals, such as is required by the FDA for drugs and food additives. Well-established practices for scientific testing are not followed. These include testing by independent parties, made extremely difficult by genetic engineering companies’ refusal to sell seeds to independent laboratories, hiding behind intellectual property laws. The serious protocols established for most testing are replaced by loose guidelines.

What about the claim that no serious negative effects of eating GM food have appeared in the US population? The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has stated that the introduction of GMOs into US food has coincided with the recent rise in chronic diseases and food allergies, and sees a connection. There is, after all, the fact that during the thousands of years that agriculture has been practiced, the small amounts of toxins and mutagens present in all plants have been reduced or weeded out in the plants that make up our ordinary, non-genetically engineered food supply. Are we to repeat the process now with GM plants?

Scientific testing is complex and very expensive. There are different protocols, some more apt to give reliable results. As it is quite possible to make an experiment come out the way the experimenters want it to; it is important to know who did an experiment, just how was it done and who paid for it. Red flags go up when the testing was done by a corporation with an interest in a favorable result, when the company refuses to hand over certain information for public review or refuses to allow its products to undergo independent testing, all of which are happening in the present GM food situation.

So here we have a country with a population of 314 million taking part in a huge scientific experiment without their express consent. Because it is unlawful in nearly all states to label GMO food, they don’t know whether they are eating it or not, but the probability is extremely high, given that it is estimated that 80% of American corn is GMO corn and corn appears everywhere in American food products. There are severe doubts about the stringency of the testing for safety. The corporations making genetically engineered food have the US Congress, the Supreme Court and the FDA on their side.

Small wonder that the European Union wants its food GMO free.