January 2008 - Sustainability - list.sfgreens.org

[Sustain] Fwd: Victory on rBGH (GMO) Labeling in Pennsylvania!
by Eric Brooks 18 Jan '08

18 Jan '08

Center for Food Safety <http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/home.cfm> *Victory on rBGH Labeling in Pennsylvania!* The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) has backed down from a controversial ban on the use of labels on milk products. The agency had issued new rules in October, set to go into effect February 1st that would have barred dairy companies or milk producers from labeling their products as from cows not treated with rBGH. PDA argued that a misleading impression might be conveyed by identifying milk as coming from cows not treated with synthetic hormones. Pennsylvania would have been the first state to implement such a labeling ban. _The ban was rescinded yesterday after a review by Pennsylvania Governor Rendell due to consumer outcry. True Food Network members, along with our allies, sent /thousands/ of emails and made hundreds of calls to Governor Rendell urging him to not to put this ban in place. Your calls and emails worked!_ Though labels are once again permitted to mention that hormones were not used, the standards require a disclaimer stating that the FDA has found no difference in milk from cows injected with the synthetic hormone and milk from cows that are not injected. Such disclaimers already are printed on many dairy products. The new regulations also require dairies to maintain procedures to verify any production methods claimed on their labels, including keeping a paper audit trail. (Read /"State Revises Hormone Label for Milk, The New York Times/ <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/business/18milk.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slo…> for more information) Pennsylvania was the first state to consider putting such a labeling ban in place, but other states including Washington, Missouri, and Ohio <http://ga3.org/campaign/Ohio_rBGH/8un56k8rv75w8jid?>, seem to be following suit by considering regulations similar to those which Pennsylvania abandoned today. New Jersey had until recently taken the matter under consideration but has since determined not to take action. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ruled that rbGH use is safe, serious human and animal health questions remain <http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh2.cfm>, and it has been prohibited in Canada and the European Union. U.S. consumers have shown they prefer rBGH-free products, and that they want them labeled as such. In fact, an April 2007 Lake Research Partners national survey shows that eight in ten adults (80%) feel dairy products originating from cows that have not been treated with rBGH should be allowed to be labeled as such. A broad coalition of groups including consumers, dairies, farming groups, and environmental organizations requested the changes announced today. (You can read the letter here <http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/notinmyfood/005230indiv.html>) Stay tuned for updates and actions on similar labeling bans in other states. If you have not already, please consider sending an email and making a call to Ohio Governor Strickland <http://ga3.org/campaign/Ohio_rBGH/8un56k8rv75w8jid?> on this issue as well! Thank you for your support! The Center for Food Safety ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend! <http://ga3.org/join-forward.html?domain=cfs&r=UdeJFssqFmIb> If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Center for Food Safety <http://ga3.org/cfs/join.html?r=UdeJFssqFmIbE>. <http://www.convio.com>

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Re: [Sustain] [Transpo] Joint Sustain/Transpo Meeting On Wed or Thu the 23rd or 24th?
by Eric Brooks 18 Jan '08

18 Jan '08

Transpo: - Mark Sanchez will likely be running on free Muni platform. - Free Muni - Expanding transit to address climate change and peak oil - Updating Transit Platform Sustainability: - Community Choice (Need More Involvement - Hearing Soon) & The Mayor's Poisonous Solar Initiative - Combustion Turbines (Action/Hearings Soon) - Peak Oil Taskforce Update - Candlestick Development & Initiatives susan vaughan wrote: > What would be on the agenda? I'd really like to avoid going down to > SoMa if I can. > > Sue > > */Eric Brooks <brookse32(a)aim.com>/* wrote: > > Shall we go with a joint meeting this month, starting at 6:30pm with > Transportation? > > I can be available either evening. > > peace > > Eric > _______________________________________________ > Transpo mailing list > Transpo(a)sfgreens.org > https://list.sfgreens.org/mailman/listinfo/transpo > > > Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try > it now. > <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8…> -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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[Sustain] Joint Sustain/Transpo Meeting On Wed or Thu the 23rd or 24th?
by Eric Brooks 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

Shall we go with a joint meeting this month, starting at 6:30pm with Transportation? I can be available either evening. peace Eric

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[Sustain] Tell food companies you won't eat food from clones!
by Eric Brooks 17 Jan '08

17 Jan '08

Center for Food Safety <http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/home.cfm> *Tell food companies you won't eat food from Clones!* /FDA Approves Food from Clones against the Will of Congress and the American Public/ Despite scant data, congressional action demanding further research and over 150,000 public comments in opposition, FDA approved the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals yesterday. In addition, the FDA will not require any special procedures for tracking or handling food products from clones. It will not require labeling of any kind on food products from clones or their offspring, depriving consumers of their right to know about the origins of their food. This action comes at a time when Congress has voted twice to delay FDA's decision on cloned animals until additional safety and economic studies can be completed. The FDA's bullheaded action disregards the will of the public and Congress. FDA based their decision on an incomplete and flawed review that relies on studies supplied by cloning companies that want to force cloning technology on American consumers. FDA's action has placed the interests of a handful of biotech firms above those of the public they are charged with protecting. While FDA may deem these products safe to enter the market, companies like Ben & Jerry's and Organic Valley have pledged not to use cloned animals or their offspring. Dean Foods, Hormel, Tyson and Smithfield Foods have also stated they do not plan to accept milk or meat from cloned animals, but have not addressed their plans regarding the offspring of clones. *Sign the Clone-Free Pledge! Let food companies know you won't buy food from clones. <http://ga3.org/campaign/clone_pledge/8un56k8r275bmjxm?>* While animal cloning has been banned for use in organic production, we need to let other companies know that we will not buy their products if they are from animal clones or the offspring of clones. *What else can you do? *_1. Buy organic meats and dairy if you eat animal products. _The National Organic Standards rightly prohibit clones and their offspring from use. _2. Tell Congress to Label Food from Cloned Animals! <http://ga3.org/campaign/Cloning_Label> _There are bills to label food from clones and their offspring in both the House and Senate. Contact your Congress members and urge them to support this important bill! **If the links in this email don't work visit http://ga3.org/campaign/clone_pledge <http://ga3.org/ct/wpeJFss1XEwC/> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this. Tell-a-friend! <http://ga3.org/join-forward.html?domain=cfs&r=N1eJFssqpmfs> If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Center for Food Safety <http://ga3.org/cfs/join.html?r=N1eJFssqpmfsE>. <http://www.convio.com>

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[Sustain] Nader, McKinney Green Party Presidential Forum video
by Don Eichelberger 15 Jan '08

15 Jan '08

Check my Green Uprising blog (see below) for some footage of 1/13/08 Green Party Presidential Forum with Cynthia McKinney, Kat Swift, Kent Mespley, Jared Ball, Jesse Johnson, Jr. and Ralph Nader. I am still uploading video, so more will be added. Sorry bout the sound, Don Don Eichelberger DJ Fix Independent Productions Green Uprising Blog www.greenuprising.blogspot.com My You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRp5rGJoUc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iySwwyZfDgE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r9rK8nPREA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5UbnJ0kUqo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SktIYTyC1U Donny Fix del.icio.us book marks http://del.icio.us/donnyfix The Hegelian/Marxist goal is emancipation. Marx said it best in 1843: "Human emancipation wll only be complete when the real, individual man (sic) is absorbed into himself the abstract citizen; when as an individual man, in his every day life, in his work and in his relationships, he has become a species-being (politically accountabe to the whole); and when he recognizes and realizes his own power as social powers, so that he no longer separates this social power from himself as political power."

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Re: [Sustain] MSNBC.com Article: Vermont cows help power 330 homes
by Eric Brooks 10 Jan '08

10 Jan '08

Yup. I have an opinion of 'cow power' and it isn't a good one at all. First, it gives a dangerous positive image to biofuel/biomass. While it may be used in this particular case on a non-factory farm, it will so excite the public and politicians, that every factory farm in the country will soon end up being equipped for biogas energy production giving even more profit to the factory farm industry and expanding it; leading to higher greenhouse gas emissions. (This is very similar to people getting excited about french fry grease, and then having that excitement cynically amplified so cleverly by big ag, that Congress passes massive corn ethanol subsidies.) Finally, and most importantly, the methane from those farms wouldn't exist in the first place if we were doing the critical work of getting people to eat much lower on the food chain (vegetarian/vegan/etc.) thereby using massively less energy and resources, and cutting the amount of methane and CO2 produced by agriculture prodigiously. Remember that methane is 20 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than is CO2, so the more we promote animal agriculture, literally the deeper shit we are in; on the ground, in our waterways, and in our atmosphere. cheers Eric Ann Garrison wrote: > > COW POWER: very natural gas in the State of Vermont: > > > Vermont cows help power 330 homes > > Some 1,500 cows at a Vermont farm are producing more than just milk, > they're generating electricity to sell on the power grid. > > http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6838687/from/ET/ > > > The one thing no one's done to BVHP yet is a factory farm, like maybe > one to power > > those gas-fired plants, right? Or, did I miss it? Has the SFPUC > already got this in the works. > > > However, I don't think this thing in Vermont is a factory farm. it > seems kinda cool. People seem to be willing to pay more per kilowatt > to support Vermont's family farmers in this very natural gas project > that involving no digging, no drilling, no leaks, and no potential > explosions. > > > I never saw any factory farms when I went to Vermont, but that of > course doesn't mean they don't have any. > > > I did see lots of cows roaming around in the fields there, and the > smell could all but overwhelm, > > though some told me that was just as often the smell of hay drying. > > > I'm wondering, particularly, whether Eric Brooks here has an opinion > of COW POWER, so long as > > there's no factory farming involved. Eric? --Annie > > > > > > > = -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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Re: [Sustain] Mayor Cuts Leah Shahum From MTA
by pamndave＠speakeasy.net 09 Jan '08

09 Jan '08

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[Sustain] Mayor Cuts Leah Shahum From MTA
by Eric Brooks 09 Jan '08

09 Jan '08

The Mayor just got rid of a strong alternative transportation advocate on the MTA. See lower down in this SF Guardian Article; http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5385 Heads roll /Newsom accepts more than two dozen resignation letters/ By Steven T. Jones In the week leading up to Mayor Gavin Newsom's Jan. 8 second-term inauguration ceremony, he accepted more than two dozen of the resignation letters he demanded Sept. 10, 2007, from his senior staff. "Today I am proud to introduce a new team of 27 people that is a blend of fresh talent, extensive policy expertise, and proven experience in government," Newsom wrote in a prepared statement released at 5 p.m. on Jan. 4, a Friday, which is not considered the spot in the news cycle for "proud" announcements. "Other than the very unfortunate firing of Susan Leal from the [general manager job at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission] --- who, by all accounts, has been doing a good job --- the rest of the changes are fairly perfunctory and far from the bold or audacious move he promised," Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin told us. Yet the changes --- which the /Guardian/ discusses in more detail in Editor's Notes, the editorial page, and our politics blog --- do seem to signal that Newsom is placing a high value on personal loyalty and political pragmatism. Some examples are the promotions of inner-circle members Mike Farrah (new director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services), Ben Rosenfield (controller), and Wade Crowfoot (now the newly created director of climate protection initiatives) and the hiring of former United States attorney Kevin Ryan, a conservative Republican, to head the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. But gone are Leal and Metropolitan Transportation Agency board member Leah Shahum, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition director who has chided the mayor for not supporting alternative transportation. "The Mayor's Office was none too pleased that the SFBC did not endorse him," she told us, noting that she is urging Newsom to fill the spot with another advocate for sustainable transportation. "I hope this is not a sign of what's to come." Wednesday January 9, 2008 -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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Re: [Sustain] [SFGP-A] SFBG: Close The Zoo
by Eric Brooks 09 Jan '08

09 Jan '08

Good article Marc, Glad you got it published. Every zoo in the world should be converted into an animal rescue and endangered species recovery facility, with, as you suggest, scheduled, structured, guided observation for students, to educate them about wild animals and their current struggle with human civilisation. peace Eric marc wrote: > http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=5386&catid=4&volume_id=317&issue_id=… > <http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=5386&catid=4&volume_id=317&issue_id=…> > > <http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5386> > > <http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=5386#> > > > Shut down the zoo > > /The Zoo should be closed, its animals sent to facilities capable of > caring for them, and the land used for affordable housing/ > > By Marc Solomon > > *OPINION* In San Francisco's June 1997 special election, the swells > convinced the voters to float $48 million in bonds to build a > "world-class" zoo, which would entail largely privatizing a public > institution, leaving the city on the hook for liabilities while giving > a private nonprofit the benefits. > > The initiative passed --- you can't get warmer or fuzzier than a tiger > or a koala --- and the San Francisco Zoo, relinquished to the tutelage > of corporate fixer Jim Lazarus, was largely gifted as another > privatized party space for the rich. > > The case might be made that zoos can serve as genetic incubators in > the face of widespread habitat destruction. But the city's > precautionary principle, like the Hippocratic oath, should prevail on > us to do no harm in seeking to prevent extinction. > > The record of the privatized Zoo has hardly been a story of precaution: > > *. *In 2000, two already sick koalas were kidnapped from the Zoo > and not returned for two days. > > *.* A 12-year-old Siberian tiger, Emily, died in October 2004. > Tatiana was just murdered at age four. Siberian tigers generally live > to be 24 years old in captivity. > > *.* Two elands, majestic African antelope, were introduced > improperly into close quarters with an already resident eland at the > Zoo, which led to a spate of deadly eland-on-eland violence and the > deaths of the two newcomers. > > *.* Apparently, shoddy attention to detail hastened the demise of > Puddles the hippopotamus in May 2007. Hippos, like African elephants, > thrive in nature preserves located in their native tropical habitat. > > If zoos are to be a successful component of protecting endangered > species, it's paramount that their conditions not kill the specimens. > Perhaps an affiliation with a major research institution is required > to ensure that professionalism is the order of the day to ward against > what appears to be amateur hour at the zoo. > > It's one thing for the swells to occupy public spaces such as the de > Young Museum, City Hall, and the San Francisco Public Library as > edifications to their egos --- only fellow humans are inconvenienced. > But for the rich to wrap themselves in the distinction of being movers > and shakers in the San Francisco Zoological Society and wring glee > from the glow of imprisoning animals in inhospitable conditions is > truly pathological. > > The Zoo should be closed, its animals sent to facilities capable of > caring for them, and the land used for affordable housing. The city > should replace the Zoo with an academic partnership with legitimate > wildlife sanctuaries around the world to subsidize conservation, > produce video footage of animals in their natural habitats, and > arrange trips to see wild animals in the wild for San Francisco youths > who otherwise could not afford it. > > That would be a true 21st-century, world-class approach to bringing > the wonder of exotic animals to San Franciscans. > > *Marc Salomon* > > /Marc Salomon is a member of the SF Green Party County Council./ > > Wednesday January 9, 2008 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > San Francisco Green Party Active Members List > To unsubscribe or edit your options, go here: > https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/active > -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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[Sustain] Fwd: Naive Fog City Report On Bogus Hunters Point Clean-Up
by Eric Brooks 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/pr_hunters_point_cleanup_fundin… Pelosi, Feinstein, Newsom announce federal funding for Hunters Point shipyard cleanup Newsom says redevelopment will not result in gentrification San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein today announced $82 million in federal funding for the toxic clean up of the Hunters Point Shipyard superfund site. *Photos by Luke Thomas <http://www.fogcityjournal.com/profiles/profile_luke_thomas.shtml>* *By Luke Thomas <http://www.fogcityjournal.com/profiles/profile_luke_thomas.shtml>* January 3, 2008 Joined by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinsten, Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced $82 million in federal funding for the toxic cleanup of the Hunters Point Shipyard superfund site. "This is a huge victory for San Francisco in general and the Bayview Hunters Point Community in particular," Newsom said. "With these funds in hand, the City will be able to continue moving forward with its plans to transform the long-shuttered Shipyard from a environmental blight on the community into a world-class location providing waterfront parks, thousands of jobs, affordable housing and a major clean technology campus." Mayor Newsom, who made several trips to Washington D.C. in the past year to persuade federal officials that the cleanup of the Shipyard should be a major priority for the federal delegation, praised the work of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein in securing the cleanup money for the Shipyard. "At a time when the Department of Defense is spending less and less money every year cleaning up closed, toxic military bases, this level of funding is truly remarkable," Newsom said. "It is a testament to the strong leadership and commitment of Speaker Pelosi and Senator Feinstein to get the Shipyard cleaned up on time and in a manner that will allow us to implement the community's vision for revitalizing the City's southeastern waterfront." The federal funds will be used to prepare over 100 acres of land at the Shipyard for transfer to the City at no cost, including land slated for new housing, parks and approximately 25 acres for a potential site for a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers. Asked what assurances he could provide to the Bayview Hunters Point community to allay fears of gentrification due to redevelopment, Newsom told Fog City Journal: "That's why 42 percent of the work being done is being done by local builders on Parcel A. That's why 30 percent of all the housing that's being developed out here on Parcel A is affordable housing. That's why we're rebuilding public housing units, one-to-one replacement, and providing mixed-income opportunities for people at all income levels by rebuilding public housing. That's why we're including protections and provisions that are very similar for the rest of the project." "One thing I will not do is sit back and do nothing, and continue to see the rates of prostate cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer rise in the southeast sector - and asthma rates - because we didn't have the courage to actually step up and actually get something done. And that's something I'm very proud that we've advanced," Newsom said. #### -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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