Researchers have found a strain of walleye that is adapted specifically to the Ohio River. (Photo Courtesy of the USGS)
Scientists have identified a unique strain of walleye that lives in the Ohio River. The discovery has wildlife officials thinking about the way things were and how they could be once again. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight explains:
Transcript
Scientists have identified a unique strain of walleye that lives in
the Ohio River.
The discovery has wildlife officials thinking about the way things
were and how they could be once again.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight explains:
Fishing for walleye is a big sport on Lake Erie, but many people do
not know that the fish also live in the Ohio River.
Matthew White is a Biological Sciences professor at Ohio University.
He helped determine that the Ohio River walleye have a different
genetic
make-up from those in Lake Erie and other northern lakes.
White says the original walleye species was severed from the other
tens of thousands of years ago when the river that is now the Ohio was
blocked and stopped flowing into Lake Erie.
“These walleye evolved in the river, so they’re well adapted to the
river environment. And these walleye have also survived the 100 years of
abuse that we heaped on the river.”
Armed with this new information, wildlife officials are taking steps
to alter their practice of importing Lake Erie Walleye.
Instead, they’ll use the native species for their stocking program.
A new study suggests that air pollution has a significant effect on developing babies. (Photo by Lester Graham)
A recent study indicates expectant mothers who are exposed to air pollution see damage to the genetic make up of their newborns. That might increase the babies’ risk of contracting cancer later in life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A recent study indicates expectant mothers who are exposed to
air pollution see damage to the genetic make up of their newborns.
That might increase the babies’ risk of contracting cancer later in
life. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
The expectant mothers were asked to carry air monitors in backpacks to see how much they were exposed to air pollutants. The Columbia University researchers chose 60 mothers in low-income neighborhoods. Dr. Frederica Perera is chief author of the study.
“All of our mothers in the study were non-smokers. So, the primary source of these pollutants in air would be things like motor vehicles, emissions from residential heating units, burning fossil fuel and also from power plants located even fairly far away.”
It’s the fist study to make a connection between air pollutants causing genetic changes in the womb that could increase cancer risk. Earlier studies by the researchers already revealed greater prenatal exposure to air pollution caused lower birth weights and smaller heads in newborns.
American chestnuts (left) are smaller than Chinese and European chestnuts. The Chinese and European varieties are also resistant to the blight, making the imports more desirable to growers. (Photo by Lester Graham)
American chestnuts were an important food source for wildlife because there was a more consistent crop each year than acorns. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Bill Nash of Nash Nurseries holds the spiny husks that hold the chestnuts. The American chestnut grove behind him is 20 years old and has not yet been hit by blight. (Photo by Lester Graham)
Food is always a big part of the holidays. But one
traditional food has – for the most part – disappeared from American tables. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Food is always a big part of the holidays. But one traditional food has – for the most part – disapeared from American tables. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
(Sound of Nat King Cole singing, “Chestnuts roasing on an open fire…”)
That old chestnut of a song romanticizes roasting chestnuts as a part of the holidays. But a lot of us have never even seen chestnuts, let alone roasted them on an open fire. Chestnuts used to be a major part of the Eastern hardwood forest. There were millions of them. In fact, 25 percent of all the mature trees were chestnuts. But a blight, imported with some Chinese chestnut trees, slowly wiped out the American chestnuts. Now, they’re gone.
Well… almost. Much of the root stock is still alive. Sprouts grow until the blight knocks them back again. A blight only hurts the standing tree where it branches out.
And, in a few isolated pockets in the Midwest, the blight hasn’t reached the trees. A few American chestnuts are alive and growing and some of them are free of the blight. At Nash Nursuries in central Michigan, owner Bill Nash is guiding us through a rare sight… a grove of American chestnuts.
“These are 20 years old and as you can see, they’re fairly good sized. The American chestnut is quite a rapid growing tree. It’s well-suited for our climate, so it doesn’t have any of the problems that some of the hybrids do as far as growing and cultural care you have to take care of them. The Americans, you get them started and they’re pretty much on their own.”
In a few places in Michigan and Wisconsin there are small groves of chestnuts. They’re prized trees. They’re great for shade. The hardwood is rot resistant and makes great furniture and fence posts. And the chestnuts are eaten by humans and wildlife alike. Bill Nash says the tree will be popular again if it ever overcomes the blight that’s hit it so hard.
“The American chestnut will make another big comeback in this country as a yard tree, as a timber tree, as a wildlife tree.”
That part about a wildlife tree is more important than just worrying about the squirrels and bunnies. Chestnuts were an important food source for all kinds of animals.
Andrew Jarosz is a plant biologist at Michigan State University. He says the loss of chestnuts has been hard on wildlife populations.
“Chestnuts shed nuts in a more regular pattern than oaks, which will have what are called mast years – where they’ll have major crops, massive crops one year and very small crops in other years – which means it’s either feast or famine if you’re depending on oaks.”
Since the blight first began hitting American chestnuts about a century ago, researchers have been looking into all kinds of ways to stop it. One way is to cross it with the Chinese chestnut which has a couple of genes that resist the blight. But it takes a long time to breed out the Chinese characteristics from the American chestnuts and still keep the resistant genes.
Another approach is genetic manipulation. Genetically modifying the American chestnut tree to make it disease resistant. Again, work is underway, but it takes a long time. And even after success, it’s likely some people won’t like the idea of releasing a genetically modified organism into the wild.
The final approach worked in Europe when the blight hit there. It seems there’s a naturally occuring virus that kills the blight. It spread naturally in Europe. There are a few groves in Michigan that have naturally acquired the virus and it’s working to keep the blight at bay. Andrew Jarosz is working on the research. He says the trick is figuring out how to get the virus to spread to other trees short of manually spreading it on cankers infected by the blight.
“If we’re literally talking about millions of trees across probably, you know, the eastern third of the country, we obviously can’t treat every canker on every tree. And we need to be able to figure out a way to deploy the virus in a way that it can spread.”
Even with all that hopeful research, it’ll be ten years at least before some practical solutions end up in the forests, and Jarosz believes a couple of centuries before the American chestnut holds the place it once did in the forests.
Bill Nash knows it’ll be a while before there are major changes, but he is optimistic about the American chestnut.
“Oh, I would think the tree has a bright future. There’s enough people working on that, enough programs going on now… So, I would suspect that in the not-too-distant future we should have some of this progress made. You know, Robert Frost in his poem predicted the comeback of the American chestnut, that something would arise to offset that blight. And we’re starting to see that.”
Frost put it this way: “Will the blight end the chestnut? The farmers rather guess not, It keeps smoldering at the roots And sending up new shoots Till another parasite Shall come to end the blight.”
Seems Frost was an optimist too.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
An elk showing symptoms of chronic wasting disease. CWD affects elk, white-tailed deer and mule deer. It's not known to be naturally transmissible to livestock or people. (Photo by Dr. Beth Williams, University of Wyoming, courtesy of CWD Alliance)
The Wisconsin DNR's Tia Kropf asks a hunter to show on a map where he got his deer. This helps the DNR plot the location of any CWD positive animals that are found. (Photo by Cherrie Nolden, courtesy of Wisconsin DNR)
Wisconsin DNR staffers Dave Linderud (left) and Kris Johansen registering deer at the Muscoda, Wisconsin DNR check station. (Photo courtesy of Dave Linderud)
Throughout most of the Great Lakes region,
there are huge numbers of white-tailed deer. Deer don’t have the natural predators that they once did… so states rely on hunters to manage the deer herds. Recently, that’s become even more important with the discovery of a fatal disease. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams reports there’s extra pressure on hunters to keep the disease from spreading:
Transcript
Throughout most of the Midwest/Great Lakes region, there are huge numbers of
white-tailed deer. Deer don’t have the natural predators that they once did…
so states rely on hunters to manage the deer herds. Recently, that’s become even
more important with the discovery of a fatal disease. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Rebecca Williams reports there’s extra pressure on hunters to keep the disease from spreading:
“How are you today? Successful morning, or are these from yesterday? This
morning… oh okay…”
Hunters are bringing their deer into a check station. Department of Natural Resources staff
determine the age of the deer by looking at their teeth. If it’s an adult deer, a technician
saws the head off so brain tissue and lymph nodes can be tested for chronic wasting disease.
(sound of deer head being cut off)
Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, affects white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk. It’s always
fatal. So far, there’s no evidence that CWD can hurt people or livestock. For now, most wildlife
managers are just worried about the health of the deer herds.
Western states such as Colorado and Wyoming have been dealing with CWD for decades. Wisconsin
found the disease in wild deer in early 2002. Illinois found the disease later the same year.
So far, it hasn’t shown up in wild deer in neighboring states, such as Indiana, Michigan or
Minnesota.
Wisconsin has a lot of deer crowded into a relatively small space, and that worries state
officials. Tami Ryan is a wildlife supervisor with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
“Some of the genetic research that’s been done to date on Wisconsin deer, they are not
resistant to CWD. It could be severely detrimental to the herd, which is why we feel so
strongly about trying to contain the disease where it exists and prevent it from spreading.”
Wisconsin’s attempting what state officials call aggressive herd reduction. At first, the
state wanted to kill all the deer in the heart of the disease eradication zone. Now, the state
wants to kill five of every six deer in those zones. That means reducing the deer to fewer than
five per square mile.
The Department of Natural Resources is trying to do this by making hunting seasons longer
and handing out more permits. In the disease eradication zones, people can hunt on private
land all fall and all winter – September to March.
Many hunters say they like the opportunity to take a few extra deer. Mike Snodgrass hunts
regularly in one of the areas where the state’s trying to reduce the herd.
“From just being out and observing the deer, there’s a huge number of deer out in the woods.
I’ll do my part, I enjoy the venison, and so I’ll take a couple of does out, no problem.”
The Department of Natural Resources says hunter participation is crucial for controlling
chronic wasting disease. That’s because the state doesn’t have nearly enough wardens to kill
all those deer.
State officials worried at first that CWD would turn hunters off from the sport. But from some
recent surveys, it’s been clear that most hunters say they understand the problem and they still
want to hunt where they’ve hunted every year – whether or not there are sick animals in those
areas.
The state’s also reaching out to private landowners. Most of the land in the disease zones is
privately owned. The state’s encouraging landowners to open up their land to more hunters.
Mike Albert is a landowner who hunts. He owns 275 acres near where the first three infected
wild deer were found. Albert says he’s hesitant to open up his land to strangers, but he does
let friends and family hunt on his land. He says something has to be done about chronic wasting
disease, but he says he’s afraid the state’s going too far.
“It’s not that I don’t feel a responsibility to help. As an ethical hunter when you’re asked to
just blatantly shoot every deer you see no matter how, it’s hard to overcome that. They’re asking
us to totally devastate our herd, ruin our tradition, and do all this stuff before we know for
sure whether it’s the right thing to do.”
Albert says more of the effort should be focused on understanding the disease before acting.
Researchers are still asking many questions about the disease itself. It’s still not known
exactly how the disease is transmitted.
Beth Williams is a veterinarian at the University of Wyoming. She’s also a leading expert on
CWD. Williams says there aren’t any proven methods for stopping CWD. She says killing off
much of the deer herd is controversial, but the state’s options are limited.
“I think it was a good idea for Wisconsin to see whether or not taking fairly radical steps
like they have to do their herd reduction, whether or not that might stop CWD. The alternative
is, based on everything that we know, if you don’t try and do something, the disease is then
going to spread.”
Williams says it’ll be years before anyone can tell whether reducing the deer herds
will help. But many people agree chronic wasting disease needs to be stopped as soon
as possible, before it spreads to deer herds in neighboring states.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.
According to the USDA, 40% of the corn grown this year in the U.S. has been genetically modified. Some researchers fear there's not enough oversight on the rapidly growing biotech industry. A program at the University of Minnesota wants to create a new profession - the 'Biosafety Engineer.' (photo courtesy of the USDA)
Genetic engineering – especially when it comes to food – is a battleground. On one side: people who fear a world of contaminated food, harming humans and the environment. The other side fears we’ll miss an opportunity to prevent hunger and disease. Now there’s a ground breaking initiative that might produce compromise. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Stucky reports that some researchers think safety can be built into the bio tech industry:
Transcript
Genetic engineering – especially when it comes to food – is a
battleground. On one side: people who fear a world of contaminated
food, harming humans and the environment. The other side fears
we’ll miss an opportunity to prevent hunger and disease. Now, there’s
a ground breaking initiative that might produce compromise. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Stucky reports that some researchers
think safety can be built into the bio tech industry:
To remove a gene from one organism and transfer it to another…
that’s genetic engineering. Genetically modified or GM crops are
easier to grow, according to bio tech supporters and in the future
might be more nutritious. But they also might contain hidden
allergens, because they use genes from a plant or animal that
people might be allergic to. And there are concerns that GM crops
might harm the environment by crossbreeding with natural plants in
the wild. And so the University of Minnesota is proposing a
solution – an entirely new profession – call them biotech safety
engineers – along with a new science of bio safety. Anne
Kapuscinski is a researcher at the University of Minnesota and a
force behind the initiative called Safety First. Kapuscinski says
rather than regulating the industry after a new product is developed,
companies should prove safety first.
“It will mean that some ideas that will be on the lab bench won’t go
any further in development because the developers
will realize there are safety concerns that we don’t know how to
mitigate, or how to prevent from happening or how to address.”
And that could save companies money… by avoiding costly mistakes
such as the Starlink corn debacle. That’s when genetically modified
corn accidentally mixed with conventional corn and got into dozens of
foods. Kapuscinski says it was common knowledge in the industry that
the corn could get mixed up because of the way it’s transported and
stored… which might have been avoided with uniform safety standards
and government oversight. But until now, industry has resisted that.
They’ve been touting the benefits rather than the risks such as this
ad campaign put out by a group called the Biotechnology Industry
Organization.
(music under)
“Biotechnology, a big word that means hope.”
But one expert says if the industry wants to inspire public
confidence, it should support the Safety First initiative. John
Howard is the founder of a Texas based biotech firm called
ProdiGene. Not all biotech companies support the University of
Minnesota effort, but Howard thinks it has a good chance of
alleviating public concerns.
“The problem is, however, if you do it yourselves, what
credibility do you have as a company promoting your own safety
assessment? So an independent agency or source that comes out
and says, ‘Look, this is now credible, we’ve looked at all the safety
issues,’ that’s great, and if they find something that we’ve missed
then fine, we want to do it that way.”
John Howard says his company is working to bio-engineer corn to
deliver drugs. For instance, if you need insulin you could have it
in your breakfast cereal.
Opponents of bio tech say we don’t know all of the ramifications of
engineering drugs into food or altering the genetics of any organism,
but John Howard thinks we know enough to be safe.
“You can always argue that we just don’t know
enough yet and that’s an argument that can go on and on. And this
applies to everything that we think about in terms of risk. But
what you can do is look at a risk benefit equation. There’s
no question this is a for-profit company, let’s not make any mistake,
but not at the expense of harming people.”
And supporters say the Safety First initiative will see to that.
Lawrence Jacobs is a political scientist at the University of
Minnesota and a leader in Safety First. Jacobs says, like it or not,
GM food is here to stay.
“If we do not find some credible way to address the biosafety issues in
biotechnology, we are heading for a major maelstrom. The challenge
that’s out there now for the biotechnology industry right now is get
your act together. And the potential for consumers to panic in this
country is significant.”
Of course safety standards are already engineered into the
manufacturing of airplanes and cars. But will that work in an
industry which is manufacturing a living thing?
Supporters of the Safety First initiative say there’s too little
oversight on an industry that could have much greater impact on health
and the environment.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mary Stucky.
Biologists are looking at how a shark
in a Great Lakes region aquarium gave
"virgin birth" last year. Photo courtesy of
Belle Isle Aquarium, Detroit.
A female shark in an aquarium in the Great Lakes region has apparently given virgin birth. Four shark eggs hatched last year and three of those babies are now growing normally. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, it may be some time before the cause can be determined, but the event is still a surprise for biologists:
Transcript
A female shark in an aquarium in the Great Lakes region has apparently given virgin birth. Four
shark eggs hatched last year and three of those babies are now growing normally. As the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, it may be some time before the cause can be
determined, but the event is still a surprise for biologists:
Biologists have a technical term for virgin birth. It’s called parthenogenesis. Doug Sweet is the
Curator of Fishes at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit. He says parthenogenesis is common in
invertebrates and some amphibians.
“Most vertebrate animals, the females will produce eggs even if the male is not around. And it’s
just a matter of… it’s a chemical trick, basically, to get that egg to develop into an individual
without a sperm activating it.”
But parthenogenesis has been totally unheard of for sharks, until now. Last year, the Henry
Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, announced they thought a Bonnethead shark there had
reproduced by parthenogenesis. The baby lived less than 12 hours, though, and genetic tests were
inconclusive.
But when Doug Sweet saw the press release from the Henry Doorly Zoo about a possible virgin
birth, he thought he’d try an experiment. Sweet decided to incubate the eggs of his two female
bamboo sharks. Four of the eggs developed. Sweet says the sharks were acquired by the
aquarium before they had reached sexual maturity, and they have never been exposed to a male.
He says the likely conclusion is that these sharks are reproducing by parthenogenesis.
Two other explanations, though highly unlikely, are that the shark has both testicular and ovarian
tissue, and fertilized its own eggs or that sharks are capable of storing sperm for years and even
passing it down to their offspring. Sweet has sent small clippings from the sharks’ fins to the
Henry Doorly Genetics Lab. Testing has already begun, but Sweet says it could take more than a
year to get the results. In the meantime, Sweet says the facts remain the same: a female shark
has given virgin birth. If it is parthenogenesis, he says, it will have important implications for
biologists around the world.
“Parthenogenesis just hasn’t been considered to happen in sharks; it’s never been recorded. It may
be happening all the time out there, so this is kind of breaking news in the shark world.”
The two adult bamboo sharks and the offspring are currently on exhibit at the Belle Isle
Aquarium in Detroit.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.
A corporate merger between two large agri-chemical companies
will create the world’s largest pesticide manufacturer. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… some environmentalists are
concerned the new company’s approach will mean more pesticide use:
Transcript
A corporate merger between two large agri-chemical companies will create the world’s largest
pesticide manufacturer. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports some
environmentalists are concerned the new company’s approach will mean pore pesticide use:
The chemical and agriculture companies Novartis and Astra-Zeneca are in the process of merging
their agriculture divisions. The new company, Syngenta, will go its own way sometime in 2000.
Syngenta will be the world’s largest pesticide producer, and the third largest producer of
genetically modified seeds. Some environmentalists are concerned about the merger. Lori Mott is
with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Well, it’s a potentially dangerous mix because one of the areas where genetically modified
organisms are being developed is to make them pesticide resistant. So, you could have the largest
seller of pesticides also making the seeds that are resistant to the very pesticides that they
sell and the end result would be excessive use of pesticides – as if we don’t already have that –
out in the environment with severe environmental consequences.”
Mott says the new company will likely focus on creating herbicides and design genes to make crops
resistant to them. She says that will encourage farmers to use pesticides even more because they
know it won’t harm their crops. Astra-Zeneca already has a pesticide and pesticide-resistant crop
seed package. Novartis is working on one. Both of those product packages will now be part of the
Syngenta line. Other companies such as Monsanto and DuPont also have genetically modified crops
resistant to their respective pesticides.
A financial analyst says it’s possible the merger might mean less use of certain pesticides. One
of the companies involved in the merger, Novartis, manufactures atrazine. It’s the herbicide most
used on crops in the Midwest. Atrazine has developed negative reputation because drinking water in
some lakes and wells has been contaminated by the herbicide.
Alexander Hittle is an analyst with A.G. Edwards and Sons. Hittle says if Syngenta pushes an
herbicide and genetically-altered crop package, it might mean atrazine is used less.
“Atrazine sales are actually really being in part driven by resistance to genetically modified
crops. Either way, the farmers are going to be using pesticides, herbicides. Is the herbicide
being used in one of these seed combinations more or less benign than an herbicide that would be
used under so-called conventional farming. And, I think that’s the way, in terms of the
environment, the question needs to be posed.”
Because some of the new generation herbicides break down faster, they don’t have the same
reputation for contamination problems atrazine does.
Pesticides aren’t the only thing about the merger worrying environmentalists and others. Until
recently, genetically modified crops were more or less ignored by the American public. But,
because of food safety and environmental concerns, some people are becoming wary of the
bio-engineered plants. Public opinion might shift again in the near future. Hittle says so far,
the traits of the genetically engineered crops have only benefited farmers and the ag-chemical
companies. If consumers see a direct benefit, he thinks they’ll be more accepting.
“Down the road what’s coming are crops that have improved nutritional profiles, so that you’ll
begin to see benefits to consumers and that’s probably where the tide will turn. And, Novartis,
Astra-Zeneca both have pretty strong research capabilities and that should play into those sorts
of products.”
Farmers will be watching for the new products and the whims of the market as public opinion about
genetically modified food evolves. Don Parrish is with the American Farm Bureau. He agrees that
people eventually will accept the new technology.
“But, I guess as consumers see the benefits of what it could mean more lean, tender products, more
nutritious products, you know, I just have a hard time believing that people won’t believe in
good, sound science and won’t ultimately allow that to dictate what is safe for the marketplace.”
The Farm Bureau adds… genetically altered crops will be necessary to feed the world’s growing
population.
Environmentalists say advances in food production should not come at the expense of environmental
damage. The NRDC’s Lori Mott says the Astra-Zeneca and Novartis ag divisions’ merger rushes
headlong into a genetically-altered future that might have serious consequences.
“I think the whole issue of genetically modified organisms is a dicey one. We are changing the
scale of evolution…”
One interesting twist of the Syngenta merger: Novartis will be keeping its baby food line, Gerber
Foods. This past year, Gerber declared it would not allow genetically modified crops into its baby
food – something of a contradiction inside a corporation that has touted the safety of genetically
modified foods. Novartis will keep Gerber, and spin off its genetically modified foods section to
the new company, Syngenta.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
When was the last time you got a bouquet of flowers that had a
fragrant smell? While there’s no shortage of beautiful looking flowers
for
sale, many have little if any scent anymore. As the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports it’s a problem one scientist has
gotten a whiff of:
Transcript
When was the last time you got a bouquet of flowers that had a fragrant smell? While there’s no shortage of beautiful looking flowers for sale, many have little, if any, scent anymore. Ast he Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tamar Charney reports, it’s a problem one scientist has gotten a whiff of:
Flowers have lost their smell as flower growers have bred them to be big and brightly colored. Eran Pichersky is a biologist at the University of Michigan. He studies the smell of flowers. Pichersky is focusing his genetics research on whether it’s possible to bioengineer a flower’s scent.
“We actually have some collaboration with biotech companies who are trying to use some of the genes and enzymes we’ve isolated to put them back into plants so that the plant makes more scent, or even new scent that they didn’t make before.”
But it’s not florists who are interested in this work, it’s farmers. Pichersky’s research means it might be possible to alter the smell of flowers in ways that entice bees to visit crops more often, or even attract other insects to do the pollination work. That increase in pollination could mean an increase in crop yields.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tamar Charney.
Ron Offutt grows more potatoes than anyone else in the
world. He grows them for the French Fry market. Press reports call him
the Sultan of Spuds and the Lord of the Fries—but his success has an
environmental price, as people in small towns near his potato farms have
learned to their dismay. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary
Losure reports in the first of a two part series:
Ron D. Offutt is the biggest potato grower in the world.
His privately owned company raises 1.8 BILLION pounds of potatoes a
year. They go to make French fries for fast food chains like McDonalds
and big potato processors like J.R Simplot. But Offutt’s
success has a downside. Many people who live near his potato farms
worry about the pesticides sprayed on his fields…but they soon find
they’re up against a system much bigger than they are. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Mary Losure reports, in the second part of a two part
series:
Researchers have found a strain of walleye that is adapted specifically to the Ohio River. (Photo Courtesy of the USGS)
