An environmental group is planning to sue the U.S. Department of the
Interior. Rebecca Williams reports the group accuses the agency of
interfering with decisions on 55 endangered species:
Transcript
An environmental group is planning to sue the U.S. Department of the
Interior. Rebecca Williams reports the group accuses the agency of
interfering with decisions on 55 endangered species:
The Center for Biological Diversity says the federal government made
decisions about endangered species based on politics instead of
science.
This past spring the Office of the Inspector General investigated a top
official in the Interior Department. The report found that Deputy
Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald reshaped scientific decisions on
endangered species. MacDonald resigned after the report came out.
Kieran Suckling is with the Center for Biological Diversity. He says
political interference with the Endangered Species Act is still
widespread:
“This is way beyond MacDonald, it’s a systematic problem and it’s far
from being solved.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing a number of endangered
species decisions that were made during MacDonald’s tenure.
West Nile Virus has swept the nation from east to west, but it’s hitting some areas
harder than others. Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
West Nile Virus has swept the nation from east to west, but it’s hitting some areas
harder than others. Lester Graham reports:
Nationwide this year, there have been 576 cases of West Nile Virus reported in humans this
year. The mosquito-borne disease has spread across the nation. Emily Zielinski-
Gutierrez, with the Centers for Disease Control, says some areas are worse than
others. There are West Nile Virus hotspots in the Dakotas and Nebraska, but it can
pop up anwhere… especially where there’s been a lot of rain or flooding:
“Basically, if you’re anywhere in the United States, you need to worry about a
mosquito bite that you get. If you’re in these states that have experienced and
communities that have experienced more intense activity, you need to be even that
much more concerned about protecting yourself from mosquito bites.”
She says look for the ingredient DEET in mosquito repellant. The CDC warns just
because you’ve not heard a lot about West Nile Virus in the news this year doesn’t mean it’s
not a problem in your area.
For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.
Triclosan is an active ingredient in many products claiming antibacterial properties. (Photo by Kinna Ohman)
A wastewater treatment plant which is equipped to produce sludge (or biosolids) ready for agricultural use. (Photo by Kinna Ohman)
Sludge will be sent through this press for dewatering and to get it ready for the farmer. This wastewater treatment plant provides Class B biosolids, or sludge for the farmers. Class A biosolids need to go through more complex treatment and screening. (Photo by Kinna Ohman)
After sewage is cleaned at a wastewater treatment plant, sludge is left behind. This
sludge is often used on farms as fertilizer. But the wastewater treatment doesn’t get
rid of all the drugs and chemicals we flush down the drain. Kinna Ohman reports
researchers are finding some of these chemicals are affecting wildlife and could be
getting into our food:
Transcript
After sewage is cleaned at a wastewater treatment plant, sludge is left behind. This
sludge is often used on farms as fertilizer. But the wastewater treatment doesn’t get
rid of all the drugs and chemicals we flush down the drain. Kinna Ohman reports
researchers are finding some of these chemicals are affecting wildlife and could be
getting into our food:
Take a tour of any wastewater treatment plant and you’ll soon understand the main
objective: to separate the liquids from the solids. Until the mid 90s, most of these solids,
or sludge, used to go into landfills or were dumped in the ocean. But in 1994 the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency started a program to promote the use of sludge on farm
fields as fertilizer. The EPA thought this was the perfect solution… turning waste into a
useful product.
But scientists have found something which could turn the EPA program on its head.
Rolf Halden is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Water
and Health. He says sludge contains most of the chemicals we use:
“If you look at municipal sludge, it really is a matrix that reflects the chemical footprint
of our society.”
Halden’s focused on one chemical he’s found in sludge called Triclosan – and
there’s a lot of it out there. It’s in antibacterial soaps, and can even be in our toothpastes,
deodorants, and shampoos. Until recently, most if it was thought to break down. Now,
Halden says they found something different:
“In the work that we have done at Johns Hopkins, we have demonstrated for example that
Triclosan when it enters a wastewater treatment plant is not effectively being degraded
and half of the mass is left over.”
Halden and his colleagues found this leftover mass in sludge. And since half the sludge
produced each year in the US goes to fertilize farm fields, Halden says we might want to
think about our food supply:
“We really create a pipeline of contaminants that are first discharged into the water and
then accumulated in sludge and then applied in agriculture which opens a pathway for the
contamination of the food supply and the further distribution of these chemicals in the
environment.”
At this point, scientists are still studying levels of this chemical. They haven’t even
begun to understand Triclosan’s effects in agriculture. But there’s something they do
know about it.
Researchers found Triclosan can mimic a thyroid hormone in the North American
bullfrog and disrupt its growth. When its tadpoles were exposed to low levels of
this chemical for a short amount of time, their growth into a juvenile frog was impaired.
But this doesn’t sound like that big of a deal… the frog doesn’t die, it just doesn’t grow
properly, right? Keep in mind that this study tracked exposure to Triclosan over four
hours. Halden says by spreading wastewater sludge in agriculture, we could be exposing
wildlife to chemicals like Triclosan for their entire lives.
“When these chemicals are transported into the environment with the agricultural
fertilizer, which is the municipal sludge, then they sit there for in the soil, not only for
seconds but for days and weeks and for months and to even years and in some situations
in sediments, in aquatic sediments, they can sit there for decades and this implies that
organisms are, for their lifespan, exposed to very high levels of these contaminants.
What the outcome of that is really not fully understood right now and requires more research.”
The U.S. Geological Survey has also been looking for chemicals in sludge – or biosolids –
and they’ve found steroids, antihistamines, and antidepressants. Ed Furlong, a research chemist
with the USGS in Denver, Colorado, says they are now studying how these chemicals react in agricultural
fields:
“We’ve identified that many of the compounds are consistently present in biosolids from
across the country. We’re now trying to understand what happens after those biosolids
are applied to the soil.”
The USGS is not the only agency looking at this issue. The Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting its own survey of chemicals like Triclosan in sludge. They say the results of the survey won’t be released until next
summer. Then comes the complicated process of deciding what to do with the survey
results. A decision about whether to stop using sludge with hormone disrupting
chemicals to fertilize farm fields could be years away.
The Sippel Family Farm has over 120 varieties of 40 crops for their shareholders. (Photo courtesy of Ben and Lisa Sippel)
Shareholders are encouraged to visit the Sippel farm to see how their produce is grown. (Photo courtesy of Ben and Lisa Sippel)
Ben Sippel says agriculture should be sustainable ecologically and economically. (Photo courtesy of Ben and Lisa Sippel)
Late summer is the time residents of the
agriculture belt see an abundance of locally-grown
produce. Farmers’ markets in urban areas and farm
stands along rural roads bring growers and buyers
face to face. A fairly new idea in farming is geared
toward turning this seasonal connection between
farmers and consumers into a year-round
relationship. Christina Morgan reports:
Transcript
Late summer is the time residents of the
agriculture belt see an abundance of locally-grown
produce. Farmers’ markets in urban areas and farm
stands along rural roads bring growers and buyers
face to face. A fairly new idea in farming is geared
toward turning this seasonal connection between
farmers and consumers into a year-round
relationship. Christina Morgan reports:
Ben and Lisa Sippel are among a few hundred families
in the US who approach working the land differently
from other farmers. Like any farming, their days are long during the growing season, the work is hard and the weather is the big variable. Unlike most farmers, the
Sippels receive money from consumers before the first
seeds are planted.
These consumers pay up front for a share of the year’s
crop, and the Sippels supply them with produce for 30
weeks. That is how Community Supported Agriculture
works. Lisa Sippel describes it as an adventure:
“We’re both very happy here and can’t imagine doing anything
else.”
Ben Sippel is more pragmatic:
“A little bit of romance is a good thing for sustainable agriculture, a
heavy dose of reality is also a good thing for agriculture.”
Ben Sippel is on a mission. He majored in
Environmental Studies and Geography in college. After
hearing about all the problems facing agriculture, he
set out in search of solutions. In Sippel’s view,
agriculture must be sustainable in 3 ways:
“We feel strongly that sustainable agriculture has to be sustainable ecologically, basically respecting the
eco-system that is our farm, but it also has to be sustainable
economically. You can rotate crops, you can not use chemicals, you can do all this stuff, but if you can’t
afford to do it or you have to get money from an outside source to continue doing it,
then the sustainable system if you will is flawed.”
Sippel believes social sustainability is just as important
as ecological and economic sustainability. He says
farming should allow families to take an occasional
vacation, set aside money for retirement and pay their
children a fair wage for work they do. Sippel says
farmers too often end up selling their land to finance
their later years. That land might also go out of farming and into development. Ben and Lisa Sippel want to make sure their son Charlie, born in February, has a chance to continue working their farm if he chooses.
While the typical farmer plants and harvests a henful of crops, the Sippels plant 120 varieties of 40 crops. They harvest at least three times per week so they can deliver to
their 175 subscribers. Harvests and deliveries go on for 30 weeks each year.
Looking over the acres of carefully cultivated produce and peering into greenhouses where hundreds of tomato, pepper and other plants flourish in the ground, it’s easy to imagine how exhausting and isolating this work is. But standing with Ben Sippel at a farmers’ market where he visits with subscribers and carefully measures out this week’s produce, it’s equally easy to see the connection between grower and consumer.
These consumers are sharing the risks of
food production. But in return, they know how and
where their food is grown. They’re encouraged to visit the farm. They know if the produce is organic.
And they know Ben Sippel is aware of the impact his
farm has on the environment. This year, shareholders
paid 560 dollars for their produce from the Sipple
Family Farm. Shareholder Andy Ingraham Dwyer puts
that in perspective:
“It’s a little more expensive, but I honestly think that expense is worth it, so long as I can actually look the farmer in the eye when I’m taking it from him. That means a whole lot to me.”
Ben Sippel says closer ties to consumers are an important part
of overall sustainability. In turn, some of the subscribers are
happy to find a local grower, so they don’t have to contribute
to the burning of fuel to ship food from other states or other
countries. Isiah Harris says buying local produce saves energy,
and he thinks it also means better food for his table:
“Oh yeah, it’s right out of the ground. I mean, some of this stuff was probably picked this morning. The nutrition is going to stay in tact a lot better when it’s not shipped so far.”
Ben Sippel says some people come to realize that the weather on the farm as a direct impact on the produce they receive:
“On their computer desktops, they have our zip code in to check the weather, they know where the farm is and they’ll look at the weather on the local news and they’ll say, ‘We didn’t get rain but it looked like you got rain, did you get rain?'”
Community Supported Agriculture is complex hard work — with benefits. Consumers receive fresh, quality food and a
better understanding of what goes into growing that food.
Farmers Ben and Lisa Sipple have a chance to get to know
their customers and the freedom to seek solutions for some of
the many problems facing agriculture.
Jenny Chang at a farmers' market with her produce. (Photo by Joel Grostephan)
Demand for corn-based ethanol is growing and that’s made farmland more valuable. This
year, American farmers planted 14 million acres more corn than they did last year. Some
small immigrant farmers believe that’s why they’re having a hard time finding land to rent
to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. Joel Grostephan reports:
Transcript
Demand for corn-based ethanol is growing and that’s made farmland more valuable. This
year, American farmers planted 14 million acres more corn than they did last year. Some
small immigrant farmers believe that’s why they’re having a hard time finding land to rent
to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. Joel Grostephan reports:
Jenny Chang doesn’t want to change the government’s policy on ethanol subsidies. She
just wants some good land to raise her vegetables that she sells at the farmer’s market.
When planting time came around this year, she was still looking for a plot to rent. Chang is
Hmong and she came from Laos more than 20 years ago with few job skills. For
the last 7 years, she’s made part of her income from farming on land she rents. In the
past, finding land to rent wasn’t that hard. But, Chang says through her daughter who
interprets for her, this year was different:
“She said that this year, we couldn’t find land, that’s why we got stuck with this bad area.
She’s really sad.”
With corn selling for double what it did last year, land values are going up. That means
rent is going up. And the 300 Hmong farmers in this area are having a hard time finding
land they can afford.
Kent Olson is an economics professor at the University of Minnesota. He says he thinks
land scarcity is due to higher demand for ethanol:
“Your ethanol may have started the ball rolling, and created higher prices for corn, which
pushed corn onto other land from other crops but that’s pushed soybean prices up. So we
are seeing higher rent from a couple different directions.”
In theory, ethanol from corn is supposed to be good for the environment. It burns cleaner
and means less reliance on foreign oil.
But… conventional corn farmers rely on fossil fuel-based fertilizers and chemical
pesticides. By the time their diesel-powered tractors plant the corn, combines harvest it,
trucks transport it and ethanol distillery plants cook it, the energy gain from corn ethanol
is marginal.
The Hmong farm differently. Most don’t use fossil fuel-based fertilizers or pesticides.
Instead, they do a lot of hand weeding, and put in long days. Jenny Chang fertilizes her
tomatoes with chicken manure. Chang’s daughter, who is also named Jenny Chang, says
many older Hmong farmers are suspicious of chemicals:
“They like gardening the way they used to back in old Laos. They don’t really know what
insecticides and pesticides are, or how to use it so that’s why they just don’t use it. And a lot of
people are afraid of cancer, so they just like to grow things organically because they eat it
themselves.”
And researchers say growing food this way seems more environmentally friendly than
growing corn for ethanol.
Bill Moseley is a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul. He studies the
environmental effects of agriculture:
“Conventional corn production is displacing, in this particular case, a form of
agriculture that is more environmentally sound in terms of it’s using fewer fossil
fuel imports, and it’s producing crops for the local market, it’s particularly ironic in
this instance.”
Government officials don’t think increased corn production for ethanol is the problem.
Perry Aasness works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. When he learned the Hmong farmers were having a hard time finding land to rent, his
agency helped them. But Aasness believes corn production for ethanol is NOT the cause
of the land shortage:
“Well, at least in Minnesota I think it’s very, very minimal. I think the real issue that I
have seen in Minnesota is that the Hmong farmers, the Hmong community is primarily
based in the Twin Cities metro area. They have to go further out to get land — a lot
of it I think is just due to urban sprawl.”
For many people in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the Hmong are the face of agriculture
at farmers markets. But since no government agency keeps track of their numbers, it’s
hard to know if their tradition of raising crops on small plots of rented land is going well,
or if ethanol and high corn prices are actually putting their small businesses in danger of.
