Great Lakes Echo (https://greatlakesecho.org/2010/03/page/5/)
Chickens are free to roam the student organic farm at Michigan State University.
Unlike confined chickens, free-range chickens interact with with plants and other creatures for the good of the farm system.
See video.
Some Great Lakes biologists speculate that the Asian carp might not thrive in some of the lakes because zebra mussels and other invasive species have already trashed the lakes’ lower food web. Maybe there aren’t enough of the microscopic plants and animals the carp need to keep them happy. But as Flickr member outside perspectives reminds us, they’ll adapt. And this time, their prey is bipedal. Ready the pressurized air canisters!
National climate change legislation that creates a market for carbon appears dead in the water. The Washington Post reports Sens. John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham plan to introduce legislation next month that would focus carbon controls on specific economic sectors, rather than on all businesses. Any climate legislations would be a tough sell in this economic (and political) climate. But could the bipartisan group attract enough votes to override a Republican filibuster in the Senate?
For almost a month now, I have been watching an interesting discussion unfold about school food safety occur on the ComFood Listserv, a discussion place for people interested in issues dealing with community, food and agriculture. And today, I feel I have to finally weigh into the conversation. The public procurement of local food has recently made its way through a variety of unique institutions. Hospitals, prisons, schools, and universities are now purchasing and using the food. They are supporting local farmers, reducing their food miles, and providing themselves with one more environmentally friendly marketing initiative.
Has Toyota’s sticky gas pedal debacle shaken your confidence in Asian cars? Why should we expect anything different from Asian carp? If we’re going to have carp, we better build them here, says Flickr member Michelle B4. Don’t forget to submit your own carp bomb. And check out the waves these bombs are making in the local press.
What do members of an international environmental group that has eight Great Lakes chapters have in common with a sweet, but communist fruit? Members of the local chapter of Waterkeeper Alliance are “watermelons: green on the outside and red or socialist on the inside,” said Maryland State Sen. Richard Colburn. Waterkeeper Alliance member Richard Dove, a retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel and a registered Republican responded in a press release:
“I understand that Sen. Colburn aligns himself with big agriculture and the commercial farms that keep him in office, but … having served tour tours of duty in Vietnam, I take it personally when someone calls me a Red, a socialist.”
Waterkeeper Alliance wants an apology from Colburn, whose personal Web site calls him a “shore senator.” Contacted this morning, Colburn staffer Lauren Elcik told Great Lakes Echo that the group had not contacted the senator for an apology. “Once we receive letters asking for an apology the senator will address it at that time,” Lauren Elcik said.
Researchers found mercury and PCB contaminants in every fish they sampled. Fish in about half of all lakes had dangerous mercury levels. But the study found thriving lakes in much of the Great Lakes region.
I had to cringe a bit at this Echo headline on a link to a Toledo Blade story Monday: Homeowners are urged to have plan for toxins’ escape
The headline is taken directly from what the Blade copy editors wrote. It’s also wrong. The first sentence of the story:
“Countless shipments of toxic chemicals travel the highways and railways of metropolitan Toledo every day, but these chemicals often are ingredients in products that support Americans’ standard of living and conveniences, …” That’s fine, but the headline refers to toxins, not toxic chemicals. And toxins are poisonous substances produced by living cells or organisms. It’s a mix-up so common that here at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism we even cite it in a list of words often used incorrectly on the environment beat.
The Great Lakes may have a strong new voice in Michigan State House Rep. Dan Scripps. The first-term Democrat has introduced legislation that he says would strengthen citizen protection of the state’s groundwater through the public trust doctrine. Check out this piece from The Great Lakes Town Hall’s Gary Wilson. It’s an engaging interview with Scripps, covering his political motivation, his legislation, why the Great Lakes Compact falls short, and a reaction to Chicago media criticism of Michigan’s carp response as being “hysterical.”
My favorite answer came when Scripps was asked whether or not environmental priorities should take a back seat to the economy. “This is a false choice given to us by the people who defend the status quo because it’s in their narrow self-interest to do so.
In January, the Supreme Court denied Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s request to halt the incoming Asian carp by closing the shipping locks between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. That decision has come back to haunt them, according to today’s carp-flavored photobomb from the Conservation and Restoration Network. Based on their facial expressions, most of the justices seem happy to face their carp judgment. Except the stoic Justice Samuel Alito (standing, top left), who’s only missing a blindfold and cigarette. Where else will the carp sneak now that they’ve breached the electric barrier?