And the Department of Agriculture is working to complete a set of national standards for organic foods. YOU Monsanto announced yesterday that it will restrict sales next year of one variety of genetically modified corn and delay until 2002 the introduction of another in order to avoid disrupting U.S. grain exports. American corns sales to Japan and other countries have fallen markedly this fall after the StarLink biotech corn variety, which was not approved for human consumption, was found to have made its way into the food stream. Monsanto also pledged yesterday to be more open about its biotechnology endeavors and to engage in dialogue with its critics. But biotech critic Jeremy Rifkin said the company was still missing the point.
Genetic engineering creates some serious potential environmental and health problems.
In Botswana, fences erected to cordon off areas for cattle are leading to the deaths of wild animals. Wars in central Africa have created hundreds of thousands of refugees who contribute to environmental degradation when they cultivate land and chop down trees to meet their basic needs. A series of articles and photos this week in Newsday examines these and many other environmental challenges in Africa. Sprawl is big news in the fast-growing Denver area. A new Environmental Defense report sheds light on the issue by looking at key factors such as land use, transportation, jobs and housing in the region.