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HERB ABUSE!
For those times when a head cold seems to be coming on, more and
more people are reaching for an herbal preparation instead of a
box of cold pills. Herbalists are pleased that people are rediscovering
the traditional remedies that saw our ancestors through many an
illness. But some say the new-found popularity of old fashioned
medicinal plants also poses a serious threat to some scarce wild
species. As Andrea deLeon of Maine Public Broadcasting reports,
some herbalists are saying the government should now control the
picking of rare medicinal herbs.
RIPARIAN BUFFERS
Before the days of dams and levees, great rivers used to overflow
from time to time and drop nutrients in their wake. Plants in the
resulting flood plains would in turn help purify the water and limit
erosion. Today, in Minnesota, there's a federal conservation program
in which farmers are being encouraged to turn riverfront cropland
into meadow lands. These green buffers take advantage of nature's
own water purification and soil protection systems. Minnesota Public
Radio's Mark Steil has our report.
THE THIRST FOR
SAFE WATER SERIES
PART ONE - MICROBES IN OUR DRINKING WATER
The United States has one of the best water supplies in the world,
and some of the worst waterborne diseases like typhoid and cholera
are just about unknown here. But, research now shows that new risks
to drinking water can resist even chemical treatment, slip through
most filters and make people sick. This week we begin our six part
series: The Thirst for Safe Water. The series will examine the health
of the nation's water supply. We start in Philadelphia where despite
meeting all federal clean water standards, Living on Earth has learned
there is evidence that certain disease-causing microbes are getting
through the city's treatment system. Daniel Grossman has our story.
HOG REGS
Air and water pollution from large, corporate-owned hog farms have
prompted a new wave of regulation in some states. But, not in Colorado.
Colorado's hog industry has been growing fast ever since corporate
hog farmers found out that it has some of the most lenient hog farming
rules in the country. But that may soon change. State lawmakers
and federal regulators are vowing to clean up the industry. From
Colorado Public Radio, Thomas Lalley visits one county where pigs
may soon outnumber people, twelve to one.
A BETTER PIG STY
Today, we bring you the second in our two part series on the pollution
caused by factory pork production. Last week we reported on how
many commercial hog operations have moved into western states to
avoid regulation. This week we report from North Carolina, where
tighter regulation has led to a two-year moratorium on large-scale
pig farms. The state has also asked its agriculture department to
research new ways to handle hog wastes. As Diane Toomey of member
station WUNC in Chapel Hill reports, there seem to be plenty of
ideas.
ORGANIC FOOD STANDARDS
When the federal government decided to move in to regulating organic
food, the process was supposedly designed to avoid controversy.
After all, Congress instructed the writers of the Federal Organic
Standards to base the new rules on what organic farmers are already
doing. But the first round of proposed rules included loopholes
that would have given some big and questionable advantages to giant
food producers. That led to a ton of outraged comments from those
who have been in the natural foods business for a long time. Maine
Public Broadcasting's Andrea DeLeon explains.
TUVA PROJECT:
OF OXEN AND FALLEN TIMBER
The Osa Peninsula juts off of Costa Rica's Pacific Coast, just above
Panama. To those who value biological diversity, this is holy ground.
The Osa possesses some of the most spectacular primary forest in
Central America. A small, sustainable forestry project there is
providing an alternative to conventional timber harvesting. Instead
of cutting standing trees, only fallen timber is removed, and oxen
have replaced forest crunching tractors. Ecologists say the TUVA
project proves what they've learned after years in the field: like
politics, all conservation is local. John Burnett has our report.
THE THIRST FOR
SAFE WATER PART #3
PESTICIDES IN DRINKING WATER
This year, U.S. farmers will apply one billion pounds of pesticides
to their crops, much of which will runoff the soil into rivers and
streams that provide drinking water. Costly big city treatment plants
often filter the chemicals out before they reach homes, but the
plants in many smaller towns lack that capability. So every year,
millions of Americans living in rural communities consume potentially
dangerous levels of pesticides in their drinking water. Brenda Tremblay
prepared this report, the third in our series "The Thirst for Safe
Water."
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