Author: Brian Carnell

European Union Subsidizes Olive Oil . . . and Environmental Degradation

Although many enviornmentalists like to blame markets for causing enviromental degradation, as often as not government policies provide incentives to degrade the environment. Such is the case with the European Union’s olive subsidy.

From a purely economic point of view, the subsidy is stupid. The subsidy is based on the volume of olive oil produced, so that those who produce the most receive the largst state subsidies. The preditable result has been a glut of olive oil which, of course, has further driven down the price of olive oil.

The other thing the subsidized glut of oil has done is promote extremely intensive farming. As one farmer told the Christian Science Monitor, the only way to keep up with the falling prices is to keep expaniding production, which means higher water usage, more pesticides and more olive trees.

The Monitor reports that up to 20 percent of Spain is turning into desert as a result of the soil degradation problems. An estimated 80 million metric tons of soil are lost annually from olive plantations in the state of Andalusia alone.

And yet while the EU has modified its beef subsidy so that it is not connected to production, it won’t even discuss doing something about the olive oil subsidy until 2003.

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A harvest of bounty. Otto Pohl, The Christian Science Monitor, August 22, 2001.

Is the Government Going Too Far In ItsTreatment 9/11 Detainees

The Washington Post ran a chilling story this week about the tactics used by federal government in detaining potential material witnesses in the 9/11 terrorist attack. Some of the tactics being used seem patently unconstitutional.

The scariest part of the detentions is that they are being done in absolute secrecy. As The Post reported, nobody knows for sure how many people are being detained, and it is impossible to obtain a list of those being obtained much less find out why they are being detained. Post writers Lois Romano and David S. Falls described how,

They have no contact with each other or their families and limited access to their lawyers. Their names appear on no federal jail log available to the public. No records can be found in any court docket in New York showing why they are detained, who represents them or the status of their cases.

Attorney General John Ashcroft appeared on ABC’s “Nightline” and claimed that the detentions were “consistent with the framework of law that we operate under,” but it sounds like the sort of thing that might happen in Afghanistan or Iraq, rather than the United States.

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Questions over men in terror probe. Lois Romano and David S. Fallis, The Washington Post, October 15, 2001.

Was Rotavirus Vaccine Prematurely Recalled?

In 1998 Wyeth Laboratories introduced Rotashield, a vaccine against the common rotavirus, whose main symptoms are severe, sometimes fatal diarrhea. An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 infants around the world die annually from rotavirus-related complications.

A rotavirus vaccine would be an important advanced, but Wyeth’s vaccine was quickly withdrawn after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control conducted studies suggesting that the vaccine increased the risk of intussusception, a rare type of bowel obstruction.

When Wyeth voluntarily withdrew the vaccine, the CDC estimated that the risk of an infant receiving the vaccination contracting intussusception was one in 2,5000. But in February 2001 the CDC announced that the results of a more thorough study reduced the risk to one in 10,000, and a further refinement of the data suggests that the risk is even smaller than that.

In fact, researchers looking at data from 10 states concluded that the rate of intussusception actually declined during the period when the vaccine was on the market.

Even with a one in 10,000 risk, however, this vaccine would be a godsend in many parts of the developing world, but the damage has already been done. Wyeth, almost certainly concerned about its potential liability over the vaccine, say that it has no intention to resume production of Rotashield.

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Rotavirus vaccine may have been prematurely withdrawn. Lauren Morello, New Scientist, October 12, 2001.

U.S. Life Expectancy, Infant Mortatility Rate Sets New Record

In the United States, Life Expectancy and infant mortality rates set new record levels in 2000 as the death rate continued to decline.

The average American life expectancy for 2000 was 76.9 years, with a boy born in 2000 having a life expectancy of 74.1 years and a female newborn having a life expectancy of 79.5 years.

Per capita mortality was down from 877 deaths per 100,000 population in 1999 to 873 deaths per 100,000 population in 2000. The age-adjusted death rate hit a low of 872.4 deaths per 100,000.

Infant mortality hit a new low, with 6.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000, down from 7.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1999.

With more Americans living longer than ever before, there has also been a rise in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, influenza and pneumonia and the conditions that disproportionately afflicted the elderly.

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U.S. life expectancy hits new high. MSNBC, October 10, 2001.

PETA Wants University of South Carolina to Drop the 'Gamecocks' Name

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently sent a letter to University of South Carolina president John Palms asking him to drop the Gamecocks nickname from the university. USC’s football team is receiving a lot of national attention for its 5-1 record, and apparently PETA decided to try to piggyback on that publicity.

In its letter, PETA spokesman Kristie Phelps wrote that, “Like spousal abuse, bank robbery and driving while intoxicated, cockfighting is illegal in South Carolina.” She told The State that, “It’s a safe bet that officials at the University of South Carolina would never dream of calling their athletic teams the Dogfighters, the Wifebeaters, the Looters or the Road-Ragers.”

And what would PETA suggest as an alternative name? “The Gym Socks or the Pet Rocks or anything that doesn’t perpetuate animal cruelty. The Gamecocks can score points for kindness; they can be champions of compassion.”

A spokesman for USC responded by saying, “We can’t imagine there would be any interest by the Carolina community in changing the name of their mascot.”

PETA also sent a letter to Jacksonville State University in Alabama which also uses the Gamecock nickname. JSU president Bill Meehan told The State, “We have no plans to change at this time, and there is no movement in the student body to change.”

Source:

Animal rights group targets Gamecock. Jeff Wilkinson, The State (South Carolina), October 17, 2001.

Animal Rights Activists Are a Public Health Menace

Toronto Star columnist Ellie Tesher recently made an interesting point about bioterrorism and the animal rights movement — if the activists had their way, there would be no viable antibiotic treatment for anthrax.

The two antibiotics best suited for treating anthrax — ciprofloxine and tetracycline — could never have been adequately safety tested without animal studies. As Bessie Borwein of the University of Western Ontario told Tesher, “We cannot make any single living cell in a lab, let alone an integrated body that would simulate the reaction in humans. Computers are in wide use in research but they do not substitute for a living body.” Especially when using antibiotics whose effects on the body can persist for relatively long periods of time.

In fact the discovery of anthrax is a result of some of the first systematic animal research. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur proved that anthrax was caused by microorganisms in studies conducted on rabbits and guinea pigs. Pasteur used his research with animals to develop the first vaccine against anthrax.

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Animal rights fanatics are health hazard. Ellie Tesher, Toronto Star, October 16, 2001.