Carrot & stick

a Carrot to:

* Hammerfest, Norway, where residents will be heating and lighting their homes with a nonpolluting, underwater generator that operates by the tides. "This is the first time in the world that electricity from a tidal current has been fed into a power grid," says a project spokesperson.

* Great Britain's Prince Charles, for urging Britain's National Health Service to include homeopathy and other forms of complementary medicine along with more conventional approaches. The Prince, who established the Foundation for Integrated Health, has long been an advocate of herbal remedies.

* Wild Oats Markets for becoming the first American grocery to switch from conventional plastics to biodegradable containers made of polylactides, a corn-based alternative that can be turned into compost

* Somerton Tanks Farm in Philadelphia for proving that organic farming can be profitable in an urban setting. On a half-acre lot in Philly's inner city, Somerton Tanks, operated by vegetarians, made $25,000 in its first year of operation.

a STICK to:

* The Bush Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their hush-hush deal exempting factory farms from anti-pollution laws. Under the plan, polluters can pay the EPA a measly $2,500 to fund an air-monitoring program, freeing them from the threat of government lawsuits under the Clean Air and Superfund acts.

* Newsweek for failing, in a September 22, 2003 "Allergy Epidemic" cover story, to note that the easiest way to avoid allergies to pork, bacon, chicken and fish is to stop eating meat!

* Philip Morris USA for pumping 2.3 million gallons of wastewater into Virginia's James River, making the tobacco company a "significant" source of Chesapeake Bay pollution. In 2003, pollution and sediment left nearly half the bay's water so depleted of oxygen that "it cannot sustain aquatic life," The Washington Post reports.

* Two EPA officials who helped ease the pollution standards for power plants--then took jobs with firms that benefited from the change. John Pemberton went to a Georgia utility, and Ed Krenik joined a Texas law firm that lobbied for the change.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Vegetarian Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning