With the September attacks on the US, people are now taking a new view of Mideast oil dependence and the vulnerability of centralized power production and distribution facilities. Progressive energy thinkers advocate decentralized, sustainable (and potentially farm-based) alternative fuel sources such as wind, solar and hydrogen. Meanwhile, the White House's energy plan calls for continued fossil fuel usage with increasing exploitation of domestic oil reserves. 

The Rocky Mountain Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to alternative energy has responded by republishing "Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security," a 1981 report they compiled for the Pentagon. In a new preface, the Institute states that, "Federal energy policy continues to promote the most centralized, unforgiving, and vulnerable sources and infrastructures, while ignoring or suppressing the more efficient, diverse, dispersed, localized, and renewable options that could in time make major supply failures impossible by design. . .the Department of Energy, apparently unwittingly but quite effectively, is undercutting the antiterrorist mission of the Department of Defense.'' The 300 page report can be downloaded on the web at www.rmi.org.

2. MONSANTO'S 30 YEAR LEGACY FOR RURAL ALABAMA

Agrichemical giant Monsanto was once the nation's largest producer of polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), compounds that were once used in insulation, paints and other industrial processes, but were banned in 1979 as a carcinogen and environmental pollutant. For 40 years, the company was also one of the nation's largest producers of PCB wastes. According to the "Washington Post," Monsanto's Anniston, Alabama PCB plant annually leaked 50,000 gallons of PCBs into creeks where the town's residents swam and fished. The plant also landfilled millions of pounds of PCB- tainted wastes, contaminating the ground where residents grew vegetables and grazed livestock. Pigs tested in area had 19,000 parts per million of PCBs in their tissues, and fish placed in the local creek "turned belly up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked in boiling water." Reams of internal memos, uncovered in a lawsuit by Anniston residents, indicate that Monsanto executives were well aware of the toxic effects of the PCB plant, but took no steps to clean it up or curtail the pollution. One memo indicates that a primary concern was to ensure that "business is not affected by this evil publicity."

The revelation of the company's behavior prompted one "Washington Post" reader to respond: "There is only one sane response to this information. The executives who made these decisions should be prosecuted and thrown in jail, preferably until their skin falls off." Monsanto has spent $40 million on cleanup, and has since gone on to produce other products which it assures consumers are safe, such as rBGH hormone and genetically engineered corn and soybeans. Read More.

3. NOW AVAILABLE -- "RENEWING THE COUNTRYSIDE"

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy announces the release of "Renewing the Countryside," a full-color bound volume that "tells 43 stories of Minnesotans protecting the environment and promoting our rural communities through innovative businesses and community projects." The book describes the ways in which residents of rural Minnesota are re-inventing their farms and communities: transitioning to organic and sustainable farming, forming independent marketing cooperatives, expanding local value-adding enterprises, revitalizing communities, generating renewable energy, and restoring local land and wildlife habitat. "Renewing the Countryside" is available for $39.95 hardcover or $29.95 paperback. You can order the book, or browse case studies and resources, at: http://www.mncountryside.org/index.cfm?mthd=sprt.

President Bush's nomination for USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development has been hotly contested for almost a year. After Mr. Bush named Thomas Dorr as the candidate last spring, stories erupted connecting Dorr to a philosophy of corporate agriculture that favors factory farming and quasi-racist statements about the economic viability of "ethnically homogenous" rural cultures.

Currently over 160 rural advocacy groups have signed a letter of protest and Dorr's hearing is now set for January 30 when the Senate returns. Senator Tom Harkin has said that, if the Bush administration insists on pushing the nomination, he would give opponents a chance to state their views before the Senate Agriculture Committee votes on it. The Iowa spe is asking people to call their Senators in protest. If you want to learn more contact Libby Host at (515) 282-0484 or by email at: owacci@dwx.com.

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