New York Post, August 21, 2007
Headline P। #3 – Fatso Virus Found

Flab Vaccine Eyed

Louisiana State University released data that a virus called (Adenovirus-36) may have a link to obesity.
I tell you folks, this has the tell tale markings of a pharmaceutical company funded university research effort. The drug industry spends billions to research new ways to bring in cash.
Another vaccine for the nation to consume! What a money windfall. I will post the article after a few comments.
Obese people are overweight because 95% eat junk, junk and more junk. Obese people have obese children because they feed their perfectly healthy children the same junk they eat. I know this to be a fact. Obese people marry obese people. The only cure is a lifestyle change. Not administering another vaccine to perfectly healthy children.
When I go to the supermarket, which is practically every evening, obese people pile onto the cashier’s ramp donuts, frozen waffles, frozen pancakes, bags and bags of fried greasy snacks, soda’s and frozen pizzas. I never see hell of a lot of fresh foods, vegetables and fruits.
My health insurance cost is through the roof. Why? Because obese people line up at the emergency room, doctor’s office and pediatrician’s office to get loads of medications. Why? Because they are diabetic, have high blood pressure and lots of other things wrong with their entire families.
I know this sounds a bit mean. However, I have first hand experience with obesity.My brother for 20 years or so was 100 pounds overweight. This man ate huge amounts of food and tons of junk. My brother was the type of guy who would eat the whole package of English Muffins. He ate junk all day. This November 2007 will be 9 years that he lies in a coma. The man was on so many medications; it was horrible. The side effects from all these medications were slowly killing him. His state of coma is not completely related to his obesity, but it sure was an ingredient. No doubt something psychological was at work. God bless you Joseph. You are in my prayers daily.
Obesity is on the rise in many western nations. It is a concern throughout Europe. I have noticed one interesting fact. I reside in New York City and New York City is overwhelmed with tourists from across the globe, especially Europe. This is a good thing. I visit Central Park often on the weekends and my wife and I noticed that obesity among the Europeans is quite low. Not withstanding the British that is. They have the same epidemic us Americans do. These Europeans from Italy, France and the Netherlands are not fat. Although that may change in the future. It is a fact today. Why? They still enjoy good healthy food.
There is only one cure for obesity. It is a lifestyle of good eating. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, fish, more vegetables, fruits, nuts and fish. The rise in obesity is now putting all children at risk because of a new vaccination that may be forced upon us by law. As is the case now, or our children cannot enter school. No nation in the world administers more vaccinations to its children than the US. Obesity, the selfish lifestyle is now a danger to my healthy children and yours.
I at one time was 30-40 pounds overweight. It happened between the ages of 41-45. I was a mess. I had high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure was squeezing into a 38 waist. Finally, I said no more. My doctor advised me if I didn’t make a decision soon, I would be on no less than 3 medications, and could be facing that male mid life heart attack. What really was the icing on the cake was when I could not perform my bedroom obligations. I am now 50 years old and in great shape. No diets, no drugs. Good healthy living and eating. Find out how at www.infinitehealthresources.com. People forgot what good cooking and eating is. Our society is being laid waste to fast food, processed food and way too much junk food. Visit www.infinitehealthresources.com. Learn how to eat properly. Visit out Recipe section. Visit our Resource Center where there are thousands of articles on healthy living.
As for the pharmaceutical companies, well, what is to be said? Vaccines are big business. Look what they are doing to young girls, mostly minority. Human Papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted disease. Doctors say it is responsible for 70% of cervical cancers. Gardasil, the vaccine developed my Merk, is targeted at girls 9-17 and women up to 26.
A recent ad in the U।S. News and World Report states the vaccine does not prevent all types of cervical cancer. There is also little proof it even works and it has some serious side effects. Why not teach our young daughters to refrain from sex at a young age and multiple partners and that unprotected sex is, well, dangerous.

Ladies and gentlemen, take care of yourselves। Your doctor and the pharmaceutical companies just might be the enemy.

Okay। Here is the article from the New York Post.Good health to all!

Fatso Virus FoundFlab Vaccine Eyed

In the buffet of reasons for why Americans are getting fatter, researchers are piling more evidence on the plate for one still-controversial cause: a virus। New research announced yesterday found that when human stem cells – the blank slate of the cell world – were exposed to a common virus they turned into fat cells. And they didn't just change – they stored fat, too. If the research is confirmed, it could lead to the development of a vaccine that could prevent, but not reverse, obesity. While a "fat virus" may be a guilt-free explanation for putting on pounds, it doesn't explain all or even most of America's growing obesity problem. But it adds to other recent evidence that blames expanding waistlines on more than just super sized appetites. For several years, researchers have looked at a possible link between obesity and this common virus, called adenovirus-36, from a family of viruses that cause colds and pinkeye in people. They had already found that a higher percentage of fat people had been infected with the virus than nonfat people. They had exposed animals to the virus and got them to fatten up, and even found a gene in the virus that causes animals to get obese. But ethical restraints kept researchers from exposing people to the virus to see what happens. So they did what would be considered the next best thing, said Nikhil Dhurandhar, who headed the research at Louisiana State University. They took fat tissue from people who had liposuction, removed adult stem cells from the tissue, and exposed the cells to the virus in the lab. Adult stem cells can regenerate and turn into different types of specialized cells to help the body heal itself. More than half the stem cells exposed to the virus turned into fat cells and accumulated fats, while only a small percentage of the non-exposed stem cells did the same. "It's the first time we see an effect in human cells," said Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, Dhurandhar's co-researcher. If a viral cause of obesity can be confirmed, a vaccine could be developed, maybe within five to 10 years, to prevent the virus from making some people fat, Dhurandhar said. But it wouldn't help people already obese, he said.

End

Here is a brief news article from a prominent Wall Street Investment Daily, “Investor’s Business Daily।” The title reads: “Extended Hours Aid Burger King.”The article states that extended hours featuring late night meals are growing sales and profits. However, it did not say that Burger King is growing the average American waistline and a host of other health issues. I can’t believe they actually call this food a meal. There just is no end in sight for this health crisis in America. People either are not listening or they do not care or are they suicidal.

Here is the article dated August 24, 2001, by Investor’s Business Daily।

Extended Hours Aid Burger King

The No।2 burger chain said Q4 earnings rose 61% ex items to 29 cents a share, beating views by 2 cents. Sales lifted 11% to $590 million, above forecasts. Burger King cited breakfast sandwiches and late night meals for its successes. Global same store sales grew 4.4%. But Burger King sees 6%-7% fiscal ’08 sales growth vs. 9% in ’07. Burger King shares, up early, closed down 3%.

End

Please visit www.infinitehealthresources.com and start changing your lifestyle today and get healthy. The universe wants it that way.

Child Abuse Prevention Program

Child Abuse Prevention Program

I would like to take a moment of everyone’s valuable time and introduce an organization I have been supporting since 2001. The Child Abuse Prevention Program. These are some really outstanding people who visit schools and teach children about the dangers of sexual abuse. They teach children about the dangers of online predators and pedophiles.
While I dedicate much of my writing to a healthy lifestyle. One thing is for sure, a child who is abused will abuse themselves. Whether it be with food, drugs or sexual promiscuity or worse, suicide. A healthy lifestyle is fostered when our children are young. We must protect our children.
Please join me in supporting the Child Abuse Prevention Program.

Child Abuse Prevention Program’s Quarterly Updates:During the 2006-2007 school year, September through June, CAPP increased outreach efforts through our award-winning Child Safety Workshop by more than 10 percent. Here are the results:
24,669 8 and 9 year olds taught how to recognize, resist and report abuse.
228 workshops completed
135 schools visited

The following is an accounting of children/schools visited in each borough:
Brooklyn: 6766/35
Queens: 9650/52
Staten Island: 1225/5
Bronx: 4702/26
Manhattan: 2176/15
Outer borough: 150/2

Schools qualify to participate in CAPP’s Child Safety Workshop by participating in Our Professional Training program. This full-day program is offered to school guidance counselors and other school professionals.

Professionals trained through CAPP’s full-day Professional Trainings:
Guidance Counselors-143
Physiologists- 57
Social Workers- 61
Other Professionals- 13


Want to make a donation to CAPP?
Now making a donation at CAPP (Child Abuse Prevention Program) is easier than ever
Visit http://www.childabusepreventionprogram.org/, click on “Donate Now through Network for Good” button and use a credit card to make donation. Help CAPP reach more children during the next school year. If you would like to make a donation you may do so through their website.

Sincerely,
Thomas Affatato

Advancing Cancer Prevention And Survival through Nutrition Education and Research

Advancing Cancer Prevention And Survival through Nutrition Education and Research

I am an advid supporter of The Cancer Project and Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine. I support and donate a portion of our proceeds generated at my two websites; www.infinitehealthresources.com and www.celebratelifegifts.com. www.infinitehealthresources.com is where I began and it is where I can offer and share with the public my strong beliefs that good health is a lifestyle and not diet when it comes to the food we consume. Below is a copy of The Cancer Project’s most recent communication to me, Thomas Affatato.

July 26, 2007

Dear Mr. Affatato:

Thank you for your feedback on The Cancer Project’s survey questionnaire. As a token of our appreciation for your time, please find the enclosed bookmarks featuring The Cancer Project recipes and delightful photographs from artist Saxton Freymann.

As a nonprofit organization dedicated to cancer prevention and survival through nutrition education and research, The Cancer Project provides resources such as:

Food For Life Nutrition & Cooking Classes – nationwide free courses on eating for cancer prevention and survival. We are also recruiting new nutrition and cooking instructors; please visit our Web site to apply.
The Survivor’s Handbook: Eating Right For Cancer Survival – this book contains hundreds of recipes, nutritional information, and scientific research resources. Our accompanying DVD provides lectures on the link between diet and cancer.
Communications – subscribers can opt to receive our free quarterly newsletter in print or electronic format, and/or our Recipe of the Week e-mail.
Free Brochures – Healthy Eating for Life, Nutrition For Your Kids, and various fact sheets on nutrition and cancer.

Please visit our Website at www.CancerProject.org to find the above information and to learn how you can support the great strides we are making in the fight against cancer.

Best Regards,
Lauray MacElhern
Managing Director

5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20016
Phone: 202-244-5038
Fax: 202-686-2216
www.CancerProject.org

Weighing Health Risks From Lead

Weighing Health Risks From Lead

Clayton Cowl, an environmental medicine specialists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota explains lead poisoning and the health implications of the recall of nearly one million toys that may contain hazardous levels of lead paint.

What is lead poisoning?
When lead is ingested, the body will naturally take it out of an active form in the blood stream. The problem with children is it tends to be deposited into the brain and the nerves. The brain of a child develops rapidly, so as a result the results are magnified. Lead can cause cognitive and developmental abnormalties - certain types of learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder.

How much lead exposure does it take for these problems to occur?
They would be seen more commonly in children who are raised in environments, for example, there is lead-based paint on the walls and on the siding on the outside of the house, and they have repeatedly ingested it. This happens in some children with a condition called pica, where they like to chew on nonfood products.But as time has progressed studies have shown clinical effects of lead exposure at lower and lower levels. That makes it critical that environmental exposures are limited - not completely eliminated, because it may not be possible to competely eliminate all lead exposures.

What are the risks for a child who had one of the toys that was recalled?
Parents need to keep things in perspective. Simply having a single toy in the home does not pose an acute medical risk to the child - even if the child was to have ingested one small paint chip. But it is vitally important that all lead exposures are removed from any child's world as soon as possible.
If a parent is aware of a tainted toy that has been in their home, and the child has been playing with it, and the child is known to have a pica or some sort of developmental delay where they put things in their mouth a lot, those would be children that should be seen by their physician and a blood test considered. If the child doesn't have pica, the key is just removing the toy from the home.

Fast Company, July/August, 2007 Issue

Fast Company, July/August, 2007 Issue

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of lugging around bottles of water, cases of water, 5-gallon containers of water for my office water cooler.
Just lifting the large jug for the office water cooler and hoisting up to replace the empty jug and making a damn mess is an art in and of itself.
I must have $200 per month on bottled water. That is nuts!
I have filtered water at home. I even sell some of the best water and shower filters the market has to offer at www.infinitehealthresources.com, Health Store.
Funny thing is that my wife and I are now searching for the perfect reusable bottle for our four children’s lunch bag. I mean, what the heck? I hate filtered tap home. Why am I wasting $2,000 to $3,000 annually for something that is well, free? I pay probably $500 per year to replace the filter cartridges in my home’s water filter system.
I want to share some interesting facts in the July/August issue of Fast Company’s article on bottled water. I feel like an idiot spending all this money on something that is free.

Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the United States. Last year, we spent more on Poland Spring, Fiji Water, Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani than we spent on iPods or movie tickets--$15 billion. It will be $16 billion this year.
Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We--a generation raised on tap water and water fountains--drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we're raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion. We've come to pay good money--two or three or four times the cost of gasoline--for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes.
Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water "varieties" from around the globe, not one of which we actually need. That tension is only complicated by the fact that if we suddenly decided not to purchase the lake of Poland Spring water in Hollis, Maine, none of that water would find its way to people who really are thirsty.
And in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.
The water aisle in a suburban supermarket typically stocks a dozen brands of water--not including those enhanced with flavors or vitamins or, yes, oxygen. In 1976, the average American drank 1.6 gallons of bottled water a year, according to Beverage Marketing Corp. Last year, we each drank 28.3 gallons of bottled water--18 half-liter bottles a month. We drink more bottled water than milk, or coffee, or beer. Only carbonated soft drinks are more popular than bottled water, at 52.9 gallons annually.
We buy bottled water because we think it's healthy. Which it is, of course: Every 12-year-old who buys a bottle of water from a vending machine instead of a 16-ounce Coke is inarguably making a healthier choice. But bottled water isn't healthier, or safer, than tap water. Indeed, while the United States is the single biggest consumer in the world's $50 billion bottled-water market, it is the only one of the top four--the others are Brazil, China, and Mexico--that has universally reliable tap water. Tap water in this country, with rare exceptions, is impressively safe. It is monitored constantly, and the test results made public. Mineral water has a long association with medicinal benefits--and it can provide minerals that people need--but there are no scientific studies establishing that routinely consuming mineral water improves your health. The FDA, in fact, forbids mineral waters in the United States from making any health claims.
And for this healthy convenience, we're paying what amounts to an unbelievable premium. You can buy a half- liter Evian for $1.35--17 ounces of water imported from France for pocket change. That water seems cheap, but only because we aren't paying attention.
In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.
Taste, of course, is highly personal. New Yorkers accepted, Americans love to belittle the quality of their tap water. But in blind taste tests, with waters at equal temperatures, presented in identical glasses, ordinary people can rarely distinguish between tap water, spring water, and luxury waters. At the height of Perrier's popularity, Bruce Nevins was asked on a live network radio show one morning to pick Perrier from a lineup of seven carbonated waters served in paper cups. It took him five tries.
We are actually in the midst of a second love affair with bottled water. In the United States, many of the earliest, still-familiar brands of spring water--Poland Spring, Saratoga Springs, Deer Park, and Arrowhead--were originally associated with resort and spa complexes. The water itself, pure at a time when cities struggled to provide safe water, was the source of the enterprise.
In the late 1800s, Poland Spring was already a renowned brand of healthful drinking water that you could get home-delivered in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Chicago. It was also a sprawling summer resort complex, with thousands of guests and three Victorian hotels, some of which had bathtubs with spigots that allowed guests to bathe in Poland Spring water. The resort burned in 1976, but at the crest of a hill in Poland Spring, Maine, you can still visit a marble-and-granite temple built in 1906 to house the original spring.
The car, the Depression, World War II, and perhaps most important, clean, safe municipal water, unwound the resorts and the first wave of water as business. We had to wait two generations for the second, which would turn out to be much different--and much larger.


What is The Environmental Impact?

The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says "from the islands of Fiji." Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji's two-lane King's Highway.
Every bottle of Fiji Water goes on its own version of this trip, in reverse, although by truck and ship. In fact, since the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles' journey is even longer. Half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water is transportation--which is to say, it costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.

Environmental Impact

That is not the only environmental cost embedded in each bottle of Fiji Water. The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity--something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from "one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth," as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.
Each water bottler has its own version of this oxymoron: that something as pure and clean as water leaves a contrail.
San Pellegrino's 1-liter glass bottles--so much a part of the mystique of the water itself--weigh five times what plastic bottles weigh, dramatically adding to freight costs and energy consumption. The bottles are washed and rinsed, with mineral water, before being filled with sparkling Pellegrino--it uses up 2 liters of water to prepare the bottle for the liter we buy. Pellegrino chooses its CO2 carefully--it is extracted from super carbonated volcanic spring waters in Tuscany, then trucked north and bubbled into Pellegrino.
Poland Spring may not have any oceans to traverse, but it still must be trucked hundreds of miles from Maine to markets and convenience stores across its territory in the northeast--it is 312 miles from the Hollis plant to midtown Manhattan. Our desire for Poland Spring has outgrown the springs at Poland Spring's two Maine plants; the company runs a fleet of 80 silver tanker trucks that continuously crisscross the state of Maine, delivering water from other springs to keep its bottling plants humming.
In transportation terms, perhaps the waters with the least environmental impact are Pepsi's Aquafina and Coke's Dasani. Both start with municipal water. That allows the companies to use dozens of bottling plants across the nation, reducing how far bottles must be shipped.
Yet Coke and Pepsi add in a new step. They put the local water through an energy-intensive reverse-osmosis filtration process more potent than that used to turn seawater into drinking water. The water they are purifying is ready to drink--they are recleaning perfectly clean tap water. They do it so marketing can brag about the purity, and to provide consistency: So a bottle of Aquafina in Austin and a bottle in Seattle taste the same, regardless of the municipal source.
There is one more item in bottled water's environmental ledger: the bottles themselves. The big spring water companies tend to make their own bottles in their plants, just moments before they are filled with water--12, 19, 30 grams of molded plastic each. Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year, 167 for each person. Durable, lightweight containers manufactured just to be discarded. Water bottles are made of totally recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, so we share responsibility for their impact: Our recycling rate for PET is only 23%, which means we pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--more than $1 billion worth of plastic.
Some of the water companies are acutely aware that every business, every product, every activity is under environmental scrutiny like never before. Nestlé Waters has just redesigned its half-liter bottle, the most popular size among the 18 billion bottles the company will mold this year, to use less plastic. The lighter bottle and cap require 15 grams of plastic instead of 19 grams, a reduction of 20%. The bottle feels flimsy--it uses half the plastic of Fiji Water's half-liter bottle--and CEO Jeffery says that crushable feeling should be the new standard for bottled-water cachet.
"As we've rolled out the lightweight bottle, people have said, 'Well, that feels cheap,'" says Jeffery. "And that's good. If it feels solid like a Gatorade bottle or a Fiji bottle, that's not so good." Of course, lighter bottles are also cheaper for Nestlé to produce and ship. Good environmentalism equals good business.
Water is, in fact, often the perfect beverage--healthy, refreshing, and satisfying in a way soda or juice isn’t. A good choice.
Nestlé Waters' Kim Jeffery may be defending his industry when he calls bottled water "a force of nature," but he's also not wrong. Our consumption of bottled water has outstripped any marketer's dreams or talent: If you break out the single-serve plastic bottle as its own category, our consumption of bottled water grew a thousand fold between 1984 and 2005.
In the array of styles, choices, moods, and messages available today, water has come to signify how we think of ourselves. We want to brand ourselves--as Madonna did--even with something as ordinary as a drink of water. We imagine there is a difference between showing up at the weekly staff meeting with Aquafina, or Fiji, or a small glass bottle of Pellegrino. Which is, of course, a little silly.
Bottled water is not a sin. But it is a choice.
Packing bottled water in lunch boxes, grabbing a half-liter from the fridge as we dash out the door, piling up half-finished bottles in the car cup holders--that happens because of a fundamental thoughtlessness. It's only marginally more trouble to have reusable water bottles, cleaned and filled and tucked in the lunch box or the fridge. We just can't be bothered. And in a world in which 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water, and 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water, that conspicuous consumption of bottled water that we don't need seems wasteful, and perhaps cavalier.
That is the sense in which Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, and Singer, the Princeton philosopher, is both right. Mackey is right that buying bottled water is a choice, and Singer is right that given the impact it has, the easy substitutes, and the thoughtless spending involved, it's fair to ask whether it's always a good choice.
The most common question the U.S. employees of Fiji Water still get is, "Does it really come from Fiji?" We're choosing Fiji Water because of the hibiscus blossom on the beautiful square bottle; we're choosing it because of the silky taste. We're seduced by the idea of a bottle of water from Fiji. We just don't believe it really comes from Fiji. What kind of a choice is that?
Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it's reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just "Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I'm about to spend?" but "Does the value equal the impact I'm about to leave behind?" Simply asking the question takes the carelessness out of the transaction. And once you understand where the water comes from, and how it got here, it's hard to look at that bottle in the same way again.

End

That was pretty interesting I must say. Here is another foolish thing about water. Go to a decent restaurant and if you are foolish enough to say yes to the bottled water, then you just threw $15 down the drain. Pardon this pun.
Now at www.infinitehealthresources.com we write plenty about the benefits of drinking plenty of good, clean water daily, including bathing in it. In New York where I live, our water comes from upstate in the Catskills. Damn good water, the problem is the addition of fluoride and chlorine. Two more words that require separate discussion in them. However, I will not let my family drink that chemical laden water. Where there is not a municipal water system, chances are the water table is probably loaded with the chemicals from your beautiful lawn.
The pipes in New York City’s older office buildings deliver brown water, the pipes are so old, and so what is one to do?Simply put. Buy your own container. Buy a water filter and you have just added $2,000 to your bottom line. I don’t know about you, but $2,000 is a lot of money to me.

Investors Business Daily July 31, 2007

Investors Business Daily
July 31, 2007

I start me day with The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily and New York Post.
What I love about the Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily is the news concerning hot stock sectors such as drugs, energy, war, security and as of late environmentally friendly.
I must admit, although I am for living a healthy lifestyle, at times I might invest in a sin stock to make a few bucks. God Bless America if more and more people start taking the advice we offer on healthy living at www.infinitehealthresources.com, Resource Center. However, I will have fewer opportunities to make a buck. Investors Business Daily, however, is not so green, organic and so on.

Alternative Fuels: Environmentalists want us to use corn to run our cars. But the effort to keep the seas from rising may be killing the life in them from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.
The earth in indeed getting greener lately, particularly the coastal waters of the U.S., thanks to agricultural runoff due to a mandated surge in ethanol production fueled by an odd combination of environmentalists and politically connected agribusiness.
A recent study from the World Resources Institute says the development of a corn based ethanol market will only worsen problems already associated with large scale corn production, including groundwater depletion, soil erosion, and algae blooms, as well as dead zones in waterways receiving pesticide and fertilizer runoff.
Of the country’s entire corn crop for 2007, 27% is earmarked for our cars and trucks, up from 20% in 2006. Not only is that demand raising the price of food across the board almost as fast as gasoline; the increased use of fertilizer and water to meet it ironically is killing the environment in order to save it. An oxygen poor dead zone, created by oxygen sucking algae fed by nutrients used to grow corn and other biofuels in the Midwest watershed of the Mississippi River, already exists in the Gulf of Mexico. The 7,900-square-mile area with almost no oxygen, a condition called hypoxia, is about the size of Connecticut and Delaware together.
More corn grown for fuel means more agricultural runoff from farms of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which feed algae blooms. As the algae die, they sink to the sea floor, and the bacterial breakdown of the organic matter consumes the oxygen fish, crabs and other sea creatures need to live.
Ethanol from corn sounds like an energy panacea, but the devil is in the details. It takes 4,000 gallons of fresh water per acre per day to replace evaporation in a cornfield. Each acre requires about 130 pounds of nitrogen and 55 pounds of phosphorous.
Never mind the fossil fuel used by farm equipment that plows, cultatives and harvests the crop. Then the corn must be refined into a product that produces 20% to 30% less energy than gasoline and transported around the country by the truck.
The Gulf of Mexico isn’t the only body of water affected by the biofuel frenzy. An article in the Washington Post warns of ecological damage to Chesapeake Bay as a result of the surge in demand for ethanol.
A Virginia Tech study predicts that farmers in the bay watershed will plant 500,000 new acres of corn in the next five years. The study estimates that such an ethanol driven increase in cornfields could add an additional 8 million to 16 million pounds of runoff pollution to Chesapeake Bay.
“Corn-based ethanol hasn’t been pursued because this is the best solution,” says Scott Cullen of the Network for New Energy Choices. “It’s been because this has been pushed the hardest.” Even if all corn in the U.S. was used for fuel, Cullen reckons, it will offset only about 15% of the country’s gasoline use while causing significant environmental change.Farm state senators have indeed pushed ethanol, and it is not irrelevant that Iowa is the first stop for presidential wannabes. If Idaho was the first primary state, we might be making ethanol from potatoes. But at what environmental cost?

End

Here is something else to note. It is estimated that it took ¾ of a gallon of oil to make 1 barrel of ethanol. Al Gore, Monsanto and every other Big Corp name that sees big money have shoved this ethanol thing down our throats.
The price of food has gone up 20-30% in the last six months with ethanol production taking much of the blame. Why? Last crop acreage to corn. High fertilizer costs and rising farm labor costs.
Once again we are made fools of.