1.Hong Eun Sook 2.US call for full access to Korea’s beef market to spark backfire 3.Maybe we don't have a right to choose safe foods. I think a choic of foods is very political and limited. There are many rumors about massive stockbreeding and I believe some of those. Rasing cow as a industry must be bad for ecology. And the risk the industry made, spreads to other countries. ------------------------------------------ The U.S. government is accused of having double standards in its policies with Korea ― it is trying to further open the local beef market while delaying ratification of the free trade agreement (KORUS-FTA) the two signed.
The Senate passed a resolution this week, which urges Korea and six other nations to provide full market access to American beef ― Korea imports U.S. beef products from cattle less than 30 months of age due to concerns about mad cow disease.
The other six are China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and Vietnam. Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who heads the senate finance committee, the resolution was unanimously approved.
"I strongly urge all countries to follow international guidelines, which have certified U.S. beef as safe, and open their markets to American ranchers and farmers immediately," Baucus said.
But his rationale is seemingly not in line with the sentiments of many Koreans, who are still suspicious on the safety of U.S. beef because of three alleged mad cow disease reports in the mid 2000s.
In response, the government here banned imports of beef products in 2003 but the Lee Myung-bak administration partially resumed them in late 2008 in spite of protests and massive street rallies.
Back then, Lee's move was seen as a strategy to garner ratification of the KORUS-FTA. Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has reiterated that the two are separate issues but citizens are not buying the explanation.
The U.S. government has yet to ask the Senate and the House of Representatives to endorse the bilateral agreement while the unicameral parliament of Korea is ready to give a nod to it at any time.
"Here are two different perspectives. The U.S. thinks that the remaining restrictions on the exports of its beef to Korea are an obstacle in finalizing the FTA together with the imbalances in the auto trade," a Seoul analyst said. ----------- http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/06/123_67042.html
1. Lee, Sung-Hee. 2. Rivers Can Heal--When Given a Chance 3. I think that rivers can heal by courageous people like member of American Rivers. Everyone(including me) thinks that reviving river is good and essential, but them don't act. For acting courageously, first of all people have to know about it and then have to have will. Many korean know that 4 rivers's project is environmentally-inappropriate. It is now time for korean to get opposition to project and to express strongly. -------------------- The Kennebec River, which drains about one-fifth of the state of Maine, once teemed with fish. Huge numbers of Atlantic salmon, striped bass, alewife, American shad, and five other fish species migrated from the Atlantic Ocean up the Kennebec to spawn (see Maine map). One fishing boat that headed out from Augusta in 1822 reportedly caught 700 shad in a single day. But by 1867 the local shad industry had collapsed. And by the late 20th century, the Kennebec's fish populations had dwindled to small remnants.
What happened? Pollution, for sure, played a role. But the biggest culprit was the Edwards Dam--a small stone-and-timber structure built in 1837 for hydropower generation that blocked the fish from reaching their spawning grounds. Later on fish ladders were installed to help the finned swimmers bypass the dam, but many of the fish couldn't or wouldn't use them.
Upon signing the landmark agreement in 1997 clearing the way for the dam's removal, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt heralded a new day, declaring that dam owners and operators needed to demonstrate "by hard facts, not by sentiment or myth, that the continued operation of a dam is in the public interest, economically and environmentally."
Since then, some 430 outdated dams have been removed from U.S. rivers, opening up habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms and letting rivers flow like rivers again.
And last summer, on the tenth anniversary of the Edwards Dam removal, Augusta residents and conservationists gathered to celebrate the return of astounding numbers of fish to the Kennebec.
Andrew Fahlund, senior vice president for conservation at American Rivers, was on hand that July day in 1999 to witness the rebirth of the Kennebec. American Rivers was one of a small group of organizations that fought for the dam's removal and continues to fight for many others.
As Andrew describes in his piece for our Lessons from the Field, rivers can heal--when given a chance. ------- http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/thegreenguide/2010/05/rivers-can-healwhen-given-a-ch.htm
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
1.Hong Eun Sook
ReplyDelete2.US call for full access to Korea’s beef market to spark backfire
3.Maybe we don't have a right to choose safe foods. I think a choic of foods is very political and limited. There are many rumors about massive stockbreeding and I believe some of those. Rasing cow as a industry must be bad for ecology. And the risk the industry made, spreads to other countries.
------------------------------------------
The U.S. government is accused of having double standards in its policies with Korea ― it is trying to further open the local beef market while delaying ratification of the free trade agreement (KORUS-FTA) the two signed.
The Senate passed a resolution this week, which urges Korea and six other nations to provide full market access to American beef ― Korea imports U.S. beef products from cattle less than 30 months of age due to concerns about mad cow disease.
The other six are China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and Vietnam. Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who heads the senate finance committee, the resolution was unanimously approved.
"I strongly urge all countries to follow international guidelines, which have certified U.S. beef as safe, and open their markets to American ranchers and farmers immediately," Baucus said.
But his rationale is seemingly not in line with the sentiments of many Koreans, who are still suspicious on the safety of U.S. beef because of three alleged mad cow disease reports in the mid 2000s.
In response, the government here banned imports of beef products in 2003 but the Lee Myung-bak administration partially resumed them in late 2008 in spite of protests and massive street rallies.
Back then, Lee's move was seen as a strategy to garner ratification of the KORUS-FTA. Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has reiterated that the two are separate issues but citizens are not buying the explanation.
The U.S. government has yet to ask the Senate and the House of Representatives to endorse the bilateral agreement while the unicameral parliament of Korea is ready to give a nod to it at any time.
"Here are two different perspectives. The U.S. thinks that the remaining restrictions on the exports of its beef to Korea are an obstacle in finalizing the FTA together with the imbalances in the auto trade," a Seoul analyst said.
-----------
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/06/123_67042.html
1. Lee, Sung-Hee.
ReplyDelete2. Rivers Can Heal--When Given a Chance
3. I think that rivers can heal by courageous people like member of American Rivers. Everyone(including me) thinks that reviving river is good and essential, but them don't act. For acting courageously, first of all people have to know about it and then have to have will. Many korean know that 4 rivers's project is environmentally-inappropriate. It is now time for korean to get opposition to project and to express strongly.
--------------------
The Kennebec River, which drains about one-fifth of the state of Maine, once teemed with fish. Huge numbers of Atlantic salmon, striped bass, alewife, American shad, and five other fish species migrated from the Atlantic Ocean up the Kennebec to spawn (see Maine map). One fishing boat that headed out from Augusta in 1822 reportedly caught 700 shad in a single day. But by 1867 the local shad industry had collapsed. And by the late 20th century, the Kennebec's fish populations had dwindled to small remnants.
What happened? Pollution, for sure, played a role. But the biggest culprit was the Edwards Dam--a small stone-and-timber structure built in 1837 for hydropower generation that blocked the fish from reaching their spawning grounds. Later on fish ladders were installed to help the finned swimmers bypass the dam, but many of the fish couldn't or wouldn't use them.
Upon signing the landmark agreement in 1997 clearing the way for the dam's removal, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt heralded a new day, declaring that dam owners and operators needed to demonstrate "by hard facts, not by sentiment or myth, that the continued operation of a dam is in the public interest, economically and environmentally."
Since then, some 430 outdated dams have been removed from U.S. rivers, opening up habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms and letting rivers flow like rivers again.
And last summer, on the tenth anniversary of the Edwards Dam removal, Augusta residents and conservationists gathered to celebrate the return of astounding numbers of fish to the Kennebec.
Andrew Fahlund, senior vice president for conservation at American Rivers, was on hand that July day in 1999 to witness the rebirth of the Kennebec. American Rivers was one of a small group of organizations that fought for the dam's removal and continues to fight for many others.
As Andrew describes in his piece for our Lessons from the Field, rivers can heal--when given a chance.
-------
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/thegreenguide/2010/05/rivers-can-healwhen-given-a-ch.htm