From Texas to the Amazon

Today we got some burgers at Burger King, and, because I am inherently a guilt-obsessed person, I got online to see where, exactly, Burger King got its beef.

I recently saw an article in National Geographic about the Brazilian rainforest and how its decimation hasn't really been slowed by environmental groups the past ten years. And holding a fast-food burger in my hand, I wondered if the beef came from a cow that stood where a rainforest used to be.

Well, I didn't get a satisfying answer to that question, meaning the answer probably is "yes." However, I did find this pretty amazing website about a Texas cowboy who decided to save the rainforest himself.

Can cattle ranchers and soy farmers save the Amazon?

The reasons for land-clearing in the Amazon are compelling: cheap land, low labor costs, and booming demand for commodities driven by a surging China and growing interest in biofuels. These factors have helped Brazil become an agricultural superpower – the world’s largest exporter of beef, cotton, and sugar, among other products – in less than a generation. Amazon landowners have seen their land values double every 4-5 years in areas that just a decade ago were pristine rainforests. The market is driving deforestation.

Given this landscape, John Cain Carter believes the only way to save the Amazon is through the market. Carter is a Texas rancher who moved to the heart of the Amazon 11 years ago with his Brazilian wife, Kika, and founded what is perhaps the most innovative organization working in the Amazon, Aliança da Terra. Carter says that by giving producers incentives to reduce their impact on the forest, the market can succeed where conservation efforts have failed.

While deforestation rates in the Amazon have accelerated, the problem is not a lack of laws, but rather a legal system where enforcement is so slow and so corrupt that it renders the laws effectively useless. On paper, cattle ranching in the Amazon may be the most restricted in the world, with landowners required to keep 80 percent of their land forested – a limitation no rancher in Texas faces. Carter wants to see farmers in Brazil benefit in following the law, by turning this restriction into a marketing advantage. However in order to do so, Amazon producers have to ensure that consumers ( i.e., buyers of commodities like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Cargill) can confidently say that agricultural products are produced legally and even more sustainably than stipulated by the law. The incentive for producers is market access: Aliança da Terra helps Brazilian farmers and ranchers get the best price for their products, but only if they follow the rules. While producers get higher prices for their goods, buyers like Burger King and Archer-Daniels Midland can say they are using legally and responsibly produced beef. Meanwhile more rainforest is left standing, ecosystem services preserved, and biodiversity conserved. Everybody wins. (Read the rest of the article here.)

Get a bumper sticker

Abortion is just about the worst political issue out there. It killed the feminist movement -- feminism is now associated with abortion issues, rather than what it should be, which is more opportunities for women to realize their dreams (whatever those dreams are). I am so, so sick of seeing abortion used as a political and religious tool, that the thought of it being on a license plate...frankly, makes me nauseous. Worried about free speech? Get a bumper sticker. Or, as one commenter on the article put it, "Freedom of church and plate." :)

Abortion foes taking license-plate battle to U.S. appellate court

By Howard Fischer

Capitol Media Services

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.17.2007

PHOENIX — A coalition of anti-abortion groups wants a federal appeals court to force the state to produce special license plates with the message "choose life."

The Arizona Life Coalition charges in legal papers that a state commission that reviews requests for special plates acted illegally in rejecting its application. The lawsuit asks the three-judge panel to order the members of the Arizona License Plate Commission to approve the plate.

But James Morrow, an assistant state attorney general, said the commission did nothing wrong in rejecting the plates because the message was controversial, and the state should not allow its license plates to be turned "into a billboard for one side of a hotly contested issue."

Finally -- someone who isn't in the lap of big oil

Kudos to Governor Napolitano for taking action on this issue. Emission standards have not been raised since the 1980s, and national legislature is too afraid of cutting off oil interests and vehicle manufacturing firms to act. Napolitano took the back door on this and did the right thing. The whole "more expensive car" business is nothing more than a tactic to anger people. A thousand dollars difference in initial price is made up in three years if the car is only 3 mpg more efficient. People don't even realize...she's saving them money now, and all of us money in the long run.

Napolitano Defends Emissions Order

PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano is defending her decision to bypass the Legislature and instead order imposition of new carbon-dioxide-emission standards for vehicles sold in Arizona.

Napolitano said Friday the changes she wants certainly could go to the Legislature. But she said state law also backs her power to simply direct Steve Owens, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, to adopt a rule doing the same thing.

"I'm very respectful of the Legislature," she said.

"But we can also do it by rule,'' Napolitano continued. "We can do it now. We can do it more quickly."

Rep. Ray Barnes, R-Phoenix, acknowledged action by executive order and rule may be quicker than amending state law. But Barnes, who chairs the House Environment Committee, said he doubts Napolitano actually has legal authority to impose new standards absent legislative blessing.

The ADEQ says state laws let it regulate various air contaminants in motor-vehicle exhaust, including smoke, vapors, sulfuric acid mists and radioactive materials. That list also includes gases and "carbon," which the agency contends covers carbon dioxide even though that chemically distinct compound is not listed in statutes as a pollutant.

Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, said even if the law allows the governor to do what she wants, such a major change in state policy — one that will result in more expensive cars and trucks — should be debated and reviewed by the elected representatives of Arizona voters.