State of the Wild Boars

Boars sure are having a tough time lately. In recent decades, the German government has been shelling out big bucks to properly discard contaminated meat. Contaminated by what, you ask? Radioactive cesium-137 that they've ingested via truffles and mushrooms and nose-burrowing in soil still ripe with radioactive fallout from Chernobyl's nuclear meltdown in 1986. It may not be headline news here in the states, where contamination tends to come mostly from a poorly regulated industrialized food system, but in Europe and Asia the boars remind us of the basics: the human impact on soil, the troubles of explosive populations, the perils of farmers and the danger that comes along with progress.

AP writer Verena Schmitt-Roschmann reports:

"Almost a quarter century after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, its fallout is still a hot topic in some German regions, where thousands of boars shot by hunters still turn up with excessive levels of radioactivity. In fact, the numbers are higher than ever before.

The total compensation the German government paid last year for the discarded contaminated meat shot up to a record sum of euro425,000 (about $558,000), from only about euro25,000 ten years ago, according to the Federal Environment Ministry in Berlin.

 "The reason is that there are more and more boars in Germany, and more are being shot and hunted, that is why more contaminated meat turns up," spokesman Thomas Hagbeck told The Associated Press. "But this also shows how long radioactive fallout remains a problem in the environment," he said. Boars are among the species most susceptible to long-term consequences of the nuclear catastrophe 24 years ago. Unlike other wild game, boars often feed on mushrooms and truffles which tend to store radioactivity and they plow through the contaminated soil with their snouts, experts say.

 However, boars are actually the beneficiaries of another ecological crisis - climate change. Central Europe is turning into a land of plenty for the animals, as warmer weather causes beech and oak trees to overproduce seeds and farmers to grow more crops the boars like to feast on such as corn or rape, said Torsten Reinwald of the German Hunting Federation. "The number of boars in Germany has quadrupled or quintupled over the last years, as has the number of boars shot," Reinwald said, adding that other countries like France and Poland are seeing a similar proliferation of boars.

Last season, hunters brought home a record 640,000, and following that trend, the amount of contaminated meat also went off the charts. Judging from the total compensation paid out in 2009, about 2,000 to 4,000 boars were found to have levels above the 600 becquerel of radioactivity per kilogram allowed for human consumption. That compares to about 125 to 250 a decade ago."

In China's eastern province of Zhejiang, it's a slightly different story. Reforestation is fueling the boar population and the little foragers are pigging out in the region's farmland, devastating crops and villagers. Treehugger reports:  

"The county's director of wildlife protection, Song Weizhen, explains: "In some aspects, the growing boar population shows us the success of the policy of returning farm land to its original use as forests." Because the boars are enjoying more room to grow, they're forced to look elsewhere for food, which can be found readily in the region's farmland. In some parts, as much as one-third of crops have been destroyed, but that's not the only toll. In the last decade, 22 people were killed and 188 injured by encounters with the animals.

When it became clear that something had to be done to reduce the boar population, the government authorized farmers to hunt them -- but the allowance of 10,000 boars proved not enough to quell their growth rate. Other, more humane methods were ineffective in scaring them off as well.

"The growing wild boar population is now a disaster to our village and neighboring ones. We knock on gongs, explode firecrackers and even use bombs, but there are just so many," one farmer in the region told Xinhua.

Now the gloves are coming off. Vuvuzelas, made infamous for their unrelenting drone throughout the World Cup -- and even karaoke -- are two of the most recent methods being used in the fight against marauding animals.

A group of 23 villagers have gotten together to form a "crops-protection team," patrolling the farmlands with noisemakers at night to ward off the invasive boar."

Bad time to be a boar, huh? Either you're glowing in the dark, constantly dodging hunters or your ears are being assaulted by karaoke!

Chevron is worse than BP.

Just came across these clips from the film Crude. The above was posted on 365 Days of Trash. I don't understand how I haven't seen this "Herculean work of investigative journalism" yet but plan to do so soon and suggest the same for our readers. I think we may have linked to an article about its release last year but then lost track. Anywho, the DVD is available for purchase here.



For those of you who may not be able to view videos in the office, the film by Joe Berlinger follows one of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet: the $27 billion Amazon Chernobyl lawsuit pitting 30,000 rain forest dwellers in Ecuador against the U.S. oil giant Chevron.

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein Recall

If you follow us on twitter, you'll know that we predicted a massive recall due to contamination just a few short days ago. Not only because contaminations are happening more and more often, but because founders, family, and friends of JustSaying have been hit with an awful stomach flu that has yet to be officially pinned on H1N1 or the restaurant a few of us recently dined in. The Washington Post reports:

"The company at the heart of a growing recall of processed foods knew that its plant was contaminated with salmonella but continued to make a flavoring and sell it to foodmakers around the country, according to inspectors at the Food and Drug Administration. Managers at Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas learned on Jan. 21 that samples taken a week earlier from their Nevada facility tested positive for salmonella, a potentially deadly bacterium, but they kept shipping their product to foodmakers, according to FDA inspection records. The company makes hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, a flavor enhancer used in a wide variety of processed foods, from potato chips to sweet and sour tofu. The additive, which comes as a powder or a paste, is mixed into foods to give them a meaty or savory flavor -- similar to the use of monosodium glutamate. Basic Food Flavors tested surfaces near food-processing equipment throughout its plant twice in January and once in February, and each time the samples showed salmonella contamination, according to FDA records. The company continued to ship products and to make more HVP without cleaning the plant or the equipment in a way that would have minimized contamination, the records said."

Take a moment to review the latest recalls and list of affected products found here, and read more here and here.

And please remember, we aren't doctors here folks. Just a couple of people trying to promote health and well-being for ourselves and our environment. Sure, I may have snacked on some potato chips while on a long car ride last week, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to sip on Alka Seltzer and skip tomorrow's doctor visit.

Bagged Salad - Still Not So Clean

Recent testing by Consumer Reports revealed that "prewashed" and even "triple-washed" salad greens sold in bags contain unacceptable levels of fecal contamination and bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation (coliforms, enterococcus, etc). Brands that they tested included Dole, Earthbound, Farm Organic and Fresh Express. Read more about the results here and how to best care for your greens and prevent cross contamination here. Most importantly, wash greens yourself regardless of packaging claims, keep them away from raw meat that could easily cross contaminate, and opt for bags that are the farthest from their use-by date.

(thnx DW)

Unusual, but not entirely surprising, contaminated "food" recall

Yesterday, after US health officials linked Toll House refrigerated cookie dough to E. coli infections in as many as 66 people in 28 states, Nestle USA recalled the convenience item I am struggling to call "food." From the NY Times article:

Officials have been hunting since March for the cause of cases from across the country that shared the same genetic fingerprint. Because most victims were young and female, the investigation was unusual from the start. Twenty-five people have been hospitalized, including seven who suffered a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No one has died.

Among the early food suspects were strawberries and fruit smoothies, but neither quite fit. On Wednesday, health investigators in Washington State proposed a link with Nestlé’s raw cookie dough, prompting officials in the rest of the country to re-interview victims. All six in Minnesota confirmed eating raw dough, said Carlota Medus, an epidemiologist in the state health department.

As tempted as I am to rant about the sorry state of food safety, I think I have to bring up consumer responsibility instead. I mean, isn't there a universal rule about not eating raw cookie dough (unless, of course, it happens to be mixed with ice cream in a Ben 'N Jerry's container)? And if you do dare to taste a spoonful of raw cookie dough or brownie batter, aren't you admittedly taking a gamble?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Nestle should be entirely off the hook... I'm just saying that while food safety officials investigate the source of contamination, be it an ingredient or something within the processing facility, maybe people could use a little common sense.

Imagine that...

The NY Times reports More Tainted Eggs From China Found

High levels of the industrial chemical, Melanine, which was recently involved with the milk scandal that caused four infant deaths and ailments like kidney stones, has been found in the eggs. The government blamed the dairy scandal on scam artists who were intentionally adding melamine to milk as cheap filler in order to save money because it is known to give feed and food an artificially high protein reading.

However United Nations Food and Agriculture official, Zhang Zhongjun, said that he was told the source of the contamination is still unclear and could be from melamine-tainted animal feed. Zhang told the NY Times reporter, "It’s not clear where the problem is from. It’s not clear whether the melamine was added by humans or by pollution.”

A human or pollution problem in China's agriculture industry?!? You're kidding...