Environmental activists target Hendersonville Staples store

Environmental activists demonstrate outside the Hendersonville Staples Sept. 9.

Hendersonville, North Carolina, Sept. 9— Concerned citizens and local activists greeted shoppers today at the Staples grand opening in Hendersonville, North Carolina with a banner, signs, and literature to protest the company’s sale of products from endangered forests. This local action is part of a nationwide campaign targeting Staples for selling paper products from clear-cut forests in the southern United States and around the world.

“When the doors open at this new Staples location, the doors to healthy forests and healthy communities are slammed shut,” stated Heide Johnson, an organizer with the Student Environmental Action Coalition.

Staples is the largest and fastest growing office supply superstore in the world. Although tree-free and recycled paper is available on the market, 97% of the office paper sold at Staples has zero recycled content.

Southern forests, some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in all of North America, are being clear-cut at an alarming rate to make disposable paper products, making it one of the largest pulp-producing regions of the world. Over 25% of the world’s paper comes from the southern United States. The forests of the south are home to an abundance of rare plant and animal species and provide habitat for wildlife, clean water, and recreation opportunities. Yet approximately five million acres of Southern forests are clear-cut each year to make paper products sold at stores like Staples.

“Displaying a recycling symbol on the front door and offering a token few recycled products doesn’t save our southern forests and communities,” said Olivia Lim, local teacher and Earth First! representative. “Until Staples meets our demands and offers high-content post-consumer recycled and tree-free paper alternatives, we will continue to target the company and fight for the forests of the South and all forests threatened by industrial logging.

“ The citizens demand:

• Immediately phase out all wood and paper products made from old growth forests.

• Immediately phase out all wood and paper products made from forests on US public lands.

• Set a target of 50% post consumer content for all paper products an begin an immediate phase out of all products that are 100% virgin tree fiber

• Make available 100% post consumer recycled paper and paper made from agricultural fiber in all stores

• Educate all employees, customers and suppliers on the benefits of recycled paper, recycling, the availability of alternative fibers, and the benefits of healthy forests.

Source: Earth First!

Witness For Peace delegate reports on Colombia

By Owen Goolsby

Asheville, Sept. 10-- On September 6th, an informative talk and slide show on the political and social struggles of the Colombian people was presented at Lord Auditorium, in Asheville’s Pack Library. Melissa Fridlin, a graduate of Warren Wilson College, was the speaker.

Last July, she traveled to Colombia with a delegation of twenty-two observers sponsored by Witness For Peace.

Fridlin provided this information:

* Colombia is the third largest country in Latin America, with a population of 41 million.

* 56% of the population lives in “absolute” poverty (income less than $500 per year).

* The wealthiest 1% own 45% of the land.

* The poverty rate has risen 11% in the last ten years.

* 40% of national budget goes toward paying its national debt of $35 billion.

* In 1990, the government stopped giving agricultural subsidies, resulting in people losing their jobs.

* One result of stopping subsidies is that Colombia now imports eight times more food products than ten years ago.

Not even coffee can help the Colombian economy anymore. When the World Trade Organization was created, it dissolved the World Coffee Pact, which had guaranteed coffee prices through farm subsidies. Since then, coffee prices have been dropping steeply - down 22% in the last three months alone. Since farmers can no longer make money growing coffee, many have turned to growing coca (from which cocaine is made). Last year, Colombia actually began importing coffee.

In the current situation, the two ruling parties, through the official military and several unofficially allied paramilitary groups, are in opposition to the leftist guerrilla groups. Labor organizers, as well as any civilians in the general population who disagree with government practices are often abducted and tortured, or killed. According to a printed handout available at the presentation, by the Latin America Working Group, “The Colombian armed forces has a history of human rights violations and maintains close ties to the paramilitary groups who are responsible for 78% of political killings…”

This is a $4.5 billion plan by President Pastrana to eradicate coca and create a new economy. As a part of this plan, the US government approved 1.3 billion dollars in aid in July of 2000. Of this, almost 1 billion dollars was set aside for military intervention. Much of this money is actually staying in the United States, paying for Black Hawk and Huey helicopters, fumigation equipment, and salaries for US military support personnel. Monsanto Corporation is paid for the chemical called Roundup Ultra, used in the aerial spraying of coca fields.

Fridlin showed a number of slides she took during her trip.

One set of slides showed environmental damage caused by the rebels. One of this group’s common practices is to puncture or blow up sections of the oil pipelines that run across the countryside. There was oil-blackened ground under a damaged pipe, a pond full of oil, and a large wetland area saturated with oil.

Fridlin said, “Doctors throughout the regions where aerial fumigation is carried out have been reporting a drastic increase in complaints of respiratory, skin, and gastrointestinal problems, particularly in children.”

Slides were shown of young girls who suffered from red, raised lesions on their skin. One of the girls, age thirteen, had them on her hands and arms; the other, who was maybe nine, had them on her neck. A third slide was of a six month old baby. The lesions were visible all over her legs and arms, and it was said she was covered with them. She was in the womb at the time of the spraying.

After the end of the presentation, Fridlin said that everywhere she went in Colombia, people would say the same thing to the delegates: “Thank you, thank you, for coming to talk to us -- and what are you going to do about it? Who are you going to tell?”

Biotech opponents plan march and rally

By Brendan Conley

Asheville, Sept. 12— Local opponents of biotechnology will hold a march and rally on Saturday at the site of a biotechnology conference. The “Rally for Real Food” is in opposition to a “retreat” for biotechnology scientists hosted by the North Carolina Plant Molecular Biology Consortium. The conference will take place from Sept. 14-16 at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, near Westgate shopping center.

The rally will begin at noon at Westgate shopping center, with an organic lunch and activist tabling, followed by a “speak-out” on biotechnology, and a 2pm march to the Holiday Inn. The demonstration is organized by Carolina Partners for Pure Food and SouthRAGE (Resistance Against Genetic Engineering). The organizers encourage concerned citizens to bring signs and banners, and “your finest organic mountain farmer duds.”

The biotechnology conference is sponsored by Syngenta (formerly Novartis, Aventis (maker of Starlink corn), BASF, and Paradigm Genetics, all based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Genetic engineering of food plants has been promoted by giant biotechnology corporations that hope to profit enormously from the new science. The genetic alteration of food has been opposed by farmers and consumers throughout the world, who cite dangers to the environment and human health.

Locally, business and university leaders have announced plans to make Asheville a center for biotechnology research. Local residents are organizing to oppose these plans.

For more information: southrage@yahoo.com