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In the latest Radio Sustain, learn more about harvesting Aldo Leopold's trees, how farm subsidies benefit the big meat companies, and the cost of pollution for Minnesota's children.
IATP welcomes Jim Harkness
 On July 10, Jim Harkness took over as president of IATP replacing former IATP president and founder, Mark Ritchie, who is resigning to run for public office in Minnesota.
Harkness, a Minnesota native, joins IATP from the World Wildlife Fund in China, where he oversaw the growth of WWF China from a staff of 10 in 1999 to a staff of 70 in 2005. Previously, Harkness worked for five years for the Ford Foundation in China as its Environment and Development Program Officer. Jim has also served as an advisor for several United Nations agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin where he majored in Asian Studies. He received his graduate degree in Development Sociology from Cornell University.
"IATP already has a well-earned reputation as a leader in supporting sustainable development and rural communities with information, innovation and advocacy," said Harkness. "I look forward to continuing this great work to build social and environmental values into global institutions, and promote innovative solutions for rural communities in the Midwest and around the world."
Jim will give a presentation at an upcoming Minnesota Global on "How Can We Engage a Rising China?" in early fall. Details will be on iatp.org soon.
Pollution costs Minnesota
$1.5 billion annually in childhood diseases
 The best scientific research indicates that pollution contributes to a number of childhood diseases. For the first time, a new study quantifies the costs of childhood diseases attributable to pollution for the state of Minnesota. The study, released by IATP and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy found that pollution costs Minnesota an estimated $1.5 billion each year in costs related to childhood diseases including asthma, cancer, lead poisoning, birth defects and neurobehavioral disorders.
"Pollution is making our children sick, yet we continue to allow harmful chemicals like lead, pesticides and toxic flame retardants to get into our environment and food, and ultimately into our children's bodies. These findings are a challenge to legislators-let's make our children's health a top priority. For example, before we allow a new chemical on the market we should evaluate how many illnesses it might cause and whether we really need that chemical at all," said co-author Kathleen Schuler, of IATP.
The Price of Pollution: Cost Estimates of Environment-Related Childhood Disease in Minnesota uses a variety of state and national data sets to estimate how many diseases are caused by environmental exposures and how much each case costs the state. The report is authored by Kathleen Schuler, MPH, of IATP; Susan Nordbye, MS, RD, LD; Samuel Yamin, MPH, of MCEA and Christine Ziebold, MD, Ph.D., MPH.
Minnesota hospitals consider healthier food
 In June, 20 representatives from Twin Cities metro hospitals and health systems gathered at Shriner's Hospital in Minneapolis to attend a "Healthy Food in Health Care" roundtable. Roundtable attendees heard presentations on Ecological Health and Food Production, Getting Started on Healthy Food, and Cases Studies on Sourcing Local & Sustainable Food from St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, MN and Bartels Lutheran Home in Waverly, IA. St. Luke's has received international press attention for the changes it has made over the last year to incorporate more local and sustainably produced food into their cafeteria and patient food. Bartels Lutheran Home is now buying 25 percent of their food from local producers. Future roundtables are being planned for SE Minnesota, western Minnesota and the Dakotas.
The event was sponsored by Health Care Without Harm and coordinated by Marie Kulick who is a senior program associate in IATP's Food and Health Program and co-coordinator of HCWH's purchasing work group. The Food Alliance Midwest, Institute for a Sustainable Future and Land Stewardship Project are also project partners.
IATP is working at both the national and local level to encourage hospitals and other health care institutions to use their purchasing power to support growers in their local communities and less harmful agricultural practices.
Mapping the Mississippi River Basin
 Off the Gulf of Mexico, a hypoxic or dead zone has alarmed fishers, shrimpers, and ecologists. The dead zone, which develops every summer and sometimes reaches the size of New Jersey, has extremely low oxygen levels making it possible for only a few marine organisms to survive. The primary contributor to the dead zone is the extensive use of nutrients on Midwest farms, which washes down the Mississippi River to the Gulf.
There are many organizations up and down the Mississippi River working on nutrient management and hypoxia. But with a 2,300 mile river and a Basin that touches 31 states, it is difficult to measure the impact of these efforts, as well as coordinate information and work.
In response, IATP worked in partnership with the Mississippi River Basin Alliance (MRBA); the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (LCSA); Green Lands, Blue Waters; and the Sustainability Institute to launch a new Web site, rivermap.org. At the site, organizations and individuals involved in hypoxia-related activities can answer a survey about their work and help plan future efforts. The information will be catalogued into an online database and mapping system to be used by all the groups.
What happened at
the WTO's June mini-ministerial?
WTO negotiators walked away from a late June mini-ministerial in Geneva without any substantial progress toward completing the Doha Round of trade talks. In the latest issue of Geneva Update, IATP's Trade Information Project diagnoses what went wrong and where the talks are going.
Biopiracy and WTO trade rules
Poor countries want new WTO intellectual-property rules to protect their biological resources and traditional knowledge. These countries have made a proposal to amend the WTO's Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) by requiring patent applicants to disclose the origin of biological and traditional knowledge used in patented products. The disclosure would require that companies demonstrate that they had obtained informed consent and arranged for benefit sharing with the country where the biological and traditional knowledge originated. The U.S. and other rich countries want to block the proposal. In a new backgrounder, IATP's Steve Suppan explains the importance of this new proposal to amend TRIPs.
New center to be built
with trees planted by Aldo Leopold
 The new Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is being constructed with pine trees planted by Aldo Leopold himself (pictured left) some 70 years ago. The trees were sustainably harvested near Baraboo, Wisconsin from January through March and construction on the center began in June.
Most of the trees were planted by Aldo Leopold and his family in the late 1930s and 1940s in an effort to reclaim an abandoned farm. Leopold first visited the area celebrated in A Sand County Almanac while scouting for hunting land in January 1935. A chicken coop found on the land was refurbished, and "the Shack" became the family's rustic quarters. Aldo and his family nurtured 40,000 pines and hundreds of shrubs, hardwood trees and prairie plants in the years they returned to the Shack.
The land management plan and harvest have been certified as sustainable through the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) Smartwood program. FSC certification ensures that the harvest meets international standards for protecting residual trees, soil, water, native plants and wildlife. FSC certification was administered through the Community Forestry Resource Center, a project of IATP.
"The way in which these historical trees were harvested will strengthen the health of this forest for years to come," said Jedd Ungrodt, a forester with IATP who helped create the management plan for the land. "The trees that were harvested were the weakest in the stand. Now the remaining healthy trees will likely thrive for another 65 years—and more."
Photo courtesy The Aldo Leopold Foundation
Unlocking woody biomass
 Among the many exciting renewable energy solutions moving forward, biomass energy offers some unique opportunities for northern Minnesota. The region provides an ideal ecosystem for biomass plants that create energy through burning trees, timber residue, brush and other forms of woody material.
To explore woody biomass energy in northern Minnesota, IATP is partnering with the Superior National Forest, the Laurentian Energy Authority and Forest Management Systems - a cooperative logging business - to conduct 12 test biomass harvests on approximately 180 acres on Superior National Forest sites. Three common forest conditions will be test-harvested utilizing several different combinations of equipment. Information from the test harvests will be published and will help loggers familiarize themselves with operating conditions, equipment and costs related to biomass reduction.
"Biomass energy is an exciting opportunity to improve forest and land management, generate renewable energy and support the local economy," said Don Arnosti, IATP's Forestry Director. "It is a new area of sustainable economic development and there are a lot of unknowns. This project is designed to shed light on some of these unknowns related to equipment, cost, and sustainable biomass harvest limits."
IATP's Community Forestry Resource Center is monitoring the progress of project, including photos and research findings.
State food safety laws at risk
Legislation currently being considered by the U.S. Senate would undercut the right of Minnesota and other state's to provide its citizens with safe, healthy food. Senate bill 3128 would override several of Minnesota's current food safety and labeling laws and prevent the state from future food labeling or public health protections that would be stronger than weaker federal requirements.
"Minnesota has been justifiably proud of its efforts to keep food safe, and protect the health of its children and other citizens," said David Wallinga, MD, and Director of the Food and Health program at the Minneapolis-based IATP. "We urge Minnesota Senators Dayton and Coleman to say no to efforts to weaken Minnesota's health standards to the inferior levels often favored by corporate interests able to lobby their agendas in Washington."
Specifically, S.3128 will preempt at least five major food safety laws in Minnesota, as well as 200 or more other state laws across the country. Existing laws in some states that require consumers be informed when food products are contaminated with toxic pollutants, for example, would be pre-empted. No such federal protections exist. Moreover, the bill would impose an additional hurdle for states wanting to enforce their own food safety laws, requiring them to petition the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission.
IATP welcomes Anne Laure Constantin
 Anne Laure Constantin began in July as IATP's new Project Officer at the Trade Information Project in Geneva. Anne Laure will be monitoring and reporting on World Trade Organization negotiations related to services and agriculture. She will also be actively working with a broad range of civil society groups across the world who are engaged in campaigns and advocacy activities around the WTO.
Anne Laure comes to IATP from the French Committee for International Solidarity where she advocated on international agriculture and trade issues. Prior to that she worked with Association pour la Création de la Fondation René Dumont (Association for the Creation of the René Dumont Foundation) in Paris, and the World Organization Against Torture in Geneva. She has a masters degree in International Relations from La Sorbonne University in France.
Email Anne Laure at aconstantin@iatp.org
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Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
Jim Harkness, President
2105 First Avenue South Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 USA
Tel. 1 (612) 870-0453 Fax. 1 (612) 870-4846
Email: iatp@iatp.org Web: iatp.org
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