EarthBeat Radio

On this encore edition of Earthbeat -- Mountain Justice Summer is an effort to highlight the problems surrounding what's called "Mountaintop Removal Mining." Often called 'strip mining on steriods' this type of coal mining removes the entire top of mountains to get at coal reserves underneath. Joining co-host Daphne Wysham in the studio is Brian Bernhardt of Mountain Justice Summer, and on the phone is Vernon Halton from the Whitesville, West Virginia offices of Coal River Mountain Watch.
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Labeling of organic foods is a contentious issue. Mark Kastel joins Daphne from the dairy state of Wisconsin to discuss the efforts of The Cornucopia Institute. It's pushing the USDA for stricter standards for organic milk -- and has rated organic milk marketers on a 'cow scale' measuring how much of their milk comes from small family farms.
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Every year, a massive 'Dead Zone' in the Gulf of Mexico is created by the Mississippi River bringing fertilizer into the Gulf. Joining Daphne in the studio is Mary Booth, a senior scientist with the Washington, DC based Environmental Working Group. Booth says that most of the fertilizer pollution comes from only a few tax-subsidized farms. She says that limiting the amount of tax breaks and subsidies to these farms could help to greatly clean up the Gulf.
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If you'd like to hear this edition of Earthbeat - please send us an e-mail.
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Music for this week's show came from Falling Mountain Music and from Dana Lyons, the song "Cows with Guns." (Be sure to watch the flash animation version on Lyon's website here.)

Our theme music is Baladi by Tony Anka, Bellydance Superstars vol. 2.

Image by Vivian Stockman, of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coaltion.