Summer 2004

Two things have become clear since the victory of Mendocino County’s anti-GMO ballot initiative in the March elections: One, that Measure H founders caught only the first wave of what looks to be a tsunami of US efforts to declare particular localities GMO-free, and two, that the wave represents grassroots politics at its most energetic.

This fall, the California Department of Fish & Game will begin poisoning a section of Alpine County’s Silver King Creek, home to the native Paiute cutthroat trout, the rarest trout in America. The idea is to eliminate the nonnative trout that pose dangers to the Paiute of hybridization and competition for food.

Meandering creeks, shady canyons, historical sites, and rare species make the rolling foothills of the Black Diamond Mine Regional Preserve an East Bay treasure.

Watching a snowy egret dodge trash along the shore, one finds it hard to imagine that Oakland’s Lake Merritt was once a paradise for fish and birds.

The Brave New World of Pharma-Foods.