All but eclipsed by the somber anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety will become international law today with little fanfare. Nonetheless, its entry into force could mark the beginning of a new era in international trade -- with potentially sweeping consequences for the environment. Fields of grain -- GMO barley, to be precise. Photo: USDA. The protocol is the first international convention to regulate trade in living modified organisms (LMOs), a subset of the more widely known (and in some circles widely reviled) category of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It spans 30 …

Philippine Journalists Arrested for Reporting on Illegal Pesticide Use Four journalists working in the Philippines, including a New York Times correspondent, have been arrested on libel charges because of articles and columns they wrote in 2000 about the use of illegal pesticides at a banana plantation. Also arrested was Romeo Quijano, a professor of medicine at the University of the Philippines and president of the Pesticide Action Network Philippines, who was the main source of information for the journalists' stories. According to Quijano's investigations, 700 residents of a community near the banana plantation were stricken with health problems because of …

White House Political Maneuvering Could Hurt Northwest Salmon President Bush lost in Oregon and Washington in the 2000 election, but his team is working to ensure that he fares better in the Pacific Northwest in 2004 -- and that may mean trouble for salmon. Bush's top strategy honcho, Karl Rove, has been making quiet trips to the region and, some say, pressuring federal agencies to loosen protections for salmon and other endangered species because agricultural interests in the Northwest don't want protective measures to interfere with irrigation. Rove's intent seems to be to shore up support from Bush's base: farmers, …

The lawnmower was broken. Not that I knew how to use it, anyway, as I'd spent my whole life until a year ago in lawn-less New York City. Now, though, I was in Boulder, Colo., with waist-high weeds in my yard. I refused to even consider herbicides, but my attempt to pull the weeds by hand proved futile: After several hours, all I had to show was one small patch of bare turf and an aching back. The weeds didn't bother my boyfriend, who reasoned that it was all just leafy green stuff and therefore natural and therefore good -- …

Dear Umbra, I have a large, organic (hopefully) vegetable garden. However, I occasionally use Roundup around the edges to keep invasive grasses from creeping in. Now, I have been given to understand that Roundup is relatively safe and breaks down almost immediately. What are your thoughts on this subject? I totally trust your judgment. BetsyMichigan Dearest Betsy, Roundup is relatively safe -- it's not as bad as, say, depleted uranium -- but that doesn't mean you want to go pouring it on your pancakes. I'm more than happy to give you the information you seek regarding its toxicity; however, as …

At Yale Dining Hall, A New Food Ethic Emerges The word "cafeteria" does not exactly bring to mind healthful, organic, and delicious dining -- but Yale University is setting out to change all that. The ivy league institution has teamed up with Alice Waters (the chef who changed the face of American cuisine through Chez Panisse, her California restaurant) to create the Sustainable Food Project. When students return to Yale this fall, those who eat at Berkeley College, one of the university's 12 dining halls, will be greeted with locally grown produce carefully crafted into "Real Food" -- nutritious, simple, …

Mainstream food producers are diving into the organic market, which accounts for less than 2 percent of U.S. food sales but has been expanding by more than 20 percent per year. Salivating at this impressive growth rate, many large companies are gobbling up smaller organic producers. In just the latest example, Dean Foods Co., the largest milk producer in the U.S., earlier this month bought up Horizon Organic, one the biggest organic food producers in the nation. Horizon has met with impressive success by targeting its products toward parents with young kids, who tend to be particularly concerned about health. …

"It's a fire alarm," says Richard Ellis about his new book, The Empty Ocean, which joins a chorus of recent publications documenting the precipitous decline of world fisheries and the dire state of the marine environment. That alarm should make you think long and hard about your lunchtime tuna sandwich or the sashimi you order at your favorite Japanese restaurant. The Empty Ocean By Richard Ellis Island Press, 367 pages, 2003 Ellis, a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, is the author of more than a dozen books about marine life. From 1980 to …