It ain't easy being a scientist in farm country: Researchers studying the health effects of agricultural pollution say they are being silenced by fearful superiors and harassed by individual farmers, farm groups, and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds and controls much of the research done on farming. One example: JoAnn Burkholder, a well-known aquatic botanist at North Carolina State University, received death threats and demands for her resignation after warning parents not to let their children wade in polluted streams; she called such harassment "rampant." Another: James Zahn, a former federal swine researcher in Iowa, was told …

After months of heated debate, the 15 farm ministers of the European Union agreed last week on labeling rules for genetically modified (GM) food and animal feed. Under the plan, all food and feed containing 0.9 percent GM ingredients or more would need to be identified as such; below that threshold, no labeling would be required. Pro-GM food advocates hope the proposed labeling rules will convince GM skeptics to ease their stance toward bioengineered crops; at present, there is an E.U.-wide moratorium on growing or selling most GM crops. E.U. Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne hailed the …

Dear Umbra, I try to buy organic food where possible, but I notice that there is often a tradeoff with other factors. For example, organic food has often been shipped further and/or is more heavily packaged. How do I assess those tradeoffs? EllenWatertown, Mass. Dearest Ellen, As I've mentioned before, the USDA national organic standards came into effect last month, an event that has caused both rejoicing and concern in the organic community. The involvement of the feds in the organic movement reflects the strong market growth of the organic sector, which has been around 20 percent per year. This …

Dear Umbra, The tangerines I bought recently had this on the label: "Thiabendazole and/or orthopenylphenol and/or imazalil used as fungicides, and coated with food-grade shellac based wax or resin to maintain freshness." Presumably the shellac stays on the skin and does not affect the fruit, but what about the other products? What are these products and do we know what the impact of spraying or putting them on the fruit is, as well as the overall effect on the environment? Is organic better, as far as these chemicals are concerned? BruceKansas City, Mo. Dearest Bruce, Organic is better, as far …

Dear Umbra, I have been a vegetarian for a pretty long time, but my uncle told me that if the human is not supposed to eat meat then why do we have teeth. He left me a little confused. Is the human being naturally vegetarian? LaidaSomerville, Mass. Dearest Laida, Your uncle is unkindly denigrating your ideas, and using his authority to confuse you. His comment reminds me of a long-ago MAD Magazine spoof -- to paraphrase, "If the Lord had meant us to have telephones, he would have given us telephones instead of an appendix." If you want my opinion, …

Got pollution controls? Five dairy farms in California soon will -- and environmentalists hope the new rules will eventually apply to dairies nationwide. To avoid legal action by environmental groups, the five farms in the Inland Empire region of the state have agreed to modernize their operations by developing greener plans for manure lagoons and other pollution sources. Enviros say pollution from the farms was rushing downstream, leading to nitrate levels 10 times the California safety threshold.

Here's a simple game that makes a not-so-simple point. Stand in a line, with several friends. Each of you hold your right index finger out in front of your body. Now place a long stick across all of your fingers, balanced upon them. Your collective goal is to lower the stick to the ground. There is only one rule. Each finger must remain in contact with the stick at all times. If anyone's finger loses contact with the stick, you must raise the stick back to the starting level and begin again. According to Dennis Meadows and Linda Booth Sweeney, …

The activist-friendly town of Takoma Park, Md., unveiled an inspiring (albeit funny-looking) monument to the clean energy movement yesterday: A silo that holds 21 tons of organic corn. The corn will be used as an alternative fuel to heat a dozen homes in the town's Save Our Sky Home-Heating Cooperative, keeping more than 100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year. The cooperative started with Mike Tidwell, who recently became an alt-energy fanatic. He helped convince officials to let the silo be erected on public grounds, so that townspeople could fuel up with ease. Takoma Park is …

Faced with drought and plunging profits, Colorado farmers are under growing financial pressure to hawk their land to developers. Between 1993 and 2001, about 1.5 million acres of farmland in the state were put on the market and developed; 300,000 of the acres were sold in 2001 as a drought began to take hold. State officials are scrambling to come up with solutions that will slow the loss of agricultural lands. Trouble is, some of the solutions -- including more dams and logging to increase water resources for farmers -- won't be to the liking of environmentalists. So far, water …

After forcing a mining operation to leave town in 1997, the 46 families of Junin, a remote village in northern Ecuador, decided to have a go at ecotourism to protect the rainforest around them -- and to earn a living. But now a growing number of the residents are questioning that choice. The paradise of orchids, hummingbirds, and jaguars is no consolation to residents who aren't happy about the village's continued lack of electricity, telephones, running water, and paved roads. Only about three families are able to earn a living through ecotourism, while the rest are subsistence farmers. "The ecologists …