Going, Going, Gone
Need compost, retired U.S. Calvary horses, wrecked cars, lace doilies, coffins, or 50-gallon drums of banana juice? Then Uncle Sam could be the place to shop.
The U.S. government, from the Department of Defense to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to Customs, auctions off all sorts of surplus goods or abandoned property as well as valuables seized from tax deadbeats, drug kingpins, and other lawbreakers. Some agencies sell the stuff directly; some contract the chore out.
The Bush administration, as one of its e-government initiatives, set up an Internet auction Web site: www.firstgov.gov/shopping/auctions/auctions.shtml. But if you’re thinking you can get something great dirt cheap, the site cautions you to think again: “Don’t expect to buy a one-dollar yacht. Goods in federal government sales programs are usually sold at fair market value.”
A shopper did recently buy a 50-pound bag of compost for a buck. Two Calvary horses from Fort Hood, TX, went for $500 each – to a man whose father once served in the Calvary. Those wrecked cars, command-ing various prices, come from federal crash tests and must be used for salvage only. The doilies? The buyer had to take a “business-sized” lot of them – 16,000!
Jaws 5?
Food from genetically engineered animals, the prestigious National Academy of Sciences has concluded, is most likely safe. However, the scientists said further studies would be needed to make sure.
What does worry them is what could happen if gene-altered animals “escaped” – specifically, how much environmental havoc could they wreak?
Fish and insects were top on the list of “what-ifs,” since both types of creatures can easily slip into the wild and breed rapidly.
Joseph McGonigle, vice president of Aqua Bounty Farms, Inc., quipped, “There are stories floating around on the Web that we’ve got 500-pound fish that are going to grow to the size of sharks and threaten children on the beach.” McGonigle’s company has been gene tinkering to come up with a fast-growing salmon – a sterile one that he says won’t threaten wild Atlantic salmon, which are already endangered.
The federal government, i.e., the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are, the scientific panel concluded, hampered by a mishmash of laws written for other purposes – long before genetic engineering became a reality. As Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, put it, “At least, the laws that we’re operating under are not as explicit as they could be in giving us the authority to regulate in this area.”
Poop Power
Folks at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the U.S. Department of Energy are putting their heads together to produce bioenergy. Specifically, the energy department is supplying a microturbine generator; ARS, lots of cow manure. The site: the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center just outside Washington, D.C.
Dairy cow poop will first go through an anaerobic digester, which will separate the liquids from the solids. The liquids will be further processed to produce a methane-containing biogas. That biogas will then power the generator that will turn out heat and electricity.
Note: The electric utility for Washington, D.C., plans to supply the U.S. Department of Energy buildings downtown with power produced from landfill methane gas and wind turbines.
In Brief
• Following a recall of ground beef, USDA’s acting administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, William J. Hudnall, had this to say: “Because of the potential hazard of foodborne illness from consumption of meat products contaminated with harmful bacteria such as E. coli 157:H7, diners may want to ask if their meals contain the recalled product.” Presumably, if people who run an eating establishment know that they are serving recalled meat, then they have a disregard for consumer welfare and are unlikely to fess up to their actions!
• Speaking of recalls, USDA has sent out packets to school cafeterias called “Responding to a Food Recall.” Inside are guides and brochures.
• There’s a saying out there in the hinterlands that the United States is safe when Congress is out of town – i.e., on vacation. Well, this summer the Washington area suffered anyway: Avian flu kept fowls from fairs; the West Nile Virus went from infecting crows on the White House lawn to infecting people; and federal and Maryland officials plotted how to destroy snakeheads – those voracious, land-traveling exotic fish from Asia – in a pond only a short distance, as the crow flies so to speak, from the country’s seat of power.
• Among pressing congressional business, lawmakers made the Marquis de Lafayette – the French fellow who helped the United States whip the British during the American Revolution more than 200 years ago – an honorary American citizen. Only five other people have been so honored: Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, Raoul Wallenberg (the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during World War II), and William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, and his wife Hannah. The legislation to make the Marquis a citizen had to go through the Senate twice. It seems that the first version listed only five of his seven names. The final version got it right: Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.
October 2002 Render