Food Waste and Hunger Exist Side by Side

Around 100 billion pounds of food are wasted annually in the United States. It would take just one out of every 25 pounds wasted to feed the 30 million people who go hunger in this affluent nation, according to the group Food Not Bombs.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Different Hooks to Save Sea Turtles

The Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture launched a campaign to convince dorado and shark fishing operations to change the type of hooks they use as a means to prevent accidental capture of sea turtles, which are in danger of extinction.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Bacteria Produce Biodegradable Plastic

Argentine researchers announced on Aug. 20 that a new industrial process is available to produce a plastic that quickly degrades after being buried. The key in production is the Azotobacter chroococcum bacterium.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Water and Sanitation for Indians

The Colombian government will begin the second phase of the project ''Environmental Improvement in Indigenous Communities,'' which is to benefit some 100 Ticuna Indian families in the Amazon region.

Ecobreves – PERU: Microbes for Clean Mining

The contamination of rivers from mining waste, one of Peru's most pressing environmental problems, can be fought using microorganisms, according to the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy (IPEN)

Peru's Paracas Reserve Imperiled on Two Fronts

The Paracas marine reserve in Peru, already threatened by pollution from fishmeal factories, now faces possible impacts from a natural gas plant.

Scouring the Seas for Matter to Create Life

Can we create ''super bacteria'' capable of generating energy? There are those who believe it can be done, including the controversial scientist J. Craig Venter, expert in synthetic biology.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Parrots and Macaws Back at Home

Nine yellow-crowned parrots (Amazona ochrocephala) and one scarlet macaw (Ara macao), all three months old, were repatriated to Venezuela by authorities from the neighboring island of Curacao, where they had been taken illegally.

Ecobreves – CUBA: Hurricane Charley No Relief for Drought

Hurricane Charley, which hit the western part of Cuba early in the morning of Aug. 13, caused a great deal of destruction but nothing to alleviate the island's ongoing drought.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Ecologists Demand Land Regulation

The non-governmental organization Sustainable Chile is calling on the Ricardo Lagos government to implement territorial regulation based on national development goals, and has demanded the withdrawal of a parliamentary bill that would deregulate territorial planning that favors market interests.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Unbeatable Record for Aluminum Recycling

Brazil leads the way in recycling aluminum cans, with recovery reaching 89 percent of the total produced in 2003, surpassing Japan, which is second worldwide with 81.8 percent.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Fungus Threatens Cacao

Cacao production in Guatemala could be devastated if moniliasis reaches the country, farmers warn the government. This plant disease is caused by a fungus that attacks the cacao bean and is already found in Honduras and El Salvador.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: NGOs and Military United Against Disaster

More than 400 soldiers from Latin America and representatives from 10 non-governmental organizations from Europe, Africa and the United States, began training Aug. 23 in disaster prevention, mine clean-up, disarmament in conflict zones, and protection of water sources.

A Plan to Privatize the Amazon?

The Brazilian government is considering giving private parties the right to limited forestry exploitation in the Amazon. The parliamentary debate on the issue promises to be a hot one. It is not a matter of privatization, but rather one of ''consolidating national sovereignty'' over the Brazilian Amazon, the Environment Ministry's head of forests and biodiversity told Tierramérica.

Hesitant Vindication of Transgenic Crops

French scientists point to the benefits of genetically modified crops, but admit that their findings are not conclusive. ''GM crops pose potential benefits in theory, but it has not been definitively proven,'' Maxime Schwartz, head of a transgenics research team, acknowledged in a conversation with Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – COLOMBIA: Progress in Eradicating Coca by Hand

Three thousand families in the northwest Colombian department of Antioquia have benefited from the government's Family Forest Ranger program for eliminating illegal coca bush by hand and protecting the environment. The initiative was developed a year and a half ago.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Monarchs in Danger

Illegal loggers are destroying the sanctuaries of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in Mexico, says Homero Aridjis, head of the environmentalist Group of 100.

Ecobreves – PERU: Growing Controversy Over Pipeline

Even now that the valves are open on the 700-km natural gas pipeline that extends to the Peruvian capital from the Camisea jungles in the south, criticisms of the project continue to heat up.

Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Nuclear Regulation Cutbacks Condemned

The Argentine office of the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace has called on the government to normalize the operations of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority, an independent body created in 1987 to regulate and monitor nuclear power plants and supervise the transport of radioactive materials.

Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Activists Against Mining

Guatemalan environmentalists are demanding that President Oscar Berger call off the processing of 360 applications for licenses to mine for gold, silver and nickel.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Reforesting Gulf of Fonseca Islands

Honduran civil society groups and local authorities last week planted some 15,000 trees in an effort to reforest El Conejo and El Tigre islands in the Gulf of Fonseca, located on the Pacific coast and near the El Salvador border.