Salon.com > Erik Marcus

Fighting the wrong war

Wed, 14 Oct 1998 19:00:00 +0000

Last month, 150,000 people converged on the U.S. Capitol demanding greater government funding for cancer research. Vice President Al Gore addressed the gathering, boasting of the administration's drive to increase cancer spending. "This marks high noon for cancer," Gore intoned. "We are determined."

Whenever a politician starts talking about high noon, we'd do well to hold onto our wallets. Such rhetoric is usually followed by the sound of lots of money pouring down a rat hole. The U.S. government now spends $2.4 billion annually on cancer research. The day of the march, President Clinton said he wants to boost cancer research spending by 65 percent over the next five years. During his weekly radio address, Clinton told the nation: "We must never stop searching for the best means of prevention, the most accurate diagnostic tools, the most effective and humane treatments -- and someday soon, a cure."

The emotional appeal is undeniable. We've all lost friends or family to cancer. You can understand the anger of the 150,000 people in Washington, wanting the government to do whatever it takes to overcome the disease. But is pouring billions more dollars into research really our best course of action for preventing cancer deaths?

Where's the beef?

Tue, 20 Jan 1998 20:00:00 +0000

For once we have a high-profile celebrity trial that might actually affect people. The bizarre lawsuit by a group of Texas cattlemen against Oprah Winfrey, scheduled to open in a federal court in Amarillo, Texas, on Tuesday, might seem like a bit of a joke, but it could have a profound impact on food safety. It could inhibit journalists from going after stories about dangerous food and it could put American consumers at increased risk of life-threatening diseases.

Several food-borne diseases, which were unheard of when small family farms produced America's meat and milk, are now quite common. Infections caused by salmonella organisms are surviving powerful antibiotics. A particularly grave threat comes from E. coli 0157, a bacterial strain nearly unknown a decade ago, which can give children horrific and sometimes fatal bouts of bloody diarrhea. Just last summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered the largest ever recall of E. coli-infected meat, involving 25 million pounds of beef produced at the Hudson Foods packing plant. For a few days, Burger Kings across the country had no burgers to sell.

Newsreal: Slaughter of the Innocents

Fri, 09 Jan 1998 20:00:00 +0000

The slaughter is finished. It took a week to complete, but in response to a deadly flu outbreak Hong Kong has managed to kill nearly every one of the 1.3 million chickens raised within its borders.

Reports of the slaughter came on the television news. I saw footage of a chicken being yanked from her tiny cage, then thrust into a garbage bag to suffocate, smothered between white plastic and the weight of other dying chickens.

As a vegan -- somebody who avoids all meat, dairy products and eggs -- it's been hard for me to watch such images. Just as it hard to contemplate the human killings in Rwanda or the Persian Gulf War, so it is hard to imagine the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent animals.

I'm not equating chickens with people. Chickens can't learn calculus, write plays or compose music. But they tremble with fear as they go to their death. And, like people, they show great motivation in avoiding pain. Now, 3 million pounds of them lies rotting in Hong Kong landfills, the victims of a horrific and senseless slaughter.

In terms of numbers, though, Hong Kong's emergency action doesn't compare to what the U.S. egg industry does on a daily basis: It kills more than half a million male chicks almost as soon as they poke their way through their shell.