Vermont: Takin' It To Town (3/19/2002) Once again, Vermont's local town meetings have taken an
ethical stand on issues of compelling national and international significance.
Vermont's annual town meetings, held every year on the first Tuesday in March, are
among the oldest surviving institutions of direct democracy in the United States.
Dating to well before the American Revolution, these annual face-to-face gatherings
are the setting where residents of over 200 Vermont towns debate their annual
budgets, planning and zoning issues, grants to social service agencies, and all
major purchases.
Mexico's ancient corn threatened by fake species (3/7/2002) calpulapan, oaxaca -- as indianfarmers in the remote Sierra del Norte of
Oaxaca prepare the earth for the spring corn planting, they regard
the seasonal mountain breezes with palpable suspicion. "Everyone
is talking about the "transgenicos' (genetically modified corn) this
year. Some say it travels on the wind and will poison the milpas,"
worries Rogelio Morales, a Zapotec Indian farmer and official of the
Union of Organizations of the Sierra de Juarez, which represents
farmers' groups in the Guelatao region.
GM rumors, Monsanto application sink Chinese soy (3/4/2002) BEIJING, March 1 (OsterDowJones) - Dalian soybean futures tumbled to trade down the daily trading
limit Friday. Selling was ignited by unconfirmed reports that the Chinese government intends to
shorten the original 270-day period allowed for the approval of biotechnology certification to one
month, local trade sources in Beijing said Friday.