Air Date: Week of June 21, 2002

This week we dip into the Living on Earth mailbag to hear what listeners have to say.

Transcript

TOOMEY: It’s Living on Earth. I’m Diane Toomey. And coming up, plutonium, the hot potato being tossed between Colorado and South Carolina. But first--

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TOOMEY: -- time for comments from our listeners. Our interview on the possible link between starchy foods and nearsightedness brought tears to the eyes of KTOO listener Bob Briggs in Juneau, Alaska.

"Your piece provided valuable information for me to take home. About the only thing we can seem to get our children to eat is sugary cereal with magical bits of marshmallow. I am sure that my four year old son will now see the light of reason when I explain the high glycemic index of processed cereals is why all the frosted sugar bombs have got to go."

Our story about large-scale dairies migrating from California to Idaho got WAMU listener, Dale Barnhard, wondering. "Family farm production is certainly less resource-intensive than concentrated animal feeding operations," he writes. "However, whether we could actually sustain the needed dairy capacity in this country, at an affordable price, using traditional family farms, is most likely a pastoral fantasy. There is one way to allow the market to decide this. That’s a labeling policy that allows the consumer to make a choice. I suspect that there is room for both types of production in our vast country."

And finally, it turns out people aren’t the only ones who tune into our EarthEar soundscapes, at least according to WUGA listener, Gene Helfman, from Wolfskin, Georgia. "I was delighted to hear the closing segment of bird songs from the Okefenokee," writes Mr. Helfman. "But what puzzled me was that your introduction failed to mention the distinctive roller coaster trill of a wood thrush, which was an obvious part of the chorus. Or so I thought, until I turned my radio off and the bird continued singing. It was our own wood thrush, another articulate voice for unfragmented woodlands. The bird must have heard your tape, and felt the need to respond."

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We’ll respond to your comments. Call our Listener Line anytime. The number is 800-218-9988. That’s 800-218-9988. Or write us at 8 Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. Our email address is letters@loe.org. Once again, letters@loe.org. And visit our web page at www.loe.org. That’s www.loe.org.

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