This week:

• Green Life reporter Peter Stock speaks with Mairon Giovani Bastos Lima, whose home town is a mid-sized city in Brazil. On arriving in Canada to do graduate studies, Mairon was surprised by how different our food culture is. In Brazil, he says, street vendors are everywhere, selling both fresh fruit and vegetables and prepared snack food. Mairon discussed food differences between Brazil and Canada with Peter, noting that food in Brazil is so local, it’s transported in a wheelbarrow, and that differences exist in the scale of as well as big versus small-scale agriculture.
• Nicola Ross, the executive editor of Alternatives Journal, speaks with host Jordan Poppenk about the economy, a loss of public interest in environmental issues, and parallels between this trend and a similar loss of environmental public interest in the 1990’s.

The headlines in brief:

• Bisphenol A, a chemical used in baby formula and food containers, has been added to the federal government’s toxic substances list;
• Ontario environment commissioner Gord Miller released his annual report, citing air quality measurement problems and a crisis in biodiversity loss;
• Ontario’s legislature has agreed to a private members bill requiring potential home buyers to be provided with full energy ratings for properties;
• Upgraders at two of the most expensive energy projects ever proposed in Canada now face delays because of the financial crisis;
• Prime minister Stephen Harper pledged $100 million to help poor countries cope with climate change;
• Another bombing has struck and ruptured an EnCana sour gas pipeline in BC;
• American chemical company Dow AgroSciences is seeking compensation over Quebec’s ban on cosmetic pesticide use under NAFTA;
• Former BC premiers are calling for an end to the provinces moratorium on offshore drilling to prop up its economy;
  Wal-Mart has announces that it will require its supplying manufacturers to follow stricter ethical and environmental standards.
• A world shortage of pollinating insects was found not to be affecting agricultural productivity currently but is predicted to be of growing concern in years to come.

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