Society for Environmental Journalists

Sep 10, 2007

Due to unforeseen computer problems, I was not able to post to the blog during the Society for Environmental Journalists conference last week. But I did save a few random tidbits to share here today.

"I think of farmers in the Midwest as government-employed tractor drivers." -Organic strawberry farmer

"I don't go to meetings anymore where they try to define 'sustainable.'" - Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation

"The food system is the No. 1 point of human impact on the planet. If you change the food system, you leverage all other systems." - Mike Demmock, Roots of Change, which is aiming to create a sustainable food system by 2030.

"(The term) 'Peer-reviewed study' is not used in broadcast." - Jeff Burnside, WTVJ NBC News 6 in Miami

"Global warming of the last 150 years is unequivocal." - Stephen Schneider, Stanford University climatologist

"We (humans) don't make the weather. We intensify it." - Schneider

"Scientists tend toward obsessive-compulsive. Journalists tend toward ADD." - audience comment

"You have to move the (global warming) story forward. Scientists must stick their necks out a little more," Rick Rodriguez, Sacramento Bee editor

"For California's big water projects, decisions were made 70 years ago. It was a different world." - Frank Michny, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of Interior


By Jeannette E. Warnert
Author - Communications Specialist