The Green Glance | Media bear responsibility for guiding sustainability efforts

Nathan Zucker Columnist

In recent years, network news shows and newspapers have been replete with frightening accounts of global warming and dwindling energy reserves. The mainstream media, not famous for investigative reporting, have taken an active stance in disseminating information about some of the grave environmental problems threatening society.

When Hollywood released The Day After Tomorrow, a fictionalized account of an Earth ravaged by warming temperatures, it was clear that even popular media sources had begun to address climate change. However, coverage of global warming and similar crises is superficial; the media may report doomsday scenarios, but they often fail to address the structural problems that cause these conditions.

Genetic engineering is one issue on which the mainstream media have failed to realize their objective of providing accurate journalism to the public. Mainstream coverage has hailed bioengineering as a way of increasing both crop yields and the nutritional content of foods, thus helping the world’s undernourished. This perspective parallels the views of major chemical corporations such as Monsanto, who derive enormous profits from genetically engineered products.

Unfortunately, the media miss both the acute dangers and the long-term structural problems surrounding the issue. There was relatively little media coverage of the StarLink controversy, an unprecedented disaster in September 2000 in which Monsanto’s genetically manipulated corn, which is not designed for human consumption, contaminated the food supply. Though more and more of the food stocking our supermarket shelves is genetically modified, the StarLink episode did not rouse the media to call for a moratorium on such products.

Furthermore, the media have failed to investigate how the move toward genetically engineered crops may actually be depriving third-world farmers of the money they need to survive. As seeds patented for genetic modifications are introduced, they blow onto smaller farmers’ land and mix with unmodified seeds. If farmers use these new seeds inadvertently, they may be sued for copyright infringement by corporations such as Monsanto. This ambiguity in intellectual property law has already hurt many subsistence farmers, and it threatens the traditional growing process. Tragically, the media have ignored this pressing problem.

Even The Miscellany News itself occasionally presents such flawed coverage of environmental issues.

The article “College to renew Aramark’s contract” (4.17.08) focuses on Aramark’s increased commitment to fresher foods and more sustainable processes. The writer emphasizes that the College solicited the opinions of informed students and considered each company’s environmental policies.

Sadly, this is a warped view of the actual events. When Dean of the College Judy Jackson spoke to the Food Committee during fall semester, she implied that financial considerations would override student desires in the contract process. This may explain why the three finalists for the contract were large corporations that achieve economic efficiency through unsustainable economies of scale.

Just like the mainstream media, The Miscellany News failed to address the structural problems preventing a large corporation such as Aramark from achieving sustainability. The article applauded Aramark for its recycling, composting and local foods initiatives. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that industrial foods grown thousands of miles away dominate the offerings at the All Campus Dining Center. The truth is that corporate products such as Dannon yogurt and Tropicana orange juice are the main items on display in the dining hall.

This is indicative of a more serious structural problem with corporations such as Aramark: Big companies that rely on large-scale industrial models to turn profits can never realize true sustainability. There’s no way around the conclusion that a conflict exists between the priorities of Aramark and those of environmentalists.

As the environmental crisis deepens, the responsibility will fall on the media to provide citizens with accurate, investigative journalism that documents these issues and offers solutions. At this point, one can only be pessimistic about the media’s commitment to an in-depth, unbiased examination of such problems. However, the rise of Web sites such as alternet.org, a compendium of progressive news articles and blogs, offers hope for the future. If we are to realize the sustainable society that is the dream of all environmentalists today, the media will have to guide us.

—Nathan Zucker ’10, a Latin American Studies major, is writing about environmental issues that affect both the Vassar community and the world at large.