"fine" news and stories

That's right, in case you hadn't heard, the macadamia nut giant, Mauna Loa, was in trouble with the EPA. It seems that the EPA had told Mauna Loa in 2004 that it needed to clean up three cesspools on its property by April of the next year. But guess what was still there when the EPA inspected in 2005? Yep, the cesspools were still in use.

Everything is all well, now. Mauna Loa has cleaned up, instituted a new wastewater system, and agreed to pay a $75,000 fine to the EPA. Wouldn't it have just been cheaper to do that in the first place?

[Via kitv.com]

Italy has some of the toughest animal protection laws in the world. Turin, the site of this year's winter Olympic games, actually has a law that imposes a fine if you fail to walk your dog three times a day. Given this, it's not all that surprising to hear that they are regarding lobsters with the same feelings most reserve for cats and dogs.

A restaurant in Vicenza, Italy, was fined $855 for attempting to subject a lobster to a prolonged death, though the restaurant owners had no direct intention of killing the creature. They were displaying the live lobster on ice as a promotion for their seafood business. The case was first brought to the Italian courts in 2002 when a former environmental activist took his two small children to the restaurant, where they were "shocked by the display."

Lobsters can live out of water for at least 24 hours and up to several days. They have a specialized gill that allows them to utilize oxygen from the air and, as the restaurant would have returned the lobster to its tank at the end of the day, the lobster would most likely have been unharmed by the ordeal.

 

Source

In just 90 days, restaurants and retailers in Chicago will face $500 fines for selling or serving foie gras, according to the New York Times. The fines are the result of a ban approved 48 to one yesterday by the Chicago City Council. While California has long term plans that would ban the rich goose and duck livers several years from now, the Chicago ban makes the Windy City the first in the nation to put the kybosh on them. Many are opposed to foie gras because of the intensive force feeding of geese and ducks that its production often requires. While local chefs like Charlie Trotter have already stopped serving foie gras, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times, saying: "We have real issues here in this city ... Let's get some priorities."

Slashfood's Nicole Weston also posted about the ban when it was proposed last winter.