Here's where we're gathering current events and news relating to AFA, blue green algae. If you would like to contribute a link here, or point us to a news group, please do so.

There is a lot of talk about the so-called "Toxic Algae" from Klamath Lake. See the recent contributions from Dr. William T. Barry on this topic.

The Vegetarian Times has been, and is still takes every opportunity to slam the algae industry without scientific foundation. Ever since their staff writer, Amy O'Conner started a vendetta like attack on the industry in 1995, they have been consistently negative regarding blue green algae. Their latest work is focused on the microcystis scare - a scare which the Vegetarian Times is principally responsible for promoting!

This piece does not have a listed author. The Times warning is based on a report from the Oregon Department of Human Resources. This report speaks only about the microcystis algae from the lake. Even though the researchers think the microcystis algae in the lake is dangerous, they are at a loss to explain why the thousands of livestock and pets drinking the lake water haven't gotten sick or died in the past 100 years that they have known that this algae sometimes appears on Klamath Lake!

The microcystis issue was instigated by a small number of scientists who generated a wide-scale scare regarding the occasional presence of the microcystis algae in Upper Klamath Lake. The Oregon Department of Agriculture quickly picked up on the situation and issued a warning for persons to avoid contact with the lake water, and to prevent their animals from drinking the water. The warning was dropped a few weeks after the microcystis bloom dissipated. Note there are still no reported sicknesses or animal deaths resulting from ingestion of the water.

The researchers did not test or make comments about the AFA that is being distributed as food from the lake! Yet the Vetetarian Times takes this report and implies that the AFA from Klamath Lake is dangerous!

This is an example of "yellow journalism". It takes a scientific report and draws conclusions that are not supported by the report. And in the long run, we algae eaters will pay for their folly.