ICEBERG CUBES

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ALASKA'S DEPARTMENT OF NAT ural Resources is issuing permits allowing businesses to harvest icebergs as a cash crop. Tim Dimond, of Juneau, Alaska, pulls bergs from the sea with a crane mounted on a barge, then breaks the ice into chunks and ships it by freezer van to the AK-Pacific Company in Seattle, Washington. AK-Pacific, in turn, packages the ice in sacks and markets it in Japan as gourmet ice cubes. Glacial ice has become a hot item in the Land of the Rising Sun, not only because of its novelty but because of its staying power: Iceberg ice takes twice as long to melt as "ordinary" ice. A spokesman for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council calls the iceberg harvesting "a new, incompatible, conflicting use of areas set aside for their natural features, their solitude, their pristine nature."

Big Birds on the Range

Texas's and Oklahoma's cattle and oil industries have had better times, but at least one new enterprise in those states is booming: ostrich ranching. There are now some 1,000 ostrich ranches in the two states, according to Tom Mantzel, director of the American Ostrich Association. The birds are raised primarily for their skin and feathers, but the real future of the industry, says Mantzel, is in the birds' meat, which tastes like veal and is low in cholesterol. The sudden proliferation of American ostrich ranches is due in large part to the 1986 Anti-Apartheid Act, which banned the import of South African ostriches. Arid western rangeland is ideal for the birds, which require less land than cattle and produce more offspring.

Feelin' Fine in '89

Tips on home canning, companion planting, selecting produce, substituting healthful recipe ingredients for the not-so-healthful, and lots more—they're all in "Horizons for Health '89," a whimsically illustrated calendar from the American Institute for Cancer Research. Single copies are free, though donations to help further the institute's work are invited. To request a copy, write to AICR, Dept. CM89, Washington, DC 20069.

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