The Brazilian government inaugurated a factory yesterday that will use the rubber collected by hundreds of small time Brazilian “rubber tappers” to make, well, rubbers. [SIDE NOTE: I propose that anyone who uses condoms as his/her primary form of birth control should be called a "rubber tapper."] The factory has the capacity to produce 100 million condoms a year, and by giving these rubber tappers a livelihood, the government is hoping the trees in the Chico Mendes forest reserve will be protected. [AHN]
