Talking about...Immigration reform, Ethanol, Horse slaughter, Food safety

“From a legislative point, both on the state and national level, we have to put forth practical and pragmatic approaches in dealing with this issue (immigration). To do nothing, especially in the agricultural area, that needs a lot of seasonal workers, is going to create a great deal of harm to this industry. In some cases, because of the shortage of seasonal workers for perishable fruits and vegetable crops, U.S. growers are now buying land in Mexico to raise crops once grown in the U.S. but now imported from aboard. If you clamp down, saying this way or no way and more and more of our food is being produced in a foreign country, I don't think that is what Americans want, either.”
(Source: The Grand Island Independent, January 8, 2008)
Rob Robertson, Nebraska Farm Bureau, worrying about the effects of the proposed immigration bill on that state’s agriculture and food businesses.
>PS: Cheap labor=cheap food. Can’t have one without the other.

"If it wasn't for government subsidies, that (ethanol) industry wouldn't work. It's been strongly driven by a political agenda."
(Source: The London [ON] Free Press, January 11, 2008)
Ron Bennett, Ontario feedlot operator, says he's losing at least $300 on each steer sold, with much of the pain coming from near-record corn prices.
>PS: Grass is looking ‘greener’ all the time.

POINT:
“It’s a step closer to the long-term goal of banning slaughter in North America.”(Source: New York Times, January 11, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, expressing delight at the 'death' of the horse slaughter industry in the U.S.
>PS: And highlighting his real long-term agenda.
COUNTERPOINT:
“My worst nightmare has happened. This is an example of well-intentioned but very bad unintended consequences.”
(Source: New York Times, January 11, 2008)
Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University. responding to the same issue in the same story.
> PS: Temple’s concern was based on reports that workers in some Mexican plants disable horses by stabbing them with knives to sever their spinal cords.

“Now we have this whole new question mark about leafy produce and the whole ecological question out there as we grow our leafy greens in the same area where more and more intensively we are producing milk. Wisconsin used to be the biggest dairy state, and California was where we grew produce. Now California is both. And there's also wine production in California, so you have vineyards and cattle and lettuce patches competing for the same land and water. Agriculture is really sort of bumping into each other."
(Source: U.S> News & World Report, January 14, 2008)
Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of foodborne bacterial and mycotic diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pointing to the problem of over-crowded agriculture and the downturn in food safety.
>PS: And then there is the problem caused by vegans eating a ‘healthier’ raw foods diet consisting of veggies grown on the ground – in the dirt. We cook foods for a reason, folks.

“Inflation in the energy field is really doing more to push food prices higher”
(Source: Mason City, IA Globe Gazette, January 13, 2008)
Ron Litterer, Greene area farmer and National Corn Growers Association president isn’t “buying” the corn is driving inflation talk.
>PS: Ron, can we talk about the price of corn doubling to help feed an ethanol industry encouraged by a 51 cent/gallon government production subsidy? Ethanol is an energy source, Ron.