Talking about...Downer Cows, Ethanol, Farm bill, Korea, Agriprocessors

"The current regulation allowing downer cattle into the human food supply is confusing to consumers and our trading partners, expensive to administer and unnecessarily risky from a public health standpoint."
(Source: Los Angeles Times/Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2008)
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) urging USDA Secretary Ed Schafer to close the downer cow loophole.
PS: Also pressured by the likes of AMI CEO J. Patrick Boyle and other industry heavyweights, Schafer agreed to the ban.

"If you sell one product and the only reason there's a market for it is because the government makes a law requiring consumption -- if that law goes away, obviously you're in trouble."
(Source: Business Week, May 21, 2008)
Ann Gilpin, Morningstar analyst who follows Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland, the country's second-largest ethanol producer, talking about the difficulties that industry is suddenly facing.
PS: Ethanol was a popular product in Washington until politicos began feeling some voter heat.
PPS: Ain’t it cool watching a self-righteous politician trying to change horses in mid-stream?

"How can those who are responsible for preparing religiously fit meat not conduct themselves in a religiously proper manner? It's an embarrassment to the Jewish community -- how can this be seen as Jewishly fit?"
(Source: Washington Post, May, 22, 2008)
Henry Karp, a Reform rabbi in Davenport, Iowa, talking about the recent ICE raid at Agriprocessors, Inc and the troubled history of the company.
>PS: If the Rubashkin family can’t overcome this problem and are forced to close Agriprocessors, it will be a huge loss to those in North America’s Jewish community who keep a Kosher table.

“The government is not bashful about the fact that they are trying to send a message…that if you get caught working illegally here you will pay a criminal penalty.”
(Source: New York Times, May 24, 2008)
Christopher Clausen, a lawyer representing 21 Guatemalans seized in the Agriprocessors raid, talking about the new facts of immigrant life in America.
PS: First offense – five months in jail followed by immediate deportation.
PPS: Now that we have disposed of the employees in record time, can we go after the management team that did the hiring?

"If the government wants to send a message, it ought to pay more attention to prosecuting abusive employers who hire undocumented immigrants and mistreat them by withholding pay or doling out verbal and physical abuse. So far, no officials at Agriprocessors have been charged."
(Source:Boston Globe, May 25, 2008)
Unsigned editorial talking about the Agriprocessors raid and suggesting a much more sensible solution to the problem.
PS: It’s been going on for years – corporations, knowingly and with malice aforethought, do this kind of underground hiring because they’re confident they won’t have to pay the same price as the illegals if the feds come knocking.
PPS: Take the profits out of it and assign some direct, Folsom prison style punishment to execs at the highest level and it will stop. Immediately.

POINT:
“Then farmers got a look at the bill's formula for determining benefits under ACRE. It pegs the subsidies to current, record-high prices for grain, meaning farmers would get paid if prices fall back to their historical and, for farmers, perfectly profitable norms. A program that started out as a streamlined insurance policy against extraordinary hardship has mutated into a possible guarantee of extraordinary prosperity.”
Unsigned editorial comment, by an inside-the-beltway writer annoyed that the current farm bill might deliver an unconscionable windfall to farmers.
COUNTERPOINT:
"The program does not look excessively expensive for the lifetime of the farm bill."
Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-VA), ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, quoted in the same unsigned editorial.
(Source: Washington Post, May 22, 2008)
PS: Are you giving or receiving the money? It all depends on which end of the pipeline you’re standing.
PPS: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Senator Everett McKInley Dirksen.

“I admit the government’s efforts to listen to and understand the public were insufficient and also humbly accept criticisms that my administration did not fully address public concerns about mad cow disease. I deeply apologize to the people.”
(Source: dongA.com, May 23, 2008)
Lee Myung-bak, Korean President, apologizing to the Korean people for the controversy over resuming U.S. beef imports.
PS: Now what about the deal we had?