“We have suspended operations at 65 slaughter plants. Twelve of those suspensions were for egregious humane animal handling violations. While it’s not a huge number, it is a number that is troublesome.”
(Source: porkalert eMagazine, February 18, 2008)
Kenneth Petersen, USDA assistant administrator, Office of Field Operations, signaling heightened enforcement of humane handling standards at the Animal Handling Conference.
>PS: He said most of the 12 suspensions for animal handling violations were small or very small plants.
"I don’t see any way we could reopen. If the USDA wants payment back, we're dead meat. We're done. There's no way we could pay it all back."
(Source: Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2008)
Anthony Magidow, Hallmark General Manager, in a late Friday telephone interview from the meatpacker's plant in Chino, CA.
>PS: And with the closing of their doors, let’s hope that it also brings any hint of animal abuse in this industry to an absolute end. It’s a door that must be permanently closed.
"Sitting here today, I cannot tell you how many locations the product has gone to. Our focus is identifying the locations and making sure the product is under control."
(Source: Washington Post, February 22, 2008)
Kenneth Peterson of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service talking about efforts to trace the missing 15 million pounds of recalled beef still in the school lunch program.
>PS: The meat poses ‘little or no hazard’ say the feds? Most parents are going to focus on the ‘little’ part of that statement. Doesn’t that mean there is some risk?
>PPS: After all, what’s the risk of the equivalent of 60 million untraceable quarter pounders floating around out there?
>PPPS: By the numbers:
(1). 50 million pounds went to school foodservice
(2). 20 million pounds already consumed
(3). 15 million pounds on hold at storage facilities
(4). 15 million pounds still missing
>PPPPS: And I know the recalled meat isn’t a food safety issue. It’s more important. It’s a consumer confidence issue.
"Consumers are losing confidence in USDA's ability to ensure the meat they eat is safe."
Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sounding the alarm.
>PS: Maybe she saw the Associated Press survey that showed slightly more than half of the respondents no longer believed their food was safe?
>PPS: An ever rising percentage of Americans no longer believe that old saw, “Our food supply is the safest in the world.” They no longer agree that it’s “among the safest in the world.” So can we stop regurgitating the phrase until we can once again prove it?
The Associated Press finds that the government hasn't stepped up inspections since last year's E. coli scare. In light of the news, do you feel your food is safe?
Yes.........26%
No..........51%
Not sure....23%
Hallmark/Westland: Largest Recall Ever
Meat Consumption Projected to Decline through 2017
(Source: porkalert eMagazine, February 18, 2008)
Awkwardly successive headlines
>PS: E. coli last year, animal welfare this year. Let’s hope against hope that this unintentional headline juxtaposition doesn’t describe a ‘cause and effect.’
"How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?"
(Source: Washington Post, February 18, 2008)
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, calling on the USDA to get tough with its inspection requirements.
>PS: The USDA issued 20 meat recalls last year, including one of more than 20 million pounds, and slammed Hallmark with the record-setting 143 million pound recall.
“This recall is not an isolated case – it is yet another troubling reminder that our food supply is at risk. Each year, tens of millions of Americans contract food-borne illnesses every year; hundreds of thousands are hospitalized; and thousands die. And the risks are only growing.”
(Source: PRNewsChannel, February 19, 2008)
Hillary Clinton (D-NY) becoming the first presidential candidate to weigh in on the recall.
>PS: It’s an election year. They’ll all hazard an opinion.
"A recall of this staggering scale shows it's bad for animals, bad for consumers and bad for business to have slipshod enforcement and porous laws when it comes to handling animals at slaughter plants."
(Source: The Independent, London, U.K., February 19, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, HSUS C.E.O., applauding the recall, saying it sent an unmistakable message to other meat processing companies.
>PS: Loud and painfully clear to every bad actor in the business.
>PPS: The writer put the 143 million pound recall in perspective by noting that it was enough meat to feed two hamburgers to every man, woman and child in the U.S.
"Our food safety system should not have to depend on a non-government organization to unearth violations of the law.”
(Source: CNN.com, February 22, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, HSUS CEO, reacting to Ag Secretary Ed Schafer’s charge that the Humane Society shoulders part of the blame for the abuse at Hallmark.
>PS: I agree. And we shouldn’t have to rely on any organization – government orr non-government – to fritter away valuable time while figuring out what to do with obviously incriminating evidence.
>PPS: Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the tape taken in October and held back throughout the months of November and December before they released it to the S.L.O. D.A.?
>PPS: One annoyed side-line commentator told me that if the HSUS was going to throw this load of well-aged meadow muffins at the USDA, they needed to look at their own hands afterwards. Maybe a little of it got on ‘em?
"The failure of the inspection program to stop the company's egregious behavior is just another sign of how USDA's thousands of meat inspectors are locked into a rigid, antiquated form of inspection that is not filling the bill on either food safety or animal welfare."
(Source: Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2008)
Mike Taylor, former Agriculture Department food-safety official, now a research professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health.
>PS: Sensible observers have been saying it for years. Our inspection system needs a significant overhaul to work in an increasingly complex 21st century. How big of a failure do we need to make the point obvious to even the densest of politicians?
“It was so blatant, so commonplace. It was so in your face. They were pushing animals we felt never should have qualified for human consumption.”
(Source: Kansas City Star, February 19, 2008)
Deep undercover HSUS informant and vegan, interviewed by L.A. Times reporters from an undisclosed location, talking about his experiences as an employee at Hallmark.
>PS: USDA officials have stated there is no evidence that the animals entered the food chain.
>PPS: It’s time to wake up and smell the cattle feces, guys. Those workers were NOT noble men wearing white hats.
"The USDA is very adamant in saying there are inspectors continuously at the facility, and that's absolutely correct. But that can mean a whole range of things, and it doesn't necessarily mean there is anyone watching the slaughter."(Source: Sacramento Bee, February 21, 2008)
Deep Undercover HSUS Informant who infiltrated the Hallmark plant and took the video, talking about his experiences.
>PS: USDA records show that federal inspectors spent an average of 90 minutes a day at the plant on routine checks to ensure animals were handled humanely.
“This recall raises a whole host of issues, and the disclosure of retail outlets involved is certainly one of them. It’s another unfortunate episode of all talk and no action, and certainly something we will discuss with [the Food Safety and Inspection Service] at our hearing next week.”
(Source: CQ Politics, February 20, 2008)
Herb Kohl (D-WI).Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman, who has scheduled a food safety hearing for Feb. 28.
>PS: Consumers Union joined other interest groups in urging Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer for an immediate change in policy that would identify specific retail outlets where recalled meat and poultry products were sold.
"Food safety ought to be of a high enough priority in this nation that we have a single agency that deals with it and not an agency that is responsible for promoting a product, selling a product and then as an afterthought dealing with how our food supply is safe."
(Source: International Herald Tribune, February 20, 2008)
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) chair of the House subcommittee responsible for the USDA's funding, speaking at a press conference about the Hallmark recall.
“Senator Richard Durbin and Representative Rosa DeLauro have a more ambitious idea: creating a single, powerful agency to oversee all food safety, instead of the current bureaucratic tangle of inspectors, some for vegetables, some for beef and some for imports. Right now the Agriculture Department oversees the safety of the home-grown beef supply (while also promoting the cattle industry) and the Food and Drug Administration monitors the safety of cattle feed. With Americans increasingly — and legitimately — mistrustful of the food they eat, their proposal is worth serious consideration.”
(Source: New York Times, February 21, 2008)
Unsigned editorial urging a complete overhaul of the U.S food inspection system.
And NYT readers responded with these statements
“Of course, the guilty (of animal abuse) should be severely punished--not surprisingly, many are undocumented workers who do as they're told for fear of being fired and/or deported. It's the owners/managers/corporations responsible who should serve the most jail time.” (Eric Mills, California)
“The editorial is well meaning. But before enacting more controls, a complete investigation should be conducted and a careful and thoughtful analysis of corrective actions be made. After all our food safety is still very good.” (TEK, NY)
“If the US Department of Agriculture wants to help US agriculture, then it has to do everything in its power to insure that the nation's home produced food supply is safe. All it takes is several necessary large scale recalls like this one before one or more of our key trading partners and WTO members decide that the US food supply is under inspected, under regulated and under protected and simply ban US agricultural products from their borders.” (Blacklight, New York City)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Talking about…Farm bill, Cloning, Cattle futures, Biofuels, Animal abuse, Fried chicken
“We continue to express our concerns to the U.S. Congress. Specifically, the government is concerned with the level of support provided to certain industries. We question some of the programs that tend to mask market signals and create incentives to overproduce.”
(Source: Country-Guide Canada, February 4, 2008)
Stephen Lavergne, director of U.S. trade advocacy for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, talking about the U.S. farm bill and the possibility that it might invite W.T.O. sanctions in its current form.
>PS: If we want to compete in the international marketplace, we might have to follow international rules and regs.
"I'm confident we can come together and get a good farm bill. But if Congress sends me legislation that raises taxes or (does) not make needed reforms, I'm going to veto it."
(Source: Reuters, February 6, 2008)
George W. Bush telling government employees in an appearance at the U.S. Agriculture Department that there is little room for compromise.
>PS: Bush was speaking at a ceremony marking the arrival of new Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer. Schafer, former governor of North Dakota, now has a tough row to hoe – getting the Mike Johanns abandoned farm bill passed.
“We'll find a better way of resolving it if we have the support of the new Secretary of Agriculture, that he's able to make the commitment that his predecessor didn't make and that is to see that the job gets done."
(Source: Brownfield Network, February 6, 2008)
Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) suggesting that maybe Mike Johanns is guilty of an old political ploy called ‘duck and cover.’
PS: When asked to clarify, Nelson said "If the shoe fits, people have to wear it." Mr. Johanns, what’s your shoe size?
“Not a lot of ranchers are huge Star Trek fans. It’s an interesting, philosophical discussion.”
(Source: Flathead, MT. Beacon, February 6, 2008)
Jeremy Seidlitz, executive director of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association, talking about cloned cattle.
>PS: Computer, a cheeseburger, please.
"We have about 20 percent excess packing capacity. We are likely to continue to see some further closures of capacity in North America. I think you will see more (closures) this year."
(Source: Reuters, February 6, 2008)
Randy Blach, executive vice president of Cattle-Fax, talking with a reporter about the recent Tyson plant closure at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association annual convention in Reno, Nevada.
>PS: If you’re in the cattle business, all the rules are changing…all the time.
“While it is important to analyze the climate change consequences of differing energy strategies, we must all remember where we are today, how world demand for liquid fuels is growing, and what the realistic alternatives are to meet those growing demands. Biofuels like ethanol are the only tool readily available that can begin to address the challenges of energy security and environmental protection.”
(Source: New York Times, February 8, 2008)
Bob Dineen, Renewable Fuels Association director responding to two scientific studies that claim renewable fuels are an ecological disaster. “Simplistic,” he said and it failed “to put the issue into context.”
>PS: Joseph Fargione, lead author of the one of the studies and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy, summed up his findings by saying, “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”
"The land we're likely to plow up is the land that we've had taking up carbon for decades. We can't get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits."
(Source: Washington Post, February 8, 2008)
Tim Searchinger, who conducted the other study at Princeton said the research he and his colleagues did is the first to reveal the hidden environmental cost of producing biofuels.
>PS: Hey, Bobby, should we ignore the elephant in the room because we need the fertilizer it generates today?
"It is unfortunate that one instance can give the industry, not just the dairy industry, but give the cattle industry as a whole a black eye. It's just an action that we certainly condemn. We are very concerned about how our animals are treated while they are in our care and would like to see that carried on as they go through the production chain, including the harvest facility."(Source: Capital Press, February 8, 2008)
Bill Moore, president of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, making a statement about the Hallmark incident that everyone in the industry can/should support.
Point:
"The Humane Society, since late October, has been willing to let animals suffer out there, rather than notify USDA immediately of the abuses.”
(Source: Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2008)
Ed Schafer, USDA Secretary, chastising the Humane Society of the U.S. for sitting on the video for months.
Counterpoint:
"It's USDA's responsibility to prevent this abuse. USDA personnel were on site and they are the ones who are paid with American tax dollars to prevent this appalling cruelty."
(Source: Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president and CEO calling Schafer's statement, “an astonishing and outrageous comment.”
>PS: The award for the most ‘astonishing and outrageous’ inaction goes to the HSUS for not blowing the whistle immediately. No excuses.
"If the state legislature moves forward with this one, then they should change Kentucky's state bird from the cardinal to the debeaked, crippled, scalded, diseased, dead chicken.”
(Source: Lexington, KY Herald-Leader, February 8, 2008)
Bruce Friedrich, PETA vice president, playing the drama queen card in a comment about a Kentucky bill that wants to name fried chicken the state’s official picnic food.
>PS: Brucie continues his long history of over-the-top, chewing-the-scenery histrionics, worthy of a third-rate Shakespearian actor.
(Source: Country-Guide Canada, February 4, 2008)
Stephen Lavergne, director of U.S. trade advocacy for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, talking about the U.S. farm bill and the possibility that it might invite W.T.O. sanctions in its current form.
>PS: If we want to compete in the international marketplace, we might have to follow international rules and regs.
"I'm confident we can come together and get a good farm bill. But if Congress sends me legislation that raises taxes or (does) not make needed reforms, I'm going to veto it."
(Source: Reuters, February 6, 2008)
George W. Bush telling government employees in an appearance at the U.S. Agriculture Department that there is little room for compromise.
>PS: Bush was speaking at a ceremony marking the arrival of new Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer. Schafer, former governor of North Dakota, now has a tough row to hoe – getting the Mike Johanns abandoned farm bill passed.
“We'll find a better way of resolving it if we have the support of the new Secretary of Agriculture, that he's able to make the commitment that his predecessor didn't make and that is to see that the job gets done."
(Source: Brownfield Network, February 6, 2008)
Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) suggesting that maybe Mike Johanns is guilty of an old political ploy called ‘duck and cover.’
PS: When asked to clarify, Nelson said "If the shoe fits, people have to wear it." Mr. Johanns, what’s your shoe size?
“Not a lot of ranchers are huge Star Trek fans. It’s an interesting, philosophical discussion.”
(Source: Flathead, MT. Beacon, February 6, 2008)
Jeremy Seidlitz, executive director of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association, talking about cloned cattle.
>PS: Computer, a cheeseburger, please.
"We have about 20 percent excess packing capacity. We are likely to continue to see some further closures of capacity in North America. I think you will see more (closures) this year."
(Source: Reuters, February 6, 2008)
Randy Blach, executive vice president of Cattle-Fax, talking with a reporter about the recent Tyson plant closure at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association annual convention in Reno, Nevada.
>PS: If you’re in the cattle business, all the rules are changing…all the time.
“While it is important to analyze the climate change consequences of differing energy strategies, we must all remember where we are today, how world demand for liquid fuels is growing, and what the realistic alternatives are to meet those growing demands. Biofuels like ethanol are the only tool readily available that can begin to address the challenges of energy security and environmental protection.”
(Source: New York Times, February 8, 2008)
Bob Dineen, Renewable Fuels Association director responding to two scientific studies that claim renewable fuels are an ecological disaster. “Simplistic,” he said and it failed “to put the issue into context.”
>PS: Joseph Fargione, lead author of the one of the studies and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy, summed up his findings by saying, “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”
"The land we're likely to plow up is the land that we've had taking up carbon for decades. We can't get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits."
(Source: Washington Post, February 8, 2008)
Tim Searchinger, who conducted the other study at Princeton said the research he and his colleagues did is the first to reveal the hidden environmental cost of producing biofuels.
>PS: Hey, Bobby, should we ignore the elephant in the room because we need the fertilizer it generates today?
"It is unfortunate that one instance can give the industry, not just the dairy industry, but give the cattle industry as a whole a black eye. It's just an action that we certainly condemn. We are very concerned about how our animals are treated while they are in our care and would like to see that carried on as they go through the production chain, including the harvest facility."(Source: Capital Press, February 8, 2008)
Bill Moore, president of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, making a statement about the Hallmark incident that everyone in the industry can/should support.
Point:
"The Humane Society, since late October, has been willing to let animals suffer out there, rather than notify USDA immediately of the abuses.”
(Source: Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2008)
Ed Schafer, USDA Secretary, chastising the Humane Society of the U.S. for sitting on the video for months.
Counterpoint:
"It's USDA's responsibility to prevent this abuse. USDA personnel were on site and they are the ones who are paid with American tax dollars to prevent this appalling cruelty."
(Source: Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president and CEO calling Schafer's statement, “an astonishing and outrageous comment.”
>PS: The award for the most ‘astonishing and outrageous’ inaction goes to the HSUS for not blowing the whistle immediately. No excuses.
"If the state legislature moves forward with this one, then they should change Kentucky's state bird from the cardinal to the debeaked, crippled, scalded, diseased, dead chicken.”
(Source: Lexington, KY Herald-Leader, February 8, 2008)
Bruce Friedrich, PETA vice president, playing the drama queen card in a comment about a Kentucky bill that wants to name fried chicken the state’s official picnic food.
>PS: Brucie continues his long history of over-the-top, chewing-the-scenery histrionics, worthy of a third-rate Shakespearian actor.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Talking about…Hallmark’s Animal abuse, Ethanol, Food-borne illness
"This must serve as a five-alarm call to action for Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our government simply must act quickly both to guarantee the most basic level of humane treatment for farm animals and to protect America's most vulnerable people -- our children, needy families and the elderly -- from the potentially dangerous food."
(Source: CNN.com, January)
Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States president, belatedly raising the alarm over alleged animal abuse.
>PS: Wayne, you waited patiently for two months to raise a general alarm? I expect the feds will react with greater speed. The USDA, in its news release, rightly said it was "unfortunate" the Humane Society "did not present this information to us when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007."
>PPS: Let me issue an open invitation to everyone at Hallmark and Westland - the alleged perps and their partners-in-crime company - to attend the Animal Care and Handling Conference in Kansas City, February 14-15. Maybe you can claim the time as Community Service. Click here for more information. Please come well-disguised. Temple Grandin will be there and she won’t be happy.
"These were not rogue employees secretly doing these things. This is the pen manager and his assistant doing this right in the open." (Source: Washington Post, January 30, 2008)
Anonymous HSUS investigator talking in a telephone interview about the videotape of extreme animal abuse allegedly taken at Hallmark Meat Packing.
>PS: The videotape was taken in October and just released by the investigator and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society. Doesn’t sitting on something this long make them accomplices in the abuse?
>PPS: Here is the rogue’s gallery of sinners in this deal –
(1) The folks at Hallmark who are hands-on guilty of abuse and the rest of management and employees at Hallmark and Westland who were complicit in the abuse.
(2) The San Bernardino county district attorney who received the tape in December and asked the Humane Society not to go public until they ‘had time to assess the information’ and then sat on it for much too long.
(3) The normally media-happy folks at HSUS who claimed they waited – two unforgivably long months - until they thought no action was forthcoming from the D.A.’s office before going public.
“We are shocked, saddened and sickened by what we have seen today. Operations have been immediately suspended until we can meet with all of our employees and be assured these sorts of activities never again happen at our facility.”
(Source: Burbank Leader, February 1, 2008)
Steve Mandell, president and chief executive of Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing, claiming he was astonishingly clueless.
>PS: What’s that old saying? Ignorance of the law is no excuse?
"By lifting the ethanol tariff, we'd end up subsidizing Brazilian ethanol. I can't figure out why Secretary Bodman would want the United States to risk becoming dependent on Brazilian ethanol when we're already dependent on Middle East oil.”
(Source: Meatingplace, January 31, 2008)
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), responding to a statement made by Energy secretary Sam Bodman that the Bush administration "will start to deal with that question" of whether the tariff should be renewed or allowed to expire at the end of this year, according to Reuters.
>PS: Bodman said, "I believe that, the best I can tell, this industry is pretty close to being able to stand on its own"
>PPS: In addition to the import tariff, U.S. ethanol blenders get a separate 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit through 2010 under current law. Chucky, my boy, please get your hand out of my tax-paying pocket. Time to let this industry stand on its own.
“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: USA Today. February 1, 2008)
Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of food-borne bacterial and mycotic diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trying to explain the increase in food borne illnesses in 2007.
>PS: It’s a fact of life in raising “free range” animals: they poop on the ground, rain falls, E. coli washes over the landscape. &*it happens.
“For the last 3,000 years or so, we asked crop farmers to produce food for people and feed for our livestock. Now suddenly we're asked to produce food for people, feed for our livestock, and fuel for our automobiles. My take on things is this is a watershed once-in-three millennia change that will have implications for all sorts of things.”
(Source: The Prairie Star. February 2, 2008)
Ron Plain, University of Missouri Extension hog economist, talking about ethanol-driven $5 corn changing forever the way we see agriculture.
>PS: Will the cost of an acre of good Iowa farmland start to rival the price of real estate in Manhattan (the Big Apple, that is)?
(Source: CNN.com, January)
Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States president, belatedly raising the alarm over alleged animal abuse.
>PS: Wayne, you waited patiently for two months to raise a general alarm? I expect the feds will react with greater speed. The USDA, in its news release, rightly said it was "unfortunate" the Humane Society "did not present this information to us when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007."
>PPS: Let me issue an open invitation to everyone at Hallmark and Westland - the alleged perps and their partners-in-crime company - to attend the Animal Care and Handling Conference in Kansas City, February 14-15. Maybe you can claim the time as Community Service. Click here for more information. Please come well-disguised. Temple Grandin will be there and she won’t be happy.
"These were not rogue employees secretly doing these things. This is the pen manager and his assistant doing this right in the open." (Source: Washington Post, January 30, 2008)
Anonymous HSUS investigator talking in a telephone interview about the videotape of extreme animal abuse allegedly taken at Hallmark Meat Packing.
>PS: The videotape was taken in October and just released by the investigator and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society. Doesn’t sitting on something this long make them accomplices in the abuse?
>PPS: Here is the rogue’s gallery of sinners in this deal –
(1) The folks at Hallmark who are hands-on guilty of abuse and the rest of management and employees at Hallmark and Westland who were complicit in the abuse.
(2) The San Bernardino county district attorney who received the tape in December and asked the Humane Society not to go public until they ‘had time to assess the information’ and then sat on it for much too long.
(3) The normally media-happy folks at HSUS who claimed they waited – two unforgivably long months - until they thought no action was forthcoming from the D.A.’s office before going public.
“We are shocked, saddened and sickened by what we have seen today. Operations have been immediately suspended until we can meet with all of our employees and be assured these sorts of activities never again happen at our facility.”
(Source: Burbank Leader, February 1, 2008)
Steve Mandell, president and chief executive of Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing, claiming he was astonishingly clueless.
>PS: What’s that old saying? Ignorance of the law is no excuse?
"By lifting the ethanol tariff, we'd end up subsidizing Brazilian ethanol. I can't figure out why Secretary Bodman would want the United States to risk becoming dependent on Brazilian ethanol when we're already dependent on Middle East oil.”
(Source: Meatingplace, January 31, 2008)
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), responding to a statement made by Energy secretary Sam Bodman that the Bush administration "will start to deal with that question" of whether the tariff should be renewed or allowed to expire at the end of this year, according to Reuters.
>PS: Bodman said, "I believe that, the best I can tell, this industry is pretty close to being able to stand on its own"
>PPS: In addition to the import tariff, U.S. ethanol blenders get a separate 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit through 2010 under current law. Chucky, my boy, please get your hand out of my tax-paying pocket. Time to let this industry stand on its own.
“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: USA Today. February 1, 2008)
Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of food-borne bacterial and mycotic diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trying to explain the increase in food borne illnesses in 2007.
>PS: It’s a fact of life in raising “free range” animals: they poop on the ground, rain falls, E. coli washes over the landscape. &*it happens.
“For the last 3,000 years or so, we asked crop farmers to produce food for people and feed for our livestock. Now suddenly we're asked to produce food for people, feed for our livestock, and fuel for our automobiles. My take on things is this is a watershed once-in-three millennia change that will have implications for all sorts of things.”
(Source: The Prairie Star. February 2, 2008)
Ron Plain, University of Missouri Extension hog economist, talking about ethanol-driven $5 corn changing forever the way we see agriculture.
>PS: Will the cost of an acre of good Iowa farmland start to rival the price of real estate in Manhattan (the Big Apple, that is)?
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