Category: Agriculture

Not Friday Cat Blogging, It’s Friday Catty Blogging

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Germany held a beauty pageant for cows, and much to my surprise, German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not win:

Forget Germany’s Next Top Model and Heidi Klum. This week, the German gaze was trained on the country’s most beautiful cow. “Krista” became the envy of bovine beauty queens across the land when she won the grand prize at the 2011 German Holstein Show, her second time to take the pageant’s top honor.

Krista successfully defended her 2009 title against a field of much heavier competition than that faced by most other beauty contestants. Of some two million hopeful dairy dames, just over 200 were chosen to lock horns over the grand prize, which comes complete with a trophy and cow-sized sash. Eight finalists strutted their stuff for a panel of jurors in the northern German city of Oldenburg on Thursday night. But it was Krista, described by juror Matthias Zens as “a perfect Holstein,” who won over the jury with her professional demeanor and pleasing physique.

“The udder should be wide and the back high,” said Zens on what makes a winner. With her straight back and strong legs, Krista has risen above the rest of the herd to rake in prizes on the bovine pageant circuit. The black and white bovine beauty has it all: a good figure, great legs and taut skin. As with human beauty contests, sagging is frowned upon. Other coveted traits include bright eyes, alertness and a plumb udder.

It’s different, at most beauty pageants, the contestants do not urinate on the runway.

Meow.

At Least This Wasn’t the Obama Administration’s Coverup

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In this case, it’s big Ag (We’re Beatrice), who have been leaning on their running dog lackeys in state legislators to pass laws to make the taking of photographs, videos, and recordings of farms illegal:

So, proposed legislation in three states – Iowa, Minnesota and Florida – that would criminalize the filming, photography or audio recording of farms (the general assumption seems to be that the bills are meant to protect CAFOs – concentrated animal feeding operations, also referred to as factory farms – but could apply to any farm of any nature) raised a major red flag to me, and to others who follow and write about such issues. People you’d expect to raise a protest, like Humane Society’s Wayne Pacelle and Animal Welfare Approved director Andrew Guenther have done so, but mainstream media, especially the New York Times, has also done a great job, with this pointed op-ed and Mark Bittman’s excellent “Who Protects the Animals?” (in which he coins the phrase “ag-gag”).

I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised, considering the popularity of veggie libel laws, but the pure venality and hypocrisy here just boggles my mind.

I would hope that the courts declare this unconstitutional before the ink is dry, because it is banning the practice of journalism.

Federal Judge Judge Spanks Ag Department and Monsanto

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In August U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, in response to the suit by environmentalists, issued a ruling that no new genetically modified “roundup ready” sugar beets be planted until a full environmental impact statement has been filed.

The US Department of Agriculture, never a big one for following the law, then issued permits to plant them anyway.

In response to this the judge has ruled that the crops must be destroyed.

This is what happens when you metaphorically call the judge a cock sucker.

The appeals court has stayed the ruling pending a review, but my guess is that they will be inclined to go along with the judge’s decision.

Judges hate it when you ignore their orders.  They think that it’s illegal or something.

Come to think of it, it is illegal or something.

Curry Will Save the World

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Case in point, it reduced greenhouse emissions from the digestive tracts of ruminants, like cows and sheep:

Curry spices could hold the key to reducing the enormous greenhouse gas emissions given off by grazing animals such as sheep, cows and goats, scientists have claimed.

Research carried out at Newcastle University has found that coriander and turmeric – spices traditionally used to flavour curries – can reduce by up to 40 per cent the amount of methane that is produced by bacteria in a sheep’s stomach and then emitted into the atmosphere when the animal burps.

Working rather like an anti-biotic, the spices were found to kill the methane-producing “bad” bacteria in the animal’s gut while allowing the “good” bacteria to flourish. The findings are part of an ongoing study led by Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry at Newcastle University.

It also means that when you have lamb or beef curry, it’s already marinated.

Yet More Evidence that Cap & Trade Sucks

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The latest is that the EU is looking to declare cutting down rain forests for farming are actually the maintenance of forests:

The European Commission and some EU member states hope to redefine palm oil plantations as “forests,” according to a leaked document from the EU executive.

Rules governing the use of biofuels were supposed to be designed to sort out the sustainable versions of the technology from their dirtier cousins following a massive backlash against it in 2008. At the time, an avalanche of reports revealed that many forms of the fuel source both increase greenhouse gas emissions and put pressure on food prices.

…………

But in a manoeuvre that has shocked environmental campaigners, a draft commission communication offering guidance to EU member states on the use of biofuels has classified palm oil plantations – the source of one of the most destructive forms of biofuels – as “forests.”

Essentially, the document argues that because palm oil plantations are tall enough and shady enough, they count as forests.

(emphasis mine)

This is why you go with a carbon tax: Because cap and trade, and the offsets that are inherent in the system are going to be dominated by forces that will use fraud and political influence peddling to make themselves money.

If you tax carbon when it comes from the ground, you disincentivize using fossil fuels. If you allow for offsets, you create phony carbon offsets, like palm oil forests, and Chinese hydroelectric dams that do not hook into the grid.

This is going to be a disaster.

Here’s a Surprise

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Remember those GMO herbicide resistant crops?

You know, the ones that would allow for more productivity because you could spray them with weed killer, and only the weeds would die?

Well, not so much:

The authors of the report, entitled “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use,” used US Department of Agriculture data to look at America’s three largest genetically engineered crops – soybeans, corn, and cotton. They found that the amount of herbicides used on them has increased from 1996 to 2008 by approximately 7 or 8 percent, with a particularly sharp increase from 2005 on.

In particular, the amount of Roundup that is used on genetically engineered crops has multiplied several times during the time period, says the report’s main author, Charles Benbrook, who’s the chief scientist at the Organic Center.

“This big increase in herbicide is driven largely by the emergence of Roundup-resistant weeds,” Dr. Benbrook says. But “industry is still saying to the public that genetic engineering [has] reduced herbicide use.

So, you have a new technology, one that rewards the over-use of herbicides in the short term, and in the long term, you end up creating resistant weeds.

<snark>Hoocoodanode? After all, when hospitals massively overused antibiotics, and farmers started putting in their feed, there was no similar incident of antibiotic resistant pathogens. </snark>

Here’s a Shocker

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Monsanto’s genetically modified corn has been linked to organ damage:

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

When you give enormous guaranteed monopoly profits by allowing the patenting of genes and species, those profits guarantee that safety is a secondary concern.

Schwarzenegger’s Latest Corrupt Disaster

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Click for full size

Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.

In addition to the fiscal meltdown going on in California, Governor “Ahnuld” has been talking up a water shortage that largely does not exist so that his billionaire friends can make a profit from a manufactured crisis:

We’ve been lied to for years now about the severity of California’s water shortage. The media and state officials have been ringing the alarm, warning that the state was in the grips of the quite possibly the “worst California drought in modern history,” when in fact the state nearly pulled in its average rainfall in 2009. The fearmongering is about to go into overdrive, as powerful interests start whipping up fears of drought to push through a $11 billion bond measure on the upcoming November elections, setting up the Golden State for a corporate water grab.

One of the big boosters promoting the drought scare is Gov. Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency in early 2009, and promised to reduce water deliveries across the state by a whopping 80 percent.

Basically, 80% of water consumption in California is by agriculture, and this water is largely controlled by corporate farm cartels, and these get supplied water from the government at below cost prices, and frequently sell this resell water to the taxpayers at a significant markup.

Making farmers pay something approaching the real cost of supplying the water would solve this problem, because much of the shortage has been driven by corporate farms that have turned to water intensive crops, because they believe that they have the political pull to continue their back-door subsidy.

Assault and Buttery

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Farmer sprays milk on policemen as protest

It’s a protest over agricultural prices and price supports at EU HQ in Brussels.

While normally, I would not be interested in this, this rather striking picture, which would surely result in the protester being arrest and taken a-whey.

Needless to say, such behavior must be curded.

I know what you’re saying, “Yogurt yourself! This is udderly unacceptable behavior”

Any other puns, please put in comments.

CFTC Showing Some Balls

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is considering eliminating waivers on position limits in wheat trading:

The [Senate] subcommittee [on Investigations] released a study in June that showed wheat prices were inflated by index investors last year. It called for the elimination of waivers that allow funds to hold more than 6,500 Chicago Board of Trade contracts at any one time, which would lower the influence of non-agricultural buyers and curb speculation. [CTFC Chairman] Gensler said earlier this month the CFTC, which currently grants waivers for agricultural products, also is considering limits on holdings by oil and gas speculators.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen stuff like this, and I can’t quite remember the word for it….Oh….Yes….It’s called regulation.

Obama Looking to Restrict Antibiotic Use in Livestock

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This is good news.

Basically, feeding tightly penned industrially raised animals antibiotics make they gain weight faster, probably because it suppresses minor illnesses.

It also creates things like antibiotic resistant E. coli, leaves residues in the food, etc.

The Dutch banned antibiotics in animal feed over a decade ago, and we know that the net cost of this change would be less than 5¢ a pound.

Additionally, it would make some of the more inhumane animal husbandry techniques less viable, because stressed animals packed in close quarters become more vulnerable to disease.

Anatomy of a Right Wing Hysteria Campaign: HR 875

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HR 875 is a fairly innocuous bill, trying to make sure that food, both domestic and imported, is safer, but a campaign by the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NIFCA), which opposes any regulation of food, and a couple of right wing conspiracy theorists, and suddenly the bill is an attempt by Monsanto to shut down every farmers market in the nation.

Well, it’s not. Go read the article for the full scoop.

Another Failure of Economic Philosophy

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The economic philosophy of the free trade Evangelicals is not just destroying our banking system, it’s also creating starvation in poor nations:

Inside and out, the rusted towers of El Salvador’s biggest grain silo show how the World Bank helped push developing countries into the global food crisis.

Inside, the silo, which once held thousands of tons of beans and cereals, is now empty. It was abandoned in 1991, after the bank told Salvadoran leaders to privatize grain storage, import staples such as corn and rice, and export crops including cocoa, coffee and palm oil.

…

“The World Bank made one basic blunder, which is to think that markets would solve problems of such severe circumstances,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon. “But history has shown you need to help people to get above the survival threshold before the markets can start functioning.”

It appears that the person who got this ball rolling, with “structural adjustment” loans, which required countries to disinvest in staples in favor of cash crops for export, was that guy who ran the Vietnam war so well, little Bobbie McNamara.