People love free money

If you thought this blog was about the "big Bush" tax rebates rushing into the hands of taxpayers nationwide, then you'd be wrong.

The title for this post is actually a quote from Senator Tom Harkin which was published by the International Hearald Tribune on April 24, 2008, in an article written by David M. Herszenhorn, titled:

On Capitol Hill, it's farm politics as usual - (link to full story)

Sen. Harkin must be feeling like a lone voice on Capital Hill, as he admitted there was not much he could do about the massive farm subsidies contained in the Farm Bill set to be passed at a cost upward of $300 billion because "I don't have the votes," adding, "People love free money."

My favorite quote actually appears earlier in the article, emphasized by me in this excerpt;

But even strong proponents of the bill, like Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Agriculture Committee, concede that farm interests are deeply entrenched and that there is little appetite for change among many farm state lawmakers, especially when it comes to the direct payment program.

The direct payments are based on the amount of land that certain farmers own, and Harkin, who has sought to eliminate the payments, said that many recipients of the money then use it to acquire more land and qualify for more payments.

"It's like the black hole in space that astronomers talk about, everything gets sucked in and nothing ever comes out," he said.

"This is the black hole of agriculture. It doesn't make sense, but farmers continue to get it."

Important points brought out in the article with respect to the new Farm Bill:

• does little to address many of the most pressing concerns


• will not change biofuel mandates that are directing more corn to ethanol and contributing to a global run-up in food prices


• will do little to ease worldwide food shortages


• demonstrated (by Ken Cook) that the farm subsidies it contains would mostly benefit a small number of wealthy crop producers


• and, at a time of unprecedented volatility in the futures markets, it will not require tougher regulation

Indeed, many experts say the biggest step Congress could take would be to eliminate the direct payment subsidies in favor of a new revenue assurance program that would help farmers in times of need, but save money in boom years when crop yields are strong and prices high.

Let's pause and think about that comment a minute.

Did you happen to see this Globe & Mail news story out of Canada where Ottawa is planning to pay $50 Million for a swine kill owing to the massive surplus in the pork industry right now?

EDMONTON — In what is being called an unprecedented move, the federal government will pay Canadian pork producers $50-million to kill off 150,000 of their pigs by the fall as the industry teeters on the brink of economic collapse.

The animals are being destroyed at slaughter plants and on pig farms in a bid to cull the swine breeding herd by 10 per cent.

Most of the meat is to be used for pet food or otherwise disposed of, but up to 25 per cent of it will be made available to Canadian food banks.

“The value that the market is providing to hog farmers for their breeding animals has fallen to virtually nothing,” said Martin Rice, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council on Monday.

But, I digress.

Back to the Bush rebates (because I can't resist commenting on it)...

Recipients receiving their checks in the weeks ahead might want to think twice about using it to go on a shopping spree. Try checking out the product origins of the items you purchase and see how much of that money you'll actually be sending to China instead of helping to curb the recession here at home. Those "made in China" tags are mighty prevalent, wouldn't you say?

In my most humble opinion, I just can't resist applying someone else's quote to the situation.

"It's like the black hole in space that astronomers talk about, everything gets sucked in and nothing ever comes out."

But I don't want to go down that road of "torchture and politics" (link).

Ahem.

School Lunch Program - Got Beef?

In case you haven't heard... the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company story is shocking parents across the country while School lunch program operators across the nation are being instructed by USDA officials to "pull the beef from school lunch lines as a precaution."

Video shot at the Chino slaughterhouse during an undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States shows downed cows, animals that are too sick to walk, being prodded with forklifts, poked in the eyes and blasted with water.

"The attempt was to make them so distressed and to cause them so much suffering that these animals would get up and walk into the slaughterhouse," said Wayne Pacelle with the Humane Society.[link]

The Humane Society of the United States says it turned over a video showing cattle being abused at a Chino slaughterhouse to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office in December. After a month with no legal action, the animal protection agency posted some of the video on its Web site this week and turned over 96 minutes of recordings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees slaughterhouses.[Emphasis added - link]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched an investigation into the company on Wednesday after the Humane Society of the United States released a video that appears to document workers abusing cows that are too injured or weak to stand. (link)

...and were it not for the undercover video filmed by the Humane Society, what would have happened?

After all, Westland and its parent company, Hallmark Meat, are "the second largest supplier of beef to the USDA's commodity procurement branch, which distributes the beef to needy families, the elderly, and also the schools throughout the national school lunch program," according to the Humane Society of the United States. (link)

The USDA Response to the Media Attention?

The USDA, in its news release, said it was "unfortunate" the Humane Society "did not present this information to use when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007."

The Humane Society, in its statement, said it had turned the information over to "California law enforcement officials" at that time, and "local authorities asked for extra time before public release of the information." (link)

Sidenote: Yes siree, I imagine the USDA would have liked to see the video back in fall of 2007... maybe it would have prevented them from buying "...more than 27 million pounds of ground beef from Westland in 2007 as part of the government-subsidized National School Lunch Program." (Emphasis added - link)

In another Response from USDA:

In any case, there's no evidence that meat from so-called 'downer' cattle entered the food supply, USDA official Kenneth Petersen told reporters during a telephone news conference Friday. (link)

And another:

Federal officials emphasized that a hold is not the same thing as a recall. The beef could later be used if the USDA OKs its safety. (link)

And in case you didn't know this;

...Westland, the second-largest supplier of beef for the National School Lunch Program, was named "supplier of the year" in 2004-2005 by the Agriculture Department. It has delivered beef to schools in 36 states.

The USDA today stopped Westland from supplying meat to federal food and nutrition programs pending the outcome of its investigation. While the workers in this video have been fired, the Humane Society says the most shocking thing about the abuse shown here is that it happens all the time.

Some responses from the political side:

February 1, 2008-- Congressman Leonard Boswell is pushing the USDA to examine recent reports of inhumane treatment of animals. (link)

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, sent letters Wednesday to the agriculture secretary and the head of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) asking for an immediate investigation into the safety of ground beef being used in the National School Lunch Program. "The treatment of animals in this video is appalling, but more than that, it raises significant concerns about the safety of the food being served to our nation's children," Durbin said. (link)

Federal regulations call for keeping downed cows out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of carrying E. coli, salmonella contamination or mad cow disease. (link)

Several School Boards across the country have been pulling beef from the menu until they can be certain no supplies came from Westland. Some of those School Boards reporting in the news are located in the following states (partial list, no specific order): California, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota, Utah, Hawaii, Florida, Texas, Iowa and New York. For a large (and growing) list of news reports on this story, check out this link.

Now I'm guessing that Hallmark Meat Packing has become the "hallmark" brand for how NOT to run a slaughterhouse/packing plant?

Aw, heck, here's one more reported USDA response worth mentioning:

USDA officials said that despite the apparent abuses, Westland meat products have always passed stringent government purity standards, and they do not believe the company's beef is unhealthy. (link)

What the ...?

Even if you don't get sick eating the Hallmark/Westland stuff, you might get sick watching the 96 minutes of video. Yes, there are animal rights violations. Now that's an education our kids shouldn't have to receive -- in any manner, shape or form -- because it simply shouldn't BE happening -- PERIOD.

Dirty Little Secret About E Coli

There's a dirty little secret about E. Coli, salmonella, campylobacter and other forms of food poisoning that hasn't become common knowledge for the general public -- yet -- and there is considerable cause for concern.

What's the dirty little secret? The news, according to this Associated Press article is alarming some sectors of the health industry:

It's a dirty little secret of food poisoning: E. coli and certain other foodborne illnesses can sometimes trigger serious health problems months or years after patients survived that initial bout. Scientists only now are unraveling a legacy that has largely gone unnoticed.

What kind of health problems? Here's one example from the article:

Consider Alyssa Chrobuck of Seattle, who at age 5 was hospitalized as part of the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger outbreak that 15 years ago this month made a deadly E. coli strain notorious.

She's now a successful college student but ticks off a list of health problems unusual for a 20-year-old: High blood pressure, recurring hospitalizations for colon inflammation, a hiatal hernia, thyroid removal, endometriosis.

"I can't eat fatty foods. I can't eat things that are fried, never been able to eat ice cream or milkshakes," says Chrobuck. "Would I have this many medical problems if I hadn't had the E. coli? Definitely not. But there's no way to tie it definitely back."

Donna Rosenbaum of the consumer advocacy group Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) is quoted saying;

"We're drastically underestimating the burden on society that foodborne illnesses represent."

S.T.O.P.'s newly elected president, Ms. Nancy Donley of Chicago, is no stranger to the effects of food poisoning. Their website indicates that "Ms. Donley, who previously served as S.T.O.P.’s President from 1996-2004, is nationally known for her extensive advocacy work on preventing foodborne illness and death. She became a member of S.T.O.P. and started her advocacy work after the tragic death of her six-year-old son, Alex, in 1993 from E. coli O157:H7-contaminated meat."

Now, if you are really curious to learn more about foodborne illnesses, you really should spend some time on the S.T.O.P. website. There "...is a collection of stories and testimonies given by victims and families of victims of foodborne illness. They bear witness to the fact that existing and emerging foodborne illness ravages victims without mercy."

The Center for Disease Control is aware of the problems relating to foodborne illness. They say foodborne illnesses cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year. Among survivors, some long-term consequences are obvious from the outset. Some required kidney transplants. They may have scarred intestines that promise lasting digestive difficulty.

But unfortunately, there has been little data collected on what happens to food poison survivors AFTER...

For now, some of the best evidence comes from the University of Utah, which has long tracked children with E. coli. About 10 percent of E. coli sufferers develop a life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, where their kidneys and other organs fail.

Ten to 20 years after they recover, between 30 percent and half of HUS survivors will have some kidney-caused problem, says Dr. Andrew Pavia, the university's pediatric infectious diseases chief. That includes high blood pressure caused by scarred kidneys, slowly failing kidneys, even end-stage kidney failure that requires dialysis.

"I don't want to leave the message that everyone who had symptoms ... is in trouble," stresses Pavia.

Miserable as E. coli is, it doesn't seem to trigger long-term problems unless it started shutting down the kidneys the first time around, he says. "People with uncomplicated diarrhea, by and large we don't have evidence yet that they have complications."

There are other proven long-term consequences of food poisoning. You can read the article here for more details.

In addition to foodborne illnesses, antibiotic resistance is also one of the top concerns for the Center for Disease Controll.

The "dirty little secret" on foodborne illness comes out following another important article published on January 20, 2008, in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Bacteria race ahead of drugs Falling behind: Deadly infections increasingly able to beat antibiotics"

Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't take you back to the manure issues surrounding CAFOs, considering the above news.

So many, many times before on this blog I've pointed out study after study after study regarding how long these pathogens can survive in our soils and waters. You need only look to our 303d water reports to see the E. Coli problems in Indiana waterways.

My point is this -- if you can't kill it first, you shouldn't be planting it in (or spraying it on) the ground in such massive, concentrated quantities.

BigAg has been on a mission to push farmers to "grow big or get out" for years now. And yet, in all their talks about so-called "nutrient" absorbance capacity of the land in "safe manure handling practices" it simply astounds me that they spend so little time on the health issues relating to factory farming practices that appear to be leaving a dirty trail all the way from the farm to the fork.

And what supremely ticks me off is how their push for BIG has slaughtered so many family farms across this great nation while they -- Big Ag -- keep digging into taxpayer pockets to deal with the issues surrounding their "model" for the future of our food -- to have taxpayers pay to clean up their mess.

They're eager to throw another few billion at the FDA for tighter food safety.

They're happy to see more billions flow to the USDA for greater food safety.

They eagerly wait to see how much more money can go into farm subsidies and the like to deal with everything from........

DANG IT!!! They created the dang mess in the first place... even convincing small farmers, who would have had to quit and lose their farms, to go BIG so they could compete in the industry -- glossing over the unresolved problems tied to this style of Agriculture. AND NOW -- DIG DEEPER INTO TAXPAYER POCKETS ...scare the hell out of them to make them pay more, and more, and more... and... geez. It's time to get responsibility back where it belongs, dangit!!

Sorry. Got a little carried away with this post. (taking a deep breath here)

Gotta run -- but you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be back soon with more on this issue.

Want to do something right now?

Call Rep. Crawford ASAP and request that he schedule HB 1168 for a hearing and vote in House Ways and Means Committee. They're trying to keep it out.

His office number at the statehouse is 317-232-9875.

The toll free number for the Indiana House is 800-382-9842.

You only have until Thursday, by the way. Yeah, they like to slip past these as fast as possible -- my humble opinion.

Bizarre January Weather

Freak Tornadoes, Flooding and High Temperatures

Tornadoes ripped through parts of Wisconsin late yesterday afternoon and into the evening, hitting Kinosha County hardest, particularly near Wheatland. (see news here)

By comparison, we were pretty lucky. Although road flooding caused a 2-hour school delay this morning -- the kids first day back after the holiday break -- there's little damage here. (thankfully)

We hit record highs for January temperatures thus far... and the last time tornadoes appeared in Wisconsin in January was way back in 1844. So the year 2008 is definitely starting out with bizarre weather patterns.

In Other Wisconsin News

Speaking of Wisconsin, not sure if you saw this Op-Ed piece by guest columnist, Mark A. Kastel, regarding factory farming in the Wisconsin "Capitol Times" -- it's worth reading, written from the family farmers' point of view. Here's a small excerpt:

The result of this trend has been the loss of thousands of family businesses that were healthy and integral parts of their rural communities. They have been replaced by "farms" milking hundreds or thousands of cows, in confinement conditions, most milk cows never being let out of the giant barns -- barns that have been constructed with the help of state and federal loans and grants.

This public money has shifted dairy production in our state, and in many others, to a model that has become a grave ecological threat to air and water quality by concentrating the manure equivalent of a small city on one industrial site. Wisconsin has experienced a rash of serious groundwater and surface water catastrophes from major-league manure spills over the last decade. And our tax money has been used to create employment for an exploited class of immigrant worker instead of family-supporting jobs for our new residents or existing Wisconsinites.

In monitoring the press around the country, as one of the leading organic industry watchdogs and family farm advocates, we rarely respond to the agribusiness frontmen extolling the virtues of industrial food production. Most of these articles appear in the industry's trade publications. But when they appear in the pages of The Capital Times, there is a disconnect we no longer feel can go unanswered.

Three cheers to Mark for a well-written piece!

No More Living High on the Hog

Interestingly enough, in reference to the economic side of things for farming in general, not sure if you heard about the grim outlook for hog farming in 2008 and early parts of 2009.

Perdue University came out with some numbers that paint a grim forecast. They strongly urge cutbacks in production. Here's a quote regarding the 2008 economic picture:

"The year appears to be very bleak for hog producers in general. There will be too large of supply for most of the year and costs from feed are very high. Losses of about $30 per head for farrow-to-finish operations are expected in the early part of the year. Then maybe $10 to $15 per head of losses in the spring and summer quarters, and $15 to $20 per head of losses for the last quarter of 2008." Chris Hurt, Purdue University

The Pork Industry is hoping China's increase in demand might compensate, but an interesting article here tells most money market watchers to not expect much from China in the short term ahead. Not sure if it will affect the pork industry, but might have an impact on other areas.

But the point is, for a small family farm the news for pork could be grim -- but it could possibly be a whole lot worse for a factory farm. The surplus hogs would tend to pile up a whole lot faster in an assembly line setting pushing those huge losses through the roof in a very short period of time.

The big Mitch Daniels pork-push might turn into some tough breaks for this State.

SIDENOTE: Note the interesting info on the President's "Plunge Protection Team" in the last article referenced above. Makes you wonder where all our tax dollars really are going these days. Surely not into the stock markets?

The Juggling Act

And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Watching the news, whether it be politics, business, economy, weather... seems everything is turning into a juggling act. So, here's a video clip that might brighten your mood. Make sure you have your sound turned up. Then sit back and enjoy. Be sure to watch it all the way through to appreciate the big finale. Click to watch video now.

TTFN

Another 10,540 cows in Newton County?

The July 17, 2007 "Pending CFO and CAFO Construction Applications" includes a name familiar to many Newton/Jasper County residents. Dan Brugen is the listed IDEM project manager for the NPDES General Construction application from Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, LLC owned by Michael McClosky. The application indicates the construction application is for 10,540 dairy cattle.

Here's another little interesting piece of information. Just a couple weeks ago "Newton County Enterprise" reported this story:

The Board of Zoning Appeals met last Tuesday night to discuss a Variance to Ordinance and a Special Exception. First the special exception was discussed and this pertained to the Fair Oaks Dairy LLC. The Dairy, represented by Steve Ryan during the meeting, needed a special exception to have 1,200 head of calves. Currently, they are housing about 1,200 head but it was not permitted for them to do so. The Dairy, however, did not know that they didn’t have the approval of the board and have had roughly this many calves since 2001.

Ever wonder what that number of calves and calf hutches might look like? Here's an areial view of Calf Land:


Click for larger version.

Notice how nicely those trees and bushes hide those hutches? Reminds me how they managed to hide the HUGE PILE of flyash... but I digress...

Now, just in case you missed it, let's think about this a minute.

The Dairy claimed they were unaware there was no zoning for the 1,200 calves housed there since about 2001 -- they didn't even know a Special Exception Permit was required to do so?!

According to the article, after all this time, now "they just wanted to make it right with the board and do everything legally."

Ahem. 'Nuff said, right?

We-ell... you might think by their representative's comments that they have never run a Dairy Farm of this size and nature before...

Meanwhile, the May 30 edition of The Enterprise reported that the Newton County Council held a meeting with the Commissioners. Their biggest subject was the discussion about Fair Oaks Dairy. Apparently the Dairy is in need of $14 million for their new digester.

The first digester doesn't work so well.

Here's an important quote from the above news item for taxpaying residents in this area:

The Council will not be liable for giving the Dairy money however, nor will they be responsible for paying back the money to the loan lender if the project should fall through.

A public hearing on the issuance of Variable Rate Demand Economic Development Revenue Bonds for the $14 million was to be held 9 a.m., June 8 at the Newton County Government Center, but I just found out about this recently. I'm not sure how things turned out, yet.

Just in case you didn't know, Fair Oaks received a DOE funding in 2002 for the first digester to the tune of $95,723 -- here's the details:

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm will demonstrate the feasibility and document technical and economic performance of a high rate anaerobic digestion process that can be used in dairy and swine flush systems. A state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion facility will be constructed at Fair Oaks Dairy Farm at one specific site which houses 3000 milk cows.

Was the above DOE Funding for the same digester which has failed expectations? If so, I'm guessing the so-called "demonstrate" part didn't go so well.

I won't even go into the subsidies they've received over the past 5 years for growing their own feed. Let's not go there for the moment.

But hey, we're not the only State dishing out cash for McClosky/den Dulk related farms. For example, the Ravena Farm (owned by Timothy den Dulk) in Michigan was "awarded a million dollars to build a bio-digester plant" there. According to the news article, the digester should be operational and producing power by October 2007. (link to full story)

Really, it should be no surprise to any of us when we see our taxes keep going up ...and up ...and up ...here in Northwestern Indiana. By all accounts, the BZA is actually helping to make that happen when you consider how careless they are about trashing a Triple AAA (in my humble opinion) subdivision (which could have brought many more taxpayers into the region) by allowing yet another calf operation into the region -- to be built right on that subdivision's doorstep.

In other news, we have another Canadian visitor staying with us, this time from Ottawa, Canada. We'll be escorting him on the CAFO tour later this week. Stay tuned.

Ball State University Studies

Since I've been so rushed for time these past several weeks, I'm writing about two topics in one today.

Ball State University Studies

First, the Ball State studies, which Seth Godin wrote about in The Star Press the other day. Not sure how long it will be up on their site, but here's the link.

I've skimmed a bit in both studies.

1. Randolph County study.
2. Jay County study.

Interesting reading for everyone on both sides of the CAFO issue. The studies were conducted by Ball State University and reflect a poor ecomonic return on Indiana's hog industry - the very industry that Mitch and his buddies have been pushing to double here in Indiana.

Seth has presented both sides of the issue, with comments from GRACE Factory Farm Project (anti-cafo), the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (pro-cafo) and the Indiana Pork Producers Association (pro-cafo).

But, surprisingly, the side of the issue understated (in my humble opinion - least represented) is the farmers' side of the issue, which includes people from both sides of the fence.

Yes, there are farmers that are anti-cafo, just as there are farmers on the pro-cafo side.

But one commenter on the above referenced article brought forth some excellent points on the farmers' side -- the comment regarding integrated corporations.

Integration and Market Power

This is an area I've also been researching lately.

Integrated marketing approach to farming is a touchy subject for most farmers. For most, to speak up could quickly result in losing important contracts. For several, doing nothing means continued farming for little to no profits.

In a way, it kind of reminds me of the illegal sweatshops you sometimes hear about. Only, in this case, it isn't the fear of immigration laws (or worse) keeping "farmers" silent. It's the very real fear of losing the farm. And it's also one of the biggest reasons some farms are forced to make the choice to "go big or get out."

We've all heard the expression, "The truth shall set you free."

Sadly, not in this case.

You see, there are very powerful corporations, and yes, government entities/key officials, that would much rather this story not be investigated to deeply. There's a bit too much money at stake.

Hint: As they say in journalism schools, follow the money.

For example, let's take this cute little corn check-off thing. Ummm, best not to go there -- right now. (I'll explain more at a later date.)

I tip my hat to the brave person who posted the integrated marketing comment. Good job. I'm wondering when mainstream press will expose the full story. Personally, I feel Big Ag has a lot to answer to. They've managed to gobble the profits at the farmers', the consumers' and the taxpayers' expense for a very long time... in my humble opinion.

Oh, by the way... coming next week - the NEW farm subsidy experiment that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES - but might make one farmer very, very happy.