Mad Cow Disease Appears in California

Potentially bad news for California Agriculture. Read the full story here at the LA Times.

The reemergence of mad cow disease, discovered in a California dairy cow, could have major implications for the state’s meat industry, even though officials have said that the human food supply is unaffected. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy hasn’t been found in U.S. since 2006 and was discovered in only three instances before then. But the disease has dealt a crippling blow to the industry in the past, especially when foreign countries refused to import American beef when mad cow was first uncovered in 2003. The U.S. Department of Agriculturetests about 40,000 cows a year in its effort to catch the disease. In California, private and public ranching takes up about 38 million acres, according to the California Cattlemen’s Assn. There are about 620,000 beef cows on 11,800 California ranches. The state also hosts 1.84 million dairy cows, according to information compiled by the California Beef Council. The sale of cattle and calves was a $1.82-billion industry in California 2008 and fifth among the state’s top 20 commodities. Beef cattle are raised in nearly every California county. Nationally, California ranks behind Texas, Kansas and Nebraska in total cattle numbers.

Is Meat Now "Pink Slime?"

We actually watched a report about this on Stephen Colbert's show of all places. It was nauseating and I don't even eat meat. Blech.

If you eat meat, read this article from the Huffington Post.

Surprising NYTimes Editorial about National Egg Production

Surprising to me at least. The editorial advocates a national standard that establishes humane standards in all parts of the country.

McDonalds Makes Positive Move to Help Sows

I'm no fan of McDonalds, but any little bit of help is progress.

Here's an excerpt. For the full story, check out this link to the New York Times article.

The McDonald’s Corporation said on Monday that it would begin working with its pork suppliers to phase out the use of so-called gestational crates, the tiny stalls in which sows are housed while pregnant.

Animal rights advocates have singled out the crates, known as sow stalls, as inhumane, and several states have moved to ban or restrict their use not only in pork production, but also in the production of eggs and veal.

“McDonald’s believes gestation stalls are not a sustainable production system for the future,” Dan Gorsky, senior vice president for supply chain management for McDonald’s North America, said in a statement. “There are alternatives we think are better for the welfare of sows.”

Suit Filed Over Cows Killed to Drive Up Milk Prices

If the dairy companies were doing this, well, that's cold!

Excerpted from the Seattle P-I....

A Seattle law firm is taking on dairies, claiming that a price-fixing scheme has consumers paying too much for milk.

The class-action lawsuit accuses companies of slaughtering thousands of cows just to decrease supply.

Animal rights group Compassion Over Killing was the first to uncover the alleged systematic slaughter of healthy dairy cows in California. The group turned to Seattle attorney Steve Berman, who filed the suit claiming more than half a million U.S. dairy cows were slaughtered over seven years to artificially reduce the supply of milk and drive up prices.

"The cooperatives got together and instituted what we'll call a killing program; they retired cows," he said. Berman said the milk producers called it "dairy herd retirement", but he insists it was a way to cheat consumers and line their own pockets.

"Using their own numbers, we calculated conservatively that (they) raised the price of milk over a seven-year period by $10 billion," Berman said.

Berman said all milk products - everything from cheese to butter - got more expensive. His firm sued Cooperatives Working Together, its members are dairy companies and trade groups.

Ag's Reaction to Ohio Deal with Humane Society

Yesterday, I raised the issue that some may think the Humane Society copped out by making a deal with Ohio agriculture and NOT bringing new animal welfare regulations to the ballot. Well, it looks like, on the other side, big agriculture and others of that ilk feel like Ohio ag itself made a deal with the devil by entering this agreement.

The Conflict Between Animal Welfare and Agribusiness

This article pretty much sums up how the two agendas are simply at cross-purposes. Compassion is perceived to hurt profits.

It spotlights the Humane Society, but I think it's a pretty universal comparison.

Belgian Bill Calls for Pig Castration WITH Anesthesia

OK, I'm stupid as hell. They castrate piglets WITHOUT anesthesia. OMFG!

I hope this bill passes. But I post about so many legislative proposals, with so few actual passages. We'll have to wait and see.

CBS News Runs Series on Factory Farms

This occurred a week or so ago. Katie Couric did a story on the use of antibiotics on factory farms in the US and the potential harm to humans. Unfortunately, I missed this series as we don't watch network television. A friend of mine said it was quite good. According to her, there was a message that removing the use of antibiotics would actually improve these poor animals' welfare.

Here is an article about the series. Of course, the question remains as to whether these animals should be in these factory farming conditions in the first place, regardless of antibiotics' use. And, of course, the focus is on the impact on humans. But I'm glad they took the time to look at this. Apparently, it was NOT flattering to big ag.

Europe's Pig Industry Mad about Undercover Investigation

Compassion in World Farming led an undercover investigation that showed illegal tail docking and poor attempts at pig enrichment on factory farms, in violation of EU law. Now the pig industry is mad and claiming bias (scroll down in article.)

Too bad! If you complied with the law, you wouldn't look like such jerks!

Big Ag Fighting Back with PR

They are fighting back due to all the information and images that have made it to the public sphere. There are no happy farm animals, you liars. And people are seeing it. So, now you just try to spend more money to spread more lies.

"Clearly the animal rights community is much more emboldened and aggressive than they have been in the past," said {National Milk Producers Federation} spokesman Chris Galen. "We need to play offense."

This article has a good summary of the victories to which this industry is reacting.

Farm Animal Welfare Fight Heats Up in Ohio

Issue 2 in Ohio would create 13-member state board to oversee the care of farm animals in the State. The Humane Society and other groups oppose it as a power grab by big agriculture to prevent another Proposition 2 (the initiative passed last year in California to improve standards for farm animal care.) And, of course, this board would be dominated by big ag's people, so I think they're right. There may also be unintended consequences. Would such a bill lead to jurisdiction over puppy mill breeders as well?

It's an issue to follow though. If it passes, it will encourage other states' ag industries to go on the offensive to protect their "raw materials."

Michigan to Follow California on Farm Animal Welfare?

It looks like Michigan's Big Ag is afraid they could end up with their own Proposition 2.

Southern Senator Stops Confirmation Over Animal Protection

Georgia readers should contact this Republican Senator and ask what's up.

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has put a hold on Cass Sunstein's confirmation as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. According to Michael Markarian from the Humane Society, Sunstein's confirmation is supposedly being held due to pressure from some agribusiness groups. Sunstein is a Harvard law professor who has written about animal protection issues. He is the co-editor, for example, of Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, which examines views both in favor and against animal law.

The position he's going for doesn't even deal with animal issues, but, if true, their corporate opposition shows the fear and the long reach of these greedy monsters.

Your Tax Dollars at Work Building Iraqi Feedlots

From our "good friends" at Agrilife News....

A recently established international partnership will focus on developing a “strong and viable beef and lamb feedlot industry” for Iraq, according to project participants.

The partnership between the Inma Agribusiness Program, U.S. Agency for International Development, and U.S. and Iraqi governmental agencies, universities and agribusiness groups and individuals will bring new private-sector economic opportunities to Iraq, they said.

“Through a combination of technical and financial support, the partnership will work toward making Iraq a top beef and lamb producer within the Arab world,” said Dr. Ma’ad Mohammed, Inma project coordinator for the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture of the Texas A&M System, a key program participant.

Clemson Researcher Investigates Impacts of Cages on Laying Hens

It's a study funded by the US Department of Agriculture.

One would think it would be elementary. Crowded and filthy conditions mean suffering for hens. But it's not just about the hens....it's about the money. How much suffering can and should they endure without significantly affecting the human pocketbook. Or corporate net income.

From the Clemson press release....

More is at stake than just the comfort of chickens, though the well-being of 284 million U.S. laying hens is no small matter. Nearly 95 percent of the 90 billion table eggs produced in the United States come from high-density cage systems. The value of all egg production in 2007 was $6.68 billion. In South Carolina egg sales tally about $90 million annually. Changing production conditions are bound to affect the bottom the line.

Is Cheap Meat Endangering Our Lives?

Very interesting opinion piece about how factory farms facilitate the rapid spread of viruses into the food supply. Will our desire to mass-produce cheap meat end in a health disaster?

From the Independent...

How much harm will we do to ourselves in the name of cheap meat? We know that bird flu developed in the world's vast poultry farms. And we know that pumping animal feed full of antibiotics in factory farms has given us a new strain of MRSA. It's a simple, horrible process. The only way to keep animals alive in such conditions is to pump their feed full of antibiotics. But this has triggered an arms race with bacteria, which start evolving to beat the antibiotics – and emerge as in the end as pumped-up, super-charged bacteria invulnerable to our medical weapons. This system gave birth to a new kind of MRSA that now makes up 20 per cent of all human infections with the virus. Sir Liam Donaldson, the British government's Chief Medical Officer, warns: "Every inappropriate use in animals or agriculture [of antibiotics] is potentially a death warrant for a future patient."

Of course, agribusinesses is desperate to deny all this is happening: their bottom line depends on keeping this model on its shaky trotters. But once you factor in the cost of all these diseases and pandemics, cheap meat suddenly looks like an illusion.

Social Justice Groups and Big Ag

The other day I was looking at the list of organizations that were part of Californians for SAFE Food, the coalition that opposed Proposition 2 in California (the proposition passed last November). The group was accused of being a front group for the ag industry. And, in fact, many of the organizations were agricultural/agribusiness groups. However, I was struck by the number of social justice groups that were also part of the coalition. These groups included the California Congress of the NAACP, the Congress of California Seniors, the National Latino Congress and the California Conference Board of the Amalgamated Transit Union. What does this mean?

To me, this means that social justice groups believe that big ag and their interests are allied.

I used to think this was understandable. But now I think that’s sad, sad, sad.

I think these groups believe that if big ag’s costs rise, then food prices will automatically increase. That was one of the arguments made against Proposition 2. Proposition 2 will not go into effect until 2015, so there is plenty of time to innovate and comply in a cost effective manner. Second of all, if prices do rise, they are not rising simply to cover new costs but to also maintain profit margins. Because profit, not social welfare, is what motivates these guys.

Last week, I read an interview with a poverty activist who argued that people who are into community/local food and p-patches are middle-class naïve yuppies. Local food and individual farming is not the way to feed the world’s poor. You must have mass production. You must have big agribusiness. But I would argue that local growing and self-sustenance is what has maintained societies and the poor for millennia. It’s when land began to be consolidated into corporate ownership and people began leaving the land and entering urban areas, that we all became dependent on corporate behemoths for our food supply. How much poverty is in Haiti as a result of farm land being covered in reservoirs or turned over to big agribusiness?

I think that the choice between people and the environment/animals are false choices. But this is what big agribusiness does, just like the pharmaceutical industry. “Do you put people first or the environment? It’s one or the other.”

Anytime a corporation presents that option, I am suspicious and I believe that many social justice groups have fallen for this. They are ignoring the big picture and giving big agribusiness false credibility by joining their causes.

Big Ag Upset Over California Antibiotics Ban

I actually read one headline asking whether this was the beginning of the end of commercial farming in California.

A bit of an overreaction I think. But to big ag, it's just another step on a slippery slope started by the passage of Proposition 2.

The article is so short, I'm just posting the whole thing.

Californian farmers and ranchers would be prohibited from routinely dosing healthy farm animals with antibiotics under a bill getting its first level of approval on 21 April in the state Senate, reports Central Valley Business Times.

SB416, authored by state Majority Leader, Dean Florez (Democrat, Shafter), chairman of the California Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture, which approved the bill three votes to one on 21 April, would have the prohibition in place by 2015. As early as 2012, public schools would be prohibited from serving fish, poultry or meat that had been routinely treated with antibiotics.

"We tell people to take antibiotics only as prescribed for the very reason that they not develop resistance to these drugs they may need when they are truly sick," said Mr Florez. "Then we feed those same antibiotics daily to the animals they will consume. It just doesn't make any sense to take this gamble with the long-term health of our communities."

Senate Bill 416 will next be heard by the Senate Education Committee.

Animal Health Care is Part of the Bottom Line

We've argued in previous posts that factory farming is simply not conducive to animal welfare. Better conditions for animals hurt the bottom line. Animal welfare is a cost of doing business, not a moral obligation.

Here's an example. I'm not arguing about the methods as I'm not a veterinarian, but it's a good example of the clinical discussion of costs when it comes to managing farm animal health.

The pig industry, says Dr MacDougald, is marked by generally poor production and financial analysis. This means poor assessment of ROI {Return on Investment} for interventions and little focus on opportunity cost. However, research based on finishing pig group opportunity costs calculated on mortality, culls and feed conversion to target reveals startling results, with the best to worst sites varying by $11 per pig, with the widest variance per site at $34 per pig.

These pigs are simply raw materials.