U.S. Department of Agriculture Approves Release of GE Trees

Insanity!  What is going on in the heads of these folk who are to "Regulate in the best interest of society"?  Or is it that the Arsenic that they have allowed into the food system has mushified their grey matter to a point that a rational thought process is no longer possible? .......cowboss

USDA Approves ArborGen's Request to Plant 260,000 Genetically Engineered Eucalyptus Trees Across U.S. South

Yesterday the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service issued its decision to approve the mass-release of over a quarter of a million GE eucalyptus trees across seven states in the U.S. South (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina), despite overwhelming public opposition.

"We are very disappointed but not surprised by the USDA's decision, which is likely to have severe social and environmental impacts," stated Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator of the STOP GE Trees Campaign. "The USDA's final environmental assessment disregarded concerns raised by thousands of people in comments submitted opposing the release of GE eucalyptus trees."

The STOP GE Trees Campaign, which includes organizations, foresters and scientists from across the U.S. and around the world is preparing its next steps following the USDA decision.

Simone Lovera, Executive Director of the Global Forest Coalition said from her office in Asuncion, Paraguay, "This is not only bad for the U.S. This decision could open the door globally to these cold-tolerant eucalyptus and other transgenic trees which would have serious impacts on Indigenous and forest dwelling peoples around the world and lead to more biodiversity loss."

To read the USDA's final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact, go to: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/biotech_ea_permits.html

For background on the work of the STOP GE Trees Campaign and the threats of GE eucalyptus trees and other GMO trees, go to http://www.nogetrees.org/

Contact:

- Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator, STOP GE Trees Campaign, +1.802.578.0477

- Scot Quaranda, Campaigns Director, Dogwood Alliance, +1.828.251.2525 x 18

Cause of blood sweating in calves still obscure

Robin, a fellow cowboss, pointed this story out to me today.  All I can say is What the hell is going on?  Mankind is Mad!  Is this Bovine Ebola? ..........cowboss

German researchers investigated 52 calves from 42 farms in Germany, which suffered from a haemorrhagic disease with unknown cause. Similar cases appeared recently in the Netherlands, Scotland, England, and Wales where is spoken of fatal bleeding calf syndrome

Symptoms

At the age of about 2 to 3 weeks, calves had conspicuous, spontaneous transcutaneous petechiae and haemorrhages in mucosal surfaces as well as excessive bleeding associated with trauma.

Results
Blood analysis revealed a marked thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, and granulocytopenia. Severe haemorrhages in the skin and gastrointestinal tract were the major findings at post-mortem examination.

Histological investigation indicated a severe bone marrow hypoplasia/aplasia.

Infections with bacteria, bovine viral diarrhoea virus, or bluetongue virus were ruled out.

Specific toxins such as Furazolidone, DCVC metabolites or mycotoxins were not detected.

Pedigree analysis gave no indication for heredity of this syndrome.

Using a broad-spectrum PCR, a circovirus with high similarities to porcine circovirus type 2b (PCV2b), was detected in several of the affected calves.

Conclusion

The distinct cause of the disease still remains unknown. Potentially, the pathogenesis is complex and includes components such as infection, hereditary disposition, and immune- mediated destruction of blood cell precursors.  ..........from http://www.vetsweb.com/news/germany-cause-of-blood-sweating-in-calves-still-obscure-610.html
 
More info at http://animal-epidemics.blogspot.com/2009/11/circovirus-reaches-british-dutch-and.html

STOP "Days Old" baby calf slaughter in Canada

Another "dirty little secret" of corporate agriculture exposed.  Please sign my petition at care2 to Ban days old calf slaughter in Canada.   Thanx..............cowboss

Kevin O'Leary (Mr. "Cheap") of the Lang and O'Leary Exchange on CBC TV loves to make the statement "it's all about the money" and so it may be to many most of the time, but there must be limits as to what will be done in pursuit of the almighty dollar. The practise of slaughtering days old bull calves (a byproduct of the dairy industry) is not only unethical, but also quite possibly one of the most reprehensible and vile of the many questionable practises common on the factory farms of today! Indeed, "it is all about the money". To callously deny these calves the right to "a life" after being party to breeding the cow, knowing that there was a 50% chance of getting a bull calf is unconscionable.

Kendra Keels of Ontario Veal has confirmed that since "there is no market for days old baby fresh or frozen cuts", the meat from these babies goes to what she calls "further processing". Just how low will the industry go? They call it further processing, I call it deliberately hiding what it is they are selling you! Imagine this if you will, it's hidden in your hot dog wieners, it's hidden in the processed lunch and deli meat you buy, and quite possibly even hidden in the beef and beef vegetable baby food you purchase. Imagine that, feeding babies to babies!

Baby Bovine calf slaughter OK in Canada! - Baby seal slaughter banned in Canada! Yes it is illegal to slaughter the baby seals until they change color in Canada. It is great that world pressure has (at least) ended the "white" seal slaughter, BUT where is the human/(humane) outrage about the killing of the baby Bovines??? Or are they "just not cute enough"? Or could it be Cognitive Dissonance? Where are all the "celebs." when we need them? ...........just cowboss musing!

Enough, is enough! It is these scheming, underhanded, and vile practises, that if allowed to continue will, in fact feed the "farm animal abolitionist agenda". The dairy industry, and Canada's government regulators must find another way, it is clear that the current way has little possibility of "a good ending"! The "evil" practise of slaughtering days old calves in Canada must end, and soon.

Barrie Hopkins has it right in his article 'Fear ~ There are those in the know among us who tell us that our entire eco-system is dying. Our style of living must be changed, our actions reversed. Within this new millennium would it not be nice if this creature known as man could take a long look at himself in the mirror and then sit down and rethink his thinking? Would it not be nice to stop cowering in our man-made caves and start living? Living the lives that God intended when he granted dominion. When dominion over was granted did it not include ourselves, our lusts, our cruelty, as well as our greed?

I think it long overdue and definitely not before time, that the naked ape sits down and rethinks that which God has graciously granted.'

Please have a look at cowboss's other petitions at Care2 for the farm animals and food safety. If you agree with me please sign! Thank you for all that have done and will do ~ we are counting on you..............cowboss

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ban-the-feeding-of-arsenic-to-canadian-chickens

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/14/tell-congress-stop-practise-of-feeding-poultry-feces-to-food-producing-animals

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/end-guantanamo-for-dairy-cows

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Ban-Electroejaculation-of-Bulls

WARNING WARNING --- Sewage Sludge Being Sold at RONA Home & Garden

Please beware that the Milorganite fertilizer being advertised by RONA Home & Garden in this weeks flyer is made from Sewage Sludge.  What is even worse is that the description that goes with it indicates that it is for use on vegetable gardens as well as  lawns, flower beds, trees and shrubs. Do what you want!

What Sludge Watch has to say ~ Milwaukee continues to struggle with PCB contamination into Milorganite by Maureen Reilly

 
While the Milwaukee Municipal Sewerage District brags that they can sell their dried sewage sludge as "Milorganite", the Milwaukee auditors found that turning Milwaukee's sewage sludge into this 'fertilizer' is the most expensive disposal method on their list of possible management venues.Imagine just how much more "Milorganite" is going to cost the taxpayers of Milwaukee as the lawsuits start and the clean up gets underway.

Meanwhile, the lawyers at Milorganite are lobbying the Canadian government to relax the Fertilizer Act to give sludge fertilizers easier passage into this country. With the massive contamination of Milwaukee sewers with PCBs and the closure of countless parks and school fields with contaminated Milorganite, you'd think that Milorganite people would acknowledge the danger posed by their sludge 'product' rather than trying to strip away regulations that protect the public.

The PCB contents in the land spread Milorganite material went undetected until after spreading. Who know what other toxins continue to be found in the sewerage that goes into Milorganite?

In the public interest, and in the name of taxpayer liability, isn't it time to close down Milorganite?

A "Silent Spring" at Wallace Springs Cattle Company ~ Where have all the Killdeers gone?

Rachel Carson Stated in her 1962 book "Silent Spring" that "These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes — nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad,” to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in soil — all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called “insecticides,” but “biocides.”"  

As a kid, growing up in Southern Ontario on a mixed farm, Maple syrup season was quickly followed by tilling the fields and getting ready to plant the years crops.  As sure as sap would run from the maple trees during syrup season, the Killdeers would "protest" when you tilled the soil.  As a child I always found their "fained broken wing" fascinating, circling round and round we would go, with the Killdeer never letting me get quite close enough to touch it.  Since those early childhood days (without divulging my age, suffice to say it has been many years), every year the "piercing song" of the Killdeers has heralded the coming planting season.

That was, until this year!  It is now the middle of April, and the fields are silent, except for the roar of huge tractors and the sound of the metal implements clanging on the stones.  Are the Killdeers gone?  Are they gone forever?  Where have they gone?   Is this what Rachel Carson was telling us?  Why hasn't anyone else noticed?  Or have they?  Or, am I just being paranoid?  Is this the world according to Monsanto?

Jenipher Appleton wrote in the Grand Bend Strip in 2008

....... "The high-pitched screech of the killdeer is another sign that spring has sprung.

The killdeer, Charadrius vociferous, a member of the plover family, is named for its piercing call. I recently heard the familiar “killdee!” and noted a female killdeer sprinting away from her nest. In an effort to divert my attention, she went into the usual broken wing act, crying in a pitiful voice. Treading carefully, I finally located the nest; a shallow scrape in the gravel, beautifully camouflaged and endowed with four brown speckled eggs. When I glanced away toward the frantic mother, it was very hard to relocate the nest when I looked back, although I had not moved an inch. I took a quick photo and promptly left the mother in peace.

The killdeer offspring are among the cutest of baby birds. Fluffy replicas of their parents, they come out of the egg running and with eyes open. These ‘precocial’ babies are much closer to independence than most newborn birds. They are incubated longer and so are further developed at birth."

What is known, is that they were here last year and every year before.  Did something happen on their way to their winter ground in Central America?  Or did something happen to them there? Did it happen here last year?

The American Bird Conservancy  is petitioning the EPA to put laws in force to protect U.S. and Canadian migratory birds on their wintering grounds by preventing cadusafos, cyproconazole, diazinon, dithianon, diquat, dimethoate, fenamiphos, mevinphos, methomyl, naled, phorate, terbufos, and dichlorvos from being used by preventing these pesticides from being imported on food products.  These chemicals are known to be deadly to migratory birds!

I feel so much like one who is waiting at the airport for a loved one, checking his watch, and refusing to believe that "the worst could have happened".  Let's hope that this is just me "being paranoid"!  I truly hope it is.

cowboss

David Kirby, author of "Animal Factory" is revolted by feces fed beef ........ No Shit!

Thank you, David Kirby for taking up the battle against US shit fed beef, truly one of the most disgusting and inhumane practises that any human could perpetuate any any other living being.  I do believe that it is true that ~  "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."........Frederic Bastiat

 One of the most revolting things I learned while researching my new book "Animal Factory" is that some cattle are fattened on rations that include chicken manure. Poultry excrement is loaded with urea, which bovine stomachs are adept at converting into lean, ready-to-grill protein.

We feed chicken manure to cattle because it's cheap; and because we produce far too much of it to properly dispose of as fertilizer.

Today's "broiler" chickens are raised at record speed in massive, mechanized barns that cram tens of thousands of birds into a single confinement. Broilers live just eight weeks. But in that short time, their endless fecal droppings (birds don't urinate) mix into a bedding of woodchips and other material, yielding a thick "cake" of litter that's scraped from the barn after each flock is removed.

What becomes of all that feculence? Its nitrogen and phosphorous content is so high that land application uses are limited. In Maryland's Eastern Shore, litter runoff is helping to fuel fish-choking algal blooms. In Arkansas, traces of arsenic (a growth-promoting feed additive) were found in homes near cropland onto which pulverized litter was spread.

So why not convert that chicken dung into Chateaubriand?

To begin with, cattle were meant to eat grasses, not feces (nor corn, soybeans or other subsidized commodities). But there's another reason why chicken litter should probably be kept away from cattle.

Poultry feed often contains bits of rendered beef byproducts. Chickens are not tidy eaters: they spill copious amounts of food into their litter, which is then fed to cattle. And, as everyone knows, cows that eat cows can go "mad" with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or spongy cow-brain disease).

In 2004, the FDA proposed banning poultry litter in cattle feed, to avoid the spread of BSE. It was already outlawed in Canada. But days later, the agency postponed its change, citing "troubling feedback" from the agricultural sector. Some foreign countries balked at buying US beef, but the Bush Administration held firm, refusing to commit to a deadline.

Chicken litter is not the only way that American cattle eat cattle. Beef-containing restaurant scraps are often rendered into feed, and a formula for dairy calves (whose mothers' milk is deemed too valuable to "waste") contains bovine blood products.

I imagined that the Obama Administration would complete the work left undone by Bush and enact a universal ban on feeding beef products to cattle. Instead, I discovered that Obama's FDA had ratified what his predecessor proposed: Doing nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing. In April 2008, Bush's FDA published its final rule on "Substances Prohibited From Use in Animal Food or Feed," which took effect under Obama's FDA, in April 2009.

"FDA is amending the agency's regulations to prohibit the use of certain cattle origin materials in the food or feed of all animals," it wrote in the Federal Register. These include: "the entire carcass BSE-positive cattle; the brains and spinal cords from cattle 30 months of age and older; the entire carcass of cattle not inspected and passed for human consumption that are 30 months of age or older from which brains and spinal cords were not removed; tallow that is derived from BSE-positive cattle; (and) tallow that is derived from other materials prohibited by this rule that contains more than 0.15 percent insoluble impurities."

Feel better? The agency insists that BSE "prions" (deadly, deformed proteins) are only found in brains, nerve tissue and spinal cords, and not in muscle or blood. Since none of those are allowed into any animal feed, it's ok to feed cattle to cattle, FDA says, and there's no need to ban litter, table scraps or blood products.........more

Strawberries to Die For : Battle Heats Up Over New Cancer-Causing Pesticide

Excerpt from the scientific review committee on the fumigant methyl iodide, “It is abundantly clear from basic chemistry that methyl iodide reacts readily with macromolecules, including with DNA, creating long lasting changes. In DNA, the effects of these methylated additions are mutagenic events that ultimately give rise to cancer.”

Translation: This shit causes cancer! That’s really obvious!

Thinking about Strawberries?  Think again! .........cowboss

There’s nothing quite like a fresh, juicy strawberry. Our family lives near the central coast of California where most of the strawberries in the U.S. are grown, so we enjoy fresh-picked strawberries nearly year round.

What many people don’t know is that some of the nastiest pesticides are used in strawberry fields. Most non-organic berries are grown in soil that’s been zapped clean with chemicals that kill everything they touch. Fields are covered with huge tarps while pesticides are pumped in and the soil is stripped of all living things before planting. Workers, neighbors and parents sending their kids to school near strawberry fields dread fumigation season.

The good news is, one of these “biocides” (a chemical called methyl bromide) is finally being phased out--targeted under an international treaty because it also happens to deplete the ozone layer.

The bad news? The powers-that-be in California are considering a replacement pesticide that’s such a “good” carcinogen it’s often used in cancer experiments in the lab, where scientists deck themselves in protective gear before they handle tiny amounts with extreme caution.

Fifty of those scientists--including five winners of the Nobel prize--wrote a letter to EPA when the national agency began reviewing the proposed pesticide. They were “astonished” that the chemical--called methyl iodide--would even be considered for use in agricultural fields. “As chemists and physicians…we are concerned that pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farmworkers, and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk.”

Bush-era EPA officials ignored the scientists’ letter, and approved methyl iodide (trade name: “Midas”) last year. Now California is deciding whether to allow strawberries, carrots and other state crops to experience the Midas touch. A decision is expected before the end of the year.

The company that makes the chemical is, of course, pushing for a “yes.” Arysta is an international corporation with a U.S. base in North Carolina. Since strawberry farmers themselves haven’t pressed hard to register the new carcinogen (not surprising, since farmers and workers are on the front lines for cancer and other health effects), the company has set up their own website and faux “grassroots action campaign.”

Concerned Californians are pushing back, mobilizing to convince their Governor that Midas is a bad idea. A “no” decision could protect the rest of the country as well, since new EPA officials say that if California rejects methyl iodide, the agency will rethink its blessing for use in other states.

More bad news: cancer isn’t the only risk Midas poses. Exposure is also linked to miscarriages and asthma, and can affect the human nervous system, lungs, liver and kidneys. And exposure in rural communities is almost certain, since when a reactive chemical like methyl iodide is put into the soil, it can sink into groundwater or float into neighboring yards and schools. Doesn’t sound like such a good idea.

Fortunately, there’s another round of good news too. Berry farming is possible without using Midas or other pesticides. Farmers are growing organic strawberries in California and around the country by building healthy, living soil and managing pests without risky chemicals.

California activists say calling the Governor really can make a difference. Seems worth the effort if a phone call might help protect workers and rural communities across the country from a powerful new carcinogen plus keep the soil in strawberry fields alive. Choosing organic strawberries at the farmer’s market or in the grocery store will also help. If there’s no market for conventional strawberries, companies like Arysta may just have to find a safer product line. Ladybugs, anyone?

Note: This post was written by Kristin Schafer, Senior Policy Analyst at Pesticide Action Network North America.