Two years after McDonald's' own deadline for reducing trans fats, the
french fry has thus far snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The heavyweight among fast food chains had announced with fanfare that
the amount of trans fats in its cooking oil would be cut almost in
half by February 2003. After that, a more ambitious goal: McDonald's
planned to eliminate this form of disease-causing grease, right down
to the last McNugget.

Today, however, an order of fries remains as trans-laden as ever,
leaving consumer advocates with a supersized disbelief.
...
McDonald's has been using trans fats since 1990. At the time it turned
trans, the company was looking for a way to reduce the saturated fat
and cholesterol coming out of its fryers. Trans fats are, before a
chemical transformation, vegetable oil. The hope was that the trans
fats would be no harder on a customer's health than canola or corn
oil.

But the evidence against trans fat was already gathering, and it has
now become one of the major controversies in the American food
industry. The new U.S. Dietary Guidelines, released just this month,
urge Americans to keep their trans-fat consumption as close to zero as
possible.
...
Dr. Dean Ornish, for one, believes these are more than just claims for
public relations. For almost 30 years, Ornish has touted the benefits
of a diet very low in fat. In 2002, the devoted vegetarian was one of
the many experts who praised McDonald's for abandoning trans fats.
He's now consulting with the company on ways to make its food better
for the 23 million Americans who eat it each day.

"I think they remain committed to achieving the trans fatty acid
goal," says Ornish, who runs the Preventive Medicine Research
Institute in Sausalito, Calif. "The truth is that it was easier to
reduce it in some products than others."

--
full story:
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/020105/lif_020105029.shtml

-----
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For Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the future has never looked brighter. As
the world's largest producer of fine-quality foie gras, the Sullivan
County company has seen its sales explode in the last 10 years.
Thirty-three of Zagat's 50 top-rated restaurants in New York City have
Hudson Valley Foie Gras (HVFG) on their menus. And while per capita
consumption is still low in the United States, a product formerly
reserved for the super-rich is on the cusp of becoming the balsamic
vinegar of the next decade.

But there is a storm brewing in Sullivan County. Animal rights
activists have dubbed foie gras "fur food." At their urging,
California has recently joined Germany, Poland, Finland, Sweden, the
UK, and Israel in banning foie gras production, by 2012. The ban will
effectively put Sonoma Foie Gras, HVFG's only US competition, out of
business.

Now the animal defenders are setting their sights on the Hudson Valley
and vowing to do whatever it takes to put Hudson Valley Foie Gras out
of business.
...
According to Sarahjane Blum, founder of the anti–foie gras group
Gourmet Cruelty, lack of information is what drives the industry.
"People either refuse to acknowledge how foie gras is made or they
don't know. This industry survives on people's willful ignorance," she
said.

Blum is not the archetypal animal rights activist. The 26-year-old PhD
candidate is a life-long vegan, but somehow avoids the off-putting,
self-righteous attitude of most PETA-types. She claims she isn't
trying to tell people what to eat; she just wants to show them how it
ended up on their plate.

Blum said that she requested tours of both US foie gras farms. But
when her calls went unreturned, she led a group of activists on
several late-night, self-guided tours of both establishments—with a
video camera. The result is Delicacy of Despair, a 16-minute
documentary that promises a view "behind the closed doors of the foie
gras industry."

The film paints a grim picture. The activists found ducks kept in
isolation cages, ducks with malformed beaks and crippled feet. Some of
the ducks were so fat their legs could no longer support them. Farm
employees went about their business— roughly grabbing ducks by the
neck and jamming in feeding tubes. Trashcans overflowed with duck
corpses. There's even a shot of two ducks being eaten alive by rats.
The film is horrifying, and incredibly effective. But my many years in
television news has taught me that selective editing can make a bad
situation look a thousand times worse. To find out what was really
going on at a foie gras farm, I would have to visit one.

--
full story:
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2005/02/tastings/

-----
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THE DANGERS IN AQUACULTURE'S BOOM
The Washington Post, Wenonah Hauter, February 1, 2005; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52775-2005Jan31.html?sub=new


Encouraging the aquaculture industry sets a troubling precedent in the United
States [front page, Jan. 24]. This relatively new industry entices consumers
with rock-bottom prices and illusions of sustainability, but the repercussions
of this "blue revolution" are felt individually and at a global level.

Aquaculture is being marketed as a new protein source, but consumers aren't
hearing all the facts. Fish feed, such as plankton, is harvested from the ocean
to feed farm-raised seafood, leaving wild fish populations at even greater risk
and ultimately causing a net loss of protein. Consider shrimp, the No. 1 seafood
choice in the United States for three years running:

Nearly 90 percent of the shrimp we eat is farm-raised, amounting to more than
1.1 billion pounds each year. Up to three pounds of wild-caught fish is needed
to raise just one pound of farm-raised shrimp.

Not only are the oceans still being depleted, but many shrimp farms depend on
staggering amounts of antibiotics, fungicides, algaecides and pesticides to
fight diseases that run rampant in the polluted ponds created to harvest the
shrimp. Research shows that over time, bacteria exposed to antibiotics may
become more resistant to those antibiotics, and patients infected with such
bacteria are more difficult to treat.

We shouldn't encourage similar farms to sprout up across the United States.
Educated consumers should avoid farm-raised shrimp and fish.


Wenonah Hauter
Director, Food Program
Public Citizen
Washington


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Massive Manure Fire Burns Into Third Month
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050128/D87T3LM00.html>http://apnews.excite.c\
om/article/20050128/D87T3LM00.html

Jan 28, 2005
By KEVIN O'HANLON

(AP) A huge mountain of cow manure is seen smoldering at a feedlot
near Milford, Neb., Tuesday, Jan. 18,...

MILFORD, Neb. (AP) - Urban dwellers who enjoy dining on filet mignon
at five-star restaurants would probably just as soon not know about
David Dickinson's dilemma.

Bad for the appetite, you know.

But Dickinson, who makes his living in the cattle business, has an
environmental problem on his hands that is vexing state officials: a
2,000-ton pile of burning cow manure.

Dickinson owns and manages Midwest Feeding Co. about 20 miles west of
Lincoln, which takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers
and ranchers and fattens them for market.

Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile
measuring 100 feet long, 30 feet high and 50 feet wide that began
burning about two months ago and continues to smolder despite
Herculean attempts to douse it.

While city folks might have trouble imagining a dung pile of such
proportions, they are common sites in rural states.

In July, crews fighting a blaze in a three-acre manure lagoon at a
dairy farm in Washington smothered the flames with more of the same -
a blanket of wet cow manure.

In December, Montana officials ordered the owner of a horse feedlot
to extinguish a large manure fire that sent a stench over a nearby
town.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has informed
Dickinson that his smoldering dung pile violates clean-air laws and
is working with him to find the best solution to extinguish it, said
agency spokesman Rich Webster.

(AP) A huge mountain of cow manure is seen smoldering at a feedlot
near Milford, Neb., Tuesday, Jan. 18,...
Full ImageSimply dumping water on the heap is not the answer, Webster
said, because of concerns about runoff to any nearby water source.

Dickinson first tried using heavy equipment to spread out the
smoldering pile and extinguish the fire.

"But the problem was, it started in another spot," he said. "We've
also had the fire department out a couple of times."

And still it burns.

No one is sure how the fire started, but a common theory is that heat
from the decomposing manure deep inside the pile eventually ignited
the manure.

Wilma Roth, who manages a restaurant along Interstate 80 about a mile
north of the feedlot, said her customers have complained about the
smoke, which wafts for miles.

"I'd just as soon forget about it," she said.

Dickinson said the smoke is not particularly malodorous - although
that comes from a man who works full-time around manure.

"I guess it's just all perspective," he said. "To me, it just smells
like smoke. I really don't know how to describe it."

Decades ago, most farmers and ranchers kept their own cows and pigs
until they were shipped to market and slaughtered into filet mignon,
hamburger, pork chops and bacon.

And with all those animals spread far apart at thousands of farms, it
was easier to dispose of the manure.

But huge feedlots - where animals are shipped to fatten on a
high-grain diet for their last several months - have become
commonplace.

Dickinson has an average of 12,000 animals on hand, each eating about
25 pounds of feed daily, resulting in as much as nine pounds of
manure a day per animal - some 54 tons every 24 hours.

Most big feedlots spread the manure over farm fields or compost it to
spread later or sell commercially to gardeners.

Farmers in several states are experimenting with using the methane
gas from livestock manure to produce electricity. The manure is
heated and produces methane gas as it breaks down. The gas is
collected and used to power a generator, which sends electricity onto
a power grid.

Dickinson acknowledged that while some folks see the humor in his
predicament, he takes the fire seriously.

"It's a nuisance, and obviously we are trying to get it resolved," he
said. "Everybody's been really patient."

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

4th Global Conference Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship
Location:        United Kingdom
Call for Papers Deadline:        2005-03-11
Date Submitted:  2005-01-26
Announcement ID:         143646
4th Global Conference
Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship:
Environments, Sustainability and Technologies

Tuesday 5th July - Thursday 7th July 2005
Mansfield College, Oxford

Call for Papers


This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference aims to explore the
role of ecology and environmental ideas in the context of contemporary society
and international politics, and assess the
implications for our understandings of fairness, justice and global citizenship.

In particular, the 4th Global Conference on Ecological Justice and Global
Citizenship will explicitly explore the relationships between environments,
sustainability and technology, the role of technology in creating possibilities
for sustainable resources for the future, and the inherent problems and dangers
which accompany that role.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on any of the following
indicative themes:


1.      GM

         *       GM as a symbol of public perceptions of the possibilities and
challenges offered by technology and public understanding of risks of
technological developments in relation to the
environment
         *       Expert vs. lay knowledge; Who decides? Scientists, politicians
or 'the people'?
         *       Participatory decision-making; e.g., the 'GM Nation' debate that
took place in the UK in summer 2003
         *       Environmental ethics; relations between humans and 'nature'
         *       'New and emerging thinkers and trends of thought;
e.g., recent books - Bill McKibben's Enough, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake;
other examples welcome
         *       The role and place of Environmental protest; forms of resistance
to GM, their significance and impact
         *       The political economy of GM; trade, aid, justice, international
dimensions
         *       Technology and 'progress'; what counts as technological
development? Which is more modern - GM food or organic food?
         *       Developing countries and GM; the place of developing countries
in the GM debate; the responsibility of the developers towards developing
countries; whether patterns of development are predicated on wrong perceptions
about the role of technology; the coverage of and access to alternative
technologies


  2.      Cooperative and Sustainable Development

         *       Human rights, state sovereignty and the global commons
         *       The significance of the welfare state; the principle of
distribution
         *       Sustainable employment and cooperation between capital and
labour
         *       Property rights and private insurance vs. pooling of human and
ecological resources
         *       Transport and the environment; designing and delivering national
and international transport systems; creating sustainable transport networks
         *       Responsible consumption and corporate transparency and
accountability
         *       Communities taking responsibility for the local environment
         *       Civil society and the role of NGOs


3.      Environmental Education and Intellectual Health

         *       Environmental issues and the curriculum; integrating
environmental awareness and education in the primary, secondary and higher
education sectors
         *       The components of scholarship: discovery-research, teaching,
integration and application
         *       The emerging synthesis of perceptual psychology and ecological
awareness
         *       The humanistic model vs the ecological model
         *       The role of the planning and design sciences
         *       Teaching citizenship, identity and ethics
         *       Designing the ecological curriculum
         *       The integration of distinct disciplines; trans-disciplinary
innovations


  4.      Citizenship, Technological Innovation & Sustainability

         *       The deployment and mobilisation of technologies
         *       How we engage with the various ways in which citizens (in lay or
professional roles) can, are, or could be involved in the processes of achieving
increased sustainability in the way they design,
make and implement technologies
         *       The social nature of technologies;
         *       Developing understandings of user and community 'participation'
in design and decision making processes
         *       The need for greater multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration
and its essential accompanying characteristic of inter-disciplinary or joined-up
thinking
         *       Technology, buildings, cities and planning policies: the role of
technology in designing and constructing buildings and cities to more
sustainable effect; the impact of information technologies; knowledge management
and the environment

Papers are also solicited for special sessions which will be held in common with
a second research project running at the same time entitled "Making Sense Of:
Health, Illness and Disease". Papers dealing with issues surrounding the health
impacts of technological developments are encouraged.

For example, we welcome submissions dealing with themes exploring the notion of
'environments' (both natural, built and virtual) as a backdrop where
technologies are used through thought and action to achieve sustainability, but
where mismatches between environmental issues and technological solutions have
experienceable effects on health which, untreated (such as non- recognition of
stress, mental ill health), result in illness. Papers could also deal with the
gap between
environmental ills and technological and technical solutions, and the possible
consequent greater probability of disease and death. Holistic solutions to
health, illness and environmental issues could usefully be explored, along with
citizenship issues and access to health care.

Perspectives are sought from

*       people engaged in actor network theory, agriculture and agricultural
economics, the built environment disciplines, conflict resolution and mediation,
critical geography, environmental studies,
human development and ecology, industrial relations and design, philosophy and
ethics, political science and international affairs, public policy and advising,
social sciences, sociology of science,
theology, urban studies, western European studies
*       people in the public and private sectors who are involved in planning
and project development, policy-making and implementation, and negotiation and
mediation at national and international levels
*       people in Governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental
organisations, voluntary sector bodies, environmental charities and groups,
business and professional associations.

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be
submitted by Friday 11th March 2005. If selected for presentation, 8 page draft
conference papers should be submitted by Friday 10th June 2005.

Papers should be submitted to the Joint Organising Chairs: these should be sent
as an email attachment in Word or WordPerfect; abstracts can also be submitted
in the body of the email text rather than as an attachment.

Joint Organising Chairs

Dr. S. Ram Vemuri
School of Law and Business
Faculty of Law, Business and Arts
Charles Darwin University
Darwin, NT 0909, Australia
Email: Ram.Vemuri@...

Dr Rob Fisher (address and contact information provided below)

All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be published in an
ISBN eBook. Selected papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be
published in a themed hard copy volume. Two themed volumes are in print and one
themed volume is in press from the
previous conferences.

The conference is sponsored by Inter-Disciplinary.Net as part of the 'Probing
the Boundaries' programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people
from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various
discussions which are innovative and exciting.

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/ejgc/ejgc.htm

For further details about the conference please visit the following web address.


Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Fax: +44 (0) 870 4601132
Email: rf@...

Visit the website at
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ptb/ejgc/ejgc4/cfp.htm





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Not too long ago the word vegetarian was sure to elicit laughter on
late night talk shows. But not anymore.

Many people now recognize that vegetarian meals are not only familiar
-- think minestrone soup and bean burritos -- but that these meat-free
meals also have a lot going for them. Even if you don't want to become
a vegetarian, you may want to consider adding more meat-free days to
your menu.

What is a vegetarian? People often say to us, "I could be a
vegetarian. I love vegetables." Loving vegetables is a good thing,
since collectively they are probably the most health-protective of all
foods. But they are certainly not just for vegetarians.

--
full story:
http://www.ediets.com/news/article.cfm/cmi_363414/cid_6

-----
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Headlines, Events, E-Mail Lists, Jobs, and Organizations! Try
searching for the news item on Animalconcerns!
http://www.animalconcerns.org/

[from Springfield State Journal Register]

Molly Mathewson sits at a lunch table at Athens High School, picking
bits of sausage off her pizza. She ends up picking off all the cheese,
too, and finally throws it away in frustration.

Molly, a freshman, is one of a handful of vegetarians at Athens, and
she suffers for it. Many days, it's hard for her to find vegetarian
foods to eat among the school's selections, and sometimes there's
nothing available she can eat. Salads only are available twice a week
and can become very dull, she said.

"A person can't live on just salad," Molly said. "As much as it seems
like it, we're not rabbits."

In the United States, about 1 million people age 6-17 are vegetarians,
according to a Vegetarian Resource Group poll in 2000.

Molly's older sister, Margie, influenced Molly to become a vegetarian
in the eighth grade, and she is thinking about becoming a vegan.
Vegans don't eat meat or any animal products, such as cheese, milk or
eggs.

"I am actually in it for the animal rights. Too many animals are dying
nowadays for our meat cravings," said Molly, who also avoids buying
leather clothing.

--
full story:
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/voice/stories/46702.asp

-----
Your Portal to Animal Concerns Forum (discussion board), More News
Headlines, Events, E-Mail Lists, Jobs, and Organizations! Try
searching for the news item on Animalconcerns!
http://www.animalconcerns.org/

[from Common Ground.ca]

Fifteen years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish revolutionized our approach to
heart disease by demonstrating that individuals with serious heart
disease could reverse their condition with lifestyle changes and
without the use of medication. His four-point program included:

1. a very low-fat vegetarian diet (less than 10 percent calories from fat),
...
Ornish's program was repeated with patients in retreats throughout
North America. Brenda Davis (my Kelowna-based co-author on Becoming
Vegetarian and Becoming Vegan) and I had the good fortune to be staff
dietitians with some of these retreats. Over time, improvements were
made, including the provision of dietary sources of omega-3 fatty
acids, and an increased emphasis on whole foods.

--
full story:
http://www.commonground.ca/iss/0502163/cg163_vesanto.shtml

-----
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Headlines, Events, E-Mail Lists, Jobs, and Organizations! Try
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http://www.animalconcerns.org/

United Poultry Concerns PO Box 150 Machipongo, VA 23405
Phone: 757-678-7875 Fax: 757-678-5070 www.upc-online.org
February 1, 2004

UPC Sends You a Great Letter-to-the-Editor Opportunity

The following article about the intelligence of birds appears in today’s
edition of The Washington Post. The complex intelligence of birds is
scientifically confirmed. People with chickens, turkeys and ducks
regarded as domestic fowl and poultry are especially encouraged to write
a letter. You can email your Letter to the Editor to
letters@.... SEND A REGULAR E-MAIL. ATTACHMENTS WILL NOT BE
READ. Or send a letter by regular mail to:
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20071

Letters must be exclusive to The Washington Post and include the
writer’s home address and home and business phone numbers. Letters sent
by regular mail must be signed. HERE IS THE ARTICLE:

Bird Brains Get Some New Names, And New Respect
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52566-2005Jan31.html

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 1, 2005; Page A10

Their plumage can be beautiful, and many warble or sing. A few even seem
kind of clever, in their way. But for all that is impressive about
birds, most people would agree: "Brainy" they are not.

Now science is about to set the record straight. And the truth may be
jarring for all those big-brained mammals for whom the very word for
avian gray matter has come to mean "dummy."

Today an international group of experts is publishing a call for
scientists around the world to switch to a new set of words to describe
the various parts of the avian brain -- a wholesale revision of terms
that is rarely seen in science and the first total makeover of bird
brain anatomy in more than a century.

The new system, which draws upon many of the words used to describe the
human brain and has broad support among scientists, acknowledges the now
overwhelming evidence that avian and mammalian brains are remarkably
similar -- a fact that explains why many kinds of bird are not just
twitchily resourceful but able to design and manufacture tools, solve
mathematical problems and, in many cases, use language in ways that even
chimpanzees and other primates cannot.

In particular, it reflects a new recognition that the bulk of a bird's
brain is not, as scientists once thought, mere "basal ganglia" -- the
part of the brain that simply coordinates instincts. Rather, fully 75
percent of a bird's brain is an intricately wired mass that processes
information in much the same way as the vaunted human cerebral cortex.

Accordingly, under the new system, no longer will a part of that avian
cortex-like region be referred to as the "archistriatum," with its Latin
root that implies primitive. As of today it is the "arcopallium," which
means, in effect, "arched structure in a cognitively sophisticated area."

"It's the opposite of sticks and stones -- names do matter when it comes
to how scientists and other people think about things," said Duke
University neuroscientist Erich Jarvis, a leader of the Avian Brain
Nomenclature Consortium, whose manifesto appears in the February issue
of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

The old system, Jarvis said, stunted scientists' imaginations when it
came to appreciating birds' brainpower. The new system revamps about 95
percent of the 1,000 or so terms that scientists use to describe avian
brain structure.

"It's long overdue," said Evan Balaban, a behavioral neuroscientist at
McGill University in Montreal. "Changing a name by itself may not seem
earth-shattering, but it reflects an important change in knowledge."

The problem goes back to the 19th century, when German naturalist Ludwig
Edinger did the first careful studies of avian neuroanatomy and labeled
the myriad parts of the bird brain. He had a good eye for detail, Jarvis
said. But he was trapped in the political and religious thinking of his
day, which presumed that evolution is a process that goes from simplest
to more complicated and from dumber to smarter, all culminating in the
appearance of humans, who were seen as closest to God.

In keeping with that view, Edinger's naming system relied heavily on
prefixes such as "paleo" and "archi" to indicate the primordial nature
of the bird's brain. Similar structures can be found near the core of
"higher" animals' brains -- leftovers, it was believed, from
evolutionary history. But they were covered by what were believed to be
newer layers of smarter material such as the human "neocortex."

Edinger was unaware that the first birds did not appear on Earth until
50 million to 100 million years after the earliest, supposedly "neo"
mammals. He also got fooled by the fact that the large portion of bird
brain devoted to higher processing of visual and auditory information --
the part equivalent to the human cerebral cortex -- has a neural
architecture that makes it look, at first, like the simpler regions that
deal with instinctive behaviors.

Like many people today, Edinger had little reason to question the
conclusion that birds had meager intellects, said Tony Reiner, a
University of Tennessee neuroscientist and a member of the consortium.

"Pigeons bob their heads while they walk, which makes them look like
morons, and so people assumed birds only have the moron part of the
brain," Reiner said. "People thought they were stuck with just the
instinct part."

In recent decades, however, several avenues of evidence have proved
otherwise. Studies of brain chemicals, neural connections and genetic
controls over embryonic brain development have shown that the vast bulk
of a bird's admittedly small brain is not "primitive" at all but rather
constitutes a robust "pallium," or higher-processing center.

And behavioral studies in recent years have proved that many birds have
more pallium power than your average mammal.

Even seemingly moronic pigeons can categorize objects as "human-made"
vs. "natural"; discriminate between cubistic and impressionistic styles
of painting; and communicate using visual symbols on computers,
according to evidence compiled by the consortium, which spent seven
years on the project with input from scientists around the world.

Some birds can play games in which they intentionally tell lies. New
Caledonian crows design and make tools. Scrub jays can recall events
from specific times or places -- a trait once thought unique to humans.
And perhaps most impressive, parrots, hummingbirds and thousands of
other species of songbirds are able to teach and learn vocal
communication -- the basic skill that makes human language possible.
That's a variant of social intelligence not found in any mammal other
than people, bats, and cetaceans such as dolphins and whales.

In recognition of such sophistication, the group deleted all prefixes,
suffixes and other linguistic features that implied evolutionary
precedence, superiority or inferiority. In their place the group offers
value-free words that tell, for example, where a structure lies or how
it is connected to other brain parts.

Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Harvard's Radcliffe
Institute for Advanced Studies whose experiments with a grey parrot
named Alex have shown that some birds are capable of extremely complex
thinking -- even grasping something akin to the sophisticated concept of
"zero" -- said she was gratified to see scientific language catching up
with reality.

"The argument has been that birds don't have a cerebral cortex so they
can't do these things," she said. "Now we can appreciate that the bird
does have a brain area that we can imagine doing these things. It makes
all this not so incredibly surprising."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company




--
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the
compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.
www.upc-online.org <http://www.upc-online.org/>

Intro/table of contents. You can also link to a webpage of Howard's
review by going to:

http://www.madcowboy.com
Current/Back issues/info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

Best, Mark

----
Howdy! Welcome to the 45th edition of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

We've a special treat this issue.  Howard's written a long review of
Dr. Campbell's new book "The China Study."  Howard has known Dr.
Campbell personally for many years and believes this is an important
publication at a significant time.

Reading along, you'll find a bunch of articles in "Mad Cow Round-up"
about the 2nd and 3rd cases of Mad Cow Disease in Canada, the
ramifications, the debate, Mad Cow-type disease found in a goat, and
how cows with inflammations may harbor prions (precursors to Mad Cow
Disease) in unexpected organs.

Further on down there's information about Global Warming potentially
being twice what was original thought, how corporations are attempting
to change the science, a detailed article by Dr. Pimenthal about the
very serious water issues in this country that we need to face up to,
and then there's that former academic who's turned an entire city into
a social experiment -- a successful one.

Don't miss the "Spot the Vegan" campaign, a new online animal rights
peer-reviewed journal, greyhound racing in the West is officially
over, new study on animal lab stress, how Fructose is being pushed out
of products, the Japanese diet and cancer, making plastic with
oranges, and the incredible "Laddermill" concept.   In "Quick Bytes"
you'll find some extra Vegan Valentine's Day recipes, about Ingrid
Newkirk's new book: "Making Kind Choices," concerns about cell phones,
Veganic Farming, John Stauber on the current state of the Mad Cow
Crisis, Wm. Safire on the origin of the word "Vegan," and other useful
sites.

Finally, there's also a link in this issue to a preview of Howard's
tentative schedule for his Fall Tour (promoting his long-awaited
soon-to-be-released Documentary).  More dates and locations will be added.

...and as always, a nod of the hat to our New Subscribers.  Y'all can
read past copies of the Newsletter (searchable, too) at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

Best wishes for everyone in this New Year!

Stay warm and active..... Mark  (and Happy Vegan Valentine's Day!)


***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00:  Review: "The China Study" is all thumbs up!" by Howard
01:  The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
02:  Mad Cow Info Round-up
03:  Oily Denials, City Tests, Earth Warms 2X, Water Warning
04:  Fructose Pushed, Asian Diet/Oil/Cancer, Thinner on Veggies
05:  Spot the Vegan, Dog Boots, Manure Burns, Mad Cap Disease
06:  Animals/Quakes, New Journal, Greyhounds Gone, Lab Stress
07:  Germany Shines, Oily Bus, Orange Plastics, the Laddermill
08:  Howard's Schedule
09:  Quick Bytes
10:  Closing Thought(s)

Stranger in a Strange Land
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/02.02.05/dining-0505.html

quote:

It happens to the most stalwart vegetarian. You're backed into going to a
steakhouse. Maybe your Uncle John is in town, and he wants to go to a
Black Angus, because he's not interested in that pretentious California
cuisine. Or maybe your VP of sales thinks nothing shows important clients
you care like an overpriced dinner at a fancy steakhouse. Or maybe you
were reckless enough to tell your significant other you'd take him
anywhere for his birthday dinner, so he picks the place you won't go to
the other 364 days of the year.

So I wondered, how is a vegetarian treated at steakhouses in the Bay Area,
which is known to be fairly acclimatized to meatless eating? A little
tolerance goes a long way, but would it go this deep into meat-lover's
territory?

--
http://www.waste.org/~oak/

Lakers Coach Considering Resignation
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/sports/020105_sp_tomjanovich_resignation.html

quote:

LOS ANGELES —  Rudy Tomjanovich is considering whether to resign as coach
of the Los Angeles Lakers due to undisclosed health reasons, a team
representative said today.

...

"I've had two check-ups that were just perfect," Tomjanovich said then.
The cancer diagnosis prompted Tomjanovich to adopt a vegetarian diet for a
time and quit smoking.

"I've learned a lot about cancer," Tomjanovich said in July. "I didn't
realize then that (smoking) was the number one cause of bladder cancer."

-- http://www.waste.org/~oak/

[EXCERPT: "It's simple. We can't produce almonds without bees"]


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050202/ap_on_sc/bee_pests

Tiny Pest Decimating Honeybee Colonies

Tue Feb 1, 2005

FRESNO, Calif. - A tiny pest is decimating honeybee colonies across
the country, worrying beekeepers and farmers who depend on the
insects to pollinate their crops.

Pollinating almond orchards is the immediate worry in California's
agriculture industry, but the mites' devastation of the honeybee
supply is causing concern across the country. Honeybees pollinate
about one-third of the human diet and dozens of agricultural crops.

California produces 80 percent of the world's almond supply. A $1
billion-a-year crop, the nuts have become the state's top
agricultural export, ahead of wine and cotton.

Because almonds are the first crop to flower, the state's growers are
the first to suffer from the bee shortage. Bees are used to pollinate
the orchards from mid-February to early March.

"It's simple. We can't produce almonds without bees," said Scott
Hunter, an almond farmer near Merced who's getting ready to lay 2,500
hives among the bare branches of his Butte and Padre trees.

While their work starts in California's 550,000 acres of almonds, the
hives then move to apple orchards, cherry groves and melon patches
before finishing in New England's cranberry bogs in early summer.

That's why researchers, beekeepers and growers are scrambling for
ways to save the honeybees.

Experts think the mites may have arrived in the mid-1980s from Asia,
where they coexisted with local honeybees.

In their years in North America, the eight-legged pests have
devastated wild bee colonies and radically altered beekeeping. The
pinhead-sized mite - the Varroa destructor - feeds on honeybees and
their larvae. In some areas, they've destroyed as many as 60 percent
of the hives.

Reproducing quickly and in a closed environment, the mites have
developed a resistance to pesticides - a trait they've been able to
spread to their progeny faster than scientist have been able to
develop new compounds to fight them off.

"The fact that we don't have any compounds commercially available
really is a serious issue," said Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, research
leader at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Ariz. "This
is a very serious problem."

Researchers such as DeGrandi-Hoffman are looking for alternatives,
working on isolating bees with a natural resistance to mites, and
experimenting with elements such as plant oils and the mite-fighting
compounds produced by some bees.

But the process takes time, and the mites adapt very quickly, the
researcher said.

"You challenge them with a particular compound and, given time, they
will become resistant to that," she said.

Meanwhile, in California's almond orchards, the bee shortage is
leading growers to offer beekeepers almost twice what they paid last
year for their bees' services - up to $100 per hive. Growers have
been riding a wave of good prices and strong demand, but they say the
mite crisis is squeezing their profits.

Dan Cummings grows 4,000 acres of nuts in Butte, Colusa and Glenn
counties. He's one step ahead of other farmers, since he's also part
owner of 9,000 hives - many of which pollinate his crops.

Still, he said he's seen honeybee rentals go from being about 8
percent of his total expenses to nearly twice that.

The higher prices soften the blow to beekeepers, many of whom have
seen their colonies cut in half by mites. But they still worry that
without a quick solution, their livelihood - and their lifestyle -
may be in danger.

Every year, Jeff Anderson and his family pack their bee colonies in
Eagle Bend, Minn., to embark on a 1,900-mile trip - one way - to
Oakdale, Calif. It's here among the Central Valley's orchards that
Anderson reaps most of his income.

He hauled 5,000 hives this year, most of them owned by other keepers.
His California-Minnesota Honey Farm has been crossing the country
since 1962, and Anderson's been traveling with it for the last three
decades.

But he said he's never worked with so few bees. This year, he's lost
about half his hives to mites.

"It's a panic situation," he said.

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press.

Queen of Corn Bread
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2005/02/02/news_living/local/a621c698bb\
13fb8886256f9b0067098f.txt

quote:

A "corny" idea led Sioux Cityan Dana Sly to Boston, Mass., recently.

Sly, 12, challenged herself through a 4-H project to find the best vegan
recipe she could for corn bread.

It wasn't easy.

"My first problem, of course, was the recipe," Sly wrote in her final
project, which earned Grand Champion Food & Nutrition honors at the
Woodbury County Fair in August. "Since vegan corn bread recipes aren't on
every corner, I decided to use my favorite recipe in the Better Homes and
Gardens New Cook Book."

But that recipe contained eggs and milk, products a vegan recipe must do
without.

So, Sly researched substitutes and came up with everything from mushed-up
tofu to psyllium husks.

"I wanted to have the substitutes easy to find in a grocery store. So, for
the eggs I chose Ener-G egg replacer (a combination of vegetable starches
you blend with water), ground flax seeds simmered in water, and whipped
soft tofu. For milk, I used soy milk and rice milk."

--
http://www.waste.org/~oak/

----- Original Message -----
From: "hecal_2000" <hecal_2000@...>
To: <animal_net@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 9:23 AM
Subject: [animal_net] IVU World Vegetarian Congress in India in 2006

GOA, INDIA, 2006, from Jashu Shah, Congress organiser

The question is several times posed to me that "India being
vegetarian, is a World Vegetarian Congress there necessary?"

In 1957 it was for the first time that the IVU came out to India and
had the Congress.  It was necessary at that time because one has to
open out to the world.  Now it has become necessary because the world
is shrinking and people have become global.  There is lot of
interaction between the people and a whole generation has been
changed. There is a big slot in the culture by TV and Radio - and
because of the globalisation more interaction is taking place.

Traditionally at least 35% of Indians are strict vegetarians; another
35% take eggs/fish or chicken once a month or once a week.  The
majority of food contents in India is also vegetarian, there are one
or two dishes made which are not vegetarian.

Because of the globalisation the younger generation is sitting on the
fence. They do not know which way to look, and are turning non-
vegetarians because of the international contact, and because of the
onslaught of Venky's chicken and other food joints which are starting
in India.  The people are travelling and the globe is shrinking.  The
younger generation is turning to non-vegetarian.

The problem in the Western countries is to convince the people to
become vegetarian.  But our problem is otherwise.  We have to
convince the people not to become non-vegetarians.

  This only can be done by organizing Congresses, seminars etc.,
inviting people from the USA, UK, Europe and Far East to talk to the
younger generation of the Indian people.  Why those who are non-
vegetarians have turned to vegetarianism - and when an outsider
speaks it is more effective.  Although we are traditionally
vegetarians, we need to convince the people who are turning to non-
vegetarians.  And when a person who is convinced himself speaks, he
is capable of convincing others.

And that is why the Congress is more necessary in India than anywhere
else.

India consists of a large community of people with different cultures
and different aspects.  I therefore strongly tell Indians that if the
people from the Western world who were non-vegetarians have become
vegetarians, that itself proves that the vegetarian food is better
than the non-vegetarian food.  You should come here to convince the
people.  Even when there is no World Vegetarian Congress some people
should come here and deliver lectures.

This is for the time being.  Let us work for the Congress. Let us
pray for the success of the Congress by all getting together and
telling the people what is good.

Regards,
Jashu Shah, Mumbai

For the for further details about Goa see
hhtp://www.ivu.org/congress/2006  - more info will be added as it
becomes available, so bookmark this page!

  International Vegetarian Union - www.ivu.org

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/business/02chicken.html

The New York Times

February 2, 2005

Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group in Calling for a Boycott of KFC
By MELANIE WARNER

The Rev. Al Sharpton will not eat at KFC and he doesn't think you
should either.

Starting today, Mr. Sharpton is joining forces with the animal rights
group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to urge a boycott
of KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands of Louisville, Ky. Mr. Sharpton
and PETA want the fast food chain to require its chicken suppliers to
put in place new standards for the treatment of the 750 million
chickens they process for KFC every year in the United States. The
rap mogul Russell Simmons is also joining the Sharpton campaign.

"If we give our money to KFC, we're paying for a life of misery for
some of God's most helpless creatures," says Mr. Sharpton in an
eight-minute video that will be shown outside KFC's around the
country.

PETA has been waging a campaign against KFC for two years. The
organization was eager to enlist Mr. Sharpton because KFC has many
stores in largely black neighborhoods and in late 2003 KFC executives
told investors they were making an increased effort to market to
blacks.

Mr. Sharpton and PETA are demanding that KFC force its chicken
suppliers, like Pilgrim's Pride and Perdue, to give chickens more
room in factory barns and to make use of a process that puts birds to
sleep with nitrogen before they are killed. They are also asking KFC
to stop its suppliers from forcing such rapid, hormone-driven growth
that the birds crumple under their own weight.

PETA said that unlike other companies, KFC has been largely
unresponsive. "KFC has been by far the most stubborn corporation we
have attempted to work with," said PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk,
in a written statement.

Yum Brands, which also own Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, declined to
comment on PETA's demands and allegations. "PETA is an organization
more interested in promoting vegetarianism than the truth," a
spokesman, Jonathan Blum, said.

PETA recently won a concession from McDonald's, which said it would
study the possibility of requiring American suppliers to use the
process of so-called controlled-atmosphere killing.

Several years ago, in response to PETA's "Unhappy Meal" campaign,
McDonald's, which buys one of every 20 eggs sold in America, agreed
to buy eggs only from farms offering hens extra water, more wing room
in their cages and fresh air.

PETA says it has chosen to shed light on the chicken industry in
recent years because large chicken producers and sellers have made
little movement toward more humane practices. "The chicken industry
is way behind the beef and pork industries," said Dr. Temple Grandin,
associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University
and a member of Yum Brands' animal welfare advisory council. "They
need to work on getting some of the same auditing systems in place."

Animal welfare specialists like Dr. Grandin agree with PETA that the
short lives of chickens need to be improved. Dr. Grandin said that as
many as 6 percent of birds suffer broken wings or legs when workers
pack them into crates and onto trucks.

"A lot of workers aren't adequately trained," said Dr. Mohan Raj, a
senior research fellow at the University of Bristol in Britain and a
veterinarian who has studied chicken welfare practices in the United
States.

Animal rights activists are hardly KFC's only problem. In recent
years, the company has been the financial stepchild at Yum Brands.
Last year KFC's same-store sales were down 2 percent; sales increased
at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Updated Feb.2,2005 22:18 KST

Korea consumes 150 tons of whale meat annually, 80 percent of which is consumed
in Ulsan, the city said Wednesday. Ulsan City released a report on the
distribution of whale meat ahead of the 57th Annual International Whaling
Commission (IWC) Conference to be held there in May.

It says half of the 50 whale meat restaurants nationwide are in Ulsan. Ten are
located in Busan, another 10 in North Gyeongsang Province and five in Seoul.

The amount of whale meat consumed daily in those restaurants is estimated at 500
kg, around 10 kg per restaurant, totaling more than 150,000 kg annually.

However, whale catches have continuously decreased over the recent three years,
down from 84 in 2002, 64 in 2003, to 57 in 2004. Some 80 percent of whales are
caught by accident in fishing nets in East Sea. In waters in Ulsan, an average
of five whales are caught every year, mainly between April and June.

(Kim Hak-chan, chani@... )

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200502/200502020040.html

EBRUARY 2, 2005

WASHINGTON -- February 2 -- The Japanese government provides no warning to its
people that eating dolphin meat is a serious health hazard.

Submitted by Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan, One Voice, Earth Island Institute

Three international environmental organizations ¯ the Elsa Nature Conservancy
(ENC) of Japan, the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island
Institute (EII), and One Voice, a leading French animal protection organization
¯ warned today that dolphin meat sold to the Japanese people is highly
contaminated with mercury, methylmercury, cadmium, DDT, and PCBs. Despite the
scientific evidence of dangerous contamination, the Japanese government provides
no warning to its people that eating dolphin meat is a serious health hazard.

Dolphin meat on the market in Japan can be mislabeled as *whale* meat. Fishermen
drive dolphins into shallow bays and nets, where some are harpooned and
butchered in blood-filled waters. Other dolphins are sold for high profits to
aquariums around the world.

*The people of Japan have long suffered from severe pollution and
contamination,* explained David Phillips, Director of EII. *Dolphin and whale
meat are seriously contaminated with poisons that can injure, sicken, and kill
people. Yet, the Japanese government has taken no steps to protect its people
from harm.*

*If the people of Japan knew the truth, they would refuse to buy the poisoned
meat of dolphins and whales that have been brutally slaughtered,* stated Ric
O¢Barry, Lead Investigator of One Voice, *But the government and the fishing
industry keep this dangerous secret hidden from the Japanese people. It is time
for the Japanese government to end the slaughter of dolphins and end the
poisoning of its people.*

ENC acquired a slice of meat from a bottlenose dolphin that was butchered in
Futo on November 11, 2004. ENC sent the sample to Hokkaido where Dr. Tetsuya
Endo of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Hokkaido, examined
it for mercury contamination. Highly polluted, it contained 19.2ppm (parts per
million) of mercury, 48 times higher than the maximum advisory level of 0.4ppm
set by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry of Japan.

Mercury can cause severe damage to the brain and nervous system in adults, and
is particularly dangerous for young children and pregnant women. To avoid
contamination, consumers in Japan are advised to avoid buying dolphin or *whale*
meat.

International teams of scientists have analyzed hundreds samples of whale and
dolphin meat sold in Japan. They reported to the International Whaling
Commission that more than 90% of the samples exceeded limits for one or more
pollutants. One sample had more than 1,600 times the permitted level of mercury.
The average level of mercury was more than 5 times the maximum allowable level,
while the average concentration of methyl mercury was 4 times the maximum level.

MEDIA ALERT: VIDEO FOOTAGE and PHOTOS of the dolphin drive fisheries of Japan is
available from Earth Island Institute by calling (415) 788-3666 or faxing (415)
788-7324. For further information, including stores that sell dolphin and whale
meat, visit www.saveTaijiDolphins.org.

CONTACT: Earth Island Institute
David Phillips, 415-788-3666 x145
Helene O'Barry, 305-668-1619

FULL STORY:
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0202-04.htm

[EXCERPT: The WHO's biggest concern is that the virus may mutate into
a form easily spread from person-to-person, potentially sparking a
global pandemic. Most cases so far have been traced to sick poultry,
and there is no evidence that the disease has altered.]


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Vietnam-Bird-Flu.html


February 3, 2005

Vietnam Seeks U.N. Help to Fight Bird Flu
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam has appealed to the United Nations to
help it fight a raging bird flu outbreak that has killed 12 people in
the communist country over the past five weeks, officials said
Thursday.

Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat sent a letter Wednesday to the Food
and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization asking
that experts be sent to help Vietnamese specialists map out a plan of
action to control the disease's spread, said ministry official Nguyen
Quoc Dat.

He said the minister also asked the two U.N agencies to help
coordinate foreign assistance sent to Vietnam for the best use of
resources.

``Last year, we asked the international community to help fight the
bird flu and received their effective assistance,'' he said. ``We
hope to get the same thing this year.''

A bird flu outbreak in 2004 spread to 10 Asian countries, forcing the
slaughter of more than 100 million birds and jumping to humans in
Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. Forty-five people have died in the
past year, most of them in Vietnam, where the virus has re-emerged in
recent weeks.

The WHO's biggest concern is that the virus may mutate into a form
easily spread from person-to-person, potentially sparking a global
pandemic. Most cases so far have been traced to sick poultry, and
there is no evidence that the disease has altered.

Hans Troedsson, the WHO representative in Vietnam, said the U.N.
agencies would help conduct studies and surveys to gain a clearer
picture of how widespread the virus is among the nation's poultry
stocks.

``This is very good news,'' Troedsson said of Vietnam's plea for
help. ``It shows the government is aware of the ... seriousness of
the situation, and is committed to seriously address this ... with
the assistance of the international community.''

Twelve people have died in Vietnam since Dec. 30, and outbreaks have
been reported in poultry stocks nationwide, killing or forcing the
cull of more than 1 million birds, Dat said.

The Agriculture Ministry ordered farmers nationwide to stop
restocking ducks and quail. It was not clear how the order would be
enforced and no determination has been made to shut down large-scale
breeding facilities, said an official from the Department of Animal
Health.

The European Commission in Vietnam says it will provide $782,100 to
buy laboratory equipment and emergency preparedness kits for patient
care and to assist health care workers.

Vietnam will begin testing vaccines from the Netherlands and China on
6,000 birds later this month, said Truong Van Dung, director of the
National Veterinary Institute in Hanoi. The poultry will be closely
monitored for six months to determine its effectiveness before mass
vaccinations are considered, he said.

Last year, Vietnam banned the sale and transport of poultry prior to
the busy Lunar New Year when millions of people and birds are on the
move. No such restrictions have been put in place this year before
the Tet holiday, which starts next week.

The country has taken some measures to ensure sick poultry do not
reach busy markets. Checkpoints have been set up outside all major
cities to verify that birds have been inspected and come from areas
free of outbreaks.

However, Thursday's Labor newspaper reported that a ban placed on the
transport of poultry coming from four hard-hit provinces has been
lifted, after no new outbreaks were reported in 21 days -- the
quarantine period set by law.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press

http://www.mysouthernalberta.com/leth/minute/minute.php


SPCA investigation finds Fraser valley farm infested with rats

-- Saturday, January 29 2005 --

VANCOUVER (CP) - The vet called in to accompany SPCA officers
executing a search warrant in Aldergrove this week says the
healthiest things on the farm were the hundreds of plump rats
"streaming" through the walls of a hog barn. "I've never seen that
many rats in one place in my entire life,' said Chilliwack vet Dr.
Mark Steinebach.

"The rats were just streaming in and out." Steinebach and SPCA animal
protection officers executed the warrant obtained under the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act at the farm on Monday.

The search ended up with more than 300 pigs and piglets euthanized.

They animals were living in such deplorable conditions and suffering
so greatly as a result that many were ordered euthanized on the spot.
One massive sow, weighing about 160 kilograms, was found lying in a
puddle of water, mud and feces near the entrance to a hog barn. She
couldn't stand up. "I thought she had died. Then I noticed she was
gasping for air," said senior animal protection officer Eileen Drever.

It's not clear how long the sow had been outside in that state. "It
was quite upsetting to see this one sow left there to die," Drever
said. Steinebach says there was no "practical way" to relieve the
animal's obvious discomfort other than euthanizing her. He
administered an intra-muscular sedative to calm her, and 10 minutes
later when the sow had stopped squealing in fear and distress and was
at last asleep, he injected a fatal dose of the anaesthetic
phenobarbitol.

The carcass has been sent away for a post-mortem. Inside the barn,
the vet and the SPCA officers examined more than 300 pigs and
piglets, jammed together in filthy and cramped pens. Drever says the
pigs, piglets especially, were suffering from numerous problems
associated with the unsanitary conditions - eye and upper respiratory
infections, skin lesions, and multiple injuries associated with
fighting due to over-crowding. "What they were doing was they were
chewing each other's tails off ," Drever said.

The farm's owner was ordered to euthanize the pigs immediately. In
the hog finishing barn, along with the hundreds of rats getting in
and out through holes in the walls, were mature hogs living in near
total darkness, with no ventilation. In terms of the treatment of the
hogs and pigs, Steinebach calls the farm "unprecedented."

The conditions for about 150 sheep ready for lambing were not much
better. The sheep barn was carpeted with a layer of feces "quite a
few inches deep," Drever explained, and there was nowhere dry for the
animals to lie down. The SPCA had planned to seize the sheep but
didn't out of concern the lambs might die from the stress. Instead,
the officers supervised as the farmer supplied the animals with fresh
bedding, food and water.

The SPCA did rescue six horses and a donkey. Those animals, though
physically fine, were being kept in a field with "inadequate
shelter," among buckets of insulation, piles of junk, scattered lamb
and pig carcasses and other hazardous materials including live
electrical wiring, Drever said.

"These animals did not get even the most rudimentary of care,"
Steinebach said, describing husbandry at the farm as "completely
inappropriate," and impossible to understand. SPCA officers will now
visit the farm on a daily basis to ensure all necessary changes are
made to keep the animals healthy and safe.

The animal protection organization has recommended the farmer be
charged. It is up to Crown counsel to decide whether the charges will
go ahead.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter synopsis from today's AnimalNet:


GIVE UP THE BACON AND SAVE SOME ANIMALS
Abbotsford News - Letters, February 1, 2005


Ashley Fruno writes that after reading of more then 300 pigs euthanized on an
Aldergrove farm, she is outraged and that the conditions those animals lived in
were horrendous.
However, equally horrific conditions exist every day on factory farms and
slaughter houses throughout Canada.
The meat, eggs and dairy products we buy are no longer from happy animals living
on small farms; they are from factories in which animals are treated like
machines.
Egg-laying hens are crammed into barren wire cages with four to five others,
giving them less space then a piece of notebook paper to carry out their
horrible lives.
Broiler chickens often have their throats slit and are scalded alive due to
improper stunning techniques.
Pigs are kept in sow stalls which limit their movement during their pregnancy.
They can't even turn around.
Beef cows are branded, causing third-degree burns, and are castrated with no
anesthetics. Dairy cows often spend their entire lives in tie stalls, which make
even lying down difficult.
To everyone who was disgusted with the horrendous treatment of these pigs, drop
the bacon and go vegetarian.
Check out www.humanefood.ca for more information.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Letter synopsis from today's AnimalNet:

GO VEGGIE, YOU TEENS
Globe and Mail (Canada), February 3, 2005
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050203/LETTERS0\
3-9/TPComment/Letters

Mark Hawthorne of Rohnert Park, Calif. writes it is heartening to read about
teens embracing a meatless diet (Teen Vegetarians Can Meet Nutrition Needs --
Feb. 2). Such news is encouraging not only because a diet based on plants has
been shown to be among the most effective methods for combatting cancer, heart
disease, and obesity, but because it helps ease the suffering of billions of
animals each year by avoiding meat, eggs and dairy products.

The more compassionate people opt for delicious, nutritious meals free of animal
products, the more farmed animals are relieved of the immense suffering of life
and death on factory farms and slaughter plants only to stock our grocery
shelves.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://toronto.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=to-milk20050201

Recall for tainted chocolate milk
Last Updated Feb 1 2005 09:13 AM EST
CBC News

TORONTO - A recall has been issued for one-litre cartons of chocolate milk
that health officials say may contain a chemical sanitizer.

The recall applies to one-litre cartons of Sealtest chocolate milk bearing
the expiry date FE 07.

The milk was manufactured by Natrel in Toronto and distributed throughout
Ontario.

Toronto Police issued a warning when a 29-year-old man fell ill after
drinking from a carton of the milk on Monday.

He was hospitalized, but is expected to make a full recovery.

The man drank from a carton that was filled with "a clear liquid with a
strong odour," police said in a statement.

However, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned that other cartons
bearing the FE 07 expiry date might also be contaminated, even though the
milk inside them may look and smell normal.

It cautioned all consumers against buying or drinking the milk.

As of Monday, the CFIA had received eight complaints and two illness reports
related to the tainted milk, said Garfield Balsom, a food safety officer
based in Ottawa.

Balsom said most of the reports came from eastern Ontario.

More information is available from the CFIA information line at
1-800-442-2342.

"Healthy school lunches" -- an oxymoron?  Not if you hear what Susan Wieland of
Citizens for Healthy Options in Children's Education  -- Choice USA-- has to
say.  Tune in to KAFM 88.1 on Thursday February 10 at 12:30 MST to hear the
Vegetarian Stew crew serve up some food for thought.  You can also listen in on
the web at www.kafmradio.org
  For more information on  Choice  visit www.choiceusa.net

  CHOICE (Citizens for Healthy Options In Children's Education) was launched in
1994 by a group of concerned parents to promote a choice of wholesome
plant-based meals and nutrition education in our nation's schools.


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DEBATE: IS ORGANIC FOOD HEALTHIER?
The Ecologist


Peter Melchett
Peter Melchett is Policy Director of the Soil Association, the UK's leading
organic certification body. Before he joined them.
Peter was head of Greenpeace UK for 10 years, and before that he a Government
Minister, where his responsibilities included environment, industry, education
and health.

Gareth Edwards-Jones
Throughout the 1990s Gareth Edward-Jones worked for the Scottish Agricultural
College in Edinburgh. In 1998 he took the Chair in
Agriculture and Land Use at University of Wales, Bangor. And from 2000 to 2004,
he was a member of the Government's Advisory Committee on Pesticides.

article on-line at:
http://www.theecologist.org/article.html?article=490



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OVERSEAS FARMING GIANTS EATING UP U.S FARM SECTOR
The Wall Street Journal, Janet Adamy, January 31, 2005


American agriculture is suddenly going through a lot of changes. After decades
as the world's biggest farm exporter, the U.S. farm sector is facing new
challenges. Overseas farming giants are emerging to eat into America's business
of supplying the world with crops such as wheat and soybeans.

And at home, American consumers are demanding that farmers change the way they
grow and sell their produce and livestock. Consumers want pesticide-free
produce, giving rise to new ways of cultivating and processing food. They also
are seeking new eating experiences. Their appetite for Chilean sea bass,
vanilla-flavored lattes made with Italian syrups, and grapes in winter is
erasing the U.S. farm sector's unique ability to generate a trade surplus.

U.S. farmers are seeking new streams of income from their land, such as
developing wind power, and, most important, many are learning how to be
marketers for the first time.

Here are some major trends down on the farm.


article available on-line at: http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=3308

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Under the guise of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to
totally re-engineer the country's traditional farming systems into a US-style
corporate agribusiness. They've even created a new law - Order 81 - to make sure
it happens.

The Ecologist, Feb. 5, 2005
http://www.theecologist.org/article.html?article=487




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FAST-FOOD 'NATURAL' CHICKEN TAKES WING ON SAFETY FEARS
USA Today, Bruce Horovitz, Feb. 3, 2005


Fast food's next better-for-you twist has wings: "natural" chicken.
That's chicken with no additives. Some say it's tastier and healthier. It's
certainly pricier. Arby's is about to announce plans to be the first national
fast-food chain to sell only natural chicken. The move comes at a time when
chicken of all types has emerged as fast food's hottest growth area.


article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2005-02-03-natural-usat_x.htm

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Brakke Consulting's Animal Health News & Notes for February 4, 2005:

US - Tsunami Aid   To aid countries devastated by the recent tsunami, the AVMA
announced that it is pledging $500,000 in matching funds to Heifer
International, an aid organization that supports the introduction of livestock
into small-scale farm efforts in 50 countries.  Established over 60 years ago
and already operating in some of the countries affected by the tsunami, Heifer
International is monitoring the situation to determine when animals can be
safely reintroduced into these areas.  When appropriate, Heifer International
will match agricultural livestock to the local geography and culture, and teach
the recipients how to properly raise and care for these animals.  For more
information, visit the AVMA website at www.AVMA.org. (PRNewswire)


From AVAR:

TELL AVMA TO RETHINK TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORT PLEDGE
Organization is pledging matching funds to group that claims to help people, but
at animals' expense

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), an organization comprised of
veterinarians who have taken an oath to relieve animal suffering, announced that
it intends to send matching donations from its members to Heifer International
to help with tsunami relief efforts. Heifer International provides farmed
animals to work for people.

The AVMA didn't send any veterinarians to help any of the thousands of animals
who have been displaced, many of them injured, after the tsunami hit southern
Asia in December. However, many veterinarians have traveled to the area to
assist with efforts to feed, provide clean water, and vaccinate lost animals,
mostly dogs and cats, at the request of animal protection organizations. Animal
shelters are filled with animals who have been turned in by people who can't
afford to take care of them anymore or who have not been reunited with their
caregivers.

"Instead of sending veterinarians to help animal victims as AVAR has done, the
AVMA has decided to donate up to $500,000 in matching funds to an organization
that misguidedly attempts to help people by promoting animal agriculture.
Cattle, goats, and other farmed animals will be sent, used, and misused by the
people for their eggs, milk, fur, or strength. The other very sad part is that
the AVMA apparently doesn't realize that providing crops and crop machinery
would have been more appropriate, as many people in these areas are vegetarian.
They shouldn't be promoting an animal-based diet because it is unhealthy for the
people and the environment. And, they certainly shouldn't be supporting an
organization that puts animals in harms way," said Paula Kislak, DVM, AVAR's
president.

Tell the AVMA that it needs to get its priorities straight. They need to
advocate for the animals, not people at the animals' expense. Also tell the AVMA
that there is plenty of work to do for veterinarians to help animals directly
affected by the tsunami.

Please write a letter to:

Bruce Little, Executive Director
American Veterinary Medical Association
1931 N. Meacham Rd, #100.
Schaumburg, IL 60173
e-mail: blittle@...

####



Pam Runquist
Director of Companion Animal Issues
Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
PO Box 208
Davis, CA 95617-0208
Tel: (530) 759-8106
pam@...



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[from Mother Jones]

"The first time I opened Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, I was
dining alone at the Palm, trying to enjoy a rib-eye steak cooked
medium rare." The Palm is a restaurant known for its beef, the
sentence is the opening of an article in the New York Times Magazine,
and the author, Michael Pollan, is now a professor of journalism at
Berkeley. The sentence shows how Pollan works as a writer. He doesn't
lecture or assume a superior position; instead, with a comic
juxtaposition, he places himself (and, by extension, the reader)
directly inside a cognitive dilemma, setting up a tension for the
article to resolve. Pollan finished the steak, and continues to eat
meat, although his prime choice is grass-fed beef rather than animals
that have been stuffed with corn, antibiotics, and hormones.

Pollan writes what he calls "food detective stories," but the way he
stalks his prey sets him apart from others who write about our palate
and plate. For an article about genetically modified food, for
instance, his first step was to plant Monsanto's genetically modified
NewLeaf potato in his garden. He then went to St. Louis to interview
the folks at Monsanto, and to Idaho to talk to potato farmers. He
called the FDA and the EPA, and interviewed people like Richard
Lewontin, the Harvard critic of biotechnology. He read and admired
scholarly articles, including "The Potato in the Materialist
Imagination" (by Berkeley English professor Catherine Gallagher). He
then mixed all of this, and much more, into a wonderful narrative
stew, all the while continuing to tend his patch of potatoes, both old
and NewLeaf. At the end, he had to decide whether or not to eat the
Monsanto potato. The article's last sentence: "I choose not."

--
full story:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2005/02/food_chains_dead_zones.html

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