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market-farming - RE: Double Dipping- by Martha Stevens, Hatfield,Missouri

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  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Double Dipping- by Martha Stevens, Hatfield,Missouri
  • Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 19:26:14 -0500


A mix of different commenters:
> Interesting. Raeford chicken plant fire - plant doors were always
> locked and many died;
> USDA, paid to do their job, never inspected the plant for safety
> violations.

And there was a huge penalty for this. Not as much as their would have been
if I was making the decision. The plant doors were locked though because of
the criminal activities of the workers. This does not excuse the management
but it explains what was going on that would cause them to make such a
morally wrong decisions.

> Consumer being hurt: Jack-In-the-Box; Conagra 500,000 lb contaminated meat
> released onto the market; on and on and on and on.

The issue I was describing previously was the consumer being effective
financially by concentration of industries. Not specific health issues.
Perhaps they could be used as an argument with the Supreme Court?

> Cite examples of anything like this happening with organic or
> naturally grown foods.

Unfortunately they do. As we had recently with the Wisconsin direct
marketing of "incidental" sales of milk. And many, many other times in the
past that led to all the food regulations. Remember that the regulations are
not something that happened recently as some seem to suggest. But rather,
occurred many decades ago as government got much more involved with public
health issues.

In the "good old days" you would have frequent bouts of "summer flu" but it
would be to a relatively small number of people. Now with the huge
operations, they mix all the meat up and if some is contaminated, it spreads
throughout and can multiply in the meat and affect enormous numbers of
people.

Is this a good thing? Of course not. The solution that some want to use is
to irradiate the meat. Is that good? Maybe. But then again maybe not. It is
a risk/benefit that could be at least partially alleviated with pasture
raised ruminants who have much less dangerous fecal material due to the fact
that they have a higher pH in their digestive system and pathogens that are
present (and there are always some present of various kinds) are more easily
destroyed in the human digestive system which is very acidic. If you have a
low pH rumen such as when feeding huge percentages of grain to a ruminant
animal, you have a pathogen that is not affected as much by the human
digestive system and can be very dangerous. Unlike anything we had in the
"old days."

What you need to do is have good science so you can make your case and take
it to your legislators and effect some changes. It is not easy to do this.
Nor should it be easy to do. But over time changes can and will be made.

> > Have you ever wondered why serious medical research into
> > the logic behind the Atkins Diet has never been conducted
> > by the NIH, or why the NIH started promoting pastas and
> > low fat diets in spite of conflicting evidence that an abundance
> > of starch in the diet leads to obesity? It about politics, that
> > process you so thoroughly endorse.

The Atkins diet has been studied a great deal. In fact we had a presentation
on diet issues in the last couple of weeks at my off farm job and there was
some interest by both the staff and the R.D. presenter. The diet does work
to a certain extent but it has some dangers associated with it since you are
eating an exceptionally high protein diet and then the body does have to
remove the excess N. I beleive that the effect is similar to ketosis and can
be risky if there is any predisposition to kidney problems. Also, from
relatives and friends who have tried it and had fairly good sucess, they do
complain that supposedly you can get a rebound effect and the next time you
try it the results are not as good. Seems like it should work each time but
perhaps others here had attest to their sucess with the diet.

> Interesting. Never looked at it that way. High carbohydrate diets
> contribute to shortened life span also; proven.

The health food folks were very big on the complex carbohydrate diet to get
away from the high fat and high meat diet that they believed were killing
people. One reads so many conflicting things that it is not easy to sift the
gold from the chaff at times. Some are now taking a contrary point of view.
Especially the trans fatty acid issues.

I personally think that the Mediterranean diet may be one of the better
choices but also view moderation as a wise course to take.

> > I recall also that a number of ADM executives were actually
> > sent to prison for their transgressions. Why? Because it
> > is the way they do business!

It was good to see them go to prison but they were not punished that much in
my view. Their crime was price fixing though and not anything wrong with the
product.

> ADM corrupted and ruined the state funded gasohol (corn into ethanol)
> program set up to help struggling Wisconsis grain farmers. ADM
> didn't want any competition.

We do have at least one plant in construction but the problem has not been
so much with ADM or any other large company. It has been the NIMBY problem
with local people. Very hard to place a plant due to concerns (perhaps
rightfully so) of odor problems. They need to really work at this. I would
not want to see government programs to be involved very much in this other
than to keep roadblocks away from development.

By the way, I know this is going to annoy you but one of our Vernon County
Farm Bureau resolutions this year was:

"We support all alternative energy sources."

Not promoting alternative energy is one of the serious shortcomings of this
and the last several presidents in my view.

> > Don't be surprised if some major amendments to the
> > Consitituion come about during your lifetime, or those
> > of your children. As some say, "The night is still young."

What freedoms do you want to do away with?

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com





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