Humane
Society hatches bid to unseat Iowa lawmaker [Associated Press]
Rep.
Steve King of Iowa has little use for the Humane Society, particularly when it
comes to laws designed to give calves, pregnant sows and hens a little more
freedom on the farm. The organization's political arm is devoting the vast majority
of its campaign budget this year — nearly $500,000 so far — to ensuring King
doesn't return for a sixth term. The Humane Society Legislative Fund calls its
campaign Stop the King of Cruelty. Its ads take King to task for his opposition
to bills related to dogfighting and requiring emergency management offices to
account for pets and service dogs in their preparedness plans….The Humane
Society's ads focus on pets but don't address the clashes they've had with King
on farming issues. Iowa is by far the largest egg-producing state in the
nation, and King's district plays a big role in that distinction. King led the
effort this past summer to scuttle efforts that a few states are making to
increase the quality and size of cages for hens.…King successfully included in
the House farm bill a measure that would bar California and other states from
essentially exporting their cage standards to agricultural producers in Iowa.
King says that California's law violates the clause in the Constitution that
gives Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states.
Study
faults Modesto Irrigation District subsidy [Modesto Bee]
Forcing
electrical customers to subsidize farmers could get the Modesto Irrigation
District into hot water, according to a recent legal analysis. The subsidy —
about $27 a year for each of the district's 113,000 power customers — provides
no real value to those who pay and could violate a state tax law approved by
voters two years ago, the document reads. MID leaders expect a lawsuit, board
chairman Tom Van Groningen said Wednesday. The idea of selling water to San
Francisco was a partial answer to correct the inequity, Van Groningen said. The
board abandoned the proposal under intense public pressure but intends to form
a committee, perhaps next week, to suggest options to raise money to pay for
necessary canal and water-related infrastructure improvements.
Editorial: Ethanol relief
vital to state's cows [San Francisco Chronicle]
Attempts
to clean up our air and to ensure that the nation has enough milk to drink are
on a collision course. As a result, the future of California's dairy industry
looks sour. Around 100 farms are expected to go bankrupt this year alone, and
the trend seems likely to continue if nothing is done….Farmers will hold a
rally Thursday in Sacramento to urge the state Department of Food and
Agriculture to provide some help. The department is assembling a Dairy Future
Task Force, a coalition of producers, processors and cooperatives, to recommend
ways to beef up the industry. We look forward to creative solutions . This is
an emergency. The United Nations predicts 9 billion people will live on this planet
by 2050, and they'll need food. And right now, dairy farmers are running out of
time.
Editorial: More ADA legal
reform needed [Fresno Bee]
The
Northern California agricultural community of Yuba City is struggling, with 22%
of residents unemployed. Still, the hard-pressed city decided to pay George
Louie $15,000 to get him to stop suing the city or its businesses under the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Even though Yuba City spends $300,000 a year
to make its streets and sidewalks more accessible to the disabled, Louie sued
the city for 44 alleged ADA violations, most having to do with lack of curb
cuts for wheelchair access. Louie has sued hundreds of businesses under the
22-year-old landmark civil rights law, including dozens of suits against Yuba
City businesses.…Despite California ADA reform legislation approved this year
and signed by the governor, the protection money Yuba City paid to Louie shows
that more fixes are needed. The state reform banned pre-litigation demand
letters in which potential ADA litigants agree not to file a lawsuit if the
targeted business owners pay them off first….Here's a simple fix available in
most other states. Let disabled plaintiffs file a complaint with the errant
business. The complaint once received should start the clock running. If the
alleged violation is not fixed within a certain period of time -- and that time
period should vary depending upon how expensive and difficult the fix would
need to be -- only then can the complaining party sue. The ADA is intended to
give the disabled equal access. It should not be an excuse to extort.
Op-Ed: Embracing the
promise of GMOs [Wall Street Journal]
Recently,
scientists in New Zealand welcomed the newest genetically modified organism
(GMO) into the world: A cute, tailless cow named "Daisy" that
produces low-allergy milk. Scientists engineered the animal to address the
problem of infant allergies to cow milk, which affects up to 3% of children in
the developed world. But Daisy is only the latest example of the tremendous
benefits of biotechnology….While developing countries likely have the most to
gain from adopting GMOs, the developed world also has reaped benefits. Genetic
modification saved Hawaii's papaya industry from the papaya ringspot virus.
Yields on cotton crops in the West have also increased, while the use of
environmentally damaging insecticides has decreased…. In November, California
will vote on Proposition 37, a referendum that would require food labels for
GMOs. The Yes campaign is based on misinformation and fear. Proponents claim
that we "have a right to know what's in our food." But this seemingly
sensible claim is misleading. Humans have been genetically modifying food for
millennia via the process of artificial selection. Biotechnology simply opens
new opportunities and allows the modification process to occur quickly and far
more accurately. The fear of "foreign" genes being inserted into GMOs
is also misplaced. Crops are grown in soil, which contains millions of species
of bacteria. Thus our food—including organic food—is covered with bacteria. Yet
nobody thinks twice about this foreign DNA that we regularly consume on a daily
basis.…There's a reason that the world's best scientists, medical doctors and
government bureaucrats embrace GMOs: They understand the technology and its
potential for revolutionary change. For a world that will hit nine billion
people by 2050, we need every tool in the arsenal to keep improving
agricultural output and bring the developing world out of poverty. The world
must embrace GMOs. It is not only pro-science. It is pro-humanity.
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Saudi
dairy is pushing tech to the limit [Wall Street Journal]
…Under
the shade of metal-topped open-sided sheds, 67,000 black-and-white splotched
Holstein-Friesians owned by Saudi Arabia-based Almarai Co. mill about, poking
their noses in search of stray feed or lying down, staring out at the sand.
Making a dairy successful in one of the hottest spots on earth—where, at
natural temperatures, milk production would plummet, dairy products would spoil
and dangerous bacteria would breed—requires pushing technology to the limit,
Almarai managers and U.S. dairy experts say….In the sheds, misting sprays, fans
and the shade cooled the cows to a target range between 70 and 75 degrees. And
four times daily, before each milking, workers put the cattle over stationary metal
water jets to spray off manure and anything else that could contaminate the
milk. But of all the technology for desert dairies, the misting sprays are key.
Just hosing the cows off would create moist environments where disease could
flourish, says Leslie Butler, a dairy-marketing expert at the University of
California, Davis….Almarai claims to be the largest vertically integrated dairy
in the world. That means the dairy oversees each step of its business, down to
dealing with a village store owner prone to turning off his dairy coolers at
night to save money, says Alan Bennett, an Almarai plant manager. Last year,
the company generated $304 million in net income and $2.1 billion in sales.
*Link may
require paid subscription; text included in attached Word file.
Ag
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