Beth's Everything Blog

Archive for the ‘Viewpoint’ Category

Have you heard of CAFO? It stands for Confined-Animal-Feeding-Operation.

Some years ago, our farm neighbor gave us a call. His sow had farrowed  and she didn’t have enough teats to feed all her brood. Would we like the runt? Our then twelve year old daughter went wild with excitement. Of course she wanted the piglet. So on a moment’s notice, we went into the agribusiness even though we knew nothing about raising pigs.

Lynn named the baby Trefa, a take off on the Yiddish word tref which means unclean. At the time we thought it was pretty funny. We kept the pig on the screened-in porch and nursed her from a bottle every four hours. It was during the school year, and no one was home during the day to feed Trefa, so Lynn took her to school and left her in the nurse’s office. Each student nurse assistant got to give the piglet a bottle. In the next few weeks everything about her grew very fast. The school principal, who up until then had been very indulgent, call and said Trefa couldn’t come to school anymore.

After a few days at home, we totally understood why. Trefa’s back porch stank. Everything within twenty yards of her stank. Suddenly, we no longer thought her name was so funny.

In the past few years, worldwide demand for pork has risen almost 50%. Understandably, Kansas with its vast amount of land mass used for agriculture, would like to be part of the solution. The question is: can agribusinesses raise huge numbers of animals in a humane way while protecting the environment and the workers who care for them?

And why has Governor Brownback already opposed an Environmental Protection Agency law that would require Confined-Animal-Feeding-Operations (CAFOs) to report directly to the EPA?

Seaboard Farms, located in Johnson County, Kansas has recently obtained approval to build a Confined-Animal-Feeding-Operation (CAFO) that will house 264,000 hogs in Greeley County, Kansas located just east of Colorado and north of Oklahoma. It will be the second largest such operation in the country.

As to Treifa, we took her back to the country and returned her to our farmer friend. But if one little pig can produce so much odor (and that which causes the odor), imagine what 264,000 Trefa’s will do. I’m just saying . . .

If there was ever any doubt that women have power, it ended with the Susan B. Komen debacle. For years, we’ve run in races and worn pink, but when we discovered the SBK foundation had clay (and political) feet, we rebelled. All that time we thought we were supporting the fight against breast cancer, but when Karen Handel joined the board with her own political agenda, she changed the dynamics. It should remain as a good lesson for Susan B. Komen’s sister, Executive Director Nancy Brinker.

What is it with men and power? We’re still hearing about President Kennedy, this time from some sixty year old woman who claims she was a nineteen year old Whitehouse aide when he had his way with her. Men say it’s testosterone. Women say it’s self-indulgence. (Calista. Beware. Isn’t that how you got Newt?) I’m sick to death of the rankling in Washington, tired of congressman and senators acting like two year olds, hate the ugly speeches, nasty tirades, gross commercials. (Have you heard Randall Terry’s? Ugh!)

Think what we could do if we backed our own candidate for president. We’re too late for 2012, but how about 2016? Yes, yes. I know. We missed our chance with Hillary, but she came with so much heavy baggage (Bill). And I know just the person:

ELIZABETH WARREN.

President Obama wanted her to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: main job  . . “police credit lenders and prevent consumers from unwittingly signing up for risky loans.”  The Republicans, scared of this brilliant, charming, honest, knowledgeable woman, blocked her nomination. She would have been perfect, but the Repubs don’t want anyone protecting us consumers. (The office still has no director and we still have no protection.)

Elizabeth’s qualifications are awesome. She is a chief advocate for banking reform. Emily’s List and a National Nurses Union are already backing her. Read about her at this website or one of the hundreds of others you’ll find on your browser.

Meanwhile,  she is running for Teddy Kennedy’s old senate seat in Massachusetts against Scott Brown, who modeled and posed nude for the centerfold of Cosmopolitan Magazine in the 1980′s to make money toward paying for his Boston College law degree. While a state senator, he voted for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and opposed the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. More importantly, his election to the U.S. Senate tipped the delicate balance of the Senate, though he has done little else.

Women in Massachusetts, unite. Get out and campaign for Elizabeth. The rest of us will help by sending donations to her campaign. She is someone who will make you proud, and she will make a perfect first woman President of The United States of America.

Talk about courage: President Obama showed the nation he  has plenty of it when he rejected the application of TransCanada to build a pipeline right through the middle of the United States.

He knew the GOP would howl. He understood the oil companies  like B.P. would cry foul and threaten huge political fall-out (remember it was due to poor regulations that B.P. was allowed to build a slapdash well in the gulf.)

GOP candidate Mitt Romney  said, “It shows a President who once again has put politics ahead of sound policy,” Really? How about instead it showed a President who puts the welfare of the people ahead of politics.

My bet is that the folks in Montana are grateful for President Obama’s courage. Last year, one of the Keystone Exxon/Mobile pipelines broke under the Yellowstone River spilling 40,000 gallons into the water before it could be sealed. (See Discovery Magazine’s Jan/Feb 2012 article) By June of 2011, the first Keystone Pipeline, only a year old, had sprung 12 leaks spilling 2100 gallons of icky crude in my home state of Kansas, and in North Dakota, a Keystone Pipeline fitting broke spewing  a 60 foot geyser of 21,000 gallons of crude oil into the air.

Don’t forget that the proposed pipeline would go right over the Ogallala Aquifer, the shallow underground  water reserve upon which eight states from South Dakota to Texas depend to irrigate their crops.

What convinced President Obama to take this gutsy action? It happened because naturalists have organized, 350.org worked hard and is becoming better known, the Sierra Clubs are doing their job and because thousands of people like you and me stood up said, “Mr. President, You can do this. We’ve got your back.”

Only eight days into the new year, and already we are knee deep in the politics of choosing the next president. It’s a dirty business, full of partial truths, innuendos, and out and out lies. My stomach turns over when I read the vitriolic comments on the internet. It seems few can have reasonable discussions without name calling, even the so-called intellectuals. Very tiresome. Worse still, it’s only the beginning. Somehow we must slog through the muck until November.

At least we can be grateful that the Iowa caucuses are over. In a state of some 3,000,000 people, 91 % of whom are Caucasian, less than 150,000 or maybe 4 % of the population voted, 25% for Mitt and 25% for Rick, who is, politically speaking,  far right of the far right.

And speaking of Iowa, did you read that some farmers are selling their Iowa farmland for as high as $13,000 an acre? Iowa farmers are the state’s new millionaires because corn and soybean prices have gone through the roof. A farmland  bubble or will it last?

Just to start you thinking, here are a few things that have happened under President Obama administration: *Energy producing plants must begin preparing to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources, *Vaccination programs have been expanded, *We now have a State Children’s Health Insurance Program that covers health care for 4 million more children,  and *Federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research.

On my new Wildlife calendar this year is a picture of a polar bear with her young cub who’s chances of survival are less than 40% and decreasing because the arctic ice is melting faster each year. Polar bears do not hibernate like brown bears so they are forced to swim longer and longer distances to find food.

One last thought. As I write this, the outdoor temperature is 60 degrees. Louie and I jumped at the chance to take advantage of the strange but great walking weather. The park was full of little people. Louie loves those children and you could almost see him smile as he sat patiently letting their tiny, little fingers poke and pet him.

We Americans ‘sort of ‘ got what we wanted. The senate passed (89 to 10) an extension of a cut to the Social Security payroll tax, albeit only a two-month extension, and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, though only a for a few months.

But . . . Republicans attached a rider speeding up the  process for the construction of Keystone Pipeline XL.

President Obama says it will be okay though because the approval process  for the legislation carries a tight deadline which will ease his ability to stop the project more quickly. (?) What we need to do now is write/call The President and beg that he stop the “dirty, dangerous, oil pipeline proposal [which] would bring corrosive oil from Canada through America’s Heartland. It would be devastating to our air, our water and our climate,” says The National Sierra Club.

In the meantime, grab your warm coat and your binoculars and join 60,000 other Americans in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. It’s fun and you might just be able to save the birds, our habitat and humanity. Go to Count Date Search to find out a place closest to you.

According to the National Audubon Society, the count takes place within “Count Circles,” which focus on specific geographical areas. Each circle is led by a Count Compiler. Therefore, if you are a beginning birder, you will be able to join a group that includes at least one experienced birdwatcher. In addition, if your home is within the boundaries of a Count Circle, then you can stay home and report the birds that visit your feeder once you have arranged to do so with the Count Compiler. There is a $5 fee to participate in the CBC for all field participants aged 19 or older. Please see our frequently asked questions to learn more. If you have never been on a CBC before your first step is to locate and contact your local Count Compiler to find out how you can volunteer.

Chickadees in decline