The same articled reported that The Sierra Club led the effort to stop these bills with the Humane Society of the U.S., “exerting significant pressure on the legislature” to revise the bills for real change. There was a threat of a ballot initiative. A ballot initiative or popular or citizen’s initiative “provides a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote.” Evidently the CAFO industry in Michigan wanted none of that because a public vote means a heck of a lot more public scrutiny, an expose of the horrific lifestyle of CAFO animals is more like it.

The combined effort resulted in a new bill that gives”three species of confined animals more room to move.” That would be pigs, egg-laying chickens, and calves. Although the ag industry has 10 years to adopt this bill, it’s a victory over corporate agriculture and I hope a trend for more animal rights within the ag industry that have been non-existent for far too long.

I believe farm animal rights is directly connected to tainted food. Poorly treated animals equal sick animals. That’s why they were given antibiotics for years. If live animals are treated horrendously than the facilities that process the dead carcasses can hardly be any better. The latest recall of half a million pounds of ground beef was a wake up call for many. For a couple of people it was a death toll.

When we have to rush to our freezers to throw out food that may make us ill or even kill us reform is needed big time. Every little step counts. Thanks to those that took the time to contact their reps too. Between organizations like Michigan’s Sierra Club, The Humane Society of the U.S., and hundreds of other organizations that work tirelessly behind the scenes and involved citizens that bother to let their reps know what they want great things can be accomplished one step at a time.

I saw the car on Good Morning America today and was happy to see how quickly algae is being adopted as a viable fuel. I recently wrote about the U.S. military’s testing algae as jet fuel but figured it would be a long while before we saw anything like this. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2009/08/u-s-navy-jets-to-use-biofuels/.

Many people know about algae, but so many more do not and will be totally surprised by it. I was recently shopping for a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and asked if the one I was test-driving could use biofuel, which is available for this model. The sales person said no that the biofuel business is pretty much dying out blah, blah, blah. I said corn for sure but what about algae? I got that look from him. Even I wondered why I blurted out that particular and peculiar type of fuel as an example. I hadn’t heard much about it lately except the blog about the military’s interest in it. But then algae as fuel appeared on a segment of Good Morning America today. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/JustOneThing/algaeus-car-fueled-algae/story?id=8666116.

According to GMA’s website, “Josh Tickell is the creator of the Veggie Van Organization and director of “Fuel,” which was honored as best documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.” He also created the “Algaeus,” the Prius that just crossed America on green crude. With very little modification, “he added a nickel metal hydride battery and a plug [],” the Algaeus got 147 miles per gallon in the city, and 52 mpg with a mix of algae and gas. The biggest thing is that the car only refueled 6 times during the 10-day trip. The Algaeus is capable of running on approximately 25 gallons of gas coast to coast.

So where do we get all this algae? Algae growth occurs naturally in bogs and swamps. Uh um, we could be tapping the methane emitted there too. There are also algae farms already in business. Sapphire Farms in New Mexico is one of them. Check out their website: http://www.sapphireenergy.com/. People have asked me about green investments. Look around. If we unleash new technology instead of stifling it there will be plenty of new investment opportunities, more jobs, more avenues to explore, like algae farms. Who knew?

I just wrote a blog about unprotected groundwater, an unregulated agricultural industry relative to groundwater, and Michigan’s Senate. See what’s happening?

Aside from illness is the resident’s inability to sell their homes. One small business owner said his filters, heat boiler, and water softener got so clogged with iron they no longer worked. Who’s going to pay for that? And why has the state been so slow to do something about the ever-growing contaminated plumes infiltrating our groundwater? The article claims state officials have known about the problem for at least a decade. But the reason nothing has been done is because agriculture is the number 2 industry in Michigan employing thousands and bringing in billions.

What I don’t understand is if this industry is so profitable why don’t they put some money toward cleaning up their act? The article went on to say that the state and industry are working out the problems behind closed doors and without public input. What we have here is self-regulation that went horribly wrong. Belief in self-regulating industry comes from none other than Michigan’s Republican Senate.

I distinctly remember Michigan Democratic congress people trying to get stiffer regulations on CAFO’s in the past few years. They cited pollution of the interior of N.C. as an example of what can happen when huge industries like Smithfield Foods in that instance contaminated land, streams, and eventually the coastal waters from their practice of spraying fields with wastewater that included animal feces, blood, pesticides, antibiotics, etc. But our Senate squashed the Dem’s proposal saying the current regulations were good enough. They took the less is better route, (trusting industry), and opting to fine perpetrators when and if an “accident” happened. Only this is no accident. It’s standard practice for industry to spray their wastewater on surrounding land. What the senate proposed was: “We’ll smack them on the back of their hands, and fine them for being bad,” then back to business as usual. And the senate won.

I also wrote a blog just about a year ago that the state was cutting the DEQ, so no one would be around to monitor wetland contamination (groundwater) or pollution spills. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/09/deq-wont-be-checking-on-wetlands-or-pollution-spills-due-to-cuts/. The gist of that blog, however, was how the Republican Senate just a few months earlier fought to keep at least 25% of all of Michigan’s groundwater out of the Great Lakes Compact, and specifically out of the public’s domain. Surely they anticipated more statewide cuts in light of the economy, which would leave wetlands and/or groundwater not only unprotected but also without regulators nosing around. It was an industry’s dream scenario.

So Michigan’s Republican Senate is responsible for blocking more regulation for CAFO pollution that directly affects our groundwater, fighting to keep 25% of Michigan’s groundwater from protection under the Great Lakes Compact, and the whole time knowing full well that there would be fewer regulators on hand to monitor any violators. The citizen’s in the Freep article should be “Afraid of the Water”—very afraid. They should thank Michigan’s Senate for helping industry along.

Michigan’s Republican Senate has protected industry above the health and monetary concerns of Michigan residents more than not. This is not how government is supposed to work. We elect officials to represent us not industry. You may say the senate is only protecting jobs. At 63 billion in profits last year just for Michigan’s food industry, they can afford to be good stewards of the land that keeps them in business. Job loss is just a threat. What they really fear is profit loss. But if industry, especially the food industry, continues their practices as before, they are in essence, stupidly poisoning the ground that feeds them, and everyone else in their path.

The Waterpod is a revamped “green” barge that is parked at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York right now but will float along to visit all 5 burroughs of New York in a 6 month stretch. It’s a home/gallery for the artists on board where vistors can come and view the ways the ship sustains itself. There are organic gardens with some 27 different kinds of vegetables, two kinds of fruit, and even chickens. The gardens are watered with “gray” water, or water that is used for washing, showering, etc., that is recycled. There is a manual treadmill pumping system that delivers the water to the gardens for about an hour every day. The project is evolving as it moves along. There are plans for hydroponic gardens and I see that there will be an art gallery to visit on board.

I saw some of the Waterpod on Good Morning America. Each artist has pretty cramped living quarters but his/her living space with no lack of technical gadgetry is solar and battery powered for now with plans to incorporate wind power too. The Waterpod Project website has a layout map of all the things that have been incorporated on this barge to make it a viable living and commercial space.

Have a look at what some enterprising engineers have come up with as a possibility for green living space in the future.

http://www.thewaterpod.org/about.html/a>

Please read this article and know what you are eating and what that poor animal goes through in the process. Once you’ve got a grasp of what big factory farms are all about, remember that the Department of Agriculture has been turning a blind eye to them to for years. At a time when many of us are becoming more and more environmentally conscious, we know that not only preserving small farms but also helping them to flourish once again is key to getting healthier food on our plates while allowing animals a lifestyle they deserve.

In my last blog I quoted Dr. Albert Schweitzer regarding compassion for all living things, that it is the root of all ethics. Well there are far too many people in Michigan’s House of Representatives that just don’t get it. Compassion for living things, including other human beings, is drastically slipping in our so-called “Christian” country. It begins with animals.

House Bill 5127 according to the Humane Society of the U.S., grants the Department of Agriculture sole authority to regulate livestock health and welfare, and require the Department to adopt industry standards regarding the treatment of farm animals. They also preempt local ordinances or regulations regarding animal care standards for farm animals. And HB 5128 establishes an industry dominated animal care advisory council to review and establish animal care standards for farm animals.

What? The very people, the USDA, that have turned a blind eye to the abuse of farm animals relative to factory farms for years are to be in charge? After reading the link above, anyone with a conscious could not possibly allow these bills to pass. What happened in S. Carolina’s factory farms resulted in one of the largest fines for pollution by the EPA ever. It was against Smithfield Foods. The USDA knew about it, but Smithfield Foods has deep pockets. If the pollution from that Smithfield Food’s factory farm in the interior of S. Carolina made it all the way to the ocean, what are factory farms even doing in a place like Michigan surrounded by fresh water? All of us know that groundwater eventually ends up in the lakes, yet there are 2200 factory farms currently in Michigan. Now our legislature wants to water down farm animal rights and regulation by granting the USDA complete control of our farm animal’s welfare?

This is not good for farm animal’s lives, Michigan’s food supply, or our fresh water supplies. It just looks like a way to dump responsibility on an already overburdened federal agency because it’s cheaper and/or easier. Granting the USDA the right to decide what happens to cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc., is like the fox watching the henhouse again. Big corporations will lobby the USDA as they have in the past and end up with control of everything.

Monroe can call Kate Ebli about voting against these bills in the Michigan House at 517-373-2617. Your call can make a big difference to all the farm animals in Michigan, our food and dairy supplies, and our freshwater. We need to start living more compassionate lives. It’s called EMPATHY, the ability to put ourselves in another’s position, right down to animals. There is no reason for cruelty toward something innocent–ever.

But the biggest travesty is that the people on this island off the SE coast of Africa are already suffering a severe food crisis. Naturally they are protesting because they may soon be losing THEIR land. This in turn is causing a governmental crisis. The world needs to let the people of Madagascar and those CEO’s of Daewoo know we are watching and will not in any way stand around and let this happen. We know about the wonderful biodiversity there and the plight of the people. What business does Korea have intruding on an island off of Africa anyway? We’re worried about N. Korea, and S. Korea proposes to do this? This is just not getting enough media attention considering the biodiversity issue at stake. Some of the world’s most rare creatures are found in Madagascar ONLY.

Anyone with children has seen the animated features “Madagascar and Madagascar II.” Like “Charlotte’s Web” these animated animal icons in Madagascar films are far removed from the horror the creatures they imitate suffer in real life. Little pigs like the one in “Charlotte’s Web” more than not will be found rotating in their whole bodily form on some rotisserie barbeque somewhere this summer. And the animals in “Madagascar” are no different. The lemur is already endangered. We’ve watched the Discovery, Science, Nat Geo, and Sundance Channels, Jeff Irwin and Jack Hanna enough to catch presentations about Madagascar and hopefully comprehend that Madagascar is a biological wonder http://www.wildmadagascar.org/overview/FAQs/.
That notwithstanding, the hostile takeover of any people’s agricultural property by another country, especially a people already suffering a food crisis, should be a call for intervention by the U.N. if their own country doesn’t soon support them.

We’re hardly hearing about this advance on Madagascar in the news. Please sign petitions to let both Korea and Madagascar know the world is watching and protesting. The people of Madagascar have managed to keep the biodiversity of their island country in tact forever. Just last year they agreed to “sell more than nine million tons of carbon offsets to fund rainforest conservation in a newly established protected area. Conservationists say the deal protects endangered wildlife, promotes sustainable development to improve the economic well-being of people living in and around the park area, and helps fight global warming” according to the website “wildmadagascar.org.” And this is how they are repaid by the world community? Much of that biodiversity could be lost with one bad decision, the decision to look the other way instead of protesting along with the people of that country. The U.S. should have much to say to S. Korea about this proposed plan.

To sign petitions: http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1172161.

http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/.

I wanted to smack him up the side of the head. Or better yet, take Cafferty and Wolf Blitzer, who joined in the merriment, on an impromptu visit to a large CAFO and have them inhale the fumes from a pink tinged open air lagoon of waste that oozes methane into the atmosphere. Another reporter that did that almost passed out.

The reporters at CNN obviously didn’t take that into consideration. As a major news source one would think they would be up on articles like this: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2367646, or http://www.alternet.org/environment/140059/our_appetite_for_animals_is_taking_us_toward_apolcalypse/?page=2 or http://www.cok.net/lit/veg.php or any of dozens written by our own Dept. of Agriculture or CRS (Congressional Research Service) reports to Congress that show our food animals are detrimental to the environment.

On cok.net it stated that a U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health reported that 5 tons of animal manure is produced annually for every person in the U.S. Considering our population is 300 million and 5 tons equals 10,000 lbs., well I just found my calculator doesn’t have enough decimal points so that’s 1 billion, 500 million tons of manure annually. The water that is polluted as a result is a whole other blog!

So what’s not to understand here? A billion tons of manure is a heck of a lot of methane. Since the U.K. loves its mutton, I can see where their report came from. Sheep top their list of carbon footprint devils.

And where does Cafferty live that he hasn’t noticed we’re a nation of obese people eating far more meat than any other country on earth? We want national health care so we can continue to neglect our own health? We should be willing to change our diet to save ourselves, yet we don’t do it. No one considers that our obesity might end up being a detriment to our ever getting national health care because obesity is a ridiculous and preventable drain on any health system for the disease it produces. By following the guidelines for healthy eating, we will help ourselves, help the environment, and possibly stop the horrible abuse of food animals by eliminating CAFO’s altogether.

African ranchers like those in the Massai in Tanzania have trouble with lion predators attacking their very small livestock herds that are used basically for their own sustenance. Yet even though the Massai ranchers have killed too many lions whose populations are suffering to begin with, the Massai are interested and willing to avert the lion attacks rather than kill the lions whenever possible. They are willing to pay half of the expense for chain link fencing around their stockyard pens called “bomas” to keep attacks down instead. Bomas are traditionally thorny brush piled high for a tall perimeter of organic fence around livestock. This type of thorny enclosure works to keep the livestock in but unfortunately does not always keep the lions out. The lions come out of their reserve due to hunger for lack of prey. The Massai ranchers have learned through organizations like the African Wildlife Foundation that a little preventative care will thwart a majority of attempts at their livestock from lions. The African Wildlife Foundation donates the other half of the expense for the chain link fence the Massai ranchers are willing to use to save the lions, as well as, their livestock.

This is the type of cooperation with wildlife that would be expected of educated ranchers interested in preserving indigenous wild predators while saving their livestock especially where the ranch is huge and the rancher is certainly wealthier than those of the Massai, and the livestock is not intended for sustenance by the rancher as much as profit. But U.S. ranchers just don’t see it that way relative to predators like the Yellowstone wolves.

What’s wrong with this picture? Like the lions of the Massai, there are alternatives to killing the Yellowstone wolves. But U.S. ranchers simply state that it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain the safety of their herds in the open areas near Yellowstone. It’s just easier to turn the wolves over to the hunting industry with little thought or intervention even though U.S. ranchers have the ability to end the endless cycle of slaughter perpetrated on wolves and other predators forever by adopting methods to avert attacks. After all, wolves were here long before ranchers decided to keep their herds in predator territory while expecting everything else to just get out of the way or else.

I thought this was an ironic scenario I read about where African natives that stand to lose the food on their table, and the little bit of income they get for their livestock to invest in alternatives to killing the predators, while the majority of U.S. ranchers refuse to change their habits and invest the time and money it takes to live and work around the wildlife that surrounds them.

African lions used to number nearly 200,000 on the African continent and are now reduced to number from 25,000 to 40,000 total. This decline is horrible with man being the lion’s biggest threat. Bernard Kissui of African Wildlife Foundation’s Lion Conservation Science Project has been saddened by what he has seen lately. Thirty-eight lions have been lost to retaliatory killing since 2007, nearly 20% of the area’s total population. By raising money for fencing for cooperative African ranchers, he proposes to lessen the kill rate of lions. So far he’s been successful introducing the chain link fences. Many African ranchers are interested in the additional sturdy fencing. The African Wildlife Foundation is asking for any donations to raise $75,000 quickly for the cost of fencing to avert more attacks on lions in the Massai Steppe region in Tanzania, home to half of Africa’s lions.

Imagine Kissui’s sadness when he visited a small ranch recently and found the male and female lion he studied for quite some time covered with blood from being speared to death. This reminds me of the rangers of Yellowstone that produced a documentary on behalf of the wolves they’ve studied to show how well the wolves helped the ecosystems of Yellowstone. And of course, the sadness of the many who over a course of years viewed Limpy, the famous wolf that was shot to death in the last hunt of the Yellowstone’s wolves.

If you’ve enjoyed the “Lion King,” admired big cats in Tarzan movies, or want to keep the “King of the Jungle” from being threatened further, goto AWF’s website and donate if you can to raise what is a rather small amount of money to conserve and protect the African lions.

View the good impact AWF has made on behalf of Africa’s wildlife.

http://www.awf.org/content/solution/detail/3504

http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/00442/lions.html