02 Sep 2009
Pew poll: 9 in 10 Iowa voters support more government oversight of food

Well, this seems to add a bit of truth to the old Minnesotan canard that Iowa is really an acronym for "Idiots Out, Wandering About"...but I daresay that most of the country falls into this category of idiocy, not just the residents of the Hawkeye State. Government regulations can't solve the problem, because government regulations are the problem.

Ninety percent of voting Iowans believe the government should be given additional authority to ensure the food they eat does not make them sick, according to a new poll commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies. Support for stronger food protections is high regardless of voters' gender, income level or political affiliation.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

19:54 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Video shows chicks ground up alive at egg hatchery

Ah, the joys of factory farming ... this is pretty much SOP throughout all of agriculture, not just chickens. Lorraine was at a dairy goat workshop a year ago where they advised just clubbing newborn buks to death at birth rather than "waste" resources keeping them alive and selling them for meat later on. Too much "trouble".

This is not the way we do things around here, and I don't deal with suppliers or others that do things this way. And when I think of all the good meat wasted in the grinder, it makes me want to retch. Capitalist efficiency, indeed. So much for "economy of scale" - it's apparently only economic if you waste half your output.

AP - An animal rights group is calling on the nation's largest grocery story chains to post warnings on egg cartons that unwanted male chicks are ground up alive, after videotaping the common industry practice at an Iowa egg hatchery.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

19:46 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link