DawnWatch Maryland

DawnWatch Md: Baltimore Sun front page on pig farms 12/18/07

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:24:00 GMT

This front page story in today's, Tuesday December 18, Baltimore Sun, presents a perfect opportunity for letters about the cruelty of factory farming and/or the joys of plant-based diets. The Baltimore Sun takes letters at letters@baltsun.com and advises, "Letters should include your name and address, along with day and evening telephone numbers."

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December 18, 2007 Tuesday

PIG FARM FOES TURN UP NOSES AT EXPANSION;
SUN SPECIAL REPORT<
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-pigfarm1218,0,6285625.story
By Tom Pelton, Sun reporter
Pg. 1A

DELTA, Pa. -- Mark and Diane Thomas were accustomed to farm life when they moved from Maryland into a charming 1830s log home on 19 acres.

But in the two years since then - as Diane suffered headaches and a persistent skin infection and her husband and two children struggled with diarrhea and other digestive problems - they began to suspect that their health problems were caused by the hog farm next door. And they grew further alarmed when the farm announced plans this year to expand from 450 pigs to 4,400.

At a public hearing tonight, the Thomases and other opponents of the expansion intend to call a public health scientist whose research supports their argument to testify on their behalf.

The zoning battle just across the Maryland state line is one of a growing number of challenges across the country linking human illness to industrial-style farm operations. Although such battles have long hinged on water pollution from animal waste, researchers cite mounting evidence, including recent studies by the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University, that pig and chicken farms can produce drug-resistant bacteria when animals regularly get antibiotics.

Spread by fans from large feeding buildings, these supergerms can escape into the air, as well as to streams and underground drinking water supplies, potentially threatening the health of neighbors, according to the Maryland studies.

"I have no problem with farmers, farming or the smell of farms," said Mark Thomas, 45, a major in the Maryland Air National Guard who grew up on farms. "But it doesn't seem fair to me to put everybody else's health at risk."

The National Pork Producers Council, a trade group, acknowledges that farmers nationwide routinely put antibiotics in their hogs' feed to keep them healthy and help them grow, but it asserts that the practice is harmless.

David Gemmill, who owns the 300-acre hog farm next to the Thomases and whose family has raised livestock on the land for five generations, said his farm does not pollute and that his animals receive antibiotics only when ill. He said it's impossible that his pigs are making anyone sick.

"People get sick every day from something - don't bring that back to the farmer," said Gemmill, 54.

If the expansion is approved, he said, his family hopes to sign a contract with Hershey Ag of Marietta, Pa., which would own the hogs and choose their feed. The company says its practice regarding antibiotics is limited. Pigs receive the drugs only in their first four weeks, and older pigs receive them only if sick, according to company owner, Brent Hershey.

"We do not utilize antibiotics on a routine basis," he said.

Regardless of how the local debate is resolved, researchers say that people who live near hog farms might have good reason to worry about their health. The recent studies raise new questions about farms referred to as CAFOs, or "concentrated animal feeding operations," which raise large numbers of animals in buildings.

University of Maryland microbiologist Amy Sapkota co-authored studies published in July 2007 and February 2005, both documenting antibiotic-resistant bacteria escaping from an unidentified Mid-Atlantic hog operation.

In one study, 98 percent of 124 bacteria samples collected from air inside a CAFO contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In another, she found that streams and underground water supplies downhill from the farm had high levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including E. coli and fecal coliform. The movement of resistant bacteria from swine CAFOs into the environment "can be extensive," her report concluded.

In addition, a 2000 University of North Carolina survey of 155 people found increased rates of headaches, diarrhea, runny noses, sore throats, coughing, digestive problems and breathing ailments among those who lived near CAFO hog farms.

"Neighbors of CAFOs across the country have reported similar symptoms," Sapkota said.

Opponents of the expansion in Pennsylvania have called Sapkota to testify at a zoning hearing on the plan tonight. Sapkota said township officials should prohibit more CAFOs because tests by the U.S. Geological Survey have shown underground drinking water supplies in the area have already been contaminated by animal waste from nearby farms.

"There should be a moratorium on new CAFOs in sensitive areas like this," Sapkota said. Her warnings are echoed by other scientists. Other studies by the University of Illinois and researchers in Canada documented the rise of drug-resistant bacteria among both pigs and farm workers.

The problem might extend beyond pig farms. Half of 16 poultry workers who were recently examined in Maryland and Virginia were carrying antibiotic-resistant E. coli bacteria, suggesting chicks receiving the drugs pose a disease threat, according to a study published yesterday by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Robert Lawrence, director of the Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, said antibiotic resistance is aggravated by living conditions in CAFOs, where thousands of animals live close together and bacteria spread easily.

Antibiotics' overuse on farms parallels the overuse of the drugs in hospitals that is suspected in recent outbreaks of MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) across the country, he said. The big danger is that antibiotics will stop working, he said.

"We are taking a precious medical miracle of the 20th century, the discovery of antibiotics, and we are destroying it by inappropriate use in animal feed on factory farms," said Lawrence.

The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that farm animals each year are fed about 13 million pounds of antibiotic varieties also used by humans. That's more than four times the amount doctors prescribe for patients. Among the biggest users of the drugs are hog farms, 67,300 of which are in the United States.

Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, said banning the routine use of antibiotics would mean more hogs get sick and die, raising the price of meat for consumers. "All of my kids get shots for mumps, rubella and measles so they won't get sick - and we do the same with pigs and antibiotics," he said.

If the expansion gets approval, Gemmill's family soon will be able to build a large barn over a 120-foot by 297-foot manure pit. Gemmill said the annual 1.7 million gallons of waste will be spread as fertilizer for corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.

The farm already uses hog waste to fertilize its crops. And Mark Thomas said he's worried not only about the effect on his family's health, but also water pollution. Already, the Thomases don't drink their tap water.

He said tests paid for by the family show the water supply's nitrate levels have doubled to twice the federal limit in the past two years. One nearby stream is tainted with fecal bacteria, according to a sampling by a consultant hired by a citizens group.

Thomas worries that waste from thousands of hogs could pollute waterways as far off as the Chesapeake Bay. "Maryland needs to know what's coming right downstream into their state and bay," he said.

tom.pelton@baltsun.com
(End of Baltimore Sun article)
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Date: Tue Dec 18 21:24:55 2007

DawnWatch Maryland: Baltimore Sun - "A hunger for humane foods" 6/20/06

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:58:00 GMT

The following article from the Tuesday, June 20, Baltimore Sun presents a nice opportunity for pro-veggie letters to editor.
The Baltimore Sun takes letters at http://www.baltimoresun.com/about/bal-feedback,0,6119824.htmlstory or letters@baltsun.com

A hunger for humane foods

By Stephen Kiehl and Rob Hiaasen
Sun reporters

June 20, 2006

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-te.to.food20jun20,0,7764285.story?coll=bal-features-headlines

News from the front in the food wars: Live lobsters are a dead issue at Whole Foods. Chicago and California have made foie gras non grata. And hundreds of restaurants are boycotting Canadian seafood to protest that country's annual baby seal hunt.

As consumers ask more questions about what they eat - where it comes from, how it lived, how it was killed - they are discovering that many meals come with ethical quandaries. Retailers and restaurants are responding, hoping that a concern for animal welfare also benefits the bottom line.

Last week, Whole Foods announced it was stopping the sale of live lobsters and live soft-shell crabs in its 184 stores nationwide because the upscale grocer could not guarantee the crustaceans are treated humanely on their journey from ship to supermarket aisle. But critics wonder whether the decision was as much about economics as morality.

"They have a particular market and group of customers they're interested in paying attention to, and this is likely to be a concern on the part of their customers," said Karen Brown, senior vice president for the Food Marketing Institute, a Washington-based group that represents food retailers and wholesalers. "But the facts would not bear out that it's an inhumane process."

At the Whole Foods in Baltimore's Inner Harbor yesterday, several shoppers applauded the decision while others wondered about the store's motive.

"If they are doing it for ethical and moral principles, then it is an admirable decision," said Christina O'Hearne, 39, a nursing student and regular Whole Foods shopper. "To me, it always felt cruel to see lobsters in the tank."

Said Kevin Kacin, 38, who works in finance in Baltimore: "It sounds like a ploy to generate the liberal consumer's favor. It's kind of silly. Either way, they are dying an unnatural death."

Some restaurateurs are finding it's good business to pay attention to animal welfare issues. Two Annapolis restaurants - Riordan's Saloon and Buddy's Crabs and Ribs - have joined a boycott of Canadian seafood.

The Humane Society of the United States, which organized the seals campaign, said Canadian snow crab exports are down $160 million this year, partly due to the boycott. More than 1,000 restaurants and distributors have signed on to the campaign.

"We obviously have a conscience as to what we serve and how it's served," said Mike Riordan, whose restaurant has operated on the Annapolis waterfront since 1977 and has not served Canadian seafood since April. "It's not a liberal or conservative issue. It's a human issue."

Riordan said he has heard only positive comments from customers about his decision.

"Whole Foods' strong stance on animal welfare is a winning formula in the marketplace," said Matt Prescott, manager of factory farming campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "Whole Foods is living proof that ethics can coexist with profits."

Not all consumers care so fervently about how animals are treated, of course. But enough of them do that they constitute a sizable market, said Paul B. Thompson, a philosophy professor at Michigan State University who specializes in food, agricultural and community ethics.

"Many people who were not particularly aware of where their food came from have perhaps over the last five years become much more interested in that," he said. "In some respects, it starts with Darwin and people recognizing there's probably more continuity between the way animals experience the world and the way humans experience the world than they might have been inclined to think."

But they were not feeling the lobster's pain yesterday at Faidley Seafood in Baltimore's Lexington Market. Whole Foods' decision was met with incredulity and a few choice words.

"Listen," said Lou Fleming, a longtime oyster shucker at Faidley's, "we're not talking about something with a soul." He shook his head when given the lobster news. "Human beings put too much thought into things that don't make sense."

He doesn't care at all about the lobster?

"I care about how much butter to put on it," Fleming said.

Interrupted during a crab cake lunch, Northwest flight attendant Liz Delaney said everything has become politically correct.

"It's ridiculous. Why don't we cut out fishing altogether? Do you think it's nice to hook fish?" Delaney said. "This lobster thing has gone overboard."

It's not just lobsters, though. The City Council of Chicago has approved a ban, to take effect in August, on restaurants' serving foie gras. California already has such a ban because of the conditions under which the delicacy is produced: Ducks are force-fed corn, through a tube stuffed down their necks, until their livers are six times normal size.

In announcing its decision last week, Whole Foods cited a report issued in November by the European Food Safety Authority that said decapod crustaceans, including lobsters and crabs, appear to have some degree of awareness, can feel pain and can learn.

Baloney, say other scientists. They point out that lobsters have no brain - only a knot of neurons - and can react to stimuli but not experience pain in the same way as humans or other animals. Lobsters have about 100,000 neurons, compared with about 100 billion in humans.

"I don't believe it is capable of thinking," said Robert S. Steneck, professor of oceanography and marine biology at the University of Maine. "This argument has a lot less to do with science than with the human discomfort of bringing this living thing back home and putting it in boiling water."

And that EEEEeeeeee! sound the lobster makes when dropped into the pot? It's hot air escaping from the shell, experts say, not a scream of pain. Indeed, Steneck said lobsters are actually treated well compared with other animals we eat. They are not overfished, and their reproductive stock is increasing, Steneck said.

Most lobsters, he said, "have been living in nature for eight to 10 years before they are caught. By many standards in nature, that is a pretty good living."

Over the years, some have wondered why anyone would even want to eat lobsters. Humor writer Dave Barry wrote in a 1996 column: "My point is that lobsters have long been suspected, by me at least, of being closet insects. I believe Mother Nature gave us eyes because she did not want us to eat this type of food."

Beyond mere appearances, economics could have been a factor in Whole Foods' decision. Safeway will be phasing out the sale of live lobsters at its 1,700 stores over the next year because they weren't selling, said a spokesman.

Whole Foods representatives did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Crabbers on Maryland's Eastern Shore said they could understand dropping lobsters or soft-shell crabs because they don't sell or are hard to keep alive. But they don't buy into the argument that their profession is any less humane than others that bring food to America's tables.

"I laugh at that," crabber Tony Rippons, 30, said of the live lobster ban. "Everything we eat is inhumane, if you want to follow that argument. Let's be realistic here. It's no more inhumane than the average person going to a creek and going fishing."

(END OF BALTIMORE SUN ARTICLE)
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Date: Tue Jun 20 14:58:07 2006

DawnWatch Canada: Western Standard on birds enjoying force-feeding 6/19/06

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:54:00 GMT

The following article from Alberta's Western Standard cries out for letters to the editor. A good source of information is http://www.nofoiegras.org/
The Western Standard takes letters at http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?page=magazine.editorletter

Western Standard (Alberta)

June 19, 2006 Monday
NEWS; Pg. 42

No harm, no fowl: Force-feeding geese to make foie gras sure sounds cruel. So why do the birds enjoy it?

John Luik, Western Standard

Ever since Chicago celebrity chef Charlie Trotter announced that he would stop serving pate de foie gras in his eponymous Lincoln Park restaurant because it was produced by inhumane methods, the fight over the centuries-old French delicacy has assumed a profile--and an urgency--well out of proportion to the number of people on this side of the Atlantic who have even tasted it.

In Trotter's town, they've all stopped selling foie gras, thanks to city council passing a law in April that bans all restaurant sales of the fatty liver dish. In September, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law that will make it illegal to sell or produce foie gras in his state by 2012. In New York, a group of protestors gather weekly outside New York City's famed Union Square Cafe (where the pate is outstanding), demanding the state follow California's lead. And if Ottawa City Councillor Alex Cullen has his way, that city will be the first in Canada to create a foie gras-free zone.

Why? Animal rights activists claim foie gras production methods are cruel. And they're not the first. As far back as the 11th century, the French rabbi and celebrated Jewish scholar Rashi warned that the practice was too callous to be kosher. The New York demonstrators hand out pamphlets claiming foie gras is the "disease tissue of a tortured, sick animal" and that the animals "literally explode" from the food crammed down their throats during the process. Are they right? Don't be so sure.

There's no question that the way foie gras is made can be off-putting. Geese (or ducks) are fed large amounts of corn twice a day for two weeks, through metal tubes inserted down their gullets. The result is an extremely large, fatty and tasty liver. But the issue is shot through with class conflicts, since foie gras is usually something seen, like caviar, as an acquired taste of the upper class (especially at about $7 an ounce). So, the picture painted by opponents of foie gras--that poultry suffer for the delight of the elite--is both compelling and emotional. All the more reason to look to science as a way of disentangling the factual from the sentimental aspects of the debate.

While the published scientific literature on foie gras production is limited, it still provides a basis, along with the observational evidence from veterinarians, for reaching a reasonable conclusion about claims that animals fattened for foie gras production experience high levels of pain and suffering. That, and the fact that humans discovered the tastiness of fatty livers in the first place because ducks and geese routinely gorge on large quantities of food before migration, anyway.

In 1996, Jean-Michel Faure, a scientist with the French National Institute for Agricultural Research and an authority on animal stress, published a study of birds in foie gras production methods.

He monitored the fowl from 1995 to 1998, using a number of empirical measures, including measuring corticosterone levels to determine adrenal activity and stress levels, to establish whether the animals were stressed and in pain during the feeding process. None of the measures indicated there should be concern for the animals' welfare. As summed up in a 1998 report by the European Union's Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare, Faure's results provided "no evidence that intensive force feeding is stressful to the . . . duck." Similarly, in a debate last year in the House of Delegates of the American Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Walter McCarthy, a New Jersey veterinarian, confirmed that since birds used in foie gras production had specially lined esophaguses (with cornified epithelium), they were both tough enough and elastic enough to accommodate the large feedings. That backs up a 1972 study, published in the British Journal of Poultry Science by the
University of Basel's Rabbi Dr. I. M. Levinger, one of the world's foremost experts on animal welfare and kosher slaughter. Levinger analyzed the effects of force-feeding on the esophaguses of geese, and found nothing in the tissue consistent with pain and distress.

In fact, Michael Ginor, owner of Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York, gave evidence at the AVMA discussion, that when he walks among his flock, the birds readily approach him for more food. More importantly, if the animals were stressed or in pain, the food would not be digested properly anyway, defeating the entire purpose. One AVMA veterinarian, Dr. Thomas Munschauer, visited foie gras farms and reported, "It didn't seem like the birds were distressed." A New Jersey vet, Dr. Robert Gordon, testified: "After being on the [farm's] premises, my position changed dramatically. I did not see animals I would consider distressed and I didn't see pain and suffering." As for claims by animal rights groups that the livers of these birds "explode," the economics of foie gras production are such that ruptured livers would make the product unsaleable--so, as the EU report confirms, the birds are slaughtered before that happens. Until then, they're apparently well cared for: mortality rat
es of birds on foie gras farms are actually lower than on farms raising chickens and turkeys. The only folks who love these birds more are the people who will dine on their succulent livers--at least as long as the law permits it.
(END OF WESTERN STANDARD ARTICLE)
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Date: Tue Jun 20 14:54:07 2006