The smell. That is the big one between rural residents and pig factory production facilities claiming to be farms. Those facilities are also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, CAFOs, where thousands of pigs or hogs are crowed together in high numbers, by the thousands, in buildings where they are fed out for eventual sending to slaughter to such as the Indiana Packers Corporation plant in Delphi.
Carson Gerber, Kokomo Tribune reporter, had it right in his April 23rd KT article: it is a battle between pigs and produce. Hog CAFOs are anything but farming in the traditional sense. The concentration of hogs in one location produces huge amounts of urine and feces (that’s bowel waste or “crap”) that must be stored in lagoons or tanks until pumped out and taken elsewhere for disposal. In the meanwhile, the operation stinks.
It would be one thing if the stink stayed on the site where it originated. The problem is that it does not. The stink travels miles subject only to the whims of the wind. And it is offensive. Ray Reichard is worried about his flower and vegetable operation that is near where new hog CAFOs are proposed. He worries about people being offended by the odor from hog waste wafting into his greenhouse or lingering on the produce and flowers he takes to farmers markets. He should be worried.
There is a fact that most people do not get. If you can smell something, it means that molecules or “pieces” of whatever is causing the stink are in the air and that these molecules are being drawn into your nose and lungs. Crap and urine in. Reichard worries about his produce carrying the stink to market. What he is really saying is that feces and urine molecules from hogs will have landed on the food and flowers he has produced and have stuck there. Somehow, I do not think people want to be eating this produce or having these flowers in their homes.
Have you ever driven behind a semi-truck hauling hogs? It stinks. Waste and bacterial molecules are being blown off of the truck and hogs into the air and into the air intakes of your car. If you do not want these molecules in your lungs, you need to back off and put your car air system on interior air only, not take air in from the outside.
Hog operations are not what they once were. In the old days, farmers (not animal factory operators) raised hogs, cattle, chickens and other livestock in balance with land that was cropped with a variety of corn, soybeans, and more. Crops were rotated. The waste from animals became fertilizer for fields. All in balance.
If you have not noticed, there is movement toward more local production of healthy food. Farmers markets are more and more popular. People want farms to be healthier with use of fewer chemicals and antibiotics. CAFOs are not compatible with this trend. CAFOs stink.
Pesky Things
[Post written by Marcia Blacklidge]
Primary candidates have dominated news cycles since last June. Voters are fired up and turning out in record numbers. On May 3rd Hoosiers will finally get their chance to vote. There’s only one problem. Both parties would prefer to act untethered by those pesky things called votes.
Mainstream media have cashed in on voter involvement and eagerly promote the myth that votes count. Despite voting irregularities, dirty tricks, Super PACS, and those pesky things called votes; each party will nominate the candidate of its choice this summer.
Both party establishments still face a few hurdles. The Democrats have to quench the unexpected fire created by party regulars “feeling the burn.”
The Republican establishment is determined to “stop Trump.” Many want to do this even if it costs them the election or destroys the party. None of them like to discuss those pesky things that keep piling up for Trump called votes.
The “burn” and Hillary’s “security review” have disturbed many Democrats but Trump has driven establishment Republicans into hysteria. Rove and others are boldly calling for a “fresh face.” Ryan protests too much of his disinterest in the nomination while Romney’s just plain desperate to get it. To heck with those pesky things called votes!
Indiana’s Republican primary has grabbed the attention of the National Media, but for all the wrong reasons.
Indiana has 54 delegates. Becoming a Republican delegate is a steep climb. One must have filled out an application by March 15th and pledged to provide $2000 to participate. All Republican delegates will be selected before a single primary vote is cast.
Politico interviewed numerous party leaders and officials involved in the delegate selection process. Those interviewed displayed openly hostile anti-Trump attitudes.
“One of my criteria for filtering out candidates was whether or not they supported Trump,” said one district GOP leader.
“If Satan had the lead on him and was one delegate away from being nominated as our candidate, and Donald Trump was the alternative, I might vote for Donald Trump,” said Craig Dunn, a Kokomo resident and GOP leader hoping to represent Indiana’s 4th district. “I’ve always wanted to own a casino, but he couldn’t give me a casino and have me vote for him.”
Thank God for delegates who can’t be bribed.
“Donald Trump doesn’t represent what I want my party to represent,” said Tom John, chairman of Indiana’s 7th Congressional District. John is running for one of the 27 at large delegate slots. He declared the three delegates selected to represent the 7th Congressional District were unlikely to be Trump supporters.
John further reported that a grass roots effort had been launched to get Trump supporters to become 7th District delegates. Their effort produced a handful of applicants, but all were rejected.
The Indiana Republican Party claims to be the party working for Indiana. However, the fervor displayed against Trump by each of the party officials interviewed was shocking. Not a single official mentioned concern for those pesky things that will be tallied on May 3rd.
Clearly, the Indiana Republican Delegation is determined to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention.
The citizens of Indiana shouldn’t have to pay for a primary negated by such blatant self-absorption. Let the delegates pick up the cost of collecting those pesky things called votes.
Trump Trump
If it was up to the GOP District Chairman from Howard County, Satan would make a better choice for the Republican nominee for President of the United States of America over Donald Trump. This is what Craig Dunn, the Chairman, told Politico in an interview. According to Politico, Dunn said, “If Satan had the lead on him (Trump) and was one delegate away from being nominated as our candidate and Donald Trump was the alternative, I MIGHT vote for Donald Trump. I have always wanted to own a casino, but he couldn’t give me a casino and have me vote for him”.
If it were just Dunn, this might be dismissed, but it is not. The GOP in Indiana has it totally backwards. Most of the 57 delegates, three from each Congressional District and 27 at-large, that will represent Indiana and its citizens at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland have already been chosen. If you wanted to be considered for a spot in the delegation, an application had to be filed by March 15th; long before the citizens of Indiana will vote on May 3rd. One requirement for eligibility to be selected as a delegate is a promise to provide $2000 to participate. This selects out people of limited means. One GOP district leader who is involved in delegate selection also says, “One of my criteria for filtering out folks was whether or not they supported Donald Trump. I didn’t care whether they supported Ted Cruz or John Kasich”.
The final choice of delegates is made by Party insiders. Delegates have one obligation and that is to vote on the first Convention ballot for the Presidential candidate chosen by the people of Indiana. Beyond that, they have no obligation or loyalty. They can vote for whomever they choose. Politico says that according to interviews with a dozen party leaders and officials in the delegate selection process, an anti-Trump sentiment runs “hot” among the GOP leadership in Indiana. This means that if Donald Trump does not secure the nomination for President on the first ballot, they will be free to “vote their conscience” regardless of the outcome of the vote by the citizens of Indiana.
In other words, the dice are loaded. Your vote may come to mean nothing, particularly if it was for Donald Trump and even if the majority of voters in Indiana voted for Donald Trump. The only vote that would matter would be those of Republican Party insiders; the system as usual.
People in the United States are angry. They are fed up with politics as usual. They are fed up with party insiders and politicians who for decades have feathered their own nests. They are fed up with the loss of millions of jobs and the decline of the middle class. They are fed up with political manipulation and skulduggery. They want America back.
If the Indiana GOP engages in back room politics as usual, which it appears is happening, there will be consequences. The voters of Indiana, regardless of who wins the vote in our state, should be represented by delegates loyal to the will of the voters; not their personal whims and interests. They should stand fast for the voters regardless of the outcome of the first Convention ballot.
Rural and Urban Indiana
[letter to Dr. Michael Hicks in response to his Kokomo Tribune column of April 3rd in which he encourages more investment in urban development in Indiana. He believes rural places are at risk and that the best chance for the future is in solid connection to labor markets in “healthy, vibrant and growing regional cities”. I think he missed some things.]
Dr. Hicks:
I am writing in response to your recent column about the decline in rural, small-town Indiana and your position that more investment is needed in urban centers. I have a couple of observations to make.
First, about the decline of rural, small-towns in Indiana: I believe this has largely come about due to the adoption of what has turned out to be devastating agriculture policy following World War II. One of the leaders in this movement was Dr. Earl Butz, former Secretary of Agriculture and Dean of the School of Agriculture at Purdue. He told farmers to “get big or get out” and to produce chickens and pigs like “Fords and Chevys”. This was at the beginning of large, corporate owned agriculture in what has come to be dominated by the giant chemical/seed companies. Today, I believe for several reasons we have a train wreck waiting to happen.
Steve Daily, former mayor of Kokomo, and his family are a prime example of what has resulted. He has told me that at one time there were 13 members of his family involved in agriculture as a way to make a living. After his retirement from Ivy Tech recently, he has gone back to farming; now organic farming. He says that only one other member of his family remains in agriculture. If the Daily family is typical, and I believe it is, it is clear how this would impact small, rural communities.
I believe there is growing recognition of the damage done by ill-advised agriculture policy. We see now that genetically engineered foods will be labeled; one positive step toward recognition of the risks of biotechnology for both people and the environment and of the toxins typically involved that follow food to the dinner table. We see the growth of local farmers’ markets and the increase in demand for “organic” or chemical-free foods. We see the growth of demand for foods produced closer to home; not shipped all over the country or from other countries. I believe we will see a gradual growth of the number of people involved in agriculture and, perhaps, even a reversal in population trends in rural areas.
You suggest we need more investment in urban areas. I suggest as well we need more encouragement in growing healthy food in Indiana. What a difference this would make. Both you and I live in areas dominated by wall-to-wall corn and soy beans, most of which has been genetically modified to withstand massive doses of glyphosate (Roundup) that has now been determined to be carcinogenic. And we wonder why the cancer rate in our nation is the highest in the world.
Finally, an over-arching question: when is enough, enough? Everyone talks about “growth and development” when they really mean more population and more jobs. When is it time to stabilize population and work on increasing standard of living only. I, for one, do not want Kokomo (a regional center) to become an “Indianapolis” or anything even close. Except for the impact of immigration, most of the developed nations of the world are at near zero population growth, but that is a whole other subject for discussion.
Regards, Kent Blacklidge
Brussels Siren
Just read a column about the wave of terror in Brussels, Paris, and San Bernardino. It made perfect sense. The terrorists were “home grown”, it seems. Nearly every one of them operated from within immigrant communities where they could swim out of sight of authorities.
“Crime historians tell us that nearly every nationality that has immigrated to America over the last 200 years in a large wave has brought with it a new organized crime network.”, the column said. We are seeing the large immigrant wave flood over Europe. We are allowing tens of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants into the United States. They cannot possibly be assimilated to democratic values and existing culture in a rate equal to or greater than the numbers coming in. What happens with Islamists is a pool or community of foreigners provides a place for incubation of radicalism that flies under the radar of law enforcement.
For over 50 years, immigration policies in Europe and the United States have been filling these “enabling pools”. That needs to change. There was a time when US immigration policy allowed less than 100,000 people annually to migrate to this country. In 1931, the number was 97,000. In 1941, it was 52,000. In 1951, it was 205,000. It remained below 500,000 until 1978 when it was 590,000. With few fluctuations, the number has climbed to over one million annually where it hovers today. For many reasons, not the least of which is security, the population of this country needs to stabilize, not continue to grow. Population growth in the United States is fueled largely now by the number of immigrants allowed in.
We do not need to single out countries of origin, religions, or ethnic groups since that seems to offend some do-gooders; but we do need to put a stop to the growth of enabling pools for terrorists and criminals. The aim should be to halt all immigration possible. This will ensure that the number of immigrants arriving is small enough that all can be screened for security. In addition, the categories allowed in should be of immigrants most likely to arrive with the best chance of rapid assimilation. We should restrict immigration to spouses and minor children of immigrants already here, marriages and adoptions by US citizens, and workers with extraordinary skills.
We need to eliminate chain migration that brings in unending flows of distant relatives of an original immigrant. We need to eliminate the visa lottery that brings in people by raffle. We need to eliminate employment-based visas for workers who have skills that unemployed or underemployed Americans have. Concerning illegal immigration particularly, we need to enforce the law.
The USA and other countries, particularly the European Union countries, should concentrate on helping refugees find safe, healthy refuge in their home region.
Trump Gathering Agitators
Enough is enough. The “protesters” at Trump rallies, meetings, and in front of Trump property are not protesters but rather are largely agitators and anarchists. Many are admittedly being paid. Many, when asked, don’t even know what they are protesting; they are only there to disrupt.
The electronic media are to blame for sensationalism of the “news” coverage of the bad and threatening behavior of agitators. The media has become a driver of the news rather than a reporter of the news. The electronic media aid and abet the shutting down of free political speech.
There are two incidents that are telling. One involved an African American Trump supporter who punched out a agitator who was wearing Ku Klux Klan garb, defacing an American flag, and yelling all sorts of profanity. How would you expect the African American to respond? And this was during a time when security personnel were attempting to remove the agitator who was kicking, screaming, and punching at them. It was too much and over the line. The other involved a woman agitator who screamed in the face of a police horse, then slapped the animal in the face when the horse did not flinch at her screaming. The screamer was later arrested and will face charges.
Then there is a video by a black Tucson police officer, Bradon Tatum, that has gone viral. He attended the Trump Tucson rally as a civilian. He reported how shocked he was at the violent, profane behavior of the anti-Trump protesters. Further, he told about how he was not mistreated by the Trump supporters; much to the contrary about how electronic media are reporting treatment of Black attendees. Tatum said he feared for his own safety from the anti-Trump protesters. He said, “These are the most hateful, evil people I’ve ever seen. I could not believe what I saw.”
Now the Secret Service and Trump have said that security staffing for the Trump campaign will be increased. This follows disruption of several Trump gatherings and blocking of Trump Towers, the residence of the Trump family. NBC reported that former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino said, “You have counter-assault assets, you have counter-sniper assets; this says to me that this is a grave threat [to Trump]”.
Disruption and agitation are not coming from Trump supporters. Donald Trump speech is not responsible for the behavior of the agitators as alleged by the media and his rival candidates. Trump does not encourage his supporters to retaliate on agitators but rather directs security personnel to “get them out of here”. The Secret Service and police need to get tough and, if necessary, rough with people who are only present to agitate, disrupt, or harm. It has been well established paid agitators are not “protesters” but rather disrupters being paid by such as MoveOn.Org and others. Get them out of here.
Mitch Daniels and GMOs
[Purdue President Mitch Daniels on February 25th gave a talk to the Agriculture Outlook Forum meeting in Arlington, VA. The thrust of his talk was that any who do not accept genetic engineering of crops are anti-science, ignorant, and immoral. My response to him is below.]
President Daniels:
I was shocked when I read the Wall Street Journal article about your talk to the Agriculture Outlook Forum in Arlington, VA; “Mitch Daniels on Anti-GMO Cruelty”. Your conclusions about genetically engineered crops and foods could have come right out of the playbook of any of the large chemical/seed corporations public relations departments.
In my opinion, the way biotechnology is currently being used in agriculture is both risky and reckless. It is risky for human health, for livestock, and for the environment. The primary reason for GE crops to date has been to allow them to be massively dosed with pesticide that kills surrounding “weeds” but does not kill the crop. The principle pesticide, glyphosate, has been determined to be carcinogenic. We spray it everywhere. All kinds of problems and questions are emerging regarding the chemicals and the genetically engineered crops that become either feed or food.
I have included with this letter a document to read. Please note it is extensively documented. In addition, Dr. Don Huber, Purdue professor emeritus, has it right in spite of the fact he has been called, “an embarrassment to Purdue” by one ranking academic at Purdue. If you have not, I suggest you read some of what Dr. Huber has written as well.
Large corporate agriculture is headed in the wrong direction. It is a train wreck waiting to happen. Many in Europe have already recognized this. It is encouraging to know that there are some at Purdue that know this as well; I have heard them.
Purdue does have an opportunity to lead. It is my hope it leads in directions healthier for people and the environment.
Sincerely,
Kent H. Blacklidge
Past Publisher/ The Kokomo Tribune
Purdue Degrees:
Ph.D. Genetics
MS Aquatic Toxicology and Fish Biology
MS Conservation of Natural Resources
BS Industrial Management
Note: the document included with the Daniels letter is titled, “10 Reasons we don’t need GM foods”. It is available in full at www.gmwatch.org/files/10-reasons-we-dont-need-GM-foods.pdf
Generating Snake-oil
[Below is a response to a Michael Hicks Ph.D. column in the March 13th issue of the Kokomo Tribune. Hicks is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. I am thinking he needs to do a bit more research.]
The Michael Hicks column in the March 13th Kokomo Tribune misses the point completely. He states, “American manufacturing firms are making more goods altogether than at any other time is history”. That may be very true but by itself that fact is rather meaningless unless related to population and jobs. It may be great for the corporations’ bottom profit line, but of no value to those out of work.
Hicks goes on to say, “Indiana has been losing manufacturing employment for a half century and the nation as a whole has for over 40 years”. Now we are getting somewhere. At the same time, Indiana population has been growing as has the population of the nation. The result is clearly more people with relatively fewer available jobs. That is pretty easy to understand. Now it is estimated there are over 90 million people in the U.S. either with no job or seriously under employed.
Then Hicks tells us globalization and international trade are not significant factors, really. He says believing this appeals to ignorance and cowardice. He says our eyes deceive us when we see stores “full of Chinese made goods and shuttered factories across the Midwest”. What? Here I am thinking that those now shuttered factories once manufactured goods and that many of those goods are now being manufactured in China and other countries; and that the jobs that were filled by Americans are now filled by people in China. What am I missing? Maybe it is Hicks who cannot see.
Talk about confused: he says our public debate ought to be about what steps we can take to help workers who have lost their jobs. With that I would agree. There is no doubt that an increase in manufacturing efficiency in the United States has been one key factor in the downward pressure on available jobs, but there is no doubt that outsourcing to foreign workers is another and maybe the most important factor. We want efficiency, but we want jobs for people in the United States first; not in other countries. It is time to take back the jobs. It is time we see stores full of United States of America made goods and fully operating factories across the Midwest.
Personally, I found the Hicks column to be insulting to the intelligence of Americans whom he calls ill-informed and myopic. There is no “illusion” of damage from bad trade agreements. It is very real. It began with NAFTA and is about to be expanded by TPP. Hicks needs to do some serious re-thinking.
Trump Movement
Bruce Haynes had it right in his analysis of the Trump “Movement” on RealClearPolitics.com. He said a populist rebellion has been brewing in the United States for the past 25 years as a “tsunami of economic and cultural globalism” swamped the white working class and took away their jobs and with it, their dignity.
He said, since 1979, the US has lost 7 million manufacturing jobs, many of them outsourced to China and Mexico thanks to trade agreements negotiated by elites in both parties. In 2008, Americans who lost homes, savings, and jobs to the Great Recession then had to watch as the Washington elites bailed out the same Wall Street banks that caused the meltdown. Believing that they have been “sold down the river”, middle-class voters in both parties have turned to populist outsiders, namely Trump and Sanders, to “drop an anvil on the system’s head the way one was dropped on theirs.”
And all the while the adverse, damaging trade deals were being made and companies were leaving the United States for lower wages, more lax [if any] environmental regulations, more favorable taxing, and more lax [if any] worker safety regulations; the southern US border has remained out of control which has allowed millions of illegal aliens into the country. It is no wonder there are now over 90 million US citizens now out of work or seriously under employed. It cannot continue if the country is to survive economically and socially.
It is time for the apple cart to be overturned. It is time for the Washington elites to be turned out. They have betrayed the people they are supposed to represent. There is a quiet revolution under foot.
Vermont in Your Kitchen
[Below is a letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal in response to an editorial in the WSJ on March 7th opposing the labeling of genetically engineered foods]
Editor….
The Vermont law requiring labeling of all foods containing genetically engineered ingredients goes into effect on July 1st this year. You oppose it. Your editorial on March 7th could have been written by the public relations department of any of the giant chemical/seed corporations. The problem is that it contains just plain false information.
You said, “No agricultural innovation has been more maligned than GMOs, though the technology has proven safe, reliable, affordable and good for the environment”. None of that is true. The technology has not been proven safe. It is haphazard, reckless, and risky. The techniques are crude and potentially very disruptive to native genomes with potentially catastrophic consequences to human health and the environment. To now, the primary reason for GE corn and soy (the major crops) has been to allow them to be massively dosed with glyphosate or other pesticides without killing the crop but killing all vegetation around it. Now glyphosate has been determined to be carcinogenic. Pesticide residues follow the crop to livestock and to the dinner table. Studies have shown serious health consequences to livestock fed genetically engineered feed. So, there are serious safety issues about the genetically engineered crops themselves and as a result of the pesticides found with them.
As a past daily newspaper publisher and as a genetic scientist, I am an adamant believer in the right of the public to know all that is involved in the raising and production of the food they put on their families tables. It is the right of people to make that decision. It is not the right of the chemical/seed companies and corporate farmers to make decisions about what to tell and what not to tell in secret.
Over 60 countries world wide made the decision to either ban or label genetically engineered foods. Several now are considering banning genetically engineered crops altogether. Of those who did adopt genetically engineered crops and used the pesticides designed for them, many are seeing very serious health issues in their populations, particularly among farm workers. I add that over 60 countries cannot be wrong.
The WSJ needs to do more homework. The bill now in the US Senate should never see the light of day. As you concluded… “let the consumers decide what to eat”. Vermont leads the way.