The Food Thread

[Vrede too]

Hurricane-Flooded Hog Farms Could Bring Superbugs to North Carolina Communities
Add antibiotic-resistant bacteria from pig waste to the long list of post-Florence worries.

:gthumb:

[O Really]

An "antibiotic-resistant" pestilence from pig waste sounds a lot like NC Republicans.

[Vrede too]

An "antibiotic-resistant" pestilence from pig waste sounds a lot like NC Republicans.

You jest, but I'll bet that most of the corporate honchos and pig farmers are Republicans, while most of the victims are poor and/or black Dems. Not sure about the pigs, but I'd guess Libertarians given their situation.

[Vrede too]

Why stand apart, when we can rise together

Good news, a bipartisan farm bill was signed into law today.

Going into this year, our prospects for a clean farm bill looked bleak. With politicians hostile to the environment controlling Congress and the White House, we expected our nation's most important food and agricultural law to fall prey to their hack-and-slash tendencies.

Sure enough, House Republicans loaded up their version of the bill with language promoting pesticides, poisoning waters, harming wildlife, chopping down forests, closing conservation programs, forcing people off food assistance programs, and overruling state protections.

And yet -- thanks to you and many others -- we now have a final farm bill that mostly ignores the House's abomination and instead makes only limited changes (for better or worse) to our nation's food economy.

There's a lot in the 800-page bill, so we wanted to highlight a few areas where the SierraRise community made a real difference:

☠ New pesticide loopholes in the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act were blocked.

Conservation funding stayed level overall, and a new soil health initiative was created. Special thanks to the 12,000 people who defended the Conservation Stewardship Program from elimination!

Forests survived a number of attacks on environmental reviews for logging and development projects.

Food assistance programs were defended from stringent limitations and reductions. Unfortunately, the Trump administration now plans on unilaterally setting these restrictions through the USDA. We will continue fighting!

Hemp was legalized, letting this sustainable, versatile crop be grown again. Special thanks to the 1,500 who asked Congress to incorporate the Hemp Farming Act!

Organic food was a mixed bag, but there was a significant increase in funding for organic research. Special thanks to the 17,000 who backed the Organic Agriculture Research Act's funding boosts!

New farmers and farmers of color will receive better assistance to succeed. Special thanks to the 16,000 who backed the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Opportunity Act!

Farm-to-fork economies will be strengthened by revamped programs to develop local markets. Special thanks to the 15,000 who advocated for the Local FARMS Act!

⚑ Local democracy withstood an attempt to ban states from going beyond the federal government for any food-related protection.

♻ Food waste will be reduced by new programs and a national coordinator. Special thanks to the 14,000 who boosted the related Food Recovery Act.

None of these would have been possible without the hundreds of thousands of letter-writers and thousands of callers who severely weakened the House Republicans' bargaining position. Our D.C. staff also spent many hours on Capitol Hill convincing individual legislators to vote responsibly.

There were, of course, many missed opportunities, such as ending factory farm subsidies, making the transition to organic certification more affordable, or reimagining agriculture's role in preventing climate change. In a year like 2018, much of our work on the farm bill was defensive in nature -- we look forward to going back on the offense next year to continue reforming our food system to become more sustainable, healthful, and equitable.

Thanks so much for improving how our food is grown.

In it together,
The SierraRise team
https://www.sierraclub.org/home

[Vrede too]

Don't let Trump steal food benefits from 755,000
(petition to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue)

[Vrede too]

Added to a several year string of comms:

To: "Rep. Chuck McGrady" <chuck.mcgrady@ncleg.net>, chuck.edwards@ncleg.net
Cc: contactgov@nc.gov
Subject: Re: "Ag-Gag" Law struck down

Dear Rep. McGrady and Senator Edwards,

Your First Amendment despising, animal and human abuse promoting team has gone down in flames yet again. I've lost count of how many courts that is now.

Court Strikes Down Iowa's 'Ag-Gag' Law That Blocked Undercover Investigations
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/10/68384715 ... stigations

James Gritzner, senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa is a native of Ag-dominated Iowa and was appointed by Republican George W. Bush.

'We had no idea this patient was pregnant': Nurse's 911 call details surprise birth
https://www.yahoo.com/news/apos-had-no- ... 14461.html

Remember, YOU are on the team that would have prevented this rape from being exposed by an activist (if there had been one) and is preventing other nursing home abuses from being exposed. Shame.

Isn't it time that you start adhering to the law and Constitution BEFORE humiliating yourselves and costing us a bunch of money by being forced to, again?

I await your reply.

Sincerely,
(Vrede too)

[O Really]

I await your reply.

Sincerely,
(Vrede too)

[/quote]
Good luck.

[Vrede too]

Good luck.

Thanks. McGrady used to always reply to me, but then he threw a tantrum and it's been hit or miss since. We've had quite the ongoing argument over Ag Gag.

Edwards and Cooper never reply.

Anyhow, I put that at the end of all of my notes to pols. Some don't reply at all unless asked to.

[Vrede too]

... I await your reply.

Sincerely,
(Vrede too)

Good luck.

On Sat, January 12, 2019 12:09 pm, Rep. Chuck McGrady wrote:
>
> Chuck: This acknowledges receipt of your communication. Per usual,
> your rhetoric is not likely to actually persuade a policy maker on the
> subject.

Dear Rep. McGrady,

Thanks, when I thanked you for helping to stop Sen. Andy Wells proposed bill to sunset the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund boards on December 24, 2018, you didn’t reply at all.

Per usual, I don't expect First Amendment despising, animal and human abuse promoting pols to be persuaded by lil ol' me, though multiple federal judges including con ones should be a different matter. You will either develop consciences, patriotism and concern for the taxpayers on your own or you won't. When it comes to spitting on the Constitution in general, your history strongly suggests the latter. If all I get out of this is knowing that your first thought is of me when your poor choices are shot down, I'll take it.

On a side note, what do you have to say about all of your team's democracy-hating voter suppression when voter fraud is nonexistent, given that NC9 proves that massive GOP election fraud is alive and well. I see that your support for Voter ID is the lead article on your website (http://nchouse117.com/), but I can't seem to find mention of sleazy Republican Mark Harris anywhere. Funny that.

Sincerely,
(Vrede too)

cc: Governor Cooper, Sen. Edwards

[Leo Lyons]

They probably appreciate your keeping their shredder well fed.
Me? I'm impressed as hell!

[neoplacebo]

I thought it was good; I especially liked the part at the end when Vrede mentioned the election fraud issue that's now ongoing. Overall, I tend to use more explicit language when I write to people in authority, because I think it pisses them off more.....it would me. Polite gets you nowhere, but being blunt tends to rattle the ones who have any sort of morality or honor. Come to think of it, being blunt with them pretty much rattles them all....they're not used to it.

[neoplacebo]

Since this is the food thread, I just thought I'd say that I'm having baked potato and beef filet and salad for the game coming up....and beer. Go food.

[Vrede too]

My hierarchy of contemptible, including their enablers, in descending order:

Pedophiles
Disabled abusers
Animal and elder abusers, tie
People that crap on the Constitution
Racists
Democracy haters
Polluters
Prohibitionists
Tax dollar wasters
Cons

These are just the ones that are relevant to the immediate conversation, and there's overlap among some of them. Others like murderers, torturers, rapists and militarists would of course be on the list. Once I have firmly established that a pol or other is among these and has no hope of redemption, I fail to see the need to be polite. I'm just not as touchy-feely as some like Leo Lyons. As neoplacebo says, that is the time to be passionate in hopes that the bastards decide that their assholery ain't worth the grief.

[neoplacebo]

Not a bad list. I would add hypocrites and cops that are not overweight enough to be on the force; also things that rattle or don't work right.

[O Really]

Seems to me the bottom 7 are pretty much redundant and could be summarized by "Republicans."

[billy.pilgrim]

Seems to me the bottom 7 are pretty much redundant and could be summarized by "Republicans."

I felt the same way when I read his list

[Vrede too]

Seems to me the bottom 7 are pretty much redundant and could be summarized by "Republicans."

I felt the same way when I read his list

I wrote "Cons", thus including some Dems.

[Vrede too]

‘Over-fishing a worse threat to oceans than climate change’

Marine life is struggling to adapt to the rapidly changing ocean environment, but its resilience is being undermined by fishing on an industrial scale. Over-fishing not only threatens a valuable source of food, but the entire marine ecosystem.

Ninety per cent of the world’s fish stocks are described as either fully fished or over-exploited; some populations have collapsed altogether. The big fish – desirable because they reproduce when older – disappear first, so fisherman move down the food chain, taking greater numbers of smaller fish, which are themselves food for other marine creatures....

[billy.pilgrim]

One of the claims by the anti-vaxxers is that vaccines used to contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal. But one dose of vaccine contained about 5 micrograms of mercury, while a tuna sandwich contains about 25 micrograms of mercury. All the innoculations a kid would get while growing up would add up to less mercury than a single tuna sandwich.

Agreed, assuming your numbers are correct. Just to clarify, not all vaccines contain or ever contained mercury. Obviously, kids get more than 5 shots while growing up.

Proof


http://howvaccinescauseautism.org

[Vrede too]

Proof

http://howvaccinescauseautism.org

I wonder how many tuna sandwiches Jenny McCarthy has had.