This Is How Money Buys The System

[Tex]

UNL honors Texas cattle feeder Paul Engler Tell North Platte what you think
by George Lauby (North Platte Bulletin) - 5/1/2011

Courtesy Photo�Image
Paul Engler
Courtesy Photo­Image
Cactus Feeding locations

Paul Engler, the chief operating officer of Cactus Feeders, the largest privately owned fed-cattle operation in the world, has become the 77th member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Block and Bridle Hall of Fame.

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Engler was honored April 29 at the annual Department of Animal Science and Block and Bridle banquet.

Engler was born in 1929 in Nebraska in the town of Stuart. As a boy, he milked a small herd of cows and sold the milk around town. He entered the freshman class at the University of Nebraska at age 15 and graduated with a degree in animal husbandry.

Emgler worked briefly as a teacher after graduation and also entered the cattle business, where he has been a force most of his life.

He built one of the world�s largest cattle feeding businesses in the Texas panhandle, where he helped Iowa Beef Packers, later Tyson Foods, build one of the largest beef processing plants in the world.

He currently lives in Amarillo, Texas.

Engler credits the NU Department of Animal Science and his years as a student for some of his success, NU officials said when they announced the award.

A year ago, Engler made a major contribution to UNL, donating $20 million for a new Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program.

He said he wanted �to expose students to a curriculum that teaches risk � how to evaluate it and how to manage it � because if you do not take risk as an entrepreneur, you are not going to make it.�

The Block and Bridle Hall of Fame honors individuals who have made contributions to Nebraska agriculture.

Inside the beef industry, Engler is most recognized for devising a formula, or value-based grid, for beef marketing, which he created in 1987 and is used today, NU officials said.

Engler made national headlines in 1996, when he led a lawsuit against talk show host Oprah Winfrey and on of her programs that featured a vegetarian activist who warned of a possible outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States.

Engler started in the livestock business at age 13, purchaing 100 head of cattle and using the proceeds from the sale of cattle to attend college.

�We lived in a very small town of about 400 people and my dad had the neighborhood filling station,� Engler said in a 2002 profile by the Texas Cattle Feeders. �However, because he grew up on a farm, he felt it necessary that every young boy should learn how to milk a cow.�

Engler�s father expanded the milk cow herd to about 10 cows, and Engler sold milk �by the quart in a little coaster wagon,� he told writer Burt Rutherford of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.

Engler�s father soon arranged another job for his son � overseeing a small acreage where they ran some steers. But Paul didn�t get paid. At age 13, he borrowed money and bought 100 head of his own cattle.

When Engler sold the cattle, he used the money to enter the University of Nebraska, bidding goodbye to his father�s job at age 15. He studied animal husbandry and true to his work ethic, finished college in seven semesters instead of eight, according to the TCFA profile.

After college graduation, he taught vocational agriculture and ran cattle on the side, but he suffered what he called his �first serious losses in the cattle business,� which forced him to find a better job. He took a job as a feeder cattle buyer.

In 1955, at age 26, he went to work for Nebraska cattle feeder Louis Dinklage. Dinklage owned a feeding business near Wisner and by the late 1960s was considered one of the largest cattle feeders in the country.

The Dinklage operation today is centered in Sidney, with feedyards in Colorado and Wyoming, according to the company.

Engler traveled widely as he bought cattle for Dinklage, including Texas, where he saw an opportunity to build his own cattle operation.

With some encouragement from Dinklage, he moved to Texas in the early 60s, bought land, put together a group of investors including bankers, ranchers and grain people, and began building Hereford Feedyard, according to a 2009 report in the Cattlemen�s Hall of Fame, of which Engler was the first honoree.

Dinklage eventually joined Engler's new effort, and when he did, the feedyard boomed. Engler kept growing and expanding his business interests, adding feedyards and ranches. Always interested in finding investors, he once joined with an oil well servicing company and formed a cattle-feeding venture called Prochemco.

In 1972, the Iowa Beef Packers (IBP) company offered Engler a position � heading the carcass division and overseeing sales of byproducts. During his three years with IBP, he also initiated the establishment and design of the IBP beef slaughter plant at Amarillo, which after it was built became the largest cattle slaughter plant in the United States.

But Engler didn�t really like the packing business, so he negotiated his way out of a 10-year IBP employment contract and in 1975 he started Cactus Feeders.

The original Cactus feed yard is, appropriately, in Cactus, Texas. It now has a 75,000-head capacity, according to the Cactus Feeders company.

Cactus Feeders itself is headquartered in Amarillo. The company also claims 10 more large-scale cattle feed yards from the Texas panhandle to western Kansas.

In total, Cactus Feeders can feed at least 520,000 head of cattle at any time, making it the world�s largest privately owned cattle feeding company. The company employs more than 500 people, one employee per 1,000 head.

�We believe that one employee to every 1,000 head of cattle is a good ratio,� Engler said.

Cactus Feeders is among the 50 largest companies in Texas and on the Forbes list of the top 500 private companies in the United States.

At Cactus Feeders, Engler established an employee stock ownership plan, according to the Cattlemen�s Hall of Fame profile. By 2002, employees owned a little more than 30 percent of the company, Englert said.


Greater impact

Dave Wright, the president of the Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska, is concerned about the size of Engler�s Cactus Feeders and its close relationship with Tyson Foods, formerly IBP.

Wright said undue control of cattle by packers and/or retailers makes it more difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska.

Chris Abbott, a long-time Nebraska sandhills rancher and another founding member of the Independent Cattlemen organization, agrees.

Abbott said Engler was instrumental in moving the market away from open cash transactions and increasing the use of confidential deals -- deals that keep smaller cattle feeders from getting equivalent prices.

Abbott and Engler were on opposite sides of a federal courtroom in 2004 during the Pickett v. Tyson case, an antitrust case centered on cattle prices. Tyson prevailed after the judge overturned a jury verdict.

Abbott still has strong feelings.

�It�s good to see Paul Engler give back to the cattle and beef industry through his donation to the University of Nebraska, from what he took in the form of so called �sweetheart deals� with the major packers,� Abbott said. �The new GIPSA rules concerning the Packers and Stockyards Act would make these deals or contracts more transparent, so the prices of cattle, especially at large industrial feedlots such as Cactus Feeders, is reported for all to see.�


Rural prosperity

When Engler made the $20 million donation to UNL, he expressed concern about the health of rural communities.

�A lot of these rural communities are in tough shape economically,� he said. �They have lower populations, and then services move out of the town. That is true not only of Nebraska but in other ag states as well. Statistics will show that in Nebraska we have a higher percent of the population living in small, rural towns than do other states. I want those communities to not only survive but to become more active.�


Date

The block and Bridle banquet was held April 29 at the Nebraska East Union on UNL�s East Campus. A reception for Engler and his family, friends and past honorees preceded the banquet.



The North Platte Bulletin - Published 5/1/2011
Copyright © 2011 northplattebulletin.com - All rights reserved.
Flatrock Publishing, Inc. - 1300 E 4th St., Suite F - North Platte, NE 69101

 

[Beefman]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

 

[Anonymous]

Quote: "Abbott said Engler was instrumental in moving the market away from open cash transactions and increasing the use of confidential deals -- deals that keep smaller cattle feeders from getting equivalent prices."

Abbott is absolutely wrong here. I have never seen where any grid pricing mechanism discriminates against small cattle feeders. I fed cattle for many years in numerous feedlots and I was never not able to sell under the same marketing arrangements as anyone else.

Abbott: "The new GIPSA rules concerning the Packers and Stockyards Act would make these deals or contracts more transparent, so the prices of cattle, especially at large industrial feedlots such as Cactus Feeders, is reported for all to see."

Within that statement lies the entire problem with the mentality behind the GIPSA rules. Make no mistake, the objective behind the GIPSA rules is for everyone to receive the same price. No incentive for higher quality cattle, no incentive for larger lots of cattle that help schedule slaughter, ALL RECEIVE THE SAME PRICE which will take the industry back into the stone age. "NOT FAIR, NOT FAIR!" As if it's anyone else's business what a particular feedlot is paid for their cattle relative to someone else. The socialistic marketing mentality behind the GIPSA rules will take this industry back in time. I suppose someone would whine if Tyson stepped out and paid an excuberant price for some kid's 4-H steer. NOT FAIR, NOT FAIR.


~SH~

 

[flounder]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

no boggie man here, just facts. i know they are hard to digest sometimes.


what do i think paul engler et al will be most remembered for ?


in my opinion ;



Witness testifies some ill cattle sent to rendering plant


By CHIP CHANDLER Globe-News Staff Writer

snip...

Mike Engler -- son of Paul Engler, the original plaintiff and owner of Cactus Feeders Inc. -- agreed that more than 10 cows with some sort of central nervous system disorder were sent to Hereford By-Products.

The younger Engler, who has a doctorate in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University, was the only witness jurors heard Thursday in the Oprah Winfrey defamation trial. His testimony will resume this morning.

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from which Winfrey attorney Charles Babcock quoted, encephalitis caused by unknown reasons could be a warning sign for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Encephalitis was indicated on the death certificates -- or ``dead slips'' -- of three Cactus Feeders cows discussed in court. The slips then were stamped, ``Picked up by your local used cattle dealer'' before the carcasses were taken to the rendering plant.

snip...

When questioned by Lyman's attorney, Barry Peterson, Engler said he did not know whether cattle with BSE might have been imported from England or other countries before bans on those countries' cattle were enacted.

Peterson focused on the only known case of BSE in Canada. He said cattle from that herd were brought to America. Though most were found and destroyed, some could not be located, he said.

``You can't tell me today that some of those cattle were not turned over to a renderer?'' Peterson asked.

``Nor can I say they were,'' Engler answered.

snip...


http://amarillo.com/stories/012398/cattle.shtml


http://www.independent.com/news/2007/aug/30/industrial-meat-production-threatens-human-and-env/


http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/sen12.html


http://www.mad-cow.org/veggie_case.html


TSS

 

[hopalong]

Terry
Wonder what you will be most remembered for, :wink: :wink:

 

[Tex]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

Beefman, I don't know Paul Engler but he played the position of top guy in the economic ponzi scheme. He helped set the mechanics of the scheme up and profited from it. Much of those profits came at the expense of others in the cattle business. No, he didn't set up the ponzi scheme, he just participated in it. It was an economic scam set up by the meat packers.

I am sure that Engler had nice qualities about him. I would not begrudge him those qualities, but just like Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz in the Bernie Madoff scam, he was a beneficiary at the expense of others in the market. I am glad he gave some of his money away to a Nebraska college. I would much rather see them get their money from Nebraska cattlemen making more money so their taxes could fully fund the educational system so the public interests in education were not co-opted by revenues of this sort.

http://madoffmemos.blogspot.com/2011/01/bernie-madoff-picard-suing-fred-wilpon.html

SH, until you get the meat packers to release the case and its entirety, you can not argue about the "proof" in the case. They have it all sealed for a reason--- so the spin they and you promote will not be shot full of holes by the evidence and corrupt judges.



Tex

 

[Beefman]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

no boggie man here, just facts. i know they are hard to digest sometimes.


what do i think paul engler et al will be most remembered for ?


in my opinion ;



Witness testifies some ill cattle sent to rendering plant


By CHIP CHANDLER Globe-News Staff Writer

snip...

Mike Engler -- son of Paul Engler, the original plaintiff and owner of Cactus Feeders Inc. -- agreed that more than 10 cows with some sort of central nervous system disorder were sent to Hereford By-Products.

The younger Engler, who has a doctorate in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University, was the only witness jurors heard Thursday in the Oprah Winfrey defamation trial. His testimony will resume this morning.

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from which Winfrey attorney Charles Babcock quoted, encephalitis caused by unknown reasons could be a warning sign for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Encephalitis was indicated on the death certificates -- or ``dead slips'' -- of three Cactus Feeders cows discussed in court. The slips then were stamped, ``Picked up by your local used cattle dealer'' before the carcasses were taken to the rendering plant.

snip...

When questioned by Lyman's attorney, Barry Peterson, Engler said he did not know whether cattle with BSE might have been imported from England or other countries before bans on those countries' cattle were enacted.

Peterson focused on the only known case of BSE in Canada. He said cattle from that herd were brought to America. Though most were found and destroyed, some could not be located, he said.

``You can't tell me today that some of those cattle were not turned over to a renderer?'' Peterson asked.

``Nor can I say they were,'' Engler answered.

snip...


http://amarillo.com/stories/012398/cattle.shtml


http://www.independent.com/news/2007/aug/30/industrial-meat-production-threatens-human-and-env/


http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/sen12.html


http://www.mad-cow.org/veggie_case.html


TSS

I'm not here to be a cheerleader for Paul Engler. However, your "facts" indicate you are one hurting unit. It is not necessary to read any further than the reference to "10 cows" to confirm your data was extracted from the nearest dung heap. In this example, to attempt to connect the dots from feedlot encephalitis to BSE is laughable. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain. Could be millions of reasons for the encephalitis and the resulting inflammation, and the cause of death of feedlot steers or heifers. Respiratory ailments are the #1 reasons for feedlot deaths. Not sure where encephalitis would rank, but it's likely in the top 10. Go lob your grenades somewhere else.

 

[Beefman]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

Beefman, I don't know Paul Engler but he played the position of top guy in the economic ponzi scheme. He helped set the mechanics of the scheme up and profited from it. Much of those profits came at the expense of others in the cattle business. No, he didn't set up the ponzi scheme, he just participated in it. It was an economic scam set up by the meat packers.

Tex

Economic ponzi scheme? Good one. What's the punch line?

 

[Tex]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

Beefman, I don't know Paul Engler but he played the position of top guy in the economic ponzi scheme. He helped set the mechanics of the scheme up and profited from it. Much of those profits came at the expense of others in the cattle business. No, he didn't set up the ponzi scheme, he just participated in it. It was an economic scam set up by the meat packers.

Tex

Economic ponzi scheme? Good one. What's the punch line?

Perhaps you need a little more study, beefman as there are a lot of similarities between market scams that employ differentiation and discrimination as do ponzi schemes. In both cases, the architect of the scam favors some at the expense of others for their own profit. In the case of economic scams, it is discrimination for the same item and uses the market structure to leverage that discrimination, just as Ponzi schemes do to fool participants for the schemer's benefit.

Have you been able to get the meat packers to release the Pickett case files yet?

Tex

 

[flounder]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

no boggie man here, just facts. i know they are hard to digest sometimes.


what do i think paul engler et al will be most remembered for ?


in my opinion ;



Witness testifies some ill cattle sent to rendering plant


By CHIP CHANDLER Globe-News Staff Writer

snip...

Mike Engler -- son of Paul Engler, the original plaintiff and owner of Cactus Feeders Inc. -- agreed that more than 10 cows with some sort of central nervous system disorder were sent to Hereford By-Products.

The younger Engler, who has a doctorate in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University, was the only witness jurors heard Thursday in the Oprah Winfrey defamation trial. His testimony will resume this morning.

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report from which Winfrey attorney Charles Babcock quoted, encephalitis caused by unknown reasons could be a warning sign for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Encephalitis was indicated on the death certificates -- or ``dead slips'' -- of three Cactus Feeders cows discussed in court. The slips then were stamped, ``Picked up by your local used cattle dealer'' before the carcasses were taken to the rendering plant.

snip...

When questioned by Lyman's attorney, Barry Peterson, Engler said he did not know whether cattle with BSE might have been imported from England or other countries before bans on those countries' cattle were enacted.

Peterson focused on the only known case of BSE in Canada. He said cattle from that herd were brought to America. Though most were found and destroyed, some could not be located, he said.

``You can't tell me today that some of those cattle were not turned over to a renderer?'' Peterson asked.

``Nor can I say they were,'' Engler answered.

snip...


http://amarillo.com/stories/012398/cattle.shtml


http://www.independent.com/news/2007/aug/30/industrial-meat-production-threatens-human-and-env/


http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/sen12.html


http://www.mad-cow.org/veggie_case.html


TSS

I'm not here to be a cheerleader for Paul Engler. However, your "facts" indicate you are one hurting unit. It is not necessary to read any further than the reference to "10 cows" to confirm your data was extracted from the nearest dung heap. In this example, to attempt to connect the dots from feedlot encephalitis to BSE is laughable. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain. Could be millions of reasons for the encephalitis and the resulting inflammation, and the cause of death of feedlot steers or heifers. Respiratory ailments are the #1 reasons for feedlot deaths. Not sure where encephalitis would rank, but it's likely in the top 10. Go lob your grenades somewhere else.

r i g h t. never could happen :roll:

kinda like those dead stock downers that were fed to our school children all across the USA, then hid the recall under 'animal abuse'. no BSE their either :roll:

i keep forgetting, the USA has a cloking device that protects us from all mad cow disease. never could happen r i g h t. :liar:


no grenades here either, just more facts. ...


http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/safety/pdf/Hallmark-Westland_byState.pdf



http://downercattle.blogspot.com/2009/05/who-will-watch-children.html



who will watch our children for the next 50 years ???

 

[Mike]

Flipper, flounder, (whatever his name is) the children's hero!

Yes folks he's accusing the ranchers themselves of harming the children.

What a whacko........... :roll:

 

[flounder]

Flipper, flounder, (whatever his name is) the children's hero!

Yes folks he's accusing the ranchers themselves of harming the children.

What a whacko........... :roll:

mike, you would not know where to start to tell the truth would you.

i blame, and always have blamed the NSLP/USDA for that blunder.

 

[Mike]

Flipper, flounder, (whatever his name is) the children's hero!

Yes folks he's accusing the ranchers themselves of harming the children.

What a whacko........... :roll:

mike, you would not know where to start to tell the truth would you.

i blame, and always have blamed the NSLP/USDA for that blunder.

So go biatch to the USDA. No one here, that I am aware of, works for them or has any say in the matters you seem to champion.

Go somehwere, anywhere, just get the f__k outta here.................................................

I've already suggested you go back and finish high school.............

 

[Beefman]

who will watch our children for the next 50 years ???

I'm sure our kids will do just fine in the next 50 years. I have faith and lots of confidence in the next generation. Clearly, they have their work cut out for them. As the world's population continues to grow, in the next 50 years our kids will have to substantially increase the level of food production, and do so with less available pasture ground and tillable soil. Much of this increase will come from innovation and technology. Additionally, our kids will likely figure out ways to increase our life expectancy, meaning we'll get to listen longer to future generations of those that flounder around, and moan, groan and complain their through their whole life. I'm grateful for that.

 

[flounder]

Flipper, flounder, (whatever his name is) the children's hero!

Yes folks he's accusing the ranchers themselves of harming the children.

What a whacko........... :roll:

mike, you would not know where to start to tell the truth would you.

i blame, and always have blamed the NSLP/USDA for that blunder.

So go biatch to the USDA. No one here, that I am aware of, works for them or has any say in the matters you seem to champion.

Go somehwere, anywhere, just get the f__k outta here.................................................

I've already suggested you go back and finish high school.............

and i have already told you mike that all the education in the world from auburn university or any other university can't help some, and you are living proof of that :lol: :lol2: :nod:



Food safety for whom? Corporate wealth versus people's health

GRAIN, May 2011

School children in the US were served 200,000 kilos of meat contaminated with a deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria before the nation's second largest meat packer issued a recall in 2009. A year earlier, six babies died and 300,000 others got horribly sick with kidney problems in China when one of the country's top dairy producers knowingly allowed an industrial chemical into its milk supply. Across the world, people are getting sick and dying from food like never before. Governments and corporations are responding with all kinds of rules and regulations, but few have anything to do with public health. The trade agreements, laws and private standards used to impose their version of "food safety" only entrench corporate food systems that make us sick and devastate those that truly feed and care for people, those based on biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and local markets. People are resisting, whether its movements against GMOs in Benin and "mad cow" beef in Korea or campaigns to defend street hawkers in India and raw milk in Colombia. The question of who defines "food safety" is increasingly central to the struggle over the future of food and agriculture.

The growing global menace

Food should be a source of health, not harm. But food can maim, cripple, and kill. The leading cause of food poisoning in the United Kingdom today is Campylobacter, a tiny bacterium, rife throughout the country's chicken supply, that causes in humans diarrhoea, fever, abdominal pain and cramping, and in some cases chronic, even life-threatening, conditions. People get it from touching raw poultry or eating undercooked birds. Some 85% of the chicken population in the UK may be infected. In the United States, the top culprits these days are Norovirus, mostly transmitted from dirty hands, and Salmonella, contracted from eating food with faeces on it. Norovirus will give you acute vomiting and diarrhoea, while Salmonella causes vomiting, fever and cramps

snip...

Graph: Data compiled by GRAIN from government and UN sources, 2008-2010 (except Australia=2005)

Among the more notorious food safety incidents in recent years was the melamine scandal in China in 2008. Six babies died and 300,000 others got horribly sick with kidney problems when the industrial chemical melamine got into the commercial milk distribution circuit. There was also a dioxin scandal in Germany in January 2011, where the German authorities shut down more than 4,000 farms after it was discovered that a German company had sold 200,000 tonnes of dioxin-tainted animal feed, which had subsequently entered the food chain. Dioxins are cancer-causing poisons formed in the burning of waste and other industrial processes. 1

How bad is the problem globally? Believe it or not, there are no global statistics or tracking mechanisms on food safety incidents worldwide; reliable data on their frequency and impact are grossly inadequate. Nevertheless, the available data do show that food poisoning is quite common in most countries (see Graph 1). 2 According to the Singaporean authorities, who run a pretty tight food hygiene system, roughly 1.5 billion people worldwide are affected by food-borne disease outbreaks each year, resulting in 3 million deaths. 3

The price of this food safety mess is huge. The UK puts the annual costs to the British economy at US$1.92 billion, which its Food Standards Agency bluntly calls "too much". Australia's annual bill is US$1.23 billion. The World Health Organisation says that the annual cost to Vietnam is US$210 million. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has long given the figure of US$35 million per year, but a new study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University in 2010 puts the figure astronomically higher, at US$152 billion. 4

Food safety in the Fast Food Nation

Does US-style production represent the future of global food? Possibly. Certainly, elite Western opinion shapers and policymakers – the editors of The Economist, the directors of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, certain key elements in the Obama administration – think it should. So it is worthwhile to consider how the US food safety regime has responded to the dilemmas of scale in recent years.

In an industrialised, highly consolidated food system geared to maximising profit by selling vast volumes of cheap food, pressure exists at every phase of the production chain to cut costs by cutting corners, including safe food practices. Moreover, the very scale of modern food production means that seemingly isolated lapses can become quite grave, subjecting millions of people to danger based on the actions of a single production facility.

The case of Peanut Corp. of America demonstrates the perils of scale. Until recently, the company ran two plants: one in Texas, one in Georgia. These two facilities processed 2.5% of the peanuts produced in the United States, and sold "peanut paste" to the entire US processed food industry. By late 2007, the company had evidently given up trying to maintain hygienic conditions at its facilities. In late 2008, people started coming down with salmonella from a dizzying array of products containing Peanut Corp.'s paste, prompting the FDA to initiate a "voluntary recall". By the time all was said and done, the recall affected no fewer than 1,800 supermarket brands. The tainted products killed nine people and officially sickened around 700 – half of them children – in 46 US states. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reckons that for every reported case of salmonella, another 38 cases go unreported – so the real number of people made ill from the output of just two facilities may be up to 26,000. In the wake of the fiasco, US journalists showed that the FDA had "outsourced" inspection of the Georgia plant to state authorities, and then ignored the state inspectors' findings of atrocious hygiene practices. Moreover, it turned out that the company's own testing had found salmonella in huge batches of peanut paste, which it proceeded to send out anyway. i

In another incident in 2009, a company called Beef Packers, owned by transnational agribusiness giant Cargill, had to declare two "voluntary recalls" involving over 500 tonnes of ground beef infected with antibiotic-resistant salmonella. ii The USDA announced that consuming the suspect meat could cause "treatment failure" iii – that is, death – because of its ability to withstand drugs. At least 39 people in 11 states reported getting sick, and more than 200,000 thousand kilos of the tainted meat was served to school children through the National School Lunch program. iv

The official response to such incidents has been minimal. In January 2011, a hotly debated piece of legislation called the Food Safety Modernisation Act was signed into being. The intention of the original Bill was to update and inject some resources into the US food safety system. It basically called for more inspections, gave the government authority to mandate food recalls, and provided some traceability to an otherwise fairly unregulated industrial sector. Who would oppose such a move? The fat cats from the food industry, you might think – the Cargills and the Tysons, who don't want to be controlled. But you would be wrong. The new rules would hardly affect them.

According to an analysis by the US NGO Food & Water Watch, nothing in the Act would have prevented the Peanut Company of America from sending out its tainted paste. Worse, the rules would not even touch the meat sector, the biggest source of food-borne illness in the United States. v The main opponents of the bill throughout the debate were small family farm activists who, because of the way the bill was framed, saw themselves falling under these controls when they are not the problem. So instead of instigating real food safety reform in a country where one out of four people gets sick and 5,000 people die from eating contaminated food each year, the law might do next to nothing.

In the absence of stricter public action around food safety, corporations have moved to fill the void -- sometimes to tragicomic effect. A case in point: in the mid-2000s, a company called Beef Products Inc. had an ingenious idea: it would buy slaughterhouse scraps – which are extremely likely to be infected by bacterial pathogens – from large-scale beef processors at cut-rate prices. It would purée those parts into a paste, which it would then mix with ammonia to kill bacterial pathogens. It would sell the product back the the beef industry as a cheap filler for ground beef, with the added feature that the ammonia in the paste would sterilise the ground beef it was mixed with. The beef industry had found a "solution" to the problem of bacterial pathogens in ground beef! The product, known in the industry as "pink slime" for its distinctive look, could be found in 70% of hamburgers consumed in the United States by the end of the decade. The USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, which oversees meat safety, applauded -- it recognised "pink slime" as safe without requiring testing, on the grounds that it had been sterilised by ammonia. But in 2009, a New York Times exposé found that pink slime in fact tended to be ridden with pathogens -- and was actively adding to the pathogen load of the ground beef it was mixed with. Beef Products Inc. responded by merely upping the ammonia dose for its mix. To this day, the product remains widely used in the vast US ground beef market, including at fast-food chains nationwide. vi

If the official US response to highly visible manifestations of food poisoning, like Salmonella-tainted meat and peanut butter, has been underwhelming and industry-friendly, then the response to low-level exposure to pathogens that cause cumulative damage has been virtually non-existent. The first kind causes spectacular, impossible-to-ignore symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea; the second entails subtle, easy-to-ignore ones that can cause significant long-term damage. Corporate-led food safety regimes like the one in the United States have to at least gesture at the first kind; the second kind, not so much.

It turns out that the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), which oversees the safety of the US meat supply, routinely endorses meat that it knows to be tainted with residues of "veterinary drugs, pesticides, and heavy metals", the USDA Inspector General revealed in a 2010 report. vii The damning report was met with silence by the US media – probably because small amounts of substances like heavy metals don't cause dramatic immediate symptoms, but rather hard-to-trace, slow-to-develop conditions like cancer. As the report puts it, the "effects of residue are generally chronic as opposed to acute, which means that they will occur over time, as an individual consumes small traces of the residue". In its report, the USDA Inspector General's office expressed confidence that the FSIS would redouble efforts to keep heavy metals and antibiotic traces out of the meat supply going forward. Yet it had expressed the same thing, after exposing the same problem, in its report two years earlier. viii

Another example is the US Food and Drug Administration's refusal to act on mounting evidence that Bisphenol A, an industrial compound found in many food containers, is an endocrine disrupter. If the food safety regime for spectacular pathogens could be described as porous, that for the second, more subtle, kind barely exists at all.

Written with contributions from Tom Philpott, senior writer on food and agriculture for Grist magazine.

i "Peanut Corp. Shipped Product After Finding Salmonella", Bloomberg News, 27 January 2009, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aeXwqlMnIWU0; and "Peanut Plant Had History of Health Lapses", New York Times, 26 January 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27peanuts.html?_r=1&ref=health

ii "Antibiotic-resistant salmonella, school lunches, and Cargill's dodgy California beef plant", Grist, 10 December 2010, http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-10-meat-wagon-cargill-salmonella/

iii "California Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products Due to Possible Salmonella Contamination", USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, 9 December 2009, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/ News_&_Events/Recall_065_2009_Release/index.asp

iv "Why a recall of tainted beef didn't include school lunches", USA Today, 2 December 2009, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-01-beef-recall-lunches_N.htm

v Responsibility for food safety in the US is divided between two agencies. The US Department of Agriculture is responsible for meat, poultry and egg products, which accounts for 20% of the US food supply. The Food and Drug Administration, within the US Department of Health, takes care of the rest. The Food Safety Modernisation Act addresses only the work of the FDA. The top sources of food poisoning in the United States are, however, poultry, beef and leafy vegetables (in that order, 2007). See: "Can Congress make a food-safety omelette without breaking the wrong eggs? ", Grist, 25 October 2010.

vi "Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned", New York Times, 30 December 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all; See also, "Lessons on the food system from the ammonia-hamburger fiasco", Grist, 5 January 2010, http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-05-cheap-food-ammonia-burgers

vii "FSIS National Residue Program for Cattle", Office of the Inspector General, US Department of Agriculture, http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/24601-08-KC.pdf

viii "USDA Inspector General: meat supply routinely tainted with harmful residues", Grist, 15 April 2010: http://www.grist.org

This is "food safety"?

Government and industry action on food safety gives little indication that they recognise any fundamental problem with industrial food production. Rarely do their regulations or standards hinder corporate practices in any significant way. On the contrary, they tend to reinforce the power of large industry while undermining, or even criminalising, small-scale production and local food cultures. Colombia, for instance, is in the process of implementing legislation to prevent the sale of raw milk in urban areas. Well over two million farmers and vendors depend for their livelihoods on these sales of raw milk, and around 20 million Colombians, most of them poor, depend on raw milk as an affordable and essential source of nutrition, easily made safe by boiling it at home. Hard pressed to justify its moves on public health grounds, the government says that the legislation is part of its commitment to the WTO, and that it will help to "modernise" the dairy sector, making it better able to compete with imports when a looming free trade agreement with the EU kicks in. 5

These days, in Colombia and elsewhere, "food safety" policy has little to do with public health or consumers. It has become a battleground among contesting interests, the site of power struggles for control over food and agriculture, with decisions being increasingly taken far from producers and consumers, in the obscure world of trade negotiations and multilateral agencies, where politics and commerce, not science and public health, are what drive things.

Consider the case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the fatal brain-wasting condition popularly known as mad cow disease. People get the human strain of it by eating the meat of cows that have been fed diseased animals as a cheap source of protein – a practice common in industrial feedlots since the 1970s. The US and Canada lost Japan, Korea and several other major export markets for beef when BSE was found in their herds in 2003, and have had a tough time regaining those markets because risks remain from their industries' feeding practices. 6 Indeed, in March 2011, a new case of BSE was identified in a Canadian cow. 7 But through constant pressure, particularly at the trade negotiating table, both countries have secured some concessions to allow certain parts of the cow, or the meat of younger animals, to cross borders freely. Both countries also went to the Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris, which has a similar role to Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome but for the animal kingdom, to get their beef declared generally safe for consumption. Where does that leave Japan? Unmoved. It says that its standards are higher than those of the OIE or the US, and have to be given priority.

Beijing, for its part, has so far refused to budge. But that doesn't mean that Chinese consumers are getting ractopamine-free pork. The same government fighting off ractopamine-laced US pork, is aggressively pushing, in the name of "food safety", a consolidation and modernisation of the country's pig production based on the US factory farm model. China's two largest, vertically-integrated pork producers, Yurun and Shineway, both of whom have been heavily funded by the US bank Goldman Sachs, were implicated in recent food safety incidents involving ractopamine and clenbuterol (another banned drug added to pig feed for the same purposes). 8 In March 2011, Chinese consumers were shocked when a CCTV television report uncovered how ractopamine and clenbuterol are widely used in the farms supplying Shineway in Henan Province. 9 The report found that Shineway was actually offering farmers higher prices for pigs fed ractopamine. 10

Superbugs and megafarms

"Superbug" is a term used to describe bacteria that have acquired the ability to resist commonly used antibiotics. One of the most notorious is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which emerged in the 1960s in the UK and has since spread around the world, with deadly consequences. In the US alone, 17,000 people died from MRSA infection in 2005. i

MRSA is typically associated with hospitals, where the superbug has a tendency to get into open wounds and cause difficult-to-heal infections. But in recent years these superbugs have found another place to thrive: industrial pig farms. ii

In 2004, Dutch researchers identified a new strain of MRSA, later labelled ST398 or "pig MRSA", which they found in people in close contact with Dutch pig farms. Within two years ST398 become a leading source of human MRSA infection in the country, accounting for more than one in five human MRSA cases. Studies showed that these cases were closely related with pigs, and further research revealed that ST398 was running rampant in pigs on Dutch farms. A 2007 survey found ST398 in 39% of pigs and 81% of local piggeries. iii

New surveys of farms outside of the Netherlands have turned up similar numbers. iv The first ever EU-wide survey for MRSA on pig farms in 2009, using a method that "largely underestimates MRSA prevalence", found ST398 in more than two-thirds of EU member states. Spain and Germany had the highest incidence, with over 40% of pig holdings testing positive for MRSA. v Not surprisingly, given the European pig industry's heavy exports overseas, ST398 is turning up in pigs beyond Europe's borders, too. A study of pigs in the Canadian province of Ontario, for instance, found ST398 in a quarter of local pigs, as well as in one-fifth of the pig farmers tested. vi Only one study has been conducted in the US so far: it was a pilot study of two large hog operations in the midwest that found ST398 in 49% of the pigs and 45% of the workers. vii

MRSA has the potential to evolve in very dangerous ways in its new home on pig farms. The density of animals in factory farms allows the bacteria to evolve rapidly and in diverse ways. Also, the use of antibiotics on factory farms is ubiquitous. Pigs are routinely fed antibiotics in their feed and water, often as a preventive measure against disease outbreaks and even simply to increase growth rates.

In the US, 80% of all antibiotics consumed annually are consumed by livestock. viii In China, the figure is nearly 50%. ix Even in the EU, where the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics for animals is banned and where the types of antibiotics allowed for livestock are controlled, the use of antibiotics for animals still exceeds their use for humans. In Germany, for example, three times as many antibiotics are given to animals as to humans. x Such widespread use of antibiotics in factory farms speeds up the development of antibiotic resistance among bacteria. Unlike other strains of MRSA, ST398 can already withstand tetracyclines, a group of antibiotics that is given heavily and regularly to pigs in factory farms. The medical profession is getting increasingly worried about what this will mean for the future of human health care, as antibiotics may become useless. The WHO now calls it "the greatest threat to human health". xi

The good news, however, is that ST398 still hasn't shown much virulence in humans, nor is it easily transmitted between people. Not yet, at least.

In 2010, a 14-year-old girl in France, recovering in hospital from pneumonia, was infected with a superbug. She soon began having serious respiratory problems, her lungs started bleeding, and within six days she died. The superbug that killed her was a clone of MRSA ST398 that is known to circulate in humans. The most alarming issue for the French doctors studying the case was that this was the first incident on record in which this strain of MRSA had acquired the capacity to produce a lethal toxin in humans, something that certain other strains of superbugs are able to do. They reasoned that if the clone of MRSA ST398 could do it, then surely "pig MRSA" has the same capacity. xii

It is not much of a stretch to imagine a situation where "pig MRSA" passes from a pig to a farm worker carrying another MRSA strain with virulence to humans, mixes with that strain, and acquires its capacity for virulence. The new virulent strain of ST398 could then easily pass back into the pigs, where it would rapidly amplify and spread. ST398 is transmitted to humans not only through contact with live pigs: the bacteria is also present on meat sold in supermarkets and can be carried over large distances by the insects that pass in and out of farms. xiii

The EU is slowly starting to take action to defend against such a possibility. It has implemented several measures to restrict the use of antibiotics in livestock production and, at national and at EU level, some surveillance of farms is being carried out. In 2009, a panel of the European Food Safety Authority recommended that the EU move towards "systematic surveillance and monitoring of MRSA in intensively reared animals". South Korea, for its part, banned the use of seven antibiotics in animal feed in 2008, and implemented a national programme to reduce the use of antibiotics on livestock farms. But such restrictions on the use of antibiotics for livestock hardly exist in the US, although proposed legislation restricting the non-therapeutic use of certain antibiotics in feed is currently before Congress. As for surveillance, the US National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System doesn't even test for MRSA. xiv Outside the industrialised countries, where the meat industry is expanding most rapidly, there is an almost complete absence of controls on the use of antibiotics in agriculture and of surveillance for pathogens such as MRSA.

Enhancing surveillance and cutting back on the use of antibiotics in factory farms are important measures. But they aren't enough to deal effectively with the threat posed by MRSA and the myriad other pathogens that thrive in factory farms. A staggering 61% of all human pathogens, and 75% of new human pathogens, are transmitted by animals, with many of the most dangerous – such as bird flu, BSE, swine flu and the Nypah virus – having emerged from intensive livestock farms. xv It is the way that animals are farmed that is fundamentally at issue. xvi

i E. Klein, D.L. Smith, R. Laxminarayan, "Hospitalizations and Deaths Caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, United States, 1999–2005", Emerg. Infect. Dis. Vol. 13, No. 12, 2007, pp. 1840–46.

ii Ed Yong, "MRSA in pigs and pig farmers", 23 January 2009, http://scienceblogs.com/ notrocketscience/2009/01/mrsa_in_pigs_and_pig_farmers.php

iii X.W. Huijsdens et al., "Community-acquired MRSA and pig-farming", Ann. Clin. Microbiol. Antimicrob., Vol. 5, No. 26, 2006; A.J. de Neeling et al., "High prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in pigs", Vet. Microbiol., Vol. 122, No. 3–4, 21 June 2007, pp. 366–72; I. van Loo et al., "Emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus of animal origin in humans", Emerg. Infect. Dis., Vol. 13, No. 12, 2007, pp. 1834–9.

iv Danish Integrated Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Research Programme, http://www.danmap.org/pdfFiles/Danmap_2009.pdf

v "Pig MRSA widespread in Europe", Ecologist, 25 November 2009; Broens et al., "Diagnostic validity of pooling environmental samples to determine the status of sow-herds for the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)", Poster presented at the ASM–ESCMID Conference on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococci, in Animals: Veterinary and Public Health Implications, London, 2009.

vi "Guelph Researchers Find MRSA in Pigs", University of Guelph, 8 November 2007, http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2007/11/post_75.html.

vii T.C. Smith, M.J. Male, A.L. Harper, J.S. Kroeger, G.P. Tinkler et al., (2009) "Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern US Swine and Swine Workers", PLoS ONE, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2009.

viii See "New FDA Numbers Reveal Food Animals Consume Lion's Share of Antibiotics", Center for a Liveable Future, Johns Hopkins University, 23 December 2010,. http://www.livablefutureblog.com/2010/12/new-fda-numbers-reveal-food-animals-consume-lion%E2%80%99s-share-of-antibiotics See also Margaret Mellon, Charles Benbrook, Karen Lutz Benbrook, "Hogging it!: Estimates of antimicrobial abuse in Livestock", Union of Concerned Scientists, 2001, http://www.ucsusa.org

ix "Half of China's antibiotics fed to animals: expert", Xinhua, 26 November 2010.

x Kristen Kerksiek, "Farming out Antibiotics: The fast track to the post-antibiotic era", Infection Research, Germany, 22 March 2010, http://www.infection-research.de/perspectives/ detail/pressrelease/ farming_out_antibiotics_the_fast_track_to_the_post_antibiotic_era/

xi AAP, "Greatest threat to human health", Sydney Morning Herald, 16 February 2011, http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/greatest-threat-to-human-health-20110216-1awai.html

xii Frédéric Laurent, "Les souches de staphylococcus aureus ST398 sont-elles virulents", Bull. Acad. Vét. France, Vol. 163, No. 3, May 2010.

xiii See Aqeel Ahmad et al., "Insects in confined swine operations carry a large antibiotic resistant and potentially virulent enterococcal community", BMC Microbiology, 2011, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/11/23/abstract

xiv Maryn McKenna, "Alarm over 'pig MRSA' – but not in the US", Wired, 30 October 2010, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/alarm-over-pig-mrsa-%E2%80%94-but-not-in-the-us/

xv John McDermott and Delia Grace, "Agriculture-Associated diseases: Adapting Agriculture to improve Human Health", ILRI, February 2011.

xvi GRAIN, "Germ warfare: Livestock disease, public health and the military-industrial complex", Seedling, January 2008, http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=533

Food safety and global trade: Europe and the US impose their standards

snip...SEE FULL TEXT REPORT HERE ;

http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=222

Read the synopsis of this report here.

http://www.grain.org/m/?id=327

http://www.grain.org/front_files/GRAIN_Food_Safety_Synopsis_2011.pdf

Approximately 50.3 million pounds of the beef recalled by HallmarkWestland went to federal nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program, and of those 50.3 million pounds, about 19.6 million pounds had already been consumed at the time the recall was issued. Release No. 0054.08, USDA, Transcript of Technical Briefing - HallmarkWestland Meat Packing Company (Feb. 21, 2008).

9. HSUS members that consume meat products, including beef products, are concerned about eating adulterated meat products and the health risks associated with such adulterated meat. Specifically, they are concerned that downed cattle are at an increased risk for harboring and transmitting BSE prions and other pathogens. The consumption of meat products derived from BSE-infected cattle is believed to cause a human neurological disease known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ("vCJD"). The disease is progressive, invariably fatal, and there is no known effective treatment or cure. Downed cattle may also be at higher risk for harboring other foodborne transmissible pathogens, including E. coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, and anthrax. By allowing downed cattle to enter the food supply, USDA's regulatory loophole injures members of The HSUS by placing them at an increased risk of contracting these food-borne illnesses each time they eat beef.

10. Members of The HSUS are also concerned about the meat products provided to their children through the National School Lunch Program. More than 31 million school children receive lunches through the program each school day. To assist states in providing healthful, low-cost or free meals, USDA provides states with various commodities including ground beef.

As evidenced by the HallmarkWestland investigation and recall, the potential for downed animals to make their way into the National School Lunch Program is neither speculative nor hypothetical.

http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/FDA/hsus-v-schafer-usda-complaint.pdf

Sunday, May 01, 2011

STUDY OF ATYPICAL BSE 2010 Annual Report May 2011

http://bse-atypical.blogspot.com/2011/05/study-of-atypical-bse-2010-annual.html

Monday, April 18, 2011

Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in US Meat and Poultry

http://staphmrsa.blogspot.com/2011/04/multidrug-resistant-staphylococcus.html

TSS

 

[Beefman]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

Beefman, I don't know Paul Engler but he played the position of top guy in the economic ponzi scheme. He helped set the mechanics of the scheme up and profited from it. Much of those profits came at the expense of others in the cattle business. No, he didn't set up the ponzi scheme, he just participated in it. It was an economic scam set up by the meat packers.

I am sure that Engler had nice qualities about him. I would not begrudge him those qualities, but just like Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz in the Bernie Madoff scam, he was a beneficiary at the expense of others in the market. I am glad he gave some of his money away to a Nebraska college. I would much rather see them get their money from Nebraska cattlemen making more money so their taxes could fully fund the educational system so the public interests in education were not co-opted by revenues of this sort.

http://madoffmemos.blogspot.com/2011/01/bernie-madoff-picard-suing-fred-wilpon.html

SH, until you get the meat packers to release the case and its entirety, you can not argue about the "proof" in the case. They have it all sealed for a reason--- so the spin they and you promote will not be shot full of holes by the evidence and corrupt judges.

Tex

Ponzi schemes are illegal. If you wish to be taken seriously, you'd refrain from such nonsense.

 

[Mike]

Ponzi schemes are illegal.

Well then...........Social Security is illegal..............

 

[flounder]

who will watch our children for the next 50 years ???

I'm sure our kids will do just fine in the next 50 years. I have faith and lots of confidence in the next generation. Clearly, they have their work cut out for them. As the world's population continues to grow, in the next 50 years our kids will have to substantially increase the level of food production, and do so with less available pasture ground and tillable soil. Much of this increase will come from innovation and technology. Additionally, our kids will likely figure out ways to increase our life expectancy, meaning we'll get to listen longer to future generations of those that flounder around, and moan, groan and complain their through their whole life. I'm grateful for that.

i hope your correct there beefman, but i am concerned...




Wednesday, April 27, 2011

GENERATION ALZHEIMER'S: THE DEFINING DISEASE OF THE BABY BOOMERS


http://betaamyloidcjd.blogspot.com/2011/04/generation-alzheimers-defining-disease.html




Saturday, March 5, 2011

MAD COW ATYPICAL CJD PRION TSE CASES WITH CLASSIFICATIONS PENDING ON THE RISE IN NORTH AMERICA



http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2011/03/mad-cow-atypical-cjd-prion-tse-cases.html




Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Food safety for whom? Corporate wealth versus people's health


http://fdafailedus.blogspot.com/2011/05/food-safety-for-whom-corporate-wealth.html

 

[Tex]

Your title of this thread, "this is how money buys the system" is perplexing. What's your point? I understand your lack of respect for Paul Engler. A man from very humble beginnings, gets through college in 7 semesters after starting at age 15, and builds quite the cattle empire. Doesn't matter if it's Paul Engler, a local church, or a boy scout troop, if it's successful, something must be amiss. There are those out there that need a boggie man hanging around.....and Paul E must be your boggie man. I get that.

Whether this, or that ridiculous thread your TX buddy, the foundering flounderer posted this week about sprayed blood, it's difficult to determine which post qualifies for the boggie man award of the week. Plus, Doug Wright was quoted as saying in your posted article "it's difficult for ranchers to make a living without going to work for big meat companies, which has harmful effects on areas of the country such as Nebraska".......Paul E must be on his radar screen also.

Beefman, I don't know Paul Engler but he played the position of top guy in the economic ponzi scheme. He helped set the mechanics of the scheme up and profited from it. Much of those profits came at the expense of others in the cattle business. No, he didn't set up the ponzi scheme, he just participated in it. It was an economic scam set up by the meat packers.

I am sure that Engler had nice qualities about him. I would not begrudge him those qualities, but just like Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz in the Bernie Madoff scam, he was a beneficiary at the expense of others in the market. I am glad he gave some of his money away to a Nebraska college. I would much rather see them get their money from Nebraska cattlemen making more money so their taxes could fully fund the educational system so the public interests in education were not co-opted by revenues of this sort.

http://madoffmemos.blogspot.com/2011/01/bernie-madoff-picard-suing-fred-wilpon.html

SH, until you get the meat packers to release the case and its entirety, you can not argue about the "proof" in the case. They have it all sealed for a reason--- so the spin they and you promote will not be shot full of holes by the evidence and corrupt judges.

Tex

Ponzi schemes are illegal. If you wish to be taken seriously, you'd refrain from such nonsense.

The economic scams are illegal too, Beefman. It is just that there are some judges who are about as swift as the politicians who allowed the investment banking get a hold of the commercial banking and run our economy in the ground while they made their cut.

Phil Gramm and his wife are economists who know how to play these games and escape serious responsibility. I could not take the McCain Palin team seriously because Gramm was one of his top economic advisers.

Gramm's wife was on the board of Enron, and IBP while Phil was engineering the financial collapse by getting rid of the wisdom enacted into law the last time our country went through this bad of a time.

I don't think I am a lot smarter than anyone on these matters, it is just that I studied them and had an interest in them while others did other things. It was hard living it in real time but now that we have that behind us, everyone needs to clearly see with hindsight what happened and why.

I think we have a bunch of moron politicians who have been selling our country out to the highest bidder with or without knowing it. I don't know that they could help being that stupid but we should still hold them responsible and accountable.

All this stuff about teachers, NPR funding, the social issues rehashed again is just diversion from holding the people who wrecked our country accountable for the decisions they made. I do know that Phil Gramm and his wife are smart enough and unethical as heck to sell them to whoever would buy them.

We have this concentration of wealth in the hands of the few because people like this were sellouts to the known and illegal scams. That is why there were laws against them, just like laws against Ponzi Schemes. We have had a lot of people say how good these scams have been because they made some people rich.

I say they are no better than Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. It is just that we have a whole lot of people who still don't get it or think a 20 million payoff to a university will buy their way out of it. You might be one of them.




Tex

 

[mrj]

Which is the worse sin, vindictiveness, greed, or foul accusations, such as against Mr. Paul Engler and Phil Gramm based ONLY on suspicion of their motives and actions????

BTW anyone wishing to LEARN something factual about Engler business, which IMHO, demonstrates the exemplary citizens they are, could check out this week edition of Cattlemen to Cattlemen aired last night on the RFID TV channel, or at www.cattlemen2cattlemen.com.

mrj