"Big" is the Problem
(This post is a comment I tried to post on the God's Politics blog written by Jim Wallis of Sojourners. After spending 45 minutes trying to log in, I finally gave up. The blog is about the immoral, unbiblical actions of BP in failing to prevent/control the current environmental disaster in the Gulf.)
I agree with most of what was in the post about BP. However, that's not the whole story. I have worked as an environmental consultant for over 40 years. Most of my work has been for industry: some good neighbors, some not. It is almost a universal truth that small industries/companies eventually comply with environmental regulations. Many I have worked with do this willingly out of a sense of personal and corporate responsibility. Some comply because they are forced to do so by a government agency. The big companies are different. They do everything they can to promote a public image that they are environmentally friendly while ignoring, even stomping into the dust, regulations that get in their way. There is enough evidence already to show that BP has done just this with respect to this deep-water rig.
However, we can't stop the blame-game with BP. The Federal government is the other “big” and it has been complicit with BP. It failed to enforce its own regulations. When the "worst case scenario” occurred, it failed to act in a timely manner to implement its own contingency plan for such an occurrence. In fact, it failed to even acquire the equipment and train responders to implement the plan. Further, this administration has allowed politics into the mix (catering to the radical environmentalist) to the extent that achievable and common sense measures to minimize the damage to the environment have been forbidden.
Big, global companies exert undue influence on our government, Democrats or Republicans, and subvert the legitimate functions of government. The larger government becomes, the more impact this subversion has on our daily lives.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Rhythms vs. Schedules
"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun."
This is a very unscientific post – it is about feelings more than facts – observations more than measurements. I have been struggling for over a year trying to live my life by rhythms rather than schedules. I experienced this idea of rhythms when I visited the monastery last year and felt the tranquility of the monks as they went through their day of prayer and work. On a few days I have succeeded and it truly felt good and natural. Early this week I discovered the above quote while looking for fun sayings about the beach. It definitely has a resonance with me. There is a certain peace we feel in our spirits when we are in tune with the rhythms God created in us. There is tension, frustration, and a lack of completion when we live by artificial schedules. I observed this while spending time with people in Africa. Our group was on a “schedule” and everyone around us was on “Africa time.” Guess who was experiencing more of God’s peace and joy?
"At the beach, life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun."
This is a very unscientific post – it is about feelings more than facts – observations more than measurements. I have been struggling for over a year trying to live my life by rhythms rather than schedules. I experienced this idea of rhythms when I visited the monastery last year and felt the tranquility of the monks as they went through their day of prayer and work. On a few days I have succeeded and it truly felt good and natural. Early this week I discovered the above quote while looking for fun sayings about the beach. It definitely has a resonance with me. There is a certain peace we feel in our spirits when we are in tune with the rhythms God created in us. There is tension, frustration, and a lack of completion when we live by artificial schedules. I observed this while spending time with people in Africa. Our group was on a “schedule” and everyone around us was on “Africa time.” Guess who was experiencing more of God’s peace and joy?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Earth Day 2010 – Sustainable
When the first Earth Day was celebrated, I was working for the Tennessee Stream Pollution Control Division. Those of us working for the Division viewed this celebration with mixed emotions. We were definitely in favor of an increased emphasis on the environment but we were a little skeptical – many of leaders were “hippies” and some of the immediate goals were technically unachievable. We assumed that when these goals were not met, the Earth Day movement would die as so many other American fads in the past. The movement did not die, though it has morphed and divided through the years. So here are my Earth Day thoughts as one who is still working in the environmental field and one who tries to view all of creation from a Biblical perspective.
The job with the state was not my best offer coming out of college. A national manufacturer of air pollution equipment offered me a very good job with a much higher starting salary. The problem: the only openings were either in Cleveland or Pittsburgh. In 1969 those two cites were characterized by gray-to-black skies and technicolor streams. We were just not interested in living there.
The Stream Pollution Control Law under which we operated was passed in 1947. The strongest penalty permitted by that law was a $50 per day judgment which had to be approved by a local General Sessions Court. The first time a fine was ever assessed was in 1971 and it made the front page of every major paper in the state. Our strongest weapon against pollution was to convince industry that treating their wastewater before discharging it into the stream was to their long-term advantage. Surprisingly, many did just that. There were times when we felt like toothless wonder-workers.
The environment in the United States is so much better this Earth Day than it was 40 years ago. That is something that we should truly celebrate. These improvements have come about because of increased public awareness, stronger laws, corporate sensitivity to public opinion, and a subtle understanding that the old ways threatened our way of life because they were not sustainable. Today the term “sustainability” has become a buzz word for many in the environmental movement, some of them holding radical beliefs. As Christians we should not reject sustainability just because it is embraced by some radicals. Rather, we should work to define it in ways consistent with our responsibilities to steward God’s creation. This can mean some radical things. For example, “industrial farming” is probably not sustainable in the long run and movements promoting the production of safe, local, and organic foods should be encouraged. At the same time, we should not rush to embrace the unproven and significantly unscientific “climate change” agenda. There are ways that mankind is leaving a big footprint on the earth but climate change does not appear to be one of them. Further, we should de-politicize our air and water pollution control laws and replace them with laws based on good science which protects both human health and the environment. In my opinion, this would mean things like stronger laws requiring “clean coal” technology and promoting the development of nuclear power using technology already developed by the French and Koreans. It would also mean changing the allowable air emissions formulas to allow the construction of new, heavy industrial facilities like an integrated steel mill (which current regulations prohibit). It is impossible to have a sustainable environment if we don’t have a sustainable economy.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” – Psalm 24:1. Consider this: what if, on Judgment Day, God asks us how we cared for His creation as well as asking how we loved one another?
When the first Earth Day was celebrated, I was working for the Tennessee Stream Pollution Control Division. Those of us working for the Division viewed this celebration with mixed emotions. We were definitely in favor of an increased emphasis on the environment but we were a little skeptical – many of leaders were “hippies” and some of the immediate goals were technically unachievable. We assumed that when these goals were not met, the Earth Day movement would die as so many other American fads in the past. The movement did not die, though it has morphed and divided through the years. So here are my Earth Day thoughts as one who is still working in the environmental field and one who tries to view all of creation from a Biblical perspective.
The job with the state was not my best offer coming out of college. A national manufacturer of air pollution equipment offered me a very good job with a much higher starting salary. The problem: the only openings were either in Cleveland or Pittsburgh. In 1969 those two cites were characterized by gray-to-black skies and technicolor streams. We were just not interested in living there.
The Stream Pollution Control Law under which we operated was passed in 1947. The strongest penalty permitted by that law was a $50 per day judgment which had to be approved by a local General Sessions Court. The first time a fine was ever assessed was in 1971 and it made the front page of every major paper in the state. Our strongest weapon against pollution was to convince industry that treating their wastewater before discharging it into the stream was to their long-term advantage. Surprisingly, many did just that. There were times when we felt like toothless wonder-workers.
The environment in the United States is so much better this Earth Day than it was 40 years ago. That is something that we should truly celebrate. These improvements have come about because of increased public awareness, stronger laws, corporate sensitivity to public opinion, and a subtle understanding that the old ways threatened our way of life because they were not sustainable. Today the term “sustainability” has become a buzz word for many in the environmental movement, some of them holding radical beliefs. As Christians we should not reject sustainability just because it is embraced by some radicals. Rather, we should work to define it in ways consistent with our responsibilities to steward God’s creation. This can mean some radical things. For example, “industrial farming” is probably not sustainable in the long run and movements promoting the production of safe, local, and organic foods should be encouraged. At the same time, we should not rush to embrace the unproven and significantly unscientific “climate change” agenda. There are ways that mankind is leaving a big footprint on the earth but climate change does not appear to be one of them. Further, we should de-politicize our air and water pollution control laws and replace them with laws based on good science which protects both human health and the environment. In my opinion, this would mean things like stronger laws requiring “clean coal” technology and promoting the development of nuclear power using technology already developed by the French and Koreans. It would also mean changing the allowable air emissions formulas to allow the construction of new, heavy industrial facilities like an integrated steel mill (which current regulations prohibit). It is impossible to have a sustainable environment if we don’t have a sustainable economy.
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” – Psalm 24:1. Consider this: what if, on Judgment Day, God asks us how we cared for His creation as well as asking how we loved one another?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Privilege to Pay Taxes
Most of us pay our taxes. We may think they are too high. We may think that government fails to do what our families have to do – live within our means. We may still agree that living in our country is a blessing . . . but it is unlikely that we believe only the "privileged" should have to pay taxes to the Federal government. But that is just what columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. of the Washington Post implies in his column on April 19, 2010. In an article titled “The Tea Party: Populism for the Privileged” he predicts the failure of the Tea Party movement because it is not a true “populist” movement. He describes the Tea party as a political exercise for the "privileged." This term privileged is used because a recent survey indicated (as reported in a New York Times article) that supporters of the Tea Party movement are wealthier than the average American. If your income is 1% above the national mean, then you are a member of the privileged class. It is interesting that another recent survey found that 47% of Americans pay no income tax. One interpretation of these surveys could be that only 4% of Americans pay income tax and are not considered part of the privileged class. According to the Washington Post, those of us who are privileged have no right to claim the term “populist.” And, according to Mr. Dionne, if a movement in America is not populist, it is destined to fail. I’m not looking for a fight over the term populist but I do think the Tea Party is a reasonable and democratic reaction against the policies of the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled congress. It is a ground swell of the people – people who see their liberty being compromised by progressive fascists. The Tea Party movement may not be the definitive answer but it certainly could be the town crier calling us out to man the barricades – and that sounds populist to me.
Most of us pay our taxes. We may think they are too high. We may think that government fails to do what our families have to do – live within our means. We may still agree that living in our country is a blessing . . . but it is unlikely that we believe only the "privileged" should have to pay taxes to the Federal government. But that is just what columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. of the Washington Post implies in his column on April 19, 2010. In an article titled “The Tea Party: Populism for the Privileged” he predicts the failure of the Tea Party movement because it is not a true “populist” movement. He describes the Tea party as a political exercise for the "privileged." This term privileged is used because a recent survey indicated (as reported in a New York Times article) that supporters of the Tea Party movement are wealthier than the average American. If your income is 1% above the national mean, then you are a member of the privileged class. It is interesting that another recent survey found that 47% of Americans pay no income tax. One interpretation of these surveys could be that only 4% of Americans pay income tax and are not considered part of the privileged class. According to the Washington Post, those of us who are privileged have no right to claim the term “populist.” And, according to Mr. Dionne, if a movement in America is not populist, it is destined to fail. I’m not looking for a fight over the term populist but I do think the Tea Party is a reasonable and democratic reaction against the policies of the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled congress. It is a ground swell of the people – people who see their liberty being compromised by progressive fascists. The Tea Party movement may not be the definitive answer but it certainly could be the town crier calling us out to man the barricades – and that sounds populist to me.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Book Review - Hunter's Moon
I liked this book. This is my friend Don Hoesel’s second novel (Elisha’s Bones was the first) and I have enjoyed both. This is the story of a writer, CJ Baxter, who is successful as an author but not as a husband nor as a relative to his estranged family in his home town. CJ is from upstate New York where his family has had prominence in a small town and rural county for generations. CJ left to attend Vanderbilt and never returned . . . until his grandfather dies. There is a tragic family secret that has dominated CJ’s life for almost 20 years and eventually leads to a dramatic, and almost deadly, confrontation at the end. In his books CJ has used stories from his past that family and hometown residents recognize and understand that he is peeling back some of the veil from their little community. While they are proud to have a native son who is famous, they seem a bit anxious about what CJ may reveal in future novels.
In the book, CJ has recently come to faith but has not been “healed” of all his vices, resentment, and lousy attitude toward his wife. I think the story is a realistic look at how God uses time and experiences in some believer’s lives to mature them and bring them to a deeper understanding of how their faith is to be lived out. We would like to believe that becoming a Christian instantly transforms all aspects of our lives. Most of us know better.
Don does a good job in creating an expectation that something big is going to happen . . . and it does. There are some really tense moments (although I did not like it when CJ’s dog, Thor, is kidnapped) and the confrontation at the end is dramatic, though maybe not as satisfying as this violent-addicted culture would want. This is a good read and I gladly recommend it.
In the book, CJ has recently come to faith but has not been “healed” of all his vices, resentment, and lousy attitude toward his wife. I think the story is a realistic look at how God uses time and experiences in some believer’s lives to mature them and bring them to a deeper understanding of how their faith is to be lived out. We would like to believe that becoming a Christian instantly transforms all aspects of our lives. Most of us know better.
Don does a good job in creating an expectation that something big is going to happen . . . and it does. There are some really tense moments (although I did not like it when CJ’s dog, Thor, is kidnapped) and the confrontation at the end is dramatic, though maybe not as satisfying as this violent-addicted culture would want. This is a good read and I gladly recommend it.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
A Scary Movie – A Tipping Point
I wish there was some way to lobby those voting on this year’s Academy Awards. If so, I would be flooding their emails asking them to vote for Food, Inc. as the best documentary film. My daughter insisted that we take the time to watch this film. I expected this to be a propaganda piece (which it was at times) that I could mostly dismiss after making a few changes in my food shopping and eating habits. It was much more than I expected and by the end of the movie I was angry. First, I want to urge anyone reading this blog post to watch the movie. It is both scary with respect to the safety of our food supply and a good social commentary on how our American way of life, including many of our freedoms, has been co-opted by multi-national companies whose only moral imperative is to become more powerful and more wealthy. Second, I want to provide some personal testimony about my experience with the food industry and how radically it has changed.
I grew up in the food business. My dad, a couple of uncles, and some of our family’s closest friends were all involved in some aspect to providing food to our community. My dad ran a chain of grocery stores. Before the company was sold to a large corporation, Cooper & Martin had 30+ stores in middle Tennessee. One uncle was a meat buyer and butcher at another grocery chain. A second uncle was in charge of installing and maintaining refrigeration equipment for meat departments at A & P stores in Tennessee and Kentucky. A close friend of my dad’s was in store management but also had a farm not too far from Nashville where he raised cattle, hogs and had several large chicken houses. Another of my dad’s closest friends owned one the largest meatpacking operations in the middle Tennessee area. As I was growing up, I knew all these people and their operations very well. It was fun as a kid to visit the farm and see how the animals were cared for. Yes, I understood that one day they may end up on my dinner plate – but there was a respect for the animals by the farm owner and those who worked for him. I don’t know if he believed in God, but I do know that he treated God’s creatures with respect. Maybe the greatest contrast between what I saw on his farm and what was in the movie were the chickens. He had what seemed to me very large houses for his chickens. I suspect that my young eyes made these seem larger than they were. In any case, the chickens lived in a bright, airy environment (but not odor free) and were let outside in a fenced area on good weather days. The chickens in the film were not so fortunate – they lived their entire 41 day existence in the dark packed in so tight there is almost no room to move. A florist gives more care to a rose than is given to these living, breathing creatures of a loving God. I am not an animal rights activist – but I am a respecter of God’s creation. Nothing that He has created deserves to be treated as shamefully as those chickens – period.
In the early 1970’s when I worked for the State Health Department, I had a friendly relationship with the county health officer in a rural county. One day over lunch I asked him where he had worked before he started with the county. He said that he had been a representative for an animal feed company. In those days, the feed companies were the engine that drove the chicken business. His job included trying to talk farmers into building large chicken houses and raising chickens under contract. The feed company would “finance” the construction of the houses and would “finance” the first group of chickens. As you might guess, this was a better deal for the feed company than it was for the farmers. My friend had become pretty disenchanted with the feed company and was considering quitting. One day he was visiting one of his farmers when the crew came to haul the mature chickens to the processing facility. He grew up in the country but even with that background, he was appalled by the brutal way the chickens were handled. What finally put him over the edge was after the truck left for the processing plant, another truck arrived from a certain soup company. The men on this truck picked up all the underweight and diseased chickens left in the house. It was years before I ate any canned soup again.
Another quick story from my days working for the state. I was involved with one of the first “feedlot” operations for hogs in middle Tennessee. The men who own the operation were experienced in raising hogs and wanted to try the feedlot approach because people in the industry told them they could make more money. It was a mess but at least it was a small mess. They never had more than 100 hogs at a time and the land they had was too steep to build a larger operation. Even though this operation shut down, we knew there would be others. Tennessee was one of the first states to adopt a fairly comprehensive program for protecting the environment from feedlot operations. A number of large companies acquired options on tracts of land in Tennessee for the purpose of building CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). CAPOs were feedlots “Super-Sized.” As it turned out, the environmental guidelines we developed were too expensive to comply with and they chose other states.
I remember a story Garrison Keller told on A Prairie Home Companion. It was the first real cold snap of the winter and everyone knew it was hog-killing time. A number of families got together each year and shared the labor. While the men were slaughtering the hogs one at a time, a group of young boys decided it would be great sport to throw rocks at the hogs in the pen. One of the grandfathers saw what was happening. He went over and grabbed the boys taking them out of earshot of the rest of the folks. He told the boys to stop throwing the rocks and tormenting the hogs. The boys objected saying something like “Why, what’s the big deal? They’re going to be killed in a few minutes anyway.” The grandfather answered “Yes, that true. Those hogs are part of God’s provision for our families. But while they are still alive they are God’s creatures and are due kindness and respect from us because of what they are.” A great and thought provoking story. While God gave man dominion over the animals, we should remember not a single animal died until man sinned. We also have the promise that when the curse is completely rolled back, the lamb will lie down with the lion.
The summer before my senior year in college, I worked for the meat packing company owned by my dad’s friend. Most of the summer my work consisted of filling in for salesmen when they took their vacation. Towards the end of the summer, all of the salesmen had taken a vacation and I still needed to work. In order to keep me on the payroll so that I would be able to pay for college (and wedding) expenses, I worked around the plant. That, to my dismay, included spending time on the killing floor. After almost losing my cookies a few times, I acclimated and became adjusted to the environment. After watching the process and talking to both workers and managers, I realized that everyone involved had a respect for the animals. A great deal of time had been invested in finding the most humane way to kill the animal and minimize any pain. This was not done for the efficiency of the operation – it was done so that everyone involved could go home each evening with a feeling that what they were doing was in no way cruel or demeaning. All that occurred over 40 years ago but I remember it very clearly. I think I remember discussing this with my dad and as I told him what I observed he just nodded his head.
Before I move on I do want to mention one additional point. While I was working in the meat packing plant I observed a number of inspectors from the Department of Agriculture. They were there every day, they had the freedom to go anywhere in the plant, and the workers knew who they were and why they were present. According to the movie, today there is little inspection, even at the very large plants. In the movie it was noted that almost 90% of all ground beef for fast food restaurants and the prepackaged beef for grocery stores comes from only four sources. Is it any wonder that hardly a month goes by with some food product being recalled because of contamination?
My dad was a product of the Depression and WWII. He was captivated by new technology and growth. In most circumstances, dad considered bigger to be better. However, towards the end of his career, he began to notice and comment on the fact that the “big boys” were driving all the small meat packing houses out of business. Some of the tactics used by the ‘big boys” were pretty nasty and many of the small packing houses were forced out of business after several generations of service to the community. I think my dad saw the danger in what was happening but felt powerless to do anything about it.
Most of my career as an environmental consultant has been involved in helping commercial and industrial clients comply with the various regulations in a way that allowed them to still be profitable. About 15 years ago we were working on a nationwide study for a trade association. In our research for that study, we came upon a process that was used during WWI that could possibly benefit many of our clients. We performed some laboratory studies and confirmed that this procedure would indeed be beneficial to our clients and reduce the potential for certain pollutants leaching from a waste material. We published the results of our investigation in a report distributed nationwide (which places the procedure in the public domain). After our report was public, a large corporation filed for a patent for this process. The U. S. Patent Office granted the patent in spite of the fact that the process had been placed in the public domain and was, in fact, merely a different application of a process used during WWI.
We contacted a patent attorney and learned that it would cost us between $250,000 and $500,000 to contest the patent. Our intention was to put this process in the public domain so that people could use it without paying our company, or anyone else, any license fee. We obviously could not afford to contest the patent and so many of our clients are paying an outrageous license fee every year for a process a high school chemistry student could assemble in his back yard. This is similar in principle to what Monsanto has done with the genetically altered soybean seeds. Monsanto now controls over 90% of the soybean seed market. These seeds are patented and it is illegal for the farmers who grow the crops to collect and clean the seed for next year’s crop. We should pause and consider this a moment. Farmers purchase seed with their money; plant the seed on their land; work the fields with their equipment using fuel they have purchased; and, at the end of the season they harvest their crop but are forbidden to use a part of the harvest (seeds) to continue the process next year. What a travesty our government and its legal system have created. Shame on us for allowing this to happen.
The thing in the movie that sent me over the edge was the realization that more than a few states have enacted laws forbidding people to publically criticize the food suppliers. In the movie a mother who lost her toddler son to E Coli won’t mention the names of the fast food outlets where her son ate because she has been threatened with lawsuits that would bankrupt the family. In the state of Colorado it is a felony (with prison time attached) to criticize the beef or pork producers for their animal management practices. Is this not unbelievable? Yes, maybe it is time for another revolution if we are going to save what is left of the American way of life. The government corruption that has lead to this situation transcends parties. Both Democrat and Republican administrations have contributed to this threat to our food supply and the health of our families. We need to elect people to office that are willing to go back to the days of the “trust-busters” and break up these large corporations who have a strangle-hold on our food supply. This is about more than just safe food; it is an issue that goes to the very foundation of who we are as a people. If we are not willing now to stand against the multi-national corporations who are raping our land and poisoning our people for their own power and profit, then a time will come when our only option may be to just lie down and let the tanks roll over us.
[An interesting novel about how the large companies are able to locate “factory farms” in places where they are not wanted is That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx. She is the author of The Shipping News, one of my favorites, and she is able to take a sometime humorous look at a terrible situation.]
I wish there was some way to lobby those voting on this year’s Academy Awards. If so, I would be flooding their emails asking them to vote for Food, Inc. as the best documentary film. My daughter insisted that we take the time to watch this film. I expected this to be a propaganda piece (which it was at times) that I could mostly dismiss after making a few changes in my food shopping and eating habits. It was much more than I expected and by the end of the movie I was angry. First, I want to urge anyone reading this blog post to watch the movie. It is both scary with respect to the safety of our food supply and a good social commentary on how our American way of life, including many of our freedoms, has been co-opted by multi-national companies whose only moral imperative is to become more powerful and more wealthy. Second, I want to provide some personal testimony about my experience with the food industry and how radically it has changed.
I grew up in the food business. My dad, a couple of uncles, and some of our family’s closest friends were all involved in some aspect to providing food to our community. My dad ran a chain of grocery stores. Before the company was sold to a large corporation, Cooper & Martin had 30+ stores in middle Tennessee. One uncle was a meat buyer and butcher at another grocery chain. A second uncle was in charge of installing and maintaining refrigeration equipment for meat departments at A & P stores in Tennessee and Kentucky. A close friend of my dad’s was in store management but also had a farm not too far from Nashville where he raised cattle, hogs and had several large chicken houses. Another of my dad’s closest friends owned one the largest meatpacking operations in the middle Tennessee area. As I was growing up, I knew all these people and their operations very well. It was fun as a kid to visit the farm and see how the animals were cared for. Yes, I understood that one day they may end up on my dinner plate – but there was a respect for the animals by the farm owner and those who worked for him. I don’t know if he believed in God, but I do know that he treated God’s creatures with respect. Maybe the greatest contrast between what I saw on his farm and what was in the movie were the chickens. He had what seemed to me very large houses for his chickens. I suspect that my young eyes made these seem larger than they were. In any case, the chickens lived in a bright, airy environment (but not odor free) and were let outside in a fenced area on good weather days. The chickens in the film were not so fortunate – they lived their entire 41 day existence in the dark packed in so tight there is almost no room to move. A florist gives more care to a rose than is given to these living, breathing creatures of a loving God. I am not an animal rights activist – but I am a respecter of God’s creation. Nothing that He has created deserves to be treated as shamefully as those chickens – period.
In the early 1970’s when I worked for the State Health Department, I had a friendly relationship with the county health officer in a rural county. One day over lunch I asked him where he had worked before he started with the county. He said that he had been a representative for an animal feed company. In those days, the feed companies were the engine that drove the chicken business. His job included trying to talk farmers into building large chicken houses and raising chickens under contract. The feed company would “finance” the construction of the houses and would “finance” the first group of chickens. As you might guess, this was a better deal for the feed company than it was for the farmers. My friend had become pretty disenchanted with the feed company and was considering quitting. One day he was visiting one of his farmers when the crew came to haul the mature chickens to the processing facility. He grew up in the country but even with that background, he was appalled by the brutal way the chickens were handled. What finally put him over the edge was after the truck left for the processing plant, another truck arrived from a certain soup company. The men on this truck picked up all the underweight and diseased chickens left in the house. It was years before I ate any canned soup again.
Another quick story from my days working for the state. I was involved with one of the first “feedlot” operations for hogs in middle Tennessee. The men who own the operation were experienced in raising hogs and wanted to try the feedlot approach because people in the industry told them they could make more money. It was a mess but at least it was a small mess. They never had more than 100 hogs at a time and the land they had was too steep to build a larger operation. Even though this operation shut down, we knew there would be others. Tennessee was one of the first states to adopt a fairly comprehensive program for protecting the environment from feedlot operations. A number of large companies acquired options on tracts of land in Tennessee for the purpose of building CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). CAPOs were feedlots “Super-Sized.” As it turned out, the environmental guidelines we developed were too expensive to comply with and they chose other states.
I remember a story Garrison Keller told on A Prairie Home Companion. It was the first real cold snap of the winter and everyone knew it was hog-killing time. A number of families got together each year and shared the labor. While the men were slaughtering the hogs one at a time, a group of young boys decided it would be great sport to throw rocks at the hogs in the pen. One of the grandfathers saw what was happening. He went over and grabbed the boys taking them out of earshot of the rest of the folks. He told the boys to stop throwing the rocks and tormenting the hogs. The boys objected saying something like “Why, what’s the big deal? They’re going to be killed in a few minutes anyway.” The grandfather answered “Yes, that true. Those hogs are part of God’s provision for our families. But while they are still alive they are God’s creatures and are due kindness and respect from us because of what they are.” A great and thought provoking story. While God gave man dominion over the animals, we should remember not a single animal died until man sinned. We also have the promise that when the curse is completely rolled back, the lamb will lie down with the lion.
The summer before my senior year in college, I worked for the meat packing company owned by my dad’s friend. Most of the summer my work consisted of filling in for salesmen when they took their vacation. Towards the end of the summer, all of the salesmen had taken a vacation and I still needed to work. In order to keep me on the payroll so that I would be able to pay for college (and wedding) expenses, I worked around the plant. That, to my dismay, included spending time on the killing floor. After almost losing my cookies a few times, I acclimated and became adjusted to the environment. After watching the process and talking to both workers and managers, I realized that everyone involved had a respect for the animals. A great deal of time had been invested in finding the most humane way to kill the animal and minimize any pain. This was not done for the efficiency of the operation – it was done so that everyone involved could go home each evening with a feeling that what they were doing was in no way cruel or demeaning. All that occurred over 40 years ago but I remember it very clearly. I think I remember discussing this with my dad and as I told him what I observed he just nodded his head.
Before I move on I do want to mention one additional point. While I was working in the meat packing plant I observed a number of inspectors from the Department of Agriculture. They were there every day, they had the freedom to go anywhere in the plant, and the workers knew who they were and why they were present. According to the movie, today there is little inspection, even at the very large plants. In the movie it was noted that almost 90% of all ground beef for fast food restaurants and the prepackaged beef for grocery stores comes from only four sources. Is it any wonder that hardly a month goes by with some food product being recalled because of contamination?
My dad was a product of the Depression and WWII. He was captivated by new technology and growth. In most circumstances, dad considered bigger to be better. However, towards the end of his career, he began to notice and comment on the fact that the “big boys” were driving all the small meat packing houses out of business. Some of the tactics used by the ‘big boys” were pretty nasty and many of the small packing houses were forced out of business after several generations of service to the community. I think my dad saw the danger in what was happening but felt powerless to do anything about it.
Most of my career as an environmental consultant has been involved in helping commercial and industrial clients comply with the various regulations in a way that allowed them to still be profitable. About 15 years ago we were working on a nationwide study for a trade association. In our research for that study, we came upon a process that was used during WWI that could possibly benefit many of our clients. We performed some laboratory studies and confirmed that this procedure would indeed be beneficial to our clients and reduce the potential for certain pollutants leaching from a waste material. We published the results of our investigation in a report distributed nationwide (which places the procedure in the public domain). After our report was public, a large corporation filed for a patent for this process. The U. S. Patent Office granted the patent in spite of the fact that the process had been placed in the public domain and was, in fact, merely a different application of a process used during WWI.
We contacted a patent attorney and learned that it would cost us between $250,000 and $500,000 to contest the patent. Our intention was to put this process in the public domain so that people could use it without paying our company, or anyone else, any license fee. We obviously could not afford to contest the patent and so many of our clients are paying an outrageous license fee every year for a process a high school chemistry student could assemble in his back yard. This is similar in principle to what Monsanto has done with the genetically altered soybean seeds. Monsanto now controls over 90% of the soybean seed market. These seeds are patented and it is illegal for the farmers who grow the crops to collect and clean the seed for next year’s crop. We should pause and consider this a moment. Farmers purchase seed with their money; plant the seed on their land; work the fields with their equipment using fuel they have purchased; and, at the end of the season they harvest their crop but are forbidden to use a part of the harvest (seeds) to continue the process next year. What a travesty our government and its legal system have created. Shame on us for allowing this to happen.
The thing in the movie that sent me over the edge was the realization that more than a few states have enacted laws forbidding people to publically criticize the food suppliers. In the movie a mother who lost her toddler son to E Coli won’t mention the names of the fast food outlets where her son ate because she has been threatened with lawsuits that would bankrupt the family. In the state of Colorado it is a felony (with prison time attached) to criticize the beef or pork producers for their animal management practices. Is this not unbelievable? Yes, maybe it is time for another revolution if we are going to save what is left of the American way of life. The government corruption that has lead to this situation transcends parties. Both Democrat and Republican administrations have contributed to this threat to our food supply and the health of our families. We need to elect people to office that are willing to go back to the days of the “trust-busters” and break up these large corporations who have a strangle-hold on our food supply. This is about more than just safe food; it is an issue that goes to the very foundation of who we are as a people. If we are not willing now to stand against the multi-national corporations who are raping our land and poisoning our people for their own power and profit, then a time will come when our only option may be to just lie down and let the tanks roll over us.
[An interesting novel about how the large companies are able to locate “factory farms” in places where they are not wanted is That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx. She is the author of The Shipping News, one of my favorites, and she is able to take a sometime humorous look at a terrible situation.]
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I Want My Clear Stick!
This is my blog and I can write about what I want. My concern for the moment is my deodorant. When it was first suggested to me that I needed to start using deodorant (by my mother) my natural reaction was rebellion against parental authority. When I finally noticed that my friends were beginning to stand further away from me, I sought out my father for advice. Hence, my underarms were introduced to Right Guard Spray Deodorant. This was my deodorant up until the time that TV commercials convinced me to switch from “deodorant” to “antiperspirant.” I don’t know if my underarms actually sweated less or not but I was not normally offensive to the olfactory nerves and stuck with this product. Then came the scare tactics. Aerosols were a threat to the environment and the aluminum used in antiperspirants would cause us all to have dementia by our mid-fifties. So I abandoned my Right Guard Spray Antiperspirant and tried the solid forms that are supposed to prevent my armpits from smelling like something from The Pit. I tried the invisible solid and found that it wasn’t. It looked like the hairs under my arms had been dusted with snow or some illegal powder. Next I tried the gel. I love the feel of goo in the morning! This was not for me. So I wedded myself to the Clear Stick and have been happy for well over a decade. Now the Clear Stick (all brands) has disappeared from the shelves in Franklin. I’ve searched four Walgreens, three Krogers, Wal-Mart, Target, and K-mart. None, zero, nada. This morning in desperation (my last Clear Stick is almost gone) I sent an email of protest to the Right Guard website. I want my Clear Stick. It’s only fair to warn anyone reading this post that my failure to acquire a supply of Clear Stick may result in the loss of my “close” friends. Is there no product-parity left?
This is my blog and I can write about what I want. My concern for the moment is my deodorant. When it was first suggested to me that I needed to start using deodorant (by my mother) my natural reaction was rebellion against parental authority. When I finally noticed that my friends were beginning to stand further away from me, I sought out my father for advice. Hence, my underarms were introduced to Right Guard Spray Deodorant. This was my deodorant up until the time that TV commercials convinced me to switch from “deodorant” to “antiperspirant.” I don’t know if my underarms actually sweated less or not but I was not normally offensive to the olfactory nerves and stuck with this product. Then came the scare tactics. Aerosols were a threat to the environment and the aluminum used in antiperspirants would cause us all to have dementia by our mid-fifties. So I abandoned my Right Guard Spray Antiperspirant and tried the solid forms that are supposed to prevent my armpits from smelling like something from The Pit. I tried the invisible solid and found that it wasn’t. It looked like the hairs under my arms had been dusted with snow or some illegal powder. Next I tried the gel. I love the feel of goo in the morning! This was not for me. So I wedded myself to the Clear Stick and have been happy for well over a decade. Now the Clear Stick (all brands) has disappeared from the shelves in Franklin. I’ve searched four Walgreens, three Krogers, Wal-Mart, Target, and K-mart. None, zero, nada. This morning in desperation (my last Clear Stick is almost gone) I sent an email of protest to the Right Guard website. I want my Clear Stick. It’s only fair to warn anyone reading this post that my failure to acquire a supply of Clear Stick may result in the loss of my “close” friends. Is there no product-parity left?
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