Sunday, July 31
Friday, July 29
D'Oh!
According to the Food and Drug Administration, half of produce currently tested in grocery stores contains measurable residues of pesticides. Laboratory tests of eight industry-leader baby foods reveal the presence of 16 pesticides, including three carcinogens.
According to EPA's "Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment," children receive 50% of their lifetime cancer risks in the first two years of life.
In blood samples of children aged 2 to 4, concentrations of pesticide residues are six times higher in children eating conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables compared with those eating organic food
Parents, Guess What? Three New Studies Show TV Lowers Kids Learning Abilities
From:
July 4th, 2005
TV is Bad for Children's Education, Studies Say
By Andrew SternReuters
The more time children spend watching television the poorer they performacademically, according to three studies published on Monday.
Excessive television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates ofchildhood obesity and for aggressive behavior, while its impact on schoolinghave been inconclusive, researchers said.
But studies published on the topic in this month's Archives of Pediatrics &Adolescent Medicine concluded television viewing tended to have an adverseeffect on academic pursuits.
For instance, children in third grade (approximately 8 years old) who hadtelevisions in their bedrooms -- and therefore watched more TV -- scoredlower on standardized tests than those who did not have sets in their rooms.
In contrast, the study found having a home computer with access to theInternet resulted in comparatively higher test scores.
"Consistently, those with a bedroom television but no home computer accesshad, on average, the lowest scores and those with home computer access butno bedroom television had the highest scores," wrote study author DinaBorzekowski of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
American homes with children have an average of nearly three televisionseach, the report said, and children with televisions in their bedroomsaveraged nearly 13 hours of viewing a week compared to nearly 11 hours bychildren who did not have their own sets.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has urged parents to limit children'stelevision viewing to no more than one to two hours per day -- and to try tokeep younger children away from TV altogether.
LIMITED BENEFITS
In two other studies published in the same journal, children who regularlywatched television before the age of 3 ended up with lower test scores lateron, and children and adolescents who watched more television were lesslikely to go on to finish high school or earn a college degree.
University of Washington researchers reported that 59 percent of U.S.children younger than age 2 watch an average of 1.3 hours of television perday, though there is no programing of proven educational value for childrenthat young.
Their analysis of 1,800 children over a decade showed television watchingwas linked to poorer cognitive development among children younger than 3 andbetween the ages of 6 and 7.
TV watching appeared to help 3- to 5-year-olds with basic readingrecognition and short-term memory, but not reading comprehension ormathematics, so the net effect of television watching is "limited in itsbeneficial impact," wrote study author Frederick Zimmerman.
Similarly, Robert Hancox of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand,found that children and adolescents who watched more television had lesseducational attainment regardless of their intelligence, socioeconomicstatus or childhood behavioral problems.
But condemning television as a vast wasteland -- government regulator NewtonMinow's oft-quoted diatribe against the medium -- would be unfair asprograming is not "monolithic," an editorial accompanying the studies said.
"Parents should be encouraged to incorporate well-produced, age-appropriateeducational TV into their children's lives. Such programing represents avaluable tool for stimulating children's cognitive development," wrote ArielChernin and Deborah Linebarger of the University of Pennsylvania.
According to EPA's "Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment," children receive 50% of their lifetime cancer risks in the first two years of life.
In blood samples of children aged 2 to 4, concentrations of pesticide residues are six times higher in children eating conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables compared with those eating organic food
Parents, Guess What? Three New Studies Show TV Lowers Kids Learning Abilities
From:
July 4th, 2005
TV is Bad for Children's Education, Studies Say
By Andrew SternReuters
The more time children spend watching television the poorer they performacademically, according to three studies published on Monday.
Excessive television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates ofchildhood obesity and for aggressive behavior, while its impact on schoolinghave been inconclusive, researchers said.
But studies published on the topic in this month's Archives of Pediatrics &Adolescent Medicine concluded television viewing tended to have an adverseeffect on academic pursuits.
For instance, children in third grade (approximately 8 years old) who hadtelevisions in their bedrooms -- and therefore watched more TV -- scoredlower on standardized tests than those who did not have sets in their rooms.
In contrast, the study found having a home computer with access to theInternet resulted in comparatively higher test scores.
"Consistently, those with a bedroom television but no home computer accesshad, on average, the lowest scores and those with home computer access butno bedroom television had the highest scores," wrote study author DinaBorzekowski of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
American homes with children have an average of nearly three televisionseach, the report said, and children with televisions in their bedroomsaveraged nearly 13 hours of viewing a week compared to nearly 11 hours bychildren who did not have their own sets.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has urged parents to limit children'stelevision viewing to no more than one to two hours per day -- and to try tokeep younger children away from TV altogether.
LIMITED BENEFITS
In two other studies published in the same journal, children who regularlywatched television before the age of 3 ended up with lower test scores lateron, and children and adolescents who watched more television were lesslikely to go on to finish high school or earn a college degree.
University of Washington researchers reported that 59 percent of U.S.children younger than age 2 watch an average of 1.3 hours of television perday, though there is no programing of proven educational value for childrenthat young.
Their analysis of 1,800 children over a decade showed television watchingwas linked to poorer cognitive development among children younger than 3 andbetween the ages of 6 and 7.
TV watching appeared to help 3- to 5-year-olds with basic readingrecognition and short-term memory, but not reading comprehension ormathematics, so the net effect of television watching is "limited in itsbeneficial impact," wrote study author Frederick Zimmerman.
Similarly, Robert Hancox of the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand,found that children and adolescents who watched more television had lesseducational attainment regardless of their intelligence, socioeconomicstatus or childhood behavioral problems.
But condemning television as a vast wasteland -- government regulator NewtonMinow's oft-quoted diatribe against the medium -- would be unfair asprograming is not "monolithic," an editorial accompanying the studies said.
"Parents should be encouraged to incorporate well-produced, age-appropriateeducational TV into their children's lives. Such programing represents avaluable tool for stimulating children's cognitive development," wrote ArielChernin and Deborah Linebarger of the University of Pennsylvania.
Wednesday, July 27
Monday, July 25
Sunday, July 24
Hot enough to make ya think...
Ferocious Heat Maintains Grip Across the West
Published: July 23, 2005
PHOENIX, July 22 - A relentless and lethal blanket of heat has settled on much of the western United States, forcing the cancellation of dozens of airline flights, threatening the loss of electrical power, stoking wildfires and leaving 20 people dead in Phoenix alone in just the past week.
Officials of the National Weather Service estimate that more than 200 heat records have been broken in the West during the last two weeks. On Tuesday, Las Vegas tied its record for any date, 117 degrees. Reno and other locations in Nevada have set records with nine consecutive days of temperatures at 100 or higher. The temperature in Denver on Wednesday reached 105 degrees, making it the hottest day there since 1878. The highest temperature for the entire region during the heat wave has been 129, recorded at Death Valley, Calif.
The reasons for that are related to engineering. Aircraft manufacturers have customarily set temperature limits at which their planes can be safely operated. (The limits are lower at higher altitudes, as in the Rocky Mountains, and higher at lower altitudes, as in the desert that surrounds Las Vegas.) High temperatures mean aircraft engines must take in more air in order to create the greater thrust the planes need to leave the ground. But airplane makers also have limits on the amount of thrust that an engine can produce. If the engines exceed those limits, they may not perform properly. At that point, aircraft manufacturers advise, the airlines should remove weight from planes - either passengers or cargo - or, in the worst cases, not fly at all.
United Airlines canceled seven United Express flights out of Denver on Wednesday, when the record-tying temperature there exceeded the operating limit for the carrier's propeller planes, said a spokesman, Jeff Green. "It was just so extreme, and stayed on so long, that we had to cancel flights," Mr. Green said.
In Death Valley, meanwhile, the temperature never dropped below 100 degrees in two 24-hour periods.
Andy Bailey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Las Vegas, said: "It's probably fair to say what just wrapped up was probably the most intense heat wave the city's ever seen. We had a string of four days where it was 115 or above."
Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press
Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war claimed about 400,000 U.S. troops around the world, more than three times that many Japanese troops and at least 300,000 Japanese civilians.
Six in 10 Americans said they think such a war is likely, while only one-third of the Japanese said so, according to polling done in both countries for The Associated Press and Kyodo, the Japanese news service.
"I feel like we're in a world war right now," said Susan Aser, a real estate agent from Rochester, N.Y.
Two-thirds of Americans say the use of atomic bombs was unavoidable. Only 20 percent of Japanese felt that way and three-fourths said it was not necessary. One-half of Americans approve of the use of the atomic bombs on Japan.
Published: July 23, 2005
PHOENIX, July 22 - A relentless and lethal blanket of heat has settled on much of the western United States, forcing the cancellation of dozens of airline flights, threatening the loss of electrical power, stoking wildfires and leaving 20 people dead in Phoenix alone in just the past week.
Officials of the National Weather Service estimate that more than 200 heat records have been broken in the West during the last two weeks. On Tuesday, Las Vegas tied its record for any date, 117 degrees. Reno and other locations in Nevada have set records with nine consecutive days of temperatures at 100 or higher. The temperature in Denver on Wednesday reached 105 degrees, making it the hottest day there since 1878. The highest temperature for the entire region during the heat wave has been 129, recorded at Death Valley, Calif.
The reasons for that are related to engineering. Aircraft manufacturers have customarily set temperature limits at which their planes can be safely operated. (The limits are lower at higher altitudes, as in the Rocky Mountains, and higher at lower altitudes, as in the desert that surrounds Las Vegas.) High temperatures mean aircraft engines must take in more air in order to create the greater thrust the planes need to leave the ground. But airplane makers also have limits on the amount of thrust that an engine can produce. If the engines exceed those limits, they may not perform properly. At that point, aircraft manufacturers advise, the airlines should remove weight from planes - either passengers or cargo - or, in the worst cases, not fly at all.
United Airlines canceled seven United Express flights out of Denver on Wednesday, when the record-tying temperature there exceeded the operating limit for the carrier's propeller planes, said a spokesman, Jeff Green. "It was just so extreme, and stayed on so long, that we had to cancel flights," Mr. Green said.
In Death Valley, meanwhile, the temperature never dropped below 100 degrees in two 24-hour periods.
Andy Bailey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Las Vegas, said: "It's probably fair to say what just wrapped up was probably the most intense heat wave the city's ever seen. We had a string of four days where it was 115 or above."
Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press
Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war claimed about 400,000 U.S. troops around the world, more than three times that many Japanese troops and at least 300,000 Japanese civilians.
Six in 10 Americans said they think such a war is likely, while only one-third of the Japanese said so, according to polling done in both countries for The Associated Press and Kyodo, the Japanese news service.
"I feel like we're in a world war right now," said Susan Aser, a real estate agent from Rochester, N.Y.
Two-thirds of Americans say the use of atomic bombs was unavoidable. Only 20 percent of Japanese felt that way and three-fourths said it was not necessary. One-half of Americans approve of the use of the atomic bombs on Japan.
Saturday, July 23
Once more, for the back of the house
WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration violated privacy protections by secretly collecting personal information on at least 250,000 airline passengers, congressional investigators said Friday.
The Government Accountability sent a letter to Congress saying the collection violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits the government from collecting information on people without their knowledge.
The information was collected as the agency tested a program, now called Secure Flight, to conduct computerized checks of airline passengers against terrorist watch lists.
TSA had promised it would only use the limited information about passengers that it had obtained from airlines. Instead, the agency and its contractors compiled files on people using data from commercial brokers and then compared those files with the lists.
The GAO reported that about 100 million records were collected.
The Government Accountability sent a letter to Congress saying the collection violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits the government from collecting information on people without their knowledge.
The information was collected as the agency tested a program, now called Secure Flight, to conduct computerized checks of airline passengers against terrorist watch lists.
TSA had promised it would only use the limited information about passengers that it had obtained from airlines. Instead, the agency and its contractors compiled files on people using data from commercial brokers and then compared those files with the lists.
The GAO reported that about 100 million records were collected.
Justice Roberts?
"President Bush said the job of the Supreme Court was extremely important because these are the people we choose to pick the next president of the United States." --Jay Leno
"You realize he is only 50 years old. He could serve on the court for the next 40 years. So he could still be there when we pull out of Iraq." --Jay Leno
Let's ponder the fact that Roberts has gone through 50 years on this planet without ever saying anything controversial. That's just unnatural. --Ann Coulter
"After all the media's speculation about Edith this or Hispanic that, they picked a white guy. And not just any white guy, A really white guy. John Roberts? That's the fake name that every underage kid busted with booze uses." --Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms
White House Won't Show All Roberts Papers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050724/ap_on_go_su_co/roberts_records_2;_ylt=AhteW8K1JL9dGJHbgp_qgmFuCM0A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
"You realize he is only 50 years old. He could serve on the court for the next 40 years. So he could still be there when we pull out of Iraq." --Jay Leno
Let's ponder the fact that Roberts has gone through 50 years on this planet without ever saying anything controversial. That's just unnatural. --Ann Coulter
"After all the media's speculation about Edith this or Hispanic that, they picked a white guy. And not just any white guy, A really white guy. John Roberts? That's the fake name that every underage kid busted with booze uses." --Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms
White House Won't Show All Roberts Papers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050724/ap_on_go_su_co/roberts_records_2;_ylt=AhteW8K1JL9dGJHbgp_qgmFuCM0A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
a seething mass of toxic smutmulch?
Sex on the brain Mark Pilkington Thursday July 14, 2005 The Guardian
It is all around us, seeping into our brains, via magazines, newspapers and television. Once there, it gets to work, "reflexively and mechanically restructuring the brain "; terrifyingly, "involuntary cellular change takes place even during sleep, resisting informed consent ".
According to Dr Judith Reisman, pornography affects the physical structure of your brain turning you into a porno-zombie. Porn, she says, is an "erototoxin ", producing an addictive "drug cocktail " of testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin with a measurable organic effect on the brain.
Some of us might consider this a good thing. Not Reisman: erototoxins aren't about pleasure, they're a "fear-sex-shame-and-anger stimulant". Reisman's paper on the subject The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech has helped make her the darling of the anti-pornography crusade, and in November last year she presented her erototoxin theory to the US senate.
Under the auspices of Utah's Lighted Candle Society (LCS), Reisman and Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist at the University of Utah, began raising money from American conservative and religious organisations. They hope to raise at least $3m to conduct MRI scans on victims under the influence of porn and so prove their theories correct. They foresee two possible outcomes: if they can demonstrate that porn physically "damages " the brain, that might open the floodgates for "big tobacco"-style lawsuits against porn publishers and distributors; second, and more insidiously, if porn can be shown to "subvert cognition " and affect the parts of the brain involved in reasoning and speech, then "these toxic media should be legally outlawed, as is all other toxic waste, and eliminated from our societal structure ".
What's more, people whose brains have been rotted by pornography are no longer expressing "free speech " and, for their own good, shouldn't be protected under the First Amendment.
But there's a catch. Much of Reisman's research in developing her theory has necessitated examining hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pornographic magazines and films. By her own reasoning her brain ought, by now, to be a seething mass of toxic smutmulch ...
It is all around us, seeping into our brains, via magazines, newspapers and television. Once there, it gets to work, "reflexively and mechanically restructuring the brain "; terrifyingly, "involuntary cellular change takes place even during sleep, resisting informed consent ".
According to Dr Judith Reisman, pornography affects the physical structure of your brain turning you into a porno-zombie. Porn, she says, is an "erototoxin ", producing an addictive "drug cocktail " of testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin with a measurable organic effect on the brain.
Some of us might consider this a good thing. Not Reisman: erototoxins aren't about pleasure, they're a "fear-sex-shame-and-anger stimulant". Reisman's paper on the subject The Psychopharmacology of Pictorial Pornography Restructuring Brain, Mind & Memory & Subverting Freedom of Speech has helped make her the darling of the anti-pornography crusade, and in November last year she presented her erototoxin theory to the US senate.
Under the auspices of Utah's Lighted Candle Society (LCS), Reisman and Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist at the University of Utah, began raising money from American conservative and religious organisations. They hope to raise at least $3m to conduct MRI scans on victims under the influence of porn and so prove their theories correct. They foresee two possible outcomes: if they can demonstrate that porn physically "damages " the brain, that might open the floodgates for "big tobacco"-style lawsuits against porn publishers and distributors; second, and more insidiously, if porn can be shown to "subvert cognition " and affect the parts of the brain involved in reasoning and speech, then "these toxic media should be legally outlawed, as is all other toxic waste, and eliminated from our societal structure ".
What's more, people whose brains have been rotted by pornography are no longer expressing "free speech " and, for their own good, shouldn't be protected under the First Amendment.
But there's a catch. Much of Reisman's research in developing her theory has necessitated examining hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pornographic magazines and films. By her own reasoning her brain ought, by now, to be a seething mass of toxic smutmulch ...
July 18, 2005
America's Truth Deficit
By WILLIAM GREIDER
DURING the cold war, as the Soviet economic system slowly unraveled, internal reform was impossible because highly placed officials who recognized the systemic disorders could not talk about them honestly. The United States is now in an equivalent predicament. Its weakening position in the global trading system is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and why. Instead, they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best.
Much like Soviet leaders, the American establishment is enthralled by utopian convictions - the market orthodoxy of free trade globalization. A few brave dissenters have stated the matter plainly and called for significant policy shifts to stop the hemorrhaging. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, says the United States is destined to become not an "ownership society," but a "sharecropper society." But his analysis, and others like it, are brushed aside.
An authentic debate might start by asking heretical questions: Why is the United States one of the few advanced economies that suffers from perennial trade deficits? Why do new trade agreements, despite official promises, always leave the United States with a deeper deficit hole, with another wave of jobs moving overseas? How do the authorities explain the 30-year stagnation of working-class wages that is peculiar to America? Are we supposed to believe that everyone else is simply more competitive or slyly breaking the rules? In the last three decades, American policymakers have succeeded in closing the trade gap with only one event - a recession.
But to describe plausible remedies is to explain why none are likely. The webs of mutual interests connecting government, corporate boardrooms and Wall Street are too deeply woven, as are habits of thought among policy makers and politicians. So I do not expect anything fundamental will be altered in time. We are going to find out if the dissenters are right.
William Greider, the national affairs columnist of The Nation, is the author of "One World, Ready or Not."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/opinion/18greider.html?incamp=article_popular&pagewanted=print
America's Truth Deficit
By WILLIAM GREIDER
DURING the cold war, as the Soviet economic system slowly unraveled, internal reform was impossible because highly placed officials who recognized the systemic disorders could not talk about them honestly. The United States is now in an equivalent predicament. Its weakening position in the global trading system is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and why. Instead, they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best.
Much like Soviet leaders, the American establishment is enthralled by utopian convictions - the market orthodoxy of free trade globalization. A few brave dissenters have stated the matter plainly and called for significant policy shifts to stop the hemorrhaging. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, says the United States is destined to become not an "ownership society," but a "sharecropper society." But his analysis, and others like it, are brushed aside.
An authentic debate might start by asking heretical questions: Why is the United States one of the few advanced economies that suffers from perennial trade deficits? Why do new trade agreements, despite official promises, always leave the United States with a deeper deficit hole, with another wave of jobs moving overseas? How do the authorities explain the 30-year stagnation of working-class wages that is peculiar to America? Are we supposed to believe that everyone else is simply more competitive or slyly breaking the rules? In the last three decades, American policymakers have succeeded in closing the trade gap with only one event - a recession.
But to describe plausible remedies is to explain why none are likely. The webs of mutual interests connecting government, corporate boardrooms and Wall Street are too deeply woven, as are habits of thought among policy makers and politicians. So I do not expect anything fundamental will be altered in time. We are going to find out if the dissenters are right.
William Greider, the national affairs columnist of The Nation, is the author of "One World, Ready or Not."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/opinion/18greider.html?incamp=article_popular&pagewanted=print
Horse-and-Plow Farming Making a Comeback
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 22, 3:23 AM ET
SISTERS, Ore. - To some, the thought of a farmer patiently working the field behind a horse and plow might evoke pangs of nostalgia for the early days of agriculture. But in fact, the practice is making a comeback.
Ol' Dobbin hasn't run the tractors out of the fields yet. But increasingly, small farmers are finding horse-powered agriculture a workable alternative to mechanization.
Lynn Miller, whose quarterly "Small Farmer's Journal" tracks horse-farming, estimates about 400,000 people depend in some measure on animal power for farming, logging and other livelihoods. He says the number is on the rise.
Many are Amish farmers in Iowa and Pennsylvania who shun mechanization, but some are farmers who have turned to horses because of the bottom line, citing soaring fuel prices and the ability of the animals to produce their own replacements.
They also say the animals are better for the soil and can be used in wet weather when a tractor often cannot.
Miller, who farms with horses on his own ranch, said the practice began spreading beyond Amish communities about 20 years ago.
"When I started 31 years ago there were no companies making equipment for animal-powered agriculture," he said in his office in this central Oregon town. "Fifteen years ago I could count them. Today I have no idea how many there are."
Miller estimated that 60 percent to 70 percent of those who try horse-and-plow farming stay with it. "It takes a certain personality," he said. "It's a craft, not a science."
Miller said a farmer with horses can earn triple or more the earnings per acre than one farmed by agribusiness.
Ron VanGrunsven farms about 50 acres with horses near Council, Idaho, and has used horses for years there and in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
"They're more economical," he said. "They raise their own replacements, you can train them yourself and raise their feed."
A mare can produce a foal every year or so, and Miller says that, if properly trained, one can bring about $2,000 after two years.
A plow horse usually lasts 16 or 18 years, Miller said. He said he looks after his stable of nine carefully and veterinarian bills rarely total $200 a year.
VanGrunsven said a two-horse team and a farmer can plow about an acre and a half a day if the ground is right and that an acre usually produces more than enough hay to feed a horse for a year.
"Most of my equipment is not new," said VanGrunsven. "It is from the 1930s or earlier. It has been repaired and cleaned up. ... The older things were designed so they could be fixed if they broke. When newer things break, they have to be replaced."
Horse farming was common until the end of World War II, when the government and manufacturers started promoting mechanization to soak up the surplus industrial capacity, Miller said.
Horses could often be used as down payments for tractors, he said, "and they went to the glue factories by the hundreds of thousands."
___
On the Net:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_bi_ge/storytext/farm_scene/15864564/SIG=1157sjgmm/*http://www.smallfarmersjournal.com/
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/student-farm/index.shtml
By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 22, 3:23 AM ET
SISTERS, Ore. - To some, the thought of a farmer patiently working the field behind a horse and plow might evoke pangs of nostalgia for the early days of agriculture. But in fact, the practice is making a comeback.
Ol' Dobbin hasn't run the tractors out of the fields yet. But increasingly, small farmers are finding horse-powered agriculture a workable alternative to mechanization.
Lynn Miller, whose quarterly "Small Farmer's Journal" tracks horse-farming, estimates about 400,000 people depend in some measure on animal power for farming, logging and other livelihoods. He says the number is on the rise.
Many are Amish farmers in Iowa and Pennsylvania who shun mechanization, but some are farmers who have turned to horses because of the bottom line, citing soaring fuel prices and the ability of the animals to produce their own replacements.
They also say the animals are better for the soil and can be used in wet weather when a tractor often cannot.
Miller, who farms with horses on his own ranch, said the practice began spreading beyond Amish communities about 20 years ago.
"When I started 31 years ago there were no companies making equipment for animal-powered agriculture," he said in his office in this central Oregon town. "Fifteen years ago I could count them. Today I have no idea how many there are."
Miller estimated that 60 percent to 70 percent of those who try horse-and-plow farming stay with it. "It takes a certain personality," he said. "It's a craft, not a science."
Miller said a farmer with horses can earn triple or more the earnings per acre than one farmed by agribusiness.
Ron VanGrunsven farms about 50 acres with horses near Council, Idaho, and has used horses for years there and in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
"They're more economical," he said. "They raise their own replacements, you can train them yourself and raise their feed."
A mare can produce a foal every year or so, and Miller says that, if properly trained, one can bring about $2,000 after two years.
A plow horse usually lasts 16 or 18 years, Miller said. He said he looks after his stable of nine carefully and veterinarian bills rarely total $200 a year.
VanGrunsven said a two-horse team and a farmer can plow about an acre and a half a day if the ground is right and that an acre usually produces more than enough hay to feed a horse for a year.
"Most of my equipment is not new," said VanGrunsven. "It is from the 1930s or earlier. It has been repaired and cleaned up. ... The older things were designed so they could be fixed if they broke. When newer things break, they have to be replaced."
Horse farming was common until the end of World War II, when the government and manufacturers started promoting mechanization to soak up the surplus industrial capacity, Miller said.
Horses could often be used as down payments for tractors, he said, "and they went to the glue factories by the hundreds of thousands."
___
On the Net:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_bi_ge/storytext/farm_scene/15864564/SIG=1157sjgmm/*http://www.smallfarmersjournal.com/
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/student-farm/index.shtml
Thursday, July 21
We Interrupt this commercial...
London mayor blames west for creating conditions for terrorism
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0507200854152759.htm
Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will [America's] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
John Quincy Adams
If ye wanna duck and cover with me...
Nine out of 10 New Yorkers now stock emergency supplies in their homes in case of a terror attack http://nydailynews.com/front/story/329527p-281502c.html
Wednesday, July 20
Get on Up.
http://www.globalsolutions.org/who/who_home.html
UCS President Kevin Knobloch is scheduled to appear on the PBS television program NOW to talk about the growing problem of political interference in science this Friday, July 22, 2005.
Kevin is representing the UCS Restoring Scientific Integrity campaign, launched in 2004 to combat an unprecedented level of abuse of federal government science by political appointees. UCS has released two major reports detailing examples of misconduct on issues from toxic mercury pollution to breast cancer to forest management.
The hour-long program is expected to focus on one well-known example of scientific abuse: the Bush administration’s long history of manipulating, suppressing, and distorting the science on global warming. Last month, the New York Times reported that Phil Cooney, a former oil industry lobbyist working for the White House, edited scientific climate change reports to significantly exaggerate uncertainty about the science behind global warming. Two days after the Times article, Cooney resigned and took a job with Exxon-Mobil.
The Restoring Scientific Integrity campaign: To date, more than 6,700 scientists, including 49 Nobel Laureates, have signed a statement decrying the current situation as unprecedented and calling for change. Scientists interested in joining their colleagues in signing the statement should click here. Non-scientist activists who want to demonstrate their support for this campaign should sign the scientific integrity call to action.
UCS recently released two surveys of government scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries division. The surveys showed that political interference in science has become pervasive at both agencies, diminishing the morale of staff scientists and making it difficult for the agencies to fulfill their missions of protecting endangered wildlife and marine life.
Visit the UCS website to learn more about efforts to prevent the abuse of science.
Tuesday, July 19
the war
lies our fathers told us http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3269420
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/07/21/humans_are_main_cause_of_warming_scientist_says/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+National+News
our investments http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/17/MNG5GDPEK31.DTL
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050719/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_trust
The country on a string....
And really, how many times does this guy have to tell them he's not quitting? I'll bet he was having fun though - playing Lucy and the football to Georgie's Charlie Brown.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/07/15/national/w093555D88.DTL
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/07/15/national/w093555D88.DTL
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