Category Archives: Wackos

Exposing HSUS

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ZimmCast 251In this week’s ZimmCast you’ll hear my conversation with David Martosko about HumaneWatch.org. This awesome and growing compilation of information about the Humane Society of The United States is a great resource for everyone involved in agriculture. H$U$ may be targeting animal agriculture for extinction but if successful consider the impact on all areas of agriculture, most especially in row crop production. I’m going to write my elected officials and point them to HumaneWatch.org since Missouri is currently one of the states these wackos at H$U$ are targeting with their completely misguided attack on dog breeders. Of course if you believe dog breeders are their only target then I might have some (swamp) land in south Florida to sell you.

hsus watchdogIn my conversation with David you’ll learn more about him and why he’s become so passionate and involved on this issue. His background includes working with the Center For Consumer Freedom. David and I have a great conversation and I hope you enjoy listening.

Almost a year ago I met Wayne Pacelle, CEO of HSUS. He was speaking at the NAFB Washington Watch (I still don’t understand why they even let him in the door) and in my opinion issued a challenge to American farmers. You can still read that post or listen to his remarks (mp3).

Since the H$U$ says it’s all about dogs and cats (er, make that money) the program ends with some music from Music Alley. It’s a song called, “Dogs and Cats” by Colie Brice.

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems for their support.

You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast below.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our a Subscribe page.

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HSUS Feeling Heat in N.Y. Times

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The Center For Consumer Freedom is dialing up the heat on the Humane Society of the United States. This is their full page ad that’s appearing in today’s New York Times. It highlight’s “the failure of the Humane Society of the United States to devote a significant amount of money to supporting America’s underfunded pet shelters. The ad explains that HSUS shares only 1 dollar out of every 200 dollars it collects with local, hands-on pet shelters.”

You can find out a lot more by going to the organization’s just-launched website, HumaneWatch.org. You can download a pdf of the ad with this link.

The ad reads:

Shouldn’t the “Humane Society” do better?

The Humane Society of the United States is NOT your local animal shelter. In fact, it gives less than one-half of one percent of its $100 million budget to hands-on pet shelters.

Meanwhile, this wealthy animal rights group socked away over $2.5 million of Americans’ donations in its own pension plans.

Surprised? So were we. The dog-watchers need a watchdog. Join the discussion at HumaneWatch.org.

Watchdogs on the Tail of HSUS

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The new watchdog project on the tail of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is really showing a bite that matches its bark.

hsus watchdogThe Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) just launched HumaneWatch.org earlier this week to expose the agenda and activities of HSUS. It includes a sharp-toothed blog written by CCF’s Director of Research David Martosko, as well as a document library and database tracking the organizations related to the HSUS financial empire. They also have a Facebook page with nearly 2,000 fans so far this week. You can tell it’s already ruffling some feathers.

Speaking of ruffled feathers, it appears the backlash against [yellow tail] wine for its donation to HSUS finally hit the mark. John Casella, managing director of Yellow Tail’s parent company Casella Wines, gave a statement to ABC News this week that said the company will only make contributions to animal groups “without lobbying interests” in the future.

Mr. Casella says he never anticipated any negative criticism of the donation and the intention of the partnership with the HSUS was to celebrate and save animals.

“Being farmers ourselves, we acknowledge those who care for their land and their environment, just as we do,” he said. “We are proud of our rural heritage and value a solid relationship with agricultural communities around the world.”

The company also sent a letter today to the American Agriculture Alliance seeking to mend fences with farmers and ranchers. Meanwhile, Yellow Tail has also apparently taken down all the negative comments about the donation on their Facebook page, but there are still some great videos out there expressing discontent. Check out this one that really hits the mark, produced by Nebraska corn growers.

Yellow Tail is Now Yellow Fail

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If you have been following the social media whiplashing Yellow Tail wine has received as a result of their $100,000 donation to H$U$, then you may have already seen this video by Troy Hadrick, Advocates for Agriculture spokesperson. If this story is news to you, check out Chuck’s earlier post on this topic.

No more Yellow Tail wine for me. I hope you feel the same.

Encourage Yellow Tail To Withdraw H$U$ Support

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According to radical extremist group H$U$, they have received a $100,000 donation from Yellow Tail wines. They’re calling it the “tails for tails” program and the organizational logo will appear on Yellow Tail wine displays throughout the country through the end of March. The photo shows what one former product fan thinks of the donation decision.

Feel free to let Yellow Tail know your thoughts on their Facebook page. I have and unless they change their decision I have also removed them from my list of ZimmComm approved wines.

Ohioans For Humane Farms Files Petition

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I guess I’m not shocked that HSUS has pulled this bait and switch on Ohio voters. While stepping aside to let Ohio farmers pass the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, our friends at HSUS are now campaigning to make sure that board pushes their agendas forward, which include: abolishing meat, dairy and eggs from the American diet and putting farmers and ranchers out of business. In their newest campaign, Ohioans for Humane Farms, HSUS and Farm Sanctuary are back on the campaign trail, ready to take action in the next election. Check out an excerpt from Kristy Foster in Farm and Dairy.

Producers and state officials had heard it was coming. Now, it’s official: The Humane Society of the United States launched a counterattack on Ohio Jan. 27. Ohioans for Humane Farms, backed by HSUS and Farm Sanctuary, submitted a petition — including signatures from Ohio voters in 48 counties — to Ohio’s Secretary of State in support of placing an anti-cruelty measure on the November ballot.

Regulations requested include: 1. End confinement for veal calves, breeding pigs and chickens in what has been described by the Humane Society of the United States as “tiny cages.” 2. Stop “downer cows” or animals too sick or injured to stand or walk on their own from entering the human food chain. 3. Establish regulations for the euthanasia of sick and injured animals.

Dealing With Issues Management

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Issues Management MeetingMuch of the work done at the Cattle Industry Convention is in committees. These meetings are open and as I’ve found over the years, a great learning experience to attend. I did a walk around during the main committee time as part of my work for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and stopped in just as the Joint Issues Management Committee was concluding. As you can imagine, this committee is dealing with some real challenges, especially from activist groups like HSUS and others that are spreading misinformation about the industry.

I spoke with committee chair, Mike Stahly. Mike says that the checkoff does many surveys of consumers to learn what they think about the industry and the product. This information is then used to craft strategies for how to deal with issues like the whole animal welfare one.

All committees of the Beef Board have their own web page and archived copies of agendas and minutes. You can find the Joint Issues Management Committee page here. This has been a key feature of the website we built for the CBB and it has proven to be a simple tool to make checkoff information available and easy to find.

You can listen to and download my interview with Mike below.

Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album

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BIVI Vetera Protecting The Horse

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The equine group at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica has produced a short video to help promote it’s new Vetera virus protection.

Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI), announces the introduction of its Vetera™ West Nile virus family of vaccines, the only vaccines containing the North American Equine E159™ 2005 horse isolate representative of the virus that is most likely to infect horses today. The Vetera family of vaccines includes protection against West Nile virus; Eastern, Western and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis; and tetanus, in a variety of combinations.

Climate Change is BAD Topic

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BADThursday is Blog Action Day (BAD) and the topic this year is Climate Change. Food production is top on the list of suggested ideas for bloggers to write about in an alert sent out by organizers. “Agricultural production around the world is responsible for nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the food choices we make have a big impact on the climate,” the organizers say, linking to some choice misinformation on their website.

If you are an agricultural blogger, you should sign up now for BAD, because the views of this will likely be very one-sided without you. When you sign up, you can get an idea of the ideology of the organizers. You are asked to “pick your favorite causes” from a list that includes such goodies as Animal Rights, Global Warming, Gay Rights, Global Poverty, Sustainable Food, Environment, Wildlife and Habitat, and Conflict and Response (that’s a cause?) You get the idea. BAD is “powered by change.org” which has as the top post today “Will Our Beef Addiction Destroy the Amazon?” Lovely.

If you haven’t registered and feel like airing your viewpoint on food production and climate change as part of BAD, sign up here. Or just boycott it.

Penn & Teller on Dr. Borlaug

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There is absolutely no way I can improve on what Penn & Teller say about Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. This video has been out for a while but I just saw it for the first time and I’m still laughing. Penn Jillette narrates this video and let’s just say he expresses my thoughts on Greenpeace wackos perfectly with the word, BS. It’s worth watching to the end and as far as I’m concerned it’s an awesome tribute to Dr. Borlaug. (Warning: there are a few choice words in the video that may not sit well on sensitive ears.)

I may not agree with them on other issues but this one is dead on the money.

TIME for Yellow Journalism

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If you look up the definition of “yellow journalism” you should find a picture of last week’s TIME Magazine cover story – which was renamed “Getting Real about the High Cost of Cheap Food” – after first being headlined “America’s Food Crisis and How to Fix it.”

Wikipedia gives several characteristics of yellow journalism that fit this attack on modern agriculture, such as the “practice of over-dramatizing events,” “scare headlines in huge print,” and the use of “misleading headlines, pseudo-science, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts.”

This very one-sided article used only one quote from an agricultural organization in more than 3200 words that condemn both crop and livestock production in the United States as heading us down the road to a “future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste.”

I spent more time on this fantasy story than it is worth writing a post on Corn Commentary about it, and several other agricultural reporters have done the same. See in particular – Chuck Jolley with Cattle Network, who digs into the article author’s background; commentary from Rick Jordahl with Pork magazine; and a call from Drovers encouraging people to send letters to the editor at TIME regarding the story.

International Trade Is Now Causing Global Warming

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The folks at the United Nations are at it again, this time along with the World Trade Organization. Last time it was their idiotic report about how cows and other forms of livestock are contributing so much to global warming (now calling it climate change which I believe happens naturally every year). This time they’ve moved a step ahead to try and link global climate change to trade. Give me a break. Here’s an excerpt from the WTO press release.

The scientific evidence is now clear that the Earth’s climate system is warming as a result of greenhouse gas emissions which are still increasing worldwide, and will continue to increase over the coming decades unless there are significant changes to current laws, policies and actions. Although freer trade could lead to increased CO2 emissions as a result of raising economic activity. It can also help alleviate climate change, for instance by increasing the diffusion of mitigation technologies.

The fact is that the scientific evidence isn’t clear. There is wide disagreement on this issue of GHG emissions. This is just another attempt to try to create fear in the name of accomplishing a policy objective and one that will have negative impacts on business in general and agriculture in particular. As if somehow, if we would just do what the UN wants on climate policy and what the WTO wants on a Doha agreement, all would be solved and we could sleep at night. It’s just not going to happen folks.

Here’s an excerpt from the UNEP release.

The world cannot continue with “business as usual” and there is a profound need for a successful conclusion to the current negotiations on both climate change and trade opening.

Sounds like the same old, “the sky is falling” story to me. But I’m sure this report will be quoted and pointed to by all the global warming wackos out there ad nauseum.

Post Update: Alert Twitter follower @etcattlewoman pointed me to a great piece on the Wall Street Journal about the growing skepticism worldwide of man made global warming. It’s worth a read.

Discover Farting Cows

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I just got pointed to another wacko group trying to claim that what we eat is causing global warming. There’s just so much wrong with this. Global warming? Uh, that hasn’t even been conclusively proven. Too many scientists disagree on the subject. So why do these wacko groups employ scare tactics and outright lies? To raise money to line their pockets and push a completely different agenda which seems to me to be more about their “religion” than the topic.

This one is from Let’s Act Now. They’re so ashamed of themselves that they don’t even identify who they are other than to say that it’s a “joint effort of a group of people . . . ” Now that’s really clear. I guess they wanted to be clear that it wasn’t animals doing this but people.

Of course when you see that they’re promoting Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and the farting cow you start to figure it out. According to the NCBA Issues & Reputation Management program, it appears to be an effort of Supreme Master Television, a free-to-air satellite broadcasting channel run by a self-described spiritual teacher Ching Hai. Supreme Master Television operates out of its Los Angeles studio and features programs that “support a modern lifestyle that is green, healthy and compassionate.”

Apparently this wacko group is sending it’s self-promoting tv commercials to stations in the guise of a PSA and some of them are ignorant enough to air them.

Greenpeace Is An Enemy of the Environment

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Here’s a link to an article in NRC Handelsblad, a Netherlands daily newspaper that really hits the nail on the head about the damage being caused by wacko groups like Greenpeace. They really are terrorists who not only endanger the lives and hard work of people who are actually helping our environment while trying to increase food production but they are also contributing to the very things they say they oppose. Here’s a couple of excerpts:

Unfortunately, none of these genetically modified crops are being cultivated in Europe. Their introduction is opposed by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations. Even experimental fields, where the impact of GM crops on the environment are tested, are destroyed on a regular basis by environmental groups. Most recently, two test fields run respectively by the agricultural university of Wageningen and the potato starch company Aveve in Groningen met with that fate.

It seems the environmental organisations are not that interested in the test results. Maybe they’re afraid of having been wrong all these years, if it turns out that the damage to the environment is not that bad. It doesn’t seem to bother them one bit that their guerrilla tactics are putting lives at risk.

How much longer are politicians going to allow themselves to be held hostage by the environmental movement? How many more food riots do we need before the environmental movement is ready to let go of its dogmas? If we want to meet the goal set by the G8 to double food production by 2050, the time to invest in biotechnology is now.

This is just another example of why I never got very excited about Earth Day. When groups like this have used it to promote their emotionally charged, scientifically lacking agendas I find it hard to support it. Having said that though I think all of us in agriculture need to be more involved in the online conversation which is where we can have more impact than ever before. Now we don’t have to depend on co-opted mainstream media channels to tell our story. Kind of like I’m doing here!

Energy Secretary Wants Us To Be Very Afraid

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Since I did a post on FarmPolicy.com I guess I can do another policy one on something that Joe Cornely brought to my attention via Twitter. He pointed to a story in the Los Angeles Times from an interview with our new Energy Secretary. If you look at the category for this post you’ll see where I place this guy. I just thought I’d point you to it since he’s one of the people who will be affecting policies and administrative decisions for at least 4 years and they could significantly change the way we do business in this country and especially in farming. Here’s a couple of Chu’s statement excerpts that might give you some pause for thought. California is his home state btw.

‘We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California,’ Steven Chu says . . .

California’s farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday.

“I’m hoping that the American people will wake up,” Chu said, and pay the cost of rewiring.”

I thought our new administration promised hope not fear. If this isn’t fear mongering then I don’t know what is. I personally don’t believe in man made global warming or that we can change natural climate change simply by making lifestyle changes. I do believe in climate change. We have these things called the seasons for one thing. I think we had an ice age once, actually more than one. I do believe that we should practice good environmental care and that farmers are some of the most environmentally friendly people on the planet. Air and water quality in big cities can be improved and renewable fuels is a good way to work on that besides relieving our dependence on foreign oil from countries that are not our friends. I think the bottom line is that we’ve got people in power now who have a goal of re-shaping society into their personal vision of it. Since the majority of Americans would never agree to it they have to have a very scared public in order to get their policies enacted and they have to push very quickly before people wise up.

We’ve got some challenging times ahead and I don’t think it’s just the economy.

More Global Warming Wacko-ism

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Let’s see, it seems like last year I heard that the greatest threat to the livestock industry wasn’t input costs, ethanol or market prices but wacko animal rights activists. Yeah. There are a lot of them and they sure seem to have lots of money behind them. The latest, besides the post I did this morning, is from LetsActNow.org. These people are seriously drinking some weird koolaid. Who are they? I dunno. All it says on their website is that they’re “a group of people.” That explains it.

So here’s their new “national psa.” Should I leave it in the post or take it out?

Their news release quotes some idiotic NASA scientist named Dr. James Hansen. Here’s an excerpt:

“Because if you eat further down on the food chain rather than animals which have produced many greenhouse gases, and used much energy in the process of growing that meat, you can actually make a bigger contribution in that way than just about anything. So in terms of individual actions, it is the best thing you can do.”

Animal agriculture, including “sustainable,” locally-raised animals, is a huge cause of global warming, creating nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. It also uses up most of our water, is responsible for the majority of rainforest destruction in the Amazon, and is a direct cause of global hunger. Changing our diet to a meat-free, dairy-free, egg-free vegan diet can significantly and rapidly reverse global warming, lower emissions, reduce deforestation, avoid drought, and help feed the hungry.

Global warming? Yeah, right. Cows causing it? Okay . . . It’s time to get these folks some straight jackets and get them back on their medication.

Portable Farms Has Laughable Message

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This is so wacky that I had to let you know about it. It almost sounds like a neat idea on the surface. But then you realize this guy has bought in to that wacko UN study that said that somehow livestock farts are contributing to global warming. You know I usually post an image but I just don’t think these folks need any more publicity than me just letting you know they exist. Where do these people come from and why do people buy in to this stuff?

Colle, Davis, Inventor of Portable Farms(TM), http://www.portablefarms.com/ launched his invention June 2008. Since then, he has received interest from people in all 50 states and 126 countries. His new invention offers a simple solution to the problems of world hunger and poverty. “We have taken what nature has done naturally for billions of years, automated the process into a simple system and put it in a small space,” Davis is quoted as saying.

Their lighthearted corporate logo states, “Fish Don’t Fart,” to attract attention about their message about eating fish rather than beef to save the world from gas emissions from cattle.

World Food Day

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World Food DayToday is World Food Day in case you didn’t know it. This is a FAO-organized event held every year. I applaud their desire to bring attention to the plight of the hungry around the world.

However, they’ve been taken over by a bunch of wackos who are employing extreme scare tactics to advance an agenda that is seriously out of kilter with reality. So, I mainly just ignore the FAO these days. That’s too bad but I think we’re seeing a lot of these tactics and types of people everywhere these days. You can probably figure out who they are as well as I can.

So, on World Food Day, right after Blog Action Day, which had a theme of poverty, let’s do what we can to help those less fortunate than us. But let’s do it with common sense and make decisions based on science and not sensational emotionalism.

Cindy is attending the World Food Prize Norman Borlaug Symposium where I’m sure she’s interacting with people who do bring a much more credible voice to the challenges and solutions to the issue of world hunger.

Eat More Meat and Heat Things Up

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CIWF WackosI was wondering if there would be anything to post late on a Sunday and the animal rights activist wackos provided some fodder. Okay, to start with, there are still some people claiming something called global warming. Yeah, right. Tell that to all the farmers who haven’t received enough heat this year to grow a decent crop.

Now we’ve got this wacko and prize winner saying we should all eat less meat in the name of planetary welfare. I grilled a couple of pork tenderloins tonight and they were delicious. I’m hoping to enjoy more of the same in Europe during the next couple of weeks while Cindy and I are attending the IFAJ Congress too.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize is calling on individuals to cut their carbon footprints by transforming their diets at a lecture hosted by Compassion in World Farming lecture in London tomorrow (Monday 8 September 2008).

Current global animal production is responsible for 18 per cent of all human-induced GHG emissions, with more than 60 billion farm animals reared each year. That figure is set to double by 2050. The need to change our diet is increasingly urgent.

An average household would reduce the impact of their greenhouse gas emissions by more if they halved their meat consumption than if they halved their car usage.

“If we continue to consume meat and dairy at the current rate both animals and the planet will suffer. Factory farming is unsustainable and inhumane. The best thing people can do is eat less meat and dairy and eat only higher welfare – organic and free-range,” says Joyce D’Silva, Ambassador for Compassion in World Farming.

Oh, wahhh. Give me a break.

Wacko Ad From HSUS

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HSUS AdI noticed a story in the latest issue Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, Prime Cuts, e-newsletter about a stupid (my word) ad from the Humane Society. Yes, we know these wackos have been trying to connect animal agriculture to global warming. Of course, there is no global warming issue, especially not a man made one. You’ll notice that most environmental wackos have quit using that term and have now gone to “climate change” as their term of choice. This way it can be getting colder, warmer, dryer, wetter and it’s all bad and they’re covered.

According to the newsletter story the HSUS is running the ad this month in national magazines targeting teen girls. If you read the copy of the ad you find out the true goal of the HSUS which is to reduce meat in our diets by using scare tactics based on complete lies. These wackos are definitely a huge enemy of anyone involved in animal agriculture. It’s one thing to have an opinion but to deliberately deceive people with lies to get their money so they can lie to more people is really tragic and sad. Unfortunately, the HSUS is using false data from the FAO, which has turned into a wacko group too. I used to think FAO actually was a credible organization, but not anymore.

It’s too bad that so many people are willing to believe what they see and hear without even bothering to think about it and look for real science based facts. But that’s why it’s very important for any of us involved in agriculture to be involved in efforts to present the truth and reach consumers using the same tactics as these wackos.