AGRICULTURE

May 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The General Agreement on Trade

and Tariffs will increase the amount of pork

the U.S. can export to Europe to 624,000 met-

ric tons by 1999, six times the 1991 volume.

Drawn by relatively weak U.S. pollution

laws, European hog producers are rushing to

set up U.S. branches, including the Pig

Improvement Co., of Great Britain, the

world’s largest hog breeder, which hopes to

raise 100,000 hogs per year at a site near

Hennessy, Oklahoma. The facility will gen-

erate as much sewage as a town of 170,000

people. A Danish firm is reportedly planning

an even bigger operation: a 600,000-hog con-

finement farm to be sited in Alaska, where

there are virtually no laws pertaining to farm-

related pollution because farming ventures

there have historically failed.

AGRICULTURE

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt on

March 17 announced his third proposal in

less than a year to increase grazing fees on

federal land and prevent soil erosion of over-

grazed leases in 17 western states. Expected

to take effect later this year, the new propos-

al does not require Congressional approval.

It would double the grazing fee to $3.96 per

animal unit, and set different environmental

standards from state to state within a frame-

work of national principles. The proposal

was immediately attacked by both ranchers

and environmentalists.

American Breeders Service of

DeForest, Wisconsin, now sells cattle

semen and embryos “that carry a predicted

twinning value of at least 40% for bulls and

30% for cows,” according to the USDA,

which developed the method. The idea is to

cut production costs by getting more births

per pregnancy, but the gains may be offset

by increased birthing injuries to cows,

which are the leading cause of downers.

McDonald’s agrees to adopt humane code: PRECEDENT RAISES CARE STANDARDS FOR INDUSTRY

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

OAK BROOK, Illinois––McDonald’s, the world’s biggest beef purchaser,

pledged February 16 to issue a statement of humane principles to all the meat and poultry

slaughterhouses that supply the 14,000 U.S. McDonald’s restaurants, with a request that it be

forwarded to all the farmers who supply them. An abbreviated edition of the statement is also

to appear in the 1993 McDonald’s annual report to shareholders.

McDonald’s general counsel and senior vice president Shelby Yastrow agreed to

ratify and distribute the statement in exchange for the withdrawal of a stronger and more spe-

cific statement advanced as a shareholder resolution by Henry Spira of Animal Rights

International and Nanette Coco of the Franklin Research and Development Corporation, rep-

Diet & Health

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

The USDA proposed March 9 to apply the same

sanitary standards to poultry as to red meat. Currently, no

trace of fecal matter is permitted on red meat, but fecal matter

is tolerated on poultry under a grading system that also consid-

ers the presence of bruises, feathers, and protruding bones. A

dead bird is deemed unfit for human consumption only if it

receives a failing cumulative score. Earlier, the USDA said it

would seek Food and Drug Administration approval of the use

of radiation to kill bacteria on red meats. Whether the request

would be extended to cover poultry too was unclear.

COURT CALENDAR

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Wildlife and habitat

The U.S. Court of Appeals in

Washington D.C. on March 11 upset jurispru-

dence concerning endangered species protec-

tion by ruling in a case pertaining to timber rights

and spotted owl protection in the Pacific

Northwest that the government lacks authority to

protect wildlife habitat on private land. The U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service said that pending further

clarification of the ruling, perhaps by the U.S.

Supreme Court, it would make no policy changes.

The March 11 ruling directly contradicts the out-

standing precedent in such situations, established

by the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San

Francisco.

ANIMAL HEALTH

April 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

Epidemiology

New York and Rhode Island

health officials said February 24 that a mys-

terious hantavirus caused the January 20

death of Rhode Island School of Design stu-

dent David Rosenberg, 22, who may have

become infected via rodent droppings while

sweeping out a warehouse in Queens. The

case is among the first known human cases in

the U.S. that apparently does not involve deer

mice. Four days earlier, the Centers for

Disease Control confirmed that the hantavirus

afflicts Florida cotton rats, and announced

the death of three Kansans from suspected

hantavirus infections. Of the 60 known U.S.

human victims, 27 have died; 23 have

recovered after suffering debilitating illness.

BOOKS FOR THE MEATOUT

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Meat: A Natural Symbol. By Nick Fiddes,

Routledge Inc. (29 West 35th St, New York NY

10001), 1991, 261 pages, paperback, $15.95. ISBN

0-415-08929-8.

Former caterer Nick Fiddes, now a social

anthropologist, has had lots of experience with social

responses to food. He has found meat especially rich in

social significance. Like many other writers, he recog-

nizes its potential as a symbol of social, economic and

sexual dominance. But most of all, he believes, meat

subconsciously represents the human conquest of nature.

Diet & Health

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

MILK PRODUCED WITH RBST GOES ON SALE

Milk produced through the use of recombinant

(genetically enginneered) bovine somatotropin growth hor-

m o n e went on sale to the general public for the first time on

February 4, a month after a review of the scientific literature

on the production stimulant by the White House Office of

Management and Budget concluded that, “There is no evi-

dence that rBST poses a health threat to humans or animals.”

The Pure Food Campaign led anti-rBST protests in at least nine

cities. The drug boosts milk production per cow and extends

the time a cow can be milked between the births of calves. It is

bitterly opposed by many dairy farmers because in reducing the

number of cows needed to meet the demand for milk, it will

put some farmers out of business. Consumer advocates are

concerned that despite government assurances, residues may

get into milk, producing such effects as earlier puberty and

greater breast development in young women––and perhaps

stimulating hormonally triggered cancers. Concerned about

boycott pressure, the Food and Drug Administration warned

dairy producers and distributors that they can identify milk as

being produced without the use of rBST if they can prove it,

but cannot say simply “rBST-free,” since milk produced with

rBST is also technically rBST-free. They must also state on a

label that, “No significant difference has been shown between

milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.”

AGRICULTURE

March 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

MAJOR RATITE BANKRUPTCY IN FLORIDA

The collapse of the ratite speculation boom pre-

dicted in the January/February ANIMAL PEOPLE cover fea-

ture may have begun with the mid-January bankruptcy of U.S.

Ostrich and Junction Financial Corporation, of Hallandale,

Florida. The related firms claimed assets of $933,000, includ-

ing ostriches bought for $381,000, while owing $3.9 million to

1,350 investors in 47 states, Canada, and Jamaica. One

investor reportedly lost $274,000. The Securities Exchange

Corporation responded by suing U.S. Ostrich and Junction

Financial principals Marcia Josowitz and Stephen Tashman for

allegedly selling more than $3 million in unregistered securities

in the form of investment contracts, billed as general partner-

ships. The SEC also charged Josowitz and Tashman with

draining corporate funds to make loans to themselves and pay

themselves inflated salaries. Josowitz and Tashman apparently

got into ostriches after promoting a 900 telephone number ser-

vice, office supplies, vacation travel, and water purifiers.

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