Dear Janet,
Here's a couple problems that I see with this type of regulation & thinking:
We use DE on our livestock (and in the garden) when a "bug" problem is
noted. But only when the animals & plants appear unable to fight the bugs
themselves...with their own immune systems! Used as a preventative measure,
however, I only have to look to the Bt debacle...to see perhaps another case
of a good healing tool that could become worthless. I don't think it too
unthinkable that insects will, at some point, mutate in order to survive
the "prophylactic" use of DE or anything else. Once its in the grain, its in
everything...if we haven't
learned anything from the superbacteria, superweeds, etc. we are now
hearing about, we should
have at least learned, that nature will circumvent our efforts at
erradication, to insure survival. The problem is being addressed in the
wrong
way...its the way we grow & handle food.
Ever been in a chicken processing plant? The factory style mass-produced
chicken is the
first problem, the fecal soup exposure at processing is 2nd & now dipping
the carcass in "anti-bacterial" solution? And charge the farmer
for the cost!? Typical big-business, big government solution. And generally
its the "middleman" et al, that tells the farmer what he'll be getting
paid...not the farmer passing along the cost to the middleman, otherwise
farming would be a far more attractive business.
How about random on-farm testing for salmonella, and stricter monitoring of
the processors? Why not penalize the responsible party, rather than spread
out the "remedial" costs to farmers including those that are healthy, clean
& responsible growers? The good guys paying for the bad guys? This creates
no incentive for QUALITY in production.
And what's the "antibacterial" they propose anyway? Bleach, a proven
endocrine disrupter? Chickens raised in total confinement, pumped up with
antibiotics, arsenic, then dipped in fecal soup and finally antibacterial
solution....there's something that'll be absent from OUR table!!
This is also another way that organic product is undermined. When it becomes
federal law, via USDA standards, that all chicken (or any food product) is
considered "guilty til
proven safe" then ALL meat/milk/food has to be treated chemically or
radiated, etc.
Then the small family farmer that sells untreated product to his neighbor
becomes an outlaw! The writing is on the wall...its already illegal to sell
raw milk in Wisconsin! We wouldn't touch the mini-markets' milk, cause we've
been in some big producer barns & know what goes into that milk, yet that's
the garbage that has the USDA's blessing!
Rather than being encouraged to adopt responsible, careful management, we
turn up the juice on treating the symptoms of bad farming & bad
handling...rewarding those who engage in it, and penalizing those who do
not.
Julie M.
Date: Friday, January 08, 1999 5:28 AM
Subject: Re: Bugs in Bird Seed
