Buying time

Last night I was driving through Chicago on my way to Lansing, MI when I heard a doctor in a paid advertisement on WLS. “This is Dr. Ray Greek and I want to tell you about the abuse in testing animals against human diseases.” The ad was trying to convince me and everyone listening that 100,000 people have gotten sick because of incorrect research on animals. (In a country of 600 million that doesn’t sound so bad). He encouraged people to get more information at www.navs.org. Floating through this website it appears that he would rather see research done on people than on animals. So if you are interested in having the good doctor expose you to SARS in search of a cure, I am sure he would love to hear from you. Dr. Greek, in his retirement, has a written a book and posted this website to pass the time. The following is from his home page.

The National Anti-Vivisection Society is dedicated to abolishing the exploitation of animals used in research, education and product testing.

How many times do we see people become wealthy within an industry and then attempt to turn on the industry, it just slays me. Not to mention avenues for selling your book. Once your book is published, you are considered an “expert”. I’m going to have to write a book!

One VOICE

The reason for my trip to Lansing is that many people in Michigan understand the need for one voice to speak for agriculture. I have been a part of many state meetings with the same intent in the past year. During this meeting, most of the Michigan commodity groups presented information about how they are empowering producers to be more active and better spokesmen. That is the answer! Producers must walk up to “WEENIES” and say “that’s not right”. It really hits me hard as we all sit around and agree that this needs to be done. But then we go home and continue putting out our daily fires rather than stepping up to support our industry.
I do recognize that we are attempting to find some time in a very busy day to accomplish this task while the “Weenies” spend the entire day spreading fear. They make a living attempting to destroy our lifestyle. We want to spend one hour a week telling the truth and they spend 60 hours a week motivating, networking and executing their web of misinformation.
The time is now and I have a feeling that this Michigan group will carry the torch. They see the need and they are acting in a proactive manner. Far too many times we wait until we look the devil in the eye and we all know that it is simply too late when the genie is already out of the bottle. Just so you know how well organized these anti-agricultural attacks are, I will share an example from one “Weenie” group who sent out an alert today. It is from the Humane Society of the United States and it is listed below. You will notice it is thorough, organized and offers easy access about who, how and when to call. This is just ONE example of what we are up against. The horse topic was not selectived specifically but was simply the topic of today’s e-mail alert.

Animal handling

This week the LA Times writer Stephanie Simon has written a very good history of animal handling. Click here to read the entire document. While you may have even less free time than I do, it is long but well worth reading. As I travel, the most frequent “deer in the headlights” response to the animal handling guidelines are people who are very scared that these practices will be imposed upon them. When in fact, our industry has identified areas that need improvement and corrected them so well that PETA mouth Bruce Friedrich even caught himself endorsing the updated management techniques (what a weasel).

The following paragraph sums up the underlying message that too often gets left out of the debate.

"A phenomenal change," agreed Joy Mench, director of the Center for Animal Welfare at UC Davis. “In part, the reforms are driven by self-interest. When an animal is bruised, its flesh turns mushy and must be discarded. Even stress, especially right before slaughter, can affect the quality of meat.”

Of course, I might just be biased about this article because it illustrates how PETA can’t handle it when companies like KFC tell them "THEY'RE WEENIES”!

Bird Study

I read last night that Iowa State University has spent $243,000 studying how many birds have been killed by 89 wind turbines near Joice, IA. That may not be a lot of money in the big picture, but Iowa State has raised tuition over 20% each year three for three years. Oh by the way zero dead birds have been found.

Protein diets can benefit bones

A study recently published by the Journal of Nutrition suggests that women who consume high protein diets (eating 10.5 ounces of meat daily) did not have an adverse effect on calcium retention or on biomarkers for bone degradation as long as they supplemented their diets with a very low level of calcium. The substantial amounts of potassium and phosphorous in meat actually helps reduce urinary calcium loss. The results of this study may be instrumental in addressing the over 200 million cases of osteoporosis (bone thinning) worldwide. Ongoing studies will occur at the Agriculture Research Service in Grand Forks, ND.
Read the entire article:

I will not live in “FEAR”

A couple weeks ago I told you about a Nicollet County pork producer who caught Matt Mackell trespassing with a camera and GPS system, click here to reference that information.The follow-up to that story makes my toes curl. The Minnesota Agri News is reporting today that producers in Nicollet county are petitioning the state to keep their farm sites a secret, read story. I AM SORRY! We cannot live in fear of these “WEENIES”. I understand that none of us want to be targets. I recently spoke with a major media outlet in the Midwest who told me he was frustrated because the state has come out aggressively supporting livestock agriculture, but no one will agree to talk about it on the record. I realize that any one of us may be targeted individually, but as a united front we will prevail. If we are going to just cower and hope not to be targeted, we will get picked off one at a time. And finally I have a news flash for you: you are already targeted
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Same M.O.

Are you paying attention? The same methodology of outlawing gestation crates in Florida is happening in California. First, identify a state with a lot of voters, then spread the word that farmers are abusing the animals. Introduce anti-animal legislation and then conduct a consumer poll. Farm Sanctuary has just announced the results of one such survey:

71% support legislation to mandate that calves have freedom to turn
around, while 22% disagreed that such legislation should be enacted

72% support legislation to mandate that pigs have enough freedom to turn
around, while 22% disagreed that such legislation should be enacted

With a little creativity, I can write a poll question that could get seventy percent of Americans to agree that we would be better off if Columbus had never discovered America. WAKE UP! We talked about Florida like it couldn’t happen, it did and now the race is on. Please do two things for me, 1) Call someone - I don’t care who but at least one Californian that you know. Tell them the truth about animal agriculture. 2)Log onto www.activistcash.com and find out about the real agenda of Farm Sanctuary. This is the group who pokes holes in animal agriculture for “using animals for profit” while they steal animals from farmers and take them to their sanctuary so they can sell tickets for people to come pet them. And what about their $3.5 million net worth? What a bunch of “hypocritical weenies”. Besides all that, they wouldn’t let me speak at the Food Animal Forum in New York in May…

New Days, New Ways

Last week I parted ways with Brownfield Network. It was a tremendous experience for me and I learned many things about how media organizations work. Loos Tales will continue, and actually has expanded greatly in the past week. Loos Lips has been very well received and will continue to expand. I will be spending most of my time focusing on Faces of Agriculture. Faces of Agriculture is a non-profit organization designed to identify “weenies”, tell the truth about agriculture and empower producers to be better spokesmen. Leadership, media training and public relations will be the main focus, so keep us in mind.



Every day is Earth Day

I think I am witnessing a growing trend in environmental debate. I hear you saying, Trent we have always had negative rhetoric about the environment, but I am here to tell you I think is intensifying. I am seeing some Democratic presidential candidates who seem to believe the “environmental platform” is one to carry them to the White House. Last week was Earth Day - the day celebrated by fundraising environmentalists; meanwhile Earth Day is every day for those of us who make our living from the land. A tremendous number of environmental issues hit the press including the damage caused by people who claim to support the environment and yet they do so with destruction. Check out this excerpt from National Geographic or click here to read entire story.

According to the FBI, the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) and organizations associated with it are suspected in 600 acts of violence including torching buildings at the Vail ski resort, burning SUVs in Oregon, striking a research center in Michigan and upscale homes in New York resulting in more than U.S. $45 million dollars in damage.

And yet another one from Newsday on Friday.

Even my ole buddy Bobby Kennedy, Jr. is trying to get involved. The LA Times reported his support for John Kerry’s environmental stand. Read the article.



Vegetarian Activist perplexed

Read this article today about a vegetarian who dies from vCJD. The author still tries to find way to blame beef consumption.

From the other side

I recently located Michael Milligan from California. What an interesting perspective he brings to the activist discussion. Once a self-proclaimed “leftist”, he has since “grown up and seen the light”. Milligan admits that the radicals he once worked with don’t grasp or care about the truth. “Truth is not a big issue with them”. Milligan has written a novel, Pine Field Killings, which brings to light some of the tactics employed by the radicals. Visit Milligan’s website www.pinefieldkilling.com to read more about it.

Terrorists among us

The militant animal rights group, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), raided a battery hen farm and "liberated" more than 1,000 chickens before issuing threats that their next attack would be more extreme. This story is out of EU this week home of small “humane” farms. I have included the full story below but here are a couple of the most important lines.

The spokesman added: "As can be seen from video footage, birds that become immobilized with the waste that sticks to their legs aren't even able to
forage for scraps of food. These slowly sink into the sodden waste and die horribly where they lay, only able to resist hungry rats and other hens as long as they are able to survive."

Where is the view of the farmer? This is an obvious removal of human intervention in the production of food. What farmer could or would allow his livelihood to suffer in such a manner? Relentless attacks on food production, and if you think this is just a EU issue. ALF has been very much present in the US just ask a few mink farmers. Thank you to Teresa Platt of the US Fur Commission for keeping everyone in US agriculture updated on what is coming