Mr. Bill Gates, Chairman
Microsoft
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052

Dear Mr. Gates:

The members and friends of the Alliance for the Future of Agriculture in Nebraska (A-FAN) are writing to express our deep concern regarding the relationship that has been forged between Microsoft and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) through Microsoft’s i’m Initiative and to encourage Microsoft to end this relationship.

The i’m Initiative is an admirable program providing financial support to non-profit organizations for the betterment of a number of different causes, including humanitarian efforts. Allowing the HSUS to benefit financially from this initiative runs contrary to the very foundation of this Microsoft effort. The HSUS is not the national organization for local animal shelters and it is not what it appears to be on the surface.

The HSUS is the nation’s largest animal rights activist group and carries a dangerous and radical agenda that if proliferated, will not only directly harm farm families and rural communities in our state, but families across America and food consumers everywhere. This vegan-led organization spends millions annually attacking farm and ranch families through legislative, legal and other initiatives to eliminate veterinarian approved animal husbandry practices used by farmers to raise the food that feeds Nebraskans, Americans and the rest of the world.

Less than a year ago, at the HSUS’ Taking Action for Animals conference, Wayne Pacelle, HSUS President vowed to redouble the animal rights group’s efforts against animal agriculture. Later in the year the organization’s Vice President of Farm Animal Welfare, declared that the organization’s long-term goal for the egg laying and broiler chicken industry is, “to get rid of the industry”.

The United States is blessed to have a system of food production where the average consumer spends roughly 10 percent of their disposable income on food, allowing them to enjoy a standard of living unsurpassed anywhere in the world. Nebraska is deeply rooted in agriculture and the well-being of farmers and ranchers plays a tremendous role in the well being of all Nebraskans. Nebraska farm families are extremely proud of the their ability to take care of their animals and take great pride in providing a safe and affordable food supply improving the lives and livelihoods of people everywhere. The HSUS’ actions jeopardize the security of our country’s food production system and the well being of families and consumers whom depend upon it.

We trust Microsoft would not knowingly support such a radical organization and extremist agenda. As an organization and as individuals we are asking you to please end Microsoft’s relationship with HSUS. Furthermore, we encourage you to consider replacing HSUS with another entity that would work toward ensuring a viable and affordable food supply for our country and world. There are many that exist to promote this important cause and we would be more than willing to share candidates for this effort.

We appreciate your attention to this matter and would welcome the opportunity to visit with you or a representative of the Microsoft Corporation to discuss this matter further or answer any questions that you may have. Our country was founded on agriculture and is vibrant because of it. It is important that we never forget.

Sincerely,
Trent Loos

The Growing Field of Animal Law is Attracting Activists and Pragmatists Alike
By PETER MONAGHAN Portland, Or.

In the Pacific Northwest, many young people say they want to liberate animals from human subjection, so much so that defending activists who break into research laboratories to set loose animals is now a cottage industry.

Here at Lewis & Clark College School of Law, students of "animal law" are learning another way to change social practices that involve animals. They are just as passionate as animal-liberation advocates. And they may become more influential.

Animal law is the study of all laws relating to animals, whether they enable harsh treatment of animals or encourage kind treatment. "It's a lot like where environmental law was in the 1970s," says Laura Ireland Moore, founder and executive director of the National Center for Animal Law, based at Lewis & Clark.

Students in the field study animal-related local, state, and federal legislation and case law. Topics include animal cruelty, hunting, animal fighting, and performing animals; the history of animals' legal status; the use of animals in scientific research; free-speech and religious-practice limitations on animal sacrifices; and such federal statutes as the Animal Welfare Act and the Humane Slaughter of Livestock Act.

Critics of the animal-law courses say they risk taking a political stance. Indeed, the conviction that humans should treat animals better motivates almost all the students who enroll in animal-law courses, says Kimberly E. McCoy, who has just graduated from the law school at Lewis & Clark. She is the outgoing editor in chief of Animal Law Review, which in 1993 became the country's first journal devoted to the subject.

After graduating from college, Ms. McCoy had no intention of attending law school. She had worked for the cause of protecting endangered species — whales, pandas, and rare tigers. During visits to developing countries, she had seen animals living in what she describes as deplorable conditions.

An article about "compassionate eating" persuaded her to become a vegan. She started hearing more about so-called animal-rights terrorism. Then one day, law school seemed like the right outlet for her passion. "There was so much fear mongering about people using tactics outside the law," Ms. McCoy says, "I decided I wanted to fight within the legal system."

'Respect Their Interests'

Like other areas of public-interest law, animal law is attracting many women, who outnumber men by 10 to one in the burgeoning field.

Interest is growing rapidly because animal welfare "is much more part of our consciousness," says Pamela Frasch, director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund's anti-cruelty division, who teaches a course at Lewis & Clark. "So it's natural that it would become a separate area of law in law schools."

Concern about animals has increased as farming has shifted from a "part of the family" to a "factory farm" model. At the same time, the public has become more aware of the harmful effects of intensive fishing on marine mammals and reptiles, such as the catching of dolphins in tuna-fishing nets. Advances in scientific knowledge of animals — and their consciousness — have played a role, too. "When we learn that animals have emotions, and feel pain, and are intelligent, and

have social structures, we have an obligation to respect their interests," says Ms. Moore.

But it is arguments like that that prompt blunt criticism from legal educators who are skeptical of the way advocates of animal "rights" are shaping the teaching of animal law. Yes, the human use of animals is an important component of the law, and has been since ancient times, says Richard A. Epstein, a professor law at the University of Chicago. But that does not mean, he says, that "preposterous" and "overinflated" claims about animal emotions and intelligence should guide it now.

"Very few people will take the side of saying, 'Yes, animal protections are appropriate,'" he says, "but 'No, animal rights are not.' That's a very uncomfortable position to be in, because you can always be painted as an ogre."

Reasoned discussion of animal law can include such topics as the lessening need for some kinds of animal testing, and yet fall well short of what he considers to be outlandish advocacy of purported animal rights. So, he adds, one can teach animal law without taking a position on such largely emotional topics. "Animal law is a neutral topic," he says. "What I get nervous about are courses that take sides, that are the equivalent of 'human rights for victims' or 'property law for developers.'"

To hear students here at Lewis & Clark, however, idealism is not the whole story. Many are pragmatists. Danielle Thompson became a vegan at the age of 17, nine years ago, after devouring a book from the 1950s about food production that she happened on in a thrift store. "It was out of concern for animals and the horrific suffering they go through every minute of the day," she says.

"Most of the suffering is due to our eating them, and their being in factory farms."

Ms. Thompson became involved with Vegan Outreach, a national organization that advocates sparing or easing animals' lives by eating no animal products, and the Animal Defense League, another national advocacy group, while studying political science and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and then decided to study animal law at Lewis & Clark. "I wanted a career where I could have a reasonably good life," she says, "but also help animals."

In another expression of pragmatism, each year 40 to 60 Lewis & Clark law students work on Animal Law Review, enhancing their résumés even as they support a cause. The students edit and publish articles on standards of care at private wildlife sanctuaries and Native American tribal whaling rights, among other subjects.

Virtually all submissions advocate for animal welfare, but there are exceptions. "We take pride in being nonbiased, says Ms. McCoy, the editor. "We have published articles saying that animal experimentation is ethical and necessary."

In animal-law classes, debates involve questions about which human uses of animals are acceptable. Students generally deplore the use of animals in the testing of cosmetics and household products but are divided about their use in medical research. Attitudes toward food production often vary according to students' dietary practices.

The sparse enforcement of existing animal laws also prompts debate, students say. So do arguments about the adequacy of the laws. The Federal Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, for example, specifically exempts poultry, which composes 92 percent of animals killed for food in the United States. Is such a law just, or sufficient?

Meaningful Work?

Impassioned debates aside, not all experts are sure the field can grow fast enough to provide meaningful work for all of its graduates.

Geordie Duckler, an animal-law attorney in Portland who often helps teach the courses at Lewis & Clark, believes that animal-law students frequently graduate with what he calls "the naïve, unreasonable, and problematic goal of working to 'protect the animals.'"

"There is only so much money that can be spent on promoting fashionable cruelty legislation," he says. "If the idea is to actually make a living, most new practitioners are going to have to swallow hard and get on the unpopular side of a huge number of legal questions on custody, neglect, conveyance, and injury." That, he says, might mean representing universities using animals for research, ranchers breeding horses, or even pet marketers accused of operating "puppy mills."

Animal-law instruction, he believes, should focus on laws as they are written and enforced, not so much on moral arguments.

Ms. Moore and others in the field do not agree. They claim that, far from breeding radicals, animal law signals that more and more Americans simply care about animals. "One in 31 people in the United States is a member of the Humane Society, and that speaks volumes," says Ms. McCoy. "Most people, even if they support animal research, eat meat, or wear fur, want to be assured that those animals were treated humanely while they were alive."

As in any kind of social-welfare law, an advocacy element is perhaps inevitable. "It's hard," she says, "to separate personal from professional with something like animal law."


http://chronicle.com
Section: The Faculty
Volume 53, Issue 43, Page A6

Here's a recent article that I find quite unsettling:

Balanced veggie diets give kids a healthy choice

Even before her quintuplets were conceived, Florida's Gayle Nelson Folkersen knew she didn't want her kids eating meat, fish, eggs or dairy products. A committed vegan since age 16, Nelson Folkersen has said she values both the nutritional benefits of the strict vegetarian diet and its lessons in compassion and kindness toward animals. But in an unusual custody battle, the father of the 10-year-old quintuplets is seeking primary residential custody, charging that Nelson Folkersen has "serious psychological control issues" and won't let her children eat animal products. One of the rewards, she said, was knowing that her children weren't ingesting pesticides, chemicals and hormones. Another was raising children who are "growing into compassionate human beings who care about other living beings and the environment."

To this I would say: If you are going to remove hormones from your diet you will starve. It amazes me how the buzz words such as hormones, antibiotics and chemicals generate such fear. In fact they have all contributed to extending the life expectancy of the American citizen to nearly 80 years of age.

Furthermore, the ignorance about science slays me. A mother who avoids animal products for fear of hormones turns to soy? One serving of beef with the assistance of hormones in the production phase contains 1.89 nanograms of estrogen. One tablespoon of soybean oil contains 28,000 nanograms of estrogen. In fact recently USA Today ran a story about the trend in American women increasing soy consumption instead of taking Hormone Replacement. Link here to read, Seeking soy as alternative to hormones

If you read and follow the impact of estrogen and hormones on cancers and healthy living, you know that it is very complex and ongoing. Here is what we do know - healthy living is a combination of a balanced variety of foods and exercise. Looking for the silver bullet or fad never has, nor ever will, improve on that.

This week's Amanda Nolz Chewing the Cud.

Tumbleweeds, rugged mountains and sloping sandhills weren't the only things greeting me as I arrived in Raton, New Mexico. I was welcomed into the state with a raging hail storm. This didn't damper the spirits of the New Mexico Cattlegrower's Association members who had gathered for their mid-year meeting this weekend. Link here to listen to Amanda's shows.

THE ONLY FLAG THAT DOESN'T FLY

Between the fields where the flag is planted, there are 9+ miles of flower fields that go all the way to the ocean. The flowers are grown by seed companies. It's a beautiful place, close to Vandenberg AFB. Check out the dimensions of the flag. The Floral Flag is 740 feet long and 390 feet wide and maintains the proper Flag dimensions, as described in Executive Order #10834. This Flag is 6.65 acres and is the first Floral Flag to be planted with 5 pointed Stars, comprised of White Larkspur. Each Star is 24 feet in diameter; each Stripe is 30 feet wide. This Flag is estimated to contain more than 400,000 Larkspur plants, with 4-5 flower stems each, for a total of more than 2 million flowers.


Ocean Ave. in Lompoc , CA ! ..

Aerial photo courtesy of Bill Morson Soldiers' Prayer


For our soldiers....Please don't break it

Barbecue: Relax, it’s not really French
By Eric Berg, Meat-animal Scientist, North Dakota State University

Another July 4th has passed and we are in the middle of “grilling season”. It is the season of barbecue cook-offs and other assorted celebrations that include outdoor roasting of meat. With all this attention to the BBQ, I started wondering; what is the origin of this cooking method and the word itself. I had always thought that both the word and the method had come from a French origin. So I did some digging. Turns out the origin of the word remains a point of debate and (as with many things) the French claim the origin of not only the word itself, but the cooking style.

According to one source, French pirates who sailed the French West Indies were called “Boucaniers” (the prequel to our Colonial Buccaneers). Seems the root word for Boucanier, or “Bouc”, is French for male goat and these swashbucklers got the name from their favorite meal. They would impale the goat carcass “de la barbe au cul” which loosely translates to “from beard to butt”. Since the “l” in ‘cul’ is silent in the French tongue and since the followers of this method of cooking had a hard time understanding the pirates, the word barbecue was passed on.

So you say you can’t quite stomach the fact that a French Captain Jack Sparrow invented one of the most sacred rituals of American summer-time? Then maybe you would prefer this origin. Harold McGee (in his book On Food and Cooking) links the word and cooking style to the West Indies, but not to French pirates. He states the word comes from the Spanish barbicoa which is a Taino word referring to a “framework of green sticks suspended on corner posts” where fish and meat are cooked over an open fire of coals. Just like your Weber grill, both the height and fire were adjustable to allow fast or slow cooking. From barbicoa to barbecue.
But wait gentle reader, there is more. Turns out, there were two Taino words that may have sparked the origination. This one may hit closer to home for some of you out there. The Taino word for “sacred fire pit” is barabicu. So there you go. Barbecue IS a spiritual ritual.

Okay. Let’s review. American BBQ originated with a pre-Columbian indigenous Amerindian inhabitant of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles islands (which include Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica). Note to reader: the former was obtained from the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia since I didn’t know what a Taino was. Now back to our summary. The BBQ process was then stolen by the French (Okay; French pirates) who washed up on America’s Southern shores where Southern Barbecue was born! Originating with the whole hog because it was inexpensive and available to the masses, the post civil war Southern Barbecue came to be known as a central point of celebration and community fellowship.

The origins of the word and the cooking style have stayed loyal to their base. The next time you host your community ritual of cooked meat you will be able to tell the tale of barbecue’s origin. Be sure you tell it in a Pirates brogue. Yo ho ho!

Country Life Commission (1908)
President Teddy Roosevelt appointed a commission to conduct a comprehensive survey of the rural population to determine what can be done to improve the conditions of rural life. Liberty Hyde Bailey, Dean of Agriculture at Cornell, chaired the Commission. Over 550,000 people were surveyed and hearings were held at 30 locations. The Commission found that schools in rural areas were deplorable, rural people were socially isolated, roads were inadequate, communication was poor, farm credit needed to be improved, farm cooperatives were needed and the extension service was needed. They made a number of suggestions as to how to solve these problems.
The following came from a web document titled "Ag Development and U.S. History" for Rural Sociology 108 taught at Western Kentucky University by Dr. David Coffey.


"Roosevelt, long concerned with natural resource issues and public lands policy, established the Country Life Commission for a number of reasons, not the least of which being his fear that further rural depopulation would create vulnerabilities within the American food system. Believing that agriculture was the basis of all economic prosperity, Roosevelt wanted to upgrade rural institutional life and create an efficient food production system. In this way rural populations would be stabilized, the quality of rural life would be improved, and agriculture would assume its rightful place as the foundation for urban and industrial expansion.
Agriculture could conform to the emerging pattern of modern life. In nearly every state country life commissions were formed on the local level to evaluate rural problems. While the recommendations of the Country Life Commission failed to garner very much support from Congress and President William Howard Taft, who had succeed Roosevelt at the time of the issuance of the Commission's final report, the findings were critical to the future of rural policy.

Generally speaking, the Commission and the movement it spawned saw agriculture in an extremely favorable light. As typical with rural fundamentalism, the Country Lifers ascribed to rural people an honesty, patriotism, simplicity and a moral and emotional tone far superior to that of urbanites. As Bailey wrote echoing the sentiments of Thomas Jefferson, farmers were the "fundamental fact of democracy. "But many problems existed with the fabric of rural living which demanded attention. The litany of rural problems and concerns emphasized the drudgery of farm life, the lack of culture and amenities, the poverty and ineffectiveness of country institutional life, and the failure of government policy.

Among those institutions singled out for particular criticism and concern was the rural school. The failure of the rural school was often seen as the impetus for the depopulation of rural areas. The principle charge leveled against the schools was a perceived urban bias in the curriculum, the texts employed, and teaching approaches. Teachers were accused of steering the brightest youth to the cities rather than into farming. This "brain drain" seriously eroded the very foundations of rural life, it was argued. Superintendents of rural school systems hired poorly trained teachers, seldom placed enough emphasis upon continuing professional development, frequently failed to enforce laws related to attendance, and lacked a desire to supervise and evaluate performance. All too often supervision was carried out by local farmers and not be professional educators, a condition which appalled the Country Lifers who wished to see a greater level of "professionalism" in all areas of rural living, including the schools. While the quality of professional leadership and teaching came under attack, so too did the very size and scale of the typical country school. It was simply too small, too independent, and too informal to be effective. To the Country Life reformers the one-room schoolhouse was the very symbol of rural inefficiency and institutional poverty. The answer to these and other related problems was school consolidation, the "best solution to the country school problem yet devised," according to Mabel Carney, one of the leaders of the movement.15 While consolidation of schools was advocated several times prior to the Country Life movement, this reform became one of its hallmarks.

The consolidated school would become the focus of a region's social and cultural life. Grading, planning, curriculum standardization, and the professionalization of teaching and supervision were all supposed advantages of the consolidated school system. Such an approach would almost immediately lead to an improvement in educational attainment and would permit instruction in scientific agriculture, domestic science, and industrial arts, all deemed essential to a modern rural education. Schools would instruct children "to do in a perfect way, the things their fathers had not learned."6 Another recommendation of the Country Life Commission Report, Rural Free Delivery (RFD,) began and communication between all areas of our country was finally accomplished."


In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt ran for the presidency on the Progressive Party platform. Following is the Party's plank on Country Life (it reflects the findings of the Country Life Commission). Roosevelt was not successful. William Howard Taft won the election.
Country Life
"The development and prosperity of country life as important to the people who live in the cities as they are to the farmers. Increase of prosperity on the farm will favorably affect the cost of living and promote the interests of all who dwell in the country, and all who depend upon its products for clothing, shelter and food.
We pledge out party to foster the development of agricultural credit and co-operation, the teaching of agriculture in schools, agricultural college extension, the use of mechanical power on the farm, and to re-establish the Country Life Commission, thus directly promoting the welfare of the farmers, and bringing the benefits of better farming, better business and better living within their reach."

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/reform.html

Dear Mr. Henderson,

Thank you for forwarding your concern.

At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and organizations throughout the world realize their full potential. With the “i’m” Initiative, our goal is to empower our users to support causes that are most important to them through something they do every day- send instant messages. Consistent with our initiative slogan “It’s your voice, it’s your choice”, people are able to choose from among ten of the most recognized social cause organizations that address issues ranging from poverty, child protection, disease, environmental degradation and animal protection.

We respect and value your opinion, however, we do not plan to make changes to our relationships with our partners. We feel strongly that these organizations provide a range of causes that will appeal to a wide range of passions.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Corporation

On another note, my High Plains Journal column has generated some interesting reader feedback this week. Thought I would share that with you as well:

"The point of the animal rights argument is that factory farmers have created freaks: biogenetically engineered livestock fashioned to human tastes, just so humans can eat them, wear them, drink them, and exploit them in rodeos, cockfights, bullfights, etc. - and then imprison them for life. Today's cows and chickens and turkeys and pigs and sheep do not exist in nature. The fact that some of these animals - who are trapped in small pens and cages, unable to go outdoors and have any kind of normal life, or crowded into filthy feedlots, or stuck as milking machines or egg laying machines or breeding machines - will sometimes fight with and kill each other, can hardly be surprising under the circumstances. Humans in similar crowded conditions do the the same thing, e.g., in prisons. That's why you farmers cruelly debeak chickens, castrate cows and horses, and cut off pigs' tails (without anesthesia, of course). How you can flatter yourself that you're being kind to animals, while fully supporting all the horrors of factory farming, is astounding to me. Reminds me of the slaveowners who used to claim they were kind to their slaves and they couldn't figure out why the abolitionists wanted them freed." ...

Ardeth Baxter
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/73235/ardeth_baxter.html

The Valley Fair was held this weekend at Santa Clarita and Lake View Terrace, California both portions were considered very successful. I personally spoke with many vendors at the Santa Clarita portion which had rides, the arts & crafts exhibits, the horticulture exhibits, the Tigers of India show, The Sea Lion Splash show, a petting zoo and the Budweiser Clydesdale's as well as many other singers, local dancers, and shows performing. The vendors and visitors that I spoke with all enjoyed the Fair and had many nice things to say about the new location. Preliminary reports from the Los Angeles Daily News on the new location give estimates of a 60% increase of attendance for the Valley Fair.

I also attended the Livestock event held in Lake View Terrace. The parents and kids I spoke with all felt that it was a successful event and that the auction was a success. Some of the parents I spoke with felt that this was a safer venue for their children and felt that it was an advantage to be separated in 2 locations.

The Livestock event was never canceled. This is an example of how misinformation is either written in the press or placed on the Internet. I hope that this can be a lesson to all of us to be very careful of inaccurate communications and that we need to take the time and effort to find out the facts.

I thank you for your notes of concern and appreciate the time you have taken to hear some of the facts.

Yours,

Margie Beeson
Valley Fair Board of Diretors

Margie,
I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am with banning
animals from the fair. This sends a message that animals are not to be
part of agriculture. In addition, 4-H's aninimal projects provide a
wonderful educational opportunity to learn proper care and management of
animals. I would point out that it is my understanding that we do not have
laws banning animal agriculture. Banning animals at the fair is it appears
a start to banning animals from the food chain. This effort to ban animals
from public view is giving in to a very small portion of the public. I
hope this unfortunate effort to force the public toward becoming
vegetarians will not succeed.

W. Terry Howard, PhD and P.A.S.
Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin-Madison
442 Agnes Drive
Madison, WI 53711

Margie,

My name is Amanda Nolz. I live on a purebred Limousin cattle operation with my family. Together we work each day to raise quality seed stock, market steers for meat consumption, and raise functional heifers for replacements in our herd. We are very proud of our agricultural roots, and one of the biggest rewards for my family and I is being able to showcase our best cattle at fairs across the country.

Since I was a little girl, my dad and I have had a ritual of taking pasture tours after chores—scoping out the ideal show heifers for me to work with when they are older. Quickly after weaning time, we select our show stock and get them in the barn to prepare them for their debut into the show ring. Every morning, my sisters and I wake up early to get the heifers fed, washed, combed, nurtured, and tied up on a nice bed of wood chips in front of cooling fans. The heifers soon become our friends, and we look forward to the many hours spent with the calves to ensure that we are competitive at competitions.

The lessons we learn from showing our own seed stock are invaluable to what we become as adults. Through living on a farm and showing cattle, I have learned the importance of responsibility, respect, trustworthiness, caring, and a hard work ethic. I am proud of being able to take part in the circle of life. Since my years in 4-H, I have moved on to become the 2006 National Beef Ambassador and a summer intern with the USDA AMS Livestock and Seed Program in Washington D.C. I have decided to dedicate my life to agriculture because it is my passion. This passion stemmed directly from my days as a little girl, befriending my show cattle.

Please reconsider eliminating livestock from your fair. It is a time honored tradition that exposes people to the wonderful world of agriculture—something that is very near and dear to my heart.

Putting agriculture first,

Amanda Nolz

www.chewingthecud.org