Nicole Small
Neodesha, KS writes letter to expose the truth about modern food production.

Hello All,

Some of you have hear this story, and others have not so please bear with me. This week my oldest, a third grader, brought home a little "magazine" in a plastic bag that had a gummy vitamin in it. I was eating breakfast as he left to get on the bus, so I sat down to read it. The magazine had several advertisements and articles about keeping kids healthy during cold and flu season. When I got to the next to last page, I think my blood pressure must have doubled. (See scan #14) An ad for Moms for Antibiotic Awareness with a lot of misleading fact. After showing the booklet to my pig farmer friend, Michael Springer, and getting his response, I call the school to complain about the poor information against agriculture that they were distributing through the school. The principal admitted that she did not know what I was talking about and would have to look into it. She called me back within 2 minutes and said that PTO had brought them in....I am a member of PTO. Uggh I then contacted the president of PTO who also knew nothing about the fliers and did more checking. One of the PTO members, on her own, had signed up at a website called schoolfamily.com. Apparently, she has received baskets for raffles and other handouts before. I am not blaming her at all for this incident. In fact, I should probably send her a thank you note for educating all of us; however, she did take it very personally that I stopped the mini-magazines from going to the entire school system. She and the President of PTO contend that everyone has an opinion. My response is yes, but I send my children to school to learn the facts not opinions.

I called our other elementary school and they did have the booklets, but they had not went out yet. I e-mailed a scan of the page to our District 3 Farm Bureau representative who happens to be one the school board members and whose wife happens to work in the school district office. I am not sure what actions were taken by him, but I do know that no more of the booklets went out. In fact, my son and the neighbor girl are possibly the only ones in their classroom that took them home, because they ride a later bus. YAY!! This is the reason that I have not been able to find very many copies of the book and scans of the entire book are attached.

We have always heard that HSUS and other activist organizations are targeting our children with propaganda like this, but not in my children's school! I am thankful that I had people to support me and back me up. The backlash on Facebook against me, as the (supposed) unnamed parent, was pretty intense; however, I missed most of it because I was showing the book the District Farm Bureau leaders. I have had friends call to check on me after the outcry on Facebook and tell me that they were proud that I stated the facts and let the others go to blows. I am proud to say that I did this and would do it again tomorrow if I had to, but I really don't want to be forced there again.

The PEW Charitable Trust is asking for comments from mothers about antibiotics, I encourage all of you to join in the conversation at http://saveantibiotics.org/moms.


Nicole Small

Printed May 2, 2002 New York Times by Joe Brescia

Looking Over His Shoulder

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. was there. So were celebrities like MATT DILLON, FISHER STEVENS, SUSAN SARANDON, TIM ROBBINS and NICOLE MILLER. And so was TRENT D. LOOS.

Mr. Loos was never far from Mr. Kennedy during a party for Mr. Kennedy's Waterkeeper Alliance, which has as one of its targets industrial hog farming.

So is Mr. Loos Mr. Kennedy's bodyguard? His assistant?

Hardly. He is a pig farmer from South Dakota.

''There are many inaccuracies that Mr. Kennedy accuses the pork producers of in the United States,'' he said at the party, at the restaurant Man Ray on West 15th Street. ''I want him to know that I'm going to hold him accountable to make sure that he tells the truth.''

Mr. Loos said he did not want to cause a scene (though he said that once, a month or so ago, Mr. Kennedy ''wanted to swing at me''). And Mr. Kennedy? ''I'm delighted to see Trent here,'' he said, ''as long as he pays his $150 at the door.''

As for a federal appeals court decision upholding his trespassing conviction for protesting Navy exercises in Vieques, P.R., Mr. Kennedy said, ''I did what I did.'' He added, ''I'm prepared to accept any of the consequences.''

Up for auction at the party was a walk-on part in a movie that Mr. Stevens is producing about, of all things, a pig. ''I don't want anyone to worry,'' he said. ''We're not going to eat the pig. The pig will lead a long life.''

Link to New York Times

Give me a break as Congress and the Senate argue about who cares most for working class citizens they both allow the complete abuse of power of the agencies. Who is keeping them in check?

Forbes Magazine reports

Merry Christmas America, Now Give Us Your Money - Love, EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency yesterday announced new mercury restrictions on coal power plants that will impose anywhere from $10 billion (EPA’s estimate) to $200 billion (third-party estimates) in new costs on energy production. On a per household basis, that imposes anywhere from $100 to $2,000 in additional energy costs on the average U.S. household each and every year.

EPA reports that mercury emissions in the United States have declined by approximately 60% since 1990. The dramatic reduction in mercury emissions is consistent with the reduction in air pollution across the board. EPA reports that emissions of the Six Principal Pollutants it monitors have decreased by 67% since 1980.

Yet another chemical that we enjoy...My point is that chemicals are good. Just understanding the proper amount is the key..NOT AVOIDANCE.

Caffeine Chemistry
Caffeine (C8H10N4O2) is the common name for trimethylxanthine (systematic name is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine or 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione). The chemical is also known as coffeine, theine, mateine, guaranine, or methyltheobromine. Caffeine is naturally produced by several plants, including coffee beans, guarana, yerba maté, cacao beans, and tea. For the plants, caffeine acts as a natural pesticide. It paralyzes and kills insects that attempt to feed on the plants.

Thanks to chemicals American's only hear about malaria as some out of sight out mind thing...Yet the impact globally is huge. Are you sure chemicals are a bad thing?

655,000 malaria deaths in 2010: WHO

Malaria caused the death of an estimated 655,000 people last year, with 86 percent of victims children aged under five, World Health Organisation figures showed on December 13.

The cash has funded an big increase in the number of households with insecticide-treated mosquito nets, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where 50 percent now have the nets compared with just three percent in 2000.

At the 2011 World Anti-Aging conference in Las Vegas MD's were practicing removing skin cancer from this otherwise perfect hog belly. Yes proving that animal agriculture improves human lives in ways other than nutrition.

At the Fall Classic the concept here "for those that played along" in Duncan OK was to generate money for Drive Scholarship program. If you not subscribing to Drive I strongly encourage you to do so today at radio.drivelivestock.com


Jack Wall IL


Paul Scheideler NE


Mary Drury TX and Kurt Long NE


Jim McCoy OH and Trent Loos NE, could it be that Jim was most "pigheaded" of all?

Country Wise cartoon for the week of Nov 7, 2011

Vehicle of Character

Last weekend the junior livestock events were held at the American Royal in Kansas City. Once again the person selected to serve as the judge said something that I think is huge for all of us to keep in mind. Wayne Huinker, while discussing his Grand Champion market hog, said, “All of us involved realize that this isn’t about the pigs. They are simply a vehicle of character for these kids.” I could not agree more and I think he summarized it perfectly. The problem is that we have too many politicians in the country today that do not have character themselves and, even worse, they don’t understand the culture in Rural America where character comes from. Consequently, you each have a project that needs to be done today that requires you to stand up and say, “Enough already.”

If you have not heard, the Department of Labor is proposing amendments and additions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in an attempt to increase safety requirements for young workers employed in agriculture. The proposed rules do not attempt to make changes or limit the current exemption for youth workers employed on farms owned or operated by parents, unless they are incorporated. The new rules would only apply to hired workers like your bale hauling crew.

On the surface it sounds like the proposed law is going to really assist in creating a safer work environment but instead it is going to pretty much end all kids working on farms. For example, a kid could not go help out on Grandpa’s farm. Even worse, anyone under the age of 18, who could actually drive a car legally to Grandpa’s farm, could not legally mow the lawn.

The best summary of what this proposed law change will actually do is from the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State University. This interpretation of the proposed law comes directly from them.

The proposed non-ag HO prohibits employment of youth under 18 years of age in all work performed in conjunction with storing, marketing, and transporting farm-product raw materials. The proposal includes occupations performed at grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, feed yards, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions, but would not include places of employment where employees clean, sort, weigh, package and ship fruits and vegetables, or sales work involving farm-product raw materials solely done in an office.

The law would prohibit working on a farm in a yard, pen, or stall occupied by intact male equine, porcine, bovine, bison older than 6 months, sow with suckling pigs, or cow with newborn calf, or engaging or assisting in animal husbandry practices inflicting pain upon animal or likely to result in unpredictable animal behavior (breeding, branding, castrating, herding, vaccinating, dehorning, associated with herding of animals).

The provision is entitled "Occupations involving working inside fruit, forage, or grain storage silo or bin and Occupations involving working inside manure pit" and includes upright silos within two weeks after silage, manure pits, and horizontal silos while operating tractor for packing purposes). The DOL is also considering adding prohibitions that would expand the current Ag HO to include other confined spaces, such as livestock confinement buildings with or without ventilation systems.
Now I think we all fully understand that agriculture is one of the most dangerous professions in the United States. But let’s try to keep all of this in context. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that each year, in the United States alone, 20,964 young people between the ages of 5 and 19 are killed. Yes, accidents are the leading cause of death in that age range but 121 of those kids were killed simply by being pedestrians.

All reports estimate that 100 kids will die each year in farm related accidents. Honestly, as a parent I cannot imagine what this must be like. But as a parent, I also think I have a better handle on preventing those accidents than anyone writing regulations in D.C. Honestly, if you look at the numbers and the proposal, you can clearly see that kids walking down the street have the same risk as kids working on the farm. If we cannot hire kids to work on the farm, we are putting them at greater risk simply by letting them be mere pedestrians. So what have we gained?

At the end of the day, it comes back to where I started. One of the great benefits of raising kids on the farm is teaching them a good work ethic. That comes through hard work and responsibiltiy and we are close to having that stolen right away from us. Farm kids are the most employable individuals in the work pool as adults simply because they have been taught how to work and they are willing to do what it takes to get the job done.

The time for all of us to act is short. The Department of Labor is only taking comments on this issue until Nov 1, 2011. You need to log onto www.regulations.gov today and search for Fair Labor Standards and so you can comment.

We can’t let the paper pushers steal the one true “vehicle of character” that we have left in building this great nation. Do your part today!