Gamma rays
I would like to think we're going to throw this lot of pillagers out on their butts into the street. And then we'll find watchers who can be trusted somewhat more. And then we'll watch the watchers.
But I've lived in this country for more than 50 years, and I have yet to see any confirmation that this sort of common sense or civic courage exists to any effective degree in either the people at large or their ruling elites.
So I will wait and see. Because after so much evidence to the contrary, I won't believe we'll throw these bastards out until I see it.
deregulation...thats why this is happenin. you cannot trust busnies to slef police..it wont happen.
we need to restaff, and fully fund teh regulatory industries, and reregulate the hell out of every industtry
Gatoress; thassit..."privatizing" the FDA is where it's at.
The "marketplace" will take care of it. Some dead amurkans, a lot more sick ones, and sooner or later, the people selling infected beef will feel it in their stock portfolios.
What could be more efficient?
What could be more efficient?
The first thought that popped into my head when I read that? You don't want to know.
it's beyond the deregulation. while the deregulation is part of the problem the biggest problem that i've seen is with consolidation.
our agriculture system is almost stalinist in its concentration of crops. people from new jersey are depending upon a few fields in california for tomatoes, the entire nations counts on the central valley for spinach.
beef is factory made, not ranch raised anymore. local butchers are lucky if they see long deep frozen sides and can go through careers without ever seeing meat on the hoof.
the problem with consolidation is that while it is the most efficient when everything goes right. a flood here, a drought there, a fire over here can have disasterous ramifications throughout the entire system. when the wheat fields of oklahoma fell prey to the dust bowl the grain fields of montana and alberta were there to take up the slack.
consolidation. that's the buggaboo.
that's where the deregulation has done its damage. because the business model of the last two decades isn't the slightest bit interested in competition or a vibrant, shifting marketplace. what they want is a monolithic monopoly pyramid with themselves at the apex. if something goes wrong. tough. they're still rich.
we have messed with things by bringing order into a place where local and shifting chaos is replaced with system and order. sometimes, chaos is the natural order.
when the cells of the body become organized and efficiently programed, we call that cancer.
we've been worshiping rocks and metals, not listening to coyote.
don't worry though. coyote will always laugh loudest at the end.
Gator, it's exactly events like this that led our friend Rick Perlstein to coin the phrase "E. coli conservatives." We're also now referring to them as "broken bridge conservatives."
Don't you worry your little Commie head about this stuff -- the invisible hand of the free market will take care of it all (after a few hundred people die and the rest of the country stops eating beef in terror).
Of course, the problem with that is that any reporter who tries to spread the word about tainted food is liable for a fat "fool libel" lawsuit, which does tend to chill that discussion. Free hand? What free hand?
Minstrel, to get to our old house in California, you turned east at the end of Main Street and drove a mile and a half up a country road. Both sides of the road were lined with what was probably 200+ acres of brussels sprouts fields.
Those huge fields produced 80% of all the brussels sprouts eaten in North America. One bad crop, and there would be virtually none to be had in the US or Canada.
Not that most of us would mourn the lack of brussels sprouts (personally, I find them odious), but it does show to go ya just how vulnerable we are under factory farming.
Sara -- I hated Brussels Sprouts too until I had them cooked skillfully. they're still not my favorite, but they're certainly enjoyable.
Minstrel -- don't worry though. coyote will always laugh loudest at the end. But coyote has the saddest, wisest eyes of anyone....
The problem with knowing what's happening is that a huge number of Americans have no idea that any government policies actually effect their daily life -- they just don't make the connection.
Here's a really good article about that:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/20...11/22/22252/
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More to the consolidation is monoculture farming and produce.
At thanksgiving, unless you seek out an alternative... and you do have to seek, Americans all eat ONE breed of turkey.
There used to be hundreds of different types of turkeys, chickens, cows etc. all resistant to different conditions, all with different genetic strengths-- just like monoculture produce is susceptible to devastating blight, monoculture livestock is more and more susceptible to devastating illness.. Add this to cramped conditions-- and then pumping the animals full of antibiotics and hormones and Ta Dah! you have the American dinner table fare.
Kim C., I'd forgotten about that article, which gave me chills at the time I read it.
I wonder how much our addled media has added to the people not being able to make those connections.
If I'm going to go to the trouble to hickory-smoke a turkey (this is what I do rather than tie up an oven - it's not only twice as fast, the bird just falls off the bone), I'm not going to waste the effort on anything that's not local and free-range.
Best bet: Find a local butcher shop. Go in a couple of weeks ahead of time and order your bird. Odds are good it will be slaughtered on Monday or Tuesday, and you can pick it up on Wednesday. It will be fresh, and never frozen.
We also went to two smaller (10-12 lb) birds a few years ago, since my mother doesn't consider it Thanksgiving without oyster stuffing, and Evan won't eat oyster stuffing. Two birds, two stuffings -- and four drumsticks, four wings, four breasts, which makes everybody happy and gives us a nice package for folks to take home.
Two birds also solves a serving dilemma. You can have one intact on a plate in the middle of the table during grace and the first course, looking all showy and perfect -- and a second one in the kitchen, already sliced up on trays, ready to bring out and serve.
Wise choices Mrs. R. Smaller birds are usually tastier anyway. One of the reasons that delicious free range and heritage species of turkey were left by the wayside in favor of the Big Breasted Whites (monstrosities) was because of the "bigger is better" mentality of consumers. I read somewhere that 99+% of the turkeys now consumed for thanksgiving are all that one variety of factory raised, huge, genetically over- altered Big Breasted Whites. ick.
If we make a market for better meat and vege more people will be able to stay in business by providing us with the good stuff.
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