From Rolling Stone Magzine…

Smithfield Foods, the largest and most profitable pork processor in the world, killed 27 million hogs last year. That’s a number worth considering. A slaughter-weight hog is fifty percent heavier than a person. The logistical challenge of processing that many pigs each year is roughly equivalent to butchering and boxing the entire human populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Memphis, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Charlotte, El Paso, Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Louisville, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Las Vegas, Portland, Oklahoma City and Tucson.

Smithfield Foods actually faces a more difficult task than transmogrifying the populations of America’s thirty-two largest cities into edible packages of meat. Hogs produce three times more excrement than human beings do. The 500,000 pigs at a single Smithfield subsidiary in Utah generate more fecal matter each year than the 1.5 million inhabitants of Manhattan. The best estimates put Smithfield’s total waste discharge at 26 million tons a year. That would fill four Yankee Stadiums. Even when divided among the many small pig production units that surround the company’s slaughterhouses, that is not a containable amount. Continue Reading »

From BBC News website:

Scientists have discovered that an enormous ice shelf broke off an island in the Canadian Arctic last year, in what could be sign of global warming.

It is said to be the largest break in 25 years, casting an ice floe with an area of 66 sq km (25 square miles).

It occurred in August 2005 but was only recently detected on satellite images. Continue Reading »

Held at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern. For more information, visit: www.daisychainlive.co.uk

The climate in North America is moving northwards. This image from ArborDay.org shows changes to the USDA ‘hardiness’ zones:

The ‘Bagpuss’ stripes show that most of the USA has warmed sufficiently to grow plants a whole ‘class’ more ‘tender’ than 16 years ago. This means that people in the northern continental states will now be able to grow fruiting peach trees, where previously their winters were too harsh.

“The new 2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map is consistent with the consensus of climate scientists that global warming is underway.”

I’ve always had the utmost respect for environmental campaign groups. Most start as grassroots groups of concerned people who dedicate a phenomenal amount of their own time, energy and frequently money to their cause.

Like any organisation though, as they grow, the administrative overhead grows and you reach the point where you can no longer run on just goodwill - you need to make an income, you need more resources, and then you need fundraising to pay for all these extra resources.
An article in todays Guardian, paints a damming picture of Greenpeace, and whilst this article must be considered as just one side of a story, there are worrying signs: Continue Reading »

From BBC News website…

Traditional Cheddar cheese-makers say their future could be in doubt because the European Commission has banned them from using a pesticide.

They are angry that European legislation now prohibits them from using methyl bromide to kill mites. Continue Reading »

8% of water used by humans goes into livestock production
18% of global green gas emissions are generated by the livestock sector
20% of terrestial animal biomass is livestock
20% of pastures and rangelands are degraded by livestock
26% of ice-free land is occupied by livestock
30% of land once home to wildlife is now occupied by livestock
33% of cropland produces feed for livestock
37% of anthropogenic methane emissions are generated by the livestock sector
37% of pesticides are used in livestock production
50% of antibiotics are used in livestock production
65% of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions comes from the livestock sector
70% of agricultural land is occupied by livestock
70% of deforested land is converted to pastures Continue Reading »

Globalization of livestock markets biggest single factor in erosion of farm animal diversity

15 December 2006, Rome – Around 20 percent of animal breeds are at risk of extinction, with one breed lost each month, FAO said today. (FAO = Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)

Of the more than 7,600 breeds in FAO’s global database of farm animal genetic resources, 190 have become extinct in the past 15 years and a further 1,500 are considered at risk of extinction.

Some 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have been lost over the last five years, according to a draft document presented this week in Rome, when over 150 participants from more than 90 countries met at FAO headquarters to review the report’s findings and to discuss priorities for action to reverse the loss of animal genetic diversity worldwide. Continue Reading »

This is from a US-based website, and whilst it may be more of an immediate concern in the USA, we know that multinational biotech corps are putting immense pressure on UK and other EU governments to accept the GM arguments…

In every FDA (Food & Drug Administration - the US equivalent to our DEFRA) decision involving genetically modified foods, those making the decision were either former or future employees of the genetic-engineering companies. To determine the safety of these foods, the FDA typically just takes the word of the company.

Further, the FDA has increased the allowable residue of Roundup on crops by 330%. So Monsanto can make genetically engineered crops resistant to their toxic chemicals and sell more chemical as well as seeds. You get to eat both the genetically altered “food” and the added chemicals. What a scheme. Monsanto is making a killing on these seeds and chemicals. Continue Reading »

Brazil Environmental Authorities Investigating Fish Die-Off in Southern River

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Environmental authorities were investigating what caused some 15 tons of dead fish to wash up in a major river in a southern state Monday.

Andre Milanez, of the Rio Grande do Sul state environmental agency FEPAM said that lack of rainfall was the most likely cause of death but that some kind of industrial accident or illegal runoff had not been ruled out. Continue Reading »