Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation commented on the undercover video released by Mercy for Animals this week of animal cruelty on an Ohio dairy farm.

During a four-week investigation between April and May, MFA’s investigator documented farm workers at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio:

• Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears
• Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach
• Kicking “downed” cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck – abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm’s owner
• Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars – some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head
• Twisting cows’ tails until the bones snapped
• Punching cows’ udders
• Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death

“We condemn the actions of cruelty against farm animals that were on display in the undercover video released this week,” Stallman said. “ At least one farm worker in question now faces 12 counts of animal cruelty.  We encourage law enforcement authorities with jurisdiction in this case to pursue the maximum penalties possible for those responsible for these heinous acts of animal cruelty. Further, we encourage a deeper investigation into all aspects of how the animals on the farm in question have been treated. There is no excuse for the treatment those animals received.”

 Stallman said there is never justification for the type of mistreatment and cruelty that was displayed in the video.

“As farmers and ranchers, we must and we do care for our animals and the well-being of our animals. Caring for farm animals is an ethic that guides our every move. Even one case of abuse of farm animals is unacceptable,” he said.

 Stallman said farmers and ranchers know they are accountable for the humane treatment of the livestock in our care.

“We know it is our responsibility to do everything in our power to prevent abuse to farm animals,” he said. “As members of the agricultural community, we also know it is our responsibility to stop any such actions if and when they are brought to our attention, including alerting appropriate law enforcement officials. America’s farmers and ranchers will not stand for cruelty against farm animals, and we must continue to be vigilant to stop those few who give livestock production a bad name.”

Stallman said people who abuse farm animals do not deserve a spot in the agricultural community or in livestock production as a business.

Maybe that’s why organizations such as Humane Society of the United States and Mercy for Animals exist. The bigger question is agriculture able to police itself? These organizations, such as HSUS, we may not agree with all their tactics, but they represent a consciousness for society about how we treat animals. Their message is strong. Just one incident of mistreatment of farm animals, such as the dairy cattle on the Ohio farm, can harm agriculture in the eyes of the customers they are trying to reach with their products.

Stallman and HSUS are on the same page when it comes to incidents such as Mercy for Animals exposed.

“The people who committed the sadistic and barbaric cruelty documented by Mercy for Animals at an Ohio dairy should have the book thrown at them,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. “These deeply disturbing attacks against helpless animals should be troubling to anyone with any level of decency.”

This type of incident only fuels HSUS drive to strengthen anti-cruelty laws in Ohio and across the nation and give  judges and prosecutors “the tools to handle people who engage in malicious cruelty, including to farm animals,” Pacelle said.

HSUC is supporting the Ohioans for Humane Farms ballot initiative to promote the humane treatment of farm animals. The measure would ban inhumane killing of animals on the farm, outlaw the transport of downer cattle, and halt the extreme confinement of veal calves, breeding pigs, and laying hens in cages barely larger than their bodies.

According to Doug Boucher of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a new report released Wednesday shows that preserving tropical forests would provide significant financial benefits for the U.S. agricultural and timber industries.

Avoided Deforestation Partners commissioned the report, “Farms Here, Forests There: Deforestation and U.S. Competitiveness in Agriculture and Timber,” which was produced by David Gardiner and Associates.

Boucher, director of climate research and analysis at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), said the report shows that American farmers, ranchers and timber companies would benefit greatly from stopping the destruction of tropical forests.

“These forests are often logged illegally to produce low-cost timber that competes with U.S. timber,” he said. ”Tropical forests also are cleared to provide cheap land for ranching and farming. All told, tropical forest destruction costs soy and other oilseed farmers, ranchers and timber companies in the United States hundreds of billions of dollars in lost sales.”

Boucher said significant environmental benefit with this approach.

“Clearing tropical forests accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s global warming emissions, so keeping them standing would take us a significant way toward addressing climate change,” he said.

Boucher said agriculture and timber production are now globalized industries, and American producers are competing with producers worldwide.

“Soybean farmers and cattle ranchers in Amazonia export their products to the same world markets as farmers and ranchers in the Midwest,” he said. ”This report demonstrates just how much that competition is skewed by the cheap land and cheap timber ‘produced’ by tropical deforestation.”

Boucher said when the Senate takes up the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, it must restore funding for tropical forest protection.

“The House included such funding in the climate bill it passed last June because it realized that preserving tropical forests is one of the cheapest ways to reduce emissions,” he said. “The Senate has even more reason to include the funding now that it knows it would simultaneously help U.S. farmers and timber companies.”

According to a recent post at www.nursingschools.net/blog/ ”many people aren’t really aware of what they’re eating at all and don’t question where their food came from or how it got there.

And with problems of a global food source and governments that can’t afford proper food inspections, problems, such as  salmonella outbreaks, rampant obesity and the side effects of many chemical additives are becoming more frequence in the news, according to the website.

Good health is a personal responsibility and good health starts with a good diet of proper nutritional foods.  This and other information plays an important role in making those good choices that leads to a healthy diet improving your quality of life.

1. 40-50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten. Research done by a professor at the University of Arizona has shown that nearly half the food produced in the the United States every year goes to waste. While news of our throw-away society isn’t necessarily surprising, that so much of what we produce is wasted while millions in our own nation and those around the world go hungry should be. Additionally, this wasted food costs manufacturers billions each year.
2. Every year, over 25% of Americans get sick from what they eat. This means some 76 million food borne infections, 350,000 of which require hospitalization and 5,000 of which are deadly. Think your food is safe? While most Americans would agree with you, the reality is that food borne illnesses in the United States are fairly common, much more so than in countries like England and France. Some believe it is because they eat more locally grown and small farmed foods that leave less room for contamination on the way to consumers’ homes.
3. As few as 13 major corporations control nearly all of the slaughterhouses in the U.S. Why should you care? Because these major corporations pack a lot of political power, making them incredibly difficult to regulate and inspect. For consumers, this means meat production that could be less than healthy for them, the animals, and the workers who produce it.
4. Americans eat 31% more packaged food than fresh food. This means that Americans eat more packaged and processed food than people in any other country, according to the New York Times. Packaged foods themselves aren’t necessarily bad for us, but Americans tend to consume frozen pizzas and microwave dinners, which can be high in fats and salts.
5. The FDA tests only about 1% of food imports. We import about 15% of what we eat. This means that a good portion of the seafood and some fruits and veggies making their way to your table haven’t been inspected for quality or safety. With current scares about unsafe imported products, it can give you pause before purchasing imports over local foods.
6. A simple frozen dinner can contains ingredients from over 500 different suppliers. NPR has shown that a basic frozen prepared meal can contain up to 50 different ingredients. These ingredients come from all over the world, changing hands numerous times along the way. This means that in order to trust that your food is safe, you have to trust that all of those hundreds of companies along the way stuck to regulations about food safety.
7. 50% of tested samples of high fructose corn syrup tested for mercury. There has been a lot of debate about the safety and health of high fructose corn syrup lately, and some believe with pretty good reason. While producers insist that their products are safe, consumers have been put off by the fact that they contain any mercury at all, especially because HFCS is found in a wide range of food products from bread to catsup.
8. Americans eat about six to nine pounds of chemical food additives per year. While it may seem that the amount of chemicals you’re eating in your food is inconsequential, over the year they add up. Some may be harmless to you, but others may have effects that are yet unknown over a long period of time.
9. Food intolerance is on the rise, with as many as 30 million people in the U.S. showing symptoms. Some believe that the growth in food allergies and food intolerance may have to do with our diets. Eating yeast-based foods, preserved meats and processed foods can lead to greater levels of histamine in the body which many are incapable of processing naturally.
10. Fewer than 27% of Americans eat the correct ratio of meats to vegetables. Studies have shown that eating too much meat increases your cancer risk, a fact reinforced by the longer life span of cultures that focus more heavily on veggies than meats. By not eating enough of these vegetables, many Americans are missing out on the healthy nutrients, minerals and compounds they contain.
11. 80% of the food supply is the responsibility of the FDA yet the number of inspections has decreased while the number of producers has increased. While America’s food is relatively safe compared to some places, it still isn’t close to being the safest in the world., a fact that isn’t helped by the drop in number of inspections done by the FDA each year.
12. Keeping fields contamination-free can cost well over $250,000–a discouraging sum to smaller farmers. Recent outbreaks of salmonella and other deadly bacteria in vegetables across the nation have made it all the more necessary for farmers to be cautious about the safety of their food. Yet the costs associated with keeping crops free of any possible source of contamination can be prohibitory for those without the funds, forcing farmers to choose between making a living and gambling on food safety.

A promising outlook for a rapid increase in renewable energy worldwide will benefit Nebraska’s economy, especially as biofuel and wind energy production continues to grow.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released a report saying world marketed energy consumption will grows 49 percent between 2007 and 2035, driven by economic growth in the developing nations of the world.

 ”Renewables are the fastest-growing source of world energy supply, but fossil fuels are still set to meet more than three-fourths of total energy needs in 2035 assuming current policies are unchanged,” said EIA Administrator Richard Newell.

According to EIA, the global economic recession that began in 2007 and continued into 2009 has had a profound impact on near-term prospects for world energy demand.

Total marketed energy consumption contracted by 1.2 percent in 2008 and by an estimated 2.2 percent in 2009, as manufacturing and consumer demand for goods and services declined, the report said. EIA reported that as the economic situation improves, most nations are expected to return to the economic growth rates that were projected prior to the downturn.

EIA said that total world energy use could rise 49 percent, from 495 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2007 to 739 quadrillion Btu in 2035.

The report said that China and India were among the nations least impacted by the global recession, and they will continue to lead the world’s economic and energy demand growth into the future.

In 2007, China and India together accounted for about 20 percent of total world energy consumption. With strong economic growth in both countries over the projection period, their combined energy use more than doubles by 2035, when they account for 30 percent of world energy use.

In contrast, EIA said the projected U.S. share of world energy consumption falls from 21 percent in 2007 to about 16 percent in 2035.

Average world oil prices increased strongly from 2003 to mid-July 2008, then declined sharply over the rest of 2008. In 2009, oil prices again trended upward and this trend continues with prices rising to $108 per barrel by 2020 (in real 2008 dollars) and $133 per barrel by 2035.

Total liquid fuels consumption projected for 2035 is 28 percent or 24.5 million barrels per day higher than the 2007 level of 86.1 million barrels per day.

Conventional oil supplies from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) contribute 11.5 million barrels per day to the total increase in world liquid fuels production, and conventional supplies from non-OPEC countries add another 4.8 million barrels per day, according to EIA.

World production of unconventional resources (including biofuels, oil sands, extra-heavy oil, coal-to-liquids, and gas-to-liquids), which totaled 3.4 million barrels per day in 2007, increases nearly fourfold to 12.9 million barrels per day in 2035. the report said.

 Other report highlights include:

From 2007 to 2035, total world energy consumption rises by an average annual 1.4 percent.

.Strong economic growth among the non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) nations drives the increase. Non-OECD energy use increases by 2.2 percent per year; in the OECD countries energy use grows by only 0.5 percent per year.

Petroleum and other liquid fuels remain the largest energy source worldwide through 2035, though projected higher oil prices erode their share of total energy use from 35 percent in 2007 to 30 percent in 2035.

World natural gas consumption increases 1.3 percent per year, from 108 trillion cubic feet in 2007 to 156 trillion cubic feet in 2035. Tight gas, shale gas, and coalbed methane supplies increase substantially especially from the United States, but also from Canada and China.

In the absence of additional national policies and/or binding international agreements that would limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, world coal consumption is projected to increase from 132 quadrillion Btu in 2007 to 206 quadrillion Btu in 2035, at an average annual rate of 1.6 percent.

China alone accounts for 78 percent of the total net increase in world coal use from 2007 to 2035.

World net electricity generation increases by 87 percent, from 18.8 trillion kilowatthours in 2007 to 35.2 trillion kilowatthours in 2035.

Renewables are the fastest growing source of new electricity generation, increasing by 3.0 percent per year; followed by coal-fired generation, which increases by 2.3 percent per year.

World industrial energy consumption grows 66 percent, from 184 quadrillion Btu in 2007 to 262 quadrillion Btu in 2035. The non-OECD economies account for about 95 percent of the world increase in industrial sector energy consumption.

Almost 20 percent of the world’s total delivered energy is used for transportation, most of it in the form of liquid fuels. The transportation share of world total liquids consumption increases from 53 percent in 2007 to 61 percent in 2035, accounting for 87 percent of the total increase in world liquids consumption.

Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rise from 29.7 billion metric tons in 2007 to 42.4 billion metric tons in 2035–an increase of 43 percent. Much of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is projected to occur among the developing nations of the world, especially in Asia.

Highlights can be found on EIA’s web site.