...just like Stalin did in the Ukraine in the early '30's...??
bloke "who threw away his KROGER card long ago"
You ever heard of prions, Bloke? They cause Mad Cow Disease. An effective argument can be made that unless ALL cattle are monitored, our country isn't doing all that can be done to control Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy (MCD). The upshot is that our beef exports have been dramatically shunned by our trading partners because of our 'lax' efforts to curtail BSE. It's an effort to retain an economically viable beef industry, and while it might seem over the top it's all a matter of perspective. What do you think of our epidemiologic efforts regarding human immunodeficiency virus?
Bloke, this may be closer to being a done deal than you think, at least for cows. I was at a meeting 2 weeks ago (apple germplasm committee) and we had as a guest speaker a USDA corn geneticist and he was relating to us the status of other breeding programs. Apparently for cows (It wasn't clear if he was talking Dairy, Beef or both combined) they have an amazing database on the genetics of cows with a millions of individuals characterized. This is a cooperative project with producers collecting and submitting their samples/data. This has allowed then to do highly efficient breeding to quickly produce new individuals with the desired new traits. Also I'm sure most cattlemen, and certainly the dairymen, already keep accurate records of all their animals (many with implanted chips). All that is needed is to collect all that information into a centralized database (a computer nightmare). Obviously a lot of this has already been done for the genetics database.
Maybe Paul S. could add some personal perspective.
Philip " who has a guest speaker from APHIS coming on Monday to give a talk on new and emerging plant diseases" Jensen
Miraphone Norwegian Star Eb
King 4V BBb ~1913
Holton 4V Eb 1920
Holton 3V Eb 1930
I know that now everytime I have the sniffles I have to report it to those NAIS people. In fact, sometimes I get sick on purpose, just for the attention...
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
windshieldbug wrote:I know that now everytime I have the sniffles I have to report it to those NAIS people. In fact, sometimes I get sick on purpose, just for the attention...
Nope, you don't have to report it at all, they already know...
windshieldbug wrote:I know that now everytime I have the sniffles I have to report it to those NAIS people. In fact, sometimes I get sick on purpose, just for the attention...
Nope, you don't have to report it at all, they already know...
I have no problem with the government monitoring cows to enable quick identification of any animals that have had contact with BSE. Exactly what freedom are they impinging on by tracking where cows (ok, and chicken) are? Now when they begin the National People monitoring system we're in real trouble.
I really don't give a damn if they monitor cows...I don't eat them anyway; lost my taste for them some time ago.
However, what does give me the biggest hoot on earth is when they say a cow with BSE "didn't go into the food supply, so the food supply is safe." As if....the only cow that can transmit BSE is one that is already falling-down dead from it. Like asymptomatic infected cows are "safe." Friends, apparently the entire gol-dang country is swallowing not only cow products but also the product that comes out the rear end and is recycled through blather-speak.
Like I said, lost my taste for cow products some time ago. I have enough problems without battling prions.
MaryAnn wrote: Friends, apparently the entire gol-dang country is swallowing not only cow products but also the product that comes out the rear end and is recycled through blather-speak.
MA
It took me a minute to catch that, but I agree. I wonder how many others get it?
MaryAnn wrote: Friends, apparently the entire gol-dang country is swallowing not only cow products but also the product that comes out the rear end and is recycled through blather-speak.
MA
It took me a minute to catch that, but I agree. I wonder how many others get it?
I wonder too; especially at work, I am constantly told I am too blunt (people just hate the truth) and so I try to say the same thing but more roundabout, sometimes.
I noticed, after I came back from my Christmas in Vietnam, when I went to work almost everyone avoided me at work. There was a rumor going around that I was a bird flu carrier.
When I was in Saigon, I think I ate chicken every other day. I even ate home-grown chicken in a village about an hour northeast of Saigon (yes, they still call it Saigon--you can't change a name of something that's hundreds of years old in 30 years!)
Leaving Saigon, I had an overnight layover in Singapore, where I ate an entire bucket of fried chicken myself (it was dinner and breakfast the next morning).
I could tell you about horror stories of other places I have visited and lived in.
22 years ago, I went to Ecuador for a short job. I went to a Chinese restaurant in Quito, where I ordered the finest meal they had. A bowl of soup was brought to me. As it cooled, I started noticing pieces of the soup were moving!!! I had been eating this crawling soup. I don't know what they were, but they were brown and had six very agile legs.
When I got back to los Estados Unidos, I caught amoebic dysentery... from drinking New Jersey water!!!
________________________________________________________
You only have one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it.
Everybody in New Jersey knows that you don't drink the water! (and hey; I lived there through high school until I could get the heck out! 'Course, wouldn't ya know it; I end up marrying a Jersey girl!... )
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
LoyalTubist wrote:I didn't marry a Jersey girl but that's where we lived when we first got married. Maybe that's why she is now my former wife.
Although I was born in DC, I spent most of my life in New Jersey and married a "Jersey Girl," although not the stereotypical type. I lived in Northwest Jersey, in the middle of farmland and horses, but it was still crowded. The only time I really relaxed was during the 2 years that I lived in the Orlando, Fl area.
I moved out of Jersey for good 3 years ago and wonder what took me so long. Even though property taxes are going up here, they are still a quarter of what they were in Jersey. Auto insurance is about 40% less, and the stress level, even living in the suburbs of a city with a relatively high murder rate, is much less. I can't see any reason to ever move back, even though most of my family is still there. And don't get me started on NYC.
Besson 983
Henry Distin 1897 BBb tuba
Henry Distin 1898 BBb Helicon
Eastman EBB226
http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/index.shtml
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