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To: regli who wrote (57738)	10/7/2006 1:33:15 PM
From: RealMuLan	Respond to of 116555

The Federal gov. has been cutting Fulltime position with benefit, BUT hire much more Contractors and grant jobs at MUCH HIGHER cost. What a scam!

To: regli who wrote (57738)	10/7/2006 1:43:27 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

[Scam or organic?<g>]-- "The Organic Myth OCTOBER 16, 2006 Pastoral ideals are getting trampled as organic food goes mass market businessweek.com Next time you're in the supermarket, stop and take a look at Stonyfield Farm yogurt. With its contented cow and green fields, the yellow container evokes a bucolic existence, telegraphing what we've come to expect from organic food: pure, pesticide-free, locally produced ingredients grown on a small family farm. So it may come as a surprise that Stonyfield's organic farm is long gone. Its main facility is a state-of-the-art industrial plant just off the airport strip in Londonderry, N.H., where it handles milk from other farms. And consider this: Sometime soon a portion of the milk used to make that organic yogurt may be taken from a chemical-free cow in New Zealand, powdered, and then shipped to the U.S. True, Stonyfield still cleaves to its organic heritage. For Chairman and CEO Gary Hirshberg, though, shipping milk powder 9,000 miles across the planet is the price you pay to conquer the supermarket dairy aisle. "It would be great to get all of our food within a 10-mile radius of our house," he says. "But once you're in organic, you have to source globally." ..." Table: Tale of Two Cows Organic and conventional cows have one thing in common: They produce milk Conventional Cow Organic Cow Name An ID number Daisy, Peaches, etc. Average Life Span 4 to 5 years 10+ years Average Daily Milk Output 54 pounds 43+ pounds* Primary Diet Silage, hay, and commercial feed that can include corn, barley, fishmeal, potato waste Grass from pastureland and hay, with some organic feed Additives/Medicines Bioengineered growth hormones, antibiotics Occasional vitamins and herbs Living Quarters Dairy "feed lots" or barns, sometimes in stalls where they are machine milked Spacious barns or stalls, lots of outdoor time Breeding Artificial insemination Mating with bulls Organic output can be 20% less, in part because farmers often don't push the animals as hard Source: U.S. Agriculture Dept., BusinessWeek ========================= Why the Stink Over China's Organic Food? businessweek.com Mainland farms are going natural—if natural means large, government-run farms that don't meet USDA standards Given China's widespread use of toxic pesticides, you'd think organic fans would cheer anything that encourages less chemical use there. But the country we expect to export low-cost TV sets and stuffed toys is getting skewered for churning out cheap organic food. Critics claim China's fledgling organic industry is plagued by lax standards, inadequate oversight, exploitation of workers, and practices such as using human waste to fertilize fields, which isn't the kind of "organic" the USDA and most consumers support. One U.S. consultant working there considers meeting U.S. Agriculture Dept. standards a joke, since "U.S. laws do not work in China." For all the fuss, few problems have arisen with China's organic exports so far. The most highly publicized case happened four years ago when pesticide residues were discovered on "organic" spinach exported to Japan. Barbara Robinson, who oversees the USDA's National Organic Program, says that her department has received no complaints about Chinese organic products entering the U.S. "I don't know why everybody picks on China," she says.* ...