The FDA announced that a drug fed to chickens will no longer be sold in the U.S. Pfizer subsidiary, Alpharma will discontinue sales of 3-Nitro. Chickens are fed this drug to increase their appetites. The FDA found that chickens fed arsenic had traces of the drug in their meat, primarily their liver. Pfizer will stop selling the drug in 30 days, after animal producers have had time to find new medications. 3-Nitro, a.k.a. roxarsone is the most common arsenic based animal drug, but similar drugs have been approved for poultry and pig feed.
“Achievement consists of doing useful things that most people say cannot be done.” Waite Phillips
They climbed Mt Baldy in a day. The peak is 12,441 feet. The vertical rise is 3640 feet in three miles. How did they do it? One step at a time. Standing at the base the climb seemed impossible so the trek was broken into smaller, more achievable steps. Instead of standing at the base and looking staight up the scouts stood at the base and looked ahead on the trail. Then they set realistic increments to make reaching the top achievable. They hiked from the base to a large rock. From the rock they hiked to a group of trees. Once they reached the trees they decided on the next milestone. Now, climbing Mt Baldy didn’t seem so daunting. The climb progressed at a steady pace. Each step progressed in a reasonable amount of time. In a few hours they were celebrating at the summit. One step at a time is exactly how we’ve been farming for 21 years.
We didn’t start out with a farm. We started with the dream of owning a farm. Our first step was three acres in the country. We planted fruit trees and a large garden. Chickens, dairy goats, and pigs came in the second year. A baby the third year. Ten additional acres the fourth year along with additional livestock. Another baby the seventh year. Hay equipment, tractor, and skid steer were added with more acreage. Each goal was broken into smaller, achievable increments. Currently we have eighty-three acres and a list of goals. One is to improve our pond. Drain tile would carry the runoff from the shed roof and barn into the pond, this water reclamation project is near top of the goals list. The water could then be filtered and used for livestock or crops, increasing the surface area of the pond for fish, wildlife, and recreation.
This picture is of our “yacht” in the farm pond. We always called this raft our yacht. It went on vacation with us to Florida every year when we’d visit family. On summer weekends it accompanied us to Lake Geneva or Lake Mills in Wisconsin. One day a strong wind blew the inflatable rubber raft out of the pond where it snagged on the barbed wire fence and popped. Dragging the deflated shreds to the house our son announced, “The yacht popped!” We’ve since replace it with an aluminum boat. Our “yachting days are over. Now we’re boaters.
In Japan they’ve been genetically altering hogs. They’re introducing vegetable genes into pigs.
We were watching the movie Night Shift, I love that movie. Michael Keaton’s character, Billy Blaze records all of his “big ideas” into his Sony Walkman. One of his ideas was to feed tuna mayonnaise, “This is Bill, call Starkist.” Well this is Glenda, “Call Japan, feed pigs spinach.” Better yet, let them graze a field of spinach.
Our pigs are healthy. Our pigs are happy. Our pigs have a varied diet of seasonal grasses and legumes. In the spring they graze a field of forage peas, oats, and rape seed. In the summer they graze on grasses, alfalfa, and clover. In the fall they eat apples, pumpkins, and harvest their own corn. In Japan scientists have “successfully” implanted the spinach gene into hogs. Click Here for the story about vegetable genes implanted in hogs
Scientists at The Harvard School of Public Health have concluded that people who consume full fat dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter are 60 percent less likely to develop diabetes. People who consume full fat dairy products have high levels of trans-palmitoleic acid which helps regulate insulin and reduces internal inflammation Another diabetes risk factor) The study authors estimate that consuming three to five servings of dairy may deliver the benefit, more research is needed to determine the most effective amount. perhaps the scientists could also include grass fed dairy products in their study. The benefits would likely grow exponentially.
