Veterinarian Ignored by USDA

 The US Dept, of Agriculture apparently has no problem with slaughterhouses that butcher conscious pigs or drag downed calves through excrement before slaughter. That is, as long as nobody hears about it.

Dean Wyatt, a supervisory veterinarian for the USDA’s food safety and inspection unit, spoke to a Congressional committee today about how his recommendations were overruled when he cited certain slaughterhouses for inhumane practices and food safety violations. From USA TODAY:

(Wyatt’s charges) detail instances in which he and other inspectors were overruled when citing slaughterhouses for violations such as shocking and butchering days-old calves that were too weak or sick to stand. He also describes being threatened with transfer or demotion after citing a plant for butchering conscious pigs, despite rules that they first be stunned and unconscious.

So a guy does his job, finds violations and animal cruelty, and his bosses threaten his career for attempting to punish the violating slaughterhouses. Sounds about right. Job well done, Big Ag.

Vegan Dinner: Squash, Asparagus, Potatoes

A tasty dinner last night. Colorado acorn squash with butter and brown sugar, sauteed asparagus, and red potatoes (boiled, slightly mashed, and seasoned with pepper, butter and dill). A bit of an autumn harvest feast for our first chilly September day in Denver.

The Economy Explained – This American Life

If you’re like me, this whole recession thing is a bit mysterious. I mean, I read the news, used to watch a lot of CNN (before I canceled my cable), and actually have some knowledge of finance, economics, and the like. But even with all that media coverage and college core-class education, it is hard to really get what happened in the last couple of years. Who ever heard the terms “sub-prime,” “toxic assets,” or even “bank bailout” before 2008? Well I recently heard somewhere that the fabulous weekly public radio program This American Life did a couple shows that actually make sense of the whole mess, and I, being a TAL fan already, decided it was time to check it out.

Now I actually feel like I get it. Mortgages, bank failures, government bailouts, sub-prime, Wall Street, etc… It is no longer a mystery to me, thanks to Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson, the guys who co-produced the episodes The Giant Pool of Money (about the housing and mortgage lending crisis), and Bad Bank (about how and why our biggest banks got themselves knee-deep in bad bets).

If you want get a grasp on our economy, and just how scary it is, find a couple of spare hours to listen to the free podcast on thislife.org’s website (or pay a buck for a download on itunes). It’s worth it, especially if you like to understand the world you live in. CNN and FOX (obviously) won’t give you this kind of clarity. Trust PRI.

Teaser: It’s not all the banks’ fault. I know, it pains me to say it, but they are not entirely to blame, greedy as they are.

Why I Love Football (Soccer)

Watching defenders panic and grab for fists-full of jersey after getting embarrassed.

Ha

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The Nation has Spoken

Yes.

Spotted here.

Kuroshio Sea

Saw this a while ago on The Original Winger, my favorite footy blog. It is video of a giant aquarium in Japan called the Kuroshio Sea. In it, they have whale sharks, huge rays, and schools of fish. Pretty amazing.
The song is Please Don’t Go by Barcelona. Worth the 4 minutes, for sure.

What I want to know is: What are these Japanese tourists thinking? Are they awed by the raw power and beauty of nature? Humbled and guilt-ridden for continually weakening the ecosystems that these animals call home? Or are they just getting hungry?

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This picture is of a bundle of net and plastic trash found in the Texas-sized ocean garbage pit of the North Pacific Gyre. Also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it is a swirling vortex of floating bits of plastic 1,000 miles west of California. Most of the plastic is broken down into tiny pieces that may get eaten by sea-beasties, or dissolved into chemicals, which… probably isn’t good for ocean life in general.

Read about it in the AP article or watch Vice (VBS) TV’s cool mini-documentary on the gyre called TOXIC: Garbage Island. I mean… I’m just sayin… come on.