26 Jun 2004
Farm vacations attract city slickers

Ya know, I kinda like the idea behind this: it's educational, and it does give cash strapped farmers (such as yours truely) an additional income source. And we have done the tour and petting zoo routine here at Hammerstead.

But it still seems a shame, somehow, to reduce food production to a tourist enterprise. Or maybe it's just a sad commentary on the times we live in.

One sunny morning, a lanky middle-aged man who likes to be called Farmer Dale lifted a wood panel in his chicken coop and a half-dozen free-range hens strutted out in a line on the chicken run.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Mad cow disease suspected in US

Spotted this all over the place - it seems as though there might be another case. If so, perhaps the USDA will reconsider it's idiotic rules on testing.

An animal may have tested positive for mad cow disease in the US, the agricultural department says.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

What an Eye Opener

Sometimes I run across stuff that is so strange, on the surface, but makes so much sense when viewed with a deeper lens, that I'm aghast that I didn't see a connection before. But some things are just so counter-intuitive that they're easy to overlook. Sometimes, if you go left far enough, you end up on the right. Or is that the other way around? With that bit of introduction, let me pass on the link to:

Ralph Nader: Conservatively Speaking

Ralph Nader recently accepted Pat Buchanan’s invitation to sit down with us and explain why his third-party presidential bid ought to appeal to conservatives disaffected with George W. Bush. We think readers will be interested in the reflections of a man who has been a major figure in American public life for 40 years—and who now finds himself that rarest of birds, a conviction politician.

(link) [The American Conservative]

00:00 /Politics | 2 comments | permanent link