Week in Review

Yep, that was the sign we were looking for. The end of days is officially upon us. It snowed in New Orleans last Thursday (HT: Ed). God bless the unfortunate souls who were trying to catch a flight out of town. New Orleans being New Orleans, everyone was completely unprepared for the situation. My friend Chris had to wait at the airport for the snow to melt, "with about 4 millions other people trying to leave."

I spent a good part of the week working on HTML coding, among other things, and was unable to post. I hope all found Gene Baur illuminating. I've put together a quick primer on recent environmental and agricultural happenings to bring everybody up to date. Thanks to all for sending me info and apologies for any outdated links.

• "Collapse" was the byword of the week, as in the impending collapse of the big three automakers. I just wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that, as it seemed all the news agencies got the memo. Was "collapse" the right word? I don't think so. It implies utter destruction, as though the American automobile industry would be forever expunged from the face of the earth. "Organizational restructuring" is probably closer to what will happen, with or without a bailout package. But calmness and sober thinking are so boring. By the way, out of this crucible, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker could become a Republican star.
  
• Nicholas D. Kristof argued for a Secretary of Food with an insightful plea that hits all the major points of the "new food" issue. An excerpt:
  

  A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.

  Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy — all while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

• The FDA has reversed its own ban on the extralabel use of cephalosporins before it goes into effect (HT: Dallas). According to Wattpoultry.com, extralabel use "occurs when a drug only approved for human use is used in animals, when a drug approved for one species of animal is used in another species or when a drug is used to treat a condition for which it was not approved." Cephalosporin is normally used in humans. Not suprisingly, the coalition Keep Antibiotics Working is not happy about this. From their press release:

  The reversal simply ignores the evidence on which FDA’s initial decision was based as well as other studies submitted to the Agency. One study directly correlates the use of cephalosporins in poultry with the rise of resistance to the very same drugs in the foodborne pathogen Salmonella in both humans and farm animals. Cephalosporins are the antibiotic treatment of choice for serious Salmonella infections in humans, which cause 1,300,000 U.S. illnesses each year. Increasing resistance is a problem because it leads to more severe illnesses resulting in a greater number of hospitalizations and deaths.

  Here's a little more on the topic from the Wall Street Journal:
  

  The Food and Drug Administration said it would continue allowing the widespread use of a class of powerful antibiotics in food-producing animals, making a last-minute reversal after calling the practice a public-health risk in July.

  The agency's bid this summer to ban many uses of cephalosporin drugs in cows, swine, chickens and other animals came under fire from the industry. Agriculture groups and animal-drug makers, including Pfizer Inc., said the antibiotics are needed to prevent many infectious diseases in animals.

• Nope, no neurological problems here. Keep moving along.... The FDA is urging more consumption of fish, and the National Fisheries Institute has no problem with that. The EPA says it was not consulted, even though the two agencies are supposed to work together on any changes to the mercury advisory:
  

  The Food and Drug Administration is urging the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat, saying that the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury.

  If approved by the White House, the FDA's position would reverse the government's current policy that certain groups -- women of childbearing years, pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children -- can be harmed by the mercury in fish and should limit their consumption.

  The FDA's recommendations have alarmed scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, who in internal memos criticized them as "scientifically flawed and inadequate" and said they fell short of the "scientific rigor routinely demonstrated by EPA."

  The FDA sent its draft report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, to the White House Office of Management and Budget as part of the FDA's effort to update the existing health advisory. The report argued that nutrients in fish, including omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and other minerals could boost a child's IQ by three points.

  The Environmental Working Group does not agree.
• The EPA has exempted farms from reporting toxic fumes. Maybe it's just me, but I'm noticing a pro-big business, last-minute theme here:

  The Bush administration late Friday completed a regulation exempting farms from reporting releases of hazardous air pollution to federal, state and local authorities. The rule applies specifically to the gases from manure that are often responsible for odor problems.

  The Environmental Protection Agency said that the changes will allow responders to focus on spills and releases that require their attention. But environmentalists say the rule will make it difficult to track air pollution problems at farms.

  Large farms with hundreds of dairy cows or thousands of pigs will still have to report to local and state authorities.

• The E.U. adopted a climate change pact with expectations that the incoming President will be a more amenable confederate than George W. Bush against global warming. The transition will not be an easy one, especially considering the varying pollution rates of the member nations. It could be a hugely expensive project for Eastern Europe, as well as no small cost increase for the average citizen on the continent:
  

  The European leaders, particularly President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who holds the union's rotating presidency, committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 20 percent before 2020 -- and by 30 percent if other countries make comparable pledges at a U.N. environment conference scheduled next year in Copenhagen.

  To reach their goals, the leaders pledged that 20 percent of their energy will come from renewable sources by 2020, leading to predictions of windmill farms across the European countryside and carpets of solar panels such as those that were recently installed atop the Vatican in Rome.

  In a measure of the expenses the pledge seemed likely to entail, only about 8.5 percent of Europe's energy now comes from renewable sources, much of it from hydroelectric or nuclear power stations. Experts predicted that steps needed to reach the targets could raise electricity bills in Europe by as much as 15 percent for industrial users and add nearly $200 to the average household's annual bill.

• Lastly, I hope everyone enjoyed the Feast of Guadalupe last Thursday and Friday. I have one criticism: If you're going to hold a bilingual mass, please practice your Spanish pronunciation. Other than that, the events were highly enjoyable, especially the "pre-Hispanic dancing." The clip below gives you a sense of the rhythm and performance. However, the dancers I saw had cowboy hats. There were also demons, whips, and a sagging prosthetic bottom.