tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-306587352024-03-07T01:13:57.519-08:00Epi EpiphaniesA veterinary epidemiologist with an eye on the newsBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.comBlogger185125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-58808918113660050372008-09-30T09:28:00.000-07:002008-09-30T09:34:38.006-07:00Much delayed posting of a good link or twoHere's a few articles I've put aside to post, and haven't had time for:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/health/30stud.html">How to read medical papers</a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04health-t.html">Applying epi to gang violence</a><br /><a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/can-people-have-meat-and-a-planet-too/">Growing meat <span style="font-style: italic;">in vitro</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/04mala.html">The feasibility of eradicating malaria</a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/magazine/27cow-t.html">The loss of biodiversity in developing agriculture</a><br /><br />No promises to start posting again, just thought I'd clean up my old backlog.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-58290515644740304442008-03-19T12:17:00.000-07:002008-03-19T12:26:22.249-07:00Should it be law?I'm not going to say if rBST (known most often to laymen as bovine growth hormone) is a good thing or a bad thing for the dairy industry. I'm not going to say if it is harmful to humans or not. I'm not even going to say if it is harmful to cows or not. Mind you, I have opinions on all these topics; I'm just not going to say right now.<br /><br />What I am going to say is people should be able to choose to avoid it if their little hearts desire. According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/business/09feed.html">this article</a>, some people (with ties to the drug's largest producer, oddly enough), are lobbying to stop "hormone-free" labels.<br /><br />I could understand, if there were local regulations banning the use of an FDA-approved drugs, lobbying to remove those regulations. Trying to create a regulation against a label that says you don't use those drugs? Unnecessary, wasteful, stupid! Allow people the choice. Maybe this means you lose your market, but that's how capitalism works (at least, in theory): informed people choose where to spend their money. If you can't afford to produce rBST-free milk at the price offered and you can't sell non-rBST-free milk, you need to get out of the dairy business.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-86706051635000123892008-03-18T10:21:00.000-07:002008-03-18T10:39:05.098-07:00At long lastI've been busy again, lately, and haven't really had a chance to weigh in on the humane slaughter issue. Instead of breaking news, then, here's some afterthoughts:<br /><br />I was not amused by <a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/295136.html">this article</a>. This is fear-mongering, fueled by the fact that most people don't know their burgers are coming from dairy cows (I've never met a layperson who knew that; they're always a bit shocked). The understanding of epidemiology here is particularly egregious:<br /><blockquote><p>Dairy cows can also carry some common maladies, including mastitis, a bacterial infection of the udder; foot rot, which they can develop standing for long periods in manure, mud and damp straw; and Johne’s disease. </p><p>Scientists believe these diseases are not carried into the human food chain, with one exception: Health and animal scientists are currently debating whether the traits of Johne’s are responsible for Chron’s disease in humans. Chron’s disease is an intestinal disorder that can cause inflammation of the colon, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea and weight loss. Some argue it’s these very problems that prompt farmers to dispatch the cows to the slaughterhouse in the first place. </p></blockquote><p></p>One: why mention all these "terrible" diseases if they aren't entering the food chain? Two: hate to say it, but milk is a bigger risk than beef for MAP transmission (MAP is the cause of Johne's disease, and is under debate as a contributing factor in Crohn's disease), so I'd rather have them at the slaughterhouse, where the risk of contamination is minimal, than in the milking parlor.<br /><br />Lesson: don't get your information about your food from the editorial page!<br /><br />I was very amused by this article. USDA inspectors may not have been doing their job, but that's really no excuse for the Humane Society avoiding their legal responsibility . . . and why were they contacting local DA, then releasing the video on YouTube with national promotion? Sounds like they wanted to appear to do the legal thing while making the biggest publicity. Shame on HSUS!<br /><blockquote><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Humane Society grilled on not advising USDA about Hallmark</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:jgabbett@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19907%29">Janie Gabbett</a> on 2/26/2008 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>WASHINGTON — Congressmen repeatedly questioned a representative of the Humane Society of the United States on Tuesday about why the group did not immediately inform USDA of video evidence workers were abusing downed cattle at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co.<br /><br />At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on food safety, Michael Greger, HSUS director of public health and animal agriculture, said the San Bernardino District Attorney's office asked the group to hold the information until it completed its own investigation. The congressmen, however, said HSUS could have discretely gone to USDA earlier than it did.<br /><br />Greger hinted at more HSUS exposes, telling the committee the videographer's identity must be guarded so as not to compromise current and future investigations. The Hallmark/Westland video, which was shown at the hearing, resulted in the nation's largest beef recall. (See <a set="yes" linkindex="21" href="http://meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/webNews/details.aspx?item=19844">Hallmark/Westland recalls 143 million lbs of beef — largest in history </a> on <b>Meatingplace.com</b>, Feb. 18, 2008.)<br /> <br />Hallmark/Westland President Steve Mendell did not attend the hearing, declining the committee's request for him to testify. Committee members said they are looking at compelling him to come before the committee sometime in the future.<br /><br />Greger told the committee that Hallmark workers said in criminal testimony in California that they were pressured by supervisors to get the cows up and into slaughter. Hallmark slaughtered mostly spent dairy cattle, often fatigued after being trucked in from surrounding states.<br /><br />Members of the subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), used the hearing as an opportunity to renew calls for: banning all meat from downer cattle from the food supply, mandatory traceability standards, mandatory recall authority for USDA and the Food and Drug Administration and the creation of a single food safety agency.<br /><br />William Marler, a Seattle lawyer who represents victims of foodborne illnesses, however, suggested USDA might have actually gone too far with the Hallmark recall.<br /><br />"Although stunned by the video …I am more stunned that the recall has ballooned to 143 million pounds of meat and is quickly encompassing products that might contain trace amounts of the meat. No people have been sickened. I wonder if resources are better spent elsewhere," he testified before the committee.</blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-5663052636074575922008-03-09T16:23:00.000-07:002008-03-09T16:26:05.915-07:00First ethanol, now methane?Apparently the NRC guidelines for nutrients in manure are out-of-date, causing a wonderful renewable source of energy to be scrapped. I have one question, though: couldn't they just change the process to make up for the change in the manure? Oh, wait, that would probably cost more money. Sometimes I forget why corporations exist.<br /><br /><blockquote><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Smithfield says manure didn't make the grade for biofuel</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:jgabbett@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19819%29">Janie Gabbett</a> on 2/13/2008 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Smithfield Foods said it sold its Utah biofuels plant because after three years of trying, it concluded it could not generate enough methane from the animal waste it was using to make Smithfield BioEnergy economically practical.<br /><br />The company explained what went wrong a day after Beacon Energy Corp. announced it had purchased the plant. (See <a set="yes" linkindex="20" href="http://meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/webNews/details.aspx?item=19815">Smithfield biofuel affiliate sold </a> on <b>Meatingplace.com</b>, February 13, 2008.)<br /><br />The goal of Smithfield BioEnergy was to capture methane from manure provided by Smithfield's Circle Four Farms swine production operation near Milford, Utah, convert the methane into bio-methanol, and then convert that — along with animal and vegetable fats — into bio-diesel fuel.<br /><br />"However, we determined that our bio-methanol production plant was not economically feasible — and never would be," the company said in a statement.<br /><br /><b>Why not?</b><br /><br />The facility was designed using engineering and planning assumptions about the strength of the nutrient content of animal manure taken from government data and technical guidance manuals. Those assumptions proved to be wrong.<br /><br />The nutrient content of the animal manure produced on Smithfield's farms proved to be more than 50 percent below published data estimates, which the company attributed to such factors as: <ul><li> animal genetic improvement </li><li> improved feed conversion</li><li>reduced water volume used in production systems</li><li>and precisely formulated animal diets</li></ul> "The fact that our Circle Four Farms operation is producing fewer nutrients than had been anticipated is a good thing from an environmental perspective, but the unintended consequence is that we don't have enough methane to make our Smithfield BioEnergy operation economically practical," the company said.<br /><br />Smithfield is applying what it learned to other facilities around the country to reduce its environmental footprint. For example, projects are in place at facilities in Tar Heel, N.C., Plainwell, Mich., and Green Bay, Wis., to capture and use methane as an alternative and renewable fuel source.<br /></blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-85148160889206391332008-03-09T16:20:00.001-07:002008-03-09T16:22:11.478-07:00I should post this on Friday . . .. . . but at least it's still Lent. Yes, that's right, fish is not meat and poultry are not livestock! I wonder if the Pope will ratify the judge's ruling?<br /><br /><blockquote><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Judge rules poultry are not 'livestock' </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:akarapetian@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19976%29">Alicia Karapetian</a> on 3/5/2008 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content"><br /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content">A San Francisco judge has ruled that chickens are not "livestock," and, as a result, are not subject to the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, according to court filings.<br /><br />A lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States against the Agriculture Department argued that USDA had misinterpreted the 50-year-old act.<br /><br />"The court finds the legislative history strongly demonstrates unambiguous congressional intent that livestock, as used in the HMSA, does not include poultry," U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote in her opinion.<br /><br />Judge Patel granted summary judgment in USDA's favor and dismissed the lawsuit.<br /><br />HSUS's argument was based on a 1958 dictionary definition of livestock that said that the word encompassed "useful" animals on a farm, while USDA said that the term livestock has always internally meant to exclude poultry.<br /><br />"The plain language of these bills indicates that Congress intended to exclude poultry from the definition of livestock when it enacted H.R. 8308, the bill that eventually became the HMSA," Patel wrote.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-32441118886091341362008-02-26T09:49:00.000-08:002008-02-26T09:55:49.007-08:00You should read/listen to thisThis week, NPR's series <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9657621">Climate Connections</a> is focusing on the effect of global warming on disease spread. Yesterday was an <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19276850">interview</a> with epidemiologists on the ground in the Amazon, today was <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19241319">a review </a>of a book on yellow fever, which I reviewed <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Plague-Untold-Epidemic-History/dp/0425212025/sr=8-1/qid=1168807930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-8574097-5720022?ie=UTF8&s=books">here</a>. I recommend checking out this series -- it does a spot-on job of covering some of the big issues involved, so far. We'll see what tomorrow adds.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-31413129318742399802008-02-10T16:28:00.000-08:002008-02-10T16:50:19.302-08:00A response to the meat industry, minus the shrillnessI've been meaning to write about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">this article </a>for some time now, but I've been too busy to do it properly. Even now, it'll be brief.<br /><br />The idea is that we, as Americans, eat too much meat. I would have to agree. You could say we're biased, the author and I: he wrote a vegetarian cookbook, I was a vegetarian for a few years. Still, my experience is that little or no meat in my diet makes me healthier. His research shows that Americans are eating twice as much protein (mostly animal-based) as the (high-end) recommendation. I think we have an argument.<br /><br />The environmental issue is a touchy one, but he makes his point well -- we produce far too much manure in concentrated areas to spread on fields (some dairy farms are now leasing fields just to spread their manure). We use a lot of water and energy growing and transporting grain to feed livestock. It's not true that all meat production should be banned; there are places in this world, as mentioned in the article, where grass-fed livestock is the only agricultural option. I've been to a couple of those <a href="http://epivet.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-i-did-in-uganda.html">place</a>s and believe me, you wouldn't want to be a vegetarian there! We shouldn't deny people a chance to raise their own food, no matter what the moral guilt of a rich society tells us we should do.<br /><br />And that's really the point -- we, as citizens of a rich country with a wide range of food options, shouldn't be eating so much meat. What should we be eating? To quote another NYT <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?scp=1&sq=eat+food%2C+not+too+much&st=nyt">columnist</a>, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants."Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-72440793234723284152008-02-05T09:52:00.000-08:002008-02-05T09:55:03.227-08:00International Agents of Food Safety<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/business/25fda.html">This </a>seems to be a good idea: if we're going to import food from overseas, we should put it through an equivalent inspection requirement.<br /><br />I'll admit -- I like this idea, in part, because it will drive up the price for internationally sourced foods, much closer to local foods, which might give people another reason to support their local farmers!Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-84947098159589665822008-02-05T09:47:00.000-08:002008-02-05T09:52:00.218-08:00Imagining a theoryQuick update on the cloned-animals-as-food issue: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/opinion/05mcwilliams.html">this article</a> contains a scary quote from an FDA scientist.<br /><blockquote>It is beyond our imagination to even have a theory for why the food is unsafe.</blockquote>Wow. They can't even imagine a theory. Umm, I don't want the people responsible for protecting our food supply (which mostly consists of imagining threats and counteracting them) unable to imagine a theory here. <span style="font-style: italic;">I </span>can think of a few theories. Not good ones, of course, but he didn't say <span style="font-style: italic;">credible </span>theory -- he said they couldn't imagine a theory.<br /><br />I hope our FDA guys will start improving their imaginations, fast.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-56638284637021782672008-01-29T08:49:00.000-08:002008-01-29T08:52:39.995-08:00Homogenizing the worldMore catch-up in spare minutes: I'm not sure this is a good idea. I've already heard from a local producer that an attempt to sell her product (goat's milk cheese) at the local Wal-Marts fell through because the contract would have required her to provide whatever amount they requested, delivered the day it was requested, to any store they chose. Small producers can't meet those standards, and they certainly can't meet these auditing requirements (or their cost).<br /><blockquote><br /><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Wal-Mart to push for uniform standards for suppliers</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:jgabbett@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19682%29">Janie Gabbett</a> on 1/25/2008 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Wal-Mart wants to lead an effort over the next three years with other major global retailers to create common social and environmental standards for suppliers, CEO Lee Scott told employees.<br /><br />"We believe that there should be one framework of social and environmental standards for all major global retailers. And there should be one third-party auditing system for everyone," he told 7,000 Wal-Mart managers at an internal leadership meeting.<br /><br />Scott said Wal-Mart is working on such a system with global retail and CIES, a consumer goods network, starting with social standards then planning to expand to environmental stipulations.<br /><br /><b>Wal-Mart supplier standards</b><br /><br />Scott also said Wal-Mart would build specific environmental, social and quality standards into its own supplier contracts. He said these standards would apply to all suppliers who work with Wal-Mart through global procurement, who are domestic importers, or who are manufacturers of Sam's Club or Wal-Mart private brands.<br /><br />"We have already started doing this, and we hope to extend the requirement to all the suppliers I mentioned within the next three to five years," he said in prepared remarks. He said the company believes suppliers can reduce the amount of energy they use to make Wal-Mart products by 20 percent.<br /><br />Wal-Mart will only work with suppliers who maintain these standards, will make certification and compliance part of supplier agreements and will ask suppliers to report to them regularly.<br /><br />To underscore the seriousness of Wal-Mart's commitment, Scott said, "We will favor — and in some cases even pay more i for suppliers that meet our standards and share our commitment to quality and sustainability."<br /></blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-30947495189971248382008-01-28T11:28:00.000-08:002008-01-28T11:32:28.207-08:00The pandemic that wasn't?I have 10 minutes, so I thought I'd play a little catch-up. Basically, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/science/22flu.html">this article </a>is saying that we got a combination of lucky and prepared to avoid pandemic avian flu. Good summary -- we were lucky it wouldn't (and didn't) mutate that quickly and we were prepared with large investments in vaccine and diagnostic research. The question now, of course, is how to keep those dollars coming in the face of large-scale complacency by the public. Here's hoping this doesn't turn into a "boy who cried wolf" scenario!Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-55636336181266543872008-01-22T12:59:00.001-08:002008-01-22T13:05:24.789-08:00Epi 101: Publishing biasWhy are we now finding out that antidepressant-making <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/health/17depress.html">drug companies only publish (the better) 2/3rds of their trials?</a> Is it because drug companies are evil, money-grubbing, and soulless? Not exactly -- it's probably also a form of publication bias. Journals don't like to publish papers that report no differences (although this is a valid, and important, scientific finding). I've recently had that complaint from a reviewer -- we didn't find a significant difference (actually, we did, just not an easy one to distinguish, but I digress), so what's the point in publishing the results?<br /><br />The point is that science consists of two types of trials:<br /><ol><li>trials that work, and</li><li>trials that don't work.</li></ol>Number 1 shows us what to do next. Number 2 shows us what not to do next. Both very useful to know. Never publishing number 2 leads to repetition of useless trials. This is one of my pet peeves.<br /><br />Oh, and the drug companies probably didn't want to report less than stellar findings.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-5723593132947329462008-01-22T12:52:00.000-08:002008-01-22T13:05:44.199-08:00Cloned meat is safe? Or offspring . . . oh, never mindI've put off blogging for a little while (too much writing in my real job), but I do need to comment about this:<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/business/16clone.html">FDA ruling</a> does <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> mean you will be eating <a href="http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/narbonic/series.php?view=archive&chapter=9829">Beta</a>. It means that people who have spent large amounts of money to clone their best cows will be able to sell you the milk and meat of their offspring. The actual cows are worth too much to butcher.<br /><br />I'm not taking a stand on this issue -- I just don't want people to be more confused than the media has already made them.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-17838731743288313592008-01-07T07:45:00.000-08:002008-01-07T07:54:42.404-08:00Interesting thought, hard to proveNo, despite <a href="http://livingindryden.org">Simon</a>'s suggestion, I didn't get a special Epiphany post up. Thought about it, but it didn't happen. Oh well.<br /><br />I was intrigued by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/business/media/07violence.html">this article</a>, though. It's an interesting idea, that violent movies could reduce crime, but there's an inherent flaw: how do you prove it? I haven't read their study, but I can guess that there are a lot of potential biases. Do you control for policing or sentencing changes, which would require using data from a regional or even local scale? Then you would need to include the presence of movie theaters, the dates violent films are shown, some sort of temporal analysis relating crime to the release of a movie. If so, your power is going to rapidly decrease (the more possible biases your study considers, the lower your degrees of freedom, the harder it is to notice anything). If not, well, any or all of those things could be biasing your results. The article hints at a possible temporal relationship:<br /><blockquote>Crime is not merely delayed until after the credits run, they say. On the Monday and Tuesday after packed weekend showings of violent films, no spike in violent crime emerges to compensate for the peaceful hours at the movies. Even a few weeks later, there is no evidence of a compensating resurgence, they say.</blockquote><br />What did they use to measure this? Survival analysis? Whatever they did, to really get these results, would be pretty tricky stats, which the article doesn't mention.<br /><br />Still, interesting thought.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-62166963157594042562008-01-05T15:23:00.000-08:002008-01-05T15:34:26.530-08:00Epi 101: Treatment BiasHere's another basic lesson in epi: if you give different treatments based on socioeconomic status, region, or willingness to pay, you will get different results. If you give the same treatments, but spend more money on one, you won't get different results. You will get more money.<br /><br />That's the sort of bias <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/business/19leonhardt.html">this book </a>seems to be addressing. There is no scientific basis for our bureaucratic nightmare of a health care system actually improving our health. All it does is improve the financial health of the people who own it.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-84915472097902599982008-01-05T15:07:00.000-08:002008-01-05T15:23:48.227-08:00Why typing is good, but can't do everythingOne of my <a href="http://livingindryden.org">friends</a> sent me a link to news about the <a href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Whittier+Farms"><span style="font-style: italic;">Listeria</span> outbreak</a> in Massachusetts. I hadn't followed it too closely because it wasn't really a new story to me, but I have studied these things more than most normal people.<br /><br />In this case, the bacteria that sickened at least 4 and killed 2 was linked to a milk processor by typing, a useful process that can tell us how related 2 cultures of bacteria are. That lets us go in, shut the plant down, find the culprit, spread the horror stories (one that I heard a few years back: cartons used to take waste milk to a swine herd were pressure-washed in the bottling room), and hopefully learn something.<br /><br />What typing can't do is stop the outbreak before people get sick. For that, we need to rely on processors to follow S.O.P.'s and farmers to control disease within their herds. This is what my research group focuses on, modeling food safety at all the levels of production. No, it's not "bench" research, but it can be useful.<br /><br />I'm guessing that the plant in this case will find a simple procedural change that led to a <span style="font-style: italic;">Listeria </span>overgrowth. This is why modeling is important; we can predict what changes will do before people have a chance to get sick. No amount of fancy DNA technology will do that.<br /><br />Please forgive the rant; I get peeved sometimes about the bias against modeling. We are important!Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-82020376812770674092007-12-18T09:37:00.000-08:002007-12-18T09:42:43.344-08:00More waiting for a Farm BillIt's been delayed for a few years because the process is so time-consuming. It's been delayed this year because Congress and Bush can't agree on anything. Oh, wait, it's still going to be delayed, because whatever they turn out is going to be vetoed.<br /><br />Well, that's legislation for you -- but the ag committee can't do much else until this goes through. That means delays in funding the USDA. The USDA does a number of important things (food inspection, WIC and food stamps, not to mention basic research like mine) that really shouldn't get put on the back burner for too long.<br /><br />But I guess that's why the bill is so difficult -- it has to cover all these things, too, along with little stuff like subsidies.<br /><blockquote><br /><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Senate passes farm bill, moves to conference under veto threat</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:jgabbett@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19466%29">Janie Gabbett</a> on 12/17/2007 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content"><br /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content">The Senate on Friday voted 79-14 to pass a version of the 2007 farm bill the White House has already threatened to veto, sending the legislation to the House-Senate conference committee to hash out differences and agree a bill that the White House will sign.<br /><br />"This legislation is fundamentally flawed. Unless the House and Senate can come together and craft a measure that contains real reform, we are no closer to a good farm bill than we were before today's passage," Acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner said in a statement.<br /><br />Conner acknowledged he was disappointed the Senate approved the bill by such a wide margin. Broadly, the Administration opposes the cost of the $286 billion farm bill, which it says includes $22 billion in unfunded commitments and includes $15 billion in new taxes, as well as the fact that it did not limit subsidies to wealthier farm owners as much as the Administration sought.<br /><br /><b>Packer livestock ownership</b><br /><br />The Senate version of the bill includes a livestock title (Title X) that contains a provision that would only allow meatpackers to own livestock 14 days before slaughter.<br /><br />"We have a number of concerns with key aspects of that whole competition title," Conner said, when asked on a teleconference with reporters if the Administration would seek changes in the packer livestock ownership provision.<br /><br />"We're going to be working very closely with the conferees in both the House and Senate to address this issue very directly as we go into the conference," Mark Keenum, under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, told reporters, adding that the provision is, "impeding commerce and trade with a specific commodity, in this situation livestock, and that's a slippery slope."<br /><br />Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) praised the livestock title, saying in a statement, "The bill's livestock title will promote market opportunities for producers; it will protect animal health; and it will strengthen enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act."<br /><br /><b>COOL and state-inspected meat</b><br /><br />Both House and Senate versions of the bill contain mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) provisions that meat industry groups have agreed they can live with.<br /><br />The House version of the bill includes a provision that would allow some state-inspected meat to cross state lines.<br /></td></tr> </tbody></table> </blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-19019177092092350842007-12-10T07:57:00.000-08:002007-12-10T08:13:56.677-08:00Taking everything into account . . .. . . you can't.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/business/yourmoney/09feed.html">New research </a>is saying that local foods don't necessarily have a lower carbon footprint. When you consider technical economies of scale (i.e. more efficient transport -- containers on trains instead of boxes in pickups), mass-produced fruits and vegetables shipped across the country use less gas than local ones from small farms. This is based on, for example, the gas per strawberry. Many strawberries makes light footprint.<br /><br />There are other things the article didn't go into (machinery efficiency, farm supply shipping, etc.) that large monoculture farms have going for them as far as carbon footprint goes. With all of these things, I have to admit that buying all your groceries at Wal-Mart, especially with only one trip a week, uses the least carbon.<br /><br />If that's your goal. <br /><br />Me, I eat locally for other reasons. I want to support local farmers and local industry. I want the flavor of the heritage varieties (wonder why they taste better than the shipped ones? flavor and storage value are inversely related for most fruits and veggies). I want to know where my food came from.<br /><br />Yes, I feel guilty when I drive my car all alone to the farmer's market, only to go to the grocery store once or twice a week on separate trips. I used to bike it, but that was when I lived in Kansas (ah, flatness; the prospect of hauling my shopping up two blocks at 40% grade or more is rather discouraging). I used to do all my shopping on Saturday morning, going without rather than doing quick runs for one ingredient. I need to get back into at least some of those good habits. <br /><br />Still, I can't help thinking that basing a drastic shift in behaviors (an all-local diet, for example) on one good-hearted idea is dooming it to failure. As soon as you start bringing in other calculations, you'll run into complications, realize how complicated life is, and give up. Yes, we need to consider confounders. We still need to act, though, and it's up to you what confounders you use in your analysis.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-55014794884095782102007-12-08T19:26:00.000-08:002007-12-10T08:13:56.677-08:00Controlling(?) E. coliSomeone was telling me last night about her friend's revolutionary work on controlling pre-harvest<span style="font-style: italic;"> E. coli </span>in cattle by feeding hay for a few days. I had to break it to her that it's common knowledge, now, that that works. There are probably <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/business/06meat.html">thousands of studies </a>going on right now to figure out <span style="font-style: italic;">E. coli</span> reduction in cattle.<br /><br />With all this work, though, who do people trust? The activists.<br /><br />Yes, the people (in some cases) who say raw milk is healthier than pasteurized, or veganism is healthier than carnivorism, or homeopathy works. I'll grant them homeopathy -- there is a documented placebo effect if people believe something will work. Still, less than half surveyed trust the government on food safety! That technically includes me right now: I work for a land-grant university, studying pre-harvest food safety. But government isn't looking out for us like the activists are . . . I'm just going to stop now . . .<br /><br /><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold"></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Less than half Americans see meat safety regulations as adequate: survey</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:jgabbett@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19396%29">Janie Gabbett</a> on 12/6/2007 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td></tr></tbody></table>In the wake of this year's spike in ground beef recalls, fewer Americans are confident the government has adequate food safety regulations for meat and poultry, according to a new GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media survey.<br /><br />The telephone survey, commissioned by The Worldcom Public Relations Group, showed only 46 percent of 1,009 adults polled were confident meat and poultry were adequately regulated, compared to 48 percent for seafood, 57 percent for dairy, 58 percent for fruits and vegetables and 65 percent for cereals and grains.<br /><br />At an average of 50 percent, confidence in food regulation in general ranked below every other category polled, other than toys (37 percent).<br /><br /><b>Trusting activists</b><br /><br />The survey also found that U.S. consumers have more faith in activists and retail grocers than either the government or food companies when it comes to providing information about food choices.<br /><br />While 64 percent said advocates and activist groups have consumers' best interests in mind when providing information about food choices, 62 percent felt that way about grocers, 53 percent about food manufacturers, 47 percent about the U.S. government and 26 percent about fast food companies.<br /><br />"These results support the idea that activists may have been successful in dominating discussions about food policy," said Bob Giblin, a senior public relations counselor and research director who tracks food and agricultural issues for Morgan&Myers.</blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-64930927699666127542007-12-08T19:21:00.000-08:002007-12-08T19:26:00.259-08:00Subsidies aren't bad?Depends on who you are. If you're <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin">Malawi</a>, it turned out to be the answer, the way out of the poverty trap.<br /><br />The lesson here is not to ignore the experts, as the article's title says, but to work to <span style="font-style: italic;">your </span>situation, not someone else's expectations and desires. Those experts Malawi was ignoring? The ones that said subsidies and big government would sink a poor country? They wanted Malawi to spend less of their (loaned) money. Most people could tell you, though, that sometimes a little more money spent is worth it in the long run.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-50022546068397241532007-11-20T09:11:00.000-08:002007-11-20T09:16:52.811-08:00Sometimes we're rightApparently, epidemiologists have been saying for a while that the UN's estimation of AIDS cases in low-income countries is flawed. Turns out, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/world/20aids.html?ref=health">they were right</a>.<br /><br />I hadn't heard anything about the criticisms before this article, but I don't blame them for criticizing: estimates were based on anonymous women coming to free clinics for pregnancy or STD tests. Free clinics are primarily in the cities, and women needing pregnancy or STD tests are, by definition, sexually active. Rural, sexually inactive women would be ignored by this method. And they overestimated?<br /><br />Lesson: think about biases before you extrapolate results to a general population.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-75871968885243313972007-11-15T10:31:00.001-08:002007-11-15T10:33:49.371-08:00Can you pay extra for a sterilized cooking staff?My first thought seeing this <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/travel/11praccruise-1.html?8dpc">article</a>: what will this mean for the CDC's 'cruise ship of the week'? After all, those things are great infection vats! Mostly because all the people are shoved together, though . . . maybe this will help.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-18417578842365407632007-11-10T15:30:00.000-08:002007-12-10T08:13:56.678-08:00Slow food revival? Nah.A friend was just asking me if slow food was as popular out East as it was back (for him) West. This seems to say that no, slow food isn't overly popular in the US in general. <br /><br />I'm very worried by the statistic that 25% of family dinners are at restaurants. 1) You don't teach your kids to cook by going to a restaurant. 2) That probably includes (and is overwhelmed by) fast-food restaurants. Eek.<br /><br /><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold"></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Americans like hamburgers, locally grown and convenience foods: poll</span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:jgabbett@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19219%29">Janie Gabbett</a> on 11/8/2007 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>According to PARADE magazine's biennial "What America Eats" survey, 21 percent of Americans would choose a hamburger as their only food on a deserted island.<br /><br />Respondents to the survey of 2001 Americans over 18 years of age were given a choice of seven foods. Pizza was the top choice at 37 percent, followed by hamburger (21 percent), fruit (17 percent), veggies (12 percent), chocolate (8 percent), apple pie (3 percent) and French fries (2 percent).<br /><br />The survey also found that 82 percent of Americans use convenience foods (pre-made fresh, frozen, refrigerated, canned or packaged) and 22 percent are using more of such foods than a year ago. While 46 percent believe these foods are more expensive, 71 percent said the cost is worth it for the time saved.<br /><br /><b>Local, natural and green</b><br /><br />The movement towards eating foods grown locally is "one of the hottest culinary trends to come along in years," according to the survey, which cited recent E. coli scares and tainted food from China as factors driving Americans to think about where their food comes from and how it is grown.<br /><br />When shopping for groceries, 38 percent of respondents said that all-natural claims are important, while 34 percent said recyclable packaging is a big factor and 32 percent said "environmentally friendly" labels are an important purchasing consideration. And 70 percent said they are at least somewhat likely to buy products that won't harm the environment, even if they cost more.<br /><br /><b>Where we eat</b><br /><br /><ul><li>87 percent said they eat home-cooked food for dinner, 5 percent chose restaurant take-out and only 1 percent eat supermarket-prepared meals </li><li>81 percent said they eat breakfast at home, but 59 percent admit they skip it and 4 percent eat it in a restaurant </li><li>60 percent eat lunch at home, with 36 percent skipping it and 10 percent in a restaurant </li><li>25 percent of family dinners are at a restaurant and only 5 percent don't eat dinner</li></ul><br /><br /><b>More men in the kitchen</b><br /><br />Men are doing more grocery shopping and cooking more meals than 20 years ago. The survey said 71 percent of women now do the grocery shopping versus 93 percent 20 years ago, and 68 percent of women said they prep and cook food for their household versus 94 percent two decades ago.<br /><br /><b>Fantasy meals</b><br /><br />If a TV family could join them for dinner, 29 percent of respondents picked the cast of "Friends", while 24 percent preferred "The Brady Bunch" and 15 percent want to eat with "The Simpsons." Only 7 percent want to eat with The Costanzas from "Seinfeld".<br /><br />Rachael Ray was the pick (38 percent) for the chef Americans want to cook their dinner, followed by (30 percent) Emeril Lagasse.<br /><br />And if calories and nutrition were no object, 26 percent of Americans would most often eat pizza, 20 percent Chinese food, 14 percent fried chicken, 10 percent fast-food hamburgers and 9 percent deli sandwiches or wraps. A hot dog with the works was the choice of 3 percent of those polled.<br /><br />The survey was sponsored in part by Sara Lee Food and Beverage and conducted by Mark Clements Research Inc.</blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-36612033689781838522007-11-10T15:28:00.001-08:002007-12-10T08:13:56.678-08:00Translation: foreigners are dirty!Okay, this doesn't really surprise me. What does surprise me is that this hasn't come up before. The real lesson: cook your meat fully (and don't drink raw milk -- the population of poultry workers and that of milkers isn't all that different).<br /><blockquote><br /><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">More than 200 test positive for TB at poultry plant</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:akarapetian@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19193%29">Alicia Karapetian</a> on 11/5/2007 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>Some 28 percent of the 765 employees screened for tuberculosis at one of Wayne Farms LLC's poultry processing facilities in Decatur, Ala., tested positive, the <em>Decatur Daily</em> reported.<br /><br />Final testing was completed at the Alabama State Department of Public Health's Tubrerculosis Control Division Wednesday, with a total of 212 positive skin tests.<br /><br />The testing was done in two batches. On Oct. 11, 167 employees were tested, resulting in 47 positive skin tests, one of which was an active, and contagious, case.<br /><br />More recently, the final group of tests was completed last week, which resulted in 167 positive skin tests from a pool of 598 samples. Those most recently tested and with positive skin tests will receive chest X-rays on Thursday to determine if any of those cases are active and contagious, according to the <em>Decatur Daily</em>.<br /><br />Scott Jones, interim director at the state's TB division told the <em>Decatur Daily</em> that he is not surprised by the number of positive skin tests given that many of the workers at the facility were born outside of the United States.</blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30658735.post-14417652063552758152007-11-05T11:24:00.000-08:002007-11-05T11:33:20.712-08:00Really?!?! Not a lobbyist?This is surprising! No, I'm not bashing Republicans -- most secretaries of agriculture have industry ties. Schafer, though, seems to be clean (of the ag industry; he has worked in other industries). Nice change . . . although the new Farm Bill looks like more of the same . . . one step at a time!<br /><br /><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold"></td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote><table id="ctl00_ctl00_pageContentArea_pageContent__mainContent" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="Text_BASE_Title Text_WEIGHT_Bold">Bush nominates new ag secretary</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1" class="Text_BASE_Content_Tiny"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="Text_BASE_Content Text_COLOR_Special">By <a href="mailto:tjohnston@meatingplace.com?subject=Meatingplace.com%20Reader%20Comment%20%282s19169%29">Tom Johnston</a> on 11/1/2007 for <strong>Meatingplace.com</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>President Bush has nominated Edward T. Schafer to serve as the nation's next Agriculture Secretary, saying Schafer's service over two terms as governor of North Dakota has well qualified him for the job, the White House announced.<br /><br />Schafer, a Republican who elected not to make another run for North Dakota governor office in 2000, will succeed Mike Johanns, who resigned to campaign for Nebraska's Senate seat. (See <a set="yes" linkindex="21" href="http://meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/webNews/details.aspx?item=19030">Johanns announces U.S. Senate bid</a> on <b>Meatingplace.com</b>, Oct. 11, 2007.)<br /><br />Chuck Conner, who has been serving as acting agriculture secretary, applauded the president's pick.<br /><br />"Having served two terms as governor of an agricultural state, he (Schafer) knows the issues," Conner said. "He has led trade missions, promoted renewable energy and advanced rural development in his home state. His reputation for being a strong leader with a straightforward approach and optimistic outlook will fit perfectly here at the department, and it will be appreciated by the farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders whom we serve."<br /><br />Jay Truitt, vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, also spoke highly of Schafer.<br /><br />"He will bring a fresh perspective to USDA at a time when American agriculture is facing many new challenges in policy development and opportunities in innovation and technology," Truitt said. "This is a critical time for U.S. agriculture, and we're looking forward to working with Mr. Schafer to help guide the cattle and beef industry into the future."</blockquote>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17124471313078287100noreply@blogger.com0