The by-product of ethanol production is not at all an “excellent cattle and hog feed.” While it is true that hogs eat a varied diet, cattle in particular were NEVER meant to ingest grain as a regular diet and their bodies are not at all evolved to digest this substance.

It is shown that meat and dairy from grain-fed cattle lacks the vitamins, minerals and healthy fats that make these products great for our bodies, and often make us sick. We already have an extreme and unhealthy abundance of omega-6 fats in our diet because we ingest SO much corn (from the corn oil and corn syrup found in almost every processed food and from dairy and meat from grain-fed cows).

Not to mention that feeding cows grain instead of grazing them properly on grass is incredibly destructive to the health of the cattle and harmful to the environment.

We need to stop feeding cows grain just as much as we need to protect organic sustainable growing methods or stop pollution from chemical residues.

P.S. Bio-fuels burn faster than regular fuel which means it is more expensive and does nothing to help the environment. Oh and methane? People produce it too. Probably more with the over population issue and need to keep up production levels while engineering longer lives.

If you are up to it, please encourage our people to base their meals around plants and downsize on animal products. A plant-based diet emphasis can help feed our people and people around the world and cut down dramatically on methane greenhouse gases, which are more destructive than CO2. We need to encourage people thinking of animal meat as a condiment rather than a main course. We need to think of ethical animal husbandry and encourage buying from local farms and knowing what our animals eat and knowing they are out in the open air.

Did you see in the Organic Consumer Association.org website that France recently found that harmful (Melomine?) substance from China in even their Organic Chicken? It came in with the soy. They test. Our USDA won’t even allow organic farmers to test for Mad Cow Disease, even though they want to and it is a cheap test.

Additional Info. Tom Vilsack wrote part of Iowa’s notorious hog factory bill, House File 519. I think he wrote the section giving nuisance lawsuit protection to hog factories. He’s a “Farm Bureau” (endorsed) Democrat. He got better by the end of his time. Probably he doesn’t know federal farm issues well. Probably he is more influencable than most, by Obama, the public.

The correction for Tom Buis is good but needs qualification. Iowa Farmers Union and NFU were excellent on corporate farming issues through 2001, except they switched sides when Iowa Senator Tom Harkin did, following Harkin. That is they switched from opposition to the lowering and elimination of price floors (ie. Reagan, Clinton/Gingrich Contract for America) to a greened up version of 1996 Freedom to Farm (no price floors). This holds for 2002 and 2008.

Correction. “Iowa farmers … have shifted corn from feeding the world to ethanol production.” The real history is that the U.S., by lowering and eliminating price floors, dumped our USDA “program commodities” (main subsidized crops) onto world markets at below costs for a quarter century. This massive export of below cost grains did NOT feed the world, it drove their farmers (and economies) into such poverty that they couldn’t even buy below cost foods. US Farmers lost money every year, 1981-2006 (except 1996) (8 crop total, vs full costs, without subsidies, USDA-ERS, and lost with subsidies for crops/years studied). Ethanol helped as one factor raising prices and ending dumping (fall 06-fall 08). Long term that helps end poverty and starvation. Ethanol was chosen for farmers as a side investment for this very reason.

We need a Sec. of Ag who will restore price floors and supply management as a way to end subsidies, making corporate agribusiness pay above cost, and ending multibillion dollar below cost gains for Tyson & Smithfield. This was the New Deal (price floors, no subsidies) and economic stimulus (Steagall Amendment 1941). Mark Ritchie, Minnesota Sec of State (formerly IATP) is best.

Who he chooses in his cabinet will ultimately decide which of these promises come to fruition and which get left behind.

I grew up on a small family farm in North Dakota. We have no hired hands, just my mother, my father, and my siblings before we moved to college. I would like you to take a closer look at the President of National Farmers Union, Tom Buis. You are correct that the NFU is a lobbyist organization, but where you are mistaken is in your labels of them as supporters of industrial agriculture and corporate farming.

I have been a member of the North Dakota Farmers Union my whole life, and recently worked in D.C. for the National Farmers Union. I urge you to check out their website. http://www.nfu.org. Please click on “About NFU” and then “Policy.” This is a book written by the thousands of family farmers across the United States that NFU represents. Notice on the bottom left hand side of the main page is a feature called “BUY FROM A FAMILY FARM.” This is where members (who are all family farmers) can list their farm products online to sell to a national community.

Farmers Union is an avid supporter of farm grown fuels to decrease our dependence on foreign oil, they have lobbied time and time again for decreased use of corporate farming and in the inhumane treatment of animals, and boast a sense of pride in their members ideals of being stewards of the land in conservation.

Its easy to think that lobbyists in D.C. are radicals, but I guess everyone is a radical depending on where you stand on an issue. I just wanted to direct you to some information about them before you make a judgment, I know that you will find striking similarities in their policies and how you feel about agriculture in our country.

Sincerely yours,
KVB