Former Kansas Gov. John Carlin heads a blue-ribbon panel that released a report strongly critical of factory farming practices.
The two-year study by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that practices such as intensive confined animal feeding operations and widespread misuse of antibiotics pose a serious threat to human health and the environment, and sometimes fail to provide humane treatment of animals.
At the same time, factory farming shifts economic clout from farmers to corporate livestock processors.
Carlin told Associated Press that there would have to be “significant changes†in industrial farming to “address some of the public health and environmental issues†raised by the report.
One of the group’s recommendations is to ban antibiotics in cattle except for therapeutic reasons — a reasonable guideline that will help safeguard the effectiveness of antibiotics for humans.
Meanwhile, two large beef processors, including National Beef Packing Co. in Dodge City, were cited by federal inspectors for inhumane conditions — National Beef for overcrowded cattle holding pens.
“Do white right-wing preachers have it easier than black left-wing preachers? Is there a double standard?†E.J. Dionne asked in the Washington Post. He noted that the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson made even more divisive comments after Sept. 11 than the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, yet GOP politicians still sought their endorsements. The Rev. John Hagee has made many offensive comments, yet John McCain spent a year trying to get Hagee’s endorsement. “It’s entirely true that Wright’s foolishness is a bigger deal because of his long-standing relationship with Obama,†Dionne wrote. Still, he said, “the question is whether we will be just as tough on false prophets who happen to be white and right-wing.â€
“If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck,†said Alan Cobb, Kansas director of Americans for Prosperity, declaring that a small monthly charge on all electric meters would be a tax increase. Backers of the Holcomb coal plant who voted for the proposal characterized the charge as a “fee,†but Cobb said it “would be appropriately framed as a tax.â€
The latest SurveyUSA poll further suggests that Kansans prefer their U.S. senators not run for president. Sen. Sam Brownback’s approval rating in the state was back up to 53 percent in April, the highest it’s been since late 2006. His low of 44 percent came last November, a month after he ended his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.
Sen. Pat Roberts, by the way, is going into his re-election campaign with a 54 percent approval rating, up 3 points from January.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ approval rating has dipped some but is still higher than that of the senators. She was at 61 percent approval in April and March, down from 67 percent in February, after she’d delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union address, endorsed Barack Obama and been featured in Vogue.
Former Kansas Gov. John Carlin heads a blue-ribbon panel that released a report strongly critical of factory farming practices.
