<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Baltimore baker takes on great quacking menace]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Russ http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:03:00 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/1 rice, wheat shortages

Just minutes ago I saw a story on Fox news about how consumer warehouse stores in the vicinity of cities like New York are limiting the # of e.g. 20-pound bags of rice customers can buy, on account of hoarding and other shortage reasons.
They also said bakers and others are lobbying for bans on export of wheat and rice, like what's happening in so-called 3rd world countries (though I can't see how that would help with prices - you'd need price controls as well).

It's just unbelievable (and scary) what's happening. Peak oil and a terminal food crisis - perhaps unfolding right now.

]]> rice, wheat shortages

Just minutes ago I saw a story on Fox news about how consumer warehouse stores in the vicinity of cities like New York are limiting the # of e.g. 20-pound bags of rice customers can buy, on account of hoarding and other shortage reasons.
They also said bakers and others are lobbying for bans on export of wheat and rice, like what's happening in so-called 3rd world countries (though I can't see how that would help with prices - you'd need price controls as well).

It's just unbelievable (and scary) what's happening. Peak oil and a terminal food crisis - perhaps unfolding right now.

]]> Comment #2 by Biodiversivist http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:04:15 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/2 Greedy pig


In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world


]]> Greedy pig


In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world


]]> Comment #3 by caniscandida http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:45:18 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/3 Why do we want there to be ducks?

In fairness to Mr. Paterakis, who may indeed be reprehensible for many reasons, he is only one of many whose entire world is made to go round by grain supplies and prices.  I pity them.

Here is the website for this conservationist group, Ducks Unlimited, mentioned in the NY Times article:
http://www.ducks.org/

Cute; short and to the point.  The big headline, over a photo of some darling ducklings, says "Ducks nesting in your yard?  Here is what to do" -- not the kind of problem that we in NYC often have to face.

What I find even more alien, and alienating, is the apparently happy marriage between animal conservation and hunting.  But apparently that is a fact of life in much of the country.

It is amusingly ironic that in the New York Bird Club, I get yelled at for being a wimp on animal rights, because I entertain the question whether confinement of animals is sometimes OK; but here in Grist, by contrast, I feel sometimes that I have to pull my punches.  Obviously, ducks are wonderful, beautiful creatures, and we should want them to flourish, for their own sakes, just because they are so good.

Anyway, the farmers will just have to do what they feel they have to do, right now.  But meanwhile, we hope that the ducks, and other ground-nesting birds, will manage somehow.  Probably many pairs will not be able to breed this year.

At least, presumably, there will be no hunters, with their water-dogs, to shoot at them.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.


]]> Why do we want there to be ducks?

In fairness to Mr. Paterakis, who may indeed be reprehensible for many reasons, he is only one of many whose entire world is made to go round by grain supplies and prices.  I pity them.

Here is the website for this conservationist group, Ducks Unlimited, mentioned in the NY Times article:
http://www.ducks.org/

Cute; short and to the point.  The big headline, over a photo of some darling ducklings, says "Ducks nesting in your yard?  Here is what to do" -- not the kind of problem that we in NYC often have to face.

What I find even more alien, and alienating, is the apparently happy marriage between animal conservation and hunting.  But apparently that is a fact of life in much of the country.

It is amusingly ironic that in the New York Bird Club, I get yelled at for being a wimp on animal rights, because I entertain the question whether confinement of animals is sometimes OK; but here in Grist, by contrast, I feel sometimes that I have to pull my punches.  Obviously, ducks are wonderful, beautiful creatures, and we should want them to flourish, for their own sakes, just because they are so good.

Anyway, the farmers will just have to do what they feel they have to do, right now.  But meanwhile, we hope that the ducks, and other ground-nesting birds, will manage somehow.  Probably many pairs will not be able to breed this year.

At least, presumably, there will be no hunters, with their water-dogs, to shoot at them.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.


]]> Comment #4 by Pangolin http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:09:19 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/4 Sorry CC, but

....conservation easements make things better for hunters not worse. When ducks, geese and other wildfowl have areas to escape hunting (as is proper) they will fill that area and then the overflow will spill out into nearby fields, ponds, rivers and streams where there may or may not be hunting pressure.

What is an absolute fact though is that conservation areas increase both the numbers of waterfowl and the  "take" of hunters.

Here in the rice growing region there are huge flocks of geese but when you go to view the geese at the reserve you can hear hunters guns going the whole time. It takes some getting used to.

The geese and ducks are also being credited with maintaining the fertility and health of the rice fields as they stomp the straw into the mud and add nitrogen. They can turn a 20 acre field white when they decide that is the location of todays feeding. So there is another interest in their preservation on that front.

If it helps these areas also mitigate habitat loss for other species. Last time I was at the conservation area a family of river otters (very rare here) felt comfortable posing for the guided tour walking through. Only my second wild river otter sighting ever.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> Sorry CC, but

....conservation easements make things better for hunters not worse. When ducks, geese and other wildfowl have areas to escape hunting (as is proper) they will fill that area and then the overflow will spill out into nearby fields, ponds, rivers and streams where there may or may not be hunting pressure.

What is an absolute fact though is that conservation areas increase both the numbers of waterfowl and the  "take" of hunters.

Here in the rice growing region there are huge flocks of geese but when you go to view the geese at the reserve you can hear hunters guns going the whole time. It takes some getting used to.

The geese and ducks are also being credited with maintaining the fertility and health of the rice fields as they stomp the straw into the mud and add nitrogen. They can turn a 20 acre field white when they decide that is the location of todays feeding. So there is another interest in their preservation on that front.

If it helps these areas also mitigate habitat loss for other species. Last time I was at the conservation area a family of river otters (very rare here) felt comfortable posing for the guided tour walking through. Only my second wild river otter sighting ever.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> Comment #5 by caniscandida http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:32:53 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/5 "rice-growing region"

The Mississippi Delta?  That makes sense.  That was where, back in early 2004, a duck-hunting trip made by Dick Cheney, with Antonin Scalia as guest, raised eyebrows:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/19/scotus.cheney.s ...

In that case, the location was private property in Louisiana; whether rice is cultivated thereabouts is uncertain, but is certainly possible.

(And at least that time, Cheney is not reported to have shot anybody -- which is unfortunate, actually, because Scalia would have made a wonderful target.  He was not too far from there, in east Texas, when he shot his pal the Texas lawyer; on that occasion I think his stated intention was to shoot not ducks but quail.)

Also, at around the same time, in early 2004, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was believed to have been re-discovered in a swampy forest in eastern Arkansas.  That forest is said to be valuable as a resource for the region, because it is a destination for duck-hunters.

Bass Pro Shops, a major hook-and-bullet-crowd supplier, have their headquarters a bit further north, on a large compound outside Springfield, Missouri.  My mother-in-law, who lives in Springfield, likes their restaurant, so a couple of times I have got her gift certificates to use there.

Her late husband was an accomplished skeet shooter; I do not know if he ever shot ducks or other animals.  She has got rid of all his guns, or so I understand.  But she can be deadly, regardless, when she needs to be.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

]]> "rice-growing region"

The Mississippi Delta?  That makes sense.  That was where, back in early 2004, a duck-hunting trip made by Dick Cheney, with Antonin Scalia as guest, raised eyebrows:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/19/scotus.cheney.s ...

In that case, the location was private property in Louisiana; whether rice is cultivated thereabouts is uncertain, but is certainly possible.

(And at least that time, Cheney is not reported to have shot anybody -- which is unfortunate, actually, because Scalia would have made a wonderful target.  He was not too far from there, in east Texas, when he shot his pal the Texas lawyer; on that occasion I think his stated intention was to shoot not ducks but quail.)

Also, at around the same time, in early 2004, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was believed to have been re-discovered in a swampy forest in eastern Arkansas.  That forest is said to be valuable as a resource for the region, because it is a destination for duck-hunters.

Bass Pro Shops, a major hook-and-bullet-crowd supplier, have their headquarters a bit further north, on a large compound outside Springfield, Missouri.  My mother-in-law, who lives in Springfield, likes their restaurant, so a couple of times I have got her gift certificates to use there.

Her late husband was an accomplished skeet shooter; I do not know if he ever shot ducks or other animals.  She has got rid of all his guns, or so I understand.  But she can be deadly, regardless, when she needs to be.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

]]> Comment #6 by Black Wallaby http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:16:35 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/6 Dog-Fungus

I don't know how anyone can shoot duckies.
There are several species in Australia that seem to pair-off maybe for life, and they raise families.

They clearly have emotions and caring.

The Wood-Ducks are lovely and a family group of ~12 is common, here in the South East. I and even my car have been "threatened" by male wood-ducks in defence of his family or spouse!

Perhaps you are a tolerable person after-all.

Just one question; What is a Skeet shooter?

]]> Dog-Fungus

I don't know how anyone can shoot duckies.
There are several species in Australia that seem to pair-off maybe for life, and they raise families.

They clearly have emotions and caring.

The Wood-Ducks are lovely and a family group of ~12 is common, here in the South East. I and even my car have been "threatened" by male wood-ducks in defence of his family or spouse!

Perhaps you are a tolerable person after-all.

Just one question; What is a Skeet shooter?

]]> Comment #7 by amazingdrx http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:47:08 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/7 Ducks

It's not just ducks that live on conservation land.

It is plants that store carbon.  And living soil that dequesters the carbon.

This commodity "bread man", needs to lose all his tax subsidies doled out by the politicians he buys.

Organic farmers need those subsidies.  So we can all afford to bake with organic flour.  Local bread from your local bakery.  Put fake bread and the bread men out of business.

They have enough loot to retire.  Their time is passed.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

]]> Ducks

It's not just ducks that live on conservation land.

It is plants that store carbon.  And living soil that dequesters the carbon.

This commodity "bread man", needs to lose all his tax subsidies doled out by the politicians he buys.

Organic farmers need those subsidies.  So we can all afford to bake with organic flour.  Local bread from your local bakery.  Put fake bread and the bread men out of business.

They have enough loot to retire.  Their time is passed.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

]]> Comment #8 by caniscandida http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:53:22 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/bushs-bread-man/8 defensiveness

We in the US spell the word "defense" -- but it does not really matter, does it, with respect to the history of the English language; and anyway it has been so associated with Donald Rumsfeld recently that one would prefer a moratorium.

As for your defensive ducks, Black Wallaby: Well, I do not know if you yourself deserve such aggressive treatment; but perhaps we should import such valiant ducks, for use when vehicles get out of hand in this country.

"Skeet shooting" I believe involves ejecting a clay disk into the air by a mechanical sling, which disk, slung into the air at the marksman's command, is then to be shot by the marksman.  So nothing directly dies.  Hopefully, the sling-loader is paid fairly, and tipped generously, but who knows about such things.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

]]> defensiveness

We in the US spell the word "defense" -- but it does not really matter, does it, with respect to the history of the English language; and anyway it has been so associated with Donald Rumsfeld recently that one would prefer a moratorium.

As for your defensive ducks, Black Wallaby: Well, I do not know if you yourself deserve such aggressive treatment; but perhaps we should import such valiant ducks, for use when vehicles get out of hand in this country.

"Skeet shooting" I believe involves ejecting a clay disk into the air by a mechanical sling, which disk, slung into the air at the marksman's command, is then to be shot by the marksman.  So nothing directly dies.  Hopefully, the sling-loader is paid fairly, and tipped generously, but who knows about such things.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

]]>