AR-News: (US) Dennis Kucinich and the Question

[Animalconcerns]

[from Dissident Voice]

Today, the cattle and crop industries in Iowa are owned by massive
agribusinesses which keep thousands of head in tight quarters. The waste
created by this is extraordinary, and goes straight into the ground.
Likewise, massive industrial pig farms create untold thousands of gallons
of pig manure which are stored in huge ‘lagoons.’ No material crafted by
human ingenuity can contain this caustic filth, and so these lagoons
breach their containers and further contaminate the water table. The
stench from these lagoons is so extreme that houses a mile downwind become
covered in flies.

In five years, the aquifer underneath the state will be completely
polluted by dung and chemicals. The topsoil, denuded by factory farming,
will continue to disappear, and continue to require chemical fertilizers
to bring forth the crops. The introduction of genetically modified crops
to the landscape, meanwhile, will change the ecosystem in ways we do not
even begin to understand.
...
Recently, America endured its first Mad Cow scare. We were told that
everything was under control, but this was a fantastic lie. Mad Cow is
transferred two ways: In the manure or in the feed, two conduits that are
demonstrably connected. Factory cattle farms in Iowa feed their animals an
incredibly dangerous mixture. A massive turkey farm north of Des Moines
composts the corpses of dead turkeys, mixed with the sawdust bedding they
live in. The product of this is sold to the factory farms, which mix it
with rotten candy bars purchased from candy manufacturers.
...
If you think this problem is limited to Iowa, you are dead wrong. David,
the man driving the van, described all of this to me in the context of
Iowa, and in the context of the farm his grandfather owned there many
years ago, but it is a national crisis. When Dennis Kucinich went on later
that weekend to discuss farm policy, the control of genetically-modified
crops, and a process of moving away from corporate concentrations of power
in agriculture, it wasn’t just pandering to the farm voters.
...
There is an assumed caricature of the typical Kucinich supporter that has
worked its way into the public consciousness. People who support Kucinich
are moonbeamers who commune with crystals, and who are fifth-level vegans
who only eat food that doesn’t cast a shadow. I was fully expecting to
meet crowds of people asking Kucinich if he would sign their auras. The
reality, I quickly saw, was far different.

Kucinich stopped at coffee houses, at town halls, at art galleries, and
was met each time by hundreds of people. Often, there was no room inside
these places because of the crowds, and dozens of people were forced to
wait outside in 18 degree temperatures and a bitter wind. They waited. And
waited. And waited. And finally met the candidate. And left feeling
supercharged.

I met veterans, and union workers, and college kids, and grandmothers.
Here and there were the occasional Grateful Dead tour refugees, but one
can find these folk within virtually every campaign. These were very
normal people, and they all loved Dennis Kucinich.

full story:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Pitt0126.htm

----------
Your Portal to Animal Concerns Forum (discussion board), More News
Headlines, AR-News on the Web, Events, E-Mail Lists, Jobs, and
Organizations! Try searching for the news item on Animalconcerns!
http://www.animalconcerns.org/





-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/