Riding Herd
“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” by LEE PITTS
– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
November 15, 2017 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 59 • No. 11
The Other Red Meat
BY LEE PITTS
Don’t interfere with something that ain’t botherin’ you none.
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mericans eat a ton of food. No, we aren’t being flippant. That’s how much food each of us will eat in a year. A ton. Of the ton we’ll eat in 2017, 217 pounds will be meat. In 2018 it’s expected to be 218 pounds. How utterly mathematical! Wasn’t it just 20 years ago it looked like we were turning into a nation of tofu and bean sprout eaters? Meat consumption had fallen to 202 pounds per person and was trending down. The great meat success story that no one is telling now is how, despite all the bad things vegetarians were saying about us, we’re only a couple pounds shy of the all time high in meat consumption. Sadly, beef was not the meat responsible for the comeback.
High On The Hog
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
Americans have fallen back in love with meat. We ate 55.6 pounds of beef in 2016 which was the first year in a long time that beef consumption didn’t go down. The ten years previous saw it plummet 15 percent. While we should feel good about beef’s meager comeback we shouldn’t get too complacent because there’s an old familiar competitor ready to eat our lunch... and our breakfast and our dinner. In any discussion about
competing meats we can forget about poultry, chicken left beef in the dust a long time ago. Now the race is for second place and for the first time beef could soon be relegated to third place. Next year it’s estimated that for the first time in recorded U.S. history we will produce more pork than beef and also eat more of it. We should really be worried because pork has something chicken never had: good taste! Pork is bacon, ham, spare ribs, pork chops, and sausage. See the difference? What’s not to like?
As much as they tried to fool people into thinking that pork is the other white meat, pork is not chicken. One of the reason for pork’s resurgence is they gave up on the idea of being a white meat. It was a ridiculous claim to begin with. Now pork wants to be the other red meat and it’s a much better fit. American’s pork consumption has increased nearly 30 percent since 1975 and sales of pork are up 20 percent in the last six years. John Nalivka, President of Sterling Marketing predicts that pork production will rise another three percent in 2017
and four percent in 2018. If this were a meat Olympics beef would win the bronze.
What A Difference A Decade Makes If there’s one thing responsible for pork’s resurgence it’s bacon. That’s right, we said bacon, which has become the most costly cut of the hog. “Bacon has been an ‘in food’ for several years,” says Ron Plain, professor emeritus in agricultural economics at the University of Missouri. One food critic went so far as to call bacon “sexy”.
Bacon? Sexy? Thanks largely to a growing demand for bacon the American Farm Bureau’s regular survey of food products rose by three percent compared to prices year ago. According to the Farm Bureau, “Average retail bacon prices during the continued on page two
Today’s Environmentalists Would Have Blocked George Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware BY KEVIN MOONEY
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f you visited Washington Crossing State Park in New Jersey in early October, you will have had the opportunity to travel back in time. This year marks the 241st anniversary of General George Washington’s famous Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River in 1776. More than 100 colonial re-enactors were in the park to participate in Revolutionary War Weekend, which included “educational programs,” “colonial life demonstrations,” and historical talks about the pivotal events of the revolutionary period. For those that did make the trip, there was no escape from contemporary public policy disputes. The roadways in and around the park and the adjoining neighbors include signs that say “We the People Say No to PennEast.” There are other versions of the signs that all take aim against a proposed 120-mile, 36-inch diameter, underground natural gas pipeline that would originate near the Pocono Mountains, extend across Eastern Pennsylvania and the Delaware River into Mercer County, New Jersey. The six companies that are part of the PennEast Pipeline project are awaiting final approval from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this fall.
If the project does move forward, as is widely expected, the natural gas pipeline will dramatically lower energy prices for consumers in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to studies PennEast has cited. Environmental activists who are opposed to the project claim the pipeline will result in both economic and environmental damage. Jeff Tittel, who serves as director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, has made this argument. “PennEast will cut through quaint, bucolic towns that depend on ecotourism,” he said in a phone interview. “So the pipeline will actually hurt the economy. These are very old, historic areas. This is the area where Washington crossed the Delaware and one of the places where PennEast wants to put the pipeline is where Washington’s army camped on the New Jersey side before they crossed to the Pennsylvania side when he crossed back. There are pristine waterways and endangered species in the area. The pipeline will have to cross over 256 streams and the people don’t want it.” But even as environmental activists invoke Washington’s name to drive public opinion, the proponents of natural gas development see those same environmentalists embracing continued on page fifteen
Drug Lords H
e walked into the dump of a diner the regulars called “Aphids Place” and quickly surveyed the landscape. There were only six tables with six more seats at a dirty counter. He was there because an anonymous snitch said a major drug deal would be going down. The undercover cop quickly saw the suspected perps sitting in a booth tucked away in the back near the kitchen door. It was a seedy hole in California’s San Joaquin Valley, the milk and meth capital of the world. The cop had been in hundreds of such places, the kind frequented in early mornings by truck drivers, farmers, ranchers, and heavy equipment operators. He must admit, the druggies fit right in. Sitting on one side of the table was a man in his twenties, wearing a dirty, sweat-stained straw hat, cheap jeans he probably bought off the clearance rack at Target and a tee shirt that was frayed at the collar and on the front showed a funny car at the Famoso Drag strip with flames roaring from its fenders. Colorful tattoos peaked from beneath his shirt. On the opposite side of the table sat a man and a woman who appeared to be married. Maybe, or maybe not, to each other. He wore a ball cap, long sleeve shirt and boots that had never felt a shoeshine. She was a fairly attractive woman who wore sunglasses rimmed in rhinestones with gaudy turquoise surrounding her wrists. Admittedly, not your typical looking crackhead but the deadly addiction attracts all kinds. Now they were all three trapped in the tight grasp of a worldwide cartel that sold premedicated murder. The narco cop took a seat at the far end of the counter with his back to the drug buyers. It was as close as he could get without sitting in their laps. He
continued on page seven
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Livestock Market Digest
November 15, 2017
MEAT
continued from page one
because American consumers are going through a phase where they’re trying all sorts of new cuisine from around the world, especially Asian cuisine where pork is popular. Pork is also popular amongst Latinos. In fact, pork is the most commonly consumed meat in the world, accounting for 38 percent of all the meat consumed worldwide.
featured a pork chop for gosh sakes! What has the world come to? It’s a good sign for meat that it was one of the first things people spent money on when they got some cash after the last recession. The bad news is the meat wasn’t necessarily beef. Dennis Smith, analyst at Archer Financial Services says, “More people are eating out, and pork is in a good position in the food service sector. Just look at all the bacon they’re putting on burgers. Last winter, demand grew so high that the country’s pork-belly supply hit a 50-year low — sparking (unfounded) fears of a bacon shortage.” Pork has been the primary benefactor of the trend of consumers going out more for breakfast where bacon and sausage are the mostly widely used meats. Pork is also benefitting
ELM
Thinking The Unthinkable While more beef slaughterhouses are being shuttered, the pork industry is adding new capacity. In Iowa meatpackers are investing half a billion dollars in pork processing plants. One $300 million plant will be capable of killing 20,000 hogs a day and another 10,000 head. If they can find enough hogs to kill the USDA predicts the new plants will be capable of adding almost
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past year alone rose about 19 percent. It was the highest percentage increase for any of the 16 items that make up the survey’s marketbasket.” Whoever thought that deli ham would sell for $5.62 per pound at the same time that a sirloin tip roast cost $5.17 per pound? What should really get cattlemen’s attention is that given that choice, more and more consumers are buying the ham. Pork has become the most popular meat amongst young chefs who are finding innovative ways to serve it. Just a couple years ago bacon and pork were taboo at high class restaurants because people thought it was fattening and potentially carcinogenic. Now even steakhouses are offering ham slices, spareribs and a pork chop they’re calling a “porterhouse”. The Longhorn Steakhouse even
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a BILLION NEW POUNDS of pork per year. That’s why the USDA is estimating that pork production will soon exceed that of beef. Such a statement would have been unthinkable and heresy 20 years ago. Pig farming has come a long way from the initial 13 hogs that Hernando de Soto “the father of the American pork industry” brought with him when he first set foot in Florida. To show you what we are up against, by the time de Soto died three years later, his original herd of 13 had grown to over 700 head! After Swift invented the refrigerated rail car in 1887 swine soon turned the Corn Belt into the Hog Belt. Pigs have many advantages over beef. Sows and gilts average litters of ten piglets more than twice a year and the pigs convert better on grain, have a shorter gestation period and a faster turnover in generations so genetic progress can be made faster. In just 22 to 26 weeks a farrow-to-finish operation can take a three week old weaned piglet to 280 pounds! While pork doesn’t have the iron content of beef, it is better than broilers and pork is very high in vitamin B1. Pork with its fat trimmed is leaner than the meat of most domesticated animals. But pig producers got carried away and made their pigs so lean that pork was losing its flavor. Now they are going back to the old ways and no, we’re not talking about garbage feeding. We’re talking about pork before the Pork Board got so carried away with its Other White Meat campaign. Finally a rational person at the NPPC must have asked, why would anyone want to taste like chicken? Why shouldn’t the goal be to taste like a New York Steak? Swine producers had to reach back to old time heritage breeds like Berkshire and Tamworth breeds to cross with their toolean Durocs, Hampshires and Yorkshires. Now their motto could easily be, “Pork the other red meat.” Even the USDA now officially considers pork a red meat. What spurred the transformation back to good tasting hogs was a better check-up at the doctor’s office from Harvard School of Public Health who praised it for not having any unhealthy trans fats. Carnegie Mellon University joined pork’s cheerleading section when it dropped this bombshell: “Lettuce is over three times worse in greenhouse gas emissions than eating bacon.” The bad news for pig farmers is hogs don’t eat grass, are dependent on grain and soybeans markets, are water intensive, the waste is kept in huge ugly, smelly lagoons and they are raised in such close quarters they are more susceptible to disease. Currently the swine industry is grappling with the elimination of farrowing cages thanks to animal rightists. Even though it’s been proven that more baby pigs are killed in free range environments than with
farrowing crates, the “free the pig” crowd is demanding that the stalls be eliminated. This has caused other problems because both reproduction and performance are diminished in group housing. Then there is the whole religious thing where the consumption of pork is forbidden by Jewish and Muslim dietary law. But even in Israel 200,000 hogs are processed per year.
Following The Playbook Thirty years ago the swine industry consisted of mainly small, independent hog operations but since then the number of hog farms has declined by over 70 percent and the number of hog producers has declined by 90%. And the big have gotten bigger as operations with over 5,000 swine now produce around 70% of all pork. The National Pork Producers Council currently says it represents 60,000 producers but we suspect even that is a highly inflated number. The swine industry has mirrored the chicken business to the point that many pork producers don’t own the hogs they’re raising. Granted, these structural changes have made the industry more efficient and produced a more consistent product but you could probably fit all the independent hog producers in the country in one swine barn. The five largest pork producers in the U.S., Smithfield, Tyson, JBS, Hormel and Cargill also produce beef and poultry and are currently trying to do to the beef industry what they did to the chicken and pork industries. They certainly know how to do it, they wrote the playbook.
Brain Food The U.S. is the world’s third-largest producer and consumer of pork and pork products and exports accounted for over 21 percent of sales in 2016 compared to just two percent in 1990. The same four countries that make up most of beef exports also account for 75 percent of U.S. pork exports: Mexico, China, Japan and Canada. Mexico alone accounts for nearly one-third of U.S. pork exports. After a Chinese firm bought Smithfield, the largest pork processor in the U.S. and the world, China began importing more and more American pork. The Chinese market is important to swine producers because China consumes more that half of all the pork produced in the world. Beef is at a distinct disadvantage in China because Chinese consumers prefer pork to beef, consider it “more clean” and pork is regarded as”brain food” there. Pork is so important to China that the nation maintains a “strategic pork reserve” just as we do with oil. When Hong Kong-based Shuanghui International bought Smithfield it was a brilliant move because Chinese consumers distrust their domestic producers and American pork continued on page three
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Livestock Market Digest
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MEAT is seen as superior, except in one specific area that is. China “just says no” to beta agonists, specifically Ractopamine®, which is banned in the European Union, Mainland China, Russia and 27 other countries but is still being used in the U.S. After the Chinese bought Smithfiled they started cleaning up their act and began moving away from its use. American beef also enjoys a good reputation in China but it’s yet to be seen if China is willing to import a large chunk of its annual beef consumption without owning the company doing the importing. Until China can gain the upper hand in any trade deal American beef will be just as hard to find in China as it is in any Chinese restaurant in America. They may have pork wonton soup, pork chow mien and pork spareribs but good luck finding anything with beef in it.
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NCBA’s Role Model Just as with beef, there’s drama and controversy surrounding the pork checkoff. In 1985 the Pork Act established a pork checkoff and the Pork Board as a quasi-governmental entity to administer it. Two years later the Pork Board began its “other white meat” campaign because there was a public perception that white meats were healthier than red meat. Needless to say, the campaign was very effective. The primary contractor to the Pork Board is the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the equivalent of beef’s NCBA. It was the NPPC that actually ran the other white meat campaign. In 2006 the Pork Board, funded by checkoff dollars, purchased the rights to the “Pork: The Other White Meat” and other slogans from the NPPC for $35 million.
First Transgenic Cattle Pharm Breaks Ground in South Dakota BY AGDAILY REPORTERS
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first-of-its-kind greenfield biopharmaceutical production pharm is coming to South Dakota. SAB, founded in 2014, develops human antibody therapeutics utilizing plasma from transgenic cattle (TcBovine™). “This is a historic day for SAB Biotherapeutics, South Dakota, and the bioscience industry,” said SAB Biotherapeutics president, CEO and co-founder Dr. Eddie Sullivan. “We’re excited to be utilizing this cutting-edge science, so proud of our dedicated team, and grateful for the confidence of our investors and support of our industry, state, and community–enabling us to forge a new path and make a global impact on human health.” The TcBovine have been genetically designed to produce large amounts of natural human polyclonal antibodies when vaccinated against a target disease. To produce a therapeutic, the cattle are vaccinated against a particular disease in much the same way that humans receive a flu vaccination. Within a brief period of time, they produce significant amounts of fully human antibodies (a natural immune response). Plasma is collected from the cattle and purified in the company’s biomanufacturing facility to isolate the antibodies–thus becoming the therapeutic treatment for that disease. Animal antibodies have been made in rabbits, sheep, and horses for use in hu-
mans. However, SAB’s platform is the first to produce fully human antibodies in any large animal species, like cattle. The 80-acre pharm is the first facility of its kind designed specifically for cattle. The greenfield construction phase will house current production animals with infrastructure to grow ten-fold. “The pharm is a key component to owning the entire supply chain–from development through production– to improve efficiency and streamline operations while laying an important foundation for more rapid and expansive growth,” added Sullivan. Phase I of the project includes a four-building complex with a total footprint of approximately 40,000 sq. ft. and four full-time employees caring for 40 animals. The buildings will be used for birthing and housing our TcBovine with areas specifically designed for plasma collection, research, veterinary care, feed, and equipment storage and offices. Phase 2, is planned over a number of years, and includes 8 buildings with more than 100,000 sq. ft., approximately 40 employees and 400 animals at full capacity. “At full capacity, just 20 percent of production at the new facility could potentially supply the entire seasonal influenza market,” Sullivan added. The company’s first two treatments are in clinical trials, with other infectious disease, oncology, and autoimmune targets in development.
That’s a whopping sum of money for the Pork Board to buy something that was developed with their checkoff money to begin with, but the initial price tag had even been higher at $60 million. How could an entity sell something back to a Board that financed it in the first place with checkoff dollars? And should a check-off organization be allowed to pay a
lobbying organization for its intellectual property? In essence, NPPC charged pork producers twice. In actuality, the sale was just a way to transfer checkoff dollars into the coffers of the NCBA-like NPPC. A short time after buying the rights to ‘the other white meat’ the Pork Board killed the campaign, begging the question, why did they buy it in the first place? It was slick tricks like this
that made the NCBA idolize the NPPC. We’re writing about pork in a beef publication to raise a vital question. To better compete with pork will it be necessary for us to look more like them, with far fewer producers, much bigger operations, contract production, all ruled over by a domineering NCCP-like NCBA? The question is, if so, is it worth it?
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Livestock Market Digest
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If The Endangered Species Act Doesn’t Adapt, It Will Go Extinct BY ALEX BEREZOW WWW.ACSH.ORG
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very so often, the world debates whether or not it should exterminate the only known samples of smallpox. So far, we always have decided to keep them around, just in case we need them for research or vaccine development. To end this debate once and for all, David Boze wrote a piece for American Spectator, in which he proposed that we declare smallpox an endangered species. His tongue-in-cheek article highlighted some of the absurdities of the Endangered Species Act. For instance, for a species to
be declared “endangered,” only one of five criteria have to be met. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), those criteria are: • the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; • overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; • disease or predation; • the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or • other natural or manmade factors affecting its survival. Currently, the U.S. has listed 1,656 species as endangered or threatened. But with such broad criteria, the real mystery is why
there aren’t several thousand more. The criterion “other natural or manmade factors affecting its survival” could apply to just about any species on Earth. So, we might as well add smallpox to the list.
Did the Endangered Species Act Work? Let’s set aside the flimsiness of the inclusion criteria and ask a more important question: Did the Endangered Species Act work? In other words, did the ESA accomplish what it sought to accomplish, namely the successful protection of species on the brink of extinction? The answer probably depends on whom you ask. One study found that the longer a species has been listed, the more likely it is to recover. The ESA has also prevented most of them from becoming extinct, however, only about 28 species have recovered enough to be de-listed. Thus, the Endangered Species List is sort of like the Roach Motel -- species check in,
but they don’t check out. That might imply that the ESA isn’t working. Some environmentalists contend that, despite receiving $1.4 billion annually, endangered species need more funding. But that is not convincing. The solution to mismanagement is rarely more money. (See the K-12 education system, for a case-inpoint.) Instead, the solution is smarter management. Arguably, the ESA has not been smartly enforced, and in some cases, it has been abused. Consider this nightmare story by a landowner who has found himself held hostage by an endangered species. A Louisiana man, who owns 1,544 acres, essentially has had his land confiscated by the USFWS for the benefit of the dusky gopher frog. The only problem, according to AgWeb, is that the frog doesn’t actually live there. It did at one time, but it doesn’t anymore. To add yet another Kafkaesque twist, while the government can take away this man’s property
rights without compensation, they cannot force him to reintroduce the frog. So, nobody wins -- neither the frog, nor the humans, unless the human is a lawyer. The lawyers always win, and the taxpayer foots the bill for the lawsuits fought by USFWS. Ironically, the ESA also has unintended consequences. The authors of Freakonomics argue that habitat destruction actually increases in the short-term after a species receives endangered status. Why? Because people rush to develop their land, just in case their property is designated as critical habitat. A mixed success record, abuse, regulatory mismanagement, and unintended consequences. Combined, these make the case that the Endangered Species Act is not working as intended. Though calls for its repeal are a bit extreme, those calls will only grow louder if the injustices to landowners remain unaddressed. The ESA must adapt, or it might find itself extinct.
Administrator Pruitt Issues Directive to End EPA “Sue & Settle” “The days of regulation through litigation are over,” – EPA
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n fulfilling his promise to end the practice of regulation through litigation that has harmed the American public, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued an Agency-wide directive in mid-October designed to end “sue and settle” practices within the Agency, providing an unprecedented level of public participation and transparency in EPA consent decrees and settlement agreements. “The days of regulation through litigation are over,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
“We will no longer go behind closed doors and use consent decrees and settlement agreements to resolve lawsuits filed against the Agency by special interest groups where doing so would circumvent the regulatory process set forth by Congress. Additionally, gone are the days of routinely paying tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees to these groups with which we swiftly settle.” Over the years, outside the regulatory process, special interest groups have used lawsuits that seek to force federal agencies – especially EPA – to issue regulations that advance their interests and priorities, on their specified timeframe. EPA gets sued by an outside party that is asking the court to compel the Agency to take certain steps, either through change in a statutory duty or enforcing timelines set by the law, and then EPA will acquiesce through a consent decree or settlement agreement, affecting the Agency’s obligations under the statute. More specifically, EPA either commits to taking an action that is not a mandatory requirement under its governing statutes or agrees to a specific, unreasonable timeline to act. Oftentimes, these agreements are reached with little to no public input or transparency. That is regulation through litigation, and it is inconsistent with the authority that Congress has granted and the responsibility to operate in an open and fair manner. “Sue and settle” cases establish Agency obligations without participation by states and/or the regulated community; foreclose meaningful public participation in rulemaking; effectively force the Agency to reach cer-
tain regulatory outcomes; and, cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars. With today’s directive, Administrator Pruitt is ensuring the Agency increase transparency, improve public engagement, and provide accountability to the American public when considering a settlement agreement or consent decree by: • Publishing any notices of intent to sue the Agency within 15 days of receiving the notice; • Publishing any complaints or petitions for review in regard to an environmental law, regulation, or rule in which the Agency is a defendant or respondent in federal court within 15 days of receipt; • Reaching out to and including any states and/or regulated entities affected by potential settlements or consent decrees; • Publishing a list of consent decrees and settlement agreements that govern Agency actions within 30 days, along with any attorney fees paid, and update it within 15 days of any new consent decree or settlement agreement; • Expressly forbidding the practice of entering into any consent decrees that exceed the authority of the courts; • Excluding attorney’s fees and litigation costs when settling with those suing the Agency; • Providing sufficient time to issue or modify proposed and final rules, take and consider public comment; and • Publishing any proposed or modified consent decrees and settlements for 30-day public comment, and providing a public hearing on a proposed consent decree or settlement when requested.
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Little owl sparks a large ESA flap T MICHAEL DOYLE, E&E NEWS REPORTER
he cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl is at the center of a court fight over the meaning of an ambiguous phrase in the Endangered Species Act. Brian Dunnette/Flickr The cactus ferruginous pygmy-owls that inhabit Arizona are sticking the Fish and Wildlife Service with a pretty big problem. And it’s not just the owl that gives a hoot. The federal agency is scrambling to save its interpretation of a crucial but notoriously ambiguous phrase in the Endangered Species Act. What an Arizona-based judge next decides in a lawsuit over the pygmy-owl could buffet officials and other species alike. “The bottom line is, they are looking for a way to avoid listing species,” said attorney Eric Glitzenstein, who represents environmental groups challenging the agency. The ESA phrase in question is “significant portion of its range.” Under the 1973 law, officials must determine whether a species is at mortal risk throughout either all or a significant portion of its range. Consequently, how the phrase is interpreted can determine whether a species is deemed threatened or endangered or is denied Endangered Species Act protections altogether. Recently, for instance, FWS relied on its disputed interpretation of the fiveword phrase in concluding neither the Kenk’s amphipod nor the Deseret milkvetch needed the ESA’s help (Greenwire, Sept. 29). Everyone agrees the phrase lacks clarity, prompting one federal appellate court in 2001 to pronounce it “puzzling”
TCFA Elects New Officers and Board Members
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he Texas Cattle Feeders Association elected new officers during their 50th Annual Convention held in early October in Amarillo. Jason Peeler, Floresville will serve as chairman of the board; Levi Berry, Happy as chairman-elect; and Paul Defoor, Amarillo as vice chairman. Members elected to oneyear terms on the board of directors are William Bransgrove, Hereford; Ben Fort, Dimmitt; Tyler Keeling, Amarillo; Jason Peeler, Floresville; and Kynan Sturgess, Hereford. Members elected for twoyear terms are Cee Arnett, Farwell; Levi Berry, Happy; Michael Bezner, Dalhart; Joe Richards, Hereford; Brad Stout, Amarillo; and Dwayne Thompson, Dumas. Members elected to three-year terms are Scott Anderson, Guymon, Okla.; Paul Defoor, Amarillo; Robby Kirkland, Vega; Gene Lowrey, Dalhart; Steve Olson, Hereford; and Jim Simpson, Canyon.
and forcing FWS to spend years trying to figure it out. But in a March 29 ruling that’s now being second-guessed, Arizona U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez struck down the agency’s “significant portion of its range” (SPR) policy adopted in 2014. Though the specific case centers on the compact pygmy-owl, which tops out at about 6.75 inches in length, Márquez’s ruling extends nationwide. “The Final SPR Policy is ‘arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,’” Márquez wrote, adding that the policy’s intent “is arguably at odds with the conservation purposes of the ESA.” Márquez’s ruling stung the federal agency, not least because she reached out from her Tucson courthouse to touch species everywhere. Officials quickly asked the Obama administration appointee to reconsider; at the very least, officials want her to narrow the decision’s reach. “Federal agencies are not properly
bound nationwide by the decisions of individual district courts on questions of statutory interpretation,” the Justice Department subsequently argued in one court filing. Underscoring the case’s importance, Justice Department attorneys added that “because the ‘significant portion of its range’ phrase is central to the definitions of ‘endangered species’ and ‘threatened species,’ [officials] need a way to apply that language.” The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, which sued on behalf of the pygmy-owl, want Márquez to hold firm. “Courts in this and other [appellate] circuits routinely vacate regulations and other final agency actions of broad scope when they are deemed to be in violation of the law,” the environmentalists stated in a court filing. A decision is pending, even as attorneys disagree over the current status of Márquez’s original order.
History Environmentalists first petitioned in 1992 for the administration to list the pygmy-owl under the ESA. The FWS did so in 1997, but then withdrew the listing in 2006 on grounds that the bird’s Arizona population was not a truly distinct population segment. In 2011, the agency declined to relist the pygmy-owl, which FWS scientists describe as “cryptic” and “difficult to observe.” Environmentalists contend the agency should have more thoroughly considered the loss of bird habitat in the Sonoran Desert of Mexico. Geographically, this represents 20 percent or more of the bird’s range. Federal officials, though, reasoned
that even if the pygmy-owl disappeared from the desert, the bird with lemon-yellow eyes would likely survive in the remaining portion of its range. As finalized in 2014, the policy of FWS and NOAA Fisheries states a significant portion of its range meant “the portion’s contribution to the viability of the species is so important that, without the members in that portion, the species would be in danger of extinction, or likely to become so in the foreseeable future, throughout all of its range.” Márquez ruled this interpretation was invalid and “superfluous,” noting that it set a high threshold. Environmentalists want what Glitzenstein called a “more flexible” interpretation. But following Márquez’s decision, FWS has effectively continued using the same interpretation. The agency stated Márquez’s ruling was “based on two misunderstandings” when officials announced the no-protection decisions for the Kenk’s amphipod and Deseret milk-vetch. “They are continuing to apply an interpretation that a judge has deemed illegal,” Glitzenstein said. “That’s usually problematic.” Glitzenstein added that “simply filing a motion for reconsideration does not automatically stay a court order” and said “the vacatur is now in effect.” An official with the service, speaking on the condition of anonymity, insisted the judge’s ruling has not yet taken effect “because we filed a motion for reconsideration.” The aide added that the service is not acting in defiance of the judge’s order but is taking every species decision on a case-by-case basis. “We are aware that it could become vacated,” the official said.
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100 Registered Females
1100+ Commercial Females • Large groups of Bred Heifers sorted into calving & sire groups. • Fancy set of 2 Year old Cows with sexed pregnancies. • Select Group of F1 Baldy Heifers. • Heifer Calves • Proven Cows
Other Sire Groups Include: Diamond in the Rough - Basin Payweight 1682 Cavalry - Ultimate Answer - Still in the Rough Final Option - Cowboy Up - Aviator
DL Sonic 444
17918412
CED
+14
BW
-2.6
WW
+80
MILK
+19
YW
+135
Marb
+0.57
RE
+0.51
$B
146.46
Clint & Adana Stevenson Hobson, MT 59452
406.374.2250 (home) 406.366.9023 (Clint cell)
www.StevensonsDiamondDot.com
Page 6
Livestock Market Digest
November 15, 2017
Eye-Catching Labels Stigmatize Many Healthy Foods SOURCE: WWW.FEEDSTUFFS.COM
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tudy finds “process” labels like organic, fair trade and cage free can affect consumer behavior, even when there’s no scientific basis. When customers walk down aisles of grocery stores, they are inundated with labels such as organic, fair trade and cage free, just to name a few. Labels such as these may be eye-catching but are often free of any scientific basis and stigmatize many healthy foods, a new University of Delaware-led study found. The paper, published recently in the journal Applied Economics Perspectives & Policy, examined the good, the bad and the ugly of food labeling to see how “process” labels — those that identify the process by which a food was produced — positively or negatively influenced consumer behavior. By reviewing more than 90 academic studies on consumer response to process labels, the researchers found that while these labels satisfy consumer demand for quality assurances and can create value for both consumers and producers, misinterpretation is common and can stigmatize food produced by conventional processes, even when there is no scientific evidence that those foods cause harm. For the poor, in particular, there is danger in misunderstanding which food items are safe, said Kent Messer, the study’s lead author and the University of Delaware Unidel Howard Cosgrove career development chair for the environment.
“That has me worried about the poor and those who are food insecure, because now, you’re trying to make everything a high-end food choice, and frankly, we just want to have healthy food choices. We don’t need to have extra labels that scare away people,” said Messer, who is also director of the Center for Experimental & Applied Economics in the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources. Process labels, by definition, focus on the production of a food but largely ignore important outcomes of the process, such as taste or healthiness. According to Messer and his study co-authors, policy changes could help consumers better understand their choices. They argue that governments should not impose bans on process labels but, rather, encourage labels that help document how the processes affect important quality traits, such as calorie count. “Relying on process labels alone, on the other hand, is a laissez faire approach that inevitably surrenders the educational component of labeling to mass media, the colorful array of opinion providers and even food retailers, who may not always be honest brokers of information,” the researchers wrote.
The “good” With regard to the positive impact process labels have on consumers, Messer said they allow consumers to more freely align their purchasing decisions with their values and preferences. If, for example, a consumer wants to buy fair trade coffee or a product free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), they are able to do so with greater ease. “The good part is that process labels can help bridge the trust between the producer and the consumer because it gives
“That has me worried about the poor and those who are food insecure… you’re trying to make everything a high-end food choice, and we just want to have healthy food choices.” the consumer more insight into the market,” Messer said. “New products can be introduced this way, niche markets can be created and consumers, in many cases, are willing to pay more for these products. It’s good for industry, consumers are getting what they want and new players get to find ways of getting a higher price.”
The “bad” The bad part about process labels is that consumers are already in the midst of a marketplace filled with information that can be overwhelming due to the sheer amount of product choices and information available. In addition, when consumers go to buy food, many are crunched for time. “Human choice tends to be worse when you put time constraints on it,” Messer said. “Maybe you’ve got a child in the aisle with you, and now you’re adding this new label, and there’s lots of misinterpretation of what it means. “The ‘natural’ label is a classic one that means very little, yet consumers assume it means more than it does,” he added. “They think it means ‘no
GMOs,’ but it doesn’t. They think it means it is ‘organic,’ but it isn’t. This label is not helping them align their values to their food, and they’re paying a price premium but not getting what they wanted to buy.” Messer said another problem is the “halo effect” — an overly optimistic misinterpretation of what a label means. “If you show consumers a chocolate bar that is labeled as ‘fair trade,’ some will tell you that it has lower calories, but the label is not about calories,” Messer said. “Consumers do this frequently with the ‘organic’ label as they think it is healthy for the consumer. Organic practices may be healthier for the farm workers or the environment, but for the actual consumer, there’s very little evidence behind that. You’re getting lots of mixed, wrong messages out there.”
The “ugly” Like halo effects, the ugly side of food processing labels comes into play when the labels sound like they have a positive impact but really have a negative one. A label such as “low food miles” might sound nice, but it could actually be causing more harm than good. “Sometimes, where food is grown doesn’t mean that it’s actually the best for climate change,” Messer said. Hothouse tomatoes grown in Canada, for example, might have low food miles for Canadian consumers, but because of all the energy expended in raising tomatoes in an energy-intensive hothouse in Canada, it’s probably far better environmentally to grow the tomatoes in Florida and then ship them to Canada. “If you just count miles and not true energy use, you can get people paying more money for something that’s actually going the opposite of what they wanted, which is to get a lower carbon footprint,” Messer ex-
plained. He added that the ugly side of food labels is that they introduce a lot of fear into the marketplace that isn’t based on science. “When you start labeling everything as ‘free of this,’ such as ‘gluten-free water,’ you can end up listing stuff that could never have been present in the food in the first place,” Messer said. “These ‘free of’ labels can cause unnecessary fear and cast the conventionally produced food in a harsh, negative light.” Since the vast majority of the food market is still conventionally produced and is the lower-cost product, there is a danger in taking that safe food and calling it unsafe because of a few new entrants into the food market. Messer also said there is evidence that food companies are getting worried about investing in science and technology because they don’t know how consumers are going to respond or how marketers are going to attack their food product because it’s new and different and, therefore, can be labeled as bad or dangerous. “We’ve got a lot of mouths to feed in our country and around the world,” Messer said. “We are currently able to feed so many because of advances in agricultural science and technology. If we’re afraid of that now, we have a long-term impact on the poor that could be quite negative in our country and around the world. That’s when I start thinking these process labels could really be ugly.” Co-authors on the paper include Marco Costanigro, associate professor in the Colorado State University department of agricultural and resource economics, and Harry M. Kaiser, the Gellert Family professor of applied economics in the Cornell University department of applied economics and management.
Isa Beefmasters’ Bulls Sell High
I
sa Beefmasters, LLC’s 56th Beefmaster bull sale was held October 7th in San Angelo, Texas. It was an excellent sale; with 46 buyers from 8 states and Mexico taking home 140 Beefmaster bulls at an average of $4821. Isa’s President, Lorenzo Lasater, stated the sale was extremely strong, with unprecedented demand for good Beefmaster genetics. Auctioneer Joe Goggins of Billings, Montana sold the 140 bulls in the blistering time of 1 hour, 50 minutes. The high-selling bull, L Bar 6209, sold to Dwight Bertrand and Danny Fuller, Louisiana for $12,000. This awesome young herd sire prospect is the son of Lasater 1759 and was one of the overall top performers in the offering.
Volume buyers included: Lykes Brothers, Florida – 17, A. Duda and Sons, Florida – 11, Alamo Ranch, New Mexico – 10, Jeff Cole, Louisiana – 9. Other Volume Buyers included Goff Ranch - Arizona, Rio Ranch – Florida and Estill Ranches– California. Isa Beefmasters also sold 21 top registered pairs, bred females and open heifers averaging $2567. Thanks to female buyers James Sanderson – TX, Michael Deville – LA, Judy Niell – TX, Keith Price – LA and John Hale – TX. Current Isa president, Lorenzo Lasater, represents the 4th generation of the family dedicated to breeding performance Beefmaster genetics. The breed was founded by Lorenzo’s grandfather, Tom Lasater, in 1937.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the breed. According to Lorenzo, “This set of bulls represents 80 years of consistent, balanced selection for economically viable cattle. These bulls will produce excellent feeder calves and replacement heifers in any environment, but especially the tougher ones. With more pounds at weaning, lower input costs, more longevity and the best mother-cow on the planet, Beefmasters can’t be beat.” The Lasater family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to everyone in attendance, especially the many repeat customers, including several second generation buyers. We are already working hard to bring you our 57th set of Beefmaster bulls on October 6th, 2018.
November 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
OIG finds FSIS Lax on Foreign Food Safety Protocols BY TOM JOHNSTON / MEATINGPLACE.COM
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SDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) needs to improve its methods for determining whether foreign countries exporting meat, poultry and egg products to the United States have equivalent food safety standards, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said in a new report. OIG found that exporting countries were not consistently audited in compliance with agency policy, and that policies and procedures did not contain sufficient guidance for conducting ongoing equivalence verification audits. FSIS officials did not follow policy when selecting countries for the audits, and did not consistently perform or document procedures when audits were performed, OIG said. FSIS did not have adequate policy to monitor, classify, evaluate or determine equivalence of individual sanitary measures. And
FSIS did not obtain details identifying the date or reason why certified foreign establishments were removed from the program after they were deemed no longer eligible to export product to the United States, OIG found. FSIS did update its management control manual in response to prior audit recommendations, but these procedures were not incorporated into subsequent guidance issued in 2015, OIG said. The report is the third that OIG has issued on FSIS foreign equivalence assessments, the latest being 2008 where the focus was on the adequacy of the FSIS inspection processes. OIG staff this time around also traveled to witness FSIS verification audits in Northern Ireland and Denmark in addition to work conducted at the FSIS offices in Washington, D.C., the report said. FSIS generally agreed to take corrective actions based on OIG’s recommendations.
New Tool for DNA Collection Available Tissue-sampling units now an acceptable DNA sample type for seedstock producers.
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issue-sampling units (TSUs) are now accepted by Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI) as a DNA sample type for seedstock producers seeking genetic testing. The technology offers seedstock producers a quick and effective DNA collection method previously offered for commercial testing only. A TSU collects an ear punch from the animal and provide an alternative to tail hair, blood and semen sample types used for DNA testing. Similar to tagging an animal, the TSU has an applicator gun to collect the ear punch in an uncontaminated container. Producers can also test for bo-
vine viral diarrhea (BVD) when they use TSUs. This tool is not a new concept; breakthroughs in technology and collaboration with industry partners led to this new option for DNA collection. Allflex, an AGI industry partner, worked with both contracted labs used by AGI to guarantee samples can be archived. TSUs and applicators are available to purchase from the American Angus Association through www.customcattletags. com. Members can order by logging into their AAA account. Units can be purchased in quantities of ten for $29.99, which
equates to $2.99 per unit. Breeders must send in a spreadsheet electronically to AGI customer service representatives including both the animal ID and barcode associated with the DNA sample. If an individual chooses to write individual IDs on the TSU box next to the associated barcode, this will be accepted as well. For more information about TSUs and sample collection, visit www.angus.org/AGI/SubmittingSamples.aspx and scroll down to the TSU section, or call the office at 816-383-5100. AGI will still accept blood and hair samples for genetic testing.
Page 7
RIDING HERD placed an innocent looking pen on the greasy counter, clicked the directional microphone on and aimed it in their direction. They spoke in hushed tones but he knew he’d hit pay dirt when the talk turned to “how good the grass was” and how they “sure had to have a lot more of it.” “So when will the guy be here with the drugs?” asked the nervous young man. “Hopefully any minute,” said the older man. “He’s been acting really strange lately and won’t answer my calls ever since the feds got something called a VFD to clamp down on all the drug dealers.” “But he’s got the stuff, right? Cause I gotta have it,” said the young dude. “Yeah, he’s trying to put the arm on me and says this will be the last of the really good stuff because the feds are breathing down the lab’s neck.” “Right” said the young man, “I bet it was made in some Mexican lab.” “Or in China,” chimed in the lady buyer, “Isn’t it just like them to get you hooked (inaudible static when the waitress filled their coffee cups... ) when you really need it all of a sudden they don’t have it?” “This is getting too complicated,” the husband said. “I liked it better before the fed’s started shutting down the small town dealers and the drugs were easier to
continued from page one
get.” Just then the drug dealer walked in, saw his customers and collapsed into a chair. He fit the profile, being about 40, wearing dirty overalls with one sleeve cut off and smelling like decaying flesh. He wore a ball cap with some kind of weird snake and V design on it, probably the insignia of some new gang, thought the undercover cop. “Got the stuff,” asked the older man. “Yeah it’s out in the truck,” murmured the dealer. That’s all the cop needed. He swung on his stool, flashed his gun and his badge at the speechless perps, read them their rights, tied them up with plastic ties that cash strapped police forces are using for handcuffs these days, patted them down, called for backup and started the druggies on the perp walk out to his unmarked unit. Despite their cries of innocence they were booked into the crossbar hotel and allowed one phone call each. The married man called a bail bondsman, his wife called a lawyer and the young dude called his wife and said, “Honey, you aren’t going to believe where I am.” The drug dealer called a customer to reschedule a drop-off for 100 doses of something known on the street as LA 200. wwwLeePittsbooks.com
Livestock Market Digest
Fallon-Cortese Land
NEW MEXICO
REAL ESTATE GUIDE
P.O. Box 145, Cimarron, NM 87714 • 575/376-2341 • Fax: 575/376-2347 land@swranches.com • www.swranches.com
WAGONMOUND RANCH, Mora/ Harding Counties, NM. 4,927 +/- deeded acres, 1,336.80 +/- state lease acres, 2,617 +/Kiowa National Grassland Lease Acres. 8,880.80 +/- Total Acres. Substantial holding with good mix of grazing land and broken country off rim onto Canadian River. Fenced into four main pastures with shipping and headquarter pasture and additional four pastures in the Kiowa lease. Modern well, storage tank and piped water system supplementing existing dirt tanks located on deeded. Located approximately 17 miles east of Wagon Mound on pavement then county road. Nice headquarters and good access to above rim. Wildlife include antelope, mule deer and some elk. $2,710,000
room 3 bathroom approx. 3,593 sq-ft home, 332.32 +/- deeded acres, 208 shares of irrigation, all the facilities you need to summer your cutting horse operation out of the heat and far enough south to have somewhat mild winters. Approximately 6,200 ft elevation. $1,790,000
home, big shop, wildlife, a true million dollar view at end of private road. $489,000. House & 1 parcel $375,000
MAXWELL FARM IMPROVED, Colfax County, NM. 280 +/- deeded acres, 160 Class A irrigation shares, 2 center pivots, nice sale barn, 100 hd feedlot. Depredation Elk Tags available. Owner financing available to qualified buyer. Significantly reduced to $550,000
COLD BEER VIEW, Colfax County, NM 83.22 +/- deeded acre, 3,174 sq ft, 5 bedroom, 3 ½ bathrm, 2 car garage home situated on top of the hill with amazing 360 degree views. Reduced $425,000
MAXWELL FARM W/HOUSE, Colfax County 400 +/- deeded acres with 101.2 water shares. Seller would consider split. $495,000
MIAMI 80 ACRES, Colfax County, NM. 80 +/- deeded acres, 80 water shares, expansive views, house, shop, roping arena, barns and outbuildings. Reduced $485,000
MIAMI 20 ACRES, Colfax County, NM. 20 +/- deeded acres, 20 water shares, quality 2,715 sq ft adobe home, barn, grounds and trees. Private setting. This is a must see. Reduced to $375,000
MIAMI HORSE TRAINING FRENCH TRACT 80, Colfax County, FACILITY, Colfax County, NM. RATON MILLION DOLLAR VIEW, NM irrigated farm with home and Ideal horse training facility, 4 bed- Colfax County, NM. 97.68 +/- good outbuildings, $350,000 deeded acres, 2 parcels, excellent
Scott Land co. Ranch & Farm Real Estate
1301 Front Street, Dimmitt, TX 79027 Ben G. Scott – Broker Krystal M Nelson –CO/NM QB#15892 800-933-9698 day/eve. www.scottlandcompany.com
WE NEED LISTINGS ON ALL TYPES OF AG PROPERTIES LARGE OR SMALL!
PLEASE CALL our office for details on 22,850 ac. +/- located in Lincoln, Chaves & DeBaca Counties, NM, well improved w/two homes, working pens & fences, well-watered by wells & pipelines, open rolling country w/numerous draws & arroyos provide for year-round cow/calf operation or seasonal yearling operation. NORTH FACE OF TUCUMCARI MOUNTAIN - 502 ac. +/- investment/hunting/recreation, three tower leases provides excellent income. MALPAIS OF NM - Lincoln/Socorro Counties, 37.65 sections +/- (13,322 ac. +/- Deeded, 8,457 ac. +/- BLM Lease, 2,320 ac. +/- State Lease) good, useable improvements & water, some irrigation w/2 pivot sprinklers, on pvmt., all-weather road. FRONTIER RANCH – 6,423.45 ac. +/- in two tracts of 3,735 ac. & 2,688.45 ac., all deeded, approx. 7 mi. apart offered as one ranch, broker will assist w/ on either or both of the tracts, good country at 575-226-0671 or contracts the listing agent for year-round cow/calf operation or summer yearling , or Melody Sandberg 575-825-1291. grazing, located in close proximity to the Grey Fox MLS or www.buenavista-nm.com Ranch for addtl. acreage. GREY FOX RANCH – Guadalupe Co., NM – 2,919.85 ac. +/- of deeded land, all native grass, located in close proximity to the Mesa Del Gato Ranch for addtl. grazing. SOUTH CONCHAS RANCH – San Miguel Co., NM - 9,135 ac. +/- (6,670 +/- deeded, 320 +/- BLM, 40 +/State Lease, 2,106 +/- “FREE USE”) well improved, just off pvmt. on co. road., two neighboring ranches may be added for additional acreage! 24 MI. FROM TEXAS/NM STATE LINE – Box Canyon Ranch – Quay Co., NM – well improved & watered, 2,400 ac. +/-deeded, 80 ac. +/- State Lease, excellent access from I-40.
EXCELLENT OWNER FINANCING! ABERCROMBIE RANCH – Huerfano Co., CO – 7,491 ac. +/- of choice grassland watered by wells & the Cucharas River, on pvmt. WOOD FARM & RANCH – Quay Co., NM – 480 ac. +/-, w/292 ac. classified as cropland fully allotted to wheat & milo, 365.9 ac. of Arch Hurley Water Rights, nice combination farming/cattle operation, presently in grass for grazing. ALFALFA & LIVESTOCK – Tucumcari, NM - 255.474 ac. +/-, state-of-the-art huge hay barn & shop (immaculate), steel pens, Arch Hurley Water Rights, two nearly new sprinklers, alfalfa established. AIRPORT DRIVE – Tucumcari, NM – Choice 160 ac. +/-, on pvmt. w/beautiful home, roping arena, steel pens & 139.5 ac. +/- of water rights. TUCUMCARI VALLEY – 480 ac. +/-, w/292 ac. classified as cropland fully allotted to wheat & milo, 365.9 ac. of Arch Hurley Water Rights, nice, combination farming/cattle operation, presently in grass for grazing. BIRD HUNTERS HAVEN - Quay Co., NM 258 ac. +/-, in easy driving distance of Ute & Conchas Lakes, all in native grass w/home, barns, good fences, well watered, on pvmt. CANYON VIEW RANCH – 1,533 deeded ac. +/- just out of Clayton, NM, beautiful, good country, well watered, volcanic rock mining operation offers addtl. income, on pvmt. CASTRO CO., TX – 482.5 ac. +/-, irrigated/ dryland farm, 2 circles, 1 mi. of frontage, 5 mi. south of Dimmitt, Texas on US 385.
Please view our websites for details on these properties, choice TX, NM & CO ranches (large & small), choice ranches in the high rainfall areas of OK, irr./dryland/CRP & commercial properties. We need your listings on any types of ag properties in TX., NM, OK & CO.
For advertising information contact
Lynn Marie ‘LM’ Rusaw at 505-243-9515 or email AAALivestockMarketDigest@gmail.com
Missouri Land Sales See all my listings at: • NEW LISTING! 167 Acres, Cattle/Horses/Hunting Estate 5000 sq ft paulmcgilliard.murney.com inspired Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. 3 bed, 2 1/2 baths, full w/o Paul McGilliard finished basement, John Deere room, bonus room. This estate is set Cell: 417/839-5096 up for intensive grazing, 3 wells, 3 springs, 4 ponds, automatic waters. 1-800/743-0336 Secluded, but easy access, only 22 miles east of Springfield, off Hwy Murney Assoc., Realtors 60. MLS# 60081327 Springfield, MO 65804 • NEW LISTING! 80 Acres - 60 Acres Hayable, Live Water, Location, Location! Only 8 miles west of Norwood, 3 miles east of Mansfield, 1/4 mile off Hwy 60. Well maintained 3 bed, 1 1/2 bath, 1432 sq. ft. brick/vinyl home, nestled under the trees. Full basement (partially finished), John Deere Room. This is your farm! MLS#60059808 • 10 ACRES - MAJOR PRICE REDUCTION Location, location, location. Only 4+ miles south of Mountain Grove, you will find a a secluded 10 acres at the end of Hopper Lane with 1,550 sq. ft. home, nestled under the trees. Numerous outbuildings, with an exceptionally well built 18 x 30 shop. The present owners have lived there 46 years. MLS# 60056419.
Andrew Bryan, Owner/Broker Office 541-523-5871 Cell 208-484-5835 andrew@bakercityrealty.com www.bakercityrealty.com Beautiful, secluded Eastern Oregon living in Granite, Oregon! This newer log home sits on 18.50 acres and features 2 bed/2 full bath. The open living space is complete with a laundry room and internet access. Enjoy the peace and quiet on the covered deck, or sit around the fire pit. Property includes a RV parking and an outbuilding used as a shop. Escape from it all in your slice of heaven!
521 West Second St. Portales, NM 88130 575-226-0671 www.buenavista-nm.com West of Portales, NM in Roosevelt Co. @349 S. Roosevelt Rd Y 80 acres of irrigated land that was in a past CRP program. It has a submersible pump, and a well, and concrete pipeline with 12” risers. Is currently in grass with good fence on the west end of property, and fence along south & west side needs repair, no fence on the north. There are structures on the property but they are being sold as is, with the property.
575.355.2855 office 575.355.7611 fax 575.760.3818 cell nick@ranchseller.com www.ranchseller.com
Selling residential, farm, ranch, commercial and relocating properties. COLETTA RAY
Pioneer Realty 1304 Pile Street, Clovis, NM 88101
575-799-9600 Direct 575.935.9680 Office 575.935.9680 Fax coletta@plateautel.net www.clovisrealestatesales.com
TEXAS & OKLA. FARMS & RANCHES • 40 acres, Brick home. Cattle pens, 3 barns. $365,000. • 240 acres, Recreation, hunting and fishing. Nice apartment, 25 miles from Dallas Court House. $3250 per acre. • 270 acre, Mitchell County, Texas ranch. Investors dream; excellent cash flow. Rock formation being crushed and sold; wind turbans, some minerals. Irrigation water developed, crop & cattle, modest improvements. Just off I-20. Price reduced to $1.6 Million.
SOLD
• 40 acre, 2 homes, nice barn, corral, 30 miles out of Dallas. $415,000.
Joe Priest Real Estate
1-800/671-4548
joepriestre.net • joepriestre@earthlink.com
BAR M REAL ESTATE New Mexico Properties for Sale...
X-T RANCH – Southeastern NM cattle ranch 40 miles northwest of Roswell, NM on the Chaves/Lincoln County line. Good grass ranch with gently rolling grass covered hills. 8,000 total acres, 200 AUYL grazing capacity. Partitioned into four pastures watered by 2 wells with pipelines. Call for brochure. Price: $1,750,000 DOUBLE L RANCH – Central NM, 10 miles west of Carrizozo, NM. 12,000 total acres; 175 AUYL, BLM Section 3 grazing permit; Water provided by 3 wells and buried pipeline. Improvements include house and pens. PRICE REDUCED: $1,150,000 (to include 73 brangus type 5-6 yr old cows & 6 bulls) LITTLE COWBOY RANCH – Small cattle ranch located in southeastern NM approximately 50 miles northwest of Roswell on the Chaves/Lincoln County line. 7,455 total acres with 2,600 deeded. 150 AU capacity and it will run them all. Two wells; one electric submersible, one solar well with some pipeline. Fenced as one large pasture and one smaller trap. Excellent grass cover. Price: $1,200,000 L-X RANCH – Southeastern NM just ten minutes from Roswell, NM with paved gated and locked access. 3,761 total acres divided into several pastures and traps. Nice improvements to include a site built adobe residence. One well with extensive pipeline system. Well suited for a registered cattle operation. Price: $900,000
Bar M Real Estate
CONTACT
O’NEILL LAND, llc
P.O. Box 447 Fort Sumner, NM 88119
Scott McNally, Qualifying Broker Roswell, NM 88202 Office: 575-622-5867 • Cell: 575-420-1237
www.ranchesnm.com
November 15, 2017
Bottari Realty Paul Bottari, Broker
775/752-3040 Nevada Farms & raNch PrOPerTY www.bottarirealty.com
BAKER CITY, OREGON Andrew Bryan, Owner/Broker Office 541-523-5871 Cell 208-484-5835
andrew@bakercityrealty.com www.bakercityrealty.com
SOCORRO PLAZA REALTY On the Plaza
Donald Brown
Qualifying Broker
505-507-2915 cell 505-838-0095 fax
116 Plaza PO Box 1903 Socorro, NM 87801 www.socorroplazarealty.com dbrown@socorroplazarealty.com
HeAdquArters West Ltd. ST. JOHN’S OFFICE: TRAEGEN KNIGHT
P.O. Box 1980 St. John’s, AZ 85936 www.headquarterswest.com 928/524-3740 Fax 928/563-7004 Cell 602/228-3494 info@headquarterswest.com
Filling your real estate needs in Arizona
521 West Second St. • Portales, NM 88130
575-226-0671 or 575-226-0672 fax
Buena Vista Realty
Qualifying Broker: A.H. (Jack) Merrick 575-760-7521 www.buenavista-nm.com
Bar M Real Estate
SCOTT MCNALLY www.ranchesnm.com 575/622-5867 575/420-1237 Ranch Sales & Appraisals
Livestock Market Digest
Page 9
GIPSA, Tramps & Thieves
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author.) BY LISA M. KEEFE/ EDITOR OF MEATINGPLACE IN PRINT
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t least it’s one less thing for processors to worry about. Scuttling the proposed GIPSA rules that would have shifted the balance of power between livestock producers and processors simplifies the regulatory landscape a little — a very little, considering issues such as the renegotiation of NAFTA continue to roil the waters. But processors will take it. The package of three regulations — a final rule that would hold that the Packers and Stockyards Act does not require farmers and ranchers with complaints against packers to show injury to the whole sector in order to show they have been the victims of a fraudulent or deceptive business practice, a proposed rule addressing how poultry growers are ranked within the tournament system for calculating farmer pay, and a second proposed rule that would define criteria for preference of one livestock or poultry producer over another — was proposed in the waning days of the Obama Administration and faced a wicked upstream battle
right from the start. The rules do arguably overreach in their efforts to regulate the relationship between processors and producers. I expect the industry hasn’t heard the last of the issue, however. Let’s face it: A relationship in which a farmer or rancher is responsible for all the costs of meeting the demands of the processor, and the responsibility for increasing the value of an asset the producer doesn’t even own, is ripe for abuse. Further, the perception of unfair treatment is fairly well guaranteed in that relationship, even if the contract is industry standard and thoroughly spelled out from the get-go. Processors, particularly of poultry, already have seen lawsuits over unfair practices, proven or perceived. It would behoove the processing industry to address the issues themselves, rather than waiting for the slow water torture that is the U.S. court system to eke out clarifications here and there as lawsuits are brought. Coming together voluntarily to hammer out the differences would be way cheaper than lawyers, and the public relations value is potentially remarkable. I’m not a lawyer and I can’t offer an opinion on what, exact-
Look Who was Busted for Starting Deadly CA Fire That Killed 41 + SOURCE: WWW.NOVANATIONS.COM
T
he California wildfires have been raging for quite some time which has caused unprecedented damage in the region. Now, it is important to note that fires in the California area are not unheard of, but they typically occur in December and January, and not October. These fires have forced thousands of residents to leave their homes in terror not knowing what they will return to when they are able. Law enforcement officials have been working tirelessly to figure out who started these horrific wildfires and it appears they may have the culprits that prove President Trump was right yet again. On October 16, firefighters were able to gain control of the raging wildfires in the northern California area. However, even though these brave firefighters have been able to make headway in containing the fire the death toll has risen to 41. In a week these raging fires have scorched more than 200,000 acres, destroyed or damaged the last week more than 5,500 homes, and displaced 100,000 people. Though by some miracle, the winds changed and the firefighters were able to take advantage of that situation and contain some of the fires.
Now that the firefighters have been able to make some headway in these deadly fires, law enforcement has been focusing on what caused them, and what they found is shocking. As officials were studying the fires, they noticed a pattern of where the majority of them occurred. It seems that areas hardest hit by these fires were in areas within the legal marijuana business, and they are now suspecting foul play. As it turns out the areas that are being hit the hardest happens to be pot farms. CNN Money reported: Deadly wildfires in Northern California are burning up marijuana farms in the so-called Emerald Triangle. Blazes have destroyed a number of farms in Mendocino County right before legal recreational sales begin in California. Cannabis business owners who lose their crops have little reprieve. “Nobody right now has insurance,” said Nikki Lastreto, secretary of the Mendocino Cannabis Industry Association. “They might have insurance on their house, but not on their crop.” Here is more from Got News: The suspicious timing and sheer destruction of the fires have led them to believe the Mexican drug cartels – incontinued on page ten
ly, should be changed or not in existing grower-processor contracts. I can only offer the observation that the complaints that the GIPSA proposed rules attempted to address have been bobbing back to the surface for
decades now, every time the processing industry thinks it has finally drowned them. And they will continue to reappear for the foreseeable future. Unless the industry steps up to address them.
Page 10
Livestock Market Digest
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CME Group Inc (CME.O) plans no further moves to reduce volatility in its cattle futures market, after making a series of changes to rein in wild price swings that drove away hedgers, a managing director said in mid October. Over the past two years, the exchange operator, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and other markets, has cut trading hours, implemented new rules on order messaging and taken other steps to limit volatility in its cattle market. “Right now we don’t think there’s a problem to solve, so trying to do something different wouldn’t make a lot of sense,” Tim Andriesen, CME’s managing director of agricultural products, said at the Reuters Commodities Summit. “Generally the feedback we’re
getting from the industry is it’s working, let’s leave it where it is.” Last year, U.S. cattle producers called on CME and federal legislators to reduce volatility after cattle futures prices fell sharply in 2015 from record levels in 2014. Ranchers said big price swings had rendered the market ineffective, and some cut back on hedging strategies used to manage the risk of owning livestock. More recently, the percentage of hedgers in the market has increased, Andriesen said, without providing specific data. However, some traders said price swings continue to make it difficult to enter or exit futures positions at times. Joe Ocrant, president of Oak Investment Group and a cattle futures trader in Chicago for nearly 50 years, said he has cut by three-quarters the number of live cattle positions he trades each day because of ongoing vol-
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famous for their ruthless tactics – had a hand in starting them. These cartels, which run a large share of the world’s multi-billion dollar illegal drug trade, certainly have the means to pull of an attack like this. They also have an enormous incentive to drive up prices and hurt their competitors, and these fires are already accomplishing that. If Mexican drug lord involvement is confirmed, it will likely spark an international crisis between the
United States and Mexico over the latter’s failure to rein in its criminal cartels. Facebook photos provided to GotNews show the wildfires have caused staggering damage, with several before-and-after pictures revealing the extent of the devastation: The New York Times reported that tens of thousands of marijuana growers live in this area, the vast majority of whom have no insurance. Furthermore, since marijuana remains an il-
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Additional reporting by Theopolis Waters in Chicago; Editing by David Gregorio Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
continued from page nine
RED ANGUS
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atility. In Nebraska, Brett Gottsch, managing partner for Gottsch Cattle Co, said he too felt the market remained volatile. Also, futures do not converge with cash prices as efficiently as they should when futures contracts are expiring, he said. “I would say that our market’s not fixed,” Gottsch said. An online U.S. cattle auction, launched last year, has helped limit volatility by improving transparency in what meat packers pay for market-ready, or cash, cattle, traders said. Those transactions give direction to the futures market. Derek Sammann, CME’s global head of commodities, said the cash market needs to become even more transparent.
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legal drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the industry still uses cash. GotNews can confirm that millions of dollars in cash has already been lost to the fires, in addition to tens of millions more in property damage. According to NBC News, thousands of acres of marijuana have already been burned, and the fires have also wiped out “recent investments in infrastructure to comply with licensing regulations in preparation for recreational marijuana legalization next year.” The total damage caused by these fires will be unclear for a while, as many of them are still burning. So, what does this all mean and how does this prove that President Trump was right? As stated previously law enforcement officials are suspecting that Mexican cartels started these devastating fires. The cartel does not like competition especially when it comes to making drug money and if California is now legalizing marijuana you can bet that the drug lords are not happy. These ruthless individuals will continue on their path of destruction unless there is something to stop them. What that something is would be a wall between the Mexican border and the United States to prevent these people from entering our country. There is no reason that these criminals should be allowed to sneak into America and create havoc on innocent people. These fires appear to be a message sent from the cartels to scare the legal marijuana farmers from continuing to grow their crop. Now, whether you agree with marijuana or not is not the issue considering that these farmers have the right to grow it, and no illegals should be able to prevent it from happening.
November 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
The View FROM THE BACK SIDE
A Girl, Boy Scout? BY BARRY DENTON
(The views and opinions expressed in this colunm are strictly those of the author.)
W
ow, the first time I heard the term heifer/bull I thought we were in trouble, but once I figured out this was a good thing I kind of forgot about it until now. During the eight years of the Obama Administration political correctness got a huge boost and some of it is still carrying over. The formerly conservative establishment Boy Scouts Of America have become the latest victims of this internal disease. It was announced recently that the Boy Scouts would start allowing girls to participate in some of their programs. Does this mean the Girl Scouts are going to start allowing boys in their organization? We have the radical left out there trying to convince us that there is no difference between girls and boys. In case you have been laid up lately and were forced to watch television, have you noticed how many of the men in television shows now act like women? The left side of the establishment is trying to convince us that boys and girls are the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Remember the photos from Red China and Mao Tse-Tung? It showed thousands of men and women workers lined up like soldiers in Red Square. All women and men wore exactly the same clothes, had the same haircut, worked at the same place, and earned the same amount of money. These socialists think that is a good thing. Funny, but I thought America has always been for individualism. Have you ever seen a photograph of a bunch of cowboys or cowgirls? No two ever look the same. No wonder watching television becomes more unpopular every year. They are trying to distort the obvious. Our biggest problem is that many of our universities are teaching this very same thing and at the same time espousing socialism. We now have many ignorant children in universities shouting about how bad capitalism is. They have learned this from their liberal educators. In California this week, Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation that would punish health care workers by fine or jail time if they do not use a transgender preferred name or pronoun. I doubt this law would hold up at the Supreme Court, but how asinine are we becoming?
If that’s not an infringement on free speech, then I do not know what is. Besides that, this type of thinking is pure lunacy. I find it ironic that alleged free thinkers wants to imprison people that do not think exactly the way they do. In my book this sounds like America’s conversion to Communism. In every past Communist society, free thought and speech has been taken away from the citizens. Why would we think that this time is any different? This sounds exactly like the Saul Alinsky model to me. I really do feel sorry for the ranchers, cowboys, and vaqueros that have to live in California these days. California is such a beautiful and rich state, but their state government is trying hard to give it back to Mexico. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, 40 percent of all workers in LA County are working for cash and not paying taxes because they are illegal immigrants that do not have a green card. How do you think this statistic makes a hardworking ranch hand or cattle truck driver in California feel? The article also said that 95 percent of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens. I thought the most astounding statistic was that less than two percent of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29 percent are on welfare, supported by hard working Californians. Part of my point here is that the California state government has created most of this by promoting itself as a sanctuary state. The good taxpayers of California are not only overwhelmed with illegal aliens, but also with people not knowing which gender they are, which bathroom to use, and boys marrying boys. How did they get from the big ranches such as Miller-Lux, the Tejon, etc. to this point? It just does not make any sense. When I see feminists protesting some ridiculous issue I have to think of ranch and farm wives. These wondrous women have never had a “movement” nor do they need one. They just get up everyday and do what is expected of them. With very little complaint they take care of their families, their homes, and help with the livestock. Some days when things go wrong they might get fed up with things and threaten to quit, but they never do. If they are true agricultural wives their pay is not much. Have you ever heard these women demand equal pay? That’s because they already know that if you are in the livestock business with your
Page 11
Steak-Sharing Startup Targets Foodies Looking for High-End Beef Crowd Cow expects revenue of at least $7 million this year. BY CRAIG GIAMMONA WWW.BLOOMBERG.COM
C
rowd Cow delivers premium beef from small, independent farms to foodies nationwide. “People are looking for more clarity about what they’re eating,” says co-founder Ethan Lowry. The company sells one cow at a time, offering shares to customers who’ve signed up for email alerts via Crowd Cow’s website.
The Farm Bob and Kate Boyce have been running the Lil’ Ponderosa, a 185-acre farm in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for about 30 years. The farmers, who signed on to supply Crowd Cow in June, own more than 200 purebred Black Angus cattle that are fed grass from birth to harvest. “We’re breeding for the strongest traits possible,” Bob says. “Consistency is one of the biggest problems in the beef business.” The startup lets farmers avoid the sometimes tedious and time-consuming work that goes into selling cows at markets or to high-end restaurants.
husband, his pay is not much either. Can you imagine a ranch wife getting paid by the hour? At that point, a fair wage for what she does would be what a sports star would make. The ranch wife however, gets something that feminists choose to ignore. They receive the admiration of those around them for a job well done. She may have to open gates, castrate calves, and clean up corrals, but there
The Company Founders Lowry and Joe Heitzeberg, both 44, are betting on growing demand for premium products. The two have worked in the Seattle tech scene since the late 1990s; Lowry co-founded the early restaurant review site Urbanspoon. They’d heard a mutual friend rave for years about the beef he bought from a farm in western Washington. So in 2015 they decided to buy a cow directly from a small farm outside Seattle, then sell cuts through crowdsourcing. The first cow weighed 550 pounds and sold out in 24 hours. “There’s a huge market of people who want to find something better than commodity beef,” Lowry says.
The Beef The cow is slaughtered, and the beef is packaged and sent to one of Crowd Cow’s two distribution centers. Customers receive an email announcing an “event”—a new sale. Crowd Cow offers roughly 60 shares per cow. A recent $89 share from Lil’ Ponderosa included a 32-ounce rib steak, 32 ounces of ground beef, and two 12-ounce chuck steaks. Such parts as the liver, kidney, and tongue are sold, too. “We sell
is no one as revered by her husband and family. The ranch wife does women’s work, men’s work, and keeps the place going. She may be pretty cowboy, but she knows she is a few rungs above that. She is all in, and happy to do what she does. I do not think social problems such as her joining the Boy Scouts ever crosses her mind. Many feminists do not seem to realize that being tired at night is a good thing.
the tongue pretty fast,” Lowry says. Crowd Cow expects to post revenue of at least $7 million this year. The initial fundraising round brought in $2 million. Investors included Fuel Capital, Zulily Inc. founders Mark Vadon and Darrell Cavens, and ex-NFL star Joe Montana, who has a venture fund.
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Page 12
Livestock Market Digest
Its about limits on the President. Failures in the courtroom and a truthful enviro
Monument Legislation
I
t appears Congress is finally moving to amend the Antiquities Act. Rep. Rob Bishop tells us, “Between 1906 and 1943, the law functioned basically as designed. Presidents respected the intent of the act. Most monuments were smaller and had clear boundaries with real antiquities inside them. By contrast, designations under the act last year averaged 739,645 acres, or more than 47 times the size of those created 110 years ago.” “President Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to use the act. He used it 18 times for a combined total of 1.5 million acres. President Barack Obama used it 37 times to designate 553.6 million acres of land and water.” “Let that sink in: 553.6 million acres (more than half a billion). That is an average of 189,000 acres designated with the stroke of a pen for every single day Obama was in office. It’s 830 times the size of Rhode Island, and more than 5 times the size of California.” “Actions such as these are not the rule of law. It is arbitrary rule by one man.” The House Committee on Natural Resources has passed Rep. Bishop’s H.R. 3990, the National Monument Creation and Protection Act. Under the provisions of that bill, the President would have the same authority to designate monuments up to 640 acres. Monuments that are between 640 and 10,000 acres would be subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act. Designations between 10,000 and 85,000 acres would be required
to obtain the approval of all county commissions, state legislatures, and governors in the affected area. “H.R. 3990 adds critical details to vague, original legislation regarding the creation and management of national monuments,” said Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association The Courts Would you like some good news from our court system? Well I don’t have any. Let’s start right here in New Mexico. Various allotment owners, grazing associations and Rio Arriba County sued the Carson National Forest, alleging the feds had failed to comply with NEPA because they didn’t consider the social and economic impacts of reducing the grazing permits for the Alamosa and Jarita Mesa grazing allotments. They also claimed former El Rito district ranger Diana Trujillo violated NEPA when she decided to reduce the allotments before the environmental assessment was completed. Not so says United States District Judge James Browning. “NEPA does not, however, require agencies to consider social and economic impacts that flow directly from an action and not from the action’s effect on the physical environment”, ruled Browning. He also found that district ranger Trujillo, “did not violate NEPA by deciding to take a particular agency action before considering the EA’s findings.” Smokey can do no wrong. In the Kootenai National Forest in northwest Montana and the Idaho Panhandle Na-
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tional Forests in northern Idaho, U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen rejected a challenge by snowmobilers that sought to overturn the U.S. Forest Service’s wilderness recommendations for areas including the Scotchman Peaks and Roderick Mountain in Montana and the Mallard Larkins and Selkirk Range in Idaho. Judge Christensen ruled the Forest Service has broad authority to manage recommend wilderness areas to preserve their wilderness values, including limiting motorized and mechanized use. Smokey has power. The United Stated Court of Federal Claims just stuck it to Klamath water users in the culmination of fifteen years of litigation. In 2001 the feds reallocated their irrigation water to benefit threatened and endangered species, so the water users sued claiming a taking of their water rights. Nope said the judge, ruling “The government’s actions in 2001, did not, therefore, constitute a taking of these plaintiffs’ property under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution or effect an impairment of their rights under the Klamath Compact.” Seems as though some lost out due to
November 15, 2017 the language in the contracts they signed which held the government harmless, and others lost out because their rights were junior to those held by several Native American tribes. If the judge had ruled the other way, the estimated pay out would have been $28 million. Build it and they will take it. Come on, DuBois, surely there’s at least one case where the feds lost? Yes, there is one, unfortunately. It involves the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owls in Arizona. Under the Endangered Species Act, officials must determine whether a species is at mortal risk throughout either all or a significant portion of its range. It is that last clause that interests us here, because the feds have denied listings based on it. However, an Obama-appointed judge has ruled The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “significant portion of its range” policy is “‘arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” And this doesn’t just apply to the pygmy-owl. It has thrown out that policy across the entire nation. Obama is still with us. A truthful enviro Finally, one of them has come
right out and said it. George Wuerthner, writing in High Country News, belittles his fellow enviros who publicly advocate working with rural communities and ranchers, and trying to gain their support on the wolf issue. All that does, says Wuerthner, is help “wildlife managers justify killing packs or individual wolves whenever they prey on cattle” and “add to the delusion that widespread co-existence between predators and livestock is possible.” And he’s not done. “As long as the dominant paradigm is that a rancher’s livestock has priority on public lands, we will never fully restore native predators to our lands. That is why we need to reframe the narrative and recognize that domestic livestock are the ‘problem’ for our native wildlife,” says Wuethner. So you-all should be watching out for those narrative reframers. As for me, I can spot’em a mile away. Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch. Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot. com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation
Conservationists Take 9 Flights a Year, Despite Knowing Danger to Environment, Study Shows BY SARAH KNAPTON, SCIENCE EDITOR WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
C
onservationists may preach about the importance of going green to save the planet, but most have a carbon footprint which is virtually no different to anyone else, a new study has shown. Scientists as Cambridge University were keen to find out whether being fully informed about global warming, plastic in the ocean or the environmental impact of eating meat, triggers more ethical behavior. But when they examined the lifestyles of conservation scientists they discovered most still flew frequently – an average of nine flights a year – ate meat or fish approximately five times a week and rarely purchased carbon offsets for their own emissions. They were also less green in travelling to work than medics, and kept more dogs and cats. A recent study suggested pets are a hefty ecological burden. It takes more than two acres of grazing pasture to keep a medium-sized dog fed with meat, while the eco-footprint of a cat is similar to a Volkswagen Golf. Even the study’s four authors - all conservation scientists - admitted that between them they took 31 flights in 2016 and had each eaten two meat dinners in the week before submitting the research. “As conservationists we must do a great deal more to lead by example,” said lead author Dr Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science at Cambridge. “Obvious starting points include changing the ways we interact, so that attending frequent international meetings is no longer regarded as essential to making scientific progress. For many of us flying is probably the largest contributor to our personal emissions. “While it may be hard to accept, we have to start acknowledging that increased education alone is perhaps not the panacea we would hope.” The study is the first to compare the environmental footprint of conservationists to other groupings. The actions of 300 conservation scientists were compared to 207 econ-
omists and 227 medics from the University of Cambridge and the University of Vermont in the US. They found that fellow conservationists recycled more and ate less meat than either economists or medics, but their combined carbon footprint was only 16 per cent less than that of economists, and seven percent lower than the medics. The researchers concluded that there was little correlation between the extent of environmental knowledge and environmentally-friendly behavior. They suggest that measures should focus on making it easier to make green choices, such as by making public transport more affordable rather than simply educating people on the impact of carbon or plastic. “I don’t think conservationists are hypocrites, I think that we are human – meaning that some decisions are rational, and others, we rationalize,” said study co-author Dr Brendan Fisher from Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. “Our results show that conservationists pick and choose from a buffet of pro-environmental behaviors the same as everyone else. “We might eat less meat and compost more, but we fly more – and many of us still commute significant distances in gas cars.” Green party candidate’s awkward interview about personal air travel Overall footprint scores were higher for males, US nationals, and people with higher degrees and larger incomes, but were unrelated to environmental knowledge. Dr Fisher said the study supports the idea that ‘values’ are a key driver of behavior. Across the professions, attaching a high value to the environment was consistently associated with a lower footprint: fewer personal flights and less food waste, for example. “It doesn’t matter if you are a medic, economist, or conservationist, our study shows that one of the most significant drivers of your behavior is how much you value the environment,” Dr Fisher said. “Economists who care about the environment behave as well as conservationists.”
November 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
Page 13
The Antiquities Act: Menace to the Constitution or Noble Vision? Antiquities Act is a Menace to Constitutional Government REP. ROB BISHOP (R-UT) THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER OCTOBER 10, 2017
Y
ou heard it in your high school civics class: America has “a government of laws and not of men.” The rule of law is the basis of the constitutional order erected by the Founders. “A government with unpredictable and arbitrary laws poisons the blessings of liberty itself.” The first axiom is from John Adams, the second is from James Madison. Their sentiments were universal in the founding generation and ought to continue today. Checks and balances have no teeth when our leaders can disregard the laws and rule according to their whims. I said that the rule of law should still be the foundation of our politics. Unfortunately, that certainly does not mean it is not threatened. There is no more flagrant violation of this principle of our government than the repeated abuse of the Antiquities Act in the designation of national monuments. Passed in 1906 authorizing the president to protect “antiquities,” or objects of historic interest under imminent threat, the plain language of the law requires that all designations be “confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” The act is not difficult to understand. It is not ambiguous. Any honest reading reveals that it was created to protect “landmarks,” “structures,” and “objects” – not vast swaths of land. Compare the language of the law and the historically obvious intent of the Congress that passed it – at the time it was even debated whether the law should limit designations to 320 or 640 acres – with its abuse over the last half-century. Presidents have repeatedly flouted the rule of law and usurped the powers of Congress to arbitrarily cordon off millions of acres of land. A few statistics can illustrate the scope of the overreach. Between 1906 and 1943, the law functioned basically as designed. Presidents respected the intent of the act. Most monuments were smaller and had clear boundaries with real antiquities inside them. By contrast, designations under the act last year averaged 739,645 acres, or more than 47 times the size of those created 110 years ago. President Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to use the act. He used it 18 times for a combined total of 1.5
million acres. President Barack Obama used it 37 times to designate 553.6 million acres of land and water. Let that sink in: 553.6 million acres (more than half a billion). That is an average of 189,000 acres designated with the stroke of a pen for every single day Obama was in office. It’s 830 times the size of Rhode Island, and more than 5 times the size of California. Actions such as these are not the rule of law. It is arbitrary rule by one man. The argument that recent uses of the act have conformed to the law’s legal limitations would be funny if it wasn’t so damaging. The law has been distorted beyond recognition by presidents who have used it to circumvent Congress, impose pet policies of Washington elites and radical special interest groups on local communities, and, most significantly, chip away at the traditions of rule of law and checks and balances. To vest one man with the unfettered power to make these decisions with no congressional check or local input would have been repugnant to the Founders. It should also be repugnant to each and every member of Congress who has taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the impartial rule of law. Even with noble intent, a benevolent dictator is still a dictator. Our temporary reprieve under the current administration must not blind us to the threat of future overreach that still lurks on the horizon. As long as future presidents can shrug off requirements of the law and govern by fiat, we can be sure this will happen again. The public debate sparked by the monument review process is a good thing, and I am hopeful that President Trump will heed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s advice and ameliorate some of the damage done by previous administrations. However, it is at best only a first step, and, in the absence of additional congressional safeguards against executive overreach, merely a band-aid -- not a solution. The rule of law is not a matter of partisanship, but of principle. We can debate the appropriate balance between conservation and development, but political victories should not be won at the expense of the cornerstone of constitutional government. The time has come for Congress to reform the Antiquities Act and rein in the president. Rep. Rob Bishop is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Restore the Antiquities Act’s Noble Vision BY REP. ROB BISHOP (R-UT), WASHINGTON EXAMINER, OCTOBER 11, 2017
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reviously, I explained the constitutional threat posed by the Antiquities Act, and why its repeated abuse is inconsistent with the constitutional pillars of the rule of law and checks and balances. As it turns out, there’s a reason the Founders chose these principles as the basis of our government: arbitrary rule has no incentive to be accountable to the people that policies affect. Without that accountability, political and ideological manipulation corrodes the balance of power. Some of the most egregious abuses – the use of the Antiquities Act as a political weapon – happened under President Bill Clinton’s administration. In 1996, prior to the designation of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, Clinton’s thenChair of the Council on Environmental Quality Katie McGinty stated the following, “I’m increasingly of the view that we should just drop these utah [sic] ideas. we [sic] do not really know how the enviros will react and I do think there is a danger of ‘abuse’ of the withdraw/antiquities authorities especially because these lands are not really endangered.” Could there be any clearer statement of the prioritization of political ideology over the will of people? The monument was designated in the waning months of Clinton’s re-election campaign. Its total acreage: 1.7 million –three times the size of Rhode Island. No town halls, no public meetings, and no public comment sessions were ever held in Utah. No input was solicited from local stakeholders or land managers in the area. Utah’s governor, congressional delegation, public officials, and residents from across the state all expressed outrage at the lack of prior consultation or warning of the designation. In what feels like symbolism, the proclamation wasn’t even signed in Utah; it was signed in Arizona. This story is one of many blatant abuses of the Antiquities Act. The Trump administration is currently reviewing previous designations to ensure they’re consistent with the law’s intent. Without President Trump having even exercised his authority under the law, Democrats are making every attempt to force the release of the administration’s ongoing deliberations. In
a rich irony, for the first time, they are demanding that local communities have a voice in the president’s use of the Antiquities Act. “Let’s see some transparency and public accountability,” House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., recently said. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. said, “The public deserves better than predetermined political conclusions.” The executive must “listen to and work with local communities,” he added. If only their thirst for accountability had made an appearance when previous administrations, in processes shrouded in secrecy, brushed aside the objections of local communities in Utah and other states. Nonetheless, for those of us who have fought to bring some level of accountability to the law’s use, this newfound desire for it is welcome. Ironically, it is also an admission of the act’s underlying failures. Recently, I introduced legislation to correct these failures and permanently address my colleagues’ concerns. The National Monument Creation and Protection Act would, like the writers of the Antiquities Act intended, allow the president to unilaterally designate land up to 640 acres. Monument designations between 640 and 10,000 acres would be subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act. Designations between 10,000 and 85,000 acres would be required to obtain the approval of all county commissioners, state legislatures, and governors in the affected area. The bill also standardizes and limits the president’s power to reshape monuments. No longer would we have to blindly trust any president to do the right thing. These provisions ensure consultation with locals and robust scientific evaluation through public processes that would be required by law. It strengthens the president’s authority to protect actual antiquities without the threat of disenfranchising people. If my Democratic colleagues are serious about their calls for accountability, they will support this bill. Together, we have an opportunity to place people over politics and the rule of law over tyranny. The Antiquities Act was created with noble intent, tailored for specific uses and limited circumstances. Let us restore this intent and enshrine that vision in law.
News With A View & A Whole Lot More...
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f you have livestock, a product or service that stockmen and their families need, they will find out about it quickly if you advertise in the Digest. Digest readers know value when they see it and they respond rapidly to a good offer. Before you plan your advertising budget, think hard about how to stretch your dollars and where they are spent
the most efficiently. Are you paying more to reach fewer qualified potential customers than you woud receive in the Digest? The Digest’s circulation is concentrated in the most important livestock producing states: Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington and Texas. The Digest caters to the most active
readers in the livestock world - who ARE the buyers and sellers of livestock, the ones who show up and speak up. It is the ONLY place to get Lee Pitt’s perspective on the world and how we are going to thrive into the future. To plan your advertising, contact Caren Cowan at: caren@aaalivestock.com or 505/243-9515, ext. 21
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Livestock Market Digest
Moose Alert
Baxter BLACK ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE
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any of the animals rights groups give awards to citizens who perform good deeds on behalf of animals. These deeds are usually along the line of rescuing mistreated horses, homeless cats or HBC dogs (hit by car). Rarely do any cowboys receive an award. I would like to nominate Andy for his daring moose rescue last fall. Andy was still trainin’ on Gracie as they rode across the high mountain pasture in the Uintas. He had named her Gracie with the same inversely convoluted reasoning with which U.S. senators refer
www.baxterblack.com
to each other as “My distinguished colleague...” They made their way along a big ditch that diverted water off the Black Fork River. Beaver dams and dead fall had made the ditch wide in spots and the black mud would suck the socks off a frog! Andy’s herd of dogs scouted into a stand of willers and quakies where the ditch neared the river. They spooked a cow moose and her four-day
old calf! The pair ran down the ditch bank. Andy called off his dogs and followed Mama Moose and baby at an easy walk, just watchin’. Gracie snorted and pranced, unsure about the moose. Mrs. Moose crossed the ditch above a beaver dam but when baby followed he tangled himself in a fallen tree and got stuck. Seeing Baby Moose’s dangerous predicament, Andy coaxed the nervous Gracie
BQA Program Releases Results on Market Cow & Bull Audit BOVINE VETERINARIAN NEWS SOURCE
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ewly released audit data about market cows and bulls suggests the industry has made significant improvements in several areas, including: herd management techniques, animal welfare and handling, hide damage, injection-site location and bruises. Read more information in the 2016 National Beef Quality Audit (NBQA) – Market Cow and Bull Results. In all cattle types surveyed, the vast majority of cattle walked
normally into the packing facility with no apparent lameness. There has been a trend toward increased body condition scores in beef and dairy cows since 2007, the research showed, while body condition has stayed relatively constant for the bull population. Meanwhile, about 98 percent of cattle surveyed had no visible swellings resulting from an injection of animal health products, and incidence of injection-site lesions in the round have dropped considerably since 1998. While identification of bruising in the 1999 National Cow
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and Bull Beef Quality Audit helped lead to significant industry improvements in bruise reduction from 1999 to 2007, there is still an opportunity to decrease the prevalence of carcass bruising. In addition, greater attention to the size and location of brands could reduce lost opportunities in hide value. The research relative to market cows and bulls was last conducted in 2007. The 2016 data is the second part of the National Beef Quality Audit. NBQA Steer and Heifer results were released in July this year. Both studies are funded by the Beef Checkoff Program. “Cows and bulls are the foundation of our cattle herds. They also are significant sources of beef that are well worth understanding,” said Dan Kniffen, Beef Quality Assurance Advisory Board chairman. “Well-being is of critical importance to the animals and to us as beef producers who are stewards of their care. The NBQA helps us find ways to improve our production practices of cows and bulls.” The following four directives were identified for industry improvement: • Recognize and optimize the value of market cows and bulls. • Proactively ensure the safety and integrity of the product. • Use appropriate management and handling practices to prevent quality defects. • Closely monitor herd health and market cattle appropriately and in a timely fashion. “Additional emphasis on education contained in the Dairy FARM and Beef Quality Assurance programs can further propel the momentum of the cow and bull industry,” said Kniffen. For more information about the National Beef Quality Audit, visit BQA.org. For more information about your beef checkoff investment, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.
November 15, 2017
into the stirrup high water. Since Andy was also checkin’ the irrigation, he was wearin’ his genuine Cowboy Issue Cabela’s Thigh-High Waders. Andy eased up to the calf, reached down and pulled the stranded moosling out by the ears. Gracie lurched, caught our daring hero off balance and dumped him over his head! Unbeknownst to the rescue team, Mother Moose had crossed the ditch, circled back and snuck up on the scene of the accident. Gracie turned to free herself from the mud, looked Mrs. Moose in the eye and fell over backwards! Square on top of Andy! He went down under the thrashing mare, fighting for his breath and pushing against Gracie. In the next few tumultuous
seconds Andy swallowed ten gallons of water, Gracie backstroked to the bank like a sand crab and Mama Moose gathered baby and lit out for the high ground. Andy rose periscopically from the sea spewing like a breaching porpoise! He caught sight of Gracie in full gallop, stirrups flapping, headed up the valley. Andy slogged to the bank in his high waders full of water and collapsed. So, whatya think? Is this story of heroism worthy of a Humane Society valor award? Or is it just another day in the life of one of us who spend our lives watchin’ after God’s creatures? I can’t say but I’d like to have been a magpie in the cottonwoods watchin’. www.baxterblack.com
American Angus Association Announces Acquisition of Verified Beef New feeder calf program will grow market share by increasing use of registered Angus bulls. American Angus Association announced in early November it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Verified Beef, including its proprietary Reputation Feeder Cattle® program. The deal underscores the Association’s commitment to programs that increase the use of registered Angus bulls in the commercial segment, growing value for the Angus breed and the entire membership. Association CEO Allen Moczygemba says establishing a feeder calf program built on the use of registered Angus bulls that ties calves back to superior Angus genetics was a strategic priority set by the board in 2016. “By marrying the advanced technology platform and proprietary software from Verified Beef with the strength and scale of the Angus brand, the Association will deliver a feeder calf program that is not only invaluable to commercial cattlemen but is unmatched in the industry,” he says. Cattle feeders need metrics that align with the traits most valuable to their business, specifically gain and grade, Moczygemba explains. The Angus feeder calf program will provide a simple tool that validates the genetic potential of feeder calves. The Association will build on the Reputation Feeder Cattle® program. While the current offering
is based on a dollar scoring system, its underlying data analysis methodologies and computer modeling can be adapted to alternative scoring systems, such as the indexing system envisioned by American Angus Association. “We’re confident that as cattlemen better understand the overall performance of Angus genetics, they’ll replace other breeds in their bull battery with Angus bulls,” Moczygemba says. According to Tim Watts, chief executive officer of Verified Beef, “Selling calves the old fashioned way, without genetic data, doesn’t work.” “Top Angus calves are consistently undervalued by several dollars per cwt. or more,” Watt says. “Calves from several other popular breeds are often significantly over valued, and the only way to fix this broken marketplace is for the AAA to implement an industry-changing feeder calf program.” The program, which will be configured and integrated with existing Angus systems, is expected to be available in summer 2018. An index scoring system will replace the estimated dollar values currently offered. Herds will receive three genetic indexes: average daily gain, quality grade and a score for replacement heifers. Moczygemba says, “The index scores will help our ultimate customers, commercial cattle feeders and cattlemen, make informed decisions, even in the fastpaced sale barn.”
November 15, 2017
Livestock Market Digest
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Interior Department Rejects 25 Endangered Species Petitions Several linked to climate change BY CHRIS MOONEY AND DINO GRANDONI, WASHINGTON POST
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he federal Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) on October 5, 2017 declined 25 separate petitions to list a variety of species as endangered or threatened, including the high-profile Pacific walrus, which is contending with sharp climate change trends in the Arctic where it spends much of its life atop floes of floating sea ice. The agency also declined a listing petition for the Florida Keys mole skink, a subspecies of lizard that lives on beaches and in coastal forests that face rising seas and were just swept by Hurricane Irma. The service determined that while the skink’s habitat could shrink by as much as 44 percent at the high end, most of the habitat and soils that the species needs “will remain into the foreseeable future,” at least out to the year 2060. Other rejected listings included Bicknell’s thrush, a songbird that lives at high mountain altitudes, the Big Blue Springs cave crayfish, and the Kirtland’s snake. Fourteen separate species of Nevada springsnails were also rejected for listing. “In making these 12-month findings, we considered and thoroughly evaluated the best scientific and commercial information available regarding the past, present, and future stressors and threats,” the agency wrote. Gavin Shire, a spokesman for the FWS, noted that the agency has proposed to list a number of fish species, including the small but colorful candy darter, which lives in parts of Virginia and West Virginia. But at least one environmental group thinks the petitions are being rejected too cavalierly. “There’s a lot of opposition to endangered species protections within the Department of Interior, and this kind of blanket rejection for all these species just really highlights that,” said Noah Greenwald, who heads up the endangered species program at the Center for Biological Diversity, which requested a number of the species listings. Greenwald said the FWS actually had to make decisions about 62 possible listings by the end of September. He said that 29 have been rejected, six species were protected, and six decisions have been delayed thus far. Twenty-one more decisions are yet to come. Greenwald did not see a pattern in the protections and rejections, though he noted that one of the protected species, the Guadalupe fescue, is a type of grass that grows only in Big Bend National Park — meaning it doesn’t threaten any industry operations. Similarly, the ‘i’iwi (or scarlet honeycreeper) in Hawaii was protected — its range is limited to mountaintops in Maui and the Big Island and doesn’t threaten industry, either. In contrast, “a number of these [denied] species are threatened by climate change,” Greenwald said. They include the Florida Keys mole skink, Bicknell’s thrush and the Pacific walrus. Stuart Pimm, a scientist at Duke University who specializes in endangered species and biological diversity, said he was struck by the many diverse ways in
which some of the species at issue are affected by climate change. “It’s an extraordinary collection of species that shout how pervasive climate change is in destroying biodiversity and, indeed, destroying natural environment,” said Pimm. “They stretch from my home in the Florida Keys all the way up to the Arctic, and they are things from rising sea level to things like the Bicknell’s thrush, which is a mountaintop species. That’s how pervasive climate change now is.” As for the failure to list any of the species, Pimm said, “it’s spectacular cowardice on the part of the FWS, who don’t have the courage to do what they are charged with doing, which is to evaluate the scientific evidence, and not kowtow to undue political pressure.” But Shire, the FWS spokesman, countered that the rejections do not reflect skepticism regarding climate change. “Our decisions on whether or not to list a species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are always based on the best available science,” he said by email. “Each species is assessed individually on its merits, which include population status, trend and any conservation efforts that are underway to protect it against future declines.” Shire added that while Trump administration officials at the Interior Department review listing decisions, “the science is undertaken by career federal biologists, who make the determination whether or not a species merits listing.” Trump has not yet nominated a director of the FWS, which is charged with many endangered-species decisions. Others are made by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the Department of Commerce. In the case of the Pacific walrus, perhaps the highest-profile species of the current bunch, the FWS defended the decision by arguing that the walruses “have shown an ability to adapt to sea ice loss that was not foreseen when the FWS last assessed the species in 2011. Given these behavioral changes, the Service determined that it could not predict, with confidence, future behavioral responses of the species beyond 2060.” One form of adaptation that the service discusses is that walruses could spend more time on land — something that we have seen recently with dramatic walrus haulouts along the Alaskan coast. These events have raised concerns that walruses may not be able to access food as easily, or that some individuals could be trampled in the tightly packed herds, which can number in the thousands of individuals. “While it is likely that the increased use of land habitat will have some negative effects on the population, the magnitude of effect is uncertain given the demonstrated ability of Pacific walruses to change their behavior or adapt to greater use of land,” the FWS said. The Interior Department is not the only part of government balking at some proposed endangered species listings. On October 4, the House Natural Resources Committee passed five bills amending the ESA. They include one measure allowing for the consideration of economic factors in listing decisions and another measure curtailing protections under the act for the gray wolf in Wyoming and around the western Great Lakes.
“The goal of the ESA is to recover species,” Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI) said of the gray wolf during a committee meeting in September, noting that its numbers have rebounded. “Wouldn’t the limited resources of U.S. Fish and Wildlife be better utilized protecting species that are actually at serious risk of extinction?” Many congressional Republicans view the ESA as an outdated law used to bigfoot state-level efforts to manage wildlife. Environmentalists, meanwhile, more often than not prefer federal intervention, since they see states as more willing to cater to industry interests.
ENVIRONMENTALISTS
an anti-revolutionary concept that would have prevented Washington’s Crossing from ever taking place. That concept, known as the “Precautionary Principle,” is the main driving force behind many of the environmental regulations in place today that work against the production and development of America’s abundant supplies of natural gas. There are varying definitions, but they all draw from the idea that scientific certitude should take a backseat to unsubstantiated theories that connect human activities with an unknown level of risk. The 1998 Wingspread Statement, which is named for the conference center where environmental activists gathered in Wisconsin, says the precautionary principle should be put into effect “when an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established.” Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the Washington-based National Center for Public Policy Research, said in an email that environmental activists who are opposed to PennEast are standing on the wrong side of history. It has been said of the precautionary principle that its underlying principle is: There dare not be even a risk of a risk. Almost every human activity -- from crossing the street today to crossing the Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 -- entails some form of risk. We are told that building the Penn East pipeline will pose a risk to surrounding communities and the environment. But NOT building the pipeline will put both at a far greater risk. The pipeline will bring affordable and reliable energy to millions of peo-
“The ESA is a landmark statute created with noble intent,” Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “It also includes fatal design flaws that inhibit greater success and handicap state-led, science-based recovery strategies.” These bills may not become law — there is a long history of trying to amend the ESA — but, meanwhile, Pimm said he struggled to see how the 25 separate listing petitions all could fail. “One by one, you might want to quibble,” he said. “But for all of them?”
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ple in the Delaware River Valley. There is nothing either affordable or reliable about the alternatives to the PennEast. In addition to defacing every environment in which they are placed, unsightly industrial wind facilities typically operate at 30 percent of their capacity and slaughter untold numbers of birds and bats. The risk that George Washington took by having his soldiers cross the half-frozen Delaware helped turn the tide in the Revolutionary War. Had Washington bowed to the precautionary principle, there might never have been an Independence Day. America is now in the midst of declaring its own energy independence from the Middle East, and the Penn East pipeline, by bringing American natural gas from the Marcellus Shale to the Northeast, is part of that story. Washington’s surprise attack on the Hessian garrison in Trenton, the morning after his Christmas crossing, marked the beginning of the 10 Crucial Days culminating in the Battle of Princeton that revitalized the American cause. Thousands of local residents and out-of-town visitors celebrate this history each year when they gather along both sides of the Delaware River to witness re-enactment ceremonies of the crossing during the Christmas season. This weekend will be the first in a series of events that run through early January. But it is worth noting that the same mindset rooted in the precautionary principle that is opposed to PennEast would have also prevented Washington’s audacious crossing of the Delaware. Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C. who writes for several national publications.
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Livestock Market Digest
November 15, 2017
In Glyphosate Review, WHO Cancer Agency Edited Out ‘Non-Carcinogenic’ Findings BY KATE KELLAND/ RUETERS
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he World Health Organization’s cancer agency dismissed and edited findings from a draft of its review of the weedkiller glyphosate that were at odds with its final conclusion that the chemical probably causes cancer. Documents seen by Reuters show how a draft of a key section of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s
(IARC) assessment of glyphosate - a report that has prompted international disputes and multi-million-dollar lawsuits underwent significant changes and deletions before the report was finalised and made public. IARC, based in Lyon, France, wields huge influence as a semi-autonomous unit of the WHO, the United Nations health agency. It issued a report on its assessment of glyphosate - a key ingredient in Monsanto
Corp’s top-selling weedkiller RoundUp - in March 2015. It ranked glyphosate a Group 2a carcinogen, a substance that probably causes cancer in people. That conclusion was based on its experts’ view that there was “sufficient evidence” glyphosate causes cancer in animals and “limited evidence” it can do so in humans. The Group 2a classification has prompted mass litigation in the
United States against Monsanto and could lead to a ban on glyphosate sales across the European Union from the start of next year. The edits identified by Reuters occurred in the chapter of IARC’s review focusing on animal studies. This chapter was important in IARC’s assessment of glyphosate, since it was in animal studies that IARC decided there was “sufficient” evidence of carcinogenicity.
One effect of the changes to the draft, reviewed by Reuters in a comparison with the published report, was the removal of multiple scientists’ conclusions that their studies had found no link between glyphosate and cancer in laboratory animals. In one instance, a fresh statistical analysis was inserted - effectively reversing the original finding of a study being reviewed by IARC. In another, a sentence in the draft referenced a pathology report ordered by experts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It noted the report “firmly” and “unanimously” agreed that the “compound” – glyphosate – had not caused abnormal growths in the mice being studied. In the final published IARC monograph, this sentence had been deleted. Reuters found 10 significant changes that were made between the draft chapter on animal studies and the published version of IARC’s glyphosate assessment. In each case, a negative conclusion about glyphosate leading to tumors was either deleted or replaced with a neutral or positive one. Reuters was unable to determine who made the changes. IARC did not respond to questions about the alterations. It said the draft was “confidential” and “deliberative in nature.” After Reuters asked about the changes, the agency posted a statement on its website advising the scientists who participate in its working groups “not to feel pressured to discuss their deliberations” outside the confines of IARC. Reuters contacted 16 scientists who served in the IARC expert working group that conducted the weedkiller review to ask them about the edits and deletions. Most did not respond; five said they could not answer questions about the draft; none was willing or able to say who made the changes, or why or when they were made. The chairman of the IARC sub-group tasked with reviewing evidence of glyphosate’s effect on laboratory animals was Charles Jameson, an American toxicologist. In testimony as part of personal-injury lawsuits against Monsanto in the United States, Jameson told lawyers for Monsanto he did not know when, why or by whom the edits had been made. Monsanto is facing multiple legal claims in the U.S. from plaintiffs who allege glyphosate gave them or their loved ones cancer. Jameson is an expert witness for the plaintiffs. He did not respond to questions for this article. Scott Partridge, Monsanto’s vice president of global strategy, told Reuters the changes to the draft showed how “IARC members manipulated and distorted scientific data” in their glyphosate assessment.