Saying things that need to be said.
Covid For Cows
BY LEE PITTS
By now most of us have heard all the squawk about bird flu, or “H5N1” as researchers refer to it in scientific shorthand. Up until now anyone raising cattle has paid passing interest because bird flu didn’t really concern us and cattle weren’t dying all over the place. But that is no longer the case as H5N1 has flown the coop. This is best illustrated by a story in the Los Angeles Times written by Susanne Rust called, “Dead Cattle pile up as bird flu rises.” She tells about Brandon Mendonsa, a 37 year old, third generation dairy farmer in California who had lost 28 head of dairy cattle to the H5N1 virus by the middle of October, prompting him to call it “COVID for cows.”
the virus has struck California’s dairy herds. On some farms, the cows seem virtually unaffected, despite being infected. While on others, the animals are dying in droves. And it’s not slowing down.’”
In the LA Times article, Jimmy Andreoli II, a spokesman for Baker Commodities, a rendering company with facilities in Southern California, said his
Dying In Droves
According to Rust’s story, “Anja Raudabaugh, chief executive of Western United Dairies, a California dairy trade organization, said although she and the dairy farmers she represents had been reading about the virus for months before it hit, ‘No one was prepared for the devastation and unevenness with which
site in the Fresno County town of Kerman, where the bodies are ‘recycled’ and turned into ‘high protein’ animal feed and fertilizer, or rendered into liquids that are then used in fuels, paints, varnishes, lubricants ‘and all sort of different industrial products.’”
A person who agrees with all your palaver is either a fool or he’s gettin’ ready to skin ya ...
workers “are picking up a surge of dead cows throughout the San Joaquin Valley noting that one of his drivers picked up 20 to 30 animals at one farm in one day. The diseased carcasses are brought to Baker’s rendering
Raudabaugh says that, “Some breeds are hit harder than others. For instance, Holsteins seem to suffer more than Jerseys. The reason is because Holsteins produce more milk so they have more volume for the virus to enjoy.” She also said, “Research shows the virus has an affinity for mammary tissue. Most of the animals that are succumbing to the virus are young; they are going through their second lactational cycles.”
(She also said, “Most dairy cows
Scientists Were Wrong: Plants Absorb 31% More CO2 than Previously Thought
BY OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY / SCI-TECH DAILY
Anew study reveals that plants have been absorbing 31 percent more CO2 than previously believed. Yes, 31 percent —a glaring error that casts serious doubt on climate models, emissions scenarios, and policy prescriptions like Net Zero.
For years, we were told that the “science was settled,” and that urgent action was needed to avoid catastrophic warming. But this discovery suggests that our models have been dramatically underestimating nature’s ability to manage CO2. This revelation not only upends the rationale behind aggressive policies but also raises broader questions about the supposed certainty of climate science.
The Myth of
“Settled
Science”
The phrase “settled science” has been the bedrock of climate advocacy for decades. We’ve been told that if we don’t make rapid, costly changes, we’d face imminent disaster.
Skeptics were treated as heretics, while the so-called consensus was portrayed as unquestionable. Yet, it turns out we were 31 percent wrong about something as fundamental as plant CO2 absorption. This isn’t a
continued on page 4
will have five or six lactational cycles before they are taken out of production and turned into beef or rendered.)”
“As a result, the farmers are doing what they can to keep these young animals alive given the extreme rearing and raising and just expenses that go into raising these animals. There’s hope that on the other side of the virus, they will come back into production that’s sustainable for the farmer. So, it’s definitely a last resort if they are culling them. It is unclear whether infected dairy cows will recover full production when they enter a new lactational cycle.”
It’s becoming clear that just as COVID changed the way Americans live their daily lives, H5N1 is showing signs that it will leave permanent scars within the dairy industry. Ranchers are hoping it doesn’t do the same to the beef cattle industry.
Bye, Bye, Birdie
The severity of the bird flu
continued on page 2
Feds Refuse to Fund Floating Offshore Wind Project in Maine
BY BONNER COHEN, PH.D./CFACT
Dealing a stunning financial blow to a controversial renewable energy project off the New England Coast, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) October 21 rejected a grant application for $456 million to build offshore wind turbines and install them on floating platforms in the Gulf of Maine.
The decision marks a setback for Maine Governor Janet Mills (D), a coterie of environmental groups, and – in an odd twist – the Biden-Harris administration, an enthusiastic backer of offshore wind projects. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the awarding of more than $4.2 billion in grants for 44 green-energy projects nationwide. DOT officials did not say why the Maine project was not among the recipients.
Unlike traditional offshore wind installations, in which giant turbines are anchored to the ocean floor, the Maine project is designed to be a port, where turbines are to be assembled at what is essentially a boatyard. The turbines are then transported to and mounted on floating platforms at sea, where they are attached to the ocean floor by means of flexible anchors, chains, or steel cables.
From the beginning, however, the Maine project encountered stiff local resistance. After some wrangling, the project’s backers settled on state-owned Sears Island, “the largest undevel-
continued on page 4
by LEE PITTS
I Quit
Dear Mr. and Mrs. America, I’m not going to apologize because I broke the “woke” rules again or may have “misgendered” you in referring to you as Mr. or Mrs. The fact is, I just don’t care anymore about being politically correct or woke. If this angers or shocks you, so be it.
This letter is to inform you that I’m handing in my letter of resignation from American society, effective immediately. I’m not giving six weeks’ notice because I simply can’t stand one more minute of all the lunacy going on in our country today. I’ve resigned myself to think that all hope is lost and our current course of self-destruction is, in their words, “not sustainable.”
So go ahead and condemn me in a letter to the editor, say something bad about me on your Facebook page, give me a bad rating on Yelp or “cancel” me altogether. I DON’T CARE.
If I had a kid today I’d think twice about sending he or she to a public school where instead of teaching the kids their ABC’s, teachers are educating them about LGBTQIA’s. Nor will I unlearn the basics of the birds and the bees. I will always believe there are only two sexes and no matter how hard a man tries to be a woman, he will never give birth to a baby. Guys, I’m sorry if this upsets you so much your tears make your mascara run. Frankly, I don’t care if you want to dress up like it’s Halloween every day. That’s your problem but if you ask me it’s way past time you should go back in the closet.
I’m tired of being called a racist simply because I made the comment to my buddies at the coffee shop that “blacks are taking over.” What I was actually referring to was Black Angus cattle dominating today’s cattle industry so might I suggest to the eavesdropper who scolded me that she might be a lot happier if she’d quit looking for reasons to hate me because I’m white and a male. If that’s a problem, get over it because I’m not apologizing or attempting to become a female.
I don’t care what the government says, I will never pay reparations to black people who never were slaves unless I get paid by the Indians who made slaves of the white people they kidnapped. I don’t judge people by the color of
Volume 66 • No. 11
their skin and you should quit judging me by my cowboy hat.
I turned off the radio a long time ago and couldn’t name one single song that 50 Cent or Snoop Dogg raps or Taylor Swift sings. And while we’re on the subject, I refuse to be swayed to vote for some idiot just because a celebrity, who doesn’t have the brains of a lobotomized sheep, endorses them.
It’s been years since I’ve been in a theatre, not because of COVID but because Hollywood hasn’t produced anything I’d pay ten cents to watch, let alone $10. That’s the same reason I don’t download movies, belong to Netflix or pay for a single streaming service. I quit watching network television years ago because in every sitcom, movie or the news there was an attempt to brainwash me. If I wanted to be indoctrinated I’d go back to grammar school.
I’ve grown sick and tired watching misfits turn our schools into shooting galleries;
of seeing illegal immigrants put up in four-star hotels while our Vietnam veterans sleep in tents in sanctuary cities; and listening to climate change hacks who say that offshore oil wells are evil while offshore windmill farms will be our salvation. I can’t tell any more if people walking down the street talking to themselves are crazy or are talking on their telephone that’s permanently attached to their ear like an extra appendage. Life has become too crazy so I’m dropping out and becoming a full-time hermit. I’m hunkering down and having as little human interaction as possible because I can’t bear one more minute of watching this once great country being destroyed from within by weirdos, whack jobs, nut cases and fruitcakes. So, to those preaching that cow farts will cause the end of our civilization I say, “We can only hope so.”
Long live the cow! ▫
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and its possible effect on cattle can best be summed up by a few facts from the Centers for Disease Control:
■ Avian influenza, or “bird flu,” is a respiratory disease of birds such as ducks, gulls, shorebirds, and domestic poultry such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese. It is a difficult disease to track because individual birds can carry and spread these viruses but may show no signs of illness.
■ Wild birds can spread the virus to farms through direct contact with poultry or livestock or via droppings, saliva or feed.
■ Since April 2024, there have been H5N1 detections in 38 commercial poultry flocks and 26 backyard flocks, for a total of 21.43 million birds affected. There have been 1.3 million chickens and turkeys euthanized during this most recent outbreak which is double the total from the previous outbreak that spanned 2014 and 2015.
■ Bird flu first spilled over to domestic mammals such as minks, goats, alpacas and then in March 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported an outbreak of H5N1 in lactating dairy cows. That’s when the proverbial manure hit the fan in the dairy industry.
■ Since March 2024, USDA has confirmed infected cattle in 320 dairy herds in 14 U.S. states. (That’s through the middle of October when this story was written.) According to the CDC the number of affected herds continues to grow nationally, with almost all new infections COVID
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identified in herds in the largest dairy state in the nation, California.
So far H5N1 has not found its way into beef cows, that we know of, but it could be only a matter of time.
An Interesting Story
How H5N1 made its way to California dairies is an interesting story in itself. As quoted in the LA Times article referred to earlier, Anja Raudabaugh, the chief executive of Western State Dairies said, “At the end of July or early August, a dairy farmer in Tulare County (the largest dairy county in the country) reportedly sold some of his cows to a farmer in Idaho, which had been reporting infected cattle herds since early April. The farmer in Idaho was not satisfied with the California cows and shipped them back but not before H5N1 had infected one of the cows.
The USDA said the H5N1 virus was found as part of testing of 96 dairy cows that were diverted from the supply because federal inspectors noticed signs of illness during routine inspections of carcasses at meat processing plants. Bird flu was found in only one of those cows and the meat from that single sickened dairy cow was not allowed to enter the nation’s food supply.
No Evidence
The symptoms of H5N1 include loss of appetite, reduced milk production, and abnormal appearance of milk that is thickened and discolored. Bird flu has an affinity for lactating cows but when it’s found in a dairy it rarely effects more than 10 percent of the herd. The real problem, as far as consumers are concerned, is that humans can catch the disease from cows.
The CDC says instances of animal-to-human spread are “sporadic” and we haven’t heard of a single hospitalization of a human with H5N1 caught from dairy cattle. The CDC says that since February 25, 2024, more than 54,000 human specimens have been tested for bird flu or other novel influenza viruses at public health labs. Usually the procedure is that suspect specimens are sent to a state lab
and if they show signs of being H5N1 positive they are then sent to the CDC for further testing. In all those specimens only one was confirmed by the CDC as being H5N1. So clearly we are NOT talking about a human plague here with massive hospitalizations and deaths, so there really is no reason for humans to get all hysterical about H5N1, but that hasn’t stopped some in the media from doing so.
The good news according to Dr. Umair Shah, Washington state’s health secretary is that so far, “There is no evidence of any sustained human transmission. And that is a key milestone for all of us.” In other words, one human with bird flu cannot catch it from another human. But still the CDC warns that, “People should avoid exposures to sick or dead animals, including wild birds, poultry, other domesticated birds, and other wild or domesticated animals (including cows), if possible”
The CDC also urges that people should not drink raw milk. Pasteurized milk poses no risk at all as H5N1 viruses are killed by the pasteurization process so pasteurized milk is safe to drink. The CDC is also testing ground beef for bird flu at retail stores, but it has yet to find any sign of the virus. Even if bird flu were to end up in consumer beef, the USDA says, cooking the meat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit will kill it just like it kills E. coli and other viruses. There’s Real Fear
While there may not be widespread fear amongst consumers when it comes to H5N1, that hasn’t necessarily been the case on dairies across the country. So far one of the biggest problems presented by H5N1 is that dairy workers and milkers are at a high risk for the disease. According to the Rust’s LA Times story, when the H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in California 124 dairy herds and 13 people were infected. All 13 were dairy workers. (Remember, this story was written the last week of October. Numbers are no doubt higher by the time you read this.)
“The majority of dairy workers in California have no protections,” according to Elizabeth
Strater, director of strategic campaigns for United Farm Workers, “Most of them are immigrants. And I would say at least half of them are undocumented. These are folks that don’t have a particular relationship of trust with state and federal government officials.”
“Dairy work is coveted by immigrants,” said Strater, “it’s not seasonal like crop work and few Americans are hungry for the dangerous and exhausting work the positions require: two milkings a day (often 15 hours apart) and moving large, unpredictable animals.” (More and more dairies are even milking cows three times per day!)
“These workers are on the front lines of infectious outbreak, and if they somehow get tested and are tested positive, then they’re going to be looking at something that is financially a disaster,” Strater said. “Most people in the United States don’t want to miss two weeks of pay, right? Let alone these people who are already some of the poorest people, and with the least protections. Without a safety net.”
Combine bird flu with low prices and increasing costs of operation and the result is more depressed dairymen. “There’s real fear,” said Strater.
“The USDA has a program to pay back farmers for production loss due to the virus. The program covers the three weeks of production lost by a cow when it is removed from the milking herd to recover, as well as the seven days afterward when production is still low,” said Strater. “But there is no program to pay dairy workers who are affected by the virus, which is a concern for infectious-disease experts, as well as farmworker advocates who say there is no incentive for dairy workers to report symptoms and isolate for 10 days (the current guidance). Although the number of workers so far reportedly infected with H5N1 remains low, conversations with residents suggest it’s probably larger than has been reported.”
Strater says, “A lot of people have it, but people can keep working.”
A Witch’s Brew
Everywhere you turn these days there are warning signs that you should get your flu shot which basically declares the beginning of flu season is upon us. This is where the real problem with bird flu lies. It is possible that a human that has the regular flu also contracts bird flu and it is possible that the two viruses can swap genetic material if the two viruses infect a host at the same time. This is where it’s possible that the two viruses mutate rapidly and all of a sudden we have a new flu virus and we are dealing with a MUCH BIGGER HEALTH PROBLEM!
Scientists say that the risk of two viruses combining is low but they also admit the ongoing transmission in cows is worrisome because it allows more time for a witch’s brew to be genetically concocted. Flu experts said the risk of a broader outbreak among humans will continue to simmer if the virus remains uncontrolled in animals.
“You don’t want people affected with the seasonal flu virus to get a virus from animals and for those viruses to potentially recombine,” Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, a professor of en-
vironmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, told NBC News.
“The longer this virus hangs out in the environment, the more animals it spills over into, the more it changes in ways we don’t understand or predict, the more concerned we are going to be that this becomes the next global pandemic,” said Dr. Amber Itle, the Washington state veterinarian.
Health officials say that the virus has not made key genetic changes yet that would allow it to spread between people. Dr. Richard Webby, an infectious disease researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, said however, “That one human case in Missouri has puzzled researchers and health officials, because that person did not have contact with animals. It is not clear how the person was exposed, and results of further tests that could offer clues are still pending, according to the CDC.”
Cross Your Fingers
One would think that as a result of the relatively high in-
cidence of bird flu across the United States that there might be international customers who would irrationally ban our beef and our milk. After all, one has only to look at the poultry industry that has been crushed by the economic impact of H5N1. But so far Colombia has been the one and only country to officially limit trade in U.S. beef due to bird flu. But instead of more countries joining Colombia in banning our beef and milk products, according to the The U.S. Meat Export Federation, no more countries have done so and even Colombia has relented and lifted its restrictions.
So for now there are no countries around the world banning our beef. But stay tuned... and cross your fingers. ▫
Applications Open for 2025 Cattle Raisers Convention & Expo Internship Program
Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), the largest and oldest livestock association in the Southwest, opened the application window for the 2025 Cattle Raisers Convention & Expo internship to be held April 8 through 13, in Fort Worth.
This exceptional internship program allows college students to gain experience and knowledge in the beef industry while making connections with some of the industry’s highest leaders. Students will build their communication and networking skills, acquaint themselves with a wide range of work departments and get a behind-the-scenes look at hosting the largest agricultural event in the Southwest.
Applicants must submit a cover letter, resume and letter of recommendation. Submissions are due December 31, 2024, to education@tscra.org. Details including submission instructions are accessible at tscra.org/what-we-do/students ▫
oped, uninhabited, causeway-accessible island on the eastern coast of the United States,” according to State Representative Regan Paul (R).
“Sears Island has long been known as a place of tranquility and home to abundant wildlife, migratory birds, botanical resources, and historical sites,” Paul, who led the fight against the project, points out. “It boasts a wealth of Wabanaki [tribal] history as well as historical sites dating back to the Revolutionary War.”
Floating wind turbines are still in the experimental stage, and the State of Maine has yet to conduct a thorough assessment of the Sears Island project’s environmental and economic impacts. An indication of what could be in store for coastal Maine – and anyplace else considering such a project – was provided by a September 2023 report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Though the report focused on the impacts of floating wind turbine development on the West Coast, its conclusions are a cautionary tale for projects like the one in Maine. The NREL study says communities likely to be impacted by development of a wind port will face “diverse environmental, health, educational, economic, and accessibility burdens that could impact how much they benefit from new or expanded ports and job opportunities …”
That finding was echoed by a recent Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) assessment of the Vineyard Wind Project off the coast of Massachusetts. BOEM concluded that a wind port upgrade would increase revenues and create some jobs but would lead to displacement or reduction of commercial and recreational fishing opportunities, potential harm to wildlife, increased vessel traffic and noise, visual impairment of the seaside scenery during daytime and nighttime hours, and disturbances of cultural resources.
This comes at a time when the commercial viability of offshore wind energy – both stationary and floating – is in doubt thanks to the failure of numerous projects along the Atlantic Coast. The Biden administration pledged to install 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, but the rollout has fallen far short of expectations.
Currently, the U.S. has only two operational, industrial-scale wind facilities – one in Massachusetts, the other in Rhode Island. In addition to ongoing inflation and supply chain bottlenecks, high interest rates have boosted the already substantial upfront costs of offshore wind power. While some states, including Maine after DOT’s rejection of the Sears Island grant, are eager to stay in the hunt, offshore wind’s contribution to the “clean energy transition” is still likely to face delays.
For residential and commercial power customers in Maine, the proposed Sears Island project would result in higher utility bills. The current fixed-bottom offshore wind costs are $95 per megawatt hour as opposed to $145 per megawatt hour for floating wind turbines, according to Blackridge Research & Consulting. Both are intermittent, and the part-time energy they produce will never meet the demands of a full-time economy.
Representative Paul, whose coastal district would host the wind port, is supported in her opposition to the project by local citizens, assisted by the Washington-based Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). Her arguments go far beyond dollars and cents by putting today’s government-backed energy transition into perspective.
“The climate has been changing ever since the earth started turning, and it will continue to change long after us,” she notes. “There is no climate crisis that justifies Maine take these extremely damaging actions, as Maine accounts for a mere .000098 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.”
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy ▫
C02 continued from page 1 minor correction; it’s a massive revision that undermines the credibility of models driving policy.
The Unraveling of Climate Models
Climate models are the tools used to predict warming and guide policy. They’ve been treated as scientific scripture, driving policies from emissions reductions to renewable energy mandates. But with a key assumption proven wrong, the models’ projections are called into question:
1. Overblown Emissions Impact: Climate models predicted rapid CO2 buildup, assuming limited natural absorption. This inflated the urgency of drastic emissions cuts. Correcting for higher CO2 absorption rates means that CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere slower than models predicted, weakening the case for urgent, economy-wrenching measures.
2. Questionable Feedback Loops: Many models rely on dramatic feedback loops—such as reduced plant CO2 absorption at higher temperatures—to justify emergency interventions. But this new data shows plants can handle more CO2 than anticipated, making these feedback loops look less inevitable and more speculative.
3. Policy Implications: If the models guiding climate policy have been this far off, then the entire framework behind policies like Net Zero becomes shaky. Policies driven by these models were never proven to be beneficial, but were only assumed to be so. The discovery that plants are absorbing significantly more CO2 undermines the supposed need for extreme measures.
Integrated Assessment Models: Revisiting Flawed Assumptions
Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) blend climate and economic data to suggest policies that balance costs and benefits. They have provided much of the justification for global measures ranging from carbon taxes to renewable subsidies. But with CO2 absorption rates off by 31 percent, these models face a major credibility problem.
4. Cost-Benefit Analysis Loses Its Basis: IAMs assume a certain rate of CO2 absorption to weigh the costs of emissions cuts against the benefits. If the natural absorption is higher, then the benefits of aggressive cuts are lower than the models projected. In short, many of these “benefits” were assumed rather than demonstrated.
5. Marginal Abatement Costs Are Likely Wrong: If plants are more effective carbon sinks, the cost of reducing each additional ton of CO2 may be overstated in current models. This means that the high costs of immediate interventions may not be justified by the reduced warming they are supposed to achieve.
6. Tech-Centric Solutions Become Harder to Justify: Expensive technological carbon capture schemes, often seen as a cornerstone of Net Zero strategies, become less urgent in light of nature’s greater CO2 absorption capacity. Relying on natural processes might be more cost-effective, while prioritizing costly tech solutions could be a waste of resources.
The Net Zero Push: Unproven and Assumed to Be Beneficial Net Zero policies are often presented as inherently beneficial, with no need to prove their value. The assumption is that reducing emissions rapidly will stabilize the climate and prevent catastrophic warming. But the reality is far less certain:
7. Urgency Based on Unproven Models: The rush to Net Zero has been justified by models that assumed much lower natural CO2 absorption. With plants taking in more CO2, the urgency diminishes, raising questions about whether this policy was ever justified, beyond mere assumptions of benefit.
8. Economic Costs Without Clear Benefits: The transition to Net Zero is projected to cost trillions, requiring massive infrastructure changes and energy system overhauls. These changes were sold as necessary to prevent dire outcomes, but with natural systems absorbing more CO2, the supposed benefits become even murkier. The costs are real, while the benefits remain speculative.
9. A Flawed Logic of Assumed Good: Proponents argue that even if Net Zero doesn’t deliver promised benefits, it’s better to “play it safe.” But this logic ignores the very real economic and social costs of these policies—costs that can harm the most vulnerable. If models were wrong about something as basic as CO2 absorption, then continuing these extreme measures without re-evaluation is irresponsible at best.
Climate Sensitivity: Rethinking the Crisis Narrative
Climate sensitivity measures how much the Earth’s temperature will rise with a doubling of CO2. It’s a core figure in climate models, typically estimated to be between 1.5°C and 4.5°C, with policy-driving models often assuming a midpoint of 3°C. If plant CO2 absorption rates were so underestimated, it suggests that the models might also be overestimating climate sensitivity.
10. Slower CO2 Accumulation Reduces Sensitivity: If natural absorption is higher, the atmospheric CO2 concentration increases more slowly, which may imply a lower climate sensitivity than currently assumed. In other words, less CO2 means less immediate warming, contradicting the dire predictions that have justified extreme policies.
11. Overestimated Warming Scenarios: The upper estimates of climate sensitivity have driven much of the urgency around climate action, but this new data suggests that the Earth may not warm as rapidly as claimed. If the worst-case scenarios are less likely, then the aggressive timelines for emissions reductions look increasingly unjustified.
12. Time to Adapt, Not Panic: If climate sensitivity is indeed lower, it means we have more time to adapt to any changes that may in fact be natural, rather than rush into drastic mitigation measures that haven’t been proven to work. Adaptation becomes a more reasonable and potentially effective strategy, given the new information on natural absorption rates.
The Bigger Picture: Science Isn’t Settled, and Neither Is Policy
The discovery that plants absorb 31 percent more CO2 than we thought reveals just how far off the mark climate models—and the policies based on them—can be. It’s not just a matter of revising a few numbers; it’s about rethinking the entire narrative of “settled science.”
13. Assumptions, Not Proof: Policies like Net Zero were based on assumptions of benefit, not evidence. They were sold as urgently needed to prevent catastrophe, but those catastrophic outcomes were based on models that got a core assumption wrong by nearly a third.
14. More Surprises Await: If this key factor in the carbon cycle was so miscalculated, how many other natural systems might also be misunderstood? The real danger may not be climate change itself, but the overconfidence of those who claim to understand it fully.
15. The Real Risk Is Bad Policy: Extreme measures based on flawed models can do more harm than good. If the costs of policies like Net Zero outweigh their uncertain benefits, then pushing ahead with them is reckless and potentially damaging.
Stop Assuming, Start Reassessing
The revelation that plants absorb 31 percent more CO2 than previously estimated is a major blow to the models driving global climate policy. It challenges the core assumptions behind policies like Net Zero, which were never proven to be beneficial but only assumed to be so. If climate sensitivity is lower, warming slower, and natural CO2 absorption higher, then the rush toward extreme measures looks increasingly unjustifiable. It’s time for policymakers to recognize that the science is not “settled” and that uncertainty remains the defining feature of climate science. Instead of doubling down on unproven policies, it’s time to pause, reassess, and adapt to evolving evidence. Continuing the rush to Net Zero without a fundamental re-evaluation isn’t prudent; it’s a gamble with society’s resources and well-being. ▫
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Denver Voters Reject Slaughterhouse Ban, Saving State’s Largest Lamb Meat Processing Plant
BY ALEXANDER EDWARDS / GAZETTE.COM
Denver voters rejected the proposal to shut down the city’s only slaughterhouse.
The results on Tuesday night showed voters resoundingly defeating the measure, which was losing by about 40 points.
Only about 35.6 per cent of Denver voters supported it, compared to the 64.4 percent who voted against it, according to the latest tally.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am,” said Gustavo Fernandez, the general manager of Superior Farms Denver, who has worked there for over 30 years. “I and the workers at this facility just want to do our jobs and provide for our families. Now we can get
back to that without this huge weight on our shoulders. Thank you, Denver!”
“We are eager for the campaign to be over regardless of the results. We feel like we’ve done what we can, learned what we can, and now we have to let go and see what happens,” said Olivia Hammond, a member of Pro Animal Future, the group that pushed both the fur and slaughterhouse bans.
The ban targeted Superior Farms, an employee-owned meat processing plant that provides lamb meat to Denver and the entire country. Superior Farms employs roughly 160 people in a minority-majority neighborhood.
Proponents argued that
slaughterhouses are inhumane for the animals and workers, pointing to what they described as documented physical and mental health issues among slaughterhouse employees nationwide. As envisioned, the proposal requires the Denver government to prioritize employees who will lose their jobs because of the shutdown.
Critics, including Superior Farms workers, members of the meat industry and UCFW,
Athe largest union of commercial food workers in the county, said the ban would increase the prices of meat, decimate jobs and negatively affect Colorado’s economy. They pointed to a Colorado State University study saying that the slaughterhouse ban could mean Denver losing up to $800 million in economic benefits and as many as 3,000 jobs.
Pro Animal Future accused the CSU study of bias, saying
the university has a longstanding history with the agriculture industry and citing grant funding its researchers have received.
Superior Farms is located in the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, both of which fall into Denver’s “inverted-L.” Located to the west of Interstate 25 and the north of Interstate 70, they are home to minority communities and exist in the industrial heart of Denver. To the north stands the Cherokee generating station, formerly a coal-burning power plant, and the Suncor oil refinery.
The neighborhoods are also home to a dog food factory.
The proposed ban drew the ire of Denver City Councilman Darrell Watson, who represents the area.
The neighborhoods, Watson said, have been a “test case for so many horrible ideas.”
“These folks are coming in as just another group testing out their thoughts, ideologies and beliefs on a community that, quite frankly, has had enough of that nonsense,” he said. “I think it’s wrongheaded and I could not be more against it.” ▫
Improving Deer Health — One Test at a Time
new study by Mizzou researchers shows that infections, such as pneumonia, are a major cause of death in Midwestern white-tailed deer. The discovery can help tailor efforts to improve deer health.
The cervid livestock business is one of the fastest-growing industries in rural America. In Missouri alone, more than 250 farms are dedicated to raising deer. To improve overall herd health and support the state’s economy, researchers at the University of Missouri are working to determine how best to manage white-tailed deer on these farms.
That is where the Mizzou College of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (VMDL) comes into play.
A recent study led by Mizzou researchers and published in Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation found that infections are one of the biggest problems for white-tailed deer on Missouri farms. The findings can help farmers and veterinarians make better-informed decisions on antibiotic use and disease management practices.
“When deer are kept in captivity, they often spread pathogens at a higher rate than when they are in the wild,” said Amanda Smith, a clinical assistant professor in Mizzou’s College of Veterinary Medicine and the lead researcher on the study. “If deer farmers have a year where they notice a bunch of their deer are dying and they don’t know why, we at the VMDL can help them figure out what is going on through necropsies and advanced diagnostics for bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases.”
By discovering the three most common types of bacteria that caused pneumonia in the farmed white-tailed deer in the study, the information can help veterinarians and farmers know which types of antibiotics would be most effective for surviving members of the herd. The data can help ensure antibiotics are being used more judiciously as well.
“My ultimate goal is to give actionable data to both producers and vets so they can make proactive choices on targeting certain pathogens they can expect to find in their herds,” Smith said.
The VMDL is Missouri’s only lab accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians and a Level 1 Lab of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network. Last year, the VMDL performed more than 207,000 lab tests, and the diagnostic service was utilized by veterinarians, owners and researchers from 110 Missouri counties and independent cities and 28 other states. These efforts have supported both animal health and the state’s economy.
“We are not just Mizzou’s diagnostic lab, we are also the state’s diagnostic lab — and we’re proud to provide services to stakeholders all over the state of Missouri,” Smith said. “The VMDL is a perfect example of
Mizzou’s land-grant mission to help support farmers and their animals in rural areas.”
Other examples of the VMDL’s work include testing for chronic wasting disease in deer, African swine fever in pigs, bird flu in poultry and rabies in companion animals. In 2022, Mizzou broke ground on a $30 million expansion and renovation of the VMDL to help meet the statewide growing demand for its services.
“Causes of mortality in farmed white-tailed deer in the midwestern United States, 20042023” was recently published in Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. ▫
Jacob Toledo packages lamb for distribution at Superior Farms’ processing
Amanda Smith.
White-tailed deer.
Amanda Smith looking at a sample under a microscope.Smith analyzing a sample under a microscope.
Are Your Cattle Feed Efficient?
Research uncovers a novel way of measuring feed consumption on pastures
BY BURT RUTHERFORD
“We’re really focused on DMI (dry matter intake) as a way to calculate RFI, an efficiency metric for an animal so that people can make selection decisions.” In fact, said Nathan Blake, speaking at the 2024 annual convention of the American Wagyu Association, residual feed intake or RFI is his favorite efficiency measure.
That’s because RFI is helpful in several ways. It’s moderately heritable, at 0.35 to 0.4. And RFI is independent of other traits, so a beef producer can select for more feed-efficient animals without worrying about affecting other traits, like marbling.
But measuring DMI is fundamental in determining RFI, Blake said. However, while calculating feed intake in a drylot is relatively easy, doing so in a pasture setting in the past has been very difficult. Enter Blake’s Ph.D. research at West Virginia University and a remarkable scientific twist.
In measuring feed intake in a drylot, Blake found the variable most important in predicting dry matter intake is daily water consumption. “We were able to predict individual dry matter intake by within about a kilogram for animals in a drylot setting,” he said.
Beyond water intake, the other important variables in predicting feed consumption were body weight and age. “It’s been known for a long time that body weight and age are strong predictors of DMI—nearly all of the published equations incorporate these features to some degree,” he said.
“However, measuring individual water intake is a very recent advancement that allows us to assess previously inaccessible relationships among intake vari-
California Voters Reject Ban on Large Farms
BY SARAH ZIMMERMAN / EDITOR, AGRICULTUREDIVE
California voters in the major agricultural region of Sonoma County overwhelmingly voted down a controversial ballot proposal to phase out large farms in a win for the meat industry.
The ballot initiative Measure J, which about 85 percent of the voters opposed, would have banned large livestock farms also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) or “factory farms”. Proponents said the measure would protect animal welfare as well as provide a national model to transform food systems away from large-scale agriculture.
Around two dozen CAFOs operate in Sonoma County, including four owned by poultry giant Perdue Farms through subsidiary Petaluma Poultry. However, the majority of the state’s CAFOs are in California’s Central Valley.
The ballot measure in the rural county spurred broad pushback from farmers, who expressed concern that the loss of large farms could have ripple effects throughout the agricultural economy.
If all dairy and poultry farms in Sonoma County were to close, that would result in a $381 million loss to the local economy, including significant job and wage losses, according to a government sponsored impact report. ▫
ables and animal performance. Additionally, body weight and age alone do a good job of predicting DMI on the average. However, when seeking anomalous animals—efficient or inefficient—it’s critical to predict DMI accurately in all cases, not just on the average.”
But what about animals free ranging on pasture? To overcome that obstacle, Blake’s team developed a portable machine that measures body weight and water intake. The result? He was able to predict dry matter intake by animals on pasture to less than a kilogram. While water and dry matter intake was relatively consistent between breeds, Blake found that Wagyu cattle visited the water trough more times during the day than other breeds.
The bottom line, he said, is identifying animals that are really efficient so those traits can be selected for, or animals that are inefficient so they can be culled. “And we’re able to predict those animals pretty well.” While that’s important regardless of breed, it’s even more important for Wagyu breeders
because of the longer feeding period. “Selecting for efficiency is going to have a much greater impact on the cost of having those animals around,” he told Wagyu breeders.
For example, he talked about a pair of bulls from the same operation that were consigned to West Virginia’s bull test a few years back. “They had the same sire, they were bred to half-sister cows, they were born one day apart, they were fed the same ration for the performance test and they had nearly identical performance at 4.2 pounds per day.”
However, the inefficient bull consumed 1,500 more pounds over the 70-day test than its efficient half- brother. Over a year’s time, the inefficient bull would have consumed an additional 7,200 pounds of feed, Blake told Wagyu breeders. The bulls’ breeder told the team that looking at phenotype, he would have selected the inefficient bull. Cattle are complicated animals and a number of additional variables can affect any given performance trait— rumen microbiome, additional
Canadian Ports Lockout Begins
Disrupts Beef and Other Exports
BY CHRIS SCOTT / MEATINGPLACE.COM
The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) locked out a union of more than 700 foremen at West Coast ports in the Canadian province after the union failed to withdraw a strike notice by a Monday morning deadline.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 514 issued a 72-hour strike notice last week and called the BCMEA response threatening a lockout as “acting recklessly” by threatening a lockout after issuing its “final contract offer” Sunday night. The employers association had been negotiating with the union since the previous contract expired in March 2023, and the final offer included a 19.2 percent pay increase, a 16 percent increase in the retirement benefit, a 10 percent boost in employer contributions to the welfare plan and a C$21,000 lump sum bonus to eligible employees covering back pay since the previous contract’s expiration, according to a report for in the Vancouver Sun.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) reported that the union accused the employers of removing existing parts of the collective agreement if the ILWU did not accept the final offer.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is asking the Canadian government to get involved and help settle the dispute, the CBC reported.
The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade is concerned about operational disruptions to an estimated C$800 million in daily trade flows through Canadian West Coast ports, including beef, coal and potash exports. A 13-day strike last year disrupted more than C$6 billion in trade in Vancouver and Port Rupert, B.C., according to several local media reports. ▫
environmental factors like heat and humidity, and for Wagyu, less genetic variation than other breeds.
But an accurate measure of feed efficiency can be an important factor in profit potential. To that end, Blake and his team are cooperating with several other universities in using the mobile water intake machine in research.
Beyond that, because Blake’s research was conducted in small paddocks, he’s interested in collaborating with cattle producers in developing data from on-theground research on farms and ranches. “If you run a large operation and would be interested in having one of these mobile units, please send me an email at neb00001@mix.wvu.edu” There’s a wait list for machines at the moment, he said, but they’re working to overcome that. “We’ll work on getting more machines in about a year. We’d love to collaborate.” ▫
