Author Archives: Irena Barbe

The Obama Administration’s Meaty Gift to Big Chicken

by Irena Barbe Posted on December 5, 2013

Mother Jones

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Remember the proposal that Obama’s US Department of Agriculture has been pushing since spring 2012, the one that would speed up kill lines in poultry slaughterhouses while simultaneously slashing the number of federal inspectors who oversee them? As I’ve reported before, the plan involves a unleashing a barrage of antimicrobial sprays onto chicken carcasses as they zip down the line.

Charts: Has the World Reached Peak Chicken

The Washington Post’s Kimberly Kindy has shown that these sprays, whose use is already on the upswing, harm workers and may even mask, not decrease, salmonella contamination. As for the traces of them that remain on supermarket chicken, “government agencies have not conducted independent research into the possible side effects on consumers of using the chemicals,” Kindy reports.

Back in April, as I reported at the time, USDA chief Tom Vilsack declared that the department would roll out the plan “very soon.” The USDA claims that it would save taxpayers $30 million per year by laying off inspectors, and save the poultry industry “at least” $256 million annually. The chicken industry—dominated by Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride (now mostly owned by JBS), Purdue, and Sanderson—strongly supports the proposal.

But it caused an uproar among food safety and labor advocates—who argued that the combination of more speed and fewer inspectors would lead to dangerous conditions for both consumers and line workers, sparking hopes the USDA might back away from it. A scathing Government Accountability Office assessment (my analysis here) bolstered those hopes.

But over the past week, the Administration has sent two signals indicating that it plans to move ahead with the rules. Just before Thanksgiving, the administration released its Fall 2013 Regulatory Agenda, including on the for the USDA, which states that in 2014, the department’s meat-inspection service “plans to finalize regulations to establish new systems for poultry slaughter inspection, which would improve food safety and save money for establishments and taxpayers.”

And then, on Wednesday, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service released its action plan to reduce salmonella contamination of the meat supply. What’s number one on its ten-point list? “Modernization of poultry slaughter inspection,” the USDA’s preferred phrase for its speedup plan. What does firing inspectors and jacking up line speeds have to do with fighting salmonella?

The timeline on exactly when the administration plans to move on the plan remains cloudy—but its determination to do so seems as strong as ever.

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The Obama Administration’s Meaty Gift to Big Chicken

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Financial Markets Sure Seem to Hate Larry Summers

by Irena Barbe Posted on September 16, 2013

Mother Jones

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Neil Irwin points to the chart on the right, which shows the stock market’s reaction to news the Larry Summers is no longer a candidate for chairman of the Federal Reserve:

What is going on here? The answer that Wall Street analysts are coming up with is simple: Call it the Yellen Rally. It now looks like Janet Yellen, the Fed’s vice chairwoman, is the most probable candidate for the Fed chairmanship, and she is viewed as more dovish, or soft on inflation, than Summers. That would imply that the Fed would keep interest rates lower for longer, and would choose a more gradual wind-down of its bond-buying program

….Other market measures don’t quite fit the story, though. For example, if one expects a Yellen Fed to be softer on inflation than a Summers Fed, you would look for measures of expected inflation to spike on the news of Summers’s withdrawal. But Monday morning, the spread between inflation-adjusted and non-inflation adjusted bonds implied that investors expect average annual inflation of 1.8 percent over the next five years — exactly where it closed Friday.

I never know quite what to think about this stuff. The effect here is sharp enough and localized enough that it seems as if Summers really is the cause. But come on. I was on Team Yellen myself, but the truth is there was never really all that much policy daylight between Summers and Yellen. It’s crazy for investors to react very strongly to this news.

And Irwin’s final conclusion is even crazier. He figures the market must view Yellen as more dovish on inflation, but inflation expectations have been stable. Hmmm. So why is the market really reacting this way? Here it is: “The prospect of a Summers nomination had put a pall of uncertainty over markets….His Senate confirmation would have been polarizing and contentious, with the outcome in the air until the final vote count….Markets are rallying because the prospect of months of being whipsawed by uncertainty over the Fed’s future direction have diminished.”

Really? Whipsawed by uncertainty? That seems crazy squared. A government shutdown would produce uncertainty. A second debt ceiling debacle would produce uncertainty. By contrast, not knowing which of two very similar candidates will become the next Fed chair seems like something we could all take in stride.

Besides, if financial markets are really this spooked by uncertainty, shouldn’t the princes of Wall Street be working like lemmings behind the scenes to persuade Republicans to back off the cliff and agree to both a budget and a debt ceiling increase? But they haven’t been. Oh, their preferences are clear, but we know what it looks like when they’re putting on a full-court press, and they aren’t doing it. Why not?

I dunno. Something doesn’t add up here.

Originally posted here: 

Financial Markets Sure Seem to Hate Larry Summers

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TSA Is Making Airport Valets Search Your Trunk

by Irena Barbe Posted on July 26, 2013

Mother Jones

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A New York woman who used a valet service recently to park her car at Greater Rochester International Airport discovered upon her return, through a notice left on her car, that it had been searched under TSA regulations without her consent. Furious, she got in touch with a local TV station, and the story went viral. TSA quickly put out a statement saying that its agents don’t search cars—but searches can be included in a TSA-approved security plan. Mother Jones has found that not only does TSA approve searches of the trunks and interior of unattended cars in an undefined perimeter that’s considered dangerously close to the airport—like a car left with valet parking—but if a valet attendant finds illegal drugs instead of bombs, they will call the police. Privacy experts say these searches could be a violation of a person’s Fourth Amendment rights.

“We search every car, we open the trunk and take a look around,” says Saour Merwan, a keymaster at the valet service at San Diego International Airport. “We were told by airport authority to do that, since about two years ago. We keep an eye out for something suspicious, like wires and cables. The airport has security regulations and we have to follow them.” Merwan says the service doesn’t inform anyone that they’re checking out the inside of the vehicles, and when asked what he’d do if he found illegal drugs, he says, “Of course we’d call the police.”

“This is exactly what the Fourth Amendment was designed to say the government can’t do, generally search everything without suspicion,” says Fred H. Cate, a professor at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University. “At the same time, the Supreme Court has made an exception to searching items that you’ve voluntarily given to someone else—like a car. It’s a crazy argument, but that’s not bothered the courts before.”

As David Castelveter, a spokesman for TSA explains, each airport in the United States is required to come up with a TSA-approved plan to deal with security risks. That includes “unattended vehicles parked curbside at the terminal.” Approved measures to deal with that risk can include “searches of cars queued for curbside valet parking” (not all airports have valet services, but those that do tend to leave the cars in lots close to the airport.) Mother Jones asked Castelveter whether the definition of “curbside” can include any parking lot close to the airport—including those that may contain locked, non-valet cars—but he said TSA looks at each airport security plan on a “case-by-case basis.” Obviously, valet cars are easier to search than other vehicles, as the valet company has the keys.

“If TSA is made aware that evidence of illegal activity is discovered incidental to a search for explosives, that information will be relayed to law enforcement,” Castelveter adds.

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TSA Is Making Airport Valets Search Your Trunk

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Tired of 3-D Movies? Blame China.

by Irena Barbe Posted on July 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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This is from the “things I did not know” file:

China has become the second-biggest movie market behind the U.S., with sales of $2.7 billion last year….The government allows in only 34 foreign films per year for national distribution. At least 14 of them have to be made in 3-D or for the big-screen Imax format.

Really? A minimum of 14 foreign movies have to be in 3-D or Imax? How about that. And while we’re on the subject, the same story passes along this tidbit:

“2012” movie was a hit in China with a plot that was gold for patriotic Chinese audiences: As the Earth’s core overheats, world leaders build an ark in the mountains of central China to house people and animals that can repopulate the planet. Scenes from the nearly three-hour movie feature a U.S. military officer saying that only the Chinese could build an ark of such a scale so quickly.

It was seen in China as a refreshing change for audiences after decades of unflattering portrayals of the communist nation in Hollywood movies.

Hmmm. It’s true that a US military officer says this. But as I recall, the reason that only China could build the arks is because it has an autocratic government that can brutally depopulate entire villages without enduring any pesky questions from legislators or the media. Does anyone know if this particular bit of exposition survived in the Chinese version of the film? Or did it end up on the cutting room floor?

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Tired of 3-D Movies? Blame China.

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Hawaiians fight back against GMO experiments

by Irena Barbe Posted on July 2, 2013

Hawaiians fight back against GMO experiments

By John Upton

The state of Hawaii has become a lot like the island of Dr. Moreau. Except that instead of Dr. Moreau — the mad scientist in H.G. Wells’s 1896 novel who vivisected animals into beast-people — Hawaii is ruled by the GMO industry.

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The Island of Dr. Monsanto.

Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer, and BASF use the Pacific archipelago as open-air testing grounds for their experimental genetically modified crops, and they spray those crops with herbicides and other chemicals to test how they respond.

But now many residents, including lawmakers, are saying they have had enough of this science-fictionesque madness.

From a February article by Al Jazeera:

These transnational corporations prefer Hawaii for growing and testing GE crops because of its abundant sunshine, rainfall and year-round growing climate. GMO opponents say the companies also enjoy Hawaii’s isolation, largely removed from the public eye.

Yet these companies, which have been in Hawaii for decades, are now facing increasing opposition from residents concerned about GMOs, the health and environmental impacts of pesticides and what they see as a lack of oversight and transparency.

A flurry of bills have been introduced in the state legislature and by local lawmakers aiming to better regulate, limit, or prohibit GMOs. A bill to require labels on GMO foods appears to have died in the state legislature this spring, but at least two local GMO bills are very much alive.

One bill that’s moving forward, Hawaii County Bill 79, would “prohibit the propagation, cultivation, raising, growing, sale and distribution of transgenic organisms” on the island of Hawaii, aka the Big Island. The bill will be debated at a hearing today of the county council’s public safety committee.

And Kauai County Council Bill 2491, introduced last week, would impose a moratorium on the experimental use and commercial production of GMOs until an environmental impact study is completed. The legislation would also create new permitting requirements and procedures for growing such crops after the study is complete, including rules on the use of chemicals.

More than 1,000 people attended the first hearing on the Kauai legislation, with attendees speaking in support of and opposition to the bill. Paul Towers of the Pesticide Action Network wrote in a blog post that “pesticide and genetically engineered seed corporations bused in dozens of employees to attend the hearing.”

The Garden Island has more on the bill:

In addition to establishing a 500-foot pesticide-free buffer zone around public areas and waterways, the bill would make it mandatory for large agricultural operations to make records of pesticide use available, ban open-air testing of experimental pesticides and crops, and place a moratorium on the commercial production of GMOs.

“We all like to believe the EPA protects us from pesticide harm, but sadly that is not always the case,” said Bill Freese, a science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety.

Earlier this year, Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva came to Hawaii to support anti-GMO activists: “I think your island is truth-speaking to the world that GMOs are an extension of pesticides, not a substitute or alternative to it,” she said.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Hawaiians fight back against GMO experiments

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Counting Down the Days Until Google Reader Dies

by Irena Barbe Posted on June 22, 2013

Mother Jones

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I received a tweet yesterday asking me what I did to replace my beloved Google Reader, which ascends to tech heaven on July 1. Answer: After a vast amount of detailed research, I switched to NewsBlur. OK, maybe it wasn’t a vast amount. Basically, Austin Frakt said it worked pretty well, and most of the other options wouldn’t work for me (they were Mac only, Firefox only, etc. etc.), so I made the switch.

NewsBlur works pretty well. It has a few minor drawbacks and a few minor improvements over Google Reader, plus one major drawback and one major improvement. The big drawback is its lack of search. It’s no surprise that Google would excel at this, and it was a feature I used all the time since I routinely forget where I’ve seen things. The big improvement is that it extracts full posts even from partial feeds, which is really nice. Overall, though, it works well enough that I anted up the $24 subscription fee, in hopes that it will stay around for a while.

And as long as we’re talking tech, here are a couple of questions for you. First, is there any way to buy a Kindle e-book from Amazon UK? For reasons almost certainly due to unfathomable publisher politics of some kind, the book I want isn’t available in the U.S. in electronic form. Since I work from a computer with an American IP address, and my Amazon account is linked to an address in California, I’m guessing this is basically impossible. But I’m open to suggestions.

Second, last night my mother got an iPad. Hooray! But it doesn’t work. Boo! This means a trip to the Genius Bar, I suppose, but I have a lot of geniuses who read this blog, so I’ll try you first. Here’s what happens: when I connect it to my Wi-Fi network, it works for about five or ten seconds and then loses the connection. If I forget the network and reconnect, it works again for about five or ten seconds. Elsewhere in my house, I have two iPhones, another iPad, and an Android tablet that all connect fine (and stay connected). Anybody have a clue what’s going on?

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Counting Down the Days Until Google Reader Dies

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The Very Best Methods For You To Take The Advantage Of The Sun’s Energy

by Irena Barbe Posted on May 9, 2013

Solar energy for homes is has some thing to present for everyone. Should you be a homeowner or perhaps a business enterprise owner, it is possible to conveniently grasp the concept of saving important amounts of money. In the last few years, solar power has gained recognition as a result of quite a few underlying factors, but mainly to save our planet. The following paragraphs can help you fully grasp the positive aspects and also the inner workings of solar energy.

Develop a day-to-day log to keep track from the functionality of your solar power technique. Every single day, at about the very same time daily, make a note with the level of energy your program has produced inside the last 24 hours. Produce a method of symbols to indicate weather conditions. As an example, you might use an asterisk for cloudy days and an exclamation point for sunny days. Within this way, you’ll know what to count on in all sorts of climate, and you will know if there’s a problem that needs the attention of your solar panel installer.

When switching over to solar panel, take the time to evaluate all of your energy needs. Solar panels are far from cheap, and there might be more cost effective ways that you can reduce energy consumption in your home. By reducing consumption, you can reduce how many panels you need, thereby reducing your overall purchase and install costs for a solar system.

Interview a few distinct solar panel installers prior to choosing the a single for you personally. You’ve produced a huge investment by picking solar panels, and also you don’t want any costly errors occurring in the course of the installation. Come across a team that knows their stuff. A enterprise that has a track record which you can respect.

If you can not afford the initial investment of a solar panel installation, but want to have them installed for their money saving benefits, you may want to consider getting it financed. Due to the benefits of solar energy financially, banks are usually very happy to finance this type of endeavour. Before you give up due to the cost, you should ask your bank about getting a loan to pay for it.

Before you purchase a solar panel system, understand that it will take at least 10 to 12 years for the system to pay for itself. If you want a system that will pay for itself in a shorter time frame, consider purchasing a solar water heating system. These will typically pay for themselves in about 4 years.

A hot tub is actually a great deal of enjoyable however it also can trigger your power bills to go up. For those who use your hot tub routinely and would like to save on power, you ought to use solar power to energy it or heat the water you use. A large solar panel is enough to energy your hot tub or provide you with hot water.

It truly is simple to make the switch to solar energy. It may prove too costly initially, but some may well even find it tax deductible. This short article has helped you get an insider have a look at all the rewards of solar power as well as a fast examine how it operates. Look at solar panel review around the web before you purchase the solar panel to help you turn into a sensible decision maker. Use all you have discovered right now inside your every day life to save revenue!

Please visit solar energy for homes for more information to help you make better decisions before you buy your solar panels for home. You can also get more information about the latest released top 10 best solar panels review 2013 at Solar Panel Review

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