Revealed!

From the farmers of the SHow Me state.

The Takeover Begins !
The Governor's Office has published the names of people appointed to the new Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. We were warned that the board would be stuffed full of power hungry Corpo-Ag slimeballs. I'm not seeing it.
This, of course will not slow down the radical animal rights groups who are already working on another ballot initiative to "guide" the new board.

Fishwap story (with HSUS rantings), here

Governor's Site here.

They're Back !
The Fishwrap reports that HSUS is beginning to collect signatures for a ballot measure aimed at controlling our yet to be formed state Animal Care Board.

Get ready for some gruesome ads with celebrities that will make you wince. They will tell us that these worst practices are mainstream. They will ask us for money. They will not tell us that they are not in the animal welfare business & they will not clarify that they have nothing to do with local humane societies nor are they a part of the federal government. They are really in the business of fundraising & the top dogs make some nice cash.

This chart is posted by John Dillard, a law student at the Richmond School of Law in a posting, The Myth of the Humane Society of the United States.
This Washington D.C. organization is not interested in Ohioans best interests. It, almost literally, wants to ram it's vegetarian agenda down our throats (sorry, couldn't resist).
If you are approached to sigh their petition, I urge you to not sign. Throwing cats at them is optional.

Folks in Campbell County (that's in Kentucky) are having a farm tour Saturday, July 18 from 9A to 5P. This is a chance for all the city slickers to get out there and see where their food comes from. You will probably never eat again. That's cool, you can always go zombie & commence to eating people's brains & guts. There will be 16 farms participating and you MUST go to every single one !
Learn more at the Campbell Co Conservation District website.
home.fuse.net/campbellcd/farmtour.html which is done in frames, so if you need to see anything else on the site use this link
The brochure is here (PDF).

Enter, Cheese
Young's Jersey Dairy on route 68 just north of Yellow Springs has finally added cheese to the mix. Long known for their milk and ice cream, I am kinda puzzled why they weren't making cheese already. They don't seem interested in any crazy designer cheeses, opting, instead, for Cheddar, Jack & Colby. They have also set up a Twitter account so, I guess, we can expect hourly Twitter updates on the aging of the cheeses.

Noose Son story here.

Ohio Works to Stave Off Radical HSUS Agenda
Governor Strickland has proposed a 13-member Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board that would set standards for the care of livestock on farms. This appears to be in response o the Washington DC based animal rights group, HSUS (mistakenly referred to as an animal welfare group in the linked article below) passing a ballot initiative in California, recently, that fairly destroyed their smaller animal husbandry industry. Ohio has a huge industry in pork and eggs. The proposals from HSUS would jack prices up and make egg production less safe for consumers. This is of no concern to the organization that promotes vegetarianism. Ohio knew it was on the radical groups radar along with the states of Washington, Illinois and Massachusetts.
HSUS claims that the creation of this proposed Ohio board, to be run by professionals and people who generally know what they are doing, would "force" them to run a ballot campaign fueled with misinformation and a budget of 10 -100 million dollars to deceive the public into deciding "how things should be done".
There are people engaged in less than stellar practices in all industries, animal husbandry is no exception. A state standards board sounds like a good idea, but maybe a bit redundant. The Ohio Department of Agriculture already has standards for animal care. More inspectors to weed out the abusive farmers would be in order but that's unlikely with the current budget (A budget that would be worsened by the legislation HSUS seeks).
Ohio doesn't need out of state extremists coming into our state and forcing their radical agenda down our throats. Ohio doesn't need higher food prices or the loss of jobs in a major industry or the increased chances of contaminated foods.
Support Strickland's idea or not, be aware of the alternative liberal out of state radicals have in store for us.

AP story here

Is Rush on the Pills Again ?
Or is he just getting paid ?
If your extremist left wing movement that supported terrorist activities wanted to infiltrate an extremist right wing movement that also supports terrorist activities who would you call to mediate ? A pill popping blowhard talk radio celebrity ? Why not ?


Apparently Limbaugh has decided the United States should go vegan and domestic animals should be exterminated. Apparently he thinks horses don't deserve death with dignity. Apparently he knows more about farming than farmers. Well, at least he doesn't have an inferiority complex.
Your local Humane Society struggles to provide aid to abandoned, abused and diseased animals. HSUS does not. HSUS is not affiliated with your local Humane Society and does not even offer it support. Similarly, these national mega-churches do not support your local churches or communities. The people who run these national organizations have agendas and hope to dupe good people with their messages while surreptitiously working against the common man's back.
HSUS is targeting the animal agriculture business nationwide and currently it's sights are set on the midwest. It knows the farming community is onto their agendas. It knows the more liberal urban population will be easily duped by their message. Their ploy now is to dupe religious organizations in the bible belt states.
They have no problem lying to you or your pastor. They have a boatload of money and, since they don't want to give it to animal welfare organizations, they can pay off shills like Limbaugh.

Why Did Obama Name This Guy Secretary of Agriculture ?

Obama has named Tom Vilsack Secretay of Agriculture.
From what I can see, he is a lawyer from Pittsburgh who got involved in Iowa politics after marrying an Iowess (?). His legislating seems to be big government, big business, labor and city oriented. I am not seeing any advocacy for farmers or even individual property owners.
Is his job more about school lunch programs than farming issues like land conservancy, safe growing techniques, tariffs, treaties and whatnot ?
He's no Henry Wallace.
He bred chickens, developed hybrid corn and was a relentless advocate for farmers and rural life.
Vilsack's preference for unrestricted eminent domain should make small farmers in heavily populated states like Ohio wary.

Does Ohio Need Casinos ?
No
Leave the casinos to Las Vegas. They do it right. Low end casino towns, like Deadwood suck.
If you just want to gamble, get a game going with your friends or coworkers.
The latest push for a casino in Ohio is coming out of Wilmington, which is getting creamed by the abandonment of a major employer, DHL.
Las Vegas was built into a success a long time ago by people that Wilmingtonians would not want for neighbors. Las Vegas, today, is a result of that success built upon by big entertainment corporations. What Wilmington, or any location in Ohio, would get with a casino, is, basically, a bone from the entertainment moguls that would provide low paying jobs to locals and siphon off the lion's share o the cash while leaving Ohio and Wilmington holding the bill for infrastructure improvements and public services.
A smarter location in Ohio would be on Ohio's northern lakefront, southern riverfront or in south east Ohio's hills. That is, areas that have natural attractions tourists want. But the tiny profit and large headaches would still be the same.
If Ohio really wants to succeed in the tourist trade, it should legalize marijuana. Still, most of the jobs in the tourist industry just don't pay all that well and, frequently don't provide much in the way of employment for older people.
Ohio, and it's cities need to focus on using and marketing their resources. Cincinnati is right to have a major focus on the downtown areas of OTR, CBD & the Banks. OTR, in particular represents an old neighborhood that is still salvageable but would be impossible to re-create.
Ohio should focus more on new industrial jobs. First Solar has recently announced plans to expand and add jobs in Perrysburg. Renewable energy would be a great industry for Ohio. It would create jobs, it's adoption could lower energy costs, making the cost of living and doing business in the state more palatable. A cleaner environment would aid in tourism, the agriculture industry and cut health care costs.
Expanding and diversifying our agricultural industry (what Ohio was built on) is crucial. Agriculture for energy is one idea, focusing on specialty stuff like Alpacas is another.
I offer no quick fixes, no "jackpots", but with some work, dedication and investment in things that are already somewhat in place, Ohio can do a lot better in the long run than by looking to casinos for band-aids.