Chile’s Salmon Industry Using Record Levels of Antibiotics to Combat Bacterial Outbreak

Posted on June 15, 2016 by GarryRogers

GR.–The first superbug resistant to all our antibiotics was reported last month. I haven’t heard if the thing has begun to spread. Just as pesticide resistant weeds and insects require steady increases in pesticide applications, so antibiotic resistance requires more and more investment in antibiotic research. Now, we are behind on antibiotic development.

The antibiotic issue is just one of the growing problems with the large factory farms needed to feed our growing population. As with the “leave it in the ground” call for fossil fuels, we need a “leave it in the pants” call for population control.

Lorraine Chow.–“The Chilean salmon industry’s rampant use of antibiotics is once again under the microscope after a new report revealed that salmon producers are using record levels of the drugs to treat stocks suffering from salmonid rickettsial septicemia (SRS).

“Following a Chile Appeals Court order, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) revealed that the country’s salmon producers used 557 tonnes of antibiotics in 2015, with consumption rate per tonne of salmon reaching its highest point in the last nine years at 660 grams per tonne. The previous high was 640 grams per tonne in 2007. Usage was as low as 310 grams per tonne in 2010, Undercurrent News noted. The newest figures were compiled from 46 companies that operate in both freshwater and sea water.

“SRS, or piscirickettsiosis, causes lesions, hemorrhaging and swollen kidneys and spleens in the salmon, and can ultimately lead to death. Chilean farmers have used ever-increasing amounts of antibiotics to try and keep their stocks healthy.

“However, concerns over drug-resistant superbugs are driving away American consumers and retailers who seek antibiotic-free products. Last year, Costco spurned the South American country’s farmed salmon, opting instead for farmed salmon from Norway, whose farmers use far less antibiotics.” Continue reading: Chile’s Salmon Industry Using Record Levels of Antibiotics to Combat Bacterial Outbreak

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Generation Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet for ever

Posted on April 1, 2016 by GarryRogers

We are living in the Anthropocene age, in which human influence on the planet is so profound – and terrifying – it will leave its legacy for millennia. Politicians and scientists have had their say, but how are writers and artists responding to this crisis?

From: www.theguardian.com

Inventory of Moths

Posted on March 15, 2016 by GarryRogers

Biodiversity in the Andes: Teaming up international colleagues, an entomologist of Jena University identifies nearly 2,000 geometrid moth species in the South-American Andes The rain forests in the mountains of the tropical Andes are amongst the… From: www.innovations-report.com

GR: Yes! We need more work like this. And we need repeated surveys to show when species are having trouble.
Biologists estimate that only about 10% of all moth species have been identified. Nighttime pollinators as sensitive to pesticides as their daytime counterparts, the butterflies, these innocent creatures could be going extinct faster than we are finding them. We, the only species capable of caring for the others, might never know how many moths there were before the current mass extinction.

West Coast US Cities Sue Monsanto over Toxic Chemicals

Posted on February 19, 2016 by GarryRogers

Last week, Seattle, Washington became the latest addition to the list of cities filing lawsuits against multinational corporation Monsanto, joining San Diego, San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley in California, along with Spokane, Washington. These efforts, led by San Diego-based law firm Gomez Trial Attorneys, aim to extract tens of millions of dollars from the agrochemical company for knowingly promoting the severely hazardous line of polychlorinated biphenyls, more commonly known as PCBs. www.globalresearch.ca

GR: Hooray!! It’s about time. It always strikes me as a disgrace that our government regulators can’t do their jobs and we have to use other resources to resolve problems. Monsanto and the other major chemical companies have no concern for the damage they do to all animals including humans. Please share this news, and add updates to the comments. Thank you. Garry

Numbers dwindle at Mexico’s mountain of butterflies

Posted on January 9, 2016 by GarryRogers

“The number of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce Wednesday that the insects’ annual migration from the United States and Canada is in danger of disappearing.

“A study released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission blames the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter.” From: www.theguardian.com

GR: This Guardian story is worth repeating. It covers the situation very well. It highlights the conservation failure of NAFTA and the disastrous consequences of Monsanto’s war on wildlife. Of course, the Monarch, like the Honey Bees, is just one of the many species being destroyed by pesticides and destructive harvest of the natural environment.

Health and biodiversity restored? How farming can rediscover its long-lost roots

Posted on November 16, 2015 by GarryRogers

“As industrial agriculture continues to erode our wildlife, Dave Goulson challenges the methods and objectives of ever-increasing food production. We need to move towards sustainable, evidence-based farming systems that produce healthy food, rather than allowing the agrochemical industry to reshape our farming, countryside and nutrition to its quest for profit.

“In our rush to increase yields, based on an ill-conceived notion that this is needed to feed the world, we run the risk of irrevocably damaging our environment and hence our food production system.

“Modern intensive farming produces plentiful, cheap food but is reliant on heavy use of agrochemicals and is a major driver of the ongoing collapse of wildlife populations.
Taxpayers pay billions each year to support this system, with the bulk of this money going to the biggest, richest farming operations.” From: www.theecologist.org

GR: This excellent article argues well for sustainable agriculture, but it overlooks the most significant problem. It describes the failures of factory farming, and it discusses how we can shift to better practices. It does not mention population. The article aims at long-term solutions, but of course, everything eventually fails without population control.

USDA whistleblower claims censorship of pesticide research

Posted on November 1, 2015 by GarryRogers

“A senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a whistleblower complaint on Wednesday accusing the federal agency of suppressing research findings that could call into question the use of a popular pesticide class that is a revenue powerhouse for the agrichemical industry.

Jonathan Lundgren, a senior research entomologist with the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service who has spent 11 years with the agency based in Brookings, S.D., said that retaliation and harassment from inside USDA started in April 2014, following media interviews he gave in March of that year regarding some of his research conclusions.” harvestpublicmedia.org

GR: If it proves to be true that we have been betrayed by the agency with the most control over the quality of the food we eat, we should demand criminal charges, closure of the revolving employment door, and more external peer review of the agency’s research and decisions.

Grieving over Growth. Gary Gripp: To a Future Generation

Posted on October 14, 2015 by GarryRogers

BY GARY GRIPP, to a future generation:

“Everything central to our way of life is in the growth mode: the banks, the corporations, all our extractive and service industries, and, not least of all, our population. More people means: more willing buyers of homes, cars, electronic gadgets, and all the trappings of modern life. More jobs, more prosperity, more everything.

“More, more, more. It is in the interest of banks and corporations, as well as businesses large and small, that the market for products continues to grow. More, more, more. Grow, grow, grow.

“On a finite planet with degraded natural systems and diminishing natural resources, this growth imperative, built-in to our systems and into our lives, is an irresistible force coming up against an immovable object. It is us hitting a wall, and doing so at speed. More and more people in my time now see this crash coming.” blog.edsuom.com

GR: Hey grandkids, we just couldn’t help ourselves. (We really couldn’t. To see what it would take for humans to survive on Earth, read Corr Syl the Warrior.)