text:
|Name: _________________________
|Period: ___________________
This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In what year did Gregory send Augustine to Kent?
(a) 658.
(b) 597.
(c) 781.
(d) 449.
2. According to "The History of the English Church and People," how does Bede describe the complexions of the slaves seen by Gregory in the Roman marketplace?
(a) Fair.
(b) Darkened.
(c) Blemished.
(d) Pock-marked.
3. How many poems are included in the canon of the "Exeter Book"?
(a) 114.
(b) 52.
(c) 78.
(d) 96.
4. According to the introduction of Example and Exhortation, what language did King Alfred learn to translate texts into the "vernacular" of?
(a) Celtic.
(b) Druid.
(c) Latin.
(d) French.
5. What were "embedded" in 10th and 11th century manuscripts that were defined as short incantations?
(a) Four humors.
(b) Six "knowns."
(c) Nine decending levels.
(d) Twelve charms.
6. Who was the prior of the monastery at Dol Brittany in 924?
(a) Heather.
(b) Radbrod.
(c) Albert.
(d) Malbroad.
7. In what year was Boniface born?
(a) 655.
(b) 698.
(c) 675.
(d) 702.
8. What does "eorpan motor" mean?
(a) Exiled man.
(b) Eastern light.
(c) Mother of earth.
(d) Mother's ear.
9. Who was the king, whose will is the earliest surviving of Anglo-Saxon history, preoccupied with threat by?
(a) Geats.
(b) Swedes.
(c) Danes.
(d) Northumberlands.
10. What is the alternate name that the introduction to "I Saw a Strange Creature..." gives to kennings?
(a) Personifications.
(b) Mini-Riddles.
(c) Hyperbolies.
(d) Allegories.
11. In the stanza beginning "I'm a strange creature," what does the strange creature state it satisfies?
(a) Cravings.
(b) Hunger.
(c) Thirst.
(d) Women.
12. What kingdom does the author of the introduction to "Greetings in Christ" say the "boys" came from?
(a) Lul.
(b) Deira.
(c) Northumbria.
(d) South Daneland.
13. According to the introduction to "Greetings in Christ," who possessed "the sword of Constantine the Great"?
(a) St. Maurice.
(b) Colombia.
(c) Aethelstan.
(d) Alan the Geat.
14. What did the runic alphabet come to be used for later (after its first use)?
(a) Christian theology.
(b) Pagan theology.
(c) Identification.
(d) Coding.
15. How many of Boniface's letters survive today (at the printing of the text)?
(a) 124.
(b) Less than 100.
(c) More than 200.
(d) 5.
Short Answer Questions
1. The object in the second stanza of "Thirty-One Riddles" is what by nature?
2. What was the name of the monk in the monastery at Ramsey who complied a handbook on computus?
3. In what century was "An Estate Memorandum" written?
4. What object was given "store" as seen in "Beowulf" and named to a recipient in one king's will?
5. In the "Grant of Land at Crediton," the king of what area gave land to be used for a monastary?
This section contains 388 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
By Raj Giri | May 14, 2012 | Comments
WrestlingINC: When you were released that summer, what was the reason given to you?
Ortiz: They basically said, "Why don't you give that Atlas DaBone character another try," and basically, "Go and refine your skills. There will be an open door here and hopefully, we'll be in contact with you in the future with each other." They made a call for me to go to Puerto Rico right after my release and that was it.
You sensed it and then you knew with the squash match I had with Great Khali before that. With the call, you know, it hurts because you've put everything on the line. But, if you want something, you've got to be willing to pay the price for it. Everybody's got to pay dues and has to go through hard times. That was just the beginning of it. [Laughs.]
WrestlingINC: After you were released, you appeared on an episode of "Last Call with Scott Hall." I know you traveled with Hall for a few indie shows, as well as Larry Zbyszko. What was your relationship like with them, two guys who are legends of the sport?
Ortiz: Well, I ended up living with Scott Hall for about eight months and studying tape every single night. I listened to his stories with Shawn Michaels about the stuff they'd talk about before and after the matches. Looking at the entertainment aspect of sports-entertainment by studying movies and different sorts of actors. All the stuff that had to do with the business that was that old school type of teaching and mentoring. Kind of young boy style.
Just really breaking stuff down. Studying old Dick Murdock tapes and hearing the stories about him being young and him doing stupid stuff like him doing a slingshot over the ropes and he's about 280 pounds. Dropping down and leap frogging you even though he's a big giant dude, just because he can. Just doing all this kind of stuff, where you go, "OK. These guys weren't always psychology-based geniuses. They weren't always these artists at the top tier. They actually had to learn and they were mentored and it took time." So, it was actually refreshing to live with him.
He [Hall] was on the straight and narrow when I was there and then stuff happened. Shoot, we all need prayer, brother. God helps us all, man. But, I thought it was good. Then, we'd go do these indie shows and hear the stories on the road and I'd pick his brain.
That's another thing that's missing is being on the road for years with guys in the car after shows. Then, after the show, they tell you what's what and you start to get a sense and a vision of what works for you. Then, there it is: it's the gift passed down and I think that's a part that's missing also. You can call them the dinosaurs. [Laughs.] But, I mean, those guys are a dying breed. They hold a lot of the golden keys, so to speak, to the industry and what built the industry. They've been groomed under all these great guys that have built the industry and have been taught all these secrets. That helps with them giving back to the business like that. It really does.
It helps -- not only that person -- but the person up and coming. It helps the business. And the end result is that the fans get a better product and that makes it all worth it.
WrestlingINC: Do you still keep in touch with Scott Hall?
Ortiz: He's going through his battle right now. I think the best thing to do is just pray for each other and let everyone fight their fight. Be there for them if they call or want you to come by. But, everyone's got to fight their own battles. Everyone's gotta step one foot in front of the other every day and just be there for each other. Just to be a shoulder to lean on -- offer a hand.
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Brock Lesnar's Great Response To Stephanie McMahon, If Loss Hurts WWE Drawing Power, Another Fight
Hornswoggle On Why CM Punk Stopped Talking To Him, The Rock Thinking He Was A Make-A-Wish Kid


text:
I have a fear of heights. And snakes. But mostly heights.
Roller coasters are devices of torture. The mere thought of one makes my heart pound and my palms sweat. I don't get the fun of being thrown around, secured by nothing more than a polyester seatbelt and someone else's faith in physics.
But I also have a fear of looking stupid, so when I was 18 and my date took me to Lagoon, it was as if all my fears collided into one gigantic horror flick, with me as the star.
Of course he wanted to ride everything, including the Colossus, which not only throws you around but turns you upside down. I feel my lunch come up as I write this even now.
Not wanting to admit that I was a 4-year-old in an 18-year-old body, I pretended to be thrilled at the prospect. For three minutes that dragged into eternity, my world was a blur of color and screams. I disembarked the torture cave with shaky legs and a spinning head. My date? That was our first and our last. Enough said.
My point, though, is when I say I'm going to do something, I do it. Putting my intentions out there to the world is enough to motivate me. I don't want to look stupid, after all.
So I'm putting my 2012 running intentions out there.
First, I want to run more local races that I haven't done. The first one on my list is the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon on April 28. I've run in our beautiful mountains, but never through the tulip gardens. I hope to do more than just tip-toe through those tulips.
Second, I want to run more races with friends. That means that some of my races may be a little slower, but I can guarantee they'll be more fun. I'll start with the Lake-to-Lake Relay in St. George in March.
Third, I want to finish the Utah Grand Slam. I did this last year and even came in as the first overall female, but it didn't happen without a fair amount of physical sacrifice. I ended the Grand Slam with a fractured foot and a sore IT band. I ran three of the four marathons with strep throat. Not long after, I suffered some from some serious back issues. This year, I want to finish physically whole.
Fourth, I want to run the Boston Marathon this year for my grandpa who passed away from Alzheimer's. His example of hard work and perseverance has never left me, and this is my way of showing him that I get it.
Finally, I want to run a half marathon with my husband. Doing what I love with someone I love sounds like my idea of the perfect date. I don't know if he'd agree, but this is my list, not his.
Doing something different isn't always comfortable, but most times I'm glad I tried something new. There was a day when running itself was new. Where would I be if I hadn't laced up my shoes for that first run?
Write down your intentions for the upcoming running season and include a few new goals for me. There really isn't anything to be afraid of. Except maybe stray dogs.
Kim Cowart is a wife, mother, 24-Hour Fitness instructor and marathoner whose family thought it was funny to watch her suffering through the "Soarin'" ride at Disney World.
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Still a beginner and I am looking to buy a free-style/free-ride board.
Which should I go for.
I heard the straps on the F-One are most comfortable and the RRD has good upwind ability.
What should I get?
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AP: 24 thatched houses gutted in fire
Last Updated: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 17:47
Rajahmundry: Around 24 thatched houses were gutted in fire in Vemulavada village of Gangavaram mandal in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, a government official said.
The incident took place last night and the cause of the fire is suspected to be short circuit in high-tension electricity transmission wires, Rampachodavaram sub-collector Gandham Chadrudu said today adding that there was no casualty in the incident.
"Nearly 100 persons were rendered homeless due to the fire. All the victims have been shifted to a government school and given some financial assistance," he added.
First Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 - 17:47
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- Amoris Laetitia 82: Procreation, Adoption, and Problems
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Daily Archives: 16 November 2012
Built of Living Stones 164-165: Vessels and Vestments Suitable for the Liturgy
The GIRM bolsters the US bishops on § 164 § As in the case of styles of architecture, there is no particular style for sacred furnishings for the liturgy.(GIRM 325) Sacred vessels may be in "a shape that is in … Continue reading
Posted in Built of Living Stones, USCCB documents Leave a comment
Don't Ask, Don't Tell?
One of the more curious strategies I've encountered over the years has been the "anonymous" vocation discernment group. Boston seems to be moving beyond that trend, in its "collaborative" (see cluster) plan. Each collaborative will develop a plan for identifying candidates for the … Continue reading
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Cuisines and Dishes at The Spaghetti Warehouse:
- Italian
Jun 22 2016
Scott J. via Yelp
Came with a youth team of 30. Service was handled well. Sat quickly and well attended to. Needed separate checks, very well handled. All in all a good...read more
Jun 20 2016
Dee J. via Yelp
Food was great, staff fun and friendly.. drinks too expensive. Being downtown, I understand but for the size... they cost too much.read more
Oct 29 2015
Michael B. via Yelp
I've been here around 4 or 5 times and I just never walk away impressed. My most recent visit was in step with every other past visit. To the best of my...read more
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Plane slides off tarmac at Kelowna airport amid heavy snow
CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Monday, January 7, 2013 1:37PM EST
Last Updated Monday, January 7, 2013 3:58PM EST
An Edmonton-bound WestJet flight slid off the tarmac at the Kelowna International Airport early Monday morning as heavy snow blanketed the area.
Flight 150 had left the gate and was headed to the runway shortly before 8 a.m. when it was unhooked from its tug and its nose wheel and right-side gear wheels skidded into the snow. The aircraft was still on the apron, or the portion of the tarmac used to load and unload planes, when the incident occurred.
None of the 134 passengers or six crew members onboard was injured, the airline said in a statement. All passengers were brought back to the terminal and will be rebooked on other flights or put up in local hotels.
The aircraft will undergo a safety check to look for damage, the airline said.
WestJet spokesperson Robert Palmer said in addition to being put up in hotels, passengers will also receive meal vouchers until they are able to resume their travels. Passengers will likely be put on a flight to Edmonton on Tuesday unless the weather improvesearlier, Palmer said.
The airline warned passengers that due to heavy snow and poor visibility in the area, four of its flights into and out of the Kelowna airport have been cancelled for Monday. Passengers are advised to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport in case of further cancellations or delays.
Sam Samaddar, director of the Kelowna airport, said all flights that had been scheduled to take off from the airport after 8 a.m. were cancelled due to the winter weather. Samaddar told CTV British Columbia that some early inbound flights were also cancelled, but others were allowed to land as visibility improved later in the morning.
"We're obviously experiencing heavy snow in Kelowna and low visibility," Samaddar said. "Lots of passengers have to rebook their flights."
Samaddar said it was unclear when normal operations will resume.
The Kelowna airport handles 62 flights daily, mostly servicing western Canada.
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United, flight attendants have a tentative labor deal
The Chicago airline and the union have been in contentious negotiations over a new contract for around three years.
The Chicago airline and the union have been in contentious negotiations over a new contract for around three years.
The region could lose some cargo if shippers use the bigger waterway to avoid ports on the West Coast, but the local implications aren't clear.
All major domestic airlines offer programs that let people skirt lines leading to the taxpayer-funded TSA checkpoints, even if they don't qualify for the federal expedited security program.
Fliers were feeling the effects long before bad weather was due to arrive.
The chief executive at United is hosting an investor call today where he's likely face tough questions about the airline's competitive position.
CEO Oscar Munoz told investors about the carrier's plans to reach profit levels American and Delta enjoy. And apparently, investors were pleased with what they heard.
Aldermen are expected to pass an amended ordinance that will require drivers for ride-sharing services to get chauffeurs' licenses, but not prints.
The ride-booking firms have said such regulation could force them to quit doing business in Chicago.
The company says it will use the extra week of production to make another 22,000 SUVs at factories that include its Chicago facility.
The Chicago airline today trotted out a mock-up of its international business service, which has sleep as its guiding principle.
Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines were the best at staying on schedule, while Spirit Airlines was last, arriving late more than one-fourth of the time.
As the Obama administration begins approving U.S. airlines' plans to fly to Cuba, Frontier gets the thumbs-up to fly from O'Hare to two Cuban cities.
So you signed up for PreCheck or Global Entry? It can take weeks or even months to get an appointment for the brief in-person interview needed to complete the enrollment.
The chief executive of the Chicago airline said, "I see a new trust and caring model," and conceded to a questioner that "outsourcing sucks."
Gone—for now—are the security lines from hell that made O'Hare a flashpoint for flier outrage.
Elite-status members of the airline's AAdvantage frequent-flier program will earn bonus miles for every dollar they spend, in a move to match Delta and United programs.
The Panamanian carrier flies to 105 destinations in 28 countries.
The Chicago carrier is upgrading its international business-class service in a bid to lure some of the most valuable passengers in commercial aviation.
Documents detailing recalls by General Motors, Volkswagen, Ford, Daimler Vans, BMW, Jaguar-Land Rover and Mercedes Benz were posted today.
From checked bags to private jets, you'll want to plan ahead, because the cash-strapped agency can't keep up the OT and extra staffing forever.


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Back to the future: 'Forgotten' DeLorean foundComments Email
ANAHEIM, Calif. (March 7, 2014) — Exotic car dealer Mike "Corvette Mike" Vietro and a local Anaheim automobile collector recently made a find with Hollywood connections.
They opened up a long-forgotten garage/storage unit that contained a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, according to a press release. The car — made famous in the movie franchise Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox as "Marty McFly" and Christopher Lloyd as eccentric scientist "Dr. Emmett L. Brown" — has since been moved from the garage in Temecula, Calif., to Corvette Mike's Anaheim showroom. There, Mr. Vietro said, it will be displayed, serviced "and readied for a new owner."
Made of stainless steel, DeLoreans were produced between 1981 and 1983 by DeLorean Motor Co., founded by automobile industry executive John DeLorean in 1975. Only approximately 9,000 of the iconic vehicles were made.
Corvette Mike, based in Anaheim, is a sports car dealership that handles Corvettes, American muscle cars, and the Ferrari, Porsche and Jaguar nameplates, among others. According to its website, the company was founded by Mr. Vietro, "who fell in love with Corvettes as a teenager pumping gas in the Boston suburb of Everett, Mass.," then settled in Southern California after serving a term in the U.S. Marine Corps in the mid-1970s.
He is described on the website as "one of the nation's most quoted Corvette authorities" and has been featured in more than 20 magazines and newspaper articles as well as several Corvette videos on stations such as Speedvision's Classics network and Meguire's broadcast network.
Every June, his website said, Mr. Vietro holds an advanced "How to buy a Corvette" seminar in Bloomington, Ill.
TB Reader Poll
How will the new Labor Department rule on overtime pay affect you?
|I've already had to demote some managers and assistant managers because of it
(13 votes)
|I was hoping to hire some new technicians soon. I can't now because of the new overtime rules
(4 votes)
|It won't affect me much
(10 votes)
|I think it's fair for assistant managers to get compensation for overtime
(27 votes)
|I'm voting a straight GOP ticket this November to see if we can get rid of this
(27 votes)
|Total votes: 81


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by Henry Spira
On May 17th, the Federal Register published the USDA's proposal to end face branding of domestic cattle and bison in the agency's tuberculosis and brucellosis identification program. As you probably know, January 1995 saw an end to face branding of Mexican steers. However, smaller numbers of domestic cattle have continued to be face branded as part of disease control programs. With the current announcement we can look forward to the complete elimination of the face branding of cattle within the next few months.
USDA's Acting Assistant Secretary Patricia Jensen said, "We are committed to continually evaluating USDA identification requirements to ensure that our methods are both humane and effective for livestock disease control and public health purposes." Jensen also said that these proposed regulations are USDA's response to increasing public concern that hot-iron branding on the jaw may cause undue distress to cattle or bison.
Congratulations to all of you who voiced your strong concerns to the USDA. You stopped the proposed expansion of face branding in its tracks. In fact, the USDA was so impressed with your reaction that they moved to eliminate all face branding with speed uncharacteristic of a government agency.
Many of you also voiced strong concern to the USDA about other painful animal agriculture practices. This concern is now empowering USDA officials to place farm animal well-being on the federal agenda. A similar recognition by fast food giant McDonald's recently led the company to publish a statement requiring their suppliers to adhere to humane guidelines for farm animals. Independent experts are suggesting the McDonald's initiative is already making a meaningful difference. There will now be pressure on other major companies to take similar initiatives, including fast food parent PepsiCo, with whom we are now in discussion.
Until very recently, "food animals," who account for 95% of all animal suffering, have not been considered as appealing or deserving of concern as some other animals. But now, increasing numbers of individuals and organizations are beginning to direct serious energies towards solving the nightmarish problems of the more than seven billion farm animals in the USA.
Clearly, we now have momentum and enormous opportunities for progress. But not all the news is good news. In future columns, we'll discuss the negative trends, including: how the US is promoting the consumption of a debilitating, high-fat diet in countries that to date have benefited from a largely meatless life-style, and the proliferation of mega factories, where pigs live their entire lives in steel cages unable even to turn around, at a time when such cruel systems are being phased out elsewhere.
AWI Quarterly Fall 1995, Volume 44, Number 2, p. 16.
The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health InspectionService (APHIS), under strong pressure from AWI and other groups, at longlast has made significant progress toward reducing inhumane treatment ofcattle imported into the US from Mexico.
On August 24,1994, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) withdrewits misguided 1993 proposal "to require that spayed heifers and intactcattle imported into the United States from Mexico meet the same M-brandingrequirement" that has been routinely inflicted on Mexican steers.Until now, the USDA required that steers be painfully hot-iron brandedwith the letter "M" on the right jaw to signify the animals'Mexican origin. AWI objected to this attempt to expand a cruel procedurewhich causes extreme pain.
Less noticed in the heat of the Mexican steer campaign is a smallernumber of domestic animals who continue to be face branded as part of USDAdisease control programs. Animal protectionists are now urging the USDAto eliminate face branding across the board as a desirable alternativeto firing up new campaigns.
Under the modified proposal hot-iron branding is no longer mandatory,and all brands must be placed on the right hip rather than the extremelysensitive face of the animal. The mark must be "distinct, permanent,and legible," but it can be applied by freeze branding, which theUSDA will accept under the new proposal as a painless alternative to thehot-iron brand. In 1986, the AWI Quarterly reported on the workof Dr. Keith Farrell who invented and developed freeze branding, a methodwhereby liquid nitrogen rather than red hot iron is applied to the skin.Farrell described the feeling when he freeze branded himself as a "tinglingsensation" without pain. It is widely used for identification of expensivehorses but has been resisted by the cattle industry in the past.
However, it now appears that the National Cattlemen's Association (NCA)supports the modified branding proposal. Live Animal Trade & TransportMagazine, December 1994, quotes NCA comments to APHIS regarding thechange in procedure: "If APHIS determines that moving the 'M' brandwill provide an effective means of permanent identification, then we supportthis decision."
Accepting alternatives to hot iron branding is an extremely positivestep. USDA should now follow up with a seminal breakthrough, prohibitionof hot-iron branding of imported cattle. Without such a prohibition, individualswho currently use hot-iron brands are under no compulsion to change theirinhumane procedures.
Great progress also has been made in modifying USDA spaying requirementsfor Mexican cattle. The Department's ovariectomy protocol required that"a complete ovariectomy will be surgically performed through a flankincision on each heifer." Remarkably, there was no mention of anesthesia!
Effective July 12, 1994, USDA remedied the protocol's glaring deficiencyby requiring that either local or regional nerve block anesthesia be usedfor the surgery. Also changed was the unnecessary requirement that twopainful brands be applied to these animals: the "M" signifyingMexican origin and a spade mark, like that found on a playing card, indicatingcompletion of the spay surgery. Now, one brand, an "M" with aslash will be placed on the hip, reducing the double cruelty formerly inflicted.The NCA also agrees with this change in procedure.
If adopted, these modifications will make a major improvement in thetreatment of Mexican cattle. USDA clearly is listening to public opinion.
AWI Quarterly Fall 1994, Volume 43, Number 3, p. 12.
AWI Quarterly: Summer 1998
"Above gold and silver... more precious than rubies;a race of virtuous and independent farmers; loyal supporters of their country"—Senator Thomas Hart Benton, 1823
by Tom Garrett
Today, America's system of family farms is in extremis. A successionof economic shocks, beginning in the Eisenhower administration, has sothinned the ranks of family farmers and ranchers that only a beleagueredremnant, aggregating less than 2% of the population, remain on the land.Thomas Hart Benton's "race of virtuous and independent farmers"is being replaced by a new feudalism, governed from corporate boardrooms,in which "contract growers" fulfill the role of serfs, and migrantworkers the role of slaves.
The corporate takeover of agriculture relies on control and manipulationof markets, and a degree of vertical integration unthought of in manufacturingindustries. Its way is being greased by one of the most powerful and unscrupulouslobbies in the nation with corruptive tentacles enmeshing the Congressand federal agencies and penetrating into state governments and legislaturesacross the country.
Gross abuseof farm animals, on a scale and to a degree unimaginable a generation ago,is the distinguishing feature of industrial agriculture. Its dernier criis found in the hog factories mestastizising across the farm belt and intothe intermountain west where pigs live their brief lives in huge, denselypacked buildings suffused with the overpowering stench of liquefied hogmanure. Gestating sows stand on naked concrete slats in a space so tinythat they are unable to turn around. During farrowing, the space allottedthem is so narrow that they must lie on one side, segregated from theirpiglets by bars spaced widely enough apart that the latter can suckle.The piglets themselves, under "segregated early weaning" aretaken from their mothers at only 10- 14 days of age so that the sows canbe re-inseminated without loss of time.
Death losses under such conditions and in an atmosphere laden with hydrogensulfide and ammonia, are understandably high. Twenty million pounds ofantibiotics are fed to farm animals each year. Even with daily, subtherapeuticdoses of antibiotics, without which raising animals in factories wouldbe impossible, vast numbers of piglets fail to survive weaning or fallbehind and are "culled." The annual death rate among sows isreported to average 20%. Those who survive are "used up" andculled after three or four farrowings. Some of these young sows are unableto even walk to their own deaths. The natural life expectancy of a pigis ten years; sows in factory farms rarely exceed the age of two and onehalf.
At Seaboard's huge, vertically integrated hog complex near Guyman, Oklahoma,the death loss—by the company's own admission—has reached 35,000 animalsin a single month. Company officials seem unconcerned. This is not really"wastage" they argue; the animals are taken to the company'srendering plant, ground up and fed to the surviving hogs. This is what"closed cycle" evidently means.
Why can't traditional farms, where there is little death loss and sowsremain productive for years, compete withthis grotesque system? Given a "level playing field" they can.But the field is anything but level. The profit or loss of independentfarmers depends on the producer price; the price of animals "on thehoof." But for corporations like Seaboard who maintain their own packingplants, and—increasingly—sell at retail under their own label, producerprices are irrelevant; the determinants are wholesale and retail prices.The producer price of hogs plummeted 40%, from 59.3 cents a pound in July1996 to 36.3 cents a pound in July 1998. But the wholesale price droppedonly 23% during the same period, from $1.22 to 95 cents and the crash affectedretail prices not at all: pork averaged $2.26 per pound in July 1996; $2.31per pound in July 1998.
Another way vertical integration allows corporations to muscle asidefamily farms is to deny them markets altogether. In recent years, mostof the sale barns and central markets to which farmers traditionally shippedtheir hogs have closed down and most independent packing plants—those operatingwithout a "captive supply"— have been forced out of business.Tens of thousands of small farmers have quit raising hogs simply becausethey cannot sell them.
In the meantime,despite the collapse of Asian markets and consequent glut of hogs, hogfactory expansion continues apace. Huge new complexes are planned for pointsas diverse as southeastern Idaho, northern Texas, the San Luis valley ofColorado, the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Fulton County,Illinois and Platte County, Wyoming, as the corporations with the deepestpockets take advantage of the price crash to seize additional market share.
But for all their money and political influence, factory farmers arevulnerable. Factory farming does not work economically unless many of itsreal costs are imposed on others; to sustain such a system requires a highdegree of political control. At the federal level, where honest enforcementof the Packers and Stock-yards Act and various environmental laws wouldunravel the entire system, corporate dominance is hardly challenged. Buta citizen's revolt against hog factories is gaining strength in communitiesacross the country as normally diverse— even antagonistic—constituenciesunite against the common enemy.
"Forget the pig as an animal. Treat him just like any other machinein a factory. Schedule treatments like you would lubrication. Breedingseason is the first step in an assembly line."
—Hog Farm Management Magazine
by Tom Frantzen
Farrowing and finishing hogs have been core activities on the Frantzenfarm for over 55 years, spanning my and my father's farming careers.
In 1978, I changed the way hogs were housed and raised at our farm.A room in our barn was remodeled to hold 14 steel farrowing crates withslat floors. A small underground pit was dug to catch the pig's waste.I distinctly remember how those "modern improvements" changedthe very nature of our farm. Slat floors and the stagnant watery manurebeneath it created a repulsive odor. Any activity that stirred this fecalsoup greatly increased the smell. At that time, I thought that this wasjust a part of being modern. Noxious odors were not the only bad featuresof the slat floors and crates. For the next 13 years, I would strugglewith countless animal health problems associated with slat floors.
Sows in the crates would slip on the (very expensive) slat flooring,causing various injuries. Little pigs suffered knee abrasions from sleepingon the hard floors. Pneumonia and injury-related health problems were common.The finishing pigs that were closely confined in a slat floored pen, asrecommended by modern textbooks on pork production, did gain weight quickly,but they exhibited cannibalistic behavior. Tail biting became a seriousproblem.
In 1994, my wife, Irene, and I spent two weeks touring Sweden with asmall group from Iowa and Minnesota. The trip was organized and hostedby Marlene Halverson of the Animal Welfare Institute and Mark Honeymanof Iowa State University. The farms we visited were employing deep beddedfacilities to provide low stress, humane conditions for their livestock.I was awed by the healthy and content disposition of the stock, and thefarm families too!
Every time I observed my old, crowded, slat floor hog barn and the stressedpigs living in it, I too became stressed. Their social brutality (tailbiting, bar chewing) was caused by failing to meet their basic social instincts.On a hoopbuilding tour, I was told that pigs have three desires: they wantto run around, build a nest, and chew on something. This behavior is impossiblein a metal pen on a slat floor. Early one September morning, I opened thedoor of my grower barn to check on the pigs. One of the pens was coveredwith fresh blood. Their level of stress was so high they became violentlyaggressive toward each other. I could take no more! I announced with abit of profanity that my slat floor days were going to end.
Deep-bedded hoophouse facilities appeared in the Midwest in the mid1990s. It was exciting to observe this development. Not since being onthe Swedish farms had I observed a humane shelter! More exciting yet, wasthe promise of an economical and ecologically sound building. In a hoophouseor structure, straw-bedded pens replace metal crates and slatted floors.The straw bedding mixes with the hog waste which is self composting, createsvery little odor and no ecological hazards.
Plans were set to build three hoophouses on the farm. By September of1997 one of the houses was ready for the pigs. I was very anxious to usethe new facilities. On moving day we bedded the new hoophouse with freshstraw, and lots of it.
One hundred and sixty pigs from the old grower were released into theirnew home. Boy, did those pigs have fun! In the new hoopbuilding they havelots of room to run, straw to chew and heaps of bedding to nest in. Theyran around all day—and even in to the night. The next morning when I wentinto check on them, I will never forget what I found. As I walked up tothe door, it was quiet, very quiet. I peeked into the hoophouse to see160 pigs in one massive straw nest, snoring with great content! I laugheduntil I cried. Their stress was gone and so was mine.
Our deep bedded buildings are now a year old. We are selling the secondgroup of pigs this fall. We have not observed any social behavior problems.Even when the bedding pack is four foot deep, the odor level is very low.Nutrient losses from rain and snow runoff is nearly nonexistent. Hoopstructurehousing is the most significant development I have observed in moving agriculturetowards practices that really make sense. It took a long time but our pigsfinally have a happy home.
Tom Frantzen is a fourth generation farmer from Alta Vista, Iowa.
What was to be a one way journey to the slaughterhouse turned into atrip to porcine paradise for 167 pigs abandoned in a Washington, DC neighborhood.Tightly packed into a huge, three-tiered, eighteen-wheeled truck trailer,the pigs were being transported from a Rocky Mountain, North Carolina factoryfarm to Hatfield Quality Meats, a Pennsylvania slaughterhouse. The DC Metropolitanpolice who found the terrified pigs contacted the Washington Humane Society,who had the truck towed to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville,Maryland.
The hogs hadbeen on the truck for at least 14 hours before they were finally unloaded.Four of the pigs died of stress while on the truck or shortly after beingunloaded. Only 5 to 6 months old, the pigs already averaged a whopping200 to 250 pounds. Some had unsightly growths and hematomas, most had difficultywalking and all had their tails cut off and large sores on their bruisedand swollen legs. It was clear that their short lives on concrete slatshad taken a permanent toll.
When the operations manager of Hanor Corporation, Inc. (the companythat owned the pigs) arrived at the sanctuaryto retrieve the pigs, he was escorted by a Washington lawyer and a bevyof Montgomery County, Maryland police officers. Poplar Spring presentedthe manager from the Hanor factory farm with a bill of $11,630 for expensesincurred for the pigs' transport, care and feeding. The bill constituteda legal lien in the state of Maryland. After intense negotiation, the manageragreed to write a check to cover the amount. The pigs' lawyer, Laura Nelsonof the Animal Legal Defense Fund, called his bluff and demanded the sumbe either in cash or a certified check. Unwilling or unable to producea secured payment for the pigs, the manager ceded the pigs to Poplar Spring.An interesting footnote: According to police sources, the driver was pickedup the next day by Washington, DC police for driving under the influenceof alcohol. It was also discovered that this had not been the first timethe driver had deserted a trailer full of animals.
The hogs will now live out their natural lives as true pigs, in grassyfields with their friends. If you are interested in adopting or sponsoringone of the Poplar Spring pigs, please contact Terry Cummings at PoplarSpring Animal Sanctuary, PO Box 507, Poolesville, MD 20837, (301) 428-8128.
AWI Quarterly Summer 1998, Volume 47, Number 3
Animal Welfare Approved Surpasses Other Seals; First Humane Program to Champion Family Farms and Repudiate Double Standards in Other Labeling Programs
New Standards Supported by Farmers, Top Chefs and Notables Such as Willie Nelson, Rosemary Harris and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Reprinted with permission from Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Company and The Washington Post
U.S. Pork Producer Hogtied in Polish Venture
By David B. OttawayWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, July 3, 2000; Page A01
WARSAW This pork-loving country seemed the perfect place for Joseph W. Luter III to transplant the industrial pig-farming system that had made his Virginia-based Smithfield Foods Inc. "the largest hog producer and processor in the world."
Poland had cheap labor, good land and diligent farmers. It also had scores of poorly run packing plants that Luter could take over on the cusp of Poland's possible entry into the lucrative European Union market. Best of all, Luter could escape the environmentalists and regulators who have criticized his operations back home. Luter saw Poland as "the Iowa of Europe."
But shortly after Smithfield purchased a majority stake last April in the Polish meat-packing conglomerate Animex, Luter found Poland to be a hot new front in an old war. The Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute, a grass-roots group dedicated to saving whales, sea turtles and elephants, added Polish pigs to its agenda.
The AWI has been surprisingly successful in thwarting the $5 billion Smithfield empire's plans in Poland, thanks largely to its alliance with Andrzej Lepper, an ultra-nationalist farm union leader who also happens to be a pig farmer. Luter already has scrapped plans to replicate Smithfield's "factory farming" here.
Poland's pork battle demonstrates the globalization of the struggle between American agribusinesses and increasingly assertive U.S. advocacy groups, whose influence far exceeds their size. The AWI has a full-time staff of nine and an annual budget of less than $800,000.
The AWI and Lepper have portrayed Smithfield as the embodiment of dark global forces, a threat to both the 25 percent of the Polish working population still employed on farms and the country's new post-Cold War sovereignty. A key weapon in the struggle is an AWI-produced film titled "A Trojan Pig," which excoriates Smithfield's U.S. operations; thousands of videocassettes have been distributed to Polish politicians.
Smithfield and the AWI have waged an all-out fight for the soul of Polish pig farmers, lobbying hard to shape Poland's farm policies and win governmental and political allies. Lepper has charged that Smithfield tried to bribe him to break off the fight, offering money to help build up his farmers' union, Samoobrona. Smithfield executives deny this, but many Polish farmers, suspicious of big foreign companies, believe Lepper's account.
One of them is Stanislaw Kilianczyk, who operates a commercial hog farm on Warsaw's outskirts. Smithfield's purchase of Animex reminded him of another foreign company that bought out a Polish oil seed firm only to close it and import its own products. Would the American company do the same?
"They will stop buying our pigs," he said. "Farmers will have to sell their land. How are we to survive?"
In fact, Animex officials in Warsaw plan to close three of the company's nine plants to boost productivity. Some fresh pork is already being imported because Polish pigs cannot meet European Union standards, officials say.
David and Goliath
Luter and Lepper, two headstrong adversaries who have never met, seem an odd couple, an American Goliath mismatched against a Polish David. But the two men are more similar than they seem.
Luter, 60, the scion of a Virginia pig dynasty, has proved himself a masterful, boardroom wheeler-dealer who has skillfully exploited wild swings in pig prices to expand his empire.
Lepper, 46, the son of a Baltic Coast pig farmer, has proved himself on the barricades of Poland's stormy political landscape. Some believe that Lepper has skillfully seized the moment to exploit the emotions of Polish farmers caught in a painful transition from communism to capitalism.
The men share something else: Each in his own way has stirred heated passions. Luter, the son of Smithfield Foods's founder, gained fame by creating a vertically integrated production system from "breeding to bacon." He also helped establish uniform swine standards and pioneered a genetically engineered super-lean pig. Run with military precision, his farms produce 12 million nearly identical hogs annually. One $190 million plant in Tarheel, N.C., slaughters 32,000 hogs a day.
But in the process, Luter's Smithfield has become a target for America's struggling small farmers, environmentalists and animal defenders.
Liquefied waste from several of Smithfield's huge hog farms in Virginia and North Carolina allegedly polluted nearby waters. In 1997, Smithfield paid $12.6 million in Clean Water Act penalties. Animal activists say Smithfield inhumanely breeds pigs in narrow cages, while farm activists say its strict contracts with independent farmers amount to a form of modern-day "serfdom."
In Congress, the conglomerate has been blamed for accelerating the demise of the small farmer. Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) recently cited a Smithfield action in his home state: The company bought and closed a pork-processing plant in Huron, S.D., laying off 650 people--10 percent of the town's work force.
Such stories make Polish politicians and farmers nervous.
Another Walesa?
Lepper is every bit as controversial in Poland as Luter is in the United States. The dapperly dressed populist has a bitter-sharp tongue and uses unorthodox tactics. He has organized illegal road blockades and a takeover of the Agriculture Ministry building to protest cheap meat and farm produce from European Union countries. He also has defied repeated orders to appear in court, has sought arrest to gain publicity and currently is awaiting trial for allegedly insulting a government minister.
Some Poles think Lepper aspires to become another Lech Walesa, the Solidarity labor leader who defied the communist regime and emerged to become Poland's first post-communist president. Lepper, in fact, is making a long-shot bid for the presidency this fall.
While polls last year showed that more than 75 percent of respondents sympathized with Lepper's tactics, they have yet to show that he enjoys much support outside the rebellious farming community.
Lepper has seized on Smithfield as a hot-button campaign issue. He tells Poles that Smithfield is a "cancer" that will decimate family farms and create the equivalent of the old communist-run state farms. During an AWI-sponsored strategy conference for Polish farm activists here this spring, Lepper blasted Smithfield in an interview with The Washington Post. He said Smithfield executives had tried various ways to neutralize him. First, they offered "the possibility of working together" and then tried to bribe him, he asserted.
"Your problems can be over; you can have a wonderful life, but just stop your activity against Smithfield," he said they told him. "It is obvious from that offer that it was only money. What else could they offer me?"
Luter's chief American operative here, Richard J.M. Poulson, denies any bribe attempt was made. "He [Lepper] said he'd been offered $1 million," said Poulson. "But when a Polish reporter asked him who, where and when, he couldn't remember." In the Post interview, Lepper again declined to provide details.
Poulson counter-charged that Lepper threatened him during a prickly 40-minute encounter in Poland. "He told me I was going to feel his hot breath on my neck and his fist in my face," Poulson said, deriding Lepper's claims to be a serious pig farmer.
"He doesn't even know how many times his sows give birth in a year, and he feeds garbage to his swine," Poulson said. "Even Haiti doesn't allow feeding garbage to swine."
'10 Cents on the Dollar'
Luter initially regarded Smithfield's hostile takeover of Animex as a real coup--$55 million for assets he valued at $500 million. "Only 10 cents on the dollar," he remarked. With 1998 sales of $400 million, Animex is Poland's largest meat packer and exporter, with offices in seven countries, including Japan and the United States. Luter predicted Animex would be a $1 billion business within a few years.
For Luter, the April 1999 Animex acquisition was a messy affair; it had taken him 18 months of maneuvering to gain a controlling stake. And Animex was a mess. Its plants were functioning at 20 to 25 percent capacity, and some were located far from hog country. Its important Russian market had collapsed, and it was competing within Poland with 4,500 "non-inspected, illegal, small backyard" slaughterhouses that accounted for half the Polish pig market.
At the time of the takeover, Luter said that Polish pig farming reminded him of the U.S. pork industry 30 years ago. "There is very little vertical integration, and hog quality and supply is inconsistent," he said. "Most plants and farms are very small and inefficient, even though the Polish farmers are highly skilled and hard-working."
But Luter said Smithfield would invest $50 million in Animex, and he hinted that another $100 million would be spent to retool the Polish pig industry.
Launching a Campaign
The Animex purchase was only round one for Luter. Smithfield's entry into Poland did not go unnoticed back in the United States. Tom Garrett, 63, the AWI's rural affairs adviser, was tracking the company's every move. Like Luter, he believed Poland was fertile ground--but for a different cause.
Garrett had followed Poland's economic turmoil. Furious over cheap EU meat flooding the market, farmers here had paralyzed truck traffic with roadblocks. They had forced the agriculture minister out of office and persuaded the government to buy their pork at subsidized prices. Lepper had been their standard-bearer.
Polish peasants have a history of stubborn rebellion; even the communists had not dared nationalize their farms. And since 1990, peasant parties had helped to make and break three governments. Garrett reasoned that Polish pig farmers might become a formidable barrier to Smithfield's Polish "invasion."
Early last summer, Garrett devised a plan and took it to AWI President Christine Stevens: Invite Lepper for meetings with distraught American pig farmers and a tour of the ecological consequences of Smithfield-style "factory farming." Stevens loved the idea.
"If we don't stop factory farming in Poland, it's just going to spread all over the world," she said.
So early last September, Lepper headed a 10-member delegation of Polish farm union leaders, humane activists, ecologists and reporters. Garrett and two colleagues, Agnes Van Volkenburgh and Diane Halverson, took them to North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri and Iowa to listen to the woes of swine farmers. The group saw how Smithfield was using cages so narrow the pigs could not turn around.
By boat, the group surveyed North Carolina's polluted Neuse River and learned of huge fish kills. Then, they were flown over sprawling farms to view the ecological damage. Halverson videotaped the tour, punctuated by Lepper's fiery rhetoric. "We are not going to allow Smithfield factories to exist in Poland, even if we have to blockade the entire country," he told North Carolina farmers.
The AWI shipped 5,000 copies of the video to Poland. Lepper, in turn, sent the video to every town, city and county government in Poland. An attached letter asked them not to give Smithfield building permits. Lepper credits the video with stopping Smithfield "from putting up these factory farms" in Poland.
Garrett and Von Volkenburgh, with Lepper's help, quickly won the support of two key players--Agriculture Minister Artur Balazs, a pig farmer himself, and Adam Tanski, head of the state Agricultural Property Agency.
In a meeting last year with Poulson, Balazs said he strongly opposed factory-style farming "because it is not only a threat to the ecology, but also to thousands of nearby small farmers."
"I looked at their faces and don't think they were happy with what I said," Balazs remarked in an interview.
Compromise Contracts
Both Luter and Poulson are reluctant to acknowledge that Lepper, or the AWI, had any impact on Smithfield's fortunes here. But Luter did concede that the company was "still meeting resistance" strong enough to persuade him that Smithfield's industrial-style farming probably has no immediate future here.
"We are sensitive to the Polish environment," said Poulson. "We don't have the right to impose a system they don't want imposed on them."
Instead, Luter said in a telephone interview, Animex will adopt Smithfield's practice of contracting with independent farmers to breed pigs according to company specifications.
Luter now describes Animex as "our biggest challenge abroad" and assesses company operations in Poland to be "a long pull." Whether Smithfield stays, he suggests, will depend on whether the Polish government makes some difficult political decisions, such as closing the backyard slaughterhouses Animex now competes with.
"The big problem is changing people's mentality," said Luter, who estimated that it might take "a generation to turn it around."
Homegrown Problems
With or without Smithfield, Polish pig farmers are stuck in doldrums of their own.
Hog producer Kilianczyk, who proudly sports a Texas hat and handlebar mustache, was unhappy even before he heard about "the American company." The government has cut all subsidies; feed and energy costs have doubled; EU exports are undercutting Polish hog prices; and the bank is demanding repayment of a big loan.
He leases 240 acres of an old state-run farm, but the government won't let him buy it. He can't afford the feed costs, so he gives his 3,000 pigs carrots, cabbage, onions and mash.
"There's no profit in this," he said. "Just problems, problems, problems."
Public Interest Groups Denounce Giant Food's Decision to Sell Irradiated Meat
Groups Urge Chain to Remove Product from Shelves
The Animal Welfare Institute has as one of its primary goals the eradication of animal factories because of their inherent cruelty. At the same time we are reviving a culture of humane farming. AWI promotes humane husbandry and works with over 200 family farmers that adhere to AWI's humane pig husbandry standards which allow pigs to behave naturally. AWI, like the humane farmers we work with, strongly opposes food irradiation!
Irradiation is being promoted by corporate interests as a solution to a contaminated industrial food supply. However, irradiation is not an inherent part of farming, it is only the most recent technological component of large-scale industrial agriculture which is continuously problematic.
Irradiating meat at the end of production, does not address the real and most importantly preventable causes of industrial food contaminants such as inhumane factory farming practices, dramatic cutbacks in federal food safety inspectors and dangerously accelerated line-speeds at slaughtering and processing facilities.
Knowing that meat will be irradiated, industrial producers will have even less incentive to reform the inherently filthy and inhumane conditions of massive factory farms where animals are viewed as protein production units and death loss is accepted as a cost of production. Irradiation will do nothing to abolish the cruelty animals suffer in factories such as the confinement of pigs in crates so narrow they cannot turn around and beef cattle forced to stand ankle deep in their own waste. Irradiation, in fact, will perpetuate and most certainly increase the abuse of farm animals. Rather than accepting irradiated meat, we ask that consumers demand humanely raised and slaughtered animals.
Irradiation also masks cruel conditions in slaughterhouses. Federal inspectors are not stationed in, and have little to no access to, those areas of slaughterhouses where most humane handling and slaughter violations occur. Rather than irradiate meat at the end of production, we call on USDA to station inspectors, on a fulltime basis, for the purpose of enforcing the Humane Slaughter Act regulations at those critical points in the handling and slaughtering process where Humane Slaughter Act violations are most common such as the unloading and handling areas and the stunning and bleeding areas.
Instead of irradiating meat and allowing atrocities in slaughterhouses to continue, line speeds in slaughterhouses must be reduced to 1970 levels or around 40% of current velocities. Current line speeds prevent animals from being killed in accordance with the Humane Slaughter Act and as a result meat becomes contaminated with feces, urine, pus and vomit. Irradiation does nothing to remove these contaminants.
Irradiated food perpetuates a system of meat production that relies on the inhumane treatment of animals. By masking the food safety problems caused by cruel practices and inhumane conditions at massive factory farms and slaughterhouses, irradiation allows industrial agriculture, and its appalling treatment of animals, to continue. Irradiating meat at the end of a cruel line of production is tantamount to placing a Band-Aid on a surgical wound. We ask Giant Food and consumers everywhere to reject irradiated products in favor of a humane and safe food supply.
--Wendy Swann, Animal Welfare Institute, Nov. 14, 2002
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Reprinted from
The Ecologist
Date Published: 26/11/03
Author: Robert Kennedy Jr and Tracey Worcester
Fields covered
with faeces, children vomiting at school, plastic bins stuffed
full of dead pigs. Robert Kennedy and Tracy Worcester experience
firsthand the reality of life in Smithfield's Poland.
Ignoring Smithfield's 'no
entry' sign, we clambered over wire barriers and wrenched open
the ventilation shaft of one of three vast concrete and
corrugated iron sheds. The noise was deafening. Five thousand
squealing pigs were crammed into strawless compartments inside
the recently opened pig factory near the town of Szczecinek in
the northwestern Polish province Zachodnio-Pomorskie.
Back outside, effluent from
cement cesspits had over-flowed – sending a small stream of
brown, stinking liquid into the lake below, which had then
frozen over. In a large plastic bin we found 20 dead pigs. When
we'd looked the night before, it had been empty.
It seems that the entire
operation is illegal. During the communist era, the state farm
had employed 44 locals. Officials told us that Prima (a Polish
company now owned by Smithfield) had only been given a permit to
renovate the derelict farm on condition it guaranteed 15 local
jobs. Instead, no locals were employed and 5,000 pigs arrived in
the dead of night. Villagers only grasped what had happened when
the company began illegally dumping liquid faeces on the
snow-covered fields.
People were angry and
frightened, but village and township officials told us they were
powerless to defend their community as the local government had
taken Prima's side.
'If you had informed us of
Smithfield's record six months earlier,' they told us, 'we would
have refused all permits and prevented Prima from gaining a
foothold.' Now they could only ask for our help in challenging
the company on environmental grounds.
A few miles north we visited
Prima's factory farm at Nielep, where 30,000 pigs are confined.
We were met at the compound gate by a tall man in a surgical
face mask. Removing the mask, he identified himself as the
manager and demanded that we kept away. Responding to our
questions about animal welfare, he claimed that although there
was no bedding for the pigs, the factory had all the appropriate
permits and required number of employees. However, he refused to
say exactly how many pigs were impounded, how many died each day
or what mix of chemicals were pumped into them. Admitting that
he had been taken to Smithfield installations in North Carolina
for training, he mouthed the standard company line: 'Our local
and national opponents are selfishly concerned with animal
welfare instead of feeding the world'.
Local resistance
In a nearby village, a meeting
had been convened for local farmers and authorities to hear Tom
Garrett of the animal rights advocacy group the Animal Welfare
Institute (AWI) describe Smithfield's record in the US. People
sat in stunned silence as they tried to grasp the impending
destruction of their livelihoods and community.
When Garrett had finished, the
audience erupted. Many demanded that the local authorities in
Poland take control of the country's former state farms and give
tenancies to former employees rather than foreign
transnationals. Desperate and angry, one old lady confirmed what
we had already seen: 'The company has been spreading effluent
over snow-covered fields,' she explained. 'People have developed
rashes and stomach upsets.' The stench from the effluent had
caused vomiting, which threatened the closure of the local
school and the destruction of local businesses. To raucous
applause, a local politician declared: 'Smithfield must be
kicked out.'
This same cry is now being
heard all over Poland, with locals signing petitions and farmers
forming blockades to get Smithfield out. Across the provincial
border from Zachodnio-Pomorskie is Wieckowice, a beautiful
village of brick and wooden homes, shrines and long stone barns
in the region of Wielkopolska. There we found several dozen
local activists carrying signs outside a former state farm owned
by Smithfield's Polish subsidiary Animex. The facility has
permits for only 500 cows and 500 pigs. It has been reported
that it houses 17,000 pigs. The farm is 40 yards from an
elementary school where residents say their children get sick
and vomit because of the pig odours.
Among the protesters was Irena
Kowalak, a dignified woman who served as village mayor for 35
years. She told us she had resigned recently because of
intimidation by Smithfield. Andrzej
Nowakowski is the governor of
Wielkopolska. Nowakowski said that the local population was
unanimously and adamantly opposed to Smithfield and that he
refused to give the company permits when it bought the farm two
years ago. But six months later Poland's environment ministry
overrode him.
Nonetheless, thanks to the
governor, Smithfield has not been able to get permits for liquid
manure. So the farm uses straw bedding and has not yet devised a
plan for disposing of its waste. Fields of wheat surround the
pig barns, but they are never harvested because Smithfield is
not interested in agriculture. To Smithfield, these fields are a
place to dump the notorious wastes of industrial meat
A convoy of indignant
Wieckowice residents took us out to see the giant pile of pig
manure. On the side of a 1,000-acre wheat field was a mountain
of pig waste 150 metres long, four metres high and 50 metres
wide. 'Seventeen thousand pigs for six months,' a young man
said, nodding at the pile. Local authorities have been ordering
Smithfield to move the illegal pile for six months, but the
company has refused. The night before our visit Smithfield
covered its pile with a giant black tarpaulin, which was already
inflated and writhing with the internal pressure of methane gas.
Half a mile downhill from the
pile, villagers had created a public beach on a 1,500-acre lake
where umbrellas shaded dozens of families swimming and playing
on a steamy 90º day. Manure residues festered on the shores of a
nearby bay into which Smithfield's waste pile drains. An old man
with twinkling blue eyes stuck his hand into the water, smelled
his fingers and offered us a whiff. 'Smithfield Foods,' he
Governor Nowakowski told us
that there is another Smithfield factory, in Sedziny, that has
4,500 pigs but a permit for only 1,000 cows. He said his
assistants were now inspecting the facility. 'But,' he
explained, 'the legislation is very difficult for the local
government to enforce [without state support].' Unfortunately,
the federal government is not supporting the Wielkopolska
Nowakowski is not the only
local politician begging for federal help. Zofia Wilczynska is a
deputy in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland's national
parliament. Wilczynska has complained to the federal government
that a Smithfield operation in Polczyn Zdroj is endangering the
northern Polish town's 400-year-old health spa. Right over by
Poland's northeastern border with the Russian Federation enclave
of Kaliningrad (former East Prussia) another health spa, in
Goldap, is also threatened by pollution and odours from a
Smithfield site.
The day after our visit to
Wieckowice, a member of a parliamentary agriculture committee
told us that the Polish government had recently conducted an
investigation of 16 Smithfield farms (14 owned by the
corporation and two owned by front groups it controlled). The
agricultural ministry found that every one of the farms had
broken Poland's veterinary, health and construction laws. Yet
when Smithfield lacks proper permits, or is caught breaking the
law, it is fined, laughably, just a few hundred dollars.
Sometimes Smithfield just buys
officials off. A hundred miles north of Wieckowice, the mayor of
the Western Pomeranian village Wierzchowo gave Smithfield
permits for two enormous farms after the company paid his wife
approximately $4,000 to perform the environmental impact
Local communities devastated
The economic impacts of
Smithfield's production methods are devastating local
communities and markets. When Smithfield took over Animex, the
latter's three principal farms near Goldap employed 60
employees. Following the farms' conversion to automated pig
factories, only seven of these workers remain.
Smithfield says it wants to
produce 6 million pigs in Poland each year. Polish peasants
currently rear 20 million pigs per year, and a quarter of them
will have to lose their livelihoods to make way for Smithfield.
The corporation is already squeezing the small farms. In Western
Pomerania we found that the region's small slaughterhouses had
already been closed, and that the remaining Smithfield-owned
slaughterhouse would not slaughter pigs from small farms. The
same will soon apply to the rest of Poland. Once Smithfield
controls the slaughterhouses and has eliminated local markets,
it will be able to control prices and, ultimately, the farms.
Avoiding the monoculture in
Instead of reinventing itself
to mimic the failed systems in Europe and the US, Poland should
celebrate its assets and sell them to the world. Polish meat
tastes much better than factory meat. Polish sausage is world
famous. Consumers like knowing that their meat is from animals
that were humanely raised in ways that are good for the
environment, supportive of family farms, and free of dangerous
hormones, antibiotics and chemicals. But all these things make
quality meat more expensive than factory meat. And when the
consumer sees free-range pork that does not look much different
to a Smithfield cut, they will choose the cheaper product. The
answer is branding.
When Europe opens its markets
to Poland, the Poles should establish a market for their produce
by using branding to draw attention to their traditional values.
The AWI has offered the Polish government to help brand the
country's pork internationally. The institute specialises in
helping small farmers by finding consumers who are willing to
pay a premium for produce that is healthy and raised humanely
and without the use of antibiotics and hormones.
Anybody who pays a premium for
Polish meat will be getting a good deal. Some of the meat and
sausage that we gorged on in Poland was among the best we've
tasted. Pork of the kind produced by traditional Polish farms is
widely recognised to be tastier and juicier than confinement
pork of the sort produced by Smithfield.
If Poland is going to flourish
rather than flounder, the nation needs to recognise its enormous
strengths and start believing in itself. The words 'produced in
Poland' should become a standard for high quality. This is no
easy challenge. But the easy way out, signing a contract with
Smithfield, is not the solution.
A last bastion of tradition
in Poland
Poland is an oasis of
traditional farming in a world dominated by agribusiness
multinationals. Around 2 million Poles, about 18 per cent of the
country's population, are farmers or members of farming
families. That's as many as the rest of central Europe put
The Polish landscape is not yet
marked by the vast monocultures of row crops that are typical of
the US. Currently, Poland is a country of picturesque farm
villages, with farms that average five hectares and modest homes
of wood, timber and fieldstone. Typically, each farmer has a
horse, a couple of cows and some pigs and chickens. Animals are
raised free range and humanely. And Polish farmers rotate a
variety of crops in the traditional way that fosters healthy
Many Polish farmhouses still have occupied stork nests on their
roofs. The country hosts 25 per cent of the world's white stork
population – some 50,000 pairs. – more than the whole of western
Europe combined. Elsewhere in the continent the bird has been
exterminated by modern agriculture practices: liquid manure and
pesticides effectively wipe out the fish, frogs, crabs and
insects that storks eat. In Denmark, for example, there are only
six pairs left.
Poland has large stands of
timber as well as the last sanctuaries of European bison and
Europe's last clean-flowing unregulated rivers. It has purer
soils than anywhere else in Europe. Its land is uncontaminated
by pesticide and fertiliser residue and almost entirely free of
the heavy metals caused by industrial smokestack pollution
throughout the rest of Europe.
Smithfield's Tasteless
Millions of years of natural
selection have endowed pigs with back fat to regulate their body
temperature. But Smithfield gets more money from meat than from
fat, so the company has bred its own strain of super-lean pigs
with almost no back fat. They are highly-strung and unable to
survive normal outside temperatures.
Food professionals say this
extreme leanness has dramatically diminished the quality of US
pork. Food magazine Saveur described the pigs of modern
confinement agriculture as being so skinny that they look 'like
dachshunds'. While applauding traditional farming methods of the
kind used in Poland, The New York Times Magazine stated: 'The
pork industry has managed to engineer a pig with almost no fat
at all. And this is why most modern recipes for pork involve
some kind of liquid – putting the meat in a marinade before
cooking, basting it while cooking or braising it in broth. If
you simply grill a mass-market pork chop, it becomes inedibly
dry.' The Times went on to say that free-range pork 'is rich
when sliced and sautéed, fine textured and robust in flavour. It
needs nothing more than seasoning with salt'. The dryness and
poor taste of confinement pork have become so bad that many
major pork companies are now 'enhancing' their pork: adding
water, flavoured liquids, or even stock to their tray-pack and
prepared meats, and using red food colouring to improve its drab
Financing the Slaughter
Financial institutions like the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) use EU
taxpayers' money to subsidise companies like Smithfield. The
result? Small farmers disappear, food quality deteriorates,
animal welfare suffers. Although it claims to be
'environmentally sensitive', the EBRD has joined with the Polish
banks BRE and Rabobank Polska to provide a $100m loan to
Smithfield's Polish subsidiary Animex.
The EBRD's 'project summary'
states: 'Follow-up investigations of [EBRD] environmental staff
and discussion with Smithfield management responsible for such
issues demonstrated that the [Animex] facilities comply with the
national requirements for environment, health and safety.' Yet
the evidence suggests that the EBRD is consciously and
deliberately backing a corporate takeover of Polish agriculture.
The bank's press releases and 'transition impact' statements are
full of talk about 'restructuring Poland's agribusiness and food
industry'. The EBRD refers, for example, to the 'restructuring
of the meat-processing sector' and 'the consolidation of the
agribusiness sector'.
The reality is that Poland,
like the rest of the modern world, is about to bury an ancient
culture based on community living, family and land stewardship
for the benefit of future generations. As Tom Garrett of the
Animal Welfare Institute has lamented: 'There is no salvation to
be found in industrial agriculture owned and controlled by
foreign multinational corporations. There is only damage.'
For more information about the
EBRD's involvement in Poland:
As Smithfield buys local
companies to front their operations, it is difficult to trace
its products. The surest way of avoiding them is not to buy from
supermarkets but to buy organic or locally produced pork from
local butchers or farmers' markets instead. To find information
about local producers, visit:
www.localfood.org.uk or
In the UK Smithfield's pork
products are marketed under the brand name PEK. However, it is
more than likely that Smithfield meat is also ending up in
mass-produced products like pizzas. So, while not buying
PEK-branded products is good, not buying anything containing
non-organic pork is better.
Contribute to or join the AWI
(www.awionline.org/membership); it is the only humane
organisation fighting the cruelty of pig factory farming in
Poland. But the International Coalition to Protect the Polish
Countryside is also doing important work. See its website at
Robert Kennedy Jr is the
president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international
grassroots coalition dedicated to protecting water systems from
pollution; Tracy Worcester is the associate director of the
International Society for Ecology and Culture (www.isec.org.uk),
a non-profit organisation that aims to protect cultural and
biological diversity
There are still some farmers who believe in treating theiranimals to natural surroundings, notonly in order to raise healthier animals but for ethical valuesas well. On a small farm in the Shenandoah Valley near Swoope,Virginia, Joel Salatin is doing just that with his chickens.
"The long term benefits for society are greater becausewe are treating our animals better. But we don't do it for businessreasons. We do it because it's right." Salatin explained.
Salatin has developed a portable "Eggmobile" contraptionwhich houses 100 laying hens. These hens forage as far as 200yards from their home during the day. They naturally come backto roost so no fences are necessary to keep them contained. Salatinexplained that on the usual "factory farm" laying hensare kept under prolonged lighting to create the illusion of springtime. They are therefore always laying eggs. On the Salatin familyfarm the hens are well aware of what season it is and go throughthe natural winter rest period.
Salatin also raises about 6000 Cornish cross broilers a year.These chickens are kept in 2 foot tall mobile homes thatare moved over fresh grass every morning. About 100 animalsare kept in each house. A pen of the same size on a factory farmwould contain some 1000 to 1500 birds.
Both hens and broilers have a diet that is substantially differentfrom their unlucky relatives on factory farms. Because the hensare free-ranging they are able to choose their own food. Not onlyis this accomplished by natural foraging but Salatin gives themseveral different feeds to chose from as well. He believes, dependingon each individual chicken's health and the time of year, thesebirds will choose the food that is healthiest for them. Sincethe broiler houses are moved to fresh grass every morning, thebroilers also have the same opportunity to choose their own diet.Both hens and broilers obviously get plenty of green material,something that would be unusual on a factory farm and they arenever given steroids or antibiotics which induce unnaturally rapidgrowth. One of the results, and also the reason why it is economicallysensible to raise animals in such a manner, is that the lifespanof a laying hen on Joel Salatin's farm is generally three yearscompared to a normal factory farm lifespan of one year.
AWI Quarterly
Disturbing evidence of a potential epidemic has been published in a study by University of Iowa College of Public Health researcher Tara Smith et al this January. The study was the first in the country to document animal-to-human transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant form of a common bacterium that causes deadly infections, though such research has previously been conducted in Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Just as some people fail to recognize their responsibility to their dogs and cats, so too is the case with horses, many of whom are abandoned by their owners each year.
© 2016 All rights reserved. Animal Welfare Institute, 900 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20003. Phone: (202) 337-2332


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Home > Press > When size matters: Nanotechnology for energy efficiency
New research at the University of Leicester is using nanotechnology to create energy efficient materials.
With the increasing worldwide demand for energy there is a pressure to use the finite energy resources wisely whilst reducing one of the major areas of energy consumption, transportation, which accounts for more than 20% of the world's total primary energy and produces much of the world's pollution.
Alternative fuels, such as bio-fuels, hydrogen fuels, fuel cells and electric batteries, being developed by the automotive industry need further development and a considerable time for their full adaptation into transportation, including passenger cars, trucks, aircrafts and trains.
A postgraduate researcher with the Department of Engineering, Sinan Kandemir is fabricating light and strong resistant materials with nano-additives to create lighter components for automotive and aerospace industries that will help improve energy efficiency, minimise CO2 emissions and preserve the environment.
By using a novel processing technique, ultrasonic method, to disperse aluminium-based nano-particles homogenously through the liquid, his research promises quicker results while the industry is making advances with alternative fuels.
Kandemir explained:
"The Kyoto agreement and the European Commission suggest that the automotive manufacturers should reduce their vehicle weight to minimise CO2 emissions and conserve finite oil (fossil fuel) reserves.
"Although light materials, including aluminium and magnesium, have been proposed to replace denser materials, such as steel in the automotive industry, they exhibit low strength. Nano-sized ceramic particles can be incorporated into light metals to modify the physical properties of established materials in a huge variety of automotive components.
"These nano-composite materials save weight and offer greater performance whilst contributing to the fuel efficiency and reducing green house gases released into the atmosphere."
Kandemir is supervised by an internationally renowned engineer, Head of the Mechanics of Materials Group in the Department of Engineering, Professor Helen Atkinson FREng, who commented:
"Nanocomposites are fascinating materials with potentially excellent properties. I am very much looking forward to the overall results of the project".
This research is being presented at the Festival of Postgraduate Research on Thursday, 16 June. The annual one-day exhibition of postgraduate research offers organisations and the public the opportunity to meet the next generation of innovators and cutting-edge researchers. More than 50 University of Leicester students will explain the real world implications of their research in an engaging and accessible way. The event is open to the public and free to attend. More information at www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/sd/pgrd/fpgr
About University of Leicester
All departments assessed by the Quality Assurance Agency over the last four years have been rated as excellent. No other university can equal this success. This complements the strong research ratings achieved in the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) Research Assessment Exercise. At Leicester, research and teaching go hand in hand providing students with the opportunity to work with experts at the forefront of knowledge in their respective fields. The University has one of the highest student completion rates and exceeds the benchmark set by HEFCE. Our graduates have gone into careers as varied as medicine, engineering, financial services, law, computing, sales and marketing, scientific research, public service and teaching. Many of our graduates have chosen to go on to further study both here and elsewhere. In 2001, 2002 & 2003 the Financial Times placed Leicester at the top of their league for taught postgraduate education. The table is based on levels of provision at UK universities. The University works closely with business and industry and, particularly in the fields of Medicine, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, has established links with company research and development programmes. We have an international reputation for research in a wide range of areas including archaeology, English local history, criminology, sport and society, and mass communications.
For more information, please click here
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We have a wide selection of upper body workout routines and strength training exercises designed for all fitness levels. Target all areas of your body from your shoulders and upper arms to your thighs and lower abs with these full-body exercises. The American Council on Exercise is committed to helping all workout enthusiasts reach their fitness goals safely and efficiently. For full-body workouts featuring these exercises, visit our Workouts section.
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Search warrant targets former Utah A.G. John Swallow's campaign manager
Matt Gade, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — A new search warrant involving former Attorney General John Swallow's campaign manager was unsealed Wednesday in 3rd District Court.
The warrant issued Feb. 12 was served on Google Inc. for the Gmail account of Jessica Fawson dating from Oct. 15, 2008, to the present. Fawson, who also worked on one of former Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's campaigns, managed Swallow's campaign from December 2011 to July or August 2012, according to an affidavit supporting the search warrant.
An investigator for the Utah House Special Investigative Committee interviewed Fawson last year. Parts of the interview are included in the affidavit.
Fawson told the House investigator that she was the operational leader of Swallow's fundraising activities who wrote emails, worked on campaign events and was someone who "made the campaign."
She also said that Swallow was the primary fundraiser and handled a lot of fundraising activities himself.
The House committee alleges Swallow's campaign devised a strategy to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions he received from the payday loan industry. Swallow had relationships with several businessmen that benefited him personally, professionally and politically, according to the report released in January.
Swallow has denied any wrongdoing.
The warrant made public Wednesday is another in series of warrants authorities have obtained in the ongoing criminal investigation of Swallow and Shurtleff.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill and Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings, along with the FBI and Utah Department of Public Safety, started the probe into alleged wrongdoing in the attorney general's office about 18 months ago.
On Monday, the DPS and the FBI searched the Sandy homes of Swallow and Shurtleff. Agents also searched the home of Renae Cowley, who worked on both of their election campaigns.
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