“Falletta Conducts ‘Pines of Rome'”
Omaha, NE—Omaha Symphony welcomes guest conductor Maestra JoAnn Falletta, and guest violinist, Blake Pouliot, for a performance this weekend in homage to Rome. Maestra Falletta, the only female conductor of a top 40 orchestra, will lead the orchestra in the works of Berlioz and Respighi.
Road to Omaha – Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
Omaha, NE – On today’s episode of “Road to Omaha,” KVNO’s Brandon McDermott spoke with Oral Roberts head coach Ryan Folmar.
Is the agriculture industry being bullied?
June 11th, 2012
By Sandhya Dirks, Harvest Public Media
Des Moines, IA – There is a culture war raging in the heartland, but it’s not about abortion or religion or gay marriage – it’s about how food is produced.
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[audio:https://kvnonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LANGUAGE_IN_AGRICULTURE.mp3]As in any war, language is playing a big role. Take, for instance, the way Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad defended the beef product that came to be known as “pink slime.”
“It’s just tragic that people use smear language against products,” Branstad said. “We would never let people smear somebody because of who/what they look like, or their race, or their religion.”
Jamie Pudenz wants to own a cow-calf operation, but he's worried the current political climate will have adverse effects on production agriculture. (Sandhya Dirks/Harvest Public Media)
Yes, Branstad compared the uproar over processed beef to the civil rights movement.
And now comes the latest battle cry in the heated discourse on food production methods: accusations of bullying.
At the center of this story is 17-year-old Jamie Pudenz, who raises chickens on his family’s farm in Carroll, Iowa. He is the image of a corn-fed farm boy: blond hair, broad shoulders and an easy, open smile.
Step inside his chicken shed and you’ll see low to the ground cages filled with white chickens. But there’s something awkward about the birds. They’re kind of like gawky teenage boys whose feet are too big for their limbs, except reversed. Pudenz said the broiler birds are genetically modified. They used to take 96 days to mature. Now, it just takes just 48.
“Humans eat 90 pounds of chicken on average a year, and this is the way to achieve it,” Pudenz said. “This is the way to meet the demand, now, today.”
As part of an FFA competition, Pudenz wrote a speech in support of animal agriculture. He was one of 12 to make it to the state finals in Ames.
But the competition didn’t go so well.
Kolby Burch, Pudenz’s agriculture teacher, said a judge lashed out at Pudenz. That led to a press release from the Iowa Farm Bureau entitled “Bullying the farm kid.”
But was the bullying accusation fair?
“I think it fits perfectly,” Burch said. “I think that the man simply disagreed with Jamie, so he bullied him.”
Scott Johnson, FFA’s executive secretary, disputed that characterization in an e-mail. “The untold story is that these judges were pretty challenging for many of the 12 participants in the event, and not just this one individual,” Johnson wrote.
That’s not how it felt to Pudenz.
“It’s next to the middle of my speech,” Pudenz said, “where I say ‘Now let’s focus a bit on the importance of animal agriculture. This is an industry that’s been villianized by such Internet films as The Meatrix,’ Food Incorporated,’ and HSUS undercover footage of hog confinements and poultry barns.'”
Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of HSUS, Humane Society of the United States, maintains that he is not Pudenz’ enemy, they’re just on opposite sides of a debate. They may not agree on everything, like the role of confinement crates (boxes some conventional hog farmers use).
“Jamie … adopts the party line,” Pacelle said. “I’m sure in five years, Jamie’s attitude is going to be totally different, because there is no future in holding the line on confinement crates.”
Enemy or no, if you talk to farmers, Wayne Pacelle and the Humane Society come up a lot.
Erik Helland, a former Republican legislator from Johnston, Iowa, is a board member of the agriculture advocacy group Protect the Harvest. Its clear mission is to take down the Humane Society.
“Wayne Pacelle, the head of HSUS, is on-record saying he would like to do away with animal production agriculture all the way across the United States,” Helland said.
Pacelle, though, said that’s not true. The Humane Society’s mission is not to end livestock farming, but instead to make it sustainable and humane.
You can talk to these guys for hours. One’s political agreement is the other’s blackmail. Both say science is on their side and charge the other side with manipulating emotions, coining language like “puppy mills” or “freedom to farm.” And, they say, the other side is no better than a classroom bully.
“So much of what they say is just in their own echo chamber, talking to themselves and trying to caricature the work of the Humane Society,” Pacelle said. “Why would the United Egg Producers work shoulder-to-shoulder with the HSUS if we were out to end the sale of all animal products?”
He’s referring to an agreement between the Humane Society and the United Egg Producers, or UEP, that changes the way eggs go to market. Even agreement, though, isn’t seen in black and white terms.
“What they call ‘working with farmers,’ I call blackmail,'” Helland said. “The reality is you either line up with a group like UEP or they take you out by doing an unethical video attack on you or they come after you in the marketplace by saying, ‘Boycott this food place.’ So, they’re not working with you, they’re blackmailing you into a corner.”
Middle ground is hard to find in the debate. That leaves aspiring farmers like Jamie Pudenz caught in the middle, struggling to understand the truths of their chosen profession in a supercharged partisan debate.
Harvest Public Media, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, reports on issues of food, fuel and field across the Midwest.
“the broiler birds are genetically modified. They used to take 96 days to mature. Now, it just takes just 48.”
Wha?
This is not farming.
Farming is an honorable profession.
Mr. Pudenz, by the way, is an awfully big boy to be whining about ‘bullying’.
Terry…there is a little thing called “research” that you might want to become familiar with. Through research in genetics, feed utilization, diet for the animal, housing, parasite control and disease control farmers and ranchers have been able to shorten production times.
Just as the average human has increased in height by approx 10 cm over the last 100-150 years, our animals have become better at production.
You might try this link http://www.merriam-webster.com/ to help you understand those big words. I wouldn’t expect much commonsense out of a troll like you.
As appears in this article: “Wayne Pacelle, the head of HSUS, is on-record saying he would like to do away with animal production agriculture all the way across the United States,†Helland said.
Pacelle, though, said that’s not true. The Humane Society’s mission is not to end livestock farming, but instead to make it sustainable and humane.
Wayne Pacelle has proven himself to be a liar…yet again.
“We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding …One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding.â€
— Animal People News, May 1993
http://activistcash.com/biography_quotes.cfm/b/3366-wayne-pacelle
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=418702641508008&set=a.211657472212527.56622.199101346801473&type=1&theater
Well, facts matter. And it is a fact that the HSUS has stated they are working to end animal agriculture. It seems to me that HSUS has NO BUSINESS speaking about animal husbandry, since the HSUS is NOT an animal organization, but a “conflict fund-raising” organization seeking to bring in donor dollars by appealing to the emotions of animal owners. BUT, the overall goal of the HSUS is NOT pro animal…it is to END all animal use by humans, including for food and pets. People need to wake up to this fact…Note: Terry Ward above is an HSUS troll who speaks up on many of these sites in support of the animal rights.
Wayne Pacell believes in no more animal use for anything – ever. He feels that animals should be left alone to act “naturally”. I am sure many animals would not last long without the intervention of “humans”. Wayne started out as a hunt sabeteur while still in college, and has been arrested several times. I wish someone had a picture of Wayne in his deer costume. When I say he objects using animals for anything, research, or or raising an animal for food and thinks everyone should become vegan. He and his band of thieves have worked to see that everyone was fed propaganda to think the way he does…..even soliciting 8 year olds to lobby if you count Kind as propaganda. We barely have the registration of 1,000 dogs of some purebred dogs and he is certainly working to ensure through law that there are no more. Lets see, 25% of dogs found in shelters, is 25% according to Mr. Pacelle. That must mean that 75% belong to irresponsible owners. So why are breeders the target of laws that prevent breeding of dogs. HSUS worked very hard to stop bear hunting and in several states there have been many more encounters with bears. Working to close zoos when we all know they are very much the protector of species of various animals. As for working to close the horse slaughter plants….horses had their entrils and haunches eaten by other animals that were turned loose because the owner had no other way to rid themselves of unwanted horses in tough economic times. So here we are at the cattle, chicken and egg, and hog industries. I don’t remember anyone working to take food out of people’s mouths except in the Ukraine 1930s or 40s. HUMANS HAVE BECOME SECONDARY IN WAYNE’S WORLD.