Discussion Board

One simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias,” read a United States Department of Agriculture interoffice newsletter published on its Web site this week, “is to participate in the ‘Meatless Monday’ initiative.”

But, that didn't last long. The very next day:
“U.S.D.A. does not endorse Meatless Monday,” - the newsletter “was posted without proper clearance.”

Meatless Monday is “an animal rights extremist campaign to ultimately end meat consumption”

And the Texas Agriculture Commissioner called it "treason" to call for Meatless Monday.

An article from the Austin American Statesman:

On Thursday, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples called a U.S. Department of Agriculture message to encourage Meatless Mondays “treasonous.”

The USDA message came in a recent office newsletter that read: “One simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias is to participate in the ‘Meatless Monday’ initiative.”

Meatless Mondays is an effort, repeated in homes and cafeterias across the country, to cut down meat-eating in favor of veggie-options. Fewer greenhouse gases, among other environmental benefits, are associated with the growing of vegetables over livestock.

On Tuesday, after a torrent of criticism from the livestock industry, the “Greening Headquarters Update” had been removed, according to the New York Times.

“U.S.D.A. does not endorse Meatless Monday,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. The newsletter had been “posted without proper clearance.”

On Thursday, Staples weighed in.

“Last I checked, USDA had a very specific duty to promote and champion American agriculture,” Staples wrote on his blog. “Imagine Ford or Chevy discouraging the purchase of their pickup trucks. Anyone else see the absurdity? How about the betrayal?”

“Perhaps the best apology would be to fire the person or persons responsible for distributing these treasonous comments,” he continued. “Why should our hardworking beef producers be paying the uninformed enemy’s salary? Without delay, the responsible parties have got to go.”

Treason is the betrayal of one's country. So I guess the interests of the meat industry is ranked up there in importance and is equated to the interests of this country.

Didi

Yeah, I thought someone might want to look up the definition of treason- he's making himself look ridiculous.

I fixed the errors in that paragraph, now it makes sense.

Are the fruit and veggie producer's "enemies"? I'm confused, are we at war? Should I be wearing blue or gray?

Why is anyone surprised? The USDA doesn't give a crap about the consumer. In reality, they're too busy trying to poison everyone so they can make more money. Here is the latest from the Organic Consumers Association.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun to fast-track the approval of genetically modified crops under a new policy aimed at cutting the time it takes on reviews from an average of 3 years down to 13 to 16 months.

To jump-start the process, they've opened a 60 day comment period on nine new GMOs. This list includes a new Dow Chemical soybean that tolerates three herbicides, including 2,4-D. 2,4-D is the herbicide that was half the formula of the infamous chemical weapon Agent Orange, used to decimate Vietnamese agriculture during the U.S. war on Vietnam.

As Tom Philpott points out in his recent article, "USDA Prepares to Green-Light Gnarliest GMO Soy Yet," USDA approval of Agent Orange soy will expose us to a much heavier dose of this toxic pesticide through our food, drinking water and the environment.

2,4-D is already the third-most-used US herbicide, after glyphosate and atrazine, and as a leading source of dioxin pollution, it's one of the most deadly. As of yet, however, it's hardly used on soy at all. Just 3 percent of total US soybean acres were treated with 2,4-D in 2006. Not only will this percentage skyrocket once Agent Orange soy hits the market, the amount used per acre may triple according to the USDA.

Please take action before the September 11th deadline to stop Agent Orange soy!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_25914.cfm

Thanks. I get it now.