Ice water and antibiotics

This is a follow up to the recent post about manure and other affairs on the lake shore. The edge walker mushed through the snow for a check on ice development at the edge Jan 8. The ice forms and melts and reforms with astonishing speed this time of year. The photos taken round 0900 are interesting if you check the radar image. In the distance in the photo on the left you can see the cloud bank that clearly shows in the radar from that same time.

A couple hours later the light south wind had shifted north and the cloud bank moved south and by 1400 hours we had a short but heavy snow fall. It looked like classic fluffy lake effect, though the band formation perpendicular not parallel to the surface wind was very different from the usual lake snow band.

The ice formations suspended from the anchor ice in the top photo had disappeared completely three hours later, merged into a solid wall.

Below is a link to legislation we will be tracking and writing more about in the future.

http://atwork.avma.org/2010/12/10/bill-of-the-week-newyork-sb80-sb85/

This week, New York pre-filed SB 80, which would provide that no person shall engage in the non-therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents in cattle, poultry, sheep, swine, or any animal raised for the purpose of providing food for human consumption, including animals that provide non-meat food products such as eggs and milk. In addition, it would provide that no person shall sell, expose for sale, or transport for sale within New York, regardless of place of origin, any food product derived from an animal that has been subject to non-therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents.

The quote below is from a food industry website that states the benefits of antibiotic use in dairies outweigh the dangers. Apparently the bacteria inside the COW aren't developing resistance which means the industry will want to keep using the antibiotics in question. But meantime outside bacteria are developing resistance! Not all observers including me agree with this website's conclusion of no danger to humans.

“On the basis of this review, we conclude that scientific evidence does not support widespread, emerging resistance among pathogens isolated from dairy cows to antibacterial drugs even though many of these antibiotics have been used in the dairy industry for treatment and prevention of disease for several decades. However, it is clear that use of antibiotics in adult dairy cows and other food-producing animals does contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance.”

The italics are mine. Other scientific studies in peer reviewed journals that are not funded by the food business clearly show increased “gene swapping” occurs in water and soil below CAFO farms. This can lead to antibiotic resistance moving between different bacteria. The Union of Concerned Scientists website states that perhaps 70 % of pharmaceuticals used in agriculture are fed to “healthy” farm animals to promote growth. Beef cows in crowded feed lots, pigs, chickens and dairy cows kept indoors in large buildings are subject to unnatural behaviors and stresses. The antibiotics are fed to boost their immune systems and keep them from getting sick. Dairies use lesser amounts of antibiotics than some types of CAFOs but do use them both on adult cows and on calves. The following comes from www.sustainabletable.org. They quote an annual 18,000 deaths and 4 billion dollar a year as costs from antibiotic resistance which they say is almost certainly an underestimate that doesn't include all the lost days at work etc.

“Although everyone is at risk when antibiotics stop working, the threat is greatest for young children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems, including cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant patients and, in general, people whose health is compromised in some way”

More soon on this topic. My guess is the well entrenched dairy biz in NY will lobby for an exemption. Do we really want that!?

more dead birds and manure?

Awhile back I wrote about manure's impact on excess water and aquatic plant growth.Excess weeds and algae that grew and then rotted and promoted botulism outbreaks that in turn killed thousands of birds on Lake Ontario a few years ago. Last summer a bad blue green algae bloom on Sodus Bay got the attention of the homeowners there. Certainly manure spread on fields upstream could be contributing to the problem of too much fertilizer in the bay. Several members of the Cafo Awareness Network are planning to sample water next spring in an effort to determine if indeed manure on fields in Rose might be finding its way into the waters of Sodus or East Bay. Then I heard abut the new pit.

I took a drive over to Savannah- Spring Lake last weekend. As a card carrying member of Cafo Awarenness Network I felt obligated to check it out. I found a hill overlooking a forty or fifty acre wetland complete with two eagles perched in shoreline trees surrounded by more forested hills and farmland. The view was of some of the prettiest landscape in the county though I suspect it's hard to keep bare soil on these hillsides in a rain. Atop the hill sat tons of manure in piles. Across the street a couple acres of mud and a collection of parked heavy equipment suggested the rumored manure pit in the making was well under way.

So why worry? Who cares? This farm is following “best management practices” isn't it? Well for one thing, best management practices are quite simply not the best, even when scrupulously followed. In other areas of New York state wells have been ruined and streams and bays have been clogged with algae and weed growth because of too much manure spread on too little land. A solid inch of manure laid down on top of snow on a hillside with a creek at the bottom (see photo) will not stay in place when the snow melts.

What if a little too much fertilizer goes into a swamp? What if there is a little tiny fish kill? It's just carp and suckers and bullheads. Who cares if the birds in Montezuma have to deal with rotting algae and polluted water next summer? Who cares if the folks on Sodus bay can't get their boats through the weeds at their docks?

Well for one thing, it's not just fertilizer. All CAFOs (yes, dairies too) use at least some antibiotics. Peer reviewed studies have documented increased 'gene swapping' that transfers antibiotic resistance between different types of bacteria downstream from CAFO operations. Some of these bacteria can sicken humans.

Too much fertilizer in drinking water has been linked to bladder cancer in humans.

In other parts of the US rural homeowners have successfully sued and appealed to reduce their property taxes because of stench and pollution associated with CAFO agriculture. If their taxes go down, other town residents must take up at least some of the slack or suffer the consequences of budget cuts. Do you want to pay more for milk at the grocery or more at tax time?

A 3000 cow dairy produces four times as much sewage as Syracuse. Where will the farm go next? Will it expand again into your neighborhood?

There is another reason to care. Get ready for a Big Word folks. Too much fertilizer in water chokes out native plants and kills off native animals. Tough hardy “weeds” take their places. This survival of the fittest in a polluted world reduces Biodiversity. Take my word for it. Lost biodiversity is a bad thing. It's bad for economic, physical, and to some people maybe most important of all, for moral and spiritual reasons It's stupid too.

Read more about the problem and what we can do about it here.


http://newyork.sierraclub.org/conservation/agriculture/Wasting_NYS_Report.pdf

please note there are also a couple of pig feeding operations in the area of the photos. I am not claiming any particular origin for the manure spread in photograph. I am saying however, it is poor practice whether it's cow shit or pig shit wherever it's from.