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May 7, 2009 Opinions |
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—Editorial—
Pork Producers Will Have To Wallow In Aftermath Of Swine Flu Scare
Mention swine flu and the word “pandemic” immediately pops up. Alerts have been issued, schools have closed and a general panic has ensued.
Media headlines range from “Swine flu rattles global economy” to “Swine flu unstoppable.” One publication reported that “Swine flu keeps investors, businesses on edge.”
Naming the illness “swine” flu has also raised concerns for pork producers who say prices have dropped even though the illness isn’t spread by eating pork. China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates have banned meat and pork products from some parts of the United States. Russia banned imports of all meat not thermally treated from Mexico and raw pork from eight US states. China also banned imports of live pigs and pork products from Mexico, Texas, California and Kansas. Serbia banned pork from all of North America.
The US Trade Representative stated "Restrictions on U.S. pork or pork products or any meat products from the United States resulting from the recent outbreak do not appear to be based on scientific evidence and may result in serious trade disruptions without cause."
So why the ban? Maybe other countries refuse to believe what scientists have repeatedly said, “Swine flu cannot be contracted from eating pork.” Even if pork had the influenza virus in it, which it doesn’t, scientists say cooking it would destroy it anyway. The only other conclusion I can come to is that these countries are seeing this as an opportunity to ban imports and drive their own pork markets up.
U.S. hog futures have fallen, meat packing companies have had to cut pork production, and retail orders have decreased. If the swine flu scare continues it could have a serious impact on our already flagging economy.
Even though swine flu can spread to people from contact with infected pigs or areas where the pigs have been, pork has taken a bad rap. Officials are now trying to refer to it as the “H1N1” virus instead of swine flu, but the damage has been done and now pork producers will have to wallow in the aftermath, much like the poultry producers did from bird flu.
Although there is cause for concern, let’s put this flu in perspective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the common seasonal flu infects 28 million to 56 million in North America each year. Of these, approximately 100,000 are hospitalized and about 36,000 die. So far there have been 1,085 cases of swine flu reported “worldwide” and 26 deaths.
According to Australia’s Sunday Morning Herald there were 12 known transmissions of swine flu to humans in the United States from 2005 to February of this year. This was up from just one person contracting swine flu "every one or two years" across the US up to 2005.
It's true there have been pandemics in the past such as the 1918 Spanish flu that killed almost a half million Americans. But we need to remember that health care and poor living conditions that helped the spread of the virus and secondary infections, which are usually what cause death from flu viruses, were not up to today's standards. Nor did we have the antibiotics and medications to combat the secondary infections as we do today.
It's wise to take precautions during any flu or cold outbreak including washing our hands frequently, staying away from people who are sick as much as possible and covering our mouths and noses with a tissue when we cough or sneeze. But so far experts say that swine flu is not as virulent as initially suspected. The New York Times reported that it lacks certain proteins and amino acids that would make it as deadly as other flus. And it appears similar enough to other common strains that most people may have some immunity.
Banning or refusing to eat pork won’t make the swine flu go away any more than putting lipstick on a pig will make it anything other than a pig. But buying into the pork hype could contribute to the disappearance of the pork industry. (DS)
—Letters To The Editor—
Thank You, Baker County
To The Record-Courier:
On behalf of my family and myself, I would like to take a moment and thank the people of Baker County for the prayers, phone calls and support during the recent events in the Keating Valley. When we decided to move here a few years ago, one of the reasons we chose this area was because we felt a genuine warmth and friendship when we visited the area.
Now with the wolf attacks on our ranch and the Jacobs’ ranch, we have again had the opportunity to experience this. For fear of missing someone, I’m not going to try and name you all. But some that I must mention include the Oregon Cattleman’s Association, Baker County Livestock Association, Oregon Farm Bureau, and Baker County Farm Bureau. All of who contributed time, money and effort in assisting us and providing support for Curt’s and my trip to Salem. Also included in this is ODFW. The wolf crew has worked night and day to try and help us and get the Jacobs’ through this.
The phone calls, emails, words of encouragement and friendly handshakes are more appreciated than can ever be voiced in a newspaper thank you. To our friends and neighbors, words will never be enough. To those of you throughout the county that we have yet to meet, again words will never be enough. But all of you can be assured that if and when the need arises, we will make every effort to return the kindness and support you have shown.
Again thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Tik Moore and Family,
Keating, Ore.
Wyden Misses The Point
To The Record-Courier:
Again Senator Wyden misses the point of forest management. His bill, “Oregon Forest Restoration and Old Growth Protection Act of 2009” with apparently no number, is a complex set of criterion, rules and requirements for managing our forests through legislation driven by environmental concerns and tax expenditure. This bill is a reckless invitation to litigation over the plethora of arbitrary practices outlined. Forest management should be left to the professional managers on a site by site basis and not legislators with less than a modicum of forest management understanding.
We have experienced a time when Oregon, under the legislative guidance of Senator Wyden, saw its economy go up in smoke along with the timber industry as our forest health withered due to environmentally driven mismanagement. I can think of no worse source of guidance for our forest recovery than Senator Wyden. This opinion is based on his record of inaction for the past years as chair of the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and his complacency during this sympathetic collapse of forests and economy over the last decades in Oregon.
Mr. Wyden’s bill mentions “commercial” in regard to forest management only once in 62 pages and that was a prohibition on page 20 of the draft.
(C) COMMERCIAL SALE. Any tree cut or removed under this paragraph may not be sold commercially.
I didn’t understand “commercial” is a four-letter word in environmental-ese. Commercial harvesting of timber has to be a large part of any attempt to manage our engorged national forests. It is clear to those who have viewed the demise of our economy and our forests that they cannot be maintained in a healthy fashion without monetary input from commercial timber harvest (logging). Tax dollars cannot carry the load of forests that are growing at rates exponentially beyond the rate of currently limited and over-controlled harvesting and/or scrub thinning.
Mr. Wyden’s website includes the following promotional phrase “ecologically-sound production of wood fiber in a way that produces many more good-paying jobs.” This appears to allude to either tax dollar funded jobs or biomass related jobs. We all know where the money comes from for tax dollar funded jobs and that bucket is empty. Biomass jobs are fine, but even in good times they still rarely pencil and are only a fraction of the volume of mass that is needed to clean up our forests.
Leave the management of our forests up to the professionals in the industry, bring back commercial logging and the health of our forest and get the government out of legislating science and economic growth. I ask Senator Wyden to step up and lead the cause for categorical exemptions for managed harvest in forests which have burned or are in dire need of harvesting due to bug infestation or simply due to gross fuel overload. It starts with leadership and there is a seat open for Senator Wyden.
Tim Smith
Harney County
Visual Arts Strong In Baker City
To The Record-Courier:
Last Friday's First Friday demonstrated the many strong supporters of the visual arts in Baker County. Student art from our high schools was overwhelming to me. The exhibits at Clark and Co., Mad Matilda, Crossroads—these are high school students?! How do these art teachers, Abbey Godwin and Brenda Johnson, do it?
The timely mother-daughter show at Crossroads featured artists from Halfway, Union, Baker City, some of the daughters living elsewhere. Exhibits at Earth and Vine featured more local artists.Downtown merchants, schools, Crossroads Arts Center, plus many talented artists combine their talents and resources to make First Friday a memorable event.
Maryalys Urey
Baker City
On Pitbulls And Wolves
To The Record-Courier:
Well with both cars down and one in the shop, after the winter blahs and being stuck indoors other than for my gardening and lawn yard work, I am with a slight bit of humor calling this house arrest. This is not my choice so I am entertaining myself and those who like to read my letters with all the news media coverage, of this and that and so forth.
Now with the swine flu issues, we are being told to even stay at home more so if we feel we have the virus itself or whatever, so guess I might as well as settle in and get used to this idea of being without a car for the moment. Maybe this house arrest thing is a blessing in disguise itself... hmm!
And wouldn’t you know it, I no sooner said something about alfalfa sprouts being good and all, and now their saying there are some issues with that and pistachios as well. I haven’t heard anything anymore other than the one time, too busy keeping up with the swine flu virus....wonder when they will get back to the recalls etc.?
O.K., I saved the best for last on this letter of mine this time, the issues with our wildlife, wolves, you name it. You know the good Lord created them for a purpose and within reason. We all know that we need to protect our turf for whatever comes our way. Remember the poem, “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” Well I am sure most of us will do whatever to protect the things that matter the most to us no matter what the consequences do after the fact... and is that going to be any different on the gun control issues, etc.? Electric fences were mentioned not sure if that will even do the job. I can’t even keep the cats out that are so many in our neighborhood to keep from coming in our yard no matter what we do to put our defenses up. Now I am not too sure if that is any more so than the pitbulls that they are trying to outlaw and not have as pets, anymore. I seem to notice more in our neighborhood, as well. So are pitbulls going to be an endangered species as well down the road and we can’t defend ourselves from them?
After all, we were chased by one and had to call the police for our protection around this area and sometimes it can be hard to even go for a walk, so yes, so much for confinement.
Last summer I wasn’t even able to do much in our yard especially the one side at that.
Now they say they have to see them on the loose etc. so much for roaming predators and the issues we face. To bad we couldn’t recall the issues here as well. Remember what the Indians did to protect their food source from the wolves getting to their habitat and all? So much for learning from past experiences... and the knowledge we gain.
Another law, that I do hope passes for our protection is the cell phone users who like to have those phones in their ears while driving their cars. Bad deal.
I am surprised that there aren’t more accidents at that, from people talking on their phones going down the road and who don’t pull over for the safety of others on the road. Stay home if you can’t be away from your phone long enough to enjoy the outdoors etc., and the pleasures of life itself.
Coffee Anyone?
Brenda Dickison
Please Don’t Nail The Poles
To The Record-Courier:
While driving through your local neighborhood you may see a utility pole strategically placed on a well-traveled intersection with hundreds of nails stuck in it. These menacing metallic flesh eaters are remnants from years and years of yard and garage sale signs having been hung on the poles. While this may only seem to be a minor eye sore to the casual passer-by, it is a real safety hazard, as well as, a violation of state regulations.
People who hang signs or connect objects to utility poles create serious working concerns for workers whose job includes climbing them and handling them. Some folks go so far as to hang basketball backboards, bird houses and clothes lines to our poles. Even foliage planted to camouflage the poles such as vines create additional problems. All of these objects have one thing in common; they are dangerous for our linemen.
The National Electrical Code (NESC) is a guideline for construction and safety standards concerning utilities in the United States. The Oregon Public Utility Commission has adopted the entire NESC and, as a result, the Code is essentially state law in Oregon. Within the NESC are rules that expressly forbid tacks, nails, vines or other climbing hazards on poles. Additionally, the rule includes the prohibition of any signs, posters, notices, or other attachments without concurrence with the pole owner.
The NESC requires that utilities monitor poles for illegal attachments. We must then contact individuals who have made the connections and have them remove the hazards. This may all sound as though it is just another layer of government intervention. However, imagine climbing a pole and slipping. If you slip, a person’s first instinct is to hold on tightly. If a lineman does this and slides into a sign or group of nails, no clothing can protect his body from the slicing action he will experience.
We agree that spring fever is in the air and garage sales are a right of passage. But, please avoid attaching anything to utility poles for the sake of the guys who work with them every day.
Ned Ratterman,
OTECC Loss Control Manager
Cooperating Status - Perilous For Citizens
To The Record-Courier:
Most of you, who read this article, know of the Wallowa Whitman National Forest (WWNF) and its Travel Management Plan (TMP). You should also know that it plans to release for public comment its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in June, and this is all based on the Forest’s proposal to close 4,261 miles of roads in the forest and to redesignate all roads, trails and areas as closed unless the Forest Service designates some roads open and publishes a map for the public showing which roads they can use.
In case you didn’t know, this proposal will close at least 60 percent of the roads in the WWNF, which extends into five counties in Eastern Oregon. These are roads in the forest that are in Baker, Wallowa, Union, Umatilla and Grant counties.
All this is quite a switch for a sub-management plant, because the current 1990 Forest Plan, the master management plan, requires all sub plans to follow the direction of the master plan; and the master plan is forest access friendly and cross-country travel friendly, as long as, environmental damage is not occurring. However, what most do not know is that the 2005 Travel Management Rule actually supports prior decisions made for roads, trails and areas in management plans. The 2005 Final Rule says it plain enough: “The Department believes that reviewing and inventorying all roads, trails, and areas without regard to prior travel management decisions...would be unproductive, inefficient, counter to the purpose of this final rule, and disrespectful of public involvement in past decision making...” and, “Nothing in this final rule requires reconsideration of any previous administrative decisions that allow, restrict, or prohibit motor vehicle use on NFS roads and NFS trails or in areas on NFS lands and that were made under other authorities, including decisions made in land management plans...”
I wrote the above to refresh your memories of what the Forest Service is about to do to the citizens in the five counties. There is a way to protect the general welfare of the citizens in these counties and it’s called “coordination.” The U.S. Congress required the Federal land management agencies to coordinate their plans, programs and projects with local governments in all of the Acts that deal with natural resources. What is most interesting is that even in the 2005 Travel Rule it states, “The proposed and final rule requires public involvement in the designation process (Sec. 212.52), and coordination with appropriate Federal, State, county, local and tribal governments in designating roads, trails and areas for motor vehicle use (Sec. 212.53...)”
It was after the Forest Service held its series of meetings on its proposal to close practically all but a few roads in the forest, then, in July of 2008 the five counties agreed together to be cooperating agencies. All of the laws state that Federal agencies have to “coordinate” their plans with local governments, yet instead, the Forest Service gets the five counties to sign an agreement to be cooperator in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU gives all final decisions to the Forest Service. But under coordination, the Forest’s plans have to be consistent with the planning process of the counties.
The problem is that county commissioners were elected to protect the general welfare of the citizens in their jurisdictions. They are there to protect the custom and culture of access to the forests, as well as access for grazing, mining and a host of other uses. These citizens produce products from their access to the forest and this has been the custom since the founding of the counties, therefore closing sixty percent of the roads in the forest will also affect the counties tax base and the economic stability of the citizens who use the forests.
There have been several attempts to get the commissioners of the counties to rescind their signature participation in the MOU and start requiring the Forest Service to coordinate its TMP with the counties. Until they do, the Forest Service will continue to make decisions that go against the needs of the citizens in each of the counties. This will be perilous for the citizens: because the window of opportunity for the counties to require coordination is closing fast. When the Forest Service makes its Record of Decision (ROD), it will be too late for the citizens to do anything, but to cooperate with the decision of the Forest Service.
Every citizen should call and write to their commissioners and tell them to rescind their signature participation in the MOU and require the Forest Service to coordinate, now, while there is time to do so. If you do nothing now, then you will enjoy the decisions of the Forest Service, even if it goes against your use and access of the forest.
Guy Michael
Durkee, Ore.
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