Special to the Mirror, Ken Dufty responds to efforts by the Northampton County Board of Supervisor’s efforts to limit public comment during Regular Meetings.
Manure-to-Energy: Report lists Lessons Learned
In a study released by the Farm Manure-to-Energy Initiative, which was hosted on the Shore last week by Eastern Shorekeeper, poultry litter ash and biochar sources appear to be suitable and comparable phosphorus and potassium fertilizers for crops for our soils in the Mid-Atlantic. Other groups concerned about the manure problem on the Eastern Shore, such as the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, who has funded other studies around finding ways to convert manure and litter into ‘value added products’.
The Farm Manure-to-Energy Initiative was launched in 2012 to demonstrate and objectively evaluate manure-based energy systems operating on several private farms in the Chesapeake Bay region and has focused on farm-scale thermochemical (thermal) systems. [Read more…]
REP Don Beyer Introduces Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act To Protect Biodiversity
Beyer Introduces Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act To Protect Biodiversity Legislation Endorsed By Leading Environmental Organizations and Scientists, Including
Biologist E.O. Wilson
This week, Representative Don Beyer introduced the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2016 to begin reversing the tide of habitat loss and fragmentation for U.S. fish, wildlife, and plant species.
See Mirror Article on Wildlife Corridors Here
Wildlife corridors are stretches of habitat that allow species to move from one area of habitat to another for such purposes as accessing resources, establishing new territories, shifting ranges, promoting gene flow, and adapting to the impacts of a changing climate. Corridors have been successfully implemented around the world and throughout the U.S., yet current law provides limited requirements for land and water managers to address species’ connectivity needs.
“With roughly one in five animal and plant species in the U.S. at risk of extinction due to habitat loss and fragmentation, one of the simplest yet most effective things we can do is to provide them ample opportunity to move across lands and waters,” said Rep. Beyer.
[Read more…]
Should New Northampton County School Complex be Carbon Neutral?
At the November 28th Northampton Board of Supervisors work session, the need for a new school complex was discussed. While the Board of Supervisors have begun to float a number of scenarios for funding, Chairmain Spencer Murry was quick to remind the Board that potential tax increases, the total cost of the new complex, how much will have to be spent to keep the existing complex in operation, the timeline for staging the new complex, as well as infrastructure needs are all in flux.
During the work session, Supervisor Bennett stated that the citizens need to understand that what is being considered is far more than a brick and mortar complex, and that new and modern schools are necessary to attract young families to move and invest here, to increase learning opportunities, and to be the driver and cornerstone of an economic revitalization.
Bennett is correct, and while funding and other issues may be unknown, the County still has the opportunity to create a design that will do the right thing for not only our students, but for the County and the Eastern Shore in general. Ultimately, the new school complex should be built to be carbon neutral, a place that not does not pollute the environment, but creates a process that continues to enhance and improve it.
Leveraging advanced engineering design principles, the complex could go carbon neutral by improving energy efficiency through insulation, double glazing, using low energy equipment and encouraging a strict “turn off policy”. The School should generate its own heat and power by installing solar panels (farm), geothermal wells and wind turbines.
As Andy Teeling has been saying for some time, the schools, students, government and business are uniquely entwined. Re-thinking the new school complex should involve a ‘whole-school’, ‘whole-community’ approach. Becoming carbon neutral should leverage those in the community that are passionate about the environment and that can help the students and faculty turn Northampton into a leader in sustainability and environmental education – the seed and driver for this should be the new school complex. [Read more…]
Accomack County Public Schools Protest Event: Banned Books
Please join other thinkers for a peaceful demonstration on the Accomack County green to speak out against the recent decision of the Accomack County School Board to ban the classic literary works “Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” even temporarily, due to a single complaint.
Please bring old books, magazines, newspapers, and other unwanted or undesirable reading material.
Everyone is encouraged to generally come together to socialize. Some hot chocolate and cups will be provided.
Local historian Dr. Kentoya Downing-Garcia will be our guest of honor and giving a brief lesson on the importance of these literary works, the message against racism that they convey, and why the uncomfortable feelings they create are so important.
A brief reading of both books will be organized and everyone is encouraged to bring their own copies of the banned books for a possible group reading.
This is a great way for all citizens of the County to come together to let the School Board know that we are not pleased with their actions and to express why the message against racism contained in them is very important. We aim to also express how utterly dismayed we are that the School Board has made national news over this and caused great embarrassment to our county and a mockery of our schools.
Invite anyone who you think might be interested in this event to attend. Incivility from anyone at this event will not be tolerated and those who may choose to incite the crowd will be asked to leave.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING: FOR TURKEYS, NOT SO MUCH
Over 300 million turkeys are slaughtered in the US each year, and an estimated 46 million turkeys are killed each year for Thanksgiving just so Americans can give thanks (for something).
With as many as 10,000 birds packed into a single building, turkeys are confined so tightly that each individual bird typically has only 2.5 to 4 square feet of floor space. As turkeys grow, the air inside buildings can become so dusty and ammonia-filled that birds have trouble breathing and suffer from irritated, swollen eyes.
Image (Vegan Peace)
Turkeys are selectively bred to grow extremely fast, and because their skeletons are not adapted to support their rapidly growing bodies, domestic turkeys are prone to lameness, deformities, and leg pain.
Keeping turkeys in such overcrowded factory conditions can cause them to injure each other with sharp beaks and toes. Growers usually address this by cutting off portions of turkeys’ beaks and toes with shears, a hot blade, or a high-voltage electrical current. These operations are performed on newly hatched baby turkeys, and without an anesthetic.
When they reach market weight, at about three to five months of age, turkeys are packed into crates and transported to slaughter. Due in part to the stress of transport, each year hundreds of thousands of turkeys die before they even reach the slaughterhouse. Turkeys that survive the trip are shackled upside down by their feet, and slaughtered while fully conscious.
Note: while there is a movement underway, mainly by boutique and smaller organic farmers, to implement ‘humane slaughter’. This somehow assumes that the animal does not mind giving up its life to be part of a meal.
Panel Discusses the Real Cost of CAFOs and Industrial Farming
With the possibility of close to 2000 new industrial chicken houses being built in Accomack County, residents turned out for an information session at Eastern Shore Community College hosted by the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project and Preserve Our Shore. The panel included farmers, former growers as well as science and economic experts.
Doug Gurian-Sherman, Ph.D. Director of Sustainable Agriculture and Senior Scientist for Center for Food Safety stated that, despite the notion that large CAFOs may promise economic development, there are real costs involved. For most rural counties, the large amount of waste created by industrial agricultural operations is overwhelming. Unable to transport it very far, most opt to spread the manure on local fields. The runoff into streams and estuaries, such as the bay, can have devastating effects, such as dead zones.
According to Dr. Gurian-Sherman large amounts of concentrated manure, while it can be a valuable way to resupply nutrients to the soil, can also become toxic. There are better ways to farm, Gurian-Sherman said, that work with nature to absorb these nutrients.
Gurian-Sherman noted that the industry is highly subsidized by the federal government, that citizens are supporting a defunct method of farming at the expense of rural communities, the environment and health. The economic argument was also challenged– Gurian-Sherman argued that in most cases, the industry only creates low paying, dangerous jobs, and that the data indicates that most counties that rely on industrial farming are usually among the poorest in the state.
[Read more…]
ANIMAL RIGHTS: United Poultry Concerns raises $30k to fight Kaporos practice
Image (Unparalleled Suffering Photography)
Machipongo’s own United Poultry Concerns has raised $30,000 to support their lawsuit against the City of New York, the New York City Police Department, and the NYC Department of Health for refusing to enforce the 15 laws being violated by Kaporos practitioners.
Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, makeshift chicken coops appear on the streets and sidewalks of Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhoods like Borough Park and Williamsburg, dedicated to the ritual sacrifice of chickens for atonement in a centuries old practice known as kapparot, or kaporos. After campaigning against the practice for years, the UPC, along with the Alliance to End Chickens denounces what it calls a “bloodbath” that claims the lives of 50,000 chickens and occurs in “unregulated, makeshift slaughterhouses in Brooklyn streets and sidewalks in the days prior to Yom Kippur.”
According to UPC, NYC has failed to enforce the law; the City has actively assisted the practitioners by providing them with police protection, barricades, and, most egregiously, filthy orange traffic cones to bleed out the dying chickens in an ultimate public expression of brutality, disrespect and degradation of the birds.
The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos is a project of United Poultry Concerns. Formed in New York City in June 2010, the Alliance is an association of groups and individuals who seek to replace the use of chickens in Kaporos ceremonies with money or other non-animal symbols of atonement. The Alliance does not oppose Kaporos per se, only the cruel and unnecessary use of chickens in the ceremony.
Humanely Raised? Obama Regulators poised to Let Factory Farms use dubious labeling
Obama administration regulators from the Food and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) have proposed allowing meat and chicken products to be marketed as “humanely raised” even if the animals in question were raised using industry standard procedures, such as unanesthetized castration, debeaking, and prolonged confinement.
The administration will allow meat producers to leverage the new rules to use terms like “Raised With Care” or “Humanely Raised on Sustainable Family Farms” simply by making up their own definitions for the terms. Regulators would perform no inspections to verify any of their animal-welfare claims. The claims by companies of “humanely raised” would be arbitrary.
According to the FSIS, meat producers would still be able to use the label even if their “animal raising practices [were] representative of industry-wide practices.”
Claims about Animal Welfare and Environmental Stewardship [Read more…]
WHEN THE BAND STOPS PLAYING: The Dark Side of PTSD
Special to the Mirror by Joe Vaccaro
There are over 830,000 veterans residing in VA and that number includes some 700,000 men and over 130,000 women. Within those numbers are 669,000 plus war time veterans who have served their country in time of need. The Eastern Shore of VA lays claim to over 5,000 of those men and women who are living amongst us; also living amongst them is the dark potential of suicide.
Image by Pat Dollard
According to the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) there are 20 (22 according to other sources) veterans who take their own lives every day according to a press release made in To make matters worse, some of this data is from 1999 through 2011 and only contains information from 21 states with larger states like California, Texas and Illinois not reporting any information. Throughout the years combat veterans have been returning home seemingly unscathed by the battles they have fought yet the suicide rate for our recently returning veterans continues to climb. The troops, especially the career minded, view any cry for help as a career blemish that could tarnish a record of valor, hard work and halt an upward climb through the ranks. The attempt to gather facts to combat this national tragedy is too skewed to be of any solid value.
Part of the problem is the fact that there’s no uniform reporting system regarding these deaths. So it’s up to a coroner or funeral director to enter a veteran status or note a suicide on a death certificate. This makes it extremely difficult to determine a veteran’s status unless the person is known to them which begs the next question of how do they collect that data on homeless veterans? A recent news article explained this very succinctly when an official stated “Birth and death certificates are only as good as the information that is entered”. However, there are also families out there who might pressure officials not to list “suicide” as the cause of death for fear of the stigma associated with such an event. The VA itself has acknowledged significant limitations” in its data collection and specifically noted that “the ability of death certificates to fully capture female veterans was particularly low” and “younger or unmarried veterans and those with lower levels of education were also more likely to be missed on the death certificate.” [Read more…]
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