Please fwd my SF Chron letter to CA Senate Committee

[Guest guest]

Thank you to the people who congratulated me for getting my letter published in

the Chronicle. It would be great if anyone would cut & paste this into the CA

Senate Food & Ag Committee website:

http://www.californiasafefood.com/form.asp/csasp/DepartmentID.871/cs/SectionID.1\

847/csasp.html

 

Add any other comments, as you like.

 

Thank you!

 

Honorable Senators:

 

Please read this letter which appeared in the SF Chronicle Monday, and use your

power to act on this for the behalf of California.

 

[.....]

 

 

 

The inefficiency of livestock

California faces severe drought, water rationing, depleted fish

populations and wildfires. Dairy farmers struggle to stay afloat. And

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants to fund up to $200 million a

year to subsidize the exports of American dairy products overseas.

 

Grain-fed cattle-raising wastes our limited water, grain, energy and

topsoil. Far too many pounds of grain and gallons of water yield just

one pound of beef or gallon of milk.

 

Californians should not be paying higher water bills for either

overseas or out-of-state dairy/beef sales. Grain-fed cattle operations

require too much water. Limit California's cattle operations to purely

grass-fed operations. Reducing the herd sizes will reduce supply and

increase prices for the remaining, more-sustainable farmers. Give

career-transition assistance to farmers who'll cultivate sustainable,

cholesterol-free crops: protein-rich grains, calcium-rich vegetables

(e.g. collards, bok choy, kale, broccoli). Use our desperate water

situation as a catalyst to let a revised, sustainable farm policy flow

as a mighty river.

 

MITCH COHEN

 

Berkeley

[.....]

 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/16/ED4S15Q7HQ.DTL

 

This article appeared on page A - 14 of the San Francisco Chronicle 2/16/2009

 

 

© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.

 

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