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From one of our Houston activists: Buy more soy! Found this in back of today's Business section of the Chonicle. Soybeans & corn is becoming more profitable than beef. If ya can't hit 'em in their hearts, hit 'em in their pockets. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5097136.htmlSoybeans horn in on Argentina's cattle landBy MATTHEW CRAZEAgricultural economics may be spoiling a good steak.The comedown is unfolding in Argentina, where ranchers are drivingtheir world-famous cattle herds to the swamps and scrubland of thecountry's north as they turn the grassy plains of the central Pampasover to more profitable soybeans and corn.To help the herds withstand the heat and poorer pastures of their newhomes, the ranchers are cross-breeding Aberdeen Angus and

Herefordcattle, which have produced the country's renowned grass-fed meat, withBrahma strains from India and Brazil."Before, Argentina was recognized as having the best beef in theworld," says Julio Mouremble, a rancher in Buenos Aires province andvice president of the Argentine Shorthorn Association. "Now, we'relosing quality."In the north, cattle contend with drought, swamps, poisonous snakes andeven vampire bats, says Alejandro Garcia, who promotes the expansion oflivestock for the provincial government of Formosa, which straddles theTropic of Capricorn.This year, piranhas have added to their woes.As many as 40,000 cattle whose regular pastures were flooded have died,either through starvation or because of infected wounds from piranhabites, according to Victor Hugo Ruiz, who represents ranchers in BanadoLa Estrella, an area of swamplands near Formosa's border with Paraguay."They are

mutilating the cows' teats," Ruiz says.The herds' forced migration north has enabled Argentina's grains andoilseeds industry to grow almost 50 percent in the past four years asrising demand for soybeans and corn from China drove up world prices."It gives us the possibility of leaving the fertile Pampas toagricultural production," says Agriculture Secretary Javier de Urquiza.In 2006, Argentina shipped about $9 billion worth of soybeans andsoybean products, accounting for almost a fifth of the country's totalexports.Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean exporter after the U.S.and Brazil.In the past 15 years, more than 24 million acres of Pampas — an arearoughly 2 1/2 times the size of Switzerland — have been plowed up, saysLuciano Miguens, president of the Argentine Rural Society, thecountry's biggest farm association.The World Wide Fund for Nature, based in Gland, Switzerland,

saysoverfarming of the Pampas is endangering wildlife and has destroyedmost native grass. The quality of Argentina's beef may also bedeclining as a greater portion of steers are fattened in feedlotsinstead of being free to graze.Brought to you by the HoustonChronicle.com"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe. Our task must be to widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." Albert Einstein

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