Short and sweet

Or bitter, depending...

Iowa Anti-Choicers Admit They Want to Imprison Women for Abortion

James Hansen: Why I must speak out about climate change and Bernie Sanders comes over the hill with the cavalry.... or maybe just a cattle prod to try and activate Congress.

Drano plastic bottle bombs.

Russian dashboard cams.  I don't think I'll ever want to drive in Russia....

Teachers.

Our daily bread may be killing us.  Obviously all we can eat now is dirt mixed with a few leaves...

Wal Mart is distressed that the poor are not buying enough of their stuff.  Nice that they had time to climb down from that pile of money they're sitting on.

One sentence news

It gets better.

Finding a lost church.

Making friends under the sea.

Rachel Carson didn't kill millions of Africans.

Does eating today's type of wheat poison you?

Dumping the 'junk DNA' theory.

The way governments begin to topple.

Republicans can't afford to give women equal pay.

Come back!!  You have my car keys!

Do Democrats really support the privatization of public schools?

Artist of the weird.

Ohio Secretary of State on the mat to explain obstruction to voting.

Sometimes being rude is good.

Food riots are beginning

And will soon be in a grocery store near you.

Paul Krugman:

I’m talking about the food crisis. Over the past few years the prices of wheat, corn, rice and other basic foodstuffs have doubled or tripled, with much of the increase taking place just in the last few months. High food prices dismay even relatively well-off Americans — but they’re truly devastating in poor countries, where food often accounts for more than half a family’s spending.

There have already been food riots around the world. Food-supplying countries, from Ukraine to Argentina, have been limiting exports in an attempt to protect domestic consumers, leading to angry protests from farmers — and making things even worse in countries that need to import food.

He lists the things that aren't controllable at the moment: drought, rising demand for beef, oil, etc, then gets to the point:

Where the effects of bad policy are clearest, however, is in the rise of demon ethanol and other biofuels.

The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a “scam.”

This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly “good” biofuel policies, like Brazil’s use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation.

And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering: all the remaining presidential contenders are terrible on this issue.

What can we do? Krugman's conclusion:

What should be done? The most immediate need is more aid to people in distress: the U.N.’s World Food Program put out a desperate appeal for more funds.

We also need a pushback against biofuels, which turn out to have been a terrible mistake.

But it’s not clear how much can be done. Cheap food, like cheap oil, may be a thing of the past.

Ethanol is a scam to make quick money. There are other ways to lessen the demand for oil. We already have the technology. Let's make sure the next Democratic president has the facts.

crossposted at American Street

Give us this day our daily bread

And stop making corn for ethanol:

Wheat prices have hit record highs and tight supplies of the staple crop have ignited concern about rising food costs.

The price of higher-quality spring wheat jumped almost 25% on Monday - the biggest one-day increase to date.

The rise comes as the UN's World Food Programme warns that it will have to start cutting rations or feeding fewer people if it does not get more money to cope with the higher cost of food.

The article goes on to list export curbs, drought, land for biofuels, growing demand, and speculation by investors as reasons for the climbing prices.

The US could help by acknowledging that ethanol is a ridiculous choice for a biofuel, inefficient in the extreme. The ruin of the water aquifers, the enlarging dead zones from fertilizer overuse, the extra pollution ethanol releases into the atmosphere, the loss of farm land to the mega-agriculture corporations, the infiltration into all our food of corn and corn byproducts, all this could be cut back by trying for another type of more efficient biofuel.

The contamination is bigger than we thought

And more dangerous. Pizza and baby formula???: (my bold)

Consumers may want to steer away from eating pork after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that hog farms in at least five states, including New York, have been quarantined amid concerns that hog feed at those farms have been contaminated with melamine. Thousands of hogs could have been affected.

One poultry farm in Missouri was also affected.

Pet food which has been salvaged from manufacturers that have issued pet food recalls because of potential melamine contamination has been traced to hog farms in California, North Carolina, South Caroline, New York, Utah and possibly Ohio. Samples of hog urine from farms in three of the states, California, North Carolina and South Carolina, have tested positive for melamine. FDA said it hadn't yet received test results from the identified hog farms in other states.

Six grain products-wheat gluten, corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, rice bran and rice protein-which are used in foods ranging from bread to pizza to baby formula, are to be inspected by the FDA for traces of melamine, the same industrial chemical used in plastics and fertilizer that is said to have killed over 4,000 cats and dogs by kidney failure and have sickened thousands more.

Update 4/26:
Steve Bates at The Yellow Doggerel Democrat:

This speaks to a complete breakdown in the food safety protocols for foods obtained from international sources, although I doubt they are being observed much more effectively toward food from domestic sources. The Bush administration has systematically eviscerated the regulatory agencies that protect us from corporations and individuals who have strong financial incentives to do us harm either willfully (as this case appears to be) or through negligence. No other government in the civilized world sees such regulation as burdensome or unnecessary: only Bush's clients, cronies, and contributors benefit from lax regulation of the food supply.

If ever we needed an object lesson in the folly of hands-off government in the arena of public safety, this is that lesson. We can learn it well... or we can die of our ignorance.

Spocko of Spocko's Brain has the latest on the investigation on the recall of peanut butter and introduces us to Lisa Shames of the GAO.

Wheat, corn, and rice gluten from China

Wasn't meant for .... food? Then how did it get into pet food? (my bold)

WASHINGTON, April 20 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said pet food protein imported from China could have had the toxin melamine deliberately added to boost protein levels.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA chief veterinarian, told reporters melamine had been found in Chinese shipments of corn, wheat and rice gluten.

"That melamine was found in all three of those, it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that this was intentional," Sundlof said. The chemical is used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizers that elevates protein level readings, USA Today reported.

Pet food containing melamine has sickened and killed scores of cats and dogs in North America.

Sundlof said the agency has not been able to get letters of invitation from the Chinese government that would allow FDA inspectors to enter the country. The Chinese government has said the contaminated wheat gluten was not meant for pet foods and therefore was not its regulatory responsibility, The Los Angeles Times said.

The contamination has resulted in numerous North American recalls of millions of cans and pouches of pet food.

Um... If it got into pet food so easily, how can we be sure the poisonous wheat, rice, and corn gluten hasn't gotten into our own food?

Anyone?

Update: Third pet food company involved.

Why were the Australian wheat companies so special?

That they were told ONE YEAR before the American citizens that we would be attacking Iraq?

Update 11/26:
But don't let your friends get between you and the almighty dollar:

"THE United States intervened to sabotage a huge wheat contract agreed upon by AWB and Iraq during a series of secret meetings in Cairo last year, less than two years after Australia joined America to topple Saddam Hussein.

Senior US officials in Baghdad complained to Iraqi Government ministers in January last year - 10 months before the United Nations exposed AWB's kickbacks to Saddam Hussein - after learning Australia had landed a $900 million wheat deal with Iraq."