National Vegetarian Week
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_veggie/ALL/1776//
19th-25th May is National Vegetarian Week - an annual initiative that
encourages people to find out more about the many benefits of a
meat-free diet. With veggie alternatives available in high street
shops and supermarkets, it really is easy and one of the most
important steps you can take towards helping animals, the planet and
boosting your health.

One individual can consume as many as 5000 animals in his or her
lifetime and most of these will have been reared in crowded,
disease-ridden intensive farms. But whether factory farmed, free-range
or organic, after a short and wretched life, all farmed animals face a
terrifying slaughterhouse death. Each fish, cow, lamb, pig and chicken
is a sentient being capable of experiencing pain, fear and discomfort,
in the same way as any cat or dog.

On Thu, 15 May 2008 16:12:58 +0100, "Ian" wrote:

Don't listen to moody Moody he's just spent sixteen hours adrift in
his charter wreck with yet another engine breakdown. Still I s'pose it
beats the nervous breakdowns he usually suffers, which means we the
taxpayer must fund his benefits.

Why do people still pay to go on that tub?

Pat's Note: Even the NFU are realising the value of Class Actions when
dealing with Britain's bent government vets.

It would have been better had famers actually had FMD insurance, but
after 2001 I imagine the costs were prohibitive.

They haven't been reading me, have they?

It would be funny, if they called on me for help. They know all about
this newsgroup obviously and can read the archives through Google. You
never know what gems might be there.

Stranger things have happened.

I would help. The truth hurts nobody, except Britain's corrupt
government vets obviously.

http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=18483

Fight goes on for FMD pay-outs
News | 15 May, 2008

THE legal battle for compensation following last year’s foot-and-mouth
outbreak is actively continuing behind the scenes, the NFU’s chief
legal adviser has reassured farmers.

Pat's Note:

I feel reassured that the EU are taking over responsibility for making
sure Britain's food is safe. You can't rely on the Food Standards
Agency vets. Look at the state of some of the turkey farms they were
supposed to be responsible for.

Reacll the TV pictures during the first avian flu outbreak. They
didn't dare prosecute the owners. The vets were complicit in allowing
low standards.

I wonder who actually tested the turkeys in Britain? You have to
remember that Britain's bent vets fake results as a matter of routine
and threaten anyone trying to stop them. So you can't blame the
farmers.

I wonder if the EU would help force Defra to release the MRSA figures
for pigs.

I see BPEX are alarmed about their salmonella figures and are racing
about "doing something." That won't be anything sensible.

http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=18484

One-third of turkeys for food chain had salmonella
News | 15 May, 2008

German universities bow to public pressure over GM crops
Plug is pulled on maize research.
http://tinyurl.com/4pgp4u
Quirin Schiermeier

Scientists have decried the decision by two German universities to
pull the plug on field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops,
calling it a “disgraceful” interference with scientists' freedom to
research.

“I am not happy at all with this decision,” says Stefan Hormuth,
president of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Hesse.
“Unfortunately, we were no longer able to deal with the massive
opposition from politicians and the general public. The university has
a reputation in the region that we cannot risk losing.”

Millions of tonnes of pesticides and herbicides are being dumped on
farmland globally damaging the planet in so many ways, and even
shooting the farmers in the foot by killing the insects that benefit
biodiversity.

Due to the overuse of *cides we now see bees struggling to survive
being wiped out because the eco balance has been upset.

Where are the CONservation hooligans when we really need them?

Independent.ie

http://tinyurl.com/5e4w2f
Busy bees worth €2.6bn a year
By Paul Melia
Tuesday May 13 2008

PLANTS, animals and insects are worth €2.6bn to the economy every year
by keeping water clean, tackling pests and helping to pollinate crops.

But a new report on the economic benefits of biodiversity in Ireland
warns that many of our native species are at risk because of
unsustainable farming practices, climate change and development.

If farmers cant live in the real world without handouts and living off
the state isn't it about time we pushed them out for those willing to
do a fair days work for a fair days pay?

I couldn't see B&Q getting away with it so why should lazy farmers?

What is it about incompetence in farming that means we should provide
them with dole payments?

Farmers say Rural Payments Agency getting worse
14/05/2008 17:29:00
FWi http://tinyurl.com/6ajyu6

Farmer satisfaction with the Rural Payments Agency appears to be
slipping to a new low.

An on-line poll by Farmers Weekly interactive asked whether readers
felt the RPA was “getting better”, “getting worse” or “staying the
same”.

Of the 1230 who had responded by Wednesday evening (14 May), some 737
(60%%) said it was getting worse, compared with 324 (26%%) who felt it
was staying the same and just 169 (14%%) who thought it was getting
better.

We all know the angling gnomes treat everything with contempt in their
desperate quest for canned angling. Where they think it's sporting to
sit on the same spot for years on end throwing loaves of bread in to a
river in the hope the fish get to fat to struggle and outwit the
gnomes hook.

Eels are disappearing due to gnomes not habitat loss.

Bid to boost eel numbers in East

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/7399974.stm
Two thousand elvers are to be released at a wildlife park in a bid to
address the decline of the species in the UK and the rest of Europe.

The Environment Agency and the RSPB are boosting the eel stocks at the
Minsmere reserve in Suffolk where the habitat is described as ideal
for eel development.

"It has shallow lakes with reed-beds, connection to rivers and no
commercial fishing," an agency spokeswoman said.

"Numbers of eels reaching maturity and migrating to spawn will
increase too."

The only known spawning ground for eels is the Sargasso Sea, south of
Bermuda.

Pat's Notes: Here is the prestigious Scotsman view on developments in
Edinburgh.

They will only have to go round the corner to find out what Britain's
bent government vets have been up to.

It seems right and just - and poetic justice - that Britain's bent
vets will finally be trapped in Scotland.

I'm sure that the lawyers will later be calling on me to produce
documents showing that the Scottish Executive (government now) were
investigating criminal activities committed by Scottish vets working
for Westminster south of the border.

They were faking blood tests in pigs in 2000 and intimidating
witnesses to Parliament.

They will feel especially embarrassed by sick pigs being deliberately
shipped south to England for slaughter and presumably entry into the
food chain.

Veterinarians cannot screw up the NHS on this scale and get away with
it. The NHS will not have to pay the compensation or the legal costs.

There are other sources available.