FSIS

Thank you to all our customers and others who responded so passionately on our behalf to the USDA call for comments on the proposed guidelines for small and very small meat plants. By speaking up for us, you spoke up for yourselves as well, and for the kind of life you want to live. We will keep you posted on any movements on this issue. The battle has probably just begun.

When needing to deal with the insanity of government, and the obstinate wrong headedness of bureaucrats that are too often in corporate pockets, it is a joy and pleasure to turn away again toward farming and that endless fascination with nature and growing things. Though nature is often a tough adversary it is also a balm to the troubled soul and a reminder that some things are bigger than politics. The weather has been wet here at Pastures A Plenty, meaning difficulty with getting the hay made and the row crop work done. However the grass is growing into a grazing beasts' paradise and it is a pure pleasure to walk out there and be part of it. One of the results of our change to long grass and slower cattle rotations is that the grassland birds seem to be having a better go at their nesting. Western meadowlarks with their multi noted songs, cattle and cat birds and killdeers are everywhere. The little wet weather slough is full of redwing blackbirds declaring territory. Red tail hawks bank and soar overhead. It would be a kind of sacrilege to walk out there with headphones on!

With the oil volcano gushing in the Gulf and destroying the livelihoods of so many families for decades to come as well as all the natural wonder and beauty of the place, I have been trying to imagine what it would be like for our entire farm to have been covered in six inches of salt, for instance. Or worse, if all the farms in our community had been. It is impossible to imagine the heavy changes we are forcing upon the Gulf and the people there.