XPost: alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian, rec.pets.dogs.behavior, re   
   .pets.cats.misc   
   XPost: alt.pets.rabbits   
   From: tea@signguestbook.ie   
      
    wrote in message news:1145601033.4003   
   9.295940@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...   
   >   
   > Okay, do you have a concrete suggestion for what I can replace rice   
   > with, together with evidence that it will actually achieve something?   
   > Yes or no?   
      
   What did he show you .. something by a poster nymed "diderot"?   
      
   I wrote a bona fide organic rice farmer a while back, and here is the   
   reply (permission to post in a public forum granted by the author) ..   
      
   "There is an "article" circulating on the Internet that describes how   
   thousands of frogs and other animals are killed in the mechanized   
   harvesting of grain crops.  This "collateral animal deaths" story is an   
   elaborate hoax.  The author, a "Texas organic rice farmer" is a gifted   
   writer, but he should use his talents elsewhere.   
      
   The author's numbers describe a plague of frogs of biblical   
   proportions.  However, it is questionable if he has even been on a rice   
   farm.  The major point that our author has missed is that rice fields   
   are harvested dry.  The irrigation water is drained, and the ground is   
   left to dry before the harvesters go out in the field (otherwise, they'd   
   sink in the mud).  There just aren't that many amphibians in the field.   
      
   Regrettably, there probably are some small animal deaths.  However,   
   the number of deaths in a mile of rice harvesting pales in comparison to   
   the road kill on a mile of highway.  Harvesters move slowly, and they   
   are not the high speed machines described in this article.   
      
   At Lundberg Family Farms, we care deeply for the animals that we share   
   our fields with.  For example, every spring before field work begins, we   
   search the fields for nests, rescuing eggs for a local incubation   
   centers (mature pairs re-nest when the nests are disturbed like this).   
   After hatching, the fledglings are raised and released back into the   
   wild.  Last year, we rescued over 3,000 duck eggs.  After harvest, we   
   flood our fields to provide habitat for winter migratory birds and   
   waterfowl.  They eat the rice that is left in the fields and contribute   
   fertilizer for next spring.  There are autumn days when the sky is   
   blackened by canadian geese (and the sound is beautiful)!  We see ducks,   
   geese, cranes, rails, pheasants, egrets, herons, swans, and even bald   
   eagles resting in our fields.   
      
   We are committed to sustainable and organic farming techniques.  We   
   see our farming operation as a "partnership with nature," and would   
   not continue if rice harvesting resulted in the "death toll" that this hoax   
   suggests.   
      
   --> Kent Lundberg.   
      
   Kent Lundberg   
   Lundberg Family Farms   
   http://www.lundberg.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)