Guilty pleas for Koebel brothers

OK - I don't often get personal here, but this is worthy of attention...

Brothers Stan and Frank Koebel, the infamous duo who were charged with public endangerment for their role in the Walkerton water crisis, plead guilty this afternoon to "common nuisance." Maximum sentence is two years.

I can speak from personal experience. I was there in Walkerton, Ontario, on the fateful weekend when people began to get ill from drinking their tap water. It was a crisis communications event like none other I've ever seen. Even CNN was going live from this small Canadian town of 5,000 permanent residents. Reporters were camped out along the front lawn of the combined post office/town hall, broadcasting the story of tragedy to the world.

I was there when helicopter after helicopter - air ambulances - began rushing people to larger hospitals. I was there when news began to filter back into the community - the librarian has died, or the child of the local police constable has died...

And through it all, helicopters continued to fly, rushing the gravely ill to emergency treatment. It's a disturbing sound to those in a small town - especially at 3am. It didn't stop for days. To this day the sound of a helicopter flying overhead still makes me wince.

Those people died because Stan and Frank Koebel wilfully neglected to do their job. They chose to falsify records, and they chose to not chlorinate the drinking water supply. And because they did that, 2000 people fell ill and seven people are now dead.

Thankfully, the world has learned and moved on. Municipalities across Canada and the world are now doing a far better job of monitoring the water supply.

Nothing will bring those people back. Nothing is going to make it all better... but somehow, two years is not enough. Not nearly enough.

EU food safety agency attacked

This is, to be blunt, just rather typical and sad.

The activist organization "Friends of the Earth" has attacked the European Food Safety Agency for being biased towards GMO foods.

Set up in 2002, EFSA's views are used by the European Commission as independent scientific opinion on the safety risk of GMO products for entry into the food chain, for consumption by humans and animals, and release into the environment.

Friends of the Earth is upset because ""The GMO panel of the European Food Safety Authority has not made a good start. In just over a year it has published twelve scientific opinions, virtually all favourable to the biotechnology industry."

It's the old case of the precautionary principal raising it's ugly, scarred head yet again - "FoE said the agency had ignored large differences between a GMO product and its non-GMO equivalent, and accused it of not looking at possible long-term effects of GMO crops and foods."

Remembering a Berry Scary Thanksgiving

Tech Central Station is running a great piece on one of the very first public health junk science scares... contaminated Cranberries.

The more things change...

Let the teeth gnashing begin... Fox News comes to Canada

The Canadian mainstream media are not having a good day today... primarily because the CRTC - the same gov't organization which allowed Al Jazeera into the country - will allow cable providers to show Fox News.

The Globe and Mail is aghast. The Star similarly so, I'm sure.

If anything, I'm struck at how often Fox News is referred to as a "right wing" news channel. You never see CBC Newsworld, described as "left wing," do you???

Unions on the Farm???

It's inevitable... farms will be unionized sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, it's not despite the best efforts of those who have the most to lose.

The London Free Press ran an article discussing the possibility of unionized farms. In an environment where terms like "Factory farms" are bantied about, it only makes sense that one of the attachments of factories - unions - would come along with it.

Do yourself a favour... if your facility is 'under threat' of unionization, think about it now, rather than later. After all, building trust and credibility with your employees is much simpler when you don't HAVE to do it.

And come up with a better message than: "That is pure, unadulterated bullshit," (said) Hank Vander Pol, president and CEO of Rol-Land Farms, over accusations workers have lost and continue to lose jobs for union activity.

This is not a key message worth recommending, at the very least.

Ahhh... people who actually research

I'm off to speak to the University of Guelph on this coming Tuesday, to the Agricultural Communications class there. Geez, I wish I had a class like that when I was going through school.

Anyway - the students are supposed to be reading this website prior to my presentation.

Special message to those students:

If you're in the class, and you're actually reading this site PRIOR to me showing up like you're supposed to, congratulations. Write this down - the secret codeword is "Free Willy." Put that word on top of your write up and you'll prove that you were actually reading this website.

Bio meets Tech - data stored on corn.

Japanese electronics maker Pioneer say their new Blu-ray optical disc, which can be written once and stores 25 gigabytes of data, is 87 percent natural polymer derived from corn and biodegrades.

Everyone hold hands and say it with me now - the future of agriculture isn't food. It's new markets, new technologies, and new innovations.

Liberal Arrogance

OK - I try to avoid any blatantly partisan comments around here, but this is really bothering me. The sheer arrogance of the liberal elite around the worldwhich somehow can't get it through their heads that they were wrong about the US election.

The downright indignant MoveOn.org PAC has just decided to ignore the results of the election - there is no reference to an election on their front page.

Canadian Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish (earlier in trouble for calling American's 'bastards') has said that Bush voters were "out of step." She's "dumbfounded" by a Bush victory.

That class act Michael Moore has taken down his website and posted a collage of war dead in the shape of his President.

My personal favourite? The UK Daily Mirror's headline is "How can 59,054,087 be so dumb?"

Sheer, unbridled ignorance multiplied with arrogance. It's just shameful, and in a way, rather sad. Bush won. He's the President. Stop whining about it and let's all act like adults, shall we?

Electoral Victory - for engineered crops

No recounts here. No concession speeches. No live coverage on CNN or teams of lawyers flying in to demand recounts.

But it appears sanity may have started to spread through California. In a move which will dampen some of the enthusiasm of the anti-GMO groups, voters reject engineered crops ban in two California counties - San Luis Obispo, which is about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Humboldt, which is immediately north of Mendocino County. (Mendocino was the first jurisdiction in North America to pass a ban.)

The activists still managed to get a ban passed in Marin County, which is immediately adjacent to San Francisco.

Things grow better with Coke

Forget pesticides or biotech...

Some farmers in India are using Coca-Cola instead of pesticides on their cotton crops. They believe it's just as effective as pesticides or fertilizer but less costly.

No word on whether or not the cotton would qualify as organic... or if it comes out caffeinated.

More flu shot concern...

The November "Defending Good Science" newsletter highlighted some of the public concern and hysteria fueling the shortage of flu shots, primarily in the USA.

It's spreading to Canada, now as well - today's Globe and Mail is reporting that Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan will now only give the shot to high-risk seniors.

Meanwhile, as of this morning, the Ontario Ministry of Health is still telling people "Protect yourself and the people around you by getting a free flu shot. It’s never been easier."

It's nice to know that solid medical advice differs based on what side of a line you live on.

Brown Fuels - Electricity from Manure

I used to say "Agriculture isn't about farmers standing around in rubber boots anymore. It's about innovation, lab coats and new technologies."

And now, the reason for those rubber boots is being transformed - since farms are now generating electricity from cattle manure.

A facility near London, Ontario is one of the first in Canada to use waste material to generate electricity. Rather than being spread on a field in raw form, cattle manure is stored in a special facility. The biogas from that manure is captured, and used to generate electricity. The left-over material is used for fertilizer. The process has a side benefit of reducing farm odours by 80%.

Agricultural technology is rushing forward - corn is being transformed into automotive fuel, cattle manure into electricity, and pig manure into crude oil - the future is amazing for what we used to consider a 'quaint family farm.'

So - with agriculture becoming one of the new frontiers in technology, how long will it be until activists stop thinking 'quaint family farm' and start thinking 'nasty chemical/power plant?'

Kudos from the Aquaculture Industry...

You know - it's just really heart-warming sometimes to hear from people who've got good things to say about you.

I was a guest speaker at the Aquanet Conference in Quebec City last week, speaking to the Aquaculture community about the value in proactive communication planning. I got this email over the weekend:
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"I recently attended the Aquanet IV conference in Quebec City where Jeff Chatterton gave a talk during a panel discussion on Risk Communication in Aquaculture. I thought Jeff did a great job and brought up some excellent points about communicating with Canadians about the products of our aquaculture industry.

I agree that the aquaculture industry is definitely an easy target and that empathy will be key in the marketing and education of our quality products. I only wish we had had more time to hear some more of his suggestions. I think a workshop should have been set up so that we could spend more time listening to Jeff's suggestions about effective communication.

I think it is more than evident from the conference and panel discussions that communication is a real problem for the industry right now. I also checked out your website (looks great!)and signed up for your monthly newsletter.

Thanks again for your talk and input. Great job. Keep up the good work!

Jillian Westcott.
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Thanks Jillian - I'm trying, what can I say. If anyone wants to know what all the fuss is about feel free to give us a shout - contact information is on this website.