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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL It is a bad time for organic believers By DENNIS T. A VERT and ALEX A. AVERY It's a bad moment for believers in the mystical won ders of organic and natural foods. Deadly E. coli bacte ria, lurking in spinach from one of the biggest organic farms in America, just killed one woman and hospitalized at least 29 other people with kidney failure. In all, the contaminated spinach sick ened nearly 200, in at least 23 states and Canada. Meanwhile, several California kids are on kid ney dialysis with permanent organ damage from the same virulent strain of E. coli 0157: H 7 after consuming raw, un-pasteurized milk or colostrum from the Organic Pastures Dairy of Fresno. Tragically, the victims were all seeking greater OIL From page 4A need to save a toad, a mouse, a bird, a fish etc.” It is time to put the wel fare of the Nation ahead of a toad, a mouse, a bird, a fish, etc. Species have died off and others have appeared every year since the age of life; the environmentalists and the Democrats need to get a grip and move on. Also, the standard prac tice of “leasing and paying royalties” for the explora tion and marketing of oil is not going to help us solve the oil crisis. In case some citizens have missed the dots, the owners of our “home” oil well heads IMPACT From page 4A costs associated with devel opment and the demands that arise from that devel opment should be paid by those demanding the servic es and those providing those services. He is correct that all costs would eventually be borne by the purchaser and that is quite proper. In the case of the city of Perry, the number of already approved subdivision lots (and Perry seems to only be interested in approving PUD zoning) will outstrip the additional wastewater treatment capacity already planned. That cost is at $900,000 and is coming from SPLOST funding. That means that citizens, who may never benefit from that expan sion and who have not requested Perry wastewa ter treatment, are paying for services on behalf of developers who reap larger profit margins from dense ly developed subdivisions. It is true that one of the great costs associated with development is the demand for education for children. Currently, the county pays $ 10,000 per student per year to provide educational ser vices. That means that a family moving into the county with two children will receive $ 20,000 of services before they pay the first property tax payment to the county and that will be woefully short of the total value of services they receive. It should be noted that residential development is a money loser for govern ments. (This is well docu mented by UGA Professor Jeffrey Dorfman in his paper entitled “The Fiscal Impacts of Land Uses on Local Government.”) Commercial and industrial development provides a posi tive cash flow to government but, unfortunately, our devel opment authority is unable to bring new industry into our county. Interestingly, Bibb County seems not to have the same difficulty. Impact fees can provide immediate cash to offset the costs of development caused infrastructure needs. Further, there is no valid study that shows impact fees having a negative effect on growth. Typically, a slow- food safety and the promised health benefits of vegetables and milk produced the “old fashioned way.” Earthbound Farms, which grew the contaminated spinach, is being sued by a shocked family of organ ic believers in Ohio. Three family members were sick ened, and one daughter has permanent kidney damage. Earthbound Farms adver tises that it sells “Food for Life,” and says “It’s just plain healthy to include lots of organic vegetables in your diet.” That certainly rings hol low today. Now the farm’s parent company has recalled huge batches of spinach sold all over the country under a variety of labels. “We will do whatever is necessary to help protect the sell the oil to our and their own refineries at the “world market” prices which are not determined by actual supply and demand as much as OPEC production policy, royalty payments, United States government competi tive interference, and pos sible “off shore” collusion by the oil companies. Note there are no internation al antitrust laws and our “international” oil compa nies can not only manipu late any given “leased” oil field throughout the world to ensure the highest price; they can “sell” the oil sev eral times among wholly owned or through other oil companies foreign subsid iaries; thereby increasing the price before the oil even ing of growth is associated with the ebb and flow of the normal business cycle and decreasing demand caused by other factors. The Brookings Institute performed an analysis of the affect of Impact fees and determined that the revenue source is beneficial in many ways. Their Executive Summary can be found at www.atwit send.us and scrolling to the bottom of the home page and clicking on their study. Mr. Evans feels that the county commission race is only about placing a candi date on the commission who is in favor of Impact fees. Actually, there are many other issues affecting the race for county commission er. They include examining implementation of a prop erty tax freeze; no public funding or assistance for a conference or conven tion center; providing more code enforcement for the county; halting the destruc tion of private and public waterways by development that consistently violates federal and state require ments; requiring replanting of trees cut for development as a method of keeping the county off the federal non attainment list; providing county-wide land use regu lations to prevent commer cial development encroach ing upon quiet residential neighborhoods (an end to spot zoning and protection of citizens’ privacy); placing a commissioner on the com mission who is not tied to the pHRPw-i WmWm& : Wm %Auto-Owners insurance \ Walker ( J Insurance Agency, Inc. health and safety of the con sumers,” said an Earthbound spokesperson. Does that mean Earthbound will stop fertiliz ing its leafy vegetables with cow manure? Most conven tional farmers fertilize their food crops with “chemical” fertilizer, and put their live stock manure on feed crops like corn. Organic farmers reject chemical fertilizer. Instead, they compost raw cattle manure for some weeks, hoping that will kill any dangerous organisms that could contaminate the food. Sometimes it doesn’t. In the old days, when organic produce came from a few little farms, an occa sional sick customer was no big deal. Often, the victim refused to believe organic food could cause the illness. leaves a foreign port or a U. S. well head. To the pseudo economic gurus, I will point out the demand is virtually un-elas tic in the U. S. which means “our” international oil com panies can multiply OPEC’s prices anytime they wish by “intra” selling to one anoth er off shore and point to the “last sale” price paid by the refineries as proof of “high oil prices” and subsequent high gas prices. To resolve this competi tive and pricing problem, oil companies developing our “public land” oil fields should be wholly owned U. S. companies and exclude the current U. S. or other “international” oil compa nies. real estate industry (three members of the current commission sit on boards of banks that finance develop ment and the commissioners approve development) or any other business interest that might create the appearance or actuality of a conflict of interest; and many others. By the way, the combined governments of the city of Columbus and Muscogee County do not use Impact fees to cover infrastructure costs. They use a percentage of the ICC and currently charge $ 50.00 a square foot for a building permit. Hence, a 2,000 square foot house building permit would cost $ 10,000. Given opponents of Impact fees argument that an increased cost like that would not be accepted by consumers, it should be that development in Muscogee County has come to a halt. It hasn’t. Currently, there are 5,000 home sites approved for and awaiting development. The reason for that is sim ple: Purchasers perceive a value in moving to the county. That would remain the case in Houston County as well. Oh, lest I forget, Muscogee County is also under a prop erty tax freeze and it hasn’t affected the turnover of housing units. It is amazing what some governments can do while others like Houston County can only think of reasons to do nothing. David Wittenberg, Kathleen Disability Income: For when fife catches you by surprise. If you are laid up due to an accident or illness, wouldn’t it be nice to know that your financial obligations will be taken care of? That you’ll be able to maintain the standard of living that you worked so hard for? As a local Auto-Owners independent agent, we can design an insurance program that's just right for you. 1110 Washington Street Downtown Perry 987-8000 loom But so many people now believe the organic hype that organic farms have got ten big and corporate and the manure-related consum er epidemics make national news. Organic Pastures ironical ly boasts that raw dairy foods are an outstanding source of nutrients and “beneficial bacteria.” Unfortunately, it’s also a source of danger ous bacteria. The organic dairy claims “Raw milk strengthens the immune system.” And that organic raw milk has “many enzyme-based pathogen-kill ing systems.” Apparently not enough of them. “It has been theorized,” says the organic company, “that the combination of grass feeding, no antibiot ics used, no hormones, and low levels of grain used in All barrels produced by these oil companies should be sold to the U.S. refiner ies, on a “cost plus” basis (2-4 percent top price) over operational and distribution costs, regardless of the world “market price”. All refineries must buy their total requirements from the “public land” oil companies, as far as “public land” oil companies capacity permits, before purchasing oil from other world sourc es and paying a 20 percent transportation excise tax. If “public land” well head oil companies have excess oil production capacity after satisfying the oil refineries requirements, the “public land” well head companies can sell oil in the world mar Study finds HOPE has great impact Special to the Journal A new study by economists at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business reveals that the lottery funded HOPE Scholarship has increased enrollment at the state’s colleges and universities, but its great est effect has been on the decision of where - rather than whether - to attend college. The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Labor Economics, also found that the scholar ship reduced the number of Georgia students attending out-of-state institutions, has made Georgia institu tions more competitive by increasing SAT scores of incoming freshman and has increased the num ber of students attending historically black colleges and universities. “Before HOPE, only a small fraction of college financial aid was allocated on the basis of merit and most of it by individual institutions,” said study co-author Christopher Cornwell, professor of eco nomics. “But in the last decade state governments have established a range of large-scale merit schol arships, most of which I Better |Uf \ \ m | AM Styles Available! Hearing f§n m Ip* W ISin your reach... HHU , ITFOII Introducing YOURSELF breakthrough nano-technology. w FREE! Imagine, watching TV and following the story! Understanding at Church! Not having to be embarrassed and frustrated! Not missing the whispers of grandchildren!^^ sSMjrn Sheri Marshall MS. Licensed Audiologist 00038883 the diet cause a change in the cow’s immune system and rumen. This change in physiology inhibits pathogen development in the (organic) milk.” That isn’t even a theory. It’s a marketing lie, designed to wring a higher price from the consumer for a product that’s condemned by health authorities because of its inherent dangers. The FDA says drinking raw milk is playing Russian roulette with your health. Such milk-borne diseases as tuberculosis and undu lant fever were epidemic in the days before pasteurized milk. Now the E. coli pathogens revealed the lie again. The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council are trying to blame “factory livestock farms” ket equal to perhaps 20 per cent of the oil barrels sold to U.S. refineries the pre vious twelve months. Also, the ownership of oil well head companies, the refiner ies, and the gasoline retail ers should be entirely sepa rate and the antitrust laws among and between these entities must be rigorously enforced. The Democrats have con sistently stopped the “first step” for our journey to oil sufficiency. The Senate Democrats killed the ANWR oil explo ration bill and Jim Marshall followed Pelosi’s and the Democratic obstructionist’s policy against our oil inde pendence by voting twice against ANWR bills in the have no means tests. Almost invariably the model for these initiatives is Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship.” Cornwell, along with associate professor David Mustard and former doctor al student Deepa Sridhar, compared enrollments at Georgia institutions with other states in the 16-mem ber Southern Regional Educational Board. They found that between 1988 and 1997, the period imme diately before and after the HOPE scholarship was implemented, freshman enrollment increased by 2,889 students per year, or 15 percent. Viewed another WASE MASTER MECHANIC W •Engine Diagnostic & Repair •Time Belts, Tune Ups & Heating Repair •Charging & Starting Diagnostic Repair mommim™ <47S)*e«-s*s* "Hearing Care For All Budgets!” Hearing Associates, Inc. 302 Margie Drive, Warner Robins, GA 478-953-2705 I Mon-Fri 9-5, Open 1 Sat. per month by appointment WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2006 ♦ MIL BBEWICTL, JR. for the 0157 in the cattle manure. But a recent Swiss study found organic cows have as much 0157 as other cows. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it’s found the deadly 0157 in every cattle herd it’s tested. Our objective should be to get the manure away from our food crops. Organic and natural aren't safer, or more nutritious: Just more expen sive, and far more danger ous. Dennis T. Avery is Director of Hudson’s Center for Global Food Issues, where Alex Avery is Director of Research and Education. Alex’s new book, The Truth About Organic Foods, is due in October from Henderson Communications. Readers may write them at Post Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421. House. ANWR and per haps other Alaskan terri tory, is crucial to our oil independence. Our Nation should not require OPEC’s benevolence for oil and I do not understand why the Democrats insist on sup porting OPEC and a few oil companies control over the cost of our Nation’s oil the energy. Then complain about the results! It is time for the Democrats to step up and help solve the Nation’s energy needs ... or get the hell out of the way! Bottom line, we need to move on this issue, but not in the “business as usual” manner! Roger Young, Warner Robins way, however, 85 percent of HOPE recipients would have gone to college even without the scholarship. When Georgia implement ed the HOPE Scholarship in 1993, one of its goals was to increase retention of the state’s best students. The researchers found that the scholarship reduced the number of students leaving Georgia to attend college elsewhere by 560 students per year. Freshman SAT scores, a measure of student qual ity, increased by nearly 40 points statewide after HOPE was implemented, the study found. Demonstration Days ■ Call 478.953.2705 Today For An Appointment. Annette R. Peppard AU. D. Doctor of Audiology 5A Li a .... r> r» 38866