The 3-Bell Ranch

The FDA won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington, D.C., region after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines and he told his customers he would shut down his farm altogether.

But the USDA sanctions the consumption of GMO's claiming there is "no significant difference" between plants whose genes have been violated with E. coli, shards of gold, or electrocution in order to lower that cell's defenses long enough to introduce a gene foreign to that plant (or animal now). Yet, we know from scientific studies that GMOs do harm those who ingest them (and, oh yeah, the environment):

"Published in the journal Reproductive Toxicology, the study explains that Bt toxin enters the body not only through direct consumption of GMOs, but also from consumption of meat, milk and eggs from animals whose feed contains GMOs. Among all women tested, 80 percent of the pregnant group tested positive for Bt toxin in their babies' umbilical cords, and 69 percent of non-pregnant women tested positive for Bt toxin."

Full version of this video is available for sale online from several web sites. One, Seeds of Deception, is Jeffery Smith's. Jeffrey is a tireless warrior whose life mission is to expose the true and inherent dangers GMO crops pose to our health and the health of our planet.

Suffice it to say: if you're not eating organic food-- strictly organic food-- you're eating "food" created with genetically modified organisms. By definition, "organic" crops cannot be grown from genetically modified seeds.

I have spoken to you, dear reader, regarding the zest with which the government regulates our choices in the name of  "safe food." A couple of years ago, the Senate Bill, 510 was offered to "keep food safe." One of these safety regulations would have the power to prohibit all movement of all food within a geographic area. Under S.B. 510’s House counterpart bill, H.R. 2749 (Section 133b, “Authority to Prohibit or Restrict the Movement of Food”), sponsored by Congressman Dingell, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. FOR THE TIME BEING, these bills have not passed. But these ideas do seem to have a way of squirming back into legislation in different or new bills. Like NAIS (National Animal Identification System) and Arnold as The Terminator, I have a feeling the food safety bill will soon say, "I'll  be  baaaaack."

_Two state bills, SB 6298 and HB 2637, were recently introduced to label genetically engineered foods in Washington. Thousands of people have emailed the state legislature to support these bills, but we need one last push to support them.

Please call the following House and Senate members and ask them to move the bills to Rules:

Tell the following Senators to move the GMO labeling bill #6298 to Rules.

Senate Majority Leader, Lisa Brown (360) 786-7604,  lisa.brown@leg.wa.gov
Senate Agriculture Committe Chair, Senator Brian Hatfield, (360) 786-7636,  brian.hatfield@leg.wa.gov


Tell the following House Representatives to move the GMO labeling bill #2637 to Rules.

House Speaker, Frank Chopp, (360) 786-7920, frank.chopp@leg.wa.gov
House Agriculture Committee Chair, Rep. Brian Blake, (360) 786-7870, brian.blake@leg.wa.gov

Talking Points:

I am calling (writing) to ask you to move (Senate Bill 6298 / House Bill 2637) to Rules, a bill to label genetically engineered foods in Washington. Consumers have a right to know what’s in the food we eat and feed our children, including whether food is genetically engineered. Labeling is imperative in Washington given FDA’s pending approval for a GE salmon, which poses a number of concerns for human health and the health of our wild salmon, and to protect our vital wheat exports. We all should be able to make informed choices, and have the ability to choose whether to buy genetically engineered food or not.Until FDA does the right thing, it is up to states like Washington to take action to protect the rights of their citizens. Please support (Senate Bill 6298 / House Bill 2637) by moving it to Rules.

_If you don't know who your state reps are, enter your zip code here:

Urgent! Call Your State Reps to Ask Them to Vote for HB 2637! The Senate Bill is  SB 6298.

Want to learn why we need GMO labels? Scroll down to read ten scary reasons.

Momentum is on our side. I was thrilled to read in the AP article, "Some Wash. wheat farmers throw support behind required labeling of genetically modified foods,"(published here in D.C. in the Washington Post and across the country in 152 different news outlets!) that the hearings were "packed!"

You all made national news! Not only in the AP, but also:

Food Safety News: Calls for GMO Labeling Keep Cropping Up

There are also lots of great stories that ran locally around Washington State:

Seattle, WA (KOMO 4 TV): Lawmakers take up issue of genetically-altered foods

Seattle, WA (PubliCola): Bill Would Require Labeling of GMOs

Sequim, WA: Sequim woman to testify in favor of genetically engineered food labeling

Spokane, WA: Bill Proposed To Label Genetically Modified Food

The Senate bill to label GMOs, SB 6298, had a public hearing in the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Water & Rural Economic Development at 10:00 AM on Thursday, January 26, 2012. Click here to watch the hearing.

The House bill, HB 2637, had a public hearing in the House Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources at 8:00 AM on Friday, January 27, 2012. Click here to watch the hearing.

So far, of the 12,000 Organic Consumers Fund supporters in WA, more than a thousand of you have contacted your state legislators.

Votes in the agriculture committees could happen as soon as tomorrow! We need your help to get these bills passed! Please take action:

    1.    Write your state reps to ask them to support the bills.
    2.    Write your state senators to ask them to support SB 6298.
    3.    Call your state reps to ask them to support HB 2637.
    4.    Call your state senators to ask them to support SB 6298.
    5.    Donate to the Organic Consumers Fund so we can reimburse the travel costs of supporters who couldn't otherwise have attended the hearings.
    6.    Learn more and get involved at GMOFreeWashington.com.

Getting tough questions from your reps about SB 6298/ HB 2637? Click here for the FAQ.

If you need some ammunition and inspiration to inspire you to spread the word, look no further than these 10 scary reasons to label GMOs:

#1 Monsanto's Bt-toxin, in its Bt-producing GMO corn and cotton (used in food in the form of cottonseed oil), was found by Canadian doctors in the blood of 93% of pregnant women and 80% of the umbilical blood of their babies.

#2 The authors of the Canadian study conclude that the women and their babies were exposed to Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin through a "normal" non-organic Canadian diet, including non-organic (so-called "natural" and "conventional") meat, egg, and dairy products from animals fed Bt corn.

#3 Monsanto's GMO "Bt" corn and cotton plants are engineered to produce a insecticide in every cell of the plant that kills insects by breaking open their stomachs.

#4 Mice fed Monsanto's Bt corn had elevated levels of immune system substances that are also higher in humans who suffer  from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, allergies, Lou Gehrig's disease, autoimmune  disease, and colitis.

#5 Young mice in the same study had elevated T-cells, which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases.

#6 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has properties of known  allergens - it actually fails the World Health Organization's allergen screening tests.

#7 Monsanto's GMO Bt-toxin has been found to bind with the small intestines in mice and with intestinal tissue in rhesus monkeys.

#8 In addition to its GMO "Bt" crops which are  engineered to produce insecticide, Monsanto also produces GMO "RoundUp  Ready" crops, engineered with a bacterial DNA that allows it to survive  otherwise deadly doses of its herbicide RoundUp.

#9 In the only human feeding study ever published on GMOs, Monsanto's GMO "RoundUp Ready" soybeans were found to transfer Monsanto's "RoundUp Ready" DNA to the bacteria living inside human intestines.

#10 According to Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for  Responsible Technology, the transfer of Monsanto's GMO Bt DNA to human digestive bacteria could create a "living pesticide factory" that could be responsible for the "increase in gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune diseases, food allergies, and childhood learning disorders -  since 1996 when Bt crops came on the market."

Learn More About the Health Dangers of GMOs

Thanks!

Alexis

Alexis Baden-Mayer

Organic Consumers Fund

alexis@organicconsumers.org

I urge you to read the "retirement notice" posted on The Tiny Texas Ranch's web page, "Large Black Hogs." Why? Because Kay explains why Ken and Kay are retiring.

Nap time with Ken and Big Black Sally

_In this "recession" economy, the work we've all done to bring your "sustainable agriculture" is being undone. Small farmers are facing greater than ever challenges. As Kay said in her retirement message, the cost of feed has jumped as well making pig farming on the sustainable farm scale challenging at best. _Here at the 3-Bell Ranch, we're facing a 30% increase in our irrigation fees. For this ranch, that means we need to come up with another grand to maintain our current irrigable acreage. In 2008, when the price of diesel jumped to $4/ gallon, this entire valley dropped to its knees. Getting to town was the cost of a gallon of fuel.

Your dollars are pushed and pulled in every direction. And with your stretched dollars you must make decisions about who gets what dollar more carefully than ever. But if you value food produced by farmers who genuinely care about the sustainability of their land and their animals, find a farmer ... or two... or three... and support them by buying the labors of their gift to us: real food grown on real ground with real fertilizer.

_Those of you who follow my blog know that I have had grave concerns about the passage and implementation of Senate Bill 510, National Animal Identification System (NAIS), as well as other legislation that offers VAGUE language that threatens the future of "We the People" to live lives of liberty, to grow our own food and care for our animals. Our fundamental, Constitutionally "protected" rights are under siege.

I urge you to examine the following story. Granted: the aerial images project "red neck animal husbandry"; however, in no image can I see evidence of a single "abused"  animal; all were removed (illegally) from their property.

It is a slippery road we're on. And if we do not stand together to say "No: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE LETTER OF THE LAW AND THE LAW MAY NOT BE AMBIGUOUS OR VAGUE" then we will see our rights eroded, our liberties stripped and our ability to live in "freedom" crushed.

If we find we dismiss that which we see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears, and defer instead to the reports of Authorities, we will one day find our selves caught in the crosshairs with no one to raise a voice in our defense. We cannot afford to turn our backs on situations so  easily dismissed by prejudgements-- prejudgements formed through misinformation, propaganda or out and out lies.

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

UPDATE:
Phan, Amy. "Olalla couple pleads not guilty to animal cruelty charges » Kitsap Sun." Kitsap Sun: Local Kitsap, Washington News Delivered Throughout the Day.. N.p., 3 Dec. 2012. Web. 4 Jan. 2012. <http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/jan/03/olalla-couple-pleads-not-guilty-to-aninal/>.

Three-Bell team, Ganny, Sierra along with Molly-cule and Tara ~ Wishing you the very best in this New Year1

Dean, Brad, Molly-cule with Sierra and Ganny ~

Well, it's been two years now since we introduced pigs to The 3-Bell Ranch. There are so many things to report I simply do not know where to begin.

Our pig venture began when we bought an 18 week old Tamworth gilt named Izzy. Shortly after bringing Izzy home we realized that she would be desperately lonely without a companion, so Betsy and I drove to the other end of the State and picked up a pot-belly pig named Daisy. 

That winter, beginning with the heat cycle of April and ending with June, I successfully artificially inseminated Izzy. She had a litter of 5 piglets on October 5, 2010. Childbirth seemed as much a mystery to her as how she'd gotten pregnant in the first place. She waited until I was there to assist her.

Midway through December, Dean and I captured and re-homed four of her children. When we removed the first piglet, Izzy was concerned. The second one left her distressed. She became agitated as Dean carried the next one off. And by the fourth she had decided that we were no longer her buddies and that she would have to resort to aggression to prevent further kidnapping.

Fortunately we kept one of the piglets, a gilt we named One-Spot. One-Spot has a terrific sense of humor and disposition and this is good because her mother lost hers the day we took those other four children away. In fact, I think that had we attempted to remove One-Spot Izzy might have eaten us.

Izzy's second litter, a set of 11 piglets, was born in the middle of June. This time she did not wait for me to be there to help her. She had things very well under control -- except that she'd lost one baby who had gotten trapped under her leg and had died and a second that was very, very cold. I took that little tyke into the house where I submerged it in a mixing bowl of warm water until it showed signs of life. Then I returned it to the litter and buried it under a pile of sleeping piglets. I have no idea which one it was for when I checked on them an hour later, they were all active and scurrying about.

Unlike her mother who seemed to be quite mystified by child birth during Round One, One-Spot had the benefit of seeing her mother giving birth. She was as gentle a nanny as ever there has been and they both delighted in taking the children out into their pasture to show them-- as Izzy had shown One-Spot and her sisters-- how to forage for roots and bugs and whatever else pigs find buried beneath the surface.

_One-Spot had her very own litter five months later, November 15, 2011. I wondered how this would be received by Izzy's piglets, six of whom were still in residence at the time of birth. One-Spot had spent the last three weeks slamming them into fences and smashing them upside the head -- I guess so that she'd get some respect and space when it came time for her to have her babies. It worked. As far as I know, she had no audience. The rest of the nucleus family entered the Taj Ma Hog Pig Palace with reverence if not a little trepidation. No one offered to hurt the little children though One-Spot made it clear that "Ya'll harm one hair on that piglet's head and I'll whoop your..." (You get the idea.)

Within a few days the piglets were up and active. They were taking forays into their pasture, and before the week was through One-Spot took them into the alfalfa field.

It has been a joy to watch the multiple generations -- grandmother, mother, half-sisters-- all working together to raise this litter of piglets. Izzy's children have slept with One-Spot's children and participated in their educational outings.

I'm not sure that raising pigs makes sense though. What I have learned is the following:

Pigs are the "tuna" of the meat industry. I have never seen any animal-- even a teenaged boy-- who can eat as much as a pig can in a day. In fact, you could easily feed that teenaged boy for a week or more on what a pig eats in a single day. Now if these pigs we have here were eating "conventional" feed, I would have grave reservations about eating them. After all: a critter that consumes 5 or ten pounds of toxic food per day cannot help but become a concentrated toxic soup himself. I have NO deisre to eat commercially grown pork ever again!

The expense of raising pigs organicially is numbing. With two adults, six 5-6 month old piglets, the feed billwas up to $30 per day.

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. It is a time of preparing and sharing a wonderful meal. I can think of few things I prefer than to spend a day with my great friends cooking a meal we'll never forget:
Cornish Game Hen with Chanterel and Plum sauce
Roast Goose with Wild Rice Stuffing

This year, we're going for Suckling Pig! And we offer them for sale to you too!

We have a litter of piglets due within the next few days-- which will be perfectly timed to have just the right age for Suckling Pig for your Christmas or New Years dinner!

About the size of a turkey, these pigs will provide a unique meal for your family and your guests.

You may never taste meat as good again! You already know that our pigs are raised, free-ranging on quality pasture into which we've planted squash, carrots, sun-chokes, and a myriad of other delicacies. They also enjoy home-grown produce (heritage seeds grown in our own animal-enriched soil) as well as certified organic grain. We mindfully avoid GMO-contaminated food and we use no herbicides or pesticides on our land.

So you can be sure that you'll be eating meat as pure as we can still grow it!

Most Americans are not familiar with suckling pig, and so if you need a little inspiration, here are a couple of recipes you can examine:

The Food Network's Roast Suckling Pig.

All Recipes has another recipe for Roast Suckling Pig.

About.com offers this recipe for a Roast Suckling Pig Recipe - Cochinillo Asado.


You can buy suckling pigs online. I'll post these web sites to give you an idea as to the sizes and costs charged by these online stores. I see nothing on either web site that speaks to the quality of feed that went into the meat they sell. I list this only to provide you with a means by which to learn more about this meat.
... From Exotic Meat Market:
... From Gilt Taste

We offer our suckling pigs to you at $125.
Reserve yours today!

Mr. Obama, Ms. Murray, Ms. Cantwell:

If it isn't apparent to you yet, you are not paying attention: On your watch, the United States has been driven into utter ruin.

In the 1990s you stomped all over a few advocates of bank reform. And since then we have witnessed the effects of leveraged credit, as for example, carnage of run away credit default swaps. We have loans outstanding that no one could possible pay back, the most grievous taken out by the United States government itself, which now owes its soul-- and the souls of its We The People-- to China.

We the real People have been thrown away, forsaken by our government whose leaders found more power in catering to the desires of large corporations rather than defending the Constitution and building and maintaining a strong country. A few threw away the fate of our entire economy for short-term personal and professional gains. You should be ashamed of the mess you allowed to unfold. You have not represented your constituents. You have not defended American Freedom. You have not defended our Constitution. You have promoted and protected the status quo of the elite. Your conduct has been unconscionable.

With our industry, once strong, exported to off-shore locations we have no base of income for the middle class-- the slaves upon whose backs you built your empires.

You've allowed the Federal Reserve to print money for which there is no backing. We have not yet begun to see a Depression. The 1930's were a cake walk compared to the world-wide Depression we are about to witness.

You have stolen from We The People, taken our Social Security money to pay for your short-term greed, you've stolen and spent our pensions, gutted our retirement funds. You've pushed us aside and grabbed the loot like a bunch of bullies in a candy store. You got yours. But the joke's on you, isn't it? For in the end, you will preside over a junk yard; sadly, you could have presided over Eden.

I see absolutely no way out. Run away inflation is the end result of your brilliant idea to stimulate the economy by allowing the Federal Reserve to print money and to hand that money right over to the corrupt, top-heavy banks and corporations who should have been allowed to die. You have fed the gross offenders while turning a blind eye to corporate loopholes and corruption. While you have stolen from pension plans and Social Security reserves you have done nothing to encourage industry to return our own shores. You used our hard-earned tax dollars to finance illegal wars, fuel your insatiable appetite for an illusion of power while ignoring a long-term solution. You could have spent the trillions you've pissed away on crony bail-outs to reward and foster American ingenuity to develop alternative energy sources thus reducing or maybe even eliminating our need for oil, for proactively working to halt or slow climate change, to proactively and responsibly slow population growth, for creating sustainable systems that range from industry to farming to life-style. This country is full of brilliant minds and patriotic men and women who would jump at the opportunity to rebuild America, to put Her to the top of world powers by identifying problems and creating real solutions to world-wide catastrophic threats-- no, I don't mean the alleged Red Alert Terrorist threat; I mean REAL threats: dependence on oil; run-away corporate power and corruption; loss of real jobs-- jobs that create a base of export, jobs that are inherently sustainable. Sustainable is the operative word here. Sustainable!

It was on your watch that this county has fallen to its knees. Maybe, just maybe... if you abandon the illusion that you're going to survive this crash (or are delusional enough to think it's not coming)... maybe you'll think a little bigger... maybe you'll reflect upon the factors-- and I've touched only on the tip of the iceberg-- that have conspired to bring down the United States of America. And if you can wrap your heads around what has brought us down, maybe... just maybe... before it's tooooo late, you can really affect reforms that will do more than build roads to nowhere for people who cannot afford the fuel to go there.

Tara Felder
Posted to End ALL The Wars Immediately Action Page:
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1084.php

Come out to the ranch and meet the horses, moos, pigs, chickens, rabbits ... and vegies!

You-Pick is now available at The 3-Bell Ranch!

All are organic or heritage seed stock.

No GMOs, herbicides or pesticides.

... just good, wholesome farm-raised food...

Current offerings:

• lettuce & greens
• Squash
• Raspberries
• Herbs

You may pick by the pound or trade labor (weeding) for produce!


Give us a call: 560.4331