Just to keep readers up to date on the ongoing issues surrounding breast feeding please see the story below from the BBC which relates to an attempt to make formula milk healthier for (human) babies. Obviously though of course not healthier for the calves for which the milk was originally intended. - see milkmyths

All the mothers in the trial - a new study, called PATCH - will be encouraged to breastfeed, but those who decide to use formula before four months will either be offered the new hypoallergenic milk or a placebo.

Paediatrician Dr Bob Boyle said the international trial hopes to recruit about 1,200 pregnant women in total - 50 of these at St Mary’s.

“Basically the PATCH study is trying to find the next best way to feed infants apart from breastfeeding and how to control allergies,” he said.

“We know that a significant proportion of women do introduce formula within the first few months of life in this part of the world and we believe this increases the risk of allergic symptoms, compared to exclusive breastfeeding.

“So we are trying to find a formula that will reduce the negative impact of introducing formula early.

“We are not suggesting that this formula might be better than breast milk and we are making that quite clear in the study.”

Dr Boyle said eczema often does not develop until the second year of life - but about 70% of cases become apparent by the time a child is 18 months old.

For that reason, the study will follow up the children taking part in the study regularly until they reach 18 months.

However, the team believe it is the first few months of feeding that are likely to be crucial.

The new formula contains prebiotics, natural compounds found in breast milk that encourage healthy bacteria to develop in the gut and help prevent allergies.

It also contains pre-digested proteins, rather than whole proteins, which are broken down into smaller pieces, making them easier to digest.

John Collard, clinical director of Allergy UK, welcomed the research.

“It is well established that exclusive breastfeeding for four to six months reduces the risk of allergy and this should be the aim,” he said.

“However, not every mum is able to breastfeed and using normal formula feeds can increase the chances of allergy developing in children from allergic families.

“We welcome any research into formula milks which could be used to follow on from breastfeeding, or in place of it, and which could reduce the risk of allergy in these children.”

Story from:
news.bbc.co.uk
© BBC MMVIII

In a pointlessly reported argument Paul McCartney has been all over the press having said very little against Gordon Ramsay who has in turn said nothing new about vegetarians but managed to court the controversey required to maintain his elevated profile as this generation’s Fanny Craddock.
 
The meatismurder crew having nothing against cooks. Taking ingredients and turning them into a meal to be enjoyed by loved ones, friends…activists, is a great skill to be admired, but we do believe that for tv chefs and their pornographic love of braising and frying body parts to be so reveared is just plain weird.

It is just a pity that despite all the reported environmental and health risks of animal based diets (see this site!), the future strife over food security (see future articles on this site) to be caused by Western animal based diets, and the love of the British, Americans, Canadians and god knows who else for animals with the right fluff to floppy ear ratio  people are still chowing down on cadavers and vegetarians/vegans are being reported as a fringe voice standing against the mainstream.

Anyway, please see below for the pointless debate
(from the Daily Mail).

Sir Paul McCartney has criticised Gordon Ramsay - calling the TV chef ’stupid’. Ramsay, 41, has angered the ex-Beatle, 66, with his outspoken comments against vegetarians.

The foul-mouthed chef has annoyed the music legend by saying he could not tolerate it if one of his three daughters came home with a vegetarian boyfriend.

Kitchen Nightmares star Ramsay said recently: ‘If one of my daughters’ boyfriends turns out to be vegetarian I swear to God I’d never forgive them.’
In another tirade, he said: ‘My biggest nightmare would be if the kids ever came up to me and said “Dad, I’m a vegetarian”. Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them.’

Sir Paul, who has not eaten meat for 30 years, told Sainsbury’s Magazine: ‘I think it’s a case of live and let live.

‘I will talk to people about the advantages of vegetarianism, and it will upset me if we’ve had a good conversation and they turn around and say something stupid.

‘I just read a quote from Gordon Ramsay… “If my daughter ever grew up and married a vegetarian, I’d never forgive her.”

‘But even that I would forgive because it’s not my affair, it’s not up to me if he talks stupid or not.’

The music legend, whose youngest daughter Beatrice, four, is vegan, said: ‘I’d be happier if everyone was vegetarian. The planet would be better off for it.’
In Ramsay’s Channel 4 show The F Word, the chef persuaded 50 vegetarians to feast on Janet Street-Porter’s recently butchered veal.

In July, outraged animal welfare groups accused Ramsay of employing shock tactics to gain publicity after he was seen on the show killing and eating puffins.

In another outburst against vegetarians, Ramsay told Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole when she appeared on the show: ‘Didn’t you get the message? Vegetarians aren’t welcome here.’

Yippee! Cattle farmers have found a way of crossing the species barrier and causing suffering and death to other animals. Yes, it’s time to blame bovine TB not on poor animal husbandry and the movement of cattle but instead on badgers. Why spend effort on putting your own house in order - or even stop earning blood money altogether - when you can lobby the governemt to cull a protected species instead.

Badgers are set to be killed in an attempt to stamp out tuberculosis in cattle.

They are a protected species in the UK but have a bad reputation with some farmers.

Bovine TB is proving a big problem in Wales with over 8,000 affected cattle having to be killed over the last year

Bovine TB is proving a big problem in Wales with over 8,000 affected cattle having to be killed over the last year.

Farmers are blaming the spread of the disease on badgers and in response the Welsh Assembly has made a controversial decision to test how widespread the problem is by setting up a pilot cull zone.

While many farmers have welcomed the decision, the RSPCA described it as going against sound scientific judgement.

Officials say bovine TB is out of control in Wales, but conservation groups insist a badger cull will not stop it spreading.

The method and a site with suitable natural or man-made boundaries have not be chosen. Other areas could be considered after the pilot is reviewed.

In a statement Wales’s Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones said: “This is a difficult decision to take and it has not been taken lightly. I am very aware of the strong views on this issue.”

She made clear that badgers would remain a protected species and said she had given “due consideration to the divergence of scientific and political opinion”, adding “illegal action will not be tolerated.”

Ms Jones said she wanted to reform the compensation system for farmers whose infected cows were slaughtered to “encourage herd owners to comply with legal and best practice requirements”.

Last year, 7,905 cattle were put down in Wales, up from 669 in 1997. A compensation bill for affected farms of £15.2 million in 2007 would grow to more than £30 million by 2012 if it continued at the present “unsustainable” rate, she added.

Source of article above was ITN

Please see stopwaronbadgers and badger-killers for arguments aginst the cull of badgers.
A sample argument is given below.

Badgers are being scapegoated by DEFRA (formerly the Ministry of Agriculture) to placate the farming lobby, whose own intensive production systems are the direct cause of increasing levels of disease in cattle, including bovine TB. There is no plausible evidence to suggest that badgers are transmitting bovine TB to cattle. The reverse is probably the case.

The persistent focus on badgers distracts from the serious health problems faced by intensively managed cattle in Britain. Many other diseases, such as pneumonia, E. coli, coccidiosis (a fatal diarrhoea), salmonella and mastitis, are also increasing in British cattle herds.

Bovine TB is caused by intensive farming methods, >NOT badgers!

Background - In 1973 a dead badger was found on a farm in Gloucestershire that had recently suffered an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) within its cattle herd. Upon post-mortem examination the badger revealed a large number of lesions throughout its body, which tested positive for bTB. MAFF (now DEFRA) first started to kill badgers (using cyanide gas) as a means of ‘controlling’ Bovine TB (bTB) in 1975. But since 1982 badgers have been cage-trapped in Britain where they remain until operatives return to shoot them. In Ireland they are caught in cruel snares.

Since then the badger has become a farming and government scapegoat for what is a bovine disease and over *30,000 badgers have been killed in unfruitful, pointless ‘experiments’. (*Up to 1995) And once again starting in 1998 badgers were killed…

Farmers insist that badgers transmit the disease to cattle, and yet not even farmer-friendly DEFRA has produced any convincing evidence. During the past 28 years, DEFRA (and formerly MAFF) has up to now killed more than 40,000 badgers in a failed effort to halt bovine TB outbreaks. In fact, TB in cattle has been increasing since 1986, including in areas where badgers have been eliminated, or where they have been shown to be free of the disease.

Here is a subject which shines a great huge spotlight onto speciesism - dogs. Those that happily tuck into plates of body parts from practically any other species recoil at the idea of eating dogs. This inconsistent behaviour highlights some subconcious revulsion at eating individuals, because that is surely the problem, that people have come to know and have a relationship with a dog so that they are now seen as individuals and not a faceless herd member ready to be murdered and consumed. This thinking will also feed the cultural stigma of the idea of eating dogs that puts canines off the menu even for the most ardent ‘not a dog person’.
The truth is that all animals are individuals and when people make this connection they find it harder to eat them - ask any vegetarian.

Push for more dog meat on menus

THE Seoul city government is seeking to classify man’s best friend as livestock in order to set food safety standards for South Korean lovers of dogmeat.

Somewhere between two and four million dogs are estimated to be consumed in South Korea every year, but the slaughtering and processing is carried out in dirty environments and poses a risks to diners’ health.

Since dogs are not currently classed as livestock there are no hygiene regulations on their slaughter, officials said.

“Dogs are consumed in their millions in this country every year. That’s a fact. We have to take care of this situation,'’ said Lee Hae-Woo, head of the city government’s department of food safety.

“We plan to recommend to the central government that dogs are classified as livestock,'’ he said.

“This is like a hot potato, but we don’t pretend the issue does not exist.'’

South Korea’s capital has always been ambivalent about dogmeat. To avoid adverse publicity before the 1988 Olympics, the city banned dogmeat and snakemeat as “abhorrent food”.

The order is now largely ignored and an estimated 500 dogmeat restaurants operate in Seoul alone.

Remainder of article at news.com.au
Animal Freedom Korea

It’s been quite a week…
we’ve had pig farmers storming London because pig farming is expensive and they don’t earn enough money (stop doing it then), Japan fighting for support of whaling within the IWC (for a change), and the Sea Shepherd crew have reported at being shot at by Japanese whalers.
As usual at meatismurder, a caveat must be added to the whaling stories below - we report on the death of whales with the same passion and concern as we would report the death of cows or chickens as they are all sentient beings who deserve to not be caught in a machine of profit and greed.

Some 500 pig farmers and pig industry workers descended on Whitehall today to hand in a petition about the crisis threatening their industry.

Demonstrators from the National Pig Association protest in London
Demonstrators from the National Pig Association protest in Whitehall to demand a fair price from supermarkets

The campaigners include Jimmy Doherty, the TV pig farmer and friend of Jamie Oliver who is having to cut his rare-breed herd of breeding sows from 95 to 30 because of the rising price of feed.

Pig farmers say they are losing about £26 on every pig sold for slaughter in Britain because pig feed has gone up from around £130 to £225 a ton in the past year.

But while wholesale grain costs have doubled they claim supermarkets have not increased farm gate prices accordingly.

Winnie the Pig, a veteran of a similar campaign in 2001, also joined the Pigs are Worth It! rally outside Downing Street.

From the Telegraph

Japan has denied claims it fired bullets at anti-whaling protesters in the Southern Ocean.

Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd accuses Japanese Coast Guard officers of firing stun grenades and rifles during clashes today in the Southern Ocean.

Captain of the Sea Shepherd ship, Paul Watson, says he found a bullet lodged in the the bullet-proof vest he was wearing and that one of his crew was hit by a grenade and received minor injuries.

But Japan’s Government denies that, saying it only launched “noise balls” - loud explosive deterrent devices - after repeated attacks on its whaling ship by Sea Shepherd.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Tomohiko Taniguchi says no shots were fired.

From ABCNews

Japan is looking for new supporters of its pro-whaling stance ahead of a major meeting on the future of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

A one-day seminar on Monday brought delegates from 12 developing countries, most of them not IWC members, to Tokyo to discuss “sustainable use” of whales.

An official told the BBC that Japan hoped these nations would join the IWC.

On Thursday, the IWC begins a three-day meeting in London aiming to plot a new course for the fractured organisation.

We want the idea of sustainable use to be understood by as many countries as possible
Ryotaro Suzuki
Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Officially charged with the effective regulation of commercial whaling, many of its member countries would prefer its central remit to become conservation of the “great whales” and their close relatives such as dolphins and porpoises, with virtually all hunting banned.

But Japan, Norway, Iceland and their allies in the pro-sustainable use bloc argue that there is no reason in principle why whales cannot be hunted like other wild creatures, provided quotas are small enough to be sustainable.

Japan believes the western love of whales is culturally specific
In recent years, both camps have sought to bring new member countries into the IWC to bolster their numbers.

At the 2006 annual meeting, the pro-whalers achieved superiority for the first time in 20 years with the passing of a resolution asking for the eventual return of commercial hunting.

By last year’s meeting, enough new anti-whaling countries had joined to give this bloc the upper hand once more.

Both blocs continue to lobby potential new allies - hence Japan’s decision to host Monday’s seminar looking at the sustainable use of cetaceans.

Some of the 12 countries attending, such as Palau and Cambodia, are already IWC members; but most, including Angola, Eritrea and Micronesia, are not.

From the BBC

Time for some pictures on meatismurder. Often so much more succinct than words.