• The antibiotic menace….

    ….is real and growing.  Antibiotics are not used primarily to treat sick animals, but as a weight enhancer.  They’re at least as effective as growth hormones but, just to be sure, commercial producers of meat use both.  In fact, antibiotics are used more in farming than among humans. Dr. David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, recently said this about the practice. “While the F.D.A. can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals,” he writes. “This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock…

  • Well, I’m banking on it….

    ….there’s a study out that says that if you stay away from the typical “western” diet, you have a better chance not only of living longer but in better shape. There’s the usual “scientific” warning about limiting red meat (no recognition that grass fed beef is a cow of a different color altogether).  Still, for what it’s worth: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=130281&CultureCode=en

  • Thistle Hill Falcon….

    ….is four-and-a-half months old now.  He’s one of the pure, traditional English Devon.  Sire, of course, is Millennium Falcon…the dam Goldings Snowdrop. If you’re wondering where the rest of the herd is:  about a quarter of a mile and two electric fences away.  Yes, I do think he’s making a statement.  It’s not the first time we’ve noticed that a really good animal prefers to be somewhat removed from the herd.  The British class system is alive and well at Thistle Hill.