Offtopic - you have been warned....
Last night we got a call at the house from somebody doing a survey. Ok, no
problem, I didn't have anything else to do while preparing supper... The
survey was being conducted for some organization that is promoting the
expansion of high-density beef/hog/poultry operations here in Iowa.
Hmm.... Over the past few years there has been a marked change in my
outlook towards farming practices, even though I was less than pleased to
have my suppertime interrupted, I thought about the opportunity to let my
voice be heard.
I answered all the questions based on the following criteria: 1. Runoff
pollution is the #1 problem, and 2. High-density operations are ripe for
rampant disease. It irritated me to no end that the questions being asked
were 'biased' and attempted to encourage answers supportive of the
industry's dangerous practices. (if you don't believe runoff pollution is
an issue, just ask Joel Wilcox what his house was like after the flood).
After the third biased question, my mind was made up as to how I was going
to answer all the rest of the questions. (I did take advantage of the fact
that a few of the questions allowed free-form answers).
18 minutes into the survey (my wife was getting rather entertained), the
question about political affiliation came up. "Are you a Democrat or
Republican?" Neither--I'm a registered Green. "Independant?" No, Green.
(pause) "Ok, found it." At that point I knew my survey was going to get
tossed out, but I knew what the next question was going to be. "Zipcode
where you live?" I gave my zipcode. (pause) "That's wierd, we weren't
supposed to call that zipcode."
I live in Grinnell, home of Grinnell College, one of the most liberal
locations in the country. A survey FOR the livestock industry isn't going
to get encouraging numbers from my zipcode.
Shortly after that the survey ended and I proceeded to eat my steak which I
was grilling while taking the survey.
AG
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