The morning was going slowly. We figured since it was the other intern's last day, we would be taking it pretty easy, and generally we were. At noon we had our farewell party for the two of us, and it was great to have everyone together, because the stress level in the office is pretty high. In fact, the rest of the staff is working tomorrow morning.
Anyway, I took my best friend to see the floor of the house, and she was pretty impressed. After that it was about 4:00. We then had to move a lot of furniture. So much so that Gabe's last day ended up being a last day plus 30 minutes. It was still a memorable day.
Next week we have two hearings planned. I thought it was rough with only two interns, well it looks like I will find out what flying solo is all about on Monday and Tuesday. One week left, and I'm playing tour guide this weekend.
5/11/07
5/10/07
Visitors
Today I had a lot of good fortune, two women that I was glad to see came to our committee room. We also had two hearings.
The first girl that arrived was my best friend that I actually hadn't seen for about 6 months. She will be spending the weekend hanging out with me.
The second visitor was Drew Berrymore, on behalf of the UN. She had a 4:00 with the chairman, and talked to me before she went in. She asked me what I had learned and how long I was staying, while I was being taped by one of her two video crews.
Anyways, it's past my bedtime because I played softball and showed my guest the monuments.
The first girl that arrived was my best friend that I actually hadn't seen for about 6 months. She will be spending the weekend hanging out with me.
The second visitor was Drew Berrymore, on behalf of the UN. She had a 4:00 with the chairman, and talked to me before she went in. She asked me what I had learned and how long I was staying, while I was being taped by one of her two video crews.
Anyways, it's past my bedtime because I played softball and showed my guest the monuments.
5/9/07
CSPAN and the Pool, 2nd round
We had our hearing on the findings of melamine in animal feed. It was a very packed hearing and we had coverage from CSPAN as well as the networks. CSPAN will air it sometime this weekend.
This afternoon I worked on a variety of projects for our upcoming hearings. Tomorrow we have double duty, and we start at 8 am. Today was the minority intern's last day, and Friday is our other intern's last day. I have simply 7 days left, weird.
I'm being quick so I can work on homework and wake up on time.
This afternoon I worked on a variety of projects for our upcoming hearings. Tomorrow we have double duty, and we start at 8 am. Today was the minority intern's last day, and Friday is our other intern's last day. I have simply 7 days left, weird.
I'm being quick so I can work on homework and wake up on time.
5/8/07
Animal Welfare Hearing
We had our hearing about the welfare of animals in agriculture today, and it went as most expected it to. You can read reports about it from the Cattle Network here and the Brownfield Network here. There were also press releases from organizations like the Center for Consumer Freedom.
We had a line started at 9 am, when I arrived, and it grew by our 10:30 start. Not included in that line were also 12 witness, each with a guest, making our "public" section of our large committee room shrink from 36 to about 10 (when it is usually 20-25). We also allow 10 people to stand in the back corner, and then we had an overflow room that seats another 50, which was about 3/4 full. I watched the door for the first 2 panels and could tell the tension in everyone's face as they walked in and out of the hearing room. I was able to sit in our overflow room for the third panel, and I can say things got a little dicey.
This afternoon after cleaning up the hearing I took a few projects here and there, but spent most of my time researching to see if we had any press coverage of our committee hearing (such as with the honey bee hearing, when it was everywhere immediately after the hearing was over). But no such luck, as former House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Stenholm (who was a witness today) said, "What we've got to do is find a way is get that story out to where more of the non-agricultural press begin to pick up on what we're really doing in agriculture, not what some people say we are." It should be noted that the only two reports I found were the two stories linked above.
In my view animal agriculture is just starting to realize they need to put money into education about animal welfare specifically. The difference is, animal agriculture organizations are also spending money on trade, disease control, research, and a plethora of other issues to keep food safe, low cost, and efficient. On the other hand, animal rights organizations focus solely on animal rights.
Growing up on a farm I didn't see any need to have training on animal welfare; being nice to animals just comes with the territory. Starving a cow because it didn't win an award or produce enough milk just doesn't make sense; it makes your goals more improbable. The same with putting pigs in gestation crates (which of course just sounds like a bad name, and is a good reason the people of Arizona were swayed to outlaw the one hog farm there from using them. I learned in 10th grade English that Americans love alliterations. Why not call them pregnancy pens, or birthing booths?), it surely is not to make the pigs uncomfortable during one of the most stressful times of their life, it is to save the lives of piglets (as noted today, the number of piglets per litter has increased from about 7 to 10 since the inception of the technology).
*Those are purely my opinions and a review of my experiences growing up on a farm. They in no way express or reflect the opinions of the Committee.
We had a line started at 9 am, when I arrived, and it grew by our 10:30 start. Not included in that line were also 12 witness, each with a guest, making our "public" section of our large committee room shrink from 36 to about 10 (when it is usually 20-25). We also allow 10 people to stand in the back corner, and then we had an overflow room that seats another 50, which was about 3/4 full. I watched the door for the first 2 panels and could tell the tension in everyone's face as they walked in and out of the hearing room. I was able to sit in our overflow room for the third panel, and I can say things got a little dicey.
This afternoon after cleaning up the hearing I took a few projects here and there, but spent most of my time researching to see if we had any press coverage of our committee hearing (such as with the honey bee hearing, when it was everywhere immediately after the hearing was over). But no such luck, as former House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Stenholm (who was a witness today) said, "What we've got to do is find a way is get that story out to where more of the non-agricultural press begin to pick up on what we're really doing in agriculture, not what some people say we are." It should be noted that the only two reports I found were the two stories linked above.
In my view animal agriculture is just starting to realize they need to put money into education about animal welfare specifically. The difference is, animal agriculture organizations are also spending money on trade, disease control, research, and a plethora of other issues to keep food safe, low cost, and efficient. On the other hand, animal rights organizations focus solely on animal rights.
Growing up on a farm I didn't see any need to have training on animal welfare; being nice to animals just comes with the territory. Starving a cow because it didn't win an award or produce enough milk just doesn't make sense; it makes your goals more improbable. The same with putting pigs in gestation crates (which of course just sounds like a bad name, and is a good reason the people of Arizona were swayed to outlaw the one hog farm there from using them. I learned in 10th grade English that Americans love alliterations. Why not call them pregnancy pens, or birthing booths?), it surely is not to make the pigs uncomfortable during one of the most stressful times of their life, it is to save the lives of piglets (as noted today, the number of piglets per litter has increased from about 7 to 10 since the inception of the technology).
*Those are purely my opinions and a review of my experiences growing up on a farm. They in no way express or reflect the opinions of the Committee.
5/7/07
9 Work Days and Counting...
The morning went by as I was half sleeping from our tiring trip to New York City. Feel free to see my pictures in my albums by clicking here for album 1, here for album 2, and here for album 3.
This afternoon I started doing some background research for our hearing on Thursday, which, as I have been reminded 50 times, is my brothers birthday. In my research I summarized the 4 components of USDA research, ARS, ERS, NASS, and CSREES. These are my favorite kinds of projects, learning more about the tools I use or have heard about. I'm going to bed early because I spent a long time arranging my Facebook albums (click on the links in the first paragraph) and mostly because I'm really tired.
Tomorrow is THE Livestock, Dairy and Poultry hearing I've been looking forward to. Feel free to tune in online, it should get pretty interesting. If you don't, I'll try to fill you in tomorrow.
This afternoon I started doing some background research for our hearing on Thursday, which, as I have been reminded 50 times, is my brothers birthday. In my research I summarized the 4 components of USDA research, ARS, ERS, NASS, and CSREES. These are my favorite kinds of projects, learning more about the tools I use or have heard about. I'm going to bed early because I spent a long time arranging my Facebook albums (click on the links in the first paragraph) and mostly because I'm really tired.
Tomorrow is THE Livestock, Dairy and Poultry hearing I've been looking forward to. Feel free to tune in online, it should get pretty interesting. If you don't, I'll try to fill you in tomorrow.
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