Monsanto and others vs farmers keeping seeds over for the following year and movie watchers copying thier movies for safe keeping. Also, there are moral problems with patenting life forms.
The company said it has gone to trial five times and has never lost a legal fight against an accused pirate. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 allowed for the patenting of genetically engineered life forms and extended the same protections to altered plants in 2001. Earlier this year, a Washington D.C. federal appeals court specifically upheld Monsanto's license.
I suppose the similarity is that for the movie people they *buy* a DVD and want to make a backup copy (yeah lots of it is pirated but I travel all the time and *do*not* want to carry origonals around), and farmers who *buy* seed but aren't allowed to reuse it... both instances, you have *bought* a product but you are severely limited in your right to use your bought product.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The End
Ok, that is not a final as it sounds, just the end of the fishy pix from me 3 day aquaculture jaunt. No worries, I might be going to a feed manufactuing plant later (yeah, i can see you quaking with antisipation already). Until then...
First Shrimp Farm - drained pond with aerator
First Shrimp Farm: This is a drained (2 days earlier) earthen pond with an aerator in the background. It will be left to dry for a bit longer (days?) then "limed" to kill off remaining infections
First Shrimp Farm - How Feed consumption of shrimp is measured 02
First Shrimp Farm - How Feed consumption of shrimp is measured 02
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
First Shrimp Farm - Typical Pump and engine
First Shrimp Farm: This is a typical multipurpose engine. I have seen it used for pulling carts, for plowing(?) rice paddies, to power pumps and power aerators. In this case it is being used to power a pump that drained the pond.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Gov Ext - Fingerlings01
Government Extension Facility: More fingerlings, can't remember the difference between these and the previous 2 photos but since the water isn't as sparkly clean looking as the other 2 I will assume there is some sort of difference.
Gov Ext - Fingerlings02
Government Extension Facility: More fingerlings with IV tubes-a-plenty. Actually they are just meant to aerate the water ;)
Gov Ext - Fingerlings03
Government Extension Facility: This is a pool of Fish fingerlings. For those that don't know (not that I am particularly well versed in the ways of fishies) "fry" are the hatched larva, "fingerlings" are those that are about the size of your finger... or more like, they look like tiny fishies instead of amorphous mini-blobs
Gov Ext - fry
Government Extension Facility: This guy is fishing out (no pun intended, honest) out some fry using a fine net thingy. really they kinda look like porridge at a glance
Gov Ext - Misc04
Government Extension Facility: Yeah, you can barely see it but if you squint you might be able to see the fish in there, and no, i can't remember what kinda fish they were.
Gov Ext - Fry Production Tanks
Government Extension Facility: I have forgotten what exactly these tanks were for but maney says they are for raising fry (shrimp or fish i don't know).
Gov Ext - Salmonella Testing Lab 01
Government Extension Facility: Here farmers bring samples of thier products (mainly shrimp or fish) to be tested for pathogens (mainly salmonella)
Gov Ext - Salmonella Testing Lab 02
Government Extension Facility: Another salmonella testing device (this stuff actually looks vaugely familar but my lab days ended like 8 years ago, so i have forgotten what little i knew)
Gov Ext - Transporting Fry
Government Extension Facility: Once the fry were big enough they were transported to outdoor cement ponds (sounds like the Beverly Hillbillys swimming pool?) with plain ole plastic bags.
Gov Extension - Artimea
Government Extension Facility: Here is a bucket full of artimea that is being fed into one of the fry tanks.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - 04
Large Catfish Farm & Market: I Believe this is a large pile of rice bran.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Catfish Pond - no fresh h2o 02
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Catfish Pond - no fresh h2o 02
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Giant Catfish 02
Large Catfish Farm & Market: These are Giant catfish, not like what people eat but the kinda creatures that take off with small children! ok, maybe they *are* for eating (take 3 years to grow the suckers) but damn they are monsters! (and can apparently get much bigger!)
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Loading Docks 01
Large Catfish Farm & Market: This place was not only a farm but the owner (who had a phat house, obviously loaded; aquaculture has been particularly good to him) had opened a market where farmers could bring fish to him, he would buy it from them, and then sell it about 800km north of there.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Loading Docks 02
Large Catfish Farm & Market: The loading docks, more fish being loaded, sorted, and unloaded. Here there was *no* fishy smell, i was kinda amazed, fish everywhere but no smell; ya know how to tell if its fresh? bury your face in a bunch of fish, no smell? its really fresh.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed06
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed07
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed07
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed08
Large Catfish Farm & Mkt - Trash Fish & Rice Bran to Feed08
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Second Shrimp Farm - Feed bag w English
Second Shrimp Farm: Here is a bag of the feed they use, mostly Thai but also was one of the few bags i saw that had english on it as well.
Second Shrimp Farm - Government Certification for approved Seed farm 01
Second Shrimp Farm - Government Certification for approved Seed farm 01
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Second Shrimp Farm - Netting Sample of Shrimp01
Second Shrimp Farm: This is the guy netting a sample of shrimp for us to look at.
Second Shrimp Farm - Netting Sample of Shrimp03
Second Shrimp Farm: In one cast he netted a buckets worth, more than any of the other operations we went to. Those buggers looked like a pain to untangle from the net.
Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Artemia 01
Second Shrimp Farm: They raised artemia at another one of thier facilities. This is one of the pools they used.
Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Artemia 03
Second Shrimp Farm: Here is the artimea seed they used to raise the artemia
Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 01
Second Shrimp Farm: I don't know what is making the pool reddish but this is a pool full of shrimp fry.
Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 04
Second Shrimp Farm: Here are some more pools used to raise the shrimp larva/fry
Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - Holding Pools 05
Second Shrimp Farm: And yet another set of pools (for different stages of the life cycle)
Second Shrimp Farm - Seed - pregnant females
Second Shrimp Farm: Here are some mommies with egg sacks ready to pop.
Second Shrimp Farm - Typical motor and aerator 01
Second Shrimp Farm: Here is another typical multipurpose motor, this time powering an aerator.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
MidSized Catfish Operation - aerating chicken oil (reduce smell)
Here he aerated the chicken intestine oil for about a day and that apparently killed the smell. I am not sure why he was so concerned about the smell (I doubt it bothered the fish) but hey, i thought it was neat.
MidSized Catfish Operation - Casava Mash - Chicken Intestine Oil
This guy had an interesting setup, he was also really interesting to talk to (though albeit through an interpreter). He fed primarily cassava mash byproduct (apparently the "juice" from cassava is used as a tapioca substitute, and is exported everywhere, like the Netherlands to Heineken). This is cassava mash (right) and chicken intestine oil (left)
MidSized Catfish Operation - New custom casava and oil mixer and cooker
MidSized Catfish Operation - New custom casava and oil mixer and cooker
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
MidSized Catfish Operation - old custom casava and oil mixer w 2 stage grinder
MidSized Catfish Operation - old custom casava and oil mixer w 2 stage grinder
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
MidSized Catfish Operation - Pump for fresh water from canal
MidSized Catfish Operation - Pump for fresh water from canal
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
NonContract Red Tilapia Operation - Cages 01
This was an independant Red Tilapia farmer who had cage cultures on the river. I didn't know this but apparently Red Tilapia are pretty high value, 35 baht/kg (I knew they were worth more but not that much [these guys can net 600,000 baht a year; thats pretty damn good in Thailand])
NonContract Red Tilapia Operation - Cages 02
Here is another angle of the setup the independant (as opposed to contract) farmer had.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Thai Aquaculture Tour
I just finished up a whirlwind tour of some aquaculture operations in the Bangkok area (well within 2 hours of bkk). Some of them were really interesting, others hohum. I am going to post pictures (just like the Cambodia thing) over the next few days as I have time. Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Shrimp and Regional Bias
A record-setting billion pounds of shrimp was imported for seafood lovers in the United States United States Southeast Asia . Mangroves are often destroyed to make room for shrimp farms. When they're cut down, a natural barrier to the ocean is eliminated, making it easier for tidal waves to reach the shore. Today, in the United States
But that is a fairly misinformed, super one sided argument; most likely funded by US shrimpers. I have been to shrimp farms, talked with farmers here, none of them use antiobiotics or pesticides. They don't need to, few of the farms had disease problems. I would be willing to bet that western (maybe not european since they are so paranoid about it) producers use as much or more medicines and such than thier poorer asian counterparts (I know this is true in swine production). As with anything, don't read one article and think you know it all.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Cage Culture - The Feed
Remember the splashing blood thirsty catfish? (it was the previous post) well they were thrashing about trying to get to these tasty little rigor mortis morsels. Nope, haven't a clue as to what kinda fish they are but the catfish seemed to approve.
Cage Culture
Here is another cage culture I saw at the "Floating Village" near Siem Reap. I got there just in time for dinner so they were flailing around like made trying to munch on the smaller fishies that were being fed to them. I later found out that they were "Iridescent Shark-Catfish" for those that were curious.
Poultry Feed
While gawking at Layers and Broilers I noticed that the road was strewn with snail carcasses (aka shells). It occurred to me that in many shrimp operations they feed snails for protein so my guess is that they feed snails to the chickens here. Thatâ??s kinda interesting since I have never heard of/seen that before.
Pond Aquaculture
Here is 1 of the 4 aquaculture ponds they have at RDIC. I was told they added goat manure for fertilizer (but given the number of goats I saw etc I will assume that the fertilization was supplementary). They have Tilapia and a few varieties of carp but rely on Silver carp as the cash fish. In one of the ponds (behind me) they had duckweed which they used to feed the other pond(s). One of the biggest problems they have with it is other fish spontaneously appearing in the duckweed pond; they have no idea how, the fish just appear, there is not connection between the ponds its like the fish hoped from one pond to the next, over land.
Palm Candy Production
While running around in Siem Reap we noticed these little tables set out in front of some of the houses in a village we drove through. They were stacked with something wrapped in what looked like palm leaves. Our guide informed us that it was "Palm Candy". He knew exactly where to go, a family had the whole setup right there for people to see, the sap extraction, the boiling down of the sap/syrup etc. Here is a picture of the "packaged" candy. They make it into little wafers and then wrap it up in palm leaves, three of those packages for $1. At first they taste so-so but they are quite addictive (laced with coca?). The taste is similar to maple based candies if you have had those before.
Mid level swine production
This was a pig operation we passed by. It was kind of interesting, a far cry from the huge US farms but a step up (of sorts) from having the pigs running around the yard. They had a compost pile of sorts (to the right, not in the picture) but I saw them spraying off large chunks of manure so I assume that they aren't using the composting all the time. The runoff just pooled up beside the pens, I noticed a very week attempt to dig a trench leading from the pens to what looked like some grapes (some sort of viney things) growing nearby but the runoff wasn't reaching them. I think I liked the Korean method better, and I would think it would be less work.
Low Maintenance Compost
This was a nifty little example of really low maintenance composting at RDIC. You just have your compost "pile" in between your rows of crops and throw on weeds, dirt, and poop as you have time. I do have a few questions about this though; does the composting get particularly hot? it is pretty close to the plants, and temperatures that are too high can be detrimental to plants. If it does not get particularly hot (and it looked like it was pretty loosely maintained and aired out pretty well) does it kill much of the weeds/seeds that are in there (via manure or weeds)? Either way I am sure something is better than nothing.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Layers
Here are some layers, I am sure of that (unlike the broilers). This setup isn't bad, I it would suck to be a layer but in terms of efficiency I have seen much less efficient setups.
Korean No-Smell Sty
So this would be an example of a low-tech solution to piggy stench. They had a demo sty setup using a method that was developed in Korea. Its pretty nifty and simple and I think actually requires less labor. You just make a sty with a deep floor to hold some sort of material (in this case rice hulls). As piggy poops and roots and walks around the poop and peed on material works its way to the bottom. After awhile you have a nice fat piece of unprocessed bacon and a boat load of rich compost! not bad eh?
It kind of reminds me of a setup that was mentioned in Joel F. Salatin's "You can farm". He talks about raising cows and chickens in a barn while occasionally throwing some saw dust and corn kernels on the floor when it gets messy. After the cows are removed put pigs in the barn and they will root for the corn (they can smell and dig, trust me) and as a result you get your compost turned and aerated!
It kind of reminds me of a setup that was mentioned in Joel F. Salatin's "You can farm". He talks about raising cows and chickens in a barn while occasionally throwing some saw dust and corn kernels on the floor when it gets messy. After the cows are removed put pigs in the barn and they will root for the corn (they can smell and dig, trust me) and as a result you get your compost turned and aerated!
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