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The largest non-story of the yearBy Trent Loos For those of us who truly believe the signs of the moon can direct activity and action here on Earth, I will demonstrate that last week's wacky and maybe even stupid news is more evidence of the moon's influence. The first one came as an announcement from the National Institutes of Health. All research institutes that conduct research on rodents must follow "The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals." For the first time since 1996, these guidelines have undergone some revisions. These revisions include an increase in the number of square inches that each mouse must be provided in their cage. As you might expect, there is not one bit of scientific evidence indicating that it is better for the mouse but some regulator just thinks it sounds like a good idea. As you may expect, for research institutions like John Hopkins University and the Medical College of Wisconsin that continues to find cures for human diseases, this is a serious issue. The National Association for Biomedical Research estimated that nationwide, implementing the new space guidelines for breeding rodents would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars--money that will no longer be available for actual research if this goes through. So once again, we have individuals choosing the mouse over your mother. Secondly, from the District of Columbia, we learned last week that they have recently implemented the Wildlife Protection Act that some believe applies to rodents like rats and mice. Author of the bill Mary Cheh even appeared on Rush Limbaugh defending what the legislation says and doesn't say. Whether rats and mice are included or not, the bill clearly states that "pests" must be "relocated" in their family unit to a safe location. Sadly during the same week, the National Center on Family Homelessness released a report indicating that 1.6 million American children are now homeless, 38 percent of the entire homeless population, compared to just 1 percent in 1988. Yet we have elected officials wasting time and resources on the family well-being of a disease-carrying rodent. Now from the wacky to the just plain stupid, we go to a high school in Utah. The school board asked the students to vote on what the school mascot should be. The students (23 percent of them) voted for the "Cougars." The school board rejected the vote. If you thought the rejection of mascots because they were named after Americans Indians was a silly thing, this one will really get you going. The school board rejected the student vote on the grounds that "Cougar" was a derogatory term because of its use as a nickname for single women on the prowl for younger boyfriends. OK, if our "Politically Correct-ometer" had not already gone too far, this one takes the cake. Finally, we need to touch on what became a viral infection on the internet--a Yahoo! news story written by a guy named Terence Loose. For starters, in no way, shape or form is the guy related to me although he certainly has a way of getting the attention of most of the agricultural community. Loose wrote a story ranking the top 5 most worthless degrees you can get in college. The list goes as follows: agriculture, fashion design, theatre, animal science and horticulture. As you might imagine, the world of agriculture and in particular the academic community within our land-grant universities responded loudly. I believe it is a good thing, not a bad one, which someone gave us the platform to explain what all the world of agriculture entails today. Thanks to this Yahoo! story, the list of opportunities for agricultural graduates has circulated more than at any time since the onset of our expansive social media-based world. In fact, maybe now everyone has a better understanding of the fact that better than 17 percent of the U.S. population is somehow involved in food production--higher than any other segment of production in the country. Georgetown University even weighed in by saying that agriculture graduates are more likely to be employed than any other degree that will graduate in the coming five years. All indications are that the job market will demand an increase of 5 percent more in the next five years over the level of the previous five years. So the bottom line is really the same story that I have been sharing for the better part of the past year. Far too many within our population have priorities that place other things above the lives of humans. Every one of the earlier stories fails to recognize the ultimate task we have on earth which is to improve the lives of our fellow human beings. Perhaps that is the largest non-story of the year and yet we go about making it a reality every day in this industry we have chosen. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or email Trent at trent@loostales.com.
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