Pair-a-Dice Farm

Red Tail Hawk

My daughter, Kali, rescued a red tail hawk with a pretty bad head injury on one of the fields on the farm. She carefully, and quickly, put the very angry hawk in a cage for safety until Karen and Larry Fisher from Thunder Eagle Wildlife could come and retrieve the hawk for rehabilitation. http://ow.ly/ucg32

Support COOL labeling. Read why it’s so important for your food security.

Meat Groups Fail In Attempt to Stop Implementation of COOL

A district court judge denied a motion that would have halted the implementation of a meat labeling rule issued by the U.S. government in order to comply with an adverse World Trade Organization decision on Wednesday.

The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed in July by groups representing the U.S. meat packing industry and Canadian and Mexican livestock groups. They argued — among other things — that the new country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rule violated their First Amendment rights by compelling them to print meat labels with more detail about where livestock were born, raised and slaughtered.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. District Court found that argument, and all others pursued by the plaintiffs, to be unconvincing and unlikely to succeed on their merits. This does not mark the end of the legal fight, but it makes clear that the plaintiffs have a tough battle ahead.

In an 80-page memorandum, Jackson wrote that the plaintiffs’ First Amendment arguments against the new COOL rule promulgated in May were wrong for two reasons. First, she found that the measure compels disclosure of “purely factual and uncontroversial information,” and therefore, is allowable if it is reasonably related to a government interest in preventing the deception of consumers.

Second, she found that the rule is in fact reasonably related to a government interest in preventing the deception of consumers. The plaintiffs had argued that the government had no such interest, and that the final rule did not target deceptive speech. But the judge disagreed here as well, acknowledging the government’s argument that the rule is intended to give consumers “more specific information on which to base their purchasing decisions.”

The plaintiffs had also charged that the new COOL rule violated the Administrative Procedures Act because it was “arbitrary and capricious,” and based this claim in part on the argument the rule would not achieve the government’s stated aim: to comply with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute.

Jackson dismissed that claim. While she made clear that it is not the court’s role to determine whether the United States has complied with the WTO decision, she wrote that the government — represented by the Justice Department — appears to have “the better argument” in claiming that the measure will bring the United States into compliance.

Jackson was also unconvinced that the government had violated the Agricultural Marketing Act by barring the practice of ‘commingling’ livestock. Processors had previously been able to commingle livestock from Canada, Mexico and the United States in one processing day and then apply a mixed-origin label, even if the meat product was wholly from U.S. livestock. Jackson determined that since the original COOL statute gave the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) discretion to allow this practice, it was also within USDA’s discretion to eliminate it.

On Thursday, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed a notice of appeal regarding the ruling.

Reprinted in part from World Trade Online

Support COOL labeling. Read why it’s so important for your food security.

Meat Groups Fail In Attempt to Stop Implementation of COOL

A district court judge denied a motion that would have halted the implementation of a meat labeling rule issued by the U.S. government in order to comply with an adverse World Trade Organization decision on Wednesday.

The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed in July by groups representing the U.S. meat packing industry and Canadian and Mexican livestock groups. They argued — among other things — that the new country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rule violated their First Amendment rights by compelling them to print meat labels with more detail about where livestock were born, raised and slaughtered.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. District Court found that argument, and all others pursued by the plaintiffs, to be unconvincing and unlikely to succeed on their merits. This does not mark the end of the legal fight, but it makes clear that the plaintiffs have a tough battle ahead.

In an 80-page memorandum, Jackson wrote that the plaintiffs’ First Amendment arguments against the new COOL rule promulgated in May were wrong for two reasons. First, she found that the measure compels disclosure of “purely factual and uncontroversial information,” and therefore, is allowable if it is reasonably related to a government interest in preventing the deception of consumers.

Second, she found that the rule is in fact reasonably related to a government interest in preventing the deception of consumers. The plaintiffs had argued that the government had no such interest, and that the final rule did not target deceptive speech. But the judge disagreed here as well, acknowledging the government’s argument that the rule is intended to give consumers “more specific information on which to base their purchasing decisions.”

The plaintiffs had also charged that the new COOL rule violated the Administrative Procedures Act because it was “arbitrary and capricious,” and based this claim in part on the argument the rule would not achieve the government’s stated aim: to comply with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute.

Jackson dismissed that claim. While she made clear that it is not the court’s role to determine whether the United States has complied with the WTO decision, she wrote that the government — represented by the Justice Department — appears to have “the better argument” in claiming that the measure will bring the United States into compliance.

Jackson was also unconvinced that the government had violated the Agricultural Marketing Act by barring the practice of ‘commingling’ livestock. Processors had previously been able to commingle livestock from Canada, Mexico and the United States in one processing day and then apply a mixed-origin label, even if the meat product was wholly from U.S. livestock. Jackson determined that since the original COOL statute gave the U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) discretion to allow this practice, it was also within USDA’s discretion to eliminate it.

On Thursday, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed a notice of appeal regarding the ruling.

Reprinted in part from World Trade Online

This month has been grueling so far. We finished two weeks of haying and putting several hundred square bales up in the hay barn. Although it was mostly hot, I’m really relieved to have that much of a first cut stored because you never know if there’ll be a second cut.
We took one day, while the hay was curing, to shear the rams that weren’t shorn earlier with the girls because it takes two men to lift those big boys on the table for me. Thankfully, the rams were really calm and we got the wool off them pretty quickly.
The past two days, Michael and I spent deworming. We still another day to go but the heat is just too much on us and the animals.

The 2013 famers markets in the Richmond area and surrounding areas opens tomorrow, May 4th. Pair-a-Dice Farm is happy to be returning to the following markets this season with a full inventory of grass fed lamb and fresh free range brown eggs:
Saturdays
• The South of the James Market (Richmond, Va) every Saturday morning from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Forest Hill Park, New Kent Road and West 42nd St Richmond, Va
• Charlottesville City Market (Charlottesville, Va) every Saturday morning from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM at: 207 1st Street Charlottesville, Va.
• Midlothian Mines Farmers Market (Midlothian VA) every Saturday afternoon from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 13301 . Woolridge Road Midlothian VA.
Sundays
• Carytown Farmers Market in Carytown VA every Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Wells Fargo parking lot, 3201 West Cary St. in Carytown, VA.

Check our website for these listings at http://www.pairadicefarm.com.

Well the heat has been tough to deal with for the lambs and all the animals. They’ve been keeping cool by moving as little as possible. But recently, the intense heat has cooled a bit and everyone is up and moving and grazing like they should. Thankfully, they made it through such a stressful time.

Lambs are hitting the ground successfully.Week 3 and 76 lambs running around the fields, many are twins. The moms are all being great even the first timers.
Finished shearing the goats and trimming hooves yesterday in preparation for the kids to arrive in two weeks. It’s exhausting.

Only two weeks to go before the lambs start hitting the ground so today all mama ewes got their vaccines. Next week we’ll shear all that lovely heavy wool off of them to make them more comfortable.

http://themarketumbrella.com/markets/south-of-the-james-market/