Category Archives: Environment

The tweeting of BPGlobalPR

By Frank Paynter | Published: May 29, 2010

We regretfully admit that something has happened off of the Gulf Coast. More to come. With that laconic tweet, on May 19th BPGlobalPR emerged on twitter. Today, ten days later, the account has 83,000 followers and has posted about 130 tweets. The humor in these tweets ranges from bitterly ironic to sophomoric, but the picture [...]

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A big chill

By Frank Paynter | Published: May 27, 2010

It’s hard to put a dollar value on a dead sea turtle. Impossible, actually. Estimates of royalties owed to the US taxpayer for the lost oil amount to around $35 million. Chump change. Lurking somewhere offstage is the specter of a liability cap. Seventy-five million dollars per oil spill? Still chump change. The Deepwater Horizon [...]

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Facebook, environmental disaster, and the unending war

By Frank Paynter | Published: May 14, 2010

There has been quite a bit of energy given to the matter of Facebook privacy and customer relations lately. Some friends are pulling down accounts. Bill Meloney drew the curtain on his Facebook account on May 1. A few others are quietly disentangling themselves and may make public announcements later. I have spent way too [...]

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Down on the farm, administrivia department

By Frank Paynter | Published: January 16, 2010

I’ve been following the unfolding story of the Trautman farm and their struggle with Wisconsin’s Dept. of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Affairs. A recent post inspired an email from Betty, one of my favorite readers. She gave me permission to edit it a little and post it here. Any errors or misstatements in what follows [...]

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Let them eat cake

By Frank Paynter | Published: December 29, 2009

Scott and Julie Trautman and their three kids live on a family farm about ten or twelve miles from Madison, near Stoughton. Factory farming interests have been destroying family farms in Wisconsin since World War II. Family farming as a way of life is being swamped by corporate control of the market, corporate influence in [...]

Also posted in Class Warfare, Farm Almanac | Comments closed

Raw milk freakyosis

By Frank Paynter | Published: November 17, 2009

Scott Trautman has a problem that affects all of us. State authorities are forcing him out of the dairy business because he wants to sell raw milk products. Early in the summer the Trautman’s had an open house. I stopped by to see their operation and to visit my brush mower which Scott is holding [...]

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Eat Beef!

By Frank Paynter | Published: August 9, 2009

In the interest of equal time for carnivores and in response to the recent “Eat Less Meat” graphic in the sidebar, I share with you a marketing message I received today from an organic grass fed beef operation up near Douglas City in Trinity County… As for me, I’m doing my part for the locavore [...]

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Surf’s up!

By Frank Paynter | Published: April 24, 2009

There’s an onomatopoetic resonance to “Platboom.” It sounds just like surf to me. Mike Golby—photographer, blogger, writer, and surfer—has some amazing pictures at his travel blog, “Cape Point Reserve.” You can find a more complete set of Mike’s breathtaking photography here at Zoopy. And of course there’s a facebook group. Mike’s been building the Cape [...]

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