Problem: Why Are Pig Farmers Still Using Growth-Promoting Drugs?

It's one of the most controversial practices in agriculture: feeding small amounts of antibiotics to animals in order to make them grow faster. But what if the drugs don't even work very well? There's some good evidence that they don't, at least in pigs. They used to deliver a boost in growth, but that effect has disappeared in recent years or declined greatly. The reason for this is interesting and even paradoxical. Researchers think the antibiotics used to work by suppressing low-grade infections. In recent years, however, pork producers found other ways to accomplish the same thing through improved hygiene . As a result, the drugs have become largely superfluous -- yet many farmers still use them.

To understand how this happened, you have to step back in time, says Steve Dritz, a specialist in pig nutrition at Kansas State University. Sixty years ago, when antibiotics were new, "people started treating animals, and feeding [the antibiotics], and finding that they had increased growth rates and feed efficiencies," he says. Nursery-age pigs, for instance, grew 12 to 15 percent faster with antibiotics. The animals also needed less feed to reach full weight. Other studies showed similar results in chickens and cattle. In the 1980s, a new set of studies found similar effects. So the growth-promoting effects of antibiotics became standard practice among meat producers.

Fast forward to the 1990s. Dritz was starting his career as a scientist at Kansas State University, and pork production was changing dramatically.

Previously, pigs were born and raised in one barn or in several barns close together. This meant infections could easily pass from one generation to the next, the way that kids share germs between their friends on the playground and their parents at home. Under the new system, when piglets are weaned, they move to a whole different place. That new site is carefully scrubbed and free of disease.

Craig Rowles, who runs a large swine operation in Carroll, Iowa, shows me one such room. There's not a piglet in sight. "This room just got completely washed and disinfected, and now it's going to sit here and dry for a while," he says.

A whole group of pigs will come in here together, and later they will move out together to yet another site. "That group of pigs will stay together until they go to market," Rowles says.

The groups are kept strictly separated from each other. If workers move between the groups, they first have to change their boots.

When farmers adopted multisite production, it cut down on disease -- and pigs actually grew faster.
1. Are pig farmers still using drugs?
2. Is Steve Dritz a specialist in anything?
Answer: 1. Evidence : Why Are Pig Farmers Still Using Growth-Promoting Drugs?
2. Steve Dritz, a specialist in pig nutrition

Q: CHAPTER XIV.

DENIS M'GOVERY'S TIDINGS.

As soon as he had finished his breakfast on the morning after the night's events just recorded, Father John took his hat and stick, and walked down to Drumsna, still charitably intent on finding some means to soften, if he could not avert, the storm which he saw must follow the scenes he had witnessed on the previous evening. Ussher would have considered it want of pluck to stay away because Thady had told him to do so; Feemy also would encourage his visits, and would lean more to her lover than her brother--especially as her father, if it were attempted to make him aware of the state of the case, would be sure to take Feemy's part. Father John felt it would be impossible to induce the old man to desire Ussher to discontinue his visits, and he was confident that unless he did so, the Captain would take advantage of the unfortunate state of affairs at Ballycloran, and consider himself as an invited guest, in spite of the efforts Thady might make to induce him to leave it. But what the priest most feared was, that the unfortunate girl would be induced to go off with her lover, who he knew under such circumstances would never marry her; and his present object was to take her out of the way of such temptation. Father John gave Feemy credit for principles and feelings sufficiently high to prevent her from falling immediately into vice, but he at the same time feared, that with the strong influence Ussher had over her, he might easily persuade her to leave her home, partly by promising at some early time to marry her, and partly by threatening her with desertion. He thought that if she were at present domiciled at Mrs. McKeon's, Ussher might then be brought to hear reason, and be made to understand that if he was not contented to propose for and marry Feemy, in a proper decent manner, he must altogether drop her acquaintance.

Answer the following questions:
1. Where is John heading?
2. What is his title?
3. How is he traveling?
4. What does he have with him?
5. What time of day is it?
6. Did he eat?
7. Which meal?
8. Would the father want Ussher to stop coming around?
9. Who's father is it?
10. Who does Feemy want to marry?
11. Does he pan to marry her?
12. What does Father John want him to do?
13. Is he worried Feemy will run off with him?
A: 1. to Drumsna
2. Father
3. he's walking
4. his hat and stick
5. morning
6. yes
7. breakfast
8. yes
9. Feemy's
10. Ussher
11. no
12. altogether drop her acquaintance
13. yes

Problem: Since I was a child, I called my father my Kong, after King Kong. I believed that he was just as strong as the giant ape . As he faced death, _ .

Two months after he passed away, my sister called to ask if I would like to go see Lisa Williams, a well-known witch . I was familiar with Lisa from her show on Lifetime, and since I was eager to get a sign from my father, I agreed to go.

I took my father's gold watch and listened as Lisa helped audience members communicate with their loved ones. "I have a grandfather-like figure with me and he is speaking about his granddaughter Jilly," she announced. The audience was quiet; no one raised a hand. I nudged my sister and whispered to her that this was Dad ,for my third child and my father had a deep bond(,) and he called her Jilly.

Although I sensed his presence, I wasn't confident enough to raise my hand. I needed something a bit more concrete, something undoubted.

"This man is letting me know he had cancer," she continued. I nudged my sister harder and assured her this was our father. Lisa went on to say that this person died in June (my father had died June 8th). There was swelling of the legs.

"Important information," she called out. My heart beat fast . I jumped up when she asked, "Who is holding his watch?" I waved the watch in the air.

"He wishes you congratulations." My fourth child was born three weeks after my father died. I was in shock and could not believe I was getting a chance to hear from him, yet I knew our bond was strong enough that he could come to the world. She banged on her chest like an ape and apologized, saying, "I don't know why but he wants me to do this like Tarzan." It didn't resonate with me until my sister called out "King Kong!" I was convinced. No way could this woman have ever known a detail unless Dad was communicating through her.

Each bit of information she gave us was just as meaningful. She ended our session by informing us that he would send us coins. The very next day I found six coins in various places; they seemed to have come out of nowhere. Even in death he is my Kong, and he remains important in my life.
1. How did I call my dad?
Answer:
1. my Kong