Small fee for chicken would help farmers, improve environment
As The Sun series on Big Chicken, "The new pecking order," clearly documents, independent contractors who grow chickens for multinational chicken companies work on the slimmest of financial margins as they try to meet requirements the companies impose on them.
These family farmers must not be asked to shoulder the costs of disposing of the mountains of manure produced by the companies' birds.
Sadly, that's exactly what the companies have done historically. The chicken companies have pushed as many costs on to the growers as possible, including responsibility for waste management, even though the companies, not the growers, own the birds.
Now, however, Maryland's Perdue Farms Inc., has announced plans to take ownership of some of the waste generated by its birds, relieving growers of the burden of disposal. This is a welcome development, one that should extend to all chicken companies.
Not surprisingly, some of the growers are wary, suspicious that they will in fact be saddled with the costs through contract manipulations, similar to those described in The Sun's series.
The chicken industry has cut costs to the bone, reducing the price of its product to the consumer to the bare minimum. While keeping consumer costs low is a noble pursuit, it must not be achieved at the expense of small independent business people and the environment.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, in partnership with agricultural and other interests, is marketing "Chesapeake Milk," which charges the consumer a premium of five cents per half gallon that is distributed back to the dairy farmer to reduce pollution. A similar program adopted by the big chicken companies could produce welcome public relations benefits, help the small farmer and improve the environment. Not a bad investment.
William C. Baker, Annapolis
The writer is president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Nations with war remnants have long road to healing
The human tragedies chronicled by Frank Langfitt ("New casualties of old war," Feb. 22) are a painful reminder that as the Ottawa Convention banning the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines has gone into force, civilians in developing countries have little protection against their war-torn past.
Adequate resources to rid them of these cruel remnants of war have not materialized despite the groundswell of support sparked by the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Land Mines more than a year ago.
The fact that mines and unexploded ordnance still blight people's lives in Vietnam and neighboring Laos 24 years after the conflict ended highlights the need to develop local capacity to clear land and support the affected communities.
The United Nations Development Program helps governments build capacity for long-term mine action. UNDP supports mine action initiatives in Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Iran, Laos, Mozambique, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Yemen.
However, the demand for this assistance has overwhelmed UN capacity. Since the signing of the Ottawa treaty in December 1997, UN assistance has expanded from six mine-affected countries to 16.
The treaty sets out the rights and obligations of states, but this is just the beginning of a long and arduous process, punctuated by the pain and suffering of countless mine accident victims.
Ian Mansfield, New York
The writer heads the Mine Action Team in the United Nations Development Program's Emergency Response Divisions.
Some historical context for police station court; Getting away with MURDER
The controversy about assigning judges to adjudicate cases in the Central Booking and Intake Center presents difficult issues for the courts and the entire criminal justice system. From afar, I cannot and should not offer advice on problems in Baltimore City, but I do recall the history that led to the decision by the judicial leadership to remove judges from police stations.
Just before the creation of the District Court system in 1971, I spent a brief period of time representing defendants before judges at the old Central District police station. For a while, I was assigned to an overflow courtroom that handled cases in the rear of the police locker room. Above the din of the banging locker doors, a judge presided at a makeshift bench that had a large seal of the Baltimore City Police Department emblazoned on the front.
Above and behind the judge's head were two posters. One proclaimed the police officers' bill of rights, the other showed W. C. Fields in full regalia peering over a poker hand. Off to the side, the police officers waiting for their cases sat in a group drinking coffee and munching on sandwiches. During witness testimony, officers routinely interjected what they viewed as humorous commentary or helpful observations. A few of the judges caught up in the spirit played to the police gathering like a stand-up comic would to a boisterous audience.
While this scene is hopefully now only a colorful relic of an era less sensitive to the appearances of justice, it places into historical context the concerns of those who were and are skeptical of returning judges to our police holding facilities.
Dennis M. Sweeney, Ellicott City
The writer is a judge in the Circuit Court for Howard County.
New governor is reason that death penalty works
In the letter to the editor "Battle against crime being won in states without death penalty" (March 1), the writer makes a glaring omission when speaking about the death penalty in New York State.
She is correct that the death penalty has been on the books for a number of years, just unenforced. She fails to mention that former Gov. Mario Cuomo was voted out of office in part because of his failure to listen to the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers who support capital punishment.
Mr. Cuomo's successor, Gov. George Pataki supports the death penalty. It was after his election and his support for the death penalty that murder rates fell.
Bradford Jones, Owings Mills
Newspaper needs McNatt, 'thinking man's critic'
In the letter "John Dorsey's criticism act will be hard one to follow" (March 3), Bennard B. Perlman says, "With the retirement of John Dorsey as The Sun's art critic, the paper and Baltimore have lost a most respected and erudite reporter of the region's art scene."
Mr. Perlman ends his letter, "It will be difficult to find one capable of filling his shoes."
When I read that, one word came to mind. Glenn, as in Glenn McNatt.
I enjoy all the columnists in your paper, whether I agree with them or not. But Mr. McNatt is the only one who has been able to change my way of thinking.
If I disagree with him, it's probably to my detriment.
I have missed his work in your paper. He's the thinking man's critic, and your paper needs him.
John Carlton Hagerhordt, McKaig
Church does not deserve diatribe against its bells
When I read the latest diatribe on the bells of St. John's Church, Huntingdon, all I could think was, "Here we go, again" ("Too much church power in neighborhood conflicts," March 2, letters to the editor).
St. John's Church in no way deserves the patronizing and pussy-footed attacks of a small bunch of malcontents who have waged this inane battle lo these many years.
The bottom line is that the bells of St. John's have occupied their Victorian Gothic tower for 89 years.
The bells have been lovingly restored and have been enjoyed and appreciated by the Waverly community since their installation.
For quite a few years in the late 1970s, I played them for noontime "concerts" and was asked by many to increase the time space for the bells.
The bells of St. John's have existed before the complainers and will continue to peal out their joyous strains long after all of us leave.
The Rev. Stephen Mark, Lutherville
To our readers
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Pub Date: 3/11/99