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DEL.ICIO.USIsakson, Chambliss on the farm bill: There could be a agro-terror facility in it for Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hours after they cast their votes for the farm bill, U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss began making their case for it.
Their first argument for the bill, which President Bush says he’ll veto: It contains a demand for a new agro-terrorism facility that the two senators say would be perfect for Georgia.
Right now, research on hoof-and-mouth disease is confined to Plum Island, off the northern tip of Long Island, N.Y. Created in the mid-1950s, the place is aging, and a new facility — called the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility — has been proposed.
Six sites are in the running, and the University of Georgia is one of them.
The new NBAF facility, overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, will develop vaccines and containment strategies for diseases, such as avian influenza virus, that can incubate in animals and jump to humans.
“With its world-class [U.S. Department of Agriculture] research facilities, Georgia is the logical choice to conduct such important research and Senator Chambliss and I are working hard to promote our state’s bid to have NBAF located in Georgia,” Isakson is quoted as saying in a press release issued by the two senators.
The release tosses in support from a top UGA official.
“The new and modern technology of the NBAF must be utilized to protect our food animals,” said David Lee, vice president for research at the University of Georgia. “Safe research and the development of effective counter-measures for this disease are critical to the health and welfare of the domestic herds of cattle, sheep, and swine, and to our agricultural industry, not just in Georgia, but across the country.”
No immediate word on how large such a facility would be. The target date for opening appears to be 2013. But we’re likely to hear more about this at the state GOP convention on Friday afternoon, when both Isakson and Chambliss are scheduled to speak.
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Comments
By Galoco_lee
May 15, 2008 8:45 PM | Link to this
Let me get this straight. Republican Isakson and Reublican Chambliss are going to convince the Democratically controlled Congress to send funds to a Republican controlled state to build a what? Duh!
By Larry
May 15, 2008 9:02 PM | Link to this
Well, I’m glad we have people in Washington to look after our interest. Maybe next they can spend a few billion dollars helping us get a penguin poo processing plant for all the poo they’re trying to send us. Somebody’s got to tell someone up there they’re spending our money and they not doing it very wisely.
By Mike
May 15, 2008 9:55 PM | Link to this
DOESN’T ANYONE (GOP) GET IT?!!! This is why “The Base” is PO’d. They buy off individual senators with the promise of a little pork in their state or district. The bottom line is a bad bill gets through.
Saxby, Johnny. YOU JUST DON’T GET IT. It makes me puke.
By tom ga hunter
May 16, 2008 5:54 AM | Link to this
Let’s see Montana got $1,100,000,000 to but out land speculators, Fla & mi got 3,300,000,000 for the sugar screw, Kty. got #433,000,000 for Race Horses & GEORGIA got WHAY??? Saxby’s LOBBIEST son did really well but the small farmer & taxpayer got screwed. Anybody who thinks DRAFT DODGER Saxby is better than Vernon needs to look at Saxby’s record. Bush is doing the right thing to veto this rip off too bad our rhino Senators are owned by special interest..
By Athens citizen
May 16, 2008 7:48 AM | Link to this
NBAF would be the world’s largest, potentially deadliest bio-terror laboratory researching animal and zoonotic diseases for which there is no cure, and it would be developed by the serially incompetent Department of Homeland Security. (If as proposed)it would be constructed in the middle of the Athens/Clarke County/Oconee County Community next to the State Botanical Garden. An invasive, environmentally degrading and dangerous secretive federal undertaking—just what the Athens community doesn’t need.
By flip wilson
May 16, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this
this bill is a textbook example of what is wrong with Washington DC. i wonder if either one of these guys has bought any groceries lately. probably not, i guess lobbyists take them to dinner every night.
By hutch
May 16, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this
a few comments.
i don’t understand how the possibility of getting a plant of some kind in the state can be the justification for such an egregious bill.
for those of who who are annoyed that senators get bought off by special interests, you just need to realize that this is the way politics work. in fact, that’s the only way most politicians have ever been elected. they piece together their coalition of supporters, handing out (or promising) goodies until they get a majority. first one to reach a majority gets elected. this is why we shouldn’t trust congress with much worthwhile. get them out of the healthcare, food, and housing businesses (you can where they’ve screwed things up. the more they get involved, the more they mess things up. i can’t understand how congress can have an approval rating of less than 20% and we still think they are the right ones to handle our problems. the president, whoever it will be in november, is no different. in fact, i trust congress more than the president, generally.
By Vic
May 16, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this
Is a Plum Island in Georgia’s backyard good for Georgia?
Connecticut and Long Island residents are dying to get Plum Island aka Lab 257 out of their part of the country. Missouri & Wisconsin begged to get off the list of potential sites for the lab.
1) Kansas State University biology professor Walter Dodd:
“in the struggle over the lab, it’s impossible to compare risks. “There has been no formal risk assessment of the BSL-4 facility that is available to the public.”
2) March 26, 2008 “Bidding War for Biowarfare Labs The Germs Next Door” By STAN COX:
“Texas A&M University lost its chance to host NBAF when it was hit with a Centers for Disease Control reprimand for unreported lab-safety foulups. The letter cited missing vials of infectious diseases and lab-worker exposure to the pathogens that cause brucellosis and Q-fever.”
“Finally, according to the Biodefense Research Forum, many past mistakes and mishaps in biosafety labs have never been reported, because those involved had their funding and reputations to protect.”
“Given the thick curtain of secrecy that DHS will be allowed to draw around the proposed NBAF’s laboratories, its research could well be pushed far beyond those legal and moral boundaries, and no one would be the wiser — especially not the people who work or live in that unlucky neighborhood that finally wins the germ jackpot.”
3)Michael Christopher Carroll related in his 2004 book “Lab 257:”
“The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Germ Laboratory, Plum Island suffered a long string of potentially disastrous accidents, including the escape of the foot-and-mouth pathogen from containment areas in 1978.”
“That fiasco led to the slaughter of all livestock on the island. Carroll’s stomach-churning account of the killing, dismemberment, and incineration of hundreds of goats, sheep, horses, and pigs — nonstop through an entire bloody weekend — provides a preview of what might be necessary if pathogens escape from a heartland NBAF.”
By Ron Howell
May 16, 2008 4:57 PM | Link to this
The Size of the NBAF lab will be the Size of 5 Super WalMarts, all in one facility.
That will make this lab one of the largest in the World.
If you have been to a single Super WalMart recently, just multiply what you see by five times.
It’s huge.
By Liposuction
January 6, 2009 3:09 AM | Link to this
I have to disagree with that last comment…doesn’t make sense
By Tummy Tuck
January 6, 2009 2:11 PM | Link to this
Really well written!
By Lasik Eye Surgery
January 10, 2009 4:43 PM | Link to this
That’s a smart point…for sure
By Personal Injury Lawyers
January 25, 2009 6:32 AM | Link to this
Who are you picking in the super bowl?
By Wrongful Death Lawyers
February 7, 2009 1:39 PM | Link to this
that last comment was awful…come on man!