Rights of non-smokers important too (08/07/07)

To the editor:

Right on, Ms. Dolecki. Your letter said it very well. My husband and I very seldom frequent Jay County eateries, because of the secondhand smoke. When we eat out it is in Delaware County. I have not seen the restaurants on McGalliard in Muncie lack any business since the smoking ban. True, you hold your breath entering and leaving the restaurant, but while you are eating your food, you can actually enjoy it. Since our dining experiences are few, the smoke free meals makes my husband, daughter and my "special" times, a very pleasant experience.

When smokers compare their second hand smoke to overeating, having too many children, etc., etc.; those choices do not affect others, like secondhand smoke. It is well known the health risks associated with second hand smoke. Their rights should not overshadow our rights for healthy lungs and fresh air.

I did not have a chance to attend the meeting, but the reports sound like the smokers were rude and inconsiderate, just as they are when they choose to fill our lungs with their secondhand smoke.

Smokers, you still have a right to smoke in your home, in your car or outside, but please consider the benefits of going for a couple of hours without smoking, while damaging other's health and their enjoyment. You can do it. Be strong, and just maybe you will decide to quit and you will be a much healthier person yourself.

Ann Bivens

Dunkirk

Volleyball thanks

To the editor:

Recently I returned from a volleyball trip to Honolulu. I played for Team Indiana in the King Kamehameha Volleyball Classic. Our team did well throughout the tournament, beating Kansas and Maryland and losing to California and Nebraska. This experience would not have been possible without my many sponsors.

I would like to thank Baird-Freeman Funeral Home, Loy Sale Barn, Hull Brothers, Medler's Furniture, Dave and Deb Byrd, Moser Engineering, T.J.'s eBay and Packaging, Omega Lodge, Fisher Packaging Co., Kiwanis Club, Adams Physical Therapy, Pit's Cocktail Lounge, Mike and Susie Smith, Morning Optimist Club, Marjorie Pauline, Delta Gamma Nu Sorority, Capital Cities Investments, Gene Geesaman, Larry Sprunger, Dan Orr, Margaret Ralph, D.J. Bisel, Komets Hockey Club, Alice Valentine, Bob and Mary Ann Clark, Shawn and Gina Dundon, Bill and Mindy Fedor, City Cigar Store, Sharlette's Fudgery, and all who bought fudge from me.

Also a big thanks goes out to my parents for their love and support to get me where I am today.

Thank you,

Erica D. Clark

Portland

Relevant

To the editor:

The recently published article about CAFOs and the Ball State study in Jay and Randolph counties states that pork production in Jay and Randolph counties is "almost irrelevant." This is a quote from a spokesman from the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, a New York-based activist group that is using its multi-million dollar budget to eliminate family livestock farms across the U.S.

Pork production is certainly not irrelevant in these counties to Indiana soybean farmers. The anti-livestock farm activities and the authors of the study do not understand the interdependence of the various ag industries.

You can't have an active soybean industry in any county without a buying customer. And, the Indiana soybean farmer's number one customer for soybean meal is livestock and poultry farmers. Livestock and poultry consume 98 percent of all soybean meal produced in the U.S.

If Jay and Randolph county economic development leaders want to expand their soybean industry, it's got to be done through the mouths of pigs, chickens and cattle as soybean meal feed.

Currently, Indiana livestock and poultry producers use more than 853,000 tons of soybean meal that comes from our state's five soybean processing plants. A year from now we will have an additional 1 million tons of soybean meal coming out of the new Louis Dreyfus soybean processing and biodiesel plant at Claypool. That additional meal will need to be fed to our livestock.

A top priority for Indiana's soybean farmers is to expand our livestock industry across the state so soybean farmers can get the best price per bushel for their soybeans, and so livestock farm families have a readily available, affordable supply of feed.

Sincerely,

Jane Ade Stevens,

Indiana Soybean Alliance and Livestock Development Specialist[[In-content Ad]]