Iraqi Chicken Farmers Get Jumpstart With Egg Delivery

American Forces Press Service

BAGHDAD, April 28, 2008 - Chicken farmers in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, received the jumpstart their industry needed with the arrival of 45,000 eggs, each ready for hatching. One of many economic projects initiated by Task Force Marne, revitalizing the region's ailing poultry industry ranks as a top priority. Such initiatives play a crucial role in Multinational Division Center's counterinsurgency strategy, officials said.

The Mahmudiyah Poultry Association is one such project. It's used to strengthen the vertical market integration that will ensure the long-term success of the poultry industry in the region. To lay the foundation for sustained growth, profitability and market success, coalition forces are making strategic investments in infrastructure to implement the association's business plan. These investments include refurbishing hatcheries, upgrading feed mills to produce higher-protein feed, and renovating processing plants.

"As farmers and residents recognize the close association between increased security and their enhanced standard of living relating to poultry farming, it is likely they will reject criminal insurgents in favor of growing prosperity," said Army Maj. Jessica McCoy, a member of the Baghdad-4 embedded provincial reconstruction team, attached to the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

Photo by Army Pvt.Christopher McKenna, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne

This first batch of fertilized eggs arrived at the Qadhari hatchery in Mahmudiyah after a long journey from the Netherlands. Over the next two weeks, the hatchery will receive two additional shipments of 45,000 and 40,000 eggs, respectively. Delicate procedures will help ensure that a maximum number of eggs survive the incubation process.

One of the association's goals is in-country breeding of fertilized eggs. By no longer having to import fertile eggs from abroad, Iraq can become self-sufficient for breeder eggs, generating lower prices over time, officials said.

The chicken farmers' hard work will pay off around May 13, with the anticipated hatching of nearly 35,000 chicks. In the weeks after the initial hatching, farmers hope to hatch another 65,000 eggs. Soon after, members of the association will pick up the young chicks and distribute them to 20 poultry farmers. The chickens will mature for an additional 37 days, at which point they will have grown into fully developed broilers. After a trip to the local processing plant, the broilers will find their way into Iraqi markets and eventually onto dinner plates in Iraqi homes and restaurants.

McCoy, a U.S. Army veterinarian who directs the revitalization of the Mahmudiyah poultry farming industry, anticipates that in one year, more than 50 active broiler farms will operate in the region. This figure represents an enormous improvement from last year, when only four farms existed.

In addition to providing a vital source of nutrition for the region, the initial investment in this industry propagates a trickle-down effect that infuses the regional economy across multiple sectors.

"Breathing life into a dormant poultry farming industry makes great sense all around," McCoy said.

Revitalizing the industry will generate as many as 600 jobs in chicken farms and potentially more than 1,500 related jobs such as employment in feed mills, transportation, processing plants and retailing, McCoy said.

"It's all about capacity building and creating jobs," said Army Col. David Brost, effects coordinator for Multinational Division Center. "To do that, you have to attack the whole poultry value chain.

"Targeting just one area will only benefit that single person and would not be sustainable," he explained. "By attacking the whole poultry value chain, everyone benefits."

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Kills Six Armed Criminals Near Baghdad American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2008 - A Hellfire missile fired from a coalition unmanned aerial vehicle killed six heavily armed criminals in northeastern Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported.

Officials said coalition forces from Multinational Division Baghdad operating the UAV fired on a large group of criminals with rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and a mortar tube.

In other operations in Iraq yesterday:

-- Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team found a weapons cache in Janabi. It contained a wide variety of ammunition and illumination rounds, propellant, fuses, a hand grenade, TNT and other bomb-making materials. The cache was turned over to an explosives team for detonation.

-- A Multinational Division Baghdad aerial weapons team saw three men at a potential rocket site in northeastern Baghdad. When the men caught site of the team, they fled the scene in a black sedan. But when a UAV showed the criminals returning to the site and confirmed the presence of rockets, the team returned and destroyed three rockets with a Hellfire missile. The criminals fled the scene. The presence of two additional rockets was confirmed at a different site a short time later. The team also destroyed those rockets with a Hellfire missile.

-- In a separate event, a UAV showed a rocket launch site and positively identified a vehicle used in the earlier attack in northeastern Baghdad. The UAV hit the sedan with a Hellfire missile.

-- Iraqi soldiers discovered more than 30 bodies in a mass grave at a house in Mahmudiyah on April 10. Initial reports indicate the remains had been buried for more than a year. The entire house has been declared a grave site, and the Iraqi army is excavating the area.

During operations in Iraq on April 9, soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team discovered a weapons cache in Baghdad's Rashid district. The cache included multiple mortar rounds and bomb- making materials, rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, a rocket-propelled grenade with launcher, a sniper rifle, blasting caps, and detonation cord.

Earlier this week in Iraq:

-- Iraqi security forces detained two suspected al-Qaida bomb-making-cell members and one insurgent cell leader in separate operations.

-- The Anbar Counterterrorism Directorate, advised by U.S. Special Forces soldiers, conducted an operation to capture members of an al-Qaida bomb-making cell operating out of the Albu Faraj area of Ramadi. The cell is accused of multiple attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces, including a homemade-bomb attack March 25. The group also owned a homemade-bomb cache found by the Albu Faraj police March 30. Two cell members were detained during the operation.

-- In Mosul, 2nd Iraqi Army Division soldiers, also advised by U.S. Special Forces soldiers, captured the suspected leader of seven "battalions" of insurgents throughout Mosul. His cells are believed to be responsible for bombings and indirect-fire attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces, including two suicide-vest attacks against tactical control points in eastern Mosul on March 13.

(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)

I roam the streets looking for dinner, wander through SoHo for a change, past mostly schlock street art on West Broadway though I find two different painters of city views which are interesting.  No food.  Further east now, I make my way through crowds to play with an Iphone. I manage to key in the forums much quicker than on my first two visits and leave the phone opened to Delphi Forums, resisting doing the same to a couple of other phones that happen to be free. To try there, else still $400. Plus basic connectivity for $60+ a month. 

Further east is Chinatown; corner of the Bowery and Grand, out on the sidewalk, the same lady there for the last 10 years peels a pound off her huge slab of flat rice noodles flecked with veggies, now $1.35 instead of a dollar. At the fish market just a few steps east I get a healthy looking fillet of salmon ($1.50 more per pound) and right around the corner heading back uptown, camped on the sidewalk, is the dumpling lady: six dumplings with meat inside, $1.25, up from the dollar just a couple of months ago. 

Back home, I steam the noodles and dumplings for 15 minutes while broiling the salted salmon, and serve everything with soy sauce and hot sesame oil to be sprinkled as desired over salmon, sheets of rice noodles and dumplings with nuggets of mystery meat.  Warm, good and utterly filling.

Edmunds St. John Rocks and Gravel 2005 +

jello choloate pudding

I don't completely trust the Dalai Lama; well, I know he's the Dalai Lama and all that but he protesteth a bit too much.  Neither am I saying the Chinese have it right, obviously the Tibetans are being oppressed.  It's the Olympics.  As I recall from school the Olympics in their origin were a time of peace; I wonder if that was ever true.  The modern ones are marked by Berlin and Munich, huge endeavors of security in LA, and now a wall of soldiers guarding the path of the flame through Tibet.

I have a letter here somewhere from the Dalai Lama replying to a note I penned many many years ago after being impressed by his plea for Tibet -   mmm ... actually from his Personal Secretary I think - thanking me for the interest I showed.  A letter from India!

There hasn't been much change since then.

Tonight dinner is a combo of sushi from the Japanese market on St. Marks.  Best part is a Cobra roll, mostly crab meat, and a nice selection of nutty seaweed.

A Chateau de Rully 2005 does well. It's eminently drinkable. ++

We finish with cherry chocolate mousse, a taste supplied by a friend.  I like do friends like that.  The wine shines.

Surprise to me is that 70% of the US dead are 'white', I would have guessed at a greater percentage of blacks and hispanics.

The pictures are of an antiwar rally lining 14th Street from river to river on Saturday, not a solid coverage of the curbs when I came by, and in a quiet corner off Union Square there is Gandhi striding on.

Still got to eat though:
Panfried chicken breast with just a bit of Asian flavors
Uncle Ben's Asian Rice
Romano salad
Punto Final Reserva Malbec 2005, juicy with a very nice lasting finish ++

will be looking for jello chocolate pudding in an hour or so ...