golly i love factoids

i just started reading the handbook of science and technology for homeland security'.

now this is not a factoid book as you probably guessed. i dont really know who this is marketed towards besides people in homeland security. either way i like reading stuff like this. i just got my hands on it and started it today.

things interest me that other people dont care about. i was an iron worker so i got a metal casting book i am reading right now. i am reading one on 3d printing. i started a pharmaceutical technology book as well. i am finding the homeland security book very interesting though. some facts that interest me.

so, did you know 'they' take inventory of livestock in this country? well they do. i never really thought about it. i was jumping around and one of the chapters is on carcass disposal. i never thought about that either(which is why i read stuff like these books. it gets me thinking about stuff that would have never crossed my mind)
before talking disposal it talked numbers.

how many livestock animals would you think were running around in any given year?

US livestock inventories in 2002 included more than 95 million cattle and calves, over
60 million hogs and pigs, and more than 8 billion broilers and other meat-type chickens
[1]. Inevitably, routine animal-production mortalities occur and, as a result of the sheer
scale of operations, equate to billions of pounds annually. For example, in 2002, routine
mortalities requiring disposal totaled approximately 3 billion pounds

^^^^^is that nuts or what? i dont really know what i would have guessed had i thought about it but those are crazy numbers. i never really thought about all the livestock that dies before it is supposed to and what they do with it.

so one option was a landfill. then it talked about rendering and it said this

According to this report, approximately 40–60% of the live weight of
livestock and poultry are not consumed by humans and therefore represent raw materials
in the rendering process [36]. From approximately 54 billion pounds of raw materials,
about 11 billion pounds each of animal derived proteins and rendered fats are produced
annually in the United States, with a production value of about $2.7 billion. About 85%
of this output is used as animal feed ingredients

these books are more than awesome. i am hitting the store to buy an e reader tomorrow specifically because i have these books. i have hundreds others of course but i am glued to this homeland security book. i dont have a tablet and i want to take this with me on the fly. i dont like reading books on the computer but my wife had a kindle and that e ink paper deal it has is real nice on the eyes. the nook as the same type of thing and it has a slot for a micro. it reads pdf's so i am good to go.
you cant get these kinds of factoids on the wiki.

so now i am gathering facts about agro-terrorism. you know like contaminating grain/corn/wheat, etc.
there have been a few low level incidents in the last 50ish years that i had never heard about. not all in the states. but sis you know about these?

in 2000 Contamination of Palestinian agricultural land with sewer waste-----alleged israeli settlers in the west bank

in 97 The spread of hemorrhagic virus among the wild rabbit population of new zealand------alleged new zealand farmers

in 96 Food poisoning using Shigella in a Texas hospital---------alleged hospital lab worker

in 84 Food poisoning using Salmonella in salad bars in oregon-----alleged Rajneeshee Cult

i had not heard about any of those

If you like factoids, this site may interest you ....Lots of fun and unique facts.

wtffunfact.com...