I’m not certain why we still have a US Department of Agriculture. To pay farmers not to grow stuff. To grow some stuff instead of other stuff. To kill healthy chickens so they don’t get bird flu (farmers get nothing if the birds die on their own, or so I hear). It also wastes millions on regulations and rules (I suspect), but what the flying, you know, what is this?
The Department of Agriculture dropped $600K of your grandkids’ hard (not yet) earned dollars on a college in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Its purpose was to advance the science of natural fibers for use in feminine hygiene products,
to address the growing concerns and issues surrounding menstruation, including the potential health risks posed to users of synthetic feminine hygiene products (FHP), advancing research in the development of FHP that use natural materials, as well as providing menstrual hygiene management (MHM) education for young women and girls.
Call me old fashioned, but there is more than one muti-billion dollar global conglomerate profiting from these products who – if the market sent them the signals – would invest in “natural” alternatives,
a) to produce three natural fibers; regenerative cotton, regenerative wool and industrial hemp (cannabis sativa); b) to develop patents for sustainable feminine hygiene sanitary products using the three natural fibers; c) to evaluate the fhp made from each of the natural fibers in comparison to the standard synthetic product;
And they’d use their own money because they have a financial interest in product development, marketing, and education.
While I can’t say whether the presumption of health risk exists from using not-so-natural products the messaging in the grant and program suggesting that it is “also important to recognize that transgender men and people with masculine gender identities, intersex and non-binary persons may also menstruate,” is total BS.
It is also the red flag that led to the grant’s cancellation. All $600K has been clawed back, and not one dime will be disbursed.
