"Eating animals", about factory farming

[tiva]

We have a small farm, and I'm also a professor of wildlife and forest ecology at a huge midwestern university. Factory-farming methods are appalling--except for broiler chickens. Laying hens are abused quite horribly in factory farm conditions, but broilers are treated in factory farm conditions pretty much the same way they're treated on free-range farm (they have a huge hoop house with lots of straw bedding, and they run around in flocks until it's time to eat them. Not a bad life for a flocking creature.) So I'll buy supermarket chicken meat, but no other meat from supermarkets. Instead, buy locally.

If you're in North America and you go to www.eatwild.com you can find great local sources of grass-fed, free range meat. Buying grass-fed, free-range, humanely treated meat directly from the small farm usually costs less than buying nasty meat at the supermarket. Support your local humane farmers! And eat great food in the process. Get a freezer cheap from craigslist so you can always have a supply of good meat from the local farm.

And best of all, grow your own little garden, get a small flock of laying hens, feed them the garden scraps and your own food scraps, compost the chicken manure, return it to your garden for more food, and create a self-sustaining cycle. Laying hens make great pets, and many towns now allow a small flock in your town garden. Plus the eggs taste a million times better than any supermarket egg.

[Grog]

I will make the case in favour of expensive food to anyone who will listen. All the things that have made food cheap, i.e. efficiencies, have ruined the good stuff. Cheap food allows us to displace our $$ from food towards consumer goods that further destroy the planet and its people through mining (ever heard of coltan mining?), intercontinental commerce, etc. Sure some people can't afford to buy "happy" food, and I won't make them feel bad about it. But I can afford it, so I will as much as I can.

I love meat, red meat in particular, rare or raw if possible but I almost never buy it anymore, unless I know where it's from. I eat as little chicken as I can, although I do eat eggs and cheese regularly, from a place where the chicks are sent to Montessori preschool or something like that. Most meals I cook at home are vegetarian now, it's also cheaper and I'm getting pretty good at making it tasty. I'm always surprised at how few people of my parents' age group even consider cooking a meal without meat. Most people are having meat at least twice, if not three times a day!! When my parents were visiting last summer I cooked a tofu dish that even my dad thought was great. He was pretty surprised. [And there is a lady near here that makes local tofu!! I couldn't believe how good it was compared to the regular stuff.]

However one looks at it, the environmental cost of meat - even family-farmed - is totally excessive. I increasingly see it as fit for special occasions, as it used to be.

Oh, and salmon..... I love, love, love salmon. But I'd rather leave it for the bears and eagles. I do buy it two or three times a year, but much less than before. Worldwide fisheries are collapsing... So many people and other species depend on fish protein more than I do.

Cycling reference: I get produce delivered from this guy. http://www.grocergunst.com/ It's an amazing concept, and the food is really good. Pretty inexpensive considering what we're getting, too.

[badger]

I'm mostly vegetarian. I have issues with meat in all sorts of ways, mostly borne out of the cruelty they face, but also because of all the other issues mentioned.

It's interesting to note about the boiler chickens, though. Chicken's probably the only meat I'll eat if given a choice so at least it'll give me some comfort knowing they weren't horribly abused. I buy my eggs from a reputable local free range farm that uses organic vegetable feed.

I rarely ever buy meat, and the times I eat it, it's because it was offered to me.

I'm getting super weird about fish, too. Fishery is a whole other can of worms that affects everything from fishers, environment, and the animals in it. What is actually ok these days that aren't harmful to them or to us? We've been abusing our oceans for so long we're starting to see how sick it's getting

[Owlie]

One of my majors was environmental studies. The year I took the required seminar course, the topic was food. I think everyone in it felt guilty about eating anything for a while. We read The Omnivore's Dilemma, as well as a book about how humans have basically been depleting fisheries for about 1000 years (can't remember the title). Scary stuff.

Living in Ohio, you'd think we'd have more local produce or meat. Nope. Of course, it doesn't help that I live on the East (read, poorer) side of Cleveland. If I can make it to our food co-op, which in summer does tend to have some local stuff, I go there.

Meat...If I had money, I'd definitely pay for free-range grass-fed beef or free-range chicken. As it is, I can't. I'm certainly eating less meat, although that's a function of trying to keep food costs down. I love salmon and tuna, but save the occasional piece of fish or a sushi date with DBF, I don't eat much at all, for both cost and environmental reasons.

[NoNo]

I just picked these from my aunt's backyard coop. I had to fight a hen who was sitting on 20 of them! I asked if we could eat them when their egg-laying cycle was over, but was told they wouldn't be very good except maybe for soup. I can tell you a coop has quite an odor after a week of 90-100 degree heat!

[arielmoon]

I am vegan and although I dont not encourage people to eat animals, I am also a health foodie so I try to suggest grass fed/ free range/ organic to those that are going to. For your own sake.

Food Inc is another good film about factory farming that does not encourage vegism but rather moving away from factory farming. As a human being I found so much of the practices truly disturbing.

[blumensh]

I'm a raw vegan but my kids eat some meat (one of my kids could easily be a vegetarian but thee other is a meat eater) and my husband eats some fish but he's mostly vegetarian. The more you learn about meat processing the more it oogs me out. We try to stick to farmer's market meats and free range eggs but it's not always easy to find.

[tiva]

Broiler farms probably do vary a lot from location to location--here in southern WI, they follow fairly reputable practices, but they may be awful in other locations. But at least hoop house chickens here are treated in ways that respect their evolution a bit, as flocking creatures that need to move and peck (they have litter; they can dig and peck; they can interact with each other). Factory layers are kept alone, in tiny cages where they can't move, and it drives them insane, sometimes literally. Some slaughterhouses follow good practices; others don't. Processing plants are notorious for treating workers horribly.

So what do we do? Consumer pressure really makes a huge difference, so it does matter what you buy, and how you use your political and economic influence.

[SaNdEe]

OMG - like minds! I've just "converted" my husband to the slow food mindset. We read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilema, saw Food, Inc, read Salatin's Everything I want to do is Illegal. Also Temple Grandin's books are enlightening.
Central Florida is a very hard place to find fresh local food (odd, we have the longest growing season in the US). The number of markets swelled but has since subsided - they have them during the week and don't veryify the food is not re-sale. There's also a resistance to the organic/natural movement (I guess they envision stoned hippies dancing around). People at work assume I'm a vegetarian because I like fresh vegetables and have a yard-garden. And coworkers brag, really and for real brag, about not eating vegetables (and then wonder why they get sick, gain weight, etc). On our quarter acre suburban lot we grow loquats, peaches, collards, tomatoes, oregano, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, stevia, lavendar, bell pepprs, hot peppers - and more. Many plants are worked into our landscaping and the yard looks really nice. We might add chickens (no rooster).
Local, non-processed food just TASTES better. I'm so thankful that my husband and I can afford good food. It can be expensive, but many places are lowering their prices (Crone's Cradle in Citra, has very affordable veggies, eggs, etc).
I'd really love to get kids turned on to farming and growing things. I feel like the next generations are missing this essential survival skill.
Along with safe cycling, of course

[berkeley]

If anyone is looking to source local, pastured/grass fed/free range meat- check out www.eatwild.com .

[divingbiker]

We have a small farm, and I'm also a professor of wildlife and forest ecology at a huge midwestern university. Factory-farming methods are appalling--except for broiler chickens. Laying hens are abused quite horribly in factory farm conditions, but broilers are treated in factory farm conditions pretty much the same way they're treated on free-range farm (they have a huge hoop house with lots of straw bedding, and they run around in flocks until it's time to eat them. Not a bad life for a flocking creature.) So I'll buy supermarket chicken meat, but no other meat from supermarkets.

Of course, this doesn't consider the inhumane way the assembly line workers at the chicken processing plant are treated. I became a vegetarian in 1991 after reading about the limbs that were lost by the mostly immigrant workers when they were caught in the fast-moving machinery at the plants.

[zoom-zoom]

If you're in North America and you go to www.eatwild.com you can find great local sources of grass-fed, free range meat. Buying grass-fed, free-range, humanely treated meat directly from the small farm usually costs less than buying nasty meat at the supermarket. Support your local humane farmers! And eat great food in the process. Get a freezer cheap from craigslist so you can always have a supply of good meat from the local farm.

Great link--thanks for posting! There are several resources there that we should look at in our area. I think I finally have DH convinced that small chest freezer would be a useful appliance.

[Eden]

I don't know about chickens.... The chicken farm (broilers) that was visited in Food Inc was *horrifying*. I've never thought chickens were incredibly high up in the brain power area, so not having an enriching environment perhaps isn't so abusive (unlike pigs which are as smart as dogs...), but the factory farming of those chickens was disgusting - dark, dank, overcrowded, lots of sick, dead and dying chickens - many that could barely move. Put me waaaaaay off chicken. Then they go to processing factories which are a whole other horror in themselves.

I do think that the area that the farming is in may make a difference. The farm visited in Food Inc was in the south and producing for one of the huge conglomerates - Purdue maybe? I think chicken farms up here are better, but I still don't eat much chicken and spring for free range, organic when I do.....

A friend of ours who's a chef says he can tell the difference. He said they usually get Washington chickens, but occasionally they are not available and they are sent southern chickens. He says he can tell when he's breaking them down when they are southern ones - he says the joints are very tight and the legs don't move freely.......

As far as beef goes - the whole feed lot, slaughter house thing was just so incredibly nasty I won't buy anything but local, grass fed meat that was killed and butchered on the farm where it was raised. Needless to say I don't eat much beef....

[abejita]

We used to eat meat every day for lunch and dinner because that is how I grew up. Over the last 7 or 8 years we have been progressively eating better and better. For a long time I knew that grass fed beef was much better for us, but the expense always put me off. Then we watched Food Inc and we made the commitment to eat better meat. To keep our grocery bill from spiking too much, we started eating less meat but buying grass fed and pastured. Right now, we usually have seafood one night, meat maybe twice and the rest is vegetarian. We are lucky to live in Dallas where these things are readily available and reasonably priced. We can order meat to pick up with our co-op shares or go to the Farmer's markets to pick it up. Even Whole Foods carries grass fed beef along with pastured pork and lamb.

[tulip]

As far as beef goes - the whole feed lot, slaughter house thing was just so incredibly nasty I won't buy anything but local, grass fed meat that was killed and butchered on the farm where it was raised. Needless to say I don't eat much beef....

Farms typically don't have slaughter facilities on-site. They have to ship the cattle elsewhere. The slaughter (or "processing" as it's euphemistically called) facilities have to meet FDA standards, and often take animals from many different farms. They are still small-scale operations compared to the large commercial facilities, but they are not on-site at the farm.

I get my beef and bison from farms. I go to the farm to pick it up the beef, and I buy the bison at the farmer's market. The cattle and bison are raised on the family farms, but they are slaughtered and processed a few hundred miles away. The bison is processed in Pennsylvania, the cattle in Virginia. Both types of meat are frozen at the plants and delivered back to the farms in Virginia. The meat must be frozen per FDA regs.

I like beef and bison. Local farm-raised meat is so much more flavorful and tender than the grocery store stuff. I have no problem eating meat, but do my utmost to avoid factory meat whenever possible. Luckily, the good stuff is getting easier to find.

NoNo--that's a great photo. I would love to keep chickens, but I travel too much. I do have neighbors who keep them, though. And ducks.