"Eating animals", about factory farming

[NoNo]

I also picked a boatload of lettuce, the last of the summer I think, and stringbeans. My fridge is packed with them, and I'll be giving a lot away. I think you're better off knowing someone who has chickens and will give you eggs than having to clean, feed, and protect your own.

The woman at the market also sends her animals off to be processed. She said the plant in Connecticut kills them (and she watches) and then sends them to another place to be processed. The plant in New York will kill and process there. I'm having the Italian sweet sausage for the first time, and it's very tasty. A little salty, but so yummy! I swear I'm eating far more meat now that I'm at the market every week and it's right there. I like to peek into her cooler and figure out what I want to try that week (I do the same with the veggie stand on the other side of my table)

[lph]

All these posts about ethical eating are very heartening to read, I'm still feeling a bit sick to my stomach after reading that book. Haven't finished it yet, but I will. I'm not ready to give up meat completely, nor do I really feel it imperative, but I most certainly will be investigating how to get hold of meat from animals that haven't suffered unduely. At the moment I don't feel like eating meat at all.

What bothers me most, I think, is realizing that there most probably will always be a market for factory farm meat. There will always be enough consumers who don't have the time, money or patience to choose anything but the cheapest and most easily available food. So it feels a bit pointless, as if I can buy myself a better conscience, but it won't really do much about the process.

[abejita]

There will always be enough consumers who don't have the time, money or patience to choose anything but the cheapest and most easily available food. So it feels a bit pointless, as if I can buy myself a better conscience, but it won't really do much about the process.

But it is not pointless!! 1.) It is so much better for you health wise. Grassfed beef is leaner, has more 'good' fat and you have almost no chance of salmonella or mad cow disease. 2.) It sends a message. The more people who seek our and buy these products, the more large companies realize that people are not willing to accept the conditions that these animals are raised and slaughtered in. Just look at how many things you can find at main stream grocery stores that are labeled natural or no hormones added. You didn't see any of that stuff 10 yrs ago, but it became important to main stream consumers and you started to see manufacturers complying. You vote with your money!

[badger]

What bothers me most, I think, is realizing that there most probably will always be a market for factory farm meat. There will always be enough consumers who don't have the time, money or patience to choose anything but the cheapest and most easily available food. So it feels a bit pointless, as if I can buy myself a better conscience, but it won't really do much about the process.

I think we have to remember that we're pretty much like-minded here where we care about fitness and health, and for the most part I think we all care about animals and the earth we live on.

I know a lot of people don't care about animals or environment and wouldn't bat an eyelash if they were told of the conditions these animals are subjected to. They might say "oh, that's too bad", but they'll still buy cheap factory meat, and lots of it.

***

When I clicked on the link tiva posted about pasture meat, the farm that could deliver to me employs a mobile abbatoir. I thought that was great, because I can imagine the panic the animals feel when they're loaded up in those awful trucks to the slaughter house. It doesn't matter how low on the "intelligence" scale they are, they all know something bad is up, so the less time they feel that, the better.

[GLC1968]

What bothers me most, I think, is realizing that there most probably will always be a market for factory farm meat. There will always be enough consumers who don't have the time, money or patience to choose anything but the cheapest and most easily available food. So it feels a bit pointless, as if I can buy myself a better conscience, but it won't really do much about the process.

But it will. As others have said - you vote with your dollars. Just look at how many people here are eating better because their eyes were opened by such books as the one you are reading. If that person thought 'well, what good will it do if I write a book, so many will still want cheap meat that it won't affect anything' then you'd never even be questioning it, right?

The more people who demand humanely raised meat and locally grown produce, the more it will be available. The more that's available, the better the chance that more people will buy it. Look at the organics market - it's the fastest growing segment of the produce market in this country. No, it's not perfect, but it's still a better choice than round-up ready corn, right?

And HFCS - look at how so, so many producers are moving away from it because word is now out that it's bad. And RBGH - it's being dropped by so many dairy farmers because WalMart refuses to carry milk that contains it because that's what their customers demanded. There is power in numbers.

The reason meat is so cheap is because the public demanded it and the government complied (overly simplified, of course). If the public demands quality and IS WILLING TO PAY FOR IT, then we can get it. We just have to be vocal about it and our voice is our cash. We can afford it (collective 'we') by limiting the amount of meat we eat and accepting that our food costs should be a larger portion of our budgets than previously accepted.

The Omnivore's Dilema quite simply changed my life. It's the reason we now own a tiny farm, drink raw milk, eat our own eggs from our own chickens, grow about 50% of our own veggies and about 75% of our own fruit. We also will eventually be producing our own chicken meat. What we can't produce, we buy locally first from people we know, secondly from farmers markets and thirdly from local grocerers. Worst case, we buy from regular grocery stores and choose local/organic when possible.

And just so you all know, factory farm broiler chicken is no better than other factory meats. I don't care that their conditions are better than the layers - the birds themselves are a genetic distortion that should never have been created. Have you ever seen them up close? They can't walk like a normal chicken - hell, half of them can't even stand up because their breasts are so huge and their legs are so weak. They eat literally 24-7 and hardly ever sleep because they are always eating. They live exceedingly short and ackward lives and then are killed for their breast meat only. It's sick. What kind of animal gets to 'maturity' in 8 weeks and then dies if left to live longer than that? It's so, so, so wrong. When we get to raising our own chickens, we will be raising heritage breeds that are 'dual purpose'. The girls will be kept as layers and the boys will be raised on free-range until natural maturity and then humanely killed for meat. It's much more expensive to raise chickens like that, but I will not be party to those 'franken birds'.

[GLC1968]

Oh, and one more thing - genetic diversity.

The more factory farmed food (meats and produce) we buy, the less genetic diversity that is out there. Without diversity, we are without protection from disease and other disasters. Did you all know that something like 95% of all the broccoli sold in this country is the exact same type? All of the chicken and all of the turkey meat sold in the US (through traditional sources) is the same breed - all of it. There are only about 20 types of apples commercially produced in this country? 20! There used to be over 200 varieties grown commercially! The vast majority of the eggs commercially produced in this country is from one single type of bird. This is monoculture and it is killing our food supply.

It's not just about animal conditions (though, of course, that's a concern), it's also about the lack of diversity and long term sustainability.

Anyway...I'll stop here before I get too worked up... I do have work to do today, afterall.

[smilingcat]

+1 to GLC

One comment which I read once but struck me is "treat all meat like a caviar." What he meant was, treat it as an expensive delicacy to be enjoyed in small quantity. Afterall, there is no such thing as cheap meat. It's heavily subsidized by your tax.

[Atlas]

I cringe every time I drive up the interstate here, passing hog confinements every dozen miles. Factory farming and processing is one of the most horrific jobs. Imagine being surrounded by so much pain and suffering, of both the human and animal variety. Those are not the well paid and sought after jobs of the mid 20th century.

I'm vegan for animal rights, human rights, and the health of the planet. While the only livestock I ever own will be rescued from such horrific operations, it is heartening to hear other people think of livestock as living things that don't deserve the appalling conditions they are stuck in. I really do think we vote with our dollars (almost more so than with our votes) so I can only hope the non-factory-farmed meat standards can come up a little.

Right now the USDA sanctioned 'free-range' only regards poultry, so any free-range pigs, eggs, cows - that's all marketing. Similarly 'natural' can be whatever the producers want it to be. Hopefully other certifiers, like Oregon Tilth, will become more common for livestock like they have for other products. They seem to have much higher standards than the USDA regulations.

[tiva]

Right now the USDA sanctioned 'free-range' only regards poultry, so any free-range pigs, eggs, cows - that's all marketing. Similarly 'natural' can be whatever the producers want it to be. Hopefully other certifiers, like Oregon Tilth, will become more common for livestock like they have for other products. They seem to have much higher standards than the USDA regulations.

Free-range is NOT all marketing if you follow the basic guidelines outlined in Jo Robinson's book and website www.eatwild.com:

• buy locally
• visit the farm before you buy
• talk with the farmers about their practices

I'm married to a farmer and I live in a farming community. Some farmers treat their animals far worse than they treat their machines. Others treat them with respect and concern.

[shootingstar]

One comment which I read once but struck me is "treat all meat like a caviar." What he meant was, treat it as an expensive delicacy to be enjoyed in small quantity. Afterall, there is no such thing as cheap meat. It's heavily subsidized by your tax.

Treating meat as "precious" when eating a small amount, is a good approach/attitude.

I confess that we cannot afford to buy organic. But I only eat meat 3-4 times per month or less. He eats meat even less frequent.