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William 04/19/2010 10:48:00 PM
Once again money trumps the right thing to do. Bowing to the pressure only ensures that the entities that continue mistreatment of animals will continue to do so and fight any change in their policies. Small-minded people such as this rancher should not be given so much power. There are better ways to live and thrive, but they require intelligence and effort - obviously severely lacking in these offenders. Yellowtail has now both lost the customers that support these farming idiots and now the humane treatment supporters who will undoubtedly view their rescinding donations as a cop out.
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James 04/19/2010 8:44:00 PM
Some people can exercise their rights to boycott a wine producer, and other SPCA friendly person's. I have the right to boycott all person's not supporting humane animal treatment, and the SPCA for that manner.
I will take the time to investigate my food and beverage sources, than I will choose how I show support of "American" business.
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Margaret Rynn 04/19/2010 4:35:00 PM
Someone should go around with a camera and video all the activists eating meat in resturants and post it on the internet. Telling everyone these people want to stop the farmers from producing the very food that the activists are eating.
This means the activists are Frauds.
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matilda of tuscany 04/18/2010 3:57:00 AM
...and if everything I said is a lie, why is there an 81 page EPA document to back up my concerns?
I bought from my local, natural, ethically and humanely raised, and environmentally friendly beef rancher today, by the way! So keep selling that e coli filled, mass-produced, tasteless crap and wondering why conventional farmers keep getting foreclosed on.
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matilda of tuscany 04/18/2010 3:36:00 AM
Doctor, you really don't know who you are talking to here. I also went to university and was animal science/pre-vet for 2 years before changing degrees towards human health (because I was frankly disgusted at the direction the Animal Science program and Ag College in general was going--too many grants to support big business efficiencies over common sense and sound judgment). I showed livestock in 4-H and FFA and was on a National Champion 4-H livestock judging team that won or placed in the American Royal, National Western, and North American Livestock Exposition years ago. I'm not a vegan (but eat meat in the low range of moderation), not a PETA or HSUS member. In fact, you should consider me the best friend of the family farmer, helping you see how our citizens want safe, natural, humane, and environmentally sound practices to be adopted by our country's farmers and ranchers.
Oh, and by the way, don't even get me started on the cheap unit fees and raping of our public lands for subsidized cattle grazing!
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Rob 04/17/2010 11:43:00 PM
Factory Farming: Mechanized Madness
The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past, which are still portrayed in children’s books, have been replaced by windowless metal sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems—what is now known as “factory farming.” Farmed animals have no federal legal protection from horrific abuses that would be illegal if they were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilations, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and inhumane slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less sensitive, intelligent, or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs or cats whom we cherish as companions.
Deprivation and Disease
The factory-farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible—and in the smallest amount of space possible. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and other animals are kept in small cages or stalls, where they are often unable to turn around. They are deprived of exercise so that all their energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. They are fed drugs that fatten them faster, and they are genetically manipulated to grow faster or produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally.
Because crowding creates an atmosphere that welcomes disease, animals on factory farms are fed and sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides and antibiotics, which remain in their bodies and are passed on to the people who consume them, creating serious human health hazards. While the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have called the use of antibiotics in this manner of “serious emerging concern,” the industry simply could not continue to raise billions of animals per year in such cramped, filthy conditions without the drugs that allow animals to survive conditions that would otherwise kill them.(1)
Chickens
Chickens are inquisitive animals, and in their natural surroundings, they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another and develop pecking orders, love and care for their young, and enjoy full lives that include dust-bathing, making nests, and roosting in trees. On factory farms, however, chickens are denied these activities and suffer because of it.
Laying hens live in battery cages stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. Confined seven or eight to a cage, they don’t have enough room to turn around or spread even one wing. Conveyor belts bring in food and water and carry away eggs. Farmers often induce greater egg production through “forced molting”: Chickens are denied food and light for days, which leads to feather and weight loss.(2)
To prevent stress-induced behaviors caused by extreme crowding—such as pecking their cagemates to death—hens are typically kept in semi-darkness, and the ends of their sensitive beaks are cut off with hot blades without any painkillers. The wire mesh of the cages rubs their feathers and skin off and causes their feet to become crippled. Chickens can live for more than a decade, but laying hens on factory farms are exhausted and unable to produce as many eggs by the time they are 2 years old, so they are slaughtered.(3,4) More than 100 million “spent” hens die in slaughterhouses each year.(5) Ninety-eight percent of the egg industry’s hens are confined to cages on factory farms.(6)
More than 9 billion “broiler” chickens are raised in sheds each year.(7) Artificial lighting is manipulated to keep the birds eating as often as possible. To keep up with demand and to reduce production costs, genetic selection calls for big birds and fast growth (it now takes only six weeks to “grow out” a chick to “processing” weight), which causes extremely painful joint and bone conditions.(8) Undercover investigations into the “broiler” chicken industry have revealed that birds routinely suffer from dehydration, respiratory diseases, bacterial infections, heart attacks, crippled legs, and other serious ailments.
At the slaughterhouse, chickens are hung upside down, their legs are forced into metal shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding-hot water in defeathering tanks. They are often conscious throughout the entire process. Click here to read more about an undercover investigation at a KFC supplier’s slaughterhouse, where workers were caught on video stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against floors and walls.
Cattle
Cows who are free to roam pastures and care for their young form life-long friendships with one another and have demonstrated the ability to be vain, hold grudges, solve problems, and play games.(9) But cows raised for the meat and dairy industries are often far removed from lush pastures and nursing calves.
Cattle raised for beef may be born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are fed an unnatural diet of high-bulk grains and other “fillers,” which can include expired dog and cat food, poultry feces, and leftover restaurant food.(10) They are castrated, their horns are ripped out, and they have third-degree burns inflicted on them (branding)—all without any painkillers. During transportation, cattle are crowded onto trucks, where they suffer from trampling and temperature extremes and lack food, water, and veterinary care. At the slaughterhouse, cattle may be hoisted upside down by their hind legs and dismembered while they are still conscious. The kill rate in a typical slaughterhouse is 400 animals per hour, and “the line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive,” according to one slaughterhouse worker.(11)
Calves raised for veal are the male offspring of dairy cows. They’re taken from their mothers within a few days of birth, and they are chained in stalls that have slatted floors and are only 2 feet wide and 6 feet long.(12) Since their mothers’ milk is used for human consumption, the calves are fed a milk substitute that is designed to help them gain at least 2 pounds a day.(13) The diet is purposely low in iron so that the calves become anemic and their flesh stays pale and tender.(14)
Pigs
Pigs are very clean animals who take to the mud primarily to cool off and evade flies. They are just as friendly and gregarious as dogs, and according to Professor Donald Broom at the Cambridge University Veterinary School, “They have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly three-year-olds.”(15) Mother pigs on factory farms in the U.S. spend most of their lives confined to crates that measure 7 feet long and 2 feet wide, barely larger than the pigs themselves.(16) They display signs of extreme boredom and stress, such as biting the bars of their cages and gnashing their teeth.(17) Their piglets are taken away three weeks after birth and packed into pens until they are singled out to be raised for breeding or for meat.(18) Like chickens and turkeys, pigs are genetically manipulated and pumped full of drugs, and many become crippled under their own weight. Although pigs are naturally affable and social animals, the confinement of these crowded pens causes neurotic behaviors such as cannibalism and tail-biting, so farmers cut off piglets’ tails without any painkillers and use pliers to break off the ends of piglets’ teeth.(19)
Pigs are transported through all weather extremes, often freezing to the sides of transport trucks in leading pig-slaughtering states such as Iowa and Nebraska, or dying from dehydration in states such as North Carolina. According to industry statistics, more than 1 million pigs die en route to slaughter each year.(20)
At the slaughterhouse, improper stunning means that many hogs reach the scalding-hot water baths—which are intended to soften their skin and remove their hair—while they are still conscious.(21) USDA inspection records documented 14 humane slaughter violations at one processing plant, including finding hogs who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.”(22) A PETA investigation found that workers at an Oklahoma farm were killing pigs by slamming the animals’ heads against the floor and beating them with a hammer.(23) At a Hormel supplier in Iowa, PETA investigators witnessed rampant cruelty to animals, including that workers beat pigs with metal gate rods and jabbed clothespins into pigs’ eyes and faces. For more on this investigation, please visit PETA.org.
Environmental and Health Concerns
Factory farms are harmful to the environment as well as being cruel to animals. The 3 trillion pounds of waste produced by factory-farmed animals each year are usually sprayed on fields, and they subsequently run off into waterways—along with the drugs and bacteria that they contain.(24) According to the EPA, agricultural runoff is the number one source of water pollution.(25)
Two-thirds of all agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food or to grow grain to feed them.(26) Chickens, pigs, cattle, and other animals raised for food are the primary consumers of water in the U.S.—a single pig consumes 21 gallons of drinking water per day, while a cow on a dairy farm drinks as much as 50 gallons daily.(27,28) It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of cow flesh, whereas it takes about 180 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of whole-wheat flour.(29)
Food-related illnesses affect more than 76 million people annually and kill more than 5,000.(30) Consumer Reports found that two-thirds of chickens studied were infected with either salmonella or campylobacter or both.(31) Eggs pose a salmonella threat to approximately one out of every 50 people each year in some parts of the U.S.(32) Potentially deadly E. coli bacteria sickens more than 62,000 people each year, and the USDA reports that most of the cattle slaughtered for food in the U.S. are likely infected with it.(33)
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rob 04/17/2010 11:42:00 PM
Factory Farming: Mechanized Madness
The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past, which are still portrayed in children’s books, have been replaced by windowless metal sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems—what is now known as “factory farming.” Farmed animals have no federal legal protection from horrific abuses that would be illegal if they were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilations, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and inhumane slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less sensitive, intelligent, or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs or cats whom we cherish as companions.
Deprivation and Disease
The factory-farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible—and in the smallest amount of space possible. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and other animals are kept in small cages or stalls, where they are often unable to turn around. They are deprived of exercise so that all their energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. They are fed drugs that fatten them faster, and they are genetically manipulated to grow faster or produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally.
Because crowding creates an atmosphere that welcomes disease, animals on factory farms are fed and sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides and antibiotics, which remain in their bodies and are passed on to the people who consume them, creating serious human health hazards. While the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have called the use of antibiotics in this manner of “serious emerging concern,” the industry simply could not continue to raise billions of animals per year in such cramped, filthy conditions without the drugs that allow animals to survive conditions that would otherwise kill them.(1)
Chickens
Chickens are inquisitive animals, and in their natural surroundings, they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another and develop pecking orders, love and care for their young, and enjoy full lives that include dust-bathing, making nests, and roosting in trees. On factory farms, however, chickens are denied these activities and suffer because of it.
Laying hens live in battery cages stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. Confined seven or eight to a cage, they don’t have enough room to turn around or spread even one wing. Conveyor belts bring in food and water and carry away eggs. Farmers often induce greater egg production through “forced molting”: Chickens are denied food and light for days, which leads to feather and weight loss.(2)
To prevent stress-induced behaviors caused by extreme crowding—such as pecking their cagemates to death—hens are typically kept in semi-darkness, and the ends of their sensitive beaks are cut off with hot blades without any painkillers. The wire mesh of the cages rubs their feathers and skin off and causes their feet to become crippled. Chickens can live for more than a decade, but laying hens on factory farms are exhausted and unable to produce as many eggs by the time they are 2 years old, so they are slaughtered.(3,4) More than 100 million “spent” hens die in slaughterhouses each year.(5) Ninety-eight percent of the egg industry’s hens are confined to cages on factory farms.(6)
More than 9 billion “broiler” chickens are raised in sheds each year.(7) Artificial lighting is manipulated to keep the birds eating as often as possible. To keep up with demand and to reduce production costs, genetic selection calls for big birds and fast growth (it now takes only six weeks to “grow out” a chick to “processing” weight), which causes extremely painful joint and bone conditions.(8) Undercover investigations into the “broiler” chicken industry have revealed that birds routinely suffer from dehydration, respiratory diseases, bacterial infections, heart attacks, crippled legs, and other serious ailments.
At the slaughterhouse, chickens are hung upside down, their legs are forced into metal shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding-hot water in defeathering tanks. They are often conscious throughout the entire process. Click here to read more about an undercover investigation at a KFC supplier’s slaughterhouse, where workers were caught on video stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against floors and walls.
Cattle
Cows who are free to roam pastures and care for their young form life-long friendships with one another and have demonstrated the ability to be vain, hold grudges, solve problems, and play games.(9) But cows raised for the meat and dairy industries are often far removed from lush pastures and nursing calves.
Cattle raised for beef may be born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are fed an unnatural diet of high-bulk grains and other “fillers,” which can include expired dog and cat food, poultry feces, and leftover restaurant food.(10) They are castrated, their horns are ripped out, and they have third-degree burns inflicted on them (branding)—all without any painkillers. During transportation, cattle are crowded onto trucks, where they suffer from trampling and temperature extremes and lack food, water, and veterinary care. At the slaughterhouse, cattle may be hoisted upside down by their hind legs and dismembered while they are still conscious. The kill rate in a typical slaughterhouse is 400 animals per hour, and “the line is never stopped simply because an animal is alive,” according to one slaughterhouse worker.(11)
Calves raised for veal are the male offspring of dairy cows. They’re taken from their mothers within a few days of birth, and they are chained in stalls that have slatted floors and are only 2 feet wide and 6 feet long.(12) Since their mothers’ milk is used for human consumption, the calves are fed a milk substitute that is designed to help them gain at least 2 pounds a day.(13) The diet is purposely low in iron so that the calves become anemic and their flesh stays pale and tender.(14)
Pigs
Pigs are very clean animals who take to the mud primarily to cool off and evade flies. They are just as friendly and gregarious as dogs, and according to Professor Donald Broom at the Cambridge University Veterinary School, “They have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly three-year-olds.”(15) Mother pigs on factory farms in the U.S. spend most of their lives confined to crates that measure 7 feet long and 2 feet wide, barely larger than the pigs themselves.(16) They display signs of extreme boredom and stress, such as biting the bars of their cages and gnashing their teeth.(17) Their piglets are taken away three weeks after birth and packed into pens until they are singled out to be raised for breeding or for meat.(18) Like chickens and turkeys, pigs are genetically manipulated and pumped full of drugs, and many become crippled under their own weight. Although pigs are naturally affable and social animals, the confinement of these crowded pens causes neurotic behaviors such as cannibalism and tail-biting, so farmers cut off piglets’ tails without any painkillers and use pliers to break off the ends of piglets’ teeth.(19)
Pigs are transported through all weather extremes, often freezing to the sides of transport trucks in leading pig-slaughtering states such as Iowa and Nebraska, or dying from dehydration in states such as North Carolina. According to industry statistics, more than 1 million pigs die en route to slaughter each year.(20)
At the slaughterhouse, improper stunning means that many hogs reach the scalding-hot water baths—which are intended to soften their skin and remove their hair—while they are still conscious.(21) USDA inspection records documented 14 humane slaughter violations at one processing plant, including finding hogs who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.”(22) A PETA investigation found that workers at an Oklahoma farm were killing pigs by slamming the animals’ heads against the floor and beating them with a hammer.(23) At a Hormel supplier in Iowa, PETA investigators witnessed rampant cruelty to animals, including that workers beat pigs with metal gate rods and jabbed clothespins into pigs’ eyes and faces. For more on this investigation, please visit PETA.org.
Environmental and Health Concerns
Factory farms are harmful to the environment as well as being cruel to animals. The 3 trillion pounds of waste produced by factory-farmed animals each year are usually sprayed on fields, and they subsequently run off into waterways—along with the drugs and bacteria that they contain.(24) According to the EPA, agricultural runoff is the number one source of water pollution.(25)
Two-thirds of all agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food or to grow grain to feed them.(26) Chickens, pigs, cattle, and other animals raised for food are the primary consumers of water in the U.S.—a single pig consumes 21 gallons of drinking water per day, while a cow on a dairy farm drinks as much as 50 gallons daily.(27,28) It takes more than 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of cow flesh, whereas it takes about 180 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of whole-wheat flour.(29)
Food-related illnesses affect more than 76 million people annually and kill more than 5,000.(30) Consumer Reports found that two-thirds of chickens studied were infected with either salmonella or campylobacter or both.(31) Eggs pose a salmonella threat to approximately one out of every 50 people each year in some parts of the U.S.(32) Potentially deadly E. coli bacteria sickens more than 62,000 people each year, and the USDA reports that most of the cattle slaughtered for food in the U.S. are likely infected with it.(33)
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Dr. Rosset 04/17/2010 3:50:00 PM
It is very clear in reading the comments that these people lie all the time. For example the European Union which has in place these laws that HSUS and PeTA want passed in this country are coming to the US because their animals are dying faster and faster. They do away with antibiotics and furnished cages despite studies to the contrary and now they are finding their animals are dying twice as fast as before. Regulated use of antibiotics as used in this country do not affect humans. It is our use of antibiotics on humans that affects humans. Also every farmer in this country long before these idiots came upo the scene went to college to learn modern methods of farming that ensure animals are well treated. Cattle do not stand in excrement for hours they are moved around the feedlot. But even out in the field cattle drop cowpies by the minute and stand in them all the time. Dogs will walk in their own feces and they will eat their own feces this fetish of pretending that animal don't like to stand or eat their own feces is another lie as any pet owner will tell you that at one time or another their pet has eaten feces. It is only our human disgust with this act that we assign our own perspective to this act as not normal whereas in the animal world it is the norm. Animals use their feces and urine to mark, to eat and drink, to survive. They are not disgusted by their own body fluids as are humans. Everything stated by Matilde of Tuscany is a lie and not at all true. 98 % if all farms are family owned. Being big doesn't make you a factory. Every farmer cares about his/her animals and does the best for them as they are their livilhood. Animal rights people know nothing about the care of animals and push their agenda for other reasons and that is control of the food supply and a push to dominate this country.
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sheila 04/17/2010 3:47:00 PM
Watch a video about factory farming then make your decision. We buy meat without any appreciation or thought of what that animal endured. Pigs are the 4th most intelligent creature in the world and are tortured daily. We are greedy and selfish.
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Sheila 04/17/2010 3:45:00 PM
Watch a video of factory farming on you tube...then make your decision. We buy meat without the slightest thought or appreciation of where it comes from or how that animal was treated. We are spoiled and greedy.
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Dr. Rosset 04/17/2010 3:36:00 PM
The writer of this article really does play up the sympathy for the HSUS when in fact HSUS passes laws by lying to the public. For instance the gestation crates prevent the mother pig from rolling on her piglets and killng them. Before gestation crates farmers would find half or more of the litter dead in the morning from the sow rolling on her piglets. After gestation crates which are used only for short periods of time no deaths. The same with free roaming versus funished cages. Studies show that free roaming chickens die sooner lay cracked unusuable eggs and harrass each other to death, whereas furnished cage chickens are less stressed lay better cleaner eggs and most important live longer. You have to ask why HSUS lies about these issues to the public. Only one reason to control your food supply thus control your lives. They do not want you to eat meat period. They want to turn this country into a socialist controlled society. They refuse to recognize that the strict vegan diet damages the brain and internal organs. The human body must have vitamin B12 and high grade protein to grow regenerate cells and maintain a healthy brain. Without you die and become demented. The person who controls the production and use of vitamin B12 controls the population. This is nothing more than a cult like all cults do trying to take over your rights. However, they are using your children like Hitler did to make you conform. The symptoms of a B12 deficiency are hyper emotionalism, inability to think or focus and evently mental confusion and dementia. Don't fall for this cult that has made out that pet owners are evil and cruel, that farmers are evil and cruel. Note that Pollan lied to the family he stayed with about his intentions in writing his books. He intended from the start to deceive the public. This is what the animal rights people do best lie.
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PeterK 04/17/2010 5:46:00 AM
I find it laughable that PETA constantly complains about cruelty to animals and yet they are one of the largest killers of abandoned pets in this country
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
I do wish that the media at some point in time do an investigation on what PETA and the HSUS do with the monies donated to them. both are scams
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/article_detail.cfm/a/184-7-things-you-didnt-know-about-hsus
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/h/2879-animal-rights-avarice-in-katrinas-wake
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/story?columnist=guest_columnist&page=g_col_PETA_ELF_NYPost
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Amber 04/16/2010 10:28:00 PM
I am creating a PSA on this subject, so it's exciting to see this story on the cover of the Dallas Observer. Quote from Animal Liberation "agriculture" had turned into "agribusiness".
I have been on a vegetarian diet for a while now, I want to stop the inhumane farming of animals. Yes, the farmed animals will be slaughtered no matter what, but that does not mean they have to be mistreated every day of their life!
I encourage everyone to read this article and put some thought into what you consume.
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04/15/2010 5:23:00 PM
I'll remember not to buy Yellow Tail wine, since they reneged on their commitment to the Humane Society, under the 15 minutes of fame of one disgruntled cattle farmer.
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matilda of tuscany 04/15/2010 3:22:00 PM
Beyond the humane issue for the animals, our current conventional treatment of food animals is:
1. a health risk (antibiotic overload, e coli, mad cow, swine flu, etc). Hundreds of animals, stressed in tight quarters, and housed inappropriately close together is a perfect storm for mass contagion potential.
2. an environmental nightmare--grazing animals shift from grass area to grass area, leaving behind "fertilizer" to enrich the soil for the next years grazing. When packed together, all that waste is a threat to ground water supplies (causing nitrogen bloom, e coli, antibiotics in drinking water, and a multitude of other issues), a "smell" nuisance, and soil threat. Read the EPA's 81 page document of environmental impact of feedlots: http://www.epa.gov/guide/feedlots/envimpct.pdf
3. It is a nutritional issue as well: pasture raised and free range chickens have leaner and healthier meat and eggs, higher in nutrient value
Going back to the humane issue, I grew up a farm and ranch gal...just 30 years ago things were so much different. Animals that were lovingly cared for and given the best treatment possible were calmly led from the pasture environment to a humane end with a butcher either coming to our farm or straight to a small scale, calm butcher facility. The current system is ripe with abuse--from long haul double-decker trucks without food and water to months of standing in close containment without shelter and standing in their own muck. While I might not be for animal "rights", the mentality of conventional farmers (taught at ag school) is to totally take the animal-ness out and just call them "production units". This allows sociopath behavior towards them, after all they are just a "unit". This follows the animals from throwing piglets and chicks (without regard to injury), to close confinement, to not humanely euthanizing injured animals, to trucking abuses, feedlot abuses, to slaughterhouse abuses.
Conventional food farmers lost my trust when they started feeding animal by-products to herbivores--GROSS, and a serious health issue! I prefer to support, in moderation, the local, natural, pasture-based farmers that are frequenting our local markets. I can build a relationship with them, determine who is a sincere, good animal husbandry expert with regard to our environment, health and nutrition--while treating their animals with care and respect. Those farmers deserve my support, and the animals deserve a dignified and humane life and end of life.
Too bad the rest of our American farmers can't see the light.
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Tim Covington 04/15/2010 3:09:00 PM
I long ago decided that any of my money going to animal groups goes to local groups. The national groups (ASPCA, Humane Society, PETA, etc.) care more about passing flashy laws that harm people than they care about actually helping and protecting animals.
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Carol 04/15/2010 12:32:00 PM
The fact is cattle are forced to spend weeks standing in excrement being fed corn to fatten them up before slaughter. The excrement they stand in ends up all over their body and some of it is going to be carried into the slaughter house and possibly into the final product. Corn is an unnatural food for cattle and after several weeks of eating it E-Coli begins to form in the cattle's gut. Wonder why we have so much food poisoning? And fatten them up for what? So you will be healthier? I think not. We only buy grass fed cattle and whenever possible ones that don't see a feedlot.
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Janet 04/14/2010 11:30:00 PM
Maybe American farmers should be buying American wine?
