FACTORY FARMING DOES NOT VALUE THE LIFE OR HEALTH OF ANIMALS OR HUMANS!

If you have not yet heard of factory farming, read on for just an ever so small primer.

A recent USA Today title states; “USDA orders largest beef recall: 143.4 million pounds”, a survey by the British government reveals, “Salmonella levels over 5x higher in battery eggs than organic”. Yes, these types of HEADLINES are running rampant in current news because of the ever increasing dilemma of how to feed the great masses of people in the world today. There is an obvious relationship between the QUANTITY of the people in the world and QUALITY of the food that is being offered. Let’s just take a quick look at how poor the quality of food has become when it comes from “Conventional Farming”, “Industrial farming”, “Factory Farming” and even “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” (CAFO’s).

Here are just a few factory farming low-lights:

POULTRY

Concerning factory farming, the chicken MAY have it the worst. Let’s discuss the living conditions of two types of birds, the Boiler Chicken, which get their beaks snipped so that they will not cannibalize the other beak-less chickens; and the American Laying Hen, which spends her brief span of days piled together with three or four other hens in a cage that has a floor not much larger than the size of a white sheet of typing paper. These hens spend their short lives cannibalizing their cage mates and rubbing their breasts on the wire mesh until it is completely bald and bleeding. The survivors of these atrocious conditions are finally starved of food, water and light for several days just in order to stimulate a final egg laying frenzy before they are slaughtered. Is the purchasing of cheap, commercially farmed eggs really worth the savings of a couple dollars?

PORK

Industrial hog production, and factory farming, isn’t much better than the production of the American Laying Hen, as the piglets in these Concentrated Animal Farming Operations have their pigtails snipped off at birth (pair of pliers, no anesthetic), are weaned form their mothers at ten days (compared with thirteen weeks in nature), solely because they can gain weight a lot faster on their drug-fortified feed than on their mother’s milk. Unfortunately, amongst other challenges for these poor pigs, this premature weaning leaves them with a desire to “suck and chew”, which has them constantly seeking gratification from the tail of the pig in front of them. It is thought that because the pigs are in such a sad state of psychological and mental depression (remember these are highly intelligent animals; think “dog”) that they allow this molesting, but if a pig chooses to be economically inefficient and under-perform, because of its desire to “suck and chew”, it will be clubbed to death on the spot. I am not sure if this clubbing is in anyway worse at an early age than a longer life that entails no earth, no straw, and no sunshine, just a life of constant eating while suspended by wood planks over a septic tank. What do you think?

“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.”-Abraham Lincoln

BEEF

In response to the above USA Today headline, I am appalled by the people who are making the important decisions for our food supply, specifically the USDA. In case you missed it, it is thought that the majority of this beef has already been consumed by schools and fast food restaurants (schools and fast-food restaurants). The issue is that the animals could NOT WALK (“downer” cattle) but were still slaughtered for consumption, but only after being improperly treated (of course), and then sold as healthy non-diseased beef. This is how bad it has become in this country; the experts say that there is no need for concern, and I even came across one authority who said that the issue isn’t the quality of the meat but consumers cooking ALL hamburger until it is well-done (the thinking here is that THEY know the beef is bad so YOU need to KILL everything/including fecal matter). This nightmare has brought the movie Fast-Food Nation to real life (if you have not seen this movie, the USDA has just created an opportunity for a sequel). I was recently at a restaurant in Templeton, California where the young person at the table ordered a hamburger, he was asked how he would like it cooked, he asked for “rare” and he received a hamburger cooked “rare”. No questions asked. Now there is a restaurant that is serving high quality meat. Good for them. This high quality of food should be the rule, not the exception. If you don't know if your meat products are coming from factory farming or not, it might be time to find out. Don’t you agree?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the space or time to write on farm-raised salmon or even the industrialization of our dairy farms. But know this, if it is clear that the animal is viewed as a “unit” and farmed in an “assembly line” fashion, NOTHING GOOD CAN COME FROM IT.

Side-Note: I have spoken at length about the hormones, antibiotics, drugs and poor food quality that our future food has to endure while being raised in these types of “factory farms”.

This article was specifically about factory farming, to give people an idea of the living conditions of these animals because I believe we all need to know, and then we need to make wise decisions about our future food sources.

My suggestion: SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS!

Factory Farming... OUT... Local Farmers... IN!