| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Bee Haven Maven |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 06:19:13 AM
 I don't usually use this forum to take a stand, but I think this is a good place to start. I hope that each and everyone of you has seen the news on TV today. The lead story is about a beef recall. The Humane Society got video footage of inhumane treatment of beef cattle at a Southern California slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. THIS IS COMMONPLACE. Our beef industry is guilty of inhumane, torturous treatment of innocent animals each and every day. The content is extremely graphic, but if you want to see the story, you can see it here on ABC's website...
www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4304909 (I WARN you, the video content is very graphic....I cried and cried)
Our beef is no longer grazed on pasture, but is force-fed corn and made to stand knee deep in their own manure....sickly....given antibiotics and growth hormones...which are then passed to us in the meat.
On top of that, these poor creatures spend their lives suffering cruelties that would make your skin crawl only to be followed with terrifying, horrific deaths.....
Today I am so saddened by what humanity is capable of....and I feel so helpless in making a difference. I personally, will never eat a bite of beef that has not been locally grown and pastured. Cattle at least deserve a good life grazing in the warmth of the sun...until such time that they can receive a humane end. They are God's creatures...not just protein.
Sorry about the rant, but I had to get this off my chest ...and if just one of you reads this and decides to also boycot grocery store restaurant, and fast food beef, then I feel like I HAVE made a difference today. Thanks for reading.
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| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jenbove |
Posted - Feb 21 2008 : 12:56:10 PM
This essay from Mike Callicrate is pretty interesting. In his own words, Callicrate "is an independent cattle producer, business entrepreneur and political activist, particularly outspoken in addressing the rural and social impacts of current economic trends." You can find this article & others on his blog at http://blog.nobull.net/.
Worn-out dairy cows reflect industrial agriculture's failings http://callicrate.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/02/worn-out-dairy.html
By Mike Callicrate
Once again America and the world are shocked at the extent business will go to make money. And I don't just mean the inhumane treatment of cows and the resulting record recall of 143 million pounds of beef. We aren't happy with the amount of milk a normal cow produces. Growth promotants, production boosting hormones, antibiotics and all other forms of cost-reducing profit-enhancing technology is never enough.
Today's highly concentrated and consolidated food system is dominated by huge multinational corporations that aren't happy with the profit normal animals, humans and the earth will provide. The desperation of small operators is palpable as these modern Robber Barons sit fat and happy in their office suites looking down on the lowly highly disadvantaged independent competitors. The marketplace is so demanding and predatory that small and medium sized companies have little hope of surviving even with corner cutting and/or resorting to outright cheating.
Milking the system
The Bible instructs us to care for our animals, "A righteous man respects the life of his animal." Our cows tell the ugly and sad story. A cow that once gave milk over a period of eight or more years is now, with the use of Monsanto's rBGH hormone and aggressive hot feed rations, often used up after three years. The weak remains of this completely drained animal milking machine is then ground into our school lunches, fed to recovering patients in hospitals and nursing homes and further distributed through food service companies into restaurant and other institutional trade. This cheap meat is used by big food service companies to drive producers of good, healthy and safe local beef out of business.
No one is better off except the big food and chemical corporations. Desperation is seen in the way both humans and animals are treated. Our food system is like the coal mines and miners of Appalachia - family farm agriculture and small processors are being strip-mined out of business as the enormous wealth created from their labor and land is stolen by Tyson, Cargill, ConAgra, Swift, Monsanto and their big retail partners. Our nation's future health and well-being is at stake.
Recalling the beef while eliminating the competition
USDA as a wholly owned subsidiary of the big food cartel is not the people's agency that President Lincoln envisioned. Isn't it interesting how the well publicized food recalls negatively affect the smaller plants most? What would this week's beef recall have looked like had the inhumane treatment been videoed at one of the major plants, which by the way have tight security preventing such embarrassments? Many of the large national recalls have resulted in the elimination of smaller plants like Hudson and Topps, causing further consolidation of our food system into fewer and fewer hands.
USDA cops are in the pocket of the criminals
Obviously we aren't happy with the job USDA is doing in protecting our food supply. However, what many don't realize is the USDA is also responsible for making sure the marketplace is fair and competitive, giving us good choices as to where we buy our food.
USDA has abdicated their responsibility for enforcing the antitrust laws that were designed to protect the producers of our food from unfair business practices, thereby protecting all of us from monopoly control over what we eat. One hundred years ago Congress agreed that we are best served by a family farm and ranch food system with many buyers and sellers serving the best interests of consumers, not a system controlled by the Robber Barons that we have today. What physical and mental toll does it take on the management and labor of small and medium sized companies when they get up every morning facing the life threatening predators of big food? We see the anxiety in the lack of dignity and respect shown to others and to the animals that provide our food.
Bigger is not better
The relatively modern "bigger is better" experiment in agriculture and food, also known of as industrial agriculture, has been a complete disaster. The economy of scale and efficiency lies have been propagated throughout our corporate controlled universities and government agencies since before the days of Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz. Industrialization has been mandated through government policy, driving farm and ranch families off the land and into the cities to do "more productive work". Like in Appalachia, this industrial model is mining, rather than nurturing our land, people and communities, leaving a wasteland of broken rural towns and dead dirt. Dan Glickman was asked during his term as Ag Secretary why USDA didn't enforce the antitrust laws from the early 1900's protecting independent producers and our marketplace. He said, "It's different this time. We are trading in a global market, we need big companies that can do business globally."
Let's not allow the serious and totally unacceptable problems that have been exposed in the past couple weeks to push us closer to an even more dangerous food system - one controlled more and more by big food and a corrupt USDA.
Jen
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| Annika |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 9:01:29 PM
You got it girl! I'm working up something intelligent to say to write to my local papers, don't know if it'll see print, but...
Annika
Farmgirl sister #13
Mud Hen Queen
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| chicken necker |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 7:35:41 PM
That's the ticket, Zan! I've typed up a flyer myself. If we could get the FarmGirls on all a petition that would be awesome.
I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by. ~anon |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 5:42:52 PM
Whoa! Ok, I'm looking back at the posts...no worries guys, please let's not fight amongst ourselves (hey, I warned you I was opening a can of worms!) The universal point in this thread is that we deeply care about animals, and where our food comes from, and hopefully we can collectively find a way to be humane in our choices in how we deal with animals.
Ok...I'm still thinking...how about a grassroots handwriting campaign where we all collectively send in letters and petitions? Hey, if anyone can do it, Farmgirls can!
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| CountryBorn |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 5:26:39 PM
That film was a nightmare to me. I was depressed and angry and so
emotional all day. I cannot stand to see animals abused it just kills me. Even the thought of the good farmers having to kill them makes me feel so bad. I know that is ridiculous but I just can't help it. I mean you buy the meat and you just don't think you are doing anything wrong and then you see something like that and it just all comes to light at once. Are you sure all supermarket beef is gotten like that? I had seen the horrible abuse of chickens and now I buy organically raised free range chicken. It is pricey but it also is delicious and it is the normal size a chicken breast should be, not 3 times it's normal size fron all the hormones. I will certainly look into this, and buy the best raised beef I can. I know I can no longer eat anything that I now know has been tortured like that.
Mary Jane
There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Freya Stark |
| jenbove |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 4:46:32 PM
MAKE YOUR TEARS COUNT: Buy organic, buy local, or don't buy meat at all.
The industry can not function this way if we refuse to buy into it.
Jen
GOT A "WILD HAIR"?
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| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 3:52:47 PM
Wow, Tracey. I guess the Michael Vick investigation thing was just a fluke too...I think maybe because horses are your specific cause you find more fault with HSUS or other oraganizations...whatever, but try not be SO agressive with your opinion. Inform not inflame--I'd really appreciate that, because we're all here to learn and that just doesn't help.
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 3:02:57 PM
Thanks Lori. Actually, I should have been more clear. I am aware that the US no longer allows for domestic slaughter of horses. I am also aware that people will now ship them to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. This is clearly wrong. However, how is the Humane Society involved. IF they helped put an end to domestic slaughtering of animals, how are they now responsible for these other heinous acts?
Don't get me wrong, folks, I don't put my entire trust on huge entities; It's like finding out Disney World is one of the largest polluters in Florida, or that PETA has actually been accused of hurting animals, I just want to know what is going on.
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| Canadian farmgirl |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 2:56:37 PM
Here's a link to what I found out about the horse slaughter issue:
http://www.hr857.com/
I had no idea about this.
Lori |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 2:50:21 PM
Ok, I'm gonna open a whole nother can of worms here, but I'm curious. What is the "no horse slaughter issue"?
In the meantime, if you are looking to write your local congressman/woman or local state legislators, here's a great site that might help you along your way:
www.congress.org
Another suggestion is to write the Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns and anyone else involved with the USDA....
Hmmm...I have more ideas......hmmm...
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 1:57:13 PM
HSUS is no better than PETA in most instances, folks, so while I'm thankful they pulled this information to the forefront, don't get sucked into fantasy world. They're also partly to blame for the no horse slaughter issue, which hasn't done a bit of good to the horses of this country.
Buying local is your best option. Finding someone who'll raise an animal for you is a great deal as well (we're going to raise a second pig this year for someone else.)
Desperate Horsewife, raising funds for the Mustang Makeover!
http://desperate-horsewife.blogspot.com |
| Linda Houston |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 11:49:01 AM
I saw the film of the mistreatment of the cattle and it literally made me ill. I "knew" things like this went on with producers of every types of meat (I have learned), but I was a 'chicken little' about it until the truth hit me in the face. I have cut back on beef because of health reasons, but now I am looking at all animals products.
Thank you, Mary Jane, for the sites where I can purchase meats that are safe and does not cause pain to animals. I am in a small city and this AM was shopping for food, deciding to drive 2 hours to a organic store so that I can be healthy both inside and out.
To say I am horrified sounds light to me and I can not describe an adjective that seems strong enough for my feelings. I am so grateful for this forum to be able to express this and not be looked at like a nut case.;
Linda H. |
| chicken necker |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 11:03:18 AM
My husband watched this last night. He comes up stairs and says "Whatever you do, do not look at the news." He always says this when things like this happen. He knows I'm gonna have an anxiety attack, lose it and get all paranoid. He's right and I did! I had to go to the grocery store for a few things, thankfully not meat, but I had to pass through that department. Oh! I lost it completely, sobbing and tears running down my face. At first, I felt like I had made a fool of myself, but then I got angry! You know what? I didn't make of fool of myself, the Government and the Industry has made fools of all of us poor, pathetic, gullible taxpayers and consumers!!!
I am not a vegetarian now (I was for a while years ago, but became sickly and weighed only 73lbs, which was not a good look ) But I have Empathy down to a fine art! Now I can't even bring myself to roast the chicken I got out for dinner. I don't know what I'm going to do for dinner just yet. But I do know what else I need to do, just like everyone else should....
Stand up to the Government and the Industry and demand to be heard!
Write letters to everyone we know and people we don't know!
Buy only local organically raised meat, poultry and produce!
(or do ourselves if we can)
And Pray to the Gods (insert yours here) that(He/She/They) can protect us and help us protect ourselves and our loved ones!
OK, I'm back now. Sorry, where were we?
Write those letters to our local representatives...
Write more letters to the
I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by. ~anon |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 09:50:16 AM
I agree Dalyn. Well, so now the secret's out. This is how sad we are as a country. How in the world did we let the dollar get so almighty around here? And, more importantly, how do we fix it?
The saddest part about the whole thing is that not only do these poor animals suffer, the small farmer suffers. Here you have a farming family, working longer hours, doing honest work, who is losing out to agri-business. Yes, it is BUSINESS, none of it remotely has farming in it. There is no pasture, there is no health concern for the animal or the worker...nothing. And, as mentioned, this sort of thing happens with our crop too. And this is what is happening to the small farmers and farms, getting bought out by big business. Like I've said before, I might be big city, but this just makes me livid.
Again, I say, what are we going to do about this?
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| QueenofQuiteAlot |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 09:15:53 AM
I live in a ranching area and fruit growing area...before the apple orchard behind me got torn out for a horse ranch, we used to have to hide inside on some days! BECAUSE the airplanes that flew over to spray the trees would inadvertantly spray my pasture- including us if we happened to be in it!
I also found out that most growers here sold the apples to Japan. We buy our apples from Japan- isn't that stupid? We sell them our apples- sprayed to death with pesticides and treated to not ripen anymore and get rotten before they can be sold over there, and then we buy the same gross thing from them. When all the time there are lovely fresh apples for everyone in their own country. Own towns. Politics. We are poisoned for politics.
Like I said before- grow your own or buy from some other person who is.
Dalyn
Muckboots 'N Aprons Chapter
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| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 05:39:13 AM
Tricia, Zan mentioned the HSUS and as a member, I receive constant email petitions about this very thing. A few months ago, I wrote our congressman about the "downed animal act", and each and every time I write (via HSUS), I receive a letter (albeit a stamped signature) relating what they are doing in regard to my request. Doesn't matter Democrat or Republican. So, do check out the HSUS.
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| MaryJane |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 02:09:12 AM
Our right to cheap food and meat in particular, has created disastrous results not only for animals and eaters but also for the workers who process meat. Here's a story about a mysterious human neurological disease showing up in workers in a plant in Minnesota that kills and butchers 19,000 hogs a day. The Hormel plant is in a small town and employs 1,300 people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05pork.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=february+5%2C+2008&st=nyt&oref=slogin
(If you get a pop-up ad, just click your back button and the story should appear.)
If you eat meat and can't find a local source from someone you trust and you don't have access to a co-op or health food store that carries organic or grass-fed beef, etc. and you can't grow your own (best option!), you can always eat less meat and order it online for special meals.
If there's another place to squeeze your budget--movies, lattes, soda pop, booze, travel, entertainment, etc.--it's probably doable online. Families now spend "less" (almost half as much) than they used to spend for food sixty to seventy years ago, not in dollars but percent-wise--the amount of a family's overall budget vs. the amount earmarked for food. Our priorities have shifted away from wholesome food. The volume pricing thing has been a disaster for the people who sign up to feed people. Aunt Jenny, if you paid yourself a decent wage for a gallon of Mona's milk (to include ALL your costs and labor) how much do you think you'd have to charge? I think my organic eggs would cost around $12 a dozen!!!! An egg a day would then cost $1 but that's less than a daily latte...
Love more. Buy less. Eat better.
http://www.organicprairie.com/who_we_are.html
http://www.diamondorganics.com/prod_detail_list/56
MaryJane, Proud Farmgirl #1
~Recession is capitalism's way of getting you to grow a garden~ |
| Shirley |
Posted - Feb 19 2008 : 12:51:36 AM
You are all right about the meat you eat!!! BUT NOW would you like to hear about the fruit and veggies we eat, that arent organic. Thats another story and the FDA isnt to trustworthy either.
They allow sprays and crap on fruits and vegtables ,that you think ar ok, but they allow a certain amont saying its safe.
I dont trust any of them
you even have to watch why buying organic to make sure its USDA and then sometimes Im not sure about it.
getting down off my box now
Shirley |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 10:08:00 PM
Tricia, I like this idea. I wonder if each of us could write our local congressman or state rep about this? I wonder if there is something we could do.
You could boycott eating supermarket meat, like most of the ladies are suggesting, you could contact the Humane Society, I am sure they have plenty of their own suggestions on how to help:
www.hsus.org
You can also try the Farm Sanctuaries that I've been mentioning, they are very good at lobbying the government for kinder standards for farm animals, they've been doing so for years:
Farm Sanctuary: www.farmsanctuary.org
or Catskill Animal Sanctuary: www.casanctuary.org
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| Aunt T |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 6:52:15 PM
Help! How do we take a stand verbally with our government?? How can we help? I made phone calls to our local state rep. to put an end to slaughtering horses in Illinois, so surely we can do the same with cattle. We can make a difference ladies! Cows, here we come!
Wish It, Dream It, Do It! |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 6:32:06 PM
Yep, Jonni, that is the farm sanctuary, indeed! The Cincinnati cow story is on their homepage
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 6:03:22 PM
Zan, one of the cows that escaped the slaughter house on the West Side of Cincinnati is at the farm sanctuary in NY you mentioned. Isn't that the one run by the artist Peter Max (sp)? The poor cow was on the run for a month in Mt Airy Forest, and he became quite the celebrity.
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 6:00:19 PM
Yep, there are many places that will help animals. Grace, there are national Farm Sanctuaries that will take in Farm Animals that are abandoned, etc, due to foreclosure. Type in "Farm Sanctuary" they have two massive tracts of land and they are the first people to offer sanctuary to Farmed Animals. One is in California, on is in Watkins Glen, NY but they will take in what they can, from around the country.
And Patricia, I know about those horses. I have never seen such a vile act in the way they kill them for horse meat! Sometimes I wonder how crazy a nation we've become in the way we've treated our animals
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 5:48:41 PM
I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Zan on this...so many years ago, when I was first a vegetarian, PETA and other organizations sent literature out about this very thing, and I couldn't even look at it then. I was a vegetarian for 8 years and found several years later,that yes, you can be responsible, and you CAN find your food source. I buy from a local farmer here in Kentucky (hormone and antibiotic free, grass fed beef), and they do their own processing.
Aside from all of the good opinions above, it's just another reason to support the Humane Society, folks!!!
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
| Farmtopia |
Posted - Feb 18 2008 : 5:42:39 PM
**WARNING - huge soapbox rant ahead** 
Actually guys, and I hate to say this, but that is NOT news to me. Call me the hippy city vegetarian, but I've known about the situation for years, and for 17 years now, I've been a vegetarian because of this. And this is why I am also a member of several FARM SANCTUARIES that take in farm animals from cruelty situations like this.
Now mind you, I'm not one of those folks who is going to tell people not to eat meat. Frankly, it's not my call, but I feel that if you're going to get sustenance from an animal, show your "thanks" by giving that animal some sort of decent life before you take it's life. I don't mean frou-frou living, but for heaven's sake let them OUTSIDE into the sun, to graze to eat what's right, and give them space. If they are sick, either treat them or euthanize them.
Which reminds me....for those of you who are JUST NOW being made aware, and have seen that video, trust me, it gets NO BETTER with the way they treat chicken, swine, veal, or any other "grown" food. They will crowd these poor beasts so they live in their own fecal matter, and even if something dies in the same cage, they'll make the living ones live on top of it. There are pigs who are crowded in cages so small they cant EVEN TURN AROUND. This is until they go to slaughter. Ugg, I could go on and on...trust me, you don't want to see it, but just go to the Humane Society of the US homepage and you will see it ALL 
This has been going on for decades. We need to be better educated about what we put into our bodies, and how we treat the poor beasts that give their lives for us. Again, I won't speak against people who eat meat, nor do I think it's unnatural; we are omnivores, but I think we need a bit of compassion, too
I think the best thing we can do is be educated consumers. If there is a reason to go back to family run, small farms, this would be it!
**End of rant***
~*~Dream all you dreamers~*~
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And Blogs:
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