Chicken Farmers

I found a like to this article on the New York Times website. It's about some chicken farmers in Arkansas who are immigrants from Loas, and the BS they were fed in regards to becoming chicken farmers for Tyson. What a suprise!! The masterminds behind the factory farm companies are exploiting! There isn't a blog group dedicated to revealing the plight of the workers involved in factory farming so I thought these humans (also animals so I guess you could say it has to do with animal welfare) deserved at least a post. Check it out.


Dinner
Randy Renfro
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frosworld/2608648165/

 

Riverview Farms

Riverview Farm is one of the many grassfed farms in Georgia.
They have pigs and cows, in addition to growing produce. Riverview farms has a Farm Mobile which is "a mobile farmers market on wheels. Inside, shoppers choose from shelves stocked with organic locally grown produce, free-range eggs, breads from H&F Bread Co., our own grits, polenta, and cornmeal, and sustainable meats. Other regular items on board include cheese from local food artisans like Sequatchie Cove Farm, and pesto from Hope's Gardens. Farm Mobile has everything you need for an all-local dinner!" Farm Mobile's freezer includes grassfed beef and Berkshire pork, all from Riverview Farms. They also stock whole pasture-raised chickens raised by White Oak Pastures.
It's located in Ranger, GA. 
http://www.grassfedcow.com/

Chapter 8 and Overall Review of Eating Animals

Eating Animals has affected me more than any other nonfiction book I have ever read. It is a story that lays down all the facts about eating animals in the 21st century. It is not a book dedicated to changing all its readers to vegetarians, but it is not a book without a purpose. Jonathon Foer wrote Eating Animals as a way to let the American public know the opinions of everyone involved and the common happenings in the "farming" industry of today so that people can hopefully come to the conclusion that, without a doubt, something is wrong.
In Chapter 8, Foer intertwines all of the information of the previous chapters and makes his conclusion clear: the way we are eating animals today is NOT RIGHT. The factory farm was not started to be what it is today. "When Celia Steele raised that first flock of confined chicks...When Charles Vantress crosses a red-feathered Cornish and a New Hampshire to produce the 1946 'Chicken of Tomorrow,'...[they] could not have comprehended what [they were] contributing to" (Foer 248). The greed for money over the well-being of the environment, the workers, and the animals being farmed has turned the vast majority of the farming industry into a monster. Foer revealed the most shocking atrocities in this last chapter. Here is an overview:
"After reported improvement in slaughterhouse conditions...using poles like baseball bats to hit baby turkey, stomping on chickens to watch them 'pop,' beating lame pigs with metal pipes, and knowingly dismembering fully conscious cattle" (Foer 428).
"Today's turkeys are natural insectivores fed a grossly unnatural diet, which can include "meat, sawdust, leather tannery by-products" (Foer 262).
"'deliberate acts of cruelty occurring on a regular basis' at 32 percent of the plants she surveyed during announced visits in the United States" (Foer 251). (What happens when visits are unannounced?)
These next two stories hit me really fast, and I was crying. I've never cried about something like this before. I really don't cry that much for a teenage girl, but these stories just really freaked me out. They are worker testimonials.
"One time the knocking gun was broke all day, they were taking a knife and cutting the back of the cow's neck open while he's still standing up. They would just fall down and be ashaking. And they stab cows in the butt to make 'em move. Break their tails. They beat them so bad...And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out" (Foer 249).
"One time I took my knife -- it's sharp enough -- and I sliced off the end of a hog's nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt left on my hand -- I was wearing a rubber glove -- and I stuck the salt right up the hog's a**. The poor hog didn't know whether to s*** or go blind" (Foer 249). (I don't know if profanity is allowed on here, so I bleeped.)
After reading this I decided to be a vegetarian. I'm embarrassed to say that I changed my mind after about four minutes. I came up with some excuses and decided I couldn't do it. I feel awful about this because I have learned that not eating meat is really the only way to destroy the factory farm, and it needs to be destroyed. Eating old-fashioned farmed meat is really not a plausible option because of the miniscule amount of farmers that are able to have completely humane and natural farms.
"Responding to the factory farmed calls for a capacity to care that dwells beyond information, and beyond the oppositions of desire and reason, fact and myth, and even human and animal." (Foer 259).
"Food matters and animals matter and eating animals matters even more" (Foer 260).
Most of my excuses for continuing to eat meat have to do with the fact that it would put a big strain on my family. Hopefully one day, when I'm on my own and have a family of my own, I can make the right decision.
I encourage everyone to read this book. If you are unsure about your feelings on "farming," this book will help you form a strong opinion and maybe even convince you to stop eating meat.

Sea Lions In DANGERRRR!

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/4688

Interesting stuff. Sea Lions need our protection and support. Please comment on their plight.

Eating Animals: Influence/Speechlessness

Chapter 5 discusses plagues that have drastically affected entire generations. These diseases such as the 1918 Pandemic (also known as the Spanish Flu) as well as the potential pandemic based on the H5N1 virus strand all share something in common, they have found their way from animals to humans. Another unsettling topic mentioned in this chapter is that WHO (World Health Organization) is expecting a devastating pandemic to occur. In fact, they believe it is "overdue". With the prediction of 2 to 7.4 million deaths if the bird flu is passed onto humans, WHO expects great casulties to all countries as well as economic and social disturbances worldwide. So why are humans so susceptible to this possible bird flu? The answer lies in industrial animal-processing techiniques. And again we are led back to factory farms and their harmful and now possibly deadly effects on our lives.

Ch. 3 Eating Animals

In this chapter, Foer defines and discusses many words one might hear involving animal welfare.  Some of the ones that stood out were: battery cage, broiler chicken, bycatch, CAFO&CFE, downer, KFC, and PETA

battery cage: is the cage in which a layer(the chickens whose purpose is to produce eggs) stays in. they are about the size of a sheet of paper or less! can you imagine?

broiler chicken: are the meat chickens-what we eat. get this- broiler chickens use to have a lifespan of 15-20yrs now it is only six weeks because their growing rate has increased 400%!!!
-what if they arent either type? well....over 250 million chicks are killed every year because in factory farms they serve no purpose

bycatch: sea creatures caught by accident. here's an interesting fact "26 pounds of other sea animals were killed and tossed back into the ocean for 1 pound of shrimp"

CAFO&CFE: CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation a.k.a. factory farm-CAFO's harm animals illegally says Foer even though the CAFO was created by the Environmental Protection Agency. What's up with that? Also, the CFE makes it ok to raise animals in any way as long as the method is commonly practiced within the industry

downer: an animal that collapses from poor health and is unable to stand back up.  Foer visited Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ nothing is grown or raised, rescued animals are just kept here until they die because they are usually genetically mutated

KFC: it buys nearly 1 billion chickens a year! It claims to treat their chicks well but workers were caught on video doing terrible things.

PETA: PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and is the largest animals rights organization in the world. One time they distributed "unhappy meals" with bloodied, cleaver-weilding ronald mcdonald! hahahaha. and tossed a dead raccoon at Vogue's, the fashion magazine, editor!

Nature's Harmony Farm

This is a local farm in Elberton, GA.  it is owned and operated by Tim and Liz Young. Tim and Liz started farming once they learned the terrible realities of how animals were treated in factory farm settings.  They tried to put animals back into their natural habitats where they could live. "The sustainable farm offers raw milk cheese, woodlot rare-breed pork, rare-breed pasture raised rabbits, heritage turkeys, true free-range hens, grass-fed beef, grass-fed lamb, organic honey and pasture raised ducks."
http://www.naturesharmonyfarm.com/natures-harmony-story/

Check out their blog also
http://www.naturesharmonyfarm.com/grass-fed-meat-farm-blog/

Mac & Cheese with a Side of...Meat?

http://www.natural-connection.com/resource/tnc_reference_library/cheese.html

While listening to the radio yesterday I heard an interesting report about Kraft Macaroni and Cheese; it may be laced with animal products. Weird right? Who would ever think a dish made of cheese and noodles could have been made from animal matters, a big concern for many vegetarians. I googled the issue and found a link to this article written by Sally Clinton. In response to reader concerns, Clinton did some research and constructed a list of companies that use vegetarian cheeses and companies that well, use animal infused cheeses. To clarify though, the cheeses these companies make aren't actually "made from animals", but made from an enzyme, rennet, which is located in the lining of the forth stomach of calves (baby cows) and other animals. So vegetarians beware and make sure to read your labels carefully because your next "meat free meal" may be far from your expectations.

Big Businesses Quietly Joining the Movement

Big businesses, such as McDonalds and Burger King, have recently become leaders in the animal welfare movement. Although under the radar, this movement of these enormous companies has sparked great chnages. They claim to be simply meeting the consumers demands. This movement is considered "mainstream" by McDonalds' Director of Social Responcibility and thus their movement towards improving the conditions of their animals was inevitable. Still, some argue that these improvements, such as decreasing the amount of hens per cage, are not enough. However, farmers like Gerry and Jesse LaFlemme, whose chickens are raised cage free, only make up one percent of the market! Check out at this article to learn more:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/05/eveningnews/main582028.shtml

Quiet Applause for Wendy's

I posted before about the animal welfare policies that I found on Tyson's and Perdue's websites. Well, I just happened upon the portion of Wendy's website on animal treatment. I was shocked! There were pages and pages of extensive, detailed information on their animal-handling practices. The page included what seemed to be honest percentages and exact descriptions ("Flocks of breeder and broiler chickens must be permitted freedom of movement throughout the entire house, while being protected from harm.") of what their goals and current practices are. Tyson's and Perdue's websites had two or three paragraphs on their beliefs and practices, and their cheif purpose is selling chicken. Go Wendy's for taking initiative and putting it out there! But wait. Thought Wendy's has taken a step toward doing the right thing, they are still participating in common industry practices. Only a very small percent of the animals they buy are "cage-free," and they do agree with the practice of Controlled Atmosphere Stunning (CAS) for chickens, thought not for all animals. Read the article for more.

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer-- Chapters 1&2 Review

Eating Animals was written by Jonathan Safran Foer. Just by reading the title you may think the book deals with he "horrors" or "stigmas" about well, eating animals; ironically this isn't the main focus of the book. In the first chapter, Foer mostly reminisces on his early years and his battles with vegetarianism while also retelling stories of his grandmother and the differences in food's role in his life and how it was in her life. In chapter two, Foer begins to actually talk more about animals. By using dogs as an example he asks his readers how humans, specifically Americans, justify eating certain animals and not others. I found these two chapters very interesting and have actually asked these questions myself in the past. Why is it so acceptable to eat certain animals and not others? How is it that we can basically torture the animals we do eat but be sent to jail for "abusing" a dog or a cat? What are the parameters that set the animals we love apart from the animals that we eat?

Exploring

I was looking around all the news and animal activist websites brainstorming about what my new post would be about and I came across this.....
I was thinking back to the glorious days of watching Food, Inc., specifically watching the farmers that work for the big chicken companies talk about their farms. Tyson brand chicken popped up in my mind, and I thought I would go check out their website. A link to the "Supplier Code of Conduct" caught my eye. I clicked and began to read...
"We have a long-standing commitment to the well-being and proper handling of the animals used in our food products. We expect our supply partners to use humane procedures and sound animal husbandry practices designed to prevent the mistreatment of animals."

Hmmmmm...well that doesn't sound like what we saw!

I then remembered Perdue chicken, and headed over to their website. I found the portion of their page dedicated to stating the beliefs and commitments of their company...

"Our poultry welfare program combines principles from the National Chicken Council and our own 'Best Practices' to create scientifically sound, standards for the humane treatment of poultry."

Does anyone else find this statement ambiguous? I wonder what "Best Practices" means....Also, does the name Carole Morison ring a bell? She's the women that worked for Perdue and showed her chicken houses.

Rewatch the footage here.

Please think about these statements and the interviews we saw.

"Chicken"

Peter Harrison

http://www.flickr.com/photos/devcentre/74685962/

Locate Grassfed Farms in GA!

Jo Robinson, author of the book Pasture Perfect, has a website where she talks animal welfare and farming and says it is the "#1 website for grass-fed food & facts" www.eatwild.com
She researches the benefits of eating grass-fed foods.

She also has a useful gadget to help find pasture-based farms that sell grass-fed meat and dairy products
http://www.eatwild.com/products/georgia.html

Animal Welfare Expert

Temple Grandin, an animal welfare expert, thinks that major dairy producers need to improve their standards of their suppliers.  Big dairy companies are having bad outcomes with too many lame cows.

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20110222-animal-welfare-expert-prods-dairy-producers.ece

Dean Foods is on of the companies Grandin calls out.  here is a link to some of Dean Food's products
http://www.deanfoods.com/brands.aspx
recognize any?

More on White Oak Pastures

I recently posted about White Oak Pastures, a company devoted to producing grass-fed and humanely raised and slaughtered animals. Since, I have discovered that organic stores are not the only places that carry their products, but also over 220 Publix stores! Including 28 in Atlanta! If you're not completely sold on White Oak Pastures, then watch some of this video below:
http://vimeo.com/6177004

Name That Clone!

Scientists have been succesfully cloning animals since 1963 when Asian scientists were able to clone a carp fish. Since then, many more animals have been cloned, including many animals whose meat we eat today. Below is a link to twenty animals that have been succesfully cloned since the 1960s.


http://www.businesspundit.com/20-animals-that-have-been-cloned/

Humanely Raised Animals in Georgia!

A common excuse most use for why they don't try to only eat humanely raised beef is because it is not available to them. However, White Oak Pastures produces locally and humanely raised beef in Bluffon, Ga. White Oak Pastures also has its own slaughter house which meets all federal standards. Its purpose is to promote humanely raised and slaughtered animals while remaining enviornmentally conscious. These grass-fed cows are better for you and are not fed any antibiotics or hormones(unlike those on factory farms). White Oak Patures hopes to meet with restaurants and chefs to expand their consumers. Hopefully we will one day see the benefits of these farms!

See for yourself!
http://www.whiteoakpastures.com/news-georgia-gov.html

Gobble, Gobble! Turkey Abuse!

Another investigation of a food processing plant uncovers maltreatment of the animals being killed for consumption. An undercover operation by the Humane Society of the U.S. caught the grinding of live unwanted turkeys on video. Willmar Poulty company, who runs the plant, promises to find the root of the disregard for animal welfare and fix the problem. Do we believe it?
See the video here (scroll down and click on the video titled "HSUS Exposes Largest Turkey Hatchery").
Read the whole article here.

Let us know what you think!

Happy Chickens!

Chickens
Kristine Paulus
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpaulus/5282610081/