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/