This brought me to tears!!!

[Farmer Kitty]

There are charges being brought in this case! The manager faces up to 8 1/2 years in prision and his Assistant faces about half that or so.

There is not only laws about animal cruelty but, downer cows are not to be processed for human consumtion! This has been since mad cow disease.

The majority of dairy cows end up in slaughter houses at the end of their life as a milk cow. It is a fact of life. What else do we do with them? That doesn't mean they have to be treated in a cruel inhumane way. Hopefully the public out cry on this case will bring more awareness and help to put a stop to this kind of treatment. Unfortunatley, there are to many people who do think their food comes from the grocery store and have no real clue about where food comes from. I meet a young twenty something that had no idea what a dairy farm is. His friend folks own the property next to us as a vacation home and they brought this guy with and came down at milking time. I was just dumb founded with how little he knew.

I'm glad we butcher our own meat!

 

[skatcatla]

Quote:
Yep. Its very true. I have witnessed a major revolution here in Los Angeles. 5 years ago, there were only a handful of farmer's markets and the items offered were limited. Now, there are markets in every corner of the city (even downtown now!) on any day of the week, and the number of farmer's and therefore the number of choices has just exploded. I can now buy everything from milk, cheese and butter to grass fed beef and free-ranged chickens. And as more people started buying these items, the more the prices started to come down so that they could be more affordable for even more people.

So many people are now buying local goods, that the big supermarkets had to get into the game (including Whole Foods, which until recently didn't carry ANY local produce and meats). So basically, because a few people supported these markets years ago and were willing to vote with their pocketbooks, we are now seeing a real change in the food landscape here in California. Of course, we are fortunate in that we can grow just about anything all year round here. The challenge will be for people that live in states where the growing season is much shorter.

 

[skatcatla]

Oh, and there's one more thing we can do: Pressure Congress to finally change the antiquated farm bills that do NOT help farmers, and only support the growing of cheap corn which only helps giant food conglomerates.

Avoid products from companies like Kraft, General Mills, and ConAgra.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
They are working on the farm bill right now. From what I have heard it is a mess. Neither side is close to the other so there is time.