Are store-bought poultry (chicken and turkey) fed medicated chick feed

[Katy]

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I found the part of your statement that I've highlighted rather humorous.....since it seems the the "food inc" goupies are already thinking along those lines in that they know better than the families who have been doing it for many, many years how to farm and feed this nation and a good portion of the rest of the world. The way I see it they are the uneducated & ill-equiped group that wants to be in charge. I'm sure there are some that have some sort of ag background, but for the most part, that group seems to be made up of people who have never made their living or life from agriculture and have a "rose colored glasses" prospective of the whole thing. Are there things that need to be improved?....sure there are, but I'm really tired of people reading a book or seeing on a movie screen issues portrayed in a way to suit the writer or director's point of view and taking that as the gospel truth. "Facts" can be found to prove whatever viewpoint a person wants to put out there......doesn't mean it's the truth.

 

[Peruvian]

I would like to rely less on entities that I don't know, with practices I'm unfamiliar with, that have incentives that may not be in my best interest, to provide for me and my family. How about you?

 

[Buster52]

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No, that would be your average consumer. They have no clue where their food is coming from or the conditions that brought it to them.

But not to worry. They are slowly becoming more educated, thanks to films like Food Inc and FRESH, and books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

It is actually people in agriculture who have been doing it for many, many years who are driving this movement for a more sustainable food system, by the way.

 

[Bossroo]

A little story that is fact ... In one of the now former Iron curtain countries of the Soviet Union... after WW2, on my mother's farm ... my mother's not so bright maid was made the commisar of the new commune farm and my mother's very large house was turned into the commune's headquarters and her huge barn was used for central storage. The surrounding neighbor farm buildings were intentiaonally burned to the ground and communal housing was built to house the new workers. The town's church was burned down and the cemetary headstones were removed and then the land was plowed and planted to field crops. A few years later, the former maid managed to burn down the house and the barn. Crop failures happened when the peasants figured out pretty quick that they got according to their need and there was little insentive for them to give according to their ability so they only worked the land as little as possible. Alcoholism was rampant and prisoners were forced into work gangs under the guard's gunpoint. No one trusted anyone for fear of their own lives. When there was no more getting according to their need, the workers then planted their own seed and raised a chicken, rabbit, pig, or lamb by stealing from the commune. This became fairly easy to do due to the corruption of the authorities. All of the communes of the Soviet Union had a simmilar history. Little wonder why it all callapsed. My mother's sister was captured by the Soviet army and relocated to a nearby town and was forced to work in a sweat shop making dresses. Her husband and my father's brother and family were also captured and put on cattle trains and sent to Siberia and were never heard of again. Just prior to my mother's sister's death in 1995 at age 97, my mother visited her at her one room apartment . Her bathroom was a communal room on the first floor of the 3 story building. She also visited her former farm, which was now not even recognizable, just by memory of the distance from the town, now occupied by peasants in small houses and homesteads built after the fires. After she returned home to Cal. she told me the stories first hand. Look up an island country just south of Florida, maybe look at a country or two in Central Africa, or maybe in S. America. How about a country in SE Asia ? How well off are the people and their rulers? Just look and really see !

 

[Buster52]

Great story, Boss.

But you are just proving my point. Family farms were collectivized and made larger rather than the other way around. When the Soviet Union collapsed, it was the small peasant farmer who quickly moved in and saved the country.

And when our unsustainable system collapses, which it someday will do, it will be the small and medium size sustainable farmer who will save the day.

 

[illegal avian]

"Control the food and you control the people;
Control the oil and you control the nations;
Control the money and you control the world."

-- Henry Kissinger, 1974

 

[Dora'smom]

I agree that it will be the small farmers that will save us.
As for the idea that most of America is uneducated when it comes to where our food comes from, I have to agree. Most people really have no idea. I sell eggs at my work place, occasionally, and my best customers are those who have watched films of the egg and meat chicken industries on Oprah, etc. and are horrified at what actually goes on. They are frantic to get all the eggs that they can, as they never want to buy those "cruel" factory eggs again. Seriously, several of them have told me that they want as many eggs as I can give them.

 

[Bossroo]

The callapse of large collective farms was inevitable from the get go due to incompetance of the people put in charge, corruption of the Communist Party leaders, NO incentive for the workers as everyone got an "equal share" , rampant alcoholism throughout the population, mistrust and fear. Since everyone had next to notheing to eat, many were forsed to steal to survive. They stole from the commune to set up their own gardens and what little crop that they harvested was stolen by hungry guards. When faced with no government handouts and facing starvation, they now had incentive to grow their own food with the help from other free enterprise counties. Totally different ideaological system from the free enterprise that we have here. Have faith in your own incentive to succeed!!! They sure didn't get to have a piece of utopia that was promised.

 

[illegal avian]

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Sounds like the voice of experience... Do you live in Chicago or DC?

 

[Katy]

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No, that would be your average consumer. They have no clue where their food is coming from or the conditions that brought it to them.

But not to worry. They are slowly becoming more educated, thanks to films like Food Inc and FRESH, and books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

It is actually people in agriculture who have been doing it for many, many years who are driving this movement for a more sustainable food system, by the way.

I'm not talking about them knowing where their food comes from....most people don't have a clue....I'm saying the Food Inc groupies think they've got all the answers and could do a better job providing food for everyone than we farmers and ranchers do. I think most of you would be in for a rude shock on how hard it is to make a living doing what we do.