Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[aveca]

OMG, I just had to butt in here when I saw this! It's the never-ending quest between the gov't & factory farmers to keep the small farmer down. It's so wrong! I'm surprised they haven't instituted the quota system, like here in Canada. The powers that be are feeling threatened by us? I think they may be worried that organic & free range products might just take off & become more popular. Heaven forbid if it gets out of their control! Gov'ts in north america have been coddling us all way too long! Enough of this B.S.!

Its not government so much much as corporate farms like monsantos..they try to run small farmers out..threaten them.. its along story..but they do tend to place their people in high positions of government using any sort of deception..through TV ..people are gullible too..believe every word of it so the deceived vote for the chosen polititians who work for huge corporate farms..they get huge kickbacks for their effots of deception....these corporations are greed on steroids..the government is their puppet..just today reports of a very strange stomach virus hitting the US..it is news this morning..as result of corporate farming, cheap labor , and poor disease control...strange pesticides ...someday people will wake up..some have already..farmers are hevily subsidized in some European countries should be here too..because most of those farms are small artisan cheese or sausage makers with much more flavor..it is very successful.

Gastrointestinal illness linked to contaminated fruit, vegetables spreading throughout North Texas

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One day after Dallas County health officials said several residents have been seriously sickened by the foodborne illness cyclosporiasis, officials in Collin, Denton and Tarrant County added 21 more cases to North Texas’ total.
Dallas County also said Wednesday there was one more confirmed case. In the past 12 years, Dallas County had reported only a dozen cases of the rare parasite usually ingested in water or food contaminated with fecal matter.
Tarrant County Public Heath spokesperson Vanessa Joseph said there were 10 confirmed cases, with patients ranging from their teens to their 70s. The Denton County Health Department has confirmed five cases, while Collin County Health Care Services has confirmed six more. The ages of those 11 patients were not released.
Christine Mann of the Texas Department of State Health Services said there are 42 statewide cases, up from 37 reported yesterday.
According to The Mayo Clinic, symptoms include “watery diarrhea, frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements, loss of appetite, weight loss, and bloating,” among a number of others.
Officials in Texas, as well as in Iowa and Nebraska, still don’t know the cause of the recent outbreak.
“It tends to be a tropical- or subtropical-related disease,” said chief epidemiologist for Collin County Dr. Peggy Witte, “so it could be coming in from fruit that was brought in from a tropical or subtropical region.”
Dallas County issued a release Wednesday that said North Texas’ cases “may possibly be related to an ongoing large multistate Cyclospora outbreak in Iowa and Nebraska.” Tarrant County’s Joseph said fruits and vegetables have been the likely cause in the past, and that they need to be washed and/or cooked before ingesting.
“Sometimes we all do something closer to a rinse,” Joseph said, “but we really need to wash.”

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I wouldn't be so quick to ignore the role of government--especially that of unelected employees who are given the authority to decided the "rules" by which the laws are implemented. They are unelected, more or less untouchable, they are free to use their paper qualifications to institute myriad rules that appease the understanding of their personal psychologies; e.g, one major city near us allows the selling of local meat, one does not. The first has a health inspector who's more relaxed and less afraid of life; the second has a hysterical type whose son suffered food poisoning once and it frightened her--now she's going to save the world in accord with her own understanding and the extents of her own fears. Technically, she's doing everything by the book so how can she be penalized? Everyone has to leave the city to get good food. This kind of subjective rule is seen on micro and macro scale across the nation, and it is very difficult to do anything about it because the bureaucracies (FDA, USDA, etc.) have very little of the checks and balances which serve to check the power of the elected.

 

[Shellz]

Well said YHF and aveca! Perhaps there should be a thread just for this topic? Who wants to go first? Or has enough been said on the matter?

I guess we are all pretty aware of the gov'ts & factory farming industries on both sides of the border, being tied to the hip. Full of greed & 'wanting to protect us all' notions.

 

[Arielle]

THank you aveca and YHF-- keep us educated!! I no longer support all the endless laws on the books NOW that I understand the warped purpose. THese laws are actually killing the USA IMO causing a lack of business growth. Or am I off track here . . . .

 

[bnjrob]

THank you aveca and YHF-- keep us educated!! I no longer support all the endless laws on the books NOW that I understand the warped purpose. THese laws are actually killing the USA IMO causing a lack of business growth. Or am I off track here . . . .

I don't think you're off track. So many laws today are knee-jerk reactions to someone's hysteria. Not to mention that laws have to be kept somewhat vague, because you can't account for every variable in a situation. Which leaves it up to individual persons to interpret the laws, which can cause even more problems because so many people are unable to be objective and try to force their beliefs and fears on others.

This week here in TX, the news is full of the death of a woman thrown from a roller coast at Six Flags. And of course, people are now calling for federal regulations to be enacted regarding inspections/maintenance/operation of roller coasters. Really???? Of the millions of people that ride roller coasters, the few accidents are enough to spur federal regulations?????

The media plays a large part in creating the hysteria that cause some really stupid regulations to be enacted. EX: People are exposed to tons of germs every minute of every day, but the media will spin the deaths of 50 people who ate something into an epidemic. Of course the media doesn't report that the 50 people that died were only a small percentage of the hundreds of thousands of people who ate the product but did not get sick or die. It's all in how you spin things and people want to rationalize their fears, so they believe what they are told and don't do their research.

 

[Shellz]

 

[Extra Java]

Back to the Start

 

[Arielle]

OK-- I can't view u-tube on dial up-- darn--

My pet peeve is how much disease which we all oo and ahh about but is so common that it is now mundane as far as news reporting. Obesity and heart attacks, high cholesterol, gout, insulin resistence, arthritis, arthlroscherosos, oh the list goes on and on.

Eating a diet of home grown chicken, turkey, beef, lamb raised on grass and some grain, along with a ton of vegies and some fruit ( again I mean a variety; eat a dozen different ones in a week) and we would be surprizingly healthy. Most of the problems of a high grain diet full of sugar and fats will disappear. A few docs are getting it and will not send all patients to sugery to clear those arteries because a change in diet will do the same thing, just not line the docs pocket with gold.

I look at my home grown birds as my ticket to good health. Having heritage birds on the farm is a bonus. Learning to grow the feeed they need rather than depending so heavily on commercial grains is one goal; learning to grow vegies again and how to store for the winter is another goal. ANd how to can meats.

My kids and I are eating greens we can grow and share with the other animals. Yesterday we weeded and tossed the weeds to the sheep. THe turkeys and the chickens cruise thru looking for bugs and greens to nibble. We grow kale, beets, turnips, radishes, tomoatos, spinach, chard and carrots. Carrots are buried under the weeds. lol turnip greens are strange but add another dimension to a salad. ALl the left overs go to the compost for the birds to pick over. NOthing wasted.

My kids eat lot of whole grains. POpped sorghum instead of popped corn. Freshly ground grains to add to the pancake batter, with real maple syrup until recent years.

I teach my kids to pick the wild carrot leaves for the rabbit along with fresh clover and grasses. THen pick and chop for the chickens in the coops.

Yes, this is my pet peeve. Sorry for the rant. It makes me sad, angry, peturbed, concerned to know we can all have a better diet/health IF we chose to. It won't happen via the government. THe meals served at schools? My dogs eat better than that, and certainly my kids. I'm working on the cats-- feeding more chicken to supplement, do I dare say it, dry cat food. WE need to continue to support the grass roots movement.

 

[Sonia]

Good post. The problem nowadays is that most folks eat 'food-like products' instead of real food.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Back to the Start

Not really chicken related, but I went to our state fair last weekend. UCDavis had an educational exhibit where you could see livestock being born. This may sound strange but seeing some of it got me so upset. The pigs were in farrowing cages. There was a movie showing a calf born - being pulled out with a chain. All the children looking at that exhibit and thinking that is normal. Why is that normal? Is that really the only way?
And on another forum, people defending the practice of feeding chicken manure to cattle. It's all so upsetting to me.
This is why I don't think the term "heritage" is simply a marketing term. I raise all heritage animals. What that means to me is that my cows subsist on 100% grass pasture or hay, plus some alfalfa for lactating cows when they are milked. They don't need grain, certainly don't need chicken manure. The butcher raves about the quality of their carcass.
Before moving my mobile chicken coop, the shavings & manure are swept out onto the pasture- as fertilizer for the grass. The chickens spread it around and the cattle avoid that spot until the grass has grown back. They have never shown an interest in eating chicken manure. I've had Dexter cattle for over 10 years and have never had to assist with a birth. They do fine on their own. Same with my heritage sheep, which raise triplets & quadruplets without any bottle feeding or supplements or grain. My heritage pigs give birth with space to move and care for the piglets. If the sow lays on a piglet, it squeals and she jumps up to check on it.
I know that these breeds are all too small to be used for production. I just find it horrible that livestock has been modified so much that they no longer have any of their natural instincts. These kids are going to grow up and simply consider that normal.