GMO's and Factory Farming...

[Katy]

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You are sadly mistaken if you think all we farmers have on rose colored glasses.....we know better than anyone the state of agriculture today......much, much better than all of the people who get their "knowledge" from movies and internet articles.

I also thought you're "rat" comment was pretty low.....I'll let you be the one to tell the mother of a starving child that her "rat" doesn't deserve any food to eat.

Yes yes the rat comment was low... I am sorry..Not to mention OF clearly corrected me on the falsity of the statement. This subject gets me worked up a bit as it does many of us... Their are a plethora of a "bit" to strong of statements made on this subject from all sides...

I respectfully disagree with you on all farmers having more "knowledge" on this subject than people not in or in small scale agriculture.
I contend:
"It is often difficult to see the forest through the trees"...
I feel "farmers" involved in the "status quo" agriculture machine are caught up in the cage, to busy chasing the carrot to stop and ask why? Why am I chasing the carrot? Working harder and harder for less, knowing the middle men are taking the lions share of the reward.

As I have said many times before Katy.. I have a deep respect for what you do, and you as an individual. I just happen to think the system is broken and you are to caught up in it to see it. (Just my opinion..thats it...)

Me.....For the record around 25% of my income is based on agriculture as in producing food which goes from me right to the store that sells it. 60% is based on forestry and making products out of wood, which I sell direct to the consumer. The remaining is forestry related again doing traditional log and timberframe construction.
*Also note my income is rather small, we are at or near the poverty line. (However I feel quality of life is more important than quantity of dollars, or social status.)

I am in the process of increasing that 25% agricultural income to around 75%.. The only way the #'s work out is catering to the growing Organic/non GMO supporters of locally produced sustainable agriculture.

It is a satisfying better way of life and labor for ME.. To not be in the cage chasing the carrot and selling my product at or near cost to the mass distribution system of status quo agriculture.

-----
Yes their are starving people right here in the USA... They are starving not from a lack of calories, but from a lack of nutrition! They drink corn syrup laced soda pop and eat soy enriched chips... Why because they are so cheap to buy and satisfy primal cravings... We are being taken advantage of by those that "design" the garbage they call food....

Quote:

ON

I don't have any trouble seeing the forest for the trees. I am not too caught up in the system to see the issues with it.....I have never said it was perfect. I find those two statements very insulting.

If you really believe that someone not involved in agriculture knows more than those of who live it every day you are sadly mistaken.

 

[Katy]

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I agree with OEGBman that you are very ignorant of agriculture as a whole. I wish I had a nickel for every insult that has been slung at the American farmer on this forum.

If you are basing your papers and what you believe on what certain groups put out on film as fact you are the one who is very misinformed. Is everything 100% right in agriculture today? No it is not, but those film show the worst of the worst and do not give a good overall view of agriculture as a whole. They feed the ideas of people who have for the most part no connection to agriculture and what it really involves for those of us who live it every day.

Just curious, who insulted the American Farmer?

Over the years I've noticed that members of families who farm take offense to the slightest notion of 'disrespect.' No body is doing that here.
If you had a nickle for everytime you'd seen that on this thread you would have a total of zero cents.

Then you haven't read many threads on this forum.....it happens all the time.

 

[Katy]

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What gets under my skin and bothers me is misinformation and untruths stated as facts.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

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I think if you would watch the videos - REAL videos captured in REAL facilities, you might see who exactly is misinformed here. I love bacon too, but that doesn't change where it comes from. Kill techniques are not adaquate and a large percentage of animals are NOT dead when the process begins.

I'm a child, yet I know that ndemerly is right. Flinging insults does nothing for your side of the "argument".

Usually, no two situations are the same. But there is a disturbing trend.

I agree with OEGBman that you are very ignorant of agriculture as a whole. I wish I had a nickel for every insult that has been slung at the American farmer on this forum.

If you are basing your papers and what you believe on what certain groups put out on film as fact you are the one who is very misinformed. Is everything 100% right in agriculture today? No it is not, but those film show the worst of the worst and do not give a good overall view of agriculture as a whole. They feed the ideas of people who have for the most part no connection to agriculture and what it really involves for those of us who live it every day.

I am not insulting the "American Farmer". I am pointing to CAFOs and Factory Farmers. The "American farmer" is not a part of that picture. The CAFOs, processing plants, and factory farms feed the most of America. Not everyone is luck enough to live somewhere where they can go to the farmers market and buy fresh produce from REAL farmers, or buy a real and organic cow (that has actually been on a pasture) to take to slaughter. The people who own chicken buildings for tyson are NOT farmers. Sorry, they're not. Farming is an artform and a science.

I am not talking about films like Food, Inc. I am talking about undercover operations, infiltrating factory farms and video taping what they see.

Edited to add - My research (and other) papers are not based just on film. They are based upon interviews, film, clips, and research by others.

 

[BlackBart]

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I agree on supporting small farms and know where you food comes from (and it is real food)
From what I have read there isn't a food shortage but a distribution problem. But I read interantional sites like France 24 and Sci-tech etc.

I have read the GMO crops are backfiring, not producing as expected and making a strain of super weeds, while killing the soil's enzyemes.

I do not want herbicide in my vegetable cell matter or e. coli and rodent cells GM into my pigs meat etc
But hey, thats just me. At least give me the option by labling the GMO food as such.

(I refrained from adding links to back up my points because the OP didn't want to clog the thread up and people don't read them anyway

)

Pretty sure I read that recently a big US poultry processer got in trouble for inhumane treatment.

 

[seedcorn]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

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Please do go in to detai. I am quite curious how Turkeys are given Steroids when there are no steroid products approved for use in poultry. I'd also like to know what your definition of 'Junk" is that is given to pigs.

7 pages later, can we get an answer to this?

I've worked in swine industry, at no time are hogs boiled alive in slaughter houses. They have animal rights inspectors on the premises. We in Ag are not some sadistic monsters.

Food, Inc is based on the fact that field corn has no nutrient value and can't be eaten. That is so wrong.

Want, LOVE organic, more power to you. It costs more, pay for it, ENJOY.

Statement on France is completely wrong as their unemployement rate (with small government paid workers) is 30%. Try again.

We RATS will continue to eat.

As was stated in another thread by an "organic person" is that organic is NOT chemical free just approved chemicals.​

 

[vfem]

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Just curious, who insulted the American Farmer?

Over the years I've noticed that members of families who farm take offense to the slightest notion of 'disrespect.' No body is doing that here.
If you had a nickle for everytime you'd seen that on this thread you would have a total of zero cents.

Then you haven't read many threads on this forum.....it happens all the time.

He did state 'this' thread, I do not think he understood you meant repeatedly throughout the forums on similar threads.

 

[HLAC]

ON,

I tried all organic for the first year. It was pretty much a total loss. Every year since then, I've tried slightly different tactics. The soil is great... and it seems quite healthy. It's the 'healthy' bug population that kills us here. I've lived in two other states (ND and WI) and in N. IL and never seen bugs like we have here in Central Illinois. It's unreal.

I'm not talking a couple bugs here and there. Not a couple hundred bugs here and there.... Tens of thousands of bugs decend on my plants. They skeletonize the leaves, eat the flowers to nothing, completely destroy the fruits.

Having a sea of corn all around me certainly is a problem. I'm pretty sure it's not just that my crops aren't GMO... but that my stuff is probably far tastier to the bugs than the boring field corn.

This is what we have for Japanese beetles I only put the lures out after the bugs had defoliated the fruit trees and ate the veggies down to nothing... it was revenge. (this was before I got chickens... now I hang the lures over the chicken runs, the chickens love them.)

I had to empty the drum and bin twice a day!

Corn rootworms (cucumber beetles) on my squash plants. They will kill the plants if left alone. I'm trying various 'organic' pesticides but these and the squash bugs are pretty darn tough.

Plant damage:

A few of them hiding out:

I wish I didn't have to use any chemicals. I don't like using them, they're expensive and applying them is labor intensive. However, wishing and reality are two different things. I'm still trying different practices too. Row covers are in the plans for this year.

 

[Organics North]

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Please share with us these "truths".....
In reality
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She is ultimatly correct..

Peace and love..
ON

 

[vfem]

Quote:
Please do go in to detai. I am quite curious how Turkeys are given Steroids when there are no steroid products approved for use in poultry. I'd also like to know what your definition of 'Junk" is that is given to pigs.

7 pages later, can we get an answer to this?

I've worked in swine industry, at no time are hogs boiled alive in slaughter houses. They have animal rights inspectors on the premises. We in Ag are not some sadistic monsters.

Food, Inc is based on the fact that field corn has no nutrient value and can't be eaten. That is so wrong.

Want, LOVE organic, more power to you. It costs more, pay for it, ENJOY.

Statement on France is completely wrong as their unemployement rate (with small government paid workers) is 30%. Try again.

We RATS will continue to eat.

As was stated in another thread by an "organic person" is that organic is NOT chemical free just approved chemicals.

Again, that's not Food Inc. so much as the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

Which in the book I have to say I am very impressed to read a short interview by a mexican farmed who states he can't believe the disrespect the american's treat corn, in Mexico, its a gift from the gods. Its a wonderful view on food to see it as a gift.