How to send your farmer to jail Update on Tester Amendment Post 239

Europeans know how to cook. I was in Germany for 2 years and it was amazing what they can do with sauces. Some of the best food I've ever eaten. I've never eaten at a French restaurant that wasn't fantastic.
 
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Europe, Japan, China, Russia, Africa buy from USA, Australia and South America. Asian, countries people starve. For them, a full day ration is a bowl of rice.

And they also live longer than North Americans. Funny how that works.

As to the 6 + billion people. The harsh reality is that we as a species are overpopulated, and the numbers double every 40 - 45 years. Whether natural or manmade the human race will hit the point of a major die off and then we will not have to worry about not having the land mass to do things in a less destructive manner.
 
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If your grass fed was tough, its cause it was processed when it was eating hay and dry grass. Its supposed to be taken when the grass is fresh and green.
It will be as tender as can be then.
And no, grasws feeding is done, because its traditional. Its the way ruminents were fed up until crop planting and cattle fattening was pushed on the market.

I can guarentee that had the option of eating grain been available to cattle back in the day, they would have chosen a field of grain to graze and eat in over grass anyday of the week. You obviously have never had the "privilage" of trying to get a bunch of cows out of a milo or corn field when they found a hole in the fence. I hate to break it to you but they like grain!!!

Just like kids eating candy. Doesn't mean it is good for them in huge quantity over the long haul.
 
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You can talk about it. The only problem is that it makes some feel they need to defend their way as the only way to feed a nation. People often have an issue with accepting multiple options that are not the ones they chose to follow.
 
Did you know you can feed 16 people on the same amount of acreage it takes to feed one cow? Perhaps if people ate LESS meat. Please see this article on how much water it takes to create a pound of beef:
http://www.vegsource.com/articles/pimentel_water.htm

I know it's from a vegetarian page, but I have read these statistics many times from other sources. This article just explains it well. The reasons people from other countries live better longer is because the way they treat meat in the diet - in equal or smaller amounts than the vegetables. Asians treat meat as more of a condiment than a major part of the meal - that's a large reason why Okinowans live so long. Yes, some sauces were invented to cover the flavor of bad meat - but you can't seriously believe that all sauces were created for this purpose. And poorly handled meat has nothing to do with what the cow was fed prior to butchering. 80% of the world's grain is being grown to be fed to animals that were not designed to eat it, to appease the spoiled appetites of Americans. What if we used all those hundreds of thousands of acres to grow food for people, instead of animals, which is a poor conversion? I am realistic enough to know that the world will never be vegetarian, but no one needs to eat meat at every meal. Yes, cows probably do enjoy the corn, but like it was stated earlier, it's like candy - as a diet, it's not good for them. It's better for the Earth, and better for people, to raise these animals the way nature intended.
 
Well said. One thing you missed in the dietary part is the fish oils that keep them healthier.

If the will was really there any system can be changed, but society is slow to change until crisis occurs. Our other problem occurs when prime agriculture land ends up going to housing and acreages that have 3 -5 acres of manicured grass that no one even walks on. We waste our resources, without a care for the long term consequences of those decisions.

If you look at stats going back decades we spend far less of our income on food than our parents or grandparents. We have been trained to look for cheap food and buy all the toys we can get to indulge us. In the end it comes down to choices for many and the toys are more of a priority. The cost of that new IPOD or smart phone can put a lot of food on ones table.

We destroy our immune systems through our choices and then when we do get sick blame the food supply, which gives the government the edge it needs to step in to "protect us" through further restriction that satisfies the lobbyists in Washington. Neat little system.

You would be amazed at how fast things could change if the masses chose to support local and farmers markets rather than large food chains that spend a good portion of that money overseas. It would put money back in producers hands that would support local economies. Give a farmer the price per pound you see in the average store rather than pennies they get now. You may just see local quality produce prices drop in the long haul. Not to mention job creation in smaller sectors because the money is suddenly kept in the region/country.

The article does drive home a valid point( NO, I'm not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination). But at the same time it is slightly skewed in its message, if you check the research. The meat production part is based on land that HAS TO BE irrigated in dry climates, and cows fed a predominately dry diet that requires more fresh water inputs. Water usage for many areas is far less because of annual rainfall and longer growing seasons allow for more pasture feeding which means green forage rather than dry ration. Then when it comes to vegetable production they use ideal climate figures.
 
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You can talk about it. The only problem is that it makes some feel they need to defend their way as the only way to feed a nation. People often have an issue with accepting multiple options that are not the ones they chose to follow.

I don't think I've ever said that my way is the only way......generally speaking I think if a person would go back and read every thread that has dealt with this topic, as a rule the "back to the earth" movement is the "side" that basically always says to the other that you are totally wrong and that their way is the only way. That attitude in itself makes those of us who farm the way we do defensive. I'm sure if we farmers came on here continually slamming their profession and lifestyle they'd be defensive too. I'm all for feeding our families and other people healthy......I'm just not convinced that their way has to be the only way to do it. Not every person in this country has the means nor the inclination to grow their own food or even seek out locally grown food. I do think a person can eat healthy no matter which avenue they decide to follow. Until each country on the face of this planet can feed themselves there will continue to be the market for the food we produce.

I often wonder just what their experience with agriculture is....is it only what they've read or seen in some very slanted viewpoint documentary....have they actually ever been in involved in farming?
 
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Europe, Japan, China, Russia, Africa buy from USA, Australia and South America. Asian, countries people starve. For them, a full day ration is a bowl of rice.

And they also live longer than North Americans. Funny how that works.

As to the 6 + billion people. The harsh reality is that we as a species are overpopulated, and the numbers double every 40 - 45 years. Whether natural or manmade the human race will hit the point of a major die off and then we will not have to worry about not having the land mass to do things in a less destructive manner.

I take it you're referring to the Asians living longer than the North Americans? The US is a nation of over-weight people with all the ills that come along with obesity, but I think rather than blaming it on the people who grow the food, I personally would blame it on the manufacturers who turn the healthy product we grow into junk food. People want quick and easy when it comes to feeding their family. I have a member of my family that I have tried to convince for years to quit buying the over processed products that she buys to feed her kids and to start cooking more from scratch.....but she's not interested in doing that.....says she's too busy to cook.
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Unfortunately that's how it is in a lot of families.
 
What the problem with the bill (and all other such bills that stop people from trading freely) discussed is that it prevents local food production and micro businesses from existing.

Such bills are nothing new -- the French in the middle ages granted a monopoly to butchers and it resulted in a handful of very rich butchers, lots of substandard meat and high prices, see http://librivox.org/manners-customs...uring-the-renaissance-period-by-paul-lacroix/ chapter 9, food and cookery (this is a great book about life back then, not so many nobles appear in it, but plenty of great information about how people lived, I recommend it to all of you!)

First of all, poisoning the food supply in any way has always been an offense -- making something that was already illegal even more illegal doesn't really work -- a law is only as good as the policing thereof -- and the idea that we must be protected from our irresponsible, ignorant selves is only valid until we reach adulthood, after that, being patronised this way is deeply annoying.

I live in the UK and I am allowed to sell eggs door-to-door, but not to a shop(so clearly the intent is not healthy food but to stop me from selling!). I can't sell the surplus meat either.

So, if I wanted to (say) sell quail eggs in the neighbor hood, I would have to discard the male birds that I cannot eat myself, making the eggs more costly for everyone and wasting a resource that generates goods. Also, my pin money making ability is curtailed with this legal situation, and with it, much high-velocity money is taking out of the economy and out of family pockets. Laws like that create a monopoly for large companies by making the cost of entry into the business too high for small enterprises, and they also generate armies of unproductive bureaucrats who make a living from forcing us to fill in their forms. Btw, in my area, you cannot buy quail eggs or meat unless you mail order it -- so those laws also destroy the variety of the food supply.

Commercial farming is important, but there are *some* foodstuffs that should be raised by folks at home in preference to buying from a mass producer: herbs, salads, small livestock. The former 2 because that grows almost anywhere and is best to eat when freshly cut and very expensive to buy, and the small livestock because no farmer can treat small animals as well as people can in their backyard. This is meant as an addition, not as a replacement to commercial farms.

Good laws protect and empower people -- and bad laws like the one we're talking about don't, they control and tax people instead.
 

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