The Cornish Cross: “What is wrong with this picture?!” There is so much to think about in this arti

[mg15]

There must be a reason that Mississippi grows more cotton than Montana, or why Florida produces more watermelons than North Dakota. The reason is accidents of location and climate. If this was not so then Alaska would grow more oranges than California, don't Alaska and California both border the same ocean, the Pacific?

However by way of proving my point the nation aptly named "Iceland" is the largest exporter of bananas to the European Union. You may ask "How can a country named Iceland grow a high value tropical crop like bananas?" The answer is simple, Iceland is one giant hot spring.. Icelandic farmers tap geothermal hot springs underneath their feet and use the boiling hot water to heat banana growing green houses. You can not do the same thing in say New Hampshire without building several new Atomic energy plants. But Iowa not only has the land to grow chickens on but the Hawk Eye State produces mega amounts of chicken food (corn, soymeal, alfalfa meal, feed grains, and animal by products) so shipping costs are negligible compared to shipping these feed stuffs from Iowa to say Rhode Island to grow off chickens, then burning more fossil fuels to ship the chicken manure back to Iowa to use to grow more chicken feed.

All boils down to cheap land. Farmers in the seventies and eighties could not compete with the industry giants, they came in and bought (practically stole) their farms.
Should be a protection for farmers to keep their land in operation. Instead of taking away their livelihood. People are really trying to bring back the small farm. It's a wonderful thing to know where your food came from.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Quote:

All boils down to cheap land. Farmers in the seventies and eighties could not compete with the industry giants, they came in and bought (practically stole) their farms.

Should be a protection for farmers to keep their land in operation. Instead of taking away their livelihood. People are really trying to bring back the small farm. It's a wonderful thing to know where your food came from.

Are you a farmer? Do you know any? I'm not talking hobby farmer, I'm talking farms-for-their-entire-income farmer.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Everyone on here pretty much agrees CXs are fine if you raise em right. :/ Your only argument so far is that they are raised enmase in horrible conditions for meat and when they are they are sickly and ill. If that is your basis for whether or not they are a good back yard bird that is not good enough to write them off them completely. White leghorns are one of the most commercially raised egglayers kept in similarly atrocious conditions and yet people keep white leghorns all the time. I, personally, don't like the temperament or look of a leghorn but for backyard production they are fine and just because they are raised commercially means nothing in regards to their keeping in a back yard setting.

Edited by staff

 

[sumi]

O.K. looks like we're done here. Just a reminder for some of you: A PM is a "Private Message". Sharing Private Messages on the public forum is very bad forum etiquette.