Tip of the hat to all who raise and process their own!

[kooltex]

I'm sure many of us have seen to horrible conditions in which large scale commercial broiler producers keep their animals. Thousands of birds crammed into dark musty sheds. It's nice to see birds free ranging, or even allowed to be outside during their short little lives. Eventhough they are bred for food, they still deserve the basics of life. Which is why I give a tip of the hat to all who raise their own, and don't contribute to the commercial industry. I raise and slaughter my own, and if I have buy else where I look for local producers that free range, or are pastured. It's well worth the extra $$$ paid.

 

[Engteacher]

Amen! I swear I will not support the commercial chicken industry with my hard earned money. They have shown little but disdain for the farmers, the animals, the meat packers, and the environment.

For me and my family, I'm opting out.

 

[PeeperKeeper]

I don't know much of the politics but we hatched out 96 last spring and over half were roos. Just mutts, mind you, but next year I plan on finding some of those freedom rangers to put n the freezer. It's a lot of work to waste your time putting up scrawney roos that free ranged and taste mor like squirrel than chicken.

 

[the simple life]

I just read Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and it just solidified my feelings against buying commercial meats.
If I hadn't already started raising my own meatbirds I sure would have after reading that book.
He went around to all these "farms" that raise "organic" meat for Wholefoods and its all a marketing scam, those animals are not treated any better than the conventional factory farms, 20,000 birds to a house and they never see the light of day.
Just sickening, the cows as we know are treated just as badly.
So anyway, its a good book to read and I would recommend it to anyone who protests against us raising our own food.

 

[ChanceRider]

I've only been raising my own meat birds for about a year now and find it very satisfying. We raise ducks, turkeys and chickens, and also pigs. I like knowing that our critters are well fed and cared for during their lives and that we process them respectfully (if that makes sense!), not to mention that we can control what they are fed and use no additives to their feed. We just processed a neighbor's turkey last night as it had begun to have trouble walking, and are set to do 29 Cornish X over the next 2 weekends and several turkeys after that. I get great pleasure out of seeing our birds every day as I care for them. They're quite entertaining! There's a regular Cornish X "stampede" when I open their coop every morning and turn them out to eat... and everyone should experience a pig "bath" when filling their pigs water buckets, not to mention being greeted by 18 turkeys whenever I walk past them on my way to the barn!

 

[bibliophile birds]

i watched Food, Inc last night. made my mother watch with me. she's half-way on board with my philosophies about food, and this really helped. if you haven't seen it, go out and rent it right now. the thing that was so wonderful about it is that it mostly stayed away from politics and focused instead on the real issues, that of food quality and the health of the workers and consumers. it covered the whole range of issues, from genetically modified crops being controlled by chemical corporations all the way to the fecal bacteria found in mass produced and slaughtered poultry. there was a really great interview with Joel Saladin of Polyface farms in Virginia, one of the pioneers of the pastured poultry re-emergence.

so many people i talk to about local, sustainable food production write me off as some whacko. the thing i've never understood is that what i suggest does nothing if not give the power back to small farmers, yet these are the people who tell me i don't know what i'm talking about. true, i believe wholeheartedly in organics, but it is just as much about farmer welfare as it is about environmental stewardship. no chemical company should be able to put you out of business for patent violation because you wanted to keep your own seeds... that is just unacceptable.

 

[kees]

It's puzzling to me that The Omnivore's Dilemna was so popular, yet there are still the multitude of people who decry raising and processing your own food.

Suzy

 

[kooltex]

Quote:
Ill have to see that one.

 

[Engteacher]

I agree! Omnivore's Dilemma was a pivotal book for me and Food, Inc was the film that drove that message home. Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal Vegetable Miracle is a terrific book and gave me the courage to give it a go. I've met great producers at our local farmer's market. I found a rabbit guy after many years of looking, and feel like I'm gaining control over what goes on the family dining table.

I'm glad there's cheap food out there, but for the life of me, I don't understand why a bag of corn chips should cost less than a bag of carrots. I have at least 15 students with diabetes and we have a generation of kids who aren't expected to live with the quality and quantity of life that their parents and grandparents did due to nutrition. Something is fundamentally wrong with the picture. I think we all sense that.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Quote:
especially when those same children don't know what McNuggets are made of. ok, arguably McNuggets probably aren't even chicken, but you get what i'm saying.

i saw some statistics somewhere that said that 65% of kids didn't know what animal bacon came from anymore... that's just depressing.