What do you think about the way America is raising our food today???

[Katy]

Quote:
I have watched it.....I'd suggest you not take everything in it as fact, because it wasn't.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

One thing I've always done is told my children that they must finish their meat because an animal gave it's life and I'm not throwing it away. I wish we could all afford organic but I can't. I also wish I could process my own chickens....maybe I'll get there one day.

 

[dewey]

I believe there's another agenda behind all of that type of hype.

That's all.

 

[bock]

Yes, it bugs me. I think most animals are killed fairly humanely. There are cases were they aren't, but for the most part it seems like they are. What really bothers me is the way they are raised. I know it is the most practical and pretty much the only way to make a profit. I have seen videos of battery hens, milk cows, and meat animals, I know these are probably the worst cases. But still, I know that there is a huge difference in the quality of life between what I raise and the grocery store products. I have my own hens for eggs, but everything else is store-bought. Why? Because, my parents are all about price. No matter what I say, Raising all these animals and buying from local farmers is just not cost or time effective. When I have my own home, job, and family, I will definitely make an effort to get products from only humanly treated animals. I will most likely raise as much as I can. But for now, I am still going to have to buy store bought meat and milk. Like so many, I don't have much of a choice right now, unless I went vegan. Which just isn't for me, even if I am generally not a big fan of meat anyway.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

It's disgusting. Point blank.

I'm not vegetarian or vegan, nor do I ever plan to be or can I be - but the way "food animals" are treated in this country needs to stop. Now.

So very many of the animals are tortured. Kept in deplorable conditions, abused, and so on. An animal can live a good life, and have a respectful death.

Now I'm not saying that all farms are bad, but it's an overwhelming majority - and there is a stark difference between a farm and a factory farm. It's not natural for animals to be crammed into spaces so small they cannot turn around, with no source of acceptable food/water. It's not right for them to be tortured unnecessarily.

We, as humans, bear the responsibility of upholding ourselves and our honor to all other creatures who feel pain. What makes us human if we don't?

For those who don't think the factory farming is real, do your own *unbiased* research. Watch some of the sting videos by non-profit sources such as the ALF.

 

[Davaroo]

What do you think about the way America is raising our food today?

I think, first of all, that if Oprah is involved, I am changing the channel - ASAP.
You do know she's "saving us" from ourselves to wrangle ratings, right? Without a story to get us worked up over.... well, shes just talking.

Second, I think I want another egg salad sammich.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

For those who don't think the factory farming is real, do your own *unbiased* research. Watch some of the sting videos by non-profit sources such as the ALF

Now I'm not saying that all farms are bad, but it's an overwhelming majority -

You're kidding , right?​

 

[classicsredone]

If you haven't, check out the movie about and books by Dr. Temple Grandin. She redesigned many of the feedlots and slaughter houses in the US. Properly done, stunning is painless and very efficient at dispatching an animal.

Personally, I prefer 'naturally-raised' meats. We buy beef and pork from my cousin. The animals are free-range, the cows eat mostly pasture grass, they don't get unnecessary antibiotics/hormones, and they are humanely dispatched. We get a good deal by buying 1/4 cow or 1/2 pig at a time (usually 1/2 the store price of organic, depending on cut), and we get to support a local family farm.

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
I have watched it.....I'd suggest you not take everything in it as fact, because it wasn't.

AGREED!

 

[halo]

Willow's Meadow :

So yesterday I was at home and I turned on the tv and saw Oprah talking about the way animals are treated and killed today for human consumption, the inhumane practices of factory farms and switching to a vegan diet. Now I don't always watch Orprah....I like the show but this really caught my eye and I watched the whole show. I have seen the way pigs are killed on tv in the factory farms. Now there is no way I would switch to a vegan/vegitarian diet but this really did change the way I thought about livestock/farming and butchering. I don't see anything wrong with killing cows or pigs or chickens for human consumption but I think the WAY some farms kill their animals is wrong. Livestock were mean't to be killed and eaten but people should respect the animal and treat them humanely.

This was not the first time I've heard about factory farms and the cruel way the treated their animals. The last and first time I heard about it was so long ago that I was at an age where I thought it was cruel and wrong but I didn't know enough to change it or do something about it. I don't know how factory farms kill chickens because I've never seen anything about killing them(at least the factory farms killing them) but I do know how pigs are killed. Watching that show made me realize that their is a way I could change the way factory farms kill their animals.....no I can't completly stop the factory farms all over the world from killing animals but I could stop eating the meat that is sold at the grocery store that was once a living animal that was treated cruely. And no I don't think I have to stop eating meat completly but I think I could maybe buy some meat birds, maybe a pig and a possibly a sheep and raise them HUMANELY and treat them RESPECTFULLY and then take them somewhere where I know they will be killed humanly and have them be butchered and then eat that meat knowing that I'm not eating an animal that was abused.

When I watched that show one of the people that she had interviewed made a statement that really touched my heart and left me breathless. She said, "By eating meat that was a living animal that was treated and killed inhumanely and knowing how they were killed you are looking into the face of that harmeless, powerless, kind animal and saying I don't care how much you had to suffer but my happiness that comes from eating a hamburger or a lamb chop is more important then the way you were treated." Now I'm NOT saying," Everybody needs to stop eating animals because killing animals is cruel and wrong!!!!!!!" Because butchering an animal for human consumption is not cruel.

Although when I did watch that show one of the major cow butchering companies in America that supplies many grocery stores let "Oprah inside to see how they kill their animals" and what they did is they walked the cows very camly through cement corridors to a area where a man comes up behind them and I guess hits them in the head with a medal rod so they are "brain dead" and killed instantly. They said the cows don't see the guy coming up behind them and they don't feel a thing. But I don't think that that one place is supplying every single store in the world. So maybe the Giant Eagle down the street gets their meat from a place that doesn't do that at all. And maybe the pork is coming from a place where they do kill them humanly......but those places are probably few and far in between. Because once I saw about 40 pigs being herded into a small, small area and a wall giving way and smashing them all together and killing them. And the screams and squels I heard when I watched that on tv where unbelievable and heart breaking. That being said I am not trying to make everyone stop eating meat or feeling guilty but it's just something I want you to think about.

The one person on Oprah also said, "If you can't watch these animals being killed on tv.....if its to hard for you to watch then you don't deserve to be eating meat." Which I personally agree with. So I'm just wondering if their is anyone out their that feels the same way I do and agrees enough to do something about it. Now I am really totally knew to this so I don't know everything about it but I just want to open a calm discussion on here about this issue. What would be hard for me is not being able to go to a resturant and get a burger. I mean I was raised that way......so that would be different and kind of hard. However I don't go out to eat that much and I guess....if you think about it their is nothing wrong with having a salad or pasta or macaroni instead of a steak or a burger. Mty family actually does buy our cow beef/meat from a local farmer that grass feeds his cows, only has 5-6 cows at a time and is very, very kind to them. So I do already eat humanly raised and killed cows. But what about pork, lamb, chicken????? I think I want to try to change that. So maybe I will get some meat birds and a pig. I wonder if one pig would last a family through the fall/winter if it was raised all summer and then killed in the fall??? And I wonder how many chickens you would need for a family to not have to buy chicken from the store???

I also think its sad that many, many people don't think about where their food is coming from. So please let me know what you think and how you feel about this issue. Also share your stories and tips about what you are doing to change the way America is raising and killing our food.

There is so much mis-information in this post that I wont even go into it; suffice to say, it does very little good for a farmer to mis-treat his animals. I live in the middle of rural cattle/hog farms, and I defy you to find one farmer who doesnt care for his animals, and treats them better than his own kids. If there is mistreatment and abuse, its the VAST MINORITY of farmers. Which, of course, get all the press.​