WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW CALIFORNIA STATE CHICKEN CONFINEMENT LAW FOR EGG FARMERS ?????

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

You do realize that hogs raised in confinement are pumped full of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick due to the conditions in which they're kept right? They don't control parasites so much as they constantly treat for them. Commercial sows are penned up in farrowing crates because they tend not to be good mothers..... laying on their young is a trait that can be avoided through selective breeding, something the commercial growers are not concerned with because they "fix" the problem; hogs that put on weight in record time is their goal even if it means wallowing in their own feces while they feed their young or grow out to market weight. Piglets are weaned sooner in confinement operations so they can get the sows bred back in a shorter amount of time.... it sure isn't for the piglets' sake.

Hogs raised on pasture, using managed rotational grazing that defeats the parasite life cycle by constant moving from paddock to paddock and selectively bred for traits that avoid things such as crushing their young avoids everything you've listed above and makes for healthier happier pigs. Ignorance indeed.

I don't know where to start...........

Beginning with the first sentence most of this comment is blatantly false.

 

[enola]

I really don't know why I follow this type of thread..... I guess so I can hope to see that the people who really don't understand commercial agriculture get a chance to open their minds and grasp reality. What really surprises me is how people who have never even been near a commercial operation think they know all about the 'horrific' conditions of the housing, the astronomical amounts of different medications that are administered, and the 'cruel atrosities' the animals endure. I have worked in commercial broiler and layer houses, been in commercial hog houses and worked with my son on a dairy. I saw things that might have been done differently, but I have never seen any truly miserable animals on any of these farms.

If the general public is basing their 'knowledge' on documentaries that they have seen on television, then I can see how they got mislead. Documentaries are biased, folks. If the documentaries are made to show all of the 'bad' sides of a chosen subject, you can bet they are going to film and narrate ALL of anything that is ugly or horrible they can find. But, I learned a long time ago, there are two sides to every story......... And until you have seen the whole story, sometimes it is best that you do not spew out opinions until you have.

 

[Nupe]

I think what people need to realize is an animal's mentality is nothing like humans'. They are perfectly happy in an environment where all their needs are tended to and they never have to forage or hunt for their own food.

These animals are our food. That doesn't give anyone the right to abuse them, but that's not what's happening here.

 

[hen madame]

The truth many times is somewhere in the middle.

 

[CrazyTalk]

The truth many times is somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, the problem is that the middle is nowhere near what most people think it is.


The Food Purity Movement has done such a good job muddying the conversation that people think there are these quaint family farms out there keeping a handful of pigs on hundreds of acres, where the pigs can frolic happily, never get sick, and get sold as $4.99/lb organic pork chops.

I keep sheep on pasture - 5 sheep to about 3 acres - I rotate pastures, I feed them well. They're my wife's pets - not really livestock - more decorative lawnmowers - and still, I have to deworm them regularly. They still need to be medicated because they cut themselves, get bruises, get stuff in their eyes, head butt each other, get ticks, etc. They're about as close to that idyllic sustainable-happy farm that the sustainable/organic/non-gmo people are pitching, and I still need to medicate them.

Most livestock sold organic, pasture raised, etc, is sold as such simply because it is slaughtered before it's parasite load gets high enough to cause any serious issues - not because the idyllic livestyle keeps them free of parasites.

The real truth with livestock and the organic label is that the difference is mostly in how the animals are treated when they get sick - on a conventional farm, they get treated. On an organic farm, they mostly get slaughtered and sold (yes, you can slaughter and sell meat from an animal that's so sick it can't stand up - except cows). In some cases, where the organic farm also has a conventional operation, the animal gets sold/transferred to the conventional side and gets treated.

I personally prefer livestock I'm going to eat to have access to basic medical care. I'd much rather eat a cow that had been dosed with antibiotics to treat an infection than eat an "organic" cow with the same infection that hasn't been treated.

And yet, we have people shouting that they're "pumped full of antibiotics"

 

[AccidentalFarmr]

they're not all one and the same, and even the cleaner facilities need to administer far more antibiotics than a pasture based system where the animals are in open air and moved constantly to break the parasitic life cycles.

"The smell wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined it would be." "treated moat"

well doesn't that sound nice.

the point wasn't to bemoan factory farms so much as it was to counter the posters claims of necessary farrowing pens and the cleaner conditions in confinement operations.

 

[AccidentalFarmr]

there are plenty of farms in this area that don't need to pen their hogs to prevent complications nor do they require the same level of treatment as those on factory farms. just because it doesn't fit your narrative of how animals should be raised doesn't render it blatantly false.

 

[AccidentalFarmr]

nowhere was it mentioned that animals that require care shouldn't receive it. that's ridiculous, and one of the many reasons that raising "certified organic" has it's drawbacks and can be misleading.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Look on the bright side; the citizens of California of going broke from all their free government giveaways, social programs & crazy laws and soon they will all be swiping their EBT cards at the grocery store to get their expensive pampered eggs for free.

 

[hen madame]

I'm not familiar with the Food Purity Movement, but I do like the idea of buying food locally, seasonally, and direct from the farmer when ever possible. We have a large Farmer's Market in Madison every Saturday, multiple smaller markets in different parts of the city and surrounding towns through out the week. So in the warmer months at least you can pick up local fresh produce, cheese, honey, and organic or conventionally raised meat every day if you want. You actually get to know the people that raise your food, which is priceless. If I want to know their practices all I have to do is ask. Many of the farmers allow folks to visit their farms or have "open houses" for the general public periodically. If someone says they raise their animals free range (pastured) and only treat the animals for injury and illness, sounds perfectly fine with me

I know not everyone has access to local foods. One of the things we gave up with urbanization so long ago. I also know that this kind of smaller scale farming can't keep up with the ever growing global population. But when ever and where ever possible, I think local is the way to go. I get my eggs as locally as you can get...in my backyard.