The questions I have for the business of agriculture started simple. Are we only looking for cheap food to feed the world? Should we help the world feed itself? Does the end justify the means when it comes to mass slaughter or are those that appreciate a humane end to their steak or hamburger really just wacky, tree-hugging, bleeding hearts that have no concept of real life and what's needed to make food available for all? What are the arguments for buying meat from a farmer in your neighborhood? Is it really any better or is the "humane" movement trying to pull the wool over our eyes? Should we even care? Do we really want to know where our food and dairy products come from anyway?
http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/sj_ls710.txt shows Friday's slaughter count. These are the usual counts M-F. What do we do with all this meat? With numbers like this should we have hungry people on our streets?
What about the argument regarding the safe use of antibiotics in food animals? What are the profits of animal antibiotics vs. human antibiotics in the drug industry? Has the U.S. economy suffered because the three foreign-owned horse-slaughter plants were shut down? When laws are broken in regards to the animal industry does the government, state or federal, collect the fines? Show me the money.
Let's begin with farm subsidies. What about the farmer in foreclosure while the elite are pulling in farm subsidies? Here's a fairly recent article on farm subsidies: http://www.nypress.com/article-21342-the-making-of-manhattans-elite-welfare-farmers.html
Another link is by a group that wants to preserve wild horses and provides some interesting figures although I have not verified them: http://www.rallycongress.com/saveourwildhorses/2526/ but I find the comments fascinating. Those that speak out on grazing rights & wild horses are, on occasion, labeled as animal rights activists that don't know a darn think about ranching. Some of those in favor of even more CAFO's probably wish they'd just be quiet already.
I wonder how far this blog for a Business Organization class, needed for my paralegal degree, will take me in my search for researching and understanding factory farms and the impact it has on the economy? We'll see but one thing is for sure, "locally grown" is certainly making things interesting in Big Ag.
Anyone want to buy a feedlot? http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/springfield-news/feedlot-price-drops-to-1-1m-918418.html?cxtype=rss_local-news
Disclaimer: The opinions or statements expressed here are my own and should not be taken as a position, opinion, or endorsement of Sinclair Community College. I'm exercising my right to voice my personal opinion!
I never really thought about how animals were treated until I saw a program on PBS about chickens. Thousands of them were stuffed into what looked like a shed where they couldn't even move. All they did was sit there and get fat off of whatever they were feeding them. I don't think it makes anyone a bleeding heart, animals right activist to believe that even animals you know are being raised for food, should be treated humanely. I also have to wonder if whatever they are putting in the animals food to make them gigantic is something I really want to have in my body.
ReplyDeleteWow this is really well written! I am one of those people who can't stand to think about how my food was killed or where it really came from. I like to think the grocery store grows it on trees. Thank you for opening my eyes on this subject.
ReplyDelete