You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around, well, unless you’re a farm animal
Posted
October 22, 2008 at
8:48 pm by
Hillary
It’s a little embarrassing to admit that sometimes I find out what’s going on in the world by tuning in to Oprah.
I’ve actually been trying to cut back on my Oprah fix. Somedays I just can’t deal with the celebrity fawning or her growing sense of self-importance. But last week there was a very interesting show on Where Our Food Comes From. If you were to ask my kids where our food comes from they’d say “the supermarket, Mommy!” Of course, there are some steps before that carton of eggs miraculously appears at the store.
Why would Oprah even care? California has a measure on the ballot next month called Proposition 2. This initiative would revamp standards for some farm animals, providing them more space so they can fully extend their limbs and turn around while being confined.
Oprah sent her crack investigative reporter Lisa Ling out to video examples of commercial egg, pork and veal producers, as well as ones who raise free-range chickens, hogs and veal. I’ll be honest, the contrast between the two was shocking. The commercial egg farm had chicken crates stacked to the ceiling, each filled to the brim with birds. The commercial hog producer had crates with maybe a foot of space for the animal to move. On the other extreme, the free-range farmers let the animals run outside on acres of pasture.
As you can imagine, egg, pork and veal farmers are crying “fowl.” Arguments from those opposed to the Proposition include it will be way too expensive to retrofit the farms, causing many to go out of business and forcing the state to import those products from other places. Those against also believe the price of eggs, pork and veal will increase because the farmers who choose to stay in business have to pass along the added costs.
I live on the opposite coast so I don’t have a dog (or hog) in this fight. I do try to purchase free-range beef and chicken when I can. I buy eggs from a local farmer, and the cost is, at most, five cents more a dozen than the ones at the supermarket. But I’d rather cut five cents from something else and know instead I’m getting really REALLY fresh eggs from chickens who are treated well.
I don’t think what Proposition 2 is asking for is unreasonable. It isn’t asking for each chicken coop to have wireless Internet or the hogs to have spring water flown in from Switzerland. It’s making the coops, the crates, etc. larger so the animals have a little more space, and it provides those in animal husbandry several years to do so.
I can’t help but think that if the animals had more room to move around they’d be healthier and happier too.
Is it worth it to pay more for eggs, pork and veal and know the animals are being confined in a more-humane manner? What say you?
Tags: animal husbandry, eggs, farming, food prices, free-range, Lisa Ling, Oprah, pork, Proposition 2, veal |
12 Responses to “You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around, well, unless you’re a farm animal”
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately in an effort to remove commercial messages, irrelevancies, excessive foul language, racist/sexist/hateful comments, spoofed/cloaked IPs and/or personal attacks and will be edited/deleted at our discretion. Thank you for your patience.
1. Cin
October 23, 2008 @ 10:34 am
I’m all about it. It’s horrendous the way animals are treated and the pain they endure on our behalf. Have you read SKINNY BITCH? People either love the book or hate it but it does bring to light some disturbing facts about how our food is processed. I aspire to be meat free one day and eat live whole foods because I believe it’s good for my body. But that’s my choice. Others believe that meat is a necessity and I respect that. But do the animals have to be tortured and abused? And is something like veal really a necessity? I say BE A MEAT EATER if you must, but be responsible about it.
2. Tina
October 23, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Proposition 2 is a risky, dangerous and costly measure banning almost all modern egg production in California. Proposition 2 jeopardizes food safety and public health, wipes out Californians’ access to locally grown, fresh eggs, and harms consumers by driving up prices at grocery stores and restaurants and creates a dependency on eggs shipped from other states and Mexico. Here are my reasons….
1. According to a UC Davis economic study, effectively every egg farmer in California will go out of business or forced to another state leaving approximately 3000 unemployed and $600 million in lost California economic impact. Californians will become dependent on eggs supplied from out of state or Mexico, and expect the cost to double, even triple.
2. Locally produced, fresh eggs will disappear from the supermarkets and replaced with eggs trucked in from other states and countries with possibly less stringent rules and food safety regulations.
3. Other states and countries cannot provide the freshness and safety of eggs produced in California. California egg farms have not produced a salmonella outbreak in over 10 years. California has the most stringent food safety guidelines in the country.
4. The Washington DC based special interest group that has paid millions to gather signatures to put Prop 2 on the ballot would suggest that all modern housing systems used by 95% of egg farmers be eliminated and egg farmers should return to methods used in the past. This is flawed thinking! There is nothing romantic about past farming practices and to discard our scientific, veterinarian and farmer developed animal welfare achievements would be a mistake. Eggs, and chickens, are safer, more affordable and less exposed to harmful influences like Salmonella, Avian Influenza, E Coli and etc. than our farms of the past. I should know since my family has raised poultry since the 50’s. Both The American Veterinary Medical Association and The Association of CA Veterinarians oppose Prop 2 because it completely discounts proven animal science.
5. You may have heard of a recent outbreak of Avian Influenza in an outdoor cage free egg farm in Idaho. Authorities believe migratory wild birds brought the disease in contact with the outdoor cage free flock. Enclosed modern housing methods used in California today keeps migratory birds away from our hens.
6. Finally, the environment will benefit from less eggs trucked in from other states and countries. Additionally, uncontrolled run-off from outdoor farming operations is eliminated.
3. Jessica
October 23, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
What Tina said is very interesting and after I read this post, I was thinking, I wonder what the other side of the story is, because there’s always another side of the story.
Of course, I don’t want animals to be treated poorly, but what are the ramifications of such a measure and just how poorly are these animals treated. I think I need more information.
4. Rita
October 23, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
I don’t live there, so I don’t know. I’m all in favor of better conditions for animals though.
I do know that I’ve read that free-range and organic farming will be getting less expensive and will receive more government subsidies as more people support it. The way I understand it:
The demand for organic milk is so high that we’re having a hard meeting it so…
more dairy farmers are given incentives to raise organic cows to milk, so…
the demand for organic feed for those cows has tone up so high that we’re having a hard time meeting it, so…
more grain farmers are given incentives to grow organic grains.
It seems like a good process, if you can afford the higher price of free range and organic foods. If we keep paying the high price, then the price will eventually go down, because there will be more farms and they will be producing more foods (they say the higher cost of organics is because they don’t sell as quickly as commercial products, so they have to rotate merchandise on the shelves more often).
I’m not going to argue with Tina about it, because although she neatly outlined her issues, I didn’t find them fully explained and I’m truthfully ignorant on the topic, since I live nowhere near it.
5. Kymberly
October 23, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
So I can only eat meat from animals that took their own lives?
6. Tatiana
October 23, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
Im glad Oprah brought light to this subject. As a vegan and mother of a 4 month old son, I intend to raise my son as a Vegan, and that he be informed of where meat comes from, and how badly these animals are treated for our selfish interests.
I dont judge meat eaters- I encourage people to be aware and open minded. You wouldnt eat your household pet-Who are we to make that distinction of what animal is edible and which are not.
For the sake of our planet and health, if you meat eaters could just cut back to once a week, it would be a great service to our planet. The energy, waste and pollution that is created just to power these farms and slaughterhouses is ridiculous.
7. Prescott
October 23, 2008 @ 6:08 pm
Kymberly said: So I can only eat meat from animals that took their own lives?
I think roadkill would be acceptable as well.
Tatiana said: I dont judge meat eaters- I encourage people to be aware and open minded. You wouldnt eat your household pet-Who are we to make that distinction of what animal is edible and which are not.
You don’t judge, but then make a judgmental statement. “Who are we” is a mammal with a higher level of intelligence capable of making choices and personifying animals. But of course, that doesn’t apply to all humans — many on this Earth don’t understand the concept of keeping “pets,” and will eat whatever animal provides them sustenance no matter how cute and fuzzy they are.
Just curious, did you mean to capitalize “vegan”?
8. Hillary
October 23, 2008 @ 7:36 pm
Interesting comments. I guess what I don’t get is how bigger crates = vanishing or non-existent health standards. Does California have more rigid standards/quality controls for food production than other states/than what Federal or USDA regulations currently require?
Arizona and Florida have passed similar laws as have EU countries. I’m curious to know what the new standards have done to prices in those locations, if Florida is now having to import its eggs from outside the state, etc.
It’s true there is more of a demand for cage-free produce and meat, so hopefully in time the price will go down and it will be more readily available.
9. Allison G-MOD
October 24, 2008 @ 9:36 am
I’m all for cage-free produce. When I think of hearty plump tomatoes, wasting away to Gazpacho in a tight cage without any means of excersize, it just make me infuriated! I just want to write a letter to my Congressman!!!!
Sorry, Hillary. I’m a smart-ass. I couldn’t let that one go by with merely a chuckle to myself. (exits the room with an evil laugh)
10. Jenna
October 24, 2008 @ 10:07 am
If you’re going to pay more for eggs raised well, skip the cage-free and go for pastured.
You can’t really confine an animal in a “more humane manner”-either its allowed to roam and live naturally (which will probably cost more, yes) or its confined and denied those behaviors. Hillary you’re absolutely right that if the “animals had more room to move around they’d be healthier and happier too.” Healthier animals make healthier food. Most studies have shown that eggs from pastured hens are more nutritionally dense than their factory-farmed counterparts: higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and CLA. Save $ on a bottle of vitamins and get them with in your eggs! This is not a vegan issue-people are going to eat eggs regardless, so if they’re looking for healthy eggs from happy chickens they should be looking for “pastured” on the label or ask the farmer how the birds lived.
11. Tatiana
October 30, 2008 @ 10:38 am
Prescott said:
You don’t judge, but then make a judgmental statement. “Who are we” is a mammal with a higher level of intelligence capable of making choices and personifying animals. But of course, that doesn’t apply to all humans — many on this Earth don’t understand the concept of keeping “pets,” and will eat whatever animal provides them sustenance no matter how cute and fuzzy they are.
Just curious, did you mean to capitalize “vegan”?
12. Hillary
November 5, 2008 @ 7:01 am
Well I just checked the LA Times website and Prop 2 passed. I think it is a good move.
I loved my typo above about cage-free produce. I meant poultry. Big oops. Yeah, I don’t see my corn growing behind bars.