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So I decided I wanted to wait until after the poster session to do my final post just to address some of the things I discussed with our classmates about my project. First of all Dr. Carroll asked me if I had viewed the video the matrix and I had not so I went ahead and did that and posted a link below that you all can check out if you so wish.
Let me know what you think.
The continual question I received during the poster session was in regard to my stance on meat. How do I feel about it now, after doing all the research that I have done? Things have changed … I’ve started purchasing cage free eggs, which a class member informed me about, thank you! I have also started buying antibiotic free chicken and no longer will eat anything with meat from fast food places. I know vegetarian is a better way to go but I don’t know if I can do that. I am feeling pretty guilty today though because after a night in aggieville last night I definitely had a chicken pita 
. I’m serious though about trying to be better. I think the cruelty towards the animals is inhumane and should be illegal and not to mention the huge risks we face when we consume something that was raised poorly.
My advice to everyone is to just be aware. Keep informed. Know what you are eating. Think about where it is been and envision where it is going (as in your body). There are always ways to make a difference whether it is becoming a vegetarian or eating cage free eggs. I do not believe this is a problem that is going to disappear anytime soon and I am not all about burning down factory farms or protesting or anything like this, for me it is about the little things that I can do to feel like maybe I’m making some small difference. It is all those small differences that will make a big change one day.
This post is going to cover mainly the effect of factory farming on our (human) health.
One of the newest studies right now shows that eating a plant based (vegetarian) diet can prevent a lot of very common diseases such as heart disease and diabetes (type II).
IN FACT…
“80 to 90% of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other degenerative illness can be prevented, at least until very old age – simply by adopting a plant-based diet.” http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/health/
WHY YOU ASK?
Factory farming uses many different types of growth hormones (as many of you who have been following my posts know) that can cause what they call ‘super germs’. They do have the ability to cause human death and people that eat meat may be at risk. Especially if they do not know where there meat is coming from.
Yes people mad cow disease did exisit and because of it many humans were infected by it who ate the cows that had the disease. This is just one of many examples.
There is the USDA who is supposed to be in charge to inspecting the meet that is fed to the consumers but the problem seems to be that these ‘inspections’ are just not up to par. By fixing them a lot of unwanted disease may be prevented. You have to ask yourself is it worth the money to tighten the reins and save some lives? My answer is yes!
Do you want to eat this??? Check it out…
Maybe we should go this route?
WELCOME BACK BLOGGERS…
As my project has progressed I feel like I continue to learn more and more that I never knew, which in turn leads me to believe that there are many others out there like me that do not know a lot about what is going on, on these industrial style farms. This post is going to focus mainly on the different animals that suffer from factory farming and they specifics of how they suffer and what exactly thier living conditions are. I realize up to this point I have shown pictures and videos of the animals but I have not gotten in real deep about the actual environment and that is my goal for this post.
FACT 1: First of all I think it is important to know why this happend to begin with. It was during the 1920′s when vitamins A and D were discovered. These vitamins make it possible that animals can survive without exersise and sunlight.
COWS
There are two different types of cows. Veal cows (used for meat) and dairy cows (used for milk).
Veal calves are kept in confinement for the majority of their short four month lives. They live alone, without companionship and are kept in small crates. This method of confinement is practiced to inhibit muscle growth therefore making the cows skin more tender.
Dairy cows are kept in a holding facility where they are fed and kept except for the two times a day they are let out to milk. Dairy cows are given growth hormones which can double their milk production. We are told that the cows suffer emotionally from having little to no interaction with other cows. When the cow can no longer produce milk they are sent to be slaughtered where there skin can be profitable.
FACT 2: In America almost 50% of antibiotics given are to farm animals.
CHICKENS
There are also two types of chickens, broiler chickens and layer chickens.
Broiler chickens are chickens raised for their meat. They are also given hormones which at times can cause them to way so much they can not support their own body weight therefore they can not stand. They have their beaks and feet cut off and are placed in dark rooms to prevent fighting between the birds. Their life span is ususally about seven months.
Layer Chickens are raised to lay eggs. They are crammed into what is called battery houses and their are usually about five to eight birds in a 14 square foot area. The battery cages cause deformation to their feet and their beaks are seered off at a young age to prevent fighting. When the hens have male chicks they are unwanted and suffocated in trash bags. After a laying cycle the hens are either slaughtered for deprived of food and water in order to shock them into another laying cycle.
PIGS
One thing we know about pigs is that they are social creatures and crave interaction with others. Factory farming does not allow this and because of it pigs may develop different things out of boredom for example nervous ticks or cannibalism. Pigs bred in this environment do not ever usually see daylight until they are shipped to the slaughter houses. They are kept very often in an area so small they can not even turn around.
It is really hard to read all of this and I do not think I have made one post yet that I haven’t cried writing about. They most important thing is that we let people know what is going on. Educating, I believe is the best first step in the right direction.
This information can be found at http://www.idausa.org/facts/factoryfarmfacts.html
Welcome back friends! This is my second post of my research project about factory farming. This week I focused a lot on the environment and I learned that factory farming is not only a horrific thing for the animals it is for the environment as well. When we think of farming we picture green fields where the cows graze but in actuality the majority of farms are industrialized. There is this whole idea that what farmers take from the earth they also give back. By this I mean they put there cows on the land and they feed and then the cows fertilize land its a very give and take process. This is not possible with factory farming though because of the amount of animals, lack of rotation of animals, and failure to give the land time to rest. I guess before starting this project all I really thought about were the animals but there are so many other factors involved as well.
In a sustainable farm livestock manure can be used as fertilizer for the earth but in an industrialized farm the amount of livestock produced can become a very larger problem. The pollutents can cause harsh effects to the air, water and soil that surround the farms. Unlike human waste animal waste is not sanatized. The large amounts can spill onto the land when there is to much and it is not properly disposed of, which is basically impossible to do anyway.
I learned something else I found very interesting and this is that sustainable farms mainly feed their livestock off of the land but factory farms more often feed thier animals off of grain and things of this sort. Lets look at it in these terms…
The average cow eats approximatley 30lbs of food each day!
Basically this puts a huge strain on the grain culture since the beef industry raises more than 30 million cows each year. (www.sustainabletable.org/issues/environment/) That site has a lot of information about the effects on the environment and that is where I learned the majority of what I am sharing with you this week.
Well this sucks… what can we do. I found a very cool thing called the Eat well guide where you can go and type in your zip code and it lists the places in our area where we can buy sustainable farm livestock.
Check it out: http://www.eatwellguide.org/
PLEASE WATCH THIS … IT IS DISTURBING BUT VERY EYE OPENING!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=66XBlmdFlY8
This is a picture of a factory farm and what the waste storage system looks like.
Thanks for checking my post out tune in for post 3.
Well this is my first post or blog I guess I should say. I do not really know what I’m doing so bare with me…
I choose to do a research project or informed citizenship, with the purpose of bring attention and awareness to the cruelties of factory farming. Over the next four weeks you will be seeing and reading this you wish you never knew existed. My goal is to educate on what is going on and some alternatives to what we can do. I realize we have touched on this idea in class and I was very interested to learn more so… wa la Welcome to my blog: ‘til the cows come home.
Before I get started I want to address an actual definition. We have talked as I mentioned earlier in class but just for clarification and have a Wikipedia definition for everyone:
Factory farming is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density; and also sometimes used more generally to refer to usage of farm animals as factory parts as is typical in industrial farming by agribusiness.
If there is any confusion here I thought I’d go ahead and clear it up. Come on people a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Kinda looks like Mass Street after that KU win doesn’t it? Unfortunately this is not what these little guys chose.
For this week I am taking the Journalistic approach I went online and found some great articles that are written by different media sources. I have provided the links for these sources below so that you can see what I have been up to!
This first site informs us that in the world of factory farming the livestock are seen as merely a commodity. I really liked this link because you can click on the different issues for example eggs, pork, dairy etc. I found the information rather horrifying. When I was reading about the beef I wanted to become a vegetarian after coming across a particularly appalling statistic: A standard slaughter house kills approximately 250 cows an hour. You can see it yourself by going to this link: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/
Here are some other very interesting, if that is the correct word, links to check out.
This link touches on some of the things that the humane society are trying to accomplish.
http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/colo_congress_historic_farm_bill_040708.html
This is an opinion piece written by the NY Times.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E7DE153FF933A0575BC0A9649C8B63
While I realize I titled my blog til the cows come home it is important to keep in mind that this is not just a cattle issue. Factory farming takes place among almost if not all livestock. I chose to focus my title on cows because it seems to me that this is the gateway to the factory farming of all livestock. You’ll see what I mean by viewing this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0v-OUglDA4
Thank you for viewing my blog. I hope I did not ruin dinner for anyone tonight. Stay posted!
