At some farms, it's `hog hell'

[denverbill]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=chitribts/atsomefarmsitshoghell

The odor knocks visitors off balance the moment they walk in the battered front door of HKY Farm. It's not so much a barnyard smell as a noxious combination of manure, ammonia and death that intensifies as one moves toward the barns.

Next comes the sound of dozens of sows screaming and thrashing at their cages at the arrival of visitors and the prospect of food, a noise so loud and unsettling that a farm manager puts on ear plugs as he enters.

Inside, HKY Farm looks like a Third World prison for pigs.

Dozens of dead piglets are dumped in piles or encased in pools of manure beneath the floor, having drowned there after falling through a hole. Dead hogs remain in their cages, discarded and stiff in walkways or rotting in pens as other pigs gnaw at their carcasses.

Many of the 1,800 or so pigs that are alive are emaciated, crippled or covered with open sores, having been poked by jagged iron bars from broken cages or fallen through slats that separate them from the manure pits below.

The nursery, heated to protect the piglets, is swarming with flies, and the "sterile room" where food and medicine are stored includes yet another pile of dead pigs stacked in front of a refrigerator and bags of pig feed.

<snip>
You know, I'm not vegetarian, and doubt I ever will be, but for god's sake why are places like this allowed to operate?

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Simple easy answer.

Capitalism.

[Heyo]

3. Hahahahahah

good one.

[DarkPhenyx]

5. And sadly true.

If it made more money for the animals to be raised in a more humane manner then they would be raised that way. Unfortunately it dosen't so they aren't.

[NashVegas]

14. that's not capitalism

that's technocracy, and we're there.

[54anickel]

2. Have you read Franken's "Lies" book? Chapter 39 -

"Vast Lagoons of Pig Feces" and the shit geyser.

[The Stranger]

4. And this has what to do with vegetarianism?

[DarkPhenyx]

6. Vegetarians use scenes like this...

...to prove you are evil for eating meat.

[treepig]

9. that's so very very foolish

what are these radicals going to suggest next - that the carnage in iraq is a result of me driving my hummer? egad

[Ignis]

16. Careful there, treepig...

Someone might accuse you of the sin of causality! The horror!

[The Stranger]

12. Maybe non-vegetarians can uses scenes like these to face the reality

of what is going on and doing something about factory farms. That is, instead of worrying about vegetarians or vegetarianism.

[DarkPhenyx]

17. I know quite well what goes on at factory farms.

I don't particularly care one way or another if someone decides they want to eat like food eats.

What would your point be?

Or are you simply trying to prove your moral superiority again?

[denverbill]

10. Because stories like this are a perfect excuse to become vegetarian.

I personally, like to feel that an animal hasn't suffered unduly.

It's one thing for an animal to live a relatively quiet and peaceful life, and then be killed for food.

It's quite another thing for an animal to live a identical time frame in squalor, pain, and misery, and then be killed for food.

I pay at least double to buy free-range chicken. I can't tell the difference in taste, but the price difference is worth it to me to know that at least the poor chicken lived a reasonably pleasant existance up til death.

[The Stranger]

11. Agreed.

At the same time, it would seem that regardless of whether one is vegetarian or not, these factory farms are indefensible and completely unacceptable. Most wish to remain in denial that they exist.

Too often the knee-jerk reaction from many is to think that someone who opposes factory farms is against meat consumption of any kind or on any terms, and this was the recent reaction from Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is ill-founded.

[denverbill]

15. They are indefensible, to me.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of a-holes out there who really don't give a damn if the food their eating comes from an animal that was produced inhumanely. Hell, freepers practically BRAG about wanting to eat veal or factory-farmed food.

Enough of the rest of the populace is just too damned indifferent to care. They'll happily buy their hormone injected, anti-biotic treated, saline solution-brined, factory-farm raised, illegal labor slaughtered chicken at the local Walmart, content in the knowledge that they saved $.05/lb over buying it at the unionized Safeway.

[DarkPhenyx]

21. Isn't it great!?!

Life is a wonderful and blessed place for us. :)

[theHandpuppet]

22. Sad but true

As for myself, I live in an area where there is no place to buy free-range meats at the markets. (I do not, however, shop at Wal-Mart -- I'd rather do without.)

There are many small farms in the area, though, and I was if it is legal to buy meats directly from the farmer or does it require govt inspection? This may be a naive question but I'm looking for humane alternatives.

[DarkPhenyx]

20. There is no excuse for becoming a vegetarian.

it isn't something that needs an excuse. Lifestyle choices don't need excuses...unless you feel this need to explain yourself. That's a completely different issue then.

[treepig]

24. we're in perfect agreement

there's nothing as aggravating and unnecessary as having to explain lifestyle choices - geez, my lifestyle - which includes emulating certain founding fathers of this country - is to shoot a few injuns on the way home from church on sunday. i know that the neighborhood busybodies whisper about this over the back fence, but fuck them, it's absolutely none of their god-damn business!!

[Dogmudgeon]

19. Plenty of us meat-eaters have complained about this

The amount of "production cost savings" realized in factory farming of livestock is miniscule -- it's as low as a dollar per head of cattle, which currently sell for about $70. I'd be more than willing to pay an extra 5¢ to 75¢ for each pound of beef, pork, or chicken raised in a more natural, pleasant environment.

As it is, factory farming has even degraded the quality of the meat we get from livestock. Not only do the animals incorporate noxious chemicals (steroids, antibiotics, trans-fats) in their cells, the metabolism of a feed animal traumatized throughout life is abnormal. I would attribute at least a part of such modern ailments as "Syndrome X" (sugar and fat metabolism disorders), antibiotic resistance, and increased susceptibility to autoimmune disorders to these practices.

The irony in modern animal husbandry is that the stereotype of the evil right-wing cattle rancher is 100% wrong. The traditional cattle rancher (right-wing, left-wing, or flightless) is the good guy -- the "street-savvy businessmen" who ordain that animals be treated as "production units" in an enormous, filth-loaded, hellish industrial system are the real agents of the devil.

The much-hated Robert Atkins ranted at great length about this. All of the books he wrote after about 1980 nag his readers to eat naturally raised food animals and organic vegetables. But that part of the story tends to get buried under the roar of the anti- vs pro- Atkins evangelists.

Unfortunately, factory farming has degraded the quality of most of our vegetables, too. Huge amounts of pollution, waste, and soil depletion happen with factory farming of plants. Then there's the whole hybridization/GMO/intellectual property set of issues.

This is a major overall problem, and one that both meat-eaters and vegetarians can agree on. It encompasses ethical, medical, and economic concerns, and it's yet another facet of how our industrial society is hell-bent on destroying the world. And when you put it all together, it's not just about being nice to Bambi and Elsie the Cow, it's about the continued survival of humanity and sustenance of the Earth. At some point -- a point we may have passed -- our food may become actual poison.

--bkl

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. Only in Canada . . .

.
.
.

[UpInArms]

8. check out the models

for "vertical" farming:

http://www.cast-science.org/cast-science.lh/pubs/vert_is.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1204/11_97/57045383/p1/article.jhtml

nice antiseptic sounding words for the worst farming scenario possible.

[MadHound]

13. There are many tragedies involved in any type of factory farming

The wasted animals, the concentrated pollution from runoff, the conditions that the animals live in, the emerging threat of pandemics spread via factory farms, the effects on the farm's neighbors, the effect of these practices on the final product(the meat), the effect on family farmers.

Wasted animals are quite high at factory farms. And up until recently(and still practiced in some places) these dead animals were simply ground up and fed to the live ones.

The pollution that these farms generate is enormous. While in your once typical family farm, animal manure was resued on the farms crops, factory farms have little or no crops with which to spread manure on. Thus this waste is half heartedly contained in pools and ponds, seeping into the ground and the water table. And heaven help you if there is a flood or the retaining dam breaks. Creeks, rivers and streams for miles downriver are drastically effected, with algae blooms and fish kills the result. And normally the farm gets a slap on the wrist. Also heaven help you if you live in the neighborhood of one of these blights upon the land. The smell will automatically decrease your property value to nothing, and it will make your once peaceful home uninhabitable. Since most of these farms are located out in the country with few zoning laws, you are pretty much screwed. You can sue, but these corporations have deep pockets and will take the WalMart approach to litigation, appeal, appeal, appeal you to death.

The conditions that these animals live in is abysmal. If you have any empathy for living creatures you are absolutely devastated by the conditions these poor creatures spend their life in. In addition, these conditions make for easy transmission of disease and parasites, threatening a pandemic of global proportions. That is why the agricultural community is so nervous about the appearance of bird flu and other diseases. Once they are let loose in a factory farm, every animal in that facility will be effected.

These conditions also effect the meat you eat. It is a well known fact that happy animals that aren't stressed make for better tasting animal products. Also, take into consideration all of the hormones, innoculations, and the food itself, combined with a lack of exercise, and poof, you have "funny" tasting meat. I'm not a vegetarian, but a few years ago I started getting my meat from local, organic, free range producers. Man, it was like taking me back to childhood! Chicken that tasted like chicken, not some rubbery anonymous pseudo-flesh. Same with beef and pork. If you haven't tried this yet, I highly recommend it.

And lastly, factory farms are one of the last nails in the coffin of family farmers. The farming depression of the '70s and '80 made possible the swooping up of vast tracts of farmland by the likes of PSF, Monsanto and others. Raising produce on a scale that is impossible for a normal farm to even concieve of, they are able to keep produce prices at extemely low levels. This in turn forces more family farms out of business, and the whole downward cycle continously repeats, until soon the only farms left will be factory ones. And as with any monopoly, we know what will happen with the prices then.

So for all of these reasons I urge my fellow meateaters to go ahead and spend that little bit more of cash, and buy from your local family farmer. Your health, tastebuds and conscience will all be easier to live with.

[sangh0]

18. You left out the biggest tragedy of factory farming - Republicanism

Meat packers and corporate farms give most of their poltical contributions to Repukes.

[Tippy]

23. You got that right....n/t

[toodles_oduff]

25. Check out "Fast Food Nation"!

An excellent book that touches on these issues. He has descriptions of conditions in the slaughter and packing houses that will leave you feeling very angry. The human workers in these plants are almost as bad off as the animals. Sadly we haven't really progressed much since Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle".