Animals Meet Your Meat

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would hate to see worse, seeing how bad the video is (Seen HERE). But, I do take your word for it.
All true, Toqis.
The thing is though, nearly 80% of all meat that makes it to market for consumption is factory farmed. And that is what allows for the cheap prices at the supermarket -- and even at the butchers'. While many people will give lip service to saying they buy non-cruelty farmed animals, the fact of the matter is, the economics of the situation is showing us that factory farms are on the rise and the family farm is on decline.
One should never even entertain the thought that the 'not too expensive' steak or hamburger they have while out was brought to their table without considerable suffering throughout the animal`s life. If one is a regular flesh eater and is not careful about choosing free range animals for their dinners at home, in all probability one is supporting a very cruel life and death for animals.

I agree, the way i see it, unless the animal product you are going to eat specifically says it is organic and/or free range, if it doesn't it probably isn't. My brother works at a big supermarket in England called Tesco's, he works primarily in the alchohol section, but often delves into the main food sections when help is needed.

Although he eats meat, he's in the same frame of mind as i am and only eats meat from my mums farm or from butchers he can trust- he's strongly against factory farming and all the other nasty methods of farming. Everytime (or whenever he can discretely get away with it) somone goes to buy the battery chicken eggs or bacon or whatever, he tells them about the suffering the animals go through and tries to convince them to buy the organic free range stuff- he says though that most people just don't want to hear about it. He says people know exactly how the animals are treated, but don't want to comprehend such stuff.

Protesting for things like animal rights around tesco's, like for most other major supermarkets in england, is illegal because the supermarket deliberatly buys the surrounding area partly to turn into car parking, but also so people can't protest for things the supermarket does not want or sponser as then it can prosecute them for tresspassing and things.
I'm sure if this was not so though, there'd be a heck of a lot of angry farmers its pushed out of buisness and animal rights and welfarists protesters and stuff though. Anyways, i'm not wanting to break the law. I'm convinced there are always other ways, always other options.

 

[strongvoicesforward]

Although he eats meat, he's in the same frame of mind as i am and only eats meat from my mums farm or from butchers he can trust- he's strongly against factory farming and all the other nasty methods of farming.

The family farm is on the road toward extinction as a supplier to supermarket and butchers. Sure, there will probably be a few hold outs here and there, but for the most part, people will not have much of a choice.

Everytime (or whenever he can discretely get away with it) somone goes to buy the battery chicken eggs or bacon or whatever, he tells them about the suffering the animals go through and tries to convince them to buy the organic free range stuff- he says though that most people just don't want to hear about it. He says people know exactly how the animals are treated, but don't want to comprehend such stuff.

THAT IS RIGHT ON THE MONEY!

Even when a supermarket employee (your brother) informs them they still don`t want to hear it or change their ways. Why? Because it is about costs. People want to save a few dollars and they don`t mind doing it at the cost of suffering.

I have a few things to say about Free Range in the future but for now,

Good on your brother for informing customers.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The family farm is on the road toward extinction as a supplier to supermarket and butchers. Sure, there will probably be a few hold outs here and there, but for the most part, people will not have much of a choice.

I Agree. I think that the government does not do enough to promote good farming either, for both farms that primarily do crops/plants products and ones that do animal products a like.
Organic farmed plant products really isn't that much cheaper to produce organic food products than non-organic farming, what drives up the price though is the cosmetic standards the supermarkets enforce the transportation process which usually destroys most organuc food products.
What drives up the price of free range & organic animal products is competeticion from foriegn imported foods and the general cost to produce such things over here- we used to farm cows (we just rent out the land for them now days), but it got to a point where each cow was only worth/could be sold for ??500's, but it was costing ??600's to keep them- which makes it imposible to farm them using good practices when imported foods from places like brazil are selling beef/cows for like ??300's or less.

When we used to farm our own cows, my mum insisted that the cows are slaughtered at 4+ years old instead of the normal 2 years or less, and the calves are allowed to stay with their mothers for 1 year instead of being separated at birth.
We farmed the cows purely for meat, no dairy farming. We didn't slaughter the calves, male or female, like most farmers do now days, but instead allowed them to reach adulthood (if we had dairy farmed the cows though we would probably have had to slaughter the male calves as many farmers see male calf dairy cow breeds as worthless as breeds specifically bred for dairy farming often do not produce good quality meat).
My mum decided it was better to give up farming the cows instead of adopt the bad farming methods that most other farmers have had to adopt with cow farming to survive.
I did miss having the cows around, they are very intelligent animals. I used to give them treats, like during the summer the apple trees often produced an excess of apples, so we used to give them to the cows- they also chowed down tree branch clippings to which they seemed to enjoy a lot. Me and my mum planted loads of trees and hedges (over 10, 000 over many years) around the boarders of the feilds to act as wind breaks and so the cows wern't so exposed to the elements, and also to incourage wildlife.
Cows like affection like any other animal, they are very easy to tame (they are naturally very inquisitive animals and so its not long before they start following you around) and once you do, they love having their foreheads scratched (their coats are very oily though so you have to wash your hands afterwards) :bluush: !
Some people may think "how can you let yourself get emotionally attached to animal or show affection to it knowing that it will be killed at some point?" Well...I guess i didn't mind because i knew that the animals had a fair shot at life and that they were happy, and that i think you don't have to get emotionally attached to an animal to show affection to it. The farmer/animal relationship can be a tricky one, some people just completely emotionally-detach themselves from their animals but then again i think this is what can lead to bad farming practices like battery farming, but i think if you don't feel guilty about what you are doing to your animals but you still care about their welfare and needs, then that is a good start.

THAT IS RIGHT ON THE MONEY!
Even when a supermarket employee (your brother) informs them they still don`t want to hear it or change their ways. Why? Because it is about costs. People want to save a few dollars and they don`t mind doing it at the cost of suffering.
I have a few things to say about Free Range in the future but for now,
Good on your brother for informing customers.

Many people shop at Tesco's because of its cheap prices, but i still believe that the vast majority of us are still rich enough to afford not to eat battery/factory farmed animal products- there was actually a point in my life when i really was to poor to buy free range/organic food products as i was living off ??10's a week and every penny really matterd, but that time in my life has long passed and i have been able to afford good farmed foods for quite a few years now.
I think it would be really good if there was a super market that promoted affordable free range and organic food products, both animal products and vegetarian/plant products. It would be good for the farmers trying to uphold good farming practices and for the people that consume those sorts of products- thankyou for your praise of my brothers efforts/work .