Community Chat

[terrier3]

An interesting article in the NYT.

I like her idea that video cameras be running tape at all places and phases in the process, like they do in England.

Her husband or a staff member accompanies each animal, to make sure the animal is calm.

I only eat local grass fed beef (which is so expensive, I eat very little now!) from a farm where I have visited and know the owners.

This farmer has some commonsense ideas to protect our food chain -

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/opinion/sunday/support-your-local-slaughterhouse.html?hp&rref=opi...

[Moons in Leo]

I stopped eating red meat eight years ago and gave up poultry over a year ago and I have never felt better.

[pinkskates4]

Ever read Temple Grandin's book or see the movie.

She's awesome in her understanding of cattle and other animals.

[Qwackertoo]

I bought some ground meat this summer . . . from local sources @ 9.50 a pound . . . I wish they were closer so I could buy more often . . . about 60-70 miles away. I should try to just buy 1/2 a side of beef or go in with somebody for a 1/4 each.

I worked in the office of a feedlot operation years ago . . . a temporary job thank goodness . . . while waiting to get my ideal position in the law dept. at the best employer in town . . . and that temporary job was one of the worst in my life . . . IF the office jobs were that bad I can't imagine how much worse it was in the actual day-to-day operations of the feedlots in Western Nebraska and Colorado.

[sidsmom]

Qwackertoo: I live in west Nebraska & drive from Denver thru east Colorado to get home. There's a HUGE feedlot in Yuma that close to 110,000 head of cattle...goes on for miles! So many semis on the road transporting these animals...poor things. And the smell...my dad used to roll down the windows & say "that's the smell of money!" It's definitely quite a production.

If you want a mind-bender...Google Earth...address: 38002 County Rd N yuma colorado ...and just see large mammoth that feedlot is!!! Crazy stuff.

[Qwackertoo]

I worked at the temporary job in the office in Omaha . . . this one has several feedlot locations . . . just reading the reports and seeing all the documentation was about enough to turn me into a vegetarian. They don't let one single aspect of the operation go to waste . . . no pun intended.

edit typo

[croemer]

I was taking Psychology classes in college. It was film day and the Professor put in a film for our class,by accident it was a tape of what happens when they slaughter an animal. We were all horrified. She had left the room and we all sat there stunned wondering if this was she intended for us to see? She came back to the room and she herself was frozen...she then tried quickly to stop the film. Too late...we had seen enough that we all sat there in stunned silence. I couldn't eat meat for a month after that. I can still replay what I saw in my mind when I think of it.

[LilacTree]

Wish I could believe her. What I have seen on TV is that all farmers are afraid to talk because the meat companies have a strong hold over them. If they talk, their business is over. The meat distributors will blackball them in the meat industry. The goal is to produce the meat as cheaply as possible, period. Her story about how they accompany each animal to slaughter and know their history, and how regulated it all is, is implausible and fictional. IMO.

I'm not saying don't eat beef/chicken/pork/lamb . . . etc. I'm just saying accept what it is and don't try to somehow dignify it. [I say this to society, not personally to the people on this BB.]

[Qwackertoo]

On 3/2/2014 Ford1224 said: Her story about how they accompany each animal to slaughter and know their history, and how regulated it all is, is implausible and fictional. IMO.

I don't know. Remember the Mad Cow . . . where they tracked down that cow, to the ranch/feedlot, to the original cow that gave birth to it . . . from birth to your dinner plate . . . don't know how true it is.

[HisElk]

On 3/2/2014 Ford1224 said:

Wish I could believe her. What I have seen on TV is that all farmers are afraid to talk because the meat companies have a strong hold over them. If they talk, their business is over. The meat distributors will blackball them in the meat industry. The goal is to produce the meat as cheaply as possible, period. Her story about how they accompany each animal to slaughter and know their history, and how regulated it all is, is implausible and fictional. IMO.

I'm not saying don't eat beef/chicken/pork/lamb . . . etc. I'm just saying accept what it is and don't try to somehow dignify it. [I say this to society, not personally to the people on this BB.]

Ford1224, hope you don't mind my bolding part of your post. This is so true IMO. It's everyone's choice as to what they eat/don't eat. I abhor factory farming, but I admit to eating fish/seafood twice a week.