I just wrote my congresswoman

[gwalchmai]

8 hours ago, Rizzo said:

Y’all don’t really think PETA or ARM or whoever deliberately staged this by committing the abuse themselves to further their agenda, do you? That’d be like rabid anti-gunners OC’ing AK’s in Starbucks or shooting up schools to get more gun control in the works, or something. ?

Maybe they did, but the owner of the farm said they were his employees and took responsibility for it. If I were the owner I wouldn't do that unless I was pretty sure it was my guys.

[Moshe]

10 minutes ago, gwalchmai said:

So you think the activities on that video are typical of pretty much all commercial farms?

Pretty much.  When you are just an employee of a slaughter house there is no vested interest this side of a paycheck.   When you are a rancher, like my Grandfather, he knew every cow by name.  He would rent a bull for impregnating his cattle.  If they came out male, they would quickly be steers, and steaks by the time the steer became a barely fattened up yearling.  Corn is not the natural food of cattle, but industry knows that it is quicker, but leads to e-coli entering the food system.  The industrial ranching/farming system is about quantity and quickness over quality.  If you go down to your local Walmart to get produce for instance, most of it is picked green and ripened by being exposed to ethylene. Ethylene glycol is what makes anti-freeze.

[Moshe]

3 hours ago, gwalchmai said:

So you think the activities on that video are typical of pretty much all commercial farms?

Sadly, most of them.  Most commercial meat products come from animals that are grown as fast as possible to make as much money as possible.  This is part burst in population/greed.  There are more human methods, but it does not provide the yield nor the quick turn around.  Say for instance I sent eggs to be sold on the commercial market  There are ways to do it humanely.  However, all of them must be graded by the USDA.  That means a large cost on the backend. Essentially, yard eggs to make a profit you better have a lot of land and a lot of birds.  The same thing with beef, mutton, or chicken.  You can produce a product that makes commercial stuff taste like cardboard in comparison.  However, you are required to use a USDA slaughter house.  That doesn't work out well grass fed/organic fed, etc.  Because your meet has to pass through with the inferior meat coming from the industrial farms.  So, when there is the inevitable salmonella and e-coli break out, and states have to quarantine the USDA inevitably come down on the little guy that is providing any insignificant competition to the huge industrial companies that caused it in the first place.  This is also the reason when people who farm naturally form a co-op with other ranchers and farmers it has be on the download, otherwise they will raid the proprietor of the CO-OP and treat them like they were making meth to give to each other.  

Is there a solution?  Not anytime soon.  However, when it comes to industrial farming, you can have your cake and eat it too.  Aquaponics allow large companies to raise organic crops to yield in smaller spaces.  That is better than getting them unripe from other countries, and subjected to gas to ripen.  The problem with doing one on your own, is the best fish to provide nitrates for the plants are Tilapia.  Here is the rub with that.  Texas Wildlife says you cannot use a non-indigenous fish species.  Now, in NM the same problem exists, not that are concerned about you having a non-indigenous species on essentially dry land, it is because they don't want you competing with the State fish hatchery.  There is a lot of Catch 22 sometimes just providing for yourself.  For instance, the USDA and the State of Texas dealt a solid blow to the independent rancher/farmer.  Texas A&M against small farmers/ranchers.  They used to come out and do a head count and do blood tests on the animals for certification free of charge.  That was suspended for paid service centers where you had to bring your livestock center where someone you pay checks the and certifies the health of your animals.  

I am pretty sure after that is done, a State Game Warden/Tick Rider checks you out for free after.  Now, interstate is a whole ball of wax.  Just because Texas says you are good to go, does mean North Carolina is.  You can receive warnings/and of fines if you are not in tune with both States.  You may have your dance card checked perfectly, but perhaps North Carolina wants a vets bill of health as well.  You would think with the Country Vets out here you could get that done.  You would be wrong.  There is a lot of red tape, and interstate traffic has not been made Regular, as per the Constitution.  Congress and most States have interpreted this as "regulate," which they have used to obstruct regular trade as written by the Constitution.  This is one of many reasons health insurance is costly, because they cannot have Regular traffic, but regulated traffic.  That means they have no out of state competition.

So, I am fine with deregulated capitalism, that is not incumbered by States and Congress in violation of the Constitution and bit by bit made a red tape socialism.  If people had a choice between industrial ranching/farming and could taste the difference, there would be no going back to mess we have in our instant gratification society.  Real meat and real food take time to grow to fruition to have the flavor and nutrients they were intended to have in the first place.