Understanding that the inhumane killing of animals is something that goes on every day in nations with industrialized food systems does not make this video, shot by an undercover activist from an animal rights group, any easier to watch, or even hear about.
The Des Moines Register:
Quote:
The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards. These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine. In other parts of the video, a chick is shown dying on the factory floor amid a heap of egg shells after falling through a sorting machine. Another chick, also still alive, is seen lying on the floor after getting scalded by a wash cycle, according to the video narrator. Hy-Line said the video 'appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies,' referring to chicks on the factory floor. But the company also noted that 'instantaneous euthanasia' - a reference to killing of male chicks by the grinder - is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.
video @ link (warning: very graphic) _________________ "The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 3078 Location: tahsis, british columbia
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:55 pm Post subject:
I'm sure there will be people shocked and surprised to learn what is shown in this video. I'm past being shocked or surprised at the level of ignorance so many people demonstrate when it comes to how the food they're buying ever got to the supermarket shelves.
I had a farm, for years I raised rabbits, chickens, turkeys, and beef. Yes, you can raise animals for food without being cruel to them, yes you can treat them with respect, even treat them with kindness.
You just go broke when you do.
People who think nothing at all of going into the liquor store and paying sixty dollars for a bottle of good scotch will howl like banshee when told the price of organic free-range meat to feed their children. People who do not blink an eye when they agree to pay huge money for a newer and flashier car will drive that car past the farm gate and go to the supermarket for chemical retaining water bloated inferior meat produced in the most economic and unfeeling way.
Farming made me very aware that I am not eating a drumstick...I am aware a creature died in order for me to have that meal.
Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 4004 Location: Central USA, Earth
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:23 pm Post subject:
It is a tenet of (my) faith that accepting how one treats other species/beings predisposes one to accept the same toward themselves and others of their kind. Traditionally, this is taught by parables using ants (or mosquitoes, etc.) as irritants to humans, who exercise choices. The generalization was initially hard to fathom yet has become more dear to me.
When I read the piece, via TreeHugger IIRC, I immediately extended the dynamics to between humans in our society and culture. Which is one tangent.
And, I assume that along with 'chicken shit (digest)' the infant (supposedly) roosters are ingredients in pet foods.
Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 24243 Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:26 pm Post subject:
... it ain't just sausages (and newspapers) that you don't wanna see what goes into the making of... _________________ "The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 3078 Location: tahsis, british columbia
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject:
I believe the squished rooster chix go into pet food and into the pellets fed to fish in the net pens. I've been told (no link no proof) the the bits , pieces and morsels removed from the carcasses of meat birds in the processing plants also wind up in such products... as well as what hits the floor in the meat packing plants...
waste not want not...it might only look like guts and heads to you but to someone, somewhere, it's income...
That said, if you check your steak for nice marbling and decent grain, I can't see how you wouldn't notice grain that runs every which way, and fat that's totally out of place on that cut.
A bit like suggesting that the average carpenter would be "unable to tell" particleboard from a quartersawn plank. _________________ ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,
We get our beef direct from the farmer, so I'm fairly certain we're okay. Interesting idea, though, constructing a steak out of leftovers. I do find it hard to credit that you couldn't tell it from the real thing. Maybe if you weren't paying attention.
Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Posts: 4004 Location: Central USA, Earth
Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 5:03 pm Post subject:
Elsewhere, derived from PORK and beef blood came up.
I suspect that I have been fooled -- with beef that didn't appear to be tenderized but cut too easily. Certainly, I have eaten processed foods with the stuff.
And, I do have concern over over-consumption of animal-derived products -- though some societies more or less survive on animal blood, or whatever. But, BGH, antibiotics, and pesticide residues are detectable and cause reactions as is.
True. We limit meat consumption, source from local producers who avoid the chemicals and try to avoid processed foods. I think the best you can hope for is reduction, though.
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 918 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:02 pm Post subject:
I hardly ever eat bacon anymore. Or ham. The odd porkchop and sausage if I'm left to my own devices at the grocery store, and end up sneaking some home to squirrel away at the back of the freezer. Instead, on the meat morning, which is usually Saturday or Sunday, the apparently health minded consensus under roof here will only accept turkey bacon as a substitute. In my way of figuring, at least with real bacon we pretty much have it's origin sourced. Protestations along those lines have fallen flat. _________________ There is this old notion, Bolshevik, a little frigid for sure; the building of the Party. I think that our present war is about giving new content to this depopulated fiction.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:23 pm Post subject:
So what exactly is the deal with bacon? It seems to have risen in popularity as a cultural phenomenon, not just a food, over the last five or six years.
I first noticed this a few years ago when I saw a comedian do a stand-up bit about bacon. Those who you'd expect to encourage bacon consumption, such as fast food chains, are obviously pushing bacon, but when t-shirt companies have multiple bacon-themed products, it makes one wonder what's going on.
_________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 918 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 1:32 pm Post subject:
I think the bacon pop-culture is a residule effect of the fast food, industrial advertising campaign that reacts against the popular discourse about healthy eating. I also happen to take veganism as a corresponding pursuit with a spiritual context of its own. _________________ There is this old notion, Bolshevik, a little frigid for sure; the building of the Party. I think that our present war is about giving new content to this depopulated fiction.
Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 445 Location: somewhere over the rainbow
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 2:05 pm Post subject:
Slumberjack wrote:
I think the bacon pop-culture is a residule effect of the fast food, industrial advertising campaign that reacts against the popular discourse about healthy eating. I also happen to take veganism as a corresponding pursuit with a spiritual context of its own.
Blasphemy. By way of atonement repeat the Pig's Prayer:
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 4:37 pm Post subject:
Blasphemy?
Interesting. I've been wondering if the cultural bacon fetish has anything to do with an unconscious clash of civilizations with Islam. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 918 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 4:57 pm Post subject:
al-Qa'bong wrote:
I've been wondering if the cultural bacon fetish has anything to do with an unconscious clash of civilizations with Islam.
It probably is mixed in somewhere, being about freedom and all. The same logic regarding the freedom to clog away at those arteries doesn't extend later on as a right to public healthcare, even after a lifetime of paying consumption taxes to the state on the sale of unhealthy, industrial food. Collectivism and pooled resources has got Stalin and Islamofascism written all over it. They'd confiscate our bacon. _________________ There is this old notion, Bolshevik, a little frigid for sure; the building of the Party. I think that our present war is about giving new content to this depopulated fiction.
Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 445 Location: somewhere over the rainbow
Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:33 pm Post subject:
Slumberjack wrote:
al-Qa'bong wrote:
I've been wondering if the cultural bacon fetish has anything to do with an unconscious clash of civilizations with Islam.
It probably is mixed in somewhere, being about freedom and all. The same logic regarding the freedom to clog away at those arteries doesn't extend later on as a right to public healthcare, even after a lifetime of paying consumption taxes to the state on the sale of unhealthy, industrial food. Collectivism and pooled resources has got Stalin and Islamofascism written all over it. They'd confiscate our bacon.
Not sure whether this deserves a serious or facetious response but the same logic can be applied to smokers, the seriously obese, and so forth.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:54 am Post subject:
Or as Major Frank Burns would say, "Put that in your opium pipe and smoke it."
So what's the connexion between over-eating (other than freedom fries), smoking and Islamophobia? I think Slumberjack makes a good point about connecting bacon to freedom in a larger cultural context. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:04 pm Post subject:
I had to check to make sure this wasn't from The Onion. I was actually LAUGHING OUT LOUD as I read the article.
Quote:
"Chris, falafel is a gateway food," responded Bachmann, "It starts with falafel, then the kids move on to shawarma. After a while they say 'hey this tastes good, I wonder what else comes from Arabia?' "
"Before you know it our children are listening to Muslim music, reading the Koran, and plotting attacks against the homeland."
"We need to stop these terror cakes now, before they infiltrate any further."
[ed. Oops. I checked, and found the Daily Currant is to the Onion what Cracked was to Mad magazine.]
I was wondering about this anyway, since some Palestinians and (angry) Lebanese are upset that Israel recently declared felafel to be its national food.
I was upset about something similar about 20 years ago. The U of S Students' Union (or the U of S itself - I'm not sure any more) sponsored International Students Week on Campus. One of the attractions was the row of international food vendors (all students) selling the cuisine of their home countries. The students at the Israeli booth were selling felafels in pita bread, both of which are traditional Arab foods.
I felt like going up to them and telling them (but I didn't) that it was bad enough they stole the land, they didn't have to appropriate the culture too.
I wonder what they could have sold, had they not had Arab food. Bagels? _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:22 pm Post subject:
This article is pretty good, too.
Quote:
"Look, these people they're fucking retarded. Rape can't cause pregnancy? Breastmilk cures homosexuality? I caused a hurricane by challenging creationism? Who can possibly take these people seriously anymore?"
The slightly uncomfortable anchors then tried to change the subject, but Nye persisted:
"It used to be these Republicans didn't believe in global warming or evolution. That was bad enough. Now they don't even believe in egg + sperm = baby. Where does Todd Akin think babies come from? Does he think there are separate storks for people who were raped and people who weren't? "
"Hey look over there! It's the rape stork. It drops its babies directly at the orphanage."
"He's a fucking idiot. Just a plain fucking idiot. I'm sorry - I don't say that word very often - but it happens to fit in this case. He's just a fucking idiot."
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 918 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:32 pm Post subject:
Quote:
For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it's so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities," Frasier told The Register-Guard.
Pigs'll eat anything. I should think it would be difficult to market the animals in question after this incident. I mean you have your grain fed livestock and free range stuff. Fed with honest to goodness farmer? They've probably already all been shot as a safety precaution at the farm. You know pigs...once they've acquired the taste. _________________ There is this old notion, Bolshevik, a little frigid for sure; the building of the Party. I think that our present war is about giving new content to this depopulated fiction.
Joined: 13 Jul 2010 Posts: 918 Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:46 pm Post subject:
The Surf and Turf at the pub last night was delicious. _________________ There is this old notion, Bolshevik, a little frigid for sure; the building of the Party. I think that our present war is about giving new content to this depopulated fiction.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 4:34 pm Post subject:
What is surf and turf?
There's an restaurant advert on TV these days, I disremember the place, but they are promoting their "surf and turf." It seems seafood is involved...and maybe french fries. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
There's an restaurant advert on TV these days, I disremember the place, but they are promoting their "surf and turf." It seems seafood is involved...and maybe french fries.
Steak and seafoood. Usually lobster, but can refer to crab or shrimp. But the steak is always steak.
Just got a side of beef. It's a stupid time to get it - we'll have to find a way to move it when we go. But looking forward to free-range, ethically raised beef for supper!
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 3078 Location: tahsis, british columbia
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:53 pm Post subject:
Out here on the west coast of Vancouver Island "shrimp" are small, and what people seem to call shrimp 'back east' are what we call prawns...in any event I'd take prawns over beef any day of the week...my grandgrrrls make jokes about prawns being "bugs", they insist they look like woodbugs , sometimes called pillbugs...
when I was farming I raised grass fed beef, and while it wasn't entirely "organic" because I used fertilizer on my hay field and a fly and tick repellent on my critters, I never used any of the "enhanced" feeds or those thing-a-ma-jigs they clip on the animal's ear to leak hormones into their system to add to the size and shape of the poor beast... some of what gets done to the commercially raised meat, all species, is just about enough to turn a person completely vegan...IF they knew, and few do.
The beef we get isn't certified organic, but it's pretty much the same thing. The rancher we buy from is semi-retired, just doesn't want to entirely give up his cows yet - he really likes raising them. So much commercial beef is full of antibiotic and they're not allowed to live like cows.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 3:53 am Post subject:
When I was a teenager I used to like raising hogs. I felt like a traitor when I shipped them off to market. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
I can see that. I think our beef guy doesn't feel much that way - he likes his cattle (I once had him tell me all the personality quirks of the cow we were loading into my freezer), is even fond of them, but they have a purpose, which is food. In the meantime, he gives them a good life and seems satisfied with that.
I imagine that would be a bit of a disconnect for me - I've hunted, but never raised animals for food - but I'm glad that I can find meat from a creature that has been treated humanely over the course of its life.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 5:09 am Post subject:
I'm not judging or anything, but your beef guy sounds sociopathic. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
You do sound a little judgy - not that it's a bad thing. I think we all do and are just shy about saying so.
I suppose it does make the beef guy sound sociopathic - but that's really not the impression I get from him. He's genuinely concerned about the quality of life of his animals, and I think that's a good thing.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:06 pm Post subject:
Well, maybe I sound judgy, but your guy sounds like the character in "In Cold Blood" who said he liked that family right up to the moment he shot them all. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
oh what a bunch of crap. cattle are raised for a purpose: to create food. that doesn't mean farmers don't care for their animals or in fact have caring animal/human relationships and this fact offers up no dissonance to the farmer as they understand the underlying relationship. the herd is actually long lived...you don't eat the producers you eat their offspring. most of the cows in our producing herd of 50 or so had names for fucks sake. one of said cows was named "ears" and she had a notable mean streak when it came to her calves. she put the run on little ol' me on a number of occasions. but she probably was on the farm upwards of 15 years and 15 calves. she was one of the good ones...despite her obvious emnity toward 8 year old farm boys.
Well, maybe I sound judgy, but your guy sounds like the character in "In Cold Blood" who said he liked that family right up to the moment he shot them all.
Only if you think cows and people are the same. Maybe we can agree to disagree on that.
Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 6031 Location: A monistic vulgarity in which nobility and wisdom have been exchanged for a pale belief in progress
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:15 am Post subject:
I don't think it's a question of "only if.." since I don't see a lot of similarities between cows and us, but how about pigs and dogs? We used to have a hog who'd jump out of his pen and play with one of our dogs all day. Eventually he grew to big to leap out of his pen. We ended up eating the pig, not the dog. What determined our choice?
By the way, what's the big deal about eating horses? That story's been in the news a lot these days. _________________ "The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the powerful" Hammurabi
"We can't all be Sam the Sham; some of us have to be Pharoahs" Larry, brother of Darrel, and his other brother Daryl
While I generally manage to follow (though still be thoroughly frazzled by) the childish absurdities of the kids in the preschool gymnastics class I teach, it totally threw me off today when one of them chose as her topping for our make-believe pizza "rainbow unicorns". I get the general fascination with the beasts in the little ones, but as hypothetical food items? Did not expect.
That would be cultural, alQ. I've been at a table where dog was served for dinner, and two of my crew (both raised on farms, not that I think that makes much difference) both partook. I didn't, but I didn't have the scorpions, either.
I think it's the same with horses. Just a cultural bias.
Joined: 11 Apr 2006 Posts: 8635 Location: OMG! They killed Jason Kenney!
Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 5:41 pm Post subject:
al-Qa'bong wrote:
I don't think it's a question of "only if.." since I don't see a lot of similarities between cows and us, but how about pigs and dogs? We used to have a hog who'd jump out of his pen and play with one of our dogs all day. Eventually he grew to big to leap out of his pen. We ended up eating the pig, not the dog. What determined our choice?
By the way, what's the big deal about eating horses? That story's been in the news a lot these days.
How about we leave the dogs alone and just eats the cats instead. Mmmm...kitty cat...tastes like chicken.
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