The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on October 10, 2008, 03:14:11 PM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x2005
Oh my.
groovedaddy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Oct-09-08 12:36 PM
Original message
Standing, Stretching, Turning Around
The goal of the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act — Proposition 2 on the state’s November ballot — sounds extremely modest. It would ban the confinement of animals in a way that keeps them from being able to stand, sit, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs. The fact that such fundamental decencies have to be forced upon factory farming says a lot about its horrors. We urge California voters to pass Proposition 2. We urge every state to enact similar laws.
Americans are becoming increasingly aware of how and where food is raised. With that should come real concern. The mantra of industrial farming has always been efficiency, but efficiency has come to mean a pregnant sow — millions of them — confined in a gestation crate barely 2 feet wide and only as long as she is. It means veal-calves rendered virtually immobile in crates barely large enough to contain their bodies. It means endless rows of laying hens kept in battery cages so small that the birds cannot even stretch their wings.
No philosophy can justify this kind of cruelty, not even the philosophy of cheapness. Proposition 2 will not just improve the square footage available to these suffering animals. Reducing the concentration of animals will also help reduce the water and air pollution created by factory farms. It will also begin to redress the imbalance between small farmers and the huge corporations that have acquired vertical, and fundamentally anti-competitive, control over the meat industry.
To a California voter still undecided on Proposition 2, we say simply, imagine being confined in the voting booth for life. Would you vote for the right to be able to sit down and turn around and raise your arms?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/opinion/09thu3.html?t...
You know, when franksolich was a little lad, he used to spend part of his summers in upstate New York, on a dairy farm near Rushville. The dairy farm was not, really, a full-fledged dairy operation; it was owned and operated by a guy who had been an engineer on the Union Pacific railway in Nebraska for some decades, and after retirement, he and his wife moved back to their native upstate New York.
It was a great farm, a paradise for dairy cattle. There must have been circa 50 acres each for each cow, lots of green stuff on which to munch, everybody laid-back, relaxed, mellow.
The primitives, ever since the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, have made a big deal, a really big deal, about high gasoline and grocery prices. Yes, yes, yes, it's sad that prices have risen, but if farmers and ranchers and producers raised stuff like these long-ago dairy cattle were treated, prices would be w-a-a-a-a-y higher.
One can't have one's cake and eat it too.
CrispyQGirl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Oct-09-08 12:39 PM
Response to Original message
1. What you do to one, you do to all.
How can people turn a blind eye to the heinous way we treat factory farm animals?
I hope this prop passes.
The Krispy Kreme is obviously willing to pay more for groceries then, if this passes.
navarth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Oct-09-08 12:52 PM
Response to Original message
2. **** meat. Go vegetarian.
Don't participate in this evil shit. You'll feel better, and you'll have a clearer conscience.
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I just finished making a skillet of chicken and rice.
I feel bad now.
It won't last long. :evillaugh:
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navarth
**** meat. Go vegetarian.
Don't participate in this evil shit. You'll feel better, and you'll have a clearer conscience.
You mean you don't want us to whoop them bovines and eat their carcass?
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Thanks for the reminder groovedaddy - Ive got some steaks in the fridge for dinner I had almost forgotten about. Don't worry, Ill let them stand in the oven for a stretch, periodically turn them around and then let them sit to cool slightly before serving.
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Let me translate that for you.
"I'm a dumbass and I pay high prices for organicly grown foods and range eggs, beef, etc.. I want everyone ordered to eat like I do so my cost will come down. .....theirs may double but I don't care. It's only fair that they subsidize my eating habits."
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The People's Republic of Coliformia has already legislated industrial activity out of existence in the state, through taxation and environmental wacko-ism.
About all they have left is left wing entertainment, queers, seaports for transshipment to the normal parts of the country, and a hugely successful farming industry. So they're going after the farming industry.
See how long it is before this thread starts referring to meat as "flesh", and a carcass as a "body" - consistent with normal speech in Coliformia.
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navarth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Oct-09-08 12:52 PM
Response to Original message
2. **** meat. Go vegetarian.
Don't participate in this evil shit. You'll feel better, and you'll have a clearer conscience.
Plants are alive too. Why do you put your base desire to feed above another life? You're a plant murderer aren't you? Cold-hearted, unfeeling life eater!!!
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Actually, I do think there's room for improvement without costing an arm and a leg. I grow my own food because I know my meat animals will have a good life until they become dinner. That's the very least I owe them since they're providing me with the food I need. I have the luxury of being small enough that my chickens can free range, but at a "factory farm" where they have to produce a certain number of eggs a day can't do that. Chickens are very social so having more than one in a cage is beneficial. Still, they need room to turn around and the chance to scratch a bit (that too is instinct). When I have to buy meat at the store I pay extra for organic/free range because generally the treatment of the animals is better. That's just a personal choice, though. We all do the best we can.
Cindie
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Actually, I do think there's room for improvement without costing an arm and a leg. I grow my own food because I know my meat animals will have a good life until they become dinner. That's the very least I owe them since they're providing me with the food I need. I have the luxury of being small enough that my chickens can free range, but at a "factory farm" where they have to produce a certain number of eggs a day can't do that. Chickens are very social so having more than one in a cage is beneficial. Still, they need room to turn around and the chance to scratch a bit (that too is instinct). When I have to buy meat at the store I pay extra for organic/free range because generally the treatment of the animals is better. That's just a personal choice, though. We all do the best we can.
Cindie
When TEOTWAWKI comes, can I be in your clan? :bow:
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I just finished making a skillet of chicken and rice.
I feel bad now.
It won't last long. :evillaugh:
You EEEVIL person! Have you any idea how much your rice suffered before being eaten by you?