Factory Farms Become Tourist Spots (Example to Euros of What *Not* To Do)

[nosmokes]

in a sane world something like this would sound alarms and send up some red flags that we really are doing things wrong and that we need take a long hard look at our food production and agricultural system, from how we grow things to how we treat the hired help, but since the spinach scare doesn't make any good pictures it doesn't even rate so much as mention that i could find in my hometown paper today, and forget about any media time. but hey, there's a sex scandal in DC and no one's managed to blame it on the clenis. yet.
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original

U.S. Factory Farms – So Bad They're A Tourist Attraction

Consumer Group Brings European Farmers to United States Dairies


WASHINGTON - September 29 - Food & Water Watch welcomed farmers from France, Spain, and Germany this week for a first hand look at the environmental and public health consequences of factory farm dairies in three states – Michigan, Oregon and Washington.

“U.S. factory dairy farms are so bad they’re a tourist attraction,” said Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive Director. “European farmers touring U.S. factory dairies and communities will take home a snapshot of what European agriculture could become if farmers and their governments aren’t careful.”

Factory farms have been linked to health problems for farm workers and neighbors, and contaminated water and air in surrounding communities. The stench alone can ruin rural communities, as residents rush to shut their windows and bring their children indoors when the wind shifts. These communities have been fighting lonely, uphill battles against operators that take advantage of lax enforcement of zoning and environmental laws.

“In a 16 mile corridor we have dairy operations dumping five times the amount of raw sewage as that produced by the entire population of Seattle onto our fields,” said Helen Reddout, president of Community Association for Restoration of the Environment in Yakima County, Washington. “Contaminated waste on our fields is dangerous as we can see in the California spinach case."

"The U.S. EPA and state agencies turn a blind eye to the air and water pollution caused by giant dairies and other factory farms," explained Hauter. "Rural communities and U.S. consumers deserve better."
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complete articlehere

[nam78_two]

1. kick-factory farming is horrible

For so many reasons other than just those mentioned there...

http://www.factoryfarming.com

http://www.cok.net

[OneBlueSky]

2. we should ban factory farming altogether . . .

and foster the creation of new family farms in every state . . .

but as long as Congress is controlled by corporations like Archer Daniels, this will never happen . . . unless and until something really disastrous occurs . . . and maybe not even then . . .

[Kali]

4. who is going to farm on those family farms?

Not many have the ability or desire.

[pitohui]

6. the cultural revolution

there are some who look on it with nostalgia rather than horror i suppose

of course w.out factory farms most of us would be dead-er than doornails but why let reality intrude on a good fantasy

there are also european tourists who like to come over and pretend to be native americans -- but i never see any of them dealing a dice game

[Kali]

7. dealing dice

:spray:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Um...sorry, but people don't need factory farms to survive.

That has to be one of the most laughable things to come out of you yet. People do not need meat, eggs, and milk pumped full of hormones and antibiotics to survive. In fact, they don't need meat, eggs and milk to survive at all. I already know you're going to bring out some bullshit claim that without those people will become anorexics, but like I said that is bullshit.

Science is on my side. What do you have on yours?

[bananas]

12. Don't you know

that those billions of Chinese are deader than a doornail?
LOL

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. Shit! I know a lot of vegetarians & vegans, too.

I must see dead people all the time.

I myself eat fish, but don't support factory farming practices. Wow. Does this mean I'm posting on DU via the afterlife?

Awesome.

[nam78_two]

14. LOL yeah also all those Indians

:rofl:
Hilarious....

[Kali]

20. who grows YOUR food?

I bet a good deal if not most comes from megacorporate entities - AKA factory farms. Meat isn't the only food produced by this model.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

21. I buy almost entirely organic and locally-grown when possible.

Find somebody else to pick on.

[Kali]

22. Trying to get the point across that it is not very likely

to be ENOUGH "family farmers" to feed everybody, regardless of the choice to consume meat. It is hard work and not many have the desire or aptitude. But thanks for buying local, those of us that are trying to keep things small, sustainable and healthy appreciate your efforts.

It's going to be a long time before the kind of balance between small food producers and consumers that both comprehend and can afford to pay what the small producers will need to recieve in order to stay motivated will ever be reached. If ever. I understand the difficulty of choosing cheap abundant, relatively healthy food over expensive organic idealism, especially if you have others to feed, I don't blame anyone for making those choices.

[w4rma]

53. Why? Do you think Americans are too stupid to own and run a buisness? (nt)

[Kali]

57. No of course not, but I see a lot of hobbyists call themselves

ranchers, who are in no way running their operations like a real business. And that is not an attack on hobby farmers, I am just pointing out that not only are we in danger of losing the skills and knowledge to run small farms, even the folks inclined to try the lifestyle may not even be looking at it in terms of making a living or running a business.

The shift to humongo-corporate ag-BUSINess as opposed to agriCULTURE has endangered not only the entity of small family farms but the knowledge to run them. Its just another extinction happening.

[pitohui]

28. actually science is on my side and you know it

most people do need good sources of easily available protein to survive -- meat, eggs, and milk being the best sources that our bodies have been adapted to use for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years

the argument for veganism is superstition and religious hysteria, be it buddhist or be it the word of paul that a man cannot eat meat lest it lure his brother into sin

it is not a scientific argument and never was -- which explains why you can't discuss the matter without screaming profanities like "bullshit"

it is a well known fact that we were able to avoid the malthusian crisis by advanced farming techniques, if we did not have those techniques, the earth could not support nearly 7 billion people, if some want to volunteer to starve themselves and remove their load from the planet i guess that's their choice, if they want to persuade others (especially impressible young women who are being killed by eating disorders) then that's where i draw the line

you are free to harm yourself, you are not free to tell others to harm themselves and not get called on it

[LeftyMom]

34. I was at a conference yesterday with thousands of vegetarians and vegans

Not only did none of them keel over dead, they all appeared to be rather on the robust side, even the considerable number of older people (and since this was in San Francisco, it's a good bet that a lot of those old hippies have been veg since before I ever drew a breath.) Interestingly, in a turnout of thousands of people, two were noticably overweight and two noticably underweight (and I talked to them, it runs in the family and the meat eaters are thin too.) Find me any other gathering in America where the vast majority of people are healthy and height/weight proportionate?

PS There's certainly no religious hysteria involved. Most of the vegans I know aren't religious at all.

PPS There's a great deal of evidence that the people leading others to harm are advocates of flesh consumption and factory farming such as yourself.

[VeggieTart]

40. I'm afraid not

Most people get waaaaay too much protein. Hell, even veg*ans get more protein than they need. My initial reason for being vegan was I simply hated the effect meat had on my body. I developed moral reasons when I learned just how brutal the industries are. I am not the least bit religious. Spiritual, maybe, in that I sense an interconnectedness in things, and I think there is something greater than us out there. But I feel this is the right thing for me. I hope more people will go vegan, but if someone tells me they've sharply reduced their consumption and only buy cage-free eggs and less cruelly produced foods, it's a step in the right direction.

And for the record, I am and always have been overweight. I know several vegans who are either normal weight or overweight. I like to eat. I like food. My dream is to be a vegan foodie. And when I learn that many of the owners of animal product companies are right-wing, it makes me even happier to be vegan.

[flvegan]

10. Statement number 2...total bullshit.

Absolute, utter "Iraq had WMDs" bullshit.

[TheFarseer]

42. we'd be dead without factory farms????

How did we live just a few decades ago? Chicken factory farms didn't come in until maybe the 60's and hog factory farms came in in the 80's and 90's. Factory farms for cattle are not here yet. Factory farms for grain really hasn't gotten anywhere yet. I lived on a grain and hog family farm until factory farms took off and drove the prices down to the point where we couldn't make any money on hogs. Now of course, sausage and pork chops are more or less free at the supermarket as we all know because the benevolent corporations pass on the savings to us :sarcasm: We'd be dead without factory farms? If you are not kidding please tell me what you are talking about.

[Nikia]

25. In my home area of Ohio, they are bringing back hs ag programs

Again at schools that had discontinued them due to lack of interest. It seems that high school students are interested in agriculture again.
I don't think that we should necessarily ban large farms, although perhaps tighter regulations would be appropriate especially in states where the laws are lax. Growing up in a semi rural area and living in a rural area today, I see economics as a reason that people don't want to farm rather than the whole "hard work issue". The reality is that the farm lifestyle is hard work because it is usually a second (or more) shift for the family farmer. They cannot survive on farm income alone so they must take another full time job if they are raising typical crops and animals.
To make farming more profitable to small farmers, farmers can benefit by forming coops and sharing the cost of machinery and fuel and other necessities in bulk.
Another issue is the cost of land and urban/suburban. A tract of land may be more profitable for retailers at the edge of town than for a farmer to grow crops. It might be beneficial to protect agriculutural land as that without economics coming into play. I am not sure how this would work because as it is now rezoning happens almost automatically if a business wants to buy some land for commercial development.
Some small farmers have switched what they raise to crops or animals that command higher prices. They may become "organic" although from what I understand they have to go through an expensive certification process that may or may not make this course profitable for a small farmer but usually for a large farming corporation.
I think that there are still Americans who would enjoy the farming lifestyle if it meant that they didn't have to work at another job to not be poor or even survive.

[Kali]

27. Yep, land and economics are the killers

Nevertheless the hard work issue is still vallid. Not many left in our culture willing to do it.

[Nikia]

30. I disagree

If farming was a middle class profession like it used to be when my grandparents were growing up, we wouldn't be having this discussion. The fact that there are as many families that continue farming as there are, even when they have to get other jobs, means that there would be many more if a farmer could make a median income or higher without getting another job. Also, now, it is almost impossible to make any money farming typical crops if you are starting from scratch if you are not buying large amounts of land.
I realize this probably would make food more expensive than it is now, but more people would be willing to be farmers if it paid decently.

[Kali]

38. It would be an interesting investigation to see how many

wannabe farmer/ranchers could actually hack it if they had the chance. Say they had the land free and clear, needed machinery or access to it and even a guaranteed minimum but comfortable income regardless of production. And since we are talking small family operations all labor has to be "in-house".

And don't forget virtually all real farm operations are real businesses, so I'm not even including the very real need for those skills as well.

[TheFarseer]

41. lot's of people want to farm and can't get into it

I know MANY young people back home who would like to farm and most don't have the money for machinery etc. or can't get enough land to farm to make it work. The idea that no one wants to farm is completely not true although it does get old when you can never get a fair price for your crop. It would be totally hopeless if not for subsidies, if you want to call living off the government "hope".

[Kali]

47. big difference between wanting to do it and the actual work

and between hobby farms and working outfits. It is a shame that young people who actually do want to get into it rarely have a chance. I know even in my family it is an alternation of generation sort of thing - my mother was raised on the ranch and wanted out - I was raised in the city and wanted in, my kids are being raised here and aren't that interested, although I have been very careful to not make them slave labor for the very reason that I worried it would make them hate the place....got a few years to go and maybe one of them will show some sign or maybe I will have the willing grandkids by then (cross finger, knock on wood etc)

[TheFarseer]

49. By far the best chance to get into it

is to take over your dad's farm. I just assumed I would farm growing up but now that I'm a bit older I know there is no way my parents and my hypothetical family could live off of his land. I guess when I eventually take over I'll just rent it to my cousin if he's still farming. I don't envy him trying to make a farm work by renting all his land (some from his dad, who gave up and got a job in town)and most of his machinery. Personally for me, it's not the work that is the factor although I certainly see your point that farming is not for everyone. Personally, I'd much rather do that kind of work and be my own boss than sit in a cube all day and have people bug me about cost report files. It's just not economically viable and that's the bottom line for me.

[Kali]

51. and then for a lot there is the HUGE temptation to give up the land

for $. Around here $3000 and up for an acre with no access to speak of and no water at all...its crazy. When you can hardly afford gas while you are sitting on that kind of money it is yet another straw amoung all the others.

[nosmokes]

54. there is a growin movement in folks moving back to biodynamic farming and

the vast majority of those people are family farmers. many are the children of old traditional farmers that debted off their land by current US ag policies and practices. yeah, mortgage your farm 4 times to buy that $1.5 million combine at 14% per annum and then spend another $150,000 a year just for fuel and fertizer and poison and when the banks decide to yank the eug out from under soybeans one year and pork bellies the next and then call your notes i you lose your home and your livelihood. but those farmer's kids learned a lesson from all that, and they're coming back and they're farming a different way. the numbers aren't huge. but they're out there, and they're growing, and that's just one more reason buying local is so important.

[OnionPatch]

55. There are tons of people

me among them, who would gladly take up traditional farming for a living (or in many cases, go back to it, since they were pushed out by factory farms.) Many of them have had relatives in the business for generations until factory farming made it impossible for them to make a living.

[StellaBlue]

3. kick

nt

[pitohui]

5. seriously?

i'll take em on a tour of some chicken and catfish farms if they want to pay an appropriate fee

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. I'm not surprised. nt

[flvegan]

11. Dairy farms are a tip of the iceberg

They should check out a battery hen (egg production) facility.

Rape racks and veal crates are a good start, though...

[nam78_two]

16. yep and for those concerned primarily with the health aspect

There is this sort of stuff:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/22/ap/health/mainD8GGT1003.shtml

Countries like Japan have long been suspicious of US meat production techniques...

I am little hesistant about posting Rens, but most of thatis from legitimate news sources and not his own stuff-he has collected some good ones though:


http://www.rense.com/health/CJD-CWD-BSE.htm

Here is a good one from Forbes ...not one of those "hippie" sites that "sensible" people would not believe :eyes:

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2006/06/22/hscout533415.html


THURSDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD, the human form of "mad cow disease," has a long incubation period and could cause an eventual epidemic, researchers report.

Reporting in the June 24 issue of the Lancet, they looked at a similar disease -- linked to cannibalism -- to better understand the impact such an epidemic might have.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is caused by misfolded brain proteins called prions, which cows contract through contaminated feed. Humans can catch the human form the disease, vCJD, by eating contaminated beef. So far, the fatal degenerative illness has infected about 160 people in the United Kingdom. More cases have been confirmed in six other countries, including the United States.

[VeggieTart]

15. We can do some serious harm to this industry

And I'm probably--shit, what's the vegan way of saying "beat a dead horse"?--anyway, I think if every DU reader goes vegan or at the very least reduces meat consumption by 75 percent, what a change we will make!

Each cow farts and belches gallons of methane every day. Methane is a greenhouse gas.

Chicken manure from farms in Maryland is fucking up the Chesapeake Bay.

It takes hundreds of times more water to produce a pound of meat than a pound of grain. The animal industrial facilities not only waste gallons upon gallons of water, the waste contaminates groundwaters, leading to contaminated streams, lakes, and oceans.

Lots of these corporations that profit off the flesh and reproductive secretions of animals tend to skew Republican.

Don't be afraid of tofu. If you need pointers, I will be happy to print them.

[nam78_two]

17. And the options nowadays are SO awesome

Quorn chicken for instance..seriously..I used to eat meat.
That stuff tastes exactly like chicken!

I fooled a few hard core coworkers -who said that "those substitutes could never taste the same" with it :).

And even cutting down,going vegetarian, buying free range would reduce the problem.

And if anyone needs good recipes (Indian food also is an awesome option-cheap, easy to prepare, healthy) mail me!

[kestrel91316]

18. Thank you. There is no need to scream (as some others do)

and carry on and try to force people to become vegetarians. All they need to do is recognize that CUTTING BACK on consumption of animal products will have tremendous benefits for one's health, animal welfare, the environment, and our economy. People don't have to be just one or the other (either a huge meat-eater or a vegan).

Half my meals or more have no animal protein, and I'm barely aware of that. I love chicken, but only eat it once a week on average. Beef maybe once every few months. Small amounts of fish, dairy, eggs. Lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy unsaturated fats.

[Kali]

19. oh yeah - everybody switching to soy will help

Huge monocultures of soy (organic? I doubt it)- there is the answer.

BTW that water per pound of meat is WAY less for range/grass fed. And back to soy - how much water to produce a pound of tofu?

[VeggieTart]

24. A lot less to produce a pound of tofu than meat

But just so you know, free-range is just a bunch of greenwashing. There's no indication that animals who are raised free-range are treated any better than conventional.

And soy production doesn't fuck up the planet the way meat production does.

BTW, Quorn is not vegan; they use eggs from battery caged hens.

[Kali]

26. So how much to get a pound of tofu?

I did a rough calculation based on 10 gallons per day per animal for two years = 7,300 gallons/1000 animal or 400lbs meat is 18.25 gallons per pound. This is a very rough guess for a beef animal.

Most of the water used in the figure usually thrown around is in fact the amount used to grow grain and other feedstuff.

Free range indeed can be greenwashing, however when it is real, the animals are eating a much more natural diet and there are clear improvements in the nutritional value of the meat.

Soy production does indeed fuck up the planet, although the majority of the fuck up is occuring in south America for livestock feed.

I have now idea what quorn is, I thought it was that Mexican fungus infection that some consider a delicacy....

OK google is your friend (gotta say this really doesn't sound too appetizing to me, but if you want to talk about industialized food production...whew!

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn

Quorn is made from the soil mold Fusarium venenatum strain PTA-2684 (previously misidentified as the parasitic mold Fusarium graminearum). The fungus is grown in continually oxygenated water in large, sterile fermentation tanks. During the growth phase glucose is added as a food for the fungus, as are various vitamins and minerals (to improve the food value of the resulting product). The resulting mycoprotein is then extracted and heat-treated to remove excess levels of RNA. Previous attempts at producing such fermented protein foodstuffs were thwarted by excessive levels of DNA or RNA; without the heat treatment, purine, found in nucleic acids, is metabolised producing uric acid, which can lead to gout.<8>

The product is then dried and mixed with chicken egg albumen, which acts as a binder. It is then textured, giving it some of the grained character of meat, and pressed either into a mince (resembling ground beef), forms resembling chicken breasts, meatballs, turkey roasts, or into chunks (resembling diced chicken breast). In these forms Quorn has a varying color and a mild flavour resembling the immitated meat product, and is suitable for use as a replacement for meat in many dishes, such as stews and casseroles. The final Quorn product is high in vegetable protein and dietary fiber and is low in saturated fat and salt. The amount of dietary iron it contains is lower than that of most meats.

Contrary to some suggestions, Quorn is not genetically modified: the fungus used is still genetically unmodified from the state in which it was discovered. The different tastes and forms of Quorn are results of industrial processing of the raw fungus.

[pitohui]

29. kali, these people have never been outdoors

i've issued this challenge many times

i've asked them to go into a soy field and count the wild species present

i've them asked them to go into a cattle ranging area and count the species present

they won't take the challenge because they can't take it, soy is agricultural desert, while cattle can co-exist with such things as ferruginous hawks breeding area that i have seen in idaho or the areas where migrating warblers make landfall that i have seen in southwest louisiana

it would be nice if there were fewer cows, but if we are serious about fewer cows, we need to get serious about fewer people through aggressive population control -- i don't agree with denying people who are already born safe, non-allergenic, time-tested proteins like chicken and beef

throughout history people who lived on low quality vegetarian diets were the poor, and brain-washing people to believe that a crappy animal feed like soy is a decent replacement for the real thing is truly a triumph of marketing, i'll give them that

[Kolesar]

31. I have been eating out of my garden since mid July

That is about to end, save for some brussel sprouts. Other than that, my vegetarian diet is macaroni, rice, potatos, frozen vegetables, beans, and fresh vegetables that come from afar. It is hard to imagine that my diet has an impact on the planet nearly as high as my steak and chicken eating fellow citizens.

[LeftyMom]

35. You were wrong then and you're wrong now

90% of domestic soy production is used as animal feed. If you have a problem with GMOs, monocropping or industrial agriculture, you need to stop eating meat because meat production is what drives monocropping of soy and corn. Most soyfoods sold to vegetarians and health food types are organic or at least certified non-GMO

And for what it's worth, I've seen plenty of soybean fields. Even though they were monocropped GMO fields, they had plenty of birds and were also a favored hangout of deer. This was in Ohio in the farming areas in between Columbus and Toledo, where my kid's father's family is from.

[Kali]

37. or switch to grass-fed. No need to quit meat.

However I will concede that the AMOUNTS we consume as a culture are excessive. Nothing wrong with cutting down, but no need at go without.

[LeftyMom]

39. Except that it's still godawful bad for a person

and none too great for the cattle, the enviornment, the slaughterhouse workers (who have astonishingly high rates of injury and illness) and a huge waste of land and resources.

Meat consumption is a huge factor in obesity and cancer development. I guess cutting back is better than nothing, but it seems to me that if something greatly increases one's chances of getting colon cancer and spending the rest of thier life pooping into a bag, a person would want to stay away from it. To say nothing of heart attacks, strokes, breat cancer, diabetes and the I-don't-know-how-many other ailments are closely tied to meat consumption.

[Jcrowley]

43. It's less about

meat- no meat than it is about Industrialism and Energy.

Vegetarianism is only a luxury afforded the leisure class in the last few decades which is based on copious amounts of mass transportation and industrial production.

The Ladakhi and the Inuit would perish without their animal feasts and animal products.

As a vegetarian in this late stage of industrial decay I suggest it is more important to acknowledge energy systems and limitations of watersheds than to indulge in lifestyle.

[LeftyMom]

46. The Inuit are damned unhealthy as is.

Those of us who live in climes a bit more suited to human habitation have more options, and the obligation to make responsible choices. :shrug:

[Jcrowley]

56. Sounds like

a bit of lifestyle choice-ism myth. Damn those unfortunates who have lived on ancestral lands for millenia...

You mean like Phoenix?

[Kali]

44. gosh durn you know people might live forever if they would just

stop eating meat. The cure-all for whatever ails you is to not eat meat.

Reminds me of "marijuana leads to heroin" type of thinking.

[LeftyMom]

45. No, but they might spare themselves cancer and heart disease

or at least not suffer them at such a young age. That's certainly what science has been consistently telling us for 30+ years.

[Kali]

48. hmmmmm

30 years of "science" research and all our health problems are because of meat. Interesting because we have been eating meat (and living and reproducing fairly well) for a couple million years, I guess you are right because for the life of me I can't think of ANYTHING else that has changed in the last few decades or generations that might be causeing these things besides MEAT.

[LeftyMom]

50. Not all of our health problems, but a whole lot of them.

Studies accross many continents and cultures show that rates of heart disease and cancer are pretty closely tied to diet generally, and flesh consumption in particular. The same thing shows up over and over again, even in studies where the researchers did not expect that result (such as the China Study, which was long term, had a huge sample and showed very clear correlations between meat consumption and poor health outcomes.)

[Karenina]

23. Kick!

:kick:

[restorefreedom]

32. every time the choice is made

to eat/drink something other than flesh/eggs/dairy, it is a good thing IMO. It helps to save a life as well as the planet whether that person is a carnivore, vegetarian, or vegan. As someone who has been on all steps along the way (currently about 90% vegan), it is not always easy and practical for some people. And some people really don't know how to cook veggie, or realize that their taste can often be satisfied by vegetarian fare. And as much as we veggies might want it to be, there will always be people who want to eat meat sometimes. That doesn't preclude us from improving the lives of the animals in the meantime and encouraging healthy and ethical consumption.

Once again, the U.S. demonstrates that as industrially and scientifically advanced as we are, our practices can be horribly primitive and cruel compared to so-called "primitive" cultures such as the ones that still practice sustainable agriculture and humane animal husbandry.

Maybe we got too industrialized and mechanized for our own good. Factory-farm killing centers are an obscene abomination. I wish people really knew what happened in there.

I might get flamed for this, but at least hunters have the will to get blood on their hands and not avoid the ugly truth of where their food comes from.

peace,
rf

[Jcrowley]

33. It's all connected

K&R

[Kali]

36. eh, here is how I do it...

[skids]

52. Legalize Hemp!

Sorry, this thread was just missing something without someone saying that. :-)