On Dec 19, 2009, at 00:21 , frank theriault wrote:
On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:56 PM, Joseph McAllister
<[email protected]> wrote:
<snip>
For the most part, the food industry does what it can
to provide us with meats with the minimal harm and trauma.
<snip>
That is an inaccurate statement. Simply put, it's wrong.
I'm not going to argue, but please do some investigation and find out
how horribly animals are treated in factory farms (which is where
pretty much all of our meat comes from).
I recently spent almost two years on the coast of California west of
Santa Rosa.
I had to drive 34 miles to get to Santa Rosa, and another 70 miles if
I wanted to go to San Francisco from there.
On the coast, most of the land, hilly and golden, is dotted with
grazing cattle, free to roam most anywhere except the roadways.
Between Santa Rosa and San Rafael, both sides of Route 101 consist of
green or golden grasslands dotted with cattle. No lots. No muddy pens.
Just cows, grazing, getting fatter and happier every day. And the
occasional diary farm, to be sure. You could watch the cows heading
voluntarily to the milking bards every afternoon.
The gentleman's ranch I worked on was smack in the middle of 5500
acres grazed by 200 - 500 head year round. One of my jobs was to keep
them off the lawn around the house, and out of the garden and meadow
on the 45 acres that was my responsibility. Watching the awkward
playfulness of the newborns romping around up the driveway at times
was a joy.
Three times a year the rancher would come in with three long horse
trailer type of transports and load them up with a selection two or
three dozen head and haul them off to be sold for food. I'd help round
up small herds on an ATV to help if I was available.
Good times.
You are probably thinking of the feed lots around the major processing
plants, where all cattle go to recover from their trip in trailers,
trucks, and trains, and be fed rich foods and supplements to put a few
pounds back on and marble the muscle for a more tender steak. You
probably have not seen those California cows. Nor the ones that dot
the landscape here around the Snohomish river and the foothills of the
Cascades in Washington. I could take you up in to the Cascades and
show you the herds of tens of thousands of sheep that gauchos from
Peru tend to in the very high county in the summer, grazing on the
tender grasses and clovers that grow fast once the snow is gone in the
spring.
These animals have pretty good lives while they live, and in most
cases, a quick death with a bolt gun to the base of the skull that
turns everything off instantly. Better than being dragged down by a
mountain lion or wolf pack. If you've ever spent any time around these
animals, and I have, it does not take long to realize how dumb they
really are. They do not live in fear. They are contented.
Joseph McAllister
Lots of gear, not much time
http://gallery.me.com/jomac
http://web.me.com/jomac/show.me/Blog/Blog.html
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