Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

You Are What You Eat: Are You Comfortable With That?
Isabel Cowles, Cook and scribbler
Posted: August 16, 2010 04:34 PM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isabel-cowles/you-are-what-you-eat-are_b_683888.html
According to a study by the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins 
Bloomberg School of Public Health, "Since 1950, meat used heavily in 
industrial agriculture are associated with elevated cancer risks for workers 
and consumers are coming under greater scrutiny for their links to endocrine 
disruption and reproductive dysfunction."
-----------

How much do we need to learn about factory farms before we stop supporting 
them? The New York Times recently published a short article on the lives of 
97% of laying hens in America--those raised in battery cages. According to 
the report, hens are allotted about 8" x 8" of space each, and packed six to 
a cage. Although some of the country's biggest egg-producing states have 
recently agreed to ban the implementation of new cages for egg-laying hens 
(existing cages can stay), the life of a commercially raised chicken remains 
abysmal.

Jonathan Safran Foer describes the experience of layers and broiler chickens 
(those raised for meat) in his book Eating Animals. According to Foer, 
broiler chickens, whose sole purpose is to "make flesh," have been engineered 
to grow at 400% of their natural growth rate, so that they can be slaughtered 
in a fraction of the time. They are killed at 6 weeks of age, despite the 
natural fact that chickens can live from fifteen to twenty years. The 
unnatural enormity of these birds' bodies leads to broken legs, slipped disks 
and sores on the bottoms of their bodies, where their skin maintains constant 
contact with a filthy floor, since their legs are too weak (or perhaps 
broken) to sustain their body weight.

So there are birds who are designed to lay eggs and birds who are designed to 
be eaten. What about the male chickens born to the layers? They are, simply 
put, "destroyed." Foer explains: "Most male layers are destroyed by being 
sucked through a series of pipes onto an electrified plate... Some are tossed 
into large plastic containers," where they slowly suffocate. "Others," he 
writes, "are sent fully conscious through macerators (picture a wood chipper 
filled with chicks.)" There are countless other grotesque descriptions of the 
farming and slaughter process in Foer's book, and in many others. Fast Food 
Nation, The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Inc. have all made clear what's wrong 
with our industrial farm system -- and the price animals pay so that we can 
enjoy their low-cost byproduct or meat.

If information about factory farms is so prevalent, why did editors at The 
New York Times feel that the size of layer cages is news fit to print? 
Because, despite everything we know about factory farming, we still support 
it every day. When we buy the cheapest eggs we can find, we are choosing 
animal abuse.

Many people, including Foer, make the case that human beings don't need 
animal products to survive. I don't disagree, although I believe that 
realistically, the majority of eaters will be never be vegetarian or vegan. 
And so, alternatives to industrialized agriculture are imperative. Two 
generations ago this discourse would never have happened: American families 
bought their meat, dairy and eggs from small to medium-sized family farms. 
(This is not to say that animal abuse never occurred before factory farming, 
but that, in general, the scale of husbandry required farmers to tend to 
their livestock with greater intimacy and care.) Despite what people claim 
about the food requirements of America's burgeoning population, factory farms 
are not a requisite for proper nourishment. The idea that eating meat at 
every meal is tantamount to proper nutrition is a myth propagated by the meat 
lobby -- organizations like the Animal Agriculture Alliance.

America's attachment to the high protein diet is little more than a 
reflection of the economic clout of the meat and dairy industry -- after all, 
the Standard American Diet calls for three cups--three cups--of dairy per 
person per day. People have lived for millennium without three cups of dairy 
per day. In fact, in most of human history, eating meat or animal products 
was reserved for special occasions. Just look at the Tarahumara Indians, 
depicted in Christopher McDougall's bestselling book Born to Run: they run 
50-100 miles at a time, fueled by ground corn and chia seeds.

Acquiring meat for the rock bottom prices we've grown accustomed to -- $.93 
for a dozen white eggs raised in industrial battery cages -- is absolutely 
unnatural. There is an intangible cost to raising animals whose lives are so 
commoditized. According to a study by the Center for a Livable Future at the 
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, "Since 1950, meat used 
heavily in industrial agriculture are associated with elevated cancer risks 
for workers and consumers are coming under greater scrutiny for their links 
to endocrine disruption and reproductive dysfunction." E. Coli deaths as well 
as antibiotic resistance are just two of many other consequences of the 
abundance of cheap meat.

Of course there are still people who don't fully understand the treatment of 
the animals they consume, but for most of us, that's not the case. By now, 
many Americans are aware that animals in factory farms are sick and abused. 
And yet, Americans continue to buy eggs, meat and diary whose origins are 
uncertain. This is unacceptable. Now, more than at any time since the 
inception of factory farming, there is an abundance of alternative animal 
food sources. Eggs are among the simplest things to get from farmers' 
markets, and some of the tastiest chicken, bacon and cheese come from the 
people who take the care and time to raise their animals properly. Finally, 
for those who claim that cost is an issue, I would respectfully say that the 
health and ethical costs of supporting factory farms are much 
greater--intangible though they appear. The realities of eating animals 
raised under conditions of violence and cruelty are real--even if the final 
product comes in a tidy package. Let's not wait for another book, film or 
article to wake us up to the horrors of how we treat our food: we can 
disempower the system today, at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you're not sure where your nearest farmers' market is located, visit Local 
Harvest for more information, or go to Eat Wild for a list of state-by-state 
farms that offer meat from pasture-raised animals. Finally, see the Certified 
Humane directory for a list of stores and restaurants.