Is ignorance bliss? Taking responsibility with our purchasing power!!!

I received this message from a friend in Nova Scotia.  I had some idea of the monstronsities that were going on behind the scenes in the realm of MASS food production....but god to hear Herb's firsthand experience made my stomach turn!!

I know that many of you do not opt for the organic or free-range products because they are just too expensive.  Yet, you do not baulk at the idea of spending $3 on that  DEEELICIOUS coffee.  We need to have a look at how we spend our money and make sure that we are being conscious of the whole food chain.

This animal cruelty is not just isolated to the poultry industry....it is widespread, and as long as we keep buying they keep torturing. 

*Side note*- In Laos the people only eat poultry that has been raised by themselves or someone they know.  They certainly never buy the plump, juicy poultry from Thailand ( that has been fed antibiotics and raised in horrid conditions...as Herb describes).  They have grown to love the chewy, flavorsome and completely organic animals raised right before their eyes. 

While I shared a delicate dish of laap gai (minced chicken with herbs, chillis, lemon, paa dek and roasted rice powder- an amazing way to bring out the best in tougher free range chickens) I explained to my Laos friend how the West approaches chicken farming.  They were horrified and said 'no wonder you have so many health problems...even if you do live a long time imagine what is inside your system!!!!'

JUST IMAGINE...OHHHHH

Many of you already know the facts...but read this, share it with others and start making conscious decisions in the grocery store.  Sorry about the wonky spacing..been trying to fix it but cannot on this computer. Bear with me and read it all.

Hello All friends,

I want to rant about a serious experience i was involved in over the last
week. I was working for a local farmer who has a beef/chicken/christmas tree
farm. I will get right to the point........we slaughtered 15 000 chickens.
It was disgusting!That is right 15 000 chickens and it was only one of his
three chicken barns. Then we packed up 15 000 baby chickens and put them
back into cages. All of you that are faint of heart please stop reading now
and stop buying grocery store eggs unless they say free range or organic.
Others cointinue on.........

This was the worst job i have ever had. My sholders hurt and my wrists and
forarms are permently "clawed" from carrying so many squirming chickens off
to the grinder. I can hear some of you sayin " why did someone who likes
animals even take the job". Well.....money is money an I need some of that.
More than that though i took one for the team. I went undercover to see the
sytsem from the inside out, to be the man on the inside. To go through this
experience and tell others about it so that u know whats up and can make
informed decisions on buying eggs.

Here is the deal.......whenever we buy a pack of eggs in the grocery store
we are supporting this industrial eggs system. We are voting with our
dollars and buying into the process. I know money is an issue for everybody
and therefore just do what you can. Buy free range or organic when ever
possiable, 2 out of three times is a good start. Also not everybody raises
their own chickens like me or has access to a local farmer who raises them.
But their is an alternative in every store...so just look for it...or
request it from the store manager. With out the consumer input the stores
will never change.

The system is sick and getting more twisted the more we go along with it
people. The chickens have no lives at all. And in fact are barly alive at
all! They breath uncirulated air that is thick with dust and chicken shit.
They are kept four to six chickens in a space one foot by one foot by one
foot! They do not move around like a normal chicken and i am not sure if
they even know how to walk. All the chickens do is peck the feathers off of
each other, sit and lay eggs. They are debeaked ( a process where the beak
is burned off) so that they can not kill each other and declawed too. Life
is short.....only one year for these guys. They never see the light of day.
NOt at all. As well they are fed growth hormones and anti biotics which make
them inediable and make their way through bioacumilation into the eggs. Did
i mention the average lifespan of a chicken is four to six years and these
guys live one year in horible conditions. They would not be able to live
longer than a year anyway because of the circumstances of their pittyfull
existence.

This was the worst example of animal cruelty i have ever seen. Try not to
support this industrial egg paradigm. It sucks for the chickens and is not
healthy for us the consumers. Everytime you buy regular eggs in the grocery
store this is what the chickens go through.

Ignorance is bliss and some of you will wish you did not know this. But the
only way we can move past this horrible practice is through education and
consumer demand. So tell your friends about the way the grocery eggs are
raised. You will be suprised by how little people know on the subject or how
they have heard something but have forgeton about it now and still buy the
crappy eggs. IE factory farming sux!

This message has been brought to you by the letter B and the number 7. Send
it to as many people as you want, but more importantly, talk about it and
think about.

PS. anybody in the Nova Scotia area can contact me about purchasing farm
fresh eggs raised by healthy free range organic chickens :)

food security specialist...............Bdub

This will make you smile.....after all of that

Children raising chickens in a more humane way

Comments

[Paul]

I agree with you

[Cam]

At the restaurant I used to work at, we bought our poultry from one of the largest supplies in N. America. They slaughter over 1,200,000 birds a day in the US and Canada.

It can be worse for cows.... Even more horrifiing are recent investigations by the USDA. Undercover videos, employee affidavids and inspections in some of these massive slaughterhouses have shown that cows are not being stunned properly and are ALIVE! and CONSCIOUS! as they proceed down the line and are butchered into pieces. I have seen the footage, you can't even imagine how awful....

This has happened because these factory slaughterhouses have increased the speed of production in order to decrease labour cost and increase profits.

N. Americans really have no clue about the meat they buy. Most public opinion is created by advertisers who show cartoons of happy, smiling cows in pristine, wide open spaces. We are not imformed at all, and we give our ignorant consent with every purchase. People here need to be more aware, especially the meat eating/buying percentage of the population!!!

[crystal sweeney]

I wish everyone could read this but what frustrates me the most is that I can't think of ONE person whom I will tell this to that will actually change their habits. Everyone just seems to ignore these problems. I can honestly say that I will stop buying chemical-laden meat and I will try to spread the word! Thank you for trying to help the poor animals and for trying to help us idiots not to keep killing ourselves with chemicals and disease.

[Phil]

Hi, We have now started our own chickens in a 60m2 enclosure here in sunny New Zealand, they often escape and have fun wandering the garden, and we now have lovely fresh eggs and watch our chooks enjoying life. It's thanks to people like you who point out the miserable lives these poor creatures go through to mass produce for the global market that prompted us to do this.

It costs a bit more to feed and maintain your own chooks than buying cheap crappy eggs, but hardly anymore, and as I will describe you can make some money to balance it, so you work on an even keel.

The benefits of fresh eggs is vast, they poach so good, stay together and look great, they fry fantastic, all the white stays together, the yolks are wonderfully yellowy/orange, and they just taste better knowing where they came from.

Please keep up the good work. Our chooks cousins need more people like you.

The way we make it more cost effective is we often sell our great fresh eggs at work to colleagues, and this in turn makes them realise how great fresh eggs are, and how crap and old the supermarket ones really are, so again helps in a small way. I enocourage anyone who has chooks to get more, and sell fresh day old eggs so friends can see the difference and turn someone away from battery eggs.

[fahrrad]

Dies ist ein großer Ort. Ich möchte hier noch einmal.