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| As bad as CAFOs* are, the the Research Center is far more sinister (Source) |
If you eat meat, here's yet another reason to avoid buying from Big Ag and instead to purchase from local farms: the US Meat Animal Research Center. The Research Center is funded by taxpayers and it's sole purpose is to experiment on farm animals in order to increase profitability for industrial agricultural businesses.
This story from the New York Times is hard to read - not at all for the faint of heart - but it's important that the word get out. Often, people who purchase meat from the grocery store are lulled by the cute graphics and labels into believing the meat comes from Farmers Jane and John and their 2.5 children. NOT SO. These animals often have never seen the light of day and definitely don't come from a family farm; they're from CAFOs*. In addition to the animals in CAFOs being raised under horrific conditions, their relatives at the Research Center are experimented on in ways that would drastically reduce sales should the truth come out. According to the article, farm animals used in research to benefit agriculture are exempt from The Animal Welfare Act that was passed in 1966. Therefore, there is little to no legal recourse to protect these animals. Only by refusing to buy the meat and thus refusing participation in this system can we prevent the torture and cruelty.
If you feel the story might be too graphic to read, then that is more proof that you should immediately stop buying meat from industrial operations and seek out your local farmers.
*Confined Animal Feeding Operation
2 comments:
Cherie, ouch, the article you refer to is in my state of Nebraska. I have seen those bunkers mentioned in the article and saw the cows grazing around them but never knew that they were part of lab research. The things that have been done to creatures to benefit mankind's desire for bigger and better is disgraceful. I will never forget the first time my now 30 year old daughter saw a wild turkey run across the road in front of our car. She wanted to know what kind of bird that was. When I told her it was a wild turkey, she was very skeptical because it didn't look like a turkey. I had to explain to her that the wild turkeys are not the same as a turkey we eat for Thanksgiving. Wild turkeys can actually fly while tame ones have been bred to have such huge breasts that they can hardly walk let alone fly. I don't really think she believed me until we started seeing more and more turkeys in the city. Wild turkeys have invaded the city practically every where there is a wooded area. It started about five years ago and is increasing every year. My garden known as Terra Nova Gardens has a flock of about 25 give or take in any given year. Their presence in my garden has resulted in no bugs on my plants. They don't seem to bother the plants but just scratch around in the mulch and eat the bugs. Since they can fly, the fences built to keep out the deer and other nocturnal critters still allow them to roam the garden and eat the bugs. I can't say that I've given up meat but my consumption is very small compared to past years.
Have a great food education day.
David, we had an intern on the farm who grew up in Saudi Arabia. She said she took her father to a grocery story when he visited her once. When he saw the chicken breasts couldn't believe they were actually chicken and refused to eat any. She told us that when she moved back to the states after having been gone most of her life, her diet suffered because the produce in the stores had no smell and was too firm. She described it to us as plastic.
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