Another document relating to Vegetarianism

Another document relating to Vegetarianism
By: Rob Turk	FarmerCMH@aol.com wrote: I believe the correct conversions for cattle are 10 to 1 and not 1,000 to 1. It would make an expensive hamburger at 1,000 to 1. Also most feedlots feed corn instead of wheat. sincerely, farmercmh@aol.com Are you responding to my flame of the "Real Peta" page? That's funny -- I wrote that like a year ago and I still get cryptic messages about it. Are you really a farmer? Don't get me wrong in my position -- If family farmers, or small business-person farmers require the occasional market stroking (not completely free market) assistance to keep their prices and costs consistent from season to season, I'm totally behind that. And yes, I occasionally have fantasies of leaving the city and living off the land, if I could do it. I'm a big believer in the Cincinnatus mythos that was such a great part of the American identity in the 18th and 19th Century (Geo. Washington was a member of the Society of Cincinnati -- the "fighting farmers" if you will who left their fields to fight for freedom from the oppression of the Crown...) My problem, however, is with the mega-corporations and conglomerates who benefit from the U.S. Government's subsidization of water, among other things, that was started by the US Dept of Agriculture many years ago for the purpose of stabilizing the marketplace for the increasingly troubled farmers of the country. Now, of course, 95% of the population or thereabouts live in cities, and while a contingent remains who work the land by traditional methods much of what is left is the wholesale mass production -- in a very mechanical and unnatural fashion -- of animal products. You have warehouses with no natural lighting housing thousands of chickens, which are artificially inseminated and kept 20 to a 1 foot square cage...and when their "day" comes their feet have to be cut off because their toenails have grown through the wires of the cage and around them, because for their entire miserable lives they could never move. Only they are injected with chemicals that do Who knows what to people who eat them? Make them overweight? Yes. Make them lethargic, maybe slower mentally? Perhaps. Don't get me wrong, it's not the animals that are bad, or even the people involved. It's the economy of scale that encourages such misery. If I knew that an animal had lived with at least a modicum of normalcy for an animal, and I had been involved with its life and death, then I might partake of its consumption myself. But since I cannot be involved like that, I have chosen personally not to eat meat. That's not set in stone, but I think I'm doing okay without meat in my diet. I think if most people are afraid to question the system that produces 90% of the food consumed in America then they are cowards. Often, their arguments to me about the matter, or about my comments about the "PETA" site, are embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for them, but I can understand. I myself ate meat, and enjoyed it, for like 20 years of my life. But that was before I started wondering what life was like for the animals I was eating, and beginning to explore alternatives. The fact of the matter is, without the water subsidies to these huge corporations, the Federal debt could be paid off completely within a handful of years. We'd be in the black, as a nation. The only problem is that beef would cost $34 a pound! Zoiks! There'd be pandemonium and rioting in the streets, right? Because of America's meat habit, which could easily be replaced by American products like soybeans, fruits, vegetables, legumes, hemp, etcetera, which could provide many more farmers and citizens opportunities to lead productive, and satisfying lives -- probably even profitable careers too! I hope. But hey -- I can admit to being wrong when I'm wrong, and if I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and you know better, then for Goodness' sakes please share your knowledge with me! If there's one thing I enjoy, it's learning new things.

FarmerCMH@aol.com wrote:

  I believe the correct conversions for cattle are 10 to 1 and not
  1,000 to 1.
  It would make an expensive hamburger at 1,000 to 1. Also most
  feedlots feed
  corn instead of wheat.

  sincerely,
  farmercmh@aol.com

Are you responding to my flame of the "Real Peta" page? That's funny -- I wrote that like a year ago and I still get cryptic messages about it. Are you really a farmer? Don't get me wrong in my position --

If family farmers, or small business-person farmers require the occasional market stroking (not completely free market) assistance to keep their prices and costs consistent from season to season, I'm totally behind that. And yes, I occasionally have fantasies of leaving the city and living off the land, if I could do it. I'm a big believer in the Cincinnatus mythos that was such a great part of the American identity in the 18th and 19th Century (Geo. Washington was a member of the Society of Cincinnati -- the "fighting farmers" if you will who left their fields to fight for freedom from the oppression of the Crown...)

My problem, however, is with the mega-corporations and conglomerates who benefit from the U.S. Government's subsidization of water, among other things, that was started by the US Dept of Agriculture many years ago for the purpose of stabilizing the marketplace for the increasingly troubled farmers of the country. Now, of course, 95% of the population or thereabouts live in cities, and while a contingent remains who work the land by traditional methods much of what is left is the wholesale mass production -- in a very mechanical and unnatural fashion -- of animal products. You have warehouses with no natural lighting housing thousands of chickens, which are artificially inseminated and kept 20 to a 1 foot square cage...and when their "day" comes their feet have to be cut off because their toenails have grown *through* the wires of the cage and around them, because for their entire miserable lives they could never move. Only they are injected with chemicals that do Who knows what to people who eat them? Make them overweight? Yes. Make them lethargic, maybe slower mentally? Perhaps.

Don't get me wrong, it's not the animals that are bad, or even the people involved. It's the economy of scale that encourages such misery. If I knew that an animal had lived with at least a modicum of normalcy for an animal, and I had been involved with its life and death, then I might partake of its consumption myself. But since I cannot be involved like that, I have chosen personally not to eat meat. That's not set in stone, but I think I'm doing okay without meat in my diet.

I think if most people are *afraid* to question the system that produces 90% of the food consumed in America then they are cowards. Often, their arguments to me about the matter, or about my comments about the "PETA" site, are embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for them, but I can understand. I myself ate meat, and enjoyed it, for like 20 years of my life. But that was before I started wondering what life was like for the animals I was eating, and beginning to explore alternatives.

The fact of the matter is, without the water subsidies to these huge corporations, the Federal debt could be paid off completely within a handful of years. We'd be in the black, as a nation. The only problem is that beef would cost $34 a pound! Zoiks! There'd be pandemonium and rioting in the streets, right? Because of America's meat habit, which could easily be replaced by American products like soybeans, fruits, vegetables, legumes, hemp, etcetera, which could provide many more farmers and citizens opportunities to lead productive, and satisfying lives -- probably even profitable careers too! I hope.

But hey -- I can admit to being wrong when I'm wrong, and if I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, and you know better, then for Goodness' sakes please share your knowledge with me! If there's one thing I enjoy, it's learning new things.