i love meat!

I've been searching, but I'm not a very good researcher (despite being in the middle of my thesis), and I can't find it.

I read an article a year or two ago in the NYTimes Sunday magazine. It was the cover story, a yellow cover with a cow on it. The writer was not an activist. He was actually a meat-eater who wished to take an objective look at the factory farms that grow the meat he eats. It was at least a ten page article and it was SO gross. This guy actually purchased a calf. That's what people do - they "invest" in a calf, which becomes their property, and then they essentially pay the farm to raise the cow for them until it is sold at auction. His cow was kept in horrid conditions and surely would have died from it if not for the DAILY ingestion of antibiotics. The hormones were inserted from an implant in the cow's ear that also supplied a daily treatment. The owner of the "farm" even said that he objected to the practice of hormone injection, but he had no choice because he wouldn't be able to compete if he stopped using it. He was not allowed in the slaughterhouse when it came time, but he heard a lot of gruesome stories from the workers.

It was a nasty article complete with gut-wrenching pictures - and it wasn't propaganda - it was objective journalism by a meat eater. I can't recall if he was converted to veggie or not.

 

That sounds like more of a local problem due to innefecient waste disposal to me. There are better ways of ranching that reduces run off, and if this is such an imporatant issue to you, why dont you grab a bunch of your school chums and pettition your representatives about it. Who knows, you might even make the paper.

 

This guy did a lot of research too. It's where I read my statistics on petroleum use and inefficient land use.

 

My former neighbor was a u.s. congresswoman representing the first district of Virginia. I've given her my thoughts and ideas time and time again and she has taken them every now and then. She seems to be more concerned about environmental issues and health insurance more than anything else. She isn't bad for a republican as far as her supporting issues... but she has a strange vibe.

 

And another thing, it isn't just about waste disposal. They truck in croaker and use it as fertilizer... I've seen the bay raped. I see it every day... I know more watermen, commercial fisherman, farmers... etc. of the top of my head... the ones that seem to care the most are the local people... They had to shut the James River down for a year to replinish the spat naturally... I perticipate in oyster farming on the Rappahannock River... There's more problems than you can believe... A friend of my dad's, Chris, his home port is in Bena, VA, anywho, he's a crabber.... he has gotten 2 dozen crabs this year. I remember him selling a 2 pecks for about $50.00 about 6 or 7 years ago. If I recall, the price has risen to over $100 a dozen.... can't remember if it's a half dozen or a dozen. I wouldn't pay that much for blue crabs if I wasn't vegan anyway.

 

What are you doing your thesis on? Well I'm not saying that guy did anything shifty, but even with endless footnotes, you can completly make stuff up. Ever read any Ann Coulter?

Listen I had an experience with cattle hearding at my grandparents ranch when I was a kid. The cows were being raised with the sole purpose of reproducing and being eaten. The cows had been treated great, they had enough room to roam, and they lived pretty happy cow lives till they were eaten. I don't really know much about factory farming from the media, and the only real negative things I've heard have all been shock journalism from peta (I really dont like and certainly dont trust peta) and the like. My grandparents earned fair market earnings from what they invested in the well treated cows. All I can assume from what I've seen is that factory raised cows are treated about the same, and until I see *balenced* coverage otherwise, I'm sticking with my guns. I'd be willing to learn more though, and I'd be interested if you can link me to or PM me with some fair coverage. Just dont give me any of that the mootrix crap. ^-^

 

huh. how funny. i totally thought this was a carnivore's random thought on how she loves meat. when did it become a vegan thread? carnivores get their thread to love meat and bash vegans, vegans get their pages to bash carnivores. sounds like a fair trade to me.

 

for the record, orsino2, i don't eat nothing BUT meat. i, in fact, eat a very healthy and balanced diet and only eat a small amount of meat daily, and usually only poultry or fish. the fact that you *assume* i am unhealthy because i like me some meat is not cool.

i know i don't "need" meat. i've gone without it before just because of financial reasons (some weeks we are just short on cash so we eat mostly veg stuff). i don't wither and die without it, but i like it, and i enjoy it when i have it. i eat mostly vegetables and whole grains and plant based proteins, but i'll be goddamned if i don't like dead animals. sorry. guess i'm going to hell!

i don't deny the fact that i like to eat meat, and pretentious assholes who want to force their beliefs on others piss me off. that was my whole point. lots of other things besides meat cause cancer, and i don't consume mass quantities of it, so i'm not that fucking worried about it...i'm more worried about the pollution in our air and water causing cancer than the 3 ounces of meat i eat daily (3 ounces is not that much).

anyway....

 

Never read Coulter. Heard of her though. Sorry, I know this is off topic, but whatever. My thesis is about how schools use language to perpetuate the class system. I'm sure to post a wordy thread about it at some point.

 

i'm with ya. the problem a lot of peopl ehave is eating too much meat, not the eating of meat at all. frankly most of us don't have the sort of lifestyle that requires a lot of meat consumption. i have no regrets for being a hunter and for buying the locally produced meats that i do. yes, i have a freezer full of beef. it's not even one quarter of this animal! but 4 families got a freezer full of meat off of one aged bull. the amazing this is ol' sue is the best tasting beef i've ever had, and SO LEAN! if you can, i will always recommend buying meat locally. even better if you can check it out while it's still alive.

 

KC, these people are like a cult. If you give 'em anything to 'em they'll take and take and take.

Orsino you seem really smart for your age, but you also seem pretty naive. I'm going to go get drunk with some friends, I'll continue this later.

I'd like to see anyone debunk my principle argument. Flesh is delicious. ^-^

 

exactly! it was totally random. but it turned into vegan bashing and carnivore bashing. really, my point was, basically, to each their own. diet is a PERSONAL choice, people.

 

You don't know until you've been to a factory farm. As Paul McCartney once said (I recall it being McCartney's words), If a factory farm had windows you'd all be vegetarians... or something of the sort. Well, I myself have been to the Tyson chicken processing plant in Glen Allen, Virginia... not a pretty sight. Trust me, you'll be in denial until you set foot, but one you set foot, you'll never forget. I know the difference between free range farms that use no hormones and factory farms. My parents ran our family's farm as a free range farm for years raising Turkeys and Chickens. They were left to roam free all day. I remember opening the coop doors every morning when I was about six. We gathered all that we could in the night to make sure dogs wouldn't get them. The rest we couldn't get to go in the coops would stay in the open doored garages or barns and sheds... I remember the only time my dad killed them was if a dog attacked them and they were left to die. Otherwise, we only raised them to sell eggs, kept some eggs for our own use, and raised them to keep bugs down. My dad still sells free range organic beef and buffalo on the side for his friend's ranch. But, factory farms are a sad thing and you have to see it to believe it. The stench is unbearable... even before you get in the factory. Yes, I am a vegan by choice... but I also support Farm Aid and support as it provides funding for the family free range farm going out of existance. We closed ours down last year.

 

Naive is for the fools who have never had the experience of knowing and doing.

 

i agree that factory farms are evil. i only get my meat from free range, local farms. i work at a health foods co-op for fuck's sake. i'm aware.