Quote:
Originally Posted by disney_mommy
Did you grow up on all of the farms and ranches? Have you been to every one and can verify that they treat their animals humanely? If so, then I take it back. However, I am certain there are people out there that do whatever they can to make the almighty dollar. And that includes everything I mentioned above. I also forgot to mention the fact that once the milk production has declined, which it does, even with the most powerful hormones, the cows are artificially inseminated so they can lactate all over again. That is, the cows that aren't slaughtered to make room for the new young cows who can produce more milk.
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You're starting to paint a picture that farmers are evil or something like that. I disagree. Most of them just try to get by imo. The responsibility lies just as much at the big corporations of the food industry, the governments for failing to regulate the industry and ultimately at the end consumer, who in most cases don't really care that much about the well being of the animals. If we aren't willing to pay for quality, we end up with crap. It's as simple as that. However if we were willing to pay for quality we still need the government to make sure that we're actually not just fattening the wallet of the food industry but are getting a better product.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread a farmer in Denmark got about 23 pence pr chicken in the fifties, today he gets twenty pence. That is an enormous difference when you take inflation into account. The only way for the farmer to make a living today is to increase volume and lessen the time it takes to grow a chicken - at the cost of animal welfare. Ultimately the reason for this is that there seems to be a higher demand for chickens that costs 4$ but are treated badly, than there is for chicken that costs 15$ and are treated well.