Sagewood's Link

[kato]

Thanks for posting the information about that article, Sagewood. I think this one deserves it's own thread. Pretty scarey stuff.

Here's the link. Just copy and paste it into the address bar.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Activists-Share-Anti-Agriculture-Agenda-At-Conferences/2010-08-16/Article.aspx?oid=1208947&fid=CN-LATEST_NEWS_

[Happytrails]

Verrrry scary stuff no doubt. Guess I'm a fatalist when the topic is our upside down food chain. Urban society has us outnumbered by at least 19 to 1. They only know what is available to them in the concrete jungle. Lately they are wanting us to not only feed them but also to reassure them that the food is safe to eat. And is grown sustainably and/or humanely. Or in this case doesn't come from animals. But they are the customer and the customer is always right. So we trust the market set our prices and conduct ourselves accordingly. HT

[rkaiser]

OR --- we can choose to recognise the things that we can do to respond to people who are obviously extremists.

There is always a third solution.

One is to stand and fight for conventional agricultural ideas which have obviously turned toward a complete focus on productivity and profit.

One is to take the stand of these hypocritical extremists who are not understanding the world of vegetable based agriculture.

The third way is to take responsibility as farmers and ranchers for the role we play as the nutritional physicians of this planet; given the task of producing food for people and animals and treating all of these beasts with the respect that they deserve.

[per]

These are the same people that have a lap dog sitting on the leather seats of their car driving down a bitumen road (binding agent comes from tallow) and putting on lipstick (also tallow) and popping calcium pills made from bone meal which compliments the bag of organic fertilizer made from blood, bone and manure that they grow their veggies in.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[kato]

We seem to be living in a more and more militant world. So far, these people are still closer to the fringe than they are in places like Europe, but they have been taught by success in other countries, and they will keep on pounding away at us.

Their strategy? Keep on putting it out to the public often enough, and the wildest ideas can become mainstream. Once an idea is embraced by mainstream society, then it becomes acceptable, whether it is really understood or not. Highjacking the established name of the Humane Society is a really good way to get into the mainstream. There is a really good reason why they did this.

There are people in these organizations who believe that animals are equal if not superior to humans, and I would bet that 90% of them live in concrete buildings and only see real animals on TV.

They are out of touch. This is what happens when people get too far removed from their food. They don't see the cycle of life and death, they think everything should die of old age. In the real world, this seldom happens.

They have no idea of how the world really runs. Would they be so willing to give the poor bull his freedom when the bull is stomping them into the ground? Are they willing to feed their children to the wolves, because after all, the wolves have as much right to life as we do. They have a Disneyfied view of nature that conveniently conceals the down and dirty reality of survival in the animal world.

And it conveniently forgets that domestic livestock is right now, as we speak, being protected from this exact dirty reality of survival. We give them protection from predators and hunger that literally every other animal in the world lives with from the moment it's born. In return, they give their lives for us, and we owe it to them to treat them with the dignity they deserve when they do so. It's a partnership that has worked for thousands of years.

Our strategy should be to do the best job we can, stand up for ourselves, and not be afraid to show the public that we care about our animals, because we do. We care about them so much in fact that we devote our whole lives to the job. I don't know about everyone else here, but in this operation, nobody quits for the day until the cows are fed and comfortable.