Ag is but a small part

[cakadu]

I was watching Agvision this morning and was quite surprised to hear the results of a poll that was conducted by 4-H kids at a supermarket. They were asking people what they thought was the average size of a farm and the answers ranged from 50 acres to 150 acres. According to the 2001 census, the average farm size is 611 acres.

To me, this underscores just how far removed people are from understanding where there food comes from, let alone how it gets to them.

How do we go about bringing more information to people?

[cowman]

Well do we really want to? Should we show them how much spray and chemical fertilizer we pour on the crops? Should we show them the inside of a modern confinement chicken barn? Or a hog barn where they knock the runts in the head? Should we tell them about the high levels of H2S produced in these barns? Maybe a video in a slaughter house with animals being slaughtered and the use of electric prods? Or maybe we could show them dehorning, castration and that most humane practice of branding?
Maybe better to leave the public alone and let them remain ignorant of how their food is raised. Of course we could just show them the nicer things like little lambs running in a field or chickens scratching in the dirt or the farmer sitting in his truck contemplating the sunset. This informing the public could backfire in a big way if we let them see the real story?

[cakadu]

Well, when you put it THAT way......I would have to say an emphatic yes to letting people know how their food is grown. That can only help them to make informed decisions about what it is that they are eating.

What have we got to hide?

[cowman]

Well Linda I suspect we have quite a bit to hide. Consider your modern "meat factory". A modern confinement hog barn. These babies are on medicated feed within a few days. They get a shot of anti-biotics on day one. If they didn't they would all die like flies. The same goes for chicks, medicated feed right off the bat. How do feedlots keep all those stressed little green calves alive? Anti-biotics. Now we could go back to running a few pigs out in the bush and grassing four year old steers but that just isn't going to happen. And what about hormones? I suspect just about every piece of meat in your local Safeway has been treated with, at the very least, one hormone implant. Now is this safe? Well our government says it is so they must be right? 350 million Europeans don't agree...but what do they know?
I suspect if you took 100 people out to a farm and showed them branding 98 would consider it pretty cruel. Of the other two, one would be a sadist and the other too drunk or doped up to care! A very inhumane practice! One that quite frankly needs to be stopped. Surely in this day and age we don't have to go around burning little calves!
I think if we raised livestock like the Europeans do it would be a good thing to inform the public, but not when what we are doing now would be offensive to your average urbanite. And without these modern meat factories there would be no livestock in Canada or the US. The Europeans can raise animals because society is willing to pay for animal welfare. Maybe better to just let Brazil, Australia, New Zealand supply us our meat?

[cakadu]

Offensive maybe. On the other hand, it could be very eye opening for the average person to understand where there food comes from. Shouldn't they be making their choices based on information, rather than misinformation or just plain not knowing? Should we be feeling that what they don't know won't hurt them?

Could it be that if they found out how their food was grown, they would perhaps start asking for it to be grown in a different manner and be willing to pay for it? This is evidenced by a growing number of people who are willing to pay for hormone free meat, animals that are raised in open spaces versus confinement and the list goes on.

What would happen to these huge feedlots if more people understood just what happened to their meat?

Granted, some will not want to know, but I think you have a growing number that are questioning the safety of their food and where it comes from.

Reality TV shows are all the rage these days and it seems like the more real, the more people want it. What is more real than how your food comes to you?

[cowman]

You might be right Linda. I suspect a lot of people would demand that their food be produced in a different way. I also expect few would be willing to pay for it! Oh the yuppie lawyers and doctors who make half a million a year wouldn't probably kick too much. But for your lower earning types it might cramp the payments on the boat, SUV, RV etc. Easier to force the farmer to change through government force. A typical example is the cattle ID tags. Probably a good idea. But as always the government used the stick rather than the carrot to get compliance. And whos responsibility is food safety? You guessed it, the federal government. But who gets stuck with the bill...the cow/calf guy. No one else. Not the auction mart, not the feedlot, not the packer, not the retailer. The guy who raises the cleanest, safest product pays for all the vultures who are on his back. Well this is Canada and that's just how it works. If you try to say wait a minute this isn't fair it doesn't even register with either the government or our cattle organizations. They just fine you big time or send you to jail. Which is how this government acts! Consider that three farmers are going to jail in Oct. for selling a couple of bags of wheat in Montana! Does this sort of make you wonder what kind of country we have here? And also consider one of these farmers is a member of the Canadian grain commission? Jim Ness...a man of principle? He also very adequately stood up and spoke out against the cattle ID issue in Innisfail Alberta last year at a producer meeting. All the "information" meetings were cancelled after that one! The 700 producers really let them know what they thought. Don't believe one person spoke out in favor of it. Never changed anything other than they came up with some heavy handed fines shortly after that! Compliance one way or the other...after all the ends always justify the means in Canada.