www.meat.org

i watched that video after seeing it in some banner ad somewhere. now first of all, let me assure you i am not nor have i ever been anything close to a vegetarian. i can't imagine ever becoming one because i eat animal products in basically every meal, and while i would never feed stray cats antifreeze or anything, animal rights isn't something i really give a shit about. hell i even work in the meat industry myself.

but what i saw in that video that concerned me was how corporations have changed the way animals are raised for slaughter. the way they are crammed in there tight, never getting to move around their whole lives. the way crippled animals or ones with tumors are still sent to slaughter. the way they live in their own filth in such conditions. why does it have to be this way?

i guess i'm just naive, but when i think of an ideal farm that raises animals, i think of more space being available. cows grazing outside all the live long day among acres of grass. chickens strutting around at least a small yard with room to move. pigs rolling around in mud like idiots. are the days of all that really gone and done for? i'm sure there are still small time meat producers out there, but none that's readily available in any grocery stores i know of. it just seems like there should've been laws in place years ago to prevent it from getting this bad. to protect the animals, maybe, but at the very least to protect the small time farmer.

what does OI think?

You can buy freerange chickens and shit. But, you know, unless the world goes to eating soy-based products, there is going to be a serious problem trying to feed everyone if we stopped raising animals in a similar way. Some stuff is unnecessarily cruel, though.

It's nature.

The corporations are no more to blame than the small time farmer. Demand exceeded supply and farmers were getting lots of money for there livestock. Then the small time farmers realized that more cows equals more money but they only have limited space. Next thing you know they're crammin them in there left and right.

As for cruelty I think a cage is a cage. I don't know why its not cruel to capture animals and raise them, just to kill and eat them, if they have more leg room. It's all or nothing for me. Either it's cruel and we don't eat them and set them free to live a life in the wild or it doesn't matter how we treat them because they only exist to be eaten.

Actually when it comes right down to it, I don't care if cows are treated like royalty or like produce. It all tastes the same to me.

There are undoubtedly multiple aspects of the modern meat industry which will appall many consumers. Unfortunately, as the population growth of industrialization outgrew the demand of mom-and-pop farmers to feed the world, factory farming became, essentially, a necessity to feed a world burgeoning with people.

My advice to you if this bothers you so much is to look for free-range raised meats if you can afford it, or, better yet, get a fishing and hunting license and learn to butcher your own. The latter is not only more satisfying but generally healthier.

i made a thread a year ago or something and it could be a solution, though it does sound a little sci fi
http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=2076376

It all depends on your viewpoint.

I don't care for how much 'fun' or 'freedom' the animal has in that sense, but as a meat eater I do have a concern over the quality of my meat. If cramming them together like that and other practices used cause adverse effects to the quality and flavour then yes, I have a problem with it.

Otherwise, meh, it's how my food is made. So be it.

Think less about slaughter, think more about digging in:

http://www.rothcpa.com/archives/misc/ribs.jpg

It doesn't have to be this way.

It's just that demand for meat is incredibly high, and this is the only way to produce enough meat in a cost effective way.

People would be much healthier if they drastically reduced the amount of meat they ate and increased the amounts of plants in their diet. But we all know people never do whats best for them.

Lobby your gov to triple the price of meat.

*ObZ

Traitor!

according to my dad, who likes to bitch about meat and portion sizes in america at every family dinner, the chinese, or for that matter other non western countries, do not eat nearly as much meat as we do. he travels to china a lot for work, he's there now in fact. and then you think of the meat they do eat, all the shit that's weird to us, and i can't imagine it coming from corporate farms. more like small markets.

people that suggested i buy free range meat or hunt and fish for my own kind of missed my point. i just don't think meat should be produced this corporate way at all. it's irrelevant whether or not i eat it, it still goes on. that's kind of why i don't get the animal rights wing of the vegetarian movement. you go to a restaurant and get a salad because you think it's cruel to order the steak? but the steer that steak came from is already dead, and if you don't eat it, the next person will. so what's the point?

i just think farms should be local, or at the very least, regional. this could be achieved by passing laws limiting the amount of miles meat could travel before it is sold. this would possibly break up some of the big meat conglomerates. the farms should not be packed to the ass with animals, and laws would have to be passed limiting the amount of animals one could raise in so many square feet or acres or whatever. do they even have such laws now? you've also got to think about the hormones being pumped into these things, like the chickens that are too big to walk. why can't we just eat normal fucking chickens? ban that practice as well.

mantikore, your idea sounds weird and seems to be going in the opposite direction of my thinking. seems like just another way to produce the most meat possible from the fewest resources and animals.