http://www.infoplease.com/spot/tgturkey2.html.

I hope President Obama realized the docile, sitting turkey he was petting was doing so because he probably couldn’t walk well due to size. So the turkey stint at a petting farm somewhere probably won’t pan out.  As an article in Newsweek explains:

“99 percent of turkeys sold in America come from the roughly 270 million raised on factory farms each year. These birds are bred to be so literally broad-breasted that by the time they are 8 weeks old, they can’t walk.”  This year’s Whitehouse turkey from the National Turkey Federation was pretty large, and didn’t get a chance to walk around. Someone carried it in and set it down. Hmmm. It’s a shame that industrialized farming has not only done this to the turkey, but also taken most of the natural flavor out of it in the process. As the article went on to say: “The result is bland, mushy meat that we have come to equate with tenderness, but in reality processors inject the dressed birds with saline solutions and vegetable oils to improve “mouth feel” and keep the oversize breasts from drying out.” Nice real nice.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/224068/page/2.

The good thing is there is a growing number of breeders out there going back to the traditional “heritage” turkey that is free range and full of flavor. Two of these breeders with online stores is Local Harvest and Dartagnan.com. I know someone commented on one of my blogs that she had a hard time finding a free range turkey. I’m eating at a relatives but my husband did bring home a fresh turkey from a farm in Huron Township, on the corner of Sibley and Merriman I believe, as a thank you for a welding job. It’s not an industrial farm by any means so the turkey should be tasty, although I didn’t like the thought of the turkey getting the thumbs down because of us.

Thanksgiving is not about the chow for me anyway. It’s about getting together with family. But for those that look forward to traditional fare at Thanksgiving and immediately think turkey, think again. This should be of interest to Michiganders. The first Thanksgiving dished up deer not turkey. Some more actual facts:
 

1. The first Thanksgiving was a harvest celebration in 1621 that lasted for three days.

2. The feast most likely occurred between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11.

3. Approximately 90 Wampanoag Indians and 52 colonists – the latter mostly women and children – participated.

4. The Wampanoag, led by Chief Massasoit, contributed at least five deer to the feast.

5. Cranberry sauce, potatoes – white or sweet – and pies were not on the menu.

6. The Pilgrims and Wampanoag communicated through Squanto, a member of the Patuxet tribe, who knew English because he had associated with earlier explorers.

7. Besides meals, the event included recreation and entertainment.

8. There are only two surviving descriptions of the first Thanksgiving. One is in a letter by colonist Edward Winslow. He mentions some of the food and activities. The second description was in a book written by William Bradford 20 years afterward. His account was lost for almost 100 years.

9. Abraham Lincoln named Thanksgiving an annual holiday in 1863.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1127/p13s02-lign.html.

The same articled reported that The Sierra Club led the effort to stop these bills with the Humane Society of the U.S., “exerting significant pressure on the legislature” to revise the bills for real change. There was a threat of a ballot initiative. A ballot initiative or popular or citizen’s initiative “provides a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote.” Evidently the CAFO industry in Michigan wanted none of that because a public vote means a heck of a lot more public scrutiny, an expose of the horrific lifestyle of CAFO animals is more like it.

The combined effort resulted in a new bill that gives”three species of confined animals more room to move.” That would be pigs, egg-laying chickens, and calves. Although the ag industry has 10 years to adopt this bill, it’s a victory over corporate agriculture and I hope a trend for more animal rights within the ag industry that have been non-existent for far too long.

I believe farm animal rights is directly connected to tainted food. Poorly treated animals equal sick animals. That’s why they were given antibiotics for years. If live animals are treated horrendously than the facilities that process the dead carcasses can hardly be any better. The latest recall of half a million pounds of ground beef was a wake up call for many. For a couple of people it was a death toll.

When we have to rush to our freezers to throw out food that may make us ill or even kill us reform is needed big time. Every little step counts. Thanks to those that took the time to contact their reps too. Between organizations like Michigan’s Sierra Club, The Humane Society of the U.S., and hundreds of other organizations that work tirelessly behind the scenes and involved citizens that bother to let their reps know what they want great things can be accomplished one step at a time.

Please read this article and know what you are eating and what that poor animal goes through in the process. Once you’ve got a grasp of what big factory farms are all about, remember that the Department of Agriculture has been turning a blind eye to them to for years. At a time when many of us are becoming more and more environmentally conscious, we know that not only preserving small farms but also helping them to flourish once again is key to getting healthier food on our plates while allowing animals a lifestyle they deserve.

In my last blog I quoted Dr. Albert Schweitzer regarding compassion for all living things, that it is the root of all ethics. Well there are far too many people in Michigan’s House of Representatives that just don’t get it. Compassion for living things, including other human beings, is drastically slipping in our so-called “Christian” country. It begins with animals.

House Bill 5127 according to the Humane Society of the U.S., grants the Department of Agriculture sole authority to regulate livestock health and welfare, and require the Department to adopt industry standards regarding the treatment of farm animals. They also preempt local ordinances or regulations regarding animal care standards for farm animals. And HB 5128 establishes an industry dominated animal care advisory council to review and establish animal care standards for farm animals.

What? The very people, the USDA, that have turned a blind eye to the abuse of farm animals relative to factory farms for years are to be in charge? After reading the link above, anyone with a conscious could not possibly allow these bills to pass. What happened in S. Carolina’s factory farms resulted in one of the largest fines for pollution by the EPA ever. It was against Smithfield Foods. The USDA knew about it, but Smithfield Foods has deep pockets. If the pollution from that Smithfield Food’s factory farm in the interior of S. Carolina made it all the way to the ocean, what are factory farms even doing in a place like Michigan surrounded by fresh water? All of us know that groundwater eventually ends up in the lakes, yet there are 2200 factory farms currently in Michigan. Now our legislature wants to water down farm animal rights and regulation by granting the USDA complete control of our farm animal’s welfare?

This is not good for farm animal’s lives, Michigan’s food supply, or our fresh water supplies. It just looks like a way to dump responsibility on an already overburdened federal agency because it’s cheaper and/or easier. Granting the USDA the right to decide what happens to cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc., is like the fox watching the henhouse again. Big corporations will lobby the USDA as they have in the past and end up with control of everything.

Monroe can call Kate Ebli about voting against these bills in the Michigan House at 517-373-2617. Your call can make a big difference to all the farm animals in Michigan, our food and dairy supplies, and our freshwater. We need to start living more compassionate lives. It’s called EMPATHY, the ability to put ourselves in another’s position, right down to animals. There is no reason for cruelty toward something innocent–ever.

I wanted to smack him up the side of the head. Or better yet, take Cafferty and Wolf Blitzer, who joined in the merriment, on an impromptu visit to a large CAFO and have them inhale the fumes from a pink tinged open air lagoon of waste that oozes methane into the atmosphere. Another reporter that did that almost passed out.

The reporters at CNN obviously didn’t take that into consideration. As a major news source one would think they would be up on articles like this: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2367646, or http://www.alternet.org/environment/140059/our_appetite_for_animals_is_taking_us_toward_apolcalypse/?page=2 or http://www.cok.net/lit/veg.php or any of dozens written by our own Dept. of Agriculture or CRS (Congressional Research Service) reports to Congress that show our food animals are detrimental to the environment.

On cok.net it stated that a U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health reported that 5 tons of animal manure is produced annually for every person in the U.S. Considering our population is 300 million and 5 tons equals 10,000 lbs., well I just found my calculator doesn’t have enough decimal points so that’s 1 billion, 500 million tons of manure annually. The water that is polluted as a result is a whole other blog!

So what’s not to understand here? A billion tons of manure is a heck of a lot of methane. Since the U.K. loves its mutton, I can see where their report came from. Sheep top their list of carbon footprint devils.

And where does Cafferty live that he hasn’t noticed we’re a nation of obese people eating far more meat than any other country on earth? We want national health care so we can continue to neglect our own health? We should be willing to change our diet to save ourselves, yet we don’t do it. No one considers that our obesity might end up being a detriment to our ever getting national health care because obesity is a ridiculous and preventable drain on any health system for the disease it produces. By following the guidelines for healthy eating, we will help ourselves, help the environment, and possibly stop the horrible abuse of food animals by eliminating CAFO’s altogether.

African ranchers like those in the Massai in Tanzania have trouble with lion predators attacking their very small livestock herds that are used basically for their own sustenance. Yet even though the Massai ranchers have killed too many lions whose populations are suffering to begin with, the Massai are interested and willing to avert the lion attacks rather than kill the lions whenever possible. They are willing to pay half of the expense for chain link fencing around their stockyard pens called “bomas” to keep attacks down instead. Bomas are traditionally thorny brush piled high for a tall perimeter of organic fence around livestock. This type of thorny enclosure works to keep the livestock in but unfortunately does not always keep the lions out. The lions come out of their reserve due to hunger for lack of prey. The Massai ranchers have learned through organizations like the African Wildlife Foundation that a little preventative care will thwart a majority of attempts at their livestock from lions. The African Wildlife Foundation donates the other half of the expense for the chain link fence the Massai ranchers are willing to use to save the lions, as well as, their livestock.

This is the type of cooperation with wildlife that would be expected of educated ranchers interested in preserving indigenous wild predators while saving their livestock especially where the ranch is huge and the rancher is certainly wealthier than those of the Massai, and the livestock is not intended for sustenance by the rancher as much as profit. But U.S. ranchers just don’t see it that way relative to predators like the Yellowstone wolves.

What’s wrong with this picture? Like the lions of the Massai, there are alternatives to killing the Yellowstone wolves. But U.S. ranchers simply state that it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain the safety of their herds in the open areas near Yellowstone. It’s just easier to turn the wolves over to the hunting industry with little thought or intervention even though U.S. ranchers have the ability to end the endless cycle of slaughter perpetrated on wolves and other predators forever by adopting methods to avert attacks. After all, wolves were here long before ranchers decided to keep their herds in predator territory while expecting everything else to just get out of the way or else.

I thought this was an ironic scenario I read about where African natives that stand to lose the food on their table, and the little bit of income they get for their livestock to invest in alternatives to killing the predators, while the majority of U.S. ranchers refuse to change their habits and invest the time and money it takes to live and work around the wildlife that surrounds them.

African lions used to number nearly 200,000 on the African continent and are now reduced to number from 25,000 to 40,000 total. This decline is horrible with man being the lion’s biggest threat. Bernard Kissui of African Wildlife Foundation’s Lion Conservation Science Project has been saddened by what he has seen lately. Thirty-eight lions have been lost to retaliatory killing since 2007, nearly 20% of the area’s total population. By raising money for fencing for cooperative African ranchers, he proposes to lessen the kill rate of lions. So far he’s been successful introducing the chain link fences. Many African ranchers are interested in the additional sturdy fencing. The African Wildlife Foundation is asking for any donations to raise $75,000 quickly for the cost of fencing to avert more attacks on lions in the Massai Steppe region in Tanzania, home to half of Africa’s lions.

Imagine Kissui’s sadness when he visited a small ranch recently and found the male and female lion he studied for quite some time covered with blood from being speared to death. This reminds me of the rangers of Yellowstone that produced a documentary on behalf of the wolves they’ve studied to show how well the wolves helped the ecosystems of Yellowstone. And of course, the sadness of the many who over a course of years viewed Limpy, the famous wolf that was shot to death in the last hunt of the Yellowstone’s wolves.

If you’ve enjoyed the “Lion King,” admired big cats in Tarzan movies, or want to keep the “King of the Jungle” from being threatened further, goto AWF’s website and donate if you can to raise what is a rather small amount of money to conserve and protect the African lions.

View the good impact AWF has made on behalf of Africa’s wildlife.

http://www.awf.org/content/solution/detail/3504

http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/00442/lions.html

Natural, free range, and cage free poultry is practically a myth in America unless you’re buying from a small farmer and can see how your chicken was raised. Otherwise, what you’re eating is sometimes sick, and/or barely alive no different than the condition of factory farmed animals. And, Green Choices states: ” The Organic Food Production Act of 1990 and the National Organic Program explicitly require that organic meat and meat products must come from animals that have been raised outdoors. However, the USDA has drawn a distinction between chickens and other animals. While ruminant animals are guaranteed continuous access to the outdoors without confinement, chickens are not guaranteed continuous outdoor access and can be confined.” As for egg laying hens, they fair even worse. We need to pressure the USDA to change this, considering many of us have sworn off red meat, and so poultry consumption is at an all time high.

Luckily, I get my eggs and milk from Calder’s Dairy right here in Monroe, but Gig led me to look for a You Tube video about the misnomer of what we believe to be “free range” regarding egg laying hens. At first, I found videos from small legitimate free-range poultry farms, but then I found the one she referred to and others like it. In short we’re being duped by labeling. Like so much of our legislation, it’s full of loopholes for large corporations/lobbies to get away with chicken torture.

The videos are horrible exposes about what we do to the poultry we eat. I knew the horrors of factory farmed chickens and avoid buying any old chicken, but the idea of free range or natural isn’t much better. If you think you’re eating a wholesome product, humanely treated, it must be labeled as such.

Watch the following video thanks to You Tube and Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary:

My mother and father were both from farm families and my mom refers to chickens as “sweet, little hens.” When I saw this video, I wanted to cry. I immediately looked for websites where I could get reputable reports about labeling practices regarding poultry products. I read blogs where bloggers truly believe the law is the law and companies would be sued if they didn’t do what their label said. Suuuuuuuuure. Then I read about a local company, a big farm somewhere, that actually advertised on TV that their chickens loved living there, that is, until someone got in there with a camera and taped the awful conditions.

There were websites that led the reader to believe ALL chicken farms are horrible, and labels are close to useless. But then I found a website that led me to some good sources of info. The first two links I’ve listed below were especially useful and middle of the road to help the busy consumer understand the labels when looking for humanely raised, as well as, additive free poultry.

Bottom line the label should read “Humanely raised and handled.” The next best choice is a “Food Alliance” certification. After that pick “organic” simply because the gov’t. enforces stricter rules on the organic label than “free range” or “cage free,” but it still doesn’t mean the chickens were treated humanely.

Labels that say “free range or free roaming” are misleading because the USDA requires that the animals have access to the outdoors, but it doesn’t say for how long and there’s no verification. What’s more, the rules don’t apply to eggs,” according to a newsletter on shopsmart.typepad.com. No verification—does that mean self-regulating?

The “cage-free” label isn’t much better according to the same article: “It may sound like the chickens were free to peck around in the fresh air, but unless the eggs are labeled Certified Humane, there might be no independent group verifying how the animals are treated. Also, this label doesn’t necessarily mean that the chickens went outdoors. They may have been cooped up inside a screened in porch or a dirty barn.”

And finally, the “natural” label, well it just means no artificial ingredients were used during processing. It doesn’t mean the poultry wasn’t given antibiotics along the way, which leads me to ask: “Why do you think antibiotic use was so widespread in the meatpacking industry to begin with?” The animals were sick. How many years did we eat that? Nothing seems to have changed. We’re still eating sick animals only now they don’t get antibiotics—and are probably in worse condition.

This blog repeatedly says poultry but it’s about chicken. Turkey is another story I found. Most turkey has been genetically altered so badly they have to be artificially inseminated. What? That’s right. Look it up on the Internet. That info is everywhere. Some turkeys are so heavy that they are literally crippled by the weight and can’t walk.

I went shopping at a regular grocery store today. I found “organic” along with the “free range” logo and immediately didn’t trust it. The “free range” threw me. I did buy some Miller Amish Country brand. I looked up the Miller website last night, and read their testimonial, then tried to find a You Tube expose on Miller. So far there are none. The only problem is that Miller relies on smaller Amish farms collectively. Who is checking those farms? I read one blogger who lives near some Amish poultry farms and says they are not organic or humane.

I’m one step closer to vegan at this point. We really do need truth in advertising in America, at least truth in labeling by our own USDA. BTW, 30 states exempt farm animals from their humane legislation.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4503432_chicken-thats-organic-humanely-raised.html.

Goto page 46 on http://shopsmart.typepad.com/shopsmart_mag/files/food_labels.pdf

Watch this video about the organization that established the “humanely raised and handled” logo: http://www.certifiedhumane.org/video

http://www.bornfreeusa.org/articles.php?more=1&p=377

http://www.causecast.org/member/jsong/blog_posts/1133-farm-sanctuary-reveals-truth-behind-free-range-products

http://www.animalwelfareapproved.org/index.php?page=standardsforchickens

http://www.greenerchoices.org
/eco-labels/program.cfm?LabelID=200&searchType=Program%20Index&searchValue=&refpage=programIndex&refqstr=

Some 360,000 kids across the country, which is 1 in every 200, want a meat free diet and parents are concerned for their health, particularly because many of these families were not vegetarian to begin with. Parents are suddenly scrambling to find how they can fulfill the protein requirements for their children in other ways. And many parents watch diligently to make sure the kids know that vegetarian means that they will actually eat vegetables and fruits!

The medical community says that getting enough adequate protein is not the only issue, adequate caloric intake is important too. We all know meat represents the bulk of caloric intake at every meal, so eating enough to make up those lost calories in a balanced way is important. Problems arise when children slowly start navigating toward what is called and “all white” diet of sugary cereal, white bread, white pasta, etc. We all need diets that are colorful and by just following a bright color scheme is the first step in a well-balanced vitamin and mineral rich diet.

Good substitutes for protein include nuts, soy, beans (legumes), and whole grains. Some ideas for snacks are hummus dip (ground chickpeas) and veggies, peanut butter and jelly on whole grain or soy bread. BTW according to dailygreen.com “The FDA says so far, no brand name peanut butter sold in grocery stores is linked to the outbreak. Your Jiffy, Skippy and Peter Pan should be safe.” There are also tasty, crunchy soy nuts, all types of summertime bean salads, and whole grains like oatmeal with fruit. If dairy is not a problem include milk and eggs, and there is always fish sticks.

If a vegan diet is designed correctly it can be as healthy for a child as an adult. But it’s important to be aware of signs of malnutrition, which usually shows up in the hair, skin, and nails first. Mouth and eyes breaking out or tearing is another sign. As a cosmetologist, I was schooled to see the signs of poor health in these areas. I remember a client of mine that was recovering from breast cancer. The client had a huge mane of thick hair. As time when on, her hair became brittle, and changed texture. The thinner it became the more I urged her to go to her doctor. Unfortunately, the cancer went to her brain. It showed up in her hair long before she became lethargic or began to lose weight.

I also remember suffering from malnutrition myself. In my early 20’s, I went on the Atkin’s Diet. This was way before the diet was altered to include fruits and veggies low on the glycemic scale like now. I ate fried pork rinds, meats, fats, and literally no fruits and vegetables. I’ve always been health conscious and didn’t plan on being on this diet longer than 2 weeks, and took 2 multiple vitamins a day to make up the loss. Oh I lost 10 lbs. in two weeks all right, but my lips swelled like I just had injections. When I went to my doctor, he said I was malnourished, and “my God what kind of diet did you go on?”

So parents need to keep an eye on what and how much their vegan kids are eating, as well as, charting their growth. The good thing about these kids is that they impress their families with a veritable eye opener to humanitarian issues we should all be embracing in this country. Many of the families of vegan kids are opting to go meatless at least once a week. We’ve been doing this at my house for years especially on Monday after a weekend of pigging out. In the winter, Monday is soup day. In the summer, it’s more than likely salad day. And sometime during the week a meatless but tasty pasta dish or ratatouille with melted, gooey part skim mozzarella cheese and smoked provolone is always welcome.

By cutting back this way, along with a garden in the summer, people can weather this recession much better than most too. It’s good for our food animals, our health, and our pocketbooks. Perhaps if we all cut back on meat as we should, we might be able to get rid of industrialized farms for good.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/green-products-services/peanut-butter-recall-55020203

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/deathfactoryfarm/index.html

I’ve read estimates that from 7 to 12 billion animals per year are eaten in the U.S. I’m assuming the difference in the spread is whether or not poultry is included. Anyway, the U.S. has 300 million people. That means on the low end, the estimated 7 billion, every man, woman, and baby eats 23.33 critters each. It’s an assortment of course, but nevertheless, do we think this is good for us? The high end puts us at 40 animals each.

I don’t know if these estimates like the 7 billion from Cornell include pet food either. Funny, we raise animals to feed our animals, and we kill animals like wolves that seek to keep a balance among wild animals also. As a result, we throw things out of balance. That imbalance is hurting our health and the environment.

Cutting out 1/5th or 20% of our food animal intake would be the equivalent of replacing our cars with a hybrid. The pollution of raising the poor critters in horrendous conditions, the resources used for that same purpose, and the pollution from slaughter is phenomenal. So 20% less food animals does indeed make a dent with 1.4 billion less animals in the equation.

And that’s food we can simply do without. Think eating 4 instead of 5 meatballs with your sgetti, or eating a 6.5-ounce steak instead of 8. As for the 16-24 ounce steaks, come on!

While many are busy trying to make change in this country through our upcoming elections, the Bush administration is feverishly trying to deregulate more. And some of this deregulation would not only have horrible consequences for the environment, but also public safety.

Think that it’s no problem because either Obama or maverick McCain will undo the Bush damage? Think again. The Clinton administration tried to put through regulatory laws a little too late at the end of his administration. When Bush took office he scrapped over 250 of Clinton’s regulations for the environment, public safety, etc., quite easily. So this time around the Bush administration is making sure there are no loose ends to their lobbyist loving deregulation push. It will take a heck of a lot of time, trouble, and interest to undo what Bush puts in place now. It affects farms, animals, our food, imports, fishing, environment, clean air, water, global warming, and public safety.

We’ve seen what deregulation has done with tainted food, toys, the sell off of our national parks, a spike in killing wolves, buffalo, and wild mustang horses, and many -other things that affect global warming like over fishing, which allows the growth of rotting plants that results in increasing methane explosions into the atmosphere. We’ve slowly learned that every little thing affects something else in a big way—a process that the Bush administration has never grasped. Their concern is for corporate gain at the expense of many things that directly and adversely affect us.  

Please read the entire article and contact your congressional reps to stop this last minute deregulation that could prove to be the last blow to the environment and our own safety!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004749.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

I’ve been wondering how long it would take for religious communities to recognize the cruelty of animal farming; how extremely opposite it is from the idea of kosher where animals are tended with kindness and the ” method of slaughter is a quick, deep stroke across the throat with a perfectly sharp blade with no nicks or unevenness. This method is painless, causes unconsciousness within two seconds, and is widely recognized as the most humane method of slaughter possible.” A condition under which the meat is further processed is supposed to be extremely sanitary.

This is hardly the definition of a CAFO, where animals are so depressed and frustrated, they chew on the metal bars of their confinement. I’ve written so many blogs about CAFO’s and animal farms. That’s why I was so happy to read an article in the Summer publication of All Animals, by the Humane Society of the U.S., about America’s churches stepping forward to start a grassroots endeavor to restore humane farming.

Methodists support totally natural systems of farming. Jewish rabbis recommend that humans strive to prevent animal suffering. While many other denominations condemn factory farms altogether.

HSUS’s “All Creatures Great and Small” campaign plans to call on the religious, I like to say spiritual, individuals to only purchase cage-free eggs. The article says that “participants can make an on line pledge to do so and pass it along to friends as a form of networking. It also said, “They can then download materials to use in youth groups, Sunday schools, sermons, and bulletins.” There is also a documentary from “people whose religion inspired them to make dietary changes.” This particular campaign will be this October during the monthlong feast of St. Francis of Assisi, saint to all animals.

This one small pledge is designed to spread grassroots style and hopefully bring awareness to the spiritually minded about the guidelines in the bible as to what and how we eat. People can argue that the guidelines are in the Old Testament that we’re living the New Testament now. Yet we cannot simply disregard the entire part of the bible that tells us where we came from can we? Without it, we would have no heritage.

At very least, in America, where spiritualism seems to abound these days, it might make us pay better attention to not only what we eat but how it was raised. It could make a big difference in our health and diminish the amount of pollution we unleash into the environment from factory farms. Not bad by-products for a little extra awareness about what we eat.