[Wildwell]

Just wondered what peakers thought about it?

'Factory farming is an attitude that regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit.

In animal agriculture, this attitude has led to institutionalized animal cruelty, massive environmental destruction and resource depletion, and animal and human health risks.'

http://www.factoryfarming.com/

[foodnotlawns]

I definitely hate factory farming. It artificially reduced local prices, putting New England farms out of business, and then they sold to suburban developers. It breaks my heart to see more bucolic New England farms bulldozed into McMansion suburbs.

I am trying to be a farmer. I have rabbits and chickens and am working on having about 1.5 acres of vegetables and grain. I'd like to get more acreage someday, perhaps by buying out abandoned McMansion cul-de sacs and knocking down some of the houses, using other ones for barns.

[Ludi]

I'm very strongly against factory farming and in fact most of conventional agriculture. I'm very much in favor of increasing local small scale agriculture, which would solve many problems we're facing.

[Jake_old]

I have always been against intensive farming, but sadly not because of any knowledge of resource depletion or population growth.

The stuff that is produced is only barely worthy of the term food, it is tasteless, chewed for you, regurjetated, on your plate. Rubbish.

People buy it because they have more important things to do than enjoy eating.

It is a tragedy, with or without all the other implications it has.

[Ebyss]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I')'m very strongly against factory farming and in fact most of conventional agriculture. I'm very much in favor of increasing local small scale agriculture, which would solve many problems we're facing.

[Raxozanne]

I hate factory farming for the reasons which are listed above and because I think its cruel to lock animals up in concrete containers and not let them see sunlight.

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Raxozanne', 'I') hate factory farming for the reasons which are listed above and because I think its cruel to lock animals up in concrete containers and not let them see sunlight.

[katkinkate]

Factory farming is just another symptom of the wrong turn western 'civilization' has taken. Its just another way to get maximum bang from minimum inputs. To provide fast uniform quality produce to the mass markets of the cities. Like any other 'factory' the externalities (soil erosion, polution, low food quality, antibiotic resistance..) have not been factored into the costs of the operation, but left for society to wear and so the 'profits' of the agribusiness are at the expense of the originating community.

[Wildwell]

The modern western world is about instant gratification, sanitising products and fantasy. People have been turned off to the reality, the consequences of their actions have been dulled because the processes (or the destruction it creates) have removed from the grubby reality.

Food production and factory farming is one such consequence. Some children now, have no idea where their food comes from because the system has separated their experience from the reality – either by convenience are because it appears in neat packages. Nobody buys dirty spuds anymore.

‘More than one in three children have no idea that chips are made from potatoes, with some believing the main ingredient is eggs, flour and even apples.

This shocking lack of nutritional knowledge was unearthed in a study by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), which today launches a major campaign to get children to make more healthy-eating choices.
It is being accompanied by billboards showing the common ingredients of junk food. The images of gristle, bones and connective tissue are obscured using a 'censored' stamp. Parents and children can visit the Food 4 Thought campaign website to peel back the sticker and reveal the full ingredients.

The BHF study found that 36 per cent of 8-14 year-olds could not identify the main ingredient of chips, while nearly 10 per cent of the 1,000 children questioned thought they were mostly made of oil’

http://www.which.co.uk/news/foodanddrin ... chips.html

A recent storm was created when TV chef Jamie Oliver killed a lamb on TV for a dish he was preparing. Why the shock? Because people have been moved from the reality I guess. After visiting a battery egg farm when I was 10, I’ve never eaten battery eggs since, such was the cruelty and misery I saw.


lamb kill

[foodnotlawns]

In the morning before work I have been gathering bags of leaves taht people in my neighborhood leave out. it's nice of them to bag them for me. I can't believe they throw them away. I have a mountain of bagged leaves in my back yard, probably over a hundred bags, and the season's not nearly over.

I also get truckloads of horse manure from a horse farm. So what I'm going to do is dump the leaves into piles, then bury the leaf piles in horse manure and leave it like that. Next spring it will be an OK soil base, but in 2007 it will be excellent -- fully rotted into real nice, well drained dirt.

No ploughing, no tilling, no digging. Just dumping and let Nature take her course.

I don't try to wring every last bit of yield from my property. I work full time and this is sort of a hobby for now. What's more important is to get what I can get with very low inputs -- no money inputs mainly.

It will take longer for this field of leaves and horse manure to rot down into good dirt, than if I used a tractor, but I am willing to trade time for money.

We weren't food sufficient this year. it's not easy. we got some cans of tomatoes and pickles in the basement, but still a lame potato harvest. only a hobby cabbage harvest. barely any peppers. A laughable harvest of oniions. Better luck next year. . .

one thing -- gardens aren't easy, adn they sure as hell don't come overnight.

[Jake_old]

Yes I get free manure as well, I'm glad but it always seems strange to be just bagging it up and taking it away, one day I expect it to be very expensive stuff.

Using kitchen waste as compost, I believe will produce only enough compost to cover about 2 metre square. There's only 2 of us and we try not to waste.

I thought about collecting the Autumn leaves recently, another free form of plant nutrition. I never thought to ask my neighbours to bag them.

I like that thinking.

[Raxozanne]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Raxozanne', 'I') hate factory farming for the reasons which are listed above and because I think its cruel to lock animals up in concrete containers and not let them see sunlight.

[Wildwell]

It always amazes me how some people think animals don't suffer and should be 'used' - all except their pet dog and cat though, but they're fluffy cute things...BTW I'm not saying don't eat meat, but if some people saw the suffering that went into their steak they wouldn't touch the stuff.

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', 'I')t always amazes me how some people think animals don't suffer and should be 'used' - all except their pet dog and cat though, but they're fluffy cute things...BTW I'm not saying don't eat meat, but if some people saw the suffering that went into their steak they wouldn't touch the stuff.

[Wildwell]

I want to be a cow now

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', 'I') want to be a cow now

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', 'I') want to be a cow now

[Wildwell]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', 'I') want to be a cow now

[Ludi]

http://www.factoryfarming.com/eggs.htm

[AmericanEmpire]

Maybe I should become a vegetarian. That factory farming stuff is alwfully disturbing.