(no subject)
Something I've been thinking about for a long time, is purchasing meats and animals products that have been raised in good conditions. No, better than that, fantastic conditions. Not "free range" or "cage free", as those vague as shit terms really don't mean anything at the end of the day.
I mean chickens that have been raised to stretch their wings to the heavens, allowed to scrounge around in the dirt to their little avian hearts' content. Cattle that can wander forever. Pigs that can run for days. And other such apparent "nonsense" in the eyes of current industrial farmers. Now, I'm not bagging on farms. They just want to make a profit, to provide for their families or roll around in, whatever. Their business. But when they shack up chickens in cages hardly big enough to stand up in, that's when I have a problem.
It seems to be that our current business climate seems to reward these bad practices and actually punishes good practices. Storing animals by the gross in warehouses turns a better profit than more humane practices. That's just how capitalism works, and unless that changes, that's how it will always work.
And yes, I realize that providing for quality feed, space and great care means cost for me. I don't mind that. I don't care if I spend $8 on a carton of eggs, if those eggs were laid by hens that weren't mis-treated. I'm not exactly in the 1%, but I'm not pinching pennies either, and I can afford to let go of an extra $6 in the name of humane treatment. Forking over more money for the meat of the animals might hurt my wallet, but I don't mind. Just means I might have to eat meat less often, and that's not a bad thing either.
The main problem I have is figuring out whether these products are legit or if the farmers are just being dicks. Surely there has to be an organization to keep standards and such. And I found it. The Certified Human Raised and Handled program. I've been going through their site and standards for the past hour. Their standards are high, but reasonable on farmers who just shouldn't be dicks to animals. So according to this, any animal product that has the Certified Human stamp on it is legit. And the site has links and profiles to every certified farm.
So now I'm going to go to the local CM (not today, it's a madhouse there on weekends) and check it out. Take notes. This is important to me and it's time I actually did something about it. *inspirational music*
I mean chickens that have been raised to stretch their wings to the heavens, allowed to scrounge around in the dirt to their little avian hearts' content. Cattle that can wander forever. Pigs that can run for days. And other such apparent "nonsense" in the eyes of current industrial farmers. Now, I'm not bagging on farms. They just want to make a profit, to provide for their families or roll around in, whatever. Their business. But when they shack up chickens in cages hardly big enough to stand up in, that's when I have a problem.
It seems to be that our current business climate seems to reward these bad practices and actually punishes good practices. Storing animals by the gross in warehouses turns a better profit than more humane practices. That's just how capitalism works, and unless that changes, that's how it will always work.
And yes, I realize that providing for quality feed, space and great care means cost for me. I don't mind that. I don't care if I spend $8 on a carton of eggs, if those eggs were laid by hens that weren't mis-treated. I'm not exactly in the 1%, but I'm not pinching pennies either, and I can afford to let go of an extra $6 in the name of humane treatment. Forking over more money for the meat of the animals might hurt my wallet, but I don't mind. Just means I might have to eat meat less often, and that's not a bad thing either.
The main problem I have is figuring out whether these products are legit or if the farmers are just being dicks. Surely there has to be an organization to keep standards and such. And I found it. The Certified Human Raised and Handled program. I've been going through their site and standards for the past hour. Their standards are high, but reasonable on farmers who just shouldn't be dicks to animals. So according to this, any animal product that has the Certified Human stamp on it is legit. And the site has links and profiles to every certified farm.
So now I'm going to go to the local CM (not today, it's a madhouse there on weekends) and check it out. Take notes. This is important to me and it's time I actually did something about it. *inspirational music*