Food Inc.
 

This movie came out last year; if you haven't seen it yet, please watch it. It's an excellent movie and one that I believe every American should see.

The official trailer is the link below:

http://t.ymlp57.com/emhyafamhbarahmmbazamsmqm/click.php

Not to nitpick by why did they show President Bush and no other politician? They say the changes took place in the last 50 years. I know it is popular to blame Bush for every problem under the sun, but congress was dominated by the donkey party for most of it.

Sorry to rant but I am sick of politics in every part of my entertainment venues. It is hard to find a television show that isn't spoiled by political BS.

The movie does not blame President Bush for anything. At the time of some of the filming Bush was, in fact, our president.

Ashcroft served under Bush until 2005. When was this filmed?

I don't know. The film is not political as far as I remember.

K9-Lovers, I realize you posted a movie link to advocate and educate people about something you believe. So I hope you don't mind if I post a question in your movie link thread.

What percent of America's food is produced by corporate farms?

Food production and consumption is a complex problem.
 

It is unfortunate, and fortunate that we do not produce food the way we used to.

I ate my grandmothers home canned food for a long time and escaped botulism. The preservatives in today's food aren't good for our gut lining, it preserves it, but it does keep us from getting a some of the nasty stuff that causes illness and it keeps it from spoiling, although the preservatives kind of spoil it in another way..

Poultry grown the way it is now on large farms in an inhumane way is cheaper and more subject to carry salmonella.

But, I said cheaper.

How food is produced and preserved represents part of the problem with nutrition but not all of the problem with good nutrition. We can still make choices and I think education of children on WHAT a nutritious diet is and how to prepare it would be a huge help. A lot of people don't eat right anymore and they really don't like to cook/prepare meals and don't know how to cook/prepare meals and to me that is just as serious an issue.

We have made huge strides in changing babies over from formula to mother's milk but we are still learning how and when and what to begin introducing food to infants and toddlers to avoid later allergies and give them a healthy start. I suspect that giving vitamins to our little ones helped them be healthy and strong and also made them enter puberty earlier.

My grandmother wasn't much of a fan of the germ theory and didn't think a bug was a threat to anyone unless you could swat it. I think children should be taught how to safely buy, cook and preserve food. We are so addicted to fast food and already prepared food because of our hectic life style.

I think that the cooks in our kitchens or the people who pick things up to feed our families throughout this land are acting on too little information or incorrect information

I think it is a cultural problem, a business problem and even a political problem.

Help me down from this soap box. I need a cup of coffee and I have heard that coffee is both good for you and not good for you. I am drinking it anyway.

Off topic a bit, sorry. I have seen several posts about how poultry is grown in an inhumane way. I owned a poultry farm and grew close to a million broilers (fryers) per year. The inhumane way of doing it escapes me. This is not an attack on you, Gracie. I would never do that. I simply want to put this out there to let folks know how the poultry they eat is raised. There are a lot of misconceptions about how it's done.

Let me explain how they are grown, and then judge for yourselves.

Day 1
The eggs are hatched and immediately transported to the farm in flats of 100 each. Depending on the time of year, we would get between 25-30,000 per house. We loaded the flats on a flatbed trailer and backed them into the house and placed the chicks on the floor of the house under brooders and where food and water was available. The temperature was between 90 and 95 degrees, which is maximum comfort for a chick to encourage it to eat and drink, which they won't do if it is too cold or too hot. As they grow feathers they can hold their body heat better and the temperature is reduced as needed. Their entire life is spent on the floor of the house with the freedom to move about, and they are not caged as is commonly believed. I know someone will say I am wrong, but this is the way it is. Egg layers are in cages, not broilers (if you don't like the thought of caged chickens, think about this the next time you crack an egg). They always have access to food and water. At growout, which for me was usually 37 days, the integrator (Tyson in my case) sent a crew to pick up the chickens and they were hauled by semi to the processing plant. Some are grown longer, as much as 8 weeks, depending on the market they are being grown for.

Compare that to a free range bird. See the above description. Open one door on each poultry house for at least one hour each day, and our government mandates that they can be sold as free range. If you think this sounds outrageous, look it up. You can open every door on a chicken house and they will look out, but they won't leave. They are too comfortable in the house where the temperature is perfect for them and they have all the food and water they need. Several times I have found one of the doors open on one of my houses that had been open all day and none had ever escaped. You mostly close the doors to keep heat or cooling in and predators out.

Compare that to a yard chicken. They eat and drink all day, they roost at night. They may or may not have a shelter and are exposed to whatever elements there may be. That is natural and good. It takes a yard chicken 3-4 months to grow to a good size for processing due to weather, nutrition, etc. In order to meet the needs of the American public, I would have had to have 3 or 4 times as many chickens running free, the losses to predators and whatever else would have been tremendous, and they would have been impossible to catch and send to market, driving the cost to the consumer through the roof.

What is the difference between a yard chicken and one raised in one of the modern facilities? Mostly the food and the environment. Yard chickens have a longer life span, but not by that much.

What is the difference between a free range chicken and one raised in a modern facility? Nothing, except the free range has had the option every day to go outside.

If you truly want a free range bird, buy from a local farmer who has yard chickens. They have had a more or less natural diet of bugs and worms and whatever else. I have found that a chicken will eat most anything it can swallow, including one another. Of course, the meat is not USDA inspected, so you take your chances in that sense.

I guess if all this sounds inhumane, then nothing I can say will change anyone's mind. Hogs and cattle are pretty much raised the same way. Maybe not indoors, but highly integrated like poultry.

The answer to all of this is that if you are truly disgusted with the way they are raised, go vegan. Although they are alive, vegetables aren't cute and cuddly like a baby chick and can be eaten with impunity.

So iandwk, were you a corporate farm or a family owned farm?

You know of which you speak and I appreciate learning this. I have tried not to humanize my food and like Russ Boston believe that homosapiens are carnivores. I love this place where people continue to learn from experts like you.

Family owned. We contracted with Tyson. They supplied the chicks and the food, we paid for everything else, including propane and electricity, and we owned the houses.

The reason the chickens do not leave their dark prison, is because that is all they know and that is what they are used to. Reminds me of these abused women that stay with their abusers.

Chickens that have been "rescued" from breeding facilities like Tyson's and have been released to enjoy grass, dirt, sunlight, and dustbaths are fearful and cower in their chicken house hiding their heads in the corner. I've seen this same behavior from dogs that I've rescued from puppy mills. It comes from extreme psychological damage from being in an environment that is not normal for that species. Some dogs (and some of those chickens) never normalize. I had a dog that was fearful of grass and never learned to eat from a dog food bowl, and ran around in tight circles rather than walking straight because she was in a small cage since birth. That behavior never went away in SIX YEARS. So, I'm not surprised that your chickens did not leave their house.

Did your henhouse have windows? Did the chickens see daylight at all? From my understanding, Tyson contracts require that the chickens be raised in darkness. If the house has/had windows, then Tyson required that black plastic be placed over the windows to eliminate sunlight.

How many chickens were raised per square foot of building space?

What hormones and other supplements were used to make them grow so fast and so big that they cannot even support their giant bodies on their legs?

How many dead chickens did you have to throw out everyday due to overcrowding and disease?

How many chickens did not even grow feathers because of the filthy living conditions on top of their own feces? How many were sick and diseased?

Although you raised chickens that are eaten, rather than those that lay eggs, why didn't you talk about the male chicks that are ground up in machines while still ALIVE simply because they cannot lay eggs?

And, why not discuss poultry that have their beaks broken off so that feeders can be hooked up? Or have their beaks sheared off so they won't hurt each other due to the overcrowded conditions?

There are lots of other questions that I could ask; there are lots of details that you glossed over. Probably a normal defense mechanism in our own human psyche -- it is hard to admit to even yourself that you were behaving abhorently.

It would not have been necessary for me to post this response, if you had not posted yours. I would be content if some people would just have simply watched the movie and made their own decisions.

All of you reading this -- do yourself a favor and educate yourselves. Watch the movie, which is NOT all about chickens, or animal rights. It is also about the food prep workers, and it is about the food we eat here in the U.S. and will help you make wise choices when you shop in the grocery store.

And, don't be gullible and believe everything you heard from me or from the above Food Factory Farmer . . . find out for yourself!

Chicken
 

Sorry for the 'But-in-ski"
here's a link to a film we were given a couple years ago that might explain some things
Caution:
some graphic material
not to be seen during dinner

http://www.cok.net/magazine/16/02.php

note
Larry gave up fowl in the 70's
Linda is working on it

L and L

I have friends who are vegetarians and friends who are vegans. I've asked them this question, so I will respectively ask you this question also just for the point of discussion and education.

What would happen if everyone in the world went vegetarian tomorrow?

That's an interesting yet way off the wall question, but the best news is you do not have to worry about it ever coming into 'Fruition"

L and L

Like GracieGirl and Russ, I agree that people are meant to eat some meat, but much less than what most Americans eat now. Meat can be an accompaniment to vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains. Not the other way around.

My purpose in posting the trailer to the film "Food Inc." is not to promote vegetarianism or veganism or any other "ism". The film addresses lots of issues about our food, including the way corn products have become additives in foods, where you would least expect to find corn!

The film does address the poor way, both nutritionally and humanely, that beef, pork and chicken is farmed in our country. You may know that several foreign countries have banned the import of meat from the U.S. because it is no longer fit for human consumption, despite of what the USDA claims.

So, besides the inhumane treatment of our food animals, there are nutritional concerns about our meat. For example, the chickens: they are given hormones to make them grow larger than normal, and faster than normal. They are given antibiotics as a disease preventative due to living without fresh air, sunshine and due to walking atop mounds of chicken pee and poo, and due to overcrowding. Who wants to eat chicken that is full of growth hormones and antibiotics?

There are lots of alternatives available to find healthy meats, eggs, cheese, etc. Here is a link to help you find healthy food locally: http://www.eatwild.com/products/florida.html :icon_hungry:

The point of the movie is for all of us to become educated about our food, the way it is produced, and the QUALITY of the food.

Like I said before: make up your own mind after learning for yourself . . .:popcorn:

Yes, please find out for yourselves. I never asked anyone to take my word for it, but it is open to investigation. I knew someone would attack me for what I wrote, and that's ok. You have your opinion and you are welcome to it.

I will not try to address all of your inflammatory questions. It will only give you more fodder. I will address a couple, though, that prove that everything you read and hear is not always true.

You cannot raise a chicken in the dark. Birds are birds. They roost at night. They (the integrator) pick them up at night because the chickens are sitting and not running around. It causes less stress and damage to the chickens that way. I know you will probably jump on this and make something of it, but that's ok. Also, I have given several chickens that were left behind at the end of the growout to friends. They did fine. They went and behaved just like a chicken, strutting around and eating anything small enough that moved. I can have them call you to confirm this, but you wouldn't believe it.

Male chickens are not ground up alive. How ridiculous! Did you also believe that Wendy's hamburgers were made with worms? Why would a company destroy a profitable item like a rooster. It costs the integrator about 15 cents to hatch an egg. Assuming 50% are male and I grew about a million pullets a year, look how much they would waste by killing the males on my farm alone. Male chickens are grown for consumption, just like females. They are not grown together because they grow at different rates and the processing plant can't easily process different sizes together. Look at those huge leg/thigh combinations that you find on sale occasionally. The breasts are used for restaurants or some sort of further processing and the legs and thigh are often sold this way. They are most likely roosters. But you probably won't believe that, either. I know it is true because when I first started, I grew roosters only for the first couple of years.

As far as sick and diseased, I never personally knew of any that were never sick and diseased. Diseases do happen, but they happen in the wild also They are grown on litter that is partly their own feces. It would be impossible to do otherwise. It is not the wet slimy mess you make it out to be. everything is the house is dry because of the air circulation. You probably won't believe that, either, because you already believe the worst about it.

I make no apologies for being a farmer nor do I apologize for eating meat. I believe what God said about eating meat and the use of animals. Genesis 9:2 and 3: "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moves upon the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." Now you have something else to attack me for.

I do feel sorry for someone who spews venom such as this without having ever been to a poultry operation to see for themselves if everything they hear is true. Is it a clean, pristine operation? Of course not. It is a livestock operation. Feces happens. Death happens. It wasn't unusual for a flock to suffer 1-2% mortality which is probably lower than humans. If you don't want to be hypocritical, don't eat animals. Eat vegetables. Oh, wait. A lot of vegetables are grown in Georgia and a lot of those growers bought the litter from my and other people's chicken houses to use as fertilizer for their vegetables. This probably happens in a lot of other states, also. I don't think you can escape it without growing everything yourself. I can give you a list of frozen food manufacturers that are in the same county as my old farm. I bet if you saw the way vegetables are grown and handled, you'd rant about that, too.

I never mentioned the movie, either. If you will notice I apologized and admitted this was off topic.

Thanks for the attack, btw. You made my day. It reminds me of the man who wanted to shut down all farming in our area because farms stink. He wrote an editorial in the local paper saying he wanted to be able to go out into the country and smell the wild honeysuckle. The only problem is that you can't feed a nation of people on wild honeysuckle. Someone has to grow your food.

Let the attacks begin. I'm done with this topic, personally. I know all I have done is give you more to rant about, but have at it. Quote pages from books, quote what you heard and saw in a movie. Just remember, you haven't been there and seen it. I will enjoy reading your rants and will make no further comments, so tear me up. I find it rather amusing.

Signed, Mr. Ab Horrent.

I will only contest this one point. They do not and cannot live without fresh air. There is a constant stream of air moving from one end of the house to be exhausted out the other end. I never saw the movie. Did they make that claim? If so, they are wrong about that. You have to exhaust the air continually because of the buildup of ammonia and the tremendous humidity that will quickly accumulate if you don't. The ammonia can blind and/or kill the chickens, not to mention the grower who has to spend several hours of the day in the houses.

I'm not trying to defend anything, just saying what I know to be true.

:BigApplause:

I am really trying to get educated and still didn't get either of my questions answered. :read: I guess I got lost in the shuffle of emotions.

I'm sorry, BK! The attached website says that factory farms produce 99% of the food we eat. Take a look:

http://www.farmforward.com/farming-f...actory-farming

Now, I'll go back and try to find your other question. :wave:

BK, I think this was your other question. I don't have an answer for you. It's an interesting question but I think it is highly unlikely. I imagine that the factory farms would go out of business and animal farming would revert to it's origins. There probably wouldn't be enough vegetables for everyone at first, but that would improve in time.

Here is a website that poses the question "What if everyone went vegetarian for just one day?"

http://www.alternet.org/water/134650..._just_one_day/

Mind you, I'm not promoting a vegetarian lifestyle, I am hoping to answer BK's question.

Humane Society of the United States -- a pretty good source, says that "hundreds of millions" male chicks are killed annually. Here's the info: http://www.hsus.org/farm/multimedia/...le_chicks.html

According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year. This page includes a video of male chicks being thrown into a grinding machine while still alive. I don't recommend watching the video. Here's the page:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_273652.html

iandwk,

I apologize that you took my post so personally. I should have worded this part of my post differently. I should have said "it is hard to admit to even one's self that one is behaving abhorently". I believe all of us have the ability to justify our actions. And that applies to some factory farm owners.

While I believe that today's factory farms are horrible, or abhorent, I didn't intend to personally attack you -- for goodness' sakes, I don't even know you.

Yes, today's factory farms, whether they are family owned or owned by corporations, are inhumane and produce below-par food. But no, that doesn't mean you are a bad person. You are right -- with our country's current demand for meat, someone has to have the job of providing it.

My intention of asking all those questions, is to point out that there are horrendous practicies in place in today's farming, of which most people are unaware. If the average person in the U.S. knew what really happened on the factory farms, they wouldn't stand for it!

Please accept my apology if you felt personally attacked. I am attacking the practice of all factory farms, not you personally.

But if you think about it, really think about it, well...I found this. It is something to think about. I guess my mind just works in weird ways sometimes.

http://www.fluther.com/42674/what-wo...rian-tomorrow/

Concerning chickens being raised in the dark . . . if sunlight is replaced by dim electric lights, that is darkness. Attached are a couple of photos of chickens raised for food in dark warehouses. Also notice that the photos taken in the link provided by larryandlinda were taken in the dark, with the only light visible is from the camera flash. Also attached is a video of an egg producing facility, raided by rescuers during the bright daylight, and inside there is complete darkness. Puppy mills are also sometimes completely dark and the dogs spend their whole lives in complete blackness, so this practice seems to be commonplace. I imagine it is done to keep the animals more calm, and in the case of puppies, to keep people from looking in (they paint the windows black).

http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/...d/broiler3.jpg

http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/...d/broiler1.jpg

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haWr5WfZQ90[/ame]

K9 - just fascinating!
 

You have really put your passion into your diet and lifestyle.
We, too, do not preach nor advocate what people put into (and hence 'onto') their bodies.
We keep it simple - find out what's good, try to make it palatable, and consume in moderation. Because we grew up with a huge ray gun picture tube in our faces telling us about eating for flavor and fun - we developed our craving for fried, sweet, rich, and good-looking food.

Teaching old dogs new tricks is a challenge with decade upon decade of
eating poorly.
Yes, we do sometimes get frustrated that the greed of some is responsible for the sickness of others - but the good news is that as adults we can make choices about our intake'
We choose to make the choice of food based upon value, simplicity, so we stay fiscally and physically fit.

While we are part time indulgers ourselves, we consider those times 'feasts' as outlined by Dr John McDougall and Paavo Airola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Airola

We're also noticing that with a healthy diet we can function better as we mature. We can get farther on the bikes with less effort, and the mind and body seem to stay better tuned.We are also noticing that we are able to live with less climate control.
And while we realize that sleep is most essential, the healthier diets are working so well we are cheating a little off the sack time with no negative effects.
That gives us more 'awake time' in the Friendly Hometown when there.

Here's something a well-wisher recently forwarded to us, thinking we had both completely gone off animal food, but there are some 'food that had eyes' in the diet

http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/0...eat-eater.html

Buon /Apetito

L and L

One final video and I'm done for tonight. I don't want to have nightmares!! :ohdear:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-cor1uZ2AM&feature=related[/ame]

I said I was done, but since things have gotten a bit more civil, I will comment on this. The pictures were taken with a flash. Undoubtedly at night. Poultry is not raised with light 100% of the time until usually the last week before shipping out. Lights are on timers and they get plenty of rest while growing. These pictures may have been taken just before being picked up for processing or during a time when the lights are out. There is no way, and if you have ever been in a poultry house at night you would understand, absolutely no way you can raise a chicken with constant darkness. They sit down and do not move until it is light. They would starve, or at best be severely stunted in their growth. I cannot comment on what they do with layer houses, but an educated guess would be that they regulate the light to keep the chicken healthy and producing. I do know their feed is regulated. A broiler house has food available 24/7. A layer house gets food at certain times. I am sure the purpose is to maximize production of eggs.

I realize there are issues and problems with the government's involvement in the agriculture business. But I think part of the problem I have with the discussion is just that I personally know farmers. Real life farmers who raise breeder cattle, farmers who raise sheep, farmers who raise hogs, farmers who have been dairy farmers for generations-all friends of mine.

People I know who've I've broken bread with and prayed with and watched their children grow up and get married. I've been on their farms and watched them nurse lame animals, watched their children win awards with their livestock at 4-H shows and county fairs. These are people who stay up all night when their sheep are lambing, who walk through knee deep snow in the middle of the night for days on end to get the new born lambs.

You can't attack farmers without recognizing the good people out there who fed the people in this country. And trust me, there are many many many of these people.

You know what I have always admired abouit my farmer friends, besides that most of their wives are school teachers so they can have the summer off to help on the farm and they are some of the hardest working people you will ever meet? They really have more faith than any people I've ever known. Faith that their crops will come in. Faith that their animals with not take ill and will produce. Faith that the market won't fall and they have enough to get through another season.

I've read all of your information and I thank you for it all. It's a lot to digest, no pun intended. I hope you read mine and consider my words as well.


BTW, family farms account for 98 percent of farms are family farms, and they account for 82 percent of farm production in the US.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib67/

One more:

http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html

bk,

I wish all farms were as you described.

However, I am talking about large production facilities, commonly called "factory farms". Some of the "factory" farms are owned by families, but they are not the type of farms where the families care for the animals. These large facilities are described in one of your links: "Small family farms make up most of the U.S. farm count and hold the majority of farm assets, but they produce a modest share of U.S. farm output. In contrast, large-scale family farms and nonfamily farms—only 12 percent of all farms—account for 84 percent of farm production."

So, most of our food (84% according to your link) comes from these huge "factory farms" where the animals are not treated humanely, are injected with hormones and antibiotics, and suffer in pain their whole lives.

The kind of farmers you describe love animals. They would not be able to treat their livestock inhumanely. Unfortunately, not all owners of these food production facilities or "factory farms" care for their animals as God intended.

I watched the video about the chicks in the grinder. I can tell you one falsehood for sure. Male chicks have has much use as pullets in the broiler market. They also grow much faster than pullets, which makes them cheaper to grow for the integrator, less feed per pound of chicken. The main difference is in the tenderness of the meat. Pullets are desired for tenderness. Roosters usually go for further processing, such as lunch meats. You can believe this or not, but it is true.

I can say for sure that the statement is not true and is likely meant to be inflammatory. As to the grinding part, what I saw going into the grinders was mostly egg shells. If they are making a practice of letting chicks go through the grinder, they need to be fired and replaced, and probably were after this film came out. That's just lazy workers doing a poor job, but you get that a lot when all you pay is minimum wage.

As for the rough treatment the chicks get, it may look rough to those who have never seen it, but if they hurt the chicks, they become useless, so why would they damage all of them in that manner? If I had chicks arrive on my farm that had been mishandled, which did occasionally happen, I took a count of them and got reimbursed for them. It was not as often as one might think. I may have averaged 2-300 per year. Not too bad out of 1,000,000. When you complain about it, they make whatever correction is necessary to stop them from being hurt. Why wouldn't they? It costs them and the growers money to lose chicks due to carelessness. Think about it.

This is a video narrated by the actor, Alec Baldwin. Warning: This video is very graphic. Watch only if you are serious about learning about our food production.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjanhKqVC4[/ame]

And yet, your doing it again.:loco:

Thanks for the levity BK. It was getting knee deep in chicken s##t around here. :p

:clap2::1rotfl:

No one is saying the livestock industry as a whole is perfect. It is driven by profit, operated by humans who don't make a lot of money in their jobs, and can be a shock to those not involved in the industry. A lot of these films you see are of farms or processing plants who are sorry at their jobs. They try to make you think all are like that, while that simply is not true. I had a neighbor with poultry houses who was drunk half the time and only went into his houses every other day, allowing the mortality to just rot on the floor. Needless to say, the Tyson people eventually took away his contract. That's the exception, though, and that is the kind of farms these films find so as to inflame the public. Can you find any films of clean, healthy operations? Do you really believe they don't exist? Get with the county extension agent in your county and go visit farms with him. I think you would come away feeling a lot different about farms.

PETA is not what they always claim to be, either. Check out these links.
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/petaTrial2.cfm
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_...d-its-a-felony
http://www.thisistrue.com/peta.html
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/press...g-dumping-dogs

Do I think all of PETA is like this? No, but for some reason people see videos of bad farms or processing plants and think they are all like that.

As to the profit driven aspect, the integrators are the ones making the money. My wife taught school while I ran the farm. Our utility bills and bank payments amounted to about $10000 per month. We averaged around $24,000 per flock and raised an average of 7 flocks per year. I was on the farm 24/7 while chickens were in the houses and had usually 10-14 days between flocks to clean out and get ready for the next batch. If you do the math you will see it wasn't a highly profitable business for the investment in time and money for us. We were paid 4.25 cents per pound of live weight and that would vary depending on how much feed per pound went into each chicken. The less feed used, the more we made. They started paying this in or around 1994. We sold our farm in 2002. I spoke to the man who bought it earlier this year and they are still paying the grower the same amount, although poultry prices have almost doubled on the retail market since 1994.

It's easy to see from top to bottom that all the money is at the top. Don Tyson and Bill Clinton are good friends and he was able to get a lot of favorable bills passed through his lobbying efforts. One example is that the poultry growers were not allowed to form any kind of union in order to try to get higher prices per pound on what they grow. They successfully lumped it in with the Sherman Antitrust Act and we could have been arrested for price-fixing. I personally think the farmers are treated much worse than the livestock they raise.

Does the industry need fixing? I'd say changes can be made for the better, but if it is ever done to the satisfaction of the few who are so vocal about it be prepared to pay exorbitant prices for all food, because the livestock market is tied into the rest of the food chain in this country.

Maybe then I can successfully lose weight and keep it off.

iandwk, Excellent post. Thank you.

However, no matter how well the chicken Factory Farm Facility is run, the facts remain:

overcrowded, causing disease, fighting, cannibalism
treated with antibiotics and hormones, therefore in our meat
no sunlight, artificial "fresh air"
live in their own waste
many cannot support their excess weight and cannot move
grow so fast that their lungs and heart do not keep up
this is not the environment God intended for these creatures
treated viciously by collectors, often breaking legs & wings
this produces meat that is not high quality

the food industry workers are exploited

and finally, VAST IMPROVEMENT IS NEEDED

Wow. Your post and links gives me alot to research and look into.

..