" For the most part this is a matter of perspective. If ivorydog would do a little investigation on the USDA NASS website he/she would find that the inventory of hogs in 1916 was virtually the same as it is today. What is the difference? The consolidation brought on by the Green Revolution that has displaced most farmers from their land or at least retired their farms. It revolves around the old mantra of "Get big or get out." Prior to the Second World War over 50% of the population of the US farmed, today it is estimated (the next agricultural cencus is coming up) by the USDA to be less than 1%. 18% of that 1% produce 66.6% of all the food in the US. Is this kind of consolidation healthy? I don't think so. It has squarely placed food production into the hands of a few multi-national agribusiness' and in effect we have lost the democracy of our food. These days it is corporations that have become very proficent at farming farmers.

Ivorydog really needs to look at the hard science of what is an estorogen. Animal estrogens are differnt from phytoestorgens that are found in plants. Much peer reviewed science has been done on the benefits of phytoestrogens over against the paid for by agribusiness research that myopically looks at the same issues. When it comes to these types of issues the real test is the old saying, "Follow the money." The paper trails nearly always lead back to special interests groups and corporations with a particular agenda.

What is wrong with being sentimental and emotional? It is these qualities that can allow us to be fully human and get in touch with our authentic selves. More and more research is coming out on the sentientce of farm animals and in most cases they tend to be smarter than our cats and dogs. Today much is being made of "humane" farming practices and I would say that every farmer that I know would claim that they treat their animals humanely. Being a former beef farmer and having worked in the dairy industry for three years I know the context of this claim. But according to Webster's New World Dictionary the definition of humane is defined by three words; kind, tender, merciful. I could raise animals with kindness and tenderness but there was no mercy. They all end up slaughtered.

There is a deep psychology that runs through agriculture and it is embedded through a 10,000 year history of domesticating seeds and animals. The mythos of this psychology is that nature is chaos and our responsibility, indeed out obligation, as agriculturalist is to bring order to the choas, to bend nature to our will. This is no more evident that the practices of the Green Revolution which is an Orwellian term of chemical agriculture. There is a cognitive disconnect that allows our herding culture to view everything, plants, soil, animals, water, etc., as something outside ourselves. In my opinion it comes through the scientific practice of reductionist thinking...we become disconnected to the whole and in the process we loose our connection to the divine. Animals exist with their own self interests and if we care to observe them in that context we find that they seek the very same things that we do; comfort, safety, pleasure, peace. But seeing them as commodities strips them of their inherent dignity.

It is pretty easy to figure out how a vegan can save 95 to 100 animals a year. According to the USDA just over 10 billion animals were slaughtered in 2006 for food. Of that 10 billion 9 billion were chickens and other poultry. There has been a measurable trend amoung American consumers toward poultry with the belief that chicken is healthier than beef or pork. Again this information on meat consumption is found on the USDA website, mspgy isn't making it up.

I believe you,ivorydog, that you are an animal lover. And no one that I know every says they are in favor of cruelty, as moral and ethical humans we naturally abhor cruelty. But people who are a voice for animals and believe in rights for them do not think of them as "little people on four legs" but rather as sentient beings that are entitled to the basic rights that all of God's creatures are entitled to, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is a simple shift in perspective from viewing some animals as food to seeing them as subjects of a life with a biography not just a biology, as someone not something. Having the emotional courage and moral immagination to see this is hard, I know. And before you or others say that it is just sentimental anthropomorphism consider this, who is more guilty of anthropomorphism? Spend a little time an observe the advertising of the industry and see who gets anthropomorphized animals in the public's face on a regular basis through cartoon characters on packaging of meat, dairy, and eggs or the most obvious example of the Happy Cow campagin for dairy.

These are not easy subjects to think about since we are so enculturated and indoctrinated into a particular world view. The challenge is to ask ouselves the hard questions and see what speaks to our better selves. "

" Besides the cruely to animals issue outlined in this article, lets not forget about the effects the factory farms have on people.

Ivorydog belives that industrial farming is okay because "animal are animals, and not little people on four legs". What about all the people who do live near and around these farms, who are ultimately at significant health risks because of the lack of regulation over the manure lagoons and air/water qualities? If more subsidies were given to the family farms, and not to the large conglomerate coporations who back the factory farms, maybe the food supply produced in our country wouldn't be an issue... "

" "Factory farms differ from smaller farms because they raise tens of thousands of animals for food in very crowded facilities. "

Do they? By who's definition? Are you telling me that it is somehow better to raise 10 hogs in a 35sq.ft. Space than to raise 1,000 hogs in a 3500sq.ft. Space?

"They have become widespread throughout the United States, " Do you know why intensive livestock farming is so prevalent in the US? Do you know that as few as 2% of the population produce food for the other 98%? How would that be possible on smaller farms? Small farms, from where the sons and daughters left for the cities because they didn't want to live the life their parents had lived. A life of low pay, hard work and uncertainty.

"Consumers, too can end up with meat loaded with ........ Milk containing bovine growth hormone." Really? Why? Of course the estrogen content of one tablespoon of soybean oil being 834 times the estrogen content of one cup of milk isn't mentioned.


“The animals on those farms are treated like unfeeling commodities and their basic needs are completely ignored. They are crowded in warehouses and confined so tightly that they cannot walk, turn around or lie down. They are debeaked, de-toed and tail docked.”

This statement is utter sentiment and emotion. Animals on intensive livestock farms, whether they be hogs, cattle of chickens are treated with the greatest care and empathy by devoted hardworking stockmen, who for the most part put the health, welfare, and comfort of their stock before their own.

"The average vegetarian saves the lives of approximately 95 to 100 animals every year. At each meal, we make a decision to support this cruelty or to make a statement against it." Please tell me how this is possible. 95 to 100 animals? Are you trying to tell me that the average meat eater consumes a whole beef steer twice a week?

As an animal lover who lives with numerous pets, and works with thousands of hogs, I too, abhor any cruelty towards our animal friends, but animals are animals, they are not little people on four legs.
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