"Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food

[Sequoia]

Review
"In Farm Sanctuary Gene Baur highlights the appalling conditions billions of animals are forced to endure in factory farms -- in order to produce more meat more cheaply in the shortest possible time. His descriptions of the courageous battles fought by many individuals to end such practices are touching. Filled with hope, this book is written for all who strive for a more compassionate world -- I highly recommend it." -- Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace

"Starting in the 1980s, Gene rescued neglected, abused, and injured animals from the appalling, disgusting conditions at auctions and stockyards. Meet in this insightful book the fascinating animals he saved." -- Dr. Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation

"I have always admired the tremendous work of Farm Sanctuary. Farm animals need our ethical consideration, and Farm Sanctuary has played a central role in getting the issue of their plight on the national agenda." -- Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States

"The factory-farming industries do their best to keep people from knowing the truth about how meat, eggs, and dairy are produced. Gene and Farm Sanctuary deserve high praise for working so hard to educate the public and make the world a more compassionate and humane place." -- Moby

"Factory farms subvert democracy and are some of the nation's worst polluters. This book shows how they also treat animals with unspeakable cruelty. Farm Sanctuary is a compelling testament to the need to civilize this industry and end its radical practices for producing meat, dairy, and eggs." -- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

amazon.com

This is a very disturbing book but also important. I'm not a vegan or vegitarian but I was never one to eat a lot of meat but now I'm having second thoughts entirley. I'm glad summer's coming so I can eat veggies and fruit. Hamburgers though, I still like them.

[Tumbulu]

1. There are ethical meat producers

Probably a lot of them on these forums.

The organic farmers in my valley sell meat, eggs, and cheese from their sheep, pigs, goats and cows. We also have a big grass fed cattle group. You can be a conventional vegan and an organic/free range omnivore. I know lots of people who eat this way.

[newfie11]

2. Where are these factory farms.

I live in cattle country. These cattle run on thousands of acres of grass land. When they are brought into feed lots to grain they are not in small individual stalls but large pens, over an acre. They have feed available all day. If they are stressed they do not gain weight. The object is to get them to gain quickly and send on to a slaughterhouse. I am not getting into additives in feed, injections, etc to increase growth. That is not my question. I have see on TV the stories about veal and understand about that. I am curious as to how one grows a whole herd of cattle 200-500 head in stalls all day? It does not happen in western Nebraska or in South Dakota.

[Tumbulu]

3. the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

is a good place to start an understanding of the mechanics of it all. The confined animal operations are all over the place, just not around your area I guess. They destroy the credibility of honest farmers and honest vets for that matter.

[Muttocracy]

4. I second Pollan's book (in one section he traces a cow from open ranch -> CAFO)

If you Google CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation if I remember it right) you'll pull up a bunch of info. In upstate NY there are both small family dairy operations and CAFOs - and the latter are the ones you can smell 2 miles away. It's bizarre to me to see a CAFO surrounded by 100s of acres of field crops. I always cheer when I see the happy cows meandering around real pastures.