The Cruel Irony of Organic Standards

[HuckleB]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/6330/the_cruel_irony_of_organic_standards/

"The triumph of purist ideology over compassion and science means suffering and death for organic farm animals across America.

The week-old dairy calf, gangly and still, lay on a barn floor, her long-lashed eyes rolled back to expose the blue-white rim. The next morning, when I went to help my neighbor with his newborns, the calf was dead.

Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations defining organic standards mandate that if this calf had gotten one dose of antibiotics, even to save her life, she could never give organic milk—even after the two years it takes for her to become a milker, and even though neither she nor her milk would retain any trace of antibiotics.

Farmers are not generally callous or cruel, but neither are they sentimental. Organic standards mandate that they take all measures to save the life of an animal, but treatment strategies can be subjective, and loss of organic status factors into a farmer’s decision. After all, antibiotics don’t always work, and sometimes animals recover without them. So decent farmers wait while an animal suffers, and crosses that line past which no intervention can reverse the slide to death.

..."


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Yowza.

:yoiks:

[daylan b]

1. I was asked by an aquaintance one time if I'd feed a calf 'naturaly'.

for them. They wanted one with "no injections or antibiotics".

I told them I'll castrate an animal with no pain killer any day of the week but I'm not cruel enough to do that.

[superduperfarleft]

2. I don't think it's an issue of organic vs. non-organic.

I think this simply illustrates the fact that as long as humans continue to treat animals as nothing more than flesh, milk, egg, and assorted byproduct machines, they will always suffer.

[HuckleB]

3. You're point is well taken.

[Silent3]

4. Couldn't they just balance the calf's chakras....

...or apply "healing touch"?

If the calf had been raised and fed naturally all its life, how was it even possible for it to get sick in the first place?

:sarcasm: