After looking into animal friendly farming recently I was appalled to learn that the air quality over what is called a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) has been tested as more polluted than the air in major cities in the US. This is not to say that the cities of the US are cleaning up their act but rather because of the way the animals are being raised, treated and farmed as well as how they are fed and what they are being fed. Animals that are confined in CAFO's never see the light of day, they never get to forage or graze as nature intended. They are fed a diet of mostly antibiotics because if not they would all die of a horrendous death due to the housing quality of these animals and the filth that they live in as well as the type of food they are fed!
They are fed GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms/Food) and that type of food has to be mass farmed where commercial farmers spray massive doses of chemicals on the crops to keep them alive and growing bug ridden free. GMO foods were created so they could withstand spraying by high doses of chemicals. This is turn is fed to animals in CAFO's and then the animals suffer from horrendous diseases and torture at the hands of money greedy humans. Because of this way of life they have to be fed high doses of antibiotics, again, to keep them alive long enough to be processed into human food. Then you eat this...now if that does not raise a few eyebrows and questions as to why things are as they are, there is a problem with today's human brains. Organic food is the other side of all this. Even if you are not a meat eater, and you do not have to be to understand this article, there is a better way to raise animals for food.
Organic farming practices are where the answer to this mess lies. Animals that are not confined and treated or fed this way have far fewer issues that have to be medicated with. I am personally a small scale organic farmer and I raise my chickens free range and on natural foods. Grains, grasses, bugs, vegetables and there is no need for antibiotics to keep them alive. I do not farm GMO foods to feed them, a lot of times they are fed out of my organic vegetables and herb garden. When winter is here, I feed them a mix of grains and they are still free range. I raise rabbits on natural foods as well. To this day we have never had to medicate one rabbit using medicine. When an animal calls for a treatment for an issue we use a natural antibiotic, such as Grapefruit Seed Extract in their water. This way does not contribute to the destruction of the animal, the earth, or humankind.
When the air quality tests dirtier over CAFO's and where they are growing GMO crops than any of our major cities, there is truly an issue that is being ignored! According to, commondreams.org, a non-profit news center created in 1997 as a new media model, “ The methane releases from billions of imprisoned animals on factory farms are 70 times more damaging per ton to the earth’s atmosphere than CO2.” Common Dreams shares their readers’ progressive values of social justice, human rights, equality and peace and bring trust worthy news to the forefront. In another quote from the Common Dreams site, “ Factory farms aren’t just a disaster for the environment. They’re also ruining our health. A growing chorus of scientists and public health advocates warn that the intensive and reckless use of antibiotics and growth hormones leads to factory-farmed food that contains antibiotic-resistant pathogens, drug residues such as hormones and growth promoters, and “bad fats.”
In 2013, a new alliance of organic and natural health consumers, animal welfare advocates, anti-GMO and climate-change activists should arise and tackle the next big food labeling battle just as the battle over labeling GMO foods has became mainstream: meat, eggs and dairy products from animals raised on factory farms, or CAFO's should be labeled as such. That way informed consumers can decide on what they buy and support. When you check out in the grocery store you are “voting” for what type of food consumer's want. If you are buying mostly organic then this is what you are voting for and it is what the store will see. If enough people start doing the same thing, this is what the store will stock because it wants to meet the demands of the people.
Yes, organic food is more expensive. But this is because the demand for it is so low. If we want to make a change we have to show farmers and the USDA, FDA and the whole US that what we want is to know what we are eating. We want healthy foods, we want organically produced meats, dairy, eggs, fruits and vegetables not GMO's. We want animals that are farmed properly and raised humanly not CAFO's. We want the US to change and be a leader not only in health but also in change itself! Want to know more? Check this site out as well as this site.
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