Posted on 01/01/2015 10:28:11 AM PST by PROCON
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The new year is expected to bring rising chicken egg prices across the U.S. as California starts requiring farmers to house hens in cages with enough space to move around and stretch their wings.
The new standard backed by animal rights advocates has drawn ire nationwide because farmers in Iowa, Ohio and other states who sell eggs in California have to abide by the same requirements.
To comply, farmers have to put fewer hens into each cage or invest in revamped henhouses, passing along the expense to consumers shopping at grocery stores. California is the nation's largest consumer of eggs and imports about one-third of its supply.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
What does a dedicated Troll like you consider to be a “reputable” source?
The US agg dept? LOL!
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I said go for it.
If you are satisfied with non-food, suck it up!
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Upon relocating to the east coast (NJ) some 25 years ago I was struck by multiple oddities that I still, to this day, find disturbing and indicative of the arrogance so frequently equated with the general populace of the two extreme coasts.
The first being the general acceptance of a belief that firearms somehow, of their own accord, take it upon themselves to randomly discharge their loads; frequently resulting in renewed demands for further regulations/laws designed to strip law-abiding citizens of any actual ability to defend themselves.
The second being a (seemingly) widespread belief that the inhabitants of the two coasts are entitled to dictate their whims upon those who happen to comprise the population of the “fly-over” states.
The third being the growing belief that city dwellers are the best source of information when it comes to farming operations and what constitutes the proper practices for said farms.
There are other observations, of course, but the above three sufficiently envelops the current discussion.
I was fortunate to grow up on a farm in the mid-west (fly-over country) where we raised a variety of crops, chickens, ducks, geese, hogs and cattle. At a young age (10 or so) I borrowed $30 to start my own sheep operation – growing my herd to 30 or so by the time I was a proper teenager. I sold the wool, some of the lambs, and eventually the entire flock (for meat and breeding stock) as a means to pay back my loan while turning a profit in the end (less my loan and feed costs).
I’ve pulled calves, castrated calves, pigs, and sheep and brought more than one newborn animal into the house so it could live despite the harsh wintry weather. I’ve inoculated more animals that I can successfully recall and I’ve spent time on a one-legged stool hand-milking the dozen or so head of milk cows that we had when I was young.
Ours was a small scale operation (in comparison to the mega operations so common today) but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have direct experience with the much larger operations; among friends and family there were many who had large (more specialized) operations, concentrating on hogs, chickens, cattle or crops.
Despite knowing (personally) many farmers – who raised many thousands of various animals – I have never once witnessed anything close to what could logically be labeled animal cruelty. I’ve seen farmers, and their families, go without sleep, without eating, without personal items – all because their animals came first.
Conversely, I’ve never once witnessed a single animal activist make a single sacrifice that remotely compares to the the many sacrifices that every farmer makes every day. It just doesn’t happen.
I call it the “Bambi complex.”
Clueless people, perhaps with good intentions, foolishly believing that animals are living Teddy Bears – soft and cuddly creatures incapable of anything other than spreading joy and love to all who care enough to voice an opinion about something they (usually) know absolutely nothing about.
Chickens are vile, disgusting creatures. They’ll kill just about anything they can – frequently each other.
It isn’t unusual for them to eat a strange (or wounded) chicken while it is still alive – pecking at it non-stop until the victim finally succumbs (after it has been partially eaten). I’ve seen them pulling the entrails out of another chicken’s rectum – a frenzied gang mercilessly attacking the harassed victim.
They’ll kill each others’ chicks and eat the eggs of any hen incapable of fighting the hoard off.
That is why the larger operations “de-beak” their birds (as others have explained, the beak is NOT removed).
That is why the larger operations place their hens in individual cages – it greatly cuts down on injuries/death.
That is why they’re fed via conveyor belts (to ensure that all birds have access to feed). (Otherwise the weaker birds will go without and/or be killed)
If they’re stressed, they don’t lay at all.
The fact that they are laying (eggs) tells the story – as far as the actual chicken is concerned, living in a egg factory is a life of ease and no stress. There they have no need to fight for their survival, no need to fight for food/water and no need to fend off the predatory attacks of their fellow chickens (or other predators).
The worst thing I can say about the major chicken operations is that the stench (inside the buildings) is awful. In fact it is nearly as bad as the smell that so frequently permeates the inner cities.
I’d also like to address the video of the hog farming operation.
I’m appalled that the owners didn’t shoot the drone down. I would have if I were the owner (and saw the drone). I’d certainly push any potential legal charges available (trespassing leaps to mind, since the drone operator was obviously trespassing on private property).
Sows are kept in confinement so as to reduce the loss of their piglets. Sows frequently step on, or lie on, their own offspring – killing them and reducing profit. Sows are also prone to eating just about anything they can find – including their own kind. (That goes for all pigs, not just the females of breeding age).
The sewage ponds are the result of local/state regulations/laws. It is a means of disposing the waste of thousands of hogs and it is usually the result of demands placed by those who moved to the country long after the farm had been in operation.
I am always a bit amazed by the audacity of those who move, from a urban area, to the country in order to escape the hell that is urban life, only to spend their time trying to change the country into that which they moved away from. That happens frequently here in southern NJ: urban dwellers move to escape the crime, corruption and noise of their former life and then spend their time complaining about the smell of farms and the lack of action in the country.
As a direct result, there are very few farms left in this area. Not counting vegetables, every “farmed” food is now shipped in from elsewhere – a trend that seems to be increasing with great momentum. I have to wonder how these people plan on feeding themselves, once they’ve managed to rid themselves of all traces of the farms that they appear to loathe.
Maybe the Chinese will feed them?
They’d better hope so and they might want to think twice about telling the Chinese how to operate a farm.
I’m glad I’m old. I hate what this nation is fast becoming.
based on that they’re crap. Put in crap, get crap. I don’t need a peer reviewed $100,000,000 study done by the “Egg Institute” to know basic common sense.
I buy chicken in the store like everyone else. Almost all chicken is kind of lousy today, food value wise and taste. I know this and don’t delude myself. I smoke it or the wife uses good spices and it tastes good. But the quality is still average at best. Eggs too.
Beef, pork, fruit/vegetables - its all the same. Bland, low food value but what can you do. Jazz it up, serve, try to eat a well rounded diet and get exercise.
You either have to be loaded to eat quality or do it yourself meaning be great at gardening and raising your own meat. I suck at gardening so that’s out.
I raise egg layers so I’m good there. My buddy raises great beef - covered there.
For chicken I buy what’s at the 2 different stores here so I’m at the mercy of the industry. Same for pork because I don’t want to raise pigs and a friend who I used to buy from stopped too.
Chickens are willing carrion eaters for sure.
So are pigs.
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I think the Troll has moved on to other threads.
true free range chickens eat bugs, grass, snakes, frogs - whatever - natural food. They’ll also eat whatever you give them too. Ours had some leftover pancakes yesterday.
What are commercial layers getting? Industry Feed.
Eat any eggs you want. Who cares. But don’t delude yourself that store bought eggs are even close to real free range eggs food value wise or taste.
Store bought eggs are for doctoring up with cheese or sautéed vegetable.
Free Range eggs are to be eaten fried in real butter or olive oil with pepper, no salt.
I don’t know if he/she is trolling, but to me its just common sense.
“Could be, for the corporate farms are not known to be enviro-friendly if it costs them money.”
I don’t trust them, guess that makes me a PETA communist.
Obviously its impossible cost wise to let animals live life on Johnny Appleseed’s farm, all smiling and happy eating great and playing until brought to market.
But does it have to be the other end?
In the olden days feed was distributed in this manner.
Grain was fed to cattle. They pooped out the undigestable parts.
Hogs ate cattle poop.
Chickens ate hog poop.
People ate the chickens.
Thanks for your first-hand insight on this matter; as you may have read on this thread, many FReepers have bought the animal cruelty angle that PETA and the rest of the non-farming urbanites have been preaching.
But I still thrill to see egrets, red tailed hawks, mallards, herons, etc. when driving near there. I feel sorry for the birds having to live in such polluted water.
I wish they'd fix the breach in the beach at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge so you can once again hike around the entire West Pond. There is a steep drop in species seen there since salt water invaded the pond after Hurricane Sandy. It's the LIBS arguing over which kind of repair they should do, or even whether they should repair it, etc. which is delaying restoring it so that birders don't have to double back the way they came.
That is so very true.
Chickens mostly eat insects and windblown seeds, if they have access to such.
Pecking through bovine manure is not particularly hazardous for chickens, and therein they find seeds, worms, and grubs.
Those chickens will produce eggs of vastly superior quality to production eggs.
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Fwiw...!! Ha!! I expect no answer...
So...what do you think about hunting?
Do you eat meat?
Do you wear or use leather products?
Do you swat and kill fly's?
What about ants...do you kill them?
Have you ever slapped a mosquito?
They will wail and moan about chickens in a cage. But have not empathy or sadness about a human being killed.....
That's just me though.....
Happy New Year
Yes, I find that very disturbing and further indication that our society is in rapid decline.
Many members of my family are still farming today. They are well aware of the various accusations levied by so many in our society, but highly confused as to how such accusations can be given serious consideration by any but the very naïve.
Even there (in the Midwest) it isn't uncommon to have activists spouting their nonsense. One of my family members offered (an activist group) the opportunity to tour his operation (cattle and crops) so they could understand how baseless their accusations actually were. The group declined; preferring to spew their silly propaganda without benefit of actual knowledge.
Nobody, in the family, was surprised.
but higher pork prices to end this kind of “production” is one I would pay.
1) You currently have the choice to buy the product you want and pay more, but would use the force of law to reduce my choice.
2) You believe the hype that putting chickens or pigs in cages is cruel. The argument is I wouldn’t want to be in a cage so the chicken would not want to be there either. You believe the man-bear-pig theory. You can project your feelings on the pigs and chickens.
3) You think we can feed all the people in the world with another production system, because this one isn’t perfect. But you haven’t a clue what that production system is.
Heck yeah, liberals never give up.
And then when all farm animals are "liberated", they'll want to declare that animals have personhood and shouldn't be eaten.
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