Every so often I get the feeling I shouldn't be eating any animal product which has been killed for food; but for the life of me when I look at vegetarian and vegan food, I distinctly lose my appetite.
Don’t feel bad about it. Farm animals don’t know or understand their fate and don’t live in fear of it. Animal welfare is paramount and besides they’re living it up at my cow palace. Anyone who says it cruel should go and stand in a shitty field under a tree in this cold wet weather. If I opened the door today so they could go out they’d look at me like I was mad.
One of the reasons I’m taking my sons shooting is that I don’t believe you should eat meat unless you’re prepared to face the reality that it involves taking the life of another creature.
what was the name of that movie about a girl with learning diffucalties that designed a more humain slaghter house designe because animals could sense the butchers knife?
I would not want to lump all farmers in together nor more than I would lump all bikers in together. Before I gave up dairy I used to buy full fat organic milk because it tasted so much better. I gave up milk before I had to for health reasons and that was for animal welfare and environmental reasons. Are cows still given hormones to make them Produce milk? I am not going to advocate for vegans. I do think it’s important that people can make a free choice without being ridiculed. I have been called a snowflake a few times because I don’t eat dairy. I love cheese. It doesn’t love me, though the situation has improved and am fine with the odd bit of Halloumi. That’s got sheep and goats milk in it though. my point was twofold 1) we don’t all have a free choice as to what we eat 2) there have been many instances where farming practices have fell short of what the public expect. admittedly my language was a bit dramatic, but some farming decisions, like using the dairy herd to produce beef at the end of life was just bizarre to me, being Scottish. There, the beef and dairy herds are completely separate. Some English farms operate that way also, but it wasn’t the norm at the height of BSE. When I lived in Scotland I would watch the contractors cut grass and store hay bales for cattle to eat over winter. But the Dam Delicious farm fed their beef cattle on kale in a field over winter. He would run a string across the field about 2 foot off the ground and three foot into the kale. And the cattle wouldn’t eat beyond the string. In bad weather he would have them in the barn. His beef was absolutely top quality. you mentioned the food pellets were to Give the cows protein. Where would they normally/naturally get protein in their diet and why was it necessary to feed them this protein.
Why would you not use a diary cow at end of life for beef? Isn’t that the point of sustainability: snout to tail use?
I believe they end up getting processed and minced yes. This is not the beef that ends up in your me steaks though, more your McDonald’s.
The point I was making in my original statement was that vegans think it’s ok to threaten farmers on one hand because they disagree with what they do but on the other hand are happy to take their share of the hundreds of millions generated through tax from agriculture in the form of benefits. It wasn’t a slur on people who can’t eat certain foods because of medical reasons. I’m only going to comment on what happens in the UK as that’s where we are and not anywhere else. This is because there are some countries that don’t even look after their people nevermind the animals. This balusters the importance of buying UK produced food as it is the safest and most regulated in the world and I’m not just saying that because I’m a British farmer, it’s a fact. It’s important not to confuse this country with the rest of the world. The use of hormones has never been legal in this country for any animal. It’s not something that has happened or ever will happen. Healthy and productive cows require a balanced diet like us. Part of that diet is protein. 80% of a cows diet is forage based such as grass which is grown, cut and stored on site. The rest of the diet is made up from byproducts of the human food industry. I feed brewers and distillers grains which are a byproduct of the brewery and distillery industry, Rolled wheat which is second grade and not of a quality that is suitable for human consumption but ideal for animals. I also feed 5% soya bean meal. Now this is where people start jumping up and down making statements that all the rainforests are being cut down to feed animals. Not true. Soya is grown for human consumption, animals eat the soya bean meal. This is the crucial and often mistaken difference. The bean is removed and used for human consumption, the waste after that bean is removed is the bean meal and that is what the animals eat as it is high in protein. Farm animals are great recyclers and utilise what would probably end up in land fill.
