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| "overwhelming majority of folks want their meat raised as less commercially as possible"
What does this even mean?
Our problem is that folks have been so far removed from ag that they are just now rediscovering that we have to kill animals to get meat. It's like preservative argument - can't have any of those in food. These days it turns out the only place you can get the anti-oxidant BHT is in a health food store - go figure. It's been in the low teens the whole past week and my 20lb pigs are at 78 degrees, it's dry they have feed and water and I get to chase them around once in while when they need tlc (could be a shot, but just as likely sorted out). This is not commercial it's just manageable - frankly it doesn't appear that the pigs mind either. Just so you know if I could raise the same quality of pig with less investment and support my family, I'd do it.
The issue is do we give up on years of experience and research to some how satisfy this generally nebulous demand for 'non-commercial' products or do we work hard on our image and public education (some how shed the 'dumb farmer' image). Obviously we producers have a lot of work to do.
You are not wrong in suggesting we can make 'consessions' where it makes sense. However, in my short tenure in hog farming (8 years) we've changed building styles at least 3 times that I'm aware of - and probably more. If nothing else hog production is continually changing to meet customer demand (remember ultra lean PIC hogs?). If there is a better way to handle sows we will do it, but do we let wayne with his all his knowledge determine that? Eventually you get into some liability issues as well - food safety, worker safety, manure runoff, etc. I'm positive hsus will not be around to deal with these matters - though I think they really want no animal production (no middle ground and there are more than 4 of them).
To some extent, AG, you'll get your wish. High feed prices are not making it easy on any meat producer right now. There is almost no middle ground - either raise 5 pigs in your back yard feeding scraps or chasing cattle or raise 5000 pigs to gain some economies of scale. Fewer and fewer folks want anything to do with animal production if they can make a living grain farming and even taking an off farm job rather than raise animals. To those not sure about animal production, neither choice looks particularly appealing. To be fair 5000 looked better in 2002. Due to this general lack of interest, animal production is quickly running towards being mainly a smithfield/maschhoff/et al deal - will they somehow try to make hsus happy or ?
As our society dumbs down and rather than investigate the truth or even be taught the truth in school, we get our information from our myriad of propaganda sources. It's one thing to listen to another point of view no matter how biased or even incorrect, it's another to go "he's right you know" (remember the who that's talking about?).
The truth is the overwhelming majority of folks want safe, tasty and low cost meat. Buzz words like organic (so where does that leave organic chemistry?) make a splash every so often and a hollywood actor will crow about how he only eats oak leaves and fish scales, but in the end folks are largely unimpressed. Last time I checked grill sales are quite brisk with more expensive versions being sold every day - kind of left the old weber in the dust. What's important is to continue doing a good job (we do)and using all those check off dollars to sell our product and hopefully educate our customer.
Thanks,
Pat | |
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Dirtballs @hsus back at it again
