About My Quest

Happy pigs in mud, cows in clover. This is the way we like to think of farm animals. Unfortunately this is most often not the case. My love of animals and conviction that eating meat is part of the ideal healthy human diet has led me to seek out meat that is:

Humanely raised and treated
Free range
Grass fed
Hormone and Antibiotic free
Pesticide free
Affordable

Although certified organic food is wonderful because you are assured that the producers strictly satisfy the above criteria the cost of these products is generally very high and not affordable for everyone.
'Organic' is a ridiculous term because it simply means that it consists of natural elements. Many food producers are predominantly 'organic' by the definition set out by reputable certifiers however for a range of reasons they do not bother with the expense of becoming certified.
Many farmers produce food that fits the list above and I plan to find them. I encourage you to band together with friends, family and colleagues to buy in bulk direct from these farmers.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Free Range Eggs


This post will both inspiring and depressing yet hopeful on the subject of sourcing free range eggs.

Let's start with the bad. Animals Australia has a campaign running to stop large egg producers from farming 'free range' hens who will be producing eggs without ever having seen the sun if new standards are introduced.

The Australian Egg Corporation Ltd, the egg industry body, is considering allowing farmers to run 20,000 hens per hectare, currently there is a voluntary standard of 1500 hens per hectare. The proposal is that hens will be kept indoors for the first 25 weeks of their life but will start producing at 18 weeks.

This is an example of my suspicion that farmers much like any businessman will farm animals to produce at the highest rate possible with little consideration for their welfare. Worse still they are happy to latch on to a well meaning term like "free range" and bend it to suit their business objectives. Thus taking advantage of the inherent misrepresentation. Look at the cartons of many eggs and you will see hens roaming in green fields even on cage eggs.

I think animal products should be packaged similarly to cigarette packets with graphic images of the conditions and environment that this product was derived from. I know I'd be happy to pay more for the eggs from content hens in rolling green fields than the featherless cage hens.

So now for a delightful tale of 'free range' egg farmers who not only truly have free range hens they house them in caravans and move the hens overnight to greener pastures. This delightful lifestyle ensures that the chicken manure fertilises the property evenly.

You can read the full article here:


Please support Animals Australia's campaign to regulate the free range egg industry.
http://www.animalsaustralia.org/take_action/save-free-range-eggs/
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Please sign this petition to stop live animal export












http://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/animals/live-export/ban-live-export

This is a beautiful Brahman calf, the breed of cow that Australian farmers sell to the Indonesian market.
Australian cattle are being slaughtered in appalling conditions in Indonesia. Despite the government and cattle industry being aware of the situation for 10 years this barbaric practise continues.

Animals Australia and RSPCA Australia have joined forces to campaign against live animal export. Taxpayers are contributing to the current method of slaughter by the installation of boxes and training to enable Indonesian slaughtermen to pull the beast to the ground whilst contained in a box. These boxes were supplied because it is difficult and dangerous to ground the animal when not confined. The tools and methods of slitting the throat are unacceptably rough and long. The slaughterhouse staff obviously do not see the creature as an animal, they simply treat it as an object that needs to be moved and processed and using horrifying cruelty to achieve this objective.

Four Corners has prepared an extensive report if you wish to see it for yourself.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/

Watch it or not please sign the petition and donate to Animals Australia if you want to help stop this cruelty.

In relation to this blog's objective this is an extreme scenario however this issue strengthens my conviction that we need to be conscious of where our meat comes from, how it is treated and handled. I'm just about to purchase some more meat from The Farmer's Market to once again support Farmer Dan because I know that his animals are treated with respect and their quality of life is no less than they deserve.
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