Sorry this post is late. My internet has not been working until today! :\
So, I already said this in class, but I very much enjoyed our discussion with our guests this week. It gives me hope that there are RINOs out there that can be great allies for many environmental issues. I found many of his views to give me hope. Even his view on organic agriculture was great to hear because after questioning him on this belief it seemed as though it stemmed from the concept that Americans do not want to pay more for their food. We can't feed the world cheap food without GMOs. I agree with this statement, so from that perspective I think he is correct. He did not say that organic food is bad or undesirable, but simply that we can't feed the world on it because we simply aren't willing to pay more for it. This, for me, demonstrates the problem we need to work on. We need to rethink spending and consumerism. If people are willing to pay for local, organic, and/or healthy food then we can feed them with local, organic, and/or healthy food.
I was happy to see the pigs in such a great place. Clay Bottom Farm is a wonderful and inspirational operation. Culver Duck was not. I cried, as I expected, and I could not stop thinking about it. I get really depressed thinking about the suffering humans bring about to millions/billions of animals every single day. I left Culver Duck feeling helpless and defeated, to be honest. I don't know how you educate the public on animal welfare issues. I think the best route may be through the mainstream media, as you'll see in my hope paragraph below. Gunthorp Farms was much better than Culver. I didn't feel the bad energy, the pigs were happy, and the kill floor was tiny. I wish they sold to your everyday consumer, and not the high-end market, but I think this goes back to our discussion on the previous day. We don't want to pay a lot for food.
As for hope on the animal welfare front, since it's always on my mind and there were clear violations of animal welfare at Culver, I thought I'd share a success story that's important to me and one that I've been actively involved in for years now, though it's unrelated to food.
A documentary called "Blackfish" was released recently. It is a documentary about orcas in captivity and the horrors of SeaWorld (and other dolphinariums). CNN aired this documentary during their busiest hours for several days in a row! And it was also aired in a similar fashion in other countries. This powerful documentary sparked a conversation, which has since resulted in the chairman of SeaWorld selling off millions in company shares, protests, boycotts, and Willie Nelson, The Barenaked Ladies, and Heart have all cancelled their concerts at SeaWorld parks in response. The public is learning and they are acting!
I've ordered the documentary, by the way. It will be delivered on Wednesday when we're in Detroit, so if you want to watch it after that we can.
So, I already said this in class, but I very much enjoyed our discussion with our guests this week. It gives me hope that there are RINOs out there that can be great allies for many environmental issues. I found many of his views to give me hope. Even his view on organic agriculture was great to hear because after questioning him on this belief it seemed as though it stemmed from the concept that Americans do not want to pay more for their food. We can't feed the world cheap food without GMOs. I agree with this statement, so from that perspective I think he is correct. He did not say that organic food is bad or undesirable, but simply that we can't feed the world on it because we simply aren't willing to pay more for it. This, for me, demonstrates the problem we need to work on. We need to rethink spending and consumerism. If people are willing to pay for local, organic, and/or healthy food then we can feed them with local, organic, and/or healthy food.
I was happy to see the pigs in such a great place. Clay Bottom Farm is a wonderful and inspirational operation. Culver Duck was not. I cried, as I expected, and I could not stop thinking about it. I get really depressed thinking about the suffering humans bring about to millions/billions of animals every single day. I left Culver Duck feeling helpless and defeated, to be honest. I don't know how you educate the public on animal welfare issues. I think the best route may be through the mainstream media, as you'll see in my hope paragraph below. Gunthorp Farms was much better than Culver. I didn't feel the bad energy, the pigs were happy, and the kill floor was tiny. I wish they sold to your everyday consumer, and not the high-end market, but I think this goes back to our discussion on the previous day. We don't want to pay a lot for food.
As for hope on the animal welfare front, since it's always on my mind and there were clear violations of animal welfare at Culver, I thought I'd share a success story that's important to me and one that I've been actively involved in for years now, though it's unrelated to food.
A documentary called "Blackfish" was released recently. It is a documentary about orcas in captivity and the horrors of SeaWorld (and other dolphinariums). CNN aired this documentary during their busiest hours for several days in a row! And it was also aired in a similar fashion in other countries. This powerful documentary sparked a conversation, which has since resulted in the chairman of SeaWorld selling off millions in company shares, protests, boycotts, and Willie Nelson, The Barenaked Ladies, and Heart have all cancelled their concerts at SeaWorld parks in response. The public is learning and they are acting!
I've ordered the documentary, by the way. It will be delivered on Wednesday when we're in Detroit, so if you want to watch it after that we can.
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