The discussion of interest, however, happened while deciding which 4-H projects to tackle this year. They were due to turn in their enrolment forms and had to have their projects figured out. Food and Nutrition - check, Aerospace - check, Wood Working - check, Horticulture - check, Poultry - ......."what? you don't want to take the chickens again?"
No, .....she wants to take something bigger!
Bigger, as in something that she can "show" around a ring. Not just a simple chicken that you take in and out of its cage while talking to the judge.
She wanted to take a pig because that is what I had done in 4-H. Well, we will have pigs, so I could totally see how the idea crossed her mind, and they say that imitation is the best flattery, but I felt conflicted suddenly. Here is where we come to the conundrum.
4-H is a group that built out of the farmers of the community and as the farming practices started to change back in the 40s, 50s and 60s, so did 4-H. It is now very production oriented - the most animal units in the smallest space for the least amount of money. 4-H does focus on taking good care of these animals and some of the science behind the production is sound, but the bulk of the animals that go to the show are, sadly, raised in confinement type production systems.
We like to imagine that the problem isn't around here. It isn't our neighbors that do this horrible thing to animals, but when you peel off the denial....yeah it is. I drive by several confinement units on my way to work and there is one particular horrid cattle feedlot on the way to my parents with beef cattle piled nose to tail in muck up to their elbows and 6 foot fences all around their tiny enclosure while nice green fields stretch out in every direction for miles around them.
We grow pigs on this farm, but only two or three at a time and very slowly. We feed only organically grown feed and produce scraps from our garden.....well,.... and the occasional chicken that they corner and help themselves to. There is no possible way that a pig, grown in the way that we like to grow them, will gain enough, quickly enough to be shown at the fair. They would be close, but not quite.
Sometimes I wish 4-H went a little farther. Take those pigs on the hoof newly judged and then take them to the butcher and re-judge them based on meat quality and taste after they are butchered. Take it even further and judge them based on nutritional differences found in the meat. I would happily have Faye take a pig to the fair then.
So, how to change the system? This is what I contemplate as I drive by confinement units, hear the latest news on the farm bill, receive letters from my Alma mater vet school and cringe.
Speaking of Vet school....there, too, lies a problem. I cut my teeth in the production animal world in the very bosom of all farm animal knowledge....Iowa State. Did three years of an Animal Science degree and then launched into Vet school with the plan to become a mixed animal practitioner. I learned all the ins and outs of production animal medicine and surgery only to give it all up after I graduated. I started out at a mixed animal practice, but since I was 4 months pregnant with the daughter that now stood in the kitchen staring me down for a bigger animal to show at the fair, I had done only small animal work. Time, distance, and a lot of kids later I find myself where I am now - firmly entrenched in disliking my own industry for their narrow minded views on producing animals.
The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) themselves are pro-confinement operations, pro-antibiotic use in the feed, pro-large scale production. I try to unravel the "why" behind their political stance on all of these issues and I honestly can't see it. Are they (and by they I mean the production animal vets that make up the AVMA) afraid of what might happen to their multi-million dollar money makers - essentially IBP and Tyson foods? Are they afraid of what those huge corporations might do to them? Personally, I say "who cares!" I am a scientist and I have to look at all the ways and means of raising an animal - which is best? Best for the animal and best for the people eating the animal? Becoming a scientist teaches you how to think critically and then becoming a veterinarian promptly brainwashes you into thinking that the large scale production method is the way to go. It would seem to me to be in the best interest of the veterinarians of the country to be the leaders in raising animals - dictating what truly is the best method of raising an animal. We are supposed to be the animal advocates.....or is it that we are supposed to be the large scale production owner's advocate.....I forget....the brainwashing makes my head hurt.
I distinctly remember one production class. The professor was talking about beef production - raising cattle to put on the most meat as fast as possible and what they need to be fed to do that. Silly me, I always thought that cows were supposed to eat grass - they are ruminants after all, designed by thousands of years of genetics to be able to eat the stuff that omnivores and carnivores can't eat and digest. But here was a professor giving us a recipe for what to feed to beef cattle to make them grow really fast....and it wasn't grass. Not only that, but he said....and I remember this almost word for word because it struck me as somehow very wrong, "their feces should be so "hot" they almost bubble" What this actually translates to in non-vet lingo is that they have very loose stools and you will sometimes see a little 'froth' or 'bubble' on the top of the cow pie that they leave. Apparently, that is a sign that they are getting a really high protein feed and laying down a lot of muscle. But then he went on to talk about the liver abscesses that this can lead to because when we feed cattle this unnatural "hot" feed it screws with the bacterial flora of their rumen and then essentially end up with what amount to ulcers in the gut. The bacteria cross from the intestines into the liver and set up shop. These cattle may be putting on a lot of weight, but they are miserable doing it. Imagine someone cramming those "high performance energy bars" down your throat when you have a constant case of severe heart burn and gastritis. What is the production professor's answer to this? Antibiotics in the feed to help keep those bacteria in check.
Wrong, this seems so wrong.
And how did this start? I have no flipping clue. Somewhere along the line the big became bigger and they started thinking of ways that they could produce more faster and make more money. And, as so often happens, overproduction happened and then you have to make a market and a reason - we have to "feed the masses" , have a marketing campaign - "Beef! It's what's for dinner!"....remember that one? The prices eventually fall and the little guys go bankrupt and the big just keep getting bigger and start having a lot more political clout because they have the money to control the legislation. This is all a very sick and twisted system that we live in. What is done to mass produce slowly becomes the norm to the point that veterinarians start learning how to deal with the mess that is the confinement raised beef cow, hog or poultry and accepting it as norm. The norm becomes what is pandered to and taught to the next crowd of young aspiring vets and what is sent down to the extension services in each county as "good production practices" and further taught to young 4-H members contemplating what to take for fair that year.
So, we have come full circle - from me, growing up taking pigs to fair, thinking that this is the best way to do things, to a full veterinary degree later realizing that maybe we should be raising our animals differently and trying to find a way to help my children realize that as well, while fighting a system that tries to teach them the exact opposite.
"Can't do pigs, Honey."
"But why not?"
To which I attempted to explain the above at an 11 year old level.
"Well, how about a cow? Can I take a cow?"
"Beef steer or dairy cow? Because you know that the beef steers don't come home, they eventually go to market and we are back to the production conundrum again."
"A dairy cow. They come home right? And we can raise them like we want to and still take them to show right?"
By God, I think she might just understand and have it figured out. And, she may have just put me over a barrel. Yes, we have talked about getting a cow at some point. Why not now? Why not for a 4-H project? That would give us two years to watch it grow, build what will, no doubt, need to be built to have a milk cow in residence and re-learn my dairy cow medicine that I might need to know.
Therefore, I am now in the market for one newly born Brown Swiss heifer calf. If anyone should know a local dairy that would be willing to sell me one, let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment