Animal agriculture contributes to massive emissions of green greenhouse gases, furthering climate change. This business also sends a massive amount of runoff waste into waterways, eventually reaching coral reef communities and doing a mountain of harm.
I wanted to draw a tractor, and then I wanted to draw Aoyama and Yaoyorozu, so there it is. Maybe they picked up an interest in farming after graduating from UA?
Clothes are a great idea when you need protection from something - weather, hazardous materials, danger from injury from the activity, etc. But most activities can be done nude. For instance, beyond sunglasses, a hat, and sunscreen, nudists don’t need any sort of protection when gardening. Running a bushhog or a tractor can also be done nude.
The Heartland Naturists of Kansas City have been promoting fun, wholesome, family-friendly nudism since 1982.
Let’s face it, eating well is expensive…or it can be. Buying produce that is either organically grown (or biodynamically) is not cheap. But ingesting pesticide residue is anything but ideal.
Luckily, you can shave some money off your food bill by growing a few of those staples from your diet. Best part, it is much easier than you think! You don’t need seeds or anything fancy. You can simply use kitchen scraps from your next meal. How great is that!
Growing fresh basil in a planting pot is an easy way to ensure that you have fresh herbs to add in any recipe. Basil makes a great addition on pasta, eggs, quinoa, pizza or most any other food you might be cooking. You can buy started basil at many nurseries and grocers, or plant your own. It takes very little maintenance besides watering once a week. Get out and garden!
A lot of people may see a big group of cows and think that they’re being overcrowded- but are they. Cows are social animals and need friends to live. Researchers have found that cows develop lifelong friendships and I’ve been able to witness that firsthand seeing them with the same friends. Cows are herd animals and naturally live in large groups. It’s all about Cowmunity
When given a choice, cows will voluntarily crowd themselves in small areas. They feel safer in a group and won’t stray far from the main herd. You will rarely see a cow off by herself- though there is a loner in every group.
In the 1800s, pioneers and settlers traveling the midwestern plains of North America seen the wild bison herds. Some researchers have concluded that the bison population reached 300 million animals. For perspective, there is only 9 million dairy cows in the US today. The strange thing is that even though the bison had all the freedom in the world, they still chose to live in tight knit communities called herds.
I suppose people aren’t much different. When flying into LAX- Los Angeles you can see houses for miles around. People are also social beings and live in tight knit communities.
Doing rough math, people may be more crowded. Consider this- a New York City block can have over 1,400 people in a 100,000 sq. ft. Area. A dairy farm of 1,400 cows may be situated on 10 acres of ground= 430,000 sq. ft. meaning that cows have much more space than some people. And there are cities that are more crowded than NYC.
Cows today are living very comfortably on farms. The goal is to make sure that they’re comfortable and have the least amount of stress possible.
Littoraria grazing on Spartina marsh grass. (source)
Us humans really like to talk up our skills at farming. And while it’s true that we have domesticated animals and plants to a degree not seen in other life forms, the act of nurturing and harvesting food is actually not really that special, and is broadly observed throughout the animal kingdom. Perhaps the most iconic invertebrate farmers are…
A tractor creates a linear design in a rice field as farmer raises levees in Grand Prairie, Arkansas, 1978.Photograph by Matt Bradley, National Geographic
One of the problems with promoting animal welfare when it comes to farmed animals is that even if you like, make regulations that say the animals must have more living space, it doesn’t change the fact that those farms are still owned by people who would be 100% OKAY WITH keeping them in tiny cages.
The only reason they’re willing to change is because of public pressure and fear of decreased income. At the end of the day, they’d still be okay with keeping animals in horrible conditions if it saved money / time (as evidenced by factory farms).
You can’t truly care about animals when you see them as money machines - commodities - and not individuals. And you can’t keep up with the demand for animal products if you see them as individuals and care for them as such; it wouldn’t be sustainable in any way.
Farmers are literally dying in Texas and Tennessee, right now, trying to save their livestock, their neighbors’ livestock, and complete strangers’ livestock from wildfires, but you keep on believing that none of them care about their animals’ welfare in the absence of legislation.
I work with Agricultural Education/FFA kids. We had a kid die last year attempting to save his cow from a flooded ditch.Flash flood came along, he was slammed against a tree, his parents said they couldn’t talk him out of going out in the storm to save his cow. But no, op is right, farmers are evil, evil people.
As you seem to have missed it and are derailing the topic, I shall quote my original post:
“You can’t truly care about animals when you see them as money machines - commodities - and not individuals. And you can’t keep up with the demand for animal products if you see them as individuals and care for them as such; it wouldn’t be sustainable in any way.”
What happened is unfortunate and very tragic, but I’m talking about animal welfare on large farms and businesses, not one person saving a cow which probably ended up slaughtered anyway.
Do you even know what FFA is? If there’s anything in the greater farming world that’s absolutely not about money, it’s that. I have witnessed first-hand how those animals are treated, I have kids break down when they eventually have to sell those animals, and I have also witnessed farmers spend money they really didn’t have to waste in order to buy those animals and give them right back to the kids who raised them.
If you really want to talk about the commodification of living beings, let’s talk about the immigrants that ensure your fruits and vegetables get to your table.
don’t know any farmers who think their animals are just money machines. we know they’re living individuals.
In NSW Australia we’re in the middle of a drought and our farmers are suffering for it and struggling to feed their cattle let alone make any profit. Majority of farmers I know in Australia also have secondary jobs so they can actually make money before they work the rest of the day on their farm taking care of their animals, because more often then not they’re family farm land.
The latest farm I was on, which raised emu’s, which if you knew anything about farming in Australia you’d know there’s pretty much no money in emu farming. Australian’s find emu meat too oily and we really only use emu or emu oil which again isn’t super popular either. This farmer as well as working two full time jobs was also letting his neighbour keep his cattle on his land, because of the drought leaving his neighbour unable to feed them.
Farmers have always been the most genuine and compassionate people I’ve ever met and their love for animals and caring for them outweighs their need for money to survive.
Anyone that suggests differently has no idea how farms work, or have ever been on a farm.
So. There’s been times we had grass fires that raced threw the fields and farmers and the likes all came out from their homes to help put it out. We had a terrible barn fire years ago that took many animals lives. My great grandmother was one of the first to run into the burning barn to release everything she could. Throwing piglets and chickens out the windows to save them. Neighbors came over and helped put the blaze out and helped save animals. Grandparents where both badly burned and couldn’t even feed the family so the neighbors all came together to farm and feed the family and animals. Some families took the burned animals and helped heal them and once the family was back on their feet they returned them or gave some of there own to make sure the family would be ok. I’ve stayed up many nights with sick animals. Including the beef cattle that would go to market to help the animal threw illness. I could have not bothered with meds and sent them off to market but there’s many times I’ve held them over to help them get better. Yes they did get shipped later when they where healthy and stress free. When we had brd go threw the herd the nights I was up with humidifiers.. cupping sides with my hands to help them cough. Making them move threw the night to keep the lungs loosened. Saying we don’t care makes me so mad. We work so hard to keep the animals happy and healthy. We stress ourselves out over them and we get told we are terrible for eating them. If we really cared we wouldn’t eat them? No. We understand death is gonna happen to us all. We understand that for many that death will be fast and painless and the meat won’t go to waste. We use everything from them rather then wasting loads of perfectly good meat. We also tend to keep more strays and provide more places for wild animals to live and eat then any city would. I have three dogs right now! I never asked for any! They get dumped. Same as cats. I’m all. Oh well. I got the food. I got the room. I put out money to make sure everything gets neutered.. useless cats and dogs but I keep them all. Won’t even catch a mouse half the time. Dogs hardly leave the house where it’s warm in the winter but they are fed and warm. When it comes to a sick animal I treat the animals the same.. I’m going to heal them if possible no matter who or what it is. The amount of times I’ve had a picked on chicken in the house. A basket full of lambs I’m bottle feeding. Even a calf that was born super small. Was in my room for awhile. So don’t be telling me I don’t care. I do care. I just think because I live it I understand it better then someone that has nothing to do with the day to day conditions.
I reblogged this once but I feel the need to do so again to dispel the myth that large-scale “factory farms” are the norm. So in my Animal Welfare class from a couple weeks ago I mentioned in this post we learned about what the average beef cattle raiser in Texas is like. Texas is 1st in the United States for cattle numbers and beef cattle production.
Do you know what the average number of cattle owned by producers in Texas is??
And I garuntee you if a rancher only had 32 head he can identify them on sight, knows each pedigree back three generations, and loses sleep over their welfare each night.
Beef cattle raisers are not in this business for the money. It’s one of the worse ways to make money out there. We do it because we love it and it’s part of our heritage. We feel a responibility to care for these animals and to feed people. It’s never about the money. If it was we would all be in oil and gas.
Littoraria grazing on Spartina marsh grass. (source)
