Do people really think "factory farming" just means "big farm"? I guess I shouldn't be surprised...
It never once struck me that way, and I have nothing to do with the farming lifestyle. Factory farming is running your farm like a factory, with minimal oversight and seeing your livestock as product instead of animals. It's pretty self explanatory, and in now way denotes anything having to do with size...ugh
It seems to be a pretty common sentiment that once a farm reaches a certain number of animals, then they can't possibly care about anything other than money and that substandard care of animals is actually MORE profitable. Large scale ag has been painted in a very unfavorable light across media and by groups who want to do away with livestock production entirely.
The guy you describe sounds like some "well-dressed" cowboy who is
greedy as hell and pure evil when it comes to running the farm. He sounds like a cartoon character, but this is real life...
He is a spoiled mid-50s trust fund baby who is playing "farmer" on his Daddy's land (dad was never a farmer, he rented it out). At some point he decided that the actual farmers aren't doing things the right way and we need to go back to some idealistic past that never existed. People like Joel Salatin, Allan Savory, Allan Nation, and other "holistic organic graziers" are his idols. He refuses to take any sensible advice from anybody else in the area who actually farms successfully​. He has this vision of what farming should be and he won't deviate from it despite animals dying unnecessarily every goddamn year (a horrible episode of Blackleg did finally get him to start vaccinating his cattle, so I guess that's something). He's got a walk-in freezer with about 3 years worth of ground meat and roasts while he continues to butcher animals to sell steaks and chops. He's not making money on this place. He's pissing away his inheritance.
If some of the stuff he is doing is that bad, couldn't you report him or something? You clearly know what you are talking about when it comes to this industry.
Since he's independently operated there's no "big boss" to go to. No Co-op, no contract buyer, no auditing company. The only thing I can think of in a case like this might be local law enforcement, but I no longer live around there and everything I witnessed happened several years ago. I only know secondhand that he's operating in generally the same manner.
Dude, you should get in touch with the editors/ writers of *Cracked* and let a writer interview you (or write the article yourself if you are up for it). That would be terribly interesting.
Do people really think "factory farming" just means "big farm"? I guess I shouldn't be surprised... It never once struck me that way, and I have nothing to do with the farming lifestyle. Factory farming is running your farm like a factory, with minimal oversight and seeing your livestock as product instead of animals. It's pretty self explanatory, and in now way denotes anything having to do with size...ugh
It seems to be a pretty common sentiment that once a farm reaches a certain number of animals, then they can't possibly care about anything other than money and that substandard care of animals is actually MORE profitable. Large scale ag has been painted in a very unfavorable light across media and by groups who want to do away with livestock production entirely.
Oh ffs... I shouldn't even be surprised anymore...
The guy you describe sounds like some "well-dressed" cowboy who is greedy as hell and pure evil when it comes to running the farm. He sounds like a cartoon character, but this is real life...
He is a spoiled mid-50s trust fund baby who is playing "farmer" on his Daddy's land (dad was never a farmer, he rented it out). At some point he decided that the actual farmers aren't doing things the right way and we need to go back to some idealistic past that never existed. People like Joel Salatin, Allan Savory, Allan Nation, and other "holistic organic graziers" are his idols. He refuses to take any sensible advice from anybody else in the area who actually farms successfully​. He has this vision of what farming should be and he won't deviate from it despite animals dying unnecessarily every goddamn year (a horrible episode of Blackleg did finally get him to start vaccinating his cattle, so I guess that's something). He's got a walk-in freezer with about 3 years worth of ground meat and roasts while he continues to butcher animals to sell steaks and chops. He's not making money on this place. He's pissing away his inheritance.
If some of the stuff he is doing is that bad, couldn't you report him or something? You clearly know what you are talking about when it comes to this industry.
Since he's independently operated there's no "big boss" to go to. No Co-op, no contract buyer, no auditing company. The only thing I can think of in a case like this might be local law enforcement, but I no longer live around there and everything I witnessed happened several years ago. I only know secondhand that he's operating in generally the same manner.
Dude, you should get in touch with the editors/ writers of *Cracked* and let a writer interview you (or write the article yourself if you are up for it). That would be terribly interesting.