If "humane meats, milk & eggs" is new to you, basically humane foods means the animals were raised with freedom of movement, sunlight, grass and so on. The basic right of every human.
Most animals nowadays are put in cages where their feet grow fused with the metal cages on bottom of their cages, they never walk or run, see the sun and they're given many chemical shots to make them grow faster and fatter. They get their food through a hose that sprays on their face. Then when they need to be taken out to be killed for food, their legs are cut off from the cage (remember their feet grew into the cage platform). There are a lot more disgusting things about this scenario, such as how all the cages are piled on top of each other, so when one defecates or urinates, it goes all the way down on top of other animals. This is a horrible way to live and die.
How do we as powerful consumers put a stop to that? Buy meats, milk and eggs that say:
GOOD Start
“Cage free”
“Free range”
“Grass fed”
Even BETTER
“Free range”
“Pasture raised”
“USDA organic”
The BEST Options
“American Humane Certified”
“Animal Welfare Approved”
“Certified Humane”
To read more about humane foods or animal-friendly foods, click here.
Many thanks for the tip from the Living Food Farm Health Talk newsletter, produced by a deaf family who owns an organic farm in Minnesota.
Reading the labels can be confusing and frustrating because there are so many options and standards out on the shelves and not to mention the range of cost too. I am all for bringing up and passing a national legislative bill that requires all meats, milk, and eggs to be humane certified.
ReplyDeleteIt does not sound as gruesome as what is really happening out there to the majority of them. The farmed animals get beaten and tortured on a daily basis. Piglets, calves and chicks get separated from their mother.
ReplyDeleteAs hard as it is, I allowed myself to see all kind of videos and am appalled to learn how barbaric these animals have to endure in our civilized society. They're all hidden away from people and they can't speak up, which makes it easy for people to turn their cheek and go about their everyday eating habits.
Another ugly truth behind meat, they will still kill cows and pigs for their skin (leather) when the demand for meat reduces. Why? Leather brings them the biggest $$ because public wants it. I do not buy anything leather for this reason. There are alternatives to wearing leather.
The labels are not fool proof because these companies will try to get consumers to buy their product buy doing what consumers want. Like Anthony said, it can be confusing and frustrating.
There are wonderful alternative food to replace meat if more people give it a try. They taste similarly. One of places to check is:
www.lightlift.com
Several I have tried are smart bacon, smart chick'n strips and smart deli.
Oops! The website should have been www.lightlife.com :)
ReplyDeleteI just checked the Living Food Farm. All I have to say is wow! I can imagine it is a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to the level where they are at now with their farm. I'll not hesitate to order a couple of things from that farm.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the topic, I forgot about this until I got something in mail today from farm sanctuary. A good site to go to and learn about how farmed animals live:
ReplyDeletewww.farmsanctuary.org
I have a lot of respect for farmers for raising animals in the most humane way as possible. We get our eggs from local farms because we know they frolic around and eat grass out in the open.
ReplyDeleteI never liked Smart food products. Most are made out of tofu and their stuff taste pretty unrealistic too. It takes a lot of energy and emissions to make and deliver tofu products. If I have the choice between soybeans and tofu, I would opt for soybeans.
i like some of the lightlife.com (smartfood) stuff, but they come with so much plastic packaging that are completely unrecyclable and in some ways toxic... and i've been told that technically they are as processed as other processed foods you find at stores. it's better to make things from scratch, but yeah, it depends on whether if we have the time! ha
ReplyDeleteOk, ok, Anthony! You got a point about tofu vs. soybean as I just learned something new. Same for you, Raychelle, in regards to the disadvantages of smart food products environmentally wise. When it concerns alliance with farmed animals, these are ideal and doesn't hurt them!
ReplyDeleteIf we can find something better, I am all for it as long as it benefits simultaneously the people, animals and earth.
It would be great if the companies are required to make biodegradable or recyclable packagings for everything.
i agree, lightlife is a lesser evil and much more humane than eating meat.
ReplyDeletemuch of what goes in their products (if you look at the ingredient list) is textured vegetable protein (TVP) which can be bought in bulk from Whole Foods and many natural foods stores. you can make many of their products on your own, for much cheaper. i havent tried making this myself yet. anyone out there tried yet? was it easy?
Link to TVP
I am actually learning from both of you in our discussion! :)
ReplyDeleteFrom what I see with Lightlife is:
Soybeans -> Tofu -> Lightlife products
I agree that all companies should be required to make biodegradable and/or recyclable packaging for everything. And the same for raising animals in the most humane way as possible. We got it all reversed in the first place. Those are very detrimental things to do.
I agree it is better to make your own tofu and TVP from scratch at home. The downside is it requires time to make them. That's the issue with people who are working 40 hours a week along with other commitments.
About TVP, I heard it is not healthy to eat them often just like with Tofu. There were scared stories all over in the news about Tofu in the past few years. Same goes for TVP. I read they raises the level of estrogen and can cause cancer. Also, eating too much soybeans can cause Alzheimer's disease. When I worked for Feel-Rite Natural Food Store, so many food were made out of soybeans/tofu. Many customers came to us complaining about it and that they wanted to see more "processed vegetarian/vegan food" made without soybeans/tofu.
What I heard that seitan is a much better alternative to tofu. Actually, I like seitan better than tofu.
Again, different opinions and perspectives on tofu and seitan. Oh well, pros and cons! :)
i think the saying "everything in moderation" hits home here. we shouldn't be eating tofu or soy everyday. neither should we eat chocolate everyday although i would love to... ha :)
ReplyDeletealso, i try to purchase food that come in paper, e.g. pasta boxes instead of plastic covered pasta or in bulk. i'm also very familiar with what Dc can't recycle (which isn't much) so that helps with my shopping. for instance, i don't have qualms about purchasing paper cardboard milk/oj with plastic spouts because i know DC recycles those... :)
Haha. I agree everything in moderation is important.I'm bad at that with coffee. :)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I want to say that China and Japan are eating more meats now than before. Their livestock is growing rapidly.
I think the world need to consume less meats and more vegetables to reduce the world hunger and environmental impacts.
One pound of beef equals to 60 pounds of grain.
I got news for you, Anthony.
ReplyDeleteRegarding China and Japan with their livestock, it's America's model that got them started. Now we have horses, ostriches, buffaloes, dogs, cats and more killed for meat and skin.
America's model is doing more harm than good. America doesn't know it all and other countries have to stop thinking America is the answer to everything. What I despise about this country is the so called arrogance and superiority.
Other countries emulate America's ways of life. In spite of what some Americans tell them to get a fresh start on eco friendly such as wind mills, panels, etc to help global warming, many other countries won't listen. Why? Too expensive and they want to make profits like America did as America have had their chance with their outdated ideology. Very sad!
America is not all that. I feel we are the biggest contributors to many things that go wrong with our global warming. Before we tell people from other countries what to do, we need to start right here and show by example.
You said everything. It is true that America's model as our with livestock is influencing other countries.
ReplyDeleteI think the books the Jungle by Upton Sinclair and the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck are excellent to read to learn how we got to the point of running Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. We sprung up more meat factories during the time of Industrial Revolution. Then during the Great Depression era, we saw how farms conglomerated and turned into agricultural industries. Many farmers lost their lands that they couldn't compete against the giant industries. Then, we saw how consumerism boomed after World War II. All of that happened within 75 years before the environmental awareness hit the public mind in 1960s and 1970s. Like with everything else, it takes a few generations to change the public mind and habits.
Unfortunately, President Reagan undid a lot of Carter's environmental policies and business regulations which threw us backward. And George W. Bush messed up too. He didn't care about the environment at all. Just like Reagan, he undid many environmental regulations and moved us away from the Kyoto Protocol.
I think the mind of America is catching up. And I agree with you that we are not doing enough although more Americans, especially with younger generations, are becoming aware of the environmental impacts from our meat and agricultural industries as well as with animal cruelties.
(I'm rambling on history....good coffee.)
Anyway, I agree we can start right here. It's nice to have EcoDeaf to generate discussions and share eco-friendly ideas with the like-minded folks!
Thanks for sharing the history part of it!
ReplyDeleteI have to share this because it relates to a brutal killing of animals/mammals, including on a farm intended for furs. This one is mainly about seals in Canada:
www.olympicshame2010.com/why.aspx
Remember the big news in China and especially around the time they had Olympics. They collect cats and dogs (some were stolen from people) to be skinned alive for their furs. They were sold in America.
For humans to think it's alright for any kind of killing is just beyond me. Animals are not inferior to humans.
Fur industries are terrible. In Niagara Falls, there are plenty of Canadian activists recruiting people to the cause of saving seals from brutal slaughters.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of karmic redistributiuon, maybe in the future we'll have aliens kidnapping us humans for skins. Plenty of science fiction stories were written about that already. :0