Factory Farms and the Environment
Industry not only revolutionized the manufacture of goods but also made farms more efficient and cost saving. This cost savings is what consumers demand but it comes at a high cost when the product is a living creature. Factory farms are not only harmful to animals but also to the environment and ultimately to people too.
So what exactly is a factory farm? Well, a factory farm is large-scale industrial operation that houses hundreds or thousands of animals in extremely cramped conditions that are bred to be slaughtered for mass production of meat for grocery stores. In these factory farms cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys are crowded into tiny cages with no room to walk or move. They are crowded with one another, wounded with no veterinary care, kicked and thrown around by workers. Their lives are not valued and they are given no gentle care at all because they are seen as beneath humans and only there to serve a purpose to humans as food. Their throats are cut while fully conscious and often dunked in scalding hot water all while still alive. Chickens have their feathers pulled, their beaks cut and are scalded while still alive. Piglets are castrated with no pain medication. These are only some of the things that happen to animals in factory farms. The animals in factory farms are bred for the sole purpose to be killed so humans can eat.
The dairy industry is even worse than the meat industry. Female cows are forcefully impregnated so that they can continue to produce milk. Their infants are taken from them. The male calves are kept in individual crates in the dark and fed a milk replacer that is low in iron so that they become anemic. In their crates they are unable to move so that they experience muscle atrophy. This happens so that their meat stays tender. Eventually they are sent to slaughter to be sold as "veal." Dairy cows are kept pregnant until they become too sick or no longer can get pregnant or produce milk. Then they are also sent to be slaughtered.
The factory farms have a very negative impact on the environment. Rainforests are cut down to make room to raise more cattle but rainforests are vital to life on Earth. Rainforests regulate the global climate and the water cycle, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide humans with medicines, food and much more. According to www.happycow.net "every second, one football field of rainforest is destroyed in order to produce 257 hamburgers."
Factory farms create pollution in land and water and produce carbon dioxide. Happycow also states that eating one pound of hamburger does the same damage as driving your car for three weeks. Eating a vegan diet reduces waste and devastation of Earth's precious resources. It takes up to 5,000 gallons of water to raise one pound of beef. According to the US Department of Agriculture statistics, one acre of land can grow 20,000 pounds of potatoes but the same acre of land when used to grow cattle feed, can produce less than 165 lbs of edible cow flesh.
People who live in close proximity to factory farms often complain of high incidents of illness. California officials identify agriculture, including cows, as the major source of nitrate pollution in more than 100,000 square miles of polluted groundwater. High levels of nitrates in drinking water also increase the risk of methemoglobinemia, or "blue-baby syndrome," which can kill infants. Animal waste contains disease-causing pathogens, such as Salmonella, E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and fecal coliform, which can be 10 to 100 times more concentrated than in human waste. More than 40 diseases can be transferred to humans through manure. The facts are scary enough to make a horror movie.
In the U.S. alone, roughly 29 million pounds of antibiotics, about 80 percent of the nation's antibiotics use in total, are added to animal feed every year to speed livestock growth. This widespread use of antibiotics on animals contributes to the rise of resistant bacteria, making it harder to treat human illnesses. Large hog farms emit hydrogen sulfide, a gas that most often causes flu-like symptoms in humans, but at high concentrations can lead to brain damage.
Nutrients in animal waste cause algal blooms, which use up oxygen in the water, contributing to a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico where there's not enough oxygen to support aquatic life. The dead zone fluctuates in size each year, extending a record 8,500 square miles during the summer of 2002 and stretching over 7,700 square miles during the summer of 2010. I don't think I am wrong when I say that is insane!
So we have determined that factory farms are destructive and harmful to animals, people and the environment but what can we do about it? I personally think that factory farms should be outlawed. The only reason they exist is to make greedy people a lot of money. These people have a hand in the pocket books of the goverment and lawmakers so I don't see that ever happening. The best thing we can do is to not eat meat at all. We can adopt a vegan lifestyle, buy local fresh organic produce and not purchase animal products that come from factory farms. If the demand for the meat and dairy produced in these factory farms is reduced then the people running them will no longer be making a profit and will eventually shut down.
Factory farms are unnatural and not healthy for anyone or anything. We need to stop supporting these destructive facilities and begin to repair the damage they have caused. Those who say "change begins with you" are right. Decide today to make that change.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Shock collars for behavior control of infants and children
Controlling Children's Behavior in Public
Have you ever been out in public with your children and they made a fool out of you in front of other people? Have you been to a restaurant or movie theater and could not enjoy your date because of another person's children? Well, I have a solution for this problem. When children misbehave or they are unruly in public, the simple solution would be the use of shock collars.
Shock collars can be worn by children or even infants to control their bad behavior or crying. The parent or caretaker would have a wireless remote control with different settings on it. When a child begins to cry or acts up, one can press the buttons, causing the child to be shocked. This would be ideal for situations when adults have the most problems with controlling their children's behavior such as at the grocery store, at a restaurant, at the movies or on vacation.
Have you ever been out in public with your children and they made a fool out of you in front of other people? Have you been to a restaurant or movie theater and could not enjoy your date because of another person's children? Well, I have a solution for this problem. When children misbehave or they are unruly in public, the simple solution would be the use of shock collars.
Shock collars can be worn by children or even infants to control their bad behavior or crying. The parent or caretaker would have a wireless remote control with different settings on it. When a child begins to cry or acts up, one can press the buttons, causing the child to be shocked. This would be ideal for situations when adults have the most problems with controlling their children's behavior such as at the grocery store, at a restaurant, at the movies or on vacation.
Adults would be able to bring their children with them to once inappropriate places because children would no longer be running a muck. Children would remain quiet and sit still for the duration of the outing. Parents would no longer have to worry about their children talking continuously and spilling the beans on their private lives. There would be no more sibling rivalry! The shock collar can really be used anywhere. It can be used at home to keep kids quiet while you make dinner, clean the house or watch the game with your buddies. You can even use the shock collar to help your kids keep up with their chores. When Junior starts slacking, a turn of the knob or press of the button will send a shock that will remind him his chores are not finished.
Teachers and faculty can find great use of the shock collar, keeping students in line and quiet, ready to listen to today's lesson. This will improve test scores and grades, increase productivity and keep our schools safe. There is really no down side to the use of shock collars. Let's make shock collars a staple in raising children today!
Teachers and faculty can find great use of the shock collar, keeping students in line and quiet, ready to listen to today's lesson. This will improve test scores and grades, increase productivity and keep our schools safe. There is really no down side to the use of shock collars. Let's make shock collars a staple in raising children today!
I wrote this ironical essay for my Advanced Composition class last semester. Of course I got an A, but if the thought of children wearing shock collars is upsetting to you then why is it ok to use on pets? Animals feel pain and suffer too. Click HERE to read a very informative article about the dangers of using shock collars.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
How to make your own natural all purpose cleaner with orange peels
I don't know about you but I cannot stand the smell of household cleaners. I choke, I gag and it literally makes me sick. I personally enjoy being able to breathe... I also do not like to use products that are very harmful to the environment so I decided to make my own all purpose cleaner. I read online that the oil in orange peels when mixed with vinegar is a very strong and all natural (and safe) cleaner. I had to try it. So I took a pickle jar I had cleaned out. I started collecting my orange peels.
Once the jar was full of orange peels I added in my distilled white vinegar until the jar was full.
Then I let my jar sit on my countertop for 2 weeks, until the liquid had turned an orange color and smelled like oranges.
Once it was ready I poured the liquid into a spray bottle I got for 99 cents at Walmart.
Then I added in an equal amount of water to dillute the solution.
My cleaner is now ready to use, smells of citrus and works great. This is a powerful cleaner. I cleaned all my counter tops, my table, the top of my freezer, my walls, the bathroom sink etc. My house does not stink of cleaners, I didn't harm the environment, I paid very little money and yay everyone in my house including children and pets and myself can still breathe!! Yippee!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Weight Loss so far/being vegan
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Wolves Should not be Hunted in Minnesota or anywhere
Wolves Should not be Hunted in Minnesota
Everybody has an opinion when it comes to whether or not we should hunt the grey wolves in our area. My opinion is that we should not hunt the wolves. I personally do not believe that we need to control the population and I disagree with every other excuse the hunters give us as reasons to hunt the wolves.
Many hunters say that the wolf hunt is a good thing. Some even say that killing the wolves will help the wolves. An article in The North American Hunting Club Magazine written by Luke Hartle states,"The good news: The boys at the USSA are more ready to fight for us—and for what’s best for the wolves—than ever before."
How could killing wolves possibly be good for them? Some say killing wolves would benefit the wolves because they would have less resources they would have to share. There would be less wolves to kill the deer so there would be more deer available for the wolves and the hunters to kill. In the article"The Great Wolf Debate: Hunt Them Down or Let Them Flourish," Mayton points out that "For biologists such as Kronemann, killing wolves in order to protect them is contradictory. The Idaho biologist told The Ecologist that he believes it is simply fear that is driving government officials to push for hunting as a way to resolve the situation."
Another argument people use to kill the wolves is because they are killing all the deer. This is simply not true. The hunters are killing "all the deer." According to www.deefriendly.com "Minnesota hunters harvested 192,300 deer during the 2011 season." It is estimated that each healthy wolf kills approximately 15-20 deer a year. With this year's estimate of 3,000 wolves in Minnesota we can assume that the wolves kill 45,000 to 60,000 deer a year. That means the wolves kill only about 1/4 of the number of deer that Minnesota hunters kill. According to the Minnesota DNR website, Minnesota has approximately 1 million deer. That means the wolves kill only 4-6 percent of the population a year while Minnesota hunters kill 19-21 percent of the deer population a year.
It seems that a large number of people are supporting the hunt out of fear. People believe they need to kill the wolves to protect themselves and their family. People who are for the hunt are instilling fear in locals causing them to believe they are in danger. According to www.mnforsustain.org, "There is no record of a non-rabid wolf killing a human in North America and rabies has never been found in Minnesota wolves. A healthy wild wolf generally tries to avoid contact with humans." Wolf attacks are very rare. You are more likely to be attacked by your neighbors dog than by a wolf.
A more common excuse to kill wolves is that they prey on livestock. Farmers are in fear that their livestock is in danger of wolves. The facts are that livestock are always vulnerable to predators and to theft from other people but killing by wolves is so low that we can not justifiably use this as an excuse to kill them. According to The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)'s 2005 report, livestock loss due to wolves killing them is the lowest, second only to killings from bears. According to the DNR we have had about 3,000 wolves in Minnesota for the last 10 years so the report has likely not changed much since then. In 2005 only 5 percent of all cattle loss was due to predators and only 0.11 percent (not even a whole percent) were due to predation by wolves.
Even if the statistics of wolves killing livestock were mich higher (which they aren't), there are other ways to solve this problem besides killing such a beautiful creature. Collette Adkins Giese said in her article against the delisting of wolves, "There are plenty of tested, nonlethal options to safeguard livestock from wolves, including the use of guard dogs, flagging and predator-proof fencing. And when depredations do happen, livestock owners in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are compensated for their losses."
I believe that hunters will use any excuse to justify the killing of wolves (or any animal) and instill fear into the local population to make it acceptable to hunt. They make claims that hunting benefits the animals, benefits nature and that it protects our families and livestock. All the hunters really care about is getting the trophy or achievement from getting the biggest or fastest animals. Luke Hartle said in his article, "As a hunter, I want the opportunity to kill a wolf as much as anyone else." Melissa Timm of Hamptom wrote to MPR News and said "I would love to hunt a wolf, just once. It is a highly skilled and smart predator. It would also be a great trophy."
I believe that if an animal is to be hunted it should be for food only. Sadly, the wolves are hunted for their pelts. Not very many people are willing to eat the wolf meat. People are looking forward to making money off the pelts. Some say that it makes sense to have the wolf hunting season when pelts are at their prime so we can get use out of the wolves that are killed to control population. I believe that nature has it's own balance. The wolves are at the top of the food chain and we never had a problem without human interfereance. There is a circle of life and every thing in nature has a purpose. Humans were not born with guns and bows in their hands. I believe, if we are not fast enough to catch them by foot and strong enough to take them down by hand, then we are not truly meant to kill them by nature's rules.
The wolf is a beautiful and magestic creature who has just as much right to be here as humans do. Killing the wolves will never be right according to nature, no matter what excuses we try to use.
Everybody has an opinion when it comes to whether or not we should hunt the grey wolves in our area. My opinion is that we should not hunt the wolves. I personally do not believe that we need to control the population and I disagree with every other excuse the hunters give us as reasons to hunt the wolves.
Many hunters say that the wolf hunt is a good thing. Some even say that killing the wolves will help the wolves. An article in The North American Hunting Club Magazine written by Luke Hartle states,"The good news: The boys at the USSA are more ready to fight for us—and for what’s best for the wolves—than ever before."
How could killing wolves possibly be good for them? Some say killing wolves would benefit the wolves because they would have less resources they would have to share. There would be less wolves to kill the deer so there would be more deer available for the wolves and the hunters to kill. In the article"The Great Wolf Debate: Hunt Them Down or Let Them Flourish," Mayton points out that "For biologists such as Kronemann, killing wolves in order to protect them is contradictory. The Idaho biologist told The Ecologist that he believes it is simply fear that is driving government officials to push for hunting as a way to resolve the situation."
Another argument people use to kill the wolves is because they are killing all the deer. This is simply not true. The hunters are killing "all the deer." According to www.deefriendly.com "Minnesota hunters harvested 192,300 deer during the 2011 season." It is estimated that each healthy wolf kills approximately 15-20 deer a year. With this year's estimate of 3,000 wolves in Minnesota we can assume that the wolves kill 45,000 to 60,000 deer a year. That means the wolves kill only about 1/4 of the number of deer that Minnesota hunters kill. According to the Minnesota DNR website, Minnesota has approximately 1 million deer. That means the wolves kill only 4-6 percent of the population a year while Minnesota hunters kill 19-21 percent of the deer population a year.
It seems that a large number of people are supporting the hunt out of fear. People believe they need to kill the wolves to protect themselves and their family. People who are for the hunt are instilling fear in locals causing them to believe they are in danger. According to www.mnforsustain.org, "There is no record of a non-rabid wolf killing a human in North America and rabies has never been found in Minnesota wolves. A healthy wild wolf generally tries to avoid contact with humans." Wolf attacks are very rare. You are more likely to be attacked by your neighbors dog than by a wolf.
A more common excuse to kill wolves is that they prey on livestock. Farmers are in fear that their livestock is in danger of wolves. The facts are that livestock are always vulnerable to predators and to theft from other people but killing by wolves is so low that we can not justifiably use this as an excuse to kill them. According to The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)'s 2005 report, livestock loss due to wolves killing them is the lowest, second only to killings from bears. According to the DNR we have had about 3,000 wolves in Minnesota for the last 10 years so the report has likely not changed much since then. In 2005 only 5 percent of all cattle loss was due to predators and only 0.11 percent (not even a whole percent) were due to predation by wolves.
Even if the statistics of wolves killing livestock were mich higher (which they aren't), there are other ways to solve this problem besides killing such a beautiful creature. Collette Adkins Giese said in her article against the delisting of wolves, "There are plenty of tested, nonlethal options to safeguard livestock from wolves, including the use of guard dogs, flagging and predator-proof fencing. And when depredations do happen, livestock owners in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are compensated for their losses."
I believe that hunters will use any excuse to justify the killing of wolves (or any animal) and instill fear into the local population to make it acceptable to hunt. They make claims that hunting benefits the animals, benefits nature and that it protects our families and livestock. All the hunters really care about is getting the trophy or achievement from getting the biggest or fastest animals. Luke Hartle said in his article, "As a hunter, I want the opportunity to kill a wolf as much as anyone else." Melissa Timm of Hamptom wrote to MPR News and said "I would love to hunt a wolf, just once. It is a highly skilled and smart predator. It would also be a great trophy."
I believe that if an animal is to be hunted it should be for food only. Sadly, the wolves are hunted for their pelts. Not very many people are willing to eat the wolf meat. People are looking forward to making money off the pelts. Some say that it makes sense to have the wolf hunting season when pelts are at their prime so we can get use out of the wolves that are killed to control population. I believe that nature has it's own balance. The wolves are at the top of the food chain and we never had a problem without human interfereance. There is a circle of life and every thing in nature has a purpose. Humans were not born with guns and bows in their hands. I believe, if we are not fast enough to catch them by foot and strong enough to take them down by hand, then we are not truly meant to kill them by nature's rules.
The wolf is a beautiful and magestic creature who has just as much right to be here as humans do. Killing the wolves will never be right according to nature, no matter what excuses we try to use.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Vegan Chocolate Pudding
So tonight I was majorly craving something chocolatey. I had some silken tofu and cocoa powder so I gave it a try. This is what I did.
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder (mine was dark cocoa)
1 package silken tofu
I blended all the ingredients in the blender until smooth and it was enough for 2 servings. 1 for me and 1 for my daughter. She said it was great. She didn't even know it wasn't normal dairy pudding. I have to admit that it was delicious. I couldn't even taste the tofu in it. I will definitely do this again.
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder (mine was dark cocoa)
1 package silken tofu
I blended all the ingredients in the blender until smooth and it was enough for 2 servings. 1 for me and 1 for my daughter. She said it was great. She didn't even know it wasn't normal dairy pudding. I have to admit that it was delicious. I couldn't even taste the tofu in it. I will definitely do this again.
Not the best picture but it was a quick decision with no time to set up a nicer photo but you get the idea. :)
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