| woah, so tonight is the opening night for the play. Nuff said about that. my life has been consumed by this writing class!!! i am thinking writing 24/7, and really not enjoying it. BUT! i will be a better writer in the end. so, it is all good. Here is the essay that i recently wrote for the class. tell me what you think. even if it is boaring, please read it! and, i am off to write anouther essay... joy. What is a farmer to do, when the one way that he can feed and take care of his family, is to be unnecessarily cruel to animals? Unfortunately, this is a reality in today’s meat market. Milk fed veal is a big industry right now, which is growing in Canada, and the United States. The UK would also be in that line up, but veal “growing” was banned there, for moral motivations. This delicious, tender meat is popular for many reasons. For starters, veal is a very healthy meal: on average a cooked three oz. serving of veal contains only 166 calories and only 5.6 grams of fat. Because of veal's low fat content, it has very little waste, so a pound of veal can yield four three oz. servings. Not only is it a good source of low-fat protein; veal is also an excellent source of niacin, zinc, and vitamin B12 and B6. (In comparison, a serving of beef sausage has 332 calories, 28 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, and doesn’t have any vitamins B.) Veal is a favorite among gourmet cooks, because it is more flexible, and therefore can be cooked in countless different ways. In short, veal is a smart choice over regular meat. On the other hand, this tender protein comes at a cruel price. The calves are fed a milk substitute formula, without grain or other means of nutrition. And these calves will never have the chance to live outside of their crates. “The formula fed to the calves is sometimes lacking in iron, causing anemia and producing the pale flesh. Most calves in factory farms are kept in veal crate... The crates are 2 feet wide and provide enough room for them to stand or lie down. They are sometimes chained or tethered at the neck to restrict their movement. The lack of exercise means that the muscle can’t develop, producing the tender meat that consumers enjoy. (http://cfhs.ca/farm/veal_crates/)” According to a recent farm sanctuary investigation of Wisconsin veal farms, they found calves “Covered with feces, the calves’ skin was raw and irritated, and in some cases, afflicted with open sores.” (This information was gathered from www.noveal.org, an organization trying to ban veal production in the United States.) God gave humans the responsibility to take care of animals, and they in turn would provide us with food and (in the past) clothing. That doesn’t mean that we can treat them how ever we want. This “report” certainly sounds like veal production is out right cruelty to calves. But according to vealfarm.com, the animals are housed in properly lit barns, with a heating system for the winter, and a ventilation system for the summer. “Calves in individual housing can comfortably lie in a natural position, stand up, groom themselves and interact with their neighbors.” This doesn’t sound at all like the “Wisconsin” report. How can there be two totally different answers for the same question? These questions can be impossible to answer over the internet, so I interviewed a worker at a real veal farm: Billy Horn. Billy has worked for his next door neighbor, who owns a veal farm, for 4 years. He helps build the stalls, and has taken care of the calves at times. I asked Billy how wide the stalls are, and he confirmed that they are anywhere from 20-30 inches wide, usually 24 inches The veal cows that he has examined were very healthy and happy. There were no skin defects that he could see, except for some roughing around the neck, which was caused from the collar. When I asked what the cows are fed, he replied that is was something like what an athlete would eat, like a protein shake. Billy says that his boss, Jim, really doesn’t like raising veal. Despite Jim’s good care of them, it seems cruel to him to raise veal, and he rather wouldn’t. But right now there is a lower market in regular cow meat. All the money is for veal. and all he is doing is trying to feed his family. With only a high school education, Jim doesn’t have the opportunity to stop farming just because all the money is for veal. I asked Billy what he thought, personally of raising veal cows, and he says that he thought it was cruel to raise cows like that. He thinks that we should “go back to raising veal, and cow, organically, off of grass only, no corn and “protein” shakes. And that they should be able to live in a field, like the other cows.” Is it reasonable to think that people will just give up their tender meat, because some think that it is wrong? Fortunately, there are other ways that we can raise veal. According to http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13735305, it is possible to raise veal calves in pens with “group rearing” and feed them solid food, or “maize grain supplementation, may improve growth performance without impairing carcass and meat quality.” And then this web site, http://www.ciwf.ie/farminfo/farmfacts_veal.html, says that, “These improved group housing systems provide the calves with plenty of straw and also give them more space. The veal from these more welfare-friendly systems may be called "rose veal" and (we) believe that this is a better way to produce veal.” Instead of putting these poor farmers out of a job and a way to feed their families or even ignoring the issue all together, I think that we should try and promote “rose veal”, or “group veal” in our communities. Write letters to local restaurants, or stores, asking them to only carry those kinds of veal. It is a more humane way to create veal, while still getting the tender coveted meat loved by so many. Eating animals is not wrong, and while the veal calves may still not be allowed to run and live “born free!” They are provided with a good life, clean atmosphere, good diet, and companionship. This is more than some humans get. wo!ah! what happened to my font! |
