Many thoughtful people believe that they are doing a better thing by buying eggs labeled "cage free" or "free range." While certain situations may be better than the factory-farm model, it is NOT POSSIBLE to produce eggs on a commercial basis in a cruelty-free way. Here are some of the problems with eggs.
First of all, unless you have met the hens personally, you have no way of knowing what the labels on those egg cartons mean because there is no regulation of the terms "cage free" or "free range." "Cage free" hens probably live their lives in dark, cold,smelly, over-crowded buildings with no access to the outdoors. They have probably been de-beaked (without anesthesia) and are subject to forced moulting (near-starvation to the point that their feathers fall out). After a year, a much shorter period than a hen's natural lifespan, they are "spent" and either sent to slaughter or gassed or otherwise killed.
The label "free-range" can be just as deceptive. It can simply mean that hens raised in the conditions described in the previous paragraph might be given a small door with access to an outdoor enclosure even if they never actually go outdoors.
There are a few people that raise hens for eggs in a family farm setting in which the hens get to nest in a henhouse and go outdoors during the day. They can dust-bathe and socialize and their beaks are left intact. I actually know someone who has hens under just such conditions and they live a pretty nice life while they are with her family. This model is not free of problems for the animals, and I'll get to that shortly, but it also is NOT a commercially viable way to produce eggs. This family gets eggs for the family and sells the extras at their farm stand or gives them away to friends. But they have not even been able to sell them at the local health food store, because they don't produce a consistent number or size and the store wants a guaranteed supply -- they don't want disappointed customers who expect to find a certain "brand" on a regular basis.
The problems with family farm, free-range egg production don't end there. My friend buys her chicks from a commercial hatchery. Hatcheries keep the hens in terrible conditions. Boy chicks are a problem. They are sorted out and thrown away, or suffocated slowly, or thrown into grinders alive, or whatever method of "disposal" is cheapest. The female chicks are sent to farms through the US mail. Yup, you read that correctly. They MAIL live animals in boxes. Do I need to mention how many arrive dead? Baby chicks need warmth and special care. They need their mothers, actually.
The end of life is also terrible. It is not profitable to keep the hens after they stop laying. They are not pets, after all, they are egg-producing machines. So when they are "spent" (no longer laying as many eggs) they are sent to slaughter or killed in some other way.
It is not possible to make money from eggs in a way that is not cruel. The only solution is not to use eggs at all. We should not be using animals for any reason -- not for food, or clothing, or entertainment. There is no commercially viable use of animals that is not inherently wrong. If an animal is used to make money, then money becomes the focus.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Vegan Feast
I made a vegan meal for non-vegan guests yesterday. It went over very well! Here's the menu:
-fresh tossed salad
-penne with a chunky tomato/artichoke/garlic/olive sauce (the recipe is from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and it's called Crowd Pleasing Pasta with Tomatoes and Artichokes)
-french-cut green beans and finely chopped onion sauteed in toasted sesame oil and tamari.
-homemade whole-wheat dinner rolls
-italian herb polenta with a mushroom/red wine gravy
-strawberry rhubarb crumb-topped pie
I love to cook vegan meals for company!
-fresh tossed salad
-penne with a chunky tomato/artichoke/garlic/olive sauce (the recipe is from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and it's called Crowd Pleasing Pasta with Tomatoes and Artichokes)
-french-cut green beans and finely chopped onion sauteed in toasted sesame oil and tamari.
-homemade whole-wheat dinner rolls
-italian herb polenta with a mushroom/red wine gravy
-strawberry rhubarb crumb-topped pie
I love to cook vegan meals for company!
kids need animals
What did I learn from having animal companions as a child?
I learned that animals are individuals with their own personalities, quirks, habits, likes and dislikes. I currently live with two cats. One is independent, inquisitive, smart, and very insistent on having her own way. The other is a big, dumb, lazy, lovable, cuddly guy.
I learned that animals have interests beyond mere food and shelter. Sometimes they desire companionship, freedom, communication, play, intellectual stimulation -- many of the same things humans desire in life.
I learned that wild animals are wild. I kept trying to capture and keep a variety of wild animals when I was a kid. Snakes, turtles, frogs, etc. I would try to re-create their habitat in a homemade fence or pond or terrarium or cardboard box. My Dad would always help them "escape" before I could do any lasting harm to them.
I learned about the evils of pet breeding and pet stores after a disaster with a pet store kitten. It was a hard lesson for my family to learn, but after that we only had rescued animals.
I learned about death and grieving. I learned that you can adopt another animal but they never take the place of the one you lost. I learned to enjoy the good memories and the new personalities simultaneously.
I learned about patience and perseverance in relationship building. My first cat (I was about 9 years old) was skittish and shy. She eventually became friendly with me and only me. It was years before she would accept the companionship of other people. Later, I had an even tougher case when an adult cat was dropped by my first rental house. It took weeks to coax her inside and longer to get her to the vet. For years, no one saw her but me and my husband. She didn't become friendly to anyone else until she got old and deaf and senile. Then her personality completely changed and she started to love people!
I think that kids should have rescued animal companions for all the reasons above and more. I know some kids who were never allowed pets. Some are scared of animals, others indifferent. I know that one of the most common reasons I hear for people to go vegan is that they realized there is no moral difference between a dog or a cat and a cow or pig. How will people ever make that connection if they have never had a relationship with a non-human animal?
I learned that animals are individuals with their own personalities, quirks, habits, likes and dislikes. I currently live with two cats. One is independent, inquisitive, smart, and very insistent on having her own way. The other is a big, dumb, lazy, lovable, cuddly guy.
I learned that animals have interests beyond mere food and shelter. Sometimes they desire companionship, freedom, communication, play, intellectual stimulation -- many of the same things humans desire in life.
I learned that wild animals are wild. I kept trying to capture and keep a variety of wild animals when I was a kid. Snakes, turtles, frogs, etc. I would try to re-create their habitat in a homemade fence or pond or terrarium or cardboard box. My Dad would always help them "escape" before I could do any lasting harm to them.
I learned about the evils of pet breeding and pet stores after a disaster with a pet store kitten. It was a hard lesson for my family to learn, but after that we only had rescued animals.
I learned about death and grieving. I learned that you can adopt another animal but they never take the place of the one you lost. I learned to enjoy the good memories and the new personalities simultaneously.
I learned about patience and perseverance in relationship building. My first cat (I was about 9 years old) was skittish and shy. She eventually became friendly with me and only me. It was years before she would accept the companionship of other people. Later, I had an even tougher case when an adult cat was dropped by my first rental house. It took weeks to coax her inside and longer to get her to the vet. For years, no one saw her but me and my husband. She didn't become friendly to anyone else until she got old and deaf and senile. Then her personality completely changed and she started to love people!
I think that kids should have rescued animal companions for all the reasons above and more. I know some kids who were never allowed pets. Some are scared of animals, others indifferent. I know that one of the most common reasons I hear for people to go vegan is that they realized there is no moral difference between a dog or a cat and a cow or pig. How will people ever make that connection if they have never had a relationship with a non-human animal?
Friday, April 8, 2011
Swiss Chard, how I love you
Oh Swiss Chard, how I love you! Your seeds can be planted directly into the garden from the time I can work the soil in the spring, through the hot summer, into the fall. You grow so easily and look so pretty in the garden, and you attract so few pests! Your tiny, tender leaves can be put into salads, and your mature leaves can be cooked just like spinach. But, unlike spinach, you don't bolt at the slightest provocation of a hot day. In fact, I can keep harvesting you all season, enjoying your mild flavor in so many recipes that I never tire of you. Your cooked leaves and stems freeze well and thaw well so I can keep enjoying your vitamin-rich goodness all year long. Ah, Swiss Chard, we shall meet again and again!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
More Green, Less Blue
When we bought our place in '96, it came with a large above-ground pool. For several years it got a decent amount of use, but in recent years it seemed like I was maintaining it all summer for a scant few hours of swimming or floating. Unfortunately, the electric pump has to run all the time, and you have to chlorinate and clean constantly whether anyone is using it or not. I also started to resent the time I was spending opening, cleaning, and closing it.
A covered pool in the summertime is an eyesore, and tends to deteriorate quickly. So I got some volunteers to help take it down and stack all the parts, intending to sell the pool and put in a knot garden.
You know about the best laid plans, right? First problem: the bottom of the metal sides and the base were rusted to the point that they were unusable. So the plan to sell the thing and have someone else haul it away faded quickly. Second problem: the area where the pool had been, instead of being a lovely circle of sandy soil ready for planting, quickly turned into a giant swampy shallow pond. Talk about an eyesore! I ended up getting a friend to help me take the pool parts to the dump (which I had to pay for), and I had to buy four truckloads of dirt to fill in the swampy hole in the yard. My husband borrowed a friend's tractor to deal with the truckloads of dirt. Since we were digging up the yard anyway, we re-designed the shape of the new garden and did some other garden/pond work while we had a tractor. I built a big planter off the side of the deck where the access to the pool had been, and we relocated the pool's electrical outlet for future outdoor use. I decided to make the new garden, which is next to the house, into a flower and herb garden, and to move the flowers from a far-away garden which will now be used for garlic, rhubarb, and asparagus.
The whole thing turned into a summer-long project and I didn't get to plant anything until fall. But now that the snow is almost gone, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up in the new garden, and to fussing with the layout and moving plants around! It's exciting to have a new look to the yard, and I'm very happy that I won't have to spend precious garden time maintaining an electricity-using, chemical-laden swimming pool.
More green, less blue!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Needless suffering
I don't know anyone personally who would say that it's OK to cause needless suffering for their own pleasure. Yet everyone I know is doing it by eating animals and animal products.
If you are eating animals, you are either killing a sentient being or hiring a hit man to do it for you.
If you are using cosmetics that are not cruelty-free, you hired someone to keep a little bunny in a tiny cage and squirt a caustic substance in her eye.
If you ate an egg today, you hired someone at a hatchery to sort out fluffy, one-day-old boy chicks and throw them (alive) into a grinder.
If you drank a glass of milk, you hired someone to take a newborn calf from his distraught mother, tie him up alone in a little space for a couple of weeks, and then send him on a truck to the slaughterhouse.
For what reason? Habit, pleasure, laziness, willful ignorance. If you want to stop participating in a system that causes so much suffering, go vegan. It's easy and delicious, it's better for your body, it's better for the environment, but most importantly, it's better for the animals.
If you are eating animals, you are either killing a sentient being or hiring a hit man to do it for you.
If you are using cosmetics that are not cruelty-free, you hired someone to keep a little bunny in a tiny cage and squirt a caustic substance in her eye.
If you ate an egg today, you hired someone at a hatchery to sort out fluffy, one-day-old boy chicks and throw them (alive) into a grinder.
If you drank a glass of milk, you hired someone to take a newborn calf from his distraught mother, tie him up alone in a little space for a couple of weeks, and then send him on a truck to the slaughterhouse.
For what reason? Habit, pleasure, laziness, willful ignorance. If you want to stop participating in a system that causes so much suffering, go vegan. It's easy and delicious, it's better for your body, it's better for the environment, but most importantly, it's better for the animals.
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