Compassion in World Farming is holding a Bake with Compassion Week July 6-12th

Compassion in World Farming is holding a Bake with Compassion Week July 6th-12th.  If you’d like to take part, you can send away for their kit — the idea is to bake with cage-free eggs, raise awareness for inhumane animal farming, and educate consumers on their choices.  They suggest baking cakes and selling them at your work, or having a tea party, or a coffee morning, a baking class, or a dinner party.  They have invitations ( 89.57KB).  To take part, fill out this registration form, and be sure to send Compassion in World Farming some photos of your event to supporters@ciwf.org.uk.

AACT is holding a public rally against factory farming in Tasmania:

I wish they’d hold one here!  But anyway, Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania is holding a public rally against factory farming on Saturday 20 June from 1-2pm on the Parliament Lawns. Every day animals are confined, exploited and forced to suffer in intensive farming systems all over the world - if ever there was a time for you to speak for the animals, this is it! Animals in intensive farming facilities spend their entire lives deprived of fresh air, sunshine and freedom. Please give just one hour of your life to help save the lives of these sentient beings. Feel free to bring your own placard or banners with a pro-animal message. For further information go to www.aact.org.au.

Animal Welfare Approved Annouces Grants of Up to $5,000 to Focus on Outdoor Access, Genetics and Improving Slaughter Facilities

Animal Welfare Approved announces grants of up to $5,000 to be awarded for the sole purpose of improving farm animal welfare, with a concentration on three areas: increased outdoor access, improved genetics and improved slaughter facilities.  Current Animal Welfare Approved farmers and those who have applied to join the program are eligible, and farmers may apply for certification and for a grant simultaneously. The deadline for applying is October 1, 2009.  It is hoped that these will be useful to address challenges faced by independent livestock producers.  Farmers may submit a proposal for one project, for a total maximum grant of $5,000. Grants will be awarded based on the projects’ potential to deliver the greatest benefit to farm animals. In order to receive a grant, applicants must meet the eligibility requirements and submit an application and a budget by October 1, 2009. Eligible costs include design fees, contractor costs, materials, and project-appropriate equipment. Grants applications must be postmarked by the deadline date and will not be accepted via e-mail.  Guidelines and an application form are available at www.AnimalWelfareApproved.org. Questions may be directed to Emily Lancaster at (919) 428-1641 or Emily@AnimalWelfareApproved.org.

Humane Farm Animal Care Certifies Capriole Inc. Goat Cheese

Humane Farm Animal Care® (HFAC), a leading non-profit certification organization improving the lives of farm animals in food production, has certified Capriole Inc. (Greenville, IN) farmstead goat cheese. Founded in 1976, Capriole, Inc. is a producer of handmade fresh, ripened, and aged chevres that use only the milk of its own herd. The goats spend their entire lives on the farm and are fed a nutritious diet, largely consisting of home-grown hay and woodland pasture grass.  With over 75 acres, the herd has more than sufficient space to allow them to roam and engage in their natural behaviors.

American Humane Association Partners with Viking Cooking School

American Humane has partnered with Viking Cooking School — now students at Viking Cooking School are not only learning new ways to prepare food, but they are also learning how animals are raised for food, as part of a new partnership with the American Humane Association.  As would-be bakers learn how to separate eggs, for example, they’ll also hear that the egg in their hands comes from a chicken that has not received growth hormones and hasn’t lived its short life squashed into a horrific tiny cage.  There are 15 Viking Schools, and more soon to open, so this is a good thing!  Hopefully it will also promote humanely raised producers.

(Do you have against factory farming news?  Please email me at emilycrueltyfree@gmail.com)

Dear Emily,

You can certify that it is humanely raised and handled, but how can you certify it is humanely slaughtered? Those sadists in the slaughterhouses are the ones I truly worry about!

Hello,

Well, I respect your opinion on slaughterhouses — I don’t think anyone would say they are places of joy and light. They’re kind of horrific. For me though, I figure the slaughterhouse is just one day out of a farm animal’s life — and in well-run slaughterhouses, the animals are kept very calm and killed in seconds. (Temple Grandin, one of my personal heroes, has written some amazing books on designing slaughterhouses so that the farm animals go through them in a stress-free manner and are killed humanely — she works for the slaughterhouse industry, but she has made the lives of billions of farm animals much more comfortable right before they’re killed.)

But it really appalls me more that some farm animals are kept in agonizing conditions for the entirety of their lives — years spent in cages they can’t turn around in. It breaks my heart to think of adorable calves unable to turn around for the entire 13 months they’re alive, after which they are slaughtered for veal (there are 1 million calves in the U.S. sold for veal a year according to Californians for Humane Farms). I think those calves should at least be able to turn around and frolic for those thirteen months before being killed quickly and humanely. At least the slaughterhouse is a quick death. For me it’s the far lesser of two evils. So it’s more important to me that animals are raised humanely rather than not exposed to slaughterhouses. Though of course, in the best of all possible worlds, animals would never be exposed to inhumane living conditions or slaughtered. Come the revolution . . .

Though of course, I’ve heard of horrible inhumane slaughterhouses, and I HATE the people who are responsible for them. How anyone could commit those kinds of atrocities astounds me. I think those people should be taken out and shot. Actually that might be far too good for them.

Have a cruelty-free question for me?  Please email emilycrueltyfree@gmail.com.

Just in case you thought I was kidding about factory farming causing swine flu — here’s an article written by Dr. Michael Greger, the star of the AMAZING movie I wrote about two days ago — Bird Flu – telling the world about how the Center for Disease Control has confirmed that swine flu came from US pig factory farms. Apparently swine flu has been traced specifically to a North Carolina pig factory farm. North Carolina is the home of the world’s largest germ factory pig factory farm, the densest pig population in North America, and more than twice as many corporate pig mega-factory farms as any other state in the U.S.

Remember — if you’re buying animal products from grocery stores, only buy humanely raised animal products — do not contribute to supporting those factory farm germ-incubators! If you’re going out to eat, do not order chicken, pork, or anything that uses eggs — nothing breaded, nothing with an egg-based sauce, no egg-based desserts — no mayonnaise, no bechamel, no aioli, no cornbread, no muffins, ice cream, cakes, or cookies.  All the eggs in restaurants are factory farmed.  If you’re going to order meat — order beef, lamb or fish.  I don’t think they factory farm cows or sheep (yet . . . ).  For more information, read my post on How to Become a Humane Omnivore.

CDC Confirms Ties to Virus First Discovered in U.S. Pig Factories

May 3, 2009

	Crowded conditions on factory farms create breeding grounds for new viruses. ©iStockphoto

By Michael Greger, M.D.

Factory farming and long-distance live animal transport apparently led to the emergence of the ancestors of the current swine flu threat.

A preliminary analysis of the H1N1 swine flu virus isolated from human cases in California and Texas reveals that six of the eight viral gene segments arose from North American swine flu strains circulating since 1998, when a new strain was first identified on a factory farm in North Carolina.

This genetic fingerprint, first released by Columbia University’s Center for Computation Biology and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton,[1] has now been reportedly confirmed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and virologist Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Robert Webster, the director of the U.S. Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization, and considered the “godfather of flu research,”[2] is reported as saying “The triple reassortant in pigs [first discovered in the U.S. in 1998] seems to be the precursor.”

Plaguing People and Pigs

The worst plague in human history was triggered by an H1N1 avian flu virus, which jumped the species barrier from birds to humans[3] and went on to kill as many as 50 to 100 million people in the 1918 flu pandemic.[4] No disease, war or famine ever killed so many people in so short a time. We then passed the virus to pigs, where it has continued to circulate, becoming one of the most common causes of respiratory disease on North American pig farms.[5]

For media interviews with Dr. Michael Greger, please contact Liz Bergstrom at ebergstrom@humanesociety.org or 301-258-1455. ©The HSUS

In August 1998, however, a barking cough resounded throughout a North Carolina pig factory in which all the thousands of breeding sows fell ill.[6] A new swine flu virus was discovered on that factory farm, a human-pig hybrid virus that had picked up three human flu genes. By the end of that year, the virus acquired two gene segments from bird flu viruses as well, becoming a never-before-described triple reassortment virus—a hybrid of a human virus, a pig virus, and a bird virus—that triggered outbreaks in Texas, Minnesota, and Iowa.[7]

Within months, the virus had spread throughout the United States. Blood samples taken from 4,382 pigs across 23 states found that 20.5% tested positive for exposure to this triple hybrid swine flu virus by early 1999, including 100% of herds tested in Illinois and Iowa, and 90% in Kansas and Oklahoma.[8] According to the current analysis, published April 30 in the journal of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, it is from this pool of viruses that the current swine flu threat derives three-quarters of its genetic material.[9]

Tracing the Origins of Today’s Virus

Since the progenitor of the swine flu virus currently threatening to trigger a human pandemic has now been identified, it is critical to explore what led to its original emergence and spread. Scientists postulate that a human flu virus may have starting circulating in U.S. pig farms as early as 1995, but “by mutation or simply by obtaining a critical density, caused disease in pigs and began to spread rapidly through swine herds in North America. [emphasis added]“[10] It is therefore likely no coincidence that the virus emerged in North Carolina, the home of the nation’s largest pig production operation. North Carolina has the densest pig population in North America and reportedly boasts more than twice as many corporate pig mega-factories as any other state.[11]

The year of emergence, 1998, was the year North Carolina’s pig population hit ten million, up from two million just six years earlier.[12] Concurrently, the number of pig farms was decreasing, from 15,000 in 1986 to 3,600 in 2000.[13] How can five times more animals be raised on almost five times fewer farms? By crowding about 25 times more pigs into each operation.

In the 1980s, more than 85% of all North Carolina pig farms had fewer than 100 animals. By the end of the 1990s, operations confining more than 1,000 animals controlled about 99% of the state’s pig population.[14] Given that the primary route of swine flu transmission is thought to be the same as human flu—via droplets or aerosols of infected nasal secretions[15]—it’s no wonder experts blame overcrowding for the emergence of new flu virus mutants.

Intensive Crowding and Long-Distance Transport

Starting in the early 1990s, the U.S. pig industry restructured itself after Tyson’s profitable chicken model of massive industrial-sized units. As a headline in the trade journal National Hog Farmer announced, “Overcrowding Pigs Pays—If It’s Managed Properly.”[16] The majority of U.S. pig farms now confine more than 5,000 animals each. A veterinary pathologist from the University of Minnesota stated the obvious in Science: “With a group of 5,000 animals, if a novel virus shows up it will have more opportunity to replicate and potentially spread than in a group of 100 pigs on a small farm.”[17]

In a study published in 2008 in the journal Zoonoses and Public Health investigated the relationship between farm size and risk of Eurasian lineage swine flu infection. The researchers concluded: “Pigs from larger farms (>5000 SPP [standing pig population]) appeared to have a significantly higher risk for SI [swine influenza] H1N1 infection compared to pigs originating from smaller farms. The odds of H1N1 in pigs from those farms were five times more as compared to small farms (i.e. <1000 SPP).” The same result was found for another strain of swine flu: “Pigs from bigger farms (i.e. SPP 1000–5000 and >5000) were about twice and nine times more likely, respectively, to have SI H3N2 infection as compared to pigs from farms with SPP <1000.”[18] A recent study of pig farms in North America similarly concluded: “Increasing the number of finishers [fattening pigs] by 1000 increased by 4.4 the adjusted odds of a finisher herd being positive [for classic H1N1 swine flu].”[19]

Researchers also found that when farms were packed close together, as is increasingly the case in high pig-density areas of North America and Europe, pigs appeared to have up to 16.7 times the odds of testing positive for swine flu. “Close location,” they write, “enhances the possibility for windborne, personnel, and fomites disease transmission from one farm to another.”[20] The “spread of pig slurry [urine and feces]” on nearby land may also play a role.[21]

This new research confirms earlier work suggesting that increasing the number of pigs per pen or per municipality can significantly increase swine flu risk. A 2002 review found 26 studies linking respiratory disease with herd size.[22] A higher number of pigs per municipality “may facilitate airborne transmission [of swine flu] between the herds” and crowding more pigs per pen “allows more opportunities for direct nose-to-nose contact or for aerosol spread of the [swine flu] virus between penmates. Furthermore, a large number of pigs per pen creates physiological stress, which in turn can alter the immune system and predispose pigs to infection.”[23]

Dr. Robert Webster, one of the world’s leading experts of flu virus evolution, blames the emergence of the 1998 virus on the “recently evolving intensive farming practice in the USA, of raising pigs and poultry in adjacent sheds with the same staff,” a practice he calls “unsound.”[24] North Carolina is also one of the nation’s largest poultry producers, slaughtering nearly three-quarters of a billion chickens[25] and confining enough hens to produce nearly 3 billion eggs.[26]

Once the new viral mutant appeared in 1998, the rapid dissemination across the country has been blamed on long-distance live animal transport.[27] In the United States, pigs travel coast to coast. They can be bred in North Carolina, fattened in the corn belt of Iowa, and slaughtered in California.[28] While this may reduce short-term costs for the pork industry, the highly contagious nature of diseases like influenza (perhaps made further infectious by the stresses of transport) needs to be considered when calculating the true cost of long-distance live animal transport.

“A Recipe for Disaster”

The remaining two gene segments of the H1N1 swine flu virus now spreading in human populations around the world appear to come from a swine flu viral lineage circulating in Eurasia, where similar conditions may be to blame. “Influenza [in pigs] is closely correlated with pig density,” said a European Commission-funded researcher studying the situation in Europe.[29] As such, Europe’s rapidly intensifying pig industry has been described in Science as “a recipe for disaster.”[30] Some researchers have speculated that the next pandemic could arise out of “Europe’s crowded pig barns.”[31] In Europe in 1993, a bird flu virus had adapted to pigs, acquiring a few human flu virus genes and infected two young Dutch children, displaying evidence of limited human-to-human transmission.[32]

The European Commission’s agricultural directorate warns that the “concentration of production is giving rise to an increasing risk of disease epidemics.”[33] Concern over epidemic disease is so great that Danish laws have capped the number of pigs per farm and put a ceiling on the total number of pigs allowed to be raised in the country.[34]

No such limit exists in the United States or in Mexico. The fact that one of the first confirmed human cases of swine flu appeared in close proximity to the largest pig factory in Mexico, which slaughters nearly a million pigs a year (out of a country-wide total of 15 million), may not have been a coincidence. In Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, scientists from the University of Iowa Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases published the 2006 article “Confined Animal Feeding Operations as Amplifiers of Influenza,” in which they concluded, “A human influenza epidemic due to a new virus could be locally amplified by the presence of confined animal feeding operations in the community.”

Warnings Unheeded

The public health community has been warning about the risks posed by factory farms for years. More than five years ago, in 2003, the American Public Health Association, the largest and oldest association of public health professionals in the world, called for a moratorium on factory farming.[35] In 2005, the United Nations urged that “[g]overnments, local authorities and international agencies need to take a greatly increased role in combating the role of factory-farming,” which, they said, combined with live animal markets, “provide ideal conditions for the [influenza] virus to spread and mutate into a more dangerous form.”[36]

Last April, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released its final report. The prestigious, independent panel chaired by a former Kansas Governor and including a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, former Assistant Surgeon General, and the Dean of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, concluded that industrialized animal agriculture posed “unacceptable” public health risks: “Due to the large numbers of animals housed in close quarters in typical [industrial farm animal production] facilities there are many opportunities for animals to be infected by several strains of pathogens, leading to increased chance for a strain to emerge that can infect and spread in humans.”[37]

Specific to the veal crate-like metal stalls that confine breeding pigs like those on the North Carolina factory from which the first hybrid swine flu virus was discovered in North America, the Pew Commission asserted that “[p]ractices that restrict natural motion, such as sow gestation crates, induce high levels of stress in the animals and threaten their health, which in turn may threaten human health.”[38] Unfortunately we don’t tend to “shore up the levees” until after the disaster, but now that we know swine flu viruses can evolve to efficiently transmit human-to-human we need to follow the Pew Commission’s recommendations to abolish extreme confinement practices like gestation crates as they’re already doing in Europe, and to follow the advice of the American Public Health Association to declare a moratorium on factory farms.

A “Reservoir of Viruses” in the U.S.

With massive concentrations of farm animals within whom to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping and reassorting between species at an unprecedented rate.[39] This reassorting, Webster’s team concludes, makes the 65 million strong U.S. pig population an “increasingly important reservoir of viruses with human pandemic potential.”[40] “We used to think that the only important source of genetic change in swine influenza was in Southeast Asia,” said Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Now, “we need to look in our own backyard for where the next pandemic may appear.”[41]

Dr. Michael Greger is director of public health and animal agriculture for The Humane Society of the United States.

This is a message for any British ethical omnivores/ethical vegetarians — please check out the wonderful Compassion in World Farming organization, an organization devoted to campaigning peacefully to end all cruel factory farming practices.   Currently it is asking people to email their local MP to support labeling of all chicken products as to how humanely the chickens were raised, and in what “stocking density.”  (So far it looks like 25% of MPs ARE supporting it! Yay!)  

I am REALLY in favor of this — you KNOW how I love labeling — I think it’s the best method of change.  It’s gentle and noninvasive and lets people make up their own minds.  You can decide whether you want to purchase chickens that were raised horribly or not — the information is right in front of you.  No blissful ignorance anymore!  It’s also very capitalist — it just gives people information, it doesn’t restrict farmers or consumers from doing whatever the hell they want to do.  It involves no government interference with small businesses, etc.  You can support this even if you’re extremely fiscally conservative!  

Can I also mention how much I love the idea of having “stocking density” on a label of chicken in the grocery store?  I mean, I’d never thought about it, but I think that would shake up the people who think humane farming is all about pampering farm animals.  I mean, if your chicken thighs from the freezer said they came from chickens that were raised 18 chickens per sq yard, wouldn’t that make you think twice about the animal cruelty you’re contributing to?  A square yard is a really small space.  And possibly stop complaining about how idiots want to lay a chocolate mint on the pillow of every farm animal these days?  Just a thought . . .

This is a little odd considering I’m not eating any cheese (on purpose anyway!) right now, but a kind commenter left me this information a while ago on my 100%-vegetarian-cheeses post, and I forgot to post about it — and I think it would be really useful for vegetarians looking to buy French cheeses.

Anyway, Benji tells me that some kind British vegetarian expatriates living in France told him that the good French cheeses are not vegetarian because French law mandates that those cheese manufacturers that are granted the appelate or “official region” branding cannot NOT use animal rennet enzymes as the basis of their cheeses, since that is the traditional method of making cheese, despite the fact that vegetarian microbial enzymes are widely and cheaply available.  This way, French law protects the traditional French cheesemakers.  (And there’s a similar situation for wine — oh horrors, does this mean I will be unable to drink French wine?  It’s really not much of an issue for me — I tend to stick with cheap wine, myself.)  

Though apparently the not-so-exciting French cheeses that say “convenient aux vegetarians” or “sans plessure/plesure” (without rennet) — are vegetarian. 

So the bottom line is — buy French cheese, but only if it says “convenient aux vegetarians” or “sans plessure/plesure” on the label.  And if you’re a vegetarian living in France — badger your government officials!  Ask them to allow vegan cheese starter.

ITPASSEDITPASSEDITPASSED!

I’m very excited

Thanks to everyone who voted in favor of Prop 2 — I can sleep easier at night knowing so many animals will live less confined lives starting three years from now.  Yay!

Election day is coming up — I thought I’d mention again that the stop-torturing-farm-animals-who-give-their-lives-for-us proposition is on the ballot.  I’m really hoping it passes — so if you’re a Californian and you want to eradicate the some of the worst atrocities of factory farming that I can’t believe any reasonable person would ever support, be they carnivorous people or not, vote yes on proposition 2!

(Isn’t that a great picture?  I think french bulldogs are adorable.  Click on the picture to see a little factsheet you can print out with a few benefits of prop 2 listed.)

Here are some key facts about Prop 2 from HumaneCalifornia.org:

This November 4, Californians should vote YES! on Prop 2 – a modest measure that stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals, ending the practice of cramming farm animals into cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, lie down or extend their limbs.

Voting YES! on Prop 2…

• Prevents cruelty to animals.

  It’s simply wrong to confine veal calves, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens in tiny cages barely larger than their bodies. Calves are tethered by the neck and can barely move, pigs in severe confinement bite the metal bars of their crates, and hens get trapped and even impaled in their wire cages. We wouldn’t force our pets to live in filthy, cramped cages for their whole lives, and we shouldn’t force farm animals to endure such misery. All animals, including those raised for food, deserve humane treatment.

  
  

• Improves our health and food safety.

  We all witnessed the cruel treatment of sick and crippled cows exposed by a Southern California slaughter plant investigation this year, prompting authorities to pull meat off school menus and initiate a nationwide recall. Factory farms put our health at risk—cramming tens of thousands of animals into tiny cages, fostering the spread of diseases that may affect people. YES! on Prop 2 is better for animals—and for us.

  
  

• Supports family farmers.

  California family farmers support YES! on Prop 2 because they know that better farming practices enhance food quality and safety. Increasingly, they’re supplying major retailers like Safeway and Burger King. Factory farms cut corners and drive family farmers out of business when they put profits ahead of animal welfare and our health.

  
  

• Protects air and water and safeguards the environment.

  The American Public Health Association has called for a moratorium on new factory farms because of the devastating effects these operations can have on surrounding communities, spreading untreated waste on the ground and contaminating our waterways, lakes, groundwater, soil, and air. Prop 2 helps stop some of the worst abuses and protects our precious natural resources. That’s why California Clean Water Action and Sierra Club-California support YES! on Prop 2.

  
  

• Is a reasonable and common-sense reform.

  Prop 2 provides ample time—until 2015—for factory farms using these severe confinement methods to shift to more humane practices. Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Oregon have passed similar laws. The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, hundreds of California veterinarians, including the California Veterinary Medical Association; California family farmers; the Center for Food Safety, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the United Farm Workers, and the Cesar Chavez Foundation; Republican and Democratic elected officials; California religious leaders; and many others.

Hal Sparks is on the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act bandwagon!  Yay!    Let’s all vote to end keeping livestock (who give their milk, eggs, and lives for us) in horrific conditions!  Florida and Arizona have already passed this sort of regulation!

Here’s the video of Hal Sparks speaking in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on Youtube — check it out!  (I have to admit I haven’t watched this video because I’m Afraid of the Animal Cruelty I Might See, and as you undoubtedly know, I’m 100% in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act so I don’t need any convincing from the video — I hope it’s not too graphic, but I’m sorry I can’t vet it for you.)

The original article I found this information in is from a post by Erinnuallain over at Ecorazzi.com, (my source for celebrity anti-animal-testing news!):

Hal Sparks wants your votes to save animals, California!

Hal Sparks (VH1, Queer as Folk, Zero1) may make a living cracking jokes, but the treatment of animals is something that he takes very seriously. If you watched him in Celebracadabra as I did, you probably picked up on that when he refused to do an escape that might harm snakes and also lamented over an earlier trick involving butterflies. In a video message for Californians for Humane Farms, Hal shows his support for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act by saying that “Treating an animal like a widget is cruel” and “Animals deserve to be treated humanely, even if they are raised for food.”

Hal is just one of the many celebrities who will be voting YES on Prop 2 in November. Others include: Ed Begley, Jr. (will Bill Nye be getting in on this too?), Hayden Panettiere, Alicia Silverstone, Rikki Rachtman, and many more.  (Source)

Suppose you’re a moral person who doesn’t like torturing animals but is not averse to killing them for food purposes, yet you want to buy fast food. (Quick disclaimer: I am not an omnivore, but I LIKE omnivorous people who want to switch to not eating factory farmed food. If you’re a humane omnivore, I think you’re a lovely, caring person who is taking a stand against the animal abuse that goes on at battery farms. Though I do think veganism+100%-animal-testing-freeism is the absolute least cruel way to live.)

So anyway, if you’re a humane omnivore, should you go to Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc? Absolutely not. Especially not Kentucky Fried Chicken (warning: highly disturbing website. Do NOT click there if you don’t like seeing those horrific videos).

So, where can you buy fast food? McDonalds is sort of a good choice because it limits its cage-bound egg-laying chickens to cages that must be at least the size of a laptop. Maybe a “good” choice is not the word I should be using. Not the most evil choice you could make? Anyway, I don’t buy anything egg or meat based from McDonalds because I don’t support animal abuse. Burger King or Carl’s Jr are better choices because they also have cage-free eggs. Not that any of the meats they sell are humanely-raised. Appallingly, abusively raised, more likely.

However — your best option by far is Chipotle. They have GREAT vegan options — you can customize any burrito, taco, or salad to be completely vegan — just get the (vegan) black beans instead of the (made with lard/bacon) pinto beans, peppers instead of meat, guacamole and lettuce instead of sour cream and cheese, and you still have a choice of three different kinds of salsa (the spicy one is really, really good. I am completely addicted to it). (I found this great blog that confirms that these Chipotle items are really vegan, — please click here.)

If you’re a vegetarian, while the cheese and sour cream do not come from certified nonfactory farms (Hello Chipotle? Why EVER not?), the cheese is 100% vegetarian — no newborn calves stomachs were chopped up to provide rennet to start this cheese, and the sour cream is from cows not treated with synthetic rGBH hormones. If you’re an ethical omnivore, the pork served at Chipotle is 100% humanely-raised, the chicken is 60%-humanely-raised, and the beef is 40% humanely raised. (I’m not really sure why the chicken and beef aren’t 100%-humanely raised. Hello, Chipotle? Please change this. Along with switching to buying only certified humane sour cream and cheese. Because right now I’m desperately trying to only eat vegan burritos — rice, black beans, peppers, corn, some of all three different salsas (yes!  you can get all three — just ask for them), guacamole and lettuce — and I really, really miss eating sour cream and cheese on those. But I am not going to until those are less inhumanely obtained.)

Chipotle Information on their humane farming practices:

Most pigs do not spend their lives on open pastures, but live in Concentrated Animal Feed Operations, or CAFOs. The conditions in a CAFO are bad, even horrendous. In many ways, they look more like factories than farms. Pigs are crowded so closely with other pigs that they must be given antibiotics from a young age to avoid the spread of infection. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, American pork producers use 10 million pounds of antibiotics per year to keep their confinement raised pigs from getting sick. That’s more than an estimated three times the amount used to treat all human illnesses.
Pigs raised in these “factory farm” conditions, about 95 percent of all of the pigs raised in this country, often don’t even have room to turn around in their crates, let alone experience the outdoors. It’s stressful and inhumane for them, and it’s surely not healthy for us either.
We think there’s a better way to do things.
It’s called old-fashioned animal husbandry, which means farmers rely on care, not chemicals, to tend their animals and their land. Pigs raised in this way are not given antibiotics, and their feed does not contain animal by-products. They are free to roam the pasture, to root in deeply bedded barns, and to socialize with other pigs.
We believe pigs that are cared for in this way enjoy happier, healthier lives and produce the best pork we’ve ever tasted. We call pork produced according to these standards naturally raised, and sourcing it for our restaurants is part of a larger mission we’ve dubbed Food With Integrity, an ongoing quest to source the highest quality food from farmers who care deeply about the welfare of their animals, their land, and their communities.
Since 2001, all of the pork served in our restaurants has been from pigs raised in this humane, ecologically sustainable way. In addition to all of our pork, nearly 60 percent of our chicken and more than 40 percent of our beef is naturally raised. And we’ll continue until all of our meats in all of our restaurants meet this standard.
Once again, naturally raised pork at Chipotle means:
· No antibiotics, ever.
· Letting pigs exhibit their natural behaviors in open pasture or
deeply-bedded pens.
· Vegetarian feed with no animal by-products.

Here are some of our suppliers for naturally raised pork: duBreton (certified raised humane and handled), Niman Ranch (animal welfare approved), Ozark Mountain, and Pioneer Pork (supposedly free farmed certified, though not listed on the American Humane website — I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming the American Humane association takes a while to update their website). (I’m also giving Ozark Mountain the benefit of the doubt — I didn’t find anything about Ozark Mountain on any humane farming labels — I assume (hope!) the Chipotle people went out and made sure Ozard Mountain does not do any factory farming.)

Tags : chipotle, cruelty free, fast food, humane farming

Shootin’ fools and starry gazers, wizard hip and button down,
I walk the occam’s razor way through priests and circus clowns,
am I a missioner of faith or grace or vision Earth or,
another grinning prisoner in Happytown?

— Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer

I’ve found a third no-kill farm on localharvest.org! Isn’t that excellent? I love no-kill farms. This one is another of those has-gone-beyond-the-whole-”humanely-raised”-qualification and has moved on to actually not-killing-animals-at-all. (Just to be absolutely clear about this — I’m still very much in favor of farms that certify that they humanely raise their animals — I think they are worlds better than those horrible abusive factory farms. I really do. And I especially love the AWA, AHA, Humane Raised and Handled certifications — they are SO USEFUL as go-to-lists to find humane farms — much more useful than farms just stating they are humane on their websites in fine print somewhere. However, I like no-kill farms even more — I think they surpass “humanely raised” farms and I wish there were more of them out there. But seriously, there are very few of them out there and I really don’t think they’re not a competitive threat to any humanely certified farms. So if you are a humanely certified farm, know that I still admire and respect you — I don’t hate you, I swear.)

(ETA: The other no-kill farms I’ve blogged about are Black Hen Farm (Santa Cruz, California), and Fias Co Farm (Tennessee). Another one I haven’t blogged about but have been meaning to is The Farm at Mollie’s Branch (Todd, NC))

Anyway, Happytown Dairy, which is named after a song written by Dave Carter, is a no-kill goat farm in Lawrence, Kansas that sells goat cheese, goat yogurt, goat milk, and goat milk soap. It is a small farm that raises registered LaMancha dairy goats which are hand-milked twice daily. The farm follows strict sanitation practices, and the goats are cared for like members of the family, and are grass-pastured.

How no-kill is Happytown Dairy? The proprietors assure me that they work hard to find good homes for all their baby goats. They neuter the boys and sell them as pets (goats are apparently gaining popularity in the area both for use as pets and for brush control). (I think that’s really useful — actually if you drive way out to Orinda in the far east part of the San Francisco Bay Area you can actually see herds of goats grazing the sides of the highway — it’s so hilly there it’s difficult to get any sort of machine to graze the sides of the road, so they utilize goats instead. It’s very picturesque — I highly recommend it if you’re an animal nut like me whose idea of a good time is to go watch a herd of goats. Sometimes they have baby goats! It’s fun.) The proprietors of Happytown Dairy make sure they do not sell their male baby goats to people who will butcher them, and they make sure of that by following up on every adoption with visits and phone calls. They also sell the female baby goats as pets or milk goats to good homes. They only use vegetable rennet in making cheeses, so all their cheese are really vegetarian.

Unfortunately they are mandated to only be able to sell their milks/cheeses/soaps from their farm by Kansas state law, so you can’t order any of their cheese online or in markets. Which really sucks, because I would LOVE to order cheese from there. Sigh.

You’ll have to go out to the farm to buy any products, but if you do go, they sell
goat cheese (year round)
goat yogurt (year round)
raw milk (year round)
goat milk soap (winter, summer and fall) (not spring) (call for availability)

Happytown Dairy
1659 E. 800 Rd.
Lawrence, KS 66049
Contact Information
Elise Fischer
785-843-0968

(Do you know of any no-kill farms that could use some word of mouth? Drop me a line.)