I'm almost ashamed of myself for taking 6 weeks of blogging to get to this topic. It's one of the main reasons I'm writing this blog. If it weren't for anti-ag groups, people wouldn't have a bad image or perception of agriculture. But since they do, agriculturalists are needed to combat what these groups are saying.
The most common and well known anti-agriculture group is HSUS (the Humane Society of the United States). Wait, wait, wait you're telling me. HSUS is not an anti-ag group, but rather an honorable organization fighting for our pet populations to have a safe shelter and home to be in. This, however, is as much as a lie as has ever been told. Their goal is to end animal agriculture. Less than 1/2 of 1% of their money is put towards local animal shelters. Many times local animal shelters are actually charged for inspections. DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT THEY ARE SAYING! HSUS has been so successful because their marketing preys on peoples desires to do good and help dogs, cats and other domestic animals. THIS IS NOT WHAT THEY DO! What they don't advertise is their desire to end all forms of animal agriculture. HSUS doesn't understand that producers do what they do because of long scientific studies. We keep our animals safe, well fed and sheltered.
Sure there are a few bad apples in every occupation. This is shown in the videos you see that HSUS puts out. There's a couple really popular dairy cruelty videos that were taken undercover. If HSUS is so worried about the animal's well-being, how is it that they can stand by and film those videos and do absolutely nothing to stop the cruelty? Oh sure they can say that they need the video to show to their supporters and further their cause and they stop the cruelty later. As a human being if I witnessed the kind of cruelty that are in those videos, there is no way that I could stand by and keep taping the abuse. You can bet your last dollar that I'm going to do everything in my power to stop the abuse and cruelty that is happening to those animals AS SOON AS I SEE IT. After the abuse has stopped, I'm then going to move on to shutting that operation down. Notice I said THAT operation, not EVERY operation. If somebody is abusing animals, they deserve to be shut down and for those animals to be moved somewhere else to get the care they need. Most farming operations are very concerned with their animals and their well-being. Most doctors are very concerned with their patients and their well-being. Most lawyers try to do what is best. Most politicians, I believe, try to do their best for their constituents. Sometimes that isn't what happens. In EVERY career there are bad apples. When there are bad apples in any other profession, they are taken out of that career and/or stripped of their license, degree, etc. That is what should happen in the animal agriculture industry. There is no need for an organization that is lying to the public to get their very vast financial resources and have no idea the reason why producers do what they do and how they do it, to be able to change laws for an industry they have no training in. Not every producers needs to change what they are doing simply because a couple are doing it wrong.
Everyone is concerned about food safety. Making sure their families and themselves have a healthy and safe food supply. We are regulating our safe and healthy food supply right out of our country. Everybody thinks that the better laws and what HSUS is trying to change is better for our food supply. It is NOT. With all the regulations and laws being made, producers are struggling to keep up and at the current rate will be forced to get out of the agriculture industry. That means that our food supply will not come from our country, it will be imported from other countries. We have no real way of knowing how it will be grown, what is used on it, how it is handled etc. We will be at the mercy of another country to provide us with food and we WILL NOT get a say in telling those countries how to produce it. So the next time you cheer another regulation that's placed on agriculture for the purpose of providing a safer food supply, make sure you stop twice and think about what is being done. Your food that is being grown in your backdoor (or in the same state as you) WILL NOT be there if there are many more regulations and groups formed to "protect the farmers' interests". If you really care about protecting your food supply, contact your local NRCS, extension office, or high school ag teacher to have them direct you to a farmer that can answer your questions and maybe even visit their farms.
Before giving money to organizations in any area of your life, do research on them. Don't give based on one commercial or simply their own website. Dig deep so you know what you are supporting. It's best to give at the local level anyway so you can see your dollars going back into your community. If you want to support a national organization, try finding local chapters of that orginization. Go to some of their meetings before giving your support.
Okay, I'm going to get off my soapbox now. I'm very passionate about defeating the anti ag groups like HSUS. There are several more out there. Be careful what you support, and think about how the regulations affect the people involved.
For some fun now...I took some feflies this week while I was waiting for Matt to fill the truck back up with grain. For those of you that don't know a felfie is like a selfie, but with farm animals. These are my debut felfies. We have two horses that we use on the farm for cattle work. Then Henry bought two little horses for the grandkids. Burt and Red are the big horses. Desperado and Danny are the little ones. I don't think I got any pictures with Danny.
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| Burt-he liked photos! |
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| Desperado-I'm on my knees to take this photo. |
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| Burt again. |
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| This is the calving heifers in their shed. |
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| My dear forever leading Burt back to his pen after moving cattle this week. |
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| Red-he didn't like photos. |
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| This is right before he tried to bite my hair. |
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| And after I yelled at him. |
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| He's a photogenic little pony! |
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| Who needs a tractor to push the auger around when you have Matt?
We actually had some time to cook this week so I don't know which recipe to put in! Matt helped me make meatballs so since I have a picture of that, I'll put that one in. These are the meatballs we had at our wedding. No picture of the final result, but they are good!
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BBQ Meatballs
3 lbs. hamburger
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup onion (or minced onions)
2 tsp salt
1 can (13 oz) evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp garlic salt
2 tsp chili powder
Form into walnut-size balls & place in baking pan.
Sauce:
2 cups catsup
1 cup brown sugar
2T liquid smoke
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup onion chopped
Dissolve and pour over meatballs. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
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| Matt helping me make the meatballs! He's such a great help. I need to train him better on the cleaning up part, but small progress, right! |
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