Oprah Bits reporting again...  The subject of today's Oprah was "How We Treat The Food We Eat." Oprah announced that the purpose of this episode was to allow her audience to make informed conscious choices.  The episode dealt with animal welfare, and talked about Proposition 2,The Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, a California initiative on this November's ballot.

According to Oprah's research 99% of farm animals in America spend their lives caged and indoors.

The episode was divided into three specific segments dealing with laying hens, pregnant pigs, and veal calves.  The specific animals targeted in Proposition 2.  Wayne Pacelle, president of the HSUS, was in Oprah's audience and defends Prop 2, saying these animals should have the ability to move around a little bit.   Before things really got going Oprah reminded us that the commercial farmers operate under a different set of assumptions, that the animals are viewed as commodities and the objective is to produce as much product as cheaply as possible.

The first segment dealt with the egg industry.

• The average American consumes 254 eggs per year.
• 75 billion eggs are produced in this country annually.
• 95% of eggs consumed in this country are produced in caged facilities.

Pacelle pointed out that each bird is allotted 67 square inches, a space equivalent to 2/3 of a  standard sheet of paper, for the 2 years they are alive.  Wow.

Oprah also had a few commercial farmers in her audience who defended their positions.  These farmers defended their practices by saying they're basically necessary.  They claim, probably rightly so, that if Prop 2 passes we won't be able to find affordable eggs produced in California.  It is likely that consumers motivated by price, will choose eggs produced in states without legislative restrictions on housing, or even eggs imported from Mexico.  Costs are already increasing because of higher costs of grain.

The representative for Californians for Safe Food, Julie Buckner, then commented that she was more interested in human welfare than animal welfare.  She stated that if this measure passes, the cost of these foods will increase, and the California egg industry will collapse.  She also went on to say that the increased space needed to house these animals would negatively impact the space available for human usage.  In my opinion Ms. Buckner spoke badly and did nothing to help her cause.

The next segment dealt with breeding pigs.

The commercial farmer interviewed in this segment stated that the gestational crates used are "a way we can take care of a lot of animals conscientiously.  They protect the sows from aggressive nature of other sows.  People who come in here and see these pigs in these stalls.  I understand that some people have some concerns about gestation crates.  A (pregnant) sow is looking for something to eat, drink and go to sleep. I think they're very comfortable and content."

Pacelle points out that each sow has 7-10 successive pregnancies.  They could be in crate for 3 years before they are spent and shipped off to be slaughtered.

One of the farmers in the audience commented that the term "factory" (as in factory farm) is perceived by most people as an operation that is only concerned with  pumping out product.  He'd like to think of a factory as a highly efficient place where people are happy to come to work and are concerned with animal welfare.  (Does he believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy too?)

Interestingly, Europe will ban all gestational crates by 2012.

The final segment dealt with veal calves.

The video we were shown indicates calves are kept in 22 inch wide crates for the 16 weeks they're kept alive.  They are fed an all liquid diet, intentionally kept anemic.  They have intestinal problems due to their diet.  Some are so weak they cannot stand up.  Many have sores on their bodies from constant rubbing and standing in their own waste.

The American Veal Processors Association representative, claims this is not representative of the industry. "We have a quality assurance program in place for our members. The barns are inspected every year, reviewed and audited by a veterinarian."

The veal industry is mandating its own changes, however.  By 2017 calves will live in group housing. There will be 6 calves to a pen.  They'll be free to roam in their own area without tethers or restraints, with the exception of vaccinations and early socialization.  My guess is that the industry has come to this on its own because the general public has a pretty good idea about how veal is raised and many people refuse to eat it.  Money is a great motivator.

The organic farmer claims that it actually costs less to raise free range veal.  There is no formula to buy, no antibiotics, no/fewer buildings, and there is less hands-on activities for the farmers.  Not to mention the benefits... it's better for planet and better for calves.

And that's it for the hour-long episode (minus many, many commercials and a lot of recapping).  Oprah says you can start making conscious choices about the food you eat. "California voters, Proposition 2 will be on your ballot next month.  The rest of us can vote at the grocery store with the food we buy for our tables."

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I highly commend Oprah for having the nerve to air a show like this on national television.  It's a great beginning.  It was a bit too sanitized, however.  The commonplace practices of debeaking chickens and clipping hogs ears/tails, were not dealt with.  The farms we visited were pristine looking.  Lisa Ling complained of the odor in the chicken farm, but really that makes little impact without smelling it yourself.  No mention was made of the method of transporting animals to slaughter or what goes on in slaughterhouses.  But hey, I would never have expected to see something like this on television today.  THANK YOU OPRAH!!!

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For further reading:

• Oprah - How We Treat The Food We Eat - Episode Transcript
• Proposition 2 - Yes or No -- Our Post - Your Comments
• Proposition 2 Revisited -- Our Post - Your Comments
• United Poultry Concerns
  
• Californians for Safe Food - They say "no" on Prop 2
• Humane Society's view on Prop 2 - They say "yes"
• Humane Society's Factory Farming Campaign
• Livestock’s Long Shadow (PDF file) -- The UN report on animal agriculture

And, if you haven't seen it already, we suggest you watch Earthlings, the 2003 documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.  It will change the way you think about animals.

I was poking around on Vegan Momma recently. Earlier in July she wrote:

I’m always amazed at the huge disconnect that many people have with food and how it affects their bodies. You would think I would get used to it after all these years, but it still surprises me. We’re not helpless we have control of a lot of the conditions that happen within our bodies. If we continue to feed our bodies junk why in the world do we expect to receive peak performance, sorry (in most cases) it’s not going to happen. Remember GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) yeah that applies to our eating habits also.

As I blogged on Monday, Jane's been disinterested in cooking and we've gotten tired of the local restaurants. So we've been eating a bit more junk food. Now it's nothing like when I was in school, and I'd have a bag of Doritos for dinner. It's the height of summer and there's always some kind of veggie salad in the fridge. But we've been eating a bit more vegan junk food. And I feel it. Perhaps it psychosomatic. Perhaps it's the heat. But I've been a bit more sluggish this week.

We all know that junk food is bad for you. The thing that I'm finding a bit ironic here is that it doesn't taste as good as it used to. Over time my taste buds have changed. Maybe next time I'll remember that and will save myself and just eat good, healthy food instead.

Anyway, Jane and I have promised ourselves to get back on track after the holiday weekend. No more garbage in!!!

We've been hearing about the potential dangers of methane gasses for awhile now. Discover magazine published an article last week stating that "Methane is a paradox. It increases global warming at the same time that it promises abundant alternative energy." Regardless of the potential as an alternative energy source, most of us regard methane gas as a problem. But I think we'd be better served recommending a reduction in beef/milk consumption than trying to figure out how to reduce the methane emissions given off by cattle. Bossie (generic cow's name) would probably agree.

One of the things that I discovered after starting to read vegan literature is that "free range" doesn't mean what I thought it did. Before going vegan, I used to buy eggs marked "free range" or "cage free" -- and I felt pretty good about that. In my mind, I was eating what was basically a waste product (an unfertilized egg), produced by a chicken that was living a pretty good life. As conventional wisdom holds, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Many people believe that egg production is less abusive to chickens than other factory farming processes, and therefore a vegetarian diet is an acceptable way to boycott animal cruelty. Well, here's some more food for vegetarian thought:

• In the U.S. there are no laws or government standards regulating the use of free-range, free roaming, or free-walking on egg cartons.
• Free-range simply means the birds are uncaged. This does not necessarily mean the birds have access to the outdoors. There is no industry standard defining how free-range hens are to be housed.
• Many egg farmers sell their eggs as free range merely because their cages are two or three inches above average size, or because there is a window in the shed where the hens are kept.
• It is common for free range hens to be debeaked, the practice of severing the tip of the sensitive beak, without anesthesia. This is done to reduce stress-pecking and fighting due to overcrowding.
• it is common for free range hens to be "force molted," a standard commercial practice in which food is withheld from hens for up to two weeks to induce egg production.
• Egg-laying chickens don't grow fast enough to be raised profitably for meat, so the male chicks are killed upon hatching. Typically they are ground up or suffocated.
• "Spent" hens (those which no longer produce enough eggs) are thrown into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse without any protection from the elements, often traveling hundreds of miles without food or water. They often suffer from broken wings and legs, and many die from the stress of the journey.
• And finally, their legs are snapped into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Chickens and other birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, so most are still conscious when their throats are cut open, or are still alive when they reach the feather-removal tanks and wind up being scalded to death.

And I haven't even talked about the rampant salmonella.

It's like what your parents always said, there's no such thing as a free (range) lunch.

Some days, it dawns on me that I took the red pill. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to a scene in the movie, The Matrix. The Matrix is a sci fi/fantasy/action adventure movie starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Carrie-Ann Moss that came out in 1999. The scene that I'm referring to has Laurence Fishburne's character, Morpheus, offering Keanu Reeve's character, Neo, a choice. Neo can either take the red pill and be awakened to the true nature of the world around him, or he can take the blue pill and continue to live in blissful ignorance.

Going vegan has been like that for me. As an omnivore, I was sheltered from the truth of how the food got to my plate. The closest I ever came to actually seeing the animal I was consuming was the whole fried catfish I had at a local restaurant or the turkey carcass we bought at Thanksgiving. But even then, I had no real idea what horrors these animals suffered before getting to my plate. Then I took the red pill, and now I can never go back.

I'm not the only one who's thought of this parallel. GRACE put together a parody of the Matrix, entitled the Meatrix, in which Moofius and Leo investigate the myth of the family farm and expose the truth about where your eggs, milk, and meat come from.

This is a great site to gently introduce the true nature of factory farming to anyone who is interested in learning more about the topic. It's animated so the the imagery gets the message across in a less graphic manner, which will be more palatable to most people. And I believe it still gets the point across. If you haven't seen it yet, here's a link to The Meatrix. There are parodies of all The Matrix sequels here as well.

– If you haven’t signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.