As a former farmer, I am very passionate about this cause. We never treated our animals inhumanely, we saw them as the source of food they provided and had an appreciation for that. We only had as many cows as we could manage – not trying to cram them into dirty pens. They grazed pastures and feasted on the feed all winter we worked so hard to stock up in the silo all summer. It pains me to see that the farming industry has gone this path, and small farmers feel the consequences. It goes to say, “you are what you eat.” Would you rather have milk from happy cows or sad, scared abused cows? Basically, you are consuming their fear, disease and chemicals.
Nearly 9 billion animals raised for meat, milk and eggs in the US are suffering in inhumane factory farms. And animals are not the only ones affected, as factory farms impact human health—they can be breeding grounds for dangerous pathogens and the antibiotics used to prevent disease create the potential for dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria to develop.
I’m not a crazed advocate for animals, I’m just a concerned citizen who can honestly tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way. I believe we only get back from the Earth how we treat it, and I know growing up our cows were happy, and the milk we generated from it offered a lot of health benefits. Believe what you will, but I was rarely sick growing up, never broke a bone and attribute a lot of that to eating fresh vegetables, dairy and meats right from the farm that didn’t have a chance to be tainted with chemicals, antibiotics and GMO fillers.
Take the Pledge
The Shop With Your Heart initiative provides the resources to recognize, locate and demand meaningfully welfare-certified meat, eggs and dairy products as well as plant-based alternatives (ahem, one of my favorites is Beyond Meat). So much information these days is public – use it to your advantage to make healthy decisions about what you put in your body.
You can take the pledge here and receive a list welfare-certified and widely available plant-based brands. (including items like Kirkland Organic Eggs you can pick up at your local Costco – it doesn’t mean you have to go rogue and only buy overpriced meats and veggies at specialty stores!)
Just my food for thought of the day.
