You learned in first grade about the magic of the food chain, right? Algae gets eaten by flies get eaten by frogs get eaten by crocodiles get eaten by people get eaten by God, and so on. But that is grossly outdated. Modern life has a different set of way stations in the cycle of consumption. Here are two ways it REALLY works now.
THE NICE LITTLE FARM PATH (Move your cursor over the images below)
THE FACTORY FARM PATH
If you are trying to decide between big farms and small farms, you need to factor in some details that don’t really fit in a food cycle graph.
At the feed yard, your factory calf and 80,000 of his buddies spend the majority of each day crammed in pens where they eat, sleep, and shit. The farm calf is left to wander and graze as he will.
The uniform administration of antibiotics by Cactus Feeders ultimately strengthens the shit-born bacteria besieging factory-calf’s immune system, whereas Dick and Torrey only give medication to li’l farmy if and when he’s actually sick.
The distance covered by the factory path reflects the range of factory-calf’s possible distribution, so that if there’s anything wrong with the industrial frankenbeef before shipping, not only is there no way to trace it back to cow zero, but you’re also left guessing how many other people in how many other places are eating things made from the same issue-meat (hence those million-pound recalls every so often); meanwhile, if you get sick from your burger at the White Dog, all you have to do is call up the chef and crisis averted. It may mean doing a little extra work and being a bit nerdy about where you eat, but in the end keeping it close to home is a pretty fucking good idea.
LEROY GUMPTION
Comments: Subject: colored folk.. Date: Sep 26 2005 06:54:40 AM Author: JoSepH 'Prophet@babylon'
Yeh I guess the fellow did use them term colored, but time ago this was a term used to descibe a human who was a diffrent colour from ones self.. I do not understand why you would feel offended by this... its better than calling them Dave.. tag nut...
Holy shit, did that dumb motherfucker just call someone racist and use the term colored folk in the same fucking sentence. You're not worth the shit you're made from.
Subject: race?? Date: Sep 20 2005 10:45:07 AM Author: fuckers
Democrates are the fucking racsist ones you cunt. By fostering a helpless mindset to the poor colored folk.
Industrialized cattle farming is about 40 years old. In that time we've seen real health risks (mad cow) and potential health risks (antibiotic and hormone use) that will make this type of farming obsolete in the future. It's unsustainable for the long term. Eventually disease will overpower the drugs and chemicals used to thwart it. It may not even be in our lifetime, but it will happen.
Subject: here's my guess Date: Sep 11 2005 01:16:19 AM Author: adlviuop-dgi h
david cross?
Subject: Those guys Date: Sep 08 2005 07:43:47 PM Author: Dick Inya
Carni-bores, Fagatarians
Subject: food cycle Date: Sep 08 2005 10:05:44 AM Author: jon
hey, you never hear people complain about soylent green
Subject: righteous bathroom Date: Sep 06 2005 11:52:47 PM Author: this is me
that bathroom is sooooo cool- whosever lives in the place where that bottom bathroom lives must be sooo cool- sooo...
un haiku pour le toilet sur la bas, ehem:
like fresh dairy air
that bathroom is so(oh) cool
lucky d'arriere
Subject: COME ON Date: Sep 06 2005 09:01:13 PM Author: LIKE DUH
Subject: shut up hippy Date: Sep 01 2005 10:36:12 AM Author: me
There's no way these little farms could feed an entire country. Unless we all went back to a feudal system or something.
I have better things to do than dig up potatoes all day.
Subject: "republicans are racsist" Date: Sep 01 2005 10:34:10 AM Author: me
Further proof, if needed, that liberals are dumb as fuck.
racsist indeed.
Subject: Wow Date: Aug 30 2005 10:23:13 AM Author: Berlin
What a nice article without any real factual basis. The idea that because a farm is smaller it has better quality meat, is a load of shit. A lot of the time smaller farms will cover up defects in their meat, because they cannot afford to lose a dozen or so cattle.
Oh, and why the hell is there a winge about 'the water never makes it back to Miller Creek', in there? Do you think the water's going to miss its friends and families? Or could it be that by allowing new water to collect via rain in the creek, you actually ensure a cleaner supply.
Subject: racism Date: Aug 29 2005 02:05:52 PM Author: guess
"not all republicans are racist, just everyone they elect into office."
who am i?
Subject: hey vice Date: Aug 27 2005 01:05:00 AM Author: ternd
hey vice, someone thought that this was a republican mag, do you know why? becasue of all the racsist stuff you put in here.
republicans are racsist. there i said it.
Subject: yargh Date: Aug 26 2005 07:06:56 PM Author: w
too many words, graphs were enough--
we're eating poo, oh my god. holy shit everything's carbon? oh my goddddddd then i'm eating dinosaurs
Subject: 'publicans Date: Aug 26 2005 11:38:14 AM Author: airplayt
'Publicans only eat factory meat. They do that because they are as stupid as the fucking cows they eat.
Subject: boo hoo Date: Aug 25 2005 02:14:44 PM Author: ed
what are you talking about? the republican mag thing? that's like one dude and he's not crying for his mommy. chill out.
Subject: facts are facts Date: Aug 24 2005 03:06:45 PM Author: boo hoo
funny how just mentioning the realities of a factory farm being inferior makes these commentors cry for their mommies
Subject: bitch Date: Aug 24 2005 02:30:33 PM Author: you
you mean to say you were actually required to venture beyond your little bubble?
Subject: ? Date: Aug 24 2005 02:25:22 AM Author: Texx's Victory Hall
