Factory Farms

[Lucky]

I've noticed several Social Media post lately with people saying buy beef from here or there and not to support factory farms. They say to buy grass fed or look for this organizations stamp. I wonder what the public considers factory farming? I'm shipping a load Saturday that will probably avg 800# and have been on grass since Spring. Before that it was grass and feed to get through winter. I'm sure they'll go to a feedlot somewhere. Is this considered factory farming? I can see hogs and chicken being factory farmed but beef?

 

[Ky hills]

I've noticed several Social Media post lately with people saying buy beef from here or there and not to support factory farms. They say to buy grass fed or look for this organizations stamp. I wonder what the public considers factory farming? I'm shipping a load Saturday that will probably avg 800# and have been on grass since Spring. Before that it was grass and feed to get through winter. I'm sure they'll go to a feedlot somewhere. Is this considered factory farming? I can see hogs and chicken being factory farmed but beef?

Most people have no clue, zero knowledge of agriculture. All they "know" is the anti ag propaganda narrative.
Then when they hear the truth, they are mostly still skeptical. It's a sad state of affairs.

 

[CowboyRam]

I bet most people have no clue where their food comes from. Most would tell you the grocery store, and they get it from a distributor and down the line with never connecting the food to the farm.

 

[wbvs58]

Those "Key words" are dangerous, factory farm, organic, natural, sustainable, inhumane to name a few. People just throw them into a conversation to make themselves sound authoritive. Some have a legitimate use in the right context.

Ken

 

[GoWyo]

Any dirt lot is a factory farm to a vegan.

 

[SDM]

I think they use the term factory instead of conventional or commercial. I doubt they see a feedlot any different than they do a poultry or hog house.

Those "Key words" are dangerous, factory farm, organic, natural, sustainable, inhumane to name a few. People just throw them into a conversation to make themselves sound authoritive. Some have a legitimate use in the right context.

Ken

I think "sustainable" may be the worst of those. What does it even mean? Here, as best I can tell, it means you've let some agency convince you to plant a mix of 17 species of forage or cover crop. Maybe a reference or two to carbon. I don't think it has anything to do with profitability or keeping a piece of land in ag vs. some type of development.

 

[Ky hills]

Most people are now 3 or more generations away from farm and ranch life.
Used to hear people say oh yeah my grandparents had a farm, but now it's not even a remote concept.
My wife was that situation, her grandparents on one side had a fairly sizable acreage and ran cattle and raised a big garden. She helped them some, but it was still a learning experience for her when we married and was faced with the reality of the day today. She learned pretty fast, and is now trying to educate people about the life.
She runs a BnB short term rental on property. We often meet with guests to show them around the farm and answer questions that they may have. We try to convey the whole story in as condensed version as we can to hopefully give folks a better understanding.
We've found that lots of times out of state people from places you would think wouldn't be receptive are much more so than people in our own community, but that's a whole nother story in itself.
Bulls have horns cows don't. Largely believed but false. Have even had a city chauvinistic friend of my wife's even argue with her on that. He wasn't happy when I confirmed it.
Wife tells people about how cattle are on pasture most of their lives and how they are not pumped full of antibiotics.
We have a sister-in-law originally from California, last time she visited she was on a tear about how dairies were mistreating their calves. Even after explaining things it was clear she still had her views.

 

[50/50Farms]

I give it about 5 minutes worth of trying if I encounter such people and feel like trying. Last time I tried, the lady said that the ideal situation for her would be if a lot of the human population was reduced so all animals could roam free. I left that exchange wondering if getting called cruel and a pyscho by somebody like that is the definition of irony or not.

 

[Logan52]

As to the point of how people from urban or city backgrounds can be more receptive to the agricultural story:
My mom was born and raised on an isolated farm that had been in her family since the 1700s. She grew up in the Depression and times were tough, though they always had plenty to eat. She still associates life on the farm with hard scrabble lack of opportunity. It disappointed her when I borrowed money to buy a hill farm when I was still in college.
This attitude is still common in my community. Visitors from out of state who come here think we have a little slice of heaven on earth. I visit my mom most every morning in town but she rarely ever comes to the farm. She wants my grandchildren to visit her at her big rambling old family home in town.

 

[Ky hills]

@Logan52 thank you for sharing that insight. That is similar to my experience as well. My mother was born in 1929, they lived on a creek bottom, hillside farm a mile down a creek that served as their road in and out of that holler.
She always told that while guarding the newly planted corn field from the chickens she decided that she was going to do more with her life than stay down that holler.
Later in life she inherited a piece of land from her mother's side of the family that had been in that family since 1803. She and my father bought an adjoining tract of family land at auction around the same time.
She was always proud of the land but at the same time she was very down on farming and didn't see it as viable, it was like she was conflicted about it.
We are only around 25 miles from Lexington, the second largest city in KY, however we are east if there which puts us straight in between the big city and the eastern KY mountain counties. It makes for a very strange local existence. We are stereotyped by each region as being like the other, although on our side of the county we are in the hills and much more like the mountain counties.
The people that live in the city and an increasing amount of people moving out int the county have a much different way of thinking than us rural people. Many of them come to small towns or out in the "country" to get away from the big city day to day, then they get upset that it's different.
There has always been a very deep urban/suburban vs rural divide.
There is so much unimaginable animosity from the town people against the rural that it's mind boggling.
Then we have the classist mindset that kinda goes back to my mother being conflicted, because she was so aware of all that.
The urban and suburban people hate the farmers, and are willing to believe all the propaganda from the anti ag crowd.
Lots of times we meet folks from all across the country and other countries that are much kinder and willing to hear our side of the agriculture story than the people in our own town.

 

[Logan52]

What amazes me about this forum, is that we can be so different, and from such different parts of the country, and yet have so much in common.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

It's best if city people stay away. Lets count our blessings. I also agree that it would be better if there were fewer people but not about turning the stock loose.

 

[50/50Farms]

With a declining birth rate amongst several key demographics, it's actually way better for all of us if everyone who's "on our side" has a pile of kids.

 

[Dave]

This winter I met an older man who was very anti factory farms. I sat beside him in of all places the sale yard. He was very vocal explaining to me that we need to go back to farmers milking 6 cows, about 100 laying hens, and maybe a couple dozen beef cows. I tried to explain to him the reality of that happening but he didn't want to hear it.

 

[Ky hills]

This winter I met an older man who was very anti factory farms. I sat beside him in of all places the sale yard. He was very vocal explaining to me that we need to go back to farmers milking 6 cows, about 100 laying hens, and maybe a couple dozen beef cows. I tried to explain to him the reality of that happening but he didn't want to hear it.

That's the thing they don't want to hear it. It would be interesting to know what brought him to the sale, if he had cattle currently or used to and was there for nostalgia?

 

[Lucky_P]

Yeah, I'm not sure that *I* know what a 'factory farm' is... there are several 'family farms' right here in my county, and the one adjacent, that are growing row-crops on tens of thousands of acres... multiple generations and multiple family units all involved in one or more aspects of running those operations. whether it be driving tractors & planters, combines, grain trucks, etc. Several of them also have sizeable beef herds. They're BTOs, for sure, but are they a 'factory farm'?

 

[devonian]

I can only see this sentiment growing amongst the public as people do become more aware and concerned about where their food comes from and tbh having worked extensively in actual factory farm units for chicken and pigs I support the sentiment. I think grass fed beef is the gold standard for animal welfare across the entire sector, we don't have feedlots in the uk and I don't much care for them. The poultry industry has seen improvements but the pig industry worldwide is woeful in terms of animal welfare. Prisoners live a better lifestyle than commercially grown pigs and frankly its shameful and I hope that part of the industry moves closer towards how the beef sector operates going forward. I've grown pigs outdoors in small paddocks where they can express there natural behaviour and the pigs are x10 happier having the space to move around in the sunlight and fresh air digging the soil wallowing and wagging their tails people and tell me the meat beats the pants off anything in the supermarket. I say lets phase out factory farming before the public rejects or the government outlaws it and stay above the curve.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Oh, you are in the uk. I don't think grass fed beef tastes very good. Neither does my rancher husband. I have been to feedyards. Its an all you can eat restaurant and the cattle get good care with the pen riders everyday looking for any that seem 'off'. Manure is scraped off and sold for fertilizer. Pork chops here taste good too and the price is much lower than beef.

 

[simme]

Prisoners live a better lifestyle than commercially grown pigs and frankly its shameful

I agree, we need to crack down on the prisoners and give them the lifestyle they deserve. Take away their cell phones and ability to run criminal enterprises from prison.

 

[rocket2222]

I can only see this sentiment growing amongst the public as people do become more aware and concerned about where their food comes from and tbh having worked extensively in actual factory farm units for chicken and pigs I support the sentiment. I think grass fed beef is the gold standard for animal welfare across the entire sector, we don't have feedlots in the uk and I don't much care for them. The poultry industry has seen improvements but the pig industry worldwide is woeful in terms of animal welfare. Prisoners live a better lifestyle than commercially grown pigs and frankly its shameful and I hope that part of the industry moves closer towards how the beef sector operates going forward. I've grown pigs outdoors in small paddocks where they can express there natural behaviour and the pigs are x10 happier having the space to move around in the sunlight and fresh air digging the soil wallowing and wagging their tails people and tell me the meat beats the pants off anything in the supermarket. I say lets phase out factory farming before the public rejects or the government outlaws it and stay above the curve.

Actually you do, but they do a good job of hiding them from the general public.