Have you ever thought of where your food comes from? Have you, REALLY?
To be quite honest it is not a question I use to ask myself very often!
I recently went to visit a friend of mine who has a small farm; her and husband raise a couple chickens in the summer and in the fall well...they end up in her freezer. I don't think I would have the heart to kill and pluck my own chickens but I do like the idea that she knows exactly what she's eating!
To make a long story short, her husband works for an industrial pigsty, they specialize in raising young piglets. The farm can hold over 900 pigs; which by the way I only found out after visiting the farm! Gosh if I only knew what I was about to see...This may sound innocent but I still thought that pigs could live freely; I had images of them rolling over in the mud till the day came where they would end up in my plate. I was fine with that thought because morally speaking they were FREE to be pigs...Right?? Ha ha the joke was on me! The pork we eat is not what it use to be, I am sorry to say!
Here is the life story of the sow (the female pig)
The sows are kept into many different rooms that hold approximately150-300 pigs.These rooms have no windows or lights. The sows are concealed in between a melt structure made up of four walls, this allows them to stand or lay on the concrete floor. Before them, lye's a mucky and slimy tray of water where they are to drink from to quench their thirst. They never see the light of day and are transferred from room to room all depending on their cycle. With that in mind, let me introduce you to the sows new urban and industrial lifestyle!
She is inseminated with a long plastic tube that is about the size of my arm. After a couple of days, the farmer transfers the pregnant sows to a large room, where she will stay there for roughly 120 days. As for the other sows who are not pregnant, they will remain there until their next cycle and be re-inseminated. Once the pregnant sow has given birth, her as well as her young are moved into another room and remain together for only 18 days. On the 19th day her piglets are taken away from her and sold to another farm who raises pigs.
The mother sow is sent back to her initial room to be inseminated 4 days later and the cycle repeats itself. When the sow has reached around four years of life, she is shipped off to the butcher to be slaughtered and served at our local groceries store.
So there is the story of the sows life, I do not even want to know what happens to those piglets or what they do with the males...yuk thats too much for me!
I bet you now understand why I have turned to tofu, or maybe you don't but I speak for myself saying tofu is better. Yeah I know... I thought it was not going to be that great either, until I learnt how to cook it! It is actually pretty good to be honesty! I have to find my recipe and share it with you! Just so you know, I still eat beef, chicken and fish and I bet you are thinking, well thats not any better Julie! Well it is for the reason that I inform myself on how it is being treated. I recently found a local farmer who raises his animals freely (they get to go outdoors and are fed fresh water and grains) For the most part, this experience taught me to pay attention at what we eat and try to buy local products. My husband and I are changing our eating style to resemble more a Mediterranean way of life. We've integrated more fish, tofu, beans, cheeses, yogurt and all that good stuff. So in the end, yes it was a traumatizing experience and I still have the images/SMELLS stuck in my head but so much more came out from this experience and I am thankful for my friend who tagged me along.
On that note...what are you having for supper?
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