Little bit of a craigslist rant

One of the reasons I have gotten into trying to become a modern Homesteader is because I dislike the way that industrialized agriculture treats it's 'products'. Be it vegetable or animal or fruit... I understand that it's largely necessary and has saved many from starvation but my protest against the system is to simply try and withdraw my support from it. I don't set out to see it destroyed I simply withdraw my support.

I think there can be an equilibrium between our domesticated current selves who see meat in little neat packages and disassociate from the life that made it and the harsh and unforgiving life we used to live. We can use technology and the knowledge built up over the years to run things more efficiently and effectively without forgetting that there is more to those concepts than a bottom line.

We have the luxury in our times of living our lives according to an aesthetic of our choosing. We were, either created or evolved, as omnivores but we can choose to live by a different set of food rules because we have that luxury-- I object to people claiming that lifestyle is more valid or better for the environment because that can't be universally proven (or disproved), it all depends.

I have come to my decisions through what little life experience I have and through listening and learning to the wisdom of others. I have this weird nihilistic libertarian philosophy that still believes there is god but wonders if that matters. I dislike dogma, no matter who it belongs to (even myself).

And now I have participated in the drifting of my thread!

Here is another inside trick, shhhhh.....
If someone is expressing an oppinion and you don't like it, disregard it and move on along and focus on the ones you do.

Confession: I didn't mention to the people I bought my California Cross rabbit does from that I would be eating their offspring. They never said anything in their ad about being against that, but I was anxious to get a hold of some that were close to breeding age. When I went to pick them up, the lady had her kids get them out for me and they kept talking about how cute their babies would be. I drove 2 hours to het there, I wasn't about to go home empty handed.

Technically the bunnies I bought weren't the ones that would be going for meat...right?




And technically if I were to buy a little wether to keep Almond Joy company and motivate her to eat her dang food until she's big enough to get her fair share I wouldn't be buying him for meat purposes. If he just so happened to stop being useful alive then I could still have a clean conscience because I wouldn't be lying when I say I bought him as a companion.

I've sold goats for meat in the past, though the 2 doelings I sold last year were for the guy's "grandchildren" (nope, no way, no how - he was lying through his teeth!). This year, however, I've given hubby the go-ahead to process our extra bucklings. I won't be a part of the processing, though I will happily eat them afterward. At least I know they'll live well and die humanely.

I'm actually planning to milk 2 of my does through this year, so that means I'll have fewer kids to deal with next year. I love the babies - they're adorable - but the fewer I have to house and feed, the better.

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~Trish~
http://harvestmoon-farm.blogspot.com/

The Hindu solution is to use the excess males for labor.

I personally have no issue with eating meat or sending my extra boys to the butcher. I also don't care if someone buys from me and later eats them. I do have a huge issue though if I ask you not to tell my son and then you show up and tell him you are going to put a bullet in his goat. He's 5 and doesn't deserve that. He knows what happens and he chooses not to be part of it. He cares for and raises his own chickens for eggs and he has been milking a goat since he was 3. We can only do our best.

What I said earlier is POUND for POUND animals are worse for the environment to raise. Not that they can't be raised in an environmentally friendly way. It's the nature of the beast. The science is there whether you believe it or not.
You can eat the grass and most trees and many bushes and plants. Just because you choose not to doesn't mean you can't.

__________________
http://silvercreek-farm.blogspot.com
Livin' the good life

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There are more things in heaven and earth,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Hamlet


My attempt at a blog. Hopefully entertaining and useful.
http://senselesslyrandom.blogspot.com/

All of the valid arguments against raising meat are really against confinement feeding of grain. Grain that humans could eat themselves, confinement that causes a huge waste management issue. Animals raised on pasture harvest their own feed and spread their own manure with no tractor use, and even when the feed is supplemented they recycle a lot of human food byproducts (beet pulp, corn silage, spent brewers grain) back into useful nutrients. Pasture is generally more biodiverse and takes fewer chemicals to maintain than row crops. Pasture can be in places where tractors don't go. (I'm about to fence in four acres my hay man won't touch.) As far as water use, animals can be used to reverse desertification, and keep more water in the surface biome rather than allowing it to run off and be wasted. http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savor...climate_change

Yeah... I could decide I didn't need to consume anything at all and become a breatharian. Believing that you can make use with your omnivore stomach to do with the grass and twigs and bark what my goat can, does not make it so.

You are incorrect, or actually worse, you are inaccurate in how you are using what information you have. Your application is lacking.

Actually I see that DL Skidmore has addressed what I was going to.

This is pretty interesting about how you look at your animals and effect on the environment. The best one is the breatharian, I've heard of them at some time somewhere, but does anyone know anyone for real?

While driving your point home is great fun, and you cannot reach thru the computer and make other see your point, and even acknowledge it; remember not to get personally insulting.

Thank you

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"Live your life, and forget your age." Norman Vincent Peale

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia There is, but they don't last long.

Ahahahaha! I guess that Wikipedia is right on this one, "several have died from starvation and dehydration!" You think so?

Oh well, I do enjoy an engaging post such as this one. To each his own.

FYI, I ran the numbers on trying to live on leaves:

18000 Calories per day
49 Calories per 100 g of kale
367 100 g servings of kale needed for caloric intake.
36734 g of kale needed for caloric intake
81 lbs of kale needed for caloric intake

I don't know about you, but I'd be in pretty severe stomach distress after eating 81 lbs of kale.

Man... I like kale a lot... but not that much I think.

18,000 calories or 1,800?

That would be a major mistake, huh? 8 lbs still too much though.

lol, yes still too much but compared to the first number it seems reasonable :P