A Vegan at a Feedlot: A Tale of Conflicting Stories.

Imagine my surprise today when many of the agricultural blogs that I frequent were carrying the headline "Vegan Visits a Feedlot".  I thought to myself "man, this might be interesting".  Also, I was happy to see that the feedlot was in the Eastern Colorado region within an hour of our ranching operation.  I must say, the article was great!  It was fair, honest and open. It confirmed what people that operate in animal agriculture already knew: farmers care for their livestock and do a good job striving for animal welfare in each aspect of their operation. Please read the article here.

However, I was utterly disappointed upon returning to the article to see his list of responses to correspondence that the author had received. Please read the responses here.

In a list of responses to both the meat industry and vegans alike, he begins to revert back to his righteous vegan outlook and takes the opportunity to apologize to his fellow vegan constituency for an honest accounting of a real feed lot. Why apologize for honesty?  In one response directed towards his vegan readers and followers, he even suggests that "It’s thanks to animal advocates and vegans that any type of progression has been made in the animal welfare movement".  This is purely ridiculous to me.  As a cattle owner and producer on a limited budget, I have to carefully leverage my earnings in the urban market to support the thousands of dollars we spend our our small herd for animal nutrition supplements, animal health items and vet bills so that our animals are cared for to the utmost of our abilities and budget. Each management decision that we make is made to advance the health of our cattle so they drive a premium when they are sold. So,  I take serious offense to the insinuation that the only people trying to make a difference in animals lives are vegans and animal rights proponents.  How many times and how loud does American Agriculture have to yell "WE REALLY DO CARE FOR OUR ANIMALS!!!!" before anyone with an anti-animal ANYTHING outlook will listen.

The author even suggests to the meat industry that "I don’t want to be used as a bargaining tool by pro-meat/pro-feedlot organizations".  Is this to say that animal agriculture as an industry cannot celebrate and continue to tell our positive story based on a favorable impression given by an industry opponent?  This presents quite a conundrum in my mind.  From a vegan standpoint, we can't raise animals for human consumption and then even when we are told we are doing a good job, we're not supposed to tell anyone?

In the end, I want to know if the author is afraid of losing readership because of honesty.  He gave an open accounting of a real family operation?  Yes, I said it...a family operation.  In the article, he questions the idea that since the feedlot has 8-13 workers, are they really a family operation? Take a  look at a different scenario.  If I own a restaurant that was started by my family but need employees to make the business viable, am I now a Factory Restaurant?  I didn't think so. 

So, why are American livestock farmers demonized by this demographic of people? Why do they relish their progressive open-mindedness of animal liberation and freedom for animals while in turn absolutely advocating the limitation of freedoms for others to pursue their life in the manner they wish?   In essence, I and most of the livestock community are not telling anyone how to live their lives but are routinely told how to live ours.  The argument is flawed, unfair and highly hypocritical.

I want to thank the author for having an open mind and an honest pen.  However, I am disappointed to have read his responses to pressure from his own constituency. Honesty needs no apology.

The Power of Words

By now, if you're up on current events in agriculture or even animal rights, you already know about the massive uproar that Yellow Tail Wines has created with its decision to donate $100,000 to the Humane $ociety of the United $tates.  Over the course of the last week and continuing on into this week, the front lines of the battle have been waged over the internet on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.  Scanning the social media beat on Thursday, I caught wind of the brewing storm YellowTail had created and I decided to weigh in. I promptly asked "I wonder if YellowTail realizes that out of $100,000, only $4,000 will actually help animals".  Who knew that a couple lines on twitter could stumble me on to a new project?

If you're not in the loop about the recent YellowTail news, here are some helpful links for you to catch up on all of the hoopla concerning this issue. [Tails] for Tails, Google News Results. Possibly you're an urban resident like myself and your daily routine operates well outside the battle lines between livestock agriculture and animal rights groups. In fact, you may ask yourself what the big deal is, especially after taking in all the cute and cuddly animals adorning the front page of the H$U$ website, all their cute and cuddly celebrity spokespeople or their widely publicized political campaigns.  Well, the problem is that they simply don't do much to help animals, they continually push their extreme vegetarian views on the American public and basically want to see animal agriculture cease to exist.  The bottom line is that they want you out of business if you're a livestock producer. Furthermore,  they tout their great efforts to stop suffering of animals, yet only contribute a very small portion of their multi-million dollar budget to actually funding shelters or helping in any way.  You can read here to find out more of their deceptive front as an animal welfare organization.

As fate would have it, another fellow agricultural "tweep", Jenny Gambill, caught my comment and called me out on the floor.  Immediately, we started generating ideas about how a simple grass roots idea could make an "equal" contribution to help animals in a meaningful way.  So,  here's our pitch: we simply want you to join our Facebook group called "Going Local" and help us raise an initial $4,000 (hopefully more!) to help local animal charities with a direct donation to your favorite one.  The best part is, we don't want to complicate the issue by processing donations or making some extra bureaucracy, we simply want to make a totally transparent effort to help. To do so, we'd like you to pledge a dollar amount on the Facebook page and provide an accompanying validation picture of you completing an online donation, personally delivering or mailing a check to your animal charity of choice.

By raising $4,000, we can make a simple statement to YellowTail and H$U$ that a couple of everyday people can create the same or even greater direct impact in the lives of local animals without the need of a corporate marketing and publicity stunt like [Tails] for Tails.

Now, how 'bout a little inspiration to get 'er kicked off...