This blog was supposed to be humorous but I am not feeling very jolly right now. I've always had a crummy diet and I love fast food. When my toddler started demanding food I freaked a little bit. I wanted to feed her well and I was never going to have one of those kids who knew what McDonalds was by the time she was two. I didn't know where to start though, a drastic change like that was intimidating, and it was hard to make those changes on our nonexistent budget. At eighteen months I went to the drive up teller at the bank and she threw a royal fit because she didn't get any french fries. We've limited fast food since then and I've started making small changes.
When we moved to the farm I was thrilled with the opportunity to start feeding my baby healthier foods. Marcie is an amazing resource and I am learning a lot from her about how to feed my family good food on a budget. It helps that good food is all around us. So while I am learning about "our" farming practices and healthy food, I decided I should probably learn something about the other side. So I am heading down yet another rabbit hole. My education started with Farmageddon the other night. It was eye opening and terrifying. Tonight I am watching Food Inc. which is not only eye opening and terrifying, it's also disgusting. I cannot believe I have just been shoving this stuff down my throat and, worse, down my toddler's throat.
As a former animal rights advocate I wasn't surprised by the conditions the animals were kept in. It is a very stark contrast to the animals I am surrounded by though. Everyone here has fresh air and sunshine, they all have space to move about, most of them have a lot of space. We actually have to look for "our" cows some nights because they're off doing their own thing and don't feel like meandering on down to the barn. I am pretty sure none of the farmers in Food Inc lose their cows on a regular basis. The McBees feed their calves by hand, their children name them. The two newest calves are Bozo or Red Velvet, depending on who you ask, and Shield.
Monday was chicken processing day and I didn't want to be a part of it. I was the only person on the farm who wasn't there though. All of the big kids, Marcie, Jason, and Kris were part of it. I felt like a bit of a wimp for sitting it out but I wasn't ready for it yet. I stayed far away from the area but I still saw more than I wanted to. You can see it from my living room window if you look in the right direction, and occasionally I glanced that way at just the right times. After seeing the way Tyson and Purdue chickens are raised and killed, I can definitely get behind the process here. I am not volunteering to process chickens anytime soon but I am really grateful that they are willing to do it. Lucy will never eat another store bought chicken. I like knowing where these chickens have spent their entire lives, I like knowing what they ate, where they slept, what they've been in contact with, how they were killed, and how they were processed after. Next week I am going to meander over and get a closer look, maybe, I have to make the kids promise not to tease me over my squeamishness first.
Tomorrow we are getting a shipment of chicks! I don't know how many but I'm super excited. I can't wait to see the little loud mouths. I really do love chickens, it's why I still have a hard time eating them. Hopefully there will be plenty of cute pics to share. Now on to the next appalling documentary.
No comments:
Post a Comment