This [the movie Babe] is the way Americans want to think of pigs. Real-life 'Babes' see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. The sows live in tiny cages, so narrow they can't even turn around. They live over metal grates, and their waste is pushed through slats beneath them and flushed into huge pits.
I am happy to see that, increasingly, people care about farm workers. There is tremendous interest in where and how our food is grown.
I know that organic farms can be industrial and just as large and impersonal as conventional farms. Sometimes the free-range chickens aren't even allowed outside, and so they cluck-walk packed tight in a dim lit barn. But organic farms use fewer chemicals.
I love the way soft white cheese such as ricotta or the creamier mascarpone reflect the milieu in which an animal has been raised.
While it's certainly true that many people think that dairy doesn't have a cost to the animal, it's because they never went to a dairy farm.
But I think the majority of cows, and even more so chickens and pigs, are leading pretty miserable lives.
When chickens get to live like chickens, they'll taste like chickens, too.
If you have to put on a haz-mat suit to visit a farm, you may not want to eat what comes from it.
Oh, my goodness, when we came to the farm in 1961, I mean, it wouldn't even support one salary.
What does animal welfare have to do with food safety? The animals are the food! They are living in their own excrement, developing horrific sores, stressed out, and, therefore, more vulnerable to illness and disease.
