I'm not really a hunting fishing 4 wheelin kinda guy. I sometimes enjoy those things every once in a while if I'm invited, but they're never something I would purposefully do if I had any choice. Lame intro bro. Dont worry, I AM gonna tell you why I don't (you can exhale now)
Hunting - they should really re-brand that word. Looking for something usually sucks until you find it. Finding what you were looking for is so great because the "looking for it" part sucks so bad. If hunting wasn't hunting and instead was called Findin' and Shootin' then I think I would love it. I guess I need a surrogate for the Huntin' part that could radio-in when the Findin' part was taking place and maybe I could get there in time to do the Shootin'. I don't have anything against hunting though, on a moral or ethical level, except for deer hunting that is. Deer hunting laws are way too conservative. Body shops would be opposed, but I say we remove all limits on hunting deer. Open season, any method, lets save some cars.
Fishing - At least it sounds more fun than hunting. I however, lack the fine motor skills to handle fishing line, hooks, lures, in a manner well enough to spend the amount of time I want on the fun-ish part of fishing which is casting and reeling, casting and reeling, casting and reeling. I think I'd probably rather repeatedly cast and reel a line with only a hook for bait than spend what feels like eternities rigging up poles. And catfish fishing? Baiting a hook and sinking it to the bottom and waiting for a bite is not fishing. Its not even any -ing, it describe enough activity to be a verb at all. Actually I take that back, it would qualify as a member of this verb family:
I am
You are
She is
Cat fish
4 wheelin' - The risk reward ratio isn't right for me on this one. I can have fun on an ATV haulin butt down the river bed, but not THAT much fun. It's like an amazing Subway sandwich. I mean yeah its really good..... a really really good Subway sandwich.
Here's the thing about hobbies and interests, they all sound ridiculous if its not your hobby. Stamp collecting? ummm....Scrapbooking? kill me Gun collecting? Kayaking? Skydiving? ANTIQUING!!!!!???Blogging? AgBlogging? like, you literally do that? cause you want to?Crossfit? Nevermind that one is wayyy beyond a hobby. Mormonism is the Crossfit of religion, or is it the other way around,I forget :)
Thats why I'm not going to give you the ins and outs of why I love to play Texas Hold'em Poker. I'll sound as crazy as someone explaining why they love to get up at 4 am on Saturdays to find things to buy out of people's garages, on purpose, on a Saturday, to spend money on things people are too lazy to haul to the dump, like, you have to go to their house to get it, its not coming down your block like an icecream truck, you have to actually compete with others for the chance to give the junk-owner money, to remove the junk from their property. So I'll spare you my Ode to Poker ,It wont make sense to you and Ill sound nuts, so you're welcome.
So there I was at this garage sale, up high in the deer stand with my twelve thousand dollar antique gun
Ok so a few weeks ago I was playin cards and visiting with a nice couple who were also at the table. The dude owned an Italian restaurant, I work on a dairy farm, his girl had questions about how dairies work. Stuff like, How long do you keep a cow, how many gallons of milk do they make, what do they eat, where are their babies etc etc, all the standard questions. It was totally fine, no bother, it was a pleasure to lay out the whole process.
"Are all your cows girls?" Yep!
"So do you guys, like, have bulls too?" No, we don't, we artificially inseminate all of our cows.
"Really why?" Well they need to get pregnant so they can make milk, they're actually a lot like us in that way.
"How long are they pregnant for?" About nine months just like you or me, well not me but you know what I mean
"And then they have the baby?" Yep and then they have a calf. If its a girl we will raise her til she is old enough to get pregnant, calve, and make milk. If its a boy, we will sell him and he will be raised for beef.
"So she has the baby and starts giving milk and thats it?" Well no, in a few months we will breed her again so she can have another baby and continue to give more milk. She may have 8 or 9 calves in her time on the dairy.
"Sooo as soon she has the baby, yall get her pregnant again and do it over again til shes too old or whatever?" Well yeah thats kinda it, thats how the process basically works on a dairy farm. Cows eat food, produce milk and manure, we keep the milk, gather up the manure to fertilize the crops that the cows eat as food and round and round it goes. The other big part is reproduction. Cows need to get pregnant in order to give us their milk.
"And you think thats good for them?" Well, I mean the treatment and care of these cows is our number one priority. It wouldn't make sense for us to mistreat them in any way. This is what a dairy farm does, its purpose is to harvest milk.A well-cared for cow, in a low stress and comfortable environment, produces the most milk, for the most amount of time.
"I'm just not sure if Im comfortable with that process" Well, I mean, its not like they're human.
Immediately my brain goes: LOLREALLY?? Did that just come out of our mouth?
It was hard not to laugh, I had surprised myself, which aint easy if you think about it! I quickly rattled off a bunch more words I dont remember to keep the conversation moving past the trainwreck I just had. It was awful -ly funny, in a weird kinda way.
I kept thinking it wouldve been a perfect "How Not to Ag-vocate" skit, or how funny it would look as a talking point:
They Say: "I'm scared of antibiotics in my food"
You Say: "More for food for me then, Scaredy Cat!"
They Say:"What about hormones?"
You Say: (In a mocking baby voice) "what about hormones"
They Say: "Cows shouldn't be bred just for their milk"
You Say: "Thank God they're not! yummm
They Say: "I dont like how we get milk from cows"
You Say: "yeahh, Good thing they're not human huh"
Funnnnnnyyyyyyyyyy? oh yeah!
Whats interesting about it though, is that it was completely and totally a Freudian Slip, a verbal "mistake" that reveals an unconscious belief.
A classic slip of the tongue, but lets think this out, it gets even crazier.
I, trying to explain dairy in the best, most accurate light possible, accidentally revealed, through conversation, that unconsciously I believe that cows are not human. Read that again. I accidentally revealed, through the words coming out of my mouth, that I must unconsciously or subconsciously believe that cows aren't human. How stupid does that sound?
Whats even more ridiculous, is that at the time, I was surprised by it, and if I wasnt so cool, wouldve felt awkward about it. It was the kind of epiphany only possible in the Western world in 2012. "Wow, I can't believe I felt so strongly that cows aren't human, its like a part of my being, I have seen the light"
Some of you reading the conversation cringed or laughed and maybe felt a little awkward too! I bet you I'm not the only one who thinks cows aren't human, dont try and act all high and mighty. If you look deep down I bet you're no different than me.
Guess what, try this, next time animals or agriculture or food production or some other relevant conversation comes up, with a straight face blurt out "It's not like they're human though, right guys?" and see what happens. Pointing out things like that will get you blogged about and unfollowed in most of urban America.
How in the world did we get to this point, as a society, as a culture? How is it possible that proclaiming that Animals aren't Human is kind of a touchy, sensitive, polarizing thing to say? I was amazed I said it, and felt weird afterwards about it, but now I realize that everyone else is who isn't rational!
So I'm just gonna go for it, you may wanna click away if this is gonna be too intense for you, here goes
I am not ashamed or afraid any longer. I can do this ...deep breath...
It ....is... not... like ....cows.. are.. ...human. Did I do it? I did it! AGAIN!I am not afraid!
Cows... aren't... human! Say it with me please, cows aren't human! louder!
COWS AREN'T HUMAN!faster! COWS AREN'T HUMAN! Amazing right? COWS AREN'T HUMAN!totally liberating!
COWS AREN'T HUMANS! clap! COWS AREN'T HUMAN! and thats o-kay WHAT?
AND THATS O-KAY! like thats part two of the cheer?
YES! COWS AREN'T HUMAN! AND THATS OKAY! ah okay got it
COWS AREN'T HUMAN AND THATS O-KAY! I CANT HEAR YOU!COWS ARENT HUMANS AND THATS O-KAY! LAST TIME! COWS AREN'T HUMANS AND THATS OKAY!
whew! high fives! wow that was....whew! I cant breathe!
I mean I dont know what came over me,... it's like it was buried deep inside of me for so long, I had no idea how much I believed that cows aren't human! I could shout it from the mountain! It feels right, is it right? You think thats ok? I feel kinda dirty for some reason.
YES ITS FINE! No one can second guess your beliefs, this is 21st Century America, if you believe it, then its true for you. And you feel dirty because organic IS different, but only when it comes to hygiene products :)
So what's changed now that I've been set free? PREACH IT! Do I go back to the old ways? NO!, tip-toeing around, NO! careful to try and emphasize all the ways we treat animals as humanely as possible? NO , um I mean YES! I HAVE NO IDEA, but I'm FIRED UP Preacha!
Ok so we all know, in life, there are racists, agists, and there are sexists, and while I am none of those, I am most definitely a human speciesist. Chuckle or roll your eyes, but this is a real thing. Check out the wikipedia page on Speciesism later. So yeah theres a group of people, animal rights activists especially and specifically, who believe that speciesism is a prejudice similar to racism or sexism.
Here's a comment found on a page about a Speciesism movie found here:
"So glad to hear about this! The last great social justice battle we have yet to tackle is speciesism."
Yikes. Social justice, hmmm. If I were black, or a woman, I would be really offended I think. Animal rights activists just equated the struggle for equality among our own species, to how we should treat cows and chickens and pigs, that can't talk, that we grow for food. Now, PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME, If cows start talking and marching down Main Street demanding the right to vote, well, thats a different story. My fingers are getting tired, do I really need to type anything else about this?
So many of these animal welfare, animal agriculture, food production debates boil down to a matter of speciesism, in my opinion (<---I feel like Im supposed to say "in my opinion", thats the only reason it's there). Do I believe humans have a right to own and use animals for the benefit of mankind? Absolutely, and I think thats okay to talk about.
So what's the big deal, why does it sound so fingernails on the chalkboardy to talk about animals this way?
O.M.G, That farmer just said "It's not like they're human or something" he must_________________.
Assumption time! What can we assume from the statement above............................................. Answer = trick question! Nothing can be assumed. The assumption many people WANT to make is that he must treat his animals poorly, so anything he doesnt regard as human he must treat in a negative or disrespectful manner. WRONG! he may have the puurrtiest non-human '57 Chevy in the tri-county area. But also RIGHT! He may treat his animals like crap, but he may treat humans like that too!
You just learned from me how those things aren't at all related, yes?
So here we go, time to wrap it up B
I play some guitar from time to time and I have this old electric,pawn shop special that I decided to remodel. Yeah so if you know me you know you dont want me to remodel anything, but this was different cause its not a guest bathroom or something. This is an old electric guitar that I could take time with to make it my own, sand the neck, replace the pickups, strings, and tuner key things, I even had a buddy paint some flames down the backside of the neck. I took apart and re-soldered all the connections, put it all back together and plugged it in just hoping it would still work. Well it definitely did, and I love that guitar, spent a lot of time playing and working on that guitar, still have it and still play it every once in a while. In fact, I've never felt the need to buy a brand new shiny guitar that would sound amazing.
So what dude, this blog is too long.
It's the same way with farmers, especially farmers who own and raise animals.
We don't love our cows because they give us a "return", we don't love our cows because we think they should be given the same rights as us or our children, we don't love our cows cause thats what we're supposed to say; We love our cows, just like I love that old guitar, because they are ours. Ours that we've spent time with, ours that we've worked hard to raise or nurse back to health if need be, ours that we want to feel good so they work well. We want to give our cows a nice environment to live in, and strive to keep them comfortable for the duration of the time they will be with us, working for us. We do this with everything we own, and its no different for our animals. Cows aren't human, but we are, and thats probably a big reason why we love them, and treat them, like we do.
@JoshinYall
Here's the thing about hobbies and interests, they all sound ridiculous if its not your hobby. Stamp collecting? ummm....Scrapbooking? kill me Gun collecting? Kayaking? Skydiving? ANTIQUING!!!!!???Blogging? AgBlogging? like, you literally do that? cause you want to?
Thats why I'm not going to give you the ins and outs of why I love to play Texas Hold'em Poker. I'll sound as crazy as someone explaining why they love to get up at 4 am on Saturdays to find things to buy out of people's garages, on purpose, on a Saturday, to spend money on things people are too lazy to haul to the dump, like, you have to go to their house to get it, its not coming down your block like an icecream truck, you have to actually compete with others for the chance to give the junk-owner money, to remove the junk from their property. So I'll spare you my Ode to Poker ,It wont make sense to you and Ill sound nuts, so you're welcome.
Ok so a few weeks ago I was playin cards and visiting with a nice couple who were also at the table. The dude owned an Italian restaurant, I work on a dairy farm, his girl had questions about how dairies work. Stuff like, How long do you keep a cow, how many gallons of milk do they make, what do they eat, where are their babies etc etc, all the standard questions. It was totally fine, no bother, it was a pleasure to lay out the whole process.
"Are all your cows girls?" Yep!
"So do you guys, like, have bulls too?" No, we don't, we artificially inseminate all of our cows.
"Really why?" Well they need to get pregnant so they can make milk, they're actually a lot like us in that way.
"How long are they pregnant for?" About nine months just like you or me, well not me but you know what I mean
"And then they have the baby?" Yep and then they have a calf. If its a girl we will raise her til she is old enough to get pregnant, calve, and make milk. If its a boy, we will sell him and he will be raised for beef.
"So she has the baby and starts giving milk and thats it?" Well no, in a few months we will breed her again so she can have another baby and continue to give more milk. She may have 8 or 9 calves in her time on the dairy.
"Sooo as soon she has the baby, yall get her pregnant again and do it over again til shes too old or whatever?" Well yeah thats kinda it, thats how the process basically works on a dairy farm. Cows eat food, produce milk and manure, we keep the milk, gather up the manure to fertilize the crops that the cows eat as food and round and round it goes. The other big part is reproduction. Cows need to get pregnant in order to give us their milk.
"And you think thats good for them?" Well, I mean the treatment and care of these cows is our number one priority. It wouldn't make sense for us to mistreat them in any way. This is what a dairy farm does, its purpose is to harvest milk.A well-cared for cow, in a low stress and comfortable environment, produces the most milk, for the most amount of time.
"I'm just not sure if Im comfortable with that process" Well, I mean, its not like they're human.
Immediately my brain goes: LOLREALLY?? Did that just come out of our mouth?
It was hard not to laugh, I had surprised myself, which aint easy if you think about it! I quickly rattled off a bunch more words I dont remember to keep the conversation moving past the trainwreck I just had. It was awful -ly funny, in a weird kinda way.
I kept thinking it wouldve been a perfect "How Not to Ag-vocate" skit, or how funny it would look as a talking point:
They Say: "I'm scared of antibiotics in my food"
You Say: "More for food for me then, Scaredy Cat!"
They Say:"What about hormones?"
You Say: (In a mocking baby voice) "what about hormones"
They Say: "Cows shouldn't be bred just for their milk"
You Say: "Thank God they're not! yummm
They Say: "I dont like how we get milk from cows"
You Say: "yeahh, Good thing they're not human huh"
Funnnnnnyyyyyyyyyy? oh yeah!
Whats interesting about it though, is that it was completely and totally a Freudian Slip, a verbal "mistake" that reveals an unconscious belief.
A classic slip of the tongue, but lets think this out, it gets even crazier.
I, trying to explain dairy in the best, most accurate light possible, accidentally revealed, through conversation, that unconsciously I believe that cows are not human. Read that again. I accidentally revealed, through the words coming out of my mouth, that I must unconsciously or subconsciously believe that cows aren't human. How stupid does that sound?
Whats even more ridiculous, is that at the time, I was surprised by it, and if I wasnt so cool, wouldve felt awkward about it. It was the kind of epiphany only possible in the Western world in 2012. "Wow, I can't believe I felt so strongly that cows aren't human, its like a part of my being, I have seen the light"
Some of you reading the conversation cringed or laughed and maybe felt a little awkward too! I bet you I'm not the only one who thinks cows aren't human, dont try and act all high and mighty. If you look deep down I bet you're no different than me.
Guess what, try this, next time animals or agriculture or food production or some other relevant conversation comes up, with a straight face blurt out "It's not like they're human though, right guys?" and see what happens. Pointing out things like that will get you blogged about and unfollowed in most of urban America.
How in the world did we get to this point, as a society, as a culture? How is it possible that proclaiming that Animals aren't Human is kind of a touchy, sensitive, polarizing thing to say? I was amazed I said it, and felt weird afterwards about it, but now I realize that everyone else is who isn't rational!
So I'm just gonna go for it, you may wanna click away if this is gonna be too intense for you, here goes
I am not ashamed or afraid any longer. I can do this ...deep breath...
It ....is... not... like ....cows.. are.. ...human. Did I do it? I did it! AGAIN!I am not afraid!
Cows... aren't... human! Say it with me please, cows aren't human! louder!
COWS AREN'T HUMAN!faster! COWS AREN'T HUMAN! Amazing right? COWS AREN'T HUMAN!totally liberating!
COWS AREN'T HUMANS! clap! COWS AREN'T HUMAN! and thats o-kay WHAT?
AND THATS O-KAY! like thats part two of the cheer?
YES! COWS AREN'T HUMAN! AND THATS OKAY! ah okay got it
COWS AREN'T HUMAN AND THATS O-KAY! I CANT HEAR YOU!COWS ARENT HUMANS AND THATS O-KAY! LAST TIME! COWS AREN'T HUMANS AND THATS OKAY!
whew! high fives! wow that was....whew! I cant breathe!
I mean I dont know what came over me,... it's like it was buried deep inside of me for so long, I had no idea how much I believed that cows aren't human! I could shout it from the mountain! It feels right, is it right? You think thats ok? I feel kinda dirty for some reason.
YES ITS FINE! No one can second guess your beliefs, this is 21st Century America, if you believe it, then its true for you. And you feel dirty because organic IS different, but only when it comes to hygiene products :)
So what's changed now that I've been set free? PREACH IT! Do I go back to the old ways? NO!, tip-toeing around, NO! careful to try and emphasize all the ways we treat animals as humanely as possible? NO , um I mean YES! I HAVE NO IDEA, but I'm FIRED UP Preacha!
Ok so we all know, in life, there are racists, agists, and there are sexists, and while I am none of those, I am most definitely a human speciesist. Chuckle or roll your eyes, but this is a real thing. Check out the wikipedia page on Speciesism later. So yeah theres a group of people, animal rights activists especially and specifically, who believe that speciesism is a prejudice similar to racism or sexism.
Here's a comment found on a page about a Speciesism movie found here:
"So glad to hear about this! The last great social justice battle we have yet to tackle is speciesism."
Yikes. Social justice, hmmm. If I were black, or a woman, I would be really offended I think. Animal rights activists just equated the struggle for equality among our own species, to how we should treat cows and chickens and pigs, that can't talk, that we grow for food. Now, PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME, If cows start talking and marching down Main Street demanding the right to vote, well, thats a different story. My fingers are getting tired, do I really need to type anything else about this?
So many of these animal welfare, animal agriculture, food production debates boil down to a matter of speciesism, in my opinion (<---I feel like Im supposed to say "in my opinion", thats the only reason it's there). Do I believe humans have a right to own and use animals for the benefit of mankind? Absolutely, and I think thats okay to talk about.
So what's the big deal, why does it sound so fingernails on the chalkboardy to talk about animals this way?
O.M.G, That farmer just said "It's not like they're human or something" he must_________________.
Assumption time! What can we assume from the statement above............................................. Answer = trick question! Nothing can be assumed. The assumption many people WANT to make is that he must treat his animals poorly, so anything he doesnt regard as human he must treat in a negative or disrespectful manner. WRONG! he may have the puurrtiest non-human '57 Chevy in the tri-county area. But also RIGHT! He may treat his animals like crap, but he may treat humans like that too!
You just learned from me how those things aren't at all related, yes?
So here we go, time to wrap it up B
I play some guitar from time to time and I have this old electric,pawn shop special that I decided to remodel. Yeah so if you know me you know you dont want me to remodel anything, but this was different cause its not a guest bathroom or something. This is an old electric guitar that I could take time with to make it my own, sand the neck, replace the pickups, strings, and tuner key things, I even had a buddy paint some flames down the backside of the neck. I took apart and re-soldered all the connections, put it all back together and plugged it in just hoping it would still work. Well it definitely did, and I love that guitar, spent a lot of time playing and working on that guitar, still have it and still play it every once in a while. In fact, I've never felt the need to buy a brand new shiny guitar that would sound amazing.
So what dude, this blog is too long.
It's the same way with farmers, especially farmers who own and raise animals.
We don't love our cows because they give us a "return", we don't love our cows because we think they should be given the same rights as us or our children, we don't love our cows cause thats what we're supposed to say; We love our cows, just like I love that old guitar, because they are ours. Ours that we've spent time with, ours that we've worked hard to raise or nurse back to health if need be, ours that we want to feel good so they work well. We want to give our cows a nice environment to live in, and strive to keep them comfortable for the duration of the time they will be with us, working for us. We do this with everything we own, and its no different for our animals. Cows aren't human, but we are, and thats probably a big reason why we love them, and treat them, like we do.
@JoshinYall
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