12.04.2014

Avian Flu Spreads in Fraser Valley. Solution-Just Say No to Industrial Agriculture, Eat Free Range


The tried reading the news today about concerning the expanded Avian flu quarantine in 4 Fraser Valley farms. They were nearly identical, all focused on how world markets reacted with trade bans on B.C. poultry products. They mentioned the money lost by industrial ag. businesses and their owners, but not a word about how or why all these thousands of chickens and turkeys got the damned flu.

H5 influenza spreads quickly but the infections seldom spread far except under the conditions of intensive crowding and stress in industrial agriculture. Massive barns, massive money, massive debts to build the everything, massive leverage for whoever loans the dough to make it all go. The bankers always demanding that a prescribed list of 'best practices' be adhered to including every ugly and unhealthy aspect of the modern industrial food production system.

One small word the stories all share is 'farm'. The industry and the media use keywords that we all have wholesome internal images of and fond feelings for. 'Farm' elicits a far different instantaneous emotional response than 'industrial poultry business'. That initial emotional response frames how we perceive the rest of the information that follows. We see the little girl at the barn door with the chickens scratching around not a torture scene of tightly caged 'battery' of innocent creatures we've enslaved.

We had free-range chickens roaming around our little farm for about 20 years. Some of them, especially when it snowed, hung out on the porch with the dogs. Pissed off the dogs but this is a chicken-o-centric story so...We got to know them a bit as individuals, each chicken has a different personality...turns out...chickens are people too.

Another common part the MSM's blather about the foul story was the possible shortage of industrial poultry business raised turkeys for the consumer culture's ritual turkey based, post wrapped needless crap opening, gluttony. First off, people could only be so lucky to not eat the growth hormone and antibiotic filled crap. Second, the capitalists will fill any hole in supply with other industrial poultry from somewhere. Third, there are other choices, there are Free Range Turkeys for sale in Vancouver, just enter those words in a search engine and you'll be eatin real turkey a few days after the solstice.

Of course, the free range turkeys probably costs twice as much, maybe 3 times. Guess a person could serve/eat smaller portions or, the words capitalists don't want spoken, buy less needless crap of other types during your Yule. Think about it, isn't real healthy food for your family more important than useless dumb presents. Grow it, raise it, pay thanks to it if you can, but if you must buy a turkey barter your hard earned money with the people worked hard to do it for you. That's real economics, that's real life.