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Good analogy, Nate.
I'm a strict omnivore...I eat pretty much anything in front of me, with a few exceptions. I can't stomach mushrooms; if it's not in the Animal or the Plant Kingdom, I probably don't need to be eating it. ;-)
Aloha! ;-)
Aloha! ;-)
quote:
Originally posted by Hotzcatz
So, where ARE they slaughtering these thousands of pigs at?
I assumed Kahua... I learned different:
"When they reach honolulu they are off loaded, they're taken straight to the slaughter house to be off loaded again on to the ground they're washed, fed and they're rested," says the owner of Wong's Meat Market.
On TV Last night
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quote:
Originally posted by james weatherford
Wow!
This is very strange, really. It has brought negative attention to agriculture, because of the vast gulf between people and the food they eat (maybe I'll do a thread there later).
If this pigs fly to Hawaii story is true, I would like someone to tell me where these thousands of pigs are unloaded from ships. That's a lot of squealin' and ****tin' -- take it from this has-been pig farmer. While Ewa Beach might (still) have abatoir capacity, I am not aware of anything approaching the type of livestock handling facility it would require for unloading, and holding up to 48 hours for slaughter, thousands of hogs weighing 200- 250 lbs each, that are consuming lots of feed and water (no, the hogs are not left without feed and water for more than two hours -- you'd know that if you ever met and listened to hundreds, much less thousands, of hungry, thirsty hogs).
The story that anybody is going to spend the kind of $ it takes to truck thousands of hogs from Canada to California and then by sea to Hawaii has a number of dots that do not connect. Did you ever hear of shrinkage? Death loss? These words are about $ and nobody in the hog business makes $ when you got the kind of shrinkage and death loss for 24 to 48 hours on the road and 7 days at sea.
btw: where are these "tourist hotels" that are "labelling the pork as locally produced."?
Urban Myth: Pigs fly.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
Local meat processors say almost all pork, beef and poultry found in your grocery's deli originates from the mainland.
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quote:
Originally posted by james weatherford
.............
If this pigs fly to Hawaii story is true, I would like someone to tell me where these thousands of pigs are unloaded from ships...
Interesting clip showing the route the pigs take and the ending of there shipping through Mattson
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A study of public records showed at least 218 pigs died during voyages to Hawai'i between Sept. 1, 2006, and Aug. 31, 2007, for a 1.4 percent mortality rate, Jones said. That's about seven times higher than the 0.2 percent of pigs that typically die during transport nationwide....
Todays Advertiser
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I'm vegan, so, according to Hotzcatz, you should probably be suspicious of what I have to say. (Really, HotCatz, that's like saying you should be suspicious of what a person who eats meat says about eating vegetables, it kind of borders on racism, don't you think?) But I'm not posting to defend veganism or offend those who are not vegan.
I am of Okinawan ancestry. If you've read Michener's "Hawaii", or know a little bit about the history of Asian immigrants in Hawai'i, you might have picked up on the bit where Okinawans (Pacific islanders of mixed ethnicity: Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese...) were considered of lower class by the naichi, the main island Japanese, because they raised pigs, which was considered a filthy way to make a living. I understand that this proved to be financially beneficial to the Okinawan pig farmers right after WWII started because they provided a local source of pork that was not affected by limitations on ocean shipping. I have relatives who still farm pigs in Waianae, O'ahu. I don't know much about their production, if they're struggling or doing well. When I was little, I knew that they slaughtered their animals at their farm. I don't know how that plays out these days, but there are local pig farms.
Okay, I can't resist stepping onto the soapbox. I think that pigs raised on an actual "family farm" may actually have a chance to be treated better than those from a factory farm. But don't fool yourself about what a farm is in this day and age. Puna probably has real family farms, where "free range chickens" actually means that the chickens do get to walk around freely and aren't crowded into pens with their beaks (and, often, tongues) cut off. But most all of the high production poultry and meat farms are watching the bottom line and don't really have the animal's welfare, or your, the consumer's, health, at heart. If the typical farm-meat animal is allowed to live out its life instead of being slaughtered, after having been pumped with growth hormones, antibiotics, and fed the remains of other animals, they develop tumors, have health problems and die very young.
James W., you've been in this business, can you contest or confirm any of this?
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Aloha Les,
No, not anti-vegetarian, Les! Just anti "spin" reporting. Depending on the source, the information can be presented in one fashion or another.
Other than pork and beef, now eggs (aren't eggs sorta a vegetable?) are all going to come from the mainland since the big egg farm up in Kawaihae is now outa business. If we don't do something to promote local food production, we are gonna be on the wrong end of a really long supply chain. We import a huge percentage of our vegetables, too.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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Les C,
IMHO, yes, local is better all around. That's why we have a flock of laying hens. And, why the only beef we buy is 'Hawaii Island Grass-Fed'.
The whole story above about shipping hogs still does not shape up as accurate. Nevertheless, sure, abuse and/or neglect of livestock on the farm or in shipping is not acceptable animal husbandry. Period.
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
The Alberta-to-Hawaii hog shipping route detailed in a report Tuesday by an international coalition of animal welfare groups as "one of the world's cruelest transport routes" hasn't seen any Canadian hogs since October last year, one of the groups said Wednesday.
According to This Report
However, it continued with:
"While it is very good news that Canadian pigs are no longer being shipped to Hawaii, it is unclear whether these shipments have ceased permanently"
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Don't Click here
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From the http://www.handlewithcare.tv/us/ site posted by Damon:
quote:
Hundreds of pigs are forced together in dark, cramped conditions, first on a truck, then a ship. They are hungry and exhausted, waiting long periods for food. Motion sickness causes vomiting. Standing in their own waste, the pigs endure searing temperatures, often over 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Those animals that cannot endure die, from stress related illnesses, diseases caught onboard or simply being crushed. Those that live struggle to walk as they are roughly unloaded into cramped and filthy concrete pens at the slaughterhouse.
I think most of us can get motion sickness on a ship. So what! As for the “standing in their own waste”. Haven't you heard the expression “Happy as a pig in ****”. I've raised some pigs, and while it is good to have a concrete pen that can be washed out, they really don't mind some sh*t. Also “endure searing temperatures, often over 75 degrees Fahrenheit”. I hope that was a typo. I don't set my AC below 78. As for the “struggle to walk as they are roughly unloaded” etc. If that stuff bothers you, don't go to any commercial animal husbandry farm operation. Cattle are the same way. They scream and buck when forced into pens for any purpose, vet work, loading, whatever. The movie on the site might alarm those who have spent their lives unaware of where their food comes from. Working with pigs or cows or probably any larger domestic animal is hard dangerous work and the animals will sometimes fight and make noise as you have to make them go where you want them to go. It's all part of life. I gather form the site and links on it that the ultimate aim is vegan for us all.
Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.
Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.
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