A New Hope

T-Rex Dinosaur--Scott Kinmartin
Me and my bro headin' out for some free range pterodactyl!

I have been outraged and saddened by my discoveries over the course of the last few months. Judging from some of the comments we've gotten on this blog, I take it that many of you feel the same way.

A large portion of the food industry has sold out its values for increasing revenues. They seem to not care about their workers, their communities, and their animals. I am a proud carnivore (no, not an omnivore as you are all trying to correct me. I don’t remember the last green thing I ate) in the tradition of T-Rex. But I cannot and will not eat tortured flesh. And let’s face it folks, a majority of the food we eat is.

Now with this being said, I am not going to stop eating meat anytime soon. However, I am becoming increasingly more interested in the quality of life of the animal that I am eating.

For instance, when I go to a restaurant, I won’t eat any meat dish unless I know the name of animals I am eating, I have seen its Facebook page, and I know that it has a solid, witty Twitter feed. I cannot tell you how many chicken I have sent back to the kitchen because they had a mean streak in them.

That’s a bad joke, but I setting my standards MUCH higher and I am looking for new places to get good meat. This has led me to Springer Mountain Farms (thanks Robbie) and Niman Ranch (Thank you Jedi Master Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals and my new hero).

Knowing nothing of the Niman Ranch, I decided to pay it a visit (via the internet, for clarification). According to the website, Niman Ranch raises animals that are “Humanely Raised on Sustainable U.S. Farms and Ranches, Never Given Antibiotics-Ever, Never Given Any Added Hormones-Ever, [and] Fed All Vegetarian Feeds.” In addition to this, Niman Ranch is part of a larger Niman Ranch Network with 650 other farmers committed to their same values.

This was promising so I kept exploring the ranch.

I hit the FAQ and I was really impressed. First off, Niman Ranch is very honest. Their cattle are not 100% grass fed and they admit it. The cattle do spend their lives at pasture but are fed grains right before they are slaughtered because it makes the meat better. They also explain that the cattle receive a humane slaughter. This is good news for animal welfare conscious T-Rexes like myself.

The info goes on and I suggest that you read it to see what GOOD meat producers are doing these days. And there are good meat producers out there. It is our job to find farms like Niman Ranch and to support them (even if they are more expensive in the short term--because they are). This is the only way to fight the abusive policies of the factory farm.

So please pay heed! You are part of the last hope to save the Galaxy! Do not give into the temptingly low prices of the Evil Empire of the Factory Farm! Join up with the Rebel Alliance and strike back! I wish all of you good luck and happy hunting in the grocery aisles. May the Farm be with you!

-Shockley