Learn basics of agriculture before passing judgements
(Last updated: 04/16/09 7:33pm)I was very glad to participate in last Thursday’s discussion with Bruce Friedrich from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.
This meeting of different views showed passion that fills both sides.
However, I started at MSU in fall of 2006, and came expecting I would learn the latest technology in producing the safest, healthiest food in the world.
But the last thing I thought I would ever have to do is defend my right to carry on my family’s heritage, our nation’s economy, and try to explain the simplest aspects of agriculture to those who know little about it but want to condemn it.
I am a student in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources because I am proud of my family’s heritage and I enjoy working with animals and watching them grow.
I appreciate the responsibility that was instilled in me knowing that animals in my backyard depended on me for food and water and that I was given the moral and ethical responsibility to care for my animals.
We in the agriculture college feel betrayed by PETA members because they show only pictures of animal cruelty that are the worst of the worst but not the true farm experience.
These pictures are absurd; conditions are and the acts of the farmer are not standard agricultural practices, they are pictures of acts that we as farmers condemn. We question whether these pictures of animal cruelty were even taken in our country.
I would urge any person who wants to condemn animal agriculture to learn the basics of farming. Many want to condemn the way we raise our animals but don’t even understand the basics of raising care.
Greg Thon
agribusiness management junior and president of FarmHouse Fraternity
Originally Published: 04/16/09 7:33pm
04/16/09 11:24pmGreg,
Yes, PETA uses pictures that are the worst of the worst. However, these organizations were based on the belief system that animals should not be used for human consumption. Showing these photos and videos is an attention grabber that may convince people to “go veg.” Even though you say you “enjoy watching your animals grow,” you have no problem allowing them to go off to slaughter.
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Alex
04/17/09 10:03am“Showing these photos and videos is an attention grabber that may convince people to âgo veg.â”
Yes, yes, of course. Let’s lie and manipulate people instead of educating them. Why bother with an intelligent argument when you can show a picture of a rare extreme? Well done! I suppose you’d argue for the banning of water by showing a picture of a drowning victim, or support Jenny McCarthy’s insane war on vaccinations based on her University of Google medical degree?
“While I understand your frustration, know that PETA is not satisfied with so called âhumaneâ treatment of farm animals.”
Obviously, you do NOT understand the author’s frustrations.
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Skeptic
04/18/09 2:02pm“If you could choose compassion over cruelty, why choose cruelty?”
I guess I can’t fault you for first uttering these words, but I can fault you for repeating them.
Way to oversimplify the issue. Nevermind the fact that the food we eat is tied into our religious and secular laws, our cultural institutions, the livelihood of many, etc. We’ve simply just been choosing cruelty over compassion for all these years.
To those of you who wish to dram analogies to slavery or nazism, notice that none of the things I said amount to a justification of killing animals.
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