Q: Is farming cruel to the animals?

A: Not the farming in which we engage. The animals on our farm are not confined, drugged, mutilated or fed food that is unnatural to them. Our chickens are truly free-range, never see cages, still have their beaks intact, and get to run around with the cows and goats; foraging for bugs, worms and greens in the fields. They have comfortable, straw-lined nest boxes in their coops where they can lay eggs. Our cows and goats are free to roam and forage, follow the sun for good nap spots, play together and walk, run, stretch and climb hills. They also get to nurse and raise their young. They drink fresh well water, slurp the mineral licks whenever they like, and have the option of hanging out in the covered, straw-bedded shelter when the rain and snow get to be a bit much for them. In truth, they're pampered and spoiled rotten, just like our dogs. In the winter, we put out high-quality alfalfa hay until nature presents them once again with fresh grass and foliage. Cows and goats are herbivores and can become ill and bloated if stuffed full of grain.

The best part of allowing the animals to range and mingle, aside from knowing that they are contented and healthy living this way, is observing them socialize and express their sense of humour, personality and authority; which, in the factory-farm system, they never get to do.

Factory farming, battery cages, and the whole industrialized system are cruel to animals, the environment, and humans alike. We all suffer the consequences of this model with millions of sick, miserable, abused animals; tainted, dyed, "atmospherically enhanced," toxin-laden meat on the shelves; their by-products and drug residues entering both the human and pet food supplies; and consumers who develop illnesses and conditions due to the long-term consumption of the compromised products that issue from these sick animals and the methods employed to cover it all up.

Pasteurization and irradiation don't exist to keep the population healthy or "safe." They are utilized to cover up the sins of these industries while allowing them to continue their unhealthy practices because it is cheaper and easier to do so. And organic standards continue to be lowered in order to level the playing field and enable factory farmers to claim that their feedlot meat is "organic" so that they, too, can justify higher prices for their inferior products. The animals stuck in this system live sick, miserable, short lives. A healthy, pastured cow can live upwards of 15 years, but cows in the feedlot don't usually survive past 4.

The only way around this is to speak loudly with our food dollars. If we stop buying the products that issue from this system and instead purchase from producers who raise their animals humanely on pasture without drugs, confinement and toxic feeds, we send a clear message. By choosing not to support the feedlots and conventional dairies that engage in these harmful practices, we can affect their bottom line and put them out of business. It IS happening, one household at a time. We ARE making a difference.

Another point not often brought up is that the financial support of consumers (or shareholders, in the case of a herd share) enables pasture-based farmers to maintain and stabilize increasingly scarce, non-hybridized heritage breeds that would otherwise risk rapid extinction. By consuming the meat, eggs and milk of these animals, you justify the continuation and maintenance of their dwindling breeds, thereby ensuring greater biodiversity, integrity (and less inbreeding) in the food chain. This is very important and much misunderstood. Diversity isn't 10,000 coloured boxes of industrially processed pseudo-foods on supermarket shelves that all contain some variation of genetically modified corn, soy, refined sugar and toxic chemicals; yet are slickly marketed as different products.

Real biodiversity begins with the integrity of the soil and the varied plant life that takes up its nutrients, which serve as the very basis for life as we know it, and is at the core of pasture-based farming. The manure of healthy, unconfined animals replenishes the soil and supports the growth of nutrient-dense plants whose goodness both directly nourishes and is concentrated by the animals; and supports the health of the humans who are fortunate enough to partake of their milk, eggs and meat. Our garden vegetables benefit, too. Please stop to consider the harmony, logic and inherent wisdom of this elegant system before being seduced by the cheapest, "bargain" products on the shelves the next time you shop.