Guest guest Posted February 10, 2012 Report Share Posted February 10, 2012 Below, a few paragraphs from Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by Salatin. Here is a link to at least part of the foreword of the book: http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Everything-Is-Illegal1esp03.htm Dennis ********** I can't dress a hog for a restaurant without wrapping a million-dollar quintuple-permitted agricultural-zone prohibited facility around it. Here's this monolith of concrete and rebar and stainless steel to guarantee safe food. But when I go to that facility, pick up the raw pieces, put them in coolers, and deliver them to the restaurants, nobody knows if I'm honest. Nobody knows if I cleaned the coolers or sprinkled cow manure in there. Nobody knows if I'm out to hurt somebody. See, the fact is when it's all said and done, the whole system depends on personal integrity. And personal integrity cannot be policed, legislated, or inspected. It just is or isn't. The things that people worry about simply aren't being checked. And if someone wants to taint something - the big fear that the USDA puts out in all its press releases to keep the populace fomented and paranoid and ready to accept additional bureaucracy and give up freedoms - anybody can do it. Easily. Especially in the largest facilities. .... The bottom line is that the chef's bosses who told him he could no longer use our product were putting their faith in a bureaucracy rather than a local farmer. If I had to pick one to trust, I'd put my money on the farmer every day of the week. Yes, I'm sure some farmers aren't clean. But have you seen industrial slaughterhouses lately? Give me a break. This side of eternity, nothing perfect exists, period. .... But this same man, when he goes out to eat tonight, will go apoplectic if a bureaucracy stamp is not on his food. Why? I don't know why. I really don't. But I hope this book helps to break through such schizophrenic reasoning. ... .... on this they agree: food without a government stamp on it might hurt you. Never mind that the food that's hurting people has the stamp on it. And even if someone were hurt by local fare, it would only be a few people. One supermarket hamburger is an amalgamation of material from as many as 1,000 animals. But that is deemed safe and biosecure. A hamburger from our farm, by contrast, only contains meat from one or two animals. The sheer mathematical probability of cross contamination, therefore, is reduced astronomically in a smaller facility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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