The view from above….

I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to work from Sedona, AZ, this month. I flew out here yesterday, and, I have to admit, I’m one of those people who simply love to look out an airplane window. I don’t care if there’s nothing out there but sea and clouds – I can spend hours just looking out into space.

I especially enjoy looking over the western part of the US, so when the plane was getting near Colorado, I made sure to put up my blind and look out. When I did, I have to say, I was rather shocked at the scene beneath me. At 36,000 feet up, I looked down to see hog confinement operations in western Kansas. I counted 20 rows of hog sheds, with 10 to 20 metal structures in each row. I also was able to count 15 large manure lagoons. I have no idea how many millions and millions of gallons of manure that means, but it’s massive. And with 200 to 400 sheds for animals – there must be tens of thousands of them in there! All crammed together, never going outside, never seeing sunlight or touching ground.

And if that wasn’t sad enough, ten minutes later, I saw another large CAFO (that stands for confined animal feeding operation) – factory farm is another term – was beneath me. This one was smaller – one area had 1 lagoon with 4 or 5 barns next to it. But then not too far away there were 4 rows worth of barns wigth 6 lagoons. And then I saw another one! – one lagoon and maybe 5 sheds.

That ended with another massive operation in either western New Mexico or eastern Arizona (my video map on the back of the seat was a little off…) – it was so big, though, I couldn’t count them all! I saw about 26 sheds with 5 lagoons, next to 18 sheds with 3 lagoons, 15 more sheds with 4 lagoons, another 15 or so sheds with 4 lagoons and then around 30 sheds with 4 massive lagoons. There were so many of them that I couldn’t count them all before the plane passed.

This is what’s happened with our food supply. Animals, who should be raised out of doors on pasture, are stuffed into these metal sheds to live out their miserable lives. What can you do about it? Find sustainably raised meat – use the Eat Well Guide or Local Harvest. Eat less meat. Go to a farmers market and get to know your farmer. There are a lot of things you can do to help stop these huge industrial facilities from destroying the environment around them and causing untold suffering to the animals forced inside of them.

And it’s really not too late – every bite you take has an impact on our food supply. So think before you eat – and then enjoy the great-tasting sustainable food that you can find in your area!