Comments on: Mike Rowe – Egg Farming: It’s a Tough Job!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:02:06 +0000

If the industry has nothing to hide, why are bills like the following, introduced recently in Florida, necessary?

http://floridaindependent.com/23574/jim-norman-bill-would-make-farm-photography-a-first-degree-felony-animal-rights-groups-outraged

By: Truth is good

Truth is good — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:13:33 +0000

I have a question that seems to be getting ignored here. How can something be defined as a non-profit if companies or organizations that donate to it expect something in return? It seems like every company Mike mentions as making a ‘large donation’ to mrW gets Mike either in a commercial or as with UEP, narrating a video. These companies are paying him as a spokesperson on top of their donation to mrW. Why can’t companies just donate without the ‘kick back’?

Back on topic, 2 words: progress happens. You can stand by the old guard or you can get on board. This isn’t gonna stop. 8 states have already passed bills banning cages, gestation crates for pigs and veal crates. I was just reading about the latest state to introduce a similar bill in the legislature and the bill was co-sponsored by a REPUBLICAN.

Also Mike is incorrect in saying Californians will still be eating eggs from cages, just from someplace else. It’s my understanding the law includes a provision that says no eggs can be imported into California that have been produced using the old system.

Viva la progress! (No pun intended re: Mike’s latest ad campaign. He hawks so many products I’ve lost track).

By: Ellen

Ellen — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:57:33 +0000

“I can’t believe how pretty and white those birds in cages were!”

Krista – I think that’s the whole point. If you can’t believe it, maybe you should ask yourself how accurate it is. Does it make sense to you that that many animals on top of each other in wire cages (any animals, not just hens), who unless I’m missing something are urinating and pooping daily, are going to stay that clean? Do a quick google image search for ‘battery cage’ as a start.

The point is do your homework. Because at the end of the day, this is something that you are eating and no one is going to care as much about your health as you are. The egg industry that wants your money certainly isn’t, and our government doesn’t exactly have a stellar record of protecting us from harmful substances, either. Everything that is fed to that hen and the quality of the air she breathes, affects the egg and ultimately passes into YOU.

Caring what is in your food, where it comes from, and how it’s treated does not make you an extremist. Sure some people take an extremist view, but more than 20 countries have already decided this system is not only inhumane but bad for people, too. Those who agreed include vets, scientists, legislators – are they all crazy ‘extremists’ or been duped by extremists? Are they all, as Mike seems to suggest, gullible, ignorant and motivated solely by guilt? That is beyond insulting and highly unlikely.

By: Concerned Citizen

Concerned Citizen — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:11:54 +0000

Mike,
Great information. One issue I always address when I talk to those who are concerned about how hens are raised is the issue of numbers. Every year each American citizen on average consumes roughly the equivalent of the production of one hen. Those eggs come on the breakfast lunch and dinner tables as well as in the various foods that contain eggs as an ingredient (bread, mayonaise, baked foods etc.). When we talk about raising hens in an “urban” environment and on the ground the scope of raising the 300 million or so hens required to feed this country starts to come in focus. Where will they go? America’s farmers do an outstanding job of providing us with a great nutritious product.
The latest news from USDA regarding cholesterol and vitamin D content in eggs continues to reinforce what we have known all along. Eggs are great and great for you!
The comments above regarding “we would all be healthier if we stopped eating eggs” exposes the true vegan agenda of the “animal rightists”. We can never lose sight of the difference between animal welfare (health related) and animal rights (an extremist agenda).
Thank you Mike for being the voice of reason and helping put forward an Honest Conversation about what it takes to be a farmer in America and being responsible for feeding its great citizens!

By: MNSteve

MNSteve — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:13:31 +0000

Great video. Thanks for telling this story. It is interesting to read the comments. This video helped me understand the care that farms take to produce food. Farming is different today than when my grandparents farmed. I am glad that I don’t have to raise chickens and eggs in my backyard (my neighbors are also happy that I don’t have livestock in a city). What’s important to me and my family is that we have safe food and that it is available, and at a reasonable price. I don’t want to be forced to pay the cost for organics/free-range/etc. I don’t believe that those types of food are safer or healthier. If society went the way of organics etc there would be hundreds of thousands of Americans forced into poverty and undernourished because of the cost and shortage of food. Mike – keep up the great work!

By: Krista

Krista — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:12:45 +0000

Mike-

Thank you for sharing the story of egg production in the United States! I can’t believe how pretty and white those birds in cages were! This video further demonstrates that farmers responsible for producing this amazing protein source work hard to provide consumers with humanely produced, safe eggs. This story reassures me that the eggs I buy at the local grocery store are safe to feed to my family and friends!

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:54:28 +0000

Great work Mike. Thanks so much. You have added a much needed human element into this conversation/debate that speaks well to those that care about, admire and are engaged in modern agriculutre and all the good it does for people here in the US and across the world. In whatever way possible, I hope that your work will help both sides of this debate to be able to take a step back from each other, and responsibly ask of themselves the core questions that the other side is posing. For example, on the modern, commercial egg production side of the conversation, are they really doing all that they responsibly can be doing to practice good animal husbandry and give their animals more of what good welfare standards would suggest? And if not, what are you going to do about it? I know this doesn’t get to the questions the dedicated vegan wants answered — that is another conversation that needs to happen. On the other side of the divide lies local food movement supporters, organic food advocates, and activists for animal rights (again, leaving out for now the other important conversation that needs to happen with the vegan folks). To this side, one legitimate question is are you really taking seriously the factual, unavoidable and morally critical challenges of what it is going to feed 9 billion people–affordably, sustainably and safely? Literally billions of human lives and human livelihoods are at stake today, and anecdotal observations and incomplete examinations should not satisfy any one who is taking the issue seriously.

Mike — I hope your work can help us all get to that kind of conversation in a meaningful way. Thanks again for your efforts.

By: WOP

WOP — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:17:49 +0000

It is unrealistic to believe that we can, or should, raise most of our food in the back yard. Didn’t Pol Pot try something like that?

By: Aimee

Aimee — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:05:20 +0000

Interesting that not one of those on the side of the UEP has bothered to try to deny that little detail about all male chicks being thrown away – into garbage bags or live into grinders, neither a humane way to go. They don’t deny because they can’t – it’s true. Every. Single. Male. Chick.

Maybe Mike is okay with this, profit at any cost. But I think it’s further proof of what a throw away society we are. We throw away everything – our elderly, unwanted dogs and cats, and half the food on our plates on a daily basis.

It would seem to me that any society or system that is a-OK with live animals of any type being literally tossed away alive needs to look long and hard at itself and how selfish it’s become. Sorry but I don’t need eggs that bad. I eagerly await Mike’s defense of this practice. I won’t hold my breath.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:28:02 +0000

What this says to me is that Mike is clearly not interested in facts. He sides with the factory system and they have given him money to do so. I say this not as some ‘crazy’ radical. I happen to be a level-headed Republican. But I make decisions based on evidence and facts, and I’m sorry Mike but I know a white wash when I see it.

I have seen countless looks inside of egg factories (and read first hand accounts from people who’ve worked in them), and they simply don’t look like this.

First, the birds don’t have as much room as this video shows. Each hen has less than a sheet of paper to live in. Second, and much more importantly, the birds and cages are covered in feces. The cage floors are wire; where is that feces magically disappearing to? And third, if this system is so good, why do the farmers routinely administer antibiotics to control rampant viral and bacterial diseases, drugs that are passed onto consumers?

Every hen I’ve ever seen come out of this system looks like she’s been through a war. The feathers are missing from rubbing against the cage, there are open sores and often broken bones. Then there is the highly unatural forced molting which requires deprivation of food and water. And the fact that male chicks are tossed alive into grinders or the garbage. Mike knows about this part, bc on a recent episode his comment regarding the fate of male chicks was, ‘Trust me you don’t want to know.’

Actually many of us DO want to know. We’re tired of all the secrecy. We have a right to know what’s in our food and how it’s made. Mike I issue you a challenge. Go unannounced to any egg factory in this country and ask to go in and film. They won’t let you bc they don’t want consumers to know the truth. I love my country and am a proud American, but I am embarrassed that the EU manages to produce eggs just fine with a ban on this type of system.

This is not simply an animal welfare issue. It’s a human health issue. How is eating anything that comes from a diseased, severely stressed animal who has never breathed fresh air EVER a good idea? Every instinct that god/nature intended for hens is thwarted by the fatory system. It is, quite simply, a perversion of nature.

I suppose next you’ll be hard at work convincing people that modern pork production is just fine and dandy, and that we should pay no attention to the football field sized lagoons of animal waste that pollute our drinking water, ground water and the air, and sicken residents unlucky enough to live near these monstrosities.

I strongly encourage anyone who cares about their health, animals, or their air and water quality to research this thoroughly on your own and get the facts, rather than relying on a television host who has never worked a ‘dirty job’ in his life.