In the news

I grew up eating the named lambs we reared. Only had a smallholding of between 10-20 at any one time. All had names and were labelled with those names in the freezer. Some we had hand fed in the house when very small.

The mother cows appeared to forget about their young within twenty minutes

Measured by science then.

That's kind of my point. Just pointing out how easy it would be to fool yourself.

Ah, closer reading needed from me on your observation on others observations.
As you say.

Honestly asking, but why go to emotional(?) trouble of naming things you’re going to eat?
Fully acknowledge the potential to just put me on ignore here (no worries if so) but investing in this seems a bit, I don’t know, odd to me. I’m actually interested as way back all things had names (including things that have been forgotten like fields, ways of doing things, shapes of places, etc. )
Sure, call ‘Kevin the calf’ or ‘Percy piglet’ over for feed but applying sentience via labels just seems odd. If that’s the thing? Is that that the thing?
I don’t name my allotment onions.
Am asking as I grew up in and around farms until about 15 but never heard anyone give names to the billy lambs (lower case. They weren’t called billy) or stall calves.
Pm if better, not looking for a popcorn ruck.

I think it's natural to be saddened by waste, and therefore the death of an animal where the protein etc are put to use is perceived very differently to a death where the carcass is simply burned. I'm reminded of North American and other indigenous cultures where every part of an animal is used, hide, meat, bones, guts, etc, and literally nothing is wasted. This is as much out of economics and industriousness as a moral position of respect for the animal's sacrifice.

I've stopped eating meat and fish, but can see the value in reducing waste in the meat industry. What actually disgusts me most is the amount of dead fish thrown back into the sea. And angling, where animals are stuck with hooks, half suffocated, and thrown back. Never understood this. Definitely worse than catching something to eat IMO.

Should meat eaters / producers be disinterested in waste or animal welfare in order to have a consistent moral position? If you're against the death of any animal for any reason why would you mind either way?

Ha, no, it's the hipocrisy and cognitive dissonance that struck me. Obviously I'm against killing animals, but if they are to be killed then as much of them should be used as possible productively for stuff I won't take part in. The crying because they're pigs would have to be killed when they're raising them to be killed is weird, if they're that fussed then don't kill the poor things it's not like they're old, they'll "happily" carry on living for many years, obviously this would cost money and they won't make money from their corpses, so unlikely they're that fussed.

Fine to discuss. We grew up in the country with a couple of fields. Mum's 'hobby' was keeping rare breed sheep. We only had a few (plus some goats and a couple of pigs over the years). The early ones were almost pets and we hand fed any sickly lambs. To keep to a manageable number some were sold for breeding and others for slaughter, of which we kept some.
I guess it's like restaurants giving you the provenance of the meat but to a micro level. We knew which all the sheep were so if one was lame or daggy or something, we could easily identify them.
TBH over the years the names were more for identification than as they started which were really pet names.

Sadly, Trotsky (the first pig) died during the big storm in 87 when the only tree that fell in the field crushed him. We didn't eat him.

Looking at the news I can’t help the feeling that the Blair years were the high point for the UK and that we will never see that again.

I cannot tell you how depressing that is.

If only there was some kind of constant in the 11 years since Blair/Brown that may help explain the situation we find outselves in.

Oh wait I know what it is. Tories (Cunts).

Time to get the fuck out of Dodge, Neil...

Neoliberal capitalism enacted by a certain political persuasion?

I think there is a massive difference between small nth generation farmers, and the rise of "super farms".

My father in law is farming land that has been in the family for hundreds of years, and although the farm has changed in focus (most old farms did a bit of everything), he then went into diary, and and now just beef, mainly as he is 75 years old and can't face milking.

He knows all his animals by name, as he only has enough to produce a living for him and his wife, and every evening will walk round the fields they are in to check on the welfare of each one.
He also knows the name of every field, and has used the same tractor that he bought in 1983 (his pride and joy!) which replaced the tractor his father bought in the sixties.

Call it hypocrisy or cognitive dissonance, but he farms because it is all he has known, he has turned down money many times over from bigger farms, as he doesn't trust them to "farm the right way" as he puts it. As an aside he doesn't use any chemicals\additives, not because he is organic or anything like that, just because he doesn't farm intensively, so doesn't need to. Fields get rested and rotated so the grass grows in them naturally (with a nice helping of sprayed manure)

I am a meat eater, and try and buy all my meat from suppliers who I know buy from farmers like my father in law, as firstly the meat is better quality and secondly there is at least some level of welfare being met.

Petrol rationing is it?

This winter is going to be a shit show isn't it.

I'm going to bulk order bog roll now to beat the rush

Things got pretty fruity twenty years ago when the petrol tanker drivers went on strike. Massive queues, pushing in, fist fights at the pumps.

Genuinely enjoyed this article as someone who used to study sociology
https://missionlocal.org/2021/09/san-francisco-garbage-can-designer/

Insulate Britain have blocked Port of Dover ferry terminal.

Not right now guys.

Or 9 years ago when the Tory energy minister told everyone to stock up on petrol in case there was a strike.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/mar/30/francis-maude-petrol-panic-strike

The good old days....

https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1231543272943898626?s=20

Its kind of nice to see people talking about the Blair years in terms that aren't BUT HE IS A WAR CRIMINAL

Yes, I did say depressing - but still a golden age in comparison to both today and what we have to look forward to.

Insulate Britain

I heard about these guys for the first time yesterday. They must be a special kind of bonkers.