Green Living
cattynine
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Farmer's Market and the Amish
in Green Living
I've read that many of you don't buy things from The Amish at Farmer's Markets and I was wondering why? I don't support them because of the puppy mill issues, but are there other reasons? Enlighten me please!
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Re: Farmer's Market and the Amish
This. I'm sure not all Amish are this way, but some of them view their animals as a means to an end (plowing a field or puppy factory) rather than living creatures. So they literally work their animals to death. Unfortunately there's really no nice way to ask "so, do you treat your animals cruely?" so it's easier just to avoid them. We don't have any at our market, but I always admire their quilts when I drive through PA.
Yep- they don't really comprehend animal cruelty- part of their religion is that G-d gave us dominion over animals, so basically we can do whatever we want with them. Also since the Amish community is so tight knit I sort of view it as a support one, support them all. I know that one dairy farmer who sold milk to Horizon also had a puppy mill on his property and Horizon dropped him as a result.
Wow, Horizon the king of industrial organic milk, dropped a supplier? They must have been reeeealllly bad.
It was in Newsweek when the Obamas were dog-shopping- I don't buy Horizon stuff because it's more expensive than the organic milk @ Trader Joe's, but I also don't shop Amish because of the way their treat all animals. Of course there is a bustling "Amish" market in my area and some of my friends swear by it and one of them said I couldn't assume that the Amish farmers who were selling organic/local food were also running puppy mills, but according to this article (and I don't consider Newsweek to be a hotbed of investigative journalism about puppy mills and things green/organic, etc.) there is a lot of overlap.
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/04/03/a-designer-dog-s-life.html
"It's a business that creates strange bedfellows. Last year animal activist Bill Smith, who runs Main Line Animal Rescue in Chester Springs, Penn., noticed that some of the farms alleged to mistreat puppies were also producing organic dairy products, the kind bought by affluent consumers who'd be horrified their milk and yogurt are being produced alongside dogs in tiny, filthy cages. Indeed, NEWSWEEK visited one farm where a sign identified it as producing Horizon Organics dairy products, which are sold by upscale retailers like Whole Foods Market and in big-box stores like Wal-Mart. That farm, B&R Puppies in Parkesburg, Penn., was recently licensed to hold up to 250 dogs a year; inspection reports from 2007 and 2008 cited conditions as "unsatisfactory" because of squalid cages, sick dogs, pests and failure to vaccinate for rabies. When NEWSWEEK informed Horizon of B&R's puppy business, the company sent a representative to investigate. Upon finding breeding dogs at the farm, Horizon suspended its dealings with the farm. In a statement, Horizon said the farmer promised to "[close] that operation and [find] appropriate and humane homes for all of the dogs." Indeed, late last week farm owner John Stoltzfus told NEWSWEEK he'd already found new homes for the dogs "so we can still send milk to Horizon."
Wow...when Dean Foods (Horizon) doesn't like the way you treat animals... yikes.
Sounds like they just moved the mill to a neighbors.
I don't buy Horizon/Dean milk because there have been a lot of reports and accusations of their organic coming from feedlots, which will hopefully be investigated better under the Obama administration than it was under GWB, and they've also had some dishonest practices (changing the soymilk from organic to not, while keeping the labels the same - lots of customers didn't even notice). I don't buy TJ's organic millk either because they don't disclose their practices or sources.
(I know everyone else knows what's coming next... )
Only Organic Valley for me! Its a co-op of dairy farmers, all small farms, all over the place, with very high standards. I love supporting individual farms, and such a great business.
I live in an Amish area as well. I have been to their farms. Not all of them support animal cruelty. I do buy from some Amish at the farmers markets.
This.