SPIN CLASS! Oh, and Chicken Feed

I've never really used my blog to discuss animal issues or the horrors of factory farming. It was due to my own enlightenment about factory farming issues that I made the leap to being a vegetarian for good rather than as a "test diet." I even wrote my masters thesis on hog farming in North Carolina. It's not a pretty story to tell, and I'm an emotional gal. I suggest to everyone to understand where your food comes from; to understand how the animals that provide the meat on your plate were raised. But I also know it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. While part of me would love to be an evangelical vegetarian, I also know that eating in America is a very personal choice. So 9 times out of 10, I keep my mouth shut about animal issues on this blog. I haven't spoken up in a while, but due to this whole egg crisis thing, I wanted to say something.

I'm not going to post photos or videos, etc, but I will give a brief summary. Very brief. I'm sure you have all heard about the egg recall, right? Salmonella in the eggs. How could this happen blah blah. This morning, I saw this headline on CNN, "Feed one likely source of salmonella in eggs, federal officials say." When I saw that, I kind of went, "hmmm. makes sense."

If you want to read the details about what chickens in factory farms are actually fed, click here to read an in depth article by farmsanctuary.org. The short of the long is this - factory farmed egg laying chickens are fed meat scraps. These meat scraps are quite often their departed laying hens and the male chicks that were of no use. Male chicks are collected in bins and trash bags after hatching, ground up while still alive, and mixed into other grains for feed. This feed is supposed to be zapped to kill all the bacteria. Evidently in this case, the "zapping" didn't do its job. At least that seems to be part of the story.

And the NY Times did a great story on the "dirtiness" of the current situation on numerous fronts. One rather potent paragraph:

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources declared Mr. DeCoster a “habitual violator,” making his the only operation ever to be deemed such in Iowa, for its handling of hog waste. And Mr. DeCoster paid more than $1.5 million as part of a settlement with 11 female workers, most of them Mexican, at his egg facilities over sexual harassment and assault charges, including rapes by supervisors.

Lovely :-\
The reason I share this "graphic" information is that there is no mention at all in the CNN article about what the chicken feed actually is. I think they say it is "meat and grain" or something. I know this isn't a fun post to read, but I at least wanted to throw it out there.

I love eggs. They are yummy and nutritous and beautiful and awesome. But I don't eat 'em unless I know exactly where they come from. So thank goodness for my little local farmers market.

I apologize for possibly upsetting you this beautiful Friday morning, but awareness is the key here. Our food industry will have to change due to social pressures regarding health concerns and animal welfare. As LeVar Burton always stated "The more you know, the more you grow." Now back to our regularly scheduled programming..............

SPIN CLASS!

I did it! I went! It was great! The class was an hour long, and there were about 15 of us in there. If all the bikes were in use, there would be nearly 50+ people in that room huffing and puffing. That has GOT to be a sight to see. Anyway, Mike, the class leader was great. I told him I was new, so he came over prior to class start, showed me how to fit right on the bike, how to adjust resistance, how to adjust the handle bars, etc and deemed me ready to go. For my first class, it was sufficiently ass kicking. I don't know if I have ever sweat so much in a one hour class - well, maybe a freshman biology final in college. But other than that, holy crap. My shirt was drenched, my hair looked like I just stepped out of the shower, and there was a puddle of sweat under my bike when the class was done. I also killed off a whole entire bottle of water that I had brought in. My legs felt a little jello like afterwards, so I popped some Advil before bed. This morning, no soreness, but my legs do feel a bit "heavy." Anyway, I thanked Mike after class and told him it was a great first experience. I'll definitely be back. I'd like to make this a once a week routine.

When I actually find a race 12 weeks out and do the FIRST program, I will build in spin class as one of my cross training days. The other day will be - swimming! Let's just say I plan to be a tri-beast when the season starts up next spring :-)