Go Eagles!

I may be a little biased, but I could not agree more with Green Mountain College's (home of the Eagles) decision.  

Knowing where your food comes from is so important.  Food can travel around the world, through conditions that destroy the quality and the life-time of it.  And so much money is spent on fuel to get that food to places.  It's beautiful knowing exactly how that cow, pig, chicken, rabbit, etc... was born, how it was raised, how it was treated, when it died, where it was slaughtered and butchered.  How it was transported back to the farm, and who is eating it.  I remember talking to a woman and her two girls one day.  The girls were asking the difference between a Hereford calf and a Holstein calf.  I explained that the Hereford calf is raised for meat, and while a Holstein calf can be eaten, they are raised for producing milk that you buy in the stores.  The girls took the news surprisingly well, and were even interested in what I was saying.  Their mother on the other hand, seemed to be in shock that I would even say anything like that.  "But they live long, happy lives right?" looking sternly at me.  "Yes, they do," I said.  And then I watched them drive away in their SUV.  I could only imagine they were heading to the grocery store to buy some meat for dinner that came from across the country, from a cow that never ate anything except corn and walked on concrete his entire life.  

It's frustrating for me to read that people are really upset that Green Mountain College decided to cull their oxen, because one of them broke his ankle while doing his job - plowing.  Oxen are paired and trained at a young, young age.  Months old.  You cannot pair one oxen with another when they are older, because they would not know how to work with each other.  So, unfortunately the partner would not be able to do his job either.   And Green Mountain College's goal is sustainability.  All the meat will be going right back to their own cafeteria.  Yes the oxen have names.  But all those students know how fair they were treated.  These animals, though loved, are not pets, and were raised to have a job.  Not having a job to do will only torture them.  And speaking from experience with oxen who are not worked, become dangerous.   

Despite Protest, College Plans To Slaughter, Serve Farm's Beloved Oxen