For the better, IMO.

Bloody technology. It all went wrong once we came down from the trees.

Only one solution.

...sort of.

The problem with humans is that they always make sure that the supply of humans exceeds the supply of survival resources.

Study the nitty-gritty truth of Easter Island, supplant their gods with our material gods, and there goes the rest of the world.

Sampler: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2309582

Would have been good. No? Any fertilizers being worked on to control human pests?

May be naive, but I wonder if Swiss meat/milk/eggs can be assumed more bio than other countries'. The zillions of cows and sheep I've seen while cycling/hiking around the country seem very close to nature (and as happy as a cow can be). I can't imagine those farmers using growth hormones or over-medicating.

Does anybody know if there are industrial animal farms in Switzerland, with the abysmal conditions I've seen in films like Unser taglich Brot (Europe-based) and Food Inc. (U.S.-based)?

There are farms in the U.K. that are run in a very similar way to the Swiss ones with small herds fed on grass in open fields most of the year.

The cows look very fit and happy there too.

Growth hormones are banned here.


Chicken battery farms have been banned in Switzerland since 2009. Not sure about other forms of high-capacity farming.

What the hell does a 'happy cow' look like?



How do you find 'happy cows'? Is there some kind of bovine e-meter like the Scientologists use? Do you have something like a pH meter that you stick in their poop to check for endorphins?

Yes there are.
I don`t know why, but every so often I get VgT magazine dropped in my letter box ..... and this investigates those farmers, and organisations, that support this type of thing.... Cruelty to Animals... whether it be Pharmaceutical firms with their animal experiments, or rabbits/hens/pigs, cows/etc for meat production.

They also publish a Black List of suppliers to avoid, if you care about the state of the animals you eat.

They jump around in a happy fashion.

People think they know their dogs and cats are happy so why not cows?

Perhaps it's more that they don't look unhappy.

There`s a farm near me where you can see "happy cows". Lovely.
They live in a big barn, with open stalls, where they can wander in and out as they like, with their calves ....... beautiful big meadows where they spend their sunny days.

The farm runs a restaurant. I`m pretty sure its not on any tourist maps, such a pity.

You can eat outside (smoking)... or inside .... in summer they have outdoor movies on a giant screen ........ and in the day the cows and the bull scratch themselves on the screens poles.

You can buy meat at the farm ...... graphic photos of how your animal grew up to slaughter age ........ .. but at least it lived a fairly normal type of life!

It`s in Buchberg ... called, I think ..... Bessenbeitz ...or something like that.

I've seen literature from a Baselland animal rights organisation (sorry, can't recall the name) with photos and articles about factory farms/animals being kept in poor conditions. They actually named the farms in some cases and in others worked with the farmers to enrich conditions.
Don't know how widespread these abuses are though.

I agree with many posters that the negative environmental impact of intensive agriculture is a very good reason to buy organic as there is usually an environmental protection element in bio certification criteria. I'm not totallyconvinced that I'll live longer if I eat organic stuff, but I do remember a study being published that showed that two year olds that had eaten a wholely organic diet had much lower pestcide residues in their bodies than a control 'non-organic' group. I guess they used little children in the study as their diets can be, and often are, strictly controlled by concerned parents.

Someone mentioned cotton, which is one of the 'dirtiest' crops and uses a lot of water (in organic and non organuc system). Ironically, it's GM technology that is condemned by a lot of organic supporters that has enabled cotton to be produced in a much cleaner way.

I'm sure you are right...but there are still industrial farms and other types.....would be interested what the Swiss standard is vs naturafarm vs bio....does anybody know?

According to this link, there are strict limits to the size of animals farms so industrial farming (i.e. on a really large scale) is basically illegal

So....they get to be raised in full view of where they're going to be slaughtered and eaten and this makes them....happy? Me thinks thou doth anthropomorphize too much. Would you be 'happy' if alien invaders started farming humans for food but let them run around in grassy meadows and have internet access but you occasionally had to watch your friend or your relative go over to 'the barn' around the time a lot of happy peckish aliens arrived every weekend?

Happy cows come from California, silly.

Sorry but that's totally unrealistic.

Aliens are certainly not peckish.

Just because the slaughter follows Muslim law, does not make it ritual slaughter. To make meat Halal for Muslims is similar to making it Kosher for Jewish. In fact, if it is kosher, it is also considered Halal. It is mainly based on the METHOD of slaughter. For kosher, I believe, a prayer is also said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal

Okay, should we instead say the cows are healthy and not under stress?

I'm sure a vet would be able to deduce that.



The same way that a vet could deduce that a cow living in a 10,000 cow feed lot in other countries was probably under more stress and less healthy.

Wasnt really the answer to the difference between standards