Women in Agriculture, Part 1

This was originally going to be one extremely long blog post.  I have shortened it to 4 shorter posts.

Being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, I've heard just about every reaction possible to my chosen career path:

• "Oh...a farmer?" from my disappointed former teachers.
• "It's just such a hard life" from my mom and other relatives.
• "That's amazing!  I completely support you!" from people who are overly excited by the fact that I, a woman, am "breaking into a man's field".
• "Some people are saying that you shouldn't be doing this, because it's a man's job" from someone who completely supports me.
• Medical professionals usually launch into a long list of questions relating to farm life (exposure to mold, exposure to different animals, air quality, etc.) to get to the bottom of my health problems.
• City folks usually launch into a conversation full of questions about the safety of their food, and eventually ask if it's unusual for a woman to be a farmer.

My two favourite are these:

• "You'll be a wonderful farmer" (no gushing, no admonitions, just simplicity) from a long-time friend.
• No reaction at all.  Just plain farming talk from other farmers and agriculture professionals.

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about what it is really like to be a female farmer, beyond my standard monosyllabic replies to the typical reactions listed above.  In an attempt to order my thoughts and (maybe) avoid ranting, I have organized this discussion into 4 basic topics.

1. Dealing with People's Perceptions

I tire very easily of dealing with the perceptions behind many of the reactions to my chosen career, hence my use of monosyllabic answers.  I'm going to give you, my readers, a once-in-a-lifetime look into what goes on in my mind when I see and hear such reactions.

My disappointed teachers are really thinking that I'm far too smart to be a farmer and am wasting the academic talent they spent so many years cultivating.  I wish they knew how mentally taxing farming really is and that this is a career path that challenges me physically and mentally every day.  In addition to that, this is a field full of innovation (pun intended), so why shouldn't farmers be "smart"?

The people who tell me that it's a hard life are the ones who care most about me.  They want me to have a better life than they had, with more opportunities, and less trouble.  I get it.  I grew up in this life and I know how hard it is.  It does scare me to think of the financial risks, the physical dangers, and the emotional toll this life will have for me.  It's my choice, though.  Yes, it is a hard life, but it is also a good life.

The super supportive people are, quite possibly, the most annoying.  Really, you want to support me?  How exactly are you going to do that (unless, of course, we go into business together or I use you as an educated sounding board to bounce crazy ideas off of)?  If you mean that you'll argue my side when others argue that I shouldn't be doing a man's job, please don't do that.  You haven't spent hours agonizing, searching, thinking, and praying about whether this is right or not.  I have.  If someone wants to question my role in society to my face, I will answer them as respectfully as I can, bringing all of those hours of working things out between me and God with me to the discussion.

The people who say I shouldn't be doing a man's job have an incredibly stunted view of society and history.  Unfortunately, these people almost never actually say this to my face, so I never get to show them that I'm not some subversive who wants men and women to be exactly the same in this world.  I believe that men and women should have different roles in society.  Yes, we should have equal rights, but we have different roles and different things to bring to the table, as a group, and as individuals.  However, I have searched and searched and have failed to find any example of men and women having different roles in agriculture.  I studied history in university before heading to an agricultural college.  To the great chagrin of my professors, I always chose to study some aspect of agriculture whenever the class was given free rein to choose a topic for a term paper.  In completing my research for these papers, I discovered that before the Industrial Revolution, women and men had virtually the same roles in agriculture.  Women have been farming for millennia!  With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, agriculture was given the gift of machinery to make the work easier and more efficient.  Unfortunately, the machinery was too heavy for the average woman to be able to use.  Now that technology has advanced to where machinery, etc. is more easily handled, women are able to re-enter the field of agriculture.  Agriculture, as far as I can see, was never meant to be primarily a man's domain.  And yes, I checked the Bible.  If you want to argue this point on theological grounds, please check out Proverbs 31:16-17.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

You can read about the other 3 topics relating to being a female farmer here:

2. Female Farmer Support Groups

3. The Daily Realities of Life

4. Thinking About the Future

Diary of a Rookie Harvester

Barley Harvest, Day One

Approximately 1:00 pm

I have just arrived home from town and am ready to eat lunch.  I'll be cutting hay for the rest of the day.  Wait a second...Farm Pro has just informed me that today is a good day to start harvesting the barley.  Awesome!  I've never really helped with a harvest before.  Oh, sure I've run the swather a little, and I've even driven the combine a few hours, but for all of my life, school has come first.  There was no way I'd ever be allowed to forsake classes in favour of helping in the fields.  So here I am, 24 years old, poised to take over the farm in the next few year, and I can claim only a few hours of harvest experience.  I am a harvest newbie, a greenhorn, a rookie.  Today will be my first day of my first real harvest season.  Woohoo!

1:30-ish pm

Harvest is starting slowly.  We haven't even really started.  Farm Pro is trying fix the brakes on the combine.  I am handing him tools, tightening random bolts, and stepping on the brake pedals when Farm Pro asks me to.  We finally finish.  Now we can get going!  Or not...we still have fuel up and grease the swather and combine.

Some time around 4:00 pm

I have finally got the swather to the field.  Farm Pro told me to go counterclockwise around the field for the first round, stopping about 200 yards along the side that borders the hay field.  He'll pick me up and we'll go home and get the combine then.  No problem!  This is super easy!  I am going in the wrong direction.  Darn...now what do I do.  I can't turn around without driving on the crop.  I guess I'll have to go around the field clockwise.  No problem.  This is a piece of cake!  Why is it getting harder to drive forward?  Maybe I should lift the header - WHY IS THERE A FOOT OF WATER IN FRONT OF ME?!  Am I stuck?  No, I can back up.  Nope!  I'm spinning!  I stuck!  WHAT HAVE I DONE?  I guess I'd better call Farm Pro and admit my mistake.

Okay, he's coming.  There he is!  No, you can't get it out.  It's stuck, look it's just spinning.  We'll need the tractor.  Forward?  You want to drive us further into the water?  Are you seeing how deep it is?  Seriously, that worked?  WE'RE OUT!

Approximately 5:00 pm

After a short delay with the oil level in the combine, we are full-on harvesting this field!  I've had to avoid a wet spot, but I kept from getting stuck this time!  Everything is going smoothly - what's that sound?!  I've heard that before.  It's not a good sound.  I'd better check it out.  Oh, great.  A knife section AND a guard on the end of the cutter bar are mangled.  Farm Pro stops to see what the problem is.  He removes the broken knife section and tells me to finish the row, so I can get the swather out of the way.

7:00-ish pm

We've had a quick break for supper and are just finishing up with the swather.  It is now back in working order.  I am now wearing my coveralls over my regular work clothes, because I felt a wee chill in the air as I left the house after supper.

Sunset

The wee chill has intensified. My bare hands are getting numb.  I've had to go around a few more wet spots.  Those wet spots are cutting into my deep thought process.  Apparently swather thoughts don't get to be as profound as tractor thoughts.

An hour after sunset

The "wee chill" is gone.  My hands are fully numb.  The coveralls that become a personal sauna in the summer heat are just barely keeping me from shivering.  The swather keeps plugging up for no apparent reason.  Don't you raise your eyebrows at me!  I checked.  There is nothing plugging up the cutter bar.  This thing is clearly just being difficult.  Oh, here's Farm Pro.  He's telling me to go back to the end of the field, and then we'll be done for the night.  The barley is getting tough, anyway.  He'll take the combine home and I'll take the grain truck.  It'll be a quick trip home and then I can relax for the rest of the evening.  I haven't driven this truck very much.  I can't even remember the last time I did drive it.  I do know that it likes to die on me.  I get the truck on the road and shift up to second gear, then third.  I'm now approaching the intersection.  I should shift down.  Where is second gear?  It's not where it's supposed to be!  Where did it go?!  Come on, you dumb - OW!  I found second gear.  I also smashed my thumb in the process.  By now there is no time to find first gear.  I have to just stop, and I'll shift at the stop sign.  I'm not stopping!  What on earth!?  It's okay, no one's coming.  I can just roll through the stop sign and keep going.  Now I'm approaching home.  I'd better slow down.  Slow down!  What is happening - this is the truck with bad brakes!  I somehow make it around the bend into the driveway and park where Farm Pro told me to.  The truck has failed to kill me, but my thumb is still smarting from trying to find second gear.  I find the knob that turns off the lights in the truck, gather up the tools that we used to fix the swather, and roll the window up, trying to ignore the insult of having the window handle come off in my hand.  I put away the tools and feed the farms dogs, who are going wild with hunger.  Finally, I can go inside and get out of my chaff-covered, no-help-in-the-cold coveralls.  Wait a second...why are the lights on the back of the truck on?  I go back to the truck and open the door.  The light in the cab refuses to turn on.  I'm starting to think this truck is possessed.  After groping around in the dark for a while, I find a knob that moves when I push on it.  A quick check tells me that the lights are now off.

The day is finally over.  Farm Pro has admitted that this is not the best year to be learning how to harvest, due to the many wet spots in the field.  I look forward to learning more, but me and that truck are going to have to come to some sort of understanding before I can say I'm excited for the rest of harvest.

This is as far as the diary got.  Harvest is not a convenient time to be blogging, especially if I want the blog to be coherent.  Harvest was awful this year due to unusual amounts of rain.  We managed to get our crops harvested, but many of our neighbours had to give up when it finally snowed.  

My view from the swather while Farm Pro (Dad) combines the row of barley I just swathed.

Don't Fear Your Food: An Overview of Antibiotic Use in Livestock

I have spent weeks avoiding the need to write this blog post.  Antibiotics are a hugely controversial issue amongst consumers when it comes to human medicine.  Once you start talking about using antibiotics in the production of food, people get scared.  I would like to allay some of those fears and tell my readers what I know about the use of antibiotics in livestock agriculture.  This is a bigger topic than it might first appear, though, so I will be writing a few posts on this topic.  Today's post is an overview.

Why Do Farmers Use Antibiotics?

There are three uses of antibiotics in livestock.  Farmers use antibiotics to treat and control disease, prevent disease, and promote growth.  I will discuss each of these uses in future blog posts.

What Types of Antibiotics are Used?

In Canada, there are four classifications of antibiotics.  They are classed according to their importance in human medicine.  Antibiotics that have very high or high importance in  human medicine (Class 1 and 2) are not commonly used in livestock, and require a written prescription from a veterinarian.  Antibiotics that have medium or low importance in human medicine (Class 3 and 4) are used more frequently in livestock.  Antibiotics used for growth promotion are in class 4 and are never used in human medicine.

Can the Use of Antibiotics in Livestock Contribute to Disease Resistance?

Disease resistance occurs when an antibiotic is used to treat a bacterial infection and encounters some bacteria that has naturally mutated to be resistant to that antibiotic.  The antibiotic will kill all of the other bacteria, but the resistant bacteria will live and multiply, increasing the number of resistant bacteria, which may be spread to other animals.  Because of this, farmers and veterinarians need to work together to ensure prudent use of antibiotics.  Additionally, there are several surveillance programs in Canada that monitor antibiotic resistance in the food chain.
It is highly unlikely that a human could develop an antibiotic resistant infection from eating meat.  The best way to prevent this is to properly cook all meat, which will kill any bacteria present.

Is the Use of Antibiotics a Big Topic in Producer Discussions?

Yes.  There are articles in every major livestock magazine and newspaper, there are discussions and presentations at livestock conferences, and anywhere that livestock producers get together, they talk about disease.  Discussions about disease lead to discussions about treating and preventing disease, and those almost always lead to discussions about the prudent use of antibiotics.

Are there Antibiotics in Canadian Meat?

All Canadian meat is free of antibiotics.  Every time an animal is treated with antibiotics, they must be held for a withdrawal period, that is, a prescribed amount of time in which the animal must not be slaughtered and sold for meat.  The withdrawal time allows for all antibiotic residues to fully exit the animal's system before the animal is slaughtered.  If antibiotic residues are detected, the meat is not allowed to enter the food chain.  Withdrawal times vary depending on the antibiotic used.

If you have any questions about the use of antibiotics in livestock agriculture, please let me know in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them in upcoming blog posts.

A few examples of antibiotics commonly used in a beef operation.

References and Resources:

"Learn about antibiotic use in livestock"- video from Alberta Farm Animal Care

"Antibiotic alternatives for livestock producers" - article in Canadian Cattlemen

"Are you being misled about healthy beef?" - article from Alberta Animal Health Source

"Worried about antibiotic use and resistance in cattle?" - pamphlet from Alberta Beef

Don't Fear Your Food: Agriculture and the Environment

I spent weeks trying to figure out a way to write this blog that will satisfy both me and my readers.  I want very much to thoroughly address every single aspect of agriculture's interaction with the environment.  However, I have discovered that to do so would be a huge job.  I also think that I would bore my readers by talking about minute details they may or may not fully understand.  So, I have decided that with this topic, and perhaps with others, I will speak in broad terms and talk about the motives behind actions, rather than talking about details.  I will, however, provide some links to further reading, should my readers want to know more about the topic.

A while ago, I watched a documentary called "Cowspiracy".  I had an inkling that this documentary would threaten the agriculture industry in some way, so I was wary about watching it.  However, I know that if I hide from the concerns that non-farmers have about agriculture, I will never be able to address those concerns.  I will not be an ostrich, hiding my head in the sand, so I watched the documentary.  There were several concerns brought up by the producer, but the over-arching issue that drove the film project was the impact of animal agriculture on the environment.  I can't respond to everything that was brought up unless I write a very thick book on the subject, but I would like to talk a bit about agriculture's impact on the environment.

There is no doubt that agriculture is deeply linked to the environment.  Every production activity performed by a farmer impacts the surrounding environment in some way, whether we are putting something into the environment, taking something out, or modifying the landscape for some project.  This is true for both crop production and animal agriculture.

Farmers' interactions with the environment are largely driven by economic benefit.  When farmers take care of the land that they farm, it is because they recognize that taking care of the land now will lead to increased or sustained economic benefits in the future.  When farmers don't take care of their land properly, it is because they cannot see the future benefits that will arise from the costs incurred today.  Allow me to illustrate this with two different (very simplified) scenarios.

Scenario 1: Crop Farming
In crop farming, soil health is a major factor in crop yield, and crop yield has a direct link to profits for the farmer.  A farmer who wants to take care of his soil in order to sustain a high crop yield in the future (or to increase crop yields) might test his soil, put nitrogen and other fertilizers into the soil to replace what the crop took out, chop the straw and leave it on the field as organic matter, use reduced tillage techniques, and use other practices to sustain or improve soil health.  Another farmer may look at his options and decide that a soil test is too expensive or takes too long to do properly.  He may decide that fertilizer is too expensive, or that he wants to bale his straw to sell as bedding.  The new equipment required for reduce tillage seeding may also seem like too much of an expense.  All of these expenses might become barriers to the farmer, so he will look like the one who cares less about the environment, even though both farmers were equally driven by economic benefits and costs.

Scenario 2: Cattle Ranching
In cattle ranching, access to good drinking water is key.  Studies are finding that cleaner drinking water causes increased gains in cattle and keeps them healthier.  A farmer who wants to take extra good care of his cows might fence off access to streams, lakes, and other water sources, and have the water pumped into tanks from which the cows can drink.  The water is clean because the cows aren't getting into their drinking water.  The riparian areas around the water sources get an added benefit, too, though.  The trees, shrubs, and other plants grow back along the banks of the streams (or lakes, etc.), which take pollutants out of the water, making it cleaner.  I could go on about the benefits of restoring riparian areas, but I'll just direct you to the "Further Reading" section.  A different farmer might look at the costs and time associated with fencing off potentially large areas, installing new watering systems, and (in some cases) training the cows to use the new watering system, and decide that the small gains aren't worth it right now.  As a result, the riparian area will continue to be knocked down by the cattle, the banks will erode into the stream, causing it to be shallower, and the cattle will be drinking dirtier water.

In each of these scenarios, each farmer is motivated by financial cost or gain, not necessarily by the need to care for the environment.  Don't get me wrong; most farmers do care about the environment and enjoy spending time in nature (for example, I just saw a fisher in the bush when I was hauling bales this morning - it was SO cool!!).  However, farms are businesses - big businesses with tiny margins.  Farmers have to make decisions based on economics.  Fortunately, when we look towards the future to see what can be gained from decisions and practices that benefit the environment, we can usually see that those decisions and practices also benefit our bank accounts.  Yes, there are things that the farming community needs to work on in terms of how we care for the environment.  However, we need non-farmers to give us the chance to figure out how we can benefit both the individual farm and the environment.  Without our bank accounts, we farmers can't do anything to benefit the environment, because we wouldn't have our farms.  Please keep that in mind when you have questions about how agriculture impacts the environment.  No one has all of the answers, but we are working on finding the best way to produce different types of food on different types of land in ways that benefit both the food industry and the environment.

For Further Reading
Cattle Producer's Guide to Managing Riparian Zones
The Effect of Clean Drinking Water on Cattle
General Soil Health and Soil Testing Information
Video on the Economic Benefits of Soil Health
A Picture of What Happens When Farmers Don't Care for the Environment

Don't Fear Your Food: Decoding the Marketing Hype in the Grocery Store

The more I scroll through social media, listen to the radio, walk through the grocery store, and generally interact with the world and the people in it, the more I hear and see some key words and phrases.  Over time, I have discovered that consumers assume that certain phrases have meanings, but those assumed meanings are not accurate, and marketers take full advantage of the average consumer's lack of expertise.  To help you understand the marketing labels that are floating around, I've decided to write a brief guide to common marketing terms and what they really mean.  Since this is a brief guide, I will not have time to go into great detail.  If you have further questions about a certain term, please let me know in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer your questions.  I also hope to give a few of these terms their own blog post in the future.

Organic - This is the one label you can trust if you know what it means.  Anything that is labeled "organic" must comply with the Canadian Organic Standards.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I'm really not sure what most consumers think organic means.  It seems as though many people don't know what it means at all, but they assume it is a good thing.  Others seem to think that it means the food is raised exactly as it would have been a few hundred years ago.  
• What does it actually mean?
• Organic food is raised in accordance with the Canadian Organic Standards.  These standards differ depending on the type of food being raised (vegetables vs. grains vs. livestock, for example), but they generally limit the types of inputs that may be used in raising the food.  You can check out the standards online to find out exactly how the organic food you buy has been raised.

Natural - Consumers love this word.  I hate it.  It's incredibly ambiguous and not regulated.

• What do consumers think this means?
• Again, I'm not totally sure, but I think consumers generally assume that "natural" means that the food is raised as if it was just growing in the wild.
• What does it actually mean?
• This is why I hate this term.  "Natural" means absolutely nothing.  It could mean that your cows were raised with other cows, thus fulfilling their natural social inclinations, even if those cows are crammed into dirty, over-crowded pens and fed very unnatural diets.  This is just an example, but can you understand how "natural" just doesn't describe anything accurately?

Grass Fed - Again, this term is not federally regulated.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I think consumers think this means the animal ate grass for every meal of it's life.  Others understand that it might mean that the animal ate a diet of grass for some amount of time while it was alive.  They also generally assume that animals fed grass are healthier and give better meat than those that are fed grain.
• What does it actually mean?
• Think about it for a moment: grass fed beef (or lamb, bison, whatever you're eating) is beef that has been fed grass.  Since this term is not regulated on labeling, all we can safely assume is that the animal was fed grass at least once.  Many consumers seem to have caught on to this, which brings us to the next term.

Grass Finished - This term is not federally regulated, but it is more specific than the previous one.

• What do consumers think this means?
• Some consumers don't understand that grass-finished and grass-fed are not the same thing.  Others understand that this should be a guarantee that the animal was "finished" on a grass diet.  ("Finished" means that the animal reached it's slaughter, or finished, weight).
• What does it actually mean?
• In theory, this should mean that the animal was on a grass diet while it was being finished.  Many producers using this label use it to mean that the animal was fed a grass diet throughout its life.  In theory, someone could call an animal grass finished just by feeding it a last meal of grass, but I don't think that actually happens.  I would like to also note that grass finished or grass fed animals are not necessarily healthier than grain finished animals and the meat is not necessarily better either.

GMO and non-GMO - Genetically modified organisms and labeling related to them are federally regulated.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I wish I knew what consumers think GMO food is.  From what I can gather, consumers seem to think that GMO food is created in a sketchy underground laboratory by mad scientists who work for companies owned by evil greedy corporations.  These GMO foods are then sold to stupid, backwoods farmers who naively obey whatever the corporation tells them to do.  Consumers know that GMO foods are incredibly unhealthy and cause all kinds of health problems.
• What does it actually mean?
• I will eventually devote a blog post to this, but briefly, genetically modified organisms are organisms (plants or animals - only GMO plants are currently grown and sold as food) that have been genetically modified to achieve certain characteristics that could be achieved by genetic selection (breeding) perhaps a few hundred years from now.  If they are sold as food in Canada, they are safe and have undergone rigorous testing to prove it.

Hormone/Steroid-Free - All food has hormones in it.  Labels should read, "Raised without added hormones," but some marketers get lazy and just say "Hormone free."  Unless the meat is raised under organic certification, this term is not federally regulated.

• What do consumers think this means?
• Consumers do seem to understand that conventionally raised animals are injected with hormones.  They don't seem to understand what type of hormones these are.  They also assume that the hormones appear in the meat in dangerous levels, causing their food to be unhealthy.
• What does it actually mean?
• Let me first say that steroids are hormones.  Any company that advertises food as hormone and steroid free is just cheating and trying to make themselves look doubly trustworthy.  Now that I've got that out of the way, I'll tell you what it means for meat to be raised without added hormones (I will devote a separate blog post to this later).  Conventionally raised animals have certain hormones injected into them, usually in the ear.  The hormones are released into the animal's bloodstream over time,  helping them to process their food in a more efficient manner (we call it being feed efficient), which makes them grow a bit faster and has a side benefit of causing them to release fewer harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  The hormones do not appear in the meat in harmful levels.

Antibiotic-Free - Again, the labels should read, "Raised without the use of antibiotics."  Also, just like with "hormone-free" meat, this term is not federally regulated unless the meat is raised under organic certification.  This topic will also get its own blog post in the future.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I think consumers fear that their food could be full of antibiotics.  They think if an animal is treated with antibiotics or fed antibiotics, the meat and milk is tainted.  The average consumer doesn't understand the complexities of antibiotic use in agriculture, so they assume that "antibiotic-free" food is just safer.
• What does it actually mean?
• There are never antibiotics in meat, milk, or other food products in Canada.  If you are eating it, there are not antibiotics in it.  However, antibiotics may be used to prevent or treat disease in living animals, and certain types are fed to animals to make them more feed efficient.  All antibiotics have a withdrawal period, so an animal cannot be slaughtered or milked until the antibiotic is out of its system.  Animals raised without the use of antibiotics are raised without being fed or treated with any antibiotics.  There are no antibiotics in their feed, and no antibiotics are given to them to prevent or treat disease.  I would like to point out that there are a few circumstances in which antibiotics may be used in organic programs.

Free Run - This term generally applies to poultry.  It is not federally regulated.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I haven't run into consumers talking about this term very much, so I'm not sure what consumers think it means.  I think they generally realise that it means that the birds are not kept in cages.  The may think it means the birds are running free around the farmyard, with no fences or restraints, happily scratching in the garden and pecking at stray insects.
• What does it actually mean?
• Free run birds are raised in an environment without cages.  They are not outside.  They live in a barn with perches and nesting areas.

Free Range - This term also applies to poultry.  It is not federally regulated, but has a specific definition.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I think consumers are generally unfamiliar with the difference between free run and free range birds.  They use the terms interchangeably and imagine free range birds to be running around outside without restraint, as they were in the free run imaginings.
• What does it actually mean?
• Free range birds are raised in barns similar to free run barns, but they are also allowed to "range" outside, likely (but not necessarily) in an enclosed area.

Sustainable - This term is not federally regulated and is incredibly ambiguous.  There are currently programs in place to put a definition on this term.

• What do consumers think this means?
• Consumers don't seem to know exactly what this term means, since it is a very ambiguous term, even in general use.  However, the general idea seems to be that sustainable agricultural practices are those that ensure that food can continue to be produced for centuries to come, usually in an environmental sense.
• What does it actually mean?
• At the moment, sustainable doesn't mean a whole lot.  There are programs in the works to find a definition for sustainable agricultural practices.  When farmers talk about sustainability, we want to know if the practice is environmentally and economically sustainable.  Marketers push the environmental aspect, but those companies supporting the programs to define sustainability also support the economics side.

Humanely Raised - This term is not federally regulated, and raising livestock is incredibly complex, so it can be difficult to pin down if certain practices are more humane than others.

• What do consumers think this means?
• I'm not sure, but I think that consumers generally just want to know that the livestock producing their food are getting sufficient food, water, and shelter, and are not being cruelly beaten by irresponsible farm workers.
• What does it actually mean?
• Livestock that are humanely raised should go through programs on farms, in feedlots, and through slaughter in which they are handled using low-stress handling techniques, and in which they have their basic needs met.

Note: I have stated that certain terms are not federally regulated.  They may be regulated by independent programs, but these programs may or may not be enforced.  Federal regulations are strictly enforced.

More Helpful Resources:

• Free Run vs. Free Range
• Egg Labels and What They Mean for Chicken Health
• Canadian Organic Standard and Regulations 
• Information about Hormone Use in Beef
• Information about Antibiotic Use in Beef Cattle
• Accepted Animal Welfare Standards in Alberta (Alberta Farm Animal Care)
• Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
• Verified Sustainable Beef Pilot Project