COVID-19 Lockdown, Day 37

So, I have been reading about how the pandemic is affecting the farms and meat markets. I have read about how animals are being euthanized and aborted and how milk is being dumped and extra crops are being thrown away. I understand, not as much meat or food is being sold because few people are eating at restaurants, but wasting food and killing animals for nothing is BEYOND appalling. Maybe it is the Native American in me, but whenever I throw away food that spoiled because I did not eat it, I always pray for forgiveness. Parents would always tell their children about the starving children in Africa when they don't finish their plates, but forget Africa for a second! There are starving children right in America--one of the richest countries in the world. Because of people on furlough or being laid off because of the pandemic, there are more people frequenting the local pantries, and we are wasting food?

Yes, I am part Native American; I am part Mescalero Apache, part Chippewa, and, embarrassed I am to admit it (ask me later), part Cherokee. As I was telling my friends on Sunday, many of the Plains and Southwestern nations were hunter-gatherers who followed the buffalo. They did not keep their animals in pens (okay, so maybe we sometimes did with horses, but as horses are not native to North America, how else were we to hold them?); instead, they followed the buffalo and only took what was needed and let the others go. The buffalo slaughtered was not just food; it was clothing, shelter, accessories, weapons, and tools. Not one particle of the buffalo was put to waste. Alas, you don't have to be a vegan to respect the beast. Even some Native Americans thank their prey for giving up its life so that they could eat. The Seminole believe that it is a sin to kill an animal if you don't eat it. So do I.

Killing those animals because of lost profit is evil. Damn evil! (Pardon my french.) If you cannot use an animal for food and cannot afford to feed it, let it go. I know that too many of such animals spend their entire existence in cages and cannot survive on their own, but they should not be kept in cages at all. The healthiest meat is from animals allowed to exercise naturally anyway. Instead of burying product or feeding the vultures with it, how about giving that meat to food banks? Instead of dumping unsold milk or produce, how about giving it away like some people are doing? How about drying the milk into powder and giving it to food banks or WIC? How about drying the produce and storing it for "rainy days"? If God can chastise a sinful nation by allowing a plague, what is to stop crop failures? Since the days of Joseph, Governor of Egypt, nations and kingdoms store food surpluses for droughts and famines. If we were smart, we would have learned from the crop failures a few years ago. It is time to stop wasting food! As long as there is one starving person, there is no reason for wasting what God has blessed us with.

--Signing off.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meat-farmers-resort-to-euthanizing-piglets-under-pandemic-pressure_n_5ea82ca9c5b699bb9d9ef77b

https://www.fooddive.com/news/2m-chickens-euthanized-as-coronavirus-shuts-down-meat-processors/576879/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennysplitter/2020/04/28/farmers-face-their-worst-case-scenarios-depopulating-chickens-euthanizing-pigs-and-dumping-milk/

https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2020/04/28/waupun-ffa-alumni-give-away-1200-gallons-milk/3026432001/

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/dairy-farms-donating-food-banks/103-d290f624-f1c0-45dc-81ca-5648fb7edb31

https://abc7chicago.com/free-milk-bloom-township-food-pantry-kilgus-farms-dump/6125277/

https://www.yaktrinews.com/eastern-wa-potato-farmers-giving-away-20-tons-of-potatoes/