On being Vegan and Underemployed

This will be different from previous posts in that it comes from direct personal experience. I have been putting the word out recently in hopes of picking up supplemental work. Yesterday, on a lead from a good friend, I found myself at Willamette Egg Farms. My background is in carpentry, I am not a farmer, and I was there to talk with them about construction and remodeling of some of their buildings and "barns". The talks all went well and I'll start Tuesday for a two week project.

After our talks we took a tour of the operation and I had no idea what I was about to walk into. First we went to the barn which I'll be working on. A retrofit which will allow a new flock of birds to roam free on the floor. This is not free range, just not caged. The company is making this move because there is a market demand for these eggs and if they don't get it going they will lose out this market to a competitor. It won't be any real revenue maker, simply a marketing tool.

Next we went to look at one of the older "barns" that will be another future project. Simple enough from a construction standpoint. I should note here what is meant by 'barn'. These buildings are about 3-400 feet long and 50 feet wide; as wide as your house and as long as a city block (or two). It's a simple building with only walls and a roof, open inside other than structural posts. From here we moved on to the new barns where the birds are actually in production.

We walked around a couple other remodel projects, some already underway, others near completion. Eventually we headed into a live barn with actual birds. There was a small mud room we had to pass through where we stepped our boots in a shallow tub of disinfectant, apparently to clean any possible contaminants from outside which might carry disease, say from others birds, manure, etc. It didn't smell as bad as I may have anticipated and did seem quite clean.

Inside were six rows of cages running the length of this building. Each row was split in half, a cage on each side, and stacked five high. The individual cages were about 30" x 36" and as tall as a chicken, roughly half the size of a typical bathtub but shallower. In each cage were eight birds. Down the center was a water line with nipples and a feed trough toward the outside. The cages are wire, allowing eggs and manure to pass through and be collected by conveyor belts moving in opposite directions; one collecting eggs, one manure.

Keep in mind, and note, that these pictures are only two cages high. I can't say that these birds looked particularly stressed or unhealthy, it was more the simple matter of how they were being kept and the production nature of their very existence. New chicks are cycled in about once a month, enough to fill one of these buildings, one of maybe a dozen. Birds are kept for about two years until they are no longer producing eggs with high quality shells, before they are shipped off to slaughter for mulch, cattle feed, or soup, and a new flock of chicks is brought in to replace them.

I am vegetarian and don't eat eggs much anyway. My partner Sarah is vegan. I need some extra work and wonder if and how this falls within 'right livelihood'? Now the vegetables on my plate are provided by the radical enslavement of a million chickens . . . . I will stay two weeks and help convert this one old barn so maybe 2% of the chicken will be uncaged and live on an open floor. Beyond that, maybe I'll keep putting the word out for other work. In the meantime (and actually unrelated), I am on a whole fruits and vegetables diet, heading toward raw and eventually a juice fast. ~sal

Daily Buddhist Wisdom

He who knows that all things are his mind,
That all with which he meets are friendly,
Is ever joyful.

~ Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa

Comments

[Sarah]

This post reminded me of a “moral dilemma” that was raised for me last summer. I have chosen to follow a vegan diet in addition to eating as much organic and local foods as possible. However, for the past 7 years I have waitressed at a restaurant that serves primarily meat dishes. (The exception is a single vegetarian option). I found myself going home each night, heavy hearted and feeling quite hypocritical. On one hand I would not support the meat industry by consuming its products, yet I was relying indirectly on it for my livelihood - hence, my “moral dilemma”. Unfortunately, I rely on this job to support myself and have found no other means to pay my bills. This is in large part due to the fact that I have forgone the typical American career oriented mentality that insists success means a steady, reliable nine-to-five job with retirement and insurance security. So throughout the summer, I struggled with my situation. In the end, I decided to do what I could within the circumstances. For starters, I implemented a composting program at the restaurant as a means of processing the waste in a useful and sustainable manner. Secondly I made a bold proposal to the owner and manager, who had recently purchased land, that for the next summer, I grow organic vegetables for the restaurant. Not only did they agree, they were also willing to financially support such an endeavor. So I have been spending the past few months with my head buried in books, reading and learning how to grow veggies in a sustainable manner. I recognize that I will probably never be able to fully provide the restaurant with all of the produce it needs. But, I will be able to provide a certain amount of local, organic produce that might otherwise be ordered from elsewhere. I also do not expect the first few years to be profitable, which means realistically, I will still need to waitress for the time being. However, I feel that this is a start. It is a move in the right direction. It is a way to make a difference, even if it is a small one. For this is all that each of us can do. As Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”

[Anne]

Out of curiosity, how do they classify the eggs produced by the chickens on the floor, since "free range" isn't an option?

[Randy]

"First we went to the barn which I'll be working on. A retrofit which will allow a new flock of birds to roam free on the floor. This is not free range, just not caged. The company is making this move because there is a market demand for these eggs and if they don't get it going they will lose out this market to a competitor. It won't be any real revenue maker, simply a marketing tool."

Believe it or not, even though this is not done so on the owner's thoughtfulness or heart it is still a positive move. See the real tool to making conditions better and possibly even really scalling down the meat consumption in this country is inevitably done primarily through improving regulations and through market trends. If more and more people want free range, which this farmer doesn't seem to really be doing, then thats how farmer's will change because they won't be able to sell their products.

I became a vegetarian (who only eats small amounts of cheese, wild salmon and fish oil supplements) mostly because I believe it is a healthier lifestyle. But as time goes by I find myself inevitably being draw to animal rights issues. But the boycott of animal products by vegans and vegetarians and a general desire from people to eat less meat and animal products is a good combination to making more progess.

[sal]

update:
in the years since this visit, i now have layer hens of my own. a small flock, only a dozen. they are free ranging and grazing in the pasture and forest. if anyone is interested in top quality eggs and is in the local area (willamette valley, oregon), please contact me. happiness guaranteed!