l Dairy farming here in Washington, at least on the wet side of the mountains, is not factory farming. It is small family farming at its best. It is what America was founding on and hopefully will return somewhat to. Many if not most dairy farmers in western Washington have gone out of business...at least part of the reason is urban sprawl, some is environmental regulation..like cows can't get near streams etc...and some is drop in demand due to dairyphobia. I too hope the insanity involved in meat and dairy production is stopped..by law and by consumers turning to better grown products...I am not for forced feeding, cramped, immobile conditions, antibiotics etc. and not for the slaughterhouse conditions that are horrible for animals and the poor immigrant workers who slice their arms off working there. Actually I probably agree with you. I would like to see small farms, with people making decent livings, with the land zoned for eternity. I would also like to see drops in the population so that there is less demand. We used to have a lot of Swiss people doing dairy here..as well as Danes...you should have seen Puget Island and down where I lived in Longview (which itself was a mill town..not dairy). Anyway, I hope this is one of our last wakeup calls.    I can't imagine the IQ of someone who would feed cowparts to cows.

There is the whole manure question, methane etc.. I think it is quite overcomable, and perhaps is exaggerated..I don't know. I personally worry more about all the cat litter in landfills doing God knows what kind of mutations....

And JenEllen..I thought it was trucked to Centralia..which doesn't make sense crossing the mountains in the winter...it supposedly is in the food chain in Portland stores perhaps as something...at least meat from the Centralia slaughterhouse (or maybe it was just packed there) went to Portland.

I dare say we are smart enough to test at least each herd, and to keep them more or less in once place rather than having these giant feedlots from all over. That too is nuts. Grassfed cows, like nature intended for at least part of the human race. Read Dr. Mary Enig.

mg