"What's for dinner tonight?" How many times have we asked this question ourselves, heard others ask it, or been asked it? Yet, when we sit down at the supper table do we take the time to think of what is being served and how it got to be there? I was fortunate to grow up on a cattle farm, and although we go the the grocery store to buy produce, eggs, butter and bread, we always have home-raised beef in the freezer.
             Caring for our animals is our number one priority, and I honestly do not think that my family is unique in this perspective among the cattle-rearing community. Lately there has been a lot of talk about how a piece of meat got to our tables and at what cost. Radical groups like PETA and the Humane Society cast a dark shadow on American agriculture and claim there is rampant, wholesale mistreatment of our "used for food" animals. As the old saying goes, "There is always two sides to every story," so I decided, with a open mind, to investigate more closely what these groups had to say.
             I did some home research over the Internet, examining the websites of these groups to see for myself what they are concerned about and what they are claiming. I will tell you that there are a lot of graphic videos and articles on how the the agricultural industry promotes and encourages animal cruelty. Let me share with you a couple of examples of what is described in their propaganda.
             Some of these websites explain how chickens and turkeys are housed by the tens of thousands in dark sheds, wading in their own excrement with hardly enough room to turn around. They say how they' have been selectively bred to grow so large, so fast, that many become crippled when their legs break under their own massive weight. These groups state, "Pigs, like their poultry counterparts, are crammed together in filthy quarters with limited space to move. And how many will go insane from the lack of mental stimulation, movement, and the wi...