Spiders on Drugs and Trent Loos

For those of you that know who Trent Loos is, you're probably wondering how he is in the same title as "Spiders on Drugs". Well, Loos is on campus today and as he is a popular hero of agriculture, I am very glad that he was brought onto campus today to balance the arrival of Michael Pollan. I for one am going to see Pollan, but only because I've seen Loos before. Loos is an inspiring man with critical thinking and debating skills, but sometimes I need a change of climate to increase my debating ability, so I will probably not see Loos today unless I am lucky enough to get out of class early.

Which leads me to my post title. Currently we are discussing intoxication and drug overdose in class and so we started today with the "Spiders on Drugs" Youtube clip. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest it. Check it out through this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc

To link the two together... HSUS recently released another video depicting animal cruelty to chickens on a farm in Iowa. I'm not going to challenge the fact that this happens. Instead, I call on farmers in the entire US to accept the fact that this cruelty happens and to stop it in their own industries. It is not any more acceptable for an animal to be abused than it is for you to winter dump your whole lagoon on ice. Whether or not we like for these regulations to be imposed on us, the only thing that attacking these videos is doing is drawing more attention to the shameful videos themselves. This isn't to say that we should all be spying on each other to make sure that nobody is abusing animals, but I do think that we should all do a better job to take enjoyment in the better care of our animals and to proudly share it with those around us.

For example, check out the Proud to Dairy website. Or visit it through facebook. I met a journalist for Proud to Dairy this week in California, and it was inspiring to me that this man had taken on the cause of agriculture without having any agricultural experience before in his life. I don't remember his name right now, but he should be commended.