Imagine being brought up in a culture where causing others pain and suffering was normal and considered a good thing. Where causing that harm, which is unnecessary yet deemed as necessary, was fully supported by the majority of the population.
Enter the Barretts (cattle & chicken farmers, since 1999, turned vegan mushroom farmers in 2019).
JENNIFER BARRETT
“I slowly started to realize that what we were doing was wrong. I remember standing in one of our chicken houses the day before they went to slaughter and feeling so heavy with grief that they were all going to die…and for what?
My job up until then had been one of those badges of honor, a ‘dirty’ job, a good old American way to make a living. And it was hard!! So hard on us in every way.
But we did it with pride because we were providing a product and we were serving the greater good and it was, at the very least, allowing us to live on our beloved farm.”
MAKING THE BETRAYAL CONNECTION
“I was at the bottom. It was so horrible to know that all of this suffering and death and decay, this holocaust situation, was so unnecessary. I started to see the chickens differently. I’d never really looked at them as individuals before but, my heart started to break when I would see their terror and their suffering. They were no longer a product. They were birds!”
In the video below, Jennifer reflects back to high school and seeing the first batch of chickens being rounded up.
She explains, “I cried, because I was so upset that I knew they were all going to be slaughtered. So I detached myself from this (watching chickens being gathered in a video). So watching this is hard. This was the most hellish situation a person, a bird, I don’t even understand why this even exists or how I ever participated in it.”
CONNECTING WITH THE COWS
“Coming to realize I had been taking babies away from their mommas. I think that’s been the hardest thing. But it’s stunning to me. I think, how did I not see it. The last time we took babies to the sale, the mothers were just waiting, bawling, crying. Babies were crying… bawling. It was chaos, which used to annoy me.
But this time, I was like, these are mothers crying for their babies.
But now knowing every baby that’s been born here since then, gets to stay with their mom and the mother gets to keep her baby. I don’t want to curse, but I don’t know how I ever f**ck*d with that.”
HUMAN TOLL
In the video, Rodney Barrett recalls the catch crews (employees who round up chickens for slaughter) going into the chicken warehouses in the area.
He says, “they would load a box, then they would run outside and vomit, because there were so many dead birds piled up in the houses, that the growers quit going in there and getting.
Can you imagine how gross that is? That is some nasty mess. And people are eating the chickens that come out of those buildings.”
LOW PAY
Rodney also touches on how farmers are compensated by the corporations they are contracted with. He discusses how farmers are paid roughly 5 cents per pound of flesh that sells at Sam’s for over $1 per pound. He states that the CEO’s at Tyson get yearly bonuses, and recalls one CEO getting 26.5 million dollars one year.
When asked if the farmers get bonuses, Jennifer and Rodney laugh. They said that one year they were given a ham and some chocolates.
Jennifer then compares the farmers to indentured servants. Rodney points out that, “anybody that would buy into any part of the animal protein business would be plum foolish.”
THE HOPE
Watch their story of making the connection and the help they are receiving from RAP (Ranchers Advocacy Program).
The Rancher Advocacy Program is the inspiration and foundation for the AFA groundbreaking proposed legislation, the At-Risk Farmers Act. To support the work of Rancher Advocacy Program and their Ranchers in Transition, go HERE. To support the work of AFA (Agriculture Fairness Alliance), go HERE and HERE.
Stay in the know HERE.
