Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Current affairs TV in "making difference" shock!

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  • Gareth Ward,

    Heh, Subway's Sub o the Day was "Pork Riblet" today. I guess they can claim it's unlikely to have more than 3% pig though...

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report

  • Kim Sokolich,

    Who would have thought? Rural Kentucky - a hotbed of squirrel brain eaters.

    Since Oct 2008 • 47 posts Report

  • Helen Smith,

    Apparently almost ALL the pork grown in NZ is NOT free range ..the pork board has got a bit tricky..saying 50% of pork is not raised in crates...but the opposite of crates is Not Free range.

    DISCLAIMER: Although I personally choose not to eat eat any meat or fowl I do support personal choice. For that reason my company agreed to develop the Freedom Farms website as they do a great job in providing a solution to the problem of intensive pig farming.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    The brutalisation of those who work in factory slaughter situations must surely have a huge social cost.

    I'm not aware of research to that effect -- but working in American chicken plants is bad for your health and various other things. It's a disgusting, exploitative industry that preys on a largely immigrant workforce in a brutal fashion.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Hi Helen!

    For that reason my company agreed to develop the Freedom Farms website as they do a great job in providing a solution to the problem of intensive pig farming.

    I'm glad to have my favourable impression of the company confirmed by you.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Gareth Ward,

    That Freedom Farms website is a nice website too btw. Free range or not...

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    I'm not aware of research to that effect -- but working in American chicken plants is bad for your health and various other things. It's a disgusting, exploitative industry that preys on a largely immigrant workforce in a brutal fashion.

    Just personal experience, Russell. And in the blood-soaked NZ economy you don't have to go far to find that. There's a particularly unpleasant-looking condition that affects chickens, known colloquially as octopus guts, which is only apparent when you disembowel the bird. What's left is still deemed fine for human consumption, though once seen it killed my interest in eating chicken.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Paul Litterick,

    Well, that killed the thread. Suddenly, having the green salad seems an attractive option after all.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report

  • Andrew G,

    I wrote an email to Progressive enterprises about 6 months ago complaining that I couldn't buy free-range chicken in their nice new Countdown supermarket here in Napier. This was just after the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall program about his plight to turn an English town into the first free range chicken only town. I pointed out that while the tiny amount of Free range chicken stocked by English supermarkets frequently drove him to tears, they still stocked more than my local Countdown (none to be precise). I got a reply back within the day stating that all of their supermarkets stocked Rangatikei free range products and that they'd send out a reminder to all of their managers asking them to make sure stocks were replentished. Two days later there was a shelf of the products at the Countdown (legs, thighs, breasts etc) and a week after that they were all stickered with "NEW PRODUCT". Still, they've kept stocks up ever since. Maybe the same could happen with Pork products?

    Napier • Since Mar 2007 • 53 posts Report

  • LegBreak,

    Mike Hosking was saying this morning basically saying More Fool King for agreeing to the endorsement in the first place.

    His main angle was that “celebrities” should thoroughly check out any product and industry before putting their name to it.

    All fine in principle, but not hugely practical I’d have thought.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report

  • dc_red,

    His main angle was that “celebrities” should thoroughly check out any product and industry before putting their name to it.

    All fine in principle, but not hugely practical I’d have thought.

    A fine principle indeed. Something that has been said about a certain golfer's endorsement of Nike for many years, if I recall?

    Oil Patch, Alberta • Since Nov 2006 • 706 posts Report

  • Kim Sokolich,

    Hoskings = Tosser.

    Although I would said the same thing about Mike King until recently. I think his recent health scare/brush with death (along with his sobering) has had a positive effect on his character. Having said that, I still HATE his negative racial stereotyping which enables closet racists to feel better about themselves.

    Since Oct 2008 • 47 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    In the early 90s the Holmes Show ran an item on farrowing crates, using, I think, overseas footage, with the angle that there were moves afoot to introduce the practice to NZ. Around the same time there was a piece on battery chicken farming, stressing the cruelty of such methods, and when Holmes was in Barcelona for the Olympics the show featured an item on bullfighting, presenting it as a barbaric hangover. Shortly afterwards I left the country for around a decade, having gained the impression that NZ's Finest Broadcaster was something of an animal welfare advocate.

    Maybe it was all the passing work of a mole within the show, as any vestige of social conscience from that quarter seemed to have been swamped by towering self-satisfaction in the ensuing decade. I missed the rise of the alleged comedian Mike King, though there are those who assure me that he once could be genuinely funny, albeit briefly. Now I know that he's something more than another of poor Tony Veitch's leering pals.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Steve Withers,

    On the subject of TV, I'm coming to the conclusion that entertainment television is the biggest destroyer of human potential ever invented. It is a global auto-dumb-down system that reaches into almost every home in the developed world. The longer it has been available in a country, the more broken that country's community / volunteer support mechanisms are and the greater the ignorance of its citizens about almost everything that actually matters. Things like democracy and how your own society work become black boxes to you because they aren't as entertaining as CSI or Shortland St. The vast majority become hedgehogs on the highway of life....and they did it to themselves by overdosing on the TV drug for years on end.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report

  • JLM,

    I just took The Omnivore's Dilemma back to the library today, so can't quote, but that picture of happy pigs buried up to their pink hams and corkscrew tails in stable manure, working it over in pursuit of grains of fermenting corn, is an abiding one.

    Judy Martin's southern sl… • Since Apr 2007 • 241 posts Report

  • Blake Monkley,

    It's a disgusting, exploitative industry that preys on a largely immigrant workforce in a brutal fashion.

    The meat and poultry industry in the USA has a high injury rate, low wages and poor workers' compensation package. When workers comp legislation was set up it was supposed to provide speedy medical care and income to injured workers on the job. In return for that benefit, it stopped workers from the right to sue. Now the law allows the employer the right to choose the doctor who determines the severity of any injury. Most firms are self-insured, keeping payments to a minimum is better for the bottom line.

    Auckland • Since Jul 2008 • 215 posts Report

  • p forrester jarvie,

    have to say i'm fairly astounded to behold everybody still ready to look upon RB as avatar of 'responsible journalism' after he lies right down like a squelchy little lamb before the figure of the "HIV Predator"

    with all there is for us to freely consider regarding such, the prize ever higher every year for s/he who can truly meet the plain criiteria for isolation of such a 'virus', i'm flippergusted that RB is willing to play so fast and loose (flippnatly) with such confusion of science with mere cultural arteifacts!

    Since Feb 2009 • 84 posts Report

  • Islander,

    May I say I really love Ian Dalzeil's posts?
    The woordplay is acute, and fun. Stimulating even.

    May I add that little p adds buggerall?

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report

  • p forrester jarvie,

    aww dass right bro!
    no additives in my porridge, aye?
    wordplay is for scavengers on the ever-twitching unhulled hull of truth!

    but is that double o in woordplay some indication of yr south afrikaan origins or what?


    eek!

    Since Feb 2009 • 84 posts Report

  • Alastair Jamieson,

    Just now TV3's Campbell Live claims they ran almost exactly the same story about the same Levin farm owned by Colin Kaye in 2006. They have the pig farmer on tape saying he'd sort the farm out back then...

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 99 posts Report

  • p forrester jarvie,

    Here then is wordplay: the HIV Predator is available at YOUR Honda Dealer NOW! Why, that sucker's got more positraction than your normal unstimulated cell can even think about, and when it goes into reverse transcriptase gear, your buggerals will re-sequence your exhausted funpipe before you can even say dalzielikeit!

    Since Feb 2009 • 84 posts Report

  • Islander,

    Um, little p, umm (not wishing to disturb)are you, like, OK? sane?

    Yours truly, a South Island Maori who sometimes does mis-spell words...

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    May I say ...

    Was just discussng today that, the new pun generator was too good ;)

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report

  • Tony Parker,

    I wrote an email to Progressive enterprises about 6 months ago complaining that I couldn't buy free-range chicken in their nice new Countdown supermarket here in Napier. This was just after the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall program about his plight to turn an English town into the first free range chicken only town. I pointed out that while the tiny amount of Free range chicken stocked by English supermarkets frequently drove him to tears, they still stocked more than my local Countdown (none to be precise). I got a reply back within the day stating that all of their supermarkets stocked Rangatikei free range products and that they'd send out a reminder to all of their managers asking them to make sure stocks were replentished. Two days later there was a shelf of the products at the Countdown (legs, thighs, breasts etc) and a week after that they were all stickered with "NEW PRODUCT". Still, they've kept stocks up ever since. Maybe the same could happen with Pork products?

    Damn. I'll have to start shopping at Countdown instead of Pak n Slave. Mind you Andrew I think you can get free range chicken at Chantel's in Hastings St and free range pork at the Farmer's Market on Sunday.

    Napier • Since Nov 2008 • 232 posts Report

  • p forrester jarvie,

    THE WORD "ISOLATION" IS DERIVED FROM THE LATIN "INSULATUS" MEANING "MADE INTO AN ISLAND". IT REFERS TO THE ACT OF SEPARATING AN OBJECT FROM ALL EXTRANEOUS MATTER THAT IS NOT THAT OBJECT.

    spellbindingly
    ll' p

    Since Feb 2009 • 84 posts Report

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