Statistics Lie

We know that pie charts and graphs can be manipulated and are greedy for their own kind of impersonal 'voice', HOWEVER, to look at trends I don't think they're so bad. I don't have time this morning to flesh out the whole essay, but I've been looking very closely at--what heretofore has been the subjective observations of someone in "the animal industry"--some relationship between skyrocketing consumer spending on pets (from 17B$ in 95 to 40+B$ in 04)and a new kind of green revolution . . .the hundreds of blogs and voices and publications and books about the family farm, local ag. Adults and children are literally hungry to know their food in a much deeper way. We are on the cusp of something good here.

The following link broke down US consumer spending,family size, income etc. from 1901 until 2003. Between that time, an American household went from spending nearly 44% of its annual income on food, down to nearly 13%. I know just enough about economics to provide lots of counter arguments (including some to mitigate the 'pet spending' stats above) but, subjectively, Americans now expect food to be really inexpensive, healthful and . . .humane? . . .and they expect this for the fabulous price of $15 out of every $100 they bring home. Friends, do not get your hackles up about how your neighbor is mean to his dog and it lives on a chain. Keep that in mind, but save some of that energy . . . Please, before you buy another snowsuit for your little dog, please, consider how the sun feels warming a chicken's feathers(yup, they're noisy AND messy, too!) consider letting your beef eat grass . . . consider paying a full $5.25 for a gallon of milk that came from a dairy animal with a name. I think humans need to know their farm animals. There was even an article recently in JAVMA about "psycological first aid by veterinarians in rural areas of livestock depopulation". When global economics or the CDC come in and slaughter the family herd, the vets that used to treat the animals are left to explain, console, suggest, help them adapt. It argues a need for grief and crisis counseling for these animal professionals in the broader service of keeping the local community and economy going (the article sites rates of farmer suicides).

There's no perfect answer, and we're all allowed to have fun painting our dog's toenails and sending their photos into funny websites.

As an aside, the AVMA is still embroiled in the fois gras debate . . .hotly counter-contested by Connecticut, saying it's production is NOT cruel. Hmmm . . .couldn't we just make fois gras like, once every five years, and savor the taste and the sacrifice of it . . .or . . .did I even spell that correctly? FOY GRA? tehe

http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/report991.pdf