Toxic Rochester
Stuff Seen Roaming In (And Around) Smugtown
July 17, 2005
Chicken Holocaust
I like chicken and I like eggs. And I have no intention to stop eating either one of them, even after seeing the Wegmans Cruelty video. I don't believe that chickens (or any animal) have any right other than to be on my plate with a nice wine sauce. But that doesn't mean I think they should be treated like the video shows Wegmans is treating their chickens. And that's not out of any great concern for the chickens, but rather because I don't desire to eat eggs farmed in such a dirty, disgusting environment.
Wegmans proudly claims they meet "industry standards" for humane treatment of their chickens. If so, then we should all be horrified. Not only for the chickens, but the Wegmans employees who have to work at this farm. I sure hope they good get health insurance-- they're going to need it.
In the video, they show an aerial image of the egg farm. It's in Wolcott, and it's huge (not surprising for holding 700,000 chickens). So I loaded Google Earth and spun the globe around 40 miles East of Rochester. And there it was, and very easy to spot because it's huge.
Sunday rolls around and my partner and I are bored, looking for something to do. I jokingly suggest we go out to the Wegmans egg farm, and to my surprise, he said sure. So we hop in the car, turn on the GPS unit, and start heading East for latitude 43.24947, longitude -76.79045.
Along the way, we're getting closer to a white pickup truck weaving around traffic ahead of us. We eventually catch up to it and then we see the logo on the side: Wegmans Security. I bet that he's going to the same place we are, but when we got to Wolcott, he veers off.
We didn't have a route programmed in the GPS unit, only the latitude and longitude. So we're trying to find roads that get us closer. And finally... there it is! And look-- it's the white pickup truck; he must have known a more direct way there.
Oh, it's huge. The first thing we saw was the massive silos that we assume are holding feed for the chickens. And the second thing we notice as we get closer is a whiff of something unpleasant that's getting stronger.
Due to a stupid error on my part, there are no more pictures to show you of the facility. We didn't get out and roam around, in part because Wegmans has signs all over the place that trespassers will be prosecuted. But we did drive by, enjoy a whiff of the "industry standard" conditions the chickens are raised in, and start our drive back to Rochester.
It was getting close to dinner time and we were both hungry. So to end our trip with a bit of irony, when we got to Panorama we stopped at Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits and got some of their spicy chicken.
Stuff Seen Roaming In (And Around) Smugtown
July 17, 2005
Chicken Holocaust
I like chicken and I like eggs. And I have no intention to stop eating either one of them, even after seeing the Wegmans Cruelty video. I don't believe that chickens (or any animal) have any right other than to be on my plate with a nice wine sauce. But that doesn't mean I think they should be treated like the video shows Wegmans is treating their chickens. And that's not out of any great concern for the chickens, but rather because I don't desire to eat eggs farmed in such a dirty, disgusting environment.
Wegmans proudly claims they meet "industry standards" for humane treatment of their chickens. If so, then we should all be horrified. Not only for the chickens, but the Wegmans employees who have to work at this farm. I sure hope they good get health insurance-- they're going to need it.
In the video, they show an aerial image of the egg farm. It's in Wolcott, and it's huge (not surprising for holding 700,000 chickens). So I loaded Google Earth and spun the globe around 40 miles East of Rochester. And there it was, and very easy to spot because it's huge.
Sunday rolls around and my partner and I are bored, looking for something to do. I jokingly suggest we go out to the Wegmans egg farm, and to my surprise, he said sure. So we hop in the car, turn on the GPS unit, and start heading East for latitude 43.24947, longitude -76.79045.
Along the way, we're getting closer to a white pickup truck weaving around traffic ahead of us. We eventually catch up to it and then we see the logo on the side: Wegmans Security. I bet that he's going to the same place we are, but when we got to Wolcott, he veers off.
We didn't have a route programmed in the GPS unit, only the latitude and longitude. So we're trying to find roads that get us closer. And finally... there it is! And look-- it's the white pickup truck; he must have known a more direct way there.
Oh, it's huge. The first thing we saw was the massive silos that we assume are holding feed for the chickens. And the second thing we notice as we get closer is a whiff of something unpleasant that's getting stronger.
Due to a stupid error on my part, there are no more pictures to show you of the facility. We didn't get out and roam around, in part because Wegmans has signs all over the place that trespassers will be prosecuted. But we did drive by, enjoy a whiff of the "industry standard" conditions the chickens are raised in, and start our drive back to Rochester.
It was getting close to dinner time and we were both hungry. So to end our trip with a bit of irony, when we got to Panorama we stopped at Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits and got some of their spicy chicken.
posted by a compassionate consumer @ 8:53 PM
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