Fishing for Farming Folklores

   

 



Miss Mannix milking a cow at Charleville, Co. Cork in 1920

 

Folklores are everywhere. They make cultures unique and fun. Sometimes we think that folklores are only myths that existed in the past, but we can still see them around us today. For example, treating a cold with chicken soup is a folklore that still exists today (Funda, Kinkead, McNeill 251). Most of us didn’t learn that in school or a formal education class. In most cases, it was passed on orally. For example, I learned that from my grandmother, who had learned it from her mother. Folklores exist in all kinds of cultures and groups of people, and farming is no exception to that. In Farm: A Multimodal Reader, veterinarian Michael L. Doherty presents us with some Irish folklore that helps cure diseased cattle, which contributes to a unique Irish farm culture.

    Irish farmers used many folklores to cure their cattle. Many of these “cures” were found in other counties, with a few tweaks that made it specific to that region in which it came from. For example, a folklore that was used to heal cows bleeding from haemorrhage or babesiosis was to use a person with the cure for bleeding in the county. Eight counties believed this, and all eight had the similarity that to cure the bleeding cow, you needed to consult with the person in the town/county that had the cure. However, all eight had differences too. For some counties, you needed to say a specific prayer, in some the person with the cure needed to know specific details about the cow. Why would each county have differences for the same cure? Most likely because the cure came from the same place, but as it was passed along from person to person and place to place, it was altered to the specific population.

    Folklores tell us a lot about people. Which folklores a person believes in tells a lot about what they are like, what their family was like, and where they grew up. This contributes to our understanding of culture, of people, of daily life, etc. That is why it is important to study and read folklores (if you’re interested in understanding and appreciated something better.) This doesn’t just apply to farming folklores either, it can apply to all folklores.

Funda, Evelyn, and Lynne S. McNeill. "Farms and Folklore." Farm: A Multimodal Reader. Ed. Joyce Kinkead. Southlake: Fountain Head, 2014. 251-56. Print.
N.a. Miss Mannix Milking a Cow at Charleville, Co. 1920. National Library of Ireland, Charleville. Irish Archaeology. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

Where Did It Come From?

             I remember a few years ago, and even today, people were becoming increasingly worried about the ingredients McDonald’s was using, especially in their meat products. This lead to hundreds of investigations, undercover videos, news stories, and statements from McDonald’s themselves. While McDonald’s is still a thriving company, some people stopped eating there entirely, including a few of my own friends and family. I don’t eat at McDonald’s much personally, but it got me thinking about the other fast food restaurants I eat at, one of them being Chick-Fil-A. So I decided to find out where their chicken comes from.

             The first place I decided to check was the Chick-Fil-A (CFA) on Logan Main Street. Since Logan is an agricultural town, I wondered if the chicken was locally sourced, or if it at least came from the state of Utah. I called in (unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the young man who helped me) and asked him if he knew where the meat came from. He told me that he thought the meat came from Colorado, but was packaged and shipped from Texas. This lead me to the CFA website, in search of their suppliers. I couldn’t find the names of any suppliers on their website, but there is a Supplier Inquiry Form, giving the terms and conditions for those interested in doing business with CFA (Supplier Inquiry). However, I did find a list of common suppliers on another website, including the “National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, National Pork Board, American Meat Institute, International Dairy Foods Association and National Milk Producers Federation” (Chick-fil-A denies…).

              The next piece of information I found about CFA suppliers is about animal abuse. In 2014, the animal activist group Mercy for Animals released a video of chicken abuse that was supposedly connected with CFA (Simon). The chicken farm where the abuse took place is owned by Koch Foods, and CFA released a statement saying they stopped working with Koch in April of 2013, stating that “All of [their] suppliers must comply with rigorous animal welfare requirements” (Chick-fil-A denies…).

              I’m not suggesting that Chick-Fil-A is unethical or filled with abuse, or that we should all stop eating there. I enjoy their food and the environment. However, it is difficult to find out exactly where their chicken comes from. The information on their website is extremely limited, and the information is hard to find anywhere else. That does make me a little nervous, and hopefully I learn more in the future.

"Chick-fil-A Denies Getting Chickens from Abusive Supplier." - CBS46 News. WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation), 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.

 

Simon, Sam. "What's Really inside Your Chick-fil-A Sandwich? Shocking New Hidden-camera Video Paints a Disturbing Picture. Watch Now." ChickFilACruelty.com. Mercy for Animals. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.