#bred cow market

[jacksprostate]

The truth is, after blowing my brains out and going to Heaven, the CIA used me to jumpstart the domestic anti-terrorism program and turn the country into an authoritarian petrostate. And as the little posterchild of their loving touch, Congress let me loose five years later, wobbling and feeble and a testament to their reformative powers. They're going worldwide now. Fixing and freedom for all.

Here, even the antichrist can be redeemed. Recycled.

I'm a dishwasher now. Everything I've aspired to be. There's an industrial sterilization between me and the public. When I get home, I'm pruned out like a geriatric population bomb.

After everything, I'm not left alone. I've got guys showing me tattoos on their hands of my lips. I've got invites to every fight club ever. I've got all these garish things. Selling out has a new explosive flavor these days.

My face was kept redacted, but not my birthmark. Men with red sharpies try to pick up girls with their own manufactured faux cancer. It's amazing, how deep this goes. They're coming up with names for me. I've had strangers tell me they've come up with something better.

Jack, like the ripper. It's in this season. I'm fashionable. Try Sebastian. It's biblical.

The many new Tyler Durdens, they've got it all. The fashion, the funding, the government approved fatalities. Terror cells born and bred to die.

It's amazing, what you think you're getting away with when you've not realized you have full cabinet support.

Reporters love me, too. They track me down. They want to make the next counter culture. Homemade soap is all the rage. The silhouette of Tyler at the murder mystery is a best selling shirt.

They're making a movie, and Brad Pitt is going to be Tyler. Attractive, dead, charismatic, useless. Hypocritical.

I was Tyler's prophet, and no one is listening. No one actually wants to know.

The most marketable aspect of my life, I've found, is my apathy and failure. It's all hopeless. We're all shit. We're all the crap and trash of the world.

I say no, you don't get it, and no one listens.

The reason I know I'm still useful, is I haven't shot myself in the head twice yet. Actually, that's the one thing they probably hope I don't try to do. Everything I say, it all helps.

Radicalizing, fragmenting, commercializing.

They're all fighting over me like wolves. I'm a t-bone steak raw and juiced with the full might of the american pharmaceutical industry. Ripe like a fig. Rotting inside.

It's a custody battle.

All my franchises have undergone imminent domain. The rare times I'm let out of the kitchen, I see children in purposefully weathered red jackets and makeup bruises. They love me. They understand me. They know me. They would hate me.

I might be the only man in America who can't buy a gun. Can't buy anything that'd let me off myself. The whole line has been told to watch me and make sure I can't use one of those soap-hidden knives to give myself a roman bath.

I've got those lipstick red Seconals. They're used to kill people. Maybe one day, that will be my exit, and everything I longed for will finally be allowed to kill me the way God intended.

Eventually, this cash cow will grow old and I will get to die, fenced in on all sides.

[mindblowingscience]

When Canadian dairy farmer Ben Loewith's calves are born next spring, they will be among the first in the world to be bred with a specific environmental goal: burping less methane. In June, Loewith, a third-generation farmer in Lynden, Ont., started artificially inseminating 107 cows and heifers with the first-to-market bull semen with a low-methane genetic trait. "Selectively breeding for lower emissions, as long as we're not sacrificing other traits, seems like an easy win," Loewith said. The arrival of commercially available genetics to produce dairy cattle that emit less methane could help reduce one of the biggest sources of the potent greenhouse gas, scientists and cattle industry experts say.

Continue Reading

[zaryathelaika]

Today, I learned there are dog-trainers who think Swedish Vallhunds are "pocket Malinois". And as someone who had one and lived with several others with a network of friends who have them ... No.

No, they are not. The only similarity is they are easily trainable and eager to please their humans.

They are headstrong with a lot of gutso, like any cow-dog whether it's a Border Collie bred to work cattle, Texas Heeler etc. But easily manageable for any young adult who is looking for a first dog after graduating from school and moving into their first apartment or a nice house. Granted, Vallhunds don't really have the same sharpness as a stock-dog because they are not being bred for work anymore these days. You're not going to end up with a "Valligator". I don't know. It's just weird to see a breed which is usually marketed as an active companion and family dog in Nordic countries being labelled as "pocket Malinois" in North America. Especially after having several working dogs which are still bred for their original purpose and are still being maintained for that purpose. I like Swedish Vallhunds a lot. It's just... after meeting Vallhund caretakers / owners / pet parents / pet guardians from Sweden and Finland, I don't think any of them want a super hardcore dog. And I have to state this because most of the preservation works are being done by Swedish and Finnish breeders.

[pandafishao3]

Pandafish rec list: Kinktober 2024

Kinktober is over for this year and with five months of work and some last minute scrambling, I managed to get 31 fics up this time as well! So for funsies I decided to do a little rec list for my own Kinktober of my personal favourites, and add some comments on the fics I choose in case anyone is curious about the little tidbits surrounding them :)

Thank you to everyone who's been reading and commenting, and let's look forward to the sequels currently being written and posted! Let's keep this alive for a fun few months ahead.

If you did like my Kinktober, please be a dear and reblog this post to give me some visibility out there! Every like makes me happy but as we all know, only reblogs lets anyone else see this <3

You can find the full Kinktober list on Ao3

All of these are tagged "Explicit" and if I haven't written out specific warning, they are either tagged as "No warnings apply" or "Choose not to include warning"

Day 3: Breeding/Lactation

Pairing: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Summary: What if...the Milk Farm had been set at an actual farm? Steve runs an idyllic little farm and tries to produce as much of his own food as possible. That's why he gets Bucky, a sweet little cow hybrid who produces enough milk for both Steve and the farmer's market. But he can't help but get very attached to his happy, affectionate cow hybrid, especially when they spend so much time in the hay together to keep Bucky bred and leaking with milk.

Of course I have to include this one! It's a What if...? version of the Milk Farm and it's farm-style and quite cute. Perfect for anyone who loves cow hybrids but prefers a softer setting than the factory of the usual series. I will uppdate Milk Farm eventually, because I have fun ideas, but currently I have some other projects I need to finish! I might actually do another fic in this setting because farmer!Steve is just...HOT

LINK: Breeding/Lactation

Day 6: Virgin Steve

Pairing: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: Underage Summary: Steve, a high school kid who spends his afternoon reading in the garden and hides the fact that he likes boys, can't believe his luck when a hot, single man with a six pack and a hot tub moves in next door. Secretly, Steve watches him do laps in the pool and spread other men's legs in his bedroom at night. He's dying to know him better, but is convinced that Bucky Barnes only sees him as the kid next door. Little does he know, Bucky is watching him too

This is my Lolita/Boy next door love project. If I had infinite amount of time (which I don't) and bad judgement (which oh boy I do) then I'd just run away with this and make it another Orphan Darling epos. Actually, I still might. I will most definitely make it a few chapters longer, and I already have a part 2 lying awaiting editing.

LINK: Virgin Steve

Day 8: Can't get it down

Pairing: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Summary: There's a slight problem after Steve takes the serum - his erection just won't go down. The nervous scientists tries everything, until they realize there's really only one person who can help. A certain Sergeant, currently posted in Italy.

My 100th fic. My baby. My favourite <3 I know you shouldn't keep favourites, but I really like how this one turned out. All sass and a very flustered Steve. This came out of the idea that the serum must've done some freaky stuff to his dick, and it was a great chance for me to throw in a line that I most definitely think Steve would've dropped to any homophobic doctor daring to push him after the serum. LINK: Can't get it down

Day 7: Massage and Day 15: Nude Modelling

Pairing: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Summary "Massage": When Bucky is recommended by the other Avengers to go see a masseur for his shoulder pain, he doesn't expect the experience to be so...intimate Summary "Nude Modelling": As an aspiring artist, Steve has been working on a project using nude models. Realizing he needs male models to get it right, he puts up flyers. Bucky, an insecure war veteran with a prosthetic arm, answers the call. It turns out to be something entirely new, for the both of them.

I am putting these two together because they came from the same place. They're a bit softer than the others and while they are still very much explicit, they focus a bit more on intimacy. I live with chronic pain and less-than-functional body parts, and I often use Bucky as a way to deal with that. Sometimes I just need to write comfort for him and especially for his disabled body. It's easy to read him as a super-serumed killing machine, but I think his character and body has a lot of other sides to it, and sometimes alleviating his pain also alleviates mine. That's why I wanted to include these fics in the rec list. I hope they can bring comfort to someone else

LINKS: Massage and Nude Modelling

Day 19: Demonfucking/Second circle of hell

Pairing: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Summary: The Second Circle of Hell was struck by a slow season, and it affected Steve and the others at the Bureau for Sinner Guidance and Lodgings. It seemed that whatever they were doing up on Earth level, it was not fucking themselves to death. Sadly, they were engaging in other sins than Lust. When would these people learn that the best afterlife (or afterparty as he preferred to call it) was in the Second Circle? Just as Steve was about to call it a day and go see if any of the Howling Commandos were down to get nasty tonight (he'd always had a kink for a nice, big police dog, who didn’t), there was a sudden knock on the door. Steve’s eyes flew to the entrance - and then his jaw dropped. Standing there and looking uncomfortable was the most gorgeous sinner Steve had ever seen. James Buchanan Barnes.

This one is all fun and no brakes. Entirely inspired by the series "Helluva Boss" (free on Youtube), I just needed to do some sassy Demon BDSM in the Second circle, aka the circle of Lust. You get me, right? It was also a fun chance for me to throw in a suggested take on heaven/hell. Hell is other people, you say? Well I say hell is heart-shaped buttplugs in furry demon asses and public gangbangs.

LINK: Demonfucking/Second circle of hell

Day 24: CBT

Pairing: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Summary: Steve had always been a sucker for pain. Bucky felt as if people should know this by now. When he was a scrawny kid in Brooklyn, he picked fights with the bigger guys. After he got the serum, he went looking for aliens and whatnot just so he could have his ass handed to him. Hell, Steve had even fought himself . So it really wasn't a surprise that when their bedroom door closed, all Steve wanted was for Bucky to take control of him and give him that sweet pain he craved so much. They counted themselves lucky to have been brought together again in the 21th century, when ideas for BDSM scenes were so easy to find on the internet.

I've had this idea for a long time, folks. Cock & Ball Torture is such a FUN concept, especially with eager consent, and Bucky sure does have it from Steve. I wanna keep writing about their adventures in the BDSM-dungeon they have - the possibilities are endless! If anyone has any ideas for this AU, send me a DM <3

LINK: CBT

Day 28: Tentacle Sex

Pairing: Steve Rogers/Tentacle monster Warnings: Rape/Non-con elements Summary: Hydra had finally done what generations had failed before them - they had captured Captain America. And they were all more than excited to watch their pet tentacle monster tear him apart and eat him. The only problem was that the monster seemed to take an entirely different interest in the naked super soldier thrown into its cave.

Oh boy. Anyone who knows me by now knows that there is a special, squishy part of my heart dedicated solely to tentacles <3 There was no way I was doing another Kinktober without including it again. At the end note of this fic, there is also links to my other tentacle fics, and I hope someone out there will find what they're looking for! This is a special kind of fic because while it is definitely non-con, there's also that sweet element of falling in love with the monster. It's a proper kind of Stockholm Syndrome, because that's actually where this entire fic was written. Give this fic a chance, and then come tell me if you want to read more about this tentacle monster and its favourite baby Steve Rogers <3

LINK: Tentacle Sex

And on that last note, go have fun, and hopefully we can do this again last year! Part 2 of "1950's Housewife AU" is up now, and part 2 of "Virgin Steve" is next!

All my love, Pandafish

Credit for the header: erikaequinox on Tumblr

[verdemoun]

timewarp au go to a rodeo side quest

yes incredible thank u. important context they are only going to ethically run rodeos where animals are treated like gods and athletes purpose bred for events not abused into performing.

they are going to watch. only watching. spectating. guests. for the love of god hosea's heart cannot take it aaaand it's too late

arthur watches exactly 3 minutes of any event and is genuinely annoyed because he can do it better and nothing will stop him from proving that point. no he refuses to acknowledge he's nearly 40 and will without fail or doubt be injured in saddled bronco events.

also post john marston timewarping the absolute bickering because john was a rancher he actually knows what he's talking about and arthur will never admit he knows more about him than anything. walking around livestock on exhibition that cow looks great pfft yeah sure if you want to be spending thousands on hard feed to support a herd of toed out cattle

lenny has to be the one to play the shoot the bottle win a prize games because sean has already spent all his money and missed every single time. sean both hates and is awestruck by how effortlessly lenny does it and wins some generic giant novelty stuffed toy (sean's gonna carry around but they both know they are legally obliged to give it to kieran). they are eating too much having a few drinks and then wondering why they are violently ill after the carnival rides

speaking of, kieran simultaneously detected lesbians and horses and has somehow stealthed his way behind the scenes. he is recognized and adored as actually helpful unsolicited advice guy who will see a horse in one of those unexplained moods and with permission will dig the tiniest pebble out of a horse's hoof with his fingers. offers to do the most intricate braids. the girlies know him as a fellow horse girl. ask him if he'll help brush their horses for halter events and he ascends

bessie insisting she gets hosea a cowboy hat like her life depends on it. hosea matthews rocking the horseshoe overlook fit in modern au. for the most part they like walking around market stalls trying supposedly old fashioned jams and chutneys. sampling flavored whiskeys and being so annoyed it turns into delight over how good it is. also bessie and hosea going on the ferris wheel holding hands kissing as they take in the sights and views high enough up to be able to see past the city and just open plains feeling like they're in 1880 again they're just so in love

[fatehbaz]

[C]olonial policies to monitor and restrict Indian cattle were coterminous with policies to monitor and restrict Indian humans. [...] [T]he ‘milk-line’ [...] has been said by [colonial] scholars since the nineteenth century to bisect the region. [...] [This] reified and naturalised what remains a contentious division between South and Southeast Asia along the western borders of Myanmar. [...] [D]enaturalise [...] this border by uncovering the colonial history of how milk became entangled in the immanent political geography of British Burma. [...] As part of imperial writings on the distinctiveness of the colony's cultural landscape, milk informed the imaginative geography of Burma as a place distinct from India. [...]

---

[T]he turn-of-the-century writings of colonial scholar officials and travel-writers [...] generated a particular imaginative geography [...]. These authors rendered Burma a ‘unique geographic entity’ [...]. Being unable to acquire milk whilst travelling Burma was a frequent gripe in imperial writings. In this it stood in contrast to the rest of British India. [...] Imperial writings on dairy consumption – or, rather, the lack of it – in Burma reified this geography [...]. Burma was where you could not get milk in British India. [...] But the difficulty of milk did not end with the cow. Once produced, the milk itself was liable to adulteration and infection necessitating state and scientific intervention. Limiting the mobility of dairy cattle and removing them from urban areas through policies designed to order and police space were central to colonial schemes for improving milk production [...]. By the twentieth century most of the dairy production in the colony was conducted by Indians who had migrated to Burma with their own cattle. [...]

The rendering of cattle as lively commodities in the milk industry was seen to be in tension with their commodification in a different economic sector, the rice industry. 

This was overwhelmingly the most important part of Burma's colonial economy. 

The late nineteenth century saw a rapid expansion of the deltaic rice frontier. By the opening decades of following century the Burma delta had become the largest rice producing region in the world. The importance of plough cattle was reflected in their market value, which doubled between the end of World War One and 1930. [...] 

In particular, they worried that the bloodlines of the Burmese breed of oxen, apparently favoured by cultivators, were at risk. [...] Indian milch cattle were considered a particular threat. This imperial imperative to protect a so-called ‘Burmese’ breed of ox reified and naturalised Burma as a geographic entity, with Indian cattle figured as invasive.

These concerns were entangled with colonial policies regarding the human Indian population in the colony [...].

---

[There was] a growing recognition of the importance of [Burmese] cattle to the production of rice in the Burma delta. [...] The stocky, strong Burmese ox [...] was thought to be especially suited to labour in paddy fields [...]. Burma was imagined as being constituted of upland areas where cattle were bred and the southern deltaic region where they were worked [...]. This was an animal geography that was transgressed by mobile herds of milking cattle imported from India residing along the sides of waterways and in the railway towns [...]. Following the colony's transportation network, migrant Indian cattle penetrated the spaces [...] To many officials, by the start of World War One the existing measures for protecting Burmese plough cattle from the ‘evils’ of Indian milch cattle were deemed inadequate. The push for greater controls began in 1915 with an agricultural and cooperative conference held in Mandalay. [...] ]C]olonial officials came to frame Indian cattle as a problem breed. The conference was attended by over nine hundred people from across Burma, including [...] state officials. It unanimously agreed that action had to be taken to protect [Burmese] cattle from Indian cattle.

Their suggested course of action was three-pronged: taxation, prohibition and segregation. [...] Attitudes to Indian cattle in the colony were conterminous with attitudes to Indian people.

The interventions [in cattle segregation] [...] can be considered as part of a wider range of state controls placed on Indian migrants to Burma. The timing of these committees was synchronous with inquiries into the sanitary conditions that Indian workers travelled and lived in [...]. At the same time [...], the state introduced compulsory medical checks and vaccinations on human arrivals from the subcontinent. In addition, the concerns expressed by officials contributing to these reports on cattle in Burma were indicative of British officialdom's paternalistic attitude towards the Burmese people, viewing their role as protecting the Burmese from the Indian and Chinese populations. The administrative view of the colony, which by the turn of the century held it to be culturally distinct from India, was increasingly imagining it as a separate geo-political entity. Officials began planning for it to be separated from British India.

During the interwar years anti-Indian sentiments gained ground [...]. Indian migrants were figured by some as a threat [...]. There were a number of anti-Indian riots in the 1930s [...]. The 1935 Government of India Act was enacted in 1937 separating Burma from India [...].

---

All text above by: Jonathan Saha. “Milk to Mandalay: dairy consumption, animal history and the political geography of colonial Burma.” Journal of Historical Geography Volume 54. October 2016. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[ratsoh-writes]

Idk if this kind of ask is allowed rn. Hell I don’t even know what kind of ask this IS. But uhhh what kind like what species/breed of cattle do the farmer bros own? (Plus the breed/species of chicken for Horror)

So oaks chickens are all mixed, a bunch of rescue chickens!! He doesn’t really know what half of their breeds are. His current favorite though, baconator, is a jersey giant

As ranchers cattle is his main animal seller, he’s consistent with what kind of cows he raises. He raises mostly greater-Holsteins. Ebott doesn’t care about what kind of animal their produce comes from, they just list produce by quality. So when it comes to animal products, most farmers simply have a mix of animals and eventually develop their own breed over time. Rancher took American Holstein cows, and cross bred them with drakefells greater bull to get a larger more muscled cow that has the Holsteins amazing milk production, but the greater bulls hardiness and disease resistance. He hasn’t had enough generations of cows yet to really get it recognized as an official breed.

Rancher and peaches also raise standard turkeys, soay sheep, and a couple dozen mixed chickens as well. The chickens are more for pest control than the actual eggs, so they just buy random chicks at the market, not caring what breed of chicken it will be.

[ovaruling]

1. Nearly All U.S. Turkeys Are Raised on Factory Farms

Each year, more than 200 million turkeys are slaughtered for food in the U.S. [over 46 million of those solely for the holidays] — and over 99 percent of U.S. turkeys are raised on industrial farms and kept in severely crowded and unsanitary conditions. They are given little or no care and denied the chance to engage in many natural behaviors, like nesting, rooting in the grass for food, or perching. Sheds are filled with ammonia and animal waste, which is harmful to both birds and human workers and puts both at risk for respiratory conditions.

2. Turkeys Are Bred for Painful Rapid Growth

Factory-farmed turkeys are selectively bred to grow to an unnatural size quickly, reaching market weight in just four months. By that age, today’s factory-farmed males are roughly triple the weight of adult wild male turkeys. This breeding for maximal production and profit leaves many birds suffering from deformities and heart conditions and too large to fly, roost, or mate naturally. Burdened by their body weight, some cannot stand or reach their water and food.

3. Turkeys Are Subjected to Painful Mutilations

Many consumers may be shocked that some excruciating procedures are considered standard practice in the poultry industry. Turkeys and chickens alike are routinely detoed (the tips of their toes are severed) and “debeaked” (the tips of their beaks are burned or cut off) — all with no form of pain relief. This is an attempt to prevent injuries caused by the stress of extreme crowding, caused by factory farming itself. While the American Veterinary Medical Association has not condemned debeaking, it has acknowledged that “acute and chronic pain are associated with this procedure.”

4. Birds Are Excluded From the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act

While other land animals — including pigs, cows, and sheep — are offered basic protections under the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, birds (including turkeys, chickens, ducks, and geese) are excluded. This leaves the treatment of these birds at slaughter largely up to meat and egg producers, who most often put profit above animal welfare. While turkeys and chickens are lowered into electrified water in an attempt to stun them, this often fails, leaving many birds conscious when their throats are cut.

5. Animal Agriculture Is a Major Driver of Our Climate Crisis

Many factors affect human-induced climate change, but farming billions of animals yearly is widely considered a leading driver of our environmental crisis. Animal agriculture accounts for at least 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The industry also uses 80 percent of U.S. agricultural land — and according to the University of Minnesota, the U.S. could feed almost three times more people by providing major crops directly to humans rather than livestock. One of the easiest and most effective ways an individual can do their part in helping to fight climate change is by choosing a plant-based diet.

[yokelfelonking]

There's a comic I can't find anymore where a biologist is studying mosquitoes sucking blood from cows. He explains to the rancher: "So you see, healthy cattle more effectively nourish these parasites, so, in a way, the size of the parasites can be taken as a measure of the health of the herd!"

"I know exactly what to do!" says the rancher.

Fast-forward, and specially-bred and genetically engineered mosquitoes the size of condors are feasting on cows which are now naught but skin and bones. "Look at how successful the herd is!" says the rancher.

"THIS IS ABOUT THE STOCK MARKET" was the title of the comic.

I love when newspapers are like "why are people so pessimistic about the economy when stocks are up and inflation is slowing?" Maybe because stocks mean next to nothing to the average person? Maybe because inflation slowing down still leaves it astronomically high when wages haven't kept up pace? Maybe because rents and housing in general have increased far beyond normal inflation and people are only left with the choice to pay up or be homeless? Maybe because most people's lives are still a complete hellscape in the real world regardless of the theoretical numbers on your little spreadsheet????

[artistrichardhfay]

Article: "Fairy Thefts"

Fairies seem to have a confusingly contradictory nature when it comes to their interactions with mankind. Even though the Fair Folk frown upon mortals prying into their secret affairs and may take drastic action when angered by interfering humans, they also display a strange dependence upon the race of Adam. Fairies have been known to rely upon humanity for certain goods, services, and even spouses. Possessing a moral code paradoxical to human minds, the Good Neighbours don’t always exhibit neighbourly attitudes toward mortal rights of ownership. Sometimes they borrow, while at other times they steal, what they want or need. Those that steal may pilfer foodstuff and livestock. They may rob the goodness, or “foyson”, from victuals and cattle. They may even abduct human children and adults. Although selfish individuals are most susceptible to visits from fairy robbers, all mortal kind should be aware of the fairy proclivity for thievery and take the proper precautions.

Members of the often light-fingered other crowd have no qualms about lifting mortal provender needed to sustain their own existence. Fairies will filch a portion of a farmer’s crop and carry off sheaves of corn one straw at a time. On occasion, they make off with milled meal instead of unprocessed grain. Invisible sprites scrape smidgens of butter from pats being sold in the market place. Brownies magically ingest ill-gotten junket under the very noses of dishonest servants. Buttery spirits and abbey lubbers devour the food and drink of shady taverners and self-indulgent monks. At times, the Little People lure mortal-owned cattle into their knolls to be milked, bred, or butchered for a feast. At other times, they steal milk right from dairy cows browsing the meadow or sequestered in the barn.

More often than thieving the items themselves, fairies may simply remove the goodness, or “foyson”, from desired food and livestock. What is left behind looks solid enough, but it lacks true substance or nourishment. Cheese thus denatured floats in water like a cork. Bannocks so altered appear hearty enough, but they never fill a man’s stomach no matter how many are eaten. Cows whose spirits have been whisked away to Fairyland may continue to wander farmer’s fields, but they produce no milk. An elf-taken ox sickens and dies, and upon its death will prove to be merely an alder wood simulacrum of the actual animal. Land with its goodness stolen by the Gentry yields a slender harvest and produces fodder empty of sustenance.

Far worse than the theft of goods or the removal of the substance from such goods, the fairies also steal away mortal children and adults. The Fairy Queen’s dark butler, the far dorocha, fetches men desired by his mistress. The Gentry in general nab nursing mothers so they can suckle fairy infants. Midwives carried off are expected to perform their duties in Fairyland. Young craftsmen beguiled into service become fairy bond-slaves. Handsome lads and pretty lasses captured by the Fay are paired with fair spouses to replenish the dwindling fairy strain. Golden-haired babes and children looked on with envy are especially vulnerable to abduction by the Wee Folk. The youngest of mortals taken beneath the fairy hills either grow into full members of fairy society, or find themselves offered as part of the Teind, the septennial tithe the fairies pay to Hell.

As with stolen cattle, the Good Neighbours may leave behind a substitute for the kidnapped human. This substitute is called a changeling. In the case of abducted adults, the fairies frequently replace the mortal with a replica body, or stock. In the case of snatched children, the changeling may be a cantankerous old fairy well past his prime, or a sickly fairy child, or a wooden stock roughly formed to look like a human babe and imbued with glamour to simulate life for a short while. In almost all cases, if the truth of the changeling’s identity is not soon revealed, it eventually appears to wither and die.

According to some, fairies only take from miserly mortals or humans who grumble about that which they do not deserve to have, but this may not always be the case. However, laziness or carelessness definitely makes one more likely to be a victim of fairy theft, especially if one ignores certain precautionary measures. The mark of the Cross on the first bannock stops the Fair Folk from sapping the nourishment of the whole batch. Bells, spells, or rowan and red thread protect cattle. Daisy chains worn by small children drive off potential fairy abductors. An open pair of scissors hung above an infant’s cradle, or steel pins stuck crosswise in the babe’s clothes, keeps the child safe from being switched with a changeling. An iron horseshoe hung over the threshold protects the whole house.

Food seemingly devoured by mundane pests may have actually been pilfered by the Fay. Disappearing livestock or missing persons might now be residing in Elfame. Greed or an unappreciative nature can make humans more vulnerable to attention from light-fingered fairies, but all men who neglect traditional protections risk the theft of food, cattle, or even the abduction of their wives and children. After all, as the old saying goes, it’s better being safe than sorry, and those who’ve become victims of the thieving Wee Folk may be sorry indeed.

Sources:

An Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katharine Briggs

Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee

A Field Guide to Irish Fairies by Bob Curran

A History of Irish Fairies by Carolyn White

The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Anna Franklin

The Vanishing People by Katharine Briggs

(Originally published in Classically Educated: A Place for Global Citizens and Polymaths, November 27, 2017.)

[obeymebutnotlikethat]

The Problem Began In Neidic

The problem began in Neidic: a small town off the coast,  blocked in by the country's largest rivers-or what was left. Our farmers cursed the God’s for trapping their cattle while some maidens went to the beds and grabbed harvest fish. Those which we bred to eat on their own farms.

Shelly says they made her do it. Her skirt dripped with strawberry remains. The riverbeds bloomed roses and a crimson haze drifted towards the sky. All the fish snagged their sides and the maidens didn’t dare fish through something so unholy. They rather collected the one’s lucked into suffocating with burnt, dried, sandy scales.

Someone, someone needed to collect them for proper disposal. Even those out of luck require care especially when they will destroy the life around them if left to rot, Shelly had nodded. It had been weeks since her mother went missing after a public outcry. That was the first time Shelly went to gather fish in the shrinking beds and the first time she saw Mr. Vielner collects roses.

It’s mysterious, he told her, how they grew in a place inhabitable. However, we could make quite some coins in the market for these. The local flower stand might buy the bouquets, yes?

I was once an exorcist’s daughter, she replied, I know nothing of flowers and their worth. Perhaps, the butcher could make use of them as well.

They performed their tasks well from what the Mayor suggested. How splendid the town was prospering! Yet, Sally- with two little bows and soft blue sky hand me downs- sat by her fathers bedside. Much the same for the women’s housing by the Methodist church and their sea of candles. Or the authorities with cow skin caught on their belts, damp socks, thorn nicked wrists, and sandy batons. Everyone performed their tasks well.

For the problem started in Neidic, when travelers heard of our prosperity and the man of many faces ruling it. They needed to witness our culture, the housing, our streets, and the drying riverbeds or roses. The problem began in Neidic as the first flock were not pleased.  

Shelly said their eyes could be plucked and placed in the spot of the moon. Their unhinged jaws and stumbling legs before a murder flew overhead. The Mayor, pleased with their interest, requested a meeting and at the end of the week: a new rosebed bloomed further upstream.

We believe it was not suitable for the visitors home as men draped clean strode off new boats. Weed cutters slung around their shoulders and faces of severity pranced into our abode. An unusual sight when they referred to us as savages and never left.

The problem began in Neidic, the Sinia Days reported, after hometown resident, Dan Jackov, brought back an organ from a local butcher shop. ‘It’s a human liver,’ he said. He also said the butcher told him it came from the river. When questioned, he told him it was fish. In investigation, Jackov went to their local river bed’s and couldn’t believe the bodies left unattended. We send a prayer to those lost as well as our troops perform a cleansing ritual.

[scottguy]

Those things wouldn't involve controlling women as chattel like cows to be bred against their will.

It was NEVER about "life". That's just a marketing term chosen by focus groups because the truth above is too ugly to face.

Republicans spread trauma.

[fungaldeity]

would be interesting to make some sort of analysis on how cottagecore and adjacent aesthetics serve to uphold carnism as an ideology. farming sims that include animals as just another resource, devoid of any real emotions, upkeep, or agency beyond "milk this cow and it will love you". framing animal agriculture as "living off the land" and not the industrial reality of the status quo.

despite what cottagecore likes to present, when you eat an animal, you are not eating something that grew on a grassy pasture in a small farm and willingly gave up its life. you are eating something bred, born, raised and murdered in a factorylike system that reduced its life to an object with the sole goal of marketable resources. along with extensive government subsidies, the main reason why animal products are cheap is because of the systematic transformation of their lives into steps in a factory cycle.

chicken meat is cheap because decades of intensive breeding and feeding techniques brought heavy-breasted varieties at the expense of their ability to support themselves. nowadays, the average broiler chicken lives only to 6 weeks before it is murdered. laying hens in the usa are forced to lay eggs for two laying seasons, then murdered because of decreasing yields for farmers. the reason why they do two seasons is because you can force hens to moult by starving them of food and/or water, making them think it's a new season and rejuvenating the quality of their eggs. this controversial practice is banned in the eu, so laying hens there are simply killed after one season.

i could go on about individual examples by which the animal agriculture industry strips animals of their individuality and well-being in favour of singlemindedly driving up productivity, but pretty much every example is like that. the reality of animal agriculture is far from the idealistic imagery of happy animals on happy farms living happy lives. animals are not allowed to live their lives out to their fullest, forced to grow unhealthily fast and killed at the peak of when it is profitable to do so. as much as welfarists will argue that this is only an issue on large factory farms, any commercial operation is predicated on cutting costs, so in order to be a viable farm, farmers will necessarily kill animals who are no longer profitable for them.

where do cottagecore and all of its relatives come into play here? settler-colonialism aside, it glorifies exactly the kind of pastoralism that is not actually represented in the modern practice of animal agriculture. it creates consumers who have a warped idea of the truth of where their food comes from and convinces them that they are doing the right thing by continuing to practice carnism. cottagecore is propaganda and animal ag is not your friend

[daenerysoftarth]

If we did implement insects as environmentally sustainable alternatives to other protein sources like beef and pork, then how would that look in practicality? bc obviously cows and pigs are bred to be slaughtered in warehouses to provide food for people, so would the same apply to insects? and if that’s the case, could creating a market for ingestible insects help reverse the current insect apocalypse that’s happening rn by repopulating via artificial breeding and what not?? if so why are we not implementing it immediately

[answrs]

"but CACTUS-" cactus """"leather""""" is up to 60% plastic and last time i saw it get tested in a study also contained like 8 federally banned carcinogens.* IT'S ALL FUCKING PLASTIC.

"but tANNING CHEMICALS-" i am holding your face in my hands. your plastic shit production also involves dangerous chemicals. So. Many. Chemicals. and also Continues to release Nasty Shit into the water supply and then landfill after it's made.

you want a textile that doesn't kill an animal? great, we have some! it's FUCKING WOOL. we have literally bred sheep (and goats/alpaca/llamas) for nearly TEN THOUSAND YEARS to harvest their wool in a yearly haircut that leaves them trotting back to the herd in under five minutes with modern tools and a competent shearer. Not shearing these animals is actually detrimental to their welfare!

some of us are allergic to wool though, or can't use it for other reasons. (I will mention though - if you're allergic to sheep's wool specifically I would suggest checking out alpaca fiber if you can, they're different enough many people -though not all- don't have a sensitivity to the material. I have some wonderful dryer balls made of alpaca felt from a local farm and don't have to worry about setting off Mom's allergies with them, and they last for a good while! ours are going on four or five years now.)

look. the cows are going to die. that is a fact of the world we live in right now. do you want their corpses dumped somewhere to rot, or do you want to let someone make use of that massive amount of material to clothes themselves?

*edit: apologies, not 8 but 5 restricted chemicals. study linked here:

All tested materials emitted volatile organic compounds when applied to the thermal desorption screening procedure. Restricted substances were identified in the samples of PUR-coated textile (reference), the similarly constructed materials Desserto®, Appleskin®, and Vegea®, but also in Pinatex®. The PUR-coated textile contained considerable amounts of dimethylformamide (DMFa) and toluene and traces of N,N-dimethylacetamide. In Appleskin®, butanone oxime and traces of DMFa were detected. Desserto® contained the five restricted substances butanone oxime, toluene, free isocyanate, folpet (an organic pesticide), and traces of the plasticizer Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). Toluene was detected in the sample of Vegea® and DIBP in that of Pinatex®.

Desserto® and Appleskin® adopt this principle. A part of PUR is replaced by agricultural by-products, which are used as fillers. A detailed analysis of the origin of the natural component and its content in relation to the bulk of the material was not possible, however. Nevertheless, the bulk of the materials remains to consist of polyurethane.

Figure 5 shows impressively the performance of the different materials in comparison to the references. Alternative materials have specific advantages, but none of the materials combines high mechanical strength and flex resistance with high water vapor permeability as in the case of leather. (note: WVP and WVA refer to Water Vapor Permeability and Water Vapor Absorption respectively)

I love leather and I love fur and I don’t mind arguing about it.