Forty years ago, Lake County was 90% agricultural and 10% residential. Today those numbers have flipped to 90% residential and 10% agricultural. Attending the Lake County Fair provides a snapshot of what remains of our local farms and ranches.
While the Fair offers many entertainment opportunities from tractor pulls to demolition derby, beauty-scholarship competitions to talent shows, carnival rides and games. My preference is following the animal husbandry projects and events related to Lake County’s 4-H Clubs, organized through the University of Illinois Extension.
4-H children who choose to raise lambs, chickens, cows, goats or pigs are expected to meet project goals: Learn to accept responsibility to care for an animal regularly. Learn animal nutrition and how to protect their health. Learn to train and handle an animal safely.
The opportunity to raise animals for 4-H projects is not limited to children living on farms. A 4-H club at Wagner Farm in Glenview has two brothers who live in Chicago raising a lamb together at the farm..
When 4-H children and their animals are judged at the fair, it is against project goals. If a child met all project goals, they receive a blue ribbon. If a child met most project goals yet still needs improvement, they receive a red ribbon. If a child needs substantial improvement, then a judge can offer a white ribbon or none at all.
All blue ribbon projects in a class (such as lambs) are judged and ranked for champion and alternate champion. All champion projects are judged and ranked for grand champion and runner up grand champion.
Finally, judges select projects for competition at the Illinois State Fair of children at least 10 years old. These are typically Grand Champion and Champions, though it can be blue ribbon projects, too.
On Friday night at the Fair, 4-H children play a spirited game of Battle of the Barns. They compete on relay teams who shuck corn, jump over hay bales and slide their way to a mud bath finish.
On Saturday afternoon, there is an auction of 4-H and open class livestock. The auction has quite of bit of interesting people watching opportunities. From marriage proposals to animals simply not cooperating to the surprisingly high (and low) prices these animals fetch at auction.
There is quite a bit of ego and bluster amongst the bidders. The highest bidders receive ribbons and their names memorialized on plaques. The highest bids are typically for 4-H projects, which are often far beyond market prices.
Many of the pigs sold at auction are donated to St. Mary’s Catholic Church for their annual Pork and Corn Roast. It is on Saturday August 7th at 4 pm at 22333 West Erhart Road in Mundelein. Dinner will be served from 4:30 to 7:30 pm. Meal tickets are $10 per adult; $4 for 5-10 year old and those 4 and under are free.
While Saturday is a day of jubilation as the children witness the prices their animals fetch. Sunday is not quite as pleasant. In the afternoon, the new owners collect their prize animals.
The younger children who treated their animals like pets are tearful as their animals are led away. Older experienced children who have gone through the cycle of raising livestock before are more detached. To ease the pain, 4-H clubs gather their members for dinner to celebrate their accomplishments at the Fair.
The roots of County and State Fairs are in agriculture. If you peel away the glitter and games, it is still there and worthy of your time.
Mike Gebert offers a 4-H parent’s perspective on the livestock project: http://www.triblocal.com/Glenview/detail/201671.html
Folks interested in this story will be interested in this one as well:
http://www.triblocal.com/Glenview/detail/200467.html
Editors note: TribLocal deleted the “other story” because the writer would not identify themselves properly after numerous attempts by our editors to have the byline corrected. We encourage this debate and request only that people keep their comments constructive and civil.
Thank you all for contributing to this conversation
Great, so Trib Local deleted one of my comments, probably because it linked to my videos which are entirely on topic and appropriate to the discussion–hardly spam. And they deleted the other story on this subject even though it continued to be read and commented on. It isn’t inviting the citizens to talk and participate if you censor with a heavy hand, guys.
Mike, you like all children were born into the world as innocent. You have decided to remain indocrinated in convienient belief systems because you like the taste of flesh. There are plenty of ideologies/religious beliefs throughout history that have condoned violence, which doesn’t make it right. We don’t have to exploit living sentient beings to eat. Just because you want to believe that you can exploiti them ‘nicely ‘ doesn’t give you the moral pass to do so, no matter what one’s sky god ‘tells them’. They have their own lives in this world. You choose not to see past your appetite.
“A fanatic is someone who does what God would do if only He had all the information.” –Karl Marx
Genesis 1: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Period. People who ate meat later in the Bible did so because of cultural reasons and because after the flood there apparently was not much plant life left. Whatever their reasons for eating meat, it conflicted with the original, perfect plan of God. He did not originally want us to eat the part of creation He gave central nervous systems to, not to mention emotions, feelings, ability to feel pain, a face, etc.
Teach children “where our food comes from”….
Where ‘meat’ comes from: it comes from the label of deception that we provide to ourselves and to our children when we legitimize our immoral choice to take the life of sentient beings & feed on their dead muscle tissue.
‘Meat’ comes from that place in the human brain that lets us objectify and place diminishing labels on something so that it makes it easier for us to do bad things to it. We use these names on an human enemy to make them sub-human so that we can justify vilolent actions towards them.. We also label flesh “meat’ to assist in this disconnect and legitimize our self-serving appetites.
“Food” comes from a place in our hearts and minds, providing our heart and mind is in the right place.
What color ribbon do the 4-H children win for NOT shedding a tear when their beloved hand-raised animals are taken away to slaughter?
Excerpted comments on Facebook:
Notice the section “Many of the pigs sold at auction are donated to St. Marys Catholic Church for their annual Pork and Corn Roast.” and ” To ease the pain, 4-H clubs gather their members for dinner to celebrate their accomplishments at the Fair.” So I wonder if eating the animals they raised helps ease the pain or rather solidifies an evil thought process in the minds of children.
I found that the most appalling of all. Perhaps, we should be addressing a few letters to St. Mary’s? Which patron saint was she again?
St. Mary is Christ’s mother, the Mother Mary. Which is just horrible for people to use her name in conjunction with pig roasts, and especially using the lives of God’s blessed creatures to raise MONEY! It is indicative of the violent and bloody history of Christianity and the Catholic church, which only became the world’s most wide spread religion because of the people they killed, maimed, and tortured and children they kidnapped for brain washing around the world during the “Crusades” in the name of God.
Clearly, no institution has been MORE responsible for spilling blood, throughout history, than this church founded on the teaching that God is love.
Of course, she was. I forgot to add the obligatory wink-wink ;). I was being facetious. Pig roasts indeed–in the name of our blessed mother Mary. ;)
I was raised a Christian and still believe in the value of Christ’s teachings, but I cannot abide the way humans have taken over His Church and made it something He would never approve. The most valuable religious teaching I carry with me always is this: “Do unto ALL others as you would have done to yourself.” (and I do stress the ALL)
I was very grateful to both Mike and Cathy for pointing this program out to me last year: we took our child to the fair, observed the pigs that were tagged for St. Mary’s roast, and then ate the pork the week afterward. My son understands better than most kids that our meat comes from farm animals who require care and effort and time to get to the table.
I am perfectly willing to adapt my eating habits to vegetarians and vegans whenever they come to our table, but that courtesy never seems to extend in the other direction. I draw the line at having people whose food philosophy differs from mine make decisions about how I parent my child, or about what kinds of programs are available to our family.
In that case, Keanablue, the bottom line is that vegetarians are about 3% of the population, so good luck with that. Given a population that will always eat meat by choice, I will choose to encourage at least a few of them to understand where their food comes from. The choice is not eating animals or not eating animals as a society, it’s reality vs. ignorance, and your agitation to put reality further out of sight because a piece of land which has been a farm for a century suddenly bothers you does nothing to increase understanding of reality, it promotes and abets ignorance.
There is an arrogant presumption that those of us who endorse compassion for animals are ‘city folk’ who are out of touch with Nature, our environment, and out of touch with what goes on in animal agriculture – quite the contrary!. Many of us grew up in agrarian scenarios, including 4-H, so we too speak from experience when we make a plea for the lives of the animals as well as the feelings of your children who raise them, then with breaking hearts send them to be slaughtered. We know from experience that there is, in fact, another way! It has been said that ‘Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity’, but it is the cumulative choices that we make that creates any given custom. Those of us who have ‘been there’ wholeheartedly support your children’s innate inclination to choose compassion over cruelty when it comes to the lives of their precious animals……
So yes, this means making the changes that go with a cruelty free lifestyle, starting with placement of Wagner Farm’s 4-H animals in a sanctuary that is ready and waiting. Your children will look back and honor you for doing the right thing rather than the mindless, merciless thing. For their sake, if not the animals, please, make the compassionate choice while there’s still time. Then take note of the look on their faces and decide if you want to see broken hearts or lighthearted smiles……
The bottom line is we don’t want this kind of program being operated on tax-payer land. Wagner farm is not a private farm.
Wow, I had no idea I was indoctrinating my kids into an evil farm cult by involving them in 4-H! (snort)
The exquisitely sensitive city folks who write (or cut and paste) the kind of stuff above have NO actual idea, not only what goes on in 4-H, but what goes on with making food generally, including their vegetables and tofu. Taking the dozen or so Glenview 4-H animals and sending them to a “sanctuary” is about on a par with the president pardoning the Thanksgiving turkey every year in terms of its effectiveness; it might make you feel good (and write some group a check) but it has zero effect on how animals are raised in this country.
You know what does affect that, will improve the amount of humane animal treatment in the US? Teaching kids about raising animals in 4-H. 4-H farmers, even mere diners and cooks who have been through 4-H, will be more attuned to the environment, the life cycle, the decent treatment of our meat animals; they will be the ones raising them in an environmentally responsible way and restoring the natural cycle of animals and plants growing together instead of the industrial monocultures that produce the vegetables and soybeans and isoflavons and agrichemicals that you consume and think are more virtuous.
Maybe instead of lecturing these kids and insulting them by considering them all budding psychopaths, you need to try on a little humility and see what they can teach you from their experiences.
“The Aug. 28 Vancouver Sun showed a photograph of a tearful young girl wishing farewell to her pet lamb at the 4-H auction at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). The lamb was headed for the chopping block.
The accompanying article described the trauma of many children adjusting to the ‘realities’ of animal agriculture. After a few years of raising and then killing animals, most children outgrow their childish sentimentality, it seems, and learn how much fun it is to make money in this way.
One mother recalled that when her nine-year old son sold his first lamb at auction he cried for two weeks. Until he got the cheque. ‘Then the tears were replaced by dollar signs.’
It seems the function of the 4-H organization is to indoctrinate children into an agricultural system which views animals as inanimate cogs in an economic machine.
The methods of indoctrination are simple: divorce children from their natural compassion for animals, help them ‘mature’ to the point where they can view animals as commercial objects and replace reverence for life with more useful emotion: lust for money.
There is no need for meat or dairy products in the human dietin fact our addiction to these foods has reaped a harvest of cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses. The sooner our society releases itself from this addiction, the better. When that day comes we will no longer have organizations like 4-H training our children to suppress their instincts of compassion.”
(Brent Stewart) Letter from The Vancouver Sun, September 13, 1993
Send the 4H farmed animals to sanctuary. Thank you.
One sentence in the article says it all, but with callous understatement: “Sunday is not as pleasant.” Farmed animals are sentient beings. They are conscious, sentient beings. They feel joy and sadness, fear and hope, pain and pleasure, anticipation and regret. Children sense this. They have natural empathy toward the other beings with which we share this planet, and 4-H teaches them to objectify these other creatures, to “care” for them and then turn them over for slaughter. It’s entirely unnecessary, and it’s cruel, and one day people will look back on this kind of thing as unbridled barbarism. Save these animals. Let them be sold to the rescue fund. And, for your own health, for the health of the planet, and for these creatures (who are smarter than dogs and cats), GO VEGAN. Think about this, please.
Bob Shepherd
Who could eat after seeing the pet they raised and cared for towed away? Becoming detached after raising anything and caring for it in this manor is just plain wrong. Where does this sort of behavior lead us? Killing, wars, and violence toward other, that’s where! It’s sad that we would want to teach anyone to detach emotionally. I would also like to comment on the fact that these 4-H parents and children do have an alternative to killing their animals. Why not the Wagner Farm Rescue Fund? Wouldn’t that be better for the emotional children and the (pet) they raised? I call these farm animals pets because of the interaction between children and pets, which is very close and intimate. We can do a better job raising our children and helping out animals who have been domesticated if we understand what being humane is.
4-H teaches kids to harden their hearts, to overcome their natural empathy toward animals, to become inured to inflicting violence and death on the innocent. What a terrible thing to do to chilldren, and to animals.
There is another, better, peaceful way. Farm sanctuaries have offerred to give the Wagner Farm animals a haven, a reprieve, a lifetime home where they will be treated with compassion. We have a golden opportunity to teach a wonderful lesson in kindness and respect to the dhildren. Will we spare the lives of the animals, and teach peace and the golden rule, or will we kill these beautiful creatures and teach domination and disregard for life?
People of all ages are delighted to visit animals on sanctuaries, and to watch them grow up and grow old with dignity and their friends, and where they are never harmed by humans. The rewards are infinitely greater than inflicting avoidable harm on animals who don’t want to die. Let us take a step toward a world with sanctuaries instead of slaughterhouses.
Well this is quite awful – To “detach” children from their genuine emotions? I thought the goal of such organizations was to raise “whole” people and “aware” citizens. Having a dinner to “celebrate” and “forget” the loss that never had to happen to begin with seems like such a betrayal… To not only the kids, but to the animals entrusted in their care as well. This does not make “enlightened” kids – It makes hardened, numb kids that grow up to be hardened, numb adults, that continue the sad and vicious cycle on their own kids as well.
What a great opportunity to break free from this “tradition” of pointless cruelty and adopt a new tradition of reprieve and deliverance! Wagner Farm Rescue Fund can purchase these animals – Thereby avoiding the betrayal the kids will feel AND saving the lives of these innocent animals as well! Instead of having a program full of victims – Everyone can be a winner with this choice… All it takes is some clear heads and open hearts to the idea of compassion. There is an option to death… It would be so sad to choose otherwise.
The good news is that the Glenview Clover 4-H kids have the opportunity to spare the lives of their animals. Wagner Farm Rescue Fund is willing to purchase the animals and find sanctuary for them!