n Paulin Modi, in a recent letter (“Stay smart about bad meat,” Feb. 6, p. 6), wrote: “Who really wants to wake up every morning knowing that they are going to pay for animals to be crammed into cages, beaten and then bleed to death?”

I must say, I’m okay with it. I love my morning bacon and sausage sandwich, and since I don’t generally have the time to hunt down, kill, butcher and cook up a wild pig before work, I’m glad there are farmers out there providing a valuable service and a great product to millions of meat-loving Americans like myself.

Individuals concerned about the conditions on “factory farms” have the option of buying free range meat, available in most supermarkets, and simultaneously support many New England farms which use free range practices.

Alta Vista Farm in Rutland, Mass., for example, raises free-range bison and has been doing so for over thirty years.

Personally, I think assembly line farming is a great example of the ingenuity and progressive nature of American farmers over the last century. By all means, if you’re opposed to their methods, boycott their products, but the success of the industry demonstrates that most people enjoy meat, and at the same time, few of us are na’ve to where it comes from.

Andrew Krauss

ENG’05