These are strawberries; strawberries with a very good size, and a delicious flavor. They are super sweet and are organic strawberries produced here in El Verdegal.

Compassionate viewers, welcome to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. This episode features the first in a two-part series about a very heartening global trend. Farmers are switching away from raising livestock and are finding peaceable livelihoods.

Today we’ll visit former livestock farmers from the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Formosa (Taiwan), Âu Lạc (Vietnam) and Iran and learn some of the reasons they made the courageous, noble decision to change careers. Why did these farmers previously raise livestock? In some cases, they began simply because that was what their fathers had done before them, and they learned this form of livelihood as they grew up. Also many times the father expects his children to take over the family farm.

I came from a dairy-farming family. Since I was a little boy, I have been milking the cows. Later on, my dad gave us our own plots to cultivate when we got married, so I started to make the dairy bigger, making a kind of feedlot.

Yes, my father raised livestock. He had a ranch. Then my father passed away when I was young. So I started to be in charge of the ranch, while my mother was the owner. She did the commercial side. She sold the animals to the people to raise them or to be butchered.

My family historically have been pig farmers right here in Ohio.

As a child, I usually spent my vacations with my grandfather; he had a cattle ranch and farmed. So, from very small, I was acquainted with the environment, with nature. Subsequently, my father bought a ranch.

I spent most of my life in agriculture; I grew up on a cattle farm in Michigan (USA).

Many of these former farmers had financially successful operations, but after a while, they became deeply troubled by several aspects of their work, including the enormous cruelty involved in animal farming.

After only six months, while giving birth, one of my animals broke one of her legs and become crippled. And this incident had such a profound effect on me that gradually I started to think that such an incident would surely recur, since my cows were continually giving birth. So I asked the vet, who said that this was due to low calcium, and that when animals give birth for the second, third and fourth time, such incidents do occur. This caused me great anxiety.

I witnessed how animals suffered on the factory farms. And when we would take the animals to be sold, they would look at us as if one of the family members was going away. I couldn’t bear such scenes. These scenes were a kind a torture for me.

Raising pigs also created a lot of problems. For example, when a pig was sick, I didn’t know the reason, so I had to buy medicine for them. I worried for them. When a pig was sick, I too felt sick. Seeing them sick, I felt pity for them, because they couldn’t speak.

Each time I sold a pig, they kept going back in, not wanting to leave me, because they had already grown attached to me. I did not want the pig to be slaughtered. I thought of the pig being tied up. “My God! Tonight, the pig will be killed.” I prayed for her a lot. Each time, I sold a pig, I fell ill for a month, even longer. Then I told my husband, “Oh, honey, we should stop raising pigs!”

How did these individuals condition themselves to ignore the horrendous treatment and eventual murder of the tender farm animals under their care?

I had this immediate mental image of a light switch right over my heart and I call it my “compassion switch” and I could turn this compassion switch on and off, depending on circumstances.

Turn it on for some animals, and turn it off for the ones that I had to butcher. To turn my compassion off, to turn my love off, to turn my empathy and sympathy off was three words, a phrase. And if I had the power to take this phrase out of the English language I would. It was the phrase “I don’t care.”

Any time I had to do something that I thought was objectionable, something that I thought was not right, I would just say, “I don't care,” so that I could do whatever needed to be done, whether it was to kill them, and butcher them, or to eat them. If I had an emotional connection with that animal, but I ended up butchering and then eating them, I'd feel, "Yes, yes, but I don't care, I need to eat.”

When we return, we’ll learn more about why farmers are going away from raising livestock and instead embracing peaceful and loving careers. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

We have pets, and we love them; they’re so dear to us. And we will never think of eating a cat or a dog. But we have no problem with other animals, whether they are free living animals or domesticated animals like cows. It's this dichotomy; it's this double standard that we have that one is worthy of our regard and the other is not. One is worthy of our love and the other is not.

Welcome back to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants, as we continue our program about why livestock farmers are leaving the animal agriculture industry. Many are profoundly concerned about the devastating effects on health arising from the production and consumption of animal products. Countless studies have shown that meat consumption can result in heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity and many highly infectious diseases originate from livestock as well.

One such illness, transferred from cows to humans through unpasteurized milk, cheese or other dairy products, is brucellosis.

Those who become ill with brucellosis may experience fever, sweating, weakness, anemia, headaches, depression and muscular and bodily pain. The duration of these symptoms can last for weeks, months or even become chronic.

I had 40 cows in the feedlot. Then I was offered a whole herd from a dairy that was going to be closed down. We made a deal and we introduced the cows into our feedlot and about three years later, we realized that the bull and all the cows from that herd were infected with brucellosis. Since the bull was infected, all the cows also became infected.

Livestock can spread extremely contagious diseases like bird flu, and even cause pandemics such as swine flu. Pollution is a grave concern as well.

In 1995, a 3.25 hectare manure lagoon in North Carolina, USA burst, releasing 97.6- million liters of sewage into the New River. The event was the largest environmental spill in US history, more than twice as large as the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Consequently millions of fish perished along with all other beings living in the river. Drinking water often becomes contaminated with nitrates and phosphorus from the manure that is generated. In addition, many suffer from respiratory illnesses from the fouled air, and some even experience psychological problems such as depression arising from living in degraded surroundings.

Why did you change your job?

The reason is that the radio continually reported about H1N1 (swine flu) transmission between humans, and then I saw that raising pigs affected the environment and the water source that people around here are using. I felt bad and decided to change my job.

Nowadays, I’ve heard television reports from around the world informing us that H1N1 (swine flu) has been very quickly affecting human health. Also, every day I see animals’ waste polluting water supplies and surrounding communities, affecting our own health first, then the communities’ health.

Before when I raised pigs, the waste from raising pigs caused pneumonia, and my wife and children’s health were not good, and we weren’t very happy.

The former farmers also felt very uneasy about the slaughter of gentle farm animals.

You can’t humanely kill a human being, so why would anybody think you can humanely kill an animal -- you can’t. It’s a word that shouldn’t be equated with anything that has to do with an animal food product. If you look at Webster’s Dictionary, it defines the word “humane” with three words. It just says, “To show kindness, compassion and mercy.” That’s humane, and I think most people would agree with that.

You can’t kill humanely, it just can’t be done.

Animals on livestock farms are kept in severely overcrowded conditions, standing 24-hours a day in their own filth and are fed antibiotics to grow faster and produce even more milk or eggs. The drugs are also given because the animals’ immune systems are extremely weak due to the constant stress they experience. They are very susceptible to the diseases that are rife in their sordid surroundings. The goal is to keep the animal alive, even if just barely, until they can be fully exploited for their milk or eggs and then finally slaughtered. A study in the US found that 70% of pigs had pneumonia by the time they reached the slaughterhouse.

This use of antibiotics also gives rise to drug-resistant bacteria. It thus makes it ever more difficult to find an effective antibiotic for treatment if people are infected by these same bacteria.

In the long term, the animals were afflicted with different diseases, so that even administering antibiotics would not cure them. We would give them various antibiotics, yet the animals still could not stand on their feet and ultimately they would die.

When I look at the factory farms, they can only be described as an abomination to me, both health-wise and from an environmental standpoint.

In addition, it's a virtual breeding ground for all diseases, the swine flu, the bird flu. All these really aren't inherent in pigs. Pigs are actually one of the cleanest animals on the planet.

Unable to bear the inhumane treatment, filthy conditions, and diseases involved in raising livestock any longer, many courageous individuals like Mr. Hsu of Formosa (Taiwan) decided they must make a change.

In 2000, I closed my pig farm and began doing work related to environmental protection.

I had to give up several million dollars of income. But we should insist on doing the right thing.

We are truly grateful to these courageous, compassionate farmers for their efforts to protect human health, help animals and heal the planet by turning away from livestock raising and adopting eco-friendly lifestyles. Tomorrow, on Part 2 of our program, we’ll learn more about why they’re making the shift, and what words of advice they have for the world.

We appreciate your kind presence today on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May your life be blessed with ever greater wisdom, joy and peace.