The efficiency of current animal farming practices is an “illusion”, according to a report released last Summer by the Pew Charitable Trusts (May 30, 2008).

This “illusion” is made possible by “cheap grain, cheap water and prison-like confinement systems.” Underpinning this status is the drive for the lowest possible labor costs–meaning automated feeding, watering, and waste disposal is the norm–which undermines and impoverishes traditional, family and small farm operations (farms which are typically bought out by corporate farming conglomerates, who then receive  the lion’s share of subsidies; about half a trillion since 2001).

What some call “industrial” farming and others –like the Union of Concerned Scientists–more descriptively refer to as  “confined” farming, results in massive over-crowding of livestock where unsafe/unhealthy conditions prevail for both the  animals, and the workers. These conditions make the spread of disease easier, and lead to over use of antibiotics (which are also often used to keep young calves sickly, and their meat more tender). *

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We all know factory farming is dangerous for the environment, and more and more now, for our health. MSNBC just did a piece about the superbugs in meat, causing dangerous and sometimes lethal viruses in the people who work in slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, and in surrounding areas. Read the article for the full story.

I was shocked to read that anyone can buy antibiotics without a prescription and add them to feed for farm animals. Often, these are the same ones we take when we are sick. Is it any wonder viruses are becoming resistant to these very same, overused antibiotics?

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The Meatrix is a clever animated short that explains how incredibly cruel, destructive and dangerous factory farming truly is. Even the recent over-hyped outbreak of swine flu has been linked to poorly managed factory farms in Mexico, that are actually owned by US Agribusiness giant Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest industrial pork producer. “Industrial farms are super-incubators for viruses,” said Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production, and a vocal critic of “contained animal feeding operations.”

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Today’s news is ablaze with stories about the recent swine flu outbreak, an outbreak that may have been fully preventable through the use of green farming practices.  At the time I write this post, 50 cases of swine 

flu have been reported in the US alone, with one death attributable to the mutated virus.  Although most cases have been mild, the fear factor alone is leading to school closures and cancelled vacations across the world. 

Could this have been prevented?  In my opinion, yes.   Pig farmers today are more concerned about profit dollars and pounds of pork produced than the quality of the meat.  This means pigs are kept in tight quarters, creating an excellent breeding ground for viruses as well as virus mutation.  Flys and other insects that thrive in pig excrement provide a ready medium for transmission of these new forms of “bugs”, completing the cycle. 

There is considerable speculation on the web that this new form of virus originated in the pig farms owned by Smithfield Farms in Perote, Mexico, which is where the disease was first spotted. Over 950,000 pigs are raised in these facilities.  There is no way of proving culpability, of course, but it stands to reason that free range pig farming (and sustainable farming of other food animals), provides a healthier alternative to overpopulated pig “tenements”.  

But until we stop “hogging” profit dollars and see the greener picture, health risks will continue to rise.  I plan to wash my hands often.  
 

“You’ve got a small group of multinational corporations who control the entire food system, from seed to the supermarket.”

A new documentary film, “Food Inc.“, exposes a frightening portrait of how dysfunctional and destructive our food system has become, and how dishonest corporations repeatedly compromise safety for profit. The movie illustrates how our nation is almost totally divorced from seasonal food, biodiversity and local production. We have entrusted the safety of our food system to a small handful of huge greedy corporations that are destroying us and the planet with massive monoculture factory farms and poisonous chemicals. According to Michael Pollan, this movie is “The most important film about our food system in a generation”. This excellent documentary was made by Robert Kenner and co-produced by Eric Schlosser, of Fast Food Nation fame; it is scheduled to be released on June 12 of this year.

HBO will premier a new documentary titled “Death on a Factory Farm” tomorrow at 10 pm EST.

The film is a sequel to 2006’s Emmy-nominated “Dealing Dogs,” which exposed the illegal market for dogs sold to research labs through an undercover investigation by a man going by “Pete.” Well, Pete is back again and this time he landed a job at Wiles Hog Farm.

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Soon, however, there may not be meat at farmers markets, or meat raised by small farmers, at all. That’s because of the roll out of the National Animal ID System (NAIS), requiring farmers to attach radio frequency identification ear tags on cattle, dairy cows, pigs and chickens.

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The original campaign against McDonald’s was launched in 2000, and after the company worked with PETA to make some basic animal welfare changes, the campaign was withdrawn. Now, PETA says, there are more humane methods of killing animals such as chickens, but McDonald’s won’t use them. Controlled Atmosphere Killing (CAK) would allow chickens in McDonald’s suppliers’ slaughterhouses to die relatively painlessly, but they have refused to consider asking their suppliers to switch to CAK—a move that would cost McDonald’s nothing—and so PETA has unleashed their wrath at McCruelty.com. PETA says:

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Eco-activists often insist that vegetarianism is the only truly earth-friendly diet for humans.  On the other hand, there are many people, honestly trying to live as green as possible, who are not yet ready to take that step completely.  Others of us find that we are just not healthy without some animal protein in our diet, and that there is some logic to the argument than humans are biologically omnivorous.

If you are a meat-eater, whatever your personal reasons may be, the problem still remains — the beef industry is a nightmare.  From enormous factory farms raising animals in horrific conditions, to growth hormones interfering with our bodies, to mad cow disease resulting from herbivores being fed ground-up brains of their kin, to the ecological devastation…  We simply cannot allow ourselves to support this industry by buying its products.

So what is the conscientious carnivore to do?

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Cutting back on animal products in your diet is one simple step that can have a huge environmental impact.

A recent report from Greenpeace Brazil attributed 80% of the amazon’s deforestation to cattle production. Cincinnati is even encouraging residents to eat less meat to help combat climate change! Switching to a vegan or vegetarian diet is a tremendous way to help reduce your impact on the planet. If cutting out animal products all together seems a little extreme for you, even just reducing the amount of animal products in your diet can make a difference. Here are ten delicious ways to eat lower on the food chain!

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When you picture a farm, you probably imagine rolling green pastures with happy cows grazing on grass and chickens doing their funny chicken walk in a big green field. That’s not quite the way that most farm animals live. The bulk of today’s meat comes from factory farms where animals live under terrible conditions. The factory farm’s main objective is efficiency: producing the most meat at the lowest cost. If that means the animals are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and crammed into spaces where they can barely move, so be it.

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“Livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Using a methodology that considers the entire commodity chain, it estimates that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport.”

The things we choose to eat can obviously have an enormous impact on the planet and everything on it, including ourselves. Naturally then, our diet choices can say a lot about our ethics and beliefs. They can even be a political statement and a form of activism. I think that every choice we make has the potential to change the world, and certainly what I choose to eat has an impact.

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The Organic Consumers Association announced Friday it was “expanding its boycott of Horizon and Aurora organic dairy products to include five national ‘private label’ organic milk brands supplied by Aurora, as well as two leading organic soy products, Silk and White Wave.” Aurora, who supplies “organic” milk for Costco, Safeway’s ‘O” brand, Publix, Nature’s Promise, and Wild Oat’s “organic” dairy line was found to be violating animal welfare law. In truth, Aurora operates like a factory farm, milking 2,000 to 10,000 cows, confining cattle to feedlots, ordering replacement cows, and potentially using antibiotics.

A farmer the OCA spoke with said “real organic dairy farms don’t need to buy replacement heifers.” The new cattle are brought in only on industrial scale farms where cows are pushed to high levels of milk production, sometimes slaughtered after only a year or two after they stop milking often due to stress. Check out the report to read more on how Bush kept Aurora rolling under the mask of the “organic” label.

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I’m not the only one who has noticed this overlap, of course. And rarely have I encountered such a thorough examination of the connections between animal welfare and just about every other issue that concerns me than in the book Why Animals Matter by Erin E. Williams and Margo DeMello.

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Food and food production was the first topic I tackled. I haven’t read it yet, but Michael Pollan’s new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, sounds excellent. I enjoyed listening to a recent interview with him on Talk of the Nation and have it on hold at my local library. Michael Pollan also did a fantastic job with An Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Many people are familiar with Pollan’s writing, but I wanted to make you aware of some titles you may have missed.

I believe I stumbled up Fat Land by Greg Critser first. Being a health and wellness consultant, the subtitle, “How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World,” is what caught my eye.

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The Humane Society of the United States just released a new video documenting the horrible truths behind America’s factory farming industry and our incessant hunger for meat (I know, only some of us). The video, narrated by James Cromwell, is certainly an eye-opener.

The video begins with some dissonant piano notes backing up images of pigs, cows and chickens with no room to move inside of their cages, side by side with thousands of other animals who will live the same horrible lives and find the same horrible deaths. Cromwell’s voice, all scratchy and wise, is the perfect pitch for this narration. The realization is immediate that the video will be a bit coarse, but nonetheless moving.

I eat meat. I always have. I think I always will. Yet this doesn’t change my disgust for the cruelty and disregard of the Factory Farming Industry. I didn’t really learn about industrialized farming until my Junior year in college. I had never really thought much about it. When I was growing up, my father raised cattle on my grandparent’s farm in rural Virginia—so a lot of the meat in our freezer was raised just down the road and if it wasn’t I always assumed it was raised somewhere else in a similar fashion— ahhh, the beauty of naivete.

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