By Guest Blogger on April 20, 2009
Paul Shapiro, Humane Society of the United States
Who among us hasn’t heard it before? You don’t need to be a foodie to have read that we ought to be eating more locally-grown foods in order to reduce our carbon footprint. And I couldn’t agree more.
But the question of eating ethically involves a lot more than just questioning how many miles our food had to travel to get to our plates. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people proudly say, “I buy local meat,” implying that their meat (or eggs or dairy) didn’t come from a factory farm.
Don’t get me wrong. I applaud any effort people make to avoid supporting factory farms. It’s imperative that we reduce the suffering of animals raised for food. But we can’t ignore the thorny issue that factory farms aren’t just “out there” in a faraway land. All factory farms are local to somewhere.
Case in point: This past month, Mercy for Animals released an investigation of a “family-owned” egg factory farm located in Turner, Maine. The results were gruesome: dead and live hens confined in the same cage, birds packed into cages where they could barely move an inch their whole lives, and workers kicking the animals as if they were mere footballs.
Is it possible that some Maine egg consumers felt good about buying these eggs just because they were produced locally? How easy it would be not to look beyond the fact that they were local eggs and not consider the suffering of the animals and degradation of the, yes, local environment.
On Earth Day, those who even make the association between the food they eat and the well-being of the planet are already ahead of the game. Indeed, they’re ahead of some of the leaders of the anti-global warming movement. But while local is certainly an important factor to weigh, other factors such as animal welfare, resource efficiency, and the local environment are also critical.
One way to work toward addressing all these issues is to choose more plant-based meals with an emphasis on local produce. Raising animals for food is extremely resource-inefficient, contributes enormously to global warming, and often causes cruelty few us would ever want to witness.
And fortunately, the number of restaurants catering to vegetarian-oriented diners has never been higher, making it easier than ever to live and let live every time we sit down to eat. There’s also an abundance of free recipes online diverse enough to keep even the most variety-hungry of us satiated.
So this Earth Day, let’s keep local on our minds. But, let’s not be lured into thinking that simply being local means something is ethical.
Paul Shapiro is the senior director of The Humane Society of the United States’ factory farming campaign. When he isn’t waging campaigns to protect farm animals, he can be found lifting weights, drinking vegan smoothies, and listening to C-SPAN radio on a lawn chair in the sun.
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By Kris Carr on March 16, 2009
Good morning gentle banana,
I just read this important news about Downer cattle on Wayne’s blog and wanted to share it with powerful you. Why powerful? Besides the fact that you’re a magical dancin’ spirit, you’re also a consumer. And as a consumer, you have the right to know where your food comes from! BUT, ya have to be willing to look. Painful images can make us shrink away. Don’t. It kills me too but I’d rather know the truth than perpetuate the “Happy-Farms” lie. Make the connection and understand WHERE your food comes from. Bear witness. If I was a tortured being I would want someone to see. Without our eyes their lives are even more of a waste.
The safety of our food depends on these small victories. Thank you Prez. O for being bold and humane. Keep it up!
From Wayne…
“It’s been a long fight, and today, we closed another chapter on it. Since the mid-1990s, The HSUS has been working hard to stop as a matter of public policy the abuse of downer cattle—animals too sick or injured to walk. And today, President Obama himself announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was officially putting a stop to non-ambulatory cattle being mishandled in order to get them into slaughter plants. He made the announcement along with two top selections for the Food and Drug Administration and a series of other statements about food safety.
We’ve had two major crises that validated The HSUS’s long-standing admonition that the federal government and the cattle industry were reckless and inhumane in allowing sick and crippled cows into the food supply. In December 2003, a downer cow tested positive for mad cow disease in Washington state, and a national and international furor ensued. More than 50 nations in short order closed their markets to U.S. beef, and the federal government tried in vain to recall meat that was linked to the animal with the fatal neurological disease, which is transmissible to people. A recent government report said the economic fall-out of that single finding of a BSE-positive downer cow was $11 billion. So it was not a trifling matter by any means, as a food safety or economic issue.
In the wake of that incident, former Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman—President’s Bush first Agriculture Secretary—announced an immediate ban on the slaughter of downer cattle, in order to quell the concern of consumers and trading partners. But USDA, under her successor Mike Johanns, quietly weakened the rule very soon after it was promulgated, allowing some downer cattle to be slaughtered, if they were ambulatory on first inspection and then went down later. That weakened downer policy was made final in mid-2007, though it had been in effect for several years since Veneman announced the no-downer policy. In short, if cattle went down after passing first inspection by USDA personnel, then they could be approved for slaughter on down the line.
This tremendously damaging loophole provided cover to unscrupulous slaughter plants to keep downer cattle moving into the food system and giving them an incentive to accept downers at slaughter plants in the first place.
And that’s the precise attitude that triggered the second crisis. The HSUS sent one of its investigators into a medium-sized slaughter plant in Chino, Calif., which specialized in the killing of spent dairy cows. At this cull plant, as it was known, our investigator found downer cows—at all stages of the handling and pre-slaughter process—being tormented to get them to stand and then walk toward the kill box. Plant workers—two of them later convicted of animal cruelty charges—were seen on video ramming downer cows with forklifts, applying electric “hot shots” in sensitive body parts like the eyes or genitals, and even using high-pressure water hoses in their mouths, all in order to cause the animals so much distress that they would try to stand and get away from their tormentors. They would torture the cows before the USDA inspectors arrived, in order to show them that the cows were standing.
Like the 2003 BSE case, these findings whipped up a storm of protest and angst. The $110 million-a-year plant voluntarily shut down operations, and then USDA officially closed the plant’s doors. School lunch programs, which got tens of millions of pounds of meat from this cull slaughter plant (it was the second largest supplier to the National School Lunch Program), then started pulling the meat from their shelves in 47 states, and parents across the nation panicked. USDA then initiated the largest meat recall in American history—143 million pounds—and retailers starting pulling meat from the shelves, too. The first of eight Congressional hearings were launched. And there were international effects. There were riots in the streets of South Korea—which is, with Japan, among the two largest American beef importers—with tens of thousands of people protesting the resumption of imports of American beef. They took to the streets after seeing the Chino footage, and riot police were unable to quell the dissent.
Former Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, who succeeded Johanns and took office the day before we released the Chino footage, initially handled the situation in a decisive way by launching an investigation and urging the recall. But he hedged on making a decision to ban all downer cattle in the food supply. Then, more than three months after the Chino facts came to light—and after several meat industry groups announced they’d support a no-downer policy—he announced USDA would take action. But we waited and waited for final action, with the rule being held up in the bureaucracy of the USDA and perhaps also at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The Bush team left Washington eight months after Schafer announced a change in policy would be forthcoming, and the rule was still not instituted.
The Obama team, led by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, did not dither. With Obama’s radio address today, they’ve announced the implementation of a no-downer policy within the first 50 days of taking office. I say it’s about darn time that the federal government took action. No sensible policy like this should have ever taken this long to enact—more than 15 years. And there is a long line of lawmakers and other federal officials and industry actors who share the blame in allowing this economically disastrous policy to have persisted. It was bad for animals, but it was also terrible for industry. It was a penny-wise and pound-foolish policy, and the Hallmark investigation probably cost the industry billions of dollars as well.”
To read the rest of Wayne’s blog go to HSUS. If you can stomach it, see the video report from their investigation into abuse of downed dairy cows.
Peace & kindness,
Kris
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By Kris Carr on February 16, 2009
Hi beautiful,
Thanks so much for all the v-day love! For the most part it was a wonderful day. Well, actually, it turned out sad. Brian and I took a long drive. We were out in the middle of nowhere when suddenly the smell over took the car. Since I grew up across the street from a dairy farm I knew exactly what it was – TONS of cow shit. But I had no idea just how many tons until we saw the feedlots. They went on for miles. Thousands of cows. It was just like the images you see when they let you see. Ankle deep shit, packed together, a few sprawled out on their sides panting – dirty sad souls biding their time.
When we pulled over to take these pictures some started to scream. I will not pretend to know what they were trying to communicate, although I suspect it was something like – please help me.
Today I get my port. I’m scared, but relieved. Had to stop treatments last week because both of my arms blew out. For those of you who don’t know, I’m at a homeopathic clinic in AZ. For the next 3 months I’ll be experimenting with a non-toxic, natural protocol involving high doses of vitamin c, IV hydrogen peroxide, IV ozone, chelation, mineral infusions and a few other special goodies. I’ll write about where I am when all is done and I’ve fully evaluated the experience. Most of my treatment will happen in NY as well. Funny – this stuff isn’t legal in many states.
I’m also fasting for 21 days on 4 quarts of green drink per day. Today is day 15 and I’m still hanging in there. Ugh.
Back to the cows.
This canSer cowgirl (AKA prevention is HOT cheerleader) understands that genetics get a bad rap. As I already mentioned, recent studies indicate that genetics are only responsible for between 5-10% of diagnosis. So what’s the deal? Why are so many people struggling with dis-ease, fat, and exhaustion. Many of these crucial answers can be found in environmental factors and lifestyle choices. The choices I made years ago contributed to the state I am in now. This is what I know to be true – for me. I’m not saying that it is for you. It’s just food, drink, air, pollution, drugs, pesticides, cigs, sleep deprivation, stress for thought.
By respecting all life, I protect my own. No guilt, only a personal wake-up call and a mature and informed approach to taking responsibility.
Other than my tonsils, (which by the way – I needed! Ask your immune system if tonsils are worthless), I’ve never had surgery. Off I go. I’m trying to be a pioneer, but today I wish I wasn’t so passionate. I wish I didn’t love living and sharing health so much! But I also wish that all was normal, my fast was over, and that more people loved vegetables. Ohhh, the DRAMA. :)
Peace and da’ knife,
Kris
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