Farming groups resort to Machiavellian defense of indefensible practices

[marmar]

from the Ethicurean:



Farming groups resort to Machiavellian defense of indefensible practices
By Ethicurean @ 12:10 pm on 1 February 2011.


Spin-dustrial ag: Two dozen of the nation's largest and best-funded farm groups have formed a coalition to counter poor publicity, reports the AP (LAtimes.com). What are they mad about? "Videos that show male chicks being put into grinders, egg-laying hens in battery cages and the mistreatment of hogs in large confinement operations," -- you know, evidence of industrial farming's everyday practices. (It's all about the) money quote:

Joe Cornely, a spokesman for the Ohio Farm Bureau, said the alliance may help create more realistic expectations among consumers. "So often people advocate for a utopian world and it's not doable," Cornely said. "Feeding the world requires us to kick up some dirt and create a few odors. That is just a reality of producing food and fiber that may not fit in with the utopian vision. The vast majority of people are reasonable people, they just need to know that you can't have the perfect world."

Bullshit-calling fact check: Aside from their moral and ethical depredations, American meat and poultry production depend on highly inefficient and unsustainable method of feeding resource-intensive grain to animals, which cannot possibly be scaled up to "feed the world."


http://www.ethicurean.com/2011/02/01/farming-groups-resort-to-machiavellian-defense-of-indefensible-practices/

[fasttense]

1. So we must torture the animals before we kill them and eat them?

You don't need to kick you chickens around like footballs to ensure we have plenty of chicken meat. You don't need to keep pregnant pigs in cages so small they can't lie down or turnaround.

Here's an idea for these groups - Allow the public to tour their farms and facilities. If the public is being unreasonable, take them on tours of big agra farms and slaughter houses to show them just how well everything is run.

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[gratuitous]

3. How else is Joe Cornely going to keep his phony-baloney job?

He gets paid a lot of money under the system the way it is now. You start monkeying with that, and he might not be able to buy a new car every year. And he likes buying a new car every year. So, you all "just need to know that you can't have the perfect world." Because Joe's already got his perfect world.

[WhiteTara]

4. there is another way called Natural Farming

http://www.naturalfarming.org/

http://naturalfarminghawaii.net/ According to this, it is possible to produce hogs and chickens without odor and in a healthful way. These are both interesting sites and much of it looks doable in terms of incorporating into the family garden.