WHY FACTORY FARMING HAS GOT TO GO

There is growing concern over the immense cruelty of confinement experienced by millions of factory-farmed beef cattle, dairy cows, hogs and poultry.  They are imprisoned in stalls with no room to move or turn around.  Consequently, they get no exercise.  For lack of bedding straw, they are afflicted with painful leg injuries from standing on concrete floors or over metal gratings for an entire lifetime.  Their lungs are poisoned by breathing in ammonia fumes and the pesticides that are sprayed to control flies and other insect pests.  Being extremely stressed out, the poor creatures' immune systems are severely compromised, which prompts their keepers to feed them vast amounts of antibiotics to prevent the instantaneous spread of disease in the crowded quarters.  Off-spring are reproduced assembly-line style by means of artificial insemination.  With large multiple births, some piglets are born deformed and must be destroyed because they will not survive rigors not even a reasonably healthy animal can withstand.  To fatten the livestock for market quickly and for a fast return on  investment, they are given feed laced with growth hormones. 

Calves raised for veal are chained up and crammed into tiny crates.  To obtain the light colored "milk-fed veal" so prized by chefs, they are deliberately made anemic, denied solid food and water and kept in darkness.  In a futile attempt to quench their thirst, the calves gain weight quickly by drinking more of their drug-laced liquid feed.  As a result, they suffer from chronic diarrhea and intestinal & respiratory diseases.  To prevent normal muscle development, the wretched little things are allowed no exercise.

Chickens cooped up in "battery cages" have their feathers warn away and skin rubbed raw from being pressed up against the wires.  Normal behaviors such as nest building, dust bathing, perching, scratching the ground and walking are impossible.  It is understandable that birds and animals confined under these conditions would become downright psychotic and exhibit aggressive behavior.  Under the cramped conditions, the imprisoned domestic fowl will incessantly peck their neighbors in a futile attempt to gain more room.  To reduce cannibalism (after all, it's money in the bank) their keepers brutally clip off their beaks.  Male chicks are of no value to the egg industry so they are thrown into plastic garbage bags to suffocate slowly under the weight of others dumped on top.  When egg production declines, hens are sometimes starved and denied water for several days.  This "forced molting" shocks them into losing their feathers and starts them on a new laying cycle.  Many expire during this torturous process.    Those that survive suffer from fragile bones due to lack of exercise, calcium depletion and starvation, either accidental or deliberate.  When it comes time for slaughter, spent laying hens are not stunned because the procedure would damage the carcass due to the birds' easily fractured bones.  Lack of exposure to sunlight makes egg yolks unnaturally pale in color.  To make them more appealing to unwitting consumers, harmful artificial yellow dyes are injected into the eggs.

These unspeakable horrors occur daily in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and are perpetrated upon millions of innocent creatures so that people in advanced nations can feast on cheap meat.  The health impacts on human beings and the environmental consequences are equally horrifying.  It has become apparent that the spread of the H1N1 swine/avian/human influenza virus that showed up in Mexico this spring at the Granjos Carrol operation in Vera Cruz was first identified in 1998.  It originated in North Carolina at Smithfield Foods hog factories.  Since then it has mutated after being exported south by Smithfield to escape U.S. regulations and growing criticism from environmentalists.  This is thanks to the neo-liberal economic policies represented in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  

Likewise, despite attempts to blame wild migratory birds for the spread of avian flu, it is clear that the virus came from the mega-poultry breeding operations of South Asia such as the Thailand-based CP Group, the world's fourth largest poultry producer.

Filthy, disease-ridden CAFOs are also responsbile for the creation of antibiotic-resistant superbugs such as Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli and Enterococcus.  Among this group is also the ever-more common methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) flesh-eating bacterium, which is now carried by most hog farm workers in the Netherlands, where there is the highest density of factory farms of any country on the planet!  If they are found to be carriers, workers are banned from admission to hospitals.  People living near Dutch ham factories have been infected multiple times with the nasty rash.  (See the April, 2009 issue of THE ECOLOGIST.)  Meat that goes to market is routinely contaminated with pathogens since the USDA allows sick animals to be slaughtered.  As long as they can stand on their own, they are shipped to the abatoir.  So think twice about that burger you're eating.  It could contain flesh from one of the walking dead.

The obesity, diabetes 2 and hearth disease epidemics in the U.S. are caused in part by consuming meat rife with anitiotics and growth hormones.  Obesity has become so extreme in the population that even infants and toddlers are getting dangerously fat.

Then there are the vast manure lagoons that accompany factory farms.  Along with flatulent cattle that burp and fart up a storm, animal wastes give off tons of global-warming methane gas that is spewed into the atmosphere.  The nitrogen from the lagoons adds greatly to the hypoxic dead zones in the ocean when they burst and release their effluent into rivers and streams especially during storms.  In addition, the same nutrient overloading gives rise to algal blooms.  A case in point is the Pfiesteria piscicida microbe that causes massive fishkills and serious neurological impairment in human beings.  Its discovery was first documented in the book AND THE WATERS TURNED TO BLOOD (1997) by Rodney Barker.  There are serious human respiratory problems from breathing air contaminated with poisonous manure fumes.  Groundwater too is being polluted by seepage from lagoon liners, and drinking it causes severe gastro-intestinal disorders. 

Another thing to consider are the endocrine-disrupting pesticides used daily to suppress insects in factory farms.  Their chemical residues are found in the meat as well as local water supplies and cause fetal and childhood developmental problems and cancers later in life.

Needless to say, factory meat farms are an abomination against Nature and the dinner table.  The systematic, mechanized enslavement and torture of farm animals must end.  Everytime a domestic animal is mistreated, it diminishes our own humanity.  The meat, eggs and dairy products coming from CAFOs have nothing to do with food or nutrition.

These blights upon the American landscape exist for one reason and one reason only--to make a profit for the owners and operators.  Small family farmers, who used to raise livestock under more humane conditions, have been ruthlessly driven out of the running by competition from big monopolies that have cornered the market.  The giant agribusiness concerns and food processors, who hold our food production system hostage, maintain control over the situation through political corruption, government deregulation and huge crop subsidies that provide cheap livestock feed and keep profits high, while denying much-needed grain to the world's impoverished and hungry masses.  Given the enormous health and environmental problems that exist, we must not allow them to continue with business as usual by tormenting helpless creatures for profit, polluting our ecosystems, destroying the health of millions, starving millions more and causing planetary meltdown.

The Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities is hosting a free screening of THE PIG PICTURE, a film about CAFOs in the pork industry.  It is produced by the Humane Farming Association's (HFA) Campaign Against Factory Farming.  It is a must-see if you are concerned about any or all of the above and desire a healthy and ecological alternative. 

The film showing will be held on Monday, June 22nd at 7:00 PM at Mayday Books, 301 Cedar Avenue South on the West Bank in Minneapolis, MN.  It is free and open to the public.  The Clean-Energy Vigil to Cool Down the Planet will take place on the plaza outside the bookstore (Weather permitting) at 5:00 PM, followed by the 3CTC Business Meeting at 6:00 PM.  All are welcome.  For more information, EMAIL:  christinefrank@visi.com or PHONE:  612-879-8937.  

SAVE MOTHER EARTH!  SEE YOU THERE!