Chicken has taken on a whole new meaning for Faye Lear, of White Plains, in western Kentucky, who lives 300 feet from two giant barns containing thousands of birds laying eggs for Tyson Foods. There are the sickening wafts of ammonia and bird feather dust that chase her inside from her front porch. Clouds of well-fed flies swarm her car… return to article
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Reader Comments (14)Page 1 of 1 pagesWhy is the article only about how bad the conditions are for the surrounding communities? What about the state in which the animals have to live? I eat pork and chicken, but I did not ask or expect animals to be treated like this.
Its not about supply and demand. Its about making allot of dough at the expense of living creatures. Ban this type of farming and if there is not enough pork or chickens to go around, eat vegetables.
Posted by Meat eater on Oct 7, 2004 at 1:27 AM What is the difference between a family farm and a factory farm? Are there any exact definitions of the terms: “factory farm”, “family farm” or “industrial farm”? Are family owned farm corporations that have facilities with several thousand hogs considered family farms or not?
This article portrays the farm sector as polluters. Are the major agri-business corporations to blame or are farmers? or maybe both?
Posted by Bob on Oct 7, 2004 at 9:17 AM What is really needed is common-sense ‘bodily integrity’ blanket legislation for animals… by blanket I mean law(s) and regulation that will not lead to loop-holes, will be very to the point in terms of defining bodily integrity, while not outlawing killing animals for food and will not have to go into too many specifics.
By common-sense, this means allowing certain exceptions such as lab mice and the actions in testing them for product safety and medical purposes. Secondly, and more importantly politically, is common-sense in terms of if we go forth with these regulations, the enforcement and trade policies must be in place so jobs are not lost and businesses do not have to implode. There would have to be a long enough transition time, and there would have to be tax rewards and probably some government cost to transform the factory farm business. This also needs the influence of some major industries like doctors, insurance and managed care, and some more favorable one’s like independent family farmers
(It’s better if environmental/animal rights groups just work behind the scenes, sorry ...and no celebrities!!!)The fact of the matter is once factory farming started it created a market where unless you sell the meat of free range, properly fed animal animals to a high-end market, then you are competing against businesses that can sell meat at very, very low prices. So a fair market has to be in place to keep out cheap meat produced out of country. If the price of meat goes up that is fine, as long as agribusinesses and fast food places can compete with each other. I don’t believe there is a lobby on behalf of consumers wanting cheap, high-fat burgers and chicken nuggets to counter this.
Of course there is the real-cost big picture in speculating how this is a leading contributor to obesity and hence large-scale health problems (ripple effect to health premiums) - meaning cheap, high-fat meat producers ‘should’ be taxed like cigarette makers, but that is too far flung since there are far more people happily eating this food than there are cigarette smokers, and they do not want to be told what they can eat or taxed on it. So this is too big picture to argue.
As long as agribusiness and fast food can compete in the same market but where they all have to account for higher production cost, then their profit margins should remain the same.
So the bodily integrity case with these provisions is the best to be made and would take care of a lot of environmental and health problems and at least for me, ease the conscience.
Posted by Dan on Oct 7, 2004 at 10:19 AM Just business as usual for the USDA. You really believe them when they tell you there’s only been one mad cow?
There are no strict definitions fo family farmer, industrial farmer etc. The surest thing for a consumer (I know---not everyone has this option)is to find a local farmer and buy direct.They’ll be glad to explain their methods and let you come see. I’m not sure government provided definitions really help. The USDA Organics program has basically just made the industry safe for the big corporate guys. In the last year several attacks on standards---to allow pesticides, antibiotics and all sorts of other things the public views as unacceptable--have had to be fended off. These attacks will continue, and enforcement will be slack, especially if Boy George gets another four years.
I raise (make that used to raise) poultry and sell it direct. Why am I no longer in business? Not economics, not a lack of market--my customers drove an average of fifty miles and paid three times the supermarket price and then sent me thank you cards. No, while the USDA, FDA and state agencies bend over backwards to allow filth in the supermarkets, the regulators make up for their impotence with the corporate boys by regulating little guys out of existence.
One of the ways family farmers have been put out of business is “getting big” ( Earl Butz- Nixon’s Ag Secty) and trying to compete on an indutrial model. The consolidation at the top of the meat and poultry slaughter industries is well known. The goal is to put beef and hogs on the poultry model. The rancher will just become a contractor, have huge capital costs, but none of the benefits of employment. As one agribusiness lawyer said when asked when the coprorations would just take over the farms, “The average farmer is willing to exploit himself far more than we are legally allowed to exploit employees.”
Whose to blame--- the corporations and our system that pays off regulators with private sector jobs. The farmers were largely guilty of believing their government agencies.
There are two farm sectors. The corporate one has many astroturf and even some legitimate grassroots groups (i.e. The Farm Bureau) which get farmers to advocate their own destruction. The other sector supports local production, organic production, sustainable methods. Farm Aid, the Farmer’s Union,Slow Food, Tilth Producers, Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network, are some of the organizations involved that come to mind.
Fast Food Nation- Eric Schlosser
Against the Grain- Richard Manning
The Gift of Good Land- Wendell Berry
Three books to start with if you want to understand ag and your food.
Posted by Walt Kloefkorn on Oct 7, 2004 at 8:00 PM None of this will ever end under John Kerry or W. We know this!! Yet so many of us liberals bitch and whine and complain and still vote for Kerry! Why? I honestly want to know why we know he will not do anything for us. And we know if enough of us vote Nader we can change this country to a progressive one for once and for all..but too many of us sit on our asses and our fucking tools of the democrats. I know the readership of this magazine I am one of you a far left progressive pissed off at politics as usual yet for some reason so many of us ignore Nader and side with Kerry..what platform does Kerry have really? Most of his supporters are voting for him on the basis for anyone but Bush. FUCK!! i am anyone but Bush should i be president just b/c i am not that fascist Bush? FUCK NO!!! But Nader is an intelligent candidate! Nader is a progressive candidate! Nader will stop our illegal occupation of Iraq! Nader will crack down on corporations! But for some reason we ignore him..i wonder why i honestly do. November 2nd will be a bad day for democracy if Bush wins of if Kerry win. PERIOD!
Posted by Richard Rhodes on Oct 7, 2004 at 9:11 PM A strong reason to become vegan. If you eat animals you are directly repsonsible for the horror created by your choices.
Posted by Bill Phillips on Oct 9, 2004 at 3:40 PM www.peta.com will give some more insight on what factory farms are all about. It’s absolutely ridiculous what animals go through so that they can be put on our plates. And the only good reason ANYONE i talk to has for eating meat is either “it tastes good” or “i need protein”.
There are soy protein alternatives that taste the same as animal flesh, to those of you who use the first excuse. And there are too many alternatives to animal muscle protein to list, most of which include soy bean products, as well as all other bean products, and all types of nuts, as well.A vegetarian diet feels great, as well as has nothing but positive effects on the world. As you read in the article, animal waste is a leading polluter to the air we breathe and the water we drink. Something that is not to easily noticed is that the meat industry is a leading contributer to deforestation. Where do you think those corporations put their buildings? Blaze the forests, there’s money to be made.
Absolutely ridiculous.
Posted by justin on Oct 12, 2004 at 5:56 AM As the article says, the EPA is not going to do anything about the problem, and we know if Kerry is elected there will be no change in the factory farming system. Your neighbors and relatives are probably not going to change it for you. Then how about some personal initiative and responsibility? Stop eating chickens, pigs, and cattle today. Stop whining about it and do it! God, the older I get the more I hate my species.
Bob
Posted by Bob on Oct 14, 2004 at 2:04 PM It seems to me that, if air polution from farming operations was a serious health problem, the first persons to get sick would be those who work and live on these farms. I could be wrong, but, I think there are far more urgent and dangerous environmental developments than pig farts.
I am much more concerned about ie: coal burning power plants that spew mercury into the atmosphere which polutes our lakes, rivers and land, and eventually all of us. Predictably, President Pimp has halted the prosecution of all of the Clean Air Act violations, which, prior to his appointment (by the pimp Scalia), was effectively exacting compliance from the energy companies involved.
How about the tons of chlorofluorocarbons (from refrigerants, etc.) that are distroying atmospheric ozone, most of which is still rising in the atmosphere and hasn’t even reached the ozone layer yet. Thank you Dupont and Dow, we don’t want you to do any more “great things.”
Posted by Lefty on Oct 15, 2004 at 9:43 AM Justin,
I don’t have anything against a vegetarian diet. It’s probably good for you. But, some people are allergic to soy, nuts, beans, etc. and can’t otherwise get the amount of protien they need due to the bulk of vegetables that would have to be eaten to get it.
I don’t have a moral delema when it comes to slaughtering animals for food, just so long as it is done humanely. I do have a problem with food animals packed into spaces no larger than themselves, to live in their own excrement, pumped full of and toxic antibiotics (when animals are packed like that, if one gets sick, the entire heard or flock is at risk) and hormones.
One alternative is to eat certified organic meat. By the way, in my opinion, USDA certified organic is not reliable. Our congress is too full of corporate pimps. Recently, a congressman from Georgia tried to piggy back a bill that allowed the USDA to certify meat as organic when the animal was not given an organic diet. However, California, Oregon and other states have organic protocols that I believe to be more in keeping with the organic tradition.
Posted by Lefty on Oct 15, 2004 at 9:55 AM In my opinion you can not legislate kindness to animals anymore than you can legislate kindness and justice among human beings. The only way to get rid of these atrocities is to boycott the products and take away the demand. Otherwise money talks and bullshit walks. If you eat these products then you are participating in the karma of getting them to you whether you are aware of it or not. In other words ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law whether it be man’s law or God’s law. This is called the law of Karma or the law of “reap as you sow” of the Bible.The only person any of us can control - at best - is ourselves, so that is the place where each of us must start.
Posted by Leo on Oct 15, 2004 at 12:57 PM I have found that the reason people continue their habits, ie, eating meat is because they just don’t know about the reality of factory farming, the chemicals in the meat and dairy and the damage to the environment. Doing something as simple as printing out the information in this artical and placing copies in different places spreads the information like wild fire. More people have to write in to editors of newspapers, or perhaps write an artical for your own local paper. People want to know this informations the problem is mainstream media resist putting it out.
Posted by Nan McLain on Oct 31, 2004 at 12:01 PM The local stockyards in El Reno, OK had a major odor problem caused by ammonia and sulfide. It suddenly disappeared. I found out it was due to a newly discovered system called the Hog Wash system. I was so interested in the system that I am giving my management class a presentation over the system. It actually saves hog, cattle, and chicken growers money and turns the toxic ammonia into fruity-smelling fertilizer which is environmentally friendly. The ammonia is broken down by bacteria which is injected into the lagoons where hog waste is stored. I also found out that Luthi Farms in Fargo, OK began using the Hog Wash system and was given the national award of Environmental Stewardship. Check it out at www.hoglagoon.com
Posted by David on Nov 1, 2004 at 6:40 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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