What Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know About Animal Factories

[marmar]

from Civil Eats:



What Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know About Animal Factories

April 21st, 2011
By Dan Imhoff


See no evil, hear no evil, eat no evil. This seems to be the operating principle behind a slew of recent legal initiatives aimed at sheltering animal factory agriculture operations from public view.

State legislatures in Iowa, Minnesota and Florida are now considering bills that would make it a criminal offense to gain employment for the purposes of videotaping what goes on the behind warehouse walls of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. In March, the Iowa House of Representatives passed such an anti- “whistle blower” measure, co-written by the Iowa Poultry Association, which is now before the State Senate.

Pre-emptive legal strikes by the CAFO industry to put a chilling effect on anyone considering tarnishing its public image are hardly surprising. Industrial animal food producers are reeling from a series of shocking undercover videos that expose the abuse and suffering on the disassembly lines of slaughterhouses and inside warehouses crammed with hogs, laying hens, and meat birds. Such imagery is hard to shake from your subconscious. (Just this week a video was released of a sick calf getting killed with a pickaxe.) Opinion polls consistently show that Americans are increasingly concerned about animal welfare and health standards, and often willing to pay more for them.

While the industry would like us to believe that what you don’t know can’t hurt you, we are barely six months removed from last summer’s recall of 500 million eggs due to salmonella contamination from just two CAFO operations in Iowa. In response, people flocked to farmers markets, specialty retailers, and other venues to purchase free-range, organic, and cage-free alternatives. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2011/04/21/what-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-animal-factories/

[FormerDittoHead]

1. I'm guessing it's the Animal Factory Industry? n/t

[Blue Owl]

2. Just trust the GOP

Haven't they earned our trust?

:sarcasm:

[truebrit71]

3. So much for 'Land of the free'....what a crock of shit THAT turned out to be..

...thanks rethuglicans!! :sarcasm:

[mckara]

4. Where is Our Humanity?

Abusing animals, regardless of their ultimate fate, demonstrates the sickness of our society. It is absolutely disgusting!

[Exultant Democracy]

5. Simple don't eat that meat.