Poisoning the Well

In the February issue of the Readers Digest, a book review from the New York Review of Books was quoted. The topic had nothing to do with animal rights, and in fact, I have no idea what H.L. Mencken's book Prejudices is about, but part of the quote was insightful. The reviewer was explaining the difference between honest and calculated vitriol. "In today's jargon, Mencken, by eloquently proclaiming views certain to offend so many, would be called a polarizing figure. Whereas today's polarizers, however, are professional well- poisoners who spend vast sums for opinion polls to determine how to best inflame the masses for political advantage." Sounds to me like what we have going on with animal agriculture these days.
The animal rights crowd has come up with a group of terms that allow for no debate or consumer education. What reasonable person wouldn't be against extreme confinement, gestation stalls, veal crates, battery cages, puppy mills or animals being force fed antibiotics to keep them alive? I mean really.
But these terms aren't truthful when it comes to the debate, because it shuts off the debate. It's like asking someone if they are in favor of stricter laws against domestic violence. You have to say you are, or you are a horrible human being. You simply can't ask the question, "Are the laws on the books today inadequate?", without looking heartless.You are nearly forced to answer in the affirmative.  
A recent quote from an animal rights site said it this way, "99% of the public are for humane treatment of animals." I guess that would have to include animal agriculture, because we care for animals, but the impression left is that the 1% are those raising the animals, and they don't care.
So it falls to all of us to tell those out there who don't know about raising livestock, how things are really done. That means it is the responsibility of EACH of us. Have you taken that opportunity to tell someone how a farm works. Some friends and I have been working with a Facebook page called The Truth about Agriculture. Discussions have ranged from alternative farming methods, to gestation stalls to horse slaughter. Great views and diverse opinions. It's usually respectful, I've only had to apologize once.  

Leadership Values

While trolling Animal Rights sites recently I found some interesting thoughts on leadership. It started innocently enough in a conversation about animal care. The site administrator was berating a couple of farmers for the fact that they were exploiting animals. The comment was made that if you were making money from animals, you were exploiting them, and you should be stopped. The farmer in the conversation then asked if those thoughts were the stand of the HSUS. The administrator said they didn’t know, they didn’t work for HSUS, but they were just huge fans.

Over the past several months, this same group of people has been photographed with the president of HSUS. They have received acknowledgement for their efforts in fighting Humanewatch. But they don’t know if the stand they have taken is the same as the official stand of the HSUS?

I’m not sure if I think they believe that statement or not. But that isn’t the question.

Every organization, given enough time, comes to mirror the values of their leader. It works that way, or it should anyway. Find a strong leader and you will most likely find a strong aggressive company. If the company motto goes along these lines,”it’s great to want to soar with the eagles, but at least weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.” you’ll find a company that has questionable abilities and ethics. Company heads surround themselves with people who will help push forward their agenda, and mirror their values.

So when the HSUS tells us that it isn’t in any way against animal agriculture, but it gets repeated over and over again by their supporters, people that the leadership doesn’t distance themselves from, what are we supposed to think? I’m aware of the fact that they’ve done some good things, but when the leadership uses ads that demean all of animal agriculture by association, that doesn’t seem like they are going out of their way to work with the average farmer/rancher.

I know they will tell us that their position is well thought out, scientific, that they are working with ranchers and farmers and are in no way anti ag, I’m going to take that with a grain of salt.

Have A Merry Civil Christmas

Ho, Ho Ho and all that other merry crap. I'm not a huge fan of Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love what Christmas is really all about, but unfortunately it gets lost in all the noise. And more and more, all of the noise is unfortunately feeling like a year round thing. It used to be that Christmas was the time when everyone went out of their way to be just a little nicer than they were for the rest of the year. Now a days being nice at all would be an upgrade.
Trolling some conversations lately, it seems the tolerance level has reached a level of intolerance that makes almost any conversation impossible. It seems that if I don't agree with you, it must be that I have an agenda, I am a horrible person, or you are a waste of resources. Both sides of the animal rights argument are guilty of this kind of intolerance. Are we so short of patience and kindness these days that we can't be civil to each other?
In the time I've spent  recently on Facebook, I've been trying to slow down and be a bit more aware of what the people that I'm interacting with may be going through. People have a lot going on in their lives that we may not know about. There is so much hurt out there that it blows me away. And that gets me to my wish for Christmas.
It's time for us to focus our energy on caring for those around us, not beating each other up. Be a spouse to your spouse. Be a parent to your kids. Be the friend that you wish you had. Find and interact with someone who you think needs a person to talk to. Each of us knows someone who needs that friend. It costs nothing, and the rewards for sharing the love of this season could very well be eternal. :)

What is Natural Behavior?

So in some recent conversations with some of my animal rights friends, the topic of animals needing to exhibit natural behavior, a dust bath, perching, etc. came up. It got me really wondering about that whole topic.

How many of us, as humans, exhibit what we would call “natural behavior”? Isn’t what we do molded by the restraints that society places on us? A humorist whose name escapes me at the moment, suggested once that left to his own devices, a man would drink beer, chase women, and scratch himself insistently. But society has placed on us limitations for what they feel is morally and socially acceptable for a thriving community. In the same way that we aren’t allowed more than one spouse, we aren’t allowed to murder, rape and pillage. Societal values shape our lives and actions.

So if we need to allow animals to exhibit their natural behaviors, what does that mean for agriculture? Even more, what does that mean for the livestock in our care? While I’m making a few assumptions here, most people, imho, (in my humble opinion), see what they want to see in regards to animal care and behavior. It’s easy to see when you look at the warm and fuzzy videos posted by many animal rescue groups. A 400+ pound sow is taped lying on a bed of straw being petted by her caretaker, and has never shown them any signs of being aggressive. Yet put her in a group setting and she can get mean. Real mean. Cows out on pasture are all calmly eating and they wouldn’t hurt a flea, but they have a fairly complex hierarchy, one that involves pushing the more timid cows away from the choicest feeds. A mother turkey spreading her wings over her flock. Not the picture of her losing her chicks in tall grass, or to predators. The list goes on. The animal rights crowd sees the warm and fuzzy, but overlooks the more brutal part of animal behavior.

So what does that mean for us in animal Ag? It means an uphill climb. How do we show people with no connection to the farm, this side of the farm? I really don’t know, but making videos that are all happy and sunshine, while important, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Some of that is going to require that we put ourselves out there, let people see what we do, all of it. And in a move I can’t believe I’m saying, ask some of these animals rights folks to work with us, read that beside us, to further their understanding of animal behavior and how we in animal ag are working with that.. And if you want to talk about unnatural behavior, well there you go.

Horror in the Heartland

My life was the things stories are written about. The beautiful sunshine, warm summer weather, all of my needs covered with an abundance that is hard to explain. But one day in early fall day that all changed. My life became a horror that day that is indescribable.
For on that day, everything changed. I heard a truck coming. and found it was coming to round my friends and I up. We were ripped from everything that we had ever known. We jammed into a truck, without enough room to turn around, and transported for hours without nourishment. No food or water, dehydration quickly became an issue for many of us. The speed being used to transport us, led us to believe that our handlers were only concerned about getting us to market, more worried about "shrink", than about our well being.
And just when we thought it couldn't get worse, the horror got so much worse. We were unloaded and sorted by size, I was small, a five weight they said, and went along with others of my size. Bright lights and clanging doors terrified all of us. Then came the comment that stopped us cold."They aren't ever going to get any bigger guys". One by one we were ripped from our friends, and thrown on a steel table under florescent lights. Knives were in evidence everywhere. One by one we were systematically slaughtered, given nothing to dull the pain, our entrails ripped from us. Some sadist carved a ghoulish face into my skin as the final insult. This is the end for me.
My name is Jack, Jack O' Lantern, and I'm a member of PETA, Pumpkin Entrails being used as Terrifying Accessories.

Your Darn Right It's A Matter Of Trust

One of the biggest problems both the Ag industry and the animal rights’ groups deal with is a lack of trust. They don’t think we have an ounce of compassion, and our side feels they will go to any lengths to make us look bad. Let’s face it, we don’t trust each other to do the right things, and that starts where our core beliefs are based from. But when neither side will give on things like the use of animals for food, what do we do?

Well, for starters, we can take a look at our own industry and critically think about the decisions that we make. Now I’ve discussed some of these before so I won’t go back over all of them, but NO NEEDLESS SUFFERING.  Enough said.

But the one that I’d like to address here is our trusting of the anti-ag folks. Unfortunately it isn’t always in our best interest to be all that trusting.   They say that when we deny access to facilities we must be hiding something.  We, as an industry, have been burned by radicals from the other side who fully feel the ends justify the means. I know we need to start a dialogue with these folks, but to what extent? Do you, like me, feel that you distrust them and while they might love animals, they don’t feel as warm and fuzzy about us in Ag?

I found a bit of an answer to that in an unlikely place, Popular Science, in their August edition, page 58. Within an article called “Science Confirms the Obvious “is a smaller article called”Environmentalists Can Be Smug Jerks”. It asked the question, if going green translates into “more redeeming behavior overall”. Subjects were exposed to green products, and were found to be more charitable, a halo effect. But when someone purchased one of these products, it seemed to be a license for hypocrisy. After a purchase they were more likely to lie or steal.  It would seem that buying green gives people a sense of moral capital (aka a superiority complex).  Does this kind of attitude sound familiar?  I touched a bit on this in the blog “who cares”.

Now admittedly I’m making the stretch to apply this same thinking to animal rights.  But it’s a parallel that looks to me, to fit. But why the attitude? In a recent  discussion with an animal rescue proponent, I got put down, talked down to and more or less beat up for supporting Ag, even though they had no idea where I stood on any ag issue. I know they say they love animals, but they don’t always treat their fellow man very well. We shouldn’t be making the same mistake. Treat them with the respect that all people deserve, but cover ourselves where the trust issue is concerned.

What's A Food Chain?

Recent conversations with a group of animal rights folks, has led me to believe that the food pyramid is going to be changed. Or rather, thrown out.  As in do over, baby out with the bath water, start from scratch. Why you ask? The American public eats way too much meat, waaayyy too much. ITHO (In Their Humble Opinion). We aren’t the top of the food chain, somehow we are above or separate from it.

Well, we eat more because of demand, availability, convenience etc, but are modern farming methods forcing the food pyramid/ food chain? I personally find that quite a reach. But the argue goes that people have nutritional options and because we are caring, the most caring people among us will decide for the rest of us what that is.

But I digress. The opinion that we are no longer part of the food chain is what really intrigued me. That we have evolved into higher beings. Conversations have been held where we are told that the way modern farming method treats animals, isn’t natural and thus can’t be right. I don’t disagree that it isn’t natural, nature is much more brutal. Death is certain for all of us, but for animals in the wild that moment is very uncertain and they live in a state of constant vigilance and fear. Domestic animals are domesticated for a reason, they’ve been bred to live in conditions that don’t resemble nature in any way. An environment void of predators, weather stress, and ample food is something that animals don’t encounter outside of captivity.

But if we raise animals for food, we are causing them to suffer for no reason other than for our own ends, and we have options. Suffering is a part of life. The two are inexorably linked. I asked Megan, if her own life included any suffering and got a curious, “well yes” response. If we are unable to eliminate suffering in the lives of the people around us, it seems to me to be unreasonable to expect us to rid the production of animals for food from “ALL” suffering. It’s an unrealistic standard that no one can attain.

So does that mean we do nothing? Absolutely not. It is our obligation to care for the animals we raise, and to do it in a way that values their lives.  Take only pictures, leave only footprints, is a great motto for national parks, but as we humans leave our mark, time will tell what that means.