« Best Bets for Filling Up. | Main | In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming »

Could it really be true?

A recent agreement between farmers and animal rights activists here [Ohio] is a rare compromise in the bitter and growing debate over large-scale, intensive methods of producing eggs and meat, and may well push farmers in other states to give ground, experts say. The rising consumer preference for more "natural" and local products and concerns about pollution and antibiotic use in giant livestock operations are also driving change.

In another sign of the growing clout of the animal welfare movement, a law passed in California this year will also ban imports from other states of eggs produced in crowded cages. Similar limits were approved last year in Michigan and less sweeping restrictions have been adopted in Florida, Arizona and other states.

It seems as if our friends over at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have been working diligently behind the scenes:

Hoping to avoid a divisive November referendum that some farmers feared they would lose, Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio urged farm leaders to negotiate with opponents, led by the Humane Society of the United States. After secret negotiations, the sides agreed to bar new construction of egg farms that pack birds in cages, and to phase out the tight caging of pregnant sows within 15 years and of veal calves by 2017.

Hmmm...2017 - seven years from now. And 15 years from now = 2025. Why so long of a wait?

The American Veal Association, under pressure from consumers, agreed in 2007 to phase out the close confinement of calves by 2017. The requirement in the California law and the Ohio agreement to phase out the use of "gestation crates" on hog farms will have much wider effects.

"I work with the hogs every day, and I don't think there is anything wrong with gestation crates," said Irv Bell, 64, whose family has been growing hogs in Zanesville, Ohio, since the 19th century. "But I have to be aware of things on the horizon, the bigger things at work."

If only the horizon weren't so far away...

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.