What Should Be Done To Adress Animal Treatment On U.s. Farms
5 Steps the Government Can Accept to Gainsay Farm Animate being Cruelty
Nicolette Hahn Niman is a lawyer, livestock rancher and the author of "Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Skilful Food Across Factory Farms."
Updated October vi, 2011, ii:57 PM
Industrialized animate being operations -- grim, intensely crowded solitude warehouses -- externalize their true costs in terms of public health threats, environmental damage and animal suffering. These problems accept been widely documented by governments, universities and credible organizations similar the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. Even so the manufacture'due south political influence has stymied badly needed reforms.
Here'south i idea: Allow's launch a domestic Peace Corps for farming.
Consumers choosing foods from environmentally sound, humane farms hold the greatest hope for positive change. But governments can and should be addressing this urgent question, likewise. Hither are v necessary and achievable reforms.
1. State laws should protect farm beast welfare. Polls bear witness that about 90 percent of Americans believe farm animals deserve humane living conditions. Narrow metallic cages for pregnant pigs, crates for veal calves and cramped cages for egg laying hens should be outlawed. California, Colorado, Michigan and several other states have already adopted such laws.
2. Congress should prohibit overusing antibiotics in animal farming. About 80 percent of antibiotics used in the U.s.a. each year is in the daily feed of subcontract animals, generally to enable keeping animals in densely crowded weather, which reduces costs. Recent research found half of meat tested from U.S. grocery stores contaminated with staph infections, half of which were antibiotic resistant. Banning subtherapeutic antibiotics in agronomics, every bit the European Union has already done, would ease overcrowding and make our food safer.
3. Government should better enforce environmental laws. Environmental laws like the Clean Water Act cover animal agriculture. Withal, federal and country environmental agencies have largely failed to employ them. Forcing animal agriculture to bear its true ecology costs would tip the economic balance in favor of farms with smaller herds and less crowding.
4. Farm subsidies should foster grass. Grass is a happier, healthier habitat for farm animals. It too is the core of ecological farming, even offering the promise of major carbon sequestration. However current federal farm policies encourage plowing grasslands while discouraging grass-based methods, like crop rotations, that safeguard soil, water and air. Subcontract subsidies should incorporate incentives for grass and require farmers to follow good conservation methods.
5. The United States should launch a domestic Peace Corps for farming. America needs to repopulate rural America and stimulate beneficial jobs for young people. Our nation struggles with unemployment, and even so traditional farming is disappearing partly because it is more than labor intensive. Preparation the next generation in sustainable agriculture and profitable them to start new farms could exist a brave president'south boldest and most lasting initiative.
These sensible reforms are financially doable, even in today'due south fiscally constrained budgets. They would get a long way toward reestablishing a food system that is condom, environmentally sound and humane.
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Five Steps the Regime Can Accept
Nicolette Hahn Niman, livestock rancher -
It'due south Upwardly to Consumers to Care
Tom Laskawy, food policy blogger -
Open the Barn Doors
Temple Grandin, professor of animal science -
Criminal Penalties for Agribusiness
Joseph Vining, police force professor, Academy of Michigan -
Regime Isn't the Answer
Joel Salatin, owner, Polyface Subcontract -
Permit States and Markets Sort It Out
Walter Olson, Cato Institute -
Economics in the Hen House
Daniel Sumner, economist, U.C. Davis -
Condign More Conscious Eaters
Wayne Pacelle, The Humane Guild -
Showtime a Dialogue With Farmers
Annette Sweeney, Iowa House of Representatives
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/05/10/preventing-cruelty-to-farm-animals/five-steps-the-government-can-take-to-combat-farm-animal-cruelty
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