Farmers & animal rights activists-to fight big factory farms

[Amy SF]

Farmers and animal rights activists are coming together to fight big factory farms

Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren have a new bill, and a new coalition, with far-reaching consequences.

www.vox.com

Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren have a new bill, and a new coalition, with far-reaching consequences.

Any thoughts?

 

[silva]

I don't know, I started crying.............

 

[Emma JC]

That was an excellent article, thank you @Amy SF , for posting it.

There is hope.... that is my take. It might be awhile and lots of tears will be shed and yet knowing that at least some farmers find the system inhumane is heartwarming for me.

Emma JC

 

[Lou]

OH! I read that article last week. I should have posted it. Thanks, Amy for picking up the slack.

I can't remember if it was that article or a different one but I got the impression that the "farmers' are not con concerned that much with the animals. But that the big corps have too much control on them. And they just want to be more independent. We hope that if they were independent they would run their businesses more humanely.

Right now I think the farmers are so tightly controlled the only way to increase profits is at the expense of the animals.

I hope the bill has some safeguards for the animals themselves. But regardless this is a good step in the right direction. (before we make livestock raising illegal).

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I think the end of factory farming should be a bigger target for vegans, animal rights activists etc. It may be a more achievable target than we realize. I'd like to do more to support such a campaign.

A big campaign to totally end factory farming at this early stage, with so few vegans alive today, might not lead to any immediate result but it would move the debate on to a point when it becomes more mainstream later on.

From the US perspective, does anyone know if legislation can be passed at state level to ban it? If yes, it might make more sense to start the campaign in liberal states like California and New York rather than aiming for a federal campaign.

Such a campaign probably needs something like justice for the workers (payoffs, retraining, help to get new jobs) to have a better chance to succeed.

One of my dreams is to still be alive if and when there are mass animal rights protests on the scale of Vietnam or the Iraq stop the war (UK) or something. Perhaps blockading the CAFOs.

 

[Lou]

One thing that might be achievable is that if meat and milk cost the consumer the actual (true) amount that it costs to produce. Take away the subsidies and the price controls and add the external costs.

I don't have any facts to support this but I imagine Burger King charged the true cost of a whopper it would be more expensive than a Beyond Whopper. Some people are willing to pay a buck extra for a Beyond Burger. My guess is that even more people would be less willing to spend an extra buck for real beef.

 

[silva]

One thing that might be achievable is that if meat and milk cost the consumer the actual (true) amount that it costs to produce. Take away the subsidies and the price controls and add the external costs.

I don't have any facts to support this but I imagine Burger King charged the true cost of a whopper it would be more expensive than a Beyond Whopper. Some people are willing to pay a buck extra for a Beyond Burger. My guess is that even more people would be less willing to spend an extra buck for real beef.

Right! And if they were to impose the kinds of taxes that went to cigarettes to help cover the medical costs? If meat consumption increased medical coverage? Life insurance?

 

[Hog]

Hello fellow earthlings.

It is time to talk about the circle of life. Industieres are born and die just like any sentient being. The last thing we need to do is keep alive a dieing industry. Those small farmers will need to move along and get other jobs just like anybody else in a dieing industry.

I have never seen a barn that I would like to share with other livestock.

The humans are also part of the circle of life. The dirty pleasures of the mouth could lead to our own extinction. When all humans die, the meek shall inherit the earth. Our distant genetic cousin, the humble rat, might be the only mammal left.

 

[Karl_perez97]

I have recently watched some documentarys about big farming. i am horifed by what is hapening, what can i do to help?

 

[Emma JC]

I just watched Livekindly's latest Youtube video and one part of it is Joe Rogan talking with Jon Stewart and although Joe is a meat eater still he is against factory farming. He has a large audience so hopefully he will influence it.

Emma JC

 

[Jamie in Chile]

This is a typical attitude which I´ve heard from men in the US. They defend hunting, agree that factory farming is bad, but most of them eat more factory farmed meat than hunted. If you really don´t like factory farmed meat, you need to make a special effort to source your meat or hunt it yourself. For most people, it would be easier to be mostly vegetarian. But I suppose it´s progress yes that influencers like Rogan are having this kind of conversation.

For what it´s worth, I don´t agree with hunting but I think it may be strategic to ignore that debate and try and convince people that in practice their beliefs realistically imply that they should just the vegetarian option most of the time. I mean, imagine being invited to a wedding and saying "I don´t eat factory farmed meat"; what are you expecting them to do, go into the forest and hunt just for you? If you truly don´t like factory farmed meat you should be asking for the vegetarian option most of the time.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

One thing that might be achievable is that if meat and milk cost the consumer the actual (true) amount that it costs to produce. Take away the subsidies and the price controls and add the external costs.

I don't have any facts to support this but I imagine Burger King charged the true cost of a whopper it would be more expensive than a Beyond Whopper. Some people are willing to pay a buck extra for a Beyond Burger. My guess is that even more people would be less willing to spend an extra buck for real beef.

Right, so the whopper is causing global warming so a part of its cost is in a desalination plant to be built in the year 2060 because there is a major drought in West African caused by climate change and a seawall to be built in London in the year 2070.

However a "meat tax" is the kind of thing that could cause people to vote for right wing parties or populist parties.

However, there is a solution. Left wing parties can put forward big carbon taxes (making sure they tax all greenhouse gases and not carbon) and use the money to reduce other taxes and do other things like green subsidies. When they do this they should talk about the effects of the subsidies on transportation and other sectors. And when journalists say "But your policy will cause the price of meat to increase substantially" they can say "We don´t yet know if that´s true or not, but we think a carbon tax has to be applied fairly across all sectors and we´ll be following the recommendation of our committee of scientists, policy experts and environmentalists. So I don´t know if the price of meat will increase but if it does in any case people will be able to afford it with the huge income tax cut coming in next year."

Especially in the US. If there a training school for democrat politicians, it should include the instruction never to use the word "meat" and the word "tax" in the same sentence.

I think meat will have to be taxed eventually otherwise we can´t beat climate change. Even if not for climate change, just because of the lack of space on Earth as population increases combine with climate change making some areas less habitable.

 

[Lou]

Right, so the whopper is causing global warming so a part of its cost is in a desalination plant to be built in the year 2060 because there is a major drought in West African caused by climate change and a seawall to be built in London in the year 2070.

That's now the kind of external costs I was thinking about. I was thinking about the cost of things like food inspectors (paid by taxpayers not the production facility). this isn't such a weird idea. I pay for my car to be inspected and people pay for their homes to be inspected.

 

[Lou]

Another good article from Vox.

Biden could do a lot to fight factory farming even without Congress

Biden’s agriculture secretary could confront factory farms, or coddle them.

www.vox.com