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Support for Humane Standards
Other Support
Letter from Genesis Farm
June 6, 2001
Dear Secretary Brown,
We are writing on behalf of Genesis Farm, an Earth Literacy center
and Organic Farm in rural northwestern New Jersey, to voice our
support for the drafting of humane standards for the "raising,
keeping, care, marketing, and sale of domestic livestock,"
and for their transportation and slaughter.
Genesis Farm is committed to healthy ecosystems, safe and healthy
food, respect for all forms of life, and preservation of rural infrastructures
and values. Each of these is threatened by the manner in which most
of the nine billion farm animals slaughtered each year in the United
States are raised.
With no standards for space, producers can crowd large numbers
of animals into small spaces resulting in such high concentrations
of waste that surrounding waters and lands are polluted. (When
flooding occurred in North Carolina a few years back, waste from
the many factory pig farms poured into the rivers and lakes throughout
the state carrying contamination and disease.) Not to speak of
the stench which confines residents living near these farms to
living indoors.
With no standards for care, the unnatural conditions in which veal
calves, egg-laying hens, and gestating pigs are kept (not being
able to turn around or do any of the most basic kinds of behavior)
drives the animals half-mad. They are stressed, neurotic, become
ill, requiring more and more medication. Can such animals possibly
produce healthy food?
There is a moral component, too. As responsible human beings and
stewards of these animals, don't we have an obligation to provide
for their basic needs and give them a life as free from pain as
possible? Intensive factory farms are concentration camps for animals
where the only criterion is profit. Standards would require producers
to change these abusive methods. The quality and safety of the meat
and eggs produced would be greater (they taste better, too) and
we would not be endorsing inhumane practices that belie our view
of ourselves as a compassionate society. These methods are outlawed
in other countries and should be outlawed in the United States as
well.
It is possible to raise pigs, for example, in what is called
the Swedish deep-bed natural method, and still make money. This
method is suitable, too, for the small farm. Which leads to the
last consideration-the disappearance of the small family farms
and the way of life they represent-which was the bedrock of this
country. Large agribusinesses, by using the methods they do, can
sell products so cheaply that smaller producers are driven out
of business. Standards would force them to spend more money on
healthy conditions and they would not be able to undersell small
producers to such a degree.
And there is one more consideration-the conditions in which the
workers at these animal factories must work. They are as unhealthy
for the workers as they are for the animals. The injury rate among
meatpackers is the highest of any occupation in the United States,
largely because of the speed at which workers are required to perform
for profit. And butchering animals from morning 'til night, often
under unsanitary and cruel circumstances, is dehumanizing.
For all these reasons, we urge you to enact legislation to impose
humane standards for the raising, transporting, and slaughtering
of animals for food-banning, in particular, crates for veal calves,
battery cages for egg-laying hens, and gestation crates for pregnant
pigs. We understand that a law was passed in 1996 requiring your
department to draft such legislation. New laws would benefit not
only the animals, but also the overall quality of our air and water,
our food, workers' health, and the viability of the family farm.
Thank you for your consideration of these issues.
Sincerely,
Miriam MacGillis, founder and director
and nine staff members:
Gina Cawley
Yelena Cheban
Mary Ellen Dougherty
Vera DuMont
Wally Falker
Lori Gold
Lara Greenspan
Constance Kozel
Janet Lewis
Rosanne Lush
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