From the video, these are some of the important areas of concern where the laws need strengthening:

1. Environmental concerns: Massive manure lagoons pose threats not only to surface waters (rivers, tributaries, etc.) but also to groundwater supplies that are often ignored under current laws. For example, federal laws (largely) allow for the unregulated discharge of farm wastes.
2. Address federal “Right To Farm Laws” that impede the ability of local communities, and even small farmers to restrict the operations of nearby factory farms when their actions cause harm to them, and their community.
3. Property Tax reforms: Allow for the reduction of local property tax whose value declines due to their proximity to large factory farms.
4. Food Labeling Standards: Like the organic label, require strict standards for terms, such as, “cruelty free” and “pasture raised,” so that consumers know what they are really buying.
5. Regulate large amounts of animal waste by treating it in a similar way we treat human sewage.
6. Antibiotics contamination from animal waste, and meat consumption that is cause antibiotic resistance in human diseases.
7. Reexamine the dual role of government to regulate the agriculture industry, and at the same time, being charged with also promoting it.
8. Address one size fits all regulations that treat a small farm operation in the same manner as a large farm.
9. Address systemic problems that are posed by factory farms even if climate damaging methane gas emissions, can be converted into otherwise beneficial energy production.

Filmed at the Friends of Family Farmers event on November 9th, 2010.

Editorial

In this Friends of Family Farmer’s sponsored talk, Kathy Hessler, Director of the Animal Law Clinic at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland (Oregon), discusses the important subject of factory farms in relation to animal welfare protections under existing federal and state laws.

In a nutshell, livestock in America do not enjoy any protections under the law; they enjoy the same rights as a personal kitchen toaster. There are no federal laws, including federal and state animal anti-cruelty laws, that apply to farm animals. One small exception applies to the transportation of livestock (poultry is exempted from this law) that requires certain conditions be met after 28 hours of continuous transport, but these are quite limited in scope.

In perhaps a time gone past, before factory farms existed, before the introduction of mega-farms, manure lagoons, and indoor warehousing of chickens, pigs, turkeys, and other livestock— before the advent of antibiotics, and vitamin D that made factory farms (large CAFO’s) even possible, (the laws of) nature would not allow a farmer to mistreat his animals; it would have directly harmed their economic interests to do so.

While many farmers do not abuse their animals today, for a number of good reasons, including moral and economic concerns, the absence of legal animal welfare protections have served to support a small segment of the agriculture sector, the large factory farm, effecting a disproportionally large number of animals.

When one looks at the pictures of livestock housed under factory farm conditions, as in Dan Imhoff’s anthology book, CAFO, these images depict the brutality, and obvious torturous conditions of their care. It should be noted, in some states, there are efforts underway to make it a felony to film any farm operation clandestinely, and in Florida (unbelievably), one senator unsuccessfully tried to make it a first degree felony to openly film any farm without first obtaining written permission of the farm. Under Florida law, that would have meant up to 30 years in prison, and obviously would have been a serious deterrent for shining light on continuing livestock and environmental abuses.

Large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are the Maginot Line in the agricultural sand—in a civilized society, there can be no reasonable justification for their existence.

In part 2, Dan Imhoff continues his talk about CAFO’s to a Friends of Family Farmers audience concerned about the health and wellbeing of their communities, and who support the creation of more sustainable, and environmentally healthy alternatives from that of our heavily industrialized, food system.

Much of Imhoff’s talk centers around ideas that are found in his newly published book, CAFO— a collection of thought provoking essays and gut wrenching images that depict the world of factory farm livestock: cattle, dairy cows, hogs, chickens, and turkeys.

Per the federal EPA designation of a large CAFO operation (from the CAFO book), their individual confinement numbers alone are shocking—defined as being more than any one of the following: 1000 head of cattle; 2500 swine (weighing over 55 lbs); 10,000 swine (under 55 lbs); 55,000 turkeys; 82,000 chickens (laying hens); or 20,000-30,000 meat chickens (broilers), housed under one roof.

As the book explains, the primary purpose of a CAFO is to feed livestock, and prepare them as quickly, and inexpensively as possible for slaughter. Maximum efficiency and minimizing costs are the basis for how the animals are fed, housed, and cared-for in these types of operations. The images contained in this coffee-table size book may only begin to convey the true horror of their living conditions. Pigs crammed so tightly together, their fecal waste falls through metal grates upon which they stand throughout the day and night; chickens housed together in a sea of other chickens, warehoused together under one roof, their bodies caked with feces. Nothing about these images suggest a “farm”, there is also nothing in these images that suggests the faintest hints of compassion, respect for living things, or even a basic display of humanity toward livestock that have served the interests of man since the dawn of civilization. Indeed, these are not true factories either—they are livestock prisons designed ultimately to preserve and engorge the economic coffers of large corporate behemoths increasingly at the expense of smaller producers, local communities, and arguably the eater.

Recently, some individual states have enacted legislation to protect these facilities by making it a felony to photograph (even from a public road) a CAFO Farm operation. In Missouri, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that legislation, overwhelmingly passed by their lawmakers, is before the governor for his signature. If approved, the Missouri law would largely exempt CAFO operators from liability from individual lawsuits resulting from steep losses of neighborhood property values; environmental damage from runoff onto neighboring properties, or waterways; and continual foul odors that may permeate the surrounding community, among other impacts.

Large corporate interests have (presumably) pressured the state to make legal what clearly violates basic constitutional rights of its citizens—in the words of the Saint Louis paper: “HB 209 would limit the liability for CAFO operators. In effect, it grants factory farms the right, for a one-time payment, to devastate property values and take away in perpetuity their neighbors’ use and enjoyment of their property.”

If the federal government ever decides to strengthen (as opposed to, weaken) environmental laws as they apply to agriculture; staunchly defend the rights of individuals, and their local communities to hold fully liable large agriculture interests that cause them harm; protect to the utmost public health concerns—at a minimum— by limiting prophylactic use of antibiotics in livestock, and not allowing the storage of massive manure lagoons to exist; strengthen (not weaken) whistleblower laws to inform the public about what is really going on behind closed doors with the food they are eating; and eliminate all government subsidies to large CAFO’s—these measures would likely restore at least some balance to a livestock industry gone terribly awry…

From the CAFO book, a few of the historical changes in the U.S. livestock industry since 1950:

• Today, 330 million cattle and 100 million hogs are slaughtered each year. Two states, Iowa and North Carolina represent about 80% of the hogs raised on factory farms; they contain 5000 hogs, or more.
• The New York Times reported in 2008. Iowa’s 5000 confinement hog facilities generate over 50 million tons of raw waste, equivalent to 16.7 tons of animal manure for every resident. (Source: Dave Murphy, The Great Pig Debate: How CAFO’s Stalk The Next President, Animal Welfare Institute Quarterly, Winter 2008)
• A recent World Watch report estimates that the livestock sector may be responsible for up to 50% of all greenhouse gas emissions. (source: Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, Livestock and Climate Change: What If The Key Players in Climate Change are…Cows, Pigs, and Chickens?” Worldwatch November/December 2009, pages 10-19)
• It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. As more of the world’s population shifts to the western diet of meat, eggs, and dairy, this creates an unsustainable impact on the environment.
• Between 1997 and 2005, factory farms saved an estimated 31 billion dollars (over this 8 year period), thanks to U.S. taxpayer subsidies to purchase corn and soybeans below production costs. (source: Elanor Starmer and Timothy A. Wise, Feeding At The Trough: Industrial Livestock Firms Saved $35 Billion From Low Feed Prices, Policy Brief No. 07-03; December 2007)
• In 1950: there were more than 3 million hog operations, by 2007, that number dwindled to just over 17,000 due largely to industry consolidation.
• In 1950 (before factory farms): there were 21 million cows producing 116 billion pounds; in 2000, there were only 9 million cows producing (even more milk), 167 billion pounds.
• In 1960: US Beef Cattle Operations totaled 2.7 million, by the year 2000, that number was reduced to 1.1 million, more than a 50% reduction over 40 years. (Source: U.S. Per Capita Dairy and Egg Consumption, 1950-2007; Humane Society of the United States)
• Per capita beef consumption from 1960 to 2000 climbed from 44 pounds per year, per person to 67 pounds per year, per person. Even as beef consumption has exponentially risen (combined with population growth over this 40 year period) industry consolidation has significantly reduced the number of cattle operations. (Source: U.S. Per Capita Dairy and Egg Consumption, 1950-2007; Humane Society of the United States)

Disclosure: CUPS received a complimentary copy of CAFO for review purposes.

He looked down at the tangled wet hair, the wild, bare, animal shoulders. He was amazed, bewildered, and afraid. He had never thought of loving her. He had never wanted to love her. When he rescued her and restored her, he was a doctor, and she was a patient. He had had no single personal thought of her. Nay, this introduction of the personal element was very distasteful to him, a violation of his professional honour. It was horrible to have her there embracing his knees. It was horrible. He revolted from it, violently. And yet – and yet – he had not the power to break away. —excerpt from the The Horse Dealer’s Daughter-D.H. Lawrence

Editorial

The great modern scientific achievements of the 20th century that brought us life saving antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, vitamin supplements, and insect controlling pesticides provided an essential arsenal of tools to seemingly divorce ourselves from nature, and allowed us to usher in the great industrial agriculture revolution. By the later half of the century, for the first time in human history, agriculture production could be assembled on a giant, and centralized scale; massive tracts of land could be used to grow a single crop at a time, and large numbers of livestock could be housed in warehouse style buildings without ever having to see the light of day (thanks to vitamin D, and antibiotics). Models based upon achieving hyper-efficiencies, and through economies of scale— fueled a ceaseless march toward ever cheaper cost per units of agriculture production. With each passing decade, the changing face of American agriculture became larger, more industrial, operating more like a factory, than a living (and breathing) small farm.

CAFO Operation with Surrounding Manure Lagoons; photo courtesy of Terry Spence from the CAFO Book Project

In the past, the tyranny of farming, so highly dependent upon the vast and uncontrollable forces of nature finally began to give way to man’s modern scientific prowess, and nowhere more given to sway than in the production of livestock.

CAFO Hogs; photo courtesy of Daniel Pepper from the CAFO Book Project

For farm animals, in particular: chickens, hogs, cattle, and dairy cows may now be housed in massive numbers, so tightly confined, in many cases, unable to move around and never to touch a blade of grass, roll in any mud, or permitted outside. The government has a name for these massive corporate owned megafarms, they have been designated as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO’s), but to a growing cadre of critics, they see them simply as a form of livestock concentration camp. And their supposed models of efficiency, and economies of scale not only ignore the steep environmental and social costs, they subject animals to such cruelty, and needless suffering: their very existence can only represent a demarcation line between good and evil.

As Dan Imhoff explains in part 1 of this video— editor of the new (coffee table size) book CAFO, a large body of illuminating essays, and full spread pages of (full-throttled) images depicting a litany of inhumane livestock conditions and their effects—the toll of these CAFO operations upon local communities, public health, and the environment obliterates any supposed economic advantages of such a system. Only through large federal subsidies (in the Farm Bill), and by ignoring a range of hidden (or largely obscured) costs that are ultimately borne by the taxpayer and eater, can their existence be cost justified.

Who we are as a people is defined by what we do, and what we think is right. Those of us who look back upon recent history, and wonder how so many genocides were allowed to happen by so many (presumably good) people; we all carry within us the seeds of our own destruction. That may be sober reason enough to not allow these megafarms to continue in our name.

Filmed November 9, 2010 at the Friends of Family Farmers InFARMation (and Beer!) event.

University of Oregon's Food Justice Conference 2011

* Rachel Bristol, CEO, Oregon Food Bank
Deb Johnson-Shelton, President, Lane County (Oregon) Food Policy Council
* Young Kim, Executive Director, Fondy Food Center, Milwaukee
Tammy Morales, Principal, Urban Food Link
* Chris Schreiner, Executive Director, Oregon Tilth
Cynthia Torres, Director, Colorado Farmers Market Association
Moderator: Naomi Starkman, Co-founder of Civil Eats

* shown in the video

Editorial
Why a quest for food justice? Does the food system require its own particular flavor of justice outside of the wider society? After all, if there is adequate justice in the world, wouldn’t that cover this sector equally as well? Or conversely, if justice is lacking in society as a whole, how then do we expect to make things right in one particular realm, but not the whole?

That is the conundrum at hand. For although food justice is a particular challenge within the agricultural system, (social, economic, and political) injustice are inextricably woven into the fabric of our society at large. The struggles of the working class (also now increasingly for those in the middle class too) must confront a host of common challenges including affordable access to healthcare, food insecurity, availability of livable wage jobs, systemic bias and discrimination toward the poor; and an increasing political tolerance for the acceptance of historically high levels of inequality in America.

Rising inequality feeds on itself, tipping the scales ever further away from the creation of a just society, food justice lies captive, rotting in the dormant social wind.

“If we have a need in society, and we have unutilized labor, land, technology— the other real resources required to address it— money alone should never be the deciding constraint.”—David Korten

In part 4, David Korten concludes his talk on transforming the destructive, (and corrupt) Wall Street driven financial system to one centered around meeting the real needs of local communities, whose collective health and well-being will engender wider prosperity for society as a whole.

“…Earth’s bounty, on which all of life depends, is the shared birth right of all living beings; none of us created it, and none of us has a right to monopolize it.”—David Korten

In this third installment, David Korten, author of Agenda For a New Economy, outlines the steps necessary to create an economy that values life at the utmost, and properly treats money as merely a means for serving a higher purpose. Look more to the ecologist as a guide for creating a sustainable economy than to the economist, Korten advises, for the new economy must adhere to the laws of nature, and to the service of fulfilling human needs.

“It is a stunning commentary on our time, that most graduates from our institutions of higher learning—even with degrees in economics and business—have no idea how the money system operates as a system of power, and have no intellectual tools to address its role in distorting society’s values, and resource allocation decisions.” —David Korten

Part 2; David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy, and former Visiting Associate Professor of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business explains in understandable terms, how our money system operates in today’s world. Korten argues, understanding the true nature of money “is an essential key to breaking out of our collective trance”, a form of mass psychosis whose corrosive effects can be strongly felt throughout society.

David Korten’s talk was presented by the Cascadia Green Building Council whose focus is on addressing “the impact of the built environment on the planet we call home”.

This is but one example of the political rift that exists between opposing ideologies, in this case, where the proper role of science to inform responsible policy decisions (embodied in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and whose reports are sounding the alarm), are disregarded by a sizable political faction who openly question the validity of the science. Of course, in the end, mother nature will not abate her will in homage to any particular party ideology, or powerful vested interest.

The major issues before our nation, and of the world run deeper, more profound, than political labels and simplistic arguments currently maintain. We have framed our debate in almost Homer Simpsonesque style, fittingly delivered through endless sound bites, and cursory analysis on traditional news outlets, relying heavily upon the most effective (and cynical) educational tool ever devised: mass media advertising.

Off the national debate table, is how we Americans, and other citizens of the world, are going to “create a world that works for all.” One, as David Korten, author of “The Agenda for a New Economy,” and co-founder of Yes! Magazine, outlines a framework for, in these talks on CUpS.

In part one, of this 4 part series, Korten melds economic theory to the built environment (man-made structures that define our local communities and larger society), he argues requires a complete “system redesign,” a political, economic, and environmental restructuring in order to avert serious consequences for humankind. Along the way, he summarizes the story of our existence as he has interpreted it from philosophers, religious, and scientific thinkers throughout the ages. Pointing to the preamble to the Earth’s Charter crafted at the 1992 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Korton argues this framework provides for an understanding of the type of new world economy that will sustain life for everyone, including that of the natural world, the foundation for all life to prosper—including our species.

David Korten’s talk was presented by the Cascadia Green Building Council whose focus is on addressing “the impact of the built environment on the planet we call home”.

Filmed in May 2010 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s, Cooking For Solutions: Sustainable Foods Institute media conference, Mr. Masumoto talks about the recent passing of his father, and the inner search for achieving a balance with life where no such state is fully possible. This panel discussion on Stories of Sustainability was moderated by Jane Black of the Washington Post.

In the video below from his publisher, Simon and Schuster, Mas Masumoto shares a passage from his latest book, Wisdom of the Last Farmer: