In Gastrocast #94 I speak of two major problems facing the fight to keep our food free from over regulation and governmental control–Giant, Corporate Polluters like Smithfield Farms who have given even small farms a bad name with their laissez-faire attitude towards hog waste and environmental contamination; and the USDA’s National Animal ID System (NAIS) which threatens small farmers, homesteaders and hobbyists with an overbearing and costly system to register, tag and track all agricultural property1 and livestock.
Since reading Diet For a Dead Planet
will be banning gestation crates for hogs - pregnant sows are put in these crates for their 16 week gestation period - the crates are often so small that the animal can’t even turn around, and they cause undue stress. These crates are often used on factory farms around the country.
This is seemingly good news until you hear when this magnanimous gesture will take place:
The not so good thing is that Smithfield will not be banning the crates on its own farms until 2017 - that’s 11 years from now. And farmers that it contracts with do not have to stop using the crates until 2027 - 21 years from now! (From Sustainable Table Blog)
Apparently “consumer pressure” isn’t strong enough to get Smithfield to change its stance immediately, so perhaps it’s time consumers speak louder by sourcing their pork from local, sustainable, non-industrial scale, horrendously polluting farms.
On the topic of what the USDA’s NAIS program will do to our ability to source our food from where we want, when we want, the USDA is hard at work behind the scenes trying to smuggle laws onto the books across the country. The scale of the waste and their FEMA-in-the-Face-of-Katrina-like efforts is appauling when you realize it is $100 million of our taxpayer money they are throwing about willy nilly. It is clear from this, that the USDA representatives really don’t care about the people they’re affecting or how they go about it.
As citizens and consumers it is important that we speak out against these and similar issues before we have no choice and no voice left to do so. In this food fight let us make sure it is organizations like Smithfield Farms and the USDA that remain with egg on their face.
Technorati Tags: USDA, NAIS, animal id, national animal id system, smithfield farms, pork producers, WSDA, washington state department of agriculture, WA, sustainable table, nonais.org, diet for a dead planet
- Even backyards with 1 chicken or bunny rabbit [↩]
Thank you for the article. I agree, The USDA is hard at work trying to
“smuggle in laws that are unconstitutional. More people need to be aware
of just how much the “food chain” for human food consumption is controlled
by collusion between big Agri-business and a willing and compliant Government
(payoffs ?) To learn more go to NoNAIS.org, it’s a great web site,
for the time being still protected under “freedom of speech”. Don’t let
another freedom fall, we don’t have many left.
While I would not defend Smithfield Foods in the slightest, I can tell
you the likely reason as to why it will be 11 and 21 years for the transition.
They are faced with replacing billions of dollars worth of equipment, perhaps
tens of billions of dollars worth. Most of the farmers are ‘independents’ who
work under contract for Smithfield Foods and must pay for this themselves. They
just don’t have the cash to do it. The reality is they are often simply serfs to
the system. Making an immediate change is not possible.
Then that raises the whole question of recycling all that old metal and other
materials from the smaller foot print operations. Dump all that on the market
at once and you’ll hurt still more people who’s business is recycling by
depressing prices through over supply. As little as you and I like the crating,
improvements don’t happen instantly.
Frankly, where Smithfield Foods is going is not the ideal either. It will still
be confinement operations and factory ‘farming’. They will still have massive
pollution problems, be using chemicals that are bad for the environment, bad
you and I and bad for the pigs.
What consumers need to do is stop buying from the big producers, the factories,
and I don’t call them farms. Instead look to your small local livestock
producers that raise animals on pasture in more natural conditions. We raise
pigs on pasture here at Sugar Mountain
Farm in Vermont and are Certified
Naturally Grown. We sell locally, a higher quality product and at a
competitive price. There are a tremendous number of farmers like us who are
your neighbors. Get to know them and buy from them. Support your local farmers,
keep money in your community and Buy
Locally.
Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mtn farm
http://SugarMtnFarm.com
http://NoNAIS.org