Corporate Welfare Fueling Growth of Confined Animal Feeding Operations
22 Corporate Crime Reporter
17, April 24, 2008
Corporate welfare is fueling the growth of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
That’s according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
CAFOs now produce most of the nation's beef, pork, chicken, dairy and eggs, even though there are more sophisticated and efficient farms in operation.
“CAFOs aren't the natural result of agricultural progress, nor are they the result of rational planning or market forces,” said Doug Gurian-Sherman, the author of the report. “Ill-advised policies created them, and it will take new policies to replace them with more sustainable, environmentally friendly production methods.”
The report – CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations – details the policies that have allowed CAFOs to dominate U.S. meat and dairy production. Read More
The Union for Concerned Scientists is an agenda based organization that has partnered in the past with HSUS, The Waterkeeper’s Alliance and Greenpeace. Their report says they want the government to institute policies that benefit the environment. But what about benefitting the human population which requires an increasing amount of food in order to survive? If groups like the UCS had their way, we would not be producing livestock in this country.
Click Here for the UCS Report.
1 comment:
NAIS will be the CAFO's best friend. Have you heard of NAIS, which can be compared to Obama care for animals.
Let me explain it to you like this. What if I were to send you all my dirty laundry, forced you to wash, dry, fold it, etc and have you send it back and then you pay me for it, all the while I declare to the world I did it. Would you do it! Of course not!
So here is how NAIS will work for those of us who own livestock type animals, even one as a pet! Corporate ag has a business plan that will help them sell and tell the global market the meat they raise on factory farms is safe! I have no meat animals, only horses, but they are forcing me to be part of this program by making me (and thousands of others) to pay for and work it ---
Under NAIS (National animal Identification System) I will have to
1. register my premises with the government, even if i owned even one animal, even if it is a pet. This step clouds title to private property simply by the language used. Currently only sex offenders do this!
2. All critters must be microchipped. Besides the chips, vet calls, scanners and computer programs will be needed and the costs will not be cheap. Factory farms do NOT have to do this, they get one lot number per group of animals. Any animal in that group could be diseased and who would know.
3. All births, deaths and movements reported into a database within 24 hrs. This costs time and money and databases are often hacked into. Again factory farms have few reporting events, already what they do as part of business.
4. If animal disease is suspected in an area, the USDA can depopulate a 6 mile radius (140 sq. miles of dead healthy animals that never came in contact with the supposed sick animal).
NAIS is being pushed as an animal disease tracking program but it will not prevent animal disease nor ensure food safety since tracking stops at slaughter, after which is when food safety issues occur. How does my telling the government where and when I ride my horse insure the Japanese are eating safe American beef?!?!?! Which is so ironic because American beef is already among the safest in the world.
What about mad cow disease? The USDA used that to get people to sign up for the program. But mad cow disease is only transmissable from cow to cow when a cow eats another cow' brain or spinal cord. On their own, cows do not eat cows, but someone decided feeding cows to cows is ok. Simply stopping feeding cows will stop mad cow disease. ) But the USDA is "speaking with forked-tongue". They claimed how NAIS was needed to stop mad cow disease. Yet when Creekstone Beef wanted to test every cow they process for BSE, the USDA said they cannot!!!
NAIS is trying to be a one-size-fits-all program yet there is a huge difference between granny’s back yard hens, a pot belly pig in suburbia, horses which are not in the food chain and the multi-billion dollar corporate ag and factory farms, which this program was ultimately made for.
So what has been the general reaction among the general public when they find out about NAIS? Actually relatively few know and not many of those who will be impacted (livestock owners know) I found out from an email from a stranger. But over 90% who know oppose NAIS! (The USDA calls us "misinformed!"
The USDA program called NAIS (National animal Identification System) was developed to benefit and improve marketability of factory farms and corporate agriculture. But while factory farms and big ag gets a free ride, the ones who will be hurt most by NAIS are the small producers who raise even one farm animal whether for a pet, their own consumption or to sell locally.
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