Patrick J Battuello

Archive for the ‘Factory Farming’ Category

In Vitro Meat

In Factory Farming, Vegetarianism on August 4, 2010 at 10:43 am

“We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” (Winston Churchill, Fifty Years Hence, 1932)

Add prescience to a list of Churchill attributes. Within a matter of decades (or sooner), the liberation (and hopefully, extinction) of domesticated animals, created and destroyed for their edible flesh, may come to pass. In vitro meat is actual meat grown in a laboratory from the stem or satellite muscle cells of a livestock animal (just one animal’s cells would be necessary and only for the initial biopsy). Immersed in a “nutrient bath,” attached to scaffolding, and placed in a bioreactor, the cells would form, after some stretching (exercising), into sheets of flesh.

Biologist Vladimir Mironov (Medical University of South Carolina), an in vitro pioneer, says, (NPR, 5/20/08) “I personally believe that this [is the] inescapable future.” He notes, however, that this is not genetic engineering: (Time, 04/23/08) “We use natural cells from natural animals. We don’t change Mother Nature, we just try to imitate it.” Doctoral student Jason Matheny (Maryland) formed New Harvest in 2004 to explore in vitro possibilities, eventually co-penning the first peer-reviewed paper on the subject. Matheny concluded, (UM NEWSDESK, 07/06/05) “With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world’s annual meat supply. …In the long term, this is a very feasible idea.”

Dr. Mark Post, a physiology professor at Eindhoven University, remarks: (The Sunday Times, 11/29/09) “You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there. This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it.” PETA has weighed-in with an offer of $1 million to the first person (people) to create an indistinguishable in vitro chicken meat, approved and competitively marketed in at least 10 states, by June 2012. If (when) successful, the animal and environmental implications would be nothing short of epic.

To be sure, the successful marketing of test tube meat will require some adroit advertising (though it’s hard to envision it being more difficult than making dead animals, sometimes packaged in blood, palatable to the buying-public). I’m not sure if vegetarians/vegans will partake, but that is quite beside the point. What matters is how the rest respond. Simple custom (and a fair amount of repression) maintains our omnivore society. In vitro meat could forever alter the paradigm. How truly amazing that would be.

Abuse at Willet Dairy Farm

In Animal Cruelty Law, Dairy Cows, Factory Farming on August 4, 2010 at 1:53 am

This undercover video was shot by a member of Mercy For Animals at Willet Dairy Farm (one of New York’s largest) between December 2008 and February 2009.

The evidence: tails are cut off and horns burned away (one had her face immobilized on a fence) with no painkillers; numerous incidents of neglected infections and puss-filled open wounds (a prolapsed uterus was left untreated for over two weeks); filthy conditions, with the animals standing in feces and urine; downers left unattended for days; workers kicking, hitting, pushing, and using electric prods; and terrified newborns dragged from their distressed mothers (the anguish in their bellowing is palpable). One worker uttered these proud recollections:

…I walked around behind him and started kicking him in the balls…as hard as I fuckin could.

Cracked her right over the fuckin skull [with a wrench]…stupid bitch!

Fuckin kicking her, hitting her…fuckin jumpin off of the top of the goddamn gate and stoppin on her head and shit.

Then just fuckin hold her head and just start fuckin puchin the shit out of her.

Oh, you can tell I have no love loss for these motherfuckers.

A detailed 40-page Criminal Complaint was prepared by MFA and forwarded to the Cayuga County DA. Their response: “While shocking to look at, these practices are not necessarily illegal.” This is what is referred to as normal industry practice. Done to a dog or cat, arrests would have already been made.

Tail docking is common because sometimes the tail just gets in the way. The tail is either tied with a band to kill circulation (until it falls off) or simply chopped off with shears. Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal has proposed a tail-docking ban similar to the California law that took effect January 2010. The AVMA has opposed tail docking since 2004. The American Association of Bovine Practitioners says, “The AABP is not aware of sufficient scientific evidence in the literature to support tail docking in cattle.”

Disbudding (destroying the horn-producing cells of the horn bud) and dehorning (removing the horns after they have formed) are done with caustic materials, hot-irons, guillotine shears, wires, knives, saws, spoons, cups, or tubes. These procedures, which are not currently regulated, are supposedly done for safety (both worker and animal) and quality (less bruising). They are also very painful. Veterinarian Holly Cheever (from the MFA report): “[the animals]…show clear evidence of extreme excruciating pain and fear by their vocalizations (bawling and gurgling), their tail wringing, their dilated eyes, their stamping and jumping to attempt to free themselves from their head ties.”

On the downers, Dr. Cheever says, “…any cow, as a prey and not a predator species, experiences terror due to her immobility, which instinctively causes stress since she knows she is helpless to protect herself…” As for the untreated injuries, ethologist Jonathan Balcombe remarks, “…most of the injuries depicted are chronic and appear to have gone largely or entirely untreated. Chronic pain is almost certain to accompany these symptoms.” Veterinarian Deb Teachout concludes, “This is a bad place to be a dairy cow. There is no doubt that these cows are physically and emotionally suffering as there is total disregard for their safety, comfort, and medical condition.” Balcombe: “My professional opinion is that these animals suffer chronically in the conditions depicted. Episodes of acute pain and stress are exacerbated by prolonged confinement, thwarting of natural behaviors, and for many the pain of long-term injury, infection and/or disability.”

Livestock animals are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act, and arrests and convictions under state laws are virtually nonexistent. Cows (pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep) are legally regarded as machinery; like all machines, they follow an endless cycle of creation, use, and disposal. In a sobering assessment, Willet’s Lyn Odel once said, “We don’t farm any different than anybody else does up and down this road. This is about the nature of our business, about how we farm. It’s not about Willet. It’s about the dairy industry.”

Enviropig

In Factory Farming, Pigs on July 25, 2010 at 12:30 am

The reason I avoid touting the benefits of veganism beyond alleviating animal suffering (i.e., environmental, human health) is that new technology can (and sometimes does) alter the argument. More specifically, genetic modifications to farm animals that lessen their harmful impact on the planet or our bodies can be hailed as progress and, therefore, allow for meat consumption with fewer qualms. This may be the case with the new and improved farm animal from Canada: Enviropig.

National Geographic reports that researchers have created a pig that will produce 65% less phosphorus in his urine and feces. Pigs receive phosphorus from cost-efficient cereal grains, but since they lack the enzyme phytase to break down the element, it must be added as a less-effective supplement. Hence, large amounts of phosphorus are excreted and must be collected in giant waste lagoons. These holding pens (which became necessary when pig farming went industrial) pose an environmental hazard by their very existence (In 1995, the New River in North Carolina was overrun by 25 million gallons of pig waste when a dike collapsed. The toxic sludge, taking two months to move 16 miles downstream, killed everything in its wake). Because pig manure is used as fertilizer, leaching of elevated phosphorus levels into nearby lakes and streams can create suffocating algal blooms. For a closer look at the nasty business of hog farming, read Jason Tietz’s  Boss Hog.

To combat the phosphorus problem, scientists found a usable enzyme from E. coli, paired it with a mouse DNA promoter, and injected the concoction into pig embryos. Out comes a transgenic (and greener) domesticated pig. The project, some ten years old, has been successful: the gene has proven to be inheritable, the bacterial protein has not effected meat sections, the new pigs are fine, and, most importantly, it works. Naturally, the industry loves it. The National Pork Board’s Paul Sundberg: “Pork producers are in favor of any technologies that can increase their competitiveness.” Approval is pending in the U.S. and Canada.

Earth’s health looms as a giant issue in the 21st Century, and the environmental havoc wreaked by meat and dairy has lately received due attention. In short, a vegan world would require far less energy, land, and water than is currently used. And, of course, the messy little problem of what to do with animal excrement would be eliminated. But what if Enviropig represents the future? Corporate farmers are savvy businessmen who will make the occasional small concession (Enviropig, healthier cut of meat, larger cage) to distract the masses from the giant elephant in the room: what we do to the animals we eat.

Fundamentally, animals-as-widgets is a moral question. Either their suffering matters or it does not. Industrially-produced animals enter the world in distress (prematurely torn from their mothers’ love and comfort), are afforded only the bare necessities (food, water, shelter) during their miserable mass confinement, and exit in terror at the slaughterhouse. The environment and human health should always be secondary issues. In the grand scheme of things, Enviropig is just white noise meant to obviate a deeper examination of our relationship with the animals we exploit.

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