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More Good News About Factory Farming
Smithfield Foods Inc., the nation's largest pork producer, announced yesterday that it is phasing out the use of gestation crates at all of its farms. Smithfield says that within ten years, it will have no gestion crates at any of its facilities. Ten years is a long time for hundreds of thousands of pigs to continue to suffer, but the announcement is nevertheless a major breakthrough in the fight against corporate animal abuse.
This current focus by corporate animal abusers on adopting "humane" animal farming stanadards (Can you say "oxymoron"?) is nothing more than a disingenuous PR stunt meant to renovate the facades and balance sheets of the animal farming industry and its supporters amidst criticism from a variety of animal advocacy groups, and health professionals, and to clear the consciences of consumers who are becoming increasingly aware of the improprieties that they perpetuate by continuing to consume animal products of all kinds.
In an October 2006 NY Times piece, Steve Gold of Murray's Chicken said it best when he stated that participation in "humane" campaigns, "helps the image of what we are trying to be as a company." Gold's honesty is refreshing. If these companies were really concerned with the well-being of animals, rather than continue to slit their throats and skin them, they'd close up shop entirely or get into the organic vegetable business.
What adopting "humane" practices is ultimately doing, rather than really improving conditions for animals, is increasing profits and productivity for agribusiness while concomitantly fooling the public into thinking they are participating in something laudable. However, such PR campaigns increase the occurrences of atrocities against animals as the unsuspecting consumer increases their consumption without guilt, while agribusiness laughs all the way to the bank.
I agree with you, Justin, as far as the reality of such corporate "progress" goes. But that same PR campaign designed to fool consumers (which, let's face it, doesn't take much--most of them don't care, anyway) is nevertheless part of an extremely slow march toward full public awareness. Sometimes, it is only when people discover that a horrific practice has ceased that they learn the practice ever took place.
My hope is that the Smithfield move encourages more states to do what Florida and Arizona have done. I don't give any real props to Smithfield at all--I just want the news to be a building block for the next state that decides to rebel against factory farms.