I Eat Animals, But I Don't Want Them Caged Up: An Omnivore's Ideas on Agribusiness

There must be better ways to raise farmed animals than in mechanistic factory farms. There have always been better alternatives.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2019: Good evening, climate strikers! Agribusiness, aka factory farming, has long been a hot-button issue in the climate action and animal-welfare communities; and it's something I've been concerned about for many years. As you who have been reading this blog for a while know, I'm an outspoken omnivore who doesn't want to be bullied into going vegan, or going anywhere else, against my wishes. I would never try to stop anyone who chooses to go plant-based, for health, environmental, or any other reasons; and I don't want anyone else dictating what I eat, wear, or say in the way of comments referencing animals (have you had vegan activists shade you on social media for using expressions like "kill two birds with one stone"? Yeah, it's getting that crazy). At the same time, I'm appalled at the inhuman, mechanistic way farmed animals are treated in centrally-controlled factory-farming facilities (yeah, they're facilities now; no way can they be considered anything resembling actual farms). Keeping animals and birds caged, penned up, force-fed, and shot full of hormones and the like cannot be considered remotely healthy for them, or the people working in such conditions; and animals raised in such unhealthy conditions for the sake of cutting costs and maximizing output cannot possibly produce healthy food in turn. And by eating unhealthy food, we human omnivores are putting our health, and the health of the surrounding environment, in jeopardy; to say nothing of the impact on the global climate resulting from artificially inflated levels of methane and other greenhouse gasses. There must be a better way to produce meat, dairy products, eggs and seafood; in fact, there have always been better ways to go about this, as farmers and fishers have known for thousands of years.

So, what sort of ideas do I have to improve the worldwide food web in which we bipedal creatures play various roles? Among other things...

1) CATCH YOUR OWN: There's nothing quite like hunting and fishing your own food. It predates agriculture by thousands of years, and it's good exercise besides. While doing my first paid archaeological gig in western Wyoming over 30 years ago, I got to know a number of people who hunted a majority of their own meat. I knew at least one guy with a whole freezer-and-a-half full of pronghorn, sage grouse, and elk; and I believe he was the one who introduced me to the delicious taste of young marinated antelope. Nothing quite like it. Just imagine: no animals cooped up in crates; no hormones in your food; no dyes or other artificial junk tainting your meat. It's the REAL free-range stuff.

2) RAISE YOUR OWN: Assuming there are no zoning laws in your way, there's plenty to be said for raising your own chickens, goats, pigs and other small animals on your property. They take a certain amount of effort for their care; but when you raise your own farm animals, or purchase meat, eggs or milk from friends or neighbors who raise their own, you definitely know where that portion of your food is coming from, and what the animals are being fed. This is part of how I grew up in west-central Maryland; my family grew most of our own fruits and vegetables, and purchased half-sides of beef from farming friends around the rural communities of Jefferson and Middletown. Alas, I didn't properly appreciate what we had until a bunch of our fruit trees developed some sort of genetic cancer-like disease, and had to be chopped down. Also, animals like chickens and pigs provide manure and droppings in addition to meat and eggs, which are great additions to your gardens and composting projects.

3) OPEN UP THE FARM BUILDINGS ALREADY: In addition to the benefits of smaller-scale family and cooperative farming, our ancestors knew that outdoor farm animals are happier and healthier farm animals. Though farmed animals need to be sheltered more often in colder weather, there's nothing to be gained by keeping them indoors constantly, except dirtier barn interiors and sicker animals spreading illnesses throughout the herd or flock. Shelter buildings should have several openings to the outdoors along the longer walls (accessible at most or all times), bordered by good-sized pens to contain and protect animals, including and especially for the benefit of pregnant or nursing animals and their offspring. Give them plenty of sunshine, fresh air, space, and (weather permitting) exercise; and discover how much happier, healthier (and tastier) your farm critters are as a result. Research open-design farm buildings; or get creative, and design and build your own.

4) DITCH THE CRATES AND CAGES: It's a positive sign of the times that farmers are figuring out that, unless they're being transported from one place to another, there's no benefit to keeping animals immobilized in one position for any great length of time. It's not healthy or sustainable for chickens to spend their lives in cramped cages; or for pregnant pigs to be squeezed into immobilizing "gestation crates", where they're stuck in one position and can't even turn around (as intelligent as pigs are, nothing could be more crazy-making than to have to stand or squat in one cramped position for months at a stretch). Farm animals are living creatures, not house plants or food production machines; and they have physical needs for exercise, socialization, mental stimulation, and comfortable sleep, beyond just the basic food-and-shelter necessities. They may need pens or fences to keep them from running off, or to protect them from predators; but they should be reduced in number and given as much space in open-air structures, and as much outdoor time, as feasible. It's in the best interests of both the animals, and the people who raise, love and consume them. Again, our farming ancestors wouldn't have contemplated caging or crating their animals, except for short-term transportation purposes. My Norwegian farming ancestors purchased islands off the coast, and ferried livestock out to these islands to graze over the summer, picking them and their offspring up to transport back to the mainland in fall. Norwegian farmers who lived further inland made use of upland fields in the mountains as summer grazing grounds in a similar fashion. Farmers who live near coastal areas, or mountain ranges, might want to give the same idea a shot.

AND 5) BREAK UP AGRIBUSINESS: This is something that people of all dietary preferences can get behind, if we can just stop all the moralizing and name-calling. There is little doubt that factory farming is a mechanistic abomination, from both environmental and animal-welfare standpoints. In the United States, the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) is charged with regulating the processes involved in animal agriculture; but to date, there are no federal laws mandated humane standards of care for animals in the factory farming system. Although only about five percent of U.S. farms are corporate-owned, over ninety percent of animal agriculture production comes from so-called factory farms. Why is this? Well, because the vast majority of family farms are under production or marketing contracts with major food corporations, which puts considerable pressure on farmers to maximize production output at the expense of animal welfare and conscientious use of land, water, equipment, animal feed and other animal care. This is what's known as "contract farming"; and apparently it is the driving force behind the mindless mechanics of factory farming. Worse, the lion's share of both production and marketing contracts tend to be awarded to the larger-scale, more mechanistic farming operations, which is a key factor in putting small farming families out of business. Another key factor is the habit of food companies merging, and the larger companies buying up smaller ones, further concentrating the wealth, power and influence (political, commercial and otherwise) in fewer corporations and their owners.

What the hell to do? Well, nobody has ever accused the U.S. government of being sensible or unbiased; but perhaps other countries can take the lead here, those who are most amenable to the opinions of their constituents, anyway. These are all just my ideas, mind you; but I believe it's time to break up the centrally-controlled juggernaut that is "Big Ag." Bring anti-trust law to bear on Agribusiness, as the U.S. government did a generation ago in breaking up "Ma Bell", a popular nickname for the monopolistic telephone/communications industry that existed at the time. With Agribusiness, the thing I would recommend is a similar breakup, decentralizing the control over our food supply, encouraging more competition (especially at the local level), and re-amplifying small, family/cooperative-based farming. Part of encouraging more competition would be a focus on animal welfare as one of the variables in which smaller farming operations would seek to outdo each other. With increasing public awareness and focus on this issue, the farms with the best conditions for raising animals would get the most lucrative production and marketing contracts from local/regional food companies. Therefore, I would encourage all omnivores who read this post to get busy encouraging their elected officials to take verifiable action on decentralizing and scaling down control of food production in their countries, states, provinces, whatever your political divisions are called. Plus, take initiative and action on your part, and, instead of feeling pressured to give up hot wings and fish filets, vote with your wallets in favor of locally-sourced food brands, farmer's markets, street fairs, local commercial fishing businesses--whatever is available in your area. If such local farming and fishing businesses are not available where you live, look them up online, and purchase their wares that way. Just be sure to deal with them directly; word has it that Amazon has been literally working their warehouse staff to death to keep up with next-day shipping demand...