Texas Farm Bureau Stands With Chicken Factory Operators

Texas Farm Bureau defends Chicken “Factory Farming”

Texas Farm Bureau Publications Director Mike Barnett believes that proponents of more humane farming methods make outrageous claims because they are pushing a vegan-based agenda to free the world of meat.

He cites statistics from the National Chicken Council that say that modern factory farms produce larger birds more quickly than smaller farms were able to do so 50 years ago – and they can do it while feeding the birds less food during their short 47 day lives.

"Mistreated chickens don't gain weight," explains Barnett.  And, according to Barnett, factory farmers are family-men, so stories about confinement in unsanitary, disease-ridden chicken factory farms in Texas where birds succumb to heat prostration, infectious disease and cancer are just that – stories.  Chicken growers, especially those who grow chickens under contract to Pilgrim’s Pride and Sanderson Farms don’t take shortcuts – they are “family farmers” who produce birds humanely and who care, according to Barnett.

Mr. Barnett perhaps doesn’t recall how Pilgrim’s Pride’s bankruptcy in 2008-2009 left many of its contract growers in dire straits with worthless chicken houses and massive debt. Or how litigation continues against Pilgrim’s Pride by 107 contract poultry farmers who took on personal debt to grow chickens under long-term contracts to grow chickens for the company.

Barnett doesn't mention how complaints against Sanderson Farms with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality increased 15-fold in the three years since Sanderson growers built 400 "barns" in the area just east of Waco (each barn holds about 27,000 birds). And, we would guess he would disagree with the Texas Observer's characterization of Sanderson growers as modern-day sharecroppers in "Getting Plucked."

To see Barnett’s defense of contract farmers, click here.

State Farm Bureaus, along with the national Farm Bureau, continue to support big agriculture and oppose any changes geared toward factory farm reform. They oppose bans on battery cages, veal crates and pig gestation cages. They oppose mandated limits on non-therapeutic use of antibiotics and antimicrobials despite evidence of growing bacterial resistance. The Farm Bureaus claim to be the voice of agriculture, yet it seems to have stopped listening to consumers who have begun to shun the products of factory farms. It is time for the Farm Bureau to step aside and for real family farmers to speak with a different voice.

Taking A Look At Howie Hawkins for New York Governor

I know. I know. The Green Party is just a fringe group with no real political muscle.  But, have you had a look at Howie Hawkins' platform regarding organic farming?  I took this from his web site:

ORGANIC FOOD AND AGRICULTURE:


Ban corporate-owned farms. Support family farms with price supports, credit, and tax relief. Financial and technical assistance incentives to convert farms to organic methods. Bypass corporate food middlemen by supporting farmer-owned processing and marketing cooperatives and consumer-owned food cooperatives. Full organizing rights and decent wages for farmworkers.

There was no link on this platform point, so I had to dig a little deeper.

I reviewed the questionnaire answers he offered to the Sierra Club in 2010. On it, he writes, "The Greens have also pushed for a ban on the planting of genetically modified crops in NYS. We were able to get legislation introduced in the state legislature in support of a five year moratorium on the planting of GMO crops."

On the Citizens Union for the City of New York questionnaire, he writes, "The public sector has to step up [to] make this happen, not with still more corporate welfare tax breaks and subsidies, but with public investment in a green industrial policy of investing in renewable energy, mass transit, green buildings, organic agriculture and clean manufacturing. These are the new means of production needed for a sustainable green economic recovery and future." (emphasis added) Hawkins made the same statement to Gannet on its questionnaire.

To the League of Conservation Voters, Hawkins said, "Make a major commitment to promoting sustainable organic agriculture in New York State to provide, without polluting our valuable water resources, quality food and the material feedstocks for industry to replace the nonrenewable, climate altering hydrocarbon economy with a renewable, clean carbohydrate economy where materials are recyclable or biodegradable." He also says he would, "Promote legislation and regulation to reduce pesticide and fertilizer runoff from farms, businesses, and residences into our waterways." Farm runoff is largely a factor related to factory farms and CAFOs, and not small, sustainable-run family farms.

Hawkins and the Green Party are after 50,000 votes in the upcoming election to secure the Green Party a guaranteed ballot line on state elections for the next four years.  Andrew Cuomo's victory is almost a certainty. Consider using your vote to help Hawkins and the Green Party and to continue the important dialog on the organic agriculture, sustainable farming, and the environment.

Subsidized New York Dairy CAFO serves up adulterated meat

New York farmer Kenneth Corscadden from Corscadden Family Farm received a warning letter last month from the US Food and Drug Administration.


The FDA investigation of Corscadden's dairy farm in Richville, NY revealed that Corscadden offered up animlas for slaughter that were adulterated under federal law. It seems Corscadden sold bob veal (male calves from dairy farms, usually less than one month old) over a period of weeks and that those calves had Tetracycline residues in excess of federal tolerances in their liver, kidney and muscle tissues, sometimes as high as five times the legal limit.

The investigation also revealed that Corscadden also sold a dairy cow and that an analysis of the kidney tissue showed Penicillin residue almost forty times the legal limit.

Corscadden was also accused of holding animals under conditions where medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues were likely to enter the food supply. Corscadden failed to maintain complete treatment records and used controlled drugs for improper extra-label purposes without proper veterinary supervision.

A review of the USDA farm subsidy database shows that Corscadden received $86,375 last year in federal farm subsidies and $511,833 in subsidies from 1995 through 2009. Coscadden also operates a New York State Registered CAFO with 647 mature dairy cattle and about 100 dairy heifers.

The "Good Egg" PR Project

In an ever-continuous effort to mesmerize the public, the American Egg Board and egg farmers are partnering for the "Good Egg Project," which is an initiative to convince Americans that modern egg farming is a good thing.

The program touts Hickman's Egg Ranch in Arizona and Herbruck's Poultry in Michigan as good stewards our food system. Hickman's houses about 4,000,000 hens and Herbruck's houses about 5,000,000 eggs, primarily in battery cages, raised indoors, on complex industrial diets.

On board seem to be Rachael Ray (whose name is obviously for sale for almost any project) and Sesame Street (so that children can be fooled early on), who have "lent" their names to the project. No mention is made of confinement systems, de-beaking, and hens unable to spread their wings, turn around, bathe themselves, or engage in any natural behaviors. Oh, wait, there is a section on "Animal Well-Being" where mention is made of a "comfortable environment" and "happy" hens.

The web site for the "project" is www.goodeggproject.org.

EPA Disappoints Again With New CAFO Rule

The EPA has finalized a rule pretending to protect the nation's water quality, and it is now planning to permit CAFOs to self-certify themselves for "no-discharge" certifications.

The rule revises the requirement for all CAFOs to apply for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPEDS) permits and instead requires only those CAFOs that discharge, or propose to discharge, to apply for permits.

EPA should have adopted a recommendation by the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals to establish a regulatory presumption that large-scale CAFOs discharge pollutants. The presumption would have required that a large-scale CAFO demonstrate to regulatory authorities that it is designed and can be operated to avoid all discharges of regulated pollutants. The presumption would have been for permitting and the CAFO would have had the burden to establish that it would not discharge. The CAFO's "intent" would be irrelevant.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) issued a release calling the final rule a "Halloween Trick from Bush Administration: Treat to Factory Farms." NRDC said under the rule, "Thousands of factory farms will be exempt from needing permits that limit water pollution."

Congress specifically targeted factory farms for regulation under the Clean Water Act in 1972 and EPA has recognized the importance of these operations getting pollution control permits. The Bush EPA continues to disappoint.

Access a release from EPA (click here). Access a prepublication copy of the 240-page final rule (click here). Access a 2-page fact sheet (click here). Access EPA's CAFO rule website for additional background information (click here).