All articles tagged with #factory farming
The article reveals how the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) among US dairy cattle and poultry, facilitated by industrial farming practices and lack of government oversight, poses significant health risks to animals and humans, highlighting the broader dangers of the consolidated, profit-driven food industry and advocating for systemic reforms.
Jane Goodall, renowned for her work with chimpanzees, also used her influence to advocate for animal rights, veganism, and the abolition of factory farming, viewing these issues as moral imperatives beyond her scientific achievements.
This Thanksgiving, around 8 million turkeys will be wasted, highlighting the environmental and ethical issues surrounding the holiday's traditional meal. Despite turkey's unpopularity, social conformity and ritual keep it central to the celebration. The article argues for a shift towards plant-based dishes, emphasizing the cruelty and unsustainability of factory-farmed turkeys. It suggests that Thanksgiving can be an opportunity to reshape food customs, promoting more sustainable and compassionate practices.
The 2022 agriculture census reveals a decline in the number of American farms, with small farms and Black farmers being the hardest hit, while industrial factory farms continue to expand. Large farms, accounting for only 4% of the total, control two-thirds of US agricultural land, and government subsidies primarily benefit larger, wealthier farms. Climate smart agriculture and conservation practices remain rare, and the US is now rearing more animals on factory farms than ever before, leading to environmental and social concerns.
Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman Animations, has clarified that the new film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is not a statement against eating meat or factory farming, but rather an entertainment. However, the film does engage the audience with the chickens as heroes and makes them care about their plight against those who want to eat them. Activists have praised the film for its approach, with some seeing it as a morality tale highlighting the realities of poultry farms. The sequel features a James Bond villain-style chicken nugget factory run by the evil Mrs Tweedy, and familiar heroes must rescue a trapped chicken. The film was released in selected cinemas and is available on Netflix.
Philosopher Peter Singer, known for his work on animal rights, discusses the updated version of his book "Animal Liberation" and the progress made in the animal rights movement. Singer argues that animals can experience joy and suffer, and we are ethically bound to avoid causing them pain. He also cites the environmental reasons to eat plants, which are less carbon-intensive to produce than meat. Singer believes that protections increasingly afforded animals should be extended to ecosystems, rivers, and other natural features.
The US Supreme Court upheld California's Proposition 12, which bans the sale of pork from farms that confine pregnant pigs in "gestation crates." The pork industry argued that they had a constitutional right to sell meat from facilities that confine pigs in ways that are intolerable to the average consumer. The ruling is a win for animal welfare advocates, but the pigs' lives will still be confined in small spaces inconsistent with their needs as cognitively complex creatures. The decision may embolden animal protection groups to pursue bolder law reform projects.