In May, I went to Iowa, primarily to learn more about so-called conventional agriculture, those thousand-acre farms growing corn and soybeans, planted, tended and harvested largely by machine. (We have plenty of the other type — what’s variously called traditional, or alternative, or non-conventional — in the Northeast.) But thanks to an auspicious combination of topsoil, climate, topography and weather, Iowa is among the best locales for farming in North America, and I saw a wide range of practices.
In Dyersville, I found Becker Lane Organic Farm [ http://www.beckerlaneorganic.com/ ], a next-generation organic operation run by Jude Becker. (When I told Michael Pollan I would be driving around Iowa, he said I’d be making “a huge mistake” if I didn’t visit Jude Becker; he was right.)
Jude Becker is young (34), hard-working and determined. He began farming in 1997 on land leased from his grandmother (he’s the sixth generation to farm this land), with borrowed tractors and seven pigs. He’s since traveled to Europe to study organic techniques and is now raising 5,000 pigs a year on 300 acres; he has five employees, including a full-time salesperson.
If for no reason other than taste, this is a success story: Becker’s pork is among the best I’ve ever had. But when you see his operation, which is far from small — he’s raising 400 pigs at a time, along with rotating crops throughout pie-shaped sectors of his acreage, in a scheme that seems logical and orderly — you start to appreciate just how practical, ethical and simply beautiful sustainable farming can be.
Becker himself clearly appreciates it. “If I were someone else I would be jealous of me,” he tells me.
Becker, in a way, is part of a natural progression that, commercially at least, began with Paul Willis. Some 40 years ago, Willis — having returned from a stint in the Peace Corps in Nigeria — began helping out on the family farm in Thornton, Iowa, about 150 miles northwest of Dyersville. Starting with a single sow and her piglets, Willis raised pigs the old-fashioned way — outside — but as his business grew, he felt himself apart from an increasingly industrial format: “We were being squeezed: the trend was towards more and more confinement, and it didn’t appeal to me.”
He began wondering whether he could market his more traditional pork as something besides “the other white meat.” And, in 1994, he met the perfect partner, Bill Niman (a friend of mine, a gem of a human and a man who ranks high among those who’ve brought naturally raised meat to the fore in the last 20 years or so). Paul began to organize a loose network of Midwestern pork farmers into what’s now Niman Ranch Pork [ http://www.nimanranch.com/pork.aspx ], which Paul manages. (Bill Niman is no longer involved with Niman Ranch.)
Paul himself is not as active a farmer as he was, but he still brings about 400 pigs to market each year. (I hung out with about 50 of them in Paul’s pasture one gorgeous day; afterwards, Paul and I headed into town for breakfast at the Chit Chat Café.) The Niman Ranch operation is impressive: 500 farmers under contract, 150,000 pigs a year (including Paul’s contribution) are sent to slaughter. This number pales a little when you consider that industrial pork producers kill 400,000 pigs a day, but given that the Niman pigs are treated well it’s a number that matters.
Niman pork is not organic, but it’s “natural” in the old-fashioned sense: no antibiotics, no stalls or crates, the pigs hanging out in groups with unrestricted access to outside; pretty much the way you want your pigs to be treated.
The meat produced by both the Becker Lane and Niman operations is expensive — it costs at least twice as much as conventionally raised pork — and they don’t produce all that much, at least by industrial standards. But if you buy the “less is more” argument — that is, if we produce, buy and eat less meat we can afford to make that meat higher quality: fewer drugs, better-treated animals and so on. That treatment costs money, but as Becker says, “Food isn’t just a pile of stuff to be measured by weight and volume, and there’s a reason industrially produced meat is just a little more expensive than garbage.” It’s a quantity versus quality argument.
That the quality is appreciated is evident from the fact that neither operation can keep up with demand. Chipotle buys all the pork shoulder that Niman Ranch offers them, and much of the rest goes to restaurants and supermarket chains around the country. About half of the non-organic prosciutto made by La Quercia comes from Niman; all of their organic prosciutto comes from Becker Lane. (Both, by the way, are better than almost all of the Italian prosciutto you can buy in the States, and as good as much of the considerably more expensive Spanish stuff.)
To me, the biggest issue is not whether pigs are raised organically or “naturally”; it’s whether they’re raised well. The prophylactic antibiotics and containment that have become routine practice threaten the health and welfare of both pigs and humans; the system also produces pork that doesn’t make very good eating.
While Becker has chosen to farm organically (not easy, because organic grain can be hard to come by), he acknowledges that others have good reasons not to. But he believes there are simple things that can improve all pork production, like getting rid of gestation crates and routinely administered antibiotics. That’s been already done in the U.K., Sweden and Denmark, and it’s scheduled to happen in much of the rest of Europe as well. When more farmers follow the example of pioneers like these, we can do the same.
Butterball Abuse: Undercover Mercy For Animals Investigation Reveals Cruelty
Uploaded by mercyforanimals on Dec 23, 2011
Butterball has become synonymous with turkey. But how do the millions of turkeys who end up in the grocery store, or served at restaurants, under the Butterball brand, really live and die?
A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals the truth: extreme cruelty and violence is the harsh reality for birds on Butterball's factory farms.
Between November and December of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented a pattern of shocking abuse and neglect at a Butterball turkey semen collection facility in Shannon, North Carolina.
Hidden-camera footage taken at Butterball reveals:
* Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
* Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
* Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, with some unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss
* Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
* Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to MFA's investigator.
After viewing the undercover footage, Dr. Sara Shields, research scientist, poultry specialist and consultant in animal welfare, said, "Turkeys are fully capable of feeling pain, fear, stress and of suffering, and the way they are treated in the video is clearly abusive."
Dr. Debra Teachout, a practicing veterinarian with experience in farmed-animal welfare, agrees, stating, "The birds are not living a life remotely worth living. Their world is full of fear, distress, pain, injury and illness as witnessed by this video. A culture of blatant and severe animal mistreatment has been allowed to flourish unchecked, and for that reason, this facility should be shut down immediately."
Following the investigation, MFA immediately went to law enforcement with extensive video footage and a detailed legal complaint outlining the routine violence and cruelty documented by the investigator at this Butterball facility. On Thursday, December 29, state law enforcement officials obtained a warrant and raided the facility on grounds of cruelty to animals.
Unfortunately, the lives of turkeys in Butterball's factory farms are short, brutal and filled with fear, violence and prolonged suffering. While wild turkeys are sleek, agile and able to fly, Butterball's turkeys have been selectively bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer from painful bone defects, hip joint lesions, crippling foot and leg deformities, and fatal heart attacks.
This genetic manipulation creates birds that are so large they cannot even reproduce naturally, meaning that artificial semen collection and insemination have become the sole means of turkey reproduction at Butterball facilities.
Even though domestic turkeys have been genetically manipulated for enormous growth, these birds still retain their gentle, inquisitive and social natures. Oregon State University poultry scientist Dr. Tom Savage says that turkeys are "smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings." In fact, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and scientists now agree that turkeys are sensitive and intelligent animals with their own unique personalities, much like the dogs and cats we all know and love.
While MFA works to expose and end animal abuse at Butterball and other giants of the meat, dairy and egg industry, consumers can help prevent the needless suffering of turkeys and other animals by adopting a compassionate vegan diet.
Our View: Want to guess who regulators really serve? Are they regulators or industry's best friends?
Published: 09:04 PM, Thu Feb 16, 2012
The state regulator who warned a turkey producer it was under investigation says she was trying to "curtail avian abuse." She might be more credible saying the dog ate her homework.
Dr. Sarah Jean Mason, a veterinarian for the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor charges that include obstructing justice. Her 90-day jail sentence was cut to a year of probation. The state suspended Mason for two weeks without pay. She'll attend ethics classes and meet monthly with her supervisor to review her industry contacts.
That's it? Mason admitted tipping off a Butterball official about an undercover investigation in the company's Shannon facility. Videos showed mistreatment and abuse of the birds. Several Butterball employees face criminal cruelty charges. More employees are likely to be charged.
An undercover investigator videotaped workers beating, kicking and throwing live turkeys that were said to be dirty and sickly. Hoke deputies who searched the plant found many birds that needed to be euthanized.
And Mason tipped a company insider so she could help the birds?
Yet, the Agriculture Department said, "We are not aware ... that her actions interfered with the criminal investigation or contributed to the abuse of any animals." So with a slap on the wrist, she will continue to oversee conditions in poultry processing facilities.
It makes us wonder whom our state regulators really protect.
Copyright 2012 - The Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, N.C.
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