Animal Person

AUGUST 12, 2010

Irv Bell's farm is a family farm. It's also a factory farm. The marketing of an operation of breeding and slaughtering sentient nonhumans as a family farm (here, Bell straddles the line) is supposed to trigger some kind of compassion for the humans. And all of those are implicit in "farm."

Gestation Crates 100

Gestation Crates Farming Factory Farm Factory Farming 100

Animal Person

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Today's New York Times gives us Adam Shriver's Op-Ed " Not Grass-Fed, But at Least Pain-Free ," which presents its dilemma at the end: If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. Anyone can make it if they want to.

Factory Farm 100

Factory Farm Factory Farming Animal Factory 100

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

Meat, however, purchased at the supermarket, externally packaged and internally laced with petrochemicals, fattened in feed lots, slaughtered impersonally, and, in general, mechanically processed from artificial insemination to microwave roaster, is an affront not only to physical metabolism and bodily health but to conscience as well.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Factory Farming 40

Animal Person

AUGUST 10, 2010

What you're supposed to be buying into is the idea that if a family owns a farm it is somehow qualitatively different (and of course, better) than a farm that isn't family owned. Families, so the commercials go, don't engage in untoward aspects of animal husbandry that might hurt the cows. But so are family farms.

Family 100

Family Factory Farm Factory Farming Cows 100

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Then there are the myriad entry points to thinking about how we use animals and the impact that has on the animals, the planet, our bodies and our consciences. The discussion about the environment usually originates in the massive problems created by the factory farming of sentient nonhumans. You are choosing violence.

Vegan 100

Vegan Factory Farm Factory Farming Slaughter 100

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

The film Partitions (running time: 14 min) by Audrey Kali gives an intimate glimpse of the ethical struggles that five small-scale meat farmers face when their animals are slaughtered. In this film, we see farmers interacting with the animals they will eventually transform into food (chickens, pigs and cattle).

Farming 40

Farming Humane Factory Farm Factory Farming 40

Animal Ethics

FEBRUARY 6, 2007

A column entitled "Ag Industry Threatened by Animal Rights" appeared in today's High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal [ HPMAJ ]. The column, which you can read here , is a call to arms to factory farmers to fight back against those individuals and organizations working to protect farm animals from the abuses inherent in factory farms.

Factory 40

Factory Factory Farm Factory Farming Gestation Crates 40