Yes

by RK Roth

Created on: February 07, 2008

Fowl Play. The United States raised ten billion farm animals in 2003, ten times the number of 1940, and twice the number raised in 1980. Just 3% of U.S. farms generate 62% of all agricultural production, and the number of corporate-owned U.S. farms continues to rise. This immense slaughter is quite a killing for meat industry executives.

Billionaire farmers such as Don Tyson, of Tyson Foods are an American phenomenon. Economists know that while the dollar declines in value, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) continues to rise. Goods and services from cheese to chicken continue to climb at exorbitant rates, but poultry and pork are miles behind the overall inflation rate. This is due to the increased mechanization of animal agriculture, a recent trend related to increased poultry productivity. A surge in Tyson's cheap chickens means fewer workers on the kill floor.

McDonald's infamous reminder of "billions and billions served" is no marketing misnomer: hundreds of thousands of small U.S. farmers are driven to bankruptcy each year by mega factory farms catering to burger behemoths. And while raising animals comprises one side of factory farming, slaughtering shapes the other. When small butcher shops are driven out of business, meat cutting and processing move to factory kill floors in rural towns hungry for work and tax breaks. Processing plants reach rapid speeds, staffed largely by illegal immigrants facing health hazards, injury and deportation, although astronomical assets belong only to factory farmers and shareholders.

But at what cost to the animals?

Poultry are the most abused farm animals, according to proponents of humane farming, as birds are still exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958. Farms filled with layers-chickens laying egg-swere the nation's first factory farms, cramming up to three million hens in one Los Angeles property by the 1970s. Just thirty years later, the largest egg companies produce more than 20 million eggs annually.

Thanks to breeding and technological advances through the twentieth century, production costs of poultry and other meat declined. Cattle grow faster and bigger than ever, thanks to major growth hormones. Ditto for dairy cows, pigs and hens. Problem is, the Humane Slaughter Act doesn't do enough to ensure cruelty-free standards and modern agribusiness is to blame: Farm animals are exempt from animal cruelty laws.

Humane farming advocates like to remind people that treating dogs and cats in the same manner as cows and pigs on America's factory farms would be criminal. But factory farmers and meat industry execs claim farm animal welfare is an animal rights ploy dedicated to the demise of modern agriculture. They are only partly right. Although animal rights groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) put farm animals on the top of legislative agendas, more moderate animal protection groups including the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), along with pro-farming organizations such as Farm Aid advocate for farm animal welfare. These groups aren't seeking the end of intensive animal agriculture, just technological, ethical and economic reform.

The rise in natural foods markets such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats demonstrates the economic impact of humane slaughter and farming. With Wolfgang Puck, McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's all succumbing to massive pressure from animal protection organizations such as PETA and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), farm producers and policy makers are finally taking note.

The U.S. continues to lag behind EU counterparts in all areas of farm animal production, including welfare, housing and slaughter. Slaughterhouse speed needs to be reduced to levels found during the 1970s, or around 40% of current velocities, according to the AWI. Current line speeds prevent animals from being killed in accordance with the Humane Slaughter Act; as a result meat becomes contaminated with feces, urine, pus and vomit, jeopardizing public health and safety.

What is in the food we eat? Where was it grown? How were the animals treated who gave their lives for our food? Were the animals slaughtered humanely? How does government regulate food production to guarantee safety? The more questions we ask about the food we eat, the more we will learn about humane farming, slaughter, public policy and the impacts of corporate control over food.

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