Big Meat is so afraid of antibiotic-free farming it got its lapdog, the American Veterinary Medical Association, to dispute the Pew commission report the bill is based on, saying it romanticized small farmers while "vilifying" large operations and scared the public about antibiotics which could "compromise" affordability. Not human or animal health, but affordability.
Meanwhile the poultry industry is sweating a suit brought by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson that charges Tyson and Cargill and nine other companies with polluting the Illinois River watershed, hoping it won't become well, a watershed case. (If the government stops you from dumping tons of manure in the river and killing fish what will it do next?)
Animal welfare propositions are popping up on state ballots like California Prop 2 which bans confining of farm animals and received more votes than Obama in November.
Nor are ag lobbyists doing cartwheels over Cass Sunstein, Obama's new Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs who is married to the outspoken foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, given his previous animal welfare statements.
It makes ya wish for 2003 when countries were only boycotting American beef en masse over mad cow and employees packed illegal IDs not cameras.
Grandin, of course is the author of Animals Make Us Human and Animals in Translation and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. She is known for interpreting how the world looks to animals because of the alt perspective from her autism and considered the Ralph Nader of the packing house.
Still, no one in the ag community wanted to hear Grandin's opinion, given in an interview in the August 10 agribusiness weekly Feedstuffs, that the PR problem is them.
Your operations need to be clean enough to show "to your wedding guests" Grandin says. You have done a "lousy, lousy, lousy job" at fixing the "bad stuff" and making sure the public knows it, she told industry executives.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
