factory farming

Media Release: Less hooves = more food

Senate candidates from the Animal Justice Party (AJP) will take their ‘less hooves equals more food’ initiative to Canberra this week, to promote a sustainable approach to global food security issues.

The party wants Australia to realise its potential as a food bowl for the world in a sustainable, ethical manner by decreasing animal agriculture and increasing plant-based food production.

The AJP’s lead candidate for the senate in Victoria, Bruce Poon said with the world’s population currently about 7 billion and growing, and production being negatively impacted by climate change, a new approach was desperately needed to future proof the world’s food supply.

“Animal agriculture must be scaled back if we are to stabilise the climate and avoid run-away and catastrophic climate change,” said Mr Poon.

“One of the most pressing drivers of poverty and hunger is that the poor are being out-bid by the rich for grains that wind up feeding livestock instead of people.

“Globally, we feed enough grain to cattle to feed 8.7 billion people each day.

“Even in Australia, where cattle spend most of their time on pasture, they still consume more than twice the grain in any time period that all the people in Australia do.

“Factory-farmed animals such as pigs and chickens also consume large amounts of grain while such intensive farming practices produce other issues such as waste, disease and anti-biotic resistance.

“Put simply, ‘less hooves equals more food’ – for everyone.”

The AJP position is based on the science from several reputable reports authored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Environment Program (UNEP).

Published between 2006 and 2010 these reports identify animal agriculture as a major contributor to green house gas emissions and species extinction due to loss of biodiversity from clearing.

Mr Poon said animal agriculture was responsible for 92 per cent of all land degradation in Australia, and had caused loss of habitat, species extinction and contributed to climate change.

“Animal agriculture also uses the bulk of fresh water in Australia, for example the Victorian dairy industry uses over half of the state’s available fresh water.

“Australia must demonstrate leadership and commitment to address global food security in an environmentally sustainable way, and we need to do it now,” he said.

Queensland AJP candidate Chris O’Brien said Australian farmers were highly productive and well equipped to turn Australia into the food bowl of the world, but were held back by outdated ideas, practices and misdirected government incentives.

“As part of the global community – and as a wealthy food producing country – Australia has a ethical responsibility to increase sustainable production of plant based food and decrease reliance on animal agriculture,” said Mr O’Brien.

"Our government needs to get serious about reducing land use and environmental degradation caused by animal agriculture.

“Boosting the production of grains, fruits and vegetables for human consumption is a more sustainable way to feed the world that will benefit human health, the environment and reduce the immense animal suffering that is systemic in the production of animals for food.

“Additionally, we need to develop storage and processing industries to value-add to raw product to better meet the demands of the enormous markets on our doorstep.”

The AJP representatives will be meeting with Ambassadors from countries within our region this week to discuss food security issues and how Australia can transform its food production to sustainably meet the growing demand of a hungry world.
ENDS….

Background

Ruminants like sheep and cattle produce substantial methane through the digestion of food. Methane is recognized as one of the most harmful greenhouse emissions (much more so than carbon).

Land is cleared for grazing to grow crops for factory animal farms. Producing animals for food is far less efficient than plant based protein in terms of land, water and emissions.

Cleared land in many areas (like Australia's top end) is burned regularly to keep it from reverting to forest. Keeping land cleared for animals means it can't be reforested to draw down CO2.
Transporting feed to animals and animals to slaughter produces CO2. The necessary refrigeration required to prevent the otherwise speedy decomposition of meat between slaughter and cooking is also heavy CO2 producer (commercially and domestically).

Australia's livestock produce more than twice the CO2 contributions of our coal-fired power stations.

Contacts:

Bruce Poon: AJP lead candidate for the Victorian Senate – 0400 248 226
Chris O’Brien: AJP candidate for the Queensland Senate – 0426 396 715
Professor Steve Garlick: AJP National President – 0428 880 564

They have no policies on economic growth, education, economic reform, taxes, workers, health, jobs, senior Australians, immigration, asylum seekers, Aboriginal affairs, globalisation or Australian businesses. Their clients are the animals we share our society with. They are the farm animals, wildlife, pets and working animals.

Policy coming soon on the environment, and one needed on population.

The Animal Justice Party

The Animal Justice Party was formed as a response to growing public concern about the neglect of animals and animal protection issues by political parties. Its aim is to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves - animals. It will provide a focal point for voters frustrated by the lack of political action and who feel strongly that much more needs to be done through our parliamentary systems to assist the wellbeing of animals.

The members see that there is a need for laws and processes which recognise animals’ needs and capabilities which protect their interests, whether they are domestic, farmed or wild. The Animal Justice Party will also ensure such laws and processes are properly enforced and implemented to achieve genuine justice for animals.

Members of the AJP believe that animal cruelty is an unfortunate and all-too-common feature of Australian society that must come to an end. Several non-government organisations have been tackling animal welfare issues at ground level from various perspectives to-date, however there’s an immediate urgency to bring much-needed influence to this agenda from a government policy dimension.

Charter

The Animal Justice Party has been established to give voice to those who have none – to pursue the vital issues of animal protection through the Australian Parliamentary System by:

• Encouraging the adoption of animal-friendly policies by other political parties
• Demonstrating that voters care about animal issues by contesting elections
• Educating the electorate about the animal policies of candidates from other political parties.

The Animal Justice Party values the lives of all beings, human and non-human. It views animal lives as having an importance beyond the simple biophysical, and as deserving of our respect, kindness and understanding. The AJP does not see the value in animal lives as being determined by perspectives on consciousness, human utility, or the narrow quantitative determinism of much science and conservation.

The AJP recognises that many governments, institutions and individuals do not appreciate that living beings of all kinds have lives of meaning in their own right.

Live Exports

The Animal Justice Party stands 100% against the live export of our animals to other countries beyond the reach of our laws and our influence. Once again we see horrific cruelty to Australian animals.

The AJP have asked the Minister responsible for live exports, Joe Ludwig, to resign after the latest expose from two abattoirs in Egypt. Under our Westminster system, he is responsible for these atrocities, and must take responsibility. We are also looking at our legal options. We have laws against animal cruelty, and it seems that putting animals on board a ship where there is a good chance they are going to be subjected to trauma and distress is a breach of those laws. 

This is another example of the Government's failure, lack of care, and that you will be voting for the Animal Justice Party rather than Labor. 

AJP's plan is to get rid of anyone in Government who would inflict such cruelty on animals. The current opposition are no better on this, in fact, they may be worse!

Just a few days ago Julie Bishop promised to apologise... to Indonesia, and resume the live export trade at full speed if the Coalition win the elections. If an apology is due, it is to the animals who suffer and die needlessly under this cruel policy. 

Kangaroo Slaughter in the ACT

For a number of years the current territory government has been slaughtering Kangaroos in an ugly cull. The minister for the environment and speaker, The Greens Shane Rattenbury MLA, is part of the government that authorises these culls - despite the Green's "animal welfare" policies. The AJP are doing everything in their power to lobby The Greens and the ACT government to halt this slaughter. Through the political process, they can apply a unique kind of pressure to sitting politicians, and we hope to put an end to this disgusting and unnecessary practice. 

Farming

Over concern about the way intensive (factory) ‘farming’ adversely impacts upon the well being and welfare of each individual animal in such establishments, the Brambell Committee of the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council developed a list of five freedoms which all animals these animals have a right, supported by most  animal protection organizations around the world including advisory councils such as the Farm Animal Welfare Council which advises the EU and British Parliaments.

They are:
1.Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition – by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2.Freedom from discomfort – by providing a suitable environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3.Freedom from pain, injury and disease – by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4.Freedom to express normal behaviour – by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animals own kind.
5. Freedom from fear and distress – by ensuring conditions that avoid mental suffering.

The Animal Justice Party supports these five freedoms and believes that these must also apply to the transport, handling during transport, lairage and slaughter of animals. While slaughter of animals for food remains lawful, animals that can not be killed by gunshot or captive bolt stunning ‘on farm’ must be transported the shortest distance possible to the abattoir.

Federal elections

The Animal Justice Party (AJP) will be fielding 10 candidates including 6 women, for the Senate in the September Federal Election in a bid to ban live export. According to Animal Justice Party: “We are opposed to the live export trade, as are the majority of the Australian people. The fact that the major political parties ignore the people’s well formed opinion is staggering.”

“If the government will not get rid of live export, the people will get rid of the government. That the opposition leader, Mr Abbott, has promised to expand the industry and apologise for suspending it shows callous disregard for both the animals and the electorate,” said Animal Justice Party.

“The Gillard Government’s own self-acclaimed livestock export monitoring system has now been shown to be completely useless, as we all expected it would be. It’s time Minister Ludwig resigned. Its time these major parties put the well-being of animal lives ahead of losing votes in certain sectors of the country and bowing to a ruthless industry.”

Rallies, emails, letters, public outcry are all to little avail and the numerous “incidents” keep shocking the caring public.

Please join the Animal Justice Party. Download the membership form, make a cheque out and mail to
Download membership form
Animal Justice Party
PO Box 1010
Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2012
Direct transfer (Please email [email protected] for details)
 
Best wishes to all,
Professor Steve Garlick
President
Animal Justice Party of Australia

(Ultra-resistant mutant bacteria--more frightening than sci-fi movies from the 1980s. Film still: The Fly)
Antibiotics are the wonder drugs of modern medicine. They've allowed doctors to save and extend life by killing infection and enabling ground breaking surgery.
England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, says that antibiotic-resistant bacteria posed a ''catastrophic threat'' to human health, and likened it to the dangers of terrorism.
Factory farms are artificially accelerating the evolution of superbugs, and are bringing us closer to the day when antibiotics won't work.

Antibiotics are the wonder drugs of modern medicine. They've allowed doctors to save and extend life by killing infection and enabling ground breaking surgery.

Multi-resistant organisms arise naturally, by spontaneous mutation or when the genes for resistance are passed on from other bacteria. Their presence is encouraged by the frequent use of "broad spectrum" antibiotics. The bacteria however can be spread from person to person, usually on hands.

The main reason that doctors worry about multi-resistant organisms is that if a person colonised with a multi-resistant organism gets sick, we often have to start treatment with powerful, expensive antibiotics, which may have more side-effects, instead of our preferred antibiotics.

In India, where antibiotics are not restricted in their use, a new superbug, New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase or NDM-1, has evolved. Not only is it deadly in its own right, it's also capable of genetically modifying other bacteria to make them superbugs.

Dame Sally Davies – superbugs likened to the threat of terrorism

England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, called for worldwide action to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria that she said posed a ''catastrophic threat'' to human health, and likened it to the dangers of terrorism.

“Superbugs” MRSA and C difficile have been reduced to low numbers in hospitals, but there has been an alarming increase in other types of bacteria including new strains of E coli and Klebsiella, which causes pneumonia. These so-called "gram negative" bacteria, which are found in the gut instead of on the skin, are highly dangerous to older and frailer people.

Routine operations such as hip replacements could become fatal in just 20 years time if we lose the ability to fight infection, she said.

Dame Sally said the problem is “as important as climate change for the world” and urged the Government to raise the issue when meeting political leaders at the G8 summit in London in April.

Professor Thomas Riley (WA) - “massive under-reporting”

Thomas Riley, a professor of Microbiology at the University of Western Australia, is an expert in Clostridium difficile, or C diff, a
common bug which comes in various strains and can cause severe gut problems.

Professor Riley said he believed there was a “massive under-reporting” of the bug, and health departments around the country had been too slow to respond. . The 244 super strain had gone from being non-existent in Australia to being the third most common strain of C diff, accounting for five per cent of tested cases.

Growing use of antibiotics in food production

Antibiotics have been over used to promote growth in farm animals for decades which probably presents as much of a threat to human health as over use in medicine. It was only a matter of time that pathogens became resistant to antibiotics. They have been over used for decades in food production as they were found to promote growth in farm animals.

As for E. coli, Dr. Michael Greger had this to say during an interview with Kathy Freston of the Huffington Post back in 2010:

"E. coli is an intestinal pathogen. It only gets in the food if fecal matter gets in the food. Since plants don't have intestines, all E. coli infections--in fact all food poisoning--comes from animals. When's the last time you heard of anyone getting Dutch elm disease or a really bad case of aphids? People don't get plant diseases; they get animal diseases.

The problem is that because of the number of animals raised today, a billion tons of manure are produced every year in the United States--the weight of 10,000 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Dairy cow and pig factories often dump millions of gallons of putrefying waste into massive open-air cesspits, which can leak and contaminate water used to irrigate our crops. That's how a deadly fecal pathogen like E. coli O157:H7 can end up contaminating our spinach."

Factory farming – incubators of misery

Factory farms are artificially accelerating the evolution of superbugs, and are bringing us closer to the day when antibiotics won't work.   Artificially and unnaturally cramming animals together, in all weathers, with little room to move, and forcing them to grow and produce far beyond the level they would in natural circumstances, means that they will routinely get ill.

Pigs and other animals on factory farms are fed a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive in these unsanitary, stressful conditions, increasing the chance that drug-resistant superbugs will develop.

According to Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s latest report, sales of antibiotics for human use has remained fairly constant over the last decade, but the amount of drugs sold for meat and poultry production has been increasing steadily. Worldwide, doctors, public health experts, and medical organizations have not only acknowledged the pressing concern of antibiotic resistance caused by overuse in industrial farm animals, but have also called for a change in the status quo.

Superbugs are the byproduct of unsustainable meat production, in particular, the overuse of antibiotics in Contained Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or factory farms. Factory farms suck up 70 percent of America’s antibiotics. And worse, they use most of ‘em on healthy animals!

Read more: Antibiotic Resistant Superbugs

Intensification of cattle farming systems is progressing rapidly overseas. Now new dairies are being established, each with several thousand cows. There is no support for small farming systems, like those common in Western Europe. Cows are never allowed onto pasture and are loose housed in barns, where they used to be tethered. They are milked by robots and live on wet concrete covered in excreta.

Even meat labels “raised without antibiotics” isn't safe. It can be contaminated with MRSA (superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) at the farm, by slaughterhouse workers who carry MRSA or by other meat, if processing equipment is not “cleaned out between runs of certified organic and non-certified organic meats,” say the researchers.

The abuse of antibiotics on farms was one of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s last stands. “It seems scarcely believable that these precious medications could be fed by the ton to chickens and pigs,” he wrote in a bill called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2007 (PAMTA), which has yet to pass.

Population growth and urbanization are forcing livestock into smaller and smaller allotments, and dependence on antibiotics.

Approximately 140 vaccines are registered for use in livestock and companion animals in Australia. Many more animals are vaccinated each year than humans.

Common sense and intuition says that we urgently need to reduce antibiotic use in food production to preserve life-saving antibiotics for the treatment of common diseases.   Either eat organic foods, or steer clear of livestock products and go vegan.
Meat Free Week- 18th -24th March

Next week is Meat Free Week, 18th - 24th March, 2013.  The avoidance of deadly surgery should be an incentive to start a new diet  - if the welfare of animals, human health and the environment isn't enough!

Shallow policy-making based on economic health at the detriment of the majority of the people of Australia is about pandering to the the "needs" of big businesses and those who benefit from growth.

The impacts are not only on people, but on animals.

Non-humans are usually ignored in the economic-growth paradigm that dominates policy making today. “Sustainability” is often referred to as being about ensuring comfortable human survival, and not other species.

The Ponzi-economic growth-based rational not only displaced existing people as the pyramid becomes larger at wealthier at the top, but displaces non-humans.

Land clearing and agriculture

Agriculture, land-clearing, logging, urban sprawl, roads, introduced and feral animals all result in wildlife habitat destruction.  Increased noise, pollution, traffic, and crime also means that animals come under threat from contacts with humans.   Our mammal extinction rate is the highest in the world, and Australia's rich natural heritage of biodiversity is under threat from more extinctions.  

Habitat loss is their greatest threat as more land is being made available for human "carrying capacity". As several large-scale scientific studies have confirmed, severe environmental degradation is taking place due to animal farming. Animal farming for meat, leather, and milk is depleting our natural resources at an alarming rate.

Green-house gas emissions from animal farms are a major contributor to global warming. Enormous amounts of water and plant food is required to produce meat. It is estimated that about 100,000 litres of water, 100 kilogram of hay, and 4 kilogram of grain is required to produce just one kilogram of meat.
The quality of life for animals suffers, with factory-farming that becomes more inhumane in order to feed so many people.

Greater human-animal contact.

As our urban boundaries continue to expand, livestock, wildlife and pets also come into more contact with people.  This means they are more and more under threat from thrill-killings, theft and interference.
Kangaroos are reportedly being tortured on a weekly basis due to increasing population growth in the Peel region, with one animal being found torn in two after being tied to two separate cars.

There is a constant push by governments for ever increasing population growth to drive economies, despite the fact that animal habitats are being decimated and many areas of the world, including Australia, are struggling to provide enough water for the existing population.

Associate Professor Eleonora Gullone from the School of Psychiatry and Psychology said the number of inhumane acts committed against kangaroos and domesticated animals over the past two years in Whittlesea ( a high growth area of Victoria) was concerning. There is evidence that kangaroos are disliked by farmers and rural property owners, she said.

High population growth and social disunity go hand in hand with tensions, crime, displacement and homelessness, and these factors all make animals ideal and silent victims social dis-ease. Kangaroos are our national iconic animals, and landholders have been pandered to too much by our DSE and permits to get rid of them are far too easily handed out.

Increasing demand for livestock products.

  Population growth means increasing demand for livestock products such as dairy, eggs and meats.  Livestock are under pressure to produce more, but to save costs and space, they are being confined in factory farms.  This means mutilations to stop their "aggression", antibiotics in their foods, increased risks of zoo noses(disease originating from animals), methane gas emissions, pollution to waterways and soils,  and declining animal welfare standards.

In the mid-twentieth century, exponential population growth was noticed early and taken seriously enough to spur a dramatic acceleration of global food production from the 1940s onwards. Traditional farming practices and traditional crop varieties were displaced as farming became intensive: the birth of industrial agriculture or factory farming occurred on a massive scale. Not only animals, but we too will feel like factory-farmed chickens squashed into metropolitan areas where housing is becoming more dense.

Companion animals and human densities.

Pets are good for children as it teaches them social skills and to have empathy with animals.  However, being forced into high density living denies children the ability to thrive, and to have the full benefits of space and room to raise animals for companionship.   It's a formula for mental illness and less active children, more prone to obesity and diabetes. Many elderly people rely on companion animals too.  Due to more people renting and moving into animal-hostile lifestyles, more draconian "management" of homeless animals is being considered.   Pets become the waste products of society when they can't be accommodated. They are doomed to the rubbish-bin of “death row”. Our cities are becoming more removed from the natural world.

Overfishing:

Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus) occur in estuarine and coastal waters surrounding Australia, Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Korea and Japan. In Australia they are a highly targeted iconic fish species due to their large size, attractive silver coloration and good eating. Reported commercial catches of mulloway in New South Wales show a steady and substantial decline from 380 tonnes in 1973/74 to 60 tonnes in 2005/06.

NSW DPI Narrandera Fisheries Centre research scientist, Dr Lee Baumgartner, said a film crew visited the Riverina region last year to film the documentary and raise awareness about issues facing the iconic Murray cod.

“Over the years Murray cod have suffered substantially due to overfishing, habitat loss, poor water quality, pest species and river regulation,” he said.

Overfishing has drastically reduced the numbers of Southern Bluefin Tuna. The world's oceans have been experiencing enormous blooms of jellyfish, apparently caused by overfishing, declining water quality, and rising sea temperatures. Now, scientists are trying to determine if these outbreaks could
represent a "new normal" in which jellyfish increasingly supplant fish. By removing a curb on jellyfish population growth, overfishing "opens up ecological space for jellyfish," says Anthony Richardson.

A seeming increase in shark attacks worldwide may well have a human cause, with low-cost air travel, but also overpopulation, overfishing and even climate change among the hidden suspects, say experts. The experts behind the Australian Shark Attack File argue that the enormous increase in the size of the Australian population over the last century has contributed to the increase in numbers of overall shark attacks (including non-fatal attacks). The shark is under relentless attack from humans themselves.

A third of open-water shark species, including the great white and the hammerhead, are facing extinction, driven in part by demand in Asia for shark-fin soup, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Loss of biodiversity

The monocultural practices of modern agricultural methods have been the driving force behind this loss of genetic diversity. Monoculture is the practice of broad scale cropping using the one variety of plant.

Globally, more than 5,000 wildlife species are threatened with extinction. Some 25% are mammals, and 11% birds. Of the reptile, amphibian and fish species described as threatened, 20% are reptiles, 25% are amphibians and 34% are fish.

Biodiversity loss is one of the world's most pressing crises and there is growing global concern about the status of the biological resources on which so much of human life depends.
It has been estimated that the current species extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be. - IUCN

Our duty of care to the animal kingdom is being compromised by excessive population growth.

Few of us realise that the main cause of the current environmental crisis is human nature.
All we're doing is what all other creatures have ever done to survive, expanding into whatever territory is available and using up whatever resources are available, just like a bacterial culture growing in a Petri dish till all the nutrients are used up.

Our growth means the world in which rampant consumption in rich countries, and over population in developing countries, is rapidly outstripping the global resources.

Ultimately, the loss of biodiversity will result in a dead, cruel and sterile planet in which local or regional ecosystems have collapsed.

The first case of H1N1 swine flu virus was discovered in a North Carolina factory farm in 1998, not in Mexico. Within months of the 1998 emergence, the virus showed up in Texas, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Dr. Robert Webster, one of the world’s leading experts of flu virus evolution, blames the emergence of the 1998 virus on the “recently evolving intensive farming practice in the USA, of raising pigs and poultry in adjacent sheds with the same staff,” a practice he calls “unsound.”

Influenza in pigs is closely correlated with pig density,” said a European Commission-funded researcher studying the situation in Europe.

Given massive concentrations of farm animals within which to mutate, these new swine flu viruses in North America seem to be on an evolutionary fast track, jumping between species at an unprecedented rate. Changes in animal husbandry, including increased vaccination, may be spurring this evolutionary surge after years of stability, according to science writer Bernice Wuethrich in Washington DC.

Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak?

Hundreds of industrial-scale hog facilities that have sprung up around Mexico in recent years, and the thousands of people employed inside the crowded, pathogen-filled confinement buildings and processing plants.

Cheaper labour costs and a desire to enter the Latin American market are drawing more industrialized agriculture to Mexico all the time, wiping out smaller, traditional farms, which now account for only a small portion of swine production in Mexico.

Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site www.granjascarroll.com.

The Mexico City daily La Jornada has also made the link. According to the newspaper, the Mexican health agency IMSS has acknowledged that the orginal carrier for the flu could be the “clouds of flies” that multiply in the Smithfield subsidiary’s manure lagoons. Residents [of Perote] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak

According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak".

Call it "intensive animal farming", "factory farming“, or "industrial farm animal production.” The report from the Union of Concerned Scientists prefers the term “confined animal feeding operations.”

No matter what you call it, it adds up to the same thing. Millions of animals are crowded together in inhumane conditions, causing "significant environmental threats and unacceptable health risks for workers, their neighbours and all the rest of us".

All farming should be organic and free-range. Any intensive livestock production can be challenged morally, biologically and on humane grounds. What is bad for animals ultimately is also bad for humans!

See also: The Worst Way of Farming in the New York Times of 31 May 08, Swine-flu outbreak linked to Smithfield Factory Farms in the Health Freedom Alliance blog of 25 Apr 09.

Government ignores the rights of consumers to shun factory farming horrors

The horrors of mass-produced egg and chicken products were aired last night in Jamie Oliver’s revealing exposé “Jamie's Fowl Dinners”. In addition to the grand-scale cruelty of factory farming methods, what this documentary also revealed was a crisis in mass-produced animal-derived products, as much an issue in Australia as it is elsewhere in the world.

People are horrified when they know the reality

Although the horrified response of audience members exemplified the feelings of people faced with the reality of factory farming, Australian consumers in Australia are currently unable to identify the production methods of the majority of products on their supermarket shelves.

“With the proliferation of vague and meaningless product labels, many of which give no indication of the farming production method used, it is becoming impossible for consumers to make informed choices,” said Verna Simpson, Humane Society International (HSI) Director. “HSI has asked the Government to instigate an urgent review and reform of all legislation relating to the labelling of animal-derived food products, to ensure there is truth in product claims and clarity in product labelling.”

Min for Agriculture ignores cries for less cruelty

The response has been abysmal, with Tony Burke, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, stating that he does not support the labelling of food according to the method of production, and claiming that simply putting the place of origin of foods on labels is enough for consumers to judge suitability based on animal welfare concerns. (Tony Burke's email address is Tony.Burke.MP[AT]aph.gov.au)

Disrespect for ethical concerns of consumers

“This response from Minister Burke is reproachable and demonstrates a complete lack of respect for consumer rights,” said Ms Simpson. “The government is effectively spitting in the face of consumers who have very real ethical concerns about animal welfare and the production methods of the food they are buying. The approach he is advocating is far too simplistic. It is bewildering how Minister Burke expects consumers to make informed choices with this labelling system that is devoid of any meaningful information on what is in the products they are purchasing, and how they are produced.”

Labelling standards must include animal welfare

HSI is calling for a reform of all federal, state and territory legislation and regulations applying to food labelling, branding and marketing, that must ensure the terms used on product labels are limited and clearly defined, and that these terms are linked to consistent national standards, including those for animal welfare.

From an HSI press release, Sydney, 24 July 2008

Contact: Verna Simpson on 02 9973 1728 or 0416 189482

HSI concentrates on the preservation of endangered animals and ecosystems and works to ensure quality of life for all animals, both domestic and wild. HSI is the largest animal protection not-for-profit organisation in the world, with over 10 million supporters globally and has been established in Australia since 1994.

Humane Society International Inc - Australian Office
PO Box 439 Avalon NSW 2107 Australia
Ph: 02 9973 1728 Fax: 02 9973 1729 www.hsi.org.au

Pigs are intelligent animals that have strong bonds with each other. They endure miserable lives to make pork and bacon products cheaper.

Unfortunately Codes of Practice little to provide animal welfare for pigs. They have little maternal attention and are weaned early. Not only are intensive farms places of animal slavery and cruelty, but of land, water and air pollution. The screams of pigs can be heard in Castlemaine when they are slaughtered - workers use ear muffs. They know their fate and can smell Death! Making pork and ham "more affordable" means that pigs do not get many concessions. If people paid fully for organic and free-range meat less livestock would be eaten and it is livestock that contribute to much of our greenhouse gases and water wastage in Australia.

These intelligent animals don't get a chance to make many decisions in life, or have many choices. Their short lives are full of pain, from mutilations without pain relief, and constant deprivations. They are known to turn cannibalistic and eat each others' tails due to the sheer misery and stress in their short lives. Thus their tails are removed!

Pigs are really active and inquisitive animals. They need plenty of room. Those raised in factory-conditions, in concentration-camp conditions, suffer horrendously from deprivation and activity. Pregnant sows are pinned into sow-stall for up to 16 weeks without being able to move or lie down - all allowed by the Codes of Practice. These comic and intelligent animals are so ridiculed and abused by humans who only see them as a food source. Pigs are thought to be as least as intelligent as a 3 year old child, and can learn to play video games! If you love animals, avoid eating them!

See also: www.savebabe.com, Secrets of the pork industry revealed.

What you can do: Help pay for a radio advertising campaign against this cruelty by visiting www.animalsaustralia.org/lucy_speaks.