1. THE ETHICS OF EATING
The Way We Eat, a new book
by ethicist Peter Singer and attorney Jim Mason, follows
the food choices of three American families: meat-and-potatoes
Wal-Mart shoppers, “conscientious omnivores,”
and stringent vegans. Animal well-being; production
standards; fair trade; environmental impacts, including
of local production; and genetically modified foods
are among the considerations of the applied ethical
calculus. Readers are warned that we cannot know exactly
how far the concepts of "free range" or
"humanely slaughtered" might be stretched,
and that even humanely raised animals take up space
that might be better used to grow crops or provide
habitat for wild species.
In a Slate interview, Singer suggests that to improve
the conditions under which animals are raised, either
consumers must be ethically motivated to pay more
for their food or else unfair competition must be
eliminated with regulations. In a Mother Jones interview,
he comments that the market is probably the best tool
for producing change in the U.S. whereas the political
system may be a more effective tool in Europe. Mason
and Singer recommend that consumers ideally follow
a vegan diet and buy organic and fair trade items.
If, however, one merely avoids products produced by
intensive animal agriculture, Singer says you will
have already achieved 80% of what the book suggests
we should strive to accomplish. The immorality of
obesity is also discussed. The book will also be reviewed
in the next New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's
Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,
explores the origins of a meal from a fast food restaurant,
a meal he hunts and grows himself, a meal with ingredients
from small “family farms,” and a meal
with ingredients from large organic corporations.
Pollan (who has been engaged in a “mini-feud”
with Singer over animal rights) visits a “free
range” organic chicken farm where 20,000 birds
are raised in a single building with little opportunity
to go outdoors. He reminds readers that cheap food
is not really cheap, because costs to human health,
the environment, the farming community and taxpayers
are not reflected. Perhaps paying more for our food
would make us “more mindful eaters,” he
says, considering we in the U.S. spend the smallest
percentage (9%) of our income on food of any population
in history.
See also: http://www.veganoutreach.org/articles/omnivore.html
The Practical Ethicist: “The Way
We Eat” Author Peter Singer Explains the Advantage
of Wingless Chickens, how Humans Discriminate Against
Animals, and the Downside of Buying Locally Grown
Food.
Slate, Oliver Broudy, May 8, 2006
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/05/08/singer/print.html
It’s Not Enough to be a Vegetarian
AlterNet, Christina Waters, May 23, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/36552/
Chew the Right Thing: The philosopher talks about
ethical eating, fast-food burritos, and why local
food is overhyped.
Mother Jones, Dave Gilson, May 3, 2006
http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2006/04/peter_singer.html
Tampa Author Reconstructs the Food Chain,
and it's Icky!
St. Petersburg Times, Colette Bancroft, May 21, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/books/14623267.htm
2. FAST FOOD WARS
Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson’s
new book, Eric Schlosser’s 2001 bestseller Fast
Food Nation is “an expose of fast food
that describes, in often-graphic detail, how the industry
mistreats animals and workers, homogenizes the American
landscape and its culture and makes people sick or
obese.” Schlosser’s new book, Chew
on This, written with Charles Wilson, expands
these points to a new audience: preteens. The food
and farm industries are striking back with BestFoodNation.com,
a web site that counters many of the book’s
claims by saying that American farmers raise their
animals humanely and treat the environment with care,
and that food and restaurant workers, including meatpackers,
are paid fair and competitive wages. Meanwhile, director
Richard Linklater’s big screen adaptation of
Fast Food Nation could be targeted with similar
protests when it opens this fall. Linklater says:
“These days we can be sued for disparaging [a
food] industry. It's like it's a felony to say something
bad. I think they should make it a felony to criticize
a film product…I’d like to see people
get sued if they wrote a bad review of my movie.”
Schlosser adds, “You can't criticize these big
corporations. If you do you're an anarchist, socialist,
whatever.”
Greasy Kid Stuff
The Washington Post, Abby McGanney Nolan, May 14,
2006
http://tinyurl.com/q94pm
‘I've Never Been in the Firing Line like this
Before’: Director Richard Linklater is known
for his gentle, Gen-X movies. Now he's taking on the
American meat industry with Fast Food Nation.
Guardian Unlimited, Xan Brooks, May 22, 2006
http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,1780445,00.html
3. BIG ORGANIC
The rising popularity of organic foods
is causing mixed reactions, as some fear small farmers
will be squeezed out of the market by large corporations
who are able to produce organic food for a lower cost
with compromised standards. In 2005, the industry
still only accounted for 2.5% of all retail food sales,
but the sector is growing quickly – last year’s
$14 billion in sales was up 16% from the year before,
according to the Organic Trade Association. Organic
meat in particular showed strong sales, up 55% from
2005 (likely due to concerns over mad cow disease
since infected cows first officially identified in
the U.S. in December 2003), and organic dairy sales
rose 24%. The U.S. market for organic meats has become
highly import-dependent with organic meats coming
in from Latin America, Australasia, and Canada. More
than 60 percent of the organic pork sold in the U.S.
is currently imported.
According to a recent report by the Cornucopia Institute,
two of the largest organic dairy producers in the
country, Horizon Organic (of Dean Foods) and Aurora
Organic (a private-label supermarket supplier) buy
much of their milk from huge feedlots where cows are
raised under terrible conditions, with little or no
access to pasture. U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) standards issued in 2000 for anyone using the
“organic” label prohibit the use of most
synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and all antibiotics,
genetic engineering, irradiation and sewage sludge
in the production of fruits, vegetables, and meat,
including poultry. Feed must be 100% organic with
no animal byproducts or growth hormones. However,
there are not many welfare requirements other than
that animals must be allowed some outdoor access.
Large-scale organic producers may not provide the
same quality husbandry as do smaller farms. “The
USDA has a yearly budget of $90 billion coming from
our public taxes, and yet the USDA still refuses to
allocate anything more than crumbs ($10 million annually)
to organics, meanwhile allowing inhumane and non-
sustainable industrial farming practices to creep
into organic production,” states Ronnie Cummins
of the Organic Consumers Association.
In the United Kingdom, a new test to detect the presence
and number of treatments of antibiotics in chicken
bones or pig bones will help determine whether products
marketed as “organic” have been produced
in compliance organic requirements.
Consumers have an opportunity to weigh
in on the organic pasture debate by submitting comments
on a proposed USDA rule change by June 12. The change
requires that organic dairy cows must spend at least
120 days per year on grass and at least 30% of their
feed must come from grazing during the pasture season.
Visit: http://tinyurl.com/pzdfr Comments on standards
for “grass-fed” production are also being
accepted. See: http://tinyurl.com/oy8ps
As ‘Organic’ Goes Mainstream, Will Standards
Suffer?
Advocates are cheered by the growing appeal of organic
foods. But shoppers, confused by labels, don't always
get what they think they paid for.
The Christian Science Monitor, Amanda
Paulson with Melanie Stetson Freeman, May 17, 2006
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0517/p13s01-lifo.html
U.S. Sees Growth in Organic Meat
The demand for organic meats in the United States
is outpacing the supply.
Meat Processing, May 24, 2006
http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&artNum=11634
New Tests to Spot ‘Organic’
Labeling Fraud
Food Standards Agency, May 17, 2006
http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2006/may/organicstests
4. "NATURAL" POULTRY
Tyson Foods, Inc. has announced the
introduction of its “all-natural” chicken
line of products. The USDA definition of “natural”
only requires that meat not contain artificial colors
or additives – it has nothing to do with how
the animal was raised or what the animal ate. Animals
may still be fed antibiotics under this term. While
putting hormones in chicken feed is prohibited, chickens
can still be given antibiotics every day for the same
purpose – to increase growth rates. A recent
Christian Science Monitor article considers the meanings
of such labeling terms as “natural,” “organic,”
“free-range” or “cage-free.”
Tyson Official Details Plans for New
‘All-Natural’ Poultry
Meat & Poultry, May 18, 2006
http://www.meatpoultry.com/weekly_enews.asp?ArticleID=79379
When Grocery Shopping, Read the Fine Print: Helpful
Hints to Avoid being Tricked by those Misleading Package
Labels
MSNBC, Herb Weisbaum, May 15, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12803309/
5.
AQUATIC SENTIENCE; AQUACULTURE STANDARDS
Last week, Whole Foods Market stopped
selling live soft shell crabs and is currently reviewing
its position on lobster and other aquatic species
out of concern over whether the animals are handled
humanely after they’re caught. Soft shell crabs
are forced to live up to a week out of water during
transport. Some die during transport, and the time
and conditions during the process concerns the company.
Whole Foods still sell frozen soft shell crabs, who
are killed soon after they moult (shed their shells),
but consumers complain the meat is mushy.
The California state has passed the Sustainable Oceans
Ac, which imposes strict environmental standards on
any commercial fish operations in state waters. It
is expected to also be approved by the Senate. Commercial
fish farms discharge heavy concentrations of untreated
waste and breed disease by closely confining fish.
Carnivorous species, such as tuna, also eat several
times their body weight in wild prey, stripping the
oceans of small fish as a result. Fish farms provide
the world with 20% of its total food-fish supply.
The U.S. Dept. of Commerce has mandated a fivefold
increase in U.S. aquaculture by 2025, with experts
predicting that it will be a $5 billion industry in
two decades.
Live Seafood the New Humane Focus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Elizabeth Lee with
Saeed Ahmed, May 19, 2006
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0519metcrabs.html
Bill Would Toughen Fish Farm Standards
Tri-Valley Herald, Julia Scott, May 14, 2006
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3822109
6.
SURPRISE SENTENCE
Adam Durand, the Compassionate Consumers
activist who was convicted of misdemeanor trespassing
last week (see last issue) was sentenced to 6 months
in jail, a year of probation and 100 hours of community
service, plus fined $1,500. Although he could have
received up to 9 months in jail, the sentence was
harsher than expected. A 5-page statement that Judge
Dennis Kehoe read in court berated Durand for believing
he was above the law. Kehoe called the video "contraband"
and expressed his desire to order it destroyed but
said he could find no legal justification to do so.
He also said he wished he could hold Durand and the
other activists responsible for the $1 million Wegmans
said it has spent in security upgrades since the illicit
visits. Rochester City News details the striking similarities
between the judges statement and a victim-impact statement
submitted to the court by a Wegman attorney, which
at times match “almost word for word.”
Durand’s attorney is considering an appeal.
Jailing a Cage-Free Activist
Rochester City News, Krestia DeGeorge, May 24, 2006
http://www.rochester-citynews.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A4438
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