|
CORRECTION: Item #2 of the previous issue (http://tinyurl.com/2ky6uk
) referred to the proposed California ballot measure as "The Farm Animal Protection Act," as stated in
one of the source articles. That particular measure is actually entitled "The Prevention of Farm Animal
Cruelty Act." The Farm Animal Protection Act is the title of an alternative proposed ballot measure (see:
http://tinyurl.com/359qlf
and http://tinyurl.com/38fyl9). We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
1.
EPA PROPOSES EMISSION RULE ROLLBACK
Scientists with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) have determined that ammonia
and hydrogen sulfide are hazardous to human health.
The EPA estimates that two-thirds of the ammonia emissions
reported in the U.S. are generated by farmed animal
facilities. Since the 1980’s, large facilities
have had to report the amount of these gases they
emit. However, pressured by agribusiness lobbyists
and legislators from agriculture-oriented states,
the EPA has proposed ending this requirement. The
Agency argues that the reports are not used by local
authorities and so are unnecessary.
Local air-quality agencies, environmental
groups, and legislators opposed the change, contending
the reports are valuable in holding facilities accountable
for pollution. The EPA proposal came after communities
sued several large operations, demanding monetary
compensation and stricter emission controls. Critics
say it is part of a larger effort by the Bush administration
to roll back environmental protections (see, for example:
http://tinyurl.com/2t82zk). The deadline for submitting public comments on
the proposed rule change is March 27th (see: http://tinyurl.com/2wzyag).
See also: http://tinyurl.com/3cd7ok
and http://tinyurl.com/2qkfy7
FARMS MAY BE EXEMPTED FROM EMISSION RULES
The Washington Post, Elizabeth Williamson, February
26, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/27jg9z
2.
RECORD AMOUNT OF U.S. MEAT PRODUCED, EXPORTED
The U.S. production of “red meat”
(meat from cattle, pigs and sheep) totaled 48.8 billion
pounds in 2007, a record amount. Beef and pork production
were up 1% and 4% respectively, veal and lamb production
were down 6% and 1% respectively. A record high was
also set last year for U.S. pork and poultry exports.
Poultry exports are expected to again set a record
in 2008. The number of U.S. farms continued to fall
in 2007 but the average size of them grew. The number
of cattle, dairy and pig operations decreased while
sheep and goat operations increased. Of the 626 slaughterplants
that handled cattle, 14 killed 54% of them. Half of
all pigs slaughtered were killed in 11 of the 618
slaughterplants that handled them. The complete report
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National
Agricultural Statistics Service is available at {note
PDF file: http://tinyurl.com/2vcvel}.
A declining population of cattle in
North America are causing cattle-feeding and slaughtering
businesses to lose sizable sums of money. A “perfect
storm” for the beef industry is attributed to
E. coli, “mad cow disease,” droughts,
the doubling of corn prices, the recessing U.S. economy,
and competition with “a huge supply of cheap
pork and poultry.” In February, Tyson CEO Richard
Bond opined that U.S. cattle numbers might have peaked
"not only for this cycle but maybe even forever."
MORE MEAT THAN EVER — RED MEAT
PRODUCTION SETS ALL TIME RECORD
Meating Place, Janie Gabbett, March 7, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/2lp9yl
SCALING BACK
Meat & Poultry, Steve Kay, March 1, 2008
http://www.meatpoultry.com/Feature_Stories.asp?ArticleID=92028
3.
HALLMARK HEARING; NOTICES & BILL
Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. President
Steve Mendell arrived by subpoena at a Congressional
hearing on March 12th [see: http://tinyurl.com/2wocfq]
represented by Asa Hutchinson, a high-profile Washington
lawyer and former congressman and member of the Bush
administration. Mendell initially denied that non-ambulatory
cows had been slaughtered for human food at Hallmark,
claiming they were instead euthanized. After watching
video documentation, he acknowledged that they had
been. (A U.S. Department of Agriculture official noted
that the USDA had evidence of other such cows at Hallmark
who had been put into the food supply.) Mendell maintained
that the meat had “less than a minute chance
of…being contaminated." Members of the
subcommittee pointed out that the lengthy incubation
period for the human form of “mad cow disease”
could be a decade or two. (See also TOO LITTLE TESTING
FOR MAD COW, CRITICS SAY: http://tinyurl.com/2j3qzj
and DISPARATE FEDERAL RULES IN SPOTLIGHT: http://tinyurl.com/228xqh)
The legislators were generally hostile towards Mendell
and were unimpressed with his point that seventeen
external audits and a dozen internal ones last year
showed practices at his company were exemplary. They
also brought up failures in the national food safety
system, including those of independent auditors, the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA investigators.
Mendell, however, disagreed that non-ambulatory cows
should be banned from slaughter, asserting: "The
company does not pay suppliers for the cost of a cow
deemed unfit for human consumption and there is therefore
no financial incentive to bypass the [existing] regulations.”
Mendell said the undercover investigator
had participated in an orientation program and two
animal handling training sessions. He submitted documents
to this effect containing the investigator’s
signature. The Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) disputes
that the investigator received the training. Mendell
said his company is ruined and will not reopen. He
said he has received death threats and has heard from
people "praying for us to suffer and die like
the cows." Historical information on Hallmark
and a recap of the current situation is contained
in a Wall Street Journal article entitled OVERSIGHT
'FLAW' LED TO MEAT RECALL: http://tinyurl.com/37olkc.
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
has issued two new notices to its slaughterplant inspectors.
One states that, as of March 10, inspectors are to
increase the time spent verifying humane handling
regulatory requirements a minimum of 50% and up to
100%, depending on the type of animals being killed,
until May 6, 2008. The other instructs: "Immediately
take any necessary regulatory control action to prevent
continued egregious inhumane handling" in situations
of humane handling noncompliance.
The 2002 farm bill gave USDA the authority
to establish regulations “to provide for the
humane treatment, handling, and disposition of non-ambulatory
livestock by stockyards, market agencies, and dealers.”
Punishment for violators can include up to 10 years
in jail and fines of up to $500,000 for third-time
offenders. However, USDA currently only suspends inspection
until the facility either corrects the violation or
submits a corrective action plan. Such a facility
could be reopened within hours. On March 14th, a bill
was introduced in the U.S. Senate that would shut
down facilities that slaughter non-ambulatory animals.
It includes stiff fines, one-year shutdowns for first
and second time violators, and permanent closure for
third time offenders. It would also require the USDA
release the names of establishments that have received
recalled products (see also: http://tinyurl.com/youcg4).
PANEL GRILLS MEATPACKING CHIEF ON BEEF
RECALL AT CHINO PLANT
Los Angeles Times, Nicole Gaouette, March 13, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-hallmark13mar13,1,5872989.story
SLAUGHTERHOUSE OWNER BACKS OFF CLAIMS
Associated Press, Erica Werner, March 12, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gjgIDJ5Z2xZSLp6TUi-kRcCFXmPgD8VC5UP00
LEGISLATORS RAKE HALLMARK CEO OVER THE COALS
Meating Place, Janie Gabbett, March 12, 2008
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/meatingplace_content.asp?ContentID=204883
FSIS ISSUES HUMANE HANDLING NOTICES
Meating Place, Ann Bagel Storck, March 12, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/37l79x
SENATORS MOVE TO INCREASE PENALTIES ON
DOWNERS
BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly, Joe Roybal, March 14, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/38blt7
4.
CRUELTY, INTERNET AND VIDEOTAPE
“After more than 25 years of tactics…the
animal rights movement had a bona fide hit,”
states The New York Times, referring to the Hallmark
case (see item #3), in an article
about undercover investigations: “It was as
if someone gave Upton Sinclair a video camera and
a Web link.” Modern cameras and the Internet
have “done for animal rights advocates what
the best-organized protest could not,” the article
explains. Factors in the success of the Hallmark expose?
are noted, as are key points of “decades of
trial and error by animal rights advocates.”
Obstacles are also mentioned: “often, local
law enforcement officials would not prosecute…Some
videos were exposed as creatively edited frauds…Others
were simply too gruesome for most people to watch.”
The Hallmark videos “showed clear legal violations
but avoided the bloody images of many undercover videos.
As a result, local and national television stations
could replay the images over and over.” The
public, which has grown increasingly skeptical of
the food industry, was also “more likely to
relate to large mammals being mistreated” (than
to birds being brutalized), and to the fact that the
potentially unsafe beef was fed to schoolchildren.
Some within the meat industry are planning
to react with videos of their own making (see also
item #5). Other efforts are also
underway to thwart activists. Several states have
passed laws restricting photography and videography,
and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act of 2006 makes
illegal action that results in damage to or economic
disruption of enterprises using animals. Access to
slaughterplants is also increasingly difficult due
to suspicious managers, and investigations can be
expensive. However, remarks Ingrid Newkirk of People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, “A picture
is worth a thousand words, but a good video is worth
a million.”
See also: HUMANE SOCIETY WINS FIGHTS WITH FOOD INDUSTRY
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Matt McKinnney,
February 27, 2008
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/31028
and: PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH ANIMAL
ABUSE
Beef Recall, Video Jar Memories of Growing Up, Hunting,
Learning to Love Creatures.
Star-Gazette, Jim Pfiffer, March 17, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/37gdv9
UPTON SINCLAIR, NOW PLAYING ON YOUTUBE
The New York Times, Kim Severson, March 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/dining/12animal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
5.
IMAGE PROBLEMS
A "perfect storm" for meat
opponents is how Janet Riley, senior vice president
of public affairs for the American Meat Institute
(AMI), depicted the Hallmark situation at the organization’s
annual conference. Riley urged slaughterplant managers
to “take photos on a good day, so you have them
on a bad day." AMI is producing a DVD of animal
handling practices for distribution to reporters.
Fears of a consumer backlash were also expressed by
farmers at the annual conference of the Professional
Dairy Producers of Wisconsin. "The conditions
that exist in most slaughterhouses and dairy farms
are outside of what most people would consider acceptable,"
warned guest speaker Gene Baur, head of Farm Sanctuary.
According to Temple Grandin (see http://www.Grandin.com) “….there is a significant minority that
wait until an animal is really messed up and then
bring it to the processing plant…There is a
certain irresponsible segment of the industry that
will defend this bad practice because they want their
$600 for the animal. That's just disgusting."
She called on the USDA to "to step in and stop
some of the bad behavior now." Baur noted: "We
are already seeing consumer backlash as more people
turn away from cow's milk and are buying soy milk
instead."
The pig industry is also attempting to improve its
image, which has been “battered” by concerns
about gestation crates and animal abuse, leaking lagoons
and smelly farms, and feed additives and food safety.
At the recent National Pork Industry Forum the Pork
Board was pressed to address “the onslaught”
of critical media. A newly drafted “Ethical
Principles” document dominated the discussion.
To improve its image, the industry is expected to
hire the agency that developed the milk mustache ads
for the dairy industry and the “Pork –
the Other White Meat” campaign. "It's really
all about gaining the trust of [various] audiences
-- the trust that we in the pork industry are capable
of overseeing and regulating ourselves, that we don't
need consumer advocates to regulate us and we don't
need regulators and law makers to regulate us,"
the head of the agency told the attendees.
See also THE OTHER DOWNERS: http://tinyurl.com/2wxse3
and OHIO PORK REACHES OUT TO PUBLIC WITH WEB VIDEOS
ABOUT FARM LIFE: http://tinyurl.com/2kcjce.
LIVE FROM AMI: HALLMARK/WESTLAND A 'PERFECT
STORM' FOR ACTIVISTS
Meating Place, Tom Johnston, March 10, 2008
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/animalrightsactivistresources/message/11057
DAIRY FARMERS FEAR CONSUMER BACKLASH
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Rick Barrett, March 11,
2008
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=727205
PORK PRODUCERS SEEK TO MEND BATTERED IMAGE
Reuters, Jerry Bieszk with Walter Bagley, March 7,
2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0654142620080307?sp=true
6.
PRESSURE TO PHASE OUT "SHACKLE AND HOIST" SLAUGHTER
Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
of Israel, met with importers of South American kosher
meat to encourage them to phase out the "shackle
and hoist" slaughter method and adopt the "rotating
pen" (see http://tinyurl.com/34k6yd). Although gratuitous cruelty to animals during slaughter
does not disqualify meat from the animals from being
considered kosher, Metzger told the importers that
the shackle-and-hoist method is “primitive.”
He urged them "to exert major pressure on the
slaughterhouses they work with to make them adopt
the rotating pen method." Sources within the
Rabbinate (the premiere Jewish religious governing
body) have expressed concerns that willingness to
act on this matter would cast a negative light on
kosher slaughter in general. In the U.S., an effort
is underway to create a seal of approval regarding
animal welfare and workers’ rights that will
accompany kosher supervision stamps for qualifying
kosher meat producers.
CHIEF RABBI URGES MORE HUMANE SLAUGHTER
METHODS
The Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner, March 4, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/28a8bg
RABBINATE TO PHASE OUT 'SHACKLE AND HOIST' ANIMAL
SLAUGHTER
The Jerusalem Post, Matthew Wagner, February 19, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/34vytn
WHY DO THE OU AND ISRAEL'S RABBINATE CONDONE BARBARITY?
The Jerusalem Post (opinion), Adam J. Frank, February
13, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/335zr3
|
![[missing header image]](images/newsletter_ico.jpg)