You might have heard about the recent agreement on a new federal law between The Humane Society of the United States and United Egg Producers, but in case you haven’t, I wanted to give a small breakdown on what the deal is, what it will do, and how it was reached.

In my opinion, there are two things that make this one of the single most significant moments in the history of animal welfare/rights. First, the agreed upon legislation, if passed, will directly better the lives of each the more than 250 million hens involved in egg production in the United States. It’s incredibly rare to see animal protection groups and the agriculture industry come to any agreement at all, but for the two sides to agree that every animal within a particular industry segment deserves better living conditions is nearly unprecedented. It’s a huge win for those of us who wish to see less animal cruelty in the world; it will result in there being less of it.

The second reason that this deal is so groundbreaking is that if the proposed law gets passed, it will be the first federal law ever to deal with the welfare of farm animals while they are living on farms. There are laws that deal with slaughter, transporting animals, etc., but this would be the first law to say “if you own a farm animal, you cannot treat it in these cruel ways.” And what happens when one part of the national agriculture industry finally agrees that the wellbeing of its animals matter? Well, hopefully the rest of the industry realizes it better get on board and do the same. I think this makes it possible to envision laws requiring better treatment of dairy cows, pregnant sows nursing their piglets, and other animals in the near future. Yes, this is just one step, but it’s the first step of its kind and it has the potential to lead to more victories for animals in the near future. Read the rest of this entry →

Red Junglefowl, and modern chicken

My last opinion piece up here was about the  ethical meat/eggs/dairy movement. I’m not so sure I said everything I wanted to, so I’m going to continue on that topic for another blog (or two, or three). Today, I want to cover some thoughts I’ve had recently on the cage-free, free-range, certified-humane products, or as I call them, band-aids.

There may be a place for ethical meat (and other animal products- I‘ll refer to it all as meat in this post). I’m actually really glad to see the industry grow. It shows that ranchers, consumers, and entrepreneurs are seeing the horrors of modern agriculture and saying, “there has to be a better way.” It’s a good sign, right? But should we feel good about it?

I believe the progression of information dispersal, scientific breakthroughs, and moral awakening will someday bring us to the point where we will have no justification, as a society, for using animals for food. Yeah, it may be a long way off. But it is one of those inevitable things. There will come a day when we will just stop kidding ourselves, and there will be no defense for breeding animals for unnatural purposes. We will be embarrassed for ever having done it in the first place. Leading up to that time, we will look down upon those who continue to cling to acts of violence against animals. Unfortunately, I think it will be a slow progression. This ethical meat movement is a step in that progression. Having a background in the natural food business, I can throw a guess out there that it is a growing industry. But it is still miniscule, and probably being held up by a few businesses that are trying to lead the way. But are these ranchers, business folk, and yuppie burger-lovers really helping? Or are they making things worse in a way?

The band-aid effect Read the rest of this entry →

Which of these would make a good sticker for our egg campaign?

We are getting ready to print a bunch of stickers for a campaign. We want it to be the sort of thing that people want to throw on their notebooks, water bottles, snowboard, whatever. That means it needs to look cool. Which of these sad faces do you like the best? Any recommendations before we go to print?

I just sent this e-mail to the Denver Post editors in response to their August 28th article “Egg recall prompts eat-local scramble in Colorado” by Rita Wold. I encourage you to write a similar letter. By showing the papers that we care about this issue, we encourage them to keep investigating the egg industry and show everybody why they probably should not be eating eggs.

You can email the article’s author Rita Wold at rwold@denverpost.com and the editors at openforum@denverpost.com. Keep it under 150 words. I had to trim mine a bit.

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I appreciated the Post’s follow-up on how Coloradoans are responding to the recent egg recall. I hope you will continue to look at the salmonella outbreak and help keep food safety in the news. It is important to me and to all American families, and we appreciate these glimpses into the food system that puts products on our local grocery shelves.

I was a bit disappointed that the article didn’t address another likely response to a salmonella scare: the decision to stop eating eggs altogether. Certainly this is the most effective way to eliminate the risk of salmonella exposure. It may seem like an extreme reaction to an outbreak, but it is a reasonable one. Any egg enthusiast will think twice about their next purchase if they research the conditions required to give us a dozen eggs for 99 cents. This is what happened to me 3 years ago when I decided to go vegan.

Perhaps you did not encounter anybody who made this decision in preparing your report, but I believe it is worth looking into. Eggs are often referred to as a “perfect food,” but when it comes to health, animal welfare, and environmental impact, that generous description could not be further from the truth. Cut out eggs and animal products and you cut out cholesterol, reduce the risks of heart disease and many cancers (and salmonella ingestion), and you cut off funding to an industry that profits from the intensive confinement of complex social animals.

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Have you ever written a letter to the editor? Did it get published?