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From wheeler@super.org Wed Feb 24 17:54:57 1993 Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 10:34:52 EDT From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler) To: tms@cs.umd.edu Subject: BB/OPED Hoyt OP-ED 3 Beyond Beef Campaign 1130 17th St., NW Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20036 Tel: 202-775-1132 Fax: 202-775-0074 Farm Animals: Commodities or Creatures? By John A. Hoyt Chairman, EarthKind, Washington, D.C. Growing up in rural Ohio does not necessarily qualify a person to regard himself a farm boy. But spending summers on my grandparents' 360-acre farm near Spencer, West Virginia, during my childhood and youth made me very aware that farm animals are creatures whose needs and wants, though different in degree and scope from humans, are as real as many of those I experience. I could milk a cow, by hand of course, with the best. Riding horseback without a saddle was almost as natural as walking. And though some may not be familiar with the farm language of that day, I did my share of cradling hay, slopping pigs, and shucking corn. To spend several weeks on a farm in West Virginia in the 1930's and 40s was to know something of early America, though modern civilization was already redefining our lifestyles in many ways. Like most Americans of that era, I grew up eating food produced primarily on the many small family farms scattered across this nation. Like most Americans, I ate meat, cheese, and eggs, and drank milk at almost every meal. Like most Americans today, I still do -- though less so, I suspect, than most. Something has changed about the ways in which we raise and market farm products today, especially those derived from animals. No longer is it possible to drive into the countryside in most communities and purchase eggs from a local farmer. No longer is it possible in most communities to get freshly dressed chickens -- or any other kind of meat for that matter -- at a farmers market. The supermarkets have replaced the local groceries; the giant agribusiness corporations have replaced the small farmers; and farm animals have become commodities rather than creatures. I certainly did not relish chopping off the head of a chicken, and I very much dreaded the day when my grandfather would butcher a pig or a calf; but death for those animals was quick and painless and until then they had lived in natural settings and comfortable quarters. Today I eat far less meat and other animal products than in my growing-up years. Health factors, of course, are an important consideration in that decision. But more than anything else, it is my concern about the ways in which animals are raised, transported, marketed, and slaughtered that has caused me to reduce my consumption of animal products significantly over the past several years. Calves are confined in crates for their entire short lives, unable to experience the comfort and nurturing of their mothers, or even express their most basic instincts, all for the purpose of producing so-called white veal. Cattle are herded onto trucks or railway cars, crowded in hot feedlots where they're fattened for the kill, and, finally, transported yet again in less than humane conditions to slaughterhouses that are, in many cases, still practicing methods that would utterly sicken and revolt most people who eat meat. The Beyond Beef campaign, of which I am an enthusiastic supporter, brings together advocates of animal protection, human health, the environment, and the anti-hunger movement. Beyond Beef seeks to reduce the consumption of beef by 50 percent over the decade. And the replacement foods being advocated are not other meats, but nuts, fruits, vegetables and cereal grains. Clearly this kind of reduction and replacement, either in part or in whole, will reduce the numbers of animals subjected to stress and suffering by the millions. If those who choose to continue eating meat are conscientious in seeking out those farmers and ranchers who practice humane sustainable agriculture, the end of treating animals as mere commodities will be in sight. This campaign will then contribute not only to the well-being of animals but to farmers and ranchers as well, especially those who still recognize that animals are sensitive, feeling creatures, and not simply cuts of meat. People rarely intend to inflict cruelty and suffering on farm animals. Rather, the suffering is a by-product of systems that fail to see animals as creatures, systems that are wired to bypass feelings and needs. So long as we tolerate and encourage such systems by purchasing their products, we too are perpetrators of cruelty and abuse though we may appear to be only bystanders.