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Stop the anti-agriculture machine

In 2002, the state of Florida passed a ballot amendment that outlawed the use of gestation crates for sows. What impact has that legislation had on pork production in the United States? There are not a lot of pork production operations in the state of Florida, if you draw the comparison between states like Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina and Michigan, so the impact from a statistical viewpoint is minimal. For pork producers in Florida, however, this law could very well determine whether you are in or out of the business of producing pork.

As far as we know, few people saw it coming and there was no big organized effort to stop the attack on Florida pork production. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Farm Sanctuary funded the campaign and met with little opposition.

Folks, these anti-agriculture groups are at it again.

The problem as I see it is that our consumers do not know where their milk comes from. Our consumers do not know where their eggs come from. Our consumers do not know where their beef comes from. Our consumers do not know where their pork comes from. We (yes, you and me and an army of those of us who care about the future of livestock production in this country) need to get up off our “inertias” as Mrs. Korty, my 8th grade science teacher used to say, and do something about it.

Petting zoos are a great idea, but imagine how horrified that 2nd grader (whose closest relative on the farm is a great-great grandfather who passed away 2 decades ago) is to find out that lamb chops really do come from lambs and hamburgers don’t really come from McDonald’s.

If we fail to take action, our states will be targeted and these bleeding heart anti-agriculture groups will use every scare tactic that money can buy to bring animal agriculture down. We cannot let that happen.

While we’ve been sitting back on our “inertias” the Animal Defense League of Arizona with some help from HSUS and Farm Sanctuary has set its sites on the livestock industry in Arizona. The petition drive is underway to place an amendment on the November 2006 ballot that would outlaw the use of gestation crates by pork producers and veal crates by veal producers.

With the Florida win as a feather in its cap, this coalition of anti-agriculture groups is moving full steam ahead into the state of Arizona. Which state will be next to pop up on the radar screen? Iowa? Illinois? Missouri? We’ve been visited by Waterkeepers. College campuses are regularly targeted by PETA. Anti-agriculture propaganda pieces are sent to K-12 teachers every day in hopes that some vulnerable or vegetarian educator will join in the effort to turn kids into vegetarians or worse yet – anti-agriculture militants.

It is my opinion that there is only one way to stop this machine from rolling over livestock operations across the Midwest: Education.

Although, for the most part, our consumer does not know or understand us, our consumer does trust us. However, the further our consumer is removed from production agriculture, the greater the need to tell them our story. Let’s do so before it is too late.