This is part of a continuing series on the living conditions of animals raised for slaughter in Massachusetts. Previous posts have discussed the issue in general, and reported comments from Rick LeBlanc, Ag-tourism and Website Program Coordinator for the Masssachusetts Dept. of Agricultural Resources, that there are no ‘factory farms’ in our state.
An administrator at the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, Massachusetts, a group of farmers, gardeners, landscapers and consumers that works to educate the general public about the benefits of organic farming, reports: “I don’t know of any large animal factory farms in Massachusetts, but there are certainly chicken operations which I would call factories. The one I visited in Hubbardston, while better than most in that the birds are not actually caged but “free walking” around the cement floor, certainly packs them in tightly. You can hardly breathe when on a cold day because they don’t turn the ventilation on to save on heat. Others, which are not organic, have birds in cages and, I believe, administer antibiotics in the feed.”
Ben Grosscup, who coordinates NOFA’s campaign against the National Animal Identification System, a proposal by the Department of Agriculture to track every animal in the country, added, “We have much fewer factory farms in MA than other states like for instance TX and CA. While there are still some larger dairies in the Berkshires, they don’t get as big as they do out west. Nobody at NOFA really collects specific info on factory farms though, so I don’t have a lot more detail.”
I have asked the Massachusetts Poultry Enhancement Council, a division of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources for additional information on large-scale poultry farming in our state.
Becasue only corporations can be cruel? Only large scale operations coop up (no pun intended, but what the heck) chickens?
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Let’s get the intrepid Animal Cruelty Police of the MSPCA right on this, now that they have safeguarded the downtown area for seagulls.
“Large scale” because those appear to be the types of establishments where abuses are most extreme. I didn’t write “only large scale,” or “only corporations.” I think you’re trying to read too many blogs and shoot off too many one-liners. It only makes you look silly, and reduces the force of your arguments, which are often cogent. Please spend more time on BMG and make better arguments. As to the substance of your comment, the issue is how animals are treated on farms in Massachusetts, and in particular if there are any “factory farms” here, which I define as large scale agricultural enterprises that treat animals in atrocious condiditions and thereby endanger everyone’s health, and degrade the moral quality of our lives.
Land too expensive, government regulations too tight for big agriculture to return to Massachusetts. It’s near impossible to even build a wind-factory, much less a farm-factory.
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Move along from any factory farm controversy. There’s no wind-mill here to tilt at (nor one at the Cape either).
people who farm them, and labor in them.
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I grew up in Arkansas, where poultry is the dominant industry (Tyson Foods). There, and in many other states, family farmers are essentially wedged into a sharecropper situation, where the little guy takes all the risks, and the corporation gets all the reward. What the corporations do is convince someone who owns a little land to set up a side business of raising poultry to make extra money. But they need loans to build the chickenhouse, and to buy baby chicks and chicken feed and chicken medicine from the corporation. Then months later, the corporation buys the grown chickens back. But it’s hardly a free market for the farmer, who likely ends up broke, bankrupt, and/or selling what little land the family owns. (And tending poultry in one of those stuffy chickenhouses can’t be good for the human’s lungs–our society probably picks up some of the tab from later hospitalizations due to this.)
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It’s enough to push at least one man to murder and suicide.
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Human lives are ruined by corporate farms.
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I submit that more votes can be won by speaking up for the humans who lose their money, their land, their way of life, and their peace of mind. Make achievements in that direction, and improvements will happen in the condition of the animals’ lives.
If that article is even remotely true, why on earth would anyone do this? Sounds like it would take about two phone calls to find out that the deal is a scam.
Molly Ivins wouldn’t lend her name to a magazine that didn’t practice solid journalism.
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And while someone like you, CMD, might know who to call to check up on a business proposal–many people don’t. That type of business knowledge typically comes from growing up in a families with either entrepreneurs or educated people in it. Public schools don’t teach classes on how to start your own business (though I think one could make a strong argument that such a class should be required in this country). A substantial percentage of people in America live in families where the adults’ careers consist of manual labor–and if not that, then a stint in the military. There are some disconnected places in this country. Even in the 1960s, MLK visited villages in Mississippi where the sharecroppers had not even seen modern money, just company scrip.
Bad business decisions are made all the time. The poor farmer didn’t have to do that deal. Crooks, confidence men, and swindlers have taken advantage of people for the past 3,000 years. Nothing changes. Caveat emptor.
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The Sanderson Farms people sound like pr**ks, but why dump on agribusiness in general? I count my blessings every time I walk into a Whole Foods or Big Y … we’re the land of plenty.
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At least you didn’t complain “there ought to be a law…”