As devoted readers of this site know, I raised the issue of factory farming last week. Some members of this community wondered if there was any industrial-scale animal agriculture in Massachusetts. I promised to find out more. A response has come in. According to Rick LeBlanc, Ag-tourism and Website Program Coordinator for the Masssachusetts Dept. of Agricultural Resources, “Massachusetts has much smaller scale animal agriculture in Massachusetts but no ‘factory farms.’ Most are family farms. Mass.gov/Massgrown lists the various agriculture/horticulture farm links within Massachusetts. Statistics can be found at: Mass.gov/agr/facts or directly to the source of stats: Nass.usda.gov.
Lawyer that I am, I checked the cites. Massgrown is an excellent site with lots of links to local farms, but not much in the way of data on animal welfare and local meat production. The Mass.gov site is also focused on agriculture. The most useful information with respect to animal farms (apologies to Mr. Orwell) appears to be at the USDA site. According to them in 2002, the most recent year for which data is posted, two establishments in Massachusetts sold between 2,000 and 4,999 pigs, and one sold between 1,000 and 1,999 pigs. There is also one company that sold between 1,000 and 2,499 head of cattle and calves. I have sent a follow-up email to make sure I interpreted the data correctly and to find out where the state’s dividing line might be between the “smaller scale animal agriculture” cited by Mr. LeBlanc and a factory farm. If any astute BMG readers have information on this subject, I’d be interested to hear it.
good job being thorough, it is absolutely the right way to go. I’d wager however, that you’ve interpreted the data correctly.
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Much though these data sets have indeterminate category labels and measures sometimes, it is still easy to pick out the extremes.
I don’t expect the Gov. candidates to take a stance on the factory farms issue because there are so few meat producers in Massachusetts. They could, however, talk about supporting local farms – a great way to preserve communities and working landscapes, reduce fuel consumption, and promote animal welfare, a local industry and better nutrition. Restoring the Northeast Dairy Compact is a federal issue, but it would be helpful for our small producers. Childhood obesity and nutrition could be a state issue (school lunches, etc.), and this has implications for good farming practices.
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As for your meat questions, instead of producing meat animals, livestock producers in the northeast are likely to produce “feeder calves” (dairy farms, for instance, don’t want calves to suck up all the milk, so they send the young animals to be grain fed and prepared for slaughter on someone else’s farm far away – probably NY or PA).
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The few beef and pork producers in the northeast are much smaller than the ones you would find in Nebraska, Iowa, etc. There are concentrations in Maine and Vermont, partly because land is cheaper than in MA and southern New England, but partly because farming infrastructure was supported there. The cost of running slaughter houses (or “processing facilities”) is huge. Vermont has subsidized some, but they are small and ineffecient when compared to the horrific houses of horror run by the big four meat-producing companies in the western U.S.
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The best advice for people who care is to reduce your consumption of meat, be willing to pay more for humanely-raised meats, find local sources (you can buy a quarter from a local farmer if you have a big freezer or family and friends to share the meat quickly), ask questions about how the animals are raised (grassfinished is best, but grassfed can be o.k. if you get a clear explanation of the feeding protocols). Maybe even visit the farm and see the animals in the pasture. It costs more, but the animals will be healthier and happier, and the resulting meat is much more nutritious. Go to eatwild.com and/or http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/ for more info.
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Don’t worry about “organic” labels because the govt. and the processed food companies have co-opted that term and made it fairly meaningless.
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Bon Appetit! Or “moo” or something.
If you could update your profile with your real name and some information about yourself, that would be helpful. How do you know so much about this subject?
Sorry – I’m fairly new here and just learning the practices on this site.
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I worked for about a year for a non-profit that was promoting grassfed meats produced in the northeast. A very tough way for farmers to make a living, but an important method for the future of food. Thanks for your post on this topic.
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Buy local!