Saving Small Family Farms
From a talk given by GRACE Factory Farm Team; AWI Press Conference.
I work with the GRACE Factory Farm Team - six family farmers and an economist who
help local communities fight factory farms. Our mission is to eliminate factory farming as
a mode of production and replace it with a sustainable food system that is healthy,
environmentally sound, economically viable, and humane.
Just as Slow Food works to save rare breeds of farm animals from extinction, the
GRACE Factory Farm Project is committed to saving another rare breed the
independent family farmer. In the past 50 years, more than 2 million family farms that
raise hogs have been lost.
These aren't just numbers, these are people's lives, homes, families, and entire
communities. This is about a whole way of life that is becoming extinct.
Where does that leave us? As corporate agriculture seeks fewer barriers to trade in
order to make more money, factory farms will start to move overseas. And if our country
continues to lose family farms, we might soon find ourselves with no farmers.
One day in the not-too-distant future, you might find your hamburger was inhumanely
raised half way around the world, irradiated, and flown thousands of miles before landing
on your dinner plate. Health issues aside, we must consider what would happen if we
became dependent on other countries for our food. This is a national security issue.
Today, we offer another option for the future of farming. While groups like the GRACE
Factory Farm Project and Waterkeeper Alliance work to hold corporate agribusiness
accountable, organizations like the Animal Welfare Institute, Chef's Collaborative, Slow
Food and Earth Pledge are proving there is a viable alternative.
We do not have to eat meat raised in horrendous conditions, where animals often live in
their own feces and suffer horribly. Where antibiotics and hormones are given to
promote growth and to try to stop diseases that occur from raising animals in such
confined spaces. And where food irradiation is attempting to mask filthy, unsanitary
conditions.
By signing on to the Animal Welfare Institute's standards, GRACE is saying consumers
do have a choice. Co-ops and companies like Niman Ranch are springing up all over
the country, where independent family farmers are raising animals humanely, respecting
the environment, and are offering healthy, high quality meat.
GRACE is proud to stand here today with the future of our food.
|