Honoring A Sacred Trust
Summer 2002
Sitting quietly on the porch with my dog, I watched a gentle breeze ruffle her fur as she lifted her nose to sniff the air. Animals don't require much to be happy, I thought – fresh air, food and water, something to chew, space to run and play, a sunny spot or cool grove to stretch out in. We humans share life on earth with animals and are entrusted with their care and well-being. While we've made laws to safeguard animal welfare and individual cases of abuse are socially unacceptable, the factory farming of animals has institutionalized cruelty toward one of the most intelligent and social of our fellow beings – the pig.
On a recent trip to Iowa farm country, I drove past row after row of long, windowless buildings which replaced the friendly red barns and green pastures I had envisioned. The sterile, lifeless landscape was eerily silent and still - no people or animals in sight. Inside these corporate “farms,” thousands of nearly identical sows are each confined in a metal cage too small to turn or move in - a practice so cruel it has been outlawed in other countries. Almost every day for her entire life, a sow stands on a slatted cement floor above a lagoon of manure. No sunshine or fresh breezes reach her here. A scant supply of concentrated feed administered by computer once or twice a day leaves the sow chronically hungry. Artificially inseminated, she produces litter after litter until she is spent and useless. Against her natural instincts to build a nest, the sow must deliver on a bare floor. Piglets are taken away prematurely. and the process repeated. When animals are treated as machines, the industrial revolution has reached a pinnacle of perversion - a violation of nature which breaks the sacred trust of our stewardship.
Factory farming is a truly evil system which views nature and animals as commodities to be exploited for profit. All of us are paying the cost as factory farms pollute our water, air and soil, endanger our health, and destroy rural communities. Antibiotics developed for humans are fed to hogs to increase growth and combat the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Passed on to people though ground water and meat, these life-saving drugs become ineffective as bacteria develop resistance. The concentration of manure in huge lagoons poisons our rivers, streams and oceans, killing fish and marine life. Gases emitted into the air cause respiratory problems in humans and increase greenhouse gas, a cause of global warming. Trout streams and swimming holes enjoyed by generations have been destroyed, and people are literally driven from their homes where they can no longer breath the air or drink the water. Factory farming, conceived to be more efficient and profitable, has undercut small family farmers, who are forced to become serfs on contract farms, or go out of business. Over the last 10 years, 90% of family pig farmers, who treat animals with dignity and respect, have been replaced by barbaric factory farms, each holding as many as 10,000 hogs. If corporate farms were forced to comply with environmental laws and disposed of waste responsibly, family farms could out compete factory farms in the marketplace. As citizens & conscious consumers, we can choose to buy family farm products and fight for our right to safe food, water & air.
A spring visit to a free range pig farm, among those supplying the White Dog Cafe, was a pure delight. Sows with families of piglets – pink, brown, tan, black and spotted - trotted across the grass in the sunlight, and nestled in straw-filled huts in the fields. Others cuddled in cozy barns with free access to the outside, where goats and chickens added to the lively culture of the barnyard. Boars and sows mingled freely in large pens, while others foraged and explored the pastures, or snoozed together in big piles. Pregnant sows stretched out in the sun or gathered straw for their nests. Holding a newborn piglet in my arms, I felt great joy in the miracle of life and the presence of the Divine in all of creation.
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