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Rural California is seceding from the urban coast? Well, if industrial pig farmers have anything to do with it, cities like Visalia, Tulare, and Fresno will soon be working to separate themselves from the heathen-vegan coast! The reason? It's all because we took their chicken coops away from them -- or, at least, because we fought against current agro-industrial standards for livestock health and welfare.
The New York Times reports on a growing movement to separate California into geographical sects, spearheaded by Big Ag laborers who blame city-dwellers for failing farm productivity and insensitive policies.
“They think fish are more important than people, that pigs are treated mean and chickens should run loose,” said Mr. [Virgil] Rogers, who said he hitched a ride in 1940 to Visalia from Oklahoma to escape the Dust Bowl, with his wife and baby son in tow. “City people just don’t know what it takes to get food on their table.”The irony of Prop 2, of course, is that now California's supermarkets are simply purchasing their eggs from foreign farms that are not beholden to any state laws. (Yup, that means your run-of-the-mill grocery eggs aren't any happier than they were pre Prop-2). Clearly, more work needs to be done to solve the serious problems of agro-industrial food production in our state.The final straw for folks like Mr. Rogers was Proposition 2, a ballot measure in November that banned the tight confinement of egg-laying hens, veal calves and sows. While many food activists and politicians in the state hailed the vote as proof of consumers’ increasing interest in where their food comes from, the proposition’s passage has angry farmers and their allies wanting to put the issue of secession to a vote, perhaps as soon as 2012.
But is secession really the answer? Breaking California up into parts is an idea almost as old as the state itself, however, so Mr. Rogers may be tilting at windmills if he wants to divide the Golden land up. Even though us "Hollywood types" may not understand the myriad of issues, concerning both people and livestock, that is driving this new separatist movement, we've still got the power of the pocketbook. It's time for both parties to come to the table, so to speak, and break bread over how to sustain the state's economy, the people's health, and the animals' standard of living. Everybody needs to lay down arms -- vegans and farmers alike -- and strive for a solution that's both good for the body and good for the wallet.
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It's not going to work. How is it that the same people who voted Yes on Prop 2 would vote to split California so Prop 2 could be undone? Ha!
Add: They don't publish much at all, but the blog Three Californias is always an interesting read: http://3cals.blogspot.com/
Of course it won't work...but it's interesting to consider the real diversity of California, as far as urban vs. rural, conservative vs. liberal, etc.
And policy changes like Prop 2 SHOULD be making a wave as far as how agri-business & food producers respond...but hopefully younger, brighter minds will formulate innovative new solutions about how to maintain our food economy AND mandates for reform. :)
This isn't just some kind of vegan thing, Prop 2 passed by a higher margin than I believe any other ballot measure this past election. Bloated chickens with no muscle development and beaks removed so they don't commit suicide while sucking food out of a tube, I think these are things most people regardless of dietary choice do not find acceptable. The problem before was most people didn't take any interest in where their food came from, and that's slowly turning around.
No, I know, I totally agree, I just like stickin' it to the vegans a little...but yeah, factory farm chicken just doesn't taste good, no question. And I'm not happy knowing that the little guy I'm eating had a miserable life. (Even though I still want to eat him.)
The question IS, however...how do we make serious changes in the California food industry so that a) the eaters are happy with the quality of their food, and b) the producers (like Mr. Rogers) are happy with their job? I mean, obviously the dude is a conservative old coot, but he makes an important point about the people who are working at these types of businesses.
Let's just redirect their talents to sustainable farming and local distribution...a girl can dream, I guess.
Reforming food practice is not going to be an easy process. I'm sure there are places were some comprises can be made, but other places where industry will have to go through restructuring. About the typical super markets just going and getting eggs from unregulated markets, I think we should be providing disincentives for imports that are below our standards of business. I think what has some in the farming industry up in arms is what they perceive as unfair competition from less regulated markets.
Just because Mr. Virgil Rogers' business flourished during a period where no deep thought was given to the quality and care of the livestock that sustained us, doesn't mean we shouldn't take these steps (such as Prop 2a).
I'm sure that plantation owners were mightily pissed when slavery was repealed (civil war aside)... Should we have not done it because it was burdensome to an industry? And while it might seem flippant to compare the plight of slaves to that of chicken, the overarching issue is more or less the same: just because an industry has come to rely on lax or callous legislation, doesn't mean we shouldn't enact fair standards...
The good news is that Europe long ago abandoned many of the horrifying practices that are still commonplace in American industrial agriculture/farming, so at least if you buy European eggs, chances are the chickens didn't have the sensitive tips of their beaks seared off, and they weren't kept in battery cages so small they can't even turn around, nor were they prematurely introduced to molt in order to get some more egg-laying time out of them before their slaughter. What a sad commentary on our country that these practices are still business as usual here in the U.S. Prop 2 is a great step in the right direction. Here's hoping consumers continue to educate themselves about the cruel, inhumane, and unhealthy practices of big agribusiness and that they also continue to insist on making their voices heard at the ballot box.
The problem is that that the Prop should have been about what can be SOLD in California.
It would be nice if the people who were proposing this were even remotely aware of the geography of their own state. The 13 coastal counties include Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, Humboldt, and Mendocino, which last time I checked were huge agricultural zones. But they're going to keep Alameda, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties because we all know how many pig farms there are in Fremont and Walnut Creek.
That wasn't supposed to be a reply to you. This comment thing is broken, unchecking reply checkbox doesn't "un-reply".
But yeah, the law needed to have provisions on import as well as production. But would that be illegal? Can states do that without falling afoul *cough* of federal law?
"The irony of Prop 2, of course, is that now California's supermarkets are simply purchasing their eggs from foreign farms that are not beholden to any state laws."
I knew this would be the end result of prop 2.
A better strategy would have been to educate consumers, to require factory farm products to be labeled as such, and let the consumer decide whether or not to buy them. All prop 2 does is drive jobs and agricultural concerns out of California, and adds to the carbon footprint of products produced out of state and sold here.
All free range meat, poultry, and by products taste better, and are healthier for us than when it comes from animals which are confined, hormone injected, and fed road kill and/or their own feces in order to economize on the cost of the feed.
New York has had people wanting to split the state up for years.
Prop 2 wasn't about small farmers. They probably already want to do things right. And if not, I don't know why they're farmers. It's more about big corporations doing things explicitly for profit. If they can't cut costs with cruel practices, then the little guy won't have to do the same thing just to compete with the corporations.
Hey why not require warning labels like they do on cigarettes?
WARNING; Bovine growth hormone is known to cause obesity in humans.
WARNING; Eggs produced in unsanitary, crowded, factory farms have a higher incidence of salmonella poisoning.
That would probably get most people to spend more money for better safer cleaner food produced in more humane environments for the animals.
I doubt it, most people just don't give a shit. They just grab whatever's cheapest when it comes to things like eggs.