Dr. Michael Fox: Animal Rights

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However, there's another side to the research question, too. Some people feel that no experiments should be done on animals. Now in my opinion that's a somewhat unrealistic stand . . . simply because there are cases in which such tests provide the only way of evaluating a new vaccine or drug that could save many lives, both animal and human. It can also be argued, though, that Western medicine in general, and biomedical research in particular, must begin to focus more on the rigorous study of health and disease prevention . . . rather than concentrating on after-the-fact therapy and the treatment of symptoms, and using animals to evaluate the results.

PLOWBOY: Isn't the question of disease-preventive care at the heart of your concern for animals on "factory farms", too?

FOX: It's certainly one facet of the problem. You see, these gigantic livestock operations — which produce most of the world's neat — often depend upon highly intensive animal confinement for their "efficiency". And the systems are actually pathogenic . . . that is, they encourage the development and spread of disease. In such farming, the animal — be it a veal calf, a chicken, a steer, a pig, or whatever — has its telos interrupted. Telos is a term denoting the intermeshing of the creature's intrinsic nature and its environment . . . and the stability of that complex interrelationship is a significant contributor to health.

The problem is somewhat analogous to the difficulty brought about by agricultural monocropping. In that case, the ecos — which thrives on diversity — is disrupted by huge plantings of a single crop, and a situation is created in which the corn and soybean breeders, for example, are hard put to come up with enough new resistant varieties to stay merely one season ahead of the rapidly adapting crop diseases.

And, at least partly as a result of the disruption of the telos, modern livestock farming is also becoming increasingly dependent upon environmental controls and costly drugs. In fact, millions are now spent on medications to treat or halt the spread of diseases that are largely brought about by the way the animals are being raised.

This state of affairs certainly helps the petrochemical and drug companies bring in big annual profits, but it doesn't actually much benefit the farmers or the consumers.

PLOWBOY: Are you saying that such corporations are intentionally promoting unsound husbandry in order to create a need for their medications?

FOX: Not at all . . . there's no conspiracy involved. In fact, I'm convinced that the people concerned actually believe that factory farming is the most efficient way to produce meat. And of course, they're all walking the corporate treadmill of having to bring in ever larger annual profits.

Unfortunately, American business in general seems to concentrate upon short-term goals and immediate returns on investments rather than on planning for future productivity and stability. And now that much of our farming — both vegetable and livestock — is run by factory rules, there's little planning for the future there, either. Why, the economic pressure on farmers today is such that most can't even afford to practice crop rotation. And without that sort of care, we're not farming. . . we're mining the topsoil!

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