Dr. Michael Fox: Animal Rights

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And although we don't know how humans might be affected by incorporating such flesh into their diets over the years, we do already know what some of the effects are on the chickens themselves. We've seen, for instance, a 5% to 10% decrease in fertility among broiler breeder stock.

PLOWBOY: To borrow Barbara Ward's "spaceship earth" analogy, it seems that after all these thousands of years, humankind is finally able to reach the console of this ship we're traveling on . . . and we're merrily pushing every button in sight, although we don't yet know what any of them will do!

FOX: And yet there are many people in power who seem to oppose any call for caution. Take a look at this article in Parity magazine, for instance. After attacking me in the nicest way — saying that my degrees are phony and all kinds of libelous stuff — the piece concludes (in an attempt, I suppose, to warn readers that even "absurd" beliefs can become accepted) with this line: " . . . is the notion of animal rights any more preposterous than the idea that DDT kills?"

Worse yet, as benighted as that attitude would seem to many folks, it's pretty much in keeping with some of the actions being taken by our current administration. Were you aware, for example, that the State Department is taking steps to remove all restrictions on the exportation — to Third World countries — of human drugs and agrichemicals that are banned in this nation? The firms would have to provide only a minimum of information about the potential hazards of the substances, too . . . and they claim that the loosening of regulations is essential if they're to compete with foreign manufacturers.

PLOWBOY: But those dangerous agricultural chemicals aren't going to be used to grow black beans, say, for the population of the country that buys the poisons. They're going to be used to grow the high-profit export crops that will wind up, drenched with residues of substances that are illegal to use here, on our supermarket shelves . . . where they'll often compete with goods grown, without those chemicals, by U.S. farmers!

FOX: Yes, and the fact is that the needs of the American farmers are consistently ignored by those groups that are supposed to represent them. After all, the American Farm Bureau and the USDA are essentially branches of — or fronts for — agribusiness interests. Now I suppose it would be perfectly acceptable, and even right, for the USDA to provide representation for agribusiness interests, but the agency should also represent the small independent farmer. Unfortunately, the powers that be in this administration seem to feel that the family farm — the "mom and pop" operation — is a kind of anachronism that ought to be eliminated.

PLOWBOY: I think their usual inference is that small farms aren't "real" . . . that they represent a sort of self-indulgent isolationism rather than "serious" productive agriculture.

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