Remember Proposition 2 in California, where voters approved a new law that improved the standards under which farm animals are confined? Similar scenarios have popped up in Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Maine, Colorado and Oregon, but Ohio had other plans. Instead of ensuring that their collective voices will be heard on issues pertaining to the treatment of livestock, this week voters in Ohio opted for a constitutional measure that will place the decision making power with a 13-member board instead. The board, according to Alan Johnson of The Columbus Dispatch, "would have far-reaching powers to set standards for livestock and poultry care, food safety, supply and availability, disease prevention, farm management and animal well-being. It would have minimal legislative oversight."

Critics question what place the board has in the Ohio Constitution, along with only two other boards: the Board of Education and the Board of Workers Compensation. They also point to the hastiness of the issue's navigation through the legislature — immediately following the Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS) announcement to move forward in the state with a ballot initiative to set minimum space allotments for confined animals.

American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman calls it a victory for farmers, but HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle calls it a dirty trick on the part of agriculture giants. What do you call it?    

Here at MOTHER EARTH NEWS, we have chickens on the brain. First, we’re hatching dozens of eggs as part of our Community Chickens project, and there’s also our recent feature,  Raising Chickens for Meat, a fantastic how-to article on broiler chickens by SARE communications specialist Gwen Roland. In it, Roland discusses the benefits of raising your own table birds: lower price, better flavor and the satisfaction of avoiding factory-farmed meat. 

We know a lot of you raise chickens for superior eggs, but how many of you raise broilers? Is the thought of butchering your own birds too macabre? Let us know by posting a comment below.

Photo by iStockphoto/Eric Delmar

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking that we’re overly critical of factory farms, take a moment to read this nauseating profile of Smithfield Foods’ hog farms from Rolling Stone magazine. 

Author Jeff Tietz reports that “Smithfield estimates that its total sales will reach $11.4 billion this year. So prodigious is its fecal waste, however, that if the company treated its effluvia as big-city governments do — even if it came marginally close to that standard — it would lose money.” That’s a lot of poop, people. 

The article goes on to tell about farms littered with pig carcasses (as many as ten percent of factory-farm hogs die before slaughter due to the conditions in which they live, according to one study), and about people succumbing to the fumes from hog waste lagoons. Lagoons, which, according to Tietz, contain a combination of toxic substances such as ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, phosphorous, nitrates and heavy metals (not to mention  your typical gut-wrenchers: salmonella, cryptosporidium, streptocolli and giardia). 

If, like any good capitalist, you want to send Smithfield a message by avoiding its products, here’s a list of brands that sell their meat. What is Paula Deen thinking, ya’ll?

Photo by iStockphoto/Bruce Works

ISTOCKPHOTO/LILLIDAY

Look out filthy, disease-ridden factory farms: There’s a new kid in town. An organization has surfaced to restore law and order, Wyatt Earp/Dodge City-style. 

The Center to Expose and Close Animal Factories (CECAF) was launched April 30, with the objective to “achieve safe, sensible, and sustainable farming and ranching in America through policy development, public education, corporate pressure, community forums and advocacy partnerships.” The launch of this group couldn’t be more appropriate, considering that a Smithfield Foods swine operation is rumored to be ground zero in the recent H1N1 swine flu outbreak. 

Attorneys and co-founders Charlie Speer and Richard Middleton plan to use the experience they gained from the more than 300 lawsuits they helped bring against industrial agriculture giants to mobilize communities in opposition of factory farms, which it says endangers the health of both humans and the environment. With an armory of regulatory, legal and legislative tools, CECAF is on a mission to end the inhumane and dangerous practices of confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.   

Don't forget to sign up to receive e-mail updates on CECAF's progress. 

Let’s address the elephant (or should I say “pig”) in the room: Across the globe, illness is spreading due to completely avoidable circumstances. The link between factory farms and H1N1 is clear. While no one can blame the hog industry for asking the World Health Organization to change the name of the illness to H1N1 (the virus contains swine, avian and human components), I have a really hard time not blaming them for the current epidemic, as well as each and every one of those deaths.   

In fact, some believe the virus can be traced directly to a Smithfield Foods hog farm. Read more on the topic in this piece, “Swine Flu Outbreak Could Be Linked to Smithfield Factory Farms” from Grist. 

A familiar scene: You’re standing at the refrigerated case in the supermarket, staring at a carton of eggs and trying your best to remember if it was “free range” or “cage free” that most benefitted the birds and produced the healthiest eggs. Good news: Sustainable Table has created a handy wallet-size reference card to eliminate the confusion surrounding the multitude of meat label claims we’re faced with these days. Just print and fold the card, and be sure to have it with you when grocery shopping to help you decipher the true meaning behind claims like natural, hormone-free, artisan, grass-fed and many more. 

Not sure what the label “biodynamic” means, if anything? Just whip out your glossary card and decide for sure if it truly is a premium product that’s worth that premium price tag.  

Happy shopping!

DON BAYLEY/ISTOCKPHOTO

OK, we know all about the genetically engineered corn, rice and soybeans, but a GE cow? It’s true, the FDA is taking public comment on the regulation of altering animal DNA in an attempt to increase their resistance to diseases such as BSE and produce healthier food products, such as meat with increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids. That doesn’t sound that bad, does it? But wait, that’s not all: Scientists also want to alter animals’ genetics to make them more susceptible to diseases that affect humans (such as cancer) for the purpose of research. How about a hypoallergenic pet? That’s also on the table. Need an organ transplant? We’ll have an animal that’s been engineered for that, too. They’re even wanting animals to produce human pharmaceuticals such as insulin. 

If these animals are approved for the food system (they’re not, yet), the FDA states plainly that it will not be required to label the products that contain them. 

Read more about the proposal and make your comments here.  

The battle has begun: On August 13 the organization known as Yes on Prop 2 — Californians for Humane Farms filed a suit in federal district court against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the American Egg Board (AEB) for what they call the “unlawful expenditure of $3 million in federal funds.” 

Proposition 2 is a ballot initiative in California to outlaw extreme confinement of livestock, such as gestation crates for swine or battery cages for poultry, to be voted on this November. The trouble began when the Humane Society of the United States found that the AEB approved the $3 million in checkoff funds to fight the initiative. Because it’s illegal to use checkoff funds for political purposes (they are essentially taxes collected from livestock producers to fund research, education and marketing of a particular commodity), the AEB and USDA claim that their use of the funds is to educate Californians about current farming practices. That’s not what internal documents obtained by the Humane Society indicated, however.

Read the press release from the Humane Society here, and details about the situation along with correspondence between the Humane Society and the USDA/AEB here.

I guess we’ll see what the judge has to say.