The Locavore-Animal Rights Cold War

Posted Sat, 11/27/2010 - 20:46 by Melissa

People often ask me why I'm still so rankled by veganism despite having given it up long ago. Unfortunately it's not veganism that gets me fired up, but more troubling political issues at the animal rights heart of the vegan movement. Not long after I stopped being vegan,  I got involved with agriculture. I saw the makings of a cold war between the locavores and the animal rights groups and became troubled by it. Animal rights groups like the Humane Society of the United States and PETA pull in substantial amounts of donations and therefore exert some political clout. They get these donations by pretending to go after factory farms, but in reality small farms are also in the crosshairs. They don't admit this much and publicly don't want to admit it because the general public tends to be sympathetic to small farms.

This year, a history professor, James McWilliams, came out with an anti-locavore book called Just Food. Laughably, I saw some "conservative" outlets endorse the book, probably because of the anti-elite sentiment so tragically beloved by Palinites and their ilk. They probably didn't read it, since the ultimate point of that book is that locavores are stupid because really it's not Chilean strawberries, but meat, that is at the root of all problems. Despite not being an economist*, McWilliams frames his arguments as being all about economic rationality. But I saw right through it from the beginning and it's quite obvious from his recent animal rights posts at the Atlantic that his real beef with locavores is their use of animals. Notice that's not on the jacket of his book.

Can one be locavore and disavow all use of domestic animals? Yes, there are a few small farms practicing veganic agriculture (it's telling that one of this method's main advocates has written a book now called Meat: A Benign Extravagance), but they are few and far between. Because they are so unusual, there is little data on how productive they actually are. Much of the fertilizer used on farms comes from animals and if you want low-impact pest control, hunting is a good way to do it. Not to mention the dietary challenge of being vegan and local in very cold climates.

Animal rights groups also rely on videos of cruelty on farms to win converts. These become less effective on people who have actually been to farms. Animal rights groups rely on people being disconnected from farming and from agrarian traditions. But unfortunately for them, these are being revived. Things have been coming to a head recently with animal rights groups attacking backyard chicken-keepers and DIY turkey slaughter. I love it when people show their true colors— that it's not Smithfield farms they are after, but all farms that use animals**. Often the strategy is to divert: when you talk about soy, parrot back that most soy goes into livestock feed. It isn't until activists are cornered that they admit their true agenda, which is to eliminate all domesticated animal use from lab rats to riding horses to pet dogs to the turkey on your table.

It scares me because I feel that agrarian traditions are beset on both sides by conservatives*** who want their right to munch on their McTroglodyte burgers without worrying about what that means and the leftist movement to make such traditions difficult/illegal, either intentionally in the case of animal-rights activists or unintentionally in the case of the average land-alienated urban liberal.

Why should we care? In my view it's because every good farm is so valuable in preserving the health of humans, animals, and the land holistically. What does it take to make people understand this? 

I've been interested in following the reaction towards A Vegan No More, a post by a woman who left veganism for health reasons:

While my original choice to be a vegan stemmed from the always noble impulse to do the right thing and be as compassionate as possible, it was a mistake and a choice I should never have made. If I had done my research and actually asked the hard questions from the beginning instead of letting the graphic images of factory farms guide me, I would have saved myself 3 years of misguided efforts as well as the deterioration of my physical and emotional health.

What can we do to prevent this? I think engaging people in producing food is the answer. It's a real threat for animal rightists and they know it.

Danish backyard chickens

*nearly every Animal Rightist on the internet fancies themselves an agricultural economist and parrots the simplistic and de-localized idea that animal agriculture is inefficient.

**This isn't to omit the outright terrorism that animal rightists inflict on scientists

*** I shudder to use that word to describe people who obviously care very little for conserving anything

Comments

This is a good post. We are

by Scotlyn (not verified) - 01/03/2011 - 12:07

This is a good post. We are farmers who try to feed our family at least partially on our own production (own pork, own lamb, own potatoes/veggies/fruit). We also barter own pork and lamb for locally caught/hunted fish and venison when we can. It is hard, even for us, to be completely self-sufficient, although there are those heady, non-buying days in August...

Politically, the strength of the "veganism will save the environment" crusade puzzles and annoys me. Our farm is not suitable for tillage, but is ideal for keeping stock, with some small patches of fruit trees and some greenhouse set-aside for veg. It is hilly, so not suitable for machinery. We do not require any "poisons" or oil-derived fertilisers for production purposes. Our soil is continually being enriched, and is biologically very active. We also share our acres with plenty of wildlife, including pheasants, cranes, swallows, crows, thrushes, robins, and many other types of birds, badgers, foxes, otters, assorted rodents and more - these make ample use of thick hedgerows of native trees and a riverbank we like to keep pretty wild. We are occasionally visited by deer. All of these happily co-exist with our flocks and with ourselves. Our style of farming is the very opposite of either the CAFO model, or the monocrop-biological-desert model. Such animals as die for our food have a happy life first, being well provided with food, water, shelter and healthcare, and enjoying ample living space in the company of their peers.

We saw the work of PETA first hand recently when they released 5,000 mink from a mink farm one mile up the river from us. Such releases have a huge destructive effect on local wildlife, and appear to be the work of pure ignorance (this action does not serve the mink either - most who are not rounded up again will starve). We believe that if the goal was really to shut down this farm, the activists would have done well to take photographs and water samples and present them to the local health authorities who have the power to shut the farm down or modify its operating conditions. As it stands, this chapter of PETA lost all local credibility, while introducing a vicious, non-native killer to the local river and countryside.

Hallelujah Melissa for this

by Angela (not verified) - 12/02/2010 - 23:58

Hallelujah Melissa for this post. PeTA and HSUS are not the organizations they pretend to be to the general public, especially the school-age children they recruit with marketing materials. The farmers of North America need to join forces with the responsible dog, cat, horse, etc. breeders, who are also targets of PeTA/HSUS' agenda.

It's a bit of a tangent, but here's a sane post on the "adopt don't buy" propaganda that these organizations have been pushing:
http://talentedanimals.com/blog/?p=389

Love your blog, it's in my RSS reader!

Your idea of a "conservative"

by Nicole (not verified) - 12/01/2010 - 06:41

Your idea of a "conservative" is a bit odd.

The farmers I buy from in the Shenandoah Valley are church goers with conservative values. Many that buy from them are also. They do not, however, like "McTroglodyte" burgers any more than you.

The truth is that there are plenty of rural and working class that vote left and could not care less where their food comes from as long as it's cheap. There are a lot of pretty well-to-do liberal middle class folks that are all for the Food Safety bill and are terrified of farm produce and raw milk.

This is not even remotely about conservative or liberal.

I meant the majority of the

by Melissa - 12/01/2010 - 09:10

I meant the majority of the "conservative" movement, which is afflicted with misguided love for big business. I consider myself a conservative, but a conservative interested in actually conserving things :)

Things have been coming to a

by NorCal Cazadora (not verified) - 11/30/2010 - 11:30

Things have been coming to a head recently with animal rights groups attacking backyard chicken-keepers and DIY turkey slaughter.

I think this is more than the function of showing true colors; what it really reflects is that they are freaking out because their propaganda hasn't led the public to what (to them) is the obvious solution of veganism. The fact that people learn what's wrong with factory farming and then turn to local/sustainable/free-range and/or hunting is NOT what they planned. Heh heh heh.

They just don't get that humans really are omnivores and many of us are willing to pay more or work harder to eat it in a more morally sound way, rather than just giving it up because it's "easier."

Nice post, Melissa. I missed it during my Thanksgiving week hunting extravaganza, but I'm glad I caught up with it.

I am a vegan who is concerned

by vegangirl (not verified) - 11/29/2010 - 17:24

I am a vegan who is concerned with animal cruelty. I have nothing against the concept of hunting or buying grassfed. I just take issue with factory farming.

I don't think that confinement is a myth. I've seen many pictures and video footage of what I believe to be cruel confinement. It seems odd that PETA would be able to get that footage if it wasn't really happening, you know? With the large volume of meat I see in the restaurants and grocery stores I have a hard time believing that all those animals are being ethically treated. The profit motive is just too high.

But if you have evidence to the contrary, please point me to some links so I can read more about it. I'm always open to the other side. Thanks

I don't doubt that PETA and

by NorCal Cazadora (not verified) - 11/30/2010 - 11:23

I don't doubt that PETA and HSUS videos are real. But I do have reason to believe that the videos they hold up as exposes of whole industries are actually videos of outliers.

The example I follow closely is the high-fence hunting debate - I've been to a high-fence ranch that looks nothing like the HSUS video.) Such videos really change public perceptions, which is of course why those organizations use them. It's a lot like ... politics.

Confinement is not a myth.

by Melissa - 11/29/2010 - 23:12

Confinement is not a myth. Bad farms exist and they do terrible things to animals.

But the AR solution is to never eat meat rather than to buy from good ones.

Like most political issues,

by haig (not verified) - 11/28/2010 - 15:20

Like most political issues, the people at the ends of the left-right continuum are, epistemologically, more alike than they realize. Their outrage and perceived injustices are emotional reactions based on biased moral tastes, not rational thought. I like 'paleo' thinking because, at the core, it is (or should be) just an extension of enlightenment era reason and empiricism, with a strong foundation in an evolutionary framework to guide our worldviews.

So we've got the political right somewhat on our side with this issue, but for all the wrong reasons. Then we've got the left, who I normally self-identify with more so than the right, acting like religious dogmatists persecuting the sinful meat eaters. The parallels become more striking considering Melissa's astute observations that many of these animal rights activists are operating under the guise of environmentalism and sustainability, just as insidiously as the intelligent design activists claiming to not be influenced by religion, only wanting equal time for teaching other sides of the evolution 'controversy'.

Woe is me, what is a level-headed paleo guy or gal to do? I used to think that there wasn't much left to do with my Paleo hobby since learning how to eat, exercise, and live properly; how naive. I guess I now have to start a new chapter in living paleo: defending it.

Re: "So we've got the

by Charlotte (not verified) - 11/29/2010 - 12:00

Re: "So we've got the political right somewhat on our side with this issue, but for all the wrong reasons. Then we've got the left, who I normally self-identify with more so than the right, acting like religious dogmatists persecuting the sinful meat eaters."

I could not have said it better myself. Here in PA there there is a strong locavore movement. I live in Philly and would consider myself just left of center. It's so funny when I go to locavore shin digs right outside of the city and rub elbows with the Amish and other conservatives and we all make nice!

I find the more you know

by Gene (not verified) - 11/28/2010 - 12:43

I find the more you know about where your animal comes from and how it's raised the faster it is to root out the zealot as opposed to the merely concerned. Once you blow up their confinement and 10 lbs of feed arguments they usually can only revert to "well, it's just wrong."

Great post Melissa. I tend to

by Barefoot superhero (not verified) - 11/28/2010 - 07:25

Great post Melissa. I tend to avoid political issues as these because they
Are depressing and mentally exhausting. That being said, I'm more motivated than ever to continue promoting local farmers who humanely raise their heritage breeds on a grassy pasture. If we continue to support these farms, we support what we believe in and ensure they succeed economically. Most people, despite political affliction, love fresh meats & produce from their farmers markets and local farmers (at least this is my belief that allows me to see the world as more united and moving in a more positive direction).