Farm Sanctuary and the conference attendees are seeking to change Americans’ perceptions about “farmed” animals and factory farming. As Farm Sanctuary’s website puts it, Factory farming is an attitude that regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit. In animal agriculture, this attitude has led to institutionalized animal cruelty, massive environmental destruction and resource depletion, and animal and human health risks.
Most Americans support anti-animal-cruelty laws, but these laws don’t cover farmed animals. Some states are even proposing laws to make it illegal to get the word out about abuse happening at factory farms.
The good news is that we can end factory farming – it will take personal choices and changes in our food production system, but awareness is key – most Americans do not know the toll that factory farming takes on our country.
For U.S. food production to shift away from factory farming, we all need to think about food in a new way. Right now, Americans eat twice the global average of meat every day, so switching to a diet with reduced or no meat can be a very hard sell. Small steps like promoting “Meatless Monday” can help, but education is the key: people need to understand the benefits of eating less meat in terms of their own health, public health, animals’ lives, our economy, and our environment.
Throughout the conference, we heard how advocates are building coalitions to find solutions; creating change in the marketplace; presenting diet as a tool for change; and discovering new ways to fight factory farming through our legal system. We were inspired by the overall message of optimism, and the power of activism.
And a reminder that each of us can make a huge difference with our daily food choices.
League of Women Voters
After Florida recently passed a new law to tighten voting regulations, the League of Women Voters spoke out and filed a lawsuit to stop these restrictions. In an October 10 story on NPR, Greg Allen reports that, “Among the changes: It reduces the time period groups have to turn in new voter registrations from 10 days to just two….Some of the law’s provisions tighten restrictions and possible penalties for groups that conduct voter registration drives” – like the League.
As the League Florida chapter’s President Deirdre McNabb says, “In essence, our government, certainly here in Florida, is passing laws and spending our taxpayer money to disenfranchise people who should be eligible to vote.”
Reporter Allen explains: “The League of Women Voters and other groups have gone to court to challenge provisions of Florida’s law – which they say violate the federal Voting Rights Act. Critics say restrictions on voter registration drives unfairly target minorities. They point to statistics that show blacks and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as whites to register through new voter drives.
“They say the law also harms minority participation in another way —by cutting —from 14 to 8— the days allocated for early voting. Although hours are extended each day, McNabb says, the changes reduce the opportunities to vote before Election Day. In 2008, more than half of black voters in Florida used early voting.”
The League is joined in its lawsuit by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. As Allen writes, “In a new study, the Brennan Center finds that more than a dozen states have adopted new voting rules that may present barriers to more than 5 million American voters.”
