Animal activists seek to ‘End Factory Farming’ at first-ever conference

In an ironic twist, animal welfare activists looking for ways to knock what they call “factory farms” out of business gathered over the weekend at the same D.C.-area hotel where representatives of the animal agriculture industry met last spring to strategize on how to fend off just such attacks.

On a Westin Arlington podium where speakers at the Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) Summit conference in May censured animal activists as “extremists” who use “smoke, mirrors, and deception” to sway the public against legitimate animal uses, and as “terrorists” who destroy property and threaten the safety of the food supply, Farm Sanctuary founder Gene Baur stood to say that his group and others organized the “End Factory Farming” conference as part of their mission to combat “an attitude that commodifies sentient life and the natural world.”

In the same hall where Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas joked that in his native Dodge City “we shot a vegetarian last week,” and exhorted those in the beleaguered production agriculture industry to “stand up and defend yourselves and fight” for more legal and political protections, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia assured assembled animal advocates that although “agribusiness interests have too much influence,” and thus “the likelihood of substantial reform on animal agriculture through Congress is very, very low,” those interests “are no match for an informed and engaged public” whose “moral correctness” and continued advocacy “will eventually end factory farming.”

While May’s AAA Summit attendees heard Ted McKinney of Elanco Animal Health, a division of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, extoll large-scale animal production as the only efficient means by which to feed the world’s burgeoning population, last weekend’s speakers such as Elizabeth Kucinich of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Wenonah Hauter of Food and Water Watch, and Michigan farmer Lynn Henning outlined the health, environmental, social, economic, and ethical havoc they said the industry creates.

Whereas Aaron Putze of the Iowa Soybean Association lauded the wholesomeness of American beef, dairy, pork, poultry and eggs, physician and bestselling author Dr. Joel Fuhrman detailed his argument that eating animal products causes deadly ailments like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease—a belief echoed by Whole Foods Market co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey, who rolled out the store’s new plant-based nutrition and wellness programs.

In place of reassurances from hog farmer Tim Belstra and cattle rancher Debbie Lyons Blythe about their industry’s humane and respectful treatment of animals, veterinarian Dr. Holly Cheever of the New York State Humane Association described the “industrialized cruelty” and suffering she said is often ignored by the veterinary associations who recommend inhumane standard practices, and Nathan Runkle of Mercy for Animals condemned what he called the “rampant neglect and abuse” as well as the many “despicable” yet legal and accepted practices that his group works to document in undercover videos shot at large-scale animal farming facilities—videos that some state lawmakers supporting animal agriculture have attempted to criminalize with measures that would ban them.  

On perhaps the same microphone that Kelly Smith of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation used at the AAA Summit to warn about the clever legislative campaigns and richly-laden coffers of Wayne Pacelle, president of The Humane Society of the United States, Pacelle himself rallied the troops to fight ever harder on behalf of animals.

Presentations during the End Factory Farming weekend included such topics as “Environmental Degradation: Land, Water, and Air Pollution” and “Disease, Contamination, and Antibiotic Overuse” versus the AAA’s “The Truth about Sustainability: Debunking ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow,’” and “Making Safe, Affordable and Abundant [animal-derived] Food a Global Reality.”

At the “End Factory Farming” Friday buffet, braised chard, smoked lentils, and mushroom ravioli took the place of the gorgonzola cheese salad, pancetta bacon, and pollo al mattone, or “chicken cooked under a brick” served at the AAA’s awards luncheon.

“United We Eat” was the AAA Summit slogan, representing the industry’s demand that consumers retain the choice to dine on the animal products it provides. At the End Factory Farming conference, speakers urged a vegan diet as a crucial commitment for the sake of our “Health, Environment, and Farm Animals.”  

Billed as a “groundbreaking” first-ever conference focused on the alleged ills of factory farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), as they’re more officially known, the event nearly sold out with more than 300 attendees, according to Baur.

Sponsorship and funding came from The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Mercy for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Whole Foods Market, Compassion in World Farming, E-The Environmental Magazine, and more.

For upcoming articles about these two very different conferences, please visit Animal Policy Examiner again soon.

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