Pig Business Takes Factory Farming Before Congress

Pig Business is descending upon Capitol Hill to get the message across: People “want food from farms not factories.” On March 9th, the documentary will be presented by Center for Food Safety, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and a host of other organizations.

The public is welcome to attend and encouraged to invite their senators and congressmen to take part. Tracy Worcester, the director of Pig Business, will be one of the many speakers at the screening.

Smithfield Foods is the focus of the documentary due to their worldwide dominance of the factory pig farm industry. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. describes (pdf) how, in North Carolina, “Smithfield controls 85 percent of hog production in the state, and every factory that is built gets rid of 10 traditional family farmers.”

All of the important issues are present, from animal welfare to environmental and health impacts. In a conversation with Tracy, she stressed such impacts like the outrageous percentage of antibiotics used due to factory farm operations, a topic recently written about by Change.org’s Jessica Belsky.

The effect has been likened to a corporate takeover of local farms. Tom Garrett of the Animal Welfare Institute explains in the documentary: “What we have is the application of the industrial systems that were designed to build cars and build machines to living creatures.”

Pig Business explores how Smithfield Foods has affected Poland with plans of expansion across the European Union and into the United Kingdom. Since Poland didn't roll out the welcome wagon, Smithfield set their sights on the more accommodating Romania. While the U.K. has strict animal welfare standards that are above those of the U.S. and E.U., meat from these countries are still allowed to be imported. In effect, the U.K. is openly supporting industry practices that are illegal within the country, including gestation crates.

Tracy told me that the Common Agricultural Policy in Europe “has been responsible for undermining small scale family farms” and the legislative changes needed are similar to what Americans have been demanding in the U.S.

The first objective of CAP, according to Article 33 of the European Community treaty is “to increase agricultural productivity by promoting technical progress and by ensuring the rational development of agricultural production and the optimum utilisation of the factors of production, in particular labour.” Sounds like an obvious push toward factory farms to me.

If you are unable to attend the screening in D.C., the entire documentary is available online. You can also sign the petition telling Smithfield Foods to honor their own commitment to end the use of gestation crates.

Photo Credit: Baileynorwoodrocks