Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT)’s Post

Is the "small family farm" really what it seems? FACT was very pleased to a guest blog post from Thom Norman at FarmKind. He debunks the romanticized image of small farms, showing us the reality of industrial-scale animal agriculture that dominates U.S. food production. This highlights the need to face the truth about modern American agriculture and question the industry's misleading narratives.

We often read about how rural Americans and farmers are for Republicans and urban Americans are for Democrats. The truth, of course is more complicated than that. Many rural Americans and farmers are fed up with "The Crusching Power of Corporate Meat." These big industrial farming corporations have not helped rural farmers. They have helped themselves. We at FACT see many third or fourth generation farmers looking for a new way of farming, not just because it is more humane (even though that is super important), but because it is better for them financially. "The Department of Agriculture is rolling out rules to give teeth to the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, a law that is supposed to protect farmers and ranchers from collusion and abuse but has rarely been enforced." As this article points out, it isn't always about politics. It's important that whoever is in power listens to the real needs of the farmers, and not just assume that they will vote one way or another, and not just caters to the big guys because they have money to be better at lobbying.

FACT signed onto this important legislation supporting farmers who are leaving the factory farming system to adopt more humane methods of farming. Thank you ASPCA, Representatives Alma S. Adams and Jim McGovern, and Senator Cory Booker for introducing this legislation.

Civil Eats is an online media non-profit that does an amazing job highlighting the problems of our agriculture system, and suggesting alternatives. Today's article by Lisa Held again discusses the gathering of countries from around the world to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistance, and the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals. Unfortunately, the US is fighting efforts to seriously deal with this problem. FACT's Steve Roach is quoted throughout the article as is Senator Booker. Steve said "that on the international stage, he’s seen the U.S. “actively undermining” stronger policies time and time again." Senator Booker said: “Not only has the FDA been unwilling to use its legal authority to reduce the massive overuse of antibiotics on factory farms in the U.S., but the agency is now actively working to block international commitments to address antimicrobial resistance.” We at FACT will continue to work, with your help, to convince the FDA to take stronger measurers to change this broken and dangerous system.

Most Americans think of idyllic rural settings where animals roam on pasture when they think of farms. Sadly, this is not the case today. FarmKind has done important research, recently published in Forbes. This page on their website focuses on debunking the myth of the small farm.

This week's blog post by FACT's Steve Roach is a continuation of our post last week that focused on how the US is undermining international efforts to reduce death and sickness from antimicrobial resistance. Next week on September 26, the United Nations (UN) will convene the second High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with the aim of getting countries to make commitments to take steps to reduce the number of deaths and increased illnesses caused by the spread of drug-resistant germs. The U.S. government instead of pushing for strong international targets to reduce the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture has worked to weaken them. The U.S. could be a real leader when it comes to protecting public health around antibiotic resistance, but that would mean putting the interests of people ahead of the giant meat industry with all its wealth and political power. FACT will continue to push the U.S. government to become the leader it could be. 

Good article in Forbes about the problems of mega-farms, pointing out that in most cases these farms are not as efficient as they claim to be. The article starts with the story of one farm that instead of getting bigger, got smaller and reaped the benefits of being independent and growing food mostly without pesticides and raising animals in their natural settings. “I feel a lot more hope in what I’m doing now than what I’ve spent the last 30 years doing,” Watkins says.  He also worries about what will happen with fewer and fewer people growing fewer and fewer types of crops: “If we continue on this path, we really aren’t going to need small towns anymore.  The article goes on to talk about the changes needed to this system, from advocacy and policy changes, to individual changes. Many younger farmers are adopting regenerative practices and abandoning the industrial farming model. Consumers are looking for more choices, for food that is not raised on mega-farms. Read on to learn more.

There's a good article today from FoodPrint about the recent USDA label guidelines that we've been talking about at FACT. "The most important thing to understand is that the new guidelines are not rules, and they don’t provide definitions or standards for the claims that companies make on labels." There is often a lot of criticism that there are too many regulations out there. From what we have seen there are very few strict regulations in the food sector, and even when attempts are made to help consumers understand what they are buying, pressure from industrial agriculture often weakens those efforts. "That lack of enforcement is particularly glaring with antibiotic-related claims. While the rules around what companies can say about their antibiotic use practices are fairly tight — “no antibiotics ever,” for example, is actually supposed to mean no antibiotics were ever given to the animal — there’s no guarantee that the claim is accurate without testing and verification." We are working with allies to make these claims clearer and to urge the USDA to make rules that help make the food you buy more transparent. Read on for more details, and share it with others so that people understand all the complexities of this system.

This article in U.S. Right to Know hits on some of the key issues related to the overuse of antibiotics in food animals in the US. The international community has been trying to come up with targets for reducing antibiotic use in food animals, but the top meat producing countries, led by the US have been opposed to any such targets, and succeeded in blocking specific targets in the final declaration. "Steven Roach, who works on safe and healthy food at the Food Animal Concerns Trust, a campaign group in Chicago, Illinois, says the US has consistently tried to weaken international standards and recommendations on antibiotic use in agriculture. For example, in 2022 the Biden administration didn’t endorse a manifesto presented at an international ministerial conference on AMR in Muscat, Oman." Senator Cory Booker said: “Federal agencies have a troubling history of deferring to corporate interests on this issue, and I am very concerned about any role that the United States played in weakening international commitments to reduce antibiotic use in farm animals." Read on for more details: