Most of the time, I think the New York Times publishes opinions that are relatively well thought out.I may not agree with them, but a certain logic makes for a reasonable argument.Today’s editorial supporting California’s Prop 2, though, is shot through with fuzzy thinking and rendered by someone who’s tied up in the romance of the family farm as represented by Walton’s Mountain, a misty-eyed television program that first aired 37 years ago.
The editorial, “Standing, Stretching, Turning Around,” urges every state to enact similar laws that would ban gestation crates for hogs and battery cages for hens.
What set my teeth on edge was the writer’s humming the standard anti-farming mantra of the evils of modern agriculture.To quote the unsigned editorial, “The fact that such fundamental decencies have to be forced upon factory farming says a lot about its horrors.”
Can we take a giant step away from the term “factory farming?”It has become a convenient short-hand term for any farm over 40 acres that uses modern agriculture techniques.It covers farms owned and operated by large corporations as well as families that have seen the future of farming and expanded beyond the small spread owned by great grand dad.
The writer also misstated his (her?) case with a comment that “Americans are becoming increasingly aware of how and where food is raised.”I think the real problem is Americans are becoming increasingly unaware of where their food comes from and too many of them rely on misleading “research” reports from special interest groups like animal rights groups and the Pew Foundation with an avowed mission of ending large farming operations.
Another gross misrepresentation by the writer, who clearly hasn’t spent any time with a chicken, claimed Proposition 2 by “Reducing the concentration of animals will also help reduce the water and air pollution created by factory farms.”Giving a chicken a few more square feet will not reduce the amount of waste it produces.The real solution is to effectively collect those waste products and dispose of them in proper treatment facilities, an advantage of most large scale farming operations.
The vast, new collection of small family farms needed to produce our food and bring it to market at a reasonable price simply can’t afford the luxury of waste treatment facilities.The runoff created by millions of free range chickens into nearby streams might create serious problems unanticipated by unlearned urbanites wishing for a return to the warmth and romance of a Walton’s Mountain existence.
Bottom line:There are natural advantages and disadvantages to small family farms as well as large farms.Let’s start a debate about that instead of using the term “factory farm” as convenient shorthand for anything that might be or could be wrong with modern agriculture.
Comments?Email me at crjolley@msn.com