Connecting The Dots and A Look At Prop 2

Some of this information may be redundant to many of you, but connecting  the dots requires a solid understanding of what HSUS is ultimately trying to accomplish-what they have accomplished, how they have accomplished it and an understanding of who their accomplices are.  A past article from Beef Magazine explains What Prop 2 Really Means To Ag?.   Also Chris Chinn's Explanation of Prop 2 and Prop B is excellent and understandable:

 Countering Farming Myths

Kevin and Chris Chinn felt strongly that the hog farm environment got a bad rap from activists, so three years ago they decided to build their new home within 100 yards of the swine lagoon adjacent to Chinn Hog Farm.

“We built our home next to the lagoon to show that we are not afraid to live there, and it is not a bad place to raise your family. We drink the same water and we breathe the same air as our neighbors,” she says.

The Chinn family also produced its own YouTube video, which has been active online for nearly two years now. “The Truth about Modern Pork Production” is a virtual tour of the family's hog farm, Chris says. It has resulted in more than 28,000 views.

“But because it shows a different side of the story and the truth about what a family farm really looks like, activists have complained that it is inappropriate content,” Chris adds. Now, to access the video, viewers must be over 18 years old and create a YouTube account.

“I want people to see what a normal farmer looks like, what an average day on the farm is like and that 99.99% of farms are like ours — clean and with good animal care,” she says.

Without the truth, falsehoods can prevail. For example, she says, social networking on the Internet was a key factor that led to the passage of Proposition 2 in California. “There were a lot of conversations on Facebook and on blogs where people were asking questions about animal welfare. The people who were answering the questions were not farmers and ranchers,” she observes.

A proposed initiative in Missouri to place limits on pet breeding could produce a lot of negative impact as many farmers' wives supplement farm income by breeding dogs, she notes. Although it starts out targeting dogs, it could end up being much more damaging than that. That's how Proposition 2 started out, Chris explains.

Now, a variety of state ballot initiatives are being proposed across the country to push back activists' idealistic notions of animal welfare. “A lot of people have misconceptions and think that the ballot initiatives will only hurt the big companies and corporations. But in reality, 96% of the farms in business today are run by families, so legislation like Proposition 2 could have a huge impact on family farmers and ranchers,” she points out.

It is an intense assault on agriculture. California farmers are still trying to figure out how the details of Proposition 2 will impact them. And, they now face a new ban on tail docking in dairy cattle and a proposed ban on the use of antibiotics in livestock.

It is a calculated plan. Proposition 2 won't become fully implemented until 2016. “That way, if the activists can get other states to cave in and pass similar initiatives, the states won't know what the true implications are until it is too late,” Chris warns.

The damage from such legislation could cripple the ability of U.S. farmers to feed their own country, and an increasingly hungry world.

Added costs to meet these types of regulations and anti-agriculture sentiments are two reasons why some large U.S. farms are expanding elsewhere, such as in Mexico and South America. More are sure to follow if the trend is not reversed, Chris says.

 More of Chris Chinn's Insight

Recent deductions by ag universities on how Prop 2 should be handled are emerging.  Is there something being over-looked?  Aren't  "actual, real, live, hardworking producers" going out of business while these on-going studies  are conversed, studied and pondered? This isn't an experiment to be performed on individuals willing and able to feed the world..  A forgotten link is the  survival of grassroots producers willing to feed the masses.  Sure, consumer confidence is important, but the survival and  protection of a small group of individuals willing to feed a growing world population currently moving towards 7 billion; 9 billion in the next 23 years, is being overlooked.  Have the individuals doing the projected studies visited the farms and ranches they are virtually studying? This is another problem within our own animal ag industries...a huge disconnect between academia and grassroots producers. 

Next time: A Look At Ballot Initiatives and How Animal Activists Are Using This Process To Reach Their Goal of Abolishing Animal Ag.