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But our mother country is doing it
By Trent Loos As a kid, my favorite comeback to my mother was always "but William is doing it." Her canned response was always "If William jumps off a bridge, are you going to follow him?" I think it is time that my Uncle gets to hear my mom's speech. Of course, I am talking Uncle Sam. Every time we propose increasing regulations on our nation's resource providers, it seems to be because the European Union (EU) is doing it. The latest that caught my attention is a proposed ballot measure in the State of California in November 2008. A group of national organizations that want to abolish animal agriculture are seeking to use California as a precedent-setting state, in order to ban cages in the egg laying industry. Of course, they remind us that the EU has enacted a law that will ban caged hens in the year 2012. Since the EU-27 is a global leader in unnecessary regulations in food production, I fail to understand why we want to be like them in any manner at all. This is a country that rejects technologies that would assist in reducing our footprint on the planet and then creates laws to limit emissions. To be exact, as a direct result of the EU's rejection of biotechnology in crops and livestock, they are leaving a larger footprint than necessary. Several examples include: estrogen-based efficiencies gained in meat production; and modern livestock facilities that improve welfare; and gains in converting feed to human consumable products. The industry is in a state of complete run-away and is headed for using more imported meat than it produces. It is not only milk, meat and eggs that are a problem. Ninety percent of all vegetables consumed are imported. Suddenly, EU officials are beginning to question food miles. Simply put, food miles are the measure of the distance a food travels from field to plate. Agriculture and food now account for nearly 30 percent of goods transported on the roads in the EU. This travel adds substantially to the carbon dioxide emissions that are contributing to climate change--which is why food miles matter. A new report, by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), says that food miles rose by 15 percent between 1992 and 2002. The amount of food being flown into the UK doubled in the 1990s and is predicted to rise further each year. Figures just released give a serious pointer to just how dependent the UK is now becoming on food imports, especially red meat and poultry. HM Revenue and Customs reckons that in the first nine months of this year imports of beef totalled 176,289 tons, an increase of more than 4,000 tons on the same period of 2006. In the first three quarters of this year, the UK imported 95,496 tons of sheep meat. This was up by over 4,000 tons in the year. Much the same holds true for the pig industry where, over that first nine months, exports struggled to reach 78,000 tons while imports soared to 332,739 tons. The trade deficit on this front has now increased from 155,000 tons to almost 160,000 tons. The import figures show that, in the first nine months of this year, the UK sucked in no less than 214,515 tons of chicken and turkey from a variety of sources around the world. That represents an increase of 26,000 tons. Meanwhile, exports from the UK fell by 9,000 tons to 270,000 tons, which is down by 23,000 tons for the same period just two years ago. Last week, EU agriculture ministers unanimously supported the European Commission's proposal to remove tariffs put in place on all cereal imports--except oats--from December until June 30, 2008. The flawed argument for increased welfare in the egg laying industry isn't being proven. In fact, every time there is an outbreak of Avian Influenza, the government orders all free-range birds inside. Why? Confinement is the best measure for protecting the birds from the disease. In fact, Dr. Joy Mensch at the University of California-Davis looked into the animal welfare situation, since the EU began converting hens to cage free systems in 2004, and found two key results: --During their roughly two-year laying life, cage-free hens die at more than twice the rate of caged hens, likely the result of increased exposure to one another and to their own manure. --Cage-free hens suffer high rates of broken bones--67 percent, in one survey. In most modern facilities, laying hens suffer from osteoporosis, Mench said, and they're easily injured while jumping around a cage-free barn. At some point, someone will need to take a long hard look at the history of unnessecery food regulations. In fact, I can make a very good argument that it all began in Europe in 1939 with the very first Animal Rights Law passed by the National Socialist Party. It was, indeed, Hilter's regime that first put the value of food animals above that of humans beings. I thought we had repeatedly rejected his notion of the elitist view of life but, instead, it seems that we killed the messager and continued to enact his policies. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. Date: 12/6/07
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