Kristof Editorial

Nicholas Kristof, who is writing from Yamhill, Or (which is just up the road), wrote an editorial about animal rights, and deals with his own hypocrisy (although unapologetically) around eating meat and caring about the treatment of animals. He made mention of Prop 2 in California which would ban factory farming methods. I haven't read the proposition so I don't know exactly what that would mean, as factory farming can mean a plethora of things. But the fact that this bill is up in California, where to take an old GM mantra, "As goes California, so goes America." California, being one of the largest economies in the world, creates changes that ripple outside of its borders. They are often on the leading edge of progressive social policies (and a few regressive ones as well). If Prop 2 passes it can't help but to have a major impact on animal treatment both within and outside the state. California is one of the largest producers of cheese and milk in the country, and has it's fair share of metropolitan sized feedlots. It would seem that this would increase the price of these animal based products, and actually bring the consumer price closer to the real world costs of producing them (externalization of pollution costs, eg). The Humane Society is sponsoring this prop.

Back to the Kristof editorial, the fact that an editorial in the New York Times would advocate the humane treatment of our food animals shows that the animal rights and welfare movement is at least having some impact. I don't think even 5 years ago that this would have been possible.

I haven't seen any polling on this to see its likelihood of passage, but I'm guessing with a well-coordinated campaign this has a real chance of passing. It has a long list of endorsements; business, consumer, political, and celebrity. As my last post about teaching animals and society showed, presenting people with the real way in which our food is produced will cause people to take action to change their consumption patterns. It may also prove to push people to vote to change the methods of the brutal and inhumane factory farming system. In California all they have to do is mark yes on Prop 2, and human health, animals, and the environment will all benefit.

http://www.humanecalifornia.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31kristof.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

UPDATE:

A field poll released on 7/22 found that with a basic description of Prop 2, 63% of people had a positive view of it while 24% had a negative view. Without a doubt the meat and dairy industry are going to dump millions of dollars to fight this proposition, most likely playing the "this is going to cost you at the grocery store" line, but it's a going to be a hard sale. "We want to continue to torture and mistreat animals" is a tough line to take. It looks like this has a real shot at passage.