Faces of "Factory Farms"
Corporate agriculture. Land profiteers. Factory farms. CAFOs. Uncaring. Pundits of “big agriculture” espouse the downfall of our food system while pointing to greedy corporations. After all, they’re looking to only get rich from subsidies, have no pride in the craft of agriculture, abuse animals in horrific conditions and pour chemicals on the land in an effort to make more money. Right?
WRONG! The people of modern agriculture are the same types of folks you see in Charlotte’s Web – their barns just look different and a PDA has replaced that pitchfork. Modern day farmers share the same hopes and dreams of running a successful family business. They are entrepreneurs, scientists – and yes, businesspeople. Their children are raised on the same land, developing the same work ethic, as other family farms. And, these food producers are working to grow food, feed, fuel and fiber in a safe manner- usually with far more regulations than anyone in Charlotte’s Web could ever imagine.
Meet two of these “factory farmers” and judge with your own eyes and ears – I suspect you’ll see they care deeply about doing the right thing.
Mike Ver Steeg, Family Farmer [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhFnnO9uSX4]
Cannon Michael, Family Farmer [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZxWpf3HIEQ]
Farmers of today are survivors. Speaking of survivors, I want to share a glimpse from the heart from a young, beautiful woman that many would define as a “factory farmer.” She loves cows, moved from a small farm in the Netherlands to help manage a large dairy in the U.S. and is excited about “pulling her wedding dress out of the closet and dusting it off” in May. You see, she’s a survivor not only as a farmer – but also for beating skin cancer before she hit 30.
What cancer does to somebody like ME
One year, eleven months and somewhat days ago I got confronted with this awful disease. I can tell you, it wasn’t and is not funny…
After several surgeries, lots of pain and fear I had four weeks of chemo treatment for four hours in a row every day. After that we did 48 weeks of chemo shots, 3 times a week, with one of the most terrible chemical substances that people have invented. Things lasted a bit longer because we had to quit a couple of times (weeks) because my body or mind couldn’t handle it too well…
Cancer does a lot to people… So does the treatment of cancer…
It makes you angry.
Angry against the world, because every time you go to the hospital, the people that you meet are in their fifties. Where are all the young people??? Am I the only one?
Angry towards the people surrounding you. I doesn’t matter how hard they try, they can’t feel, understand or know what you feel! Even if they are by your side 24/7 in the hospital and at home, keep your hair up when you are puking your guts out in the toilet or when you do NOT want to say ANYTHING because you are to tired to the bone or when they hold you until the shaking has stopped…
Angry towards your friends, you thought they were there, but they are not
Angry towards you family, they do not deserve it, but to admit that to yourself only makes things worse
But most of all angry towards yourself
Because you just can’t understand why this had to happen
And if you could have changed it or prevented it!
And of course I am MAD because I thought I could change or adapt to anything-I could do everything and I didn’t NEED anybody…
Meet Leontien, another “factory farmer.” You can walk in her shoes by reading the complete note she wrote about her journey with cancer (grab a kleenex). My life’s work focuses on sharing the stories of people like Leontien, Mike and Cannon so that our society understands the connection between the farm gate and consumer plate. I detest “factory farm” and believe it’s an insult that’s equivalent to racially insensitive terms of previous decades.
By the way, I prefer the small farms of yesteryear. I was raised on one myself and wear the scars of farm family struggles. Yet reality is that we in agriculture are called to feed a population expected to double by 2050. Margins in production agriculture have driven farms to grow larger or become niched. I’m not going to judge or label a farm just because they farm 3000 acres or milk 3000 cows – just as I’m not going to judge the family who has found success in a niche market. Can you hold yourself to the same standard? There’s enough bashing happening with agriculture that we don’t need to do it internally. There is a need for all types of farms, as long as they are good operators.
My hope is that featuring these types of people will foster an understanding of the people behind our food plates – and maybe – just maybe – inspire more in agriculture to tell their story.
27 Comments
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Thank you so much for addressing the term “factory farm”. Many “factory farms” are family farms. We would be considered a factory farm but we live on the same site as our hog operation. There is no one who cares more about these hogs than my husband. If they need extra care he is with them all day long giving them the care they need.
The bottom line is we need to educate people that we do take very good care of our animals and yet we are a business.
Thanks for sharing your story, Wanda. The more we explain to people, the more we can help them!
Michele: Perhaps you could give us (consumers) an idea of where this “factory” farm came from and how it came to have such a perjorative (sp) meaning. Are there different sizes of farms and how does the #ag industry differentiate between them?
Thanks Michele. Always great info on your blog.
Hi Sheryl. Thanks for your questions. The “factory farm” terminology has been lauded by anti-ag groups such as HSUS and Sierra Club. I suspect it originated from larger farms having metal buildings and the significant equity position required to farm today. Regardless of its’ origins, it’s over-used and not fitting for most farmers I’ve ever met.
There are many different ways to define farms based upon size, management practices, types of operations, etc. USDA is one way of looking at the data and they say “ownership of the farm business is held by related individuals. Nearly all farms (97 percent in 2006) are family farms.” Typically USDA looks at small, medium and large farms. The greatest growth is in the small farms (mostly hobby) and large operations. There is concern about the declining middle, which is where most traditional farms would fall. See Economic Research Data at http://www.ers.usda.gov/ if you’d like more details.
As a consumer, I’d be curious about your thoughts on why progress on farms creates such concern. This is something that many farmers have asked me about. It’s hard for us to understand why progress in medicine, computers and most of society is O.K. – but it’s broad brushed as a bad idea for agriculture. Any insight you can provide on this would be appreciated.
Michele,
I didn’t hear anything in your two videos but vanilla pre-prepared press conference material that could be from ANY business.
If these folks have such “pride in the craft of agriculture”, do not “abuse animals in horrific conditions” or “pour chemicals on the land.” then why is there not a single picture of their actual operations? If they want to refute the label of #BigAg as misinformation, it seems the easiest way would be to show their operations to the world.
Having lived around rural farming and ranching communities, I know that there are many different types of farming methods and many different types of farmers. It is not the farmers I diferentiate between, they are all good peoplem, but the methods they use have different impact. Just like ANY other business. You can see the difference with your own eyes.
So why not follow up and show these same farmers’ operations on video to show us they are just like the folks in Charlotte’s web?
Hi Gus. Thanks for your comments. These farmers were talking with me – unprompted – and did the video as a favor. There’s no ‘vanilla pre-prepared press conference material’ – just them telling their story. If that’s not sufficient, then I don’t know what is.
As far as pictures of their operations, I talked with these folks at conferences. Both are award-winning farmers without anything to hide – but you’ll have to ask them about videos, photos, etc. I would suggest that consumers take responsibility to visit farms and have firsthand conversations. I’ve shot some videos to try to help with that. Different farmers do use different methods – and I’ve seen problems on “both sides” of the aisle. The point is that it’s not fair to label the PEOPLE with factory farming.
If you’d like to see videos of these types operations, there are many out there. For example, see Chris Chinn and their operation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy_0zsAkbg8.
I agree it is not fair to label people. If these folks are posting pictures of their animals and their operations, that goes a long way to show the public what they are all about.
In my mind, the “Factory Farms” are the ones where animals are treated just like any piece of machinery.
The farms that folks like myself (who are not vegans nor “anti-ag”, but concerned about concentration and consolidation in corporate agriculture, and all the effects that go with that) have a problem with, are the ones that feel the need for security fencing with razorwire, and would never show you a picture of the inside of their operation. Unfortunately, these are the types of operations that are beginning to dominate the marketplace. You certainly can’t tell me that Cargil, ADM, ConAg, Swift, Smithfield are “family farms” or that they are not operating Factory Farms. They contract out with some family-owned farms but they dictate the terms of their operations, and bankrupt the same family farms when they break those contracts. (See the effects of Pilgrims Pride bankruptcy on their contract family farmers)
Sorry,
Found the statistics I was looking for.
In 2007, 5,584 farms (0.25% of all farms) had combined revenues of >$83 BILLION (28% of ALL US farm revenues)
In 2007, 57,292 farms (2.6% of all farms) had combined revenues of >$177.5 BILLION (60% of ALL US farm revenues)
So you are right, that 97% of farms are family-owned but that less than 3% of farmers control almost 2/3 of the marketplace. That is a big change in the marketplace.
I know both of these farmers post a lot of photos of their farms through twitpic. I’m sure they would weclome your viewing those. I especially liked some of Cannon’s tomato harvest as I had no idea how that was done other than handpicking in my grandmom’s backyard.
I would love to see them. Post up the twitter feeds.
Dear Gus,
You can come to our dairy anytime! And yes we do have lot’s of pictures of our farm on our website and different other sites and i would love for you to go and watch them!
Thanks
Leontien
Love to see it! Can you post the link?
Hi Gus,
here it is:
http://www.fourleafcloverdairy.com
Have fun!
Leontien
Leontien,
Great looking farm! I really applaud you for your courage to get into the dairy business and it seems like true to your stated objectives, you are doing it the right way!
Around here in MN there are a lot of old dairy farmers going out of business or getting out of the dairy business at least. One co-worker who raises beef said once when talking about cows and asked if they were dairy, “What? I’ve got the farming disease but I’m not crazy.”
Again, congratulations on your operation and I wish you great success.
Thank you Gus, and if you are in the neighborhood, don’t be shy…
Leontien
Very interesting article. I applaud the effort to bring together consumers and farmers. This should be the real goal. I myself have used the term factory farms, mainly for lack of a better one, though I wish there was a better distinction not based on government cow-counting. However, I do say that most of the anti- CAFO speakers are only trying to make people take note of the fact that farms as we think of them from the past don’t often exist anymore, and to increase support for local farmers who do care about the animals- whether they farm 10 or 10,000 animals. Again, thank you for the post- not judging at face value is most important in this snap-judgement society.
Hi Shelley. Appreciate that perspective. You hit the nail on the head – this is about not making snap judgements based upon misinformation by agenda-driven activists. The best way to know what’s happening on a farm it to visit one – or at least talk to a farmer.
Thanks Michele,
I’ve fought the factory farm label in some of my comments on blogs. Your answer is the best I’ve seen. I’ll be sure to pass it on.
It seems “factory farm” started out as a prejorative with the release of abuse videos or other downsides like manure lagoons or odour complaints. Prior to that traffic, I don’t think farming methods and changes were in most peoples consciousness.
Once viewed, “factory” is a proper adjective, in my opinion, coming from manufacturing.
Food was taken for granted and typical consumer drive for low prices was applied to ag. If we consider we’ve all been complicite in squeezing the costs to the last reduction, farming is in a difficult position to respond to cost increasing animal welfare requests. That bind is not spoken of enough. It’s my understanding that livestock pricing can carry a loss/head for the family farmer.
I hope to hear every animal welfare request by consumers tied to a price. Then we can move together as a society. Not issue referendums to farmers while holding our dollars so tightly.
One P.S. Farmers, I want to see you condemn the practices and operators that should be condemned, not feel you need to buffer them to protect your industry. Integrity will be valued.
Thanks for sharing these videos Michele. I think it’s really important to communicate to the public that every farm, no matter what size, is run by people. And it’s very rare that those people don’t think of the well being of their land and their animals as their top priority.
However, even though 97% of farms are classified as “family farms” we can’t ignore the fact that many of those families are unfortunately being pressured by large food corps to adopt practices that are not necessarily in their best interest. Sure we should celebrate the technological advances in agriculture. Many of them have helped reduce the impact on the environment, such as GPS precision seeding and zero till. But when pressures rise to keep food cheap, that inevitably leads to compromises being made that aren’t always good for the environment, or for the farmer for that matter.
So while it’s important that Big Ag defend itself from unwarranted negative press, it’s also important that Big Ag doesn’t pretend that there aren’t any negative side effects to chemical dependent monocultures and overcrowded CAFOs. Not everybody is doing it, but let’s admit that it happens and work together to avoid the kinds of practices that gave rise to terminology like “factory farming” in the first place.
Gus…is google broken?
http://twitter.com/foodprovider
http://twitter.com/AGleader
http://www.fourleafcloverdairy.com/
Gee, thanks for the valuable searching insight. 🙂
It’s not letting me reply to Gus so I hope he sees this. The two farmers here that I mentioned have photos on the internet:
Mike’s can be found at http://twitpic.com/photos/foodprovider
Cannon’s are at http://twitpic.com/photos/agleader — and yes, I did mention the tomato harvest but I’m truly a fan of his cotton pics, afterall, I go by @JPlovesCOTTON on twitter!
Thanks, Janice.
I really enjoyed Cannon farms pictures, too. I also loved the tomato harvest pics. Less so, the cotton harvest, since it’s probably GMO cotton with the problematic BT genetics which has 95% of the US Market Share. That however, is not the fault of individual farmers, but the market dominance of GMO seed suppliers, and simple farm economics.
Mike’s pictures were also pretty good. I was very impressed with his organic manure processing and the fact that he reuses it as an input on his own farm. Way to go Mike! Not sure about no-till with GMO crops. There seem to be good and bad sides to that. I also noticed lots of close-ups of piglets, but not a lot of pics of the way the actual feeder pigs live. Would have liked to see more of those.
In any case, it is good to see these to know more about these and other farmers and their methods. Learning a lot.
Thanks, everyone.
For the person you say “loves cows,” does she love them enough to not take their babies away in order to steal their milk? Does she love them enough not to send the male calves to veal farms? Does she love them enough not to use them as machines to produce milk and then sell their bodies once they’re worn down?
Here’s a link to my family/factory farm!
http://blog.mahindrausa.com/
Check out the blog, hope you enjoy!
While many criticize agriculture the ability to talk to people is increased with social media. People can discount what is said and continue to blow it off or can listen and see from the people themselves what is happening on farms. “Big ag” is a personal view – have been told my 10 rabbits and a chicken (a few months ago) was big ag – so I suppose with an expanded flock, more rabbits, seedlings started etc it’s a “factory farm” now. Most have a different perspective but even critics who say they support small farms, and more small/local farms are needed aren’t truly willing, in most cases, to financially support it. Agriculture is diverse – while grains, cotton, cattle, hogs & chicken get the public there’s many also farming aquaculture, rabbits, sheep, goats, herbs, orchards and so much more! Take time to listen to farmers, learn and see what real farmers say. It’s easier than ever because of technology. You’ll learn not all dairy cows are black and white; some livestock is endangered; donkeys are lethal but non-toxic predator control and quite a bit more about life in rural areas.