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Written by Truth About Trade & Technology
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Tuesday, 24 March 2009 16:11 |
Feedstuffs Foodlinks
March 20, 2009
Federal and state legislation to increase in restricting the way livestock and poultry are grown.
(3/20/2009)
Rod Smith
The industrial activism movement "is coming at us like a freight train," it affects all of livestock and poultry production, it affects states with and without ballot initiatives and there will likely be federal and state legislation restricting the way livestock and poultry are grown, according to Chad Gregory, senior vice president of the United Egg Producers. He emphasized that the "freight train" analogy came from a cabinet secretary in the Obama Administration.
Gregory, speaking at the Midwest Poultry Federation's "Simmering Issues Workshop," discussed the aftermath of the passage of the Proposition 2 (Prop 2) ballot initiative in California last November and "what's next," and he said what's next will be even harder attacks by industrial activist groups such as the $120-million Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which has been emboldened by its victory in securing the passage of Prop 2.
Prop 2, which governed housing for farm animals, essentially ends almost all egg production in California in 2015 (Feedstuffs, Nov. 10, 62008) and then will force Californian consumers to import eggs and egg products from other states, if not from other countries.
Prop 2 also is an environmental nightmare, Gregory said, pointing to how, for California producers to adopt cage-free housing as required by the law and produce the same amount of eggs that they are now producing, 15 million more layers will be needed and 700,000 additional acres will be needed planted to corn and soybeans.
He said HSUS chief executive officer and president Wayne Pacelle has already encouraged the U.S. Congress to pass federal legislation modeled on Prop 2 and has threatened agriculture in Ohio that, "if you don't deal with us," HSUS will begin collecting signatures there for a Prop 2-like initiative on the 2010 Ohio ballot.
Gregory noted that the HSUS agenda involves stopping all food animal production in the U.S. -- leaving consumers only a choice of a vegetarian diet -- as well as ending all fishing and hunting, all zoos and all human-oriented health and wellbeing research that uses animals.
"If you don't think that can happen in the U.S., look to Europe," Gregory said in response to a question. He pointed to how the European Union was the largest beef exporter in the world 10 years ago and is today the largest beef importer in the world because of regulatory restrictions on the way animals are produced.
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