GENE BAUR'S BLOG
-
Make Earth Day a Little Cooler for Animals
- Posted on 04.13.09
Related causes: Animals
People across the planet are taking steps to go “green” by changing light bulbs and driving habits. Yet with the unmistakable connections between factory farming and the destruction of our environment, the most effective change one can make for the earth is a change to a plant-based diet. With animal agriculture accounting for more dangerous greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector — making it one of the leading causes of climate change — there is no better time to act than right now.
On April 22, join Farm Sanctuary in encouraging people to go vegan for Earth Day at one of more than two dozen events around the country. Take this opportunity to encourage your friends, family and neighbors to go green for Earth Day by choosing a vegan diet for the day — or even better, to adopt a sustainable, plant-based diet for good. You can also raise awareness in your community about factory farming’s negative impact on the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil in whic...Read More -
Cracks in the Wall
- Posted on 04.08.09
Related causes: Animals
Our entrenched industrialized farming system needs to be reformed, both through combating inhumane and harmful practices, and through promoting better alternatives.
I recently visited Michigan State University (M.S.U.), a Land Grant institution with a long agricultural history. It was established in the mid 19th century and helped inspire President Abraham Lincoln to create the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the 1860s. Michigan State has done a lot to promote industrialized animal agriculture in recent decades, but there is something else very positive beginning to happen on campus. Students and volunteers have created a popular ten acre organic farm at M.S.U.. They produce fresh greens all year round, even during the freezing Michigan winter! The organic farm provides food on campus and it runs a Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) that has a long waiting list of customers hungry to invest.
From Michigan, I travelled to California and spent severa...Read More -
Disease
- Posted on 09.09.08
The United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) explicitly allows diseased animals to be slaughtered and used for human food. It has taken a “don’t look, don’t find” approach when it comes to potential human health hazardous. Amazingly, the Agency has even gone to court to fight to prevent animals from being tested for disease! And they recently won a case to prevent a slaughterhouse from testing cows for mad cow disease. Why would the U.S.D.A. and other agribusinesses work so hard to prevent animals from being tested for disease? I think they’re afraid of what they’d find.
-
Battle Wages on Proposition 2
- Posted on 09.07.08
Related causes: Animals
For decades, industrialized animal agriculture has acted with reckless self-entitlement, abusing animals and bullying those who challenge their routine cruelty. Factory farms mistreat workers, pollute the environment, threaten rural communities and public health, and they manipulate government institutions to avoid responsibility for the harms they cause.
Agribusiness also has quasi governmental institutions, such as the American Egg Board (AEB), which work with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to promote sales. The American Egg Board’s mission is marketing, and it is prohibited from “influencing government policy or action.” But the AEB has allocated millions of dollars to help oppose Proposition 2, a citizens’ initiative in California that seeks to ban some of the cruelest types of factory farm confinement - veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages. The Yes on Prop 2 campaign has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Egg Board ove...Read More
