BAIT AND SWITCH
The PORK Checkoff Report is the official mouthpiece of the American pork industry. It's funded by a mandatory tax on pigs.
In the latest issue, an article titled "When Words Aren't Enough," it lauds the public relations value of getting people to visit pigs. This is all part of the "We Care" messaging campaign, the latest public relations push to get Americans to fall in love with factory farms. The verbiage uses the word "sustainable" like it invented the term and is the exclusive arbiter of its meaning.
Interestingly, the article has 3 accompanying pictures. Two pictures are on-farm with the farmer among his pigs in a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO). Neither picture includes visitors or onlookers, the whole point of the article. Both pictures clearly show confined hogs in an anti-pig environment--slatted floors, filthy, smelly, crowded.
The third picture, however, shows other people. And guess the context. It's a sow in a well-bedded luxurious pen with her litter of piggies. Oh, so sweet. The farmer proudly leans on the pen and explains things to the children crowded around. According to the caption, he tells these "young students about how pigs are cared for on the farm."
I wonder if he tells them that this is a charade? Does he tell them that out at his farm the pigs have no warm, soft bedding, but live their entire lives on concrete slats? Does he tell them the luxurious pen the children see is nothing like the sow has back at the farm, where she's penned in a crate her entire life, a crate so small she can't even turn around? Of course not. This is classic bait and switch, where folks see and hear one promise but the truth is completely different.
And what are the big statistics that show these CAFO pig farmers care about sustainability? Well, "more than 71,000 individuals are Pork Quality Assurance Plus (PQA Plus) certified, representing roughly 85 percent of the U.S. pork production." Uh, Polyface is not certified, which of course means we don't care about factory farm sustainability.
The next statistic: "The pork value chain has come together to develop and use the Common Swine Industry Audit, which is certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization." Yes, they came together alright, to create a facade of care and dupe everyone into thinking they're doing the right thing.
Another statistic: "More than 94 percent of pig farms keep detailed medical and treatment records, which demonstrates pig farmers' commitment to responsible antibiotic use." This way at least you'll know which drugs are in your dinner.
One more: "In 2018, pig farmers donated 3.2 million servings of food, volunteered more than 54,000 hours and donated more than $5.5 million to local charities." And now we're in love.
Other points talk about feed efficiency over the last 50 years and reducing carbon footprints. While accomplishing all this, the industry has polluted a bunch of streams, fouled the air for countless neighbors, stimulated who knows how many antibiotic-resistant super bugs, dropped nutritional quality and meat taste precipitously and of course never asks how to respect the pigness of the pigs.
Isn't it fascinating that even the industry, in its most carefully crafted messaging, can't put in a picture that shows the depth of its own abominations? While speaking of openness and connectedness, it presents a lie. I challenge any of those students hanging on the edge of the photo-op deeply bedded large-living sow to go out to the farm and see the conditions. And then come to Polyface.
This Saturday (May 30) we'll be hosting our first Lunatic Tour of the year (we canceled the two in April) and we're giddy about folks running around with our animals in the open air. Nothing to hide and everything to enjoy.
Do you think it matters if a pig can express its pigness?