"Ag-gag" Laws
Chickens on a Prince Edward Island farm (Canada). Credit: Flickr user Martin Cathrae. Some rights reserved.
On this Wednesday's food show, Kojo's talking with New York Times food and food issues columnist Mark Bittman and the director of the Human Society's Farm Animal Protection Campaign, Paul Shapiro, about how laws pending in several states could significantly hamper undercover efforts and "whistleblower" operations exposing animal abuse on farms.
Chickens on a Prince Edward Island farm (Canada). Credit: Flickr user Martin Cathrae. Some rights reserved.
On this Wednesday's food show, Kojo's talking with New York Times food and food issues columnist Mark Bittman and the director of the Human Society's Farm Animal Protection Campaign, Paul Shapiro, about how laws pending in several states could significantly hamper undercover efforts and "whistleblower" operations exposing animal abuse on farms.
According to the New York Times' Jennifer Mascia (writing on Bittman's blog) so called "Ag-gag" laws would make it illegal for anyone to secretly film footage inside slaughterhouses.
Kojo, Bittman and Shapiro will examine the food-and speech-issues surrounding the pending laws. What do you think? Should people still be able to film footage on farms covertly in order to expose animal cruelty?
A few years ago, the documentary "Food, Inc." explored, among other issues, animal cruelty on farms. The filmmakers spoke to chicken farmer Carole Morison, who at the time was beholden to the Perdue company and obligated to follow their procedures on her farm. Morison allowed the filmmakers on to her farm to expose what she believed were cruel practices:
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Good for you, Kojo for persisting trying to get the Poultry Growers rep to answer your questions. Clearly he was not willing to address the core issue, but I greatly appreciate you reframing the question many times to get him to answer.
I think this makes his position abundantly clear.
By the way, did you ever see the animated spoof of the Matrix called "Meatrix"? It is worth a look.
I grew up in Kansas and know that there is a significant difference between family farms who beleive in stewardship of the land and livestock vs the Agra-Mega farms who are nothing more than the Ford Mass production model applied for farming.
Many thanks.