Current Press Releases

FACTORY FARMS HARM RURAL COMMUNITIES, LEAD TO POVERTY, CRIME, LESS ACTIVE “MAIN STREET”

New Pew Commission report underscores need to pass Proposition 2

Earlier this year, the commission released a landmark report following on 2-1/2 years of careful research and review that concluded that industrial scale farm animal production poses “unacceptable” risks to public health, rural communities, animal welfare, and the environment. The commission has also previously affirmed that California’s Prop 2 includes “the types of modest animal welfare public policy improvements that the Commissioners recommend implementing.” Prop 2 is a modest measure that would allow breeding pigs, veal calves and egg-laying hens enough room to stand up, turn around and stretch their limbs.

“The Pew Commission’s new peer-reviewed report outlines the negative economic impact of industrial—or factory—farms on rural communities,” said Bob Martin, Executive Director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. “When industrial animal feeding operations dominate an area, wages are lower, there is greater income inequality and poverty, decreased retail trade, and fewer stores in the community. These industrial operations spend little money locally and pay lower wages than independent farming operations.”

The new report, which includes references to at least one major study of California rural communities, concludes that large-scale farming has had “adverse consequences” for a variety of community quality of life indicators. Selected excerpts from the 54-page report include:

• “Economically speaking, studies over the past 50 years demonstrate that the encroachment of industrialized agriculture operations upon rural communities results in lower relative incomes for certain segments of the community and greater income inequality and poverty, a less active ‘Main Street,’ decreased retail trade, and fewer stores in the community.”
• “The consolidation of the nation’s animal agriculture industry has led to a more concentrated industrialized model, which has had dramatic and increasingly problematic impacts on rural communities and the traditional farm.”
• “Numerous studies have shown lower quality of life, greater poverty and crime, lack of social services, and lowered civic participation in communities dominated by fewer larger farms as opposed to numerous small farms.  In addition, there are numerous public health issues in communities in the vicinity of industrial animal production facilities.”
• “[T]he single-minded pursuit of economic efficiency within agriculture has resulted in a loss of economic freedom and created an imbalance of economic power favoring agribusiness over independent farmers. The result is the transformation of rural America from a setting of many small, productive family farms and economically diverse, viable rural communities into a state of relatively few ever-growing factory farms and dying communities.”

The full report is available online at: http://www.ncifap.org/_images/212-8_PCIFAP_RuralCom_Finaltc.pdf.

“The newest Pew Commission report comes at an important time for California voters who have an opportunity to make lives better for people and animals,” said YES! on Prop 2 campaign manager Jennifer Fearing. “The report makes clear that factory farming puts economic efficiency ahead of all else, at the expense of the rural communities they are despoiling and polluting. Voting YES! on Prop 2 stops animal cruelty, supports family farmers, protects the environment, and promotes food safety.”

Prop 2 is supported by The Humane Society of the United States, the California Veterinary Medical Association, the Center for Food Safety, the ASPCA, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the United Farm Workers, Farm Sanctuary, the Sierra Club, Cesar Chavez Foundation, the State Humane Association of California, Republican and Democratic elected officials, hundreds of California veterinarians, family farmers, religious leaders, and many others.

Yes on Prop. 2 – Californians for Humane Farms, sponsored by The Humane Society of the US, Farm Sanctuary and other animal protection groups, family farmers, veterinarians and public health professionals. For more information, visit YESonProp2.com.