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Of the more than 90 million cattle in our country, at
least 10 million at any time are packed into feedlots,
saved from the inevitable diseases of overcrowding only
by regular doses of antibiotics, surrounded by piles of
their own feces, their nostrils filled with the smell of
their own urine. Picture it -- and then imagine your
grandchildren seeing that picture. In the European
Union, many of the most inhumane conditions we allow are
already illegal or -- like the sow stalls into which
pregnant pigs are often crammed in the United States --
will be illegal soon.
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--Kwame Anthony Appiah, Washington
Post
What Will Future Generations Condemn Us For?
September 26, 2010 |
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The group’s standards
seek to ensure not only a high level of
welfare for each individual animal, but
enhanced land and resource management that
can be shared with future generations.
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The program concentrates
on a platform that gives resilience to
farmers who maintain high animal welfare and
land stewardship standards regardless of
fluctuations in economic conditions that may
affect them.
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The program has an
innovative DNA-based traceability feature
structured to give a royalty return to the
farm family. Individual animals can be
traced to flock of origin, preventing eggs
from factory farms, pigs in crates and
intensely confined animals from entering the
food system in false packaging, depriving
nonindustrial farmers of markets important
to their survival.
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The program seeks
improved habitats and the use of solar power
and biomass -- the earth’s gifts --
limiting dependencies that contribute to
climate change. It seeks nutrient and manure
management and ground and surface water
protection as essential to good farm
stewardship. The program provides emerging
energy opportunities that add significantly
to farm income.
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The program encourages
participation in the Third Edition
Environmental Plan, a program of land
stewardship giving the flexibility of
participation at different levels of
proficiency. This plan provides
opportunities for farms to become educated
about advanced environmental protection
practices in addition to the purpose
program’s basic principles of sustainable
management. The purpose group assists with
technical assistance and funds for
participation in this plan. Please contact
us by telephone or e-mail for details.
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The program seeks just
and fair prices for sustainable farmers in
regional markets. International farm
management standards are separated from
domestic standards, and include
country-specific protocols for sustainable
pasturing, landscapes that achieve an
equilibrium without synthetics, and a model
that prohibits genetic modification,
cloning, and the destruction of indigenous
forests. |
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