Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
“Corporate livestock factory owners and
management tout themselves as 'saviors' to
the rural communities they target. Everyone
is promised salvation: job creation for local
inhabitants, increased tax revenues for
local coffers, expanded markets for family
farmers, and increased purchasing power
for hometown businesses, with high-tech
production for consumers. . . . However,
the facts of the industry paint a different
picture. Corporate livestock factories
actually disable community development
with self-serving contracts and tax breaks,
market-monopolizing strategy, and few
local purchases. . . . While communities
naturally want to attract jobs, wealth, and
capital for investment, transferring . . .
[farm animal] production from local families
to corporations facilitates and accelerates
the extraction of wealth and capital from
rural areas.”
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affording a higher degree of welfare to animals raised for meat,
eggs, and milk may cost more. If it were legal to employ child la-
borers in sweatshops, we could also drastically lower the cost and
prices of most things that we manufacture and sell in the United
States. But would that be acceptable? The obvious answer is no, it
wouldn't. The only reason our abuse of animals is still tolerated is
because most people aren't aware of it. If they were, they would be
just as horrified as they were when they first became aware of what
was happening with the exploitation of children in sweatshops.
