Having grown up on a farm raising grain, beef cattle and chickens, I'm concerned by the uninformed vitriol that threatens real discourse on agricultural practices. Yes, these practices are often "bad," inhumane, gruesome, etc. But the oft-repeated claims that Mr. Buntz cites in his recent column ("Stop the Whoppers," Jan. 7) -- that "cows are castrated without anesthetic, pigs are loaded up on massive levels of growth hormone," and "the nerve-filled beaks of chickens are clipped off" -- are so overused that they no longer induce the visceral discomfort they're intended to incite. Their tiresome repetition kills interest in what are legitimate issues.
It is unclear exactly what Mr. Buntz's objections to many of the practices he cites are, though valid objections may exist. Is it chiefly the suffering of the animals that upsets him? But Buntz does say that he would rather people hunt their food. Perhaps he has never seen an animal stalked and killed, because those who have know that the death suffered by a hunted animal is often more painful and prolonged than that of an animal killed with the bolt-gun or slit throat to which Mr. Buntz objects. I don't disagree that hunting is, broadly, a more moral method of food acquisition, but it is not so simple an issue as Mr. Buntz argues.
As for the environmental impact, simply abstaining from meat doesn't absolve one of blame -- what about the vast amounts of water and fertilizer used to grow Homeplate lettuce in the desert of the Imperial Valley? And "organic"? What about the fuel burned to ship it 3,000 miles, and to haul in massive amounts of composted manure and organic matter in lieu of concentrated synthetic fertilizer? And does the consumer really know what "organic" means? There is a reason it is a laughed-at term among most farmers, along with words like "natural" and "free-range" -- these terms can mean almost anything, but usually don't mean what the consumer thinks.
Part of the problem with the current discourse on farming lies in the often-thoughtless bandying about of the term "factory farm." People who do not hail from agricultural regions seem to divide the modern practice of agriculture into two visions: one an evil empire of "factory farms," mechanized death and helpless animals (some of them cute!) cowering in terror while a bolt-gun wielding Javier Bardem figure clad in a blood-spattered butcher's apron advances on them; and the other vision a twenty-acre sustainable Fern Gully in which bunnies frolic among rows of organically grown arugula and heirloom tomatoes destined for trendy "farmers' markets" and the plates of the few who can afford to shop at them.
Too often "factory farm" is used to refer to anything outside of the latter case. Much of the food supply still comes from farms in between these extremes, which are run by tenant farmers who rent a few thousand acres or fewer for crop production and raise a herd of livestock on the side. Such family operations, which face a bleak future due in part to longstanding government policies, are the solution. The concentrated animal feeding operations -- "factory farms" -- are indeed hideous, but farmers' markets cannot feed the world.
Mr. Buntz raises important issues, but does so simplistically. He should perhaps have focused on the idiotic Burger King commercials -- surely he could have mustered a full column out of the ridicule they deserve instead of straying into barely related areas about which he seems less knowledgeable. The latter half of his column reads like an advertisement for a package deal on Michael Pollan books, except that Mr. Pollan is intellectually honest enough to point out the mass animal die-off that would result if everyone went vegetarian, as massive tracts of land would be converted to food production, destroying the habitats of millions of animals.
A few months ago I drove through Kansas, and the sight and smell of the huge feedlots was revolting -- this from a farm kid forced to come to terms with animal death a long time ago. I decided somewhere between Garden City and Salina to stop eating beef, other than that raised at home by my father, where I know the animals are treated humanely.
These are not simple issues, and though I'm glad that they are being discussed, I wish those doing the discussing would take some time to inform themselves.
