Family Farmers Ask "Why Do Animal Activists Defame Us?"
July 06, 2010
Factory farms—it’s a term used frequently by animal-rights activists. But is it a true definition of modern pork production or a damaging stereotype intended to convince Americans to stop eating meat?
Family farmers realize there are people who prefer not to consume anything related to animals. But why, they wonder, don’t animal advocates embrace family farmers? Every day family farmers in Pipestone System implement precisely the animal-welfare practices activists profess to value.
Pipestone System pigs are well-cared for and comfortable
even on the hottest summer day.
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Ask Pipestone System shareholders why they invested in one of the company’s jointly owned sow barns and they’ll explain they wanted nothing more than to continue doing what they love. They raise grain and they tend pigs just as carefully as their ancestors did.
If Linda Jones, Pipestone System family farmer, could sit down with animal activists she’d want them to understand this: “Ours is not a ‘factory farm’ because my husband and I own each pig. And we take care of them with compassion. Even though there are thousands of pigs, we pay attention to each one, walking through the pens every day to check on their health and comfort.”
Another System farmer, Larry Klumb, would want animal welfare activists to realize how the derogatory “factory farm” label does an injustice to him, his wife, and his sons. Of course “this farm isn’t the same as it was 30 years ago but the reason we’ve grown is to include our two sons and support their families.”
Why aren’t hogs raised outdoors anymore?
System shareholder Terry Wolters believes the size of modern hog buildings causes a lot of confusion among non-farmers. “A rancher may have 1,000 cows and yet the public perceives his operation to be family-owned because those cows and the rancher caring for them are visible. A farmer with 1,000 sows attracts the label “factory farm” because consumers don’t have an accurate picture of what’s behind the closed doors of our hog buildings.”
Linda Jones explains, “If only people could see how comfortable the pigs are in a controlled environment.”
Back in the romanticized days of subsistence farming, pigs spent spring mired in mud and winter trapped in snow banks. And what about Midwestern summer heat and humidity Linda asks. “A full-grown sow can’t survive when the temperature hits 102°. But in our shareholder-owned sow barn she’s cooled by fans. That’s true compassion for animals.”
“I wish I could take animal activists on a walk back through time—back across my life as a pork producer,” Larry Klumb continues. Back in the 1950s and 60s his dad and grandpa kept pigs on three or four acres where there were hog wallows. “Those big mud holes filled up with rainwater and manure and smelled so bad! Pigs lived all day in this ugliness where nothing should live.”
Larry says, “It’s absolutely beautiful in our barns.” He’d like activists to understand the evolutionary process that changed pigs’ lives for the better. “I’d swear on a Bible we’re much more animal-friendly than when pigs were raised outdoors.”
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