Six Reasons to Vote NO on Ohio’s Issue 2The other four reasons are good, too.
1. Issue 2 seeks to stop animal welfare improvements. Agribusiness interests are trying to change the Ohio constitution so they can continue cruel and inhumane practices on factory farms—confining animals in tiny cages and crates so small they can’t even turn around. Issue 2 proposes an industry-dominated power grab to protect the status quo: hens crammed into cages so tightly they can’t even spread their wings, breeding pigs confined in tiny barren crates and calves chained by their necks inside veal crates. We wouldn’t force our pets to live in filthy, cramped cages for their whole lives, and we shouldn’t force farm animals to either. All animals, including those raised for food, deserve humane treatment.
2. Issue 2 threatens our food safety and health. Factory farmers have put our health at risk by recklessly telling us that it’s okay to keep animals in overcrowded, inhumane conditions. Cramming tens of thousands of animals into tiny cages fosters the spread of animal diseases that may affect people. For example, the American Journal of Epidemiology reported that people who eat eggs from hens confined in cages are 250% more likely to contract Salmonella. The extreme confinement of animals is also a major factor in the emergence of diseases like H5N1 and H1N1 (bird and swine flu). Passing Issue 2 would be bad for animals—and bad for us.
Ah, capitalism run amuck! Big agribusiness is trying to take over an entire state by getting its citizens to legalize the worst aspects of factory farming. I don’t live in Ohio, but if this referendum succeeds there, it will show up in other states.
Short Link:
I thought #3 was pretty good, too:
Issue 2 favors large factory farms, not Ohio’s family famers. Family farmers and groups like the Ohio Farmers Union and Family Farm Defenders oppose Issue 2 because they know that food quality and safety are enhanced by better farming practices. Increasingly, they are supplying mainstream retailers like Safeway and Burger King. Factory farms cut corners and drive family farmers out of business when they put profits ahead of animal welfare and our health.
But, as you say, they’re all good.
Yesterday driving through western New York, all the dairy farms that used to have cows grazing on the hills, now they’re all in the barn and never come out; food is brought to them as they stand forever in their stalls. Not healthy for beast or human.
Thanks for the pointer to the article, Andrew.