[Marxism] Human and Animal Liberation Alliance Politics

[Jay Andrew Allen]

On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 7:08 PM, David Walters <dave.walters at comcast.net>wrote:

>
> 2. Factory farming of animals and the issue of methane. I'm just sort of
> learning about this over the last year. I'd like to see more
> information. Of course there are increasing uses of methane capture in
> *indoor* feed lots that is having a payoff for farmers. Still the
> massive amount of grain that gets turned into cow-gas is not good and
> could well be effecting climate change.
>

It's not just the methane, but the feces. Factory animals live foreshortened
lives in cramped quarters, where they are shot up with antibiotics - some to
stimulate the fattening process, some to stave off the illnesses incurred by
the degraded conditions and their diets. This means that their feces is
contaminated with antibiotics as well. Michael Pollan documents in THE
OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA how the feces, to prevent runoff into streams and rivers,
is collected in "lagoons" within Confined Animal Feeding Operations. This
sludge can't be turned around and used to fertilize crops because it's so
toxic.

Animals can be raised for meat in more humane, sustainable conditions.
Pollan documents one such enterprise, Polyface Farms. It doesn't appear that
these methods can scale to produce the amount of meat to which factory
farming has accustomed us. But it's hard to say what might be possible under
a system that returns to producing food on smaller "family-style" farms.

3.  Cruelty to animals. Within the concept of domestication of animals,
> I'm for relieving this sort of thing. This includes *unnecessary*
> cruelty in laboratory experiments. Many of us on this list are alive
> today because of medicines derived from the killing or exploitation of
> animals. I will always choose me over an animal.


Agreed. And I will choose other "me"s over animals any day. That's why
animal liberation is low on my "to do" list.

-J-

-- 
Jay Andrew Allen
http://www.jayandrewallen.net/blog/ - Out-Loud Brainwaves

"In any case, the revolution will be drowned in the ballot boxes - which is
not surprising, since they were made for that purpose." - Jean-Paul Sartre