Many people buy steaks, hamburger meat and other beef products with labels that claim they’ve been raised without antibiotics because they believe it’s healthier and safer for themselves and the environment. But what if the “Raised Without Antibiotics” (RWA) labels weren’t accurate, and the cattle raised for meat destined to have the label actually had been given antibiotics?
By Karen Perry Stillerman A few years back, the nation’s largest meat and poultry company used the slogan “Powered by Tyson” to sell its chicken, pork, and beef. Tyson Foods’ marketing language has since changed, but the notion of “power” is more apt than ever when it comes to the way this company operates. As […]
The culling of male chicks will be outlawed next year in France, Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie announced on Sunday. Each year, 50 million male chicks are killed by being shredded, or gassed with carbon monoxide because they don’t produce eggs nor grow as large as female chicks, according to Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s National […]
By Jake Johnson Moving to reverse one of the Trump administration’s many corporate-friendly deregulatory actions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday announced plans to revive a rule aimed at establishing specific animal welfare standards that food producers must meet to qualify for the USDA’s organic seal. Finalized in the waning days of the Obama […]
By Julia Conley The European Commission is under pressure to end caged animal farming in the next six years after policymakers in the European Union overwhelmingly voted to stop the practice to protect animal welfare as well as human and planetary health, responding to widespread public demand for the ban. Critics of industrial farming practices […]
By Julia Conley A new short film featuring climate action leader Greta Thunberg highlights the connections between the climate crisis, ecological emergency, and the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other public health crises that are likely to arise from humans’ exploitation of animals — and explains how communities and policymakers can repair people’s relationship to […]
By Cameron Oglesby As North Carolina heads into another hurricane season, some residents and organizations fear the stormy season will again flood communities with hog waste. The state’s hog waste management works by funneling feces, urine, and blood from hog farms into massive open waste lagoons, which let off foul odors and methane gas. When […]
“Industrial meat production is not only responsible for precarious working conditions, it also pushes people off their land, leads to deforestation, biodiversity loss and the use of pesticides — and is also one of the main drivers of the climate crisis.” Such were the words of Barbara Unmüssig of green think tank, the Heinrich Böll […]
By Dena Jones The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was sued three times this past summer for shirking its responsibility to protect birds from egregious welfare violations and safeguard workers at slaughterhouses from injuries and the spread of the coronavirus. Over the years, it has become abundantly clear that federal regulators not only let animal […]