After learning about the cruelty involved in factory-farmed products, many people think "free-range," "cage-free" or "organic" meat, eggs and dairy products are the solution.
While these products may be less cruel than the typical factory farm products, we believe a vegan diet is preferable for the following reasons:
Free-Range products promote animal cruelty
Animal agriculture, even free-range or organic animal agriculture, is by its very nature cruel. Any time an animal, even a free-range animal, is used as a commodity to be consumed -- or treated as a piece of property -- corners are cut and the animals lose.
The Boston Vegan Association sums this up well:
"Within a system in which
animals are human property, even their
most significant interests can be (and are)
trumped by the comparably trivial human
interests in profit and efficiency. Attempting
to 'balance' the interests of a piece of
property against the interests of a property
owner is like trying to deal a fair hand of
cards with a rigged deck - it simply can't be
done, because the mechanisms in place are
fundamentally unfair."
As a result of this "rigged deck," animals in "free-range," "cage-free" and other systems are still often subject to some or all of the following abuses:
Unproductive, "spent" or "by-product" animals, such as male chicks of the egg-laying industry, are killed by methods such as suffocation and crushing.
Violent slaughter
Besides, if you wouldn't eat your free range dog or cat, why would you eat any other animal who has the same passion for life?
"Organic" and "Free Range" labels are misleading
Many of the labels such as "cage-free," "kosher," etc. are misleading and sometimes downright meaningless.
"Free Range" means that the animals must have some access to the outdoors, but there are no government regulations about how much outdoor area must be provided.
United Poultry Concerns, an advocacy group for poultry, describes the typical free-range egg farm like this:
"Typically, 2,000 or more hens - each hen having only 1 to 2 square feet of floor space - are confined in a shed without access to the outdoors during their lives. If the hens can go outside, the exit usually is very small allowing only the closest hens to get out. The yard may be nothing but a mud yard saturated with droppings and intestinal coccidia and other parasites."
Even Richard Lobb, a spokesperson for the National Chicken Council admits, "Even in a free-range type of style of production, you're basically going to find most of them inside the grow out facility..." [1]
Investigations of free-range farms by Peaceful Prairie Sancuary and East Bay Animal Advocates highlight some of the cruelties endured by free-range turkeys and hens.
"Cage-free" eggs means that the birds aren't in cages, but the majority of cage-free eggs are produced by hens forced to live in overcrowded sheds. These living conditions aren't as horrific as the typical battery cage, but overcrowding and cruelty are still common occurrences in many cage-free operations.
"Organic" dairy products and eggs require that the animals be fed organic feed, but it doesn't prohibit cruel treatment such as mutilations without painkillers, intensive confinement or separation of mother and young.
Horizon, one of the largest organic dairy producers in the country, runs huge organic factory farms where the cows are crowded into feedlots.
The "UEP Certified" logo found on many egg cartons means the eggs were most likely produced in typical battery cage egg farms. Eggs marked with this logo allow for birds to be crammed in cages so small that they cannot even flap their wings.
To view disturbing video footage of animal cruelty at UEP Certified egg farms click here, here, here and here.
"Kosher" meat refers to the animals that are supposed to be slaughtered within the guidelines spelled out in Jewish dietary laws. Despite the humane intention and spirit of the Jewish dietary laws, kosher slaughterhouses can be even crueler than conventional slaughterhouses because they require animals to be fully conscious at the time of slaughter, and undercover investigations at Kosher slaughterhouses have found the animals' deaths to be painful, brutal and slow.
Animals Value Their Lives
Cage-Free and free range products still involve unnecessary violence.
Animals raised for organic meat are killed at just a fraction of their natural lifespans, often in horrific ways.
Killing animals is also systematic within organic egg and dairy operations. Egg-laying hens and dairy cows are also killed at a relatively young age when their egg or milk production starts to decline. The organic egg farms typically buy their chicks from hatcheries where all the male chicks are disposed of at birth, since they can't be raised profitably for meat.
Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, recently described his experiences as a 10 year old farm boy:
"Once a month or so, we would slaughter the geese...The 150 geese knew that something dreadful was happening and would cower in a far corner of the barn, and run away in terror as I approached. Then I would grab one and carry it away as it screeched and struggled in my arms.
Very often, one goose would bravely step away from the panicked flock and walk tremulously toward me. It would be the mate of the one I had caught, male or female, and it would step right up to me, protesting pitifully. It would be frightened out of its wits, but still determined to stand with and comfort its lover."
Animals value their lives, and the lives of their loved ones. They feel fear, they mourn the death of their friends, they feel the stabbing knife -- for them slaughter is not an abstract idea -- it has very real consequences.
Can we justify killing animals simply because we like the taste? Can we justify killing feeling creatures simply because we'd rather have a chicken burrito instead of a bean burrito?
Ultimately we must ask ourselves, "Why kill another being if we don't have to?"
By adopting a vegetarian diet, we can spare the lives of over 50 animals each year.
Free range animal products harm the environment
While small-scale animal farming is typically less damaging to the environment than the large-scale factory farms, meat production is by its very nature resource-intensive.
Animal foods are also one of the leading causes of global warming.
According to Livestock's Long Shadow, a groundbreaking 2006 United Nations
report, raising animals for food causes more global warming than all the cars, trucks and planes in the world combined.[2]
In many cases, the carbon footprint is even greater for organic animal products. A 2007 report commissioned by the British government found that organic milk actually generates 20% more CO2 than conventionally produced milk, and organic chickens generate 45% more CO2 than hens raised in battery cages and barns.[3]
In contrast, researchers at the University of Chicago calculated that eating a vegan diet
prevents the equivalent of 1.5 tons of CO2 emissions every year - even more
than the 1 ton of CO2 emissions prevented by switching from a large sedan to a
Toyota Prius.[4]
Free range animal products harm your health
While organic animal products don't have the artificial growth hormones and antibiotics often found in factory farmed products, they still have a number of nutritional negatives:
They contain artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol.
They're devoid of fiber, phytonutrients and many antioxidants that help protect the body from ill health.
In contrast, according to the American Dietetic Association:
"Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer." [5]
Being Vegan is More Practical
Free-range products are hard to find. Very few grocery stores, and even fewer restaurants, carry these products, and even when they do, there is no way to know how the animals were actually treated without visiting the farms first-hand. For these reasons, consistently following a free-range diet is incredibly difficult and inconvenient.
Vegan foods, on the other hand, can be found in every grocery store and almost every restaurant, and do not raise the same ethical concerns as do the free-range animal products. To find veg-friendly restaurants in your area, check out VegGuide.org.
Ultimately, eating vegan is simply putting into practice the ideals we already have such as preventing needless violence, respecting animals, and living in a way that moves us toward a more just and peaceful society for all.
Get started today with these tips for transitioning to veganism.
Quoted from interview with CNN news piece which aired on July 25, 2004. Transcript available at http://www.cok.net/feat/cnn.php.
2
"Rearing Cattle Produces More Greenhouse Gases Than Driving Cars, UN Report Warns," UN News Centre, 29 Nov. 2006.
3
Milmo, Cahal (2007, February 19). Organic farming no better for the environment. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/organic-farming-no-better-for-the-environment-436949.html
4
NewScientist.com, "It’s Better to Green Your Diet Than Your Car," 17 Dec. 2005.
5
American Dietetic Association. (2003). Position paper on vegetarian diets. J Am Diet Assoc, 103, 748-765.
Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, recently described his experiences as a 10 year old farm boy:
