We had a very diverse set of activities on our agenda to close out our final day. We began working with hogs at the Friest farm, moved on to discuss pesticide drift at Practical Farmers of Iowa, and ended by delivering 130 baby chicks to Dalona’s homestead. I really liked that our last day as it accurately reflected the wide variety of viewpoints we have heard over the past three weeks. Many of our days have been exactly like this one starting with conventional agriculture and ending at the more sustainable end of things.
The Friest farm was interesting because Brent really enjoyed telling us how everything worked on the farm, in much detail. It was nice of the Friests to let us into their hog barn which is something not many outsiders have the opportunity to do, and they even allowed us to take photos. I was not very fond of the hog barn as it was a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO), as well as just smelling kind of gross. The highlight of the tour of the hog barns was that I got to hold a baby pig, something I have been wanting to do for awhile.
At one point Denny came over and told us how he had been reading our blog and had comments for us on some of the things we had said. Denny and Brent then expressed their opinions on animal rights and how they thought animal rights issues often got more coverage than child abuse. I disagree with this very strongly although I could see how they, as CAFO hog farmers, would be hyper-sensitive to the many animal rights messages. While I know they did not mean to come off this way I was a little offended by their comparison of animal abuse to child abuse. Probably my least favorite criticism people make about animal welfare is the generalization that people and groups who care about animal rights are placing a preference on animal welfare over human welfare issues, such as child abuse. The Friests were not the first people on this trip to make a comment to me about people worrying about animal abuse and to imply that these same people don’t worry as much about child abuse.
This treatment of animal and human rights issues as if they were incompatible areas of concern that a person must choose either one or the other to care about personally outrages me. This is especially true since I am about to devote my entire summer to volunteering at a domestic violence nonprofit that offers various services to victims such as providing safe shelter for women and children who have experienced abuse. And perhaps shocking to some of the people I have encountered on this trip, I don’t plan to one day work for PETA but instead potentially go into social work. I find it very natural that my stance on animal rights and welfare would carry into my attitude towards human rights issues. This may be why, in addition to being a member of the Furman Animal Rights group, I have ended up as President of an organization on campus that highlights various social justice issues (no animal rights issues) such as human trafficking. I am fairly certain that the Friests did not mean to suggest this about me personally (and that they meant to make a point about certain organizations and resource allocation), but I think this is an unfair generalization that critics should address with more caution and sensitivity.
After this excitement we continued our day with Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). This visit was highly anticipated as many of the organic farmers we had met had mentioned PFI and the role it played on their farms. PFI exists to do research for and educate unconventional farmers on the issues in which they are interested. Since sustainable and organic horticulture operations do not receive the benefits that conventional monocrop producers do (e.g.,.government subsidies and opportunities to purchase crop insurance), it is great that they at least have one organization in their corner. The main topic we discussed with them was pesticide overdrift, a serious topic among a good number of the unconventional producers we had met who had been significantly affected by this issue.