Making Hay

Anti-Confinement Progress: The Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act

 

by Allan Kornberg, M.D.

As Farm Sanctuary’s executive director, I spend a lot of my time traveling across the country to advocate on behalf of farm animals. But at the end of the day, I call Massachusetts my home. That’s why I’m excited to announce that, as part of our Anti-Confinement Campaign, we’ll be working in the Commonwealth this year to pass an important bill that would ban the cruelest forms of confinement for farm animals — the Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.

It’s not news that the animal agriculture industry views farm animals as mere commodities. It’s this widespread conception that has led to institutionalized cruelty in the form of battery cages, veal crates and gestation crates. In these confinement systems, millions of egg-laying hens, calves and breeding pigs spend the majority of their lives in dark warehouses, behind bars and barely able to move. Farm Sanctuary’s Anti-Confinement Campaign aims to eliminate these particularly abhorrent conditions through state legislation, the ballot box and public education and outreach, and, thanks to our members and supporters, we’ve got a successful history to build upon in 2011 and in coming years. 

Seven states have now enacted laws to ban one or more of these confinement systems. This year, we hope to add Massachusetts to that list. This bill, recently introduced by Senator Robert Hedlund and Representative Jason Lewis, would prohibit the cruel confinement of farm animals in a manner that prevents them from standing up, lying down, turning around freely, or fully extending their limbs.

At least 17,000 egg-laying hens in Massachusetts are confined in battery cage facilities each year. As a resident of the Commonwealth, I know that if compassionate people of Massachusetts — and Americans everywhere — knew the truth behind factory farming, they would reject these shocking and abusive practices. In fact, the city of Pittsfield has already enacted a local ordinance prohibiting these three confinement systems. And Cambridge and Brookline have passed resolutions encouraging residents to avoid products of intensive confinement, including veal and eggs from battery caged hens.

By working together with our members and supporters, I believe it’s only a matter of time before we can change the hearts and minds of lawmakers across the U.S. and make these cruel cages and crates things of the past. If you’re a fellow Commonwealth resident, please join me in supporting the Massachusetts Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act and help put this crucial law on the books. If you live elsewhere, you can still help us build on this momentum by taking action today to push for anti-confinement legislation in your state.

Ending the Use of Live Animals in Medical Training Courses

 

by Allan Kornberg, M.D.

An increasing number of Americans are aware of the suffering farm animals in the agriculture industry endure, but many people are surprised to learn that they are also subjected to cruelty in the name of medicine. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for live animals to be used as models to teach physicians how to treat injuries and perform medical procedures – a practice that has troubled me ever since I was a medical student. These days, subjecting live animals to these procedures is not only cruel, but also virtually unnecessary due to impressive developments in medical training tools.

At some point in their medical careers, many physicians are required to complete an Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course, where they learn how to perform certain procedures to treat trauma injuries. These procedures can be extremely invasive, often requiring incisions into the neck, chest or abdomen, and cause suffering when performed on live animals. Fortunately, life-like human body simulators, such as Simulab’s TraumaMan, offer effective and compassionate alternatives.

However, despite the success of new training methods that do not require the use of animals, an estimated five percent of medical centers continue to subject sentient beings to needless cruelty in their ATLS courses. Sadly, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pennsylvania is one of these few remaining institutions that uses live pigs as models for their trauma training. Usually, the animals are killed shortly after the procedures.

Pigs are sensitive, social animals who don’t deserve to be subjected to these cruel and unnecessary practices. As a physician who has worked to end the use of live animals in similar courses in the past, I know that proper medical training can be achieved without subjecting animals to such abuse. That’s why we’re asking you to join us in calling on UPMC officials to extend their compassion to animals and end the use of live pigs in ATLS training. Please take action today and help bring about positive change.
 

Bill Clinton’s“Experiment” Puts Veganism on National Table

 

By Allan Kornberg, M.D.

What started circulating as rumor was recently confirmed when former U.S. President Bill Clinton announced in a public interview that he had begun to experiment with a plant-based diet. Making reference to a medical study that began in the mid-1980s and followed subjects on a cholesterol-free diet, Clinton stated that he was intrigued by the high rate of success participants had in keeping heart disease at bay and wanted to see if adopting similar eating habits would have good results for him.

According to another source, Clinton’s decision to give veganism a try was also prompted by books like The China Study – a groundbreaking masterpiece co-authored by T. Colin Campbell, the renowned Cornell University professor and researcher who recently spoke at Farm Sanctuary’s New York Country Hoe Down. Examining the connection between animal-based foods and life-threatening disease, this body of work remains the most comprehensive health and nutrition study of its kind. Featured in an equally eye-opening documentary called Forks Over Knives, Campbell and his work continue to reach a wider audience, compelling more and more people to conduct healthy experiments of their own. The film, which includes an interview with Farm Sanctuary President and Co-founder Gene Baur, is slated to hit theaters in March 2011 and I highly recommend that you see it!

When a public figure like Bill Clinton is willing to speak candidly about diet, and suggest alternative ways to eat for good health, it brings essential questions about what animal product consumption is doing to our bodies, our planet and our fellow creatures further into the mainstream, raising awareness and consciousness that will hopefully inspire some profound effects as time goes on. The more “veganism” becomes a household name, and the more people get intrigued and inspired to make decisions that create positive change, the more compassionate and healthy our world will eventually be.

Genetically Engineered Animals Set for Approval

 

By Allan Kornberg, MD 

The fact that agribusiness interests are always in the market for new ways to increase production, even at the expense of animal welfare and human health, comes as no surprise. Now, following the once unthinkable development of cloned animals for use in agriculture, biotech companies are setting their sights on genetically engineered (GE) animals to further capitalize on industrial farming.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it will potentially approve a GE salmon, called AquAdvantage, as the first animal of its kind intended for human consumption. AquAdvantage salmon were created using the growth hormone of a different type of fish, along with genes from yet another fish, so that they would grow twice as fast as normal salmon while kept in intensive confinement and allow farmers to maximize production.

Aquaculture - or essentially, fish factory farming - is the fastest growing agriculture industry in the world, with an estimated 10 billion fish killed for food in the U.S. each year. Routine practices, including intensive confinement, cruel slaughter methods, and poor water quality cause immense suffering for fish. Fish are sentient beings capable of feeling pain, fear and distress, just like other animals, and for these GE salmon, life may be particularly hard. Due to their unnatural makeup, AquAdvantage fish experience higher rates of deformity, abnormality and mortality, all of which can only be worsened by farming conditions.

While, as a physician, I recognize the health concerns associated with eating any animal product, I find the idea of using GE animals for human food especially troubling. Because this would be the first time GE animals are marketed as food in the U.S., little is known about the health risks associated with consumption of genetically altered animals. Even more alarming, the FDA may allow GE salmon to be sold without any identifying labels. Scientists also suggest that approval of GE salmon would increase the already existing risks of drug resistance associated with animal agriculture. Since they are probably more susceptible to disease, GE fish farming could result in even more antibiotic overuse. 

Approval of AquAdvantage salmon could open the floodgates on the race to genetically engineer other farm animals. In fact, a GE pig with altered digestive characteristics is already close in the FDA’s queue for approval as human food. Also in the running is a type of mad cow disease resistant cow.

If we don’t stop the approval of AquAdvantage salmon, a frightening precedent will be set, making it difficult to prevent other GE farm animals from being developed and raised on factory farms. That’s why Farm Sanctuary, American Anti-Vivisection Society, and other organizations are taking action now by submitting comments to the FDA to let them know that GE animals have no place in the human food supply and that resources would be better used to end factory farming, rather than to promote it.

New Study Reveals Power of Plants

 

By Allan Kornberg, MD

A groundbreaking new study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine made national headlines yesterday as mainstream media outlets like CNN reported on its findings and gave Americans plenty of food for thought. Following more than 85,000 female and roughly 44,500 male subjects without heart disease, cancer or diabetes over a span of 20 to 26 years, the study explored the correlation between low-carbohydrate diets based on either animal or plant-based proteins and mortality rates, ultimately revealing  the positives of vegetarian alternatives.

According to the study, subjects who consumed low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets centered on meat and other animal products had a 14 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 28 percent risk of dying of cancer, while those whose diets emphasized plant-based proteins and fats had a 23 percent lower risk of succumbing to heart disease, as well as a 20 percent lower mortality rate overall. While no study is perfect, and all are subject to certain limitations, these numbers speak volumes about the potential of healthy plant-based foods to improve our quality of life.

As a physician who has long been aware of the good plant foods can do, the results of this study come as no shock. Nonetheless, it is always encouraging for me, and doubtless many of you, to see such awareness grow and result in an ever-expanding body of research that compels us to reflect on the foods we consume and consider choices that not only more positively impact our own lives, but also the world at large. After all, we truly are what we eat and the time has never been riper to embrace the power of plants – not only to benefit our health, but billions of suffering farm animals and our ailing planet too.
 

Providing Our Children with Happier Meals

 

by Dr. Allan Kornberg 

These days, childhood obesity and related health issues are receiving plenty of well-deserved attention. This year, President Barack Obama created the first ever Task Force on Childhood Obesity, and First Lady Michelle Obama founded the Let’s Move program to combat childhood obesity. Corporate Accountability International (CAI) has taken note that marketing aimed at kids doesn’t necessarily have their best health in mind, and is telling Ronald McDonald that it’s time to retire. While we encourage all Americans to make healthy and compassionate dietary choices, impressionable young children are especially vulnerable to corporate symbols that, as fun as they seem, encourage unhealthy choices and animal cruelty.

As a pediatrician, I know that there is cause for all of this concern. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 are obese. In a recent study, researchers found that almost 32 percent of American children are overweight or obese. That’s nearly one in three. And obesity poses significant health concerns for our nation’s children. Obese kids are more likely than their peers to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes — all of which are risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

By switching to a plant-based diet, Americans can make a compassionate choice for farm animals and experience overall improved health at the same time. In a 2009 study, the American Dietetic Association reported that, in addition to tending to have a lower body mass index, “vegetarians also appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than nonvegetarians.”

Increasing the accessibility of plant-based foods would be a step in the right direction for the health of our nation’s children. In March, Representative Jared Polis introduced HR 4870 to the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill, known as the Healthy School Meals Act, would offer financial incentives to public schools that provide their students with healthy plant-based alternatives and non-dairy beverages. Last month, concerned citizens joined Farm Sanctuary and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in a nationwide Citizen Lobbyist Call-In Day in support of this bill, but there’s still more work to be done. Contact your representatives and urge them to increase accessibility to these healthful and compassionate options for children nationwide.

Next Week, Do What’s Best for Our Children and the Animals

 

by Allan Kornberg

As a pediatrician with more than 25 years of clinical and executive leadership experience in medicine — and, of course, as a father — I know firsthand how important a healthy, nutritious diet is to child development. Yet many children who choose to abstain from consuming animal products for ethical, health, environmental, religious, or other reasons find it difficult to have their nutritional needs met during school hours.

The food options made available in school cafeterias really do matter: more than 29 million children eat at least one meal of the day at school. As American children are increasingly affected by obesity and other conditions related to a poor diet, it is our responsibility to provide our nation’s kids with what they need to stay healthy. The dairy- and meat-laden meals currently subsidized by our government just aren’t cutting it. The dramatic long-term health benefits of adopting a vegan diet are no secret, and increasing the accessibility of healthy, plant-based foods to students would be a huge step in addressing these concerns.

Fortunately, change is just around the corner. Introduced in March, the Healthy School Meals Act of 2010 would offer financial incentives to school districts that offer their students plant-based food options and non-dairy beverages. If passed, this law would have a tremendous impact on childrens’ health, farm animals, and the environment.

Next week, we ask you to join us in making a difference in the lives of children and farm animals as we urge Congress to pass this groundbreaking legislation. On Tuesday, April 20, join me in a conference call with Elizabeth Kucinich, Director of Public Affairs for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and student activist Nina Gonzalez to learn how you can get involved.

Then, on Wednesday, April 21, band together with concerned citizens nationwide as we ask our representatives to support H.R. 4870 in a national Citizen Lobbyist Call-In Day. Don’t forget to spread the word to family and friends! We need all the help we can get to urge legislators to take positive action on behalf of animals and our nation’s children.