Arizona Sows May Get Bigger Pens
The state of Arizona is considering a law that would require larger pens for pregnant pigs and calves being raised for veal, according to this article at the Arizona Business Gazette. Not large. Just larger. Industrial producers are nonetheless battling the bill, for obvious reasons.
The article quotes Jim Klinker, the executive secretary of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation, which opposes the bill. "'The idyllic Wilbur image of the free-running pigs, the free-ranging chickens, the free-ranging dairy cattle is not the way that production is occurring in this country,' he said. Klinker said operating that way would cause food costs to rise to more than 10 percent of average wages." So he can't give a subset of his livestock room to lie down, because then food production costs would skyrocket?
Later in the article, we get another look at the gulf between Klinker's views and those of ethical eaters. "Klinker said it's not a conspiracy to keep the meat-eaters ignorant of where their food comes from. 'Maybe they don't want to know where food supply comes from,' he said. He maintains that factory farming is the only economical way to produce food."
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