Farm Image and Ag-Gag

Recently, a lot of press has been circulating around the so-called "ag-gag laws."  For those who aren't in the loop, some states have proposed legislation to prohibit or limit the ability for people to do undercover investigating on farms in order to expose animal abuse.  Some of the legislation also limits the amount of time the amateur videographers have to turn their evidence in, or makes it criminal to enter a farm without saying they are looking for animal abuse.  For obvious reasons, most farmers are in support of this legislation, most animal rights advocates against it.  I struggle a lot with this issue, because no matter the outcome, farms will suffer from misrepresentation in the media.

To start, I am in no way opposed to those abusing animals being exposed.  However, I do worry that the people doing the exposing don't really know what animal abuse is.  There are obvious cases of beating, kicking, dragging, and otherwise harming the animals, but what about keeping animals in pens or crates that up to this point have been accepted for animal housing?  Having those doesn't make farmers abusive, they are doing what is standard across the industry and supported by veterinarians in the field.  Consumer preferences are changing, but that doesn't make these practices illegal, or the farmer bad.  Once a video is out there, it doesn't matter if it shows actual abuse, because it already has a bad name.

As farmers, we see the animals we care for as something that we own and protect.  However, consumers don't see it that way.  They feel like we own the buildings, and implements of husbandry, but we do not own the food they eat, just care for it during its life.  Consumers are really hiring us to be stewards of their health.  For this reason, people have the right to know and to influence animal care.   

It is very difficult for people who have never worked with livestock to understand it.  They do have a right to know where food comes from.  As farmers, we have to realize that it is much easier to Google search "animal abuse," "farms," or "where food comes from," than it is for someone in the city to go out and find a farmer.  Especially a farmer who is willing to take a total stranger who has no agriculture background onto their farm and let that person judge what is happening.  Maybe they won't like it, maybe they won't understand.  Maybe they won't be able to get past the smell of cow manure long enough to understand the message the farmer is conveying. 

We have to work to make the information readily and easily available.  We can't expect consumers to line up to be educated.  Farmers have to be proactive and continuously work towards gaining an educated consumer base.  We can't expect to be needed or understood.  As foreign as it may seem, consumers don't view us as experts, and they have the ability to be the judge through their buying decisions.