When floods ravaged the Midwest this summer and submerged swaths of farmland and agricultural buildings, thousands of pigs were killed. Some died trapped in factory farm enclosures. Others, loosed from their confinement, had a fleeting chance to run and swim for their lives. A small group made their way onto a levy, but were shot and killed by officials worried that the pigs could damage the earthen structure.

But once Farm Sanctuary and our partnering organizations procured an invitation from the state to intervene and coordinate one of the most ambitious and complex farm animal rescues in history, other surviving pigs that made it to dry land were left alone.  Farm Sanctuary’s emergency rescue team with representatives from other animal rescue groups scoured the area to find survivors, walking miles of levies and woodlands. In the end, we saved more than sixty very desperate pigs – most of them suffering from a variety of ailments and some of them pregnant – and we brought all of them to Farm Sanctuary. Seeing the scores of rescued animals enter our barns and immediately start nesting and rutting, experiencing soil under their hooves rather than concrete, and kindness in place of cruelty, was breathtaking. Pigs who once feared humans are welcoming our affection and returning it with joy.

This was a grueling rescue that lasted several weeks in hostile surroundings. Along with harsh environmental obstacles, the rescue team confronted a callous attitude toward farm animals and a disregard for the feelings of these sentient creatures. Thankfully, we were able to persuade local officials to let the rescue to go forward and to grant custody of the pigs to Farm Sanctuary. The recent floods helped peel back the walls of the hidden world of factory farming, freeing some individuals and allowing their stories to be told. They will be ambassadors for the millions who are crowded in warehouses, crated in bars, living on hard slatted floors, suffering outside of public view.

I am very proud of our dedicated team and sanctuary workers who are now providing these animals with the best care possible. Please consider supporting this rescue, or helping to find homes for pigs. Thank you.

One day this week, I was able to ride my bike around Farm Sanctuary’s neighborhood and enjoy a warm summer evening. I visited an old cemetery, rode past an antiquated one room school house, and came upon a group of teenagers playing, running and sliding on a wet, sudsy plastic sheet that was laid out across a wide grassy lawn. I peddled past fields of freshly cut hay and vegetable and herb gardens, and then came to a small farm raising cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and birds for slaughter.  The animals were able to go outdoors and the conditions weren’t as bad as on industrial factory farms, but the place had a distinct smell of death.  It was very different from the peaceful and fragrant plant and herb gardens I’d seen  – and different from the starting and ending point of my tour, Farm Sanctuary. When I returned, people were visiting with and enjoying the companionship of the animals, and others gathered and ate edible wild berries nearby.

I’ve spoken with many agribusiness officials and farmers over the years, and encouraged them to think outside the box and consider the benefits of growing plants in place of animals. This concept can be met with resistance, especially from those heavily invested (financially and emotionally) in industrialized animal agriculture.  A couple years ago, I spoke to a group of young dairy industry leaders who challenged my proposition that plant (not animal) farming is the most efficient and ecologically sound way to feed a large human population. They argued that intensive animal agriculture is the most efficient way to produce food. In response, I explained that their views were the exact opposite of what the empirical evidence shows and I asked where they got their information. I was somewhat amused when they told me the name of the book: “Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastics” by Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC that is funded by chemical and agribusiness companies such as Eli Lilly and Company, Monsanto, DuPont, Dow-Elanco, Ciba-Geigy, ConAgra and Cargill. Avery’s position relies on narrow, short sighted assumptions to promote intensive ‘high yield’ farming. With the growing awareness about demand for oil outstripping supply, one of Avery’s statements is particularly notable in its shortsightedness and inaccuracy. He wrote: “Critics of mechanized farming warn that the world is rapidly running out of petroleum. However, the world’s current low oil prices testify that new systems for discovering and recovering oil have expanded the supply more rapidly than the demand in recent decades.”  I believe it’s time for Avery and others of his ilk to rethink some of their fundamental assumptions and to look more carefully at the actual state of our planet and our own health.

I recently watched a film called “The Real Dirt on Farmer John," which highlights the experiences of Farmer John Peterson, who grew up on a Midwestern farm. Like many of his agricultural cohorts, he faced serious economic hardships and debt in the 1980s, which forced him to sell most of his land.  During one scene in the film, Farmer John’s equipment is auctioned off to other farmers who bid on different items as they walk around his property.  I remember attending similar auctions in upstate New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Farm Sanctuary first came to Watkins Glen. Thousands of small farms across the U.S. have been consolidated into larger operations or closed, and farmland has been turned over to development.  But, it doesn’t have to be this way. 

After years of struggle and strife, John Petersen came upon a different approach, which has allowed his farm to continue and thrive. He set up a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program called Angelic Organics, wherein people invest in the farm at the beginning of the growing season and receive a share of the farm’s organic production over the course of the year. Community Supported Agriculture programs connect farmers to consumers in a positive way as farmers’ production costs, along with risks and rewards, are shared with consumers/investors, who receive locally grown produce each week during the growing season.

The growth of CSA’s could help solve many problems ranging from the decline of rural communities, to our excessive dependency on oil. A CSA can serve to educate people, empowering them eat healthier, plant-based foods.

Nearly 800,000 Californians signed a petition to place the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (Proposition 2) on this November’s ballot.  The measure aims to ban some of the cruelest factory farming confinement systems (veal crates for calves, gestation crates for breeding pigs and battery cages for egg laying hens. The lives of 20 million animals in California, mostly egg laying hens, are at stake.

Feedstuffs, the Wall Street Journal of agribusiness, published an editorial titled “California Dam Must Not Be Breached” urging industry to dig in and fight Proposition 2, saying that the initiative “will affect all of livestock and poultry production across the entire U.S., if not North America.”  And, in just the last two weeks, animal industries added more than 1 million dollars to their war chest under the dubiously named campaign committee, “Californians for Safe Food.”  In his blog, HSUS President, Wayne Pacelle, suggested a couple more accurate names for the industry committee: “Industrialized Factory Farms Seeking Profits at the Expense of Animals” or the “Committee for Treating Animals Like Objects.”

Agribusiness is mounting a major campaign to defeat this basic humane measure, and money is pouring in from across the U.S. Some of our nation’s most notorious animal abusers are supporting the opposition, including: Moark LLC, a company that paid $100,000 to settle an animal cruelty case after a concerned neighbor videotaped company workers throwing live birds into a dumpster, and Gemperle, a California egg factory with a long history of animal cruelty that was uncovered by Farm Sanctuary in 2005 and 2007, and whose abuses made the news earlier this year after a Mercy for Animals investigation.

It is critical that we dig deep and combat the intolerable cruelty by supporting “Californians for Humane Farms”. 

The increased cost of gasoline is putting a strain on many of us this summer, and it could signal that the prices we pay for various consumer goods will start to more accurately reflect their true costs.  This could actually have a positive effect on consumer behavior. Earlier this year, an article in the New York Times compared how much fossil fuel is required to produce a meat meal versus a vegan meal and estimated that the meat meal required 16 times more. When the many hidden costs associated with producing meat, milk and eggs are accounted for, we can likely expect higher prices for animal products, and with it, a movement toward more ecologically efficient, sustainable, and compassionate plant-based diets..

I recently read a book entitled “Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution” by Donna Hart and Robert W. Sussman.  It investigates the distant history of our ancient forbearers, and might help us understand our current state of being.  The book’s authors challenge the belief that human beings are descended from hunters, and that we are natural meat eaters.  By citing fossil evidence dating back millions of years and integrating observations of primate behavior to construct an explanation of human evolution, the book concludes that we were largely hunted rather than hunters, and prey rather than predators.

Cultural assumptions and prejudices in western society along with faulty science have bolstered the idea that we evolved as a carnivorous hunting species.  This notion may be based on the assumption that our current violent habits and behaviors are appropriate and “normal” for our species.  We callously exploit and slaughter billions of animals for food in the U.S. each year..  And if we feel guilty about the suffering we cause others, it may be strangely comforting to justify it as natural.  

But, Hart and Sussman make a compelling case that early humans were primarily vegetarian and that our ancestors were killed and consumed by various predator species. And their objective assessment of the biological and historical evidence affirms those conclusions. 

When humans consume diets rich in animal foods, as is common in affluent countries, we face serious health problems.  Dr. Colin Campbell of Cornell University conducted the world’s most comprehensive study to compare diet and health, and he concluded, “We’re basically a vegetarian species and should be eating a wide variety of plant foods and minimizing our intake of animal foods.”

Hart and Sussman write, “There’s something about the pessimistic image of killer apes, naked apes, war-like apes, cannibalistic apes that seems a comfortable, albeit ugly, judgment on humanity.”  Perhaps this is comfortable because it comports with our habits and behavior. If we are descended from a lineage of predators, naturally violent and murderous, then killing other animals could be attributed to “human nature,”and we could feel less culpable for our behavior.  But the authors ask, “…if we evolved from sociopaths, why do we forge any complaints about historical or modern examples, such as Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Hitler or Pol Pot? By this rationale aren’t they doing what comes naturally?”

Rather than evolving as sociopaths, I think human beings evolved in cooperative social groups who helped each other survive and avoid danger. Primates and other animals can be seen today exhibiting techniques for avoiding predation, such as sounding alarm calls to alert others when danger is present.  Animals use different calls to communicate different kinds of threats, and it is possible that such warnings in our early ancestors developed into more advanced communications and eventually language. 

Who we are today is the result of many years of evolution, both physical and cultural, and in spite of many of our current behaviors, I do not believe we are naturally a cruel and murderous species.  Some miscreants act without conscience, but most human beings prefer to treat others with kindness. 

Our inherent aversion to cruelty can cause people to develop elaborate rationalizations or mechanisms for denial, including a skewed interpretation of human history.   But I believe that compassion and caring for others is built into our genetic code and inherent to humanity, and that keeps me hopeful.

I love college towns like Northampton, Massachusetts, where I recently spoke at Café Evolution (a vegan restaurant) about my book and Farm Sanctuary’s work.  Befitting the neighborhood, the audience included artists, entrepreneurs and activists, and the presentation began with a slide show by a local artist, Derek Goodwin, who has taken amazing photos at Farm Sanctuary over the years.

Before the presentation, I had a chance to walk along Main Street, which is lined with cafés and small business, catering to a young, forward looking population.  It was a hot, humid evening (nearly 100 degrees), and I picked up a refreshing ginger and juice drink. I also spoke with a college student working behind the counter at a store specializing in hemp clothing.  Not surprisingly, she was a vegetarian, and interested in animal rights and related issues.  I often leave college towns inspired by the hope and idealistic energy residing there.

I recently visited the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, MA to give a talk at an annual gathering organized by the Boston Vegetarian Society. The Peace Abbey is an interfaith organization that promotes peace and a vegan lifestyle, and actively opposes violence to both human and nonhuman animals.   I visited the Animal Rights memorial at the Abbey.  It was erected over the grave of Emily, a cow who lived at the Abbey after jumping over a fence to escape from the slaughterhouse.  Like Farm Sanctuary, the Peace Abbey urges religious and spiritual communities to include all of creation (including farm animals) within our circle of compassion.

When I travelled to Minneapolis to speak at the Midwest Animal Advocacy Conference, I was happy to see grassroots activism alive and well.  The conference was organized by Compassionate Action for Animals, and prior to attending, I read and very much appreciated the group’s core values. Around 200 registered for the event, including some who had visited and worked at Farm Sanctuary and several who had attended our demonstration at the South St. Paul stockyard back in 1991 to call for an end to the suffering of downed animals.  I’m glad to say that all farm animal suffering has ceased at the South St. Paul stockyard, which closed earlier this year.