A new documentary by UK-based filmmaker Tracy Worcester explores the unsavory aspects of the intensive factory farmed pork industry in Pig Business. The film follows the personal journey of mother and eco‐campaigner, Tracy Worcester, who sets out to discover what is the true cost of the cheap imported pork found in UK supermarkets.
A small blurb about the film:
The film charts the rise of factory farms in the USA and the spread of the intensive farming model into Europe. Tracy discovers how the system is creating farms that are often operating below legal welfare standards – maintaining practices that cause widespread misery among the animals – threatening human health with toxic waste and overuse of antibiotics, and destroying rural communities by forcing traditional farmers out of business.
The documentary has also spawned a large-scale campaign to improve conditions for the farm animals as well as raise awareness about the effects of subsidized pork on the planet.
For more information visit http://www.pigbusiness.co.uk/
written by Anna , March 19, 2011
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In North Carolina, Smithfield made business partnerships with a powerful state senator Wendell Murphy and a powerful United States Senator Launch Faircloth who protected the company’s interests in local and federal legislatures.
Using adept campaign contributions and such cunning alliances, the hog industry has been able to corrupt and control the North Carolina state senate. The state’s largest newspaper, Raleigh News and Observer, won the Pulitzer Prize for its five-part investigative report disclosing how the factory hog industry had captured and corrupted the state senate.
Politicians who oppose the hog barons are punished. When North Carolina’s Duplin County State Assemblywoman Cynthia Watson began speaking out against Smithfield’s impact on her farm community, the hog industry launched a savage multimillion dollar attack, spending as much as $10,000 a week for two years to destroy her reputation.
Citizens who protest get the same treatment. Typically, the industry launches its occupation by removing the democratic rights of local communities who refuse to site these facilities in their communities. In Iowa, North Carolina, Michigan and many other states and Canadian provinces, public officials have stripped local governments of their decision making powers over these facilities. Similarly, we have seen that in Poland, local officials who opposed
Smithfield’s facilities have been overruled by national authorities. A group of Nebraska citizens who made comments during a public hearing on a hog factory permit were sued by Nebraska’s largest livestock producer. Neighboring farmers are routinely sued for participating in public hearings or speaking out against the hog industry.
written by Robert , March 05, 2011