Even Welfarists Get It Right Sometimes
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The author of a book titled “Righteous Porkchop,” Nicolette Hahn Niman, is the epitome of an animal welfarist. She is a vegetarian who is “convinced that meat production can be done in a sustainable way and that there are many small farms that treat their animals humanely.”
Even though I (and many other vegans) don’t agree that meat production can be done in a sustainable and humane way, Niman still gets some things right:
When [the interviewer] suggested that while most Americans seem concerned about environmental impacts and animal welfare, they are able to put blinders on because they also like to buy pork tenderloin for $2.99 a pound, Niman replied, “I’m trying to help people slowly peel those blinders off. If you put those blinders on, you make yourself complicit in a system that violates your values.”
I’ve bolded one sentence, to accentuate the “right part.” Niman reminds everyone that if you care about the environment, animals, or your health, you should eat like you care about those things. If you care about animals, don’t eat them. It’s that simple.
Speaking of porkchops, here’s a video about them:
This video is a behind the scenes look at pig farms in Georgia and California. This video was filmed undercover by Viva!USA – Vegetarians International Voices for Animals.
Here’s more from the article, where she gets more right (bolded) and a bit wrong (italicized):
If “Righteous Porkchop” is a manifesto, it is a friendly one. The writing is neither strident nor preachy. There are no guilt trips. But the details are clear and, at times, disturbing, especially as the reader tags along during Niman’s visits to pig farms, poultry farms and dairy farms. It’s a stretch to call them farms. Factories is more like it. It is a disturbing picture. Young pigs confined in tiny pens on slabs of concrete until they are slaughtered at five months. They never go outdoors.
Niman traces the beginning of industrialized pig production to a former schoolteacher, Wendell Murphy, who in the early 1960s pioneered a housing method for pigs that was based on the industrialization of poultry farming in the 1930s. Before long, huge manure lagoons threatened water systems with rampant pollution, and the largest slaughterhouse was, in the 1990s, killing 30,000 pigs every day. By then, Murphy was worth an estimated $600 million, and consumers with a conscience were the poorer for it. [...]
Niman said she hopes we are approaching the day when massive factory farms will be put out of business and farms return to the way they were at the beginning of the 20th century. (source)
While I can’t support her conclusions about humane meat, I can certainly support her desire to put factory farms out of business. And I can’t help but hope her book will turn some meat-eaters into vegetarians and vegans.
Sometimes it feels like words have no meaning at all. I just don’t understand how someone can say it is humane to slit an animal’s throat and let her bleed to death just so you can eat her flesh. It’s like these people live in fantasy land or smurf village. “It’s okay to eat animals as long as they are treated smurfy.” Whatever that means.
I think I mentioned before my pig-farmer friend in Ontario… he’s doing great in his efforts to go vegan… He’s even got his sister “vegetarian”. That’s great right?
Sad thing is, every time he writes he hates the place he works at more and more… but it’s a “job”… He told me about one particular gilt that he adores – he keeps rotating her so as to avoid sending her to slaughter… I feel for him.
I also think systems like “factories” encourage the workers to just see the “product”… If we could just get the animals out of the cages I think more and more people (the public included) would begin seeing these pigs as intelligent and “worthy”… not too different than our dogs.
And once people can see this… once they realize their “righteous porkchop” isn’t “cheap meat”… or without ethical compromise – I hope they go vegan too
~ Recent blog post: Vegans Don’t Eat Bugs, Worms or Parasites in Animal Flesh ~
“…And I can’t help but hope her book will turn some meat-eaters into vegetarians and vegans.”
It says there’s such a thing as “humane” meat production and, therefore, considers eating meat okay. How could it possibly encourage anyone to be vegetarian or vegan? That just doesn’t make sense to me.
Jeff,
The part that says,
“the details are clear and, at times, disturbing, especially as the reader tags along during Niman’s visits to pig farms, poultry farms and dairy farms. It’s a stretch to call them farms. Factories is more like it. It is a disturbing picture.”
It’s knowledge about factory farming. That’s always a good thing for animal rights.
Even with the promotion of “humane meat,” the average reader will feel less comfortable buying and eating meat if they worry it came from a factory farm. And even “humane meat” eaters will eat less meat because “humane meat” is more expensive.
Lastly, plenty of people are vegan ‘as a boycott’ to send a message against cruelty, not a message for animal rights. They see veganism as a tool to reduce animal suffering, not as an ideal lifestyle.
As a pragmatist, I don’t care why people are vegan, just that they are. I’m interested in shaping habits, not necessarily ideas, because the ideas come themselves, on their own, after the habits change anyway. The children of vegetarians are vegans
I say that metaphorically and literally.
I’ve witnessed enough people who went vegetarian for health reasons, not animal rights, and then after they stopped devaluing animal life at each meal, they started valuing animal life without even trying. They became vegan eventually.
“It’s knowledge about factory farming. That’s always a good thing for animal rights.”
Again, I don’t understand your logic here. How is knowledge about factory farming going to get people to stop eating meat if they’re given the impression that there’s a way to eat meat that’s “ethical” and “humane” and doesn’t involve supporting factory farming? They’ll probably just keep buying meat as long as it’s from one of those supposedly humane meat producers.
“And even ‘humane meat’ eaters will eat less meat because ‘humane meat’ is more expensive.”
You’re making an assumption here; you haven’t presented any evidence that people will necessarily buy less meat if it’s more expensive. If they want meat badly enough, people may well buy just as much meat as before unless the price is quite a bit higher. I haven’t priced “humane meat,” but I know that free range eggs and dairy are not that much more expensive than conventionally produced, and the people I know who buy free range dairy and eggs eat a hell of a lot of them.
“I’ve witnessed enough people who went vegetarian for health reasons, not animal rights, and then after they stopped devaluing animal life at each meal, they started valuing animal life without even trying. They became vegan eventually.”
If someone is eating dairy and eggs, then they are devaluing animal life at every meal they eat dairy and eggs. And since it isn’t that much less healthy to eat a small amount of dairy and eggs than to eat none of them, it’s not likely that someone is going to go vegan for health reasons alone. (It happens, but not often.) I’ve known lots of vegetarians who never went vegan, and insufficient knowledge and understanding about the animal rights issues is a major reason why. I’ve known at least a couple of people who went vegan for a while and then started eating dairy and eggs. Not recognizing that “free range” was largely a marketing ploy that didn’t help the animals all that much was one reason why.
My own example is relevant here. I went vegetarian in ’86 for health and environmental reasons; I knew nothing about factory farming at the time. And over the next few years not only did I not move any closer to being vegan, I actually lapsed and ate seafood at times for the first four or five years. As long as it wasn’t very much, there was not a significant impact on health or the environment, so there wasn’t much incentive for me to be strict about not eating animals. What led me to become vegan was reading John Robbins’ book Diet for a New America, maybe 10 years after I became vegetarian. Had I not had exposure to that information, I don’t think there’s any way I would ever have become vegan.
That piggy video almost made my cry!
Great example, “that’s why I’m Vegan”!!! 
~ Recent blog post: Stay + and MOTIVATED!!!
~
Jeff,
For evidence please see http://sellingcompassion.blogspot.com/ where I’ve been compiling strategy and evidence regarding animal rights promotion.
I’m going to pipe in here too… I think once people witness factory farms they are very likely to adjust their eating habits. Factory farms just look like prisons for animals and people empathize with them. In the rightful manner that they relate to dogs in puppy mills. It’s just offensive to see animals kept that way.
I think once that breach is made – they are much more open to questioning the reason to eat animals at all. There’s no anti-factory farm literature or website that hasn’t included vegetarian or vegan links.
From personal experience factory farms was the main catalyst that got me to go from vegetarian to vegan… And I know many people who have done the same – once they view a factory farm scene… they realize they’ve been duped, the mistrust (anger)begins and they question everything else from there on…
~ Recent blog post: Drover’s Dreary Defense of Murder on a Factory Farm ~
Humans are unpredictable creatures. Not everyone who reads a book will draw the exact same conclusions about things that the author did. People read critically, and it’s not unreasonable to think that some people will read a book about animal cruelty that ultimately advocates happy meat and instead reach the conclusion, “Why should I eat any meat at all?”
I do NOT advocate happy meat. But I think that it’s inevitable that the happy meat crowd will create some vegans through what they write. They create awareness and encourage people to act, and once you’ve encouraged people to act, you can’t control or predict exactly HOW they will act.
I’m anti-happy meat, and I won’t promote the work of the happy meat people. But IMO it’s too simplistic to assume you can predict the actions and reactions of those exposed to it.
~ Recent blog post: When Do I Know I’m Awesome? ~
“Jeff,
For evidence please see http://sellingcompassion.blogspot.com/ where I’ve been compiling strategy and evidence regarding animal rights promotion.”
I didn’t see any evidence specifically concerning whether somewhat higher meat prices would significantly reduce meat consumption, which is the argument you were making. Even the most cheaply-produced meat is still significantly more expensive than grains and beans are, but that doesn’t stop people from eating a lot of meat. Knowing the facts about how animals are treated, whether they’re raised for meat or used in dairy and egg production, whether they’re free-range or not, is what will be most likely to substantially affect meat (and animal product) consumption. The only way price will have a big impact is if the prices of animal products skyrocket from where they currently are. At current prices, middle-class Americans can still afford to eat large quantities of animal products even if they’re free-range.
Jeff,
I am of the belief that animal rights are SELF-EVIDENT. With enough experience around nonhuman animals, enough introspection, and enough freedom to experience honest human emotions, sensible, caring people will support at least some animal rights. Some will go vegan.
When people realize that animals are individuals just like human beings and that they desire life, love, and freedom just like we do, they can change dramatically. They don’t necessarily need to be told exactly the right thing. They feel it.
My own experience tells me this is true and I’ve seen it happen in others often enough to support my belief.
The “humane meat” message can’t undo that emotion. “Humane meat” only appeals to people who want to kill animals. It isn’t appealing to the emotive aspect of our message – the part of the message that is even told in books like “Righteous Porkchop,” because in order to explain factory farm suffering one must recognize that animals are individuals just like human beings and that they desire life, love, and freedom just like we do.
—
Here’s what know:
“‘Meat reducers,’ ‘semi-vegetarians,’ vegetarians, and vegans are growing segments of consumers.”
http://cultivateresearch.com/vol_1_VCT_Series_Overview.pdf
Now, that could be because of welfarist messages or despite welfarist messages, we don’t really know. Does it matter? Do welfarists messages make it harder for you to promote abolitionist messages? Do they truly get in your way?
They don’t get in my way. The majority of people I talk to are simply ignorant about factory farming and vegan food – those are the main areas where their objections to veganism come from. People still ask “where do you get your protein?” and “what’s wrong with dairy?” Only a few say they eat happy meat. I deal with them in a manner similar to how I deal with hunters: either I ignore them because they are fringe extremists who aren’t worth my time, or I suggest they have a blood lust and like killing because there’s absolutely no need to kill animals for food. Either way, they’re not a serious threat to the vegan message.