Avian Flu, the Farm Bill, and Dairy Spin: The Animal Industry’s Anxiety Spiral Continues | Rising Anxieties

Uh, I found some interesting articles. First of all, and this is of course the ongoing, probably one of the hugest worries for the industry.

We have a vaccine, so why are we still killing millions of birds? This is from, uh, the Gregory Bloom Expert Insights column, the Meat Business on Meating Place. If you ask most people why we don't vaccinate poultry against Avian flu, he says they'll assume it's a science problem.

It's not. It's largely an economics problem, specifically a global trade problem. It's also a problem for chickens, but you know what the hell? Uh, chicken isn't just a domestic protein in the US, it's a major export commodity generating billions of dollars annually. Billions of dollars for whom? That is the question I want answered, but Gregory isn't answering that question.

He's talking about the fact that there are a lot of countries, he doesn't say which ones they are, uh, that impose import restrictions, um, on poultry or sometimes not just the restrictions, but bans on poultry imports from nations that vaccinate against avian influenza. And it's because, something which I didn't know, is that vaccination doesn't necessarily mean that the bird isn't carrying the flu, so that makes it, that makes it like more, more understandable. Um, and when they're talking about poultry imports, they're not, he doesn't say whether they're talking... I, uh, does anybody import live poultry? Uh, I think it's mostly frozen poultry. I actually don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know everything about the industry, uh, but, um.

On the one hand, he says, vaccination could reduce losses from outbreaks, particularly in egg laying and turkey operations that are more vulnerable to supply shocks. On the other hand, adopting vaccination at scale could jeopardize access to export markets that are worth far more than the losses from periodic outbreaks.

We're not too worried about the birds here, are we? No. No. We're not gonna worry about the birds, that's for sure. For the broiler industry, the segment most tied to exports... yeah. I don't, I mean, I don't see why egg laying hens would be particularly, uh, but you know, as I, as I keep saying, what do I know? Um, but according to him, the broilers or, you know, the, the, the chickens who were raised so that people can eat their bodies, is the segment most tied to exports. And here the calculation, according to Gregory, is clear. Losing access to international markets would ripple through pricing, production levels, and ultimately profitability across the entire supply chain.

Oh God. Well, we don't wanna worry about any of those things. Profitability, we certainly don't wanna hurt that. The bottom line, he says, this isn't just a disease issue... you're gonna, you're, you're gonna think just the next line would be it. It's an animal suffering issue. It's a moral issue. No, it's a market access issue.

Until those trade-offs shift, the industry will likely keep fighting avian food the same way it does today, aggressively, expensively, and continuing to euthanize, as they like to say, millions of birds annually. Euthanasia is supposed to be killing someone to, uh, to avoid their suffering, not raising them over and over and over again to, uh, kill the ones who get this disease.

I guess it does relieve their suffering now that you've caused their suffering, by the millions and millions. It's, it's sick. These people are sick. Um, alright. Stop the Farm Bill hunting ban. I bet you didn't know there was a hunting ban in the Farm Bill. They're talking about the Federal Farm Bill.

This is from Sportsman's Alliance, one of my favorite publications and, uh. Animal rights extremists sneak hunting ban into Farm Bill. I'm like, Well, yeah, alright now we're talking. Um, this is about HR 5 0 1 7 and apparently, um, anti-hunting activist groups have hijacked the Farm Bill. 'Cause, you know, anti-hunting activist groups are so powerful in Washington... by inserting language. They act, apparently the groups inserted the language didn't have, you know, bypassing the legislators completely. That's not exactly what happened, I'm quite sure. Alright. Admittedly, the bill was called something about ending greyhound racing, which, you know, they're saying was deceptive.

'Cause you know, I, it's not like legislators should be expected to read the bills. So whatever you title it, that's what they're gonna think it is. Um. Alright it actually threatens to ban the use of sight hounds, scent hounds, and bird dog training nationwide. That's not what it does, sadly. Uh, so even if this manages to survive through the Farm Bill negotiations, that's, that's not what it does.

But it does do something. Um, thanks to significant pressure from the animal rights lobby. You know what a powerhouse, well, it, you know, they have some influence. The Farm Bill just approved by the House Committee on Agriculture includes a hunting ban. What it would actually do is ban certain types of hounds and hunting, as well as the use of live lures... quote quote, live lures... for training or field trials. Live lures are live animals. Like can you use live animals to train your hunting dogs to go kill animals? Um, alright. Banning the use of sighthounds and hunting, I mean, do they use a lot of sighthounds? I don't, you know, here's another subject I'm supposed to know a lot about.

I thought sighthounds were like Afghans. Uh, I, I, I think it's mostly scent hounds that are used in hunting, but it would ban the use of sighthounds in hunting. I know I should have looked that up. I'm sorry. Additionally, it would, um, go so far to impact anyone that hunts with bird dogs or scent hounds by banning the use of live animals in dog training.

So they don't actually ban the use of of scent hounds. What they do is ban the use of, of live animals in training them. And they consider that a ban? Like is the no other way to train them. Well, that would be good, but I don't know whether that's true. So, uh, you know, this is still pending. The Farm Bill is up in the air.

There's lots of other things, especially the, you know, the efforts to get rid of prop 12 and, and, and pretty much any other state level regulation of the farming industry, um, is, is the thing that most animal activists are focused on. But, you know, here's another thing. So they're asking everybody to call their, um, their representatives and their senators, um, and tell them that they really, they really hate this anti-hunting language, which, so, you know, you could call yours and tell them something else.

Um, all right. Oh, this is just a stupid one I threw in here 'cause it was annoying and because every once in a while we should look at this sort of thing. Uh, carnivore influencer, Eddie Abbu says tofu quote is not food. That's pretty harsh. All right, this is from the UK. It's from plant-based news. Um, and this is like some influencer.

He is a athlete, uh, of some sort. And, um, his opinion is that he would put tofu in the same category as protein powders and stuff like that because it's not food. I've had this before. Well, he's had it, so you know, he should know. And it literally just went straight through me. Little too graphic. So my tummy was telling me, what are you doing?

Well, I think that Eddie's tummy should be the source for all food information. Oh, this stuff is so stupid. Why do people listen to these people? Uh, the article points out that the first recorded mention of tofu is over 2000 years old. It's a standard food in China for many, many years. It seems to be a food.

It's like fairly good for you, but he says it's not food. Stop eating that and start sticking some eggs in your mouth. Hi. He also criticized peanut butter, chickpeas and lentils. I don't know, chickpeas and lentils. He'll probably get away with that, but peanut butter? I mean, if they wanna take on peanut butter, good luck to 'em.

It's everybody's favorite food. Um, from Hordes Dairyman. This is, this is the one I really hated. This one's hateful because, well, you'll hear.

Can't help myself, welcome to the funny farm. This is by Molly Ihde, IHDE. I'm not sure how you pronounce that, who is an Iowa dairy farmer and she starts off by saying... you're gonna hate it too... I've always been an animal lover to my core. And she adds, obviously, helping milk cows and feeding calves were on the agenda while living on our family dairy farm. Helping milk cows and feeding calves. Well, if you actually didn't take the calves away from the milk cows, the cow, you wouldn't have to feed the calves and the milk cows would probably be a hell of a lot happier.

But, you know, countless barn cats... maybe you should consider spay and neuter for the countless barn cats, you would then be able to count them... um, raising rabbits. Yeah. What, what were we doing with those rabbits after we raised them? Um, and getting into horses. I don't even wanna know what that is. Um, her previous jobs have each included some form of agriculture and now she's part of her family's dairy farm.

Yeah. You know, it's like they come back to the farm and act like, I don't know, it's 'cause they're farm people or they're farm folk or they're just the salt of the earth. They, they come back to the farm because it's a family business and it makes money and they get to inherit it and they own the land.

And it like, why wouldn't you? I mean, unless... they probably go out and try to find some other way. You know how many people do and then you come back to the family business. 'cause there it is. It's a moneymaker. I'm not saying that's the only reason because the thing that really bugs me about this article and ones like it, is that they believe it.

They believe it. People are unbelievable. Alright, so now she has kids. So we're moving into the second generation. They have easy access and constant exposure to dairy and beef cows. Okay. She also has two Great Pyrenees dogs. God forbid they shouldn't have pureed dogs. Endless barn cats. Still spay and neuter, have you heard about it?

Um, and again, horses though, we're not saying what we're doing with the horses. They've also added meat goats. Well, that'll teach kids to love animals, um, and layer chicks. And we wanna teach them, she and her husband, her husband also really, really loves animals... and, um, we wanna teach the kids how to nurture and respect all living beings.

Uh, meat goats, uh, layered chicks, beef cows? I don't know. That's not my idea of nurture and respect. We want them to develop a kind of love that stretches far beyond themselves. They believe this shit. They believe it. That's who they think they are. I like, this is the kind of thing that gives, just gives me no hope for the human race, so I'm really sorry to pass it on to you.

But you know, maybe I relieve my anxiety by pouring it onto others. Sorry, sorry. Um, all right. Next from wattpoultry.com Avian Flu Bill Targets Sale of Public Land Near Egg Farm. This one is unbelievable. Well, it's not. It's in Wisconsin. If you're in Wisconsin, maybe you should look this up.

Alright. This is... a new bill could allow the state of Wisconsin to sell public land close to commercial egg farms as an avian influenza biosecurity measure. I read that and I was like, what, what does that mean? Alright, so what it means, it's about one, one egg farm. Alright, so the national, the Natural Resources Board has this property, it's state owned land, and um, the legislation is focused on one egg farm that bought its land after, the Department of Natural Resources, Resources acquired it's 1800 acres in the area. And it's called Daybreak Foods' Cold Spring Egg Farm. It's in Palmyra, Wisconsin. They've had many bird flu outbreaks. They've depopulated IE smothered with heat, uh, millions of layers. Layers, of course, living creatures who lay eggs. And, um, what they want to do is allow this, this egg farm to buy this land from the government, God knows at what cost, probably not a big one. And owning the land would then allow the producer to plant grasses and reduce waterfowl activity. Now, the purpose of the the Department of Natural Resources acquiring this 1800 acres was to expand waterfowl habitat. Now admittedly, the Department of Natural Resources probably was doing this so people could come shoot the birds.

But there are other reasons as well. You know, they're, they're not totally a hunting supporting agency. They want to increase, they wanna make things a little easier for wild birds. So the egg farm wants to buy this property so that they can keep waterfall waterfowl. I keep saying that, sorry, waterfowl off of the, off of the land. So that they, the waterfowl can't transfer bird flu to their chickens. I mean, you cannot make this stuff up.

Um. And it will also, so they, they'll be able to plant grasses and reduce waterfowl activity. Like how does planting grasses do that? I bet there'll be other things to reduce waterfowl activity other than planting grass. As well as grant US Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services access to deter wild bird activity. Wildlife Services is of course the, the agency in the federal government that goes out and shoots animals and kills animals and poisons animals and kills animals that get in the way of farmers in any way whatsoever. If we own the property, the farmer says, uh, the chicken farmer says, if we own the property... I hate to call them farmers, sorry.

Uh, if we own the property, wildlife Services would have our permission to go in and create a disincentive for waterfowl to be close to us. This land was bought by the government of Wisconsin to encourage waterfowl. Oh my God. It has passed the assembly, by the way, and is at the Senate level? So you know, if you're in Wisconsin, maybe you should like look that up because that is insane.

Just like every week, I think I won't hear something new and every week I do. Alright, finally, our last article is from Hordes Dairyman. Powering Up with Protein. This is insane. I dunno, I feel like I saved the best ones for last. I know I don't usually do that. But this is from the Amer, this is an article about the American Dairy Association Northeast who are doing this program.

And this article is by, uh, Jean Cummer who's their, um, I don't know, their something, their publicist or something. Uh, and the campaign directly compares protein in milk versus the leading plant-based milk products. Milk has eight times more protein per serving than the leading plant-based milk. The leading plant-based milk is almond milk, which has very little protein. Soy milk, which is I think second though oat milk might be second, has the same amount of protein as dairy milk.

So they're just taking almond milk, which is the leading, I'm not denying that. I have no idea why. It's not my favorite, but I know, you know, I know among vegans this could be a heated conversation, so I'm not trying to start anything. But almond milk really? It's so blah. Um, I love soy milk and uh, and I'm glad to hear the same amount of protein.

And no saturated fat? No, uh, no cholesterol. And it has some fiber. It doesn't have an enormous amount of fiber 'cause it's milk, but it has some fiber, like, I don't know, two, three grams, uh, per cup.

Alright, so they're do... this is a huge campaign. They're, um, they're doing, uh, traditional media in New York City and Washington DC.

They've invoked the work of nationally recognized latte artists, Michael Breech. Uh, what? Um, the men's professional soccer team, the Philadelphia Union, if you're Philadelphia, you might wanna make a phone call there.

And sadly, sadly, I have to say they're promoting protein at several of the events that they host at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, which is where I live.

This is a disgrace. I mean, I wish you, you kind of have to look it up to see these ads. There's this, this big, just these big squares milk, eight grams protein, the leading plant-based milk, one gram protein, I mean. I think it's deceptive advertising. It's, it's technically true, but, you know, deceptive advertising is, is judged not by whether it's true or false.

There's plenty of false advertising that is not deceptive. Like if you... like World's Best Coffee, nobody thinks it's actually the world's best coffee. So, you know, you can say that and nobody, you can't, you're not, nothing's gonna happen to you 'cause people don't believe it. Here's is something, uh, that something that is technically true could actually be false advertising because if they can do surveys of people and if, if significant numbers of people, especially children, and they are at the Strong Museum of Play, which is mostly for children, uh, you know, find it deceptive. Believe the wrong thing reading it, then it's deceptive advertising. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. All right.

That's it. That's all I got. Um, thank you for joining me this week. Thank you for putting up with me. As, as always, sometimes I, I feel like I'm a burden to you all. I do. And, uh, let's see, what am I supposed to say? Um. Thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe, like, and comment on your favorite pod catcher or on YouTube.

Tune into our other podcasts, The Hen Report and the Our Hen House interview. And there's so much going on right now. I know there's stuff, a lot of stuff going on aside from the animal rights world, but there's a lot going on in the animal rights world too, so, so yeah. Stay in touch.