"We have to do things right. We have to ask 'How would this play on Youtube?'"
The American Farm Bureau Federation presented its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, to Dr. Temple Grandin at their 96th American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show. Full applause to the Farm Bureau for this award.
Temple Grandin's message is directed to both farmers and the weepy-eyed urban and suburban romantics who have never so much as cleaned a chicken coop, much less killed a chicken.
Her message is that both sides benefit from more transparency.
Farmers and animal people need to understand that everyone has a video camera now, and they need to act accordingly. Show it. Show it ALL.
Temple Grandin suggests farmers lead the charge and install their own streaming web cams!
At the same time, the folks who eat meat need to understand that there is a balancing point between price and ethics, and that ethics has very little to do with aesthetics. If you have never killed a chicken you may be horrified at the aesthetics, but it may be entirely humane and ethical.
And it's not all about how animals live or die either. It's what we're breeding as well. The rotten genetics of dairy and meat cattle may be as big an animal welfare issue as any.
Bottom line: we are going to have to be more open. More transparency, more genetic diversity, a little less focus on production, a lot more knowledge about how plants and animals are really raised.
And what does Temple Grandin say about GMOs?
I'm not going to tell you. Watch the whole thing.
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