The Tipping Point: Can Walmart's New Animal Welfare Policy End Factory Farming?

Undercover investigations revealing abuse and headlines concerning deadly viruses are increasing awareness regarding how we treat farm animals intended for human consumption. Pictures on food products depicting hens and cows peacefully roaming in the grass outside a barn belie the current reality of factory farming and the suffering animals endure under this system. This policy analysis examines how animal welfare has been regulated in this country and exposes the multitude of exemptions that exist for farm animals. The federal Animal Welfare Act, Twenty-Eight Hour Law, Federal Meat Inspection Act, Humane Methods of Slaughtering Act, and the Poultry Products Inspection Act all fail to adequately regulate the treatment, care, and travel of agricultural animals. If states attempt to take matters into their own hands, they run into a host of preemption problems. Even for the regulations that do reach agricultural animals, not a single one embraces the Five Freedoms that are recommended according to the Farm Animal Welfare Council. These recommendations include that animals be free from hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain, and distress, and that they be able to express their normal behavior. In an unprecedented move, Walmart recently announced that its suppliers will adhere to animal welfare standards embracing the Five Freedoms. However, Walmart's policy has several shortcomings, including a voluntary compliance regime and no deadline for implementation. Nevertheless Walmart's animal welfare policy is likely this country's best hope for shifting current practices away from factory farming in favor of more humane and healthy handling of agricultural animals

Presenting a 360-degree View of Challenges in the U.S. Food System, from Farm to Fork

First paragraph: From Farm to Fork is a compilation of various essays organized around three overarching topics: an overview of the food system with all its complications, views from within the food system, and the federal and local policies needed to move the U.S. to a more sustainable food system in the future. The thoughtful organization of the chapters around these three areas contributes to the book’s readability and digestibility...

Following Food to its Source

First paragraph: Knowing Where it Comes From seeks to provide a history for the various labeling systems for foods now present in the global supply chain. Accordingly, author Fabio Parasecoli explains what a geographic indication is while comparing how these labels are used in various administrative systems, namely the sui generis system and the mark-based system. Parasecoli refers to these indications and labeling schemes as “place-based labels” (p. 7). His stated goal is to “explore and assess the political, legal, and administrative appa­ratus that has been activated to identify and safe­guard the connection between foods and their places of origin and to illustrate its different effects on all the stakeholders” (pp. 6–7).  While Parasecoli may ultimately achieve this goal, such success is contingent upon the reader’s dedicated toil. Parasecoli does not follow the sage writing advice to never use two words where just one will do, leaving the reader to navigate a Faulkner style of writing with long, complicated sentences often containing excessive verbiage. For example, at one point Parasecoli writes, “The increasing commercial and cultural relevance of local products and practices—especially those expressing long-lasting traditions—has led to attempts to describe, systematize, and regulate them through different kinds of classifications, juridical frameworks, and international conven­tions” (p. 6). Although Parasecoli takes pains to explain our globalized labeling scheme, his writing style often adds further complexity to an already complicated subject matter

Traveling the Path of an Organic Revolutionary

First paragraphs: In Organic Revolutionary, Grace Gershuny (former staff member of the National Organic Program [NOP] of the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA]) recalls her journey helping blaze a trail for organic certification in the 1990s. Her memoir makes for a powerful recounting of the trials and tribulations of being tasked with the David and Goliath–sized job of leading a team to draft the rules for what would eventually become the first process-based set of regulations governing an entire set of food production practices. Creating definitions for those practices, crafting the rules governing those practices, and calculating how to pass such legislation amid political (and at times consumer-driven) opposition are the steps along Gershuny's journey. For younger readers, who consider eating a political act and who care deeply about the impact their food dollars have on the health of their families, the environment, and the animals upon whom they rely for sustenance, it can be difficult to imagine a time before the existence of the USDA Organic label. Gershuny's book provides a first-hand account of how the label came into existence in 2002. Readers will walk in Gershuny's shoes, navigating a precarious political scene replete with landmines, including key issues such as whether the organic label should appear on foods produced through genetic engineering..