Home
News
Today's production methods better for birds?
Amidst ongoing debate about the pros and cons of organically versus
conventionally reared poultry, FarmWeek has published a perspective piece
promoting the view that today's methods are better for birds.
The article reads: "Every aspect of modern livestock production appears to be
under attack by activists who want all producers to farm and ranch as they did
on the old television comedy Green Acres.
"The Humane
Society has a campaign in progress to stop the way the large majority of laying
hens are housed and to require poultry producers to revert to 1930s
methods.
"Laying hens in large-scale egg operations for many years
have been caged instead of being allowed to roam free or be held in chicken
coops. About 95 percent of the laying hens in commercial operations today are
housed in wire cages.
"There is a place for egg producers who want to
raise chickens in open buildings and for those who must raise chickens in cages
to meet public demand for economically priced eggs.
"Activist
organisations, it seems, want to drastically change livestock production methods
so that the farmers and their families are the ones who are stressed and
frustrated.
"It also could be that most of these organisations
actually don't want us to eat animal products at all and prefer that livestock
producers simply go out of business."
FarmWeek is a publication for
members of the Illinois Farm Bureau, a member of the American Farm Bureau
Federation.
The article was written by Rich Keller, a director of
news services for the American Farm Bureau Federation. To read the full article,
go to the FarmWeek website.
Editor WorldPoultry
To comment, login here
Or register to be able to comment.