Just weeks after PETA released their initial exposé, another Farmer Focus whistleblower came forward. In addition to corroborating many of the first whistleblower’s claims—such as the mouse infestation, high numbers of broken and bruised chickens’ wings, and the malfunctioning stunning bath—the new whistleblower alleged even more problems from this Global Animal Partnership certified humane facility. See the details here.In a separate development, one of the two current lawsuits against Alexandre cleared its first legal hurdle on Friday when a Humboldt County Superior Court judge ruled to allow a cruelty lawsuit to proceed against Alexandre.
Consumers who purchase milk from companies like Alexandre (and Whole Foods,) thinking they are supporting good animal welfare, are being deceived while animals continue to suffer. While Alexandre now appears to be the subject of increased monitoring, this case highlights the systematic failure of certification programs to ensure compliance with organic and animal welfare standards. Although Alexandre has been exposed for its egregious practices, this is not a case of one bad actor. For example, as part of the investigation, Alexandre supplied the NOP with the past results of the company’s certification inspections. During the period in question, Alexandre passed inspections by multiple certification programs, including the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Certified Humane, the National Dairy FARM Program, Organic Trust Plus, and Validus.24 None of these programs identified animal welfare concerns that rose to the level of an inspection failure or noncompliance finding, allowing Alexandre to continue its mistreatment of cows, unchecked. Read more from Farm Forward here. Air pollution from animal farms is linked to almost eight times more premature deaths than coal-fired power plants, a 2021 study from Johns Hopkins University found. Other research has found that living near a factory farm is positively associated with risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia, and people who live near them report higher rates of headaches, depression, anger, and respiratory symptoms, such as asthma.
The mega factory farm is the inevitable consequence of decades of federal and state agricultural policy that has incentivized growth at all costs, with few guardrails in place to protect the people who live near them, like Carolyn Bittner, many of whom feel their health and quality of life has been sacrificed for corporate profit and cheap meat, milk, and eggs. Read more here: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/395967/iowa-factory-farm-pollution-sacrifice-state Processing Meat is a biweekly newsletter written by Kenny Torrella and Marina Bolotnikova that analyzes meat and dairy production’s immense impact on human and animal lives. Check out more of their work on animal welfare here. Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) labels proclaim that animal body parts like hamburger and chicken breasts—as well as dairy and eggs—can be trusted to have come from sources with high “animal welfare” standards. But, as PETA (and others) investigations of G.A.P.-certified farms repeatedly show, the labels are a clever marketing ploy designed to hoodwink people who care about animals into thinking they’re doing the right thing, when they are actually paying to prop up factory farms where animals suffer incredible pain and misery. This is HumaneWashing.
Packing thousands or millions of animals together in one facility creates concentrated air and water pollution that harms rural Americans’ health and fouls US waterways. Slaughterhouse workers risk losing a finger or limb every day they go to work. The millions of pounds of antibiotics used to keep factory-farmed animals alive puts us all in danger by making these lifesaving drugs less effective. Certain practices, such as locking animals in cages for years or slicing off their body parts without anesthesia or even painkillers, are considered standard “animal husbandry” when done to farmed animals, but torture when done to pet dogs or cats. Read more from Kenny Torrella at Vox here: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/393738/factory-farms-meat-dairy-production
You can place a green, certified humane, label on products, but that clearly isn't what is happening at these large factory farm facilities. New footage from Foster Farms, California’s largest poultry producer, shows the company continuing to engage in similar behavior that activists allege amounts to cruel treatment of live chickens. Foster Farms, which was recertified by the AHA earlier this year, has been on the receiving end of millions of dollars in state and local subsidies to expand its product lines in California. Read more from The Intercept here.
The settlement comes nearly two years after the Los Angeles Times first exposed that Amazon was dipping into customer tips to cover the base pay guaranteed to Flex drivers, who deliver Amazon Fresh, Prime Now and other orders. Read more from the Los Angeles Times here.  A federal investigation has found that Amazon illegally fired a New York City warehouse worker in retaliation for organizing his coworkers for COVID-19 protections earlier this year.
Read more from Vice's Motherboard here. In a distressing email received by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, a worker at Amazon’s Whole Foods delivery warehouse in Industry City, Brooklyn, New York, said that six of her co-workers had tested positive for COVID since October 22, because “safe social distancing is not only being ignored but discouraged,” adding that “when we express our discomfort to management, we are yelled at about filling orders faster, or told that we can take a leave of absence without pay.”
Read more from Common Dreams here. Secret Amazon Reports Expose the Company’s Surveillance of Labor and Environmental Groups11/30/2020 Dozens of leaked documents from Amazon’s Global Security Operations Center reveal the company’s reliance on Pinkerton operatives to spy on warehouse workers and the extensive monitoring of labor unions, environmental activists, and other social movements.
The documents offer an unprecedented look inside the internal security and surveillance apparatus of a company that has vigorously attempted to tamp down employee dissent and has previously been caught smearing employees who attempted to organize their colleagues. Read more from Vice News here. |
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