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| Livestock producers happy with Iowa for proposed law |
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My mother always told me when you hang with the wrong crowd, you will be painted with the same brush.
Although livestock producers haven’t all been hanging with the wrong crowd, our image has been diminished, as damaging animal cruelty videos surfaced at calculated moments in time.
You might recall the dairy farm in Ohio where an undercover video was produced of an employee mistreating the dairy cattle. That emotion-evoking YouTube special spread faster than a juicy rumor about Tiger Woods. These kinds of videos are intended to damage the livestock industry and cast a dark shadow on those of us who have built an entire life around animal husbandry.
Riding in on a white horse waving a piece of legislation to help the animal industry is the Iowa House of Representatives. Passing a bill that calls for prison sentences of up to 10 years for people caught going into a livestock confinement facility under false pretense to take pictures or video of the animals and those who are caring for the livestock, these lawmakers have taken steps to protect the private property rights of those who provide food and fiber for the country.
As family farmers we are constantly being told to “tell our story” and to open the farm gate to educate the consumer. We have been to conference after conference about how to use social media to our advantage.
We’ve been told to clean up the farm and let the world in. We’ve been told to leave the farm dirty and let the world in. We’ve even been told we can’t use rBST, that corn-fed beef is bad for humans and that GMO corn is from the devil.
We had to rename pork as a while meat, felt compelled to get in bed with HSUS to keep them from sticking a knife in our backs and heaven forbid if a chicken can’t roam free on 17 acres of grass to lay an egg.
Using my social media moment, I want to give kudos to the Iowa lawmakers who decided to take a stand and tell animal activists that the next time they decide to strap on a camera and stand idly by while a farm employee takes his anger out on a animal, they will be the ones standing in court having to answer: If you care so much for the animals, then why would you stand there and allow the animal to be abused and take video of it?
Don’t think the animal activist crowd is taking this lying down. Nope – in the name of free speech, they are kicking and screaming because someone would stand up and hold them accountable for filming without permission, and of course have asked the question: What do farmers have to hide that they need protection?
The bill passed the Iowa House by a 66-27 vote and is now being considered in the Senate, where I hope it will pass with flying colors. This will be a leading example for the rest of the states to follow suit. How nice to have a proactive state standing up for agriculture. Thank you, Iowa!
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication. |
| 3/30/2011 |
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