Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Please Pay for your Pork

In the past week there's been a lot of attention to fast food companies adopting more "ethical" stances towards how the animals that provide their meat are raised. There was Chipotle's commercial that idealized the small, diversified farm over the agribusiness machine. And on the heels of Chipotle was McDonald's recent announcement that they are moving to stop buying pork with origins in gestation crates. I was hesitant to get excited about either of these things, which should seem like good news, but it took me a few days to understand why.

The movement of fast food restaurants towards more humanely-raised meat is good news in one respect. As it is clearly a PR move, it reflects a change in consumer demands, as people are becoming more aware of and caring more about where their food comes from and how it was raised. This, I believe, is a crucial cultural transformation. Of course, McDonald's change is like saying "I'm still going to beat you up, just not while you're pregnant," but that's not even why I find it problematic.

This op-ed article in the New York Times presents one conventional farmer's criticism these recent events. Now, I have a thing for happy, free-range pigs. But I respect this guy too. And I think he's correct when he suggests that these kinds of moves will force some small-scale producers out of the business for the benefit of larger corporate farms. McDonald's (and the consumers that influenced them) didn't say, "We're going to pay more for meat that was produced in a way we like better." Instead, this is one of the unfunded mandates of the corporatocracy. The desire for cheap meat was instrumental in the development of Confined Animal Feeding Operations. If McDonald's and other fast food chains are leading the move away from such practices, who's going to pay for it? I don't think McDonald's is willing to cut into its profits in the interest of doing the right thing, and I don't think the fast food consumer is willing to pay much more either. So the burden will fall on the farmers and unless they are big enough that they can afford to make the demanded changes, many will suffer or go under. If conscientious consumers want to be able to change the way animals are raised for meat (and eggs, and dairy), they ought to first try to respect the farmers and understand why they do things how they do. And then the consumers need to be willing to change themselves, and not just demand change of others. Everyone who eats in implicated in how our food is produced, and thus shares in the responsibility (financial and otherwise) in ensuring it corresponds with their values.