30th May 2018
By LoveEarth
Comments As part of the Animal Liberation Conference, “Direct Action Everywhere” hold their first Mass Open Rescue at Sunrise Farms in Petaluma, California. This industrial farm is supposedly a cage-free egg supplier to Amazon and Whole Foods. The rescue had nearly 500 activists taking out sick hens. Forty activists were subsequently arrested in an act of civil disobedience.
During this peaceful protest to expose factory farming conditions, the DxE team filmed live footage of chickens CAGED, rotting away, and severely ill.
“Americans do not want to see animals exploited in our food system,” former Northwestern law professor and DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung said in a statement, noting the action they took was a result of inaction by corporate and government when it comes to animal cruelty. “When we have gone to authorities or corporations like Amazon with absolutely horrific footage of cruelty, no action has been taken.”
“When Americans see what’s happening behind the doors of factory farms, they know it’s against their values,” explained Hsiung. “But as long as corporations control our food system, including sending whistleblowers to prison, we won’t have a food system with integrity. Yesterday’s action will chip away at their power.”
Why is this so important? Many American’s don’t know where their food comes from. Some Americans don’t want to know. Whether you choose to be in the dark or not, the fact of the matter is we are being lied to about what we are putting in our bodies and what our money is paying for. Many of us spend thousands of extra dollars on organic cage-free options for various reasons! Maybe we simply believe in animal welfare, or we want to support and encourage humane farming conditions, or we want to help support local farms, so we can have access to food that we KNOW is healthy and humane.
A mass amount of organic family farms have gone out of business and the few still around are on the brink of going bankrupt. This is largely caused by corporatized, industrialized agriculture. These huge industrial farms mass produce crops, dairy, and meat by using excessive amounts of pesticides, genetically modified seeds, and by turning a blind eye to animal welfare and their living conditions. Because of these practices, industrial farms are able to outbid the smaller family-owned farms, resulting in our grocery stores carrying, quite literally, poisonous but affordable food.
Want to learn more about how pesticides and GMOs affect your health and the environment, let us know in the comments!
By LoveEarth
