The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs Table of Contents by Marlene Halverson I

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs Table of Contents by Marlene Halverson I IATP Hog Report http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/2/27/2006 3:49:57 AM Table of Contents The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs Table of Contents By Marlene Halverson i. Executive Summary and Overview July 2000 I. Are Independent Farmers an Endangered Species? Sponsored by the Funding Group on Confined Animal Feeding Operations. II. Putting Lives in Peril Copyright 2000: Institute for Agriculture and Trade III. Building Sewerless Cities Policy IV. Part of the Pig Really Does Fly Dedicated to the V. The Hog Factory in the Backyard memory of Ruth Harrison VI. Pigs in the Poky Author of Animal Machines:The New VII. Stop the Madness Factory Farming Industry (1964). VIII. Funder to Funder June 1920-June 2000 IX. Animal Welfare Institute Husbandry Standards for Pigs Acknowledgements ● Contacts - Some organizations and individuals known to Home Page be working on the animal factory issue and humane, sustainable, and socially just alternatives. ● Funders Acknowledgements Sponsored by the Funding Group on Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Written by Marlene K. Halverson About the author: http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/indextoc.html (1 of 2)2/27/2006 3:49:58 AM Table of Contents Marlene Halverson was raised on a southern Minnesota dairy and crop farm. She is a Ph.D. candidate in agricultural economics at the University of Minnesota. In 1992, she was a guest researcher at the Department of Animal Health and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, where she studied the economic effects of animal protection legislation on Swedish hog farmers. She has visited farms and pig research institutes in several European countries. From 1995 to 1997, while employed by Iowa State University, she assisted Iowa and Minnesota farmers adopting a humane, sustainable Swedish hog production system. She has served on the University of Minnesota Institutional Animal Care Committee's subcommittee on agricultural animals used in research and teaching. She participated in the "Hogs Your Way" project of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Energy and Sustainable Agriculture program and is a member of the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Alternative Swine Systems Task Force. Halverson has written for popular magazines, citizen group publications, and farm and scientific journals on the subject of humane, sustainable pig production. Charles Benjamin contributed an early draft of this report, assisted by Andrea Repinsky, who collected many of the contact names and addresses and contacts' descriptions of their work. Duane Sand provided critical oversight. Others who assisted were Barbara Clark, Diane Halverson, Charlene Lucken, and Charmaine Wright. Several individuals recommended strategies and action alternatives for inclusion at the end of each chapter. The author is especially indebted to Robbin Marks for her thoughts on these. Robbin Marks, Paul Sobocinski, Christine Stevens and Sr. Kathleen Storms made comments on specific sections of the report. The author is responsible for any errors that remain. Graphic design and production: Brett Olson, Geografix. Graphic design assistance: Jason Russell. Cover photo reprinted by permission of Diane Halverson. Cartoons reprinted by permission of Agri-News, Rochester, Minnesota. Mark Ritchie, Presudent of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, oversaw the production of this report for the Funding Group on Confined Animal Feeding Operations. We acknowledge the growing number of independent family hog farmers who are striving every day to farm more humanely and more sustainably. May this report highlight their cause. 2nd Printing © 2000 Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The views presented in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Funding Group on Confined Animal Feeding Operations or others who assisted. We encourage you to reproduce this report or portions of it without permission if credit is given. http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/indextoc.html (2 of 2)2/27/2006 3:49:58 AM Section 0 i. Executive Summary Executive Summary and Overview Section Summaries: The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs Are Independent Farmers an Endangered Species? The industrialization of U.S. animal agriculture has pressed on, unabated, for half a century, gradually changing the faces of American farming and Putting Lives in Peril rural communities. The changes wrought by industrialization are occurring in all of animal agriculture. This report focuses on the impacts of hog factories. Building Sewerless Cities The industrialization of hog farming has been attributed in great part to Part of the Pig Really inexorable advances in science and technology and the freedom afforded Does Fly economic development by an unfettered marketplace. Indeed, some experts see current industry structure as simply "what has evolved out of Hog Factory in the Back the marketplace,"1 the inevitable result of impersonal, irresistible Yard economic forces triggering a kind of "natural selection" process over which we are powerless to do anything but go with the flow. Pigs in the Poky Writing about mega-hog factory Seaboard Corporation's move to Guymon, Oklahoma, however, authors from the North Central Regional Stop the Madness! Center for Rural Development note that the move was hardly due to market forces at work. Describing the over $60 million in publicly References supported incentives that drew Seaboard to Guymon and helped it build its facilities and train its workers, they note:2 Guymon is a case of state-directed, rather than market- driven introduction of new economic activity. | Next Section | The chink in the armor of the natural selection theory is that the | Table of Contents | industrialization process is not impersonal or natural or necessary. It, too, has been engineered. Says rural sociologist Doug Constance:3 | Home Page | It is very importantthat we do not accept the industrialization process, the industrialization of agriculture, as something natural, as something inevitable, as something determined. It is no such thing. It is a plan. It is a plan for certain people to benefit and others to pay. The industrialization of hog farming has taken place in a political- economic environment or context in which the quality of natural resources, the quality of human and animal life, the safety and quality of our food, and the quality of life for future generations are valued lower than short-term economic gain. http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/sec0.html (1 of 11)2/27/2006 3:50:00 AM Section 0 The choice as to whether or not to change the political-economic context in which American agriculture operates that is, the set of laws, regulations, penalties, incentives, and community expectations influencing agricultural development is a political choice. We can change the political-economic context, within which structural change in agriculture occurs, and thereby change its direction. For the good of the planet, our response to the changes the industrialization process in agriculture is invoking must not be hands-off. The Need for An Historical Perspective What people tend to think of as modern problems associated with a modern industry have been in the making for decades, as long as the industrialization of agriculture has been taking place. Consider the problem of antibiotic resistance, which medical scientists contend stems in significant part from the use of antibiotics at subtherapeutic levels in animal feeds to control disease and make animals grow faster. Thirty-six years ago, in Great Britain, Ruth Harrison wrote a book entitled Animal Machines: The New Factory Farming Industry in which she described the cruelty of animal factories. The story she told could have been written today:4 [F]eeding firms are entitled to incorporate up to 100 grammes of antibiotic in each ton of animal feeding stuffs as a regular supplement for intensively kept animals, and the farmer may buy and incorporate antibiotics at any level he thinks fit. This, when the merest trace can mean the difference between life and death to a consumer. Since 1964, Great Britain and other parts of Europe have taken effective steps to reduce at least some antibiotic use in agriculture. In the United States, to date we have not. For the past 40 years, the profits of a few have repeatedly trumped the benefits to the many who depend on the continued effectiveness of precious antibiotics. It is important to know that the question of antibiotic use in animal feeds has been debated for four decades and that the evidence for agricultural origins of antibiotic resistance has been building for many years. We need this awareness to resist agribusiness' and the animal health industry's continued calls for more study, more time, more proof before acting to restrict the use of how antibiotics are used in agriculture. We need it to know for certain that it is time to stop listening to agribusiness and take action. Hence, this paper places some animal factory issues in a historical context, http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/sec0.html (2 of 11)2/27/2006 3:50:00 AM Section 0 in consideration of George Santayana's observation that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It also describes, in more detail than is usually seen, the experiences of people who have tried to channel industry change in more socially beneficial directions, because we can learn from each other's experiences. The report is organized in seven parts. Each provides a detailed description of its issue and closes with a list of strategies and action alternatives for constructive reform. This Executive Summary and Overview closes with a list of ways foundations can help empower citizens and their organizations in their efforts to preserve family farms and protect the public, farm animals, wildlife, and the environment from the ravages of animal factories. Summary of Parts 1 through 7 I. Are Independent Farmers an Endangered Species? Part One of this report asks "are independent farmers an endangered species?" The statistics indicate that is the case.
Recommended publications
  • Interfaith Vegan Coalition QUAKER KIT
    Interfaith Vegan Coalition QUAKER KIT Demonstrating the Quaker Ideals of Harmlessness and Universal Lovingkindness has been pleased to try my faith and obedience by teaching me that I ought no longer to partake of anything that had life.” – Joshua Evans (colleague of Woolman), Journal, 1837, pp. 27, 38 “I felt a great yearning of heart toward my fellow creatures and much tenderness and compassion for the brute creation.” – Elizabeth Collins (1755 - 1831), Journal, 1859, p. 21 “I have felt, more and more as the years go by, my kinship with animals (even with the little creatures I [I] was early convinced in my mind . that as by his had to destroy as a gardener) and my compassion for breath the flame of life was kindled in all animal and them when unkindly treated by men. I am strongly sensitive creatures, to say we love God as unseen, opposed to vivisection and my vegetarian diet is due and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the to feelings of kinship with them as well as to reasons least creature moving by his life, or by life derived of health.” from him--was a contradiction in itself. – Stephen Hobhouse, Journal, 1952, p. 30 – John Woolman, The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman, Phillips P. Moulton, ed. (Richmond, “Why is it so important to see things clearly? It IN: Friends United Press, 1971) p. 28 is because true understanding is the root of compassion, and compassion is what leads to loving “My spirit was often bowed in awful reverence before action. The failure to see things as they really are the Most High and covered with feelings of humility leads to much of the suffering in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • AS WE RECALL the Growth of Agricultural Estimates^ 1933-1961 L M Brooks
    ^t^f.t.i^A^( fk^^^ /^v..<. S AS WE RECALL The Growth of Agricultural Estimates^ 1933-1961 L M Brooks Statistical Reporting s Service U.S. Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C As We Recall, THE GROWTH OF AGRICULTURAL ESTIMATES, 1933-1961 U.S. OEPÎ. or AGRlCUtTURE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL UBRARY OECIT CATALOGmC PREP E. M. Brooks, Statistical Reporting Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 1977 I FOREWORD The Statistical Reporting Service, as with any organization, needs to know its past to understand the present and appraise the future. Accordingly, our technical procedures are peri- ^odically set forth in ''Scope and Methods of the Statistical Reporting Service," and the agency's early development and program expansion were presented in "The Story of Agricultural Estimates." However, most important are the people who de- veloped this complex and efficient statistical service for agriculture and those who maintain and expand it today. Dr. Harry C. Trelogan, SRS Administrator, 1961-1975, arranged for Emerson M. Brooks to prepare this informal account of some of the people who steered SRS's course from 1933 to 1961. The series of biographical sketches selected by the author are representative of the people who helped develop the per- sonality of SRS and provide the talent to meet challenges for accurate and timely agricultural information. This narrative touching the critical issues of that period and the way they'^ were resolved adds to our understanding of the agency and helps maintain the esprit de corps that has strengthened our work since it started in 1862. Our history provides us some valuable lessons, for "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." W.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Animal Law Received Generous Support from the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Michigan State University College of Law
    JOURNAL OF ANIMAL LAW Michigan State University College of Law APRIL 2009 Volume V J O U R N A L O F A N I M A L L A W Vol. V 2009 EDITORIAL BOARD 2008-2009 Editor-in-Chief ANN A BA UMGR A S Managing Editor JENNIFER BUNKER Articles Editor RA CHEL KRISTOL Executive Editor BRITT A NY PEET Notes & Comments Editor JA NE LI Business Editor MEREDITH SH A R P Associate Editors Tabb Y MCLA IN AKISH A TOWNSEND KA TE KUNK A MA RI A GL A NCY ERIC A ARMSTRONG Faculty Advisor DA VID FA VRE J O U R N A L O F A N I M A L L A W Vol. V 2009 Pee R RE VI E W COMMITT ee 2008-2009 TA IMIE L. BRY A NT DA VID CA SSUTO DA VID FA VRE , CH A IR RE B ECC A J. HUSS PETER SA NKOFF STEVEN M. WISE The Journal of Animal Law received generous support from the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Michigan State University College of Law. Without their generous support, the Journal would not have been able to publish and host its second speaker series. The Journal also is funded by subscription revenues. Subscription requests and article submissions may be sent to: Professor Favre, Journal of Animal Law, Michigan State University College of Law, 368 Law College Building, East Lansing MI 48824. The Journal of Animal Law is published annually by law students at ABA accredited law schools. Membership is open to any law student attending an ABA accredited law college.
    [Show full text]
  • Ruth Harrison and Other Animals
    from Oxford Magazine no.340, 2nd Week, Michaelmas Term 2013, pp.6-7 Ruth Harrison and Other Animals MATTHEW SIMPSON There was an excellent conference in the Zoology Department earlier this year on the subject of two pioneering books published about fifty years ago and the two heroic women who wrote them. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) is the better-known book, in print ever since its first appearance. Ruth Harrison’s exposé of factory farming, Animal Machines (1964), did not reappear in a second edition until the occasion of this Oxford conference, although she had persisted as an eloquent and effective agitator on her subject until her death in the year 2000. In fact the closing speaker at the conference told a story neatly illustrating this persistence: some farming representative expressed his relief at finding that the tenacious Ruth Harrison was apparently no longer present at a meeting, but he was quickly corrected from behind a filing cabinet (it was a small room): “I’m still here.” To which our speaker added, “And indeed she is.” I must say that I inwardly disputed that addition, at least in its most immediate application. We were generously fed during the conference (for which, sincere thanks), but there was no indication of the food’s provenance – that is, of how the land or the animals implicated in it had been treated. It was blithely Carson/Harrison-free fare. Nor did the organisers wish to take up the suggestion (no doubt they had very good academic and other reasons) that the conference might sponsor a statement of some sort, urging the University’s catering committees to do their best to act upon the teachings of the two women.
    [Show full text]
  • Scientific Briefing on Caged Farming Overview of Scientific Research on Caged Farming of Laying Hens, Sows, Rabbits, Ducks, Geese, Calves and Quail
    February 2021 Scientific briefing on caged farming Overview of scientific research on caged farming of laying hens, sows, rabbits, ducks, geese, calves and quail Contents I. Overview .............................................................................................. 4 Space allowances ................................................................................. 4 Other species-specific needs .................................................................... 5 Fearfulness ......................................................................................... 5 Alternative systems ............................................................................... 5 In conclusion ....................................................................................... 7 II. The need to end the use of cages in EU laying hen production .............................. 8 Enriched cages cannot meet the needs of hens ................................................. 8 Space ............................................................................................... 8 Respite areas, escape distances and fearfulness ............................................. 9 Comfort behaviours such as wing flapping .................................................... 9 Perching ........................................................................................... 10 Resources for scratching and pecking ......................................................... 10 Litter for dust bathing ..........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • WHAT IS a FARM? AGRICULTURE, DISCOURSE, and PRODUCING LANDSCAPES in ST ELIZABETH, JAMAICA by Gary R. Schnakenberg a DISSERTATION
    WHAT IS A FARM? AGRICULTURE, DISCOURSE, AND PRODUCING LANDSCAPES IN ST ELIZABETH, JAMAICA By Gary R. Schnakenberg A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Geography – Doctor of Philosophy 2013 ABSTRACT WHAT IS A FARM? AGRICULTURE, DISCOURSE, AND PRODUCING LANDSCAPES IN ST. ELIZABETH, JAMAICA By Gary R. Schnakenberg This dissertation research examined the operation of discourses associated with contemporary globalization in producing the agricultural landscape of an area of rural Jamaica. Subject to European colonial domination from the time of Columbus until the 1960s and then as a small island state in an unevenly globalizing world, Jamaica has long been subject to operations of unequal power relationships. Its history as a sugar colony based upon chattel slavery shaped aspects of the society that emerged, and left imprints on the ethnic makeup of the population, orientation of its economy, and beliefs, values, and attitudes of Jamaican people. Many of these are smallholder agriculturalists, a livelihood strategy common in former colonial places. Often ideas, notions, and practices about how farms and farming ‘ought-to-be’ in such places results from the operations and workings of discourse. As advanced by Foucault, ‘discourse’ refers to meanings and knowledge circulated among people and results in practices that in turn produce and re-produce those meanings and knowledge. Discourses define what is right, correct, can be known, and produce ‘the world as it is.’ They also have material effects, in that what it means ‘to farm’ results in a landscape that emerges from those meanings. In Jamaica, meanings of ‘farms’ and ‘farming’ have been shaped by discursive elements of contemporary globalization such as modernity, competition, and individualism.
    [Show full text]
  • SWP Quick Facts the Nation's Breadbasket from Farm to Table
    The State Water Project Supports One of California’s Largest Industries: Agriculture The State Water Project (SWP) provides clean, reliable water to support California’s agricultural production – one of the state’s largest and most important industries: • $54 billion in revenue • $100 billion in related economic activity • 422,000+ direct agriculture jobs • 76,400 farms and ranches The Nation’s Breadbasket SWP Quick Facts • $21.02 billion in total agricultural exports • Serves 27 million Californians • 13% of the nation’s total agriculture value • Irrigates 750,000 acres of farmland across the state • 40% of the nation’s organic production • Provides 3/4 of California’s disadvantaged communities with some or all of their water supplies • 400+ commodities • Made up of 34 storage facilities, reservoirs, lakes and 701 • 33%+ of the nation’s vegetables miles of open canals and pipelines • 67% of the nation’s fruits and nuts • Carries water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, to communities throughout the state from the Bay Area to San Diego California’s top commodities for • Without the SWP, California would need to replace up to 2018-2019: 4.2 million acre-feet of high-quality water annually to meet state demand Dairy Products, Milk — $7.34 billion, 18.1% Almonds — $6.09 billion, 100% From Farm to Table The agriculture industry goes beyond farms to support jobs in Grapes — $5.41 billion, 94.6% restaurants, grocery stores and more: Cattle and Calves — $3.06 billion, 4.6% Strawberries — $2.22 billion, 87.9% 2.8+ million $119.30 billion jobs in wages Pistachios — $1.94 billion, 100% Lettuce — $1.82 billion, 52.3% Walnuts — $1.29 billion, 100% Floriculture — $1.22 billion, 25.5% $369.19 billion in $25.42 billion in direct output exports Tomatoes — $1.17 billion, 73.4% *Percentages reflect California’s share of total U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Pigs, Products, Prototypes and Performances
    INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION 5 & 6 SEPTEMBER 2013, DUBLIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DUBLIN, IRELAND ZOOCENTRIC DESIGN: PIGS, PRODUCTS, PROTOTYPES AND PERFORMANCES Seaton BAXTER 1 and Fraser BRUCE 2 1 The Centre for the Study of Natural Design, DJCAD, University of Dundee 2 Product Design, DJCAD, University of Dundee ABSTRACT This paper is concerned with how we apply design to our association with other non-human animals. It exemplifies this with the domestication and current use of the pig (Sus domesticus). After a brief review of the process of domestication, the paper looks at modern production and the increase in concerns for animal health, welfare and performance and the link to food for human consumption. The paper elaborates on the extreme nature of intensive pig production systems and the role that design plays in their operations. It points out the prototypical nature of the modern pigs’ evolution and the means by which man contributes his own prototypes to these changes. It pays some attention to the often conflicting concerns of efficient production and animal welfare. It exemplifies this in a brief study of 2 design products - floor systems and feeding systems, and through the use of a Holmesian type puzzle, shows the complex interrelationships of the two products. The paper emphasises the need for designers to avoid extreme anthropomorphism, adopt whenever possible a zoocentric and salutogenic (health oriented) approach and remain fully aware that all technical decisions are also likely to be ethical decisions. The paper concludes with some suggestions of what might be incorporated into the curriculum of product design courses.
    [Show full text]
  • Quarterly Fall 2010 Volume 59 Number 4
    AW I Quarterly Fall 2010 Volume 59 Number 4 AWI ABOUT THE COVER Quarterly ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE QUARTERLY Baby black rhinoceros, Maalim, is heading in for his evening bottle and then a good night’s sleep at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust outside Nairobi. Apparently abandoned by his FOUNDER mother, days-old Maalim (named for the ranger who rescued him) was found in the Ngulia Christine Stevens Rhino Sanctuary and taken to the Trust. Now at 20 months, he has grown quite a bit but is DIRECTORS still just hip-high! Black rhinos, critically endangered with a total wild population believed to Cynthia Wilson, Chair be around 4,200 animals, continue to be poached (along with white rhinos) for their horns. Barbara K. Buchanan “Into Africa” on p. 14 chronicles the visit to the Trust and other Kenyan conservation program John Gleiber sites by AWI’s Cathy Liss. Charles M. Jabbour Mary Lee Jensvold, Ph.D. Photo by Cathy Liss Cathy Liss 4 Michele Walter OFFICERS Cathy Liss, President Cynthia Wilson, Vice President Brutal BLM Roundups Charles M. Jabbour, CPA, Treasurer John Gleiber, Secretary THE UNNECESSARY REMOVAL OF WILD HORSES has reached an alarming rate SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE under the current administration. Thousands of horses have been and continue to Gerard Bertrand, Ph.D. be removed from their native range, and placed in short- and long-term holding Roger Fouts, Ph.D. facilities in the Roger Payne, Ph.D. Midwest. Taxpayers 10 22 Samuel Peacock, M.D. Hope Ryden pay tens of millions Robert Schmidt of dollars a year to John Walsh, M.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Guinea Pigs 79 Group Housing of Males 79 Proper Diet to Prevent Obesity 81 Straw Bedding 83
    Caring DiscussionsHands by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum Volume II Edited by Viktor Reinhardt Animal Welfare Institute Animal Welfare Institute 900 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20003 www.awionline.org Caring Hands Discussions by the Laboratory Animal Refinement & Enrichment Forum, Volume 2 Edited by Viktor Reinhardt Copyright ©2010 Animal Welfare Institute Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-938414-88-9 LCCN 2010910475 Cover photo: Jakub Hlavaty Design: Ava Rinehart and Cameron Creinin Copy editing: Beth Herman, Cathy Liss, Annie Reinhardt and Dave Tilford All papers used in this publication are Acid Free and Elemental Chlorine Free. They also contain 50% recycled content including 30% post consumer waste. All raw materials originate in forests run according to correct principles in full respect for high environmental, social and economic standards at all stages of production. I am dedicating this book to the innocent animal behind bars who has to endure loneliness, boredom and unnecessary distress. Table of Contents Introduction and Acknowledgements i Chapter 1: Basic Issues 2 Annual Usage of Animals in Biomedical Research 4 Cage Space 10 Inanimate Enrichment 16 Enrichment versus Enhancement 17 Behavioral Problems 22 Mood Swings 24 Radio Music/Talk 29 Construction Noise and Vibration Chapter 2: Refinement and Enrichment for Rodents and Rabbits Environmental Enrichment 34 Institutional Standards 35 Foraging Enrichment 36 Investigators’ Permission 38 Rats 40 Amazing Social Creatures 40 Are
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Animal & Natural Resource
    JOURNAL OF ANIMAL & NATURAL RESOURCE LAW Michigan State University College of Law MAY 2019 VOLUME XV The Journal of Animal & Natural Resource Law is published annually by law students at Michigan State University College of Law. The Journal of Animal & Natural Resource Law received generous support from the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Michigan State University College of Law. Without their generous support, the Journal would not have been able to publish and host its annual symposium. The Journal also is funded by subscription revenues. Subscription requests and article submissions may be sent to: Professor David Favre, Journal of Animal & Natural Resource Law, Michigan State University College of Law, 368 Law College Building, East Lansing MI 48824, or by email to msujanrl@ gmail.com. Current yearly subscription rates are $27.00 in the U.S. and current yearly Internet subscription rates are $27.00. Subscriptions are renewed automatically unless a request for discontinuance is received. Back issues may be obtained from: William S. Hein & Co., Inc., 1285 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14209. The Journal of Animal & Natural Resource Law welcomes the submission of articles, book reviews, and notes & comments. Each manuscript must be double spaced, in 12 point, Times New Roman; footnotes must be single spaced, 10 point, Times New Roman. Submissions should be sent to [email protected] using Microsoft Word or PDF format. Submissions should conform closely to the 19th edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. All articles contain a 2019 author copyright unless otherwise noted at beginning of article. Copyright © 2019 by the Journal of Animal & Natural Resource Law, Michigan State University College of Law.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Dairy Farming
    The Rise of Dairy Farming Wheat was the earliest and most important cash crop for white settlers in Wisconsin. It required a small initial capital investment and was fairly easy to grow, allowing farmers to harvest two crops a year. The high rate of financial return made wheat an especially attractive crop for homesteaders during the middle of the 19th century. Wheat provided a way for new immigrants in Wisconsin to farm cheaply and to deliver a product that many people needed. From 1840 to 1880, Wisconsin was considered "America's breadbasket" because one-sixth of the wheat grown in the nation came from Wisconsin. The early success of wheat farming helped Wisconsin's agriculture develop more rapidly than it did in other states. Despite its appeal, wheat also had risks and disadvantages. It was hard on the soil, which it quickly depleted of nitrogen. Depending on the vagaries of the weather and insect infestation, yield could vary substantially from year to year. By the late 1850s, the price of wheat began to drop as Wisconsin yields and quality diminished and competition increased from farmers in Iowa and Minnesota. Disaster struck in the 1860s, when tiny insects known as chinch bugs began devouring Wisconsin wheat crops. To meet these challenges, farmers began experimenting with a variety of alternatives to wheat. Feed crops, rather than cash crops, were better suited to Wisconsin's soil and climate, and came to characterize the state's agriculture in the late nineteenth century. Charles Rockwell was one of the earliest cheese makers in Wisconsin, beginning production at Koshkonong, near Fort Atkinson in Jefferson County, in 1837.
    [Show full text]