Criminalization of Family Farms: Non-CAFO Pigs Declared Illegal

 

All pigs in Michigan with non-curly tails, hairy coats, or erect ears will be shot and killed. That includes domesticated pigs grown by family farms—and the farmers will be declared felons. Factory farms are exempted! The state of Michigan is criminalizing healthy and humane family farms so that the horrors of Agribusiness can operate without competition.

Michigan is attacking, criminalizing, and destroying the family farm, leaving everyone at the mercy of Agribusiness, with its pesticides, antibiotics, unnatural animal diets, GMOs, concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs – factory farms), and the health-destroying pseudo foods that result.

When it can’t be accomplished through the agricultural department, the organizations of Agribusiness will use whatever other methods their devious minds can manufacture. In this case, organizations representing Michigan’s pork and milk producing CAFOs lobbied lawmakers and the state’s Department of Natural Resources to ban all so-called “feral” pigs.

One might ask why pork and milk CAFOs, which keep their animals strictly indoors, away from the sun, fresh air, meadows, and real life, have any interest in wild pigs. How could wild pigs possibly harm their operations? Clearly, they can’t.

Their target was obvious: competition from family farms.

The CAFO Battle Against Family Farm Competition

Their first task was to gin up a problem, so they invented the feral pig. While it’s certainly true that there are some, the reality is that they’re few in number. But, like most governmental agencies, if a small problem can be made to look big, then the agency increases its apparent value, so the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is leading the battle against non-CAFO pigs. Russ Mason, top dog of DNR, pulled out the fear mongering card with:

Think of it like skin cancer. Right now we’re dealing with a couple of moles. We can get them froze off. Ignore that, it’s gonna kill you.

A few feral pigs are now being treated as if they were skin cancer!

And, according to Mason, they move at supersonic speeds:

They are very good at not getting killed. They have home ranges that are enormous, if they have home ranges at all. If you take a shot today over by Grand Rapids and miss that pig, tomorrow he’s going to be in Muskegon.

One must wonder how wild pigs have disappeared from nearly all areas of old civilization. Have they grown smarter and wilier through family farming in the US? According to the DNR, they must have, because they’re blaming family farms for their existence in the wild. They’re even declaring domesticated pigs to be feral, thus twisting the language to mean whatever they want it to mean.

The Ruling

Therefore, all pigs fitting a certain description are being declared feral, no matter how tame they are under domestication—unless, of course, they’re being abused in CAFOs. So, as of this Sunday, the first of April, all such pigs, wherever they’re found, including on family farms, will be shot on sight, and anyone found raising them will be declared a felon.

Any one of the following gives a pig an immediate sentence of death and makes anyone raising it a felon:

• Bristle tips lighter than the rest of the hair shaft.
• Dark snout, ear, leg, and tail tips.
• Black, grizzled, brown, red & brown, and spotted coats.
• Undercoat that’s lighter in color.
• Juveniles with striped coat patterns.
• Distinct skeletal structure.
• Straight tails.
• Erect ears.

All it takes is one of these characteristics. Basically, if a pig has a real coat of fur of any color, has the healthy characteristic of a visible bone structure, has a tail that isn’t straight or doesn’t curl in the proper way, or holds its ears erect—among other traits—that pig is illegal and can be shot on sight, whether in the wild or on private property.

The request for this action was made by the Michigan Animal Farmers Association. To quote the colorful expression, “They ain’t got no dog in this fight.” These are not farmers who are directly harmed by genuinely feral pigs. Unless the DNR considers its role to be the destruction of CAFOs’ competition, then the Michigan Animal Farmers Association has no standing on this issue. Their request should have been denied on that basis, without any further consideration.

Who Get’s Hurt?

One particular breed in question is the Mangalitsa, which is sought after as a delicacy. Farmers in neighboring Indiana are watching nervously. Aaron Butts, Chief Executive at gourmet restaurant Joseph Decuis, states:

It’s [Mangalitsa pig is] definitely a big part of what we’re known for. We’re known for quality and how we source our ingredients, and the farm is a huge part of the restaurant. People respect the fact that when they come in they know where their food’s coming from.” I could get a lot of pork for a lot less cost, but it’s not going to be good, and our customers aren’t going to come for that. They’re not going to settle for that.

With Michigan, it seems the government is trying to move them in opposite direction of where we should be going. They should be supporting the local agriculture, preserving these heritage swine breeds. They’re [farmers] doing everything right, and they’re trying to say, “No you can’t do that anymore.”

Indiana pig farmer Eshelman says:

Mangalitsa is not a feral pig. It’s one of the most high sought after pork products in the world. It’s kind of like calling Secretariat, the race horse, a mule or a wild horse, and you’re going to get rid of wild horses. It’s just ridiculous.

There clearly is no sense to this law. The genuine, non-corporate farmer—the real family farm—is under attack. We’re all under attack because our ability to purchase the foods that we choose is being destroyed, leaving us with few options but to consume the toxic and nutritionally depleted pseudo foods from supermarkets.

Farmer Mark Baker operates an entirely legal pig farm that will suddenly become defunct under this law, with no remuneration. Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund says that a lawsuit filed by Baker states that “wording of the ISO reveals that it outlaws the entire pig species, then makes an exception for pigs involved in ‘domestic hog production”. Farm-to-Consumer states unequivocally:

The ISO is a blatant attempt to take away property rights, freedom of food choice and market share through the force of law.

Gaia Health is in total agreement.  In answer to the question of who gets hurt: Everyone except Agribusiness, which will profit off the decimation of farmers and loss of the public’s rights and health.

Protest!

Please, contact Michigan state politicians. Let them know what you think. Don’t worry if your grammar is good. Don’t worry if your spelling is good. Just make sure that your point is clear—that you are disgusted with this attack on family farms and your right to choose your own food.

You can contact the Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, to let him know what you think:

Phone:  (517) 373-3400
Address:  Governor Rick Snyder, P.O. Box 30013, Lansing, MI 48909

If you’re a Michigan resident, you can get contact information for your senators here:
http://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysenator/fysenator.htm

Here’s the site to contact your state representative:
http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/

Extras

Here is the document issued by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which contains the above definition of illegal “feral” pigs, and also includes who made the request for it: Michigan Animal Farmers Association, an organization of CAFOs:

Video of Farmer Mark Baker, Whose Farm Is at Risk
Indiana News Report of Michigan’s Predations on Pig Farmers

FineDining’s PhotoStream

Sources:

• Feral Swine
• Michigan lawmakers grapple with wild pig problem
• Farm Regulation in Michigan Could Potentially Harm Indiana Farmers
• Michigan DNR Going Hog Wild
• Baker’s Green Acres (to contact Farmer Mark Baker)

Tagged agribusiness, cafo agribusiness, cafo politics, environment, feral pigs, food rights, human food rights, michigan feral pigs, michigan pig farms, michigan pigs, pig farms, politics