Thanks for this great research, Lewis! I didnt know about Humphrey & Eisenhower, the decades old Swiss ballot initiative, and the Dutch endorsement approach. I will examine the latter for our endorsement process in DC.
This is a great thesis about strategies to move forward despite big ag's formidable power in politics. We still have a lot of untapped potential for protecting animals through the political system. In my experience, advancing policy in areas not as susceptible to influence of Ag special interests is also helpful (ie in the US cities & states are referred to as "the laboratories of democracy"). And having a champion in a legislative body, while not a surefire way to win, can go SO far in advancing policy.
Hi Lewis, thanks for sharing. According to a OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults between 29/12/2020 and 04/01/2021, 85% agreed factory farming should be urgently banned in the UK. According to Compassion in World Farming "Over a billion animals are confined in factory farms every year – that's 85% of all UK farmed animals". What an ethical contradiction!
I'm from the UK. The UK, at least as I understand it, has somewhat better protectiions for farmed animals than the US or most of Europe (they're still not exactly *good*, but they are better). I suspect a good part of the reason is that farmers have less political power and wealth in the UK.
Hi Andrew - having researched UK protections and factory farming, I am hugely disappointed in UK legal protections for farmed animals. Coincidentally, I am posting an article on the subject tomorrow. UK Govt invests a lot of tax-payer money in intensive farming too.
Brilliant. Did you know that we have a ballot measure to phase out and ban factory farms over a 3-year period here in Sonoma County CA? It's currently awaiting approval to officially qualify for the November ballot. We turned in 37,168 signatures (only needed ~19,700 to qualify) so we're hoping we have enough valid signatures. The local Farm Bureau, and frankly the entire industry, is in panic mode. They're going to launch a massive counter campaign which they've already begun, blaming activists for the Avian Outbreak in November and resorting to calling us bioterrorists in prominent local news sources. The fight is on. The public despises animal cruelty.
Great piece. As a lawyer who cares deeply about animal protection and farmed animals, I've been frustrated about the exact problems you identified. I'm hopeful for the future, though. I can't wait to read more of your writing!
I wonder if it might make sense to republish some of your articles on Medium to get more eyes on them? If you like, I'd be very happy to help with that.
For instance, I'm an editor of this vegan publication: https://medium.com/the-plant-power-pub (it's small but the people who follow it would probably be very susceptible to your arguments).
There are also bigger Medium publications such as An Injustice that aren't specifically about animal rights but might be open to these arguments: https://aninjusticemag.com.
Anyway, thanks for all that you are doing and please let me know if I can help!
Thanks for the kind words and the kind offer to help republish these articles Louise! I'm a bit busy to take you up on the offer right now, but I may well in future. Thanks for all you do!
I see. The overwhelming majority of Russians are Europeans. And Brazilians are technically Americans, too. I believe, ‘EU citizens’ and ‘US citizens’ are the right terms to avoid confusion
Thanks for this great research, Lewis! I didnt know about Humphrey & Eisenhower, the decades old Swiss ballot initiative, and the Dutch endorsement approach. I will examine the latter for our endorsement process in DC.
This is a great thesis about strategies to move forward despite big ag's formidable power in politics. We still have a lot of untapped potential for protecting animals through the political system. In my experience, advancing policy in areas not as susceptible to influence of Ag special interests is also helpful (ie in the US cities & states are referred to as "the laboratories of democracy"). And having a champion in a legislative body, while not a surefire way to win, can go SO far in advancing policy.
Hi Lewis, thanks for sharing. According to a OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults between 29/12/2020 and 04/01/2021, 85% agreed factory farming should be urgently banned in the UK. According to Compassion in World Farming "Over a billion animals are confined in factory farms every year – that's 85% of all UK farmed animals". What an ethical contradiction!
I'm from the UK. The UK, at least as I understand it, has somewhat better protectiions for farmed animals than the US or most of Europe (they're still not exactly *good*, but they are better). I suspect a good part of the reason is that farmers have less political power and wealth in the UK.
Hi Andrew - having researched UK protections and factory farming, I am hugely disappointed in UK legal protections for farmed animals. Coincidentally, I am posting an article on the subject tomorrow. UK Govt invests a lot of tax-payer money in intensive farming too.
Brilliant. Did you know that we have a ballot measure to phase out and ban factory farms over a 3-year period here in Sonoma County CA? It's currently awaiting approval to officially qualify for the November ballot. We turned in 37,168 signatures (only needed ~19,700 to qualify) so we're hoping we have enough valid signatures. The local Farm Bureau, and frankly the entire industry, is in panic mode. They're going to launch a massive counter campaign which they've already begun, blaming activists for the Avian Outbreak in November and resorting to calling us bioterrorists in prominent local news sources. The fight is on. The public despises animal cruelty.
Great piece. As a lawyer who cares deeply about animal protection and farmed animals, I've been frustrated about the exact problems you identified. I'm hopeful for the future, though. I can't wait to read more of your writing!
Hi Lewis,
I'm a huge fan of your work!
I wonder if it might make sense to republish some of your articles on Medium to get more eyes on them? If you like, I'd be very happy to help with that.
For instance, I'm an editor of this vegan publication: https://medium.com/the-plant-power-pub (it's small but the people who follow it would probably be very susceptible to your arguments).
There are also bigger Medium publications such as An Injustice that aren't specifically about animal rights but might be open to these arguments: https://aninjusticemag.com.
Anyway, thanks for all that you are doing and please let me know if I can help!
Thanks for the kind words and the kind offer to help republish these articles Louise! I'm a bit busy to take you up on the offer right now, but I may well in future. Thanks for all you do!
I totally get it! :)
I'm wondering why '53% of Russians' isn't in the text
I replaced it with Europeans (who weren't in that survey), since Europe has more farmed animals and better odds of legal progress to help them.
I see. The overwhelming majority of Russians are Europeans. And Brazilians are technically Americans, too. I believe, ‘EU citizens’ and ‘US citizens’ are the right terms to avoid confusion