Inside D.C.

Common Sense Should be More Common

This week, USAToday carried an “issue insert” on food animal welfare (www.impactingourfuture.com).  Built by a company called Media Planet, the “insert” is what we used to call an “advertorial,” meaning a topic is chosen, articles are written by folks who care about the issue with no pretense of objectivity, and ads are sold to companies and organizations who want to get their messages out.

The insert features articles by the regular cast of anti-agriculture players, including the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), World Animal Protection, Compassion in World Farming, along with groups which make a dollar or two “certifying” the humaneness of the food you buy.  All in all, the same messages of cruelty and indifference by farmers are all too familiar, seasoned with calls for caring consumers to demand from retailers “humanely raised” food products.

The impact of the subjective animal rights messages is significantly blunted by an interview with Dr. Temple Grandin – make welfare a priority, enforce that priority and give animals a decent life – a full-page ad by Smithfield Foods (“Leading the way in animal care”), and two full-page ads placed by the U.S. Farm & Ranch Alliance (USFRA), one talking about the universal farm/ranch priority on animal welfare, the other promoting www.fooddialogues.com.  This may be why few if any of the animal rights groups have promoted or even publicized the insert.

Grandin and USFRA are the unalloyed voices of common sense in the piece, focusing on the reality of evolving farm animal care and handling, but also cutting through the political fog on both sides of the issue.  I like it a lot when common sense and plain speaking supersede the econo-babble of repetitive research, statistics and projections.

I stumbled across another example of common sense trumping political correctness this week.  This breath of fresh comes from a column in the October 7, 2015, edition of a British magazine called Country Life, a very high-end, very glossy publication in which you can find your dream $2-million English country home, as well pick up on issues confronting British agriculture and rural communities.

Entitled “Home truths for food faddists” and written by the pseudonymous “Agromenes, countryside crusader,” the column takes on consumer confusion caused by those who promote the “demonisation of the food industry, and, by extension, our farmers.”  The author fears consumer attitudes are increasingly distorted by false or conflicting information, and “the countryside and whole business of food production upon which it depends” is at risk.

The author provides “Seven Facts for Food Faddists,” seeking to render to their fundamentals food issues of the day.  Those seven facts are as follows:

  1. “We get fat because we eat too much” – Pointing out portion size is the key to losing weight, the author adds “…our farmers would be much better off if they were encouraged to produce less, but better, for people who ate less and expected better;”
  1. “It’s calories that count” – We blame fat and sugar, but “it’s calories that matter, not the source;”
  1. “Most people don’t need to go gluten-free” – While “real coeliacs” have a major problem they need to address, “significant profits are being made by companies producing gluten-free products for people who don’t need them;”
  1. “Almost anything in excess can do you harm” – “Farmers have been encouraged to farm for quantity, even in a country where almost everyone eats too much,” and “recovering a sense of value of the food we eat and producing it with respect for animals and the soil” is the smarter approach;
  1. “There are no superfoods” – “Exotic berries from distant places or large quantities of beetroot may contribute to your ‘five a day,’ but they won’t ensure you live to be 100;”
  1. “Food faddism is big business” – Acknowledging the food business isn’t perfect, the author points out “…food faddists are in business, too, whether it’s to promote their latest book or sell their diets or herbal supplements. A healthy agriculture meets real needs, not fads and passing fashions,” and
  1. “Calories aren’t easy to walk off” – Guilt-inspired treks to work off overindulgence don’t do much, but “if we ate more moderately, we could afford to insist on the best from our farmers and to pay a proper price for the food they produce.”

I wish common sense were more common.

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