Last year, a bunch of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill got tired of the industrial dreck served up in the cafeteria. They discovered that the landscape around them was producing some amazing, chemical-free meat and produce and set about figuring out how to get some in school dining halls.
Led by seniors Sally Lee and David Hamilton, they declared themselves FLO Food (FLO = fair, local, organic), and began negotiating with Campus Dining Services in earnest. CDS took them seriously and negotiated respectfully, but a key gap in understanding between the two groups quickly emerged.
CDS, it turned out, had listed Smithfield Foods -- the world's largest hog grower and pork packer -- as a "sustainable" company. That's because Smithfield runs the globe's largest hog-processing plant -- 32,000 hogs meet their end there daily -- in Tar Heel, N.C., 110 miles away. CDC defined any producer within 150 miles as "sustainable."
The students found out that CDS was spending $20,000 per month on Smithfield products. That inspired the FLO students to research exactly what sort of company was benefiting from their food dollars, giving rise to an extraordinary event on campus March 5 called "People, Power, and Pork."
Honestly, it was the most inspiring public event I've attended in years.
The event took place on a warm evening on the main quad of UNC's leafy, attractive campus. It opened with a free barbecue, sponsored by the Slow Food's Triangle convivium.
The barbecue featured a hog raised by Cane Creek Farm, a small farm located just outside of Chapel Hill specializing in pasture-based pork, chicken, and beef. I didn't manage to push ahead of hundreds of hungry college students before the 'cue ran out, but I know from experience that Cane Creek produces spectacular pork.
But this was no local-food-rocks, let's-feel-good-about-ourselves event. After dinner, the gathering moved to a large classroom indoors, where the FLO-Fooders had managed to bring together players in Smithfield's global hog chain that the company would prefer remain invisible: workers from the Tar Heel plant, and people who live in Duplin County, a predominately African-American area where Smithfield and its suppliers raise nearly 2.2 million hogs each year.
(Last year, I profiled Iowa's most hog-intensive county, Hardin, home to comparatively modest 1 million confined hogs. It was heartbreaking and disgusting to experience the effect of such concentration on the landscape, the air, and people's lives.)
Duplin resident Devon Hall testified to the horror of living close to knock-you-over stench and toxic hog waste. Smithfield workers including Marvin Steele told of the pork giant's abysmal disregard for worker safety and ruthless, ongoing union-busting effort.
While these speakers delivered devastating indictments against industrial meat production, two others offered a different vision for pork: Eliza MacClean, owner-farmer of above-mentioned Cane Creek Farm; and Jennifer Curtis, of NC Choices, a group trying to break down market obstacles to pastured hog production in an area dominated by Smithfield.
Several hundred students packed the hall, engaged and ready to take action.
The event left me energized to dig deep into these stories -- hope and resistance amid the naked brutalities of industrial agriculture. I salute FLO Food for delivering such an inspiring, informative presentation.
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Comments
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caniscandida Posted 7:50 am
08 Mar 2008
"power"?; "choices"?
Of course, one group of powerless, voiceless victims, viz. the pigs, seem not to have been invited to participate, though indeed at least one of them was present in the flesh.
And somehow one big, powerful, very doable choice, viz. to go porkless altogether, seems to have gone entirely unmentioned. Why was that, I wonder.
No doubt the anthropocentric end of procuring a better-tasting barbecue is a fine and worthy cause, especially if fighting for it involves striking blows for social justice and a less malodorous environment. But ignoring the concerns of others, potential allies who are not a bit less interested in social justice and a cleaner environment, but happen to have no interest whatsoever in barbecue, whatever it tastes like, is hardly the way to run a revolution.
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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sunsetbeachguy Posted 8:06 am
08 Mar 2008
Carrots and Broccoli
Plants also experience pain, why draw the line at meat?
Sunsetbeachguy
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Tasermons Partner Posted 11:47 am
08 Mar 2008
There actually is...
...a group of people who will not eat anything that results in death of the plants, despite your sarcasm, Sunsetbeachguy. They eat only legumes, nuts, fuits, and certain vegetables that won't result in the plant death durin' harvest.
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sunsetbeachguy Posted 1:09 pm
08 Mar 2008
Yeah, fruitarians
No sarcasm, but strident positions should be internally consistent all the way to the end game.
How many people worldwide could meet their nutritional needs from a fruitarian diet?
I would bet a lot less than 6 billion.
So which humans need to go?
Sunsetbeachguy
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GreenMom Posted 2:15 pm
08 Mar 2008
Perspective
While pork is not high on my personal menu, I feel obliged to add a little perspective, given that I live in Chapel Hill.
Canis, pork is a Southern staple.
Smithfield is the evil empire of pork producers.
Educating Carolina students about the evils of Smithfield farms, an NC factory farm behemoth, is HUGE. At stake are the lives of the workers and the water and air of our state.
Showing Carolina students that better alternatives not only exist, but exist locally, is a brilliant stroke.
If the students can get fired up enough to convince the University to ditch Smithfield in favor of the good people of Cane Creek Farm and others like them, what a message that would send.
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Tasermons Partner Posted 2:22 pm
08 Mar 2008
Vegetarian may support 6 billion...
How many people worldwide could meet their nutritional needs from a fruitarian diet?
I would bet a lot less than 6 billion.
So which humans need to go?
We can't support 6 billion under the current omnivore system...however, we may be able to support that number under a vegetarian system (certain geo-political circumstances notwithstanding).
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caniscandida Posted 5:17 pm
08 Mar 2008
Cane Creek Farm
OK, GreenMom, I see your point. And I sort of already saw the point of what Tom Philpott wrote. There is no one as disgusted by CAFOs, and the CAFOization of the meat industry, as he, and God love him for that passion of his.
The two spotted pigs lying in the mud, at the top right of the opening page of the Cane Creek Farm site, seem quite contented and healthy. And since you and Tom recommend Cane Creek Farm as highly as you do, I gladly acknowledge that if people in North Carolina are going to want to keep eating pork, then this is probably the best way to raise the pigs.
It can be argued that of the several kinds of animal who are raised in CAFOs, none suffers more than pigs. The removal of incisors and tails from very small pigs, who could even be thought to resemble human babies, is unbelievably cruel. If that is the sort of thing that is going on all the time at the Smithfield operation, then we must wish the FLO Food students every success in challenging Smithfield.
But it remains unclear to me why there was no voice expressing the animal welfare issue, when obviously that is one hugely important reason for disliking Smithfield. Or if there was, Tom did not mention it.
Also, did the FLO Food kids think to invite John Edwards?
Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.
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dale ball Posted 12:19 am
09 Mar 2008
Pork Story
Thanks ,once again Canis, for speaking up for the animals. So long as there is silence on the subject of what exactly eating and/or extracting body fluids and eggs from farmed animals actually means to the animals involved, we are all complicit in supporting one of the most unsustainable, polluting and cruel industries on the planet , a.k.a. animal agriculture.
As a former NC resident, I know how "traditional" pork is to the South. Maybe it's time to insert a little reality into the picture. How about tours of the Smithfield slaughter houses? And where are the "happy pigs" slaughtered after enjoying a brief life of mud and sunshine? Can that be seen as well ?
Come on, we can do better than this...we don't need to eat the flesh or reproductive by-products of animals...and with so many fantastic vegan alternatives, it just seems incredibly cruel and foolish to continue such "traditions".
Dale
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ddrew Posted 1:03 am
09 Mar 2008
Pork
Eat as little meat as possible, it is very harmful to your environment and your health in large amounts, and you overall food bill and your overall tax bill and your own long term food security as it is much like the gateway to family farm destruction. Buy it direct from a farmer as much as possibly. That is not to hard to do. A little research and a small freezer and you will be saving enough on your meats to buy the rest of your groceries for free while not supporting the system that is driving your food prices up and will ultimately starve you and your family unless you are in the top 5% of wage earners in North America. If you can't be bothered to vote for the right people to protect you at least vote with your wallet when you shop to protect yourself.
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stevenearlsalmony Posted 3:23 am
09 Mar 2008
A resident of Chapel Hill, NC speaks out..........
My not-so-great generation of elders appears incapable of doing what is required of us to save the world as we know it.
Young people like those at UNC-CH are providing the necessary leadership, thank God.
Who knows, maybe our young people will teach their elders how to preserve the world the old folks are inadvertently ravaging.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/
http://journals.aol.com/sesalmony/HumanandEnvironmentalHe ...
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javaearth Posted 1:16 am
10 Mar 2008
Plants also experience pain- - oh thats funny!
To Sunsetbeachguy
you said: "Plants also experience pain, why draw the line at meat?"
Did you miss 5 grade? Did you not learn about "Plants do not have a brain or central nervous system"?. Yeah, seriously, you are making the omnivores look bad when you say dumb stuff like that!
Now all we need is the Angry African to come along and say his mantra, "I am African, we love our meat!"
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Green Granny Posted 8:49 am
10 Mar 2008
These students give me hope
I am so pleased to hear of young citizens such as those involved with FLO. I encourage, applaud, and celebrate their energy and activism.
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghandi
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Matt Posted 10:23 pm
10 Mar 2008
Vegetarianism does not necessarily follow
I will agree that a largely (or completely) vegetarian diet would do wonders for the waistline and hearts of most NC residents, but I disagree that a vegetarian diet follows logically from the protest in Chapel Hill.
The students were protesting the way the meat was produced, not the offering of meat at the table. It is entirely reasonable that people demand more respect for workers' rights and cleaner environments for animals without feeling an obligation to not eat those animals.
The most respect for an animal I ever observed was a Cherokee friend of mine praying over a deer he had just shot (and intended to eat, of course).
In any event, you have to admire the way they went about it. Personally I agree that if people knew how meatpackers treated their livestock, they would either switch to vegetarianism or insist on eating animals that were raised and treated well. If for no other reason than the "gross" factor.
If you continue to do what you've always done you'll continue to get what you've always got. - Yogi Berra
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ew01 Posted 11:54 pm
11 Mar 2008
This Is What They Call Sustainable
Here's a short video of some of the workers at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel, NC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srONKq9JYrI
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caniscandida Posted 12:30 am
12 Mar 2008
"Faces of Smithfield"
Thanks, EW01. Unfortunately, the red print is hard for me to read, and the text passes too quickly. But the message is clear enough.
This is US capitalism: Big business treat the vulnerable and the voiceless, whether they be animals or poor minority workers, with gross inhumanity, because they can. They can get away with it now, and they almost always have been able to get away with it. And they have the power to silence any voice of protest.
The FLO Food students' movement is a start. Let us hope that it goes on to accomplish much. Because plainly, there is much that needs to be done.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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caniscandida Posted 12:48 am
12 Mar 2008
vegetarianism and FLO Food
Matt,
I agree with what you have written (though I take the popular factoid, that Native American hunters ALWAYS kill animals with a sense of profound religious respect, with a great grain of salt -- consider the renegade Makah whalers). It is most certainly true that a vegetarian diet does not at all necessarily follow logically from the FLO Food kids' event.
All I would add is that the objections to the Smithfield operation include far more than their abusing their low-paid, mostly minority-group workers, and their polluting the environment, and their producing mediocre-tasting pork, as very serious as those objections are. The issue of animal welfare is important; and presumably there are a number of UNC students who are interested in it. So, why were they not invited to join the anti-Smithfield protest, and speak out?
And, needless to say, being in favor of animal welfare, and being opposed to the animal cruelty associated with CAFOs, are hardly the same as promoting vegetarianism, though they often coincide.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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caniscandida Posted 6:14 am
12 Mar 2008
the loss of a beloved young person
The community of the University of North Carolina are currently mourning the loss of Eve Carson, popular student-body president, who died a violent death.
http://universityrelations.unc.edu/alert/carson/
Many of the UNC students are no doubt thinking deeply on the truths that life is precious, and that violence is rarely if ever justified.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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FLO Food UNC Posted 8:58 am
13 Mar 2008
FLO works with Animal Rights Collective
Hello Caniscandida, and all fellow posters - we are FLO Food at UNC. We just wanted to mention that we made an effort to co-sponsor this event with as many different student groups as possible. One group that we have worked closely with, on this event and others, is the Animal Rights Collective of UNC. ARC is an animal welfare organization. We work with representatives of the ARC on our other campaigns as well, including a push for cage-free eggs. ARC submitted a statement letter in support of our demand for a reduction of industrially produced pork, because many of our values are inherently similar. Sustainability is FLO's focus, and Fairly produced foods are part of our triple bottom line for sustainability. Fair includes humane treatment of animals.
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caniscandida Posted 2:37 am
14 Mar 2008
many thanks to FLO
Thanks very much, friends at FLO Food, for your kind and informative message. I am very glad to learn of your cooperation with the ARC of UNC. It does not surprise me at all; really, it is rather what I would have expected. So when I wondered, earlier, why there seemed to be no animal-welfare aspect present in your "People, Power and Pork" event, it turns out that, as I figured, it was only because Tom Philpott failed to mention it.
"ARC" is an interesting acronym, reminding us of Noah's Ark, derived from the Latin "arca." We often give toy Arks to children, with little figures of Noah and his family and a number of the animals, thus perhaps to teach the lesson that God looks after us, one and all. In fact, if we read the story discreetly and perceive its background, God (Yahweh) comes across as a monstrous tyrant, who has drowned all the other people -- and all the other, utterly innocent animals! -- , just to make a point. Perhaps the founders of ARC understand themselves to be doing what they can to help at least a few animals to survive in a cruel and deadly world.
Best wishes to all of you!
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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stevenearlsalmony Posted 11:23 pm
14 Mar 2008
Go Heels !
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caniscandida Posted 11:47 pm
14 Mar 2008
Julii Caesaris nex, vel trucidatio
<<
"Beware the Ides of March!"
"Indeed, Soothsayer, the Ides of March are come!"
"Aye, Caesar, but not yet gone!"
>>
Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is a drama fixed about sharp killing blades, drawing blood, leaving behind bleeding dead or dying bodies.
The often overlooked repentance of Brutus and Cassius, at the end of the play, underscores an ideal hope of peace, which they themselves perhaps destroyed, by their earlier reckless wielding of killing blades.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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stevenearlsalmony Posted 12:35 am
15 Mar 2008
Dear Collegians at UNC-CH...........
.....and college students everywhere.
Many of you will be about my age in the middle of this century. Perhaps some of you, hopefully many of you, can assist my not-so-great generation of elders to understand the profound implications of our reckless dissipation of Earth's resources and relentless degradation of the Earth's environs, upon which all of you, and life as you will know it in 2050, will depend for existence.
Given the large scale and increasing number of human-induced global challenges being presented to humanity in 2008 by the human over-consumption, overproduction and overpopulation activities of a mere 6.6 billion people on Earth, what do you suppose YOU can expect to confront in 2050 when a projected 2 1/2 billion more people have been added to our current numbers?
Sincerely,
Steve
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/
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