Soybean Leaders Join Fight Against Animal Rights

From Change.org (thanks for posting the link, Melissa!).

Those whose direct business is raising and killing animals aren't the only ones in agriculture with less-than-loving feelings toward animal rights advocates. Organizations representing crop farmers are preparing to take on animal rights (and animal welfare) activists and organizations too, alongside animal ag interest groups. Is this just a matter of those in the broader business of agriculture sticking together? Not quite. The interest is a selfish one. How so? I'm so glad you asked.

A frequent jab thrown at vegans has to do with the environmental problems that accompany modern soybean farming, the erroneous assumptions being (1) that all vegans eat massive amounts of soy (no, not all do) and (2) that most soy being grown goes to make vegan foods. And this second assumption couldn't be further off-base: 90-some percent of the soy crop goes to feed livestock. Really.

-Continue after the jump-

All that soybean meal is going toward "production" of the flesh, dairy, and eggs eaten by most humans. And the primary cause of Amazon deforestation is cattle ranching, with the soybean farming that supports animal ag contributing too--in other words, the Amazon is being destroyed on behalf of omnivores, not because of vegans' ethical dietary choices. And most of the corn crop serves the same animal-feed purpose.

As if to drive this point home, the soybean industry is now standing firmly beside its animal agriculture comrades in their battle against scary vegans and animal rights advocates. The American Soybean Association is getting into the fray because, of course, not all soy is grown in the Amazon. We're growing loads of it--and supplying it to animal ag--right here in the United States too. So to protect its own interests (to make sure there are still as many animals as possible being fed its product), the American Soybean Association is developing anti-animal rights plans too and has designated a leader for those plans. Following are the fun details from an ag news piece (including, as has come to be expected, agribusiness's portrayal of HSUS as a radical animal rights group, of course):

The president of the Nebraska Soybean Association—Debbie Borg of Allen—says she is encouraged by how the ag industry is responding to the animal rights movement.

At last month’s Commodity Classic conference in Texas, the American Soybean Association asked Borg to lead its efforts in the area of animal rights. Since then, she has been talking to ag leaders, government officials and others. Borg says she wants them to understand the seriousness of the threat posed by the Humane Society of the United States and other animal rights groups. . . .

“Yes, I got to meet with the governor and he is very interested and concerned about this movement,” says Borg, “and he wants to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to get the truth out.”

Borg has also launched her own “letter to the editor” campaign and encourages other farmers and ranchers to do the same. In a letter sent to the Lincoln newspaper, she encourages consumers to reconsider their support of HSUS, PETA and other groups which she calls “vegan animal rights activists.”