By Jerry Harke, Focus on Agriculture, The Voice of Agriculture
For the week of October 13, 2008

Sharing Stories of Animal Care on Video

An increasing number of videos are being produced on farms and ranches around the country and made available on popular Web sites such as www.YouTube.com. Most of these videos show producers talking about how they manage the well-being of their farm animals, including care-related reasons why they select specific housing and other production methods.

Farmers and ranchers are putting their faces on the animal care issue. They are telling their personal stories of animal care to counter efforts by animal rights activists who generally oppose everything connected to modern livestock farming. Activists have shot undercover videos portraying animals being abused in an attempt to paint all of agriculture with a broad brush of distrust. In some cases, incidents on tape have been taken out of context to distort the situation, but the truth remains: In agriculture there is zero tolerance for animal abuse or neglect of any kind. By telling their personal stories, farmers are putting things back into perspective and inviting viewers to see for themselves the excellent care their farm animals receive.

Video sharing Web sites are a good medium to talk about farm animal welfare because they allow users to upload, view and share video clips on the Internet. If you consider that every month around 80 million users view videos on YouTube more than 3 billion times, the advantage of using this venue for discussing the issue comes into clear focus.

In addition to showing viewers the actual conditions in which farm animals are raised, the farmers and ranchers appearing in the videos talk about the values they hold true. Farmers know that healthy animals mean healthy food for consumers and they are sharing that message. Based on their personal, hands-on experience, farmers know animals must be well cared for, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, in order to produce wholesome meat, milk and eggs. There are no shortcuts.

Simply put, without healthy and content animals, farmers would not be in business. They know this, as do the veterinarians they work with to ensure the health of their herds and flocks. The farmer-generated Web videos making the rounds on the Internet demonstrate visually how they care deeply about the health, well-being and safety of their animals. The videos take viewers through the facilities, showing that adequate food, water and medical care is provided everyday to protect the health of the animals.

Bio-hazards associated with allowing groups to tour secure and hygienic farms could endanger the health of farm animals. Therefore, Web videos are perhaps the best and safest way to show how farmers and ranchers provide appropriate shelter to ensure livestock can exhibit normal behaviors at rest and remain protected from disease, competition, injury and predators.

Consumers say they want to trust that the animal care standards in place on America’s farms and ranches are top-notch and based on science. They want to know that the capable and caring hands of farmers are overseeing our nation’s farm animals. By incorporating the use of new communications tools farmers not only can tell their stories to consumers, but they can also show them.

Several outstanding examples of farmers telling their positive stories of farm animal care through YouTube-type videos can be found at www.conversationsoncare.com. Before you know it, you’ll be visiting farms and ranches all over the nation from the comfort of your chair, in front of your computer screen.
Jerry Harke is director of issues management for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

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Posted by Admin on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health, Education and public awareness, Family vs factory farming, Housing, Regulations, Transportation
Tags :: animal care, animal welfare, education, Media
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