Recently, the New York Times opinion page ran a trash piece by James E. McWilliams called “The Myth of Sustainable Meat.” First off, it is very important to note that McWilliams is a left-wing environmental professor, animal rights activist, and vegan. McWilliams is also not a farmer, but rather, he is an academic who teaches environmental history and writes often about why everyone should worship the at the alter of vegetarianism. He also has a history of attacking the Locavore movement, small farm organics, and grass-fed meat while defending GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Organizations).
Additionally, McWilliams attacks eco-agriculture with the zeal of man who is in the back pocket of Big Agriculture. In fact, many astute writers have attacked his books and articles that read like a collective lobbying manual for Big Agra. Most notably, he wrote a previous article for the New York Times, in 2009, that was a duplicitous, fear-mongering piece condemning humanely-raised, pastured pork (and promoting CAFO-industrial pork) that concluded this:
The fact that we’ve lost our way and found ourselves locked in the mess of factory farming, should not deter us from realizing that — if we genuinely hope to produce pork that’s safe and tasty — instead of setting the animal world partly free, we might have to take greater control of it. Do not underestimate the importance of this challenge. After all, if clean and humane methods of production cannot be developed, there’s only one ethical choice left for the conscientious consumer: a pork-free diet.
To make just one point about this article, one must pay attention to the fine print. Five days after the article was published, the NYT editors took their heads out of their asses and appended the article with this point:
Editors’ Note: April 14, 2009
An Op-Ed article last Friday, about pork, neglected to disclose the source of the financing for a study finding that free-range pigs were more likely than confined pigs to test positive for exposure to certain pathogens. The study was financed by the National Pork Board.
Always follow the money and always pay attention to the political objectives of folks who produce perverted facts, biased studies, and politically-charged arguments that incriminate those who oppose their assorted personal religions and/or compete against their corporate state, butt-kissing benefactors. Not surprisingly, for the last few years, McWilliams has penned his eco-ag misinformation and meat hate screeds all over the pages of The Atlantic.
Fortunately, the brilliant farmer and author, Joel Salatin, took on the McWilliams piece and he deconstructed the profusion of errors and madness point-by-point. Salatin concludes his piece with this:
At Polyface, we only purport to be doing the best we can do as we struggle through a deviant, historically abnormal food and farming system. We didn’t create what is and we may not solve it perfectly. But we’re sure a lot farther toward real solutions than McWilliams can imagine. And if society would move where we want to go, and the government regulators would let us move where we need to go, and the industry would not try to criminalize us as we try to go there, we’ll all be a whole lot better off and the earthworms will dance.
