The Washington Post
The best way to help dairy farmers is to get them out of dairy farming / Gene Baur
Gene Baur is an animal activist, an athlete, and a 1,000% vegan.
Time Magazine calls our next guest, the conscience of the food movement.
He is the president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary.
Mr. Gene Baur, sir.
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Do you feel the tide changing? It seems like it's changing.
In a huge way. There's more awareness now than there has ever been before. People recognize that the way we've been eating in this country is really problematic. As a nation, we would do much better to eat more plant foods and fewer animal foods, if not no animal foods.
Do we have dominion over the animals or are they our peers?
We have power over other animals, and I think with a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility.
I agree with that.
So what should we do as a country? What should the world community do?
Here in the United States, we are confining billions of animals in these factory farming warehouses every year. It's a global problem, and it all stems from the way we interact with other animals.
Most people are compassionate. Most people are humane. But most people are unwittingly supporting this abusive system. Any step away from the factory farming industry and towards treating animals with more respect is a positive step.
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Some of the legislation we've worked on over the years has required that animals have at least enough space to turn around, which is very modest. And so now--
You're not asking for a lot.
Not much at all.
What do you say to the argument that we want those people to be able to afford food?
Just because a hamburger is cheap at the fast food restaurant doesn't mean that there are much greater costs associated with it, such as health, such as environmental destruction.
I didn't know this. A single dairy cow produces about 120 pounds of wet manure.
Well, these industrial animal factories store this manure in these open cesspools. And oftentimes, it gets into groundwater. It gets into surface water. In some cases, they have so much that these cesspools won't hold it, and they'll actually start spraying it out into the environment. And we could eliminate 70% of health care costs by shifting to a whole foods plant based diet.
It's harder to eat meat when you know the animal's name, I have found.
So true. As vegans, we want to live well. We want to live in a way that doesn't cause harm. We don't want to judge others.
You're saying that we shouldn't be cruel to animals, and I agree with you completely. And I hope other conservatives would pause and think about it because I think a lot of them would agree. We've been trained, in some ways, to defend Tyson. We shouldn't defend Tyson.
And that's what it's about. It's doing as good as you can, causing as little harm as possible. And this is an evolving process. If we make choices that are aligned with our values and aligned with our interests, we will see a revolution in this food business.
You know, I have to say, I started this segment thinking, this guy's probably crazy. But I think you're actually reasonable and thoughtful.
To me, being vegan is living in a way that is an aspiration to not cause unnecessary harm and to live as kindly as possible. And I think, for each of us, that's a choice we can make.
