"Consciousness Raising Talk:" FSU Professor Skott Brill Uncovers Truth on "Factory Farms"

On September 18th 2015, the tenth annual Appalachian festival continued this year's scheduled events by holding a symposium to allow the public to engage in conversation with the presenters about environmental and economical issues effecting the area. Skott Brill, an FSU Philosophy professor, shared his study "Old MacDonald Had a Factory Farm, E-I-E-I-OMG! The Story Behind the Food We Eat" and how food industries produce their products that are then sold in local grocery stores, served in restaurants, and given to students in school. Brill compares how at one time food production used to be a harmonious farming environment where the animals were named and cared for. Now most food sold to the public has been produced by a massive industrial farm that has no care for the animals that are used to make products. Due to food manufactures' "cloak of secrecy," many are unaware of the severe mistreatment of animals because of these large "factory farms." Skott Brill wants to share his knowledge with the public in the hopes that more positive choices could be made when it comes to food and where the foods come from.

Skott Brill aiding his daughter, Sophia, while she sang
 "Old MacDonald had a Farm."
Photo Credit: Sam Metz

Brill decided to share his research about food production in three parts while his young daughter, Sophia, separated each section by singing different parts to "Old MacDonald had a Farm." Each section Sophia sang highlighted a different animal on Old MacDonald's farm: a chicken, a pig, and a cow. After each section of Sophia's adorable song, Skott Brill would go on to share his findings about how each of "Old MacDonald's" animals would be treated not on his farm, but in a factory farm. Brill discusses the mistreatment of chickens and how male chickens are killed due to no egg production, but then hens are exploited and manipulated to produce eggs. Tons of hens are kept in one shed and are required to have their beaks shaved to avoid pecking other hens. Hens also have to endure a process called forced multing that causes hens to produce eggs once egg production drops below 50%. Chickens used for meat spend all of their time indoors in "broilers" where they plump up and wait to be killed. Brill also notes on how these processes of food production harms the environment when chicken manure may run into water systems.

Brill moves on to discuss the harsh treatments of pigs which in factory farms never get to spend time outside. Factory farm pigs are always inside metal, concrete barns and are confined to tie stalls. Female pigs, or "breeder sows," have to endure an unnatural process to reproduce by being impregnated in a gestation crate and then moved to a farrowing crate. Another sad fact about this process is that the mother pigs are situated as to not "smother" her piglets when a mother pig should be able to give the new born piglets the comfort they need.

Brill then talks about cows and their separation as either dairy or beef and sometimes veal calves. He shares that milk and dairy farms try to make the public believe that the farms are on pasteurized land. Truthfully the land is more like dirt lots with little to no grass to support the cows. Dairy cows are required to give birth to produce milk, so dairy cows are always in a constant gestation period and birth cycle. Skott Brill shares a sad fact that the calves born never get any milk, and that humans take it all. Brill talks more about veal calves and how they live a 4 month life in a veal crate before being slaughtered; which in Brill's opinion is "probably a good thing" rather than have the calve live a life always confined.

Skott Brill decided to end his presentation on a positive note by sharing that there are not yet any factory farms in Western Maryland. He sounds hopeful that Western Maryland will continue to be one of the few areas in our state to stay free of industrialized methods of producing essential foods. He also shares of a few local family farms that are noted for their safe practices in food production compared to practices used in the factory farms: Savage River farm, Backbone food farm in Oakland, and Cedar Rock farm in Mount Savage.

For more information on other presentations shared on the second day of Appalachian Festival 2015, visit this link.