The Martlet

Healing Farm is an ecosystem unto itself. Fruit trees, honeybees, nuts, free-range egg-laying chickens and patches of forest and meadow make up the 18-acre rural Saanich farm. The farm’s owners, Mike and Sharyn Romaine, aim to facilitate a “reconnection between people and their environment” by providing certified organic products. As my friends and I drove onto the farm, we stopped to photograph a colourful yellow bird flying about the surrounding woods, which are a part of the property left alone to preserve ecological integrity, prevent soil erosion and help regulate water.

Why were we walking around Saanich in our gumboots on a sunny July afternoon? My friends and I are part of Food for Thought, a group of UVic students devoted to bringing humane food to UVic. We were visiting local farms to learn first-hand what an alternative, more humane method of agriculture entails. Similar farm visits have taken us around Southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. These tours were part of a year-and- a-half of work on two related Food for Thought projects: helping UVic switch to sourcing ethically-raised animal products, and helping connect people concerned about farm animal welfare with the Victoria farms, stores, and restaurants that share their concerns.

The chickens at Healing Farm are lucky to have hatched in their little patch of paradise. Their lives strongly contrast those of the majority of egg-laying chickens, or “layers,” in Canada. In a typical, high-density layer operation, chickens are kept by the thousand in stacked rows of small wire “battery” cages. According to Canada’s Industry Codes of Practice (a voluntary, unenforced set of regulations) white layers can be kept at a density of 23 birds per square metre. For perspective, a cage as wide as this article would house six birds. Such confinement prevents the chickens from moving freely: standing, flapping their wings, or turning around. Constant confinement in small cages also prevent hens from performing their natural behaviours including perching upon roosts, dust-bathing, and laying eggs in secluded nests, all behaviours shown to be critical to the well-being of chickens. Such deprivation leads to increased stress and aggressiveness, resulting in chickens prone to attacking one another. To minimize the damage inflicted by such behaviour, chicks raised in conventional farms typically have their beaks “trimmed.” This is performed with heated blades that cut off the beak and cauterize the wound. Brain patterns exhibited during and after this de-beaking operation indicate that it causes acute pain. The operation is done without anesthetic.

In contrast to this stark reality, the beautifully un- trimmed chickens of Healing Farms are free of cages. They have a barn with plenty of roosting space, al- lowing them to segregate and avoid confrontation (allowing for the natural ‘pecking order’). They have full access to covered outdoor runs, where they are free to bathe in the dust to clean their coats, pick the ground for grubs, and really spread their wings, all while protected from predators.

HUMANE FOOD MOVEMENT

There is a subtle but growing movement afoot; one seen in grocery stores, restaurants, and farms in the Victoria area. It’s a movement without any real figureheads, one that lacks the diversity of charities and non-governmental organizations enjoyed by social rights and environmental movements. It’s a movement that doesn’t even have a name, but for the sake of this article we’ll call it the Humane Food Movement.

This movement is a response to the brutal conditions regularly seen in industrial agriculture. These factory farms are the status quo method of animal husbandry in Canada. The brutal practices of these farms can be seen in Youtube videos of animals being ‘processed’ (dismembered, de-feathered, etc.) alive, or clips of unthinkable cruelty in which employees at slaughter plants purposely torture livestock with electric prods. A more in-depth view of the systematic cruelty in our food systems is offered by books such as Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, Jonathan Safran-Foer’s Eating Animals and movies like Food Inc.

One way to avoid supporting cruelty in the agricultural system is to abstain from all meat, dairy, and eggs, but this is not a complete solution. While a population level switch to veganism would indeed prevent suffering in farm animals there is little indication this switch is likely to happen anytime soon.

A 2005 study by Jennifer Bedford and Susan Barr of the University of British Columbia found only six per cent of British Columbians self-identified as vegetar- ians, and the vast majority of these (over 90 per cent) occasionally ate either dairy or eggs. As such, vegan- ism in B.C. only removes a fraction of the demand for farm animals in this province. The small percentage of vegans in B.C. highlight the need for additional measures to address the welfare of the majority of farm animals.

An effective alternative means of protecting farm animal welfare is supporting farms that treat their animals humanely.

“Farm animals, like our pets, are sentient beings who feel pain, anxiety and stress,” says Alyssa Bell Stoneman, who supervises the SPCA Certified program. “A full 95 per cent of animals raised and cared for by people — more than 100 million in B.C. — are not cats and dogs, but farm animals. We owe it to these animals to ensure they, too, have good welfare.”

This is a sentiment that is clearly gaining increasing resonance; free-range chicken and cage-free eggs are labels popping up all over the place. However, some people are concerned about the validity of these labels. What does “free range” mean? We all envision free-range chickens gallivanting about in sunny meadows with butterflies flitting to and fro, but how can we trust a product really lives up to its claims?

TERRA NOSSA FARM: PROOF ON THE GROUND

Located in the Cowichan Valley, Terra Nossa (“Our Land” in Portuguese) is home to everything from pro- duce to pigs, sheep to chickens and turkeys. They’re even experimenting with growing truffles. While we were quite happy to see the soil fertility program featuring the use of outdoor chicken pens (“chicken- tractors”) as featured in the film Food Inc., the pigs stole the show for us.

Pigs do not typically lead very good lives in B.C. The worst-off in the pig world are breeding sows (female pigs), who are subject to confinement in gestation stalls. These crates are so small as the sows can’t even turn around. Temple Grandin, the renowned American animal welfare scientist, describes the use of gestation stalls as “asking a sow to live [her whole life] in an airline seat.” The justification for such crates is that sows kept in close confinement are prone to fighting; keeping them individually immobilized is thought to prevent this.

Concerns for pig welfare are not limited to sows. Pigs in conventional agriculture are often kept on concrete flooring, or on slatted floors that allow for excrement to be easily disposed of. Such conditions don’t allow for rooting and mudbathing, natural pig behaviour, nor does it allow these naturally hygienic animals to escape from their wastes. Moreover, these environments do not provide any mental stimulation for these incredibly intelligent animals. Pigs in these conditions often develop severe neuroses including aggression to- wards one another. Tail-biting is one common form of aggression; pigs often undergo the painful procedure of having their tails cut off.

Thankfully, the pigs at Terra Nossa are not subject to close confinement and are able to exhibit the behaviours their curious minds require. As Evelyn Pereira, one of the owners of Terra Nossa puts it, “When given space to roam, pasture to root, garden excess to eat, and a mud wallow for the hot days, you get happy, healthy, content pigs. A pure joy to watch and a great asset to the farm.”

This was palpable as Pereira lead us into the expansive outdoor pigpen. The entire group of pigs stopped their playful rooting in unison and ran over to greet us. They playfully sniffed us with their adorable filthy snouts and curiously followed us around. It was hard to believe these animals are of the same species as the neurotic, often aggressive counterparts found in conventional farms. The difference is their environment.

RABBIT RIVER: HUMANE FOOD SCALED UP

Most of the farms we visited were small in nature; this may well be an important aspect of a better food future. Some may argue that welfare considerations cannot be scaled up; in other words, that humane food could only ever serve a niche market, without the possibility of replacing today’s production systems. Rabbit River Farms runs counter to that assumption.

Rabbit River is a producer whose eggs are certified by the BCSPCA and the Certified Organics Associations of British Columbia (COABC). The eggs come from a variety of barns and can be found in grocery stores around the Lower Mainland and Southern Vancouver Island. While the company shares some characteristics of conventional egg producers, such as an automated egg washing and packaging assembly, the similarities end there. The barn we visited had the biggest flock we’ve seen yet; however, these birds were free to roam around the entire barn at will. A soft floor allowed dust-bathing, and they were also allowed to perch and get out of the way of dominant birds, allow- ing a pecking order to be maintained without severe conflict. Finally, when weather permits, these birds are allowed to leave the barn and forage in the fields surrounding the barn. While one advantage of the organic methods used by Rabbit River is a healthier product due to organic feed. To president Steve Easterbrook such benefits are secondary to the welfare of the birds themselves: “It’s a good feeling I get that I provide a good life for the animals and they in turn provide good food for our customers.”

HUMANE FOOD IN UVIC’S FUTURE?

Food for Thought formed in 2009 around a common wish to bring the humane food movement to UVic. Our first goal (and ongoing campaign) is to help the university and the University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) gradually transition away from selling meat, dairy and eggs from conventional sources and towards farms that follow a higher level of welfare requirements. Our long-term vision is for UVic to become the first university in Canada to purchase meat, dairy and eggs exclusively from producers certified by the SPCA and/or Certified Organics Associations of B.C. As group-member Kelsey Mech puts it, “We want to push for good food, real food, healthy food and above all, happy food.”

Given that UVic is the single largest purchaser of local food on Vancouver Island, our long-term vision for the campus is ambitious. In fact, there currently aren’t enough ethically certified farmers to match such a large demand. To work towards our goal we proposed to both UVic and the UVSS an interim strategy of starting small, purchasing from certified sources where they currently exist, and incrementally increasing the proportion of such purchases through time. As farmers realize that UVic would provide a market for certified farming methods, more and more would likely improve their operations, increasing the supply available while at the same time narrowing the price gap between certified and conventional sources.

While the cost of switching to ethically sourced animal products would vary based on the dish and the food outlet, a quick calculation to determine its effect on the price of the average meat item at the SUB was revealing. On average, SPCA certified products cost 25 per cent more than conventional ones (but we’ll use a 50 per cent price increase here to show a more expensive scenario). The cost of meat in the overall price of a meat-containing product in the SUB is around 10 per cent (the rest goes towards other ingredients and overhead). This means the average meaty meal would cost 5 per cent more if it contained certified meat. At this “high-ball” estimate, a $4.00 chicken dish would cost $4.20 if it used ethically sourced ingredients UVic taking such a switch would follow logically from the efforts they’ve taken in the past. When people were concerned about the ethics of the coffee the school sold, the school didn’t simply reply that people had the option to not buy the coffee. Instead, they started sourcing coffee from fair trade, organic sources. Similar with recycled paper, local veggies, etc. Although students do have the option to buy vegan meals, the school has the opportunity to continue showing leadership by choosing to offer more humane options for non-vegetarians.

The initial response to our proposal has been positive. The UVSS has passed a motion supporting the idea in principle. Although UVic has not made a public statement on the matter, they have expressed interest and are looking into options. They have even gone so far as to visit some potential farms. However, UVic is bombarded by all kinds of demands from students: students asking for more local foods (UVic does source an impressive amount of fruit and veggies locally), students asking for organics, students asking for more variety in foods, and so on. In order for the school (and the UVSS) to take serious action on this issue they need to get an idea it’s something students would actually support.

We’re collecting signatures of students who would indeed support this change; we aren’t doing this to try to force purchasers to do anything, we’re instead trying to show the support from students is indeed there.

As we left the last farm on a warm August day, we stepped back to take a final look at what an “ethical farm” looks like. We were admiring the rustic beauty of an old forklift slowly being overtaken by weeds. Maybe it was just the exhaustion from a long day outside, but we saw it as a symbol. The rusted forklift, symbolic of factory farms and animals as mere meat machines, was slowly decaying into history while the contented clucking sounds of chickens in the background hinted at the possibility of a brighter future for the animals with whom we share our lives.

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