Safe way to rugby oblivion

OPINION: Pig farmers are learning the lesson that their sheep, beef and dairy farming mates could have told them was bound to come. Forget about common sense and fairness.

The farmers whose products are exported into Britain and Europe know they are in a never-ending battle for the stomachs and minds of shoppers and diners. Any animal welfare advocate with a complaint is given their moment in the spotlight. And as far as the parochial media is concerned, if that light is turned on another country, all the better.

In New Zealand those advocates belong to Save Animals From Exploitation (Safe), a group led by a vegetarian who doesn't want animal farming of any kind.

Pig farmers are easy targets. Their stock are all in one place, easy to find, and their practices easily made to look heinous. Not exporters, they have resisted being forced to change unnecessarily.

But now that time has come. After being sensationally exposed on television, the use of sow stalls to protect newborn pigs will most probably be stopped.

The result will be a higher death rate as the sows are moved outside or into barns. Farmers will have to be constantly on guard to prevent fighting, bullying and cannibalism. The opportunities for disease will rise while production will fall. The price of pork will increase.

For farmers, this is a sad but unalterable fact of life. Public perception is everything and it's no good trying to fight it if it is swinging against you.

The television footage supplied by Safe showed distressed animals frothing at the mouth and chewing the bars of their cages. But the farmer, Colin Kay, says, that the protesters stirred them up. "They broke in, turned the lights on, sprinkled meal around and [the pigs] ended up screaming because they thought they were going to get fed. Maybe they prodded and poked them to stand up. It was contrived, the animals were stressed out for their [Safe's] own agenda."

The programme wanted a pork industry spokesperson to appear on it. The pork board refused, no doubt sensing an ambush. This is clear from the statement it sent instead, which referred to the programme's queries about the welfare code. That statement was not used.

It has been a publicity coup for the anti-farming lobby. Every farmer will be wondering where the next hit will come from. Picture a farmer on an isolated hillside swearing blue murder at his sheepdogs, then guiltily turning around to see if a group of hemp-garbed greenies have sneaked up on him on wooden bikes.

We now have to take seriously the demands of militant vegetarians. So what would happen if we all went vegie?

First, we'd have to find homes for the sheep and cattle on our farms. That would mean each one of us taking on the care of eight sheep and two cattle for their lifetime, which can be up to 20 years.

Then we'd turn over the cultivatable land to growing vegetables. To make sure we get enough protein we would have to also grow grains, seed and nuts. That's if we went vegan and shunned all animal products. We could opt to include dairy products and eggs, as some vegetarians do. That would mean keeping cows and chooks, which I'm sure wouldn't be supported by the extremists.

With our vast acreage of flat and rolling country we should be able to feed the nation quite comfortably and still have vegies left over to export. This is important, because without something to trade we won't have the money to buy all the vitally important stuff like big-screen TVs, iPods, cellphones video recorders, 4WD vehicles and laptops.

In this hazy green utopia, fuel won't be a problem because we can grow our own, but we will need metals, rubber, plastics, glass and ceramics. It's possible we could find the resources to start our own industries but we'd still have to import the plant and machinery.

The hills would be planted in trees and left for future generations to harvest or to generate income from carbon credits. Without the farm animals that produce half our greenhouse gases we could make a lot of money from those credits.

Attractive as this may seem, there's one serious drawback. Studies show that the reason each generation continues to be bigger than the last is the accumulative genetic benefits from eating meat. If we stopped, we would, within a few generations, become lighter and slighter.

Then we would lose the only meaningful thing that makes this nation hold its head high. We would no longer be feared on the footy field. We can't have that.

- © Fairfax NZ News